Hillclimb Timetrial

The hardest people are born in two different conditions: In the headwinds or on the grades. Todays race determined if you there are any among us who even have a chance of being likened to the greats.

The short grunt up Marine Drive isn't as steep as the Koppenberg, or as long as Passo Della Stelvio, but what it lacks in impress features it makes up for in its demands for raw performance. It is easy to make it up, but you have to dig into the bottom of your legs in order to be the first up.

Cold weather immediately drew out the hardest. Preparing to race in six degrees is no easy feat, but most didn't have a qualm with it, and forced their way up the hill regardless of whether or not they could feel their toes.

If you could sprint by the top, you did, but if yo

u worked hard enough on the rest of the hill then you didn't have to.

Barry Claman flew up the hill posting an impress sub 4 minute time. The Diesel engine of Kory Seder also managed to get up in just 4:02 seconds. No one knows exactly how fast Matt Reeve went, all we know is that it that it was very fast. Victoria posted an impress climb as well, working the steep section!

No photos were taken, since no one could feel t

heir fingers enough to focus a camera, so here's a pi

cture of the Koppenberg instead. I'm on the right.

For those who couldn't make it out, we expect to see you out training for the spring races when the competition heats up again.

Here are the official results from Vince, missing some names and probably needing some revision.

b Kory Seder 4:02

b Carl 4:19

b Kellen Kjera 4:23

b Sherwood 4:25

b Max 4:26

b John Heinz 4:32

b Vincent Lavallee 4:35

b Brendan Neaf 4:35

b Dylan 4:41

b Winston Guo 4:46

b Jesse Chao 4:53

b Tyler Filteau 5:00

b Eddy Wu 5:11

b Johnson Jia 5:15

b Navid 5:17

b Jason 5:23

b Dirk Haupt 6:00

b Reza 6:38

g Victoria Gilbert 5:07

g Jen Bhatla 5:34

g Karin Olafson 5:45

g Rachel Schoeler 5:51

g Kyuwon Kim 6:01

g Sherry Gu 6:17

AquaSTORM 500m swim, 2.5km run

The AquathonSTORM
Date/Time: Oct. 17, 2010, 10am.

The rules and stakes.

As is typical with these hotly contested challenges, the aquathon or better known as aquaSTORM is a test of swim, transition, and run without any breaks in between and surviving the winstorm. There will be one big winner from each gender who will take home his or her a feast of 30 coveted UBCTC Fall Classic Racing Series points as well the opportunity for cumulative bonus participation points. Participants are fully aware of the highly anticipated bright and breezy winstorm in effect.

The challenge is done with a mass start in the outdoor pool. Separation of the various speed of swimmers are encouraged to prevent over congestion in each lanes. After completing 5 laps in the pool, they will then toss on their runners and begin the 3 loops 2.5k run. The first person to arrive at the finish line from each gender will gorge individual maximum feasting points for the challenge.

The reason.

Why you ask?

The individuals are battling each other to become the leader of the overall points in the UBCTC Fall Classic Racing Series. The title is a big deal and comes with personal fame and glory no doubt, and their names will be forever engraved on the Vincent Lavallee Cup.**

Some notables.

Vincent Lavallee lays his cards on the table in an interview that Matt Reeve has never been part of his secret alliance (ehem allegations for TTT recently at Iona in a non-drafting sanctioned event), and that he would be difficult to beat at the end. Additionally Vince’s credible reputation of being the ‘generally good looking guy’ is threatened this season due a little marathon, so much so he graciously offered to sit out the aquastorm and help out with timing and cheerleading in lieu of participating.

Eddy Wu is only focused on beating the winstorm. He will be beyond overjoyed if this comes true.

For Brendan Neaf it’s simply about winning. Shortly after the 10K TT in Iona, he uttered a quiet confidence and said to winstorm that HE HAD WON THE RACE...against himself. He beat himself, therefore he is a champion. The aquathon will be no different, winstorm or no winstorm.

Returning aquathon winner Rachael Schoeler knows only two things. 1) She can school the competition with her eyes closed. And 2) She cannot get beat by a winstorm again like last year. That would be embarrassing.

Karin Olafson isn’t worried about the winstorm. She is out to defeat Rachael whether it’s in water or on land.

Jenn Moroz believes that her doing the dishes is currying favour with her new teammates. Blocking a winstorm from getting a good swim start is key.


Victoria Gilbert on the other hand, is trying not to rock the boat, as she knows she’s on the outs. A winstorm will be nearing.



The forecast.

Bright and breezy winstorm.



The results.

We actually had seen a great race. It may not have been the best challenge we’ve ever seen but at least it was original. The winstorm had time to put on socks, glasses, visor, shirt, and of course Garmin.

The Winstorm Run Route

The damage.

Matt Reeve 17:17
Kory Seder 18:09
Rachel Schoeler 18:23
Brendan Neaf 18:46
Karin Olafson 18:56
Eddy Wu 19:03
Winstorm 19:20
Victoria Gilbert 19:24
Jen Bhatla 19:37
Melanie van Soeren 19:42
Kim Seder 20:15
Jen Moroz 20:34
Kywon Kim 21:10
Jesse Chao 21:38
Johnson Jia 22:44
Rodrigo Samayoa 23:35
Sherry Gu 23:48

**However if your name happens to be 2X defending champion Matt Reeve and you also fail to sport the golden-blue cape for the full duration of at least one event in the series, then this personal fame and glory must be relinquished to the next leader in the overall standings.

The Fall Classic Returns!

The UBCTC Fall Classic was back in full force this week with the first event taking place this past Wednesday with the Uphill Run Time Trial.

Shy of our largest event by one 1 person. Wednesdays race had 31 competitors toe the line!

Although there were many returning veterans vying for the Vincent Lavallée Cup, the headline of the day goes out to the rookies of the event stealing the show and taking top honours in both the Male and Female division.

In the female division, people had been talking about the new girl Jen and her exceptional running ability, with one of the men having been quoted saying;

"I had to really push it on the downhill to drop her during the fartlek workout, and I only found out afterwards that she had stopped to stretch."

Coming in as the strong favourite, the pressure was definitely on. In the mens division defending champion Matt Reeve was far too over confident stating that we might as well give him the trophy now.

With the construction finished on the bottom of the route, the run was now the full length rather than the shorter version we were forced to race last year. This resulted in a significantly longer run including the much steeper bottom section which would require great pacing to prevent losing too much time on the climb or alternatively blowing up before the top. With the race series starting in typically fashion (disorganized and a little frantic) there were 3 competitors who needed to race early rather than doing a warmup lap.

John Heinz, a UBCTC rookie, but many time Storm the Wall finalist was one such individual to start early. Melanie van Soeren and Dirk Haupt were the other two being led up the route with Vincent Lavallee up the road to time the finish. Running at a gingerly pace 45 seconds up of John, Vince jogged expecting to have ample time to reach the top, but looking back midway through the sight of a fast approaching John changed his plans, reaching the top in 4:12 second John was definitely setting the pace for the rest of the field.

Melanie came through with a very respectable time of 5:30 which still remained to be seen how that would stan up against the girls.

The times of the finishers was privy to Vincent Lavallee since it would give an unfair advantage to the racers to follow knowing the time to beat (so naturally Vince kept this to himself).

As the main field began, Vincent was the first to leave with Matt Reeve leaving 15 seconds behind. As the hill got steep the immediate threat of exhaustion was already upon our leader as he tried to focus on running strong and preventing his mind from wandering towards potential excuses for the post race debriefing. Unfortunately this had the negative effect since focusing on clearing his mind while running surely slowed Vincent down by at last 13 seconds as he finished in a time of 4:24 seconds.

Matt Reeve close on his heels did not have this mental focus requirement (as his mind is often blank) and just focused on keeping Vincent in sight and crossed the line in 4:18 seconds. Good enough for second.

In the girls race. Rachel came through the first female in 5:50 seconds with Melanie's time holding strong, but not for long as Victoria approached the finish line in a time of 5:21 taking over the lead!

This strong finish looked as though it may hold until Jen, the favourite in this event bettered that time but a mere second!

The top 5 was rounded off with Kellen Kjera finishing in a time of 4:32 and Winston Guo 6 seconds back in 4:38.

The girls race being even closer, had the 4th place finisher Stephanie Urness two seconds back of Melanie in 5:32 and Karin Olafson in 5:38!

A great day for racing in the woods and a fantastic opener for the Fall Classic Race Series!

Full Results:

John Heinz	4:12
Matt Reeve	4:18
Vincent Lavallee	4:24
Kellen Kjera	4:32
Winston Guo	4:38
Thomas Belshein	4:49
Liam Harrap	4:50
Tyler Filteau	4:57
Branden Neaf	5:00
Matt Ridley	5:05
Kory Seder	5:05
Jesse Chao	5:06
Jake Alleyne	5:08
Johnson Jia	5:11
Dirk Haupt	5:15
Rodrigo Samayoa	5:18
Jen Moroz	5:20
Victoria Gilbert	5:21
Ceilidh Curtis	5:27
Melanie van Soeren	5:30
Ried Kimmett	5:31
Stephanie Urness	5:32
Karin Olafson	5:38
Eliza Chriistie	5:41
Rachel Schoeler	5:50
Kim Seder	5:53
Meagan Mckeen	5:57
Sherry Gu	6:02
Keely Hammond	6:08
Jen Bhatla	6:23
Laura Freeman	9:39