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First 3/4's, 36 Km
Well here we are, June 18th and the 8th training run of the scheduled 11 training runs. Normally I would have felt somewhat nervous, cautious and perhaps even concerned like a parent but then what's 4000 feet, a bit of snow and a somewhat of a different race course......nothing to worry about! Hoping that my brief pre training run speech made sense, we all scrambled for the dreaded car pool and our rides.....the most stressful part of the day! Conditions were actually great as the rain didn't happen and the sun stayed away long enough to make the run quite enjoyable. Our group of 50 or so runners took off from our new official run start, all keen on Black Mountain and the snow that awaited. Although I managed to rescue two people within 10 min trying to take a different trail, I was confident in our directions and markings for the day. One thing I would like to remind people of is that we discourage bringing dogs out on our training runs. It can get pretty crowded on the single track trails and getting tangled up and tripping on a pooch is very easy. Francine's head is still sore after a flying stick meant for a dog clunked her on the back of her head...ouch! So far, the reviews for the new start have been great, not sure if everyone felt the same about Black Mountain and the snow. Just think, you only have to run Black two more times....race day included of course. The view wasn't very good at the top but I'm sure it will be better this weekend. For those of you concerned or wondering, the snow level is dropping. It has dropped significantly from the June 10th weekend and if this nice warm weather keeps up, race day might just have only a few patches but lots of mud! I hope not too many got lost or sidetracked on the trail.....I assure you that the course will be well marked race day. I didn't see too many along the training day but at the end in Lynn Valley most people filtered in and seemed to enjoy the training run. Remember that now is the time to experiment with those gels and food intake.... figure out that Gatorade mixture and see what works for you in preparation for race day. My personal choice is hamburgers and milk....(don't attempt this without supervision, its taken me years to perfect this diet). I hope that everyone's training day was a successful one and that you are on schedule for a great Knee Knacker race in two weeks! See you this weekend.
Rod Hatfull
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