Blogs

Submitted by Carlos Castillo on 9 June, 2012 - 20:37.

What a day we had,
I had forgotten how hard it is to push on those trails!

Some of the first 4K are super fine slight down hills,wide forest access kind of trails, but the rest...

Not so much.

I would like to see the elevation gain of that sucker, kind of like the JDFT younger sister.

The views are good to excellent.

Delightful!



See you next year.

Jackal

I talked to a few people who consider coming out for one or both of the Boot Camps.

Please make sure to register, so I have an idea how many people to expect.

Have a great workout and help me raise some funds for North Shore Rescue in the process.

Check out all the details here:

Monday June 4

Heading out from Cleveland Dam with the Kneeknacker training group, I hadn't planned on ending up on top of Hollyburn Mountain. As usual I started off too big for my britches and not long after all those wretched stairs up through the British Properties were behind us, I slowly but surely got dropped by the group I had been running with.

My adventurous friend Michelle and I decided to give the Spartan race a try since it was coming to town. I used to joke triathlon was just a "whose the best exerciser?" competition.  This is even more true of obstacle racing... And since I spend most of my time exercising in some form or another, I liked my odds of finishing. The race started with a ceremonial flame jump and then burst up a short hill. Next you climbed under barb wire and crawled under a tarp.

Dear trail runners,

Firstly,I hope your season of training and racing is going well, and that no nagging
injuries are preventing you from joy of the trails.

Secondly,I am announcing that a second harvest of spaghetti will take place on  the 9th.June,
This Flash event is mainly for locals, but if there is interest from the Mainland,I am proposing:

Saturday, 9th. June 2012  at noon
(mid-day start allows ferry-takers time to get here and back again)
East Sooke Regional Park near Victoria, BC

If you haven't already made plans for this Saturday, come on down to B'ham for the 3rd annual Chuckanut Calf Cramper! It promises to be a blast with a forecast of mixed sun and clouds and cold beer at the finish! The course this year will include screaming down the new Raptor Ridge connector trail. I know some of you are signed up for Dan Probst's 10 miler the following weekend, so you're excused from this one. But I'd love to see everyone else!

Genissa and Sivo, the Weimaraner

After having the long weekend cut short by rain what better way to celebrate the holiday that a bit of peak and bagging and I had never been to Fromme so where better to start.

The route.

1. Parked at the junction of Dempsey / Bramear.

2. Dempsey Trail to St Mary's to St Georges to Per Gynt.

3.  It was really raining alot by the time we got the mountain highway.

4.  Found the quarry and took Bills trail from the North East corner (green piece of flagging tape)

Late yesterday I finalized plans to run the Burnaby sections of the TCT with Pat.  Even later, Action Jackson emerged from his home improvement projects and wondered if he could tag along.  

Fast forward to 4:00 am this morning. Rain is falling hard outside the bedroom window.  A drowsy RainNoTrain Jackson mumbles that he is bailing since it's raining. Suck it up, buttercup.  I rolled out of bed shortly after 5:00am.  The rain had abated somewhat and I snug into the kitchen for some early morning me time and a cup of coffee.  I was surprised to see Action slink into the kitchen in time for the run.  We finalized our plans and agreed that he would run the same section Pat and I had planned, but continue until we'd pick him up.

We met Pat in Burnaby and continued to the Burnaby-Port Moody town border to drop one car off on Suncor Drive where the TCT crosses the Barnett Highway and continues north of it towards Port Moody.  We left our dry gear for the end of the run in the car and drove back west to New Brighton Park, the start of today's run.  The logistics of running the TCT are a tad convoluted, but with three people in the car, we made it worthwhile.

Fleeing some home improvement projects involving sweat, dust and noise, Wendy and I tackled the Port Coquitlam sections of the TCT Social Club yesterday afternoon.

We dropped one car off at Coast Meridian Road and Patricia at the eastern end of our planned run and drove back to our start at the Port Moody Rec Centre.    I had no idea what to expect as I didn't have time to plan the route or even just look at the map.  I don't usually let the planning up to somebody else, as I like to know what to expect.  So, in Wendy I trusted as we set out through the Port Moody town centre following the TCT markers.  I had told Wendy that I didn't want to get more than 14km or so in and her route was supposed to be pretty much that length.

Wendy is a faster runner than I am in the best of days, but after a morning of bustling around the house, prepping dinner and helping with above mentioned home improvement project, I already felt pooped before we even started.  Poor Wendy had to deal with my huffing and puffing and we finally decided that my troubles were asthma related (I think I am just not in good running shape).  The sun was beating down on us, no, I am not complaining, but after a week of sunny skies and brisk temperatures, yesterdays heat came as a bit of a surprise.  

The route, unlike the sections I have run so far, was extremely well marked.  We lost the trail briefly only once.  After leaving the town centre, we were running along busy and noisy Guildford Road and I resigned to that fact that this would not be the most scenic part of the TCT...especially since Wendy had warned me about lots of road running.  Soon however, we veered left onto a well groomed gravel trail, gently undulating through a forested park.  I later looked up on the map that this section was called Holy Creek Trail.  Eventually and after passing a huge recreational complex we found ourselves running along the Coquitlam River.  Again, the trail was beautifully maintained and very runable.  The last section found us on the Trabouley Trail in Port Coquitlam, a trail that circles the city.