Over the last week, I've had some incredible runs and races (that I watched). I've heeded some of the advice of Adam Campbell and have been enjoying climbing and descending more than ever before. My lovely Lara ran the Iron Knee last Sunday and I got a chance to watch a race for a change. Seeing the lead group come through still blows me away. Oliver Utting barely looks like he's working, but I guess when you weigh a buck twenty-two, how much work is required. For the record, he said it was hard.
The day before the race I volunteered at North Shore Athletics for the package pick up. It's my first time and I love this job. You get the chance to see everybody in their civilian clothes, not covered in salty residue, and smiling. I had some great chats and loved getting to know a larger group of the North Shore's running community. The next morning I was able to cheer on so many people by name and I loved it. Some of them had no idea who I was, but smiled and pranced away in a better place...I think.
Monday I got an email from my Dirty Duo teammate, Arthur Gaillot, asking if I'd be interested in racing with his fellow Nomad machine, Chris Johnston, in the Red Bull Divide and Conquer. What is that, I wondered? After a quick Google search of a race that is in my own background and that I'd never heard of, I gladly accepted. All we needed was a paddler. Someone who knows the Capilano River like the back of his hand. A good friend of mine know's paddlers well and hooked us up with James Mole, a guy, he believes has paddled the Capilano more than anybody on earth. Sounds like we found our guy. James accepted the invite excitedly and now we have a team for June 16th's Divide and Conquer.
I started asking some questions and doing some research and found that
the route went over some trails I'd never been on. The terrain is my
backyard, but I didn't recognize the names, JetBoy, Dreamweaver, or
Executioner. This information came from local ultra running star, Gary
Robbins so I knew it must be accurate. By Wednesday I'd determined that
I'd been on JetBoy and I'd been on Executioner. The latter on a bike and
the former about five years ago. By yesterday, granted not in it's
entirety, I'd seen the whole course. It's going to be tough. It's a
12-13km course that'll likely take near two hours. Below are a few
pictures from the course.
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| Entrance to Executioner of Dreaweaver |
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| Entrance to Executioner from Mountain Highway (off 6th switchback) |
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| Executioner Steep Section |
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| Cool Archway entrance to Dreamweaver |
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