Buntzen Lake Warm Up Run - Report

Despite teagirl's mess-up (more details below!) a fun time was had by the 4 run leaders and 4 participants who showed up to the 5Peaks Buntzen Warm-Up on a beautiful Saturday-of-the-long-weekend morning.

Teagirl (Katie) arrived at 8.30a only to realize the parking lot was *already* getting full and she hadn't specified a meeting place & time. Luckily people in running gear stick out like a sore thumb, and Eric was wearing his bright orange 5Peaks vest, so we gathered our group.

Katie had also not quite realized that posting information for run leaders on the website only (as opposed to sending them individual emails) was no guarantee of getting in touch... big oops, guys. I will do better next time! Because of this major muck-up, only Tim (& Dario, who got roped in to leading!) had actually planned to come. My apologies to the other two folks who had volunteered, Ward & Christine. I've been in touch now and am planning to make amends! (slaps self on forehead)

However, it all worked out in the end, because only 4 runners showed up, and the groups worked out perfectly. All participants had planned to run the Enduro, but Anna had a time limit of 2 hours so we recommended she try the Sport course instead (in the company of Eric) since it's fairly challenging to do the Enduro in less than 2h.

Tim, Dario & Katie led the Enduro group: 3 Lions Gate Road Runners (Josh, Ray & Kelly - Dario had encouraged them to come out - they're from his "other" club!), some of whom were fairly new to trails. This was Tim's first long-ish run after being away due to injuries - but he's still a speed-demon on the ups! He waited for us a few times, but then Dario volunteered to stick with us less-quick folk so Tim could enjoy his run. The rest of us slowed on the uphill slog (there were cries for "MEDIC!" in the first few metres, then later some fascinating analyses of every Star Trek movie in which the Borg featured) and then had a great time bombing the Diez Vistas (we missed #7 & #9 because you have to head uphill off the trail... extra uphill bits?! no thanks...). We met up at the bottom where Dario informed us the rest was on "baby trails". The flatlanders' speed picked up showcasing their road skills and we all eventually met up at the very end (in just over 2h I think? Tim must have been quite a bit under 2h). Teagirl jumped in the lake, after making sure Eric & Anna were also back safely from their 1.5h sojourn 'round the Sport course.

Lessons learned: email is good; the Buntzen lake parking lot is huge and daunting, especially if you've never been there before; cell phones don't work at Buntzen; and the lake feels GREAT after running 15km.

Thanks to all our leaders (both the ones who did come, and the ones who didn't come through no fault of their own!).

See you on the trails,

Teagirl Katie