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Maple Syrup Stampede 25km Skate, St. Joseph Island
By:  Chad Yurich   (2003/02/10)

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Chad Yurich reporting here from snowy Sault Ste. Marie. I finally had the privledge of skiing in the Maple Syrup Stampede this year. This years running was the forth annual and as always superbly organized by none other than Stan and Kitty Dustin (Wayner's parents).

The weather has been cool here lately with highs of -12 and lots of that dry new snow that is closely related to sandpaper. All of us racers had a break today with a forcasted high of -7 and prayers were send to the snow Gods asking for more speed. It did warm up to around -9 but there was about 3cm of fresh snow on the trail that was determined to keep us honest.

The race started at 10:30 and despite contracting the norwalk virus just 8 days ago yours truly jumped to the lead and decided to hammer. To my surprise after three km I was clear of all chasers and I suffered in the front all the way to the finish in 1st place. That doesn't happen all that often so I figured I should report it. I had a couple of things going my way though:first my Karhu skaters were rockets (Hooray for Karhu) and secondly being of pixie weight (145lbs) on nice soft trails helps too.

As you can see from the picture I was justly rewarded with 4 litres of St. Joseph Island maple syrup and all participants were treated to a great pasta meal after that race. Guess who's having pancakes for breakfast tommorrow!!

Thanks for reading,
Chad

 
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