Goose Relay Report

Thank You to David Carleton for the great race report/rant! Enjoy. (And oh ya, Congratulations Old Guys!)

Another spectacular day in Victoria – warm, sunny, blue skies, and perfect temperatures for running. As usual, the Human Powered Racing team and all of the wonderful volunteers, put on another fantastic event that was enjoyed by all participants, except for the relay team named “Five Old Guys”. Let me explain….

“Five Old Guys” – aka Brian Strilesky, Kelly Sharman, Greg McKay, Bob Janicki and David Carleton – was put together at the last minute to answer the challenge from Heather Whittall of the “Hot Flashes” (aka Sandy Wilson, Carmen McKay, Nancy Carleton, Debbie Jackson, and Heather) of a girls vs boys race. The boys accepted the challenge and turned up the training to ensure race day supremacy. Brian biked all over Saltspring Island and Whistler, Bob flew to Montreal and then ran back to Victoria via the US, Kelly was already training for a big trail running event in Oregon, Greg already runs like “Crowie” due to his Aussie background, and David quickly recovered from hypothermia in Edmonton to put in some key training days in the week leading up to the showdown.

Due to stellar performances by the boys, and despite equally awe-inspiring efforts from the girls, the “Five Old Guys” managed to pull off a well deserved victory. All that remained was to collect the medals and issue a rousing “Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah” to the girls and the perfect day of racing would be over, or so we thought. The “Five Old Guys” waited and clapped appreciatively for all of the winners in the various categories as they were called up to receive their well deserved medals. Finally, the penultimate medals had been awarded, and just when the “Five Old Guys” thought that it was their turn to ascend the podium, the announcer (who will remain nameless, but whose first name starts with an “M” and rhymes with “bike”) informed everyone that the awards ceremony was over, thanked everyone for coming out, and sent the crowd on their way.

A lesser team would have hung their heads and headed for the vehicles, assuming that they had not won their classification. However, since there was only one team in the classification, the “Five Old Guys” quickly determined that this was not possible. The team approached the nameless one and he quickly realized the error of his ways and informed the crowd to wait as one final set of medals was yet to be awarded. He then announced that the “Five Old Guys” were the winner of the male over 40 classification and presented us with our medals. Celebratory and thunderous cheers emanated from the crowd and many pictures were taken and all was right with the world again.

Thanks again to the HPR team and fantastic volunteers for a terrific event. The “Five Old Guys” offer their forgiveness to the nameless one, but we will never forget (especially since this race report will be archived on the HPR site for all eternity).