Went for a great trail run yesterday, started out to be just a normal run in the North Shore mountains, specifically Mt. Fromme, for those not familiar with Mt. Fromme lets say Grouse Mountain. It was a cool summer, I should say fall morning, with a crispness in the air, blue skies as far as you could see. It wasn't the best start to my run, my watch bleeping low battery which would completely die 10 minutes into the run, my I-Pod battery light in the red, hoping that it would last what was supposed to be a 1 hour 30 min easy run on the Baden Powell, 45 min out and 45 min back....so I thought...
45 minutes into my run, I hit Mountain Highway Road, the main road that mountain bikers climb to get to all the gnarly trails Mt. Fromme has to offer. Only a few days ago I was thinking that I'd like to climb this specific hill at some point in the near future and always having the mentality, no better time than the present, I was off for a climb not knowing how long it would take and hoping that it would get me to the Gondola at the top of the grind, this being my back up plan if the hill took longer than anticipated which would take me back down to where I was parked.
Originally thinking that this hill would take about 45 minutes to run up, 45 minutes in and still climbing, legs were starting to get a little tired by this point. My 1 hour and 30 minute run went by and I was still running, I was starting to wonder if I should turn around at this point as I wasn't sure how much further the Gondola would be, but also knowing if I did turn around it would be another 1:30 back to the car, which would make my run a total of 3 hrs, this wasn't planed as I haven't ran any long distances since my last 5 peaks race 2 weeks ago. So I kept on going, hoping to get to that Gondola, 1 hr later coming to fork in the road, deciding to take the high road, thinking the Gondola had to be nearby, at this point the mist has set in so thick you could see no more than 100 feet, which really buggered things up for me. If it wasn't for this mist I would have been able to see were the Gondola was and would not have second guessed my original decision eventually turning around and heading back to the fork and taking the low road, ending up at a dead end after 20 min of downhill. Now wondering what I should do next, looking up the hill thinking that I need to go back to were I started from, I see an older gentlemen running down the hill straight at me, so I decided to wait. 5 minutes later he finally arrives and I ask him, were did you come from, he said, the Gondola, I said, perfect just were I was going, he clarified the direction then noted that he would be running down a trail back to the Baden Powell Trail to the Grouse parking lot if I was keen to join him. Thinking it would be at least another 20 up to the Gondola and being it 2 + hours into my run already, remeber my watch was dead, I decided to take the offer and run downhill back to what I was hoping is my car, also knowing I wouldn't be getting lost with someone that was familiar with the area. It was my first time in these parts. He explained the trail in detail as we ran off, stopping to show me where a fighter jet had crashed in the mountain side many years ago, with the turbine still intacked and a memorial laid out explaining who the fighter pilot was and how he became stuck on Mt. Fromme. A little while later we finally popped out on the Baden Powell, a familiar sight, and happy to see I wasn't to far from the parking lot.
The I-Pod lasted the entire run, 2 hours and 45 min, thankfully, it was the only thing giving me any idea of how long I'd been running for. If it wasn't for Tim, the nice gentlemen that bailed me out, "sort of", I never get lost, I might still be on top of Mt. Fromme running circles looking for that Gondola, or it could have been a really really long run back to the car.
I have to admit my legs are a little sore today, and biking to work took longer than normal, as my ride home will be the same I'm sure....
Can't wait to do it all over again next weekend....
Monday, August 30, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Pictures say a thousand words
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A little taste of the race course at the Whistler 5 Peaks
Lucky with the weather (they were calling for rain) a little chilly but perfect racing temperature
Beautiful scenery in the hardest race I've ever raced in, not able to enjoy it until after the race
Finishing that last few hundred feet of climbing, with a total of 1000 feet of elevation gain at one time, these last 100 feet felt like 10 times more
Feeling that I had a good race, but I wouldn't find out for 24 hrs how well I actually did
Start Finish line at 6100 feet
Whistler 5 Peaks
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