Training Run – May 17

Grouse Mountain to Mountain Hwy up to Grouse, 18+ km

“Make sure you bring an extra layer with you as the temperature can vary between 6 to 10 degrees colder at the top of the mountain”… my words of caution on what started out as a high-cloud morning at the Grouse Mountain parking lot. It seems that every year that we run this particular route a few are surprised at the temperature variation from the parking lot to the top of Grouse … especially on the upper reaches of Mountain Highway as we wind through the walls of remnant winter snow. Considering the fact that we had some fresh snowfall only a couple days prior, I didn’t think my words of warning would be much of a surprise.

What was a real surprise, however, was the fact that the clouds burned off, the temps went up, and the snow as a temptation to cool the legs after almost 2 ½ hours of climbing.

Having done this training runs more times than I care to remember, I knew that the best strategy was to sidle up to one of the 65 runners that showed up for this training session & wile away the time story-telling. When I saw Mike and Rob in the group I knew that there would be high entertainment value … you often hear Craig and I ask you to pair up as you run … mostly it’s to keep people from getting lost or forgotten, but, the real benefit is the camaraderie that makes this the core of our running community. Mike had attempted to run a brutal 300 mile race in the Yukon last February and Rob had trained with him extensively. Listening to their stories from the previous year made the miles fly by and in a weird way it made the Knee Knacker seem almost normal. Almost.

When we reached the top of the mountain many took the time to soak up the sun and relax on a pad of grass. A few opted to take the tram down, and a few took to running down the BCMC trail. Despite the snow in the first section, the trail was relatively dry and we only encountered a handful of people heading upward. Before long, I was back at my car at the mountain base and wondering what on earth had possessed me to run that entire thing with a windbreaker tied around my waist??!! Of course, next year will be different.

IMPORTANT CHANGE TO THE TRAINING SCHEDULE:

Because of a conflict with another event, we are switching the next two training runs as follows:

Glenn Pace