On Saturday, over 100 athletes took part in the fifth annual Penticton Ramada Elevator Race.
The 52-kilometre race was held over six stages and was completed by teams of up to six handling one or two stages each or, in the case of several participants, was completed as a solo activity.
Dave Michael was part of the third place finishers from Team Swagman, one of the many teams that started the race at the valley bottom and finished it on top of the mountain at Apex Ski Resort. This was Michael’s third consecutive year participating in the race. He completed the road race stage his first year, road race and nordic ski last year and this year he once again took up the skis to complete the cross country skiing section.
“It’s a fantastic event that displays the best of the Okanagan, you’ve got lots of different sports that everyone can participate in regardless of your speed or technical capabilities,” Michael said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Although the race can be intimidating, Michael noted it’s a no pressure, fun-filled event.
“It’s as hard as you want to make it,” he explained. “If you want to go as hard as you can, that’s up to you. Even within a team, if the team doesn’t want to go hard then there’s less pressure on the entire team, but you can still go hard if you want. I know last year when I did two legs, I was pretty shattered when I went to do the second leg, so I was limited to how hard I could go because I was so exhausted from the first leg. So hats off to those who run it solo, that’s a serious accomplishment.”
One of Michael’s favourite aspects is spending the day on a mountain with his friends, and he plans to continue participating in the future.
“It’s an incredibly difficult race to organize, just because there’s such a time gap between the leading and trailing teams. So I think it’s exceptionally well organized, and they have people out there everywhere to make sure everyone is safe.”
He added anyone thinking of checking it out or participating in the future should find a team without hesitation, as it’s a very fun day and there are always teams looking for more people.
The winning team, Three Amigos, finished the race in a total time of three hours, 51 minutes and eight seconds. Coming in second was the Beer Whisperers at 4:16:48 and in third Team Swagman with a time of 4:17:39. Two racers completed the course on their own Daniel Brown (4:38:51) and Brent Wald (6:32:41).
