Saturday dawned a beautiful sunny day with a slight chill in the air as about 30 runners gathered in the Grouse Mountain parking lot for the first Knee Knacker training run of the season. The weather was a welcome sight considering it had poured rain all night long and stopped only hours before our training run was to start at 8 a.m.
Everyone was surprised to learn that we had various sponsor goodies to give away before the run began. Catharine Warning at Peak Nutrition gave us 10 samples of eLoad Electroyte Loader for runners to try. eLoad Electroyte Loader is a mixture of carbohydrate and electrolytes that athletes need to prevent muscle cramps and bonking when doing prolonged activity. What was the criteria for receiving these samples? Anyone who has ever had muscle cramps while training or racing got a sample! Adidas rep Mike Medland donated a couple of T-shirts and water bottles to the cause and the lucky winners ranged from 10+ KKNSTR finishers to our 'farthest traveled' participant from Toronto.
The 'basic' route planned was from Grouse to Mountain Hwy and back with an estimated time of 2-3 hours. We did a quick final 'headcount' and noted that 30 runners were present with only 2 newbies who didn't know the Baden-Powell trail.
The run itself was very enjoyable with constant chit chat to keep the heart rate at bay, we had so much fun chatting that yours truly took one of the side trails and had to back track a wee bit. Ooops sorry guys, gotta watch for the markers and not the runner in front of you! Just under an hour and we arrived at Mountain Hwy to have a quick re-group and decide if we wanted to extend the run into Lynn Valley. Some went to LV and some opted to turn back to Grouse. An out-and-back is great because you can see everyone and encourage them along the way.
We opened it up a bit on the decent back down to Grouse and had a good burn. Wow, who are those guys behind me, better let them by - I'm holding them up! Mental note... work on downhills, uphills and flats, oh yeah and eating and drinking on the trail...and watching for trail markers and ....
Next week we will be meeting at the Grouse Mountain parking lot again and traversing the BP to Mtn. Hwy, then we will go 'up' the gravel road to the top of Grouse. This should take 2.5-3.5 hours depending on the amount of snow. Be prepared for 'winter conditions' at the top, and bring some money for the tram ride down (I don't know if the Grind is open to go down) or if you want to really extend your run you can join some of us to run back down the road to the St. Georges trail (near the fork) and connect back to the BP for an epic 4-5 hour run.
Happy trails and see you out there.