By Jacqui Priolo
Athletic Director & Co-Curricular Coordinator

The Challenge the Shield Adventure Run is a wilderness endurance challenge on the rugged Canadian Shield, held each year in Parry Sound, or about a half-hour drive from the RLC campus. Teams of two run or trek to as many of the 36 checkpoint challenges, taking them through some of the most iconic features of the Canadian Shield: iconic windswept pines, pristine lakes and granite rock barrens. The event itself only had a few Under 18 participants, and the organizers were thrilled to see Rosseau Lake College out and ready to tackle the challenge. We heard many people cheering “GO Rosseau” as we made their way around the course.

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Due to not having time to explore the course ahead of the race, the students had to learn as they went. They not only crushed the trail run, but also had the courage to mountain bike on unknown trails, to maneuver over roots and rocks, to grind through mud pits, and even hike their bike through wash out sections.

What was most impressive was the collective NO QUIT attitude. The theme for the year in co-curricular programming is to develop resilience, or as I like to say GRIT. These six students embodied grit on Sunday. They worked themselves to the point of exhaustion and did so with a smile on their faces.

The race kicks off with a mandatory TREK (3.5km) - PADDLE (2km) and trailBIKE (7km). Once participants successfully complete each of the three disciplines they have the remainder of the 6 hour time frame to collect as many points as possible by orienteering to various checkpoints by running, paddling or biking.

Hamish ‘26 and Cooper ‘26 finished the U18 pairs coming in second overall, but more notably they were the only junior team to collect all of the paddle checkpoints. Calum ‘25 and Clement ‘25 came in third, which was outstanding considering Clement ‘26 learned to mountain bike THAT DAY! Calum’s encouragement, and Clement’s courage allowed them to thrive.

Baron ‘25 and Chase ‘25 were paired with Mr. Penner and I respectively. The twins shone with their orienteering skills and incredible endurance and were naturals for an event like this. As an added bonus, we discovered that Ms. Smyth was also doing the race with her friend! We are so excited to return to the race next year with more experience!

There were a lot of moving parts on the morning of the race, though it went smoothly because of our support team! Thank you to Trinity ‘25, the Carmichael’s, Ms. Penner and my dad for helping with gear, setting up our home base, aid station, and providing encouragement all day, not to mention tackling the clean up when everyone was exhausted!

RLC parent Ms. Carmichael spent her birthday supporting our students, and Mr. Carmichael was a pro when it came to gear organization and helping get the students where they needed to be!Also a shout out to Mr. Tobin for biking up the rental bikes for the students, and to Mr. Kerr who jumped in to help us unpack on Sunday night. Thank you to Georgian Nordic, the Challenge the Shield organizers and all of the volunteers who made this incredible opportunity a reality.