2004 - Year 1 - Fall Mountain Highway Madness

11 September 04

They said it would never be done. Geoff Palmer, a recent immigrant from the flatlands of Winterpeg, however, done done it! On Saturday 11 September 04, he became the first person to ever go platinum in the Mountain Highway Madness!

A veteran of the Rocky Raccoon 100-miler, Blackfoot Ultra and the Great Canadian Death Race, it was Palmer's first time at Mountain Highway Madness. "Allison (Knowles) and I had a lot of fun on the first 3 laps. The pizza bread and Eatmore bars kept me fueled for the fourth lap and the mountain bikers who kept asking, "HOW many laps are you doing?" kept me motivated. If I'd had some competition, I might have done five laps."

After the monsoons of Friday evening, it was a wonder anyone got out of bed for the run early Saturday morning. As it turned out, the rain held off at the start and as Laddie Hannan put it, "we ran between droplets" on the return leg of the first lap. The general consensus was that the cool, moist weather was ideal for good times in this, the fifth running of the event.

The only downer of the day was that Colin Freeland's blue, Capilano Eagles vest and Doug MacKay's green windbreaker went AWOL from their resting place near the water fountain. If a good Samaritan picked them up, there's a cool beer as reward. Speaking of cool beers, all participants who attended the post run brunch were treated to a free cool one by the good folks at the Mosquito Creek Bar and Grill. All runners received some hammer gels and Laddie Hannan came away from this free run with a free ($45) entry to the Grouse Grind run for her efforts.

Mark your calendars for the next Mountain Highway Madness on Sunday 20 March!

Ean Jackson
Host of the Mountain Highway Madness

Results

Total starters: 13
Total finishers: 13