5Peaks Buntzen Lake Warm Up - Results

30 August 2009:  Starter Photo - 33 Starters

Report: It was a perfect day for a run in the mountains. The morning dawned clear and fresh and the temperatures soon reached the mid twenties.

This was the first Club Fat Ass hosted orientation run for a 5Peaks race.  Response was overwhelming from both run leaders and participants, especially for the short notice runners were given.  Thanks to everybody who made this a success.

Quite a few runners switched their shoes to take advantage of the Salomon shoe demo before heading out on either the 11km Sports- or the 15.5km Enduro course.  Run leaders soon fell into a pace with their respective charges and enjoyed the vistas. With a leader/runner ratio of 1/3 everybody was well taken care off.

After keeping up with the fast dogs for a few meters I soon fell to my spot at the back of the pack to run sweep on the 11km course following the Bunzten Lake trail.  My little group with Claudia, new member Jackie and beginner runner Aida enjoyed the vistas and quite a few times felt compelled to jump into the cool, clear and calm waters of Buntzen Lake.  Aida, who ran the 5km 5Peaks race in Whistler the week prior, is a beginner runner, who has only trained on a treadmill.  Considering her non existent trail experience, she did an outstanding job negotiating the roots and rocks and ups and downs.  She now is motivated to join a clinic to expand her running and learn about pacing ;-) 

When we arrived back at the gazebo, fast boy, Tom, and fast girl, Alison, who had whipped around the lake with the faster groups, were already waiting for us.   Soon, the 15km runners with their leaders Ward, Duncan, Christine and John started to trickle in.  Some were surprised by the challenging terrain, some blown away by the amazing views from the Diez Vistas trail, but all were happy with their accomplishments and ready to tackle the 5Peaks race in 3 weeks.

Photos of the day are posted here.  If you have more photos of this event, please upload them to Flickr, add them to the Club Fat Ass Flickr Group, tag with 5PeaksBuntzenLakeWarmUp2009 5PeaksBunztenLakeWrmUp and ClubFatAssEvents and they will automatically appear in the slideshow and in the Members In Action section on the right.

Survey: Please take a moment to fill out the post event survey.

Note: 5Peaks and Club Fat Ass already are planning training runs for the 2010 5Peaks BC series.  Details will be posted here once dates are set, so stay tuned.

Results: (please note this was an orientation run with an emphasis on staying together and we did not keep times)