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Dear Friends and Members of Club Fat Ass,
While many of you are still battling icy trails and snowdrifts, a flurry of Club activity suggests that spring must be just around the corner.
Your Steering Committee has been brainstorming Club priorities for 2008. We have a lot of great ideas that hopefully will translate into great member benefits this year...but since we're all volunteers, some things won't get done because there is nobody to follow-through. Please consider what you might do to make the Club even better.
You might have noticed a few tweeks to our "online clubhouse" that have made it more reliable since Ran Katzmann stepped forward last fall. Thank you, Ran!
Now that the website works well, our next priority is to make it work better. It's time to rethink what we need on the website and how to organize stuff so you can find it. Not sure how to do this, but we figure a good start would be to ask you. We'll have a simple poll on the website and a focus group, but you can also contact me directly with your suggestions. If you have some experience with website usability and could share a bit of time to contribute to the project or are interested in being part of a small focus group, please contact me.
The other focus of the Steering Committee for 2008 will be growing our community of members. I received an email today from a runner in South Africa, who met Jesper Olsen from Denmark and Graeme Best of New Zealand, both sporting their CFA shirts at a multiday race near Cape Town, South Africa. How cool is that?
Reach out and invite a friend to join you in your next Club event!
Happy Trails,
Sibylle Tinsel
Chief Executive Fat Ass
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UPCOMING EVENTS
 Run to the Clouds. 12 April - Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada. A 12.5km or 25km run, all on trails with some gravel road sections. Come see and run around beautiful Buntzen Lake and surrounding mountains. A challenging route with over 2000 vertical feet (or 600 metres) of elevation gain/loss. Fantastic views of Buntzen Lake and the Greater Vancouver area. Details here.
 Photo left: a happy gaggle of women finishing last years Run to the Clouds.
Photo right: Happy Birthday, Chad!
Flash - Hyson's Hijinx. 25 April - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. A 160 km aka 100 miler on the Baden Powell Trail between Deep Cove and St Andrews Rd. Read Chad's motivations here.
North Shore Enduro. 10 May - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. A fun run in Vancouver's rugged North Shore mountains, the Enduro is on a 7.6 km loop course that lasts up to 6 hours. A safe and challenging first trail run featuring some easy and some technical terrain. A great social event for the team runner (2-6 runners can form a team). A tune-up for Western States and other summer 100-milers for the competitive solo runner. More info and registration here.
 Flash - Baldy's Bonkfest. 24 May - Squamish, BC, Canada. Part of the CFA - Stormy collaboration on training runs for the Stormy Trail Race. Details here.
Photo left: Baldy at the Chuckanut finish line.
Speaker Series - Kintec Foot Injuries. 28 May - Vancouver, BC, Canada. Join our sponsor for an informative evening about foot injury prevention. If you have been plagued by plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis and other foot problems or are trying to stay injury free, this is the one for you. Free for the general public, but pre-registration is required. Details here.
2008 Membership Drive. Help us grow. If every member refers just one friend to Club Fat Ass this year, our membership chair will be very happy and everyone will have another friend to car pool to Club events with! We might turn this into a contest - with a cool prize at the end of the year for the most prolific Club missionary. You might get help with a planned, new "share with a friend" link on all your web posts or you could use the existing "Share On Facebook" link on the website or the "Forward to a Friend" at the bottom of every newsletter. Don't forget to tell your friend to put your name down when they complete the Club sign-up form!
We are also planning to start a new monthly feature called "Member of the Month", highlighting a different member each month and his/her claim to fame. Nominate a friend. Nominate yourself.
If you haven't yet joined the Club, what are you waiting for? Sign-up now to participte in almost 50 free events and get a classic black technical Club t-shirt as well. Such a deal!
 Events of Interest. Outdoor Adventure Relay for Darfur Any plans for the last week of April yet? Take a stand against the genocide in Darfur. The organizer's (Jeremy Frimer) goal is to raise awareness of the crisis in Darfur by linking a non-competitive ski, snowshoe, climb, paddle, and cycle relay--from Whistler Mountain to downtown Vancouver, BC--culminating in a rally at the 2010 Olympic clock on April 27. Sounds complicated but it really isn't. Registration for the week long relay (do one stage, do all) is free.
 STORMY Trail Race. Club Fat Ass will be organizing and hosting the training runs for western Canada's most popular 100-miler this year. What does that mean? You can you can get up close and comfortable with the STORMY course on your own terms while helping fellow runners and Race Director Wendy Montgomery. Several Club members have already stepped up to the plate with both scheduled and Flash events. Find out more here.
ADMINISTRIVIA
CFA Website. Our website has been running a lot more smoothly of late thanks to Ran Katzmann. Now that the website works well, our next priority is to make it work better. It's time to rethink what we need on the website and how to organize stuff so you can find it. Not sure how to do this, but we figure a good start would be to ask you. We'll have a simple poll on the website and a focus group, but you can also contact me directly with your suggestions. If you have some experience with website usibility and could share a bit of time to contribute to the project or are interested in being part of a small focus group, please contact me. Your input is appreciated.
A reminder that website help is posted here. Instructions on how to upload photos and use Flickr to get photos on the Club Fat Ass website are here.
CLUB FAT ASS ON THE WEB
    
PAST EVENT RESULTS AND REPORTS
Spring Bunny Hop. Event Host - James Sinclair. Beautiful blue sky and snowy trails all around. The temperature to start is about 3 degrees as we wait 15 minutes, but to no avail, we have a no show (the sanest of the group no doubt).
Off we hop down the trail, Peter and I, wondering if this is a mistake, should we be on skis or snowshoes, too late we've started this run called the Spring Bunny Hop. It's got to be spring somewhere but not here. Usually here the trails are pretty much bare this time of year, but as we find out we're in deep, up to 24 inches, snow, that's above my knee. These trails aren't for the faint of heart, I think it's a sanity thing.
 As we hop along we come across what happens to you if you fall behind (in pictures to follow). We make it to the turn around point in about 1:45, and start to hop, slog back as I wonder where my skis are? When will this odyssey end? Will the trail suddenly improve? No answers come as we slog along, but what a beautiful day. I am in shorts, enjoying myself running in the snow. Why do my shins hurt and bleed? I thought Ontario snow was soft, go figure. Any way it is almost over 3 hours of slogging through the forest can be tough on you, but also enjoyable I must be sick.
Slideshow here.
Well the end results, 3 hours Peter and myself, Peter wins. Temperature at finish 11 degrees. Points 3 to Peter. 4 to me ( I win). Overall tough run today, but The Spring Bunny Hop lives. Happy Trails Sinc.
CONTESTS
 2008 Travelling Colours Contest. Same contest, same rules, new year. Pictures of your 2008 adventures wearing your Club shirt (any colour) can be posted to Flickr following the instructions here. All submissions to date are posted here.
Photo left: Giles being his happy self and the Coyote Two Moon 100 Miler
2008 Point Series. Same contest, same rules, new year. Up-to-date standings here. Read about how to collect points here.
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.
Relay for Dafur. A situation that deserves your attention. A free adventure for anyone with the right stuff in beautiful BC.
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
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CFA does not sell or otherwise distribute our member list.
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