Scenes from Banff Ekiden 2005

Saturday was the 16th Annual Ekiden. The Calgary Alpine Frontrunners running group has been doing this race for the past five or six years. It is always a lot of fun, as it starts late in the morning on Saturday so we drive up in the morning from Calgary, and the setup of the race makes it very spectator-friendly. It's a five person relay and each stage's start and finish are all at the same place in front of the Banff Centre. In previous years we have booked condos or hotel rooms in Banff and spent Saturday night there, going out for dinner and hitting one of the Banff nightclubs, but this year everyone had plans for Saturday night, so we just made a day out of it. The two men's teams were neck in neck through the entire race, but Greg and I were racing the final anchor leg and I managed to pass him on Tunnel Mountain climb. It was nice to see that the women were motivated enough to field their own team. Great work everyone!

Stage One: Cave and Basin (6.8 km)
Stage Two: Golf Course (12.8 km)
Stage Three: Tunnel Mountain Short (5.0 km)
Stage Four: Canoe Docks (5.7 km)
Stage Five: Tunnel Mountain Long (12.4 km)

Three of the legs head into the Banff townsite and the other two head up Tunnel Mountain. There are 120 teams (600 runners) that participate every year.


Banff Ekiden 2005 Teammates


The start of the race


CAF Rainbow Warriors


CAF Rainbow Connection


CAF 268 Or Bust

Of course, this race always bring out the really fit teams XC and running teams as well. Teams such as the Junior Canadian XC ski team always win the race every year and it's always a pleasure to see the delicious athletes in their glory.


Shameless perverted eye candy shot 1


Shameless perverted eye candy shot 2

After the race there is a meal and awards. We left early since I had to curl with Bryan, Aaron and Tim in the afternoon and do the DC Upgrade production test over night.