Sunday morning I arrived at Lynn Canyon to find nobody waiting by the Baden-Powell trailhead. I thought I had gotten off easy, having gone down to injury in the Royal Victoria 1/2 marathon the weekend before and having been barely able to walk since then. I went and parked figuring I would just go for a hike along the route with my dog Shazam when Mel, a new Club Fat Ass member from Kelowna pulled up beside me.
We discussed the route and decided not to do the full 32 km as she only had 3 hours and with my hip injury we weren't going to be moving very quickly. She did mention how she could always 'cut back' if she was running out of time but that would be somewhat difficult from the top of the Hanes Valley. It was too bad our situations did not allow us to do the whole course because the weather was perfect, clear skies but not too cold for a fall day.
We decided to just the back part of the course Baden-Powell and Varley Trail to Lynn Headwaters and take the trail to Norvan Falls and back on the Cedar's Mill trail.
Mel hadn't done a lot of running in North Vancouver so was happy to see any of the North Shore trails and we headed off on our run at about 8:05.
Shazam pounded through all of the creek crossings on the way out to Norvan Falls, and through all of the muddiest spots he could find of course.
We stopped briefly at the falls, and then headed back. By this point my hips were really tightening up and Mel even noticed how short my stride was getting. She was very gracious to resist the urge to leave me sucking dust as I limped along. By the last few kilometers it was very apparent I was very lucky not to have run the whole thing as it would have taken me all day to get back and I had to work in the afternoon.
We arrived back at the Lynn Canyon parking lot after 2:55. Mel was a great new member to meet and plans to come out in December to Pure Satisfaction so hopefully we'll see more of her around.
