2007 - Year 5 - Capilano Canyon Mardigras Night Run

The weather forecast was for 100% probability of heavy rain.  The trails were still a mess from the wind and rain storms in December and early January.  It didn't look good for the Mardi Gras version of the Capilano Night Run!  Frantic plans were made to come up with an alternative course cutting out the mudslides but still providing a challenge.

32 hardy runners weren't deterred by the obstacles and toed the line for the 5th annual Mardigras Capilano Canyon Night Run.  Nobody took me up on the offer of a safer, alternative route.

Ean took of with the competitive, long course group.  The group run folks were stuck with me and a very gentle pace.  Amazingly, everybody stayed together until we reached the canyon.  The rain that briefly pounded down on us at the start stopped and the temperatures were mild.  Mist in the air reflected the beams of our headlamps and made for a spooky atmosphere. 

My group split into two pace groups, the faster ones doing their own creative interpretation of the course descriptions once they were out of the canyon...they did miss aid station Adams and made us wonder if the bears had eaten them.  The slower folks kept trusting my directions and the assurance that the nasty parts were almost over.  We navigated over washed out trail and under fallen trees.  I pointed out that they didn't take me up on the easy route.

Once refuelled and refreshed at aidstation Adams, the pace picked up and followed Bowser Trail back to the last 2km climb along Mosquito Creek. Perfect timing, as the slower competitive runners trickled in shortly after us. 

At Club Fat Ass events we don't recognize the fastest runners, rather we acknowledge those who come from the furthest away, those who get lost, injured or who pick up the most trash along the trails.  Carlos showed off his war wounds from a tumble he took.  (Luckily, he is close to the ground to begin with ;-)  Word leaked that Troy was the other contender of the Purple Heart Award (the best injury), but when we learned that he fell when trying to take a leak, nobody at the roaring potluck party had sympathy with him... but all had a good chuckle.  Maybe it was good that Troy had to leave the party early?

I missed the hot tub (aka sauna) and dodge ball party at Harry Jerome Rec Centre, where everybody cleaned of the mud and had some fun.  Pat, Michele and I headed to my house to prepare for the potluck.  Thanks guys for keeping me company and helping to set everything up.  And what a spread it was! 

The potluck was in full swing at 10:00pm (I usually leave parties around that time) and the potluck table featured savoury food from chilie, soup, sushi, empanadas, pakoras, quinoa salad, chicken, green salads, sprout/cabbage/nut salad, spicy green beans and a yummy noodle dish.  The deserts ranged from pies, homemade ginger snaps, poppy seed squares, fruits and cheese, nut- and banana breads to croissants filled with apricots and much more.

Thanks to NSA, Kinesys and Trailrunner we had a few prizes to give away.  Farthest travelled went to Victoria's Carolyn Goluzza, although Craig was a close contender living around the corner but having driven to the airport and back (and missing the start) only to find out that his parents are arriving the next day...The Alberta boys didn't show...would have been a sweep for them.  Pat won the prize for most Night Runs under her belt (4). We threw the last guest out around 1:30am and tucked the out-of-towner's into their sleeping bags in the guest room.

Thanks everybody for making this yet again a successful run and great party. Please add your own memories and comments below.  If you have photos of the event, upload them to http://www.flickr.com, add them to the Club Fat Ass group and tag them with  "CapilanoCanyonNightRunMardigras2007".  They will automatically be added to the revolving photos below.

*   bonus point for garbage pick-up on the trails

** event host point