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Eload Marathon Race Report - Eastern Canadian Championships Edition
By:  Aaron Barter   (2013/02/05)

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Eload Marathon Race Report - Eastern Canadian Championships Edition

After Friday’s classic sprint races (read about them here) Team XC Ottawa was fired up and ready for a mid-distance freestyle race on Saturday and a long distance classic race on Sunday.

On Saturday morning, the women were individually taking on a challenging 10km course that took them around the trails at Nakkertok twice. Leading the charge was Megan McTavish who finished 16th overall, less than two minutes behind the leader. Close behind was veteran Sheila Kealey in 20th and Ingrid Hagberg in 25th. Kyla Vanderzwet, Liza Rozina, and Katie McMahon were each in the mix on this difficult course.

In the senior men’s category, leading the XC Ottawa team was Whitehorse YT native Lee Hawkings in 27th position closely followed by Peter Beisel in 33rd, Matthias Purdon in 34th, and Karl Saidla in 35th. Kyle Power, Andre Marchand, and Aaron Barter, and Logan Potter were all fighting for each position in this tight 15km race.

 

 Karl Saidla looking strong and skiing to a strong finish in the 15km senior men’s race.(Photo: Bernard.Pigeon Picasa)

 

The following day, Team XC Ottawa awoke to fresh snow falling for their 15/30km long distance classic races. Start position in this‘pursuit’ style race was based on finishing order from the previous two races.

 

The 30km open men’s event left the gates at 9:05am, and raced a total of six 5km laps. Each time we lapped through, our trusty support crew was on the side of the trail there with bottles of Eload, giving us that extra boost needed to keep going. When the dust settled, Karl "The Energizer Bunny" Saidla finished 26th overall, followed by Matthias Purdon in 31st, Peter Beisel in 39th and Lee Hawkings in 41st.

Logan Potter and Kyle Power worked together for the better part of the race, and ended up finishing just 18 seconds apart. Aaron Barter and Andre Marchard battled it out right to the end and worked off each other when the racing got tough.

Karl making his move on Lee down the power line in the 30km classic event.

Matthias and Peter pushing through the 30km classic event - looking forward to their next Eload!

Logan and Kyle still looking strong in the second half of the 30km classic event.

Andre and Aaron taking a ride on the pain train (Photo: Bernard.Pigeon Picasa)

Peter making his move through the stadium (Photo: Bernard.Pigeon Picasa)

Immediately afterwards, the open women's 15km race began in the same pursuit style. As the conditions changed with more fresh snow, the sun came out and the wax got more interesting. Our support crew kept handing out Eload to XC Ottawa athletes and it showed!

Megan McTavish finished in an impressive 13th place overall, just over three minutes back of the leader. Sheila Kealey followed in 22nd, Ingrid Hagberg finished in 32nd, and Kyla Vanderzwet was close behind in 35th. Liza Rozina and Katie McMahon also both had strong races and finished in 42nd and 46th, respectively.

Megan striding through the stadium - Eload kept us going! (Photo: Ian Austen)

 

Sheila staying focused and striding it out

Katie coming down one of the rollercoaster downhills at Nakkertok

Kyla looking very happy with how her race is going

Team XC Ottawa would like to give another big ‘Thank you’ to Eload/Emend for being the official sports nutrition provider of our team. During your next long workout, try Eload for the energy and electrolytes that your body needs to keep going!

The team would like to thank our awesome wax team led by Coach John Suuronen alongside Craig Storey, Anna Geiger-Whitlock, and with help from Ontario Ski Team Coach Pavlina Sudrich! As always, Vauhti wax kept our skis way ahead of the competition.

Full Results can be found here.

Photo albums of the event:

http://www.musicianonskis.ca/Easterns_Photo_Index_2013.html

http://shootstories.dphoto.com/album/27b4ah

http://ianausten.smugmug.com/Other/Easterns-Sunday-General/27854560_G4sHB9

https://picasaweb.google.com/bernardpigeon.pigeon/EasternsClassicDistance

https://picasaweb.google.com/bernardpigeon.pigeon/EasternsPrologue2013
http://flickr.com/gp/11966597@N04/PcncnA/

https://picasaweb.google.com/bernardpigeon.pigeon/EasternsSkate2013

 
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