I love discovering new ski trails, and the Oka Ski Marathon seemed like a great opportunity. Oka National Park is a reasonable drive from Ottawa, and the event had a reputation for a good race. I wasn’t familiar with their ski trails, and was pleasantly surprised by what the National Park offered. The 35 kilometer network is becoming popular with Montrealers, since it’s just 60km from downtown Montreal.
The Oka Marathon event is in its sixth year, and featured a 2km, 5km, 10km, 21km, and 42km (all skate events). I opted for the 21km distance, figuring it would be a good tuneup for the Canadian nationals in 2 weeks. The 21 km athletes toed the line with the 10km and 42km racers, making for an exciting mass start.
The course was a fun one: plenty of flat and fast sections on roads and winding trails; pretty wooded areas with a few short steep climbs, and a few fun downhills. It was nice to have a course and conditions that allowed for some fast gliding, since our recent cold weather has made for pretty slow skiing! The experience was drastically different from my last loppet race, which certainly toughened me up! Racing a shorter distance on a fast course with normal temperatures left me with some some energy to spare. I was actually shocked when I saw the 1km to go sign (the times were quicker than I had anticipated too).
Coming out of the woods – yes, that’s my husband following me!
The organizers added to the race atmosphere with great prizes and cash primes for the first man and woman to make it to the 10km mark. I had a good day! First to the 10km mark, and 1st woman to cross the line in the 21km race.
All in all a great event, and highly recommended. Here’s a video of the races.
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