Liza Pye

La première fois que nous avons rencontré Lisa, elle agissait comme bénévole au championnat canadien Raid The North. Avec son sourire éblouissant et ses yeux pétillants, elle nous a sérieusement fait considérer l’option d’abandonner la course pour se recycler dans le l’organisation et le bénévolat.  Mais ce ne sera pas nécessaire puisqu’elle court maintenant avec nous. Au premier contact, nous étions loin de nous douter que derrière ce visage radieux se cachait une athlète extrêmement déterminée et talentueuse.  D’ailleurs, c’est lors d’un trip à trois mémorable que nous l’avons d’abord testée et sa performance étincelante nous a définitivement convaincus (Note de l’éditeur : On parle ici du Salomon Adventure Challenge, une série qui se fait en équipes de 3 coureurs!).  Grâce à son excellente technique de pagaie et de vélo elle peut se permettre de défier les boys dans l’équipe.  Et tout comme son sourire, on aime vraiment ça!

Bio:

  • Born in 1977 when the rest of you were in high school...? :-)
  • 1981 Fall out of bed and break right collarbone
  • 1983 Run into a competitor while playing British bulldog and break left
  • collarbone.
  • 1985 Fall down the stairs and break right arm
  • 1989 Fall off the monkey bars in the playground and suffer a compound fracture to my left forearm. Bones sticking out of skin. Surgery to repair.
  • 1998 Started my crazy outdoor lifestyle while living as a hippie in the Wilderness of Vancouver Island. Was inspired by the mountains and ocean and waters around me to take C.O.L.T (Canadian Outdoor Leadership Training) Program
  • 1999-2002 Worked in outdoor education and guided many sea kayaking trips on Vancouver Island. Travelled, climbed mountains, skied and lived more of a hippie lifestyle in B.C. and Alberta amongst the mountains that squeezed their way into my blood.
  • Fall 2001 Found myself back in the flat-lands of Ontario and bought a ski pass at Camp Fortune to amuse myself by teaching myself how to Telemark ski on some old rusty-edged K2s.
  • Spring 2002 Discovered that running is actually fun and started training almost every day because I was addicted to the way running made me feel.
  • March 2003 Get run into by a snowboarder at Camp Fortune and suffer a terrible break to my right forearm which required surgery and metal plates and screws which still make up my bionic arm.
  • Summer 2003 Heard about a very cool sport called Adventure Racing and decided that it was something I would love to do!!!!
  • Fall 2003 Headed up to Mattawa to volunteer at the RTN Champs excited about learning more about AR and meeting people involved. Noticed a very cute team wearing yellow jerseys that sauntered their way into the CPs I was working at and flashed their gorgeous smiles at me. Why were they soooo far ahead of all the other teams? Who wouldn't have been impressed by this super-cool team?!! I decided at that very moment that AR was for me, and if I wanted to be with the best, I needed to find out who these amazing athletes were!!! :-)
  • Winter 2003-2004 Learned to x-c ski and fell in love with winter in Ottawa
  • Feb '04 2nd in category at Winterlude triathlon. My first multi-sport race!!!
  • Spring 2004 Bought my first bike since I was 12 years old. Suffered my first crash by falling over in my living room while trying to learn about unclipping my feet from the pedals.
  • June 6 - Outlast 2nd overall on 6 hour course. 1st in category
  • June 12 Crash off bike leaves me with a broken right collarbone
  • July 17 '04 1st in category and 7th overall at Raid Pulse 12hr race
  • August: Raid International ECO. 3 days, 4 stages.
  • Late August '04. Asked by an amazing team to come and race with them at the SAC champs in Calabogie. Wow, they had nice smiles...I think I'd seen them somewhere before....?