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Dear Friends and Members of Club Fat Ass,
I'd like to kick off this month's newsletter with a big "Thank You!" to the Club Steering Committee.
This group of dedicated Fat Asses takes your suggestions about how to improve the Club and our online clubhouse and makes them happen. As usual, a lot of behind the scenes work has been going on. This month has been particularly productive.
Our last member survey showed that a lot of you were interested in having the opportunity to buy Club merchandise. I am happy to announce that we've been listening, so grab your credit card. In addition to black and blue technical t-shirts, we now have mugs, stickers, shirts, hoodies and even thongs. (Yes, you read that right.) Over the next little while we will add more items and slogans, but for now check out your new Club Fat Ass store!
Thanks to everybody who participated in our annual Travelling Colours Contest. We have a winner! (Drum roll, please.) To find out who took first, second and third, keep reading . . .
Lastly, if you're a past Club member, a member-to-be or one of the many newsletter readers who have contacted me begging for a special edition green 2007 Club t-shirt . . Sorry, ya snooze, ya loose! I have a few blue and black shirts, but the greenies went to those members of record before 31 December. If you asked me to hold your green t-shirt for pick-up, please arrange a pick-up time ASAP, as I've been offered some very tempting bribes for the shirts still at my house.
Happy Trails,
Sibylle Tinsel
Chief Executive Fat Ass
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UPCOMING EVENTS
 Spring Mountain Highway Madness: 18 March 2007 - North Vancouver, BC Canada. This mind-numbing interval session is officially held twice a year. Runners complete one or more 15 km laps with approximately 1 km (3,300') of elevation change per lap. The course is on a wide dirt and gravel access road with no traffic. Check it out here!
Photo: Lots of snow during last year's Spring Mountain Highway Madness.
Big Fat Ass 100 km: 25 March 2007 - Vancouver, BC Canada. This flash event conceived by Karl Jensen and Gilles Barbeau features a double loop of the New Year's Day Fat Ass 50 course. Why? Because for some of us, 50 km is not enough. Check it out here!
Burnaby Mountain Run: 21 April 2007 - Burnaby, BC Canada. We are happy to announce that this event will live on, thanks to new Event Hosts Katheryne Gardiner and Tara Jackson. Run 11.2 km or 22.4 km on the trails of Burnaby Mountain, but beware of the killer hill at the end! Find out more here.
New Ontario Event!
Spring Bunny Hop: 21 April 2007 - Claremont, ON Canada. This 25 km trail run takes you up and down two of the Oak Ridges Moraine forest tracks: Walker Woods and Glen Major. The moraine's rolling hills and valleys were carved by glaciers over 12,000 years ago. Today this ecologically rich forest playground hosts over 200 km of trails, attracting hikers, mountain bikers, x-country skiers, and horseback riders alike. More details here.
Photo: Elke celebrating the end of climbing during last year's Run to the Clouds.
Run to the Clouds: Date changed to 27 May 2007 - Coquitlam, BC Canada. This 22 km run is mostly "off road." It is a challenging route with over 2,000 vertical feet (or 600 m) of elevation change offering fantastic views of the Greater Vancouver area. More details here.
 Club Fat Ass Store. Here is your chance to buy fun, funky and sometimes cheeky gear sporting our porker logo and tongue-in-cheek slogans. Check it out at www.cafepress.com/clubfatass or look for the CFA store button on the top right of the website home page.
Hope you have as much fun shopping as Jess and I have had setting up the shop (Thanks, Jess!). Serve up your next BBQ in a CFA apron. Pamper your hound with a Fat Ass doggie-t. (Gary, you might want to consider this, as Roxy the ultradog tends to have trouble doing her business in your red CFA colors.)
If you have ideas about slogans we might use, let me know.
2006 Travelling Colours Contest Winner 
We have a winner in the 2006 Travelling Colours Contest! Peter from Montreal won with his series of photos documenting his run through the Grand Canyon (photos #24 - #34). Peter will receive a 2007 CFA membership and perpetual bragging rights. Congratulations, Pete! Second place goes to Rhonda for the photos of her planting rice in the paddies of Japan. Gary's emotional finisher photo at the Diez Vista 50 km takes third place. Thanks to all who participated. Please keep the photos coming in 2007 (Since not all members got the collectors edition shirt, submissions of previous shirts are welcome.)
 Poster Children. I am still looking for one male and one female model to sport the green shirts as our 2007 poster children. You don't need to look like the next top model. Singles, a couple, teenagers or grandparents all are welcome, so don't be shy. E-mail me if you are interested.
New Events. Please welcome James Sinclair to our family of CFA Event Hosts. James is hosting the Spring Bunny Hop near Claremont, Ontario on 21 April 2007. I hope all you Ontario members who have been clamouring for more events will be able to come out and run with James - and thank him by putting on a Club run of your own.
New Event Host Incentives. To help encourage members to launch their own events, the Steering Committee has decided to offer new Event Hosts a free membership for 2007. We also want to help get non-members off their duffs and to new events, so the Club will also chip-in 2 complimentary Single Day memberships for the new EH to give away. Next year, all Event Hosts will be rewarded with a free membership. Please understand that for logistical reasons we can't do this retroactively (i.e., if you are already a Club member and you decide to host an event in 2007, you will receive your free membership in 2008. Same goes for current Event Hosts.)
2007 Membership Registration. If you haven't registered yet, you missed your chance to get the special green 2007 collector's shirt. But don't despair, members signing up now will receive our classic black Club shirt and can still participate in all upcoming events during 2007. Such a deal!
ADMINISTRIVIA
Blogging. When we first started to offer blogs to our members at the online clubhouse (the Club Fat Ass website), blogging was a foreign term for most of you. Since then, blogging has almost become mainstream. If you do have a running or fitness related blog outside of CFA, why not add Club Fat Ass to your blogroll or links?
Our website also has RSS feeds for the main page (www.clubfatass.com/node/feed) and all member blogs (look for the orange XML logo at the bottom of a particular blog for the feed address). The Club Fat Ass website also displays the latest posts of some running-related blogs and websites in our "Endurance Sports on the Web" section.
If you know of a relevant blog you would like to see added, please contact me with the website and RSS or Atom feed address.
MySpace. Do you use MySpace? Thanks to Ryan your Club now also has a MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/clubfatass Make sure to add Club Fat Ass to your friends.
PAST EVENT RESULTS AND REPORTS
"Well we had six keeners show up for the 10:05 ferry to Bowen . . . which we almost missed due to blatant disregard for a coned-off section of the walkway. In the end it turned out to be good training for the Midnight Madness run ;)
Anyway, the rains held off for the most part and we looped the lake, with Chris setting a brisk pace while Desmond, Bill, Susan, John, and Mark drafted behind. We were back at Snug Cove in just under 50 minutes, feeling like it was a bit more than 7km, given the pace we were keeping.
Desmond and Chris did another loop before catching the 12:30 ferry back while the fearsome foursome went for a third trip around the lake. It seemed like going anticlockwise was more enjoyable, but all in all the trails were excellent and we made good time (I think Susan had us clocked at 20 mins for our second lap of the lake itself). Just under two hours total and we were primed for the pub, which had decent eats and a warm fire to boot (which we used to dry out gear!). It was good to run some different trails with lush west coast forest scenery. Thanks you guys for a great run."
 2007 Travelling Colours Contest. Capture and share the tender moments you experience with your Club t-shirt throughout the year, and you might just win some great stuff! To participate, just e-mail me your photos. Those of you who have discovered Flickr can upload your submissions to your Flickr page, add them to the Club Fat Ass group, and tag them with TravellingColoursContest2007. Submissions we've received to date are posted here.
Photo: Don't mess with Texas . . . Glenn deals with the authorities at the Alamo near Austin, Texas.
2007 Point Series. The Point Series began anew in 2007. Up-to-date standings are posted here. Read about how to collect points here. A new way you can garner points is by wearing your CFA t-shirt during a non-CFA event and posting the photo to prove it. Thanks to Karine Lavoie who gave us the idea and pointed us to Steven Lamothe's photo on the Vancouver First Half website. As a bonus, any photos of you and your shirt at races will also be added to the Travelling Colours Contest.
CAUSES YOUR CLUB SUPPORTS
If you have any causes close to your heart and want to raise awareness and/or funds let us know. A number of CFA Event Hosts use their events as fund raisers. Be sure to consider the special section on the Club website that offers ideas on how to raise money for your favorite cause while hosting a free, CFA event.
BC Lung Association. Event Host Craig Moore uses his events to raise awareness and funds for the BC Lung Association.
Mary Leliveld Tri BC Fund. Mary was a friend and member of Club Fat Ass. The fund was established in her memory to help deserving athletes get to competitions they otherwise might not be able to race in.
PRPAWS (Powell River Parks and Wilderness Society). The boys who ran the Sunshine Coast Trail 180 in 2003 and 2004 vowed to help raise funds for PRPAWS, a society that aims to protect old growth forest in the Powell River area.
SPONSORS
CFA does not sell or otherwise distribute our member list.
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