By James Snell
reporter@thefreepress.ca
The tenth and final Tears and Gears running and mountain biking race took place on Saturday on the trails around Fernie Alpine Resort. The duathlon had four categories: kids, solo, team and classic.
The popular event, which saw 150 participants this year, was started by residents Abi Moore and Krista Turcasso.
“We decided 10 years ago to have a duathlon…so it began,” explained Moore. “We’ve definitely experienced a lot of races ourselves, we saw good ideas and things we loved about them that we wanted to throw into our race, like a great atmosphere, good fun at the finish line, lots of draw prizes, and creating routes that were challenging enough for strong Fernie athletes to take part in, but also open to a lot of other levels and experiences.”
Turcasso added, “We started the event as were passionate about trail running and mountain biking and thought it would be great to give the community the opportunity to get out there on Fernie’s amazing trails and challenge themselves, either on a team or solo. From the beginning we wanted the event to be approachable for all levels of riders, supportive and fun. After a few years, we decided to offer a kids’ course as well and this aspect of the event grew significantly over the last six years. It’s been pretty amazing to see all of the athletes compete and grow stronger with each year, especially the kids.”
Moore said the race route has changed over the years.
“It used to be in Ridgemont,” she said. “A couple of years we had a longer version, but stopped that because people preferred the shorter, faster route. The routes have always changed to keep it interesting.”
Moore added, “This year, Fernie Alpine Resort agreed to host us as part of their bonus weekend, which was great and kind of them.”
Moore said the highlight was seeing all the people sign-up once they heard it was the event’s last year.
“We had over 50 kids take part this year on the kids’ route. It was kind of fun as some of the parents that used to race, now have their kids participating.”
Moore explained that this is the final year for Tears and Gears because of increasing life busyness.
“We wanted to end on a high,” she said. “Who knows, it might be back if someone else takes it on. I think the community still loves it. We have amazing support from volunteers and sponsors.”
Tears and Gears 2019 results:
Classic Duathlon
Overall – Bob Maudie
Classic – Bob Maudie
Classic solo women – Christine Misseghers
Classic team men – Buck and Bruin Classic
Team women –
Elk Valley Community Rehab
Youth Duathlon
Overall – Sadie DeMars
Solo boys – Sebastian Fraser
Solo girls – Sadie DeMars
Team boys – Libby Loggers
Team girls – Speed Bumps
Youth team mixed – Next Generation
