Category: kayak

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Ski 2 Sea

Has anyone heard of the Ski-to-Sea relay race?  It’s a relay from the top of Mount Baker to Bellingham Bay, done in seven different legs: cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, running, road bike, canoe, cyclocross/gravel bike, and sea kayak.  I heard about it (or at least, a now defunct Canadian version) years ago and had it on my bucket list, but I realized last year that now I live close enough to give this a try without having to spring for airfare and shipping equipment.

I’m not in shape to try it the next iteration, so I figured I’d start trying to build a team for **next** year, that is, May of 2026.  A team needs to be from 3 to 8 people (less than 3 is logistically impossible anyway).  The link to the event site is here: https://skitosea.com/

Each leg of the race has some details that one should be clear on – for example, the downhill ski portion has a climb so it would be best for someone with backcountry ski gear for climbing.  Stand-up paddleboards are not allowed on the canoe or sea kayak portion.  No aerobars are allowed on the road bike portion. I’ll examine each leg and rate how plausible it is for me to be a candidate for completing that leg as part of a team.

Leg 1: Cross-Country Skiing (Length: 6km)

Cross-country skiing is one of my favourite sports (check the receipts!). I’ve been doing it since I could walk, and the distance isn’t too onerous. The terrain will probably be tough (intermediate to advanced according to the description) and being the first leg means getting up extra early for various logistical reasons. I just got some new skis this year so I can work on my skating (which is banned during the first 100 yards of the race), so this feels like an area I can shine in.

Plausibility: High

Leg 2: Downhill Ski/Snowboard (Length: 4km)

This sounds like a no-brainer, but unfortunately, there is a portion where you must climb to the top of a hill – over 1000 feet of elevation gain! I thought this required climbing skins and back-country skis, but according to this year’s rules that kind of equipment isn’t allowed. So I guess it’s just a matter of toughing it out in heavy ski boots, and the rest is all downhill, literally.

Plausibility: Medium

Leg 3: Running (Length: 13km)

13 km is beyond my current running endurance, but it is something I could train up to. Mountainous terrain (though it is a road run course) adds extra challenge. The problem is, in a group of 3-8 people which the relay demands, running is one I imagine most people would want to have for themselves.

Plausibility: Medium

Leg 4: Road Bike (Length: 66km)

Seems simple enough for a triathlete, right? It’s even a net downhill! However! Aero-bars are only allowed in the competitive division, so I’d be riding my old road bike might be the better option. There are also no course markers, so having a good familiarity with navigating the course is important. Last year my son and I failed to complete a 50 km bike ride due to some wrong turns on a fundraiser, so that shakes my confidence a little.

Plausibility: Medium

Leg 5: Canoe (Length: 30km)

I know how to canoe, but I don’t have one in BC, and I don’t relish getting strong enough to complete this leg. It is completed in a team of 2, which further complicates training.

Plausibility: Low

Leg 6: Cyclocross (Length: 18km)

I’ve flirted with Cyclocross a little, and always wanted to get a Cross bike. Even if I didn’t, a Mountain bike can be used.

Plausibility: High

Leg 7: Sea Kayak (Length: 8km)

While I don’t have a kayak in BC, I’d be willing to consider getting one and possibly training myself up for this event. Still, getting time on larger bodies of water might be difficult.

Plausibility: Low

The Hidden Event: Logistics

The ideal team has 8 people – one for each event, except canoeing which has 2. This has the simplest implementation, since everyone on the team has one starting line they have to be at (on time), and one event to be competent enough to finish. I think it might take a little of the ‘multi-sport’ fun out of it, though. Any fewer team members (to a minimum of 3) and somebody has to shuttle between events after finishing a leg. The race demands certain road closures, and getting equipment and bodies moved around will take several vehicles (they list 3 vehicles for the 8 racer scenario).

Recruiting and managing an 8-person team has to be challenging too – ensuring everyone is trained, equipped, and informed is a serious bit of management/leadership.

If anyone reading this wants to join a team with me, drop a comment or reach out online. I might start recruiting in local Facebook groups in 2025.

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The Father’s Day Weekend

I just wanted to touch on what a fantastic weekend I had.  Training was a big part of that, but let me take care of some interesting incidentals.

While my wife took Shark Boy out kayaking, I walked around with the Lightning Kid dipping our feet into the water, when all of a sudden what should I see?  This:

Godzilla?

The most huge snapping turtle you would dare imagine! It swam away from us and spent the afternoon poking its head out from under the dock.  Later that day, I got to do an open water swim, but believe you me, I gave that section of the dock a wide berth when getting into the water (I later read that snapping turtles are generally docile in the water, the snapping occurs when they’re confronted on land.  At any rate, he was gone by Sunday).

Here’s the swim (take my word for it, it was all in the water!):

I hadn’t done any training in about a month at least, and my technique was garbage.  Yet somehow I managed the second best time I’ve ever done at the distance of 1500m (a pace of around 2:20/100m).  How is this possible?  The only explanation I can come up with is my new TYR Hurricane Wetsuit that I won last year.  Even though I know I’m under-trained for the Muskoka 5150, this gives me a lot of confidence.

For Sunday, I was hoping to get a good training ride in.  Rain was threatening the whole day, but when opportunity knocked (a.k.a Shark Boy took a nap), I was out the door.  Then I had to come back because I forgot the key to unlock my bike from the bike rack.  Oops.

I selected a route that would take me along Highway 35 between Dwight and Dorset.  Here I found my fitness and endurance lacking.  I couldn’t believe how low my average speed was, but I did note that I got faster after the turn around; I had been climbing overall, and the downhills obviously added to the average speed.  In fact, it occured to me at the turn-around that I hadn’t paired my new Garmin with the bike’s cadence and speed sensors.  That data was missing but they paired with the watch fairly quickly and seamlessly (more review material coming soon).


Besides just getting out there and riding, it also gave me a chance to scout out and plan new riding routes.  The old road (South Portage – which has traditionally been part of the Muskoka triathlon) seems to have a lot of construction and unpaved patches.  I know what I’m going to do next time.

I didn’t quite manage a 40km ride like I would have liked, but it was enough to build from.  Next time will be better.  Also, since the day didn’t quite have enough activity (and because I was jealous of my wife), I took Shark Boy out in the kayak on Sunday.

It was a lot of fun, and I hope to make a tradition of it every time we’re up North.  It might even be good training for the Logs, Rocks and Steel if I get to do it.

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Race Bucket List

Bucket lists seem to be all the rage these days, but I’ve always found the idea daunting – how could I list everything I ever wanted to do?  My list would be something like: 1.) Live Forever and do everything.  Yet, if I focus on the idea that there are endurance/athletic events I would like to participate in, then maybe I can come up with something.

These races will be in the ‘Bucket List’/Pipe Dream category for one or more of the following reasons (in increasing order of likelihood):

  1. Conditioning.  I’m too far out of the shape I’d need to be in to complete
  2. Skill/Equipment.  One or more of the disciplines involves a skill I don’t know how to do
  3. Geography/Logistics:  Getting there with equipment won’t work while taking care of my family at the same time

All of these are fixable or will change with time, and so will the list as I find out new possibilities and opportunities… so let’s get started!

    • Pentathlon Des Neiges.  I was going to put the Ottawa Winterlude Triathlon here but I just happened to stumble across this event in IMPACT magazine. Both events include skating, cross-country skiing, and running, but the Pentathlon des Neiges adds snow-shoeing and cycling.  The latter discipline can be done with mountain or cyclo-cross bikes and actually takes place first (followed by a run, then ski, then skate, then snow-shoe).  There are short (9+4+6+6+4=29km) and long (15+6+9+9+6=45) distance races and it all takes place on the historic Plains of Abraham in Quebec City.

    • Men’s Health Urbanathlon What I like about this obstacle course is it seems focused on the fitness aspects needed to complete while leaving out the fear factor/bravado and quite frankly, mud involved in mud runs, Warrior Dashes and Spartan Races and the like.  If they bring one to the Toronto area, I’m as good as signed up, but I wouldn’t mind travelling to one of the fine cities that are currently offered when my schedule would allow it.
      • Ski 2 Sea what if a race included even more of the Canadian Multi-sport experience, enough to span all seasons?  And what if it was a journey with an end destination that was far away from the start?  What if you started on top of a mountain, downhill skied 2km, switched to cross-county skis for another 8km, jumped on a mountain bike and rode 28km out of the mountains only to hit the road with your road bike for 36km.  Now jump off the bike and run for nearly 15km and get in your canoe/kayak so you don’t get wet because there’s another 8km before the finish line.  It’s a lot of distance to cover, and the logistics are quite intimidating so people often do this as a team relay, but it seems like such a dream journey (and it is a net downhill, after all) that I can’t help but be tempted by this one.

        • Ironman 70.3 Laguna Phuket Thailand  I’m a little wary of iron or half-iron distance racing and it’s not only the daunting training schedule and training volume.  Races with the Ironman brand don’t exist in everybody’s back yard, and most people who have done one turn it into a trip with overnight accomodation, meals and maybe a little vacation time… if you’re going to drop that kind of cash and time, why not make it a more once-in-a-lifetime experience?  I love Thailand (from having honeymooned there) and I can’t picture a better destination for a ‘destination race’ than the land of smiles.  So far, you don’t even have to qualify!  This race took place this past Sunday, in fact.

        • Berlin Marathon   My wife and I both have a lot of friends and family in Germany, and Berlin has become a bit of a home away from home for us.  The Berlin marathon is also considered the fastest course there is so there’s my motivation to beat my previous, pitiful marathon time.  What really put this marathon into my dream file was a conversation I had with a gentleman who had done more than 50 marathons all over the world, but when I asked him his favourite, he said it was the Berlin Marathon, during the year of German re-unification.  He had run through part of the city that were inaccessible to him growing up, and attempting to leave those parts in the East had gotten people shot and killed over the course of the Cold War.  By the time he ran through the Brandenburg Gate (below), he was blind with tears in his eyes and needed the guidance of a friend simply to find his way through the pillars.  So many Big City Marathons have a lot of historical draw, but none like this, at least not to me.
        Runners going through the Brandenburg Gate
        • XTERRA Canada (Canadian Open Championship) I already like taking my running “off-road”,  and it’s my honest intention to get a mountain-bike for cross-training purposes and to participate in some non-navigational adventure races (like Logs, Rocks and Steel) and off-road triathlons.  From the latter category, XTERRA is pretty much the biggest and baddest.  This race takes place in beautiful Whistler, BC which only adds to the draw.  Until that time, maybe I’ll get to do the Mine Over Matter as my introduction to off-road tris…

        This list is long enough for now, but I’m always up for recommendations… dream big!