Lisa Bentley's Blog entry from 12/31/09

I am an Olympic Torchbearer

Yes, it is official – I am an Olympic Torchbearer. It was quite an experience. If I were to describe it in a few words, I would say “family and friends and team” – that was what made this experience so special. I was so proud to be able to share this opportunity with so many people – Dave, mom and dad, sister Teresa and Luanne and hubby Mike and their friends, Dave’s family – Sue, Ray, Brittany and Braedan, our friends Bob, Karen and Ashley Rose, Don McCormick – my Muskoka family and then neighbors on our street. It was a ‘village celebration’.

My team, well that was the Clean Air Champions – CAC – a group of Olympic, Para-Olympic and National Team athletes who are all ambassadors for our environment. We were the biggest team to carry the Torch on the relay so far. We ran together for 1 km – and we each had our moment with the Torch for about 50-100 m. I kept teasing my teammates that we likely had the highest VO2 max and Anaerobic Threshold of any group so far to carry the Torch! We should have just kept on carrying it from Muskoka to the day’s final destination in North Bay.

Oh yes, and the very fact that I got to carry the Torch in Muskoka was so sentimental for me. I have raced triathlon in Muskoka since either 1990 or 1991. I have raced the National Champs, the World Champs, the regular Trisport Muskoka event (which was Royal le Page, Teleglobe, President’s Choice and now the Subaru Series), the Subaru Muskoka Chase and finally the Subaru Muskoka 70.3 event. And that history came full circle with my tiny little trek through Huntsville for 1 km!

And the family and friends part – well that was so special. We all came up the day before and enjoyed a few family hours playing at Deerhurst. My nephew and niece and their Uncle David and Bob and Ashley and I had some fun snow tubing – and my mom was even going to try it – not bad for a 75 year old woman!! We ran out of time so mom will do it next year since our visit to Deerhurst and Muskoka will become a yearly family fun holiday! Enjoy the photos!! Happy New Year!

Sorry about making our Subaru Muskoka 70.3 run up this hill in the race – remember the golf course .. here it is in winter .. perfect for tubing!