about killer about AR Kailey's start
About Killer Kailey
I am currently living in Rossland BC, but I grew up in Ottawa, where my racing career began. Here at altitude, I train six days a week at 1300-2000m above sea level. This high altitude training provides a very strong foundation for me to compete with confidence in virtually anywhere in N. America.
When not training, you will find me paddling, hiking in the alpine, camping in the wilderness, sneaking back to Ontario for a canoe trip with dad, training with Rossland Search and Rescue, and everywhere else outdoor adventure presents itself. In the winter months, I stay fit by ripping it up on skis at Red Resort (the BEST kept secret in Canada), ski touring the the local mountains or working up a sweat on the cross country ski trails at Blackjack or Nancy Greene Summit. You can see that I don't have much downtime - I must remain determined and dedicated.
In addition to the outdoor madness, I manage to hold down a couple of jobs. I work for a small development firm, doing research and project coordination, and I work hard to encourage clients to follow green building and design practices. As well, I tutor high school math, social sciences, english and french. I plan on returning to school to add to my Queen's University History Degree (yeah Queen's!!) by going to teacher's college. I would like to teach in a private/alternative school setting in the Rossland area. This might require me to open my own school (which would obviously have an awesome outdoor adventure component), so stay tuned.
About Adventure Racing
Adventure Racing is a multi-discipline sport where teams of 2 or 4 race non-stop, day and night, navigating their way through difficult, unmarked terrain. These races are endurance contests of epic proportions which continually challenge each competitor's mastery over their mind and body. Endurance races take from 2-10 days to complete and disciplines include mountain biking, trekking, mountaineering, navigating, rappelling, ascending, kayaking, canoeing, and rafting. There are also shorter races (up to 12 hours or multi-day stage races) that allow races to compete in a solo category as well as a team.
Teamwork, determination, perseverance and iron will are crucial to Adventure Racing success. When racing with a team, it is mandatroy that the entire team stay within sight of each other and must cross the finish line together. If one team member quits or is injured, the entire team is disqualified. This creates a unique dynamic within a team, as you can only race as fast as your slowest member. You must constantly support, encourage, monitor and help your teammates.
The popularity of Adventure Racing has grown substantially in the past few years. Continue with history.....
The History of AR for Kailey:
In the beginning... before the fateful spring of 2001, Killer Kailey was just Kailey, a university student, someone who jogged to be fit, loved playing football and spent most summers at the cottage or on a canoe trip...THEN came the moment where lives changed...Kailey's dad (Jim) had just turned 50, and Kailey was going to turn 21 - so the question was: what fun and exiting trouble could they get into to celebrate a big year? Thanks to Mark Burnett and the Eco-Challenge coverage on TV, Kailey and Jim were intrigued by this new, strange and painful looking sport. Combining trekking, mountain biking, paddling, navigation and ropes over the course of several days seemed insane to us. Therefore it had to be done! Kailey and Jim were paddlers, so in their minds they were set... all they had to do was learn to run, navigate and bike - no problem they said!
The first thing to do was find a race in late summer or fall (maximum training time was needed), to find a race with minimal navigation and one that was NOT an overnight event. Thanks to Dean and the Sea2Summit crew, the Mt. Ste Marie Sea2Summit race was perfect - the end of September, 2-day stage race and no ropes component (Jim has height phobia issues).
So the pair trained all summer: went to spin classes (since they didn't own mountain bikes), ran up and down the local ski hill (good ol' Camp Fortune), and even rented mountain bikes a couple of times and tested out the local trails (see Kailey's scars)...
Then the big day arrived - Team Dewlap showed up for the race armed with rental mountain bikes (they were 'special'), canoe paddles (which made sense to us - how were we supposed to know that all the cool racers use kayak paddles in a canoe?), and since this race was done on a budget, they also put their creativity to work and used old bamboo xc ski poles instead of trekking poles... these worked fine for the most part - if you take away the laughter from fellow racers and Dean, and that fact that we had to go from hiking to biking with no transition (anyone else ever tried to duct tape xc ski poles to a bike?? At least no one tried to draft us!)
Regardless of the lack of gear and knowledge (wrong food, LONG transitions, inability to sit on a bike seat the second day) and the fact that the bike leg on the first day was longer than all miles spent
