Training Run – May 10

Grouse to Lynn Canyon Return, 20 Km

We had another big turnout on Sunday and more excellent weather. Over 80 people showed up ready to do battle with the trail and themselves. We had four of our organizing committee members there: Kelsy, Glenn, Rod, (and me). And special thanks to Peter Watson and Jenn Mar from North Shore Athletics for being on hand, er, foot. I’m sure they were helping to keep people pointed in the right direction and safe as they are both experienced run leaders and know the trail well. And thanks for the other experienced members of their group for attending as well, Nicola and Tom.

North Shore Athletics is an important Partner for the Knee Knacker and have been with us for many years. They help us in many ways all year long and not just on race day. And of course they have runners – lots of runners. Including the ones from our new sponsor, Brooks. I’m trying out the Brooks Cascadia for the first time and so far so good. They are nice and light and seem pretty tough even for our gnarly trails.

It’s been nice to have a wide variety of people coming out to the runs. For those that are not entered in the race this year we have waivers that need to be signed. This only needs to be done once for the season. Thanks for doing that and helping to keep our butts less liable. Of course that doesn’t mean we don’t care about your safety. It just means, well, you know what it means. But what has real meaning is everyone staying in groups and watching out for one another. I didn’t think I was going to actually say that again so soon but with our huge turnouts for the training runs it is becoming harder and harder to keep track of people. I’m sincerely asking each of you to participate in keeping our runs happy and safe. For those of you that haven’t experienced the glory of the course before, you’ll begin to understand how remote some of the areas are soon enough. It’s extremely easy to get lost and injured. We don’t have aid stations and attendants to watch out for us like we do on race day. So it’s up to each of us to be aware of the people in our groups and around us as we are running.

As for the run on Sunday, we all headed off to Lynn Canyon from Grouse Mountain. Most people turned around at the Rice Lake parking area and quite a few went all the way to the Suspension Bridge. I for one am thankful for the outhouses at the parking area near to the Learning Lodge. And I’m also glad they fixed the locks

Hey did I mention yet that we need more VOLUNTEERS for race day? Yes we do. LOTS MORE. You can check out the many duties to be filled here. To sign up now go to the Feedback Form. Our volunteers are super important as you can imagine. And it will be so easy to have everyone we need if you all find just one person to help us on race day. We must get more than 200 people and if you all have one family member or friend come along to help then all will be good. If not, you might find yourselves wandering for miles and miles without aid or perhaps not having your time recorded for future glory.

I’ve got lots more to say but I’ll just add a couple more things and save the rest for another report. The next run is one of the few times we divert from the BP Trail. We go from Grouse to Grouse, bottom to top, but the long way. Most importantly, bring extra clothing, gloves, hats, jackets, tights, etc. Whatever you think you might need because at this time of year it is always much cooler up on top of the mountain than down below. And bring cash if you want food at the top or want to take the Skyride down.

Lastly, thanks to Kelly and her group and a few others for keeping me company at the end of the run on Sunday. I thought I was going to be alone but, apparently there were bunches of you that got off course and kept appearing around me at the most unexpected times. I’m good with that. But imagine, getting lost on the BP. Hmmmm.