Kenny Gunner said he was tired after finishing first at the Mistissini Mini Fitness Challenge.
The challenge didn’t seem too “mini” to most people as participants lined up to start. They would be swimming half a kilometre, followed by a seven-kilometre bike ride, a canoe portage for 5 kilometres, paddling for another one kilometre and ending with a jaunty five-kilometre run.
Gunner, though slightly out of breath, said, “I feel really, really good about winning.”
Gunner said he has just started training and plans to go on and do the Nemaska Fitness Challenge. He considers the Mistissini Mini Fitness Challenge a good way to start getting ready for Nemaska.
His daughter Patricia came in first in the women’s division. She said she found the Mini Challenge very competitive and would be heading on to Nemaska with her dad.
Kenny and Patricia Gunner weren’t the only ones running as a family. Stanley Neeposh and his son Stephan were also racing.
Stanley was almost overtaken by his son and said it gave him a good feeling to race against his son. No father-son issues there, but when asked if he deliberately didn’t teach his son all the tricks of paddling a canoe, Stanley replied, “Yep,” with a laugh.
His son also said it felt good to compete against his dad and he would hopefully beat him next year. He joked he would get his grandfather to teach how to paddle. He would be trying out Nemaska also.
