Well…the week­end started off promis­ing enough…seasonally warm & sunny, unlike the past…oh….6 weeks!!! Even the pre-run car shut­tle in Deep Cove had every­one ready for a warm & sunny train­ing run. Unfor­tu­nately, once we arrived at the start of our run….Cypress Mountain’s cross coun­try ski area…there was a heavy mist falling from the sky. This has got to be the wettest train­ing year on record! Although the sky didn’t com­pletely let loose, the driz­zle was enough to send a few of the early arrivals on their way. The remain­ing 45 run­ners waited a few more min­utes for direc­tions & tips & were off…..off to Deep Cove.

The rain didn’t last all that long, & the tem­per­a­tures were actu­ally very com­fort­able. We made our way down the Holly­burn Chute & into Cleve­land Dam within an hour & it seemed that the group was moving at a very com­fort­able pace….Nancy Greene Way looked eerily sim­i­lar to race day as a long line of run­ners made their way up towards the trail.

I man­aged to hang out with August for quite awhile & we chat­ted about var­i­ous adven­ture runs on the West Coast & in Europe…eventually I had to let him go as I felt that I needed to slow down & he sped up. Although he won’t be racing the Knee Knacker this year, you should keep an eye on this sea­soned veteran…his climb­ing abil­ity is almost effortless…as his sub-6 hour PR proves.

Race day is very dif­fer­ent from a train­ing run in many ways. Today, I had the luxury (or excuse) of stop­ping & chat­ting with a vari­ety of people that were also on the trail. Some of you may have seen a fellow in a green jersey run­ning the oppo­site direc­tion on the Fromme sec­tion of the trail….it was 10 time fin­isher Rick Arikado. We caught up for a few minutes….turns out he was in the middle of one of his train­ing staples….what he calls the “Two Bridge Run”. He starts at home in Kits, runs over 2^nd Nar­rows, then up to LSCR & onto the Baden Powell, where he pops out at Grouse, & then over Lions Gate bridge via the Capi­lano Pacific.to home.

I turned back towards Deep Cove & plod­ded along…admittedly some­what slug­gish still….not sure why, but August seemed to think it was rem­nants of the Juan de Fuca trail 2 weeks prior. I’m not sure what it is, but I found it ironic that I had men­tioned the impor­tance of recov­ery in my last post. A group gath­ered as we made our way through Lynn Creek & even­tu­ally up the Sey­mour Grind. The sun had started to show itself & life on the trail was good. Although that last climb is a bit of a brute, I take some solace in know­ing that there is a great down­hill towards the finish (despite those nasty climbs in the last 2 1/2km). As I closed in on the final 10 min­utes of the course, I saw Sue head­ing back out….”just going back to Grouse”, she said. !!!! Another Fat Dog 100 hope­ful in mid-training.

No sooner had I made into Panorama Park among many others of our group, than 1^st time hope­ful Chris­t­ian fin­ished as well. We rested for a short while & chat­ted with the group, before head­ing back out to retrieve his car. I man­aged to make it home in time to get ready for a birth­day party for twenty-four 13 year olds….if the run­ning doesn’t kill me, it’ll be some­thing else!

I’d like to throw out a spe­cial thanks to all for coop­er­at­ing in making the car shut­tles pos­si­ble. We wouldn’t be able to do this kind of train­ing with­out the coor­di­na­tion of the group.

Rod will be coor­di­nat­ing next 2 week’s train­ing run as I am involved in the 24 Hour Relay this week, & the fol­low­ing week I’ll be enjoy­ing the 34 degree heat of Squaw Valley as I have the honor of pacing a friend at the West­ern States 100.

Have fun!

Glenn Pace