The sweeper's function is to "sweep the trail" by collecting flagging, garbage and sometimes the participants during a race. We're there to make sure that no one gets lost and no gets left behind, to adminster first aid and encouragement if requested, (because there's nothing worse than having the sweeper pass you because you're not moving fast enough)
It was with these deep thoughts in mind that I made my way to the Diez Vista #2 shorthaul race at White Pines Beach at Sasamat Lake. Race started at 9:00am which meant I was only 12 minutes away from the start line. Met up with fellow sweeper Diane, got a trail briefing from Penny as well as a first aid kit and an earful on the consequences if I hadn't showed up.
Saw fellow CFA's Karl and Gilles as well as Anna, who made sure to listen to the trail directions. A welcome surprise was to go over the bridge to the park entrance rather than running on the road with a fairly steep climb. (Note: for the CFAs who are registered for DV, you will not be able to shortcut during the actual race, probably) Another change was the finish was going to be at the beach and not at the parking lot after the 88 steps. Again, please see note.
Well the race got underway at 9:00 ish and with me futzing around we didn't start sweeping until 9:18. Yikes, an 18 minute headstart with a fairly strong field was going to be a lot to make up. Good thing we're not racing, huh?
The trail started easy enough, asphalt road down to Camp Howdy, turn left, then right onto fire road. Left again to the fish hatchery and thru muddy singletrack. Our progress was hampered as we had to take down the flagging along the course, some were short tail release, others were knotted onto branches, tree limbs. There was a lot of timber after we were done. Fairly uneventful until we were across the bridge and starting the climb to the Saddle with several switchbacks for variety's sake.
The Upper Diez Vista trail is (as some of you who did the Fluffy Bunny know) a fairly technical trail with some of the most gorgeous views overlooking Indian Arm, Deep Cove, Burrard Inlet. Unfortunately you won't see all 10 views unless you get spectacularly lost. We were the sweepers and we almost got lost more than once until we saw the pink flagging. The trail for the most part was fairly dry with a few wet, muddy, swampy sections. It was a rather tedious experience, walk/run 1 minute, stop and pull down a ribbon and repeat, ever mindful of wet roots, loose rock and steep drops.
The trail gods were with us that day until I slipped on a root and went over on my bad ankle. Ouch. I told Dianne to go ahead as I assessed the damage, nothing for me to do but wait for the sweeper...wait, I am the sweeper. Crap. Took out my ankle brace and laced it up tight on my right foot and just like that, felt soooooo muuuuch better.
Ironically we were only five minutes away from the access road leading to the dam. On relatively flatter ground we took the fire road (Powerhouse) to the suspension bridge, dumped two bags of pink ribbons in the garbage and crossed over. It was a little confusing in this section as the pink flagging somehow diverted off from it's original path and headed up Lakeview trail.
We continued west side of lake, still not seeing any racers but was told we were seven to ten minutes behind by fellow hikers. Made it to Pumphouse Rd and sprinted to the floating bridge. Then came the RD's private little joke as we made our way up Lower Diez Vista, by way of FU George. This climb pretty much robbed me of any desire to catch sight of the last person.
Finally we hit the Saddle and made our way down to the start, our pace was only briefly interrupted when we snagged the flags and made our way to the beach. We were feeling great and predictably that's when the hamstrings started to spasm after that lovely downhill. We crossed the finish line in 5:11:09 so we finished at 2:30pm. There was a small crowd of diehards out there to cheer us on. I was so overcome with emotion that I broke out singing "It's Raining Men" and a medley of Cher hits. Never mind.
Turns out the reason they stuck around was that while all of them were wearing the latest in speed/distance technology tracking heart-rate, elevation, distance and temperature, none of them remembered to change the battery on the shoe pod, except of course the sweeper. Unofficially the distance on my watch said 17.47 mi which is about 27.95 km, however this included the aforementioned Lakeview incident. But I started my timer at the parking lot stop sign, whereas the racers started in the parking lot. So we'll call it 17.47 mi even.
Overall, an unexpectedly long training run, a major confidence booster in terms of able to quickly deal with an injury and still move forward. The nutrition aspect is still ongoing as I only drank GU20 and V-8 but ate no food which likely led to the cramping. Gonna skip running today as unsurprisingly I've caught a cold from Sunday and need to recover before Dirty Duo.
