Steerability was another issue: some of the beds had a hard time staying on track and it was very prudent for the photographers to get out of the way when these out-of-control vehicles came careening toward the finish area. Some of the racers pushing the beds lost traction and were sliding all over the frozen lake on their rear ends. At certain points I had a hard time taking pictures because I was actually laughing so hard. This wasn't helped by the fact that I was the only reporter on skates documenting this event. But skating is part of the true Winterlude experience and I was definitely experiencing the real thing..... Well, a travel writer's job is never over: I had another event on my schedule - the Fire and Ice Culinary demonstrations at Confederation Park. So much to my chagrin I had to leave the bed race behind and make my way back about 7 km on the Rideau Canal. I found out later that the team from Apollo Property Management had won the fundraising competition, while the International Union of Elevator Constructors - Local 96 was the fastest bed. The best decorated bed was won by the Gordon Group, with Les Suites Hotel a close second.

All in all the bed race was a great event, the teams had fun, the audience saw a great hilarious spectacle, and a good chunk of money was raised for a great cause.