Many months ago, a challenge was put forth by Michael Wardas for any and all trail runners to join him for the "Father's Day 100 Km." - an out-and-back run on the Knee Knacker race course starting in Deep Cove at the stroke of midnight on Sunday June 18, 2000. One runner, Randy Hunter, accepted the challenge. Below is Michael's account of their adventure on the first Father's Day of the new millennium.
It was a lot harder than we thought. As you know we started at midnight (Saturday night) with headlamps in hand from Deep Cove. We know the route at night quite well and didn't have any problems until just before Grouse Mtn. We took a little side trail that you would never take in the daytime! We followed the trail for about 10 minutes until I was convinced we were not on the BP. We back tracked to the next BP marker, and restarted. This was our first in a series of 'losing the trail' moments!
We had dropped off my van at Grouse Woods before the start which had our water, food, extra clothes etc. Our transition was a leisurely 7 minutes, don't want to forget anything! It was about 4:00 am and just starting to sprinkle. We packed our toques, gloves, jackets and pants for the Hollyburn/Cypress/Black mtn portion.
Down to Cleveland dam and up through the properties. We were on the BP near Skyline trail and I thought we weren't on the BP so we doubled back to the next marker and as it turned out we were going the right way! Amazing how different it looks at night and in reverse. Just as we put the lights away we got a couple of wonderful lightning storms getting closer and closer. About 2 steps later the rain came in full force, time for jackets. Oh great here we go another soggy, long day on the trail. But as it turned out it was very refreshing and pretty fun. The Hollyburn chute going in reverse was probably one of the harder climbs of the day, it never seemed to end.
Hollyburn ski area as you know has quite a bit of snow still on it therefore making the trek quite chilly. Time for gloves, hat and tights. We knew the going would be slow up the X-country ski runs to the BP, but seeing the fresh large bear tracks took our mind of the climb. We actually missed the BP going up by about 200 meters and spent about 30 minutes looking around until we found it. I was up there the week before going from Eagle Ridge so that this kind of thing wouldn't happen but with the changing snow conditions, plus going the opposite way we still lost time. We finally made it to Cypress where we met the KK group at about 7:30. Not a blistering pace but hey we were carrying a lot of gear plus going uphill so we were pretty happy with our progress.
Thinking that we now had the rest of the distance well in hand we hiked/ran up Cypress towards Black mtn. Well we were doing fine until we got off the trail just before the Eagle Bluffs. Don't ask me where we went but it was a different bluff and it was well marked. We went to the bluff and down the trail and finally realized that this was definitely the wrong way! By this time we had lost another 40-50 minutes by the time we were back on the trail.
Down Eagle ridge to the end of the trail. We had a friend waiting there for us, luckily for cell phones we kept him advised of our position so Craig could go for a nice hike while waiting for us! We were 2:30 late! We arrived at Eagle Ridge exit at 10:30 am! My god what happened! Why are we so late! We started our transition, dumped lights and some clothes, but still kept warm gear for fear we may get lost again! This proved to not be a problem due to so many hikers travelling from Eagle Ridge to Cypress and beyond. At the transition we had a couple of dogs try to steal some of our food as we sat down changing clothes etc, not a good idea dogs! We NEED that food! Craig offered to give us a ride if we wanted to call it off, after all we were 2 hrs behind schedule. I looked at Randy and said 'no blinkin way!' we both agreed too much had happened and besides we had the whole day ahead of us.
Climbing Black Mountain was a tough one for me. I had to stop every 15 minutes and sit, I was getting exhausted, I eat & drank as much as possible but the body needed to recover on its own terms! We took it slow and easy, doing preventative foot repairs on the way to ensure blisters didn't get worse.
Up in the snow it was a blast and by now sunny and warm, with a cool refreshing breeze. We kept giving our quads, hams, calves (and Randy's favorite in his shorts) snow massages! Ohhhhh it felt so gooood! We ran down Cypress and purposely stayed on the ski run to save the knees and stay in the snow. At Cypress I was dying for a Coke so I asked a cyclist if I could 'sell him a Cliff bar' for $1.00' he said all he had was a $10! Aw man c'mon I'm dyin'. Well I must have looked so pathetic when I started back to the trail that another fellow must have overseen my display and threw me a loonie! I went to buy my pop and forgot that this was a mountain and thus the prices are 'high' the pop was $2. Well now I must have looked really pathetic because the guys dad gave me another loonie! That pop was the best pop I ever had! It got me down the Hollyburn chute with no problem, we actually ran down to!
Cleveland dam again now going up Nancy Greene way and Randy's girlfriend the 'wonderful Calla' stopped by and gave us an ice cold bottle of OJ YES! and pretzels as we walked up. She said 'how come you guys aren't running?' No response, just a look of 'man you have no idea!' Calla is probably one of the best up and coming Ultra runners out there winning the Diez Vista in 5:29 and setting a course record for the women, she knows what its like out there.
Transition at Grouse Woods, get rid of the winter clothes, whew that's lighter now, eat, water, yummy cupcakes (with the cool blue icing) from Randy's daughter Josie . More food etc...
Under the tram was uneventful with the highlight being my friend Al joined us near Mtn. Hwy to run (okay run/walk) with us. We were in contact with him and told him when we would be at Mtn. Hwy but as usual we were off by about 1 hr, so Al did a little run while waiting.
Randy had been giving me a hard time about running Lynn Headwaters road to Lynn Valley rd where the BP starts again and I was not looking forward to it either. But I ran it (if you could call my stride a run) and gave him a killer 'drop dead' look once back into the trail. Over the suspension bridge and Al offered to fill my camel back, I let him take it for me. Wow no weight felt so good! I don't think we fully appreciate how much energy is consumed carrying your own water and various supplies until you are unloaded.
Al left just before Lillooet Rd. and probably had his slowest trail run ever, but we appreciated his help and company all the same. Seymour grind was not as bad as I had envisioned, but then again nothing is bad after 32,000 ft of elevation change in almost 100 kms! The big problem was I was unable to run downhill (my specialty) due to severe knee pain. Its so demoralizing walking the last 1 or so. We thought we might be able to run the remainder and be in in under 20 hrs but alas I was too wrecked.
We walked and trotted down Quarry rock and Calla met us and ran down the remainder of the trail to Deep Cove just as it was getting dark again. We had joked that we may need to get our headlamps again!
We finished at 8:55pm Sunday in 20 hours and 55 minutes!!!!!
Oh man that hurt. I'm still stunned. We figure that we ran an extra 10k due to being lost etc.. so for those people who know the BP is 48 kms one way, when I tell you we ran 100k for a double crossing that's on the low side!
Now I know what you're thinking.... I can run the KK in xxx time right, so doing it twice can't really take that long? Well that's what we thought too! I've done the KK in 6:20 w/o snow (6:52 with) so we estimated it would take 14-16 hours total and missed the mark by 5 hrs!!
Many thanks to our SO's that put up with our madness, take care of us (but with no sympathy) and still let us keep doing it! A very special thanks to Craig who hung out for more than 2 hours waiting for us. And thanks Al for telling me over and over again how 'not tired' you were. One last thanks to everyone that saw us out there and gave us words of encouragement in one form or another, there were some really good lines from strangers that I wish I could remember, but hey my mind was getting pretty mushy!
The challenge has been put forth... I encourage ultra trail runners (even hard core hikers, adventure racers) to break the course record set on June 18, 2000 being started at 12:00 am from DC to Eagle Ridge and back. Next year the Father's Day 100k record will be broken, but by who?
All the best, and Happy Trails!
Michael Wardas
e-mail: michael.wardas@honeywell.com