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Mountain Highway Madness - 19 March 2006
(The Year of the Big Snow)

27 starters, 27 finishers


Saturday evening 8:00 pm. I get a call from my buddy Scott Riddell. Since neither he nor fellow ultrarunner Curb Ivanic could join us on Sunday morning, Scott tells me how they ran the Mountain Highway Madness course a day early. His message: "Be prepared for snow!" Too late to contact everyone in the event, I jog up the street to the local scoutmaster and borrow a trunkload of snowshoes.

Sunday morning 6:00 am. A frigging woodpecker starts pecking on my aluminum fireplace cap. I race downstairs for the slingshot, half forgetting that I'm supposed to be at the run start in about an hour. It's a gorgeous morning.

Mountain Highway Madness is coming up soon.

Mountain Highway Madness is an interval run. About 15K long, in the woods
on a wide, dirt and gravel road... it goes up and down a big mountain in
North Vancouver. While you don't need a doctor's certificate, you have to
be at least a bit crazy to even consider the challenge. Details at:
www.clubfatass.com/events/springmhm

Shoot for bragging rights and a place in the records book. Word on the
street is that someone might go for the second level of Platinum this

I'm still in shock and awe even though it has been over 12 hours after the Lottery Night at NorthShoreAthletics for Knee Knacker.

I still can't get my head wrapped around the fact that I will be participating at Knee Knacker for the first time and I get the additional benefit of cross training with Curb Ivancic as preparation for KK!

If you're into sliding sports, now is a good time to get out on the slopes. It has been puking in the mountains for days... and it looks like there's more snow on the way! I was up at Whistler with some buddies the other day and was treated to some of the best deep, dry powder I have ever had the pleasure of wollowing in.

Now that the 2006 Club t-shirts are in we are looking for poster children to model the new shirts. Anybody owning a shirt can apply. Please contact Sibylle to arrange for a photo shoot.

Hi fellow Fat Assers...

Hope you have all had a few good weeks and are getting out for some fun runs. Man do we ever live in a beautiful city. Just yesterday while I was out for a run I just had to stop and enjoy the wicked view down at the east end of Ioco Inlet in Port Moody. It was high tide, there was a cool raised wooden boardwalk over the water and the shore birds were out on the marshes there. If you haven't been to this area hop into your car someday, park at Rocky Point Park/boat launch and head east around the inlet on the trail closest to the water. It is world class, and less than 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver.

Since I can't contribute any progress or race reports - my Achilles is still on the mend and I am off running - I thought I share an email with you that I received over the weekend from a woman who wrote me late last year inquiring if Club Fat Ass offers beginner running clinics. I wrote her back, encouraging to join a clinic and offered to take her out for a run/walk. Never heard back until now. Here is what she shared:

February turned out to be a great month for races, but an average month for mileage. A minor injury, a couple of taper weeks, and a recovery week kept my weekday miles at well under my goal of 50 weeday kms per week. As for the other resolutions, riding to school 3 times/ week has been much easier now that it isn't raining everyday, I am still keeping a log of all my runs and rides, and my eating habits weren't as good as they were in Jan, but are still better than they were last year.