1. What are you doing this Sunday?
2. Sudburians superb at OFSAA Nordic
3. The Secret Marathon 3k; Running, Walking and Working together for Equality
4. Ross Proudfoot dominates Peterborough Half in debut
5. Rocks Winter Outdoor Action
6. Upcoming Events:  Mar 4, MOVE Snowshoe Trek For Cancer
7. Running Room Run Club Update: 
8. Track North News  OUA Indoor Track and Field Championships
   Dennis Fairalll Fieldhouse, Windsor, February 23-24, 2018
   
   

What are you doing this Sunday?

Hopefully the 3rd annual Trek for Cancer - MOVE Kivi Park Fitness Series at Kivi Park in support of the Northern Cancer Foundation. This is the second of six MOVE - The Kivi Park Fitness Series events! Strap on your snowshoes and hit the course for a fun day on Kivi Park's beautiful trails. Compete on your own or part of a team and raise funds for the Northern Cancer Foundation!

Hope to see you there!

https://ncfsudbury.akaraisin.com/Common/Event/Home.aspx?seid=15915&mid=8

After watching one purple-and-gold streak after another cross the finish line this week, it might be hard to believe Lo-Ellen's surging cross-country ski team had a sluggish start to the season.

Once the weather began to co-operate, however, the Knights more than made up for lost time, dominating city and regional meets before a spectacular showing at the OFSAA Nordic event, held at Laurentian University in Sudbury on Wednesday and Thursday.

"We had a slow start to the season and we weren't able to get out as much as we hoped to," said Lucas Mrozewski, a Grade 11 student and key member of Lo-Ellen's senior boys team. "But we started pulling through in the second half, we got everyone out on the trails, everyone was pushing each other, we got groups out on long skis together, we were just training and doing everything right, and it all turned out pretty well for the entire team."

After hitting the podium in several individual and team categories on Wednesday, Lo-Ellen qualified all four of its teams for finals in relays on Thursday. The Knights captured bronze in junior girls and junior boys, finished sixth in senior girls and then, saving the best for last, the senior boys group including of Mrozewski, Cameron Boland, Josh Tillson and Kelly Thompson struck silver.

"We had a great team and we were really hoping we would do really well this year, and we did," grinned Boland, not long after Thursday's relays. "We came up big."

While racing as an individual, Boland was buoyed by the support structure the fast-growing, rapidly-improving Lo-Ellen squad has created under coaches Neil Phipps, Colin Ward, Sara McIlraith, Ryan Lafreniere, Vanessa Catto and Lance Patry.

"It gives me a lot of confidence," explained Boland, another Grade 11 student. "I know if I don't do too well, a lot of my team will, and that just helps me, confidence-wise."

Confident or not, Mrozewski was pleasantly surprised by just how well the Knights performed, even on their hometown trails.

"Our junior team came third last year, me and Cameron were on that team and we said, 'We came third last year against the juniors – how are we going to come in third or better this year, against the seniors?' " he said. "But it ended up happening. I don't know how, we all had great races, I guess. It's a great feeling."

That feeling was shared by Phipps, one of the technical experts on LEP's coaching staff, tasked these last couple of years with transforming cross-country runners and hockey players into bona-fide Nordic racers.

"It's a very technical sport," Phipps said. "That's the biggest thing we focus on right from the get-go, taking those athletes who are otherwise fit – Colin runs a fantastic program that's not just a running program, but also has a large strength and conditioning component that allows those runners to be cardiovascularly fit and to transfer those skills into other sports, like cross-country skiing. It's technical like swimming and there are huge time gains there, so that's the big challenge and what we focus on right through the year, especially with the new-to-skiing skiers. It's a nail-biter, because sometimes, those aha moments don't drop until a week or two before OFSAA. The junior boys are an excellent example. They would have been a long shot to medal, but things just started clicking individually for them and now, it's a double medal for them."

Boland is excited about what those juniors, namely Max Mahaffy and Kendyn Mashinter, can help the seniors achieve in 2019.

"We won bronze with them last year, so hopefully, they can help us to the same or better next year," Boland said.

Mrozewski is already eager to start another season. Next time, he hopes he doesn't have to wait so long to convene with his teammates.

"I think the success of the program just makes it grow more and more and the kids just see we have lots of fun, we don't take it super seriously, like some schools might, but we like to enjoy the time we spend together and compete and do well. It's an all-inclusive package."

Read The Star's coverage of Wednesday's races here

full results from both days of competition at www.ofsaa.on.ca/nordic-skiing.

OFSAA Nordic convener Perry Sakki was happy to see the championships go off without a hitch, other than a one-hour delay on Wednesday as some out-of-town teams sorted out transportation issues.

"The lead-up to this event, we had some potential for disastrous conditions, but Mother Nature favoured our event," Sakki said on Wednesday afternoon.

Around 750 skiers from across the province descended on the city for provincials.

"I think Sudbury should be proud, Laurentian University is proud, the skiers are raving about the conditions, the course, the organizing committee and everybody pulled themselves together and were able to pull off one of the biggest OFSAAs for Nordic skiing in Sudbury."

bleeson@postmedia.com

Twitter: @ben_leeson

For its 40th anniversary, the Peterborough Half-Marathon featured one of the top distance runners in Canada.

Sub-4:00 miler, sub-13:30 5Ker, two-time Canadian senior cross-country champion and 2014-15 Canadian university male athlete of the year Ross Proudfoot won the event’s half-marathon in Peterborough, Ont. on Sunday. He covered 21.1K in 1:09:33.

According to Proudfoot (via his Instagram post), he split 16:45, 16:28, 16:22 and 16:15 for each of the 5K splits through 20K as part of a “good progression.” The 25-year-old’s effort was good for a course record, eclipsing the previous mark from 2008 of 1:10:39, according to the Peterborough Examiner.

To put his performance into perspective, note this: his average pace for the half-marathon was faster than that of the ‘half-a-half’ (10.55K) and 5K. (Proudfoot’s reported first 5K split was however slower than the 5K winning time.)

“I’ve been running through the winter through Peterborough so why not come out and do the biggest race they have and support the community,” he told the Peterborough Examiner. “I’ve always loved to join the running community anywhere I’ve been living. I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to run with everybody who runs in Peterborough.” The Examiner notes that Proudfoot slowed to 4:40 per kilometre pace at times due to the challenging hills. (His finish time averages out to 3:18 per kilometre.)

Proudfoot is a product of the University of Guelph during what was a cross-country and track and field dynasty. He was a 19-time national medallist during his Guelph tenure and is one of the most decorated athletes in Canadian university sport athletics history. The Sudbury, Ont. native recently moved to Peterborough from Guelph and has been relatively quiet since the summer recovering from an injury after the 2017 Summer Universiade (World University Games).

Kasey Walsh was the women’s YMCA Peterborough Half-Marathon winner clocking 1:31:01.