2007 - Pure Satisfaction Results - Year 5

Starter Photo - 9 December 2007

What a wonderful day it was. There were lots of new faces. Welcome all! The trails were beautiful and frosted with a layer of ice crystals, the boardwalks were treacherous and the black ice deceiving... Congrats to all who finished todays run.

The post event survey is posted here and will close 13 December. We appreciate your participation.

More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clubfatass/tags/puresatisfaction2007/show/

More than ever … Pure Satisfaction 2007

A record 33 runners took to the trail on Sunday. This was the fifth running of Club Fat Ass Pure Satisfaction on the Baden Powell Trail of North Vancouver. Most of us started in Deep Cove as usual but there were 4 hardier souls that lined themselves up to complete 48km for the first time in this event.

The four big distance people were Gilles, Karl, Chad and John. They started 2 hours ahead of the group sharp at 0700h plus the full time from the 5-minute rule. Beginning in Lynn Canyon at the traditional turn around point, they headed across the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge and made it to Deep Cove right at 9:00 am after slipping and sliding their way over the first 12km of their run. All four are experienced and capable long distance runners. Most notable though are Karl and Gilles. Karl is recently back running (and ultra training) after being off several months with a nagging back problem that has magically disappeared. And Gilles finished the Birch Bay marathon on Saturday the day before our run. Along with Gilles, Chad is training for Western States 100 mile race, and, of course, John is always in training for the next big one (and the next big conversation).

As for the rest of us, we gathered in the chilly zero degree December air to get our run briefing and have our picture taken against the backdrop of Mount Seymour. I was adamant that we watch out for one another, especially the newbies, and that we all take great care on the slippery patches. When Karl and the others arrived as I was speaking, they told us of how dangerous the route was for them. So we took their advice seriously and set off to have a whole bunch of fun.

It had ever so lightly snowed and the ground was hard. But all I heard was lots of chatter. It continued snowing the whole time but you could almost count the number of flakes falling there were so few. I was hoping for a bit more snow because it is a very pretty route with 10 or 20 cm of the fresh stuff around.

I followed along near the back and was running with Sibylle and then John for a bit. Once I got to the top of the trail where it turns down to the Seymour Grind, I chatted with Arthur to help keep him on course. As I got ready to turn around, I strongly suggested he stick with John who was close behind because this was Arthur’s first time on the course. For those of us that are familiar with the area, we know how easy it is to go astray. As it turned out, John ended his run when he got to Lynn Canyon after 24km and Arthur decided to call it a day as well. I understand that he took a cab back to Deep Cove.

For the rest of the runners, eventually they all made it back to Deep Cove before 5-1/2 hours was up. The fastest coming in was Patricia with Colin, Mel and Carolyn hot on her heels. When Patricia arrived it certainly seemed as though someone or something had been chasing her! And it seems like 3 hours is the still the time to beat. Hardly anyone has done this run in less than 3 hours. In fact the course record still stands with Casey Charleson from the first year in 2003. His time was about 2:45.

When mostly everyone was back, about a dozen of us went to the Lazy Bay Café at Parkgate and had some yummy treats and coffees. It was warm and we chatted for a nice long time while thinking of the others still on the trail.

I was happy to see a few repeaters to the event. But I was sad to see the Keith didn’t make it out due to technical difficulties with his house keys. And I’m very happy that Pure Satisfaction has been so popular. Oh and thanks very much to Colin for doing the GPS thing so we can see better what we've done.

I hope you’ll all join me again next year.

Craig

Thanks also to TrailRunner magazine for the 2 yearly subscription certificates as draw prizes.