Posted by Mary Stewart

Salut! We brought in the New Year with a great trip up to Quebec for the Canadian NorAm races in Val Cartier. Our journey started off on the right track with the help of our new GPS friend “Tiff,” whose genius for navigating the highways and byways led us through Quebec City with ease.

We enjoyed five days of racing and exploring at the beautiful Myriam Bedard biathlon center. On our first day of racing, former Catamount and current U.S Biathlon Team member Katrina Howe and I had a blast in the 15 km continuous pursuit. The next day, Jesse, Fritz, Alex, Paul, Peter, Caitlin, Janey, and Kat tore up the trails in the skate sprint, followed by a 10/15 km classic race two days later.

One evening, Patrick planned an excursion into Quebec City. With the promise of crepes at Crepe Bretton, we eagerly made our way into the heart of the city (with a little help from Tiff, of course). Luckily, Patrick decided that we should make up for our missed recovery jog with a post-crepe stroll down by Le Chateau Frontenac. As we rounded the corner of the towering Frontenac, we were greeted by the twinkling lights of a toboggan ride. Interested, but fearing that we were walking into a tourist trap, we ventured into the small ticket office. We discovered that the ride cost only $2 and after watching a shrieking family zoom by, we decided to give it a go. With three toboggans in tow we all climbed to the top, squealing or gulping nervously in anticipation.

The three icy tracks allowed us to race side-by-side, which suited our competitive spirits. It was a close race complete with accusations of cheating by one sled, but more than who won or lost that race we’ll all remember the exhilarating screams, laughter, tearing eyes, and beautiful night views of the city.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 8:34 pm and is filed under Athletes, Good times, Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.