2006 - Year 3 - Fall Mountain Highway Madness

The record books were rewritten at this years Fall Mountain Highway Madness.  We have a new Platinum finisher and her name is Berglind Hafdteinsdottir!  Scarcely a week after becoming the first woman to run the Juan de Fuca trail in under 10 hours, Berg opened a can of whoop-ass and became the first woman to ever earn platinum status (four loops of the 15K course.)  Wow!

Berglind's words to me in a voice mail went something like, "...Now I don't have to do Mountain Highway Madness anymore."  Too bad, we'll miss you.  Why not go for the second level of Platinum and be the first person to ever do 5 laps this coming spring, Berg?

Apart from Berglind's madness, Cynnimon Rain went for the gold and also managed to get to the Mosquito Creek pub in time for a free cool one on the sunny patio.  Deller's dogs ChinChin and Sombrio completed their first Mountain Highway Madness and racked up another point each, putting them ahead of many humans in Club participation points.  (Hey you hounds, we have to get a photo of you both in your Club colors!)

As the faster Bronze finishers waited at the bottom of the trail, there was a mad dash for trash pickup points.  The trail and surrounding woods were scoured for bottle caps, gel wrappers and anything else that could count toward bonus points.  Speaking of bonus points, I hereby bequeath my hosting point to Sibylle, who did almost all of the organizing for this event.  Thanks, Sibylle!  (No, you can't have my participation and trash pickup points, though =;-)

A couple of new Club members, Charlene and Lora-Lynn did the unthinkable and got slightly lost after they overshot the turnaround.  Apparently the spray painted "7" on the rock at the turnaround had been erased.  Mea culpa.  According to Club Fat Ass law, if the host provides incorrect directions, (s)he owes the inconvenienced party a beer at the finisher party.  'Missed you at the pub, girls....I corrected the course description, however.

I'd also like to thank Ron Adams for measuring the course with his Nike pedometer.  He measured a couple meters less than 7K to the quarry and several hundred meters more than 7K coming down for a 14.2K round trip.  Given that the up and down is in fact the same distance, I'm good for still calling it a 15K distance.

Thank you for coming out on this fantastic fall day and I look forward to seeing you out at the spring version of the MHM in March!

Ean Jackson
Host of the Mountain Highway Madness

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