Run To the Clouds 2011 Results

6 March 2011

Report. Run to the Clouds, 6th year is now behind us.  Once again, someone from up above was looking down on us for great weather. The day was stellar. It was still "brisk" out in the Buntzen Valley, but then this place is known for how cool it is, even in the middle of the summer when it is hot everywhere else in the Lower Mainland. Still it wasn't raining!!  WhooooHooooo.

And the runners showed up!  There was 21 that came to run the challenging 25 km course, and 6 others doing shorter versions.  Note, once started, even the shortest lake loop this year was 13 kms.

Everyone got off OK pretty quick after 10:00 start, hoping onto the Energy Trail, then onto the Lake Detour Trail that took the runners all the way out to the park entrance before turning them North along the West side of Buntzen. After the first gravel road section, jumping into the woods and onto the detour route up "Lake View Trail" was the first order. This is the trail that is roughly half way up the ridge between the normal route (Lake Side Trail) and Diez Vista Trail along the top, although the runners today sure thought in a few spots they were pretty near the top of the ridge. Lake View does a lot of ups and downs and is certainly more challenging than the "normal RTTC route".  However, as Sybylle pointed out, what it DOESN'T do is give you some nice Lake Views as the name promises?  Sorry guys, I didn't name it, just borrowing the trail today.

Once that nasty leg was completed the runners cruised across the North end suspension bridge to an awaiting Aid Station that had whatever you had been dreaming about while running along...  

Next up was the North loop around lesser Buntzen, easy task for those having run this event before, a few left curves for newbies... back across the suspension bridge now completing 2/3rds of the figure 8 around these lakes. One last chance to grab a handful of Gummy Worms, Gatorade, chips, a gel or whatever you craved (all brought in under pedal power I might add), before heading back down the East side trail, back towards home.

Oh, but the fun doesn't stop there. For the keen 25'ers, sadly you get to run right by the finish line, jump onto the Halvor Lynden trail, then climb up the steep and unrelenting Academy Trail, till you pop out on the power line at close to 1000'. A short scamper back down the power line took the runners up to an amazing view point/drop off.  Luckily nothing went wrong up top there (if we don't count Lori's pup Newman, brazenly interupting some couple having a picnic up top, and walking off with a sandwhich)... haha, way to go Newman.  Keep those human's on their toes pal.

From the look out (which overlooks not only Buntzen lake, but Mt Seymour, Vancouver, and views all the way out to the Gulf Islands etc), the runners dropped into Eagle Trail and got to drop elevation for the next 30 min or so, back down Eagle, and Academy.  Finally, they could head for home...

From the end of Academy, they retraced their morning route, back through the overflow parking lot, zig-zagging all the way back to the Gazebo to tag out...  Although the route was "thrown together" with options left open from BC Hydro's closures, pretty much everyone coming in had + or -  less than .3 of a km of 25 ----- but it was pretty unanimous that this route was tougher. (note: some liked that fact others didn't)...  :)

Speedy devil  Matt Sessions took an early lead and stayed out front the entire run, rolling in at 2:36:30.  The trio of Ran Katzman, Dario Herrera, and Mike Palichuk, that ran together the entire time just behind Matt rolled in less than 9 minutes behind him for a smoking fast 2:45 time. Following these rippers was James Clarke and his pup, just sqeeking in under 3 hours.

On the women's side, Angela Cullen Spooner cruised in looking like she could do it all again at 3:49, quickly followed by a big group that included female runners Sara Liljefors, Tammy Blackwell, Lori Clerkson, Carie Moran, all hot on her tail at 3:50. Well done girls ! 

Special shout out to Don Murray who hopped on a plane in Calgary to come down and run today, not wanting to mess up his 6 25 km finishes for 6 events record.  Way to go Don, great to see you too.

A did-not-show at the start and missed was our fearless CFA leader Action Jackson, but he sent his best delegate (and the person that probably runs CFA anyway) Sibylle Tinsel.  Great to see you out enjoying yet the tri cities once again. !  I think Ean took out a couple of others from North Van when he went AWOL, so officially I think he owes me a beer. (long standing bet of me bringing more Tri Cities runners to his New Years Day event than he does North Van Runners to my Tri Cities Event.  Haha...  Maybe next year pal.

The Golden Spike was a little quieter than usual, many people choosing to go enjoy the day rather than rehydrate with some fermented beverages... it's all good. Missed you, again, maybe next year OK.

So, till then, glad you all had a good time.  Thanks for coming out and playing in my back yard.

Cheers,    Pete Stace-Smith     Event Host  Run To The Clouds.  

Ps.  I'll get the finish time excel spreadsheet finished up ASAP here and off to Sibylle for posting.  And try to get some pics loaded up as well....
 

Photos will be posted on the slideshow below. If you like to add yours please add them to your Flickr account, then to the Club Fat Ass Flickr group. Make sure you tag all photos of today with ClubFatAss RunToTheClouds2011 RunToTheClouds ClubFatAssEvents ClubFatAssEvents2011. If you are not interested in Flickr, please send your photos to Sibylle or Pete and we'll post them.

Survey. We'd love to hear from you. Please add you comments below, write a blog post about your run and/or fill out this brief survey to let us know how we did.

Results.