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Grouse Mountain to Mountain Highway Return, 14 Km
We had a very large turnout (36) for our first training run of the Knee Knacker season with only one person admitting to not having run this section of trail before. It seems to me that more people have experience on the trails than ever before and more than ever we have a growing number of people wanting to join us for the training runs. That’s a good sign and everyone is welcome, of course. Just be sure to please sign our waivers if you are not entered in the race. In fact we had 10 people today that are in that category and I’m sure we’ll have more next time. Once you sign the waiver you’re good for all the training runs up to race day. There were lots of familiar faces for me and it was also nice to have our Race Director, Kelsy Trigg, out for the first run. Glenn Pacé joined me as our other official leader. He’ll be helping with training runs and performing as race day trail coordinator. That means we point fingers at Glenn if we go off course at any time during the race … but we also give him a huge thanks when we make it to the end on July 9 on what will likely be a very well marked route with lots of marshals and sweepers to keep us safe. Something of note to everyone, although there has been a fair bit of trail maintenance on the Baden Powell over the years there has also been a lot of trail degradation. I am noticing more and more spots where the trail is worn away and in need of maintenance. A section we took care of only about 4 years ago near Skyline Road has just had a bunch of work done on it again. I’m hoping many of you will give us a hand on May 28 for our annual trail work party. Learn more about this on the web site at http://www.kneeknacker.com/RaceInfo/2005/WorkParty.htm For the experienced Knee Knacker types, you’ll find some sections are in better shape than ever and some will keep you on your toes when you least expect it. In fact, I saw the spoils of veterans and newbies today testing out this fact, me included I’m afraid to say. The best part is no one was around to discover my misstep ;-) and it was a good four pointer too! That’s twice in a about a month I’ve taken a good tumble but fortunately only have one set of scars to show; this one was not so bad. On that note, I had a question from someone regarding a twisted ankle today. His query was basically, “how do I know when to stop if I twist my ankle on the trail?” There are lots of ways to look at this but I will always leave it up to people to make this decision on their own. Although you can keep running, you can also cause more damage if you push it too hard. The most important thing is to get attention to the problem early and heed the advice of a professional. You can seek the services of a personal trainer like Curb Ivanic of Ultra Fitness (www.ultrafitness.net - he’s one of our sponsors this year) and I also highly recommend a series of visits with a physiotherapist. Once the damage is caused, it takes a great deal of understanding and effort to remedy. An accurate diagnosis is crucial and proper strengthening of muscles is imperative. With our relatively large group today came a wide variety of speeds and finishing times. Bill Dagg was tearing up the course as usual … I’m looking for him to set another PR this year for sure (under 6 hours this time Bill?). Glenn, sister Melissa and their group seemed happy at a modest pace and everyone had smiles as they were enjoying the very nice cool and dry weather. John M. decided to take a few of us on a short detour in a spot that gives us trouble occasionally … please keep in mind you want to watch for the orange BP triangles on the trees to stay on course. Please be sure to show up early for our next run. We will meet at Grouse Mountain again and I’ll be doing a bit more of a speech to give some advice, find out more about you and answer questions. We could have as many as 70 people so plan to be extra aware of the other trail users as we move en masse to Lynn Canyon and back. Meeting time is again 8:00 am. Craig Moore
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