Today's Theme : Blood and Guts
It seems as though many of us are feeling pretty good about ourselves now
that we're about half way through the official Knee Knacker 2003
training. And it appears that has brought out the adventurous spirit
in at least a few people. With 37 runners out today and a new route
for this stage of training, we had both spills and thrills. The
weather was mild and overcast.
Our planned route was from Cleveland Dam, up to Brother's Creek Trail
(the west side of the creek), followed by a crossing of the creek on a
bridge, a scenic wind up around Lost Lake and back on to the BP Trail,
then heading up (the normal way) to the Hollyburn ranger station.
From there we were to head down the Cabin Access Trail, to the BP, and
back down the BP to home. Well, apparently this just wasn't good
enough for all but 2 of us. How can that be? And even my
little group decided to take a different bridge across Brother's Creek and
start heading down before Dave and I made an executive decision to turn
around and go back to find the correct bridge. Some headed up the
Brother's Creek Access Road and still others just went up to the Chute and
bypassed Brother's Creek altogether.
Beyond the first stages, Colin and Patricia lead a group up to the
ranger station and then went out to cross the Cypress Mountain road to
take a trail on the other side of the road on up to the bowl. They
returned down (up) the BP and headed back toward the dam. Of course,
that wasn't quite good enough either so they doubled back on part of the
BP/Hollyburn Chute and upon returning to Cleveland Dam they made their way
up to the Grouse Grind. I think they might be still running ...
The more sane people took the curvaceous route to the ranger station
but simply went straight up the BP from there, on to the ski runs replete
with snow. I'd like to add, at this point, that nobody got
"lost" today; we all had terrific adventures and returned to
tell about them. So this group had an "adventure" up the
ski runs, past the BP turnoff and somehow meandered back down to the BP
with a relatively straight return home. They had smiles when they
got back at about 4 hours from start time.
Other's, whom shall not remain anonymous (Jane, Jenny, and Maddie the
faithful pack dog), seemed to wander aimlessly across the face of
Hollyburn Mountain before a valiant return to the parking lot at the
dam. This, they kept telling my group, was both intentional and
invigorating, if not wonderfully scenic.
Now, about today's theme. We've already heard about the
"guts" people had travelling the wilds of Hollyburn on many so
called adventures. But we also had some mishaps that drew a bit of
blood. More than a bit actually. And somehow it was by 3 of our
most experienced and capable runners. It couldn't have been pleasant
for any of them (Colin, August, Carly) but they all were taking it very well
in stride by the time I saw them. Is this part of training?
Lori and I got back to Cleveland Dam from our rather pedestrian 3.75 hour
run, ultimately viewing the interesting and varied cabins on the Cabin
Access Trail (it's like a highway) and chatting up a storm to keep our pace
easy. For the others, the damage had been done, the adventures were
had, and all were returning safely. Most were back by about 4 hours at
which point the rain had just started to fall. A successful morning of
training I'd say. And a bunch of us were also very happy and comparing
notes at Delany's shortly thereafter.
Now for the business at hand. Next weekend is the June
7 Trail Work Party. Please read over the info, with directions,
and contact Andrew Wong if you can
make it. For race day, we are pretty happy with the number of
volunteers we have so far but still have a few spots to fill, mostly with
timers, sweepers, and marshals. I'm your guy for volunteers.
Next week's run is a doozy: Grouse to Old Buck and back. The
nice thing is you can turn around whenever you're ready and do the return
trip - but you wouldn't want to miss out on yet another challenging run
would you? For a truly tiring test, go to Deep Cove and say hi to the
ladies at Honey's before making your way back. I did it last year and
am a better person for the challenge.
I've said so much and used too many big words but it was quite a
day. Nice to have everyone enjoying themselves and not taking life too
seriously out there.
good luck with training and happy trails,
Craig Moore
P.S. As many of you will remember, I attempted a double crossing of
the BP last year in conjunction with the race. To make a long story
short and in lieu of logistical challenges, this type of effort can not be
supported for future Knee Knacker endeavours. Therefore, if you know
of anyone planning to attempt the same on race day please let them know they
will be disqualified as a race competitor and disallowed to enter future
races.