Monday, May 7, 2012

Joggling the Trapline Marathon in October


Ah, Labrador! That beautiful territory northwest of Newfoundland will soon get what it's been waiting for all of these years (they just didn't know it): joggling! On Oct. 7, 2012, I'm coming to town to joggle the Trapline Marathon. I've never been to Labrador and this looks like a great event that showcases Canada's trading frontier. The marathon route follows a point-to-point course along an old trappers trade route at the mouth of the Churchill River, running from the settlement of North West River (pop. 553) to Happy Valley - Goose Bay (pop. 7,552). And as far as I'm concerned, any marathon that finishes in Happy Valley has to be a good one.

I'll be speaking at the expo the day before the race and giving some joggling tutorials, because really, if you don't know how to joggle, what is the point of life? Check out the details at www.traplinemarathon.com and watch the super-geeky video of me above.

This will be my seventh joggling marathon and unlike most of the others, I won't be going for a Guinness World Record, though I am hoping to run a fast time. It got me thinking that I never actually wrote down all the races I've joggled, so here's a list of the big ones:

1. The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (three times, and a world record each time – I like this race)
2. The Boston Marathon (in the 2006 joggling marathon duel with Zach Warren, which I lost)
3. The Salt Lake City Marathon (another duel with Zach, which I won)
4. The Royal Victoria Marathon (I had fun at this one)
5. The Cayman Islands Half-Marathon (ridiculously hot race)
6. The World's Best 10K (Puerto Rico)
7. The Rock and Ice Ultra (Northwest Territories, but OK, I only joggled for about 100 metres)
8. The Montreal Half-Marathon (unofficial half-marathon world record)
9. The Burlington Half-Marathon (soon-to-be official world record)
10. The Around the Bay 30K (unofficial 30K world record)
11. A bunch of other local races  

I'm sure Trapline will be a blast. I might even be so bold as to predict that I will become the first person to ever joggle in the region.