At 7 a.m. sharp on Wednesday, dozens of Expedition Canada competitors ran through the start line at Rotary Park and jumped into the cooler waters of Okanagan Lake in Penticton for the beginning of a gruelling 403 kilometres race.
Teams will endure four days of running, paddling, rappelling and biking through Penticton to Big White and back.
The course wasn’t revealed to the teams until they arrived Wednesday morning.
From swimming 1 km to running some of the best trail systems in the Okanagan to mountain biking single and quad trails and paddling and rappelling, the four-day course will be finished by most in two and a half days, said Expedition Canada.
Teams will be carrying tracking devices and there will be live tracking for friends and family to follow as well as daily pictures and videos posted during the race.
The idea to bring an expedition race to Penticton was born years ago when Hoodoo Adventure’s event coordinator and race director Nathalie Long moved back to Canada from Australia where she started expedition racing. In 2017, she saw the potential to host the race in one of the most amazing environments that exist for racing in Canada.
You can track teams in real time by clicking here.
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