My surgery story is much shorter than Sam’s saga of two knee surgeries that were supposed to happen through the COVID years. In fact, not much more than a year after I was diagnosed with a heart murmur, I’m expecting heart valve replacement surgery March 13.
In the past few weeks I have had an angiogram and a CT scan. I have been working on my pre-hab, which mostly means making sure I can get up and down without using my hands. I can do chairs, stairs, and – on a good day – even get down and back up off the floor.
I’m not entirely certain what will happen next. Much will depend on the kind of surgery I get. From what I have read, I could be home in a day or two with a fairly easy recovery. Or I could be looking at 5 days in hospital with at least 4-6 weeks of doing nothing strenuous.
Either way, it’s pretty clear I won’t be lifeguarding again until I get retested and demonstrate I meet the physical requirements. Even though it means I’ll have to give up work for a while, I’m excited!
In March 2018 DAREBEE first launched Girl Power Week. This year I am privileged to be part of the team that is bringing this popular event back to DAREBEE, now with new and expanded content.
“What is Girl Power Week?” you may ask. “What is this ‘DAREBEE’ you write of, Laura?”
DAREBEE is a huge, independent, web-based fitness resource that is 100% ad-free, 100% free of product placement and other forms of corporate sponsorship, and 100% free to use. As of this writing, the DAREBEE resource includes 2670 stand-alone workouts, 92 programs (structured plans of daily workouts that typically run for 30 days each, with a few longer and shorter programs), and 177 challenges (short exercise “snacks” that follow a specific focus for, again, typically 30 days, although some of these are different lengths too). The resource also includes 154 short and easily-digestible written guides on a range of fitness-related topics, all backed up by the latest scientific research, and DAREBEE’s sister site: DAREBEETS, a rapidly-growing nutrition resource which currently features 360 plant-based recipes. All of this content is 100% crowd-funded through DAREBEE’s users. And yet none of it is behind a paywall. Everything is 100% free for anyone to access.
Also free is DAREBEE’s community forum, known as “The Hive”. The Hive is a truly amazing place I have been privileged to be a part of since May 2017.
When I first joined the DAREBEE Hive I was primarily involved in other fitness spaces. But the Hive quickly became my primary fitness community. When another online fitness community I had been actively involved in shut down (so that site’s owners could focus on a new initiative that was 100% behind a paywall), a second community I’d been active in and happy to support financially when it was run by a small, independent company that was responsive to its membership sold out to a large corporation (that immediately switched the site’s access model to a subscription service and then offered me a “lifetime discount” for said subscription if I signed up within 3 weeks and began paying a monthly fee to access content I had already paid for lifetime access to), and the expenses of commuting to participate in a sports league became too much for me to bear, the Hive remained: free, welcoming, and supportive.
During the long years when I lived in a small town (which was a very bad fit for me socio-politically) in which the only fitness-related activities for adults were either uninteresting to me or too expensive for me (or both), and revolved more around drinking beer (which I don’t do) than athleticism, the Hive was both a fitness and a community lifeline for me. The Hive is the reason I was able to remain physically active and fit during years when multiple forces in my life conspired to drive me away from fitness. I have forged real friendships there.
These days I am privileged to live, once again, in a physical community in which I am happy. I have face-to-face conversations almost daily with neighbours who don’t make me want to tear my hair out over how appalling I find their political views. I belong to a fitness club (Aikido) full of wonderful people who I genuinely enjoy being around and training with every week. And yet I am more active in DAREBEE and the Hive now than ever. Which brings us to Girl Power Week.
In addition to the regular workouts, programs, and challenges which one can choose to complete at any time, DAREBEE regularly runs special community events through the Hive in which participants come together to all take on the same challenge at the same time and cheer one another on in these efforts. During the years 2016-18, these events included eight special themed weeks, each of which included one specific workout each day for a week. Community members who completed all seven workouts were able to claim a special digital badge for their Hive profile page.
DAREBEE’s themed weeks were popular events which many DAREBEEs (myself included) loved. Alas, these challenges—along with their associated badges—were lost during a technologically necessary platform migration in 2022. Even so, many DAREBEEs still remember them fondly, and they continue to come up as topics of conversation within the Hive. When I saw one of my DAREBEE friends, Syrius, post recently that she wished the theme week challenges were still available as she would like to do them, I realized there was no reason why she couldn’t. The individual workouts involved in the challenges are still available in DAREBEE’s substantial database.
One of the great things about DAREBEE’s Hive community and the forum that supports it is that community events do not need to be run by the core team that maintains the DAREBEE resource. Any member of the community can organize a community event via the Hive forum. So I messaged Syrius to ask her if she would be interested in doing exactly that. I suggested we could re-run Girl Power Week, as the timing was right to organize our event for the week leading up to and including International Women’s Day on March 8. Syrius immediately jumped on board with the idea.
The impetus behind DAREBEE’s original Girl Power Week was to create a week-long challenge designed to “inspire women of all ages to take a ninja-like approach to fitness and rediscover the warrior within.” It included seven brand new, challenging workouts themed around brave and powerful women. Syrius and I wanted to bring back those original seven workouts but also expand the challenge to make it accessible to more people.
DAREBEE has always advocated for inclusivity within fitness spaces. Indeed, DAREBEE’s insistence on maintaining all aspects of the resource as freely accessible and free from commercial agendas is because DAREBEE believes fitness belongs to everyone, and everyone should have access to quality fitness resources, regardless of their financial means. DAREBEE is also a place where everyone belongs, regardless of their age, their size, their gender, or their current level of physical fitness and ability.
The original Girl Power Week workouts include challenging calisthenics activities such as single-leg squats, full push-ups, and jumping lunges, because DAREBEE knows these exercises are just as accessible to girls and women as to anyone else. Additionally, because DAREBEE workouts are designed for people at all different stages in their individual fitness journeys, it is perfectly acceptable for an individual exerciser to modify any exercises in a DAREBEE workout to make them accessible to their own current level of physical ability on any given day. (Indeed, I often did difficulty level 3 workouts—with modifications—with my octogenarian mother when I was serving as her personal trainer during pandemic lockdowns.) However, it’s not always obvious to a new exerciser how they can modify exercises not currently within their reach to make them accessible. Additionally, current physical ability is not the only constraint on would-be exercisers. With these thoughts in mind, we decided to expand Girl Power Week to include four different tracks:
The original Girl Power Week workouts, suitable for anyone currently able to safely execute high-impact calisthenics exercises and/or folks who know how to modify these exercises to make them safely accessible.
A low-impact, standing exercises only track, suitable for newer exercisers and anyone else not currently practising high impact exercises for any reason.
A track featuring all workouts which can be completed in 10 minutes or less. Because sometimes the biggest constraint on one’s ability to complete a workout is finding the time to fit it into one’s busy day.
A yoga-based track. Because sometimes the best way we can nurture our bodies is to slow down.
With these initial ideas in mind, Syrius and I shared our plan with the team who runs the DAREBEE resource, to ensure planning an event for the March 2-8 week would not conflict with any larger community events they had planned.
The response from the DAREBEE Team was both swift and wonderful: not only was there no conflict with what we wanted to do, but the team offered to help us with the project, including through creating original content, including a challenge badge and, potentially, new workouts!
Saying, “Yes, please!” to the profile badge was a no-brainer. DAREBEEs love our badges! But the offer to help with the creation of new workouts really set my head spinning. I am a long-time yoga practitioner and a certified instructor. The opportunity to create a series of yoga workouts for DAREBEE, all tied to our Girl Power Week theme, was a dream come true! I immediately set to work on the task. Meanwhile, Syrius got to work combing through DAREBEE’s extensive database of existing workouts to curate the perfect collections for our low-impact and 10-minutes-or-less tracks.
Syrius writes:
“Darebee was there when I was in college and struggled to go to the gym. Darebee was there when I was unemployed and looking for my first job, giving me a modicum of control over my life. Darebee was there for me through the pandemic, giving me an outlet for all my worry and stress. Through my ups and downs, the community has been amazingly supportive, and there is always an exercise to fit how I am feeling each day.
“When Laura approached me about Girl Power Week, I loved the idea from the start! Darebee has been such a big part of my life, and this felt like a great way to give back. Low-impact work is near and dear to me as it is sometimes all I can do, and I feel the pressure of time so keenly some days, so I was thrilled to be able to take the time and curate these collections that will fit the needs of all our participants.”
Now the work is complete, and Girl Power Week 2026 is ready to launch. In addition to the four workout tracks detailed above, our event will include one more special treat—which will be revealed on the final day of the event—created with the help of seven additional DAREBEEs and friends. All in all, Girl Power Week 2026 is a joint effort created by a team of 10+ people (the + equals members of the core DAREBEE Team who prefer to work behind the scenes) who currently reside in seven different countries. Fully half of us are immigrants to our current homes from someplace else. Given the state of the world we all live in these days, I think this is a wonderful testament to the power of cooperation and inclusivity!
Girl Power Week begins on March 2 and runs for seven consecutive days. The first day’s workouts will drop by 4:00 PM UTC on March 1. If you’d like to join us for this special event—we’d love to have you!—you can find all of the details on participating at http://darebee.com .
Important note: while this special themed week highlights the power of girls and women, as with all things on DAREBEE, people of all genders are most welcome to join us. Fitness is for everyone!
Laura with rainbow ribbons
Laura Rainbow Dragon is the author of the “Get Fit for the Zombie Apocalypse” choose-your-own-workout stories as well as the novelettes “Chimera Junction” and “Anne & Mary on the Hyperspace Seas”. She lives joyfully in Wortley Village, London, Ontario with her canine master, Shelby, who takes her on hiking adventures every day to visit all of their neighbours who stock dog treats.
FIFI readers may recall I’ve written before about ebike tourism – in PEI, Canada and in New Zealand. This time, I had a new ebike experience: my first ever ebike food tour.
My partner and I went during our recent holiday at my sister’s condo in Bucerias, where we also visited family who winter in nearby Puerto Vallarta. Our morning tour group of eleven buzzed slowly through town on pedal-assist bikes, stopping at locally owned spots for cafe de olla, birria, carnitas tacos, and crema dessert. Vegetarian accommodations were made for me without fuss. Our bilingual guide, Pepe, kept stories flowing, including tales of his own cycling tours throughout Mexico. When the annual chalk drawing festival took over the main strip, he adjusted our route without missing a beat.
We wait patiently behind our 11 bikes for enough seats to open up at this local taco cafe.
Bici Bucerias is owned by Canadian expats rather than Mexican nationals. At the same time, tours like the one we took still funnel money and visibility toward the Mexican‑owned cafés, taco stands, and dessert places that make the experience worthwhile. Some of the places we visited were quite small, or out of walking distance from where tourists stay, which meant we likely would never have chosen them otherwise.
One of my delicious meals: soup, tortilla, cheese, beans, and bread.
It was also my first time on a bike on cobblestone, and slow-rolling over the uneven ground with pedal assist felt surprisingly unsettling. I ended up turning off the assist on those stretches, feeling I had more control that way. I also spotted a few road cyclists out along the busy highway and marvelled at their nerve. It’s a good reminder of how much I take for granted the space and infrastructure that cyclists get in many parts of Canada.
Pepe reviews ebike technology and safety before the ride.
This week, I’m thinking about those who ride and own businesses that are shut down due to shelter-in-place ordinances following cartel-related property damage throughout Jalisco, Mexico. I hope Bici Bucieras can resume their tours soon to continue supporting authentic food culture and locally owned businesses in the area. As my sister who lived full time in Puerto Vallarta for 10 years says, Mexicans are resilient and good at recovering from challenges.
Even if you didn’t read my blog post yesterday about the disrespect of the 7-time medal-winning (since 2000) US women’s Olympic hockey team, you no doubt heard about it somewhere on the internet. To recap:
After the US men’s Olympic hockey team won gold, US president T***p spoke to them on the phone, inviting them to the White House, adding he thought he would also have to invite the women, lest he be impeached (for a third time).
The hockey players laughed along with T***p, joining in the mocking of their Olympic hockey teammates.
The US women’s hockey team politely declined an invitation to the White House, issued after the invitation to the men’s team.
Flavor Flav— who, among other things, is the “dedicated hype man” for US Women’s Water Polo, and now apparently, US Women’s Hockey– invited the women’s team to come to Las Vegas for a big party. He has since expanded the invitation to include all female Olympic and Paralympic medalists. You can see for yourself below:
Mr. Flav hasn’t filled out the details of the upcoming festivities, but I can imagine it will be quite the party.
However, I can’t help but think that it would be nice to come up with other ways to express our appreciation for them (and their friends and fellow athletes who also haven’t been sufficiently noticed and feted). Herewith, a few party ideas:
Special axe-throwing events for them to attend, either in person or via Zoom, where the bullseyes have been replaced by, say, images of the faces of politicians who need to learn lessons of respect.
Whose face would look perfect in the middle there? You be the judge.
2. A complimentary tour of the Hoover Dam, since they’re going to be in Las Vegas already and it’s really close. Also, my sister, niece, nephews and I really enjoyed it when we went.
The Hoover Dam is very grand and also a cool educational experience.
3. My friend James, who lives in Las Vegas and knows the local music scene very well, could show them his favorite bars and hot spots. He also has a nice dog named Baxter and I bet he would let them pet him.
This is Baxter, who is an oldie and a goodie.
4. There could be a virtual book swap where we Zoom in to present five of our favorite books from the past year for the women’s hockey team members to choose from, then mail the books to them. No doubt these players have all been busy training and haven’t had much time to catch up on their reading. Doesn’t that sound like fun? I think so.
Olde books, newe books– all books are good books…
5. Maybe we can ask those nice guys from Heated Rivalry to come to a special dinner just for them– oh, wait a minute– that one is just for me. Never mind…
Dearest readers, feel free to share your party ideas in the comments below.
Now that the Olympics have ended, I’m looking back and reflecting on the women in their 40s and 50s who competed. There may be more. Every one of them did amazing things over their careers, not just at the Olympics.
Claudia Pechstein 53, German speed skater in her 8th Olympics. She has previously won nine Olympic medals, the first in 1994. Her first medals are older than many of the athletes at this games.
Deanna Stellato-Dudek 42, Canadian pairs figure skater in her 1st Olympics. She originally competed as an individual skater but retired in 2001. She returned to competition in 2016 as a pairs skater for the USA. In 2019, she began skating with her Canadian partner and began the process of seeking Canadian citizenship so that she could compete at Milano-Cortina. Just days before the Olympics began, she was injured in training and was only cleared to compete a few days before their event. Despite that, the pair placed 11th overall.
Lindsey Vonn, 41, American alpine skier in her 5th Olympics. The three-time Olympic medalist crashed and broke her leg in Milano-Cortina.
Elana Meyers Taylor 41, American bobsledder in her 5th Olympics. She has previously won 5 Olympic medals and just won her first gold. She has now taken over the title as the oldest individual gold medalist in Winter Olympic history. She also extended her streak as the most-decorated Black athlete in the winter games.
Kaillie Humphries 40, Canadian-American bobsledder in her 6th Olympics. Humphries competed for Canada 2010-2014 before switching to the US team. She has won 6 Olympic medals, including two Bronze in Milano-Cortina.
Sarah Schleper 46, Mexican-American alpine skier in her 7th Olympics and part of the first mother-son Olympic duo with her 18 year old son. Schleper competed for the USA team 1998-2010, and for Mexico since 2018.
Just for fun, I’m adding Midori Ito, 56, Japanese singles figure skater. Ito won silver at the 1992 Olympics, landing the first triple Axel in competition, and was the first woman to land seven triples (at the Calgary Olympics in 1988). Although her Wikipedia page says she retired in 1992, she is still skating and won at the Master’s Elite level in 2024 – and clearly is still enjoying herself.
Sooooo, we’ve been having a bit of snow here in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Well, I can’t speak for the whole province, just for the Easterly island bit where I live but there is A LOT of here.
This was the view from my front steps near the end of the storm that plagued us from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday evening. Image description: a nighttime photo of the rails of my front step with snow drifted so high that it covers most of the uprights. there is a piece of a tree sticking sideways of the the snowbank at the based of the steps and in the background the handle of my snow scoop is sticking out of the snow lump that hides my husband’s car. Even more snow, my snow covered truck, and my snowy street can be seen a bit further out.
According to official measurements at St. John’s International Airport, 166.1cm of snow has fallen since February 1, 2026 but different areas in the metro region have probably had more.
Over the course of the month I have had to incorporate snow shoveling into my workout routine pretty regularly – turns out that an hour of snow shoveling is the equivalent of 8kms in my 2026 walking challenge!
Then, last week, things went up a notch when the snowbanks on the side of my driveway got so high that I could no longer shovel snow up there.
NOTE: We only have one ‘side’ of our driveway because our driveway and our neighbour-on-the-left’s driveway is connected and I’m not going to just start dumping snow on their part of our joint driveway.
Then, on the weekend, the day after my husband left on a trip to visit his brother, we had a storm that lasted from Saturday afternoon to Sunday night and dropped a ridiculous amount of snow on us – over 60 cms.
Here’s what my driveway looked like (from my upstairs window) when the storm stopped:
This was a scary sight on Sunday night. Image description: a top-down photo of my driveway taken from my bedroom window. You can see that in our half of the driveway there are two vehicles. One is mostly covered with a lot of snow on it, next to it and between it and the road. The other is completely covered and the space next to the car and the snowbank is filled almost to the level of the car’s roof. The photo was taken at night and, in the light from the streetlight, you can see all the snow in the middle of my cul-de-sac and in other people’s driveways.
Normally, I am ok with shoveling and I sometimes even like it.
However, I do not enjoy shoveling when there is nowhere to put the snow.
I really tried to throw some up on the bank but half of it would tumble down.
I threw some of it closer to the house.
And I used my scoop to add to the pile of snow in the middle of my cul-de-sac.
After he finished his own driveway, a neighbour used his snowblower to clear along one side of my truck and to clear some of my neighbour-on-the-left’s driveway.
It took over three hours, even with my oldest son’s help (and my neighbour’s help), and every part of it was an exercise in frustration.
There was no satisfying rhythm of shoveling.
There was no sense of accomplishment – I mean, we obviously accomplished something…
This is my driveway cleared enough for me to get out. You can see that a lot more work is needed though. Image description: a top down view of two vehicles in a driveway. One is cleared off and the other is mostly snow covered. There is a narrow path on the bottom right that goes between the snowbank and the car and there is a shovel and a snow scoop visible in the narrow path. The street beyond is snow covered and there are high snowbanks everywhere including a mound of snow in the middle of the cul-de-sac.
But it wasn’t possible to clear a wide path to the house (see the lower part of the photo, it’s like a roofless tunnel) and, in fact, the path has packed snow at the bottom from us walking on it while trying to shovel so it feels even more annoying.
It wasn’t possible to completely clear or widen the end of the driveway and it is really challenging to back my truck in.
But, clearing all that snow has been a good workout – if you define good as ‘Uses muscles I wasn’t even aware of and leaves me really, really, really tired’ but I do NOT recommend it.
In fact, if you can get away with just doing fun stuff in the snow (skiing, snowshoeing, building forts), I think that would be the best workout plan.
The cursing while you try to shovel snow higher than your head routine is like something an evil fitness influencer would devise to sell to unsuspecting followers.
The only difference between this workout and the one an evil influencer would be trying to sell me on is the fact that I didn’t have to dress up or smile while doing it.
This morning, I went to my Mom’s place (see below) to dig a path to the street for her. Another day, another annoying workout. Image description: a selfie of me in a beige sweater and green toque and glasses, looking disgruntled. In the background there’s a mountain of snow that plows dumped on Mom’s lawn -it’s almost as high as the streetlights.There was so much snow at Mom’s that it was hard to see her house. Image description: a photo of my Mom’s house taken from across the street. She lives in a blue bungalow and there is a huge mountain of snow on her lawn (put there by a plow) that is higher than her roof. And on the other side you can only see the tops of her windows and door and the peak of her porch roof.
This year at the Milan Olympics, the US women’s and US men’s teams both won gold medals against Canada. Yes, the men’s result was controversial, but I’m not here to talk about that. Although feel free to advocate for your team in the comments.
In this post, I come to bury the 2026 US Olympic men’s hockey team, not to praise them. Well, bury them via outing them for misogynist yucking it up with the US misogynist-in-chief, Donald Trump, who called them to:
congratulate them on their victory;
discuss travel arrangements, supposedly courtesy of the American military;
dangle the prospect of White house swag for them;
mock the US Olympic women’s hockey team, which also won their gold medal match against Canada (uncontroversially), prompting what sounded like near-universal approving laughter from the players.
[After inviting the men’s team to the White House for Tuesday night] Trump added: “I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team — you do know that.” If they weren’t invited, the president said, “I do believe I probably would be impeached, OK?”
Members of the team laughed.
Uh, hold on a minute here.
Nadine from Unsplash wants us to just stop now, for a minute. Let’s do that.
For the record, the US Women’s Olympic hockey teams have the following medal count since 2000:
2026 Milano-Cortina: Gold Medal (def. Canada 2-1, OT)
2022 Beijing: Silver Medal (lost to Canada 3-2)
2018 Pyeongchang: Gold Medal (def. Canada 3-2, SO)
2014 Sochi: Silver Medal (lost to Canada 3-2, OT)
2010 Vancouver: Silver Medal (lost to Canada 2-0)
2006 Torino: Bronze Medal (def. Finland 4-0)
2002 Salt Lake City: Silver Medal (lost to Canada 3-2)
That’s a total of 7 medals: 2 gold, 4 silver, one bronze since 2000 for the US women’s teams.
What about the US Men’s Olympic hockey teams? Here is their post-2000 medal count:
2026 (Milan-Cortina): Gold (6-0-0).
2010 (Vancouver): Silver (5-1-0)
2002 (Salt Lake City) Silver Medal
Adding it up, the men’s teams have won a total of 3 medals: one gold, two silver since 2000.
The 7-medals-vs-3-medals fact is one reason among many for the US men’s hockey team, instead of laughing along with and joining in on the sexist bashing of their fellow athletes, should instead:
Sit down and shut up.Listen for a change.Then do the right thing.
This bears repeating.
Sit down and shut up.
Listen for a change.
Then do the right thing.
Words to live by for all of us. But especially for these US male hockey players right now.
Hope you enjoyed the first half of the 2026 Olympic Games. The 2026 Paralympic Winter Games run March 6–15. I’m looking forward to them.
It’s Monday and for me this winter, that means adult swimming lessons.
I’m taking lessons at Making Waves Swim School here in Guelph. The downside is that the classes aee late in the evening–8:30-9:15, because they happen after all the kids’ classes are over.
Most of the other adults in the class can’t swim and are a bit nervous in the water. I’m not nervous. I float well and can tread water forever. What I haven’t been able to do is swim well enough to lane swim for fitness. But I’m getting there. Last class, I swam 6 lanes of front crawl, a bunch of backstroke, and lots of floating on my back and kicking. Getting there….
Sarah and I are getting ready for a summer of cycling, some of it in the excellent company of occasional blogger Susan F.
In June, it’s the Tour de Guelph and in September it’s the Spinning Wheels Tour. We’ve also got a weekend booked in April at Point Pelee National Park and another in May at the Pinery.
When we are home in Guelph, we’ll ride here on the weekends and on weekends at the farm, we’ll ride in the county. I might even organize some pre-work rides with other U of G people training for the Tour de Guelph.
And seriously, you can ride as much or as little of the route as you like. Some people will ride all the way everyday, some people are just riding one of the days, and others will ride a little bit each day. It’s your ride. It’s up to you. Last year we had the Wanda the Winnebago riding with us, as well as several support vehicles.
Check out photos from last year’s Spinning Wheels Tour here.
That’s Susan on the left, and Jeff, on the right. He was driving a support car the day we biked into Stratford.
Have y’all been watching the winter Olympics? Maybe it’s just me, but it’s seemed even more thrilling and entertaining and awe-inspiring than usual. The women’s speed-skating, women’s and men’s figure skating, the hockey, all those flipping and twirling skiers and snowboarders, the fast-fast-fast downhillers– just wow. And of course the suspenseful curling.
But the ski mountaineering just blew my mind. Skimo is absolutely my worst nightmare of an athletic event. It requires the participants (who must have been willing at some point, though I don’t understand why) to ski uphill, taking off their skis to walk/trot up an inexplicable staircase, put said skis back on, trudge/trot to the top, take the skis skins off (making sure to put them safely in a pouch), and then ski downhill on light-and-skinny skis in an act that one commentator said was like “skiing a steep downhill on two pieces of dried pasta”.
That sounds terrible.
But then, I thought, maybe that’s what makes this sport so appealing– it’s the most tiring, challenging sport they could think of.
But, could we help them out and offer suggestions to make it even harder? I think we can. Here are some ideas I came up with.
1) Like the cross country ski race entrant Nazgul, the Czechoslovakian wolf dog (not to be confused with Heated Rivalry’s stupid Canadian wolf bird), they should allow dogs on the trail. Petting will be permitted, but competitors may not commandeer dog treats for themselves during the race.
2) For the relay races, participants should have to stand in line to buy another lift ticket. They need to make sure they have their credit cards ready, as the Olympic vendors won’t take cash.
3) Like the Tour de France, they could have photographers and team coaches on Sno-Cats, rumbling up and down the hills in between the competitors. Having them shout “go faster!” would be optional.
4)Allow spectators all along the course, screaming, partying, encouraging them with cowbells, and offering them beer hand ups during the stairs part of the race. Non-alcoholic of course, as this IS he Olympics. Honestly, I’m not sure if this will make their job easier or harder. The only way to know for sure is to try it.
5) Require that each competitor take at least 4 selfie photos and post them on social media during the race. So much of what happens doesn’t “officially count” unless it’s been posted, so why not include race results in that category? 🙂 Extra points for selfies with a spectator, and double extra points for a selfie with a dog on the course.
So, readers– any other ideas to make this sport even more chaotic and difficult? I welcome your suggestions.
