LifeAthlon

Tree Planting 2018

Pick a spot roughly 1000kms North-West of Vancouver. Now zoom in. Way in. It’s seven thirty in the morning, 3°c, raining, and if you look around this wild desolate place of acrid smelling rot & shredded wood, navigate the treacherous landscape of fallen trees & sharpened sticks, the rotting stumps, the swamps, the webs of…

Cycling Malaysia

We’re sitting on the ground outside a gas station in the middle of nowhere drinking white coffee, eating cake. Que vamos a hacer? My bike is propped upside down, my panniers are all over the place. No sé. Ceci gets up and tries to yank it out. She sits back down and eats more cake. Then I…

Cycling Thailand

Sweat is pooling in my eyes. We’ve been cycling for more than 140km and hunger is fierce. We finished the day in the searing heat of 1pm and now we’re sitting at a tiny table behind a little food stand on wheels and for the thousandth time, I’m wiping the sweat from my face with…

Cycling Laos

The Mekong river flows sluggish and brown beside the boardwalk plaza where Ceci & I are dancing. We are celebrating. Our 46hr trip from Mexico City to Vientiane has been costly and stressful, yet somehow both we and our bikes have made it all the way through on time and mostly undamaged. It was my…

The Baja Epic

The Team The alarm sounds, 3.30am. The first of many early starts to come. The team wakes up one at a time eating little and talking even less. We gather some last items and pile into the jam-packed car, sharing three seats between the four of us, and head to the airport. After a swift…

Caballo Blanco 80k 2017

The sun is setting on North America’s deepest canyon. The bus bounces like an old couch and moans as it dives down a dirt road steeply carved into the canyon walls, towards the small town of Urique nestled by the river at the very bottom of the world. Urique. Cecilia & I glance at each…

Finding Home: Mexico 2017

Lista? Si. Segura? Si. I’m stalling. It’s 11:30am and we’re about to set out on an all out race around a 10km loop course with 700m of altitude gain in 29°c heat. We’re somewhere between 2300m & 2400m high but that’s no excuse anymore, I’ve been training at this altitude for 21 days now. The goal…

Planting Trees Vs UltraRunning

For those who know me, I often attribute a lot of my capacity to run UltraMarathon to the lessons and adaptations I gather during my ongoing years as a tree planter. The mental and physical benefits that come from 2-3 months of intensive tree planting include: the musculoskeletal adaptation of transporting 60lbs+ bags around shnarby…

A Wet & Cold Year

From Chile to Mexico with a whole lot of Canada in between. My year in numbers: 365 Days
365 Km of racing
40 hours 21 minutes of racing
4 Podium Finishes
8 Races
4½ Months Travelling
2 International Trips (Chile-Mexico)
6 Months Living in a Tent
2 Months Planting Trees
84,000 Trees Planted
500+ Visitors on LifeAthlon from
30 Different Countries
4 Bear encounters while running
3200m Highest Altitude.
3 Pairs of Shoes
29 minutes 50 seconds record on the Grouse Grind in Vancouver

Respirar: A Running Trip Through Central Mexico 2016

‘How do you know its broken?’ ‘I don’t. Look at it though its all purple!’ It takes tremendous instinct to read and seize the right moment between leg cramps to reach down to my feet to take my slimy sock off my foot. My fingers are useless, I lost all dexterity from running 6hours at…