We’re in Sean “Run Bum” Blanton’s top 5 list. That’s pretty cool. (Thanks, Sean!)

Hello, fellow Knee Knackerers!

We are now days away from the entry dead­line and the March 5^th lot­tery is coming quickly. As we are in full swing with our 24^th run­ning, I’m really excited to announce that we will be adding a new ele­ment to the Knee Knacker that will increase our com­mu­nity impact and legacy.

As a step towards cre­at­ing a “Knee Knacker Foun­da­tion”, this year we will encour­age run­ners to raise money over and above what we already donate to North Shore Search and Rescue. While I hope you’ll be as excited about this pos­si­bil­ity as I am, it’s impor­tant to note that rais­ing funds is com­pletely optional. We will not require any­thing dif­fer­ent from you if you choose not to participate.

For this year, the char­ity will con­tinue to be North Shore Search and Rescue, and for our 25^th year next year, we will deter­mine if we are rais­ing enough funds to expand this to a char­ity that sup­ports kids who can’t afford to get into sports (in addi­tion to North Shore Search and Rescue).

In early March, we will let you know how to set up your own per­sonal dona­tion page so your friends and family can sup­port you and our Knee Knacker com­mu­nity even fur­ther. We will add a little friendly com­pe­ti­tion and for the indi­vid­ual who raises the most money between early March and race day, in addi­tion to brag­ging rights, we will award a GUARANTEED LOTTERY SPOT for 2013!

Yes, really.

This is com­pletely unprece­dented, how­ever, we feel so strongly that as a trail run­ning com­mu­nity, we can have a big impact on people’s lives, and not ‘just’ hold a great event, we decided we would put a cov­eted spot out there. Just think: if each runner raises $300 (an exam­ple of a dollar per mile from 10 people), our com­mu­nity would donate $60,000! How cool would that be!?!

What’s next you ask? Over the coming days, we will final­ize the logis­tics of the dona­tion site. It will include the abil­ity to have tax receipts and to track indi­vid­ual progress. Addi­tion­ally, we will waive the 4-hour vol­un­teer require­ment for any runner that raises $100 or more.

We will hold the lot­tery on March 5^th, and as soon as the dona­tion site is up and run­ning, we will let the suc­cess­ful lot­tery entrants know how to set up their page. If you are a vol­un­teer or non-runner that would also like a dona­tion site, please let me know and we’ll hap­pily set one up for you.

Please don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact me if you have any ques­tions. I hope you’re as excited about this as I am! See you on the trails,

Kelsy Trigg,
Knee Knacker Race Director

Since you’re check­ing out the race site, why not pop over to Adam Campbell’s 2011 race blog? It makes for some mighty fine reading.

With the lot­tery just weeks away, we’re putting the call out for you to share your thoughts and sto­ries as you go through your Knee Knacker season. If you’ve got a blog, video, pod­cast, twit­ter, or what­ever, let us know and we’ll put it up in our Com­mu­nity sec­tion. Of course, if you don’t want to sweat over every phrase in your blog, you can just make a quick post on our Face­book Group page.

Adam Camp­bell, the 2010 Knee Knacker men’s winner, is giving a pre­sen­ta­tion at the Van­cou­ver Inter­na­tional Moun­tain Film Fes­ti­val on Feb­ru­ary 16. For more infor­ma­tion on Adam Camp­bell: An Ultra State of Mind, visit the VIMFF web­site.

We’re excited to announce that this year’s Knee Knacker dona­tion to North Shore Search and Rescue is $4,400. This is the largest amount we’ve ever raised and it includes the pur­chase of almost $400 in pho­tographs from our Smug­Mug site. The vol­un­teers at the North Shore Search and Rescue team do an incred­i­ble job help­ing people in dis­tress so we’d like to thank you, the Knee Knacker com­mu­nity, for your gen­eros­ity and par­tic­i­pa­tion in the race which made the dona­tion possible.

It’s been a month since race day and while things are fairly quiet in the Knee Knacker office, the trail run­ning com­mu­nity con­tin­ues to hum along. So through­out the rest of this year, we’ll post inter­est­ing trail-running news that we find for you. And if you have some­thing of inter­est to share, you can email it to us or post it on our Face­book com­mu­nity page.

The Car­dio­vas­cu­lar Phys­i­ol­ogy and Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Lab at UBC (http://educ.ubc.ca/faculty/warburtoncardio/) needs run­ners to par­tic­i­pate in a 75km trail run on August 20 and 21. This will take place at the Pacific Spirit Park and UBC Endow­ment Lands. There is no entry fee for this race but you must be capa­ble of run­ning the entire race.

The race involves five laps on a pre-set 15km course. Run­ners will be tested at the end of lap 3 for cog­ni­tive and car­dio­vas­cu­lar mea­sures, as well as after the race at three sep­a­rate inter­vals (race finish, 60 min­utes post race, 90 min­utes post race). On course water, sports drinks, gra­nola bars and energy gels will be supplied.

Prior to the race, run­ners will be invited to the lab for a free base­line health and fit­ness assess­ment, includ­ing a VO2max test.

This research may have appli­ca­tions for the health and train­ing prac­tices of ultra-marathon run­ners, and is the first study of its kind. If you are inter­ested but cannot make the August 20/21 week­end, the lab would still like to hear from you.

For more details, con­tact the lab at cprlab@gmail.com or call 604.822.6881.