Date: Saturday, October 7, 2017
Location: Dundas, Ontario
http://www.sticksnstonesrace.com/
I was invited to this event by a friend from my local running group, and I’m happy I took him up on it. This was a great start to a newly created trail race event. For both beginners and seasoned runners, there is a distance for everyone interested in getting onto a trail to test themselves.
This event is run on the grounds of the Christie Lake Conservation Area close to Dundas, Ontario. The race consists of a 5K loop around Christie Lake, starting and finishing at a main open pavilion. The registration area was well organized inside the pavilion, with the weather co-operating by being much warmer than normal for October. I was surprised to find a cool swag toque in our swag bag, along with some other goodies. The event was very low key, organizers had things well in hand by calling out start times for each event start as required. I was signed on for a 10K two loop race, which I was using to keep myself ready for an upcoming event.
The race started out in a clockwise direction around the lake, everyone lined up at the start where a count down ensured and we were off. There is a mix of single/double track trail, with some minor road work between connecting trails. There is a short run across the dam on the west end which offers the best view of the lake and starting area. There are some minor hills, nothing to angled or difficult, this is great to test your trail legs on. I was never really alone during this race, this was a nice change from other events where I’m usually running solo much of the time. The only problem I encountered was the amount of humidity .. strange this late in the year.
I finished a bit further behind than I wanted, but this was just a training race thankfully. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed this race, no matter the distance, it was cool to watch other runners as they passed by the finish line travelling to their longer distance runs. I’m always interested in the type of people that gravitate to such long distances. For finishing, we were awarded very unique wooden medals, this is only the second event where I have received something like this. The top place finishers also received a custom made trophy for their efforts, very special, everyone loved it. The post run food was easily accessible and plentiful, which included loads of pizza from a local vendor.
Overall, a very good start to hopefully a yearly event here at Christie Lake.
