2011 - Year 10 - Spring Mountain Highway Madness

 

It's been 10 years since Curb Ivanic, Mike Wardas, Derrick Johnstone, Ron Adams, Sean Finucane, Jim Swadling and I participated in the first Mountain Highway Madness.  How time flies!

 

The start of the second decade for this event saw 2 new CFA members, Stefan and Emily, out for the first time out with the Club. Curb and I were there to represent the old timers. Despite the knowledge that it was a snow year, several starters showed up at the start in shorts. Two brought their snowshoes. Many brought yaktraks or similar devices and at least one bright light wore gaiters with shin guards. While the sun shone on the treetops at 7:30 am, it was cool and dark at the run start, so we hopped on the spot to stay warm and shared small talk about how a glitch on the registration page saw most starters committing to 5 laps of the roughly 15K course.

 

Conditions for this 10th anniversary running were much as they were a decade ago: clear blue skies, temperatures around the freezing mark at the start and snow underfoot from about 1/2 way up to the turnaround. Special for 2011 was that last night saw a full moon come the closest to the earth in several decades and this particular Sunday was the first official day of spring. 'Lots to celebrate!

 

Curb, who looked scary fit and ready to set a course record, took off from the start.  The rest of us broke into pace groups. Given the recent cool, rainy weather, I was surprised to see that the snow didn't start being a significant obstacle to running much before the cut-off to Peer Gynt trail. Oddly enough, however, at this particular switchback, the snow went from being a couple of centimeters deep to almost mid-shin. 

 

A snowshoe trail went left and sharply uphill onto the Peer Gynt trail. It looked like only one person in running shoes had continued up Mountain Highway.  Glenn and I knew that at least 4 runners were ahead of us.  What to do? Should we stick to the course and rip our shins to pieces, or should we follow the snowshoe route where it appeared that the other runners had gone?

 

While steeper, the side trail proved to be the path of least resistance.  When we popped-out of the woods near the HMH turnaround, Glenn and I found sunshine and untracked snow up to our knees. We postholed our way to the "official" turnaround at the entrance to the stone quarry and carved our names in the snow as testament to our achievement.  

 

As we made our way back down, Glenn and I we were greeted with cries of, "Hey, how did you get up here!" from Curb, who we found diligently breaking trail on the true MHM course and marking it for those who followed with blood from his shins.  Busted! Looks like Glenn and I would be claiming a custom course today...

 

The descent, of course, was a lot quicker than the ascent. We met a couple of heavily armored mountain bikers who were pushing their bikes uphill, but apart from that, the sound of happy birds and rushing water was our only company. It wasn't even 9:30 when we arrived back at the start, but a warm sun and the prospect of a coffee and muffin appealed more than a second lap.  

 

Congrats to Stefan Albrecher who was the only person to suck it up and gut-out a second lap. Congrats and a big "thank you" for breaking trail to Curb who, incidentally, gets the Purple Heart award for hacking his shins all to pieces in the process. I'd like to also acknowledge all of the Fat Asses who stopped to picked up trash along our route: Thank you for helping to keep the trails pristine.

 

Until the fall running of Mountain Highway in September!

Ean Jackson
Host of the Mountain Highway Madness