Since the beginning of the pandemic<\/a>, we\u2019ve been writing about how runners should exercise caution around the COVID pandemic. Why? It\u2019s bad for your health. But more importantly, because we need to take responsibility for the health of others.<\/strong> If you want to take your health and stuff it in a garbage bin, that\u2019s your prerogative, but taking someone else\u2019s health and stuffing THAT in a garbage bin, that\u2019s a hard no. We would say \u201cgo kick rocks,\u201d but even strapping a missile to your foot and launching it at light speed to smash your phalanges off of that massive formation<\/a> that randomly exists in the middle of Australia wouldn\u2019t do justice for giving COVID to someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How about just don\u2019t be an asshole? Wear a mask in public spaces and stay home when you\u2019re sick. This is early pandemic stuff folks. We know COVID spreads prior to showing symptoms, and we also know rapid tests are prone to false negatives<\/a>. Plus, even if it\u2019s not COVID, getting other people sick is a shit thing to do. To really drive the point home here, let\u2019s look at a couple stats:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What to do with this information? Pretty easy. Try to get infected as few times as possible, as far apart as possible. AND FOR FLUFF’S SAKE, DON’T PUT OTHERS AT RISK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s been unbelievable to see the number of endurance athletes who pride themselves on being tough but can\u2019t even bring themselves to wear a mask and stay home when sick. Absolutely embarrassing. You run in the ballpark of 100km per week but can\u2019t wear a mask? That\u2019s softer cookies than an Oreo that\u2019s been incubating in a glass of milk for fifteen days. Might as well just take shits wherever you want and stop wearing underwear if caring about public health is a problem for you. It\u2019s too hard to go find a toilet all the time eh? That\u2019s what people who complain about masks sound like to me (we\u2019ll give the Laval boys an exception here \u2013sometimes shit happens #SedonaGate<\/a>). Also, it should be an N95 mask folks. Surgical masks at this point would be like using an abacus to do math instead of a calculator, although even that is better than nothing. Some smart scientists have compiled all of the links at which you can order N95 masks in Canada: maskevidence.org\/findingn95s<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last fall, I had the poor experience of a coach telling me that we could ignore COVID now because it had been “long enough” and that vulnerable people \u201cdon’t do sports anyway,\u201d which might be the worst thing I\u2019ve ever heard, and I’ve listened to scream out music. Caring about the health of others is something you do always<\/strong>. Also, aside from everyone being vulnerable to COVID<\/strong>, it’s not true that vulnerable people do not participate in sports. I know many competitive athletes with diabetes, asthma, or other health conditions that put them at even higher risk, and now we have a vast number of athletes with prior COVID infections that put them at higher risk too. This year there is also LITERALLY AN ENTIRE PANEL<\/a> BEING HELD THE DAY BEFORE U SPORTS ON RED-S. Athletes experiencing this condition are CLEARLY at higher risk. The fact that there probably wasn’t a mask mandate at that panel is real rough. It\u2019s like 60 grit sandpaper<\/a>. 40 even. I hope they at least had N95 masks on hand to distribute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ALRIGHT, this cold open has been harsh. It\u2019s been like a Thunder Bay cold open. An Edmonton cold open even. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I still give people the benefit of the doubt when I see them indoors without a mask. Public health authorities are not communicating the data they publish<\/a>, and peer pressure can be hard. But holy heck, you gotta push through that peer pressure folks. Smarten up! Public health never stopped recommending masks<\/a>, they just stopped requiring them. It shouldn\u2019t have to be mandated for you to care about other people.<\/strong> Also, our mascot has been wearing a mask 24\/7 since 2017! We\u2019ve clarified PHAC’s advice<\/a> below using dogshit computer generated ink, and it’s STILL an improvement. Great work public health (#sarcasm).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, check out our interview<\/a> with friend of the show and long COVID researcher Braeden Charlton. Much cooler guy than us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, sports are way worse if athletes are getting COVID (and long COVID). The professional cycling circuit figured this out. 16 riders<\/a> had to abandon the Giro d’Italia in May due to COVID, while another 8 were reported to abandon due to \u201cillness\/sickness\/flu.\u201d After mask mandates and other COVID protections were reinstated, only 1 rider<\/a> was reported to abandon due to \u201cillness\u201d during the Tour de France, and none abandoned due to COVID. During the Vuelta Espana, just 4 riders<\/a> had to abandon due to illnesses or COVID, while two others, Andrea Bagioli and Sam Gaze, abandoned due to what sounds like long COVID<\/strong>. I am sure similar advantages were observed among team staff. The good thing about masks is that they also prevent other viral infections from spreading among team members. Even before COVID was a thing, it was common for runners to have poor races due to illnesses. A good chunk of those could have been prevented with masking. Think about maintaining the validity of the prediction contests people (sarcasm\u2026 kind of)!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bottom line is, again, whether you want to risk getting COVID or not is up to you (and even this is generous folks, the unnecessary strain on the healthcare system is why we require helmets for motorcyclists and tell people to shut up if they complain). But AT MINIMUM but you shouldn\u2019t be putting others at risk. In a U SPORTS sense, that means:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doing those things is pretty damn easy. We sent an email with these recommendations to every U SPORTS coach at the beginning of September and didn\u2019t get any replies, so they either don\u2019t respect us enough, which is fair, or don\u2019t give a dang about your health, which seems more likely based on the lack of masks we\u2019ve seen from coaches. F. Schools should be making this stuff easy to do by providing masks and guidance<\/strong>, but they aren\u2019t, so we have to do it ourselves. Message us if you want help drafting an email to your athletics director or use our draft<\/a>. This works better if you plan to send a lot of emails at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n P.S. Please see this flowchart<\/a> created by Sports Science Australia which can be used as a guide for return-to-sport protocols if an athlete does get COVID. Coming back too soon increases the risk of long COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHEW. On to the predictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the honour roll we\u2019re gonna lead off with the Windsor Lancers<\/strong> who had a chocolate bar level big<\/a> showing from Janelle Bykowski at the OUA championships, where she finished 9th<\/sup>. They\u2019re pretty solid after that too with tag team Nicole Larue and Samara Quanz, who finished 32nd<\/sup> and 57th<\/sup> last year. A strong showing from those three could put them into the top 10. It really depends on how many Malden Park fumes they\u2019ve been able to suck down\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Alberta Pandas <\/strong> have a full squad of seven this year looking to channel Shrek and go FULL SWAMP MODE (per sources). You can tell they\u2019re confident, they only sent 5 and 2 athletes in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Here\u2019s more from our super secret sources out west:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe team will be led by last year’s All-Canadian finisher Olivia Cooper. As the team’s Pinocchio, we can only assume Cooper\u2019s nose must have sprouted when she claimed she got back to training only two weeks prior to her impressive 16th place finish at the CanWest champs. If that’s the case, we better watch out because last year’s 10th place finisher will only have been building fitness since then. Another seasoned vet leading the squad will be Jasmine Feddema. Much like that of Elizabeth the Dragon, Feddema is a fiery runner and this is her 5th USPORTS which means she definitely won’t be peeing her pants come Sunday. Donkey, a.k.a. Olivia Hopkins has been clutch for the squad this year coming in as their 2nd finisher at conference. And much like the infamous mule, rumor has it this girl gets the aerobic equivalent of an 8km race almost every day talking to her teammates about anything and everything\u2026. Looks like it’s paying off. Zoe Flaman has been a consistent piece for the team this year and was deemed fit to fill the role of Shrek himself in the team’s remake. Flaman hopes to prove to the field It’s all Ogre now this weekend. The newest addition to the team is the rookie powerhouse squad of Julianna Chipuik, Jamie Gladdish, and Ella Heinrich. It appears the trio was assigned the Three Blind Mice which seems fitting considering they blinded the competition by sweeping spots three through five of Canada West’s All-Rookie team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Damn. I\u2019ll definitely be peeing my pants on Sunday to make up for Feddema\u2019s lack of urination. This is the longest segment we\u2019ve ever done for an honny mention. You have to think that\u2019s a good sign that they might be top 10 material. Also, best Shrek character recreation goes to supporting teammate Serena Isley for Lord Farquaad (AKA Connor Lashley, @macboys). This is some elite stuff, and with a full team committed like this it proves the Pandas will be ready. Once that gun goes you off you better get your coffee grinder because they know how to give \u2018em the beans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who else? Nous \u00e9tions tr\u00e8s optimistes \u00e0 les Carabins de Montr\u00e9al \u00e9gard au d\u00e9but de la saison, mais Sherbrooke les a \u00abbrook\u00e9\u00bb au RSEQ. Si Garnier court \u00e0 U SPORTS, cela pourrait \u00eatre un shampoing suffisant pour les faire entrer dans le top 10. On oublie vite qu’Elodie de Coene a \u00e9t\u00e9 m\u00e9chante en 2019, terminant 14e \u00e0 Kingston. Un peu de cette magie des Carabiniers pourrait \u00eatre utile. Oui mes amis, je sais enfin<\/a> ce qu’est un Carbin. La d\u00e9couverte a \u00e9t\u00e9 pour le moins d\u00e9cevante. Je pr\u00e9f\u00e8re imaginer une caravane mais au lieu d’une auto, c’est une poubelle (\u00abbin\u00bb en anglais) avec les roues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, we have the Saskatchewan Huskies<\/strong> who will be relying on a big run from Kaitlyn Harrison to crack the top 10. We said this in the pre-conference update<\/a>, she was fifth at U SPORTS in 2021. Can she do it again? Boxers might throw hands, but Kaitlyn has to throw some feet around out there. Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t look like Jenna McFadyen is hitting the grass this year, so that means Jenica Swartz and Allison Grajczyk-Jelinski need to step to the pitching mound themselves and sling steaming hot feet fastballs (feetballs?) into the strike zone. I wonder if their expert social media graphics person can make some sort of meme out of that. Follow @huskiesendurance<\/a> to check out their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over on the men\u2019s side, we have McGill. <\/strong>Los Pajaros Rojos aren\u2019t sending a full squad this year but we like this Jerome Jacques guy. JJ all day baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nous avons aussi une repr\u00e9sentation de Sherbrooke vert et or<\/strong> ici. Ils sont men\u00e9s par Felix Quirion et Xavier Lemaitre qui ont termin\u00e9 quatri\u00e8me et cinqui\u00e8me au RSEQ. \u00abQuirion\u00bb est assez proche de \u00abQuixote\u00bb pour moi. Il suffit de remplacer 3 des 7 lettres. Cette \u00e9quipe devra se mettre \u00e0 l’heure des moulins \u00e0 vent pour se hisser parmi les dix premiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who else? We have 2 remnants of the elite Dal Wrecking Crew\u2122,<\/strong> Nick Robertson and Aiden Goslett, hanging around out there and idk why, I just imagine these guys making Jacob Benoit really mad all the time. The Tigahs aren\u2019t sending a full squad, but if Nicky Robs and Bossy Glossy Goslett can piss Benoit off enough he might be able to hit up the first team all-Canadian section after placing 11th<\/sup> last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11th<\/sup>? Tough call. We think spots 9-11 are gonna be tight between McMaster, U of T, and Alberta. It really depends on who has done the most glute bridges to make sure the back end holds up. We\u2019re putting the MAC BOYS<\/strong> in this spot for now. The facial hair game just isn\u2019t strong enough and they\u2019re a bunch of noobs. But Connor \u201cwhiplash\u201d Lashley is firing on all cylinders. Like look at any cylinder right now and he\u2019s firing on it. He also looks like Lord Farquaad WITHOUT having to dress up. Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly we\u2019ll quickly shout out the Sask attack<\/strong> because they seem like absolute liabilities. Pretty sure some of the distance guys even did a heptathlon last year because they\u2019re straight up natural athletes. The Fairchilds are definitely hosting BBQ parties on Kaden’s Deck. Love to see it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" *Warning. If you don\u2019t want to risk getting triggered, skip the intro. Maybe you will find it funny though. WHO KNOWS. READ OR DON\u2019T. Super Cold Zero Kelvin Open Alright folks, it\u2019s that time of year again. Let\u2019s cut the pleasantries and get straight to the grease. If you can survive this intro, you could<\/p>\n\n
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