This Saturday about 200 athletes will be taking on some of the toughest, and most beautiful terrain in the valley at the first-ever X- Ultramarathon.

The cross country run, made of four legs totaling 50 kilometres goes Saturday morning  September 21 from the Dinosaur Trail Golf and Country Club. Organizer Darcy Chalifoux of X- Warrior Challenge is excited about the race.

“The run itself, I can’t say there is a more beautiful course in Western Canada, if not Canada,” said Chalifoux. “It is going to be incredible.”

In less than two months, organizers have filled the race. About half the runners are taking on the course as solo runners. The rest are tackling it in teams of two or four.

He says while the event is sold out there is a waitlist that runners can sign up if spaces open up.

“It is an even split which is really nice,” said Chalifoux, adding he expects about 50-60 percent to be staying overnight before the race.

“This is really nice because the goal is to look after our partners as much as possible and fill hotel rooms and having people spend their money in town, so it is very positive to see those numbers,” he said.

“If we pull it off and everyone is happy we will definitely look at making things bigger and better next year.”

It will be a busy weekend, and the centre of the action will be Dinosaur Trail Golf and Country Club. Base camp will be at the overflow parking area of the golf course and the race will start on the site. Participants and spectators will need to park at the Royal Tyrrell Museum and there will be a shuttle to the site.

Racers can set up at base camp on Friday afternoon and there will be a pre-race briefing on Friday evening a 5 p.m. as well as a pasta dinner.

On Saturday Base Camp opens at 7 a.m., and the soloists hit the course at 8 a.m. The relay races start at 8:30 a.m.

The first leg of the race will be a standard loop, while the three remaining loops will be in the tradition of a Barkley Book Loop.

Chalifoux explains this is modeled after the Barkley Marathons where runners tear a page out of a book, that matches your bib number at the midway point to prove their distance.

Runners will have 10 hours to complete the course.

Part of the event is that it hopes to raise some funds for the Drumheller Rotary club to support the work they do in the community. There will be a kids 1K fun run at 1 p.m., and the proceeds of this will go towards the Rotary. They are also hosting a longest drive contest.

“The way the course is set, all the runners leave the base camp through the same path, underneath the highway, and then run right beside the driving range. So we thought it would be cool to sell tickets and run the longest drive contest all day,” he said. “This will include spectators or participants, and when they are running their leg, maybe they can hit the ball a few times.”

Chalifoux invites anyone who wants to support the runners to come out. They can play a round of golf or participate in the long drive challenge and the kitchen will be open while they wait for the runners. Awards are at 2 p.m.

More event information is available at

www.xwarriorchallenge.com

The Drumheller Senior Titans had a busy week, but when the dust cleared they chalked up two victories.

  The Titans were on the road Monday evening, September 9, to take on Canmore. Coach Ken Fournier explains there were some logistical issues. Initially, the game was scheduled as a home game, but the lack of referees prompted them to move it to Canmore for Sunday. According to ASAA Regulations, there are not to be no Sunday games, so it moved to Monday.

When they finally managed to step on to the field the Titans eked out a 14-12 win. A win is a win, but Coach Fournier saw areas that could use improvements.

   “I wasn’t really happy with how we played. I think we missed a few key opportunities,” said Fournier.

      He notes that he had a few novice players on the field, which is great for the team, but their inexperience showed a bit.

“We started the season with 11 guys we knew were returning and we are up to 29. That is a lot of new bodies out there learning to play the game in a hurry,” said Fournier. “It’s great but from a coaching standpoint, it is difficult to get everyone ready to play.”

He said Canmore played well.

  “They look young at the running back spot, and their defense played very well and they were extremely mobile,” he said.

This makes the Titans 2-0 in league play after an earlier victory over Olds.

  On Friday, September 14 they were in Wetaskiwin for exhibition play versus the Tier 3 team. The Titans had to play a strong game and left the field with a 19-6 win.

   “They outsized us in every position, they were big boys,” said Fournier. Our guys played very well. We had a couple of mistakes, but we moved the ball quite well through the air and moved it around the edges, but it was just a really good football game.”

The Titans were able to hold Westaskiwin off the scoreboard until the very last play when Westaskiwin finally scored.

“Defense had a great day out there and again the new guys were contributing getting in on some of the plays,” he said. “When you start seeing a Grade 10 linebacker get sacks in the back fields or tackles for a loss of yards, that’s really good for the future of the season and the program.”

  The Titans have a bye week and then they are back on the road. With only two teams in their league, they are arranging exhibition games to help them improve.

“We are expecting good competition in these games. We are exchanging film and not going into these games blind and not expecting what we see from these guys. We want these teams to give us a good look,” said Fournier.