2008 - Year 7 - Spring Mountain Highway Madness

As the rising sun cast it's warm glow over Fromme Mountain and the final minutes ticked down to the start of the spring running of Mountain Highway Madness, I paused to ponder one of life's great mysteries. This run has been on the 3rd Sunday in March at 7:30 in the morning for seven (7) years. The date and times are on the event website in at least 2 places. "How is it that 7 people didn't get the start time right?!"

No matter. Mountain Highway Madness is a fun Club Fat Ass run where nobody really cares how fast or far you run, so why should they care when you start?

Penny, Melissa and Mike were the first to show up. My understanding is that they were jogging around the start line wondering where everyone was at 7:30 on Saturday morning. The weather was fine and there was excellent company, so the fat ass pathfinders set off a day early. Read their reports on the course here.

At 7:00 on a Sunday morning, the streets of North Vancouver are usually deserted but the last paved section of Mountain Highway was buzzing with trail runners when I arrived. The start area looked like that of a "real" running race, as Danielle from Kintec had set up a tent and a bounteous spread of trail chow.

The starting field was quite diverse. At the one end, Ryne Melcher, Rea and Stephen Blyth, who had completed the Chuckanut 50K run the day before and who aimed to run at least 4 laps (60K) today. At the other end, 2 elementary school runners, a young Japanese language student who had never run in his life and myself, the shadow of a runner complete with torn calf and a couple of broken ribs from a skiing wipeout.

We set off promptly at 7:30. Four registered runners, keeners I knew planned to start, were nowhere to be seen. The pack quickly broke into 3 groups: fast, solid and raspberry (those who were out for less than a full 15K lap.)

The spring Mountain Highway Madness (there's also a fall version held in September) is always a bit of a lottery when it comes to conditions. Over the past 7 years we've experienced sunny, warm days with not a trace of snow. We've had snow on almost the entire course (I did it in snowshoes one year!) and we've had monsoon rains the whole day.

Today, the weather was clear and temperatures fresh. There were patches of snow even at the start. From about the 3rd switchback (3K), however, the snow was deep and crusty. Heavier runners postholed to their knees with every stride and there was precious little of a path to follow. Passing runners whinced at Ran Katzman's bloodied shins. Multi-time Mountain Highway Madness finisher Glen Pace called them, "the toughest conditions ever".

As I made my way back down, the 4 missing runners passed by me. "For some reason I thought the start was at 7:45," said Ron Adams. Graham Archer later came by to see how far he could get on his mountain bike while Rick Arikado showed up 3 hours after the start!

John Machray had a PW (personal worst) a week before his Coyote 2 Moon 100-miler, but claims to have passed a kidney stone. Desmond ran home. Instead of doing her second lap, Laddie went to the coffee shop and brought back some warm java for Danielle and something for the finisher draw securing a bonus point for Club spirit.

Many thanks to Kintec and Danielle for the great aid station and prizes, Laddie for her generosity and Kelly at the Mosquito Creek for the cool pint.  Thanks also to TrailRunner Magazine, who provided two annual TR subsriptions.  They just arrived in the mail - a day to late for the awards - and were given to our out-of-towners Lorie and Barry, as the farthest travelled and longest on the course.

Ean Jackson
Host of the Mountain Highway Madness

PS If you participated in the run (yesterday or today!), please take a moment to fill out the Club's Post Event Survey. You can also leave your comments, impressions from the run and feedback via the comment link below (you need to be signed in for that) or in your CFA blog.

Here are more photos. You can add yours to this slideshow by following these instructions.

Preliminary Results. Please check for missed times/names/distances and forward corrections to the EH via the comment form below or email.

* Garbage Point
** EH Point
*** Bonus Point for special kindness