2007

Photos are posted on the CFA Flickr page. 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, RunToTheClouds2007 and RunToTheClouds. If you are not interested in Flickr, please send your photos to Sibylle or Pete and we'll post them.

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Run to the Clouds event review
Well sports-fans, the 2nd annual Run to the Clouds event is now behind us. 28 keen CFA runners started the event yesterday and 14 of them finished the full 25 km challenging course. Some even did more! Whether you did the full course or one of the shorter options, give yourself a big pat on the back, you all did awesome!!!
Sending out thanks:

I’d like to once again thank the following people that made this event possible and better:

• Carie Moran (CFA member) for giving up her run to come out and help with event sign-in and aid station #1 and #2 up at the North Beach.
• Chris Leupold and Greg Skerratt for helping with aid station #3 at the top of Eagle Ridge (Note: these guys moto’d in all the treats and liquid you enjoyed up there).
• Nick Balenzano and Johnny Saunders, our fully trained first aid team that were cruising around on event course on their mountain bikes ready to help out should the need arise.
• Angela Spooner for arranging some fantastic draw prizes including a 60 minute massage from Lea Hartley (thanks to Lee too of course!) and a 30 minute massage session at Hyde Creek Clinic (again thanks to the massage therapists who donated the sessions too). These were both given away at the after-party.
• Marlene Coleman for helping with aid station #1 and #2. and for arranging a fantastic hydrotherapy massage session draw prize (thanks also to Dr Wilbour Kelsick for this fantastic donation).
• North Shore Athletics for donating some cool shirts and waterbottle prize draws.
• Trail Runner Magazine for donating 2 subscriptions that were given out as prize draws.
• Sibylle from CFA for walking me through all the on-line headaches of posting and hosting an event.
• My wife Diane for pedaling her bike down to the after-party late that afternoon to get me and all the gear in my truck home safe…

Highlights and other fun stuff:

As you can imagine, a lot goes on during an event and there is certain things that come to mind afterwards that are always good to share with others. Here is just some of the good, the bad and the ugly:

• How about the first big highlight was that it did NOT RAIN!! Even after the weather man promised 60% chance of showers right up till that morning. Event day was perfect running temperature with high overcast and the occasional blue sky and sunny break.
• No negative points will be awarded to Don Murray and Gord Bell (competing in his first trail run) for running right past an important trail head (clearly marked in the instructions that they were both carrying in their hands at the time) and running almost all the way down to Indian Arm on the access road before figuring out they had gone wrong… Way to go guys! Way to add additional vertical elevation gain to an already hard course!
• Don’t worry Matt, no negative points will be awarded to you for crossing the finish line in a smoking fast 2:08 but then complaining that aid station #3 was not set up when he was there (it was, but he had accidentally eliminated about 3 km from the course, so didn’t complete the full 25 km). Oops… next year OK Matt
• HOWEVER, speaking of Matt, extra props has to be sent out to him for running 22 of the 25 km faster than anyone AFTER running a whopping 80 km run the day before! Yes, Matt was out for a big training run the Saturday before this event and still managed to look fresh and fast on event day! Holy smokes…
• Props goes out to Stephen Lamothe and Karine Lavoie that did a lap of the Buntzen (the short course) with their son Takoda who is not even 4 years old yet. Takoda ran quite a bit of this too! Future competitor to Matt Sessions maybe???
• Extra point awarded to Elizabeth McQuaid, Kelly Vermette, Jessica Watson and Sibylle Tinsel for helping out some poor lost soul and setting them straight again.
• Props out to Pat Matthieu for her first CFA event! Welcome to the gang Pat.
• Props out to Gord Lord who completed his first ever trail run, and did the whole thing. Actually he did more as he was one of the guys that ran right past the trail head and added on extra km’s. Don’t worry Gord, we don’t penalize folks that want to run LONGER than the set event course that day.
• This in from our First Aid team positioned at the 16 km mark on route, way up high on Eagle Ridge. Nick says "three CFA gals arrived and they had pre-planned to turn around at the spot we were at. one asked if we had a cell phone she could borrow, so I let her use mine. She was huffing and puffing, so it sounded really authentic when SHE CALLED IN SICK TO WORK FOR THAT NIGHT. I guess she had no intention of going in after that workout...she was off to the after-party instead. Can't say that I blame her.
• Also from our First Aid Team. I handed out a couple of band aids for chaffed nipples...if it was a woman, I would have been a good first aider and done a thorough inspection...but I had to let it slide since it wasn't.
• Bummer of the day goes to defending course champion Elke Bauer who was looking like she would be the fastest women there once again, till her brain went on autopilot and she turned onto Eagle Trail to run up to last year’s aid station, taking her off course by more than 1 km and allowing Amy MacArthur to slip on by and beat her to the finish line.
• Apparently Buntzen IS above 32 degrees or 0 degrees C as some keen runners didn’t have to break through ice to go for a swim after the run. Now there is a hearty bunch!!! On exiting the water Peter VG stated “it was sooo cold, his privates were “like a button on a fur coat”. Now that is cold !!
• Oh yeah, I had more than a few runners want to know what the chips were that were so tasty… They were “Kettle Brand, Krinkle cut Salt and Fresh ground pepper” chippies. Gourmet, no trans fats, no MSG, and available at Costco. They come in a brown bag.
• The after-party at the Golden Spike Pub was well attended and the Giants game was on. It seemed every time they scored there was $1 beers for us all! The beer was enjoyed (strictly for re-hydration purposes) and there was some fantastic draw prizes awarded to runners present.

Summary:

So, as event host, this is always fun to put on this event. It is my small way of “putting back” to the running community. I believe we will stick with the same route next year as most runners liked the route. (OK, maybe I’ll try to be a bit clearer on some of the directions). Talking to Sibylle, we may move it a little earlier or back into April again for 2008 so we don’t run into conflicts with some other runs later on like what happened this year. So, one final request… if you liked the event please tell your running friends and help me spread the word to get more runners out for 2008. If each of you brought 1 or 2 running friends it could be that much MORE fun.!! If you didn’t like something about the event or would like something changed or improved I would simply ask you to fire me back some feedback. I’ll put all your suggestions and notes into the file and will make next years event all that much better. Click here to send Pete feedback. You will also receive a post event survey and I would appreciate your time to fill this out.

Thanks again for coming out, see you all next year!!

Pete SS