DSUK Skiathon - Tuesday 17 May 2011 @ The Chill Factor^e

Reporter: John Weatherell

WELL WE DID IT!! We certainly did, it was hard work, 6 hrs. Skiing in -8 degs on beautiful fresh snow our Team of fast, furious, stylish and very enthusiastic Members put a lot of so called skiers to shame.

With a target of 666 runs (descents) there was no time to chat or have a coffee between runs, as a large number of the "opposition" did, to their cost. When at halfway we were ahead by 67 and over a 100 on most of the teams with 310 runs. At full time we were just 11 short and WINNERS with a total of 655. If the event had started on time instead of 10 mins late we would easily have hit the target of 666.

With Wendy Barlow and Elaine Donnelly, looking like Lindsay Vonn and Julia Mancuso in the Olympic Downhill, they were getting many admiring glances as they averaged 20 runs an hour. The College Volunteer girls who were doing the run counting were so impressed by their skiing abilities they voted them WINNERS at the end of the day in the "Who Impressed" section.

The other Team members also impressed with their efforts and kept up the chase all day. Louise Cosgrove who started at a quick intermediate pace even surprised herself with the speed at which she was skiing towards the end (flying straight downhill).

SCoM are the only "Team" to have taken part in all the DSUK Skiathons since The Chill Factore opened and Sophie Wood the DSUK Organiser thanked the Club and Team for efforts over the years.

As I wrote earlier the skiing abilities of our Team were noted by others taking part with comments like "they've been skiing for years", "they make it look easy" "don't they get tired", so all the lessons and coaching finally has paid dividends.

Apart from the enjoyment the Team got out the event we also raised approx. £700.00 for Disability Snowsports UK. All the Sponsorship is not in yet so I'll keep you all informed of the Grand Total later.

We all slept well that night with one or two wobbly legs the following morning! A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THE TEAM from me John Weatherell: Elaine Donnelly, Wendy Barlow, Andy Poole, Mike Whitby, Rick Mayers, Louise Cosgrove, Ian Mates and Anthony Carlyle (Tony) and our Volunteer Counter Girl SAM.