First ¾’s, 38 Km

Last Sunday’s run was the biggie. It was the peak of our Knee Knacker train­ing runs. I hope that what­ever you were doing over the last few days you feel as though you’ve maxed out your train­ing and you’re feel­ing strong.

We met at Lynn Canyon at 7:30 am with mild dry weather and thank­fully the park­ing lot was open so we didn’t have to bother the neigh­bours. It seemed every­one was anx­ious because they were early or on time and the very last of us rolled out of the park­ing lot by about 7:33. I men­tioned there would be ample park­ing at the enlarged gravel area for the start at Nelson Canyon Park. When we got there how­ever, our 60+ group was a bit too large for all the cars to fit so many were on the road. On race day there will be very little or no road park­ing avail­able. Instead, you’ll be directed to park in a lot down the road a ways in the direc­tion from where you came. Better yet, on race day plan to take the busses from Deep Cove and save the hassle.

I had everyone’s atten­tion while doing the pre-run speech. A show of hands told us there were a very large number of first timers tack­ling the climb up and over Black Moun­tain – almost half the group. I heard later that the snow was low and the trail was fairly easy to find. I reminded the run­ners that, unlike on race day, we didn’t have aid sta­tions or North Shore Rescue close at hand to take care of us. And that through­out all the Knee Knacker related runs there had only been one rescue of a “lost” runner required … yours truly … and that we didn’t need any more of that. I hope they were laugh­ing with me and not at me.

The day was not with­out minor mishaps how­ever. And although I wasn’t able to join the run­ners due to Father’s Day and other com­mit­ments I did think sev­eral times about what was going on in the hills above the North Shore until 3:00 pm or so. I’d had a couple of phone calls from Curb and Bald­win inform­ing me of their where­abouts for var­i­ous rea­sons. It all worked out in the end and I’m sure all of the run­ners were good and tired after that mon­ster train­ing run.

As I right this report on Wednes­day it is finally rain­ing good and hard on the moun­tains. We need it badly. Be very thank­ful of the rain this time around and for now we can hope it con­tin­ues for a few more days. I’m also recov­er­ing from my own long run that I did on Tues­day. It felt great to turn the legs for sev­eral hours around Lynn Valley and Sey­mour Moun­tain. Most of the time was spent run­ning with my friend Donald. I was good and strong the whole way and happy know­ing that my train­ing has paid off. Now it’s time to taper since the big day is only about 2–1/2 weeks away.

This coming Sunday we will meet at Cleve­land Dam at 7:30 am to car­pool again to Nelson Canyon Park. It’s likely that Cleve­land Dam will have the gates closed to park­ing so please find a good safe spot across the way on the side street. There are instruc­tions to the start at Nelson Canyon Park here. Once again, please come well pre­pared and pay atten­tion to the weather. The top of Black Moun­tain can be very much wetter and colder than the bottom. From here on you should be feel­ing strong and get­ting lots of rest. And I’m sure you’re feel­ing even more excited about July 11 as I am too.

Craig Moore

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