Rod was injured. Gilles was in Quebec enjoy­ing true summer weather. Glenn had the oppor­tu­nity to run 50K on the Juan de Fuca trail on Van­cou­ver Island, but was going to miss it because he takes his com­mit­ments to you seri­ously. Given that I planned to drop in for my first Knee Knacker train­ing run anyway (assum­ing the weather coop­er­ated), I vol­un­teered to cover for Glenn and prayed that it wouldn’t rain.

Here’s a brief sum­mary of how things went from a pinch-hitting run leader:

Sat­ur­day: Late after­noon brief­ing by Glenn, com­plete with writ­ten instruc­tions and a bottle of wine. I update Face­book to encour­age friends to come out. Call from Glenn as noted by Kelsy, “Depar­ture is 7:30, not 7:00.” Oops. I blame the wine.

Sunday:

6:45 – Look­ing like rain. Accepted the wine, so have to suck-it-up, but­ter­cup. Sibylle drives me to Capi­lano Sus­pen­sion Bridge.

7:15 – Cool, misty with black clouds over Lynn Canyon. Many famil­iar faces. I share the plan for a 3–5 hour “roll your own” run and how to sync-up car pool­ing. We decamp for Cleve­land Dam at 7:35. Thanks again, Sibylle!

8:00 – About 40 run­ners assem­ble. Review that we’re shar­ing the trail with the Iron Knee race and that even I can’t get lost on the trail to Norvan Falls. Some opt to go to Deep Cove on Baden Powell anyway. I fall in with a friendly group of KneeK­nacker new­bies out for about 4 hours.

9:00 – We get our pic­tures taken by KneeK­nacker pho­tog­ra­phers and con­firm there’s nobody behind us. Shortly there­after, we come across a woman in the race who has either broken or sprained her ankle. Two of the faster run­ners in our group have stopped to help carry her off the trail. Good on you guys! Sorry I didn’t get your names as you deserve a big “Thank you!” for sac­ri­fic­ing your run to help some­one in need

9:30 – Car­olyn tells me she’s lost a pal some­where on the BP. Machray chugs down the trail en route to Deep Cove (and back) and takes some of our group with him. About 10 of us head up towards Norvan Falls. A hand­ful keep going to the Haines Valley cross­ing for the first time. Saw a bunch of log­ging camp relics and chat­ted about lost trea­sures. We find Carolyn’s friend.

12:00 – Bounce a few tourists as we run across the Lynn Canyon sus­pen­sion bridge. Meet up with faster group in the now-sunny park­ing lot and score a ride home. Funny how the car-pooling always works out, eh?

All accounted for. No known boo-boos. Some muddy shoes and wet feet. The run was almost exactly 4 hours for our 7–8 hour pace group.

“Rain, No Train” Jackson

P.S. Nice to meet all of you KneeK­nacker vir­gins. You inspired me. Thank you!

P.P.S. Karen Chow has pic­tures here, Howard Ryujin has pic­tures here, David McKie has pic­tures here.