2009 - Year 8 - Capilano Midsummer Night Run

15 August 2009 - 32 participants

It's a lazy Sunday morning in August.  The 8th annual Capilano Night Run ended a few hours ago.  The co-host of the event tasked me with summarizing the evening before I can play, so here I sit in the hammock eating some delicious brownies left over from the party trying to think what to write...

Since this event is intended to focus on the party, I'll start there.

It was 10:15 pm on a beautiful summer evening.  I was the last person to finish the run.  It was really nice to be welcomed by a crowd as I crossed the chalk finish line in front of my driveway.  There were many "Congrats!" and high-5s as I made my way to the showers:  our garden hose.  I was starving and ready for that cool beer I'd been visualizing for the second half of the run.

Happy runners, crew members and other friends were packed shoulder to shoulder inside the house.  To me, the highlight of the evening is the potluck party.  So much food!  You never know what to expect at a potluck party, but what I've noted over the years is that Club members and friends put a lot of love into this one.  Many of the dishes are home-baked.  Others emphasized seasonal goodies from local farms or were creative ethnic finger foods.  A sample from this year's buffet:  fresh Chilliwack corn, homemade spicy samosas, vegetarian pot stickers, fresh fruit crumble, rich chocolate pavlova... the table groaned under all of the goodies.

It was nice to see a good number of non-running friends and significant others at the "finisher party".  Maybe they were curious about the freak show?  (What do you mean, normal folks don't run for a couple of hours on trails in the dark before a garden party?)  Maybe they wanted to see some newly-minted STORMY 100-mile finisher buckles?

With many thanks to Kintec and Trail Runner Magazine, I was able to pass along a few recognition awards.  At 14 years old, Bryce was recognized as the youngest person to have completed the course.  "Homeless" Heather (Montreal) and Reg (Chilliwack) were recognized for having traveled the farthest to participate in the event, while honorable mention went to Carlos the Jackal (Victoria), who traveled all that way but missed the start. Fortunately, a Purple Heart was not awarded as no blood was drawn on the course, however, Baldwin gets mention for getting scrambled after hitting the ground hard a few times. "Creampuff" Doug, who loves his pale ales, came away with a nice set of beer glasses for participating in almost all of the 15 Capilano Canyon Night runs to date.  Finally, Ryan and Patricia were recognized for being the most lost, though I should point out that my sweep group of 3 grew to about 10 by the time we finished!

Jess and Bill shared their video of the 135K Canadian Death Race in the living room as other guests dissected their results at STORMY, discussed the Bagger Challenge or strategized about the Cascade Crest 100-miler next to the food.  Thankfully, John was tired so the chili-eating contest was postponed till another day.

Getting back to the run, there was a healthy mix of 12K and 18K runners. The evening was cloudless and fresh:  perfect for running.  While the summer event has always been held on the 3rd Saturday of August, it seemed as though nightfall came later as my sweep group didn't have to spark up the headlamps until we reached Grandpa Capilano.  The usual percentage of competitive runners got lost, but the coyote who almost ate my neighbor's dog the previous evening didn't pick off any stragglers before I found them.  There was one raccoon sighting and one moment of sheer terror on Bowser trail when the mob I was running with startled a skunk.

Many thanks to Ron Adams for sacrificing his run to host Aid Station Adams and a big, fat "Thank you!" to each of you who contributed to making the event a truly memorable one.

Your Co-Hosts
Sibylle and Ean

PS  'Hope to see you out for the winter version of this run.  Note:  Given the Olympics are in town on the 3rd Saturday of February and it might be hard to get around, we're going to postpone to the 3rd Saturday of March.

Lost and Found. Please contact me if you are the owner of a linen bag from Marketplace or if you left your red cooler and freezer bag behind

Photos.  Photos of the evening are posted here. Please add your's to the CFA Flickr group tagged with CapilanoNightrun2009 CapilanoNightRun and ClubFatassEvents. They will automatically be added to the link above.

Times and Points.  If your time is not correct or if you picked up trash and didn't get credit, please be sure to let me know.

Post Event Survey. Please fill out the brief post event survey here. Your event hosts appreciate your feedback.

Results

* Bonus Point for garbage collection
** Event Host Point
*** Bonus Point for good sportsmanship