Run To the Clouds 2012 Results

3 March 2012

Report. Once again the weather gods were watching out for us, I had woken up more than a few times during the night to pelting down rain but by the time 10:00 am rolled around it had stopped, and other than a short sprinkle mid event, the fun stayed relatively dry. The course was by-in-large in great shape… a couple of mucky sections on the west side of Lesser Buntzen Lake loop and 4 or 5" of sloppy snow/muck on the upper part of the course for the keeners that did the full 25 km pull. 

Survey. We'd love to hear from you. Please add you comments below, write a blog post about your run and/or fill out this brief survey to let us know how we did.

Results.

* Garbage Points
** Event Host Points
 

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Run To the Clouds 2011 Results

6 March 2011

Report. Run to the Clouds, 6th year is now behind us.  Once again, someone from up above was looking down on us for great weather. The day was stellar. It was still "brisk" out in the Buntzen Valley, but then this place is known for how cool it is, even in the middle of the summer when it is hot everywhere else in the Lower Mainland. Still it wasn't raining!!  WhooooHooooo.

And the runners showed up!  There was 21 that came to run the challenging 25 km course, and 6 others doing shorter versions.  Note, once started, even the shortest lake loop this year was 13 kms.

Everyone got off OK pretty quick after 10:00 start, hoping onto the Energy Trail, then onto the Lake Detour Trail that took the runners all the way out to the park entrance before turning them North along the West side of Buntzen. After the first gravel road section, jumping into the woods and onto the detour route up "Lake View Trail" was the first order. This is the trail that is roughly half way up the ridge between the normal route (Lake Side Trail) and Diez Vista Trail along the top, although the runners today sure thought in a few spots they were pretty near the top of the ridge. Lake View does a lot of ups and downs and is certainly more challenging than the "normal RTTC route".  However, as Sybylle pointed out, what it DOESN'T do is give you some nice Lake Views as the name promises?  Sorry guys, I didn't name it, just borrowing the trail today.

Once that nasty leg was completed the runners cruised across the North end suspension bridge to an awaiting Aid Station that had whatever you had been dreaming about while running along...  

Next up was the North loop around lesser Buntzen, easy task for those having run this event before, a few left curves for newbies... back across the suspension bridge now completing 2/3rds of the figure 8 around these lakes. One last chance to grab a handful of Gummy Worms, Gatorade, chips, a gel or whatever you craved (all brought in under pedal power I might add), before heading back down the East side trail, back towards home.

Oh, but the fun doesn't stop there. For the keen 25'ers, sadly you get to run right by the finish line, jump onto the Halvor Lynden trail, then climb up the steep and unrelenting Academy Trail, till you pop out on the power line at close to 1000'. A short scamper back down the power line took the runners up to an amazing view point/drop off.  Luckily nothing went wrong up top there (if we don't count Lori's pup Newman, brazenly interupting some couple having a picnic up top, and walking off with a sandwhich)... haha, way to go Newman.  Keep those human's on their toes pal.

From the look out (which overlooks not only Buntzen lake, but Mt Seymour, Vancouver, and views all the way out to the Gulf Islands etc), the runners dropped into Eagle Trail and got to drop elevation for the next 30 min or so, back down Eagle, and Academy.  Finally, they could head for home...

From the end of Academy, they retraced their morning route, back through the overflow parking lot, zig-zagging all the way back to the Gazebo to tag out...  Although the route was "thrown together" with options left open from BC Hydro's closures, pretty much everyone coming in had + or -  less than .3 of a km of 25 ----- but it was pretty unanimous that this route was tougher. (note: some liked that fact others didn't)...  :)

Speedy devil  Matt Sessions took an early lead and stayed out front the entire run, rolling in at 2:36:30.  The trio of Ran Katzman, Dario Herrera, and Mike Palichuk, that ran together the entire time just behind Matt rolled in less than 9 minutes behind him for a smoking fast 2:45 time. Following these rippers was James Clarke and his pup, just sqeeking in under 3 hours.

On the women's side, Angela Cullen Spooner cruised in looking like she could do it all again at 3:49, quickly followed by a big group that included female runners Sara Liljefors, Tammy Blackwell, Lori Clerkson, Carie Moran, all hot on her tail at 3:50. Well done girls ! 

Special shout out to Don Murray who hopped on a plane in Calgary to come down and run today, not wanting to mess up his 6 25 km finishes for 6 events record.  Way to go Don, great to see you too.

A did-not-show at the start and missed was our fearless CFA leader Action Jackson, but he sent his best delegate (and the person that probably runs CFA anyway) Sibylle Tinsel.  Great to see you out enjoying yet the tri cities once again. !  I think Ean took out a couple of others from North Van when he went AWOL, so officially I think he owes me a beer. (long standing bet of me bringing more Tri Cities runners to his New Years Day event than he does North Van Runners to my Tri Cities Event.  Haha...  Maybe next year pal.

The Golden Spike was a little quieter than usual, many people choosing to go enjoy the day rather than rehydrate with some fermented beverages... it's all good. Missed you, again, maybe next year OK.

So, till then, glad you all had a good time.  Thanks for coming out and playing in my back yard.

Cheers,    Pete Stace-Smith     Event Host  Run To The Clouds.  

Ps.  I'll get the finish time excel spreadsheet finished up ASAP here and off to Sibylle for posting.  And try to get some pics loaded up as well....
 

Photos will be posted on the slideshow below. If you like to add yours please add them to your Flickr account, then to the Club Fat Ass Flickr group. Make sure you tag all photos of today with ClubFatAss RunToTheClouds2011 RunToTheClouds ClubFatAssEvents ClubFatAssEvents2011. If you are not interested in Flickr, please send your photos to Sibylle or Pete and we'll post them.

Survey. We'd love to hear from you. Please add you comments below, write a blog post about your run and/or fill out this brief survey to let us know how we did.

Results. 

Run To the Clouds 2010 Results

27 March 2010

Report. Hey Club Fat Assers,  wow, what a great day. 

NO RAIN and 33 runners came out and ran over 700 kms of trails today.

22 of our runners ran the full 25 km route or more  (remember no penalty for running more than the course requires)... and enjoyed the beautiful lake and mountain views. 

There was a couple of few Club Fat Ass members out on their first runs with the club -- congratulations you guys, and hopefully the butt kicker route didn't turn you off coming back out for some other CFA runs   And a new age record broken with Ronald rolling in a full 25 km run in the 70+ age group in under 4 hours. The course record was broken again today with 2 fast guys (Chris and Matt) in a smoking fast 2:06...  Props to Lysanne for a 2:42 fastest female time in, OH YEAH and the CFA pig even went for it's first "cool down swim" after a pretty easy 8 kms.  

Did I mention no rain!  That was sure nice.  Oh yeah, how about a shout-out to our 4 first aiders that rolled around the course on their mountain bikes -- that's why we had no big owees! And another big thanks sent out to Chris L who moto'd up to the 1450' high aid station with about 16 liters of fluid and lots of fun treats to reward the runners that made the huge effort to drag the fat asses all the way up there.

Thanks to my bride Diane who helped out with buying all the goodies you enjoyed, helping with registration etc. As usual, I owe her....  

Hmm, what else... Oh yeah, we thought Ean and Rob were lost but no ---- they were just off exploring. After hearing about an old ghost town off the north end of the course up in Indian Arm, these 2 guys decided to "take a small detour" off course and go check it out. See Ean's pictures and video's..... rad.  Maybe next year that detour and extra mileage may have to become part of the course.

Many of the runners re-grouped at the Golden Spike Pub in Port Moody for post run festivities. Prizes courtesy of Trail Runner Magazine, North Face, Brooks, Debbie Does Fitness, Kintec Footlabs and Norco Bikes were drawn and shared around. Thanks to these guys too.

Hope you all enjoyed the run,  see you next year.  

Cheers everyone !!!

Pete SS (event host, Run to the Clouds).

Photos are  posted on the slideshow below. If you like to add yours please add them to your Flickr account, then to the Club Fat Ass Flickr group. Make sure you tag all photos of today with ClubFatAss RunToTheClouds2010 RunToTheClouds ClubFatAssEvents ClubFatAssEvents2010. If you are not interested in Flickr, please send your photos to Sibylle or Pete and we'll post them.

Survey. We'd love to hear from you. Please add you comments below, write a blog post about your run and/or fill out this brief survey to let us know how we did.

Results.

Runners Name	Distance Completed	Finish Time	Place	Extra notes
Chris Tomkinson	25 km	2:06	Tied 1st Men
Matt Sessions	25 km	2:06	Tied 1st Men
James Clarke	25 km	2:42	3rd place Men	1st male coming in the correct way
Lysanne Lavigne	25 km	2:42	1st place Women
Desmond Mott	25 km	2:49	4th place Men
Wayne Guest	25 km	2:51	5th place Men
Mark MacRae	25 km	3:03	M
Susan MacRae	25 km	3:03	2nd place Women	1st female coming in the correct way
Katie Longworth	25 km	3:08	3rd place Women	Plus 1 point for garbage pick-up
Baldwin Lee	25 km	3:06	M	plus 1 point for garbage pick-up
Jess Dagg	25 km	3:15	F	Plus 1 point for garbage pick-up
Michelle Allen	25 km	3:15	M
Debbie Suzuki	25 km	3:17	F
Jordan Stace-Smith	25 km	3:17	M
Peter van Gaalen	25 km	3:17	M
Carie Moran	25 km	3:29	F
Don Murray	25 km	3:29	M
Gord Lord	25 km	3:29	M
Lori Clerkson	25 km	3:29	F
Steven Lowe	25 km	3:29	M
Tammy Blackwell	25 km	3:29	F
Ronald Ness	26 km	3:55	M	First place in the 70 + age group
Ean Jackson	16 km	1:59	M
Rob Ruft	16 km	2:05	M
Rachel Tanya Fouladi	13.7 km	1:56	F
Janet Bremmer	13 km	1:30	F
Dan Daoust	13 km	1:38	M
Ron Mayne	13 km	1:45	M
Heather Urquhart	13 km	1:54	F
Liza Flemming	13 km	1:54	F
Peggy Brown	13 km	1:57	F
Reagan White	13 km	1:58	M	Plus 1 point for garbage pick-up
Katherine Webb	13 km	2:06	F
The golden pig	9 km	1:58	Hmm, not sure ??	Even went for a swim following the run
Pete Stace-Smith				Plus 2 points for Event Hosting
Diane Stace-Smith				Plus 1 bonus point for crewing
The moto and first aid crew

Run To the Clouds 2009 Results

Photos are  posted on the CFA Flickr page. If you like to add yours please add them to your Flickr account, then to the Club Fat Ass Flickr group. Make sure you tag all photos of today with ClubFatAss, RunToTheClouds2009 and RunToTheClouds. If you are not interested in Flickr, please send your photos to Sibylle or Pete and we'll post them.

Survey. We'd love to hear from you. Please add you comments below, write a blog post about your run and/or fill out this brief survey to let us know how we did.

Report. Thanks goes to the 56 runners that came out in somewhat miserable conditions yesterday for a run in the woods.

Great to see such a turn-out. This is the 4th year that Run to the Clouds has been on, and the numbers keep on growing. Once again I was asked yesterday if there will be a 2010 version, and I'd say if there is this type of interest, the run must go on.

Special thanks to Diane Stace-Smith (my wife) and our friend Ruby Ferguson who came out and help set up the aid station at the North end of the lake - getting all those health food chips, cookies and gummy worms ready for runners wanting a short break. Also thanks to Peter vanGaalen (another CFA runner) who took a few hours off on Friday to come lug water and Gatoraid up the mountain to the high point turn-around so that runners would have a stash to draw on if needed up top. Made my day when someone used the fluids and enjoyed them up there way out in the middle of nowhere.

Great job goes out to all runners that braved the upper 1/2 of the course too, with it raining hard down low and freezing level just above the lake, it was snowing flat out on the upper parts of the course. From what was only a few hundred meters of snow on Friday turned out to be a couple of Km slog. Way to go!!  You are all tough Fat Assers! 

Oh yeah, and speaking of tough... extra props out to Carie, Lori and Sarah for running the full 25 km, then promply turning for the lake and walking right in. I was told later they were in there for a full 10 minutes!  Man, I left after about 1 min as I was cold just watching them. Way to go girls.

Anyway, thanks to all that came out to run, thanks to Ean for talking a lot of runners into signing up from North Van and showing up -- hopefully he got you there once, but you will come back again because of the run -- see you all next year.

Cheers  Pete SS (event host, Run to the Clouds).

Results

Run To the Clouds 2008 Results

12 April 2008 - Starter Photo
32 Starters - 32 Finishers

Photos are posted on the CFA Flickr page. If you like to add yours please add them to your Flickr account, then to the Club Fat Ass Flickr group. Make sure you tag all photos of today with ClubFatAss, RunToTheClouds2008 and RunToTheClouds. If you are not interested in Flickr, please send your photos to Sibylle or Pete and we'll post them.

Run to the Clouds event review

WHAT A GREAT DAY. Blue sky and warm temperatures blessed us at the end of yet another week or two of rain. 31 runners showed up to tackle the tough course and pretty much every single one of them had a big smile on their face at the end too. It was hard not to enjoy a run in the woods when the day was just so great. Thanks to all the runners who came out to play in the woods yesterday. Great to see you there and frankly as an event host, seeing you all having a great time makes it all worth while. With 18 runners completing the full 25 kms and another 13 doing one of the shorter options you all deserve great pats on the back, as this course is not an easy one. Well done!

Brief history here: As I look outside my window the morning after the event and at the rain falling once again, I smile and realize someone up there seems to want me to continue to put this event on. A loooong time back I talked to the good folks at CFA and suggested it would be cool to do a run out in the Tri-Cities area around Eagle Ridge and Buntzen Lake area. Of course they instantly tossed it back in my court but helped me organize my first event. Run to the Clouds was born in 2006. They also asked me for a minimum 3 year commitment on running the event. Since that time we have had 3 course changes (I’d like to think it is getting better) and hopefully I have got a bit smarter on how to do this all… but the fun is still there. Runners are still coming out to support it and it makes my day to see both local and runners from other parts of Vancouver coming out to see and enjoy some of the beautiful trails that we have out here.

I guess we will have to see about a CFA Run to the Clouds…

2007

Photos are posted on the CFA Flickr page. If you like to add yours please add them to your Flickr account, then to the Club Fat Ass Flickr group. Make sure you tag all photos of today with ClubFatAss, RunToTheClouds2007 and RunToTheClouds. If you are not interested in Flickr, please send your photos to Sibylle or Pete and we'll post them.

Post Event Survey - please click here to participate.

Run to the Clouds event review
Well sports-fans, the 2nd annual Run to the Clouds event is now behind us. 28 keen CFA runners started the event yesterday and 14 of them finished the full 25 km challenging course. Some even did more! Whether you did the full course or one of the shorter options, give yourself a big pat on the back, you all did awesome!!!
Sending out thanks:

I’d like to once again thank the following people that made this event possible and better:

• Carie Moran (CFA member) for giving up her run to come out and help with event sign-in and aid station #1 and #2 up at the North Beach.
• Chris Leupold and Greg Skerratt for helping with aid station #3 at the top of Eagle Ridge (Note: these guys moto’d in all the treats and liquid you enjoyed up there).
• Nick Balenzano and Johnny Saunders, our fully trained first aid team that were cruising around on event course on their mountain bikes ready to help out should the need arise.
• Angela Spooner for arranging some fantastic draw prizes including a 60 minute massage from Lea Hartley (thanks to Lee too of course!) and a 30 minute massage session at Hyde Creek Clinic (again thanks to the massage therapists who donated the sessions too). These were both given away at the after-party.
• Marlene Coleman for helping with aid station #1 and #2. and for arranging a fantastic hydrotherapy massage session draw prize (thanks also to Dr Wilbour Kelsick for this fantastic donation).
• North Shore Athletics for donating some cool shirts and waterbottle prize draws.
• Trail Runner Magazine for donating 2 subscriptions that were given out as prize draws.
• Sibylle from CFA for walking me through all the on-line headaches of posting and hosting an event.
• My wife Diane for pedaling her bike down to the after-party late that afternoon to get me and all the gear in my truck home safe…

Highlights and other fun stuff:

As you can imagine, a lot goes on during an event and there is certain things that come to mind afterwards that are always good to share with others. Here is just some of the good, the bad and the ugly:

• How about the first big highlight was that it did NOT RAIN!! Even after the weather man promised 60% chance of showers right up till that morning. Event day was perfect running temperature with high overcast and the occasional blue sky and sunny break.
• No negative points will be awarded to Don Murray and Gord Bell (competing in his first trail run) for running right past an important trail head (clearly marked in the instructions that they were both carrying in their hands at the time) and running almost all the way down to Indian Arm on the access road before figuring out they had gone wrong… Way to go guys! Way to add additional vertical elevation gain to an already hard course!
• Don’t worry Matt, no negative points will be awarded to you for crossing the finish line in a smoking fast 2:08 but then complaining that aid station #3 was not set up when he was there (it was, but he had accidentally eliminated about 3 km from the course, so didn’t complete the full 25 km). Oops… next year OK Matt
• HOWEVER, speaking of Matt, extra props has to be sent out to him for running 22 of the 25 km faster than anyone AFTER running a whopping 80 km run the day before! Yes, Matt was out for a big training run the Saturday before this event and still managed to look fresh and fast on event day! Holy smokes…
• Props goes out to Stephen Lamothe and Karine Lavoie that did a lap of the Buntzen (the short course) with their son Takoda who is not even 4 years old yet. Takoda ran quite a bit of this too! Future competitor to Matt Sessions maybe???
• Extra point awarded to Elizabeth McQuaid, Kelly Vermette, Jessica Watson and Sibylle Tinsel for helping out some poor lost soul and setting them straight again.
• Props out to Pat Matthieu for her first CFA event! Welcome to the gang Pat.
• Props out to Gord Lord who completed his first ever trail run, and did the whole thing. Actually he did more as he was one of the guys that ran right past the trail head and added on extra km’s. Don’t worry Gord, we don’t penalize folks that want to run LONGER than the set event course that day.
• This in from our First Aid team positioned at the 16 km mark on route, way up high on Eagle Ridge. Nick says "three CFA gals arrived and they had pre-planned to turn around at the spot we were at. one asked if we had a cell phone she could borrow, so I let her use mine. She was huffing and puffing, so it sounded really authentic when SHE CALLED IN SICK TO WORK FOR THAT NIGHT. I guess she had no intention of going in after that workout...she was off to the after-party instead. Can't say that I blame her.
• Also from our First Aid Team. I handed out a couple of band aids for chaffed nipples...if it was a woman, I would have been a good first aider and done a thorough inspection...but I had to let it slide since it wasn't.
• Bummer of the day goes to defending course champion Elke Bauer who was looking like she would be the fastest women there once again, till her brain went on autopilot and she turned onto Eagle Trail to run up to last year’s aid station, taking her off course by more than 1 km and allowing Amy MacArthur to slip on by and beat her to the finish line.
• Apparently Buntzen IS above 32 degrees or 0 degrees C as some keen runners didn’t have to break through ice to go for a swim after the run. Now there is a hearty bunch!!! On exiting the water Peter VG stated “it was sooo cold, his privates were “like a button on a fur coat”. Now that is cold !!
• Oh yeah, I had more than a few runners want to know what the chips were that were so tasty… They were “Kettle Brand, Krinkle cut Salt and Fresh ground pepper” chippies. Gourmet, no trans fats, no MSG, and available at Costco. They come in a brown bag.
• The after-party at the Golden Spike Pub was well attended and the Giants game was on. It seemed every time they scored there was $1 beers for us all! The beer was enjoyed (strictly for re-hydration purposes) and there was some fantastic draw prizes awarded to runners present.

Summary:

So, as event host, this is always fun to put on this event. It is my small way of “putting back” to the running community. I believe we will stick with the same route next year as most runners liked the route. (OK, maybe I’ll try to be a bit clearer on some of the directions). Talking to Sibylle, we may move it a little earlier or back into April again for 2008 so we don’t run into conflicts with some other runs later on like what happened this year. So, one final request… if you liked the event please tell your running friends and help me spread the word to get more runners out for 2008. If each of you brought 1 or 2 running friends it could be that much MORE fun.!! If you didn’t like something about the event or would like something changed or improved I would simply ask you to fire me back some feedback. I’ll put all your suggestions and notes into the file and will make next years event all that much better. Click here to send Pete feedback. You will also receive a post event survey and I would appreciate your time to fill this out.

Thanks again for coming out, see you all next year!!

Pete SS

2006

Run day dawned bright and sunny, much needed. Runners seemed to find the rec centre OK and after the usual quick chat rolled out at 10:02 am. Almost immediately a strong front group of 3 opened a gap when they made a light and the rest didn’t. Floating around on course I re-met the runners at the top of the first climb. Within 3 km they had already climbed more than 300 meters or close to a 1000’. There was a few good slam comments tossed my way

but in good CFA spirit, they all continued up the climb even higher. Their efforts were rewarded with fantastic views (as promised) along the top of Eagle Ridge and at the aid station ridge lookout.

The next section of trail down Eagle and Academy seemed to be the highlight for most, and offered a bit of a break from the climbing. Strong Road trail network was the hardest to navigate, but luckily there was a few runners intermixed that knew the way and the great part about this area is, if you get totally screwed up, head downhill on any of the many options and it will get you back on course pretty quick. Lori, one of our runners joked that through this section she used the “eenie meenie, I don’t know�? process to pick her route.

The final homeward stretch rhythm along the inlet was broken only by a nice aid station at the 16 km mark with lots of healthy and unhealthy (but enjoyable) treats. Thanks to Diane and Baldwin for manning this oasis.

The first strong runners came in together all in a smoking fast time of 2:07:26 with a short break to 3 others pretty quick behind. First female finisher rolled in with a 2:38:30 proving all the hill training and trail running she has been doing is turning her into a superwoman. Special additional mentions need to go out to Angela Spooner, Heather Summerville and Sharon Bryson who had just returned from racing the Boston Marathon just 5 short days ago. All three of these inspirational runners showed me they can mix in some CFA fun with some serious marathon racing and still enjoy both. Great job girls!

Shout outs also go to Lorraine Suomi who decided this new run would be “fun�? to do as her first run longer than 10 km in maybe a half a dozen years or more. She finished looking strong and still had a smile on her face so we may see her out for more runs in the future. CFA spirit thanks also goes out to Dan Daoust (local tri-cities runner) who sacrificed a much faster finish time to hang back and ensure a few out of town runners made it through the sometimes confusing trail route and didn’t get lost. And no Dan, although you thought you would be DFL, you weren’t.

Although we were 75 meters from the front door of a beautiful rec centre, most runners enjoyed laying out on the grass at the finish area and soaking in the sun. The only thing that dragged them away was the appealing thought of a cold fermented beverage and some food at the nearby pub. Rickers Red seemed the popular choice of runners, but I think it was consumed strictly for re-hydration purposes…

Because of the generous donations from North Shore Athletics, Norco Performance Bikes and Kinesis, every runner that came to the pup after party went away with some sort of draw prize. Thanks to these supporters for the icing on the cake of a fantastic day.

Also, in thanks mode, I have to send thanks out to the following keeners who made this run more enjoyable for all. First to Chris and Greg, the 2 volunteers who delivered the much enjoyed water, Gatorade, RedBull, fruit and treats in their backpacks on their off road motorcycles way up to a point on the run course that no regular 4 wheel vehicle could get to. Then to Ruby and Diane who helped out at the start line getting everyone checked in and accounted for. Ruby helped right through the day with logistics and Diane manned the oasis aid station on the homeward leg. After Baldwin figured out his couch wasn’t going to be delivered that morning, he was too late to run the event, but at least he came out and helped with an aid station. Way to go buddy, next time look at the date on the delivery notice... haha.

Special huge thanks goes out to Francisco and his crew from TrailSidePhysio who came out on their mountain bikes to support the runners in the event of injury. It was nice that we didn’t need their help, but sure good piece of mind that they were there. What goes around comes around, so if you need some runners specific physio, chiro, massage therapy or any injury relief, give these guys a call (604-432-6319).

And finally… from me as the event organizer… thanks to all you runners that came out to support a brand new event. Without you, the event wouldn’t have happened. I’ve been asked by CFA for a minimum 3 year commitment when putting on an event, so I’m looking forward to seeing you all next spring again for the second Run to the Clouds event. If each of you bring out a friend, we will go for 50 runners in '07 OK?? Look for some slight course changes next year that will add a bit more “singletrack trail�? up top instead of the gravel access road. I have some good ideas already... Also this may change it enough to get it up to a 25 km route… another request from many runners. Anyway THANKS for helping me make this new event fun and successful.

Pete SS

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