2007 - Year 5 - XTC Results

The weatherman lied.  True, he promised some precipitation in the early afternoon.  The first drops fell, however, as the shutter closed on the starter photo. 

It's a well known fact that I am not crazy about running in the rain.  The prospect of running for 6 hours in the rain, I admit, did not excite me.  The weatherman has been wrong in the past, I thought.  Maybe this will blow over and the sun will come out in an hour or so?  Funny how none of the other runners seemed much to care.

The "Up" and "Roll Your Own" starters quickly broke into pace groups as we settled into our respective rhythms in the Mosquito Creek leg of the XTC.  I found myself running with Pano, a talented runner who was attempting his first ultra today.  We barely noticed the steep uphill or the increasing intensity of the rain as we chatted about heart rate training and what makes ultras different from shorter races. 

At the tip of the Dogleg section, our conversation changed to how miserable the narrow, rocky creek bed was to run.  Worse today, the bushes that encroached on the trail were saturated with water.  Passing through them released big gobs of spray that soaked the passerby and filled their shoes with water.  Ah, but it builds, character, I thought as I clenched my teeth, sucked it up and thought of Rick Arikado (who loves this section of trail more than any other) and Mark Fearman (who would have enjoyed it were he not in Sydney, Australia today.)  What a difference a week makes.  Why this time last Saturday it was 30C, dry as a bone and sunny for the Vancouver 100...and today I was already regretting that I didn't pack gloves and my winter gear!

Pano and I managed to briefly catch Doug and Angus at the Cleveland Dam fountain.  We had barely started into the Capilano Loop section of the XTC when we ran into the "Down" runners (those who started at the upper end of the 25K route.)  Perfect timimg!  Pano and I warned of wet bushes ahead.  Pete Stace-Smith and the Coquitlam crew smiled knowingly as they cautioned us that a similar fate awaited us in the Canyon Crawl section.  We exchanged high 5's and continued in our respective directions.

The boys in the black CFA t-shirts eluded us on the big climb from Capilano Canyon up the side of Cypress Mountain, but we managed to catch Angus as he began to run out of gas (gotta work on that 2 1/2 hour low, brother Angus!) and Doug, who figured it was time to head home for the hot tub.  By now, water had accumulated to the point where the trail appeared to be but a series of slippery islands in a sea of mud.  Then we received the present the "Down" runners had promised:  a 300m stretch of trail that had grown in with chest high ferns and bushes, each one saturated with water!

The wind picked up.  It was foggy and the rain was coming in on a 45-degree angle.  We reached the turnaround as Rob Ruff headed back down the trail.  John McGrath, who was happy as a clam in his warm truck, beckoned us to join Desmond in the back seat and call it a day at 25K.  I saw Pete's distinctive Norco truck and justified in my mind that I would also save him a trip up the mountain if I drove his truck back to the Griffin Gym start.  Alas, I didn't have his key.  Pano handed me a spare t-shirt and a bruised apricot as he slugged back a can of boost.  We soldiered on.

Oddly enough, since the conditions couldn't get much worse, we started to notice the amazing fragrance of the bushes we slogged thorough and how the trail was lined with fat, juicy orange and red salmonberries.  Pano and I paused briefly to marvel at the 500-year old Grandpa Capilano and watch a group of kayakers negotiate a crazy section of white water in the canyon.  Before we knew it, we were back at the Cleveland Dam water fountain.  We could almost smell the barn.

Ah... but we were not yet at the barn!  The slog up Nancy Green Way and across the base of Grouse Mountain took the stuffing out of Pano.  I was starting to freeze.  With 10K of the Dogleg and straight shot down to the start remaining, I reluctantly left Pano to walk it in.  (He finished.  He then went home to bed.)

I was late for the finisher party.  One cool lager led to another as we traded war stories.  The girls doing the "Up" course managed to pick up a bunch of trash and avoided the worst of the rain.  Unfortunately, Pete's camera was out of juice, so there is no starter photo for the "Down" group. 

Thanks to Trail Runner Magazine and North Shore Athletics, just about everyone at the party got a recognition award of some kind.  Thanks to the Mosquito Creek Grill, all participants and crew were treated to a cool one.   Congrats to Pano for completing his fist ultra, Rob Ruff for winning his first ultra and congrats to all who challenged the course and the weather in the 2007 XTC!

Ean Jackson
Host of the XTC

Click on an image for a slideshow of all photos of the event.

Photo left: Documentary evidence that Lorraine earned bonus points for collecting trash

Photo right: Des and Angus heading for the Tower of Power on the infamous Dogleg section

 
Results
17 Starters / 17 Finishers