July 27 2025

We landed in Winnipeg Thursday night and had a hotel stay before we picked up truck and trailer on Friday. When we got to the Best Western, there were lots of security and Indigenous people in the parking lot, in the lobby, in the elevators. They are evacuees from the fires up north. They had been there on and off for over 2 weeks. I can only image how hard it would be to have to quickly pack your family up from a remote community to relocate in the city, without anything for kids (and grown ups) to do. Hopefully they get back home soon.

After a good night sleep, it was off to get our ‘home’. It sounds strange, but it was so great to be with our truck and trailer again! We headed off to Arborg, about an hour north of Winnipeg. Our campsite there was the Arborg Heritage Village campsite.

Once we were set up, we decided to go check out the course but when we opened the door, it was really pouring out…lots of big fat drops….so we quickly changed plans and stayed home.

Race day was sunny and hot. 28+degrees! After being in 10 degrees for the past few days, this was hot! As we were signing in, a photographer for the local paper took a few pictures (we’d provided interview questions for the reporter on Friday), then she brought Peter, the Mayor over for a few more pics. On chatting with Peter, I mentioned that we were looking for a sticker that said “Arborg” for the map on our trailer. He offered to have one made up while we were racing!

Then it was race time. The swim had a different format than a usual pool swim: we swam for 10 minutes with our lengths being counted; our time for a 750m swim was then calculated based on how many lengths of the pool we swam.

The water slide looked pretty inviting though….

The bike was a flat out and back course with headwinds and tailwinds. Pretty country scenery. The run was a hot one, going through town, across the Icelandic River and around the neighbourhood.  We both had good swims and bikes, and our runs required some strong efforts to keep going. Good thing for electrolytes (thanks Starting Block), ice and cold rags! But we got Race#11 done!

After our race, it was home for a little nap (I’m still have a wicked cold) and lunch. Peter the Mayor dropped by with a sticker for us!

After dinner, we drove 15 minutes to Lake Winnipeg for a little dip. It’s a big lake – we couldn’t see the other side, and we were in the narrow part of the lake.

Sunday, we started on our way to Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, for our next race.