Sam Van Schie
Special to the Rossland News
The La Fonds may never have raced an outhouse before, but that didn't stop them from walking away with the coveted toilet seat trophy at this year's Golden City Days.
Competing against two returning teams in the second annual Outhouse Race, the La Fonds (aka Team Sh*t Disturbers) beat out Team Retired Firefighters and the defending champions, Team Firefighters.
Trinda La Fond credits solid teamwork and a good set of outhouse wheels for her family's first place finish.
"We built our outhouse this morning at 9 a.m. using whatever scrap materials we could find in the garage," Trinda explained. "We definitely weren't expecting to win. We just entered because we wanted to show our community spirit."
Outhouse Race teams were made up of five competitors — four pushing the structure and one riding inside it. Together they had to push their outhouse 100 feet, then run three circles around it and trade positions, then push the unit another 100 feet and run to a plunger and stack roles of toilet paper.
Teams raced in pairs through three rounds, and each event was timed. The team with the fastest combined time was declared winner.
Team Firefighters and Team Retired Firefighters came into the competition as rivals. When the two went head-to-head in Round 1, they seemed more interested in slowing down their opponent than getting a good time for themselves.
This proved advantageous for Team Sh*t Disturbers, who were just focused on having a clean run through the course.
"As a family, we know how to work together and get the job done," Trinda said.
The La Fonds also had a float in the Golden City Days parade, a display table at the fall fair and shared their newborn baby chicks at the petting zoo.
