from the The North Shore News (North and West Vancouver, BC) on Wednesday 31 August 06...

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

CHEWING the fat: four of the local Club Fat Ass ultrarunning members - Sibylle Tinsel (left), Ean Jackson, Michele Sherstan and Dom Repta - get ready to hit a North Vancouver trail during a recent run.

Smart Asses

Running club blazes a trail

Erin McPhee

emcphee@nsnews.com

Club Fat Ass: could there be a more attention-grabbing name for something?

"It's all about fun and camaraderie," says North Shore resident Ean Jackson, referring to the international club based in the Lower Mainland whose members are self-described as "promoters of oddball endurance events and a healthy outdoor lifestyle."

Added Jackson: "It's putting the fun into running."

What a weekend.  We had three events within 24h and some CFA members managed to do a "Double". Baldwin Lee and Geoffrey Palmer bagged  the "Triple", which put Baldwin into a clear lead in the 2006 Point Series.  To check out the standings go to: http://www.clubfatass.com/contests/pointseries/2006

STORMY (Squamish Test Of Running Mettle, Yeh!) is one of my favorite runs.  It's one of a handfull of runs that I try to do every year... and the only one of those that I've participated in every year it has been held.

As usual, the weather was perfect.  The refinements in the course kept me on my toes, but I didn't get lost.  As if by devine retribution, one of the places I got lost a few years ago (named "Jackson's Dilemma" by then race director Paul Cubbon) was added into the official course this year.

I'm sure there are a few Club Fat Assers out there trying to decide what to do on Aug 19.  The Monty or the Capilano Night run?  Decisions, decisions!  Having done both events, I can say that both are excellent runs.  Why not do both?  I'm trying to organize a carpool for the Monty and the Capilano night run.  We would take the 7am ferry to Victoria, do the run at 10, get a late afternoon ferry back, and head to North Van for the Capilano night run.  If we can get a carpool of 4, the ferry won't cost too much more than walk-ons would.  Let me know via e-mail if you are interested.  Please click here to e-mail me.
Photo: Ludo on top of the World during a Monty preview run

I participated in the Fluffy Bunny Trail Run yesterday. Actually, that's not totally accurate, because the "Fluffy Bunny" is the 35K distance and my friend Doug MacKay and I attempted the 25K "Run in the Park" distance of the Fluffy Bunny Trail Run.  This was a bunny with teeth!

You may remember that I was forced to the sidelines in 2005 due to injury. It was good to take a breather as I focussed on coaching Daniele (mybetter-half) to her first marathon. She even ran my 50K race in July!!

Still, I've missed too much trail running so to get back in form I ran the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim during our July vacation in Arizona. Too bad it was during record temperatures of 115C in the shade.

I have enclosed a series of pictures I took during this solo run in the heat. I doubt that any of them are suatable for the Travelling T-shirt display (too small) but I thought you'd enjoy them none-the-less.

Geologically speaking, descending into the canyon is a descent into history as one passes ancient sedimentary layers until reaching heaven in the form of "Vishnu Schist" at the Colorado River. I was awestruck by the time-travelling aspect of descending into the canyon so I thought it was appropriate to travel backwards in CFA history with the t-shirts as well.

Ciao,

Peter