Stupid Thing #8 - Sioux Lookout Blueberry Duathlon

Unfortunately, our August stupid thing required a little modification. Ashifa had a scheduling conflict, so sadly we missed the Flying Chicken Run. :-( I think we'll definitely have to try to do that one next year. So instead, for our August event, we did the Sioux Lookout Blueberry Duathlon.

When we originally made up the list of stupid things, we added this event as a possible bonus "stupid thing" if we happened to possibly maybe be in good enough shape by August. Of course, at the time, we were thinking that meant if we were in good enough shape for each of us to do the whole duathlon (or triathlon) by ourselves. So, uh, yeah.... We have improved a lot since January, but, uh, yeah, not that much. Fortunately, though, you can do the event as a team! So we recruited a third person and - there you go, we were a duathlon team! We had originally thought about doing the triathlon (750 m swim, 20k bike, 5k run) but Shif, the swimmer, thought twice after hearing stories of the chilly summer they've had in Sioux Lookout. In the best of summers, the water there isn't very warm. This summer it's really chilly and there were actually several people that switched from the tri to the du for that very reason.

It was an overcast, chilly holiday Monday morning (Happy Civic Day!) for the race. Perfect weather for a race (seriously - I hate sun)! The event is part of a whole week of Blueberry Festival activities and there was a nice crowd there to cheer us on, despite the dreary weather (and lack of blueberries this year).

I (Jen) started off with the 2.5k running leg, which replaces the swim for the duathlon. The run was a pretty simple out-and-back run on the main street into Sioux Lookout. Out-and-back courses are fun because you can see just how much better real runners are than you. :-) Inspiration, this is called.

Lining up at the start of the duathlon

Me cruising into the transition area to hand of
to Fahreen, our cyclist

Me, sucking wind after my run. Dead last runner, but my
fastest race pace ever! I wonder what this triathlon volunteer
would do if I passed out.

Fahreen heading out on the bike leg, 20k on the road
leading to the Sioux Lookout airport

Shif, keeping a lookout for Fahreen

Fahreen cheerfully heading into the transition area

Fahreen handing off to Ashifa. Shif seems to be
explaining the process of removing the timing
chip from Fahreen's ankle

Our anchor! Shif heads out for the final run.

Up the hill for a tour of Sioux Lookout
(I love the fully slickered family in the foreground)

Team 353 after the race!

Mission accomplished - we finished the race in a respectable fashion. We were the slowest team, but we were all very happy with how we did. Shif set yet another personal best for the 5k! There were lots of snacks afterward and friends there to root us on. Hopefully we can try this one again individually in a year or two!