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OWL Rafting 2013
By:  Kyla Vanderzwet   (2013/06/18)

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I think my team mates would agree that one of the best parts of being on a competitive racing team are the team training camps that we get to take part in.  The fact that we love spending our days off getting up early and trekking through the bush for hours on end may make us seem a bit off in the head, but hey, it's an accepting environment and we're all crazy together!  Last weekend, a strong contingent of our team lived to tell about another fantastic few days of training at OWL Rafting. Thanks so much to Dirk, Claudia, and the staff at OWL for all the fun and hospitality!

Liza looks excited to get the weekend started!

There's always time for swimming, and striking a cheesy pose, of course.

For those who arrived early enough on Friday, the camp started off with an easy classic roller ski, followed by some awesome food and a campfire at the main lodge.  Saturday's training involved 2 hours of skate roller skiing intervals in the sunshine, plus a run in the afternoon and a strength session on the playground equipment.  By this time we were known to the other campers as "the Roller Skiers", likely noted for eating piles at meal time and dressing in a fluorescent array of singlets and spandex.  It may have alarmed the small children on the playground as the swarm of fully grown 'Roller Skiers' took over their play equipment... but I'm sure they recovered... 

Our turn on the play equipment.  Strength sessions here are every bit as fun as playing on the slides as a kid, right Karl?  (Shortly after the strength session Karl was very interested to know why working out sometimes made you feel a strong need to puke...)

Ready to take on the rapids.

The highlight of the weekend (and the best workout of the year, according to some) came on Sunday.  This was when we got to roller ski to the rafting launch site, throw ourselves down some crashing rapids, and run back to camp on muddy trails.  All in all the workout lasted about 5 hours, and it was a blast!  Ingrid and Steffan seemed to prefer to be one with the waves and go down the rapids body-surfing style, but everyone else managed to stay in the boats pretty well (while perhaps muttering a few profanities on account of the excitement).  Like the artists of Lonely Island, Mark was just plain stoked to be on a boat.   Pretty sure we all were!!

Camp was a blast!  Thanks!!

 
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