Nick Emsley

The Long Sock Classic was the second event in the Ontario Marathon Series and it was being held at the Ganaraska Forest. It had been two weeks since the last race which I was unable to compete in but I had healed up and was feeling good for this event. I unfortunately had to work the days leading up to this race so I was a bit tired the day of the event. Luckly it was a very nice day for the event which was nice since it has been raining a lot for the past month. For the full marathon there were 81 racers and in my division I had 17 competators. The race went off and the course was pretty much the same as the years before so there were nothing new to worry about. On the first lap I was doing okay and I was sitting in a good position in the field but I could tell my  legs were wearing out. The second lap was tough as my legs were out but I still pushed it right to the end and I placed 5th in my division of 35 and under men. Overall it was a good race and working the day before the race

It was two weeks after the first Ontario Cup and we were down at the second O-Cup which was being held at 20 minutes north of Kingston. It had been raining a lot the week prior to the event and there was a lot of flooding all over Ontario. The race promoter Dan Marshall of Substance Projects was working non stop to keep the course in decent shape with a record number of rain falling days prior. I had come down with a cold and I wasn't able to race which was very unfortunate as I always have enjoyed racing at this venue. Even though I couldn't race I still drove for 3 hours to help out the promoter and cheer on my team mates who were racing. Once we arrived the trail was very muddy and it was raining. As the day went on the rain stopped and the mud turned very sticky instead of being a slippery mud earlier. So everyones bikes were becoming very stuck up and there were multiple spots on the trail that racers had to run. I was able to watch as the racers took off and how they perf