Tundra Trot 2008 Articles / SchoolNews Posted by mark on June 19, 2008 - 02:17 PM The 3rd Annual Tundra Trot race took place in Kuujjuarapik this May. Our Ulluriaq running team again placed very well in all of the races despite major improvements to in the speed and endurance of the other teams from across Nunavik. Training began before the flies had settled in August, with many new students joining the team. The new runners had seen the success of the 2006 runners and understood the positive impact of regular and disciplined practice. The students tracked their times and kilometers and started challenging each other to see who could run the most kilometers per month. Some of the students took the initiative to run after school and on the weekends to build up their cardio-vascular health. Some students made decisions to quit or cut back on their smoking to improve their running. A couple of the team members were chosen in the Fall to take part in the Arctic Winter Games try-outs for snowshoeing and two students, Minnie Molly Snowball and Williami Annanack were chosen to travel to Yellowknife to represent Nunavik in that sport. As a result of their selection, snowshoeing was included over the winter to help keep the Tundra Trot team practices interesting. Some new students joined in the team and encouraged the existing runners to keep on in their training. In mid-March, an eight week, school wide "Healthy Heart Challenge" was started as a part of the Tundra Trot training program. The challenge pitted girls versus boys for the most skips skipped and kilometers run, during a one hour practice, once a week. Teachers and students who were otherwise not involved in any extra curricular sports came out regularly to help their "team". The challenge was a close one to the end, but the Girls' team came out on top for skips and the Boys' team won the running part of the challenge. As May rolled around, the selection of the 3 girls and 3 boys for the race in Kuujjuarapik took place. There were many committed runners and the 6 person team was selected with the teams' help. The 6 runners went to Kuujjuarapik on Thursday, May 15, ran a 6 km team relay race on Friday, ran a 3 km Boys/Girls race on Saturday and flew home via charter on Sunday, May 18. It was a whirlwind weekend and the runners did very well. For the second straight year, the team won the 1st place banner for the 6 km relay race, and a few medals for individual performances. The girls also won the 1st place banner in the 3 km race, and the boys performed very well, but were up against some very good performances by the other schools.  They were greeted in the airport by some extremely proud parents, teachers and team mates on Sunday afternoon. At the year end picnic, students participated in the third annual local Tundra Trot 2 km race for all students grade 3 and up. There were over 60 students who signed up and 38 who finished, despite the sun and heat. Congratulations to all of the students, who participated and improved their health by running this year. Everyone is looking forward to another exciting year of trotting starting next August. Click here [1] to see the gallery of photos. This article comes from Ulluriaq WebSite   http://www.kativik.net/ulluriaq/ The URL for this story is:   http://www.kativik.net/ulluriaq/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=88 Links in this article   [1] http://www.kativik.net/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=455665