The Last Half ... Cleveland Dam to Deep Cove ... by Curb Ivanic
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A group of 40 or so came out to run the
second half of the course today. We met in Deep Cove and carpooled
to the start at Cleveland Dam. Once again the sun was hidden by
cloud cover which looked threatening but it didn't rain until the last
part of the run as we neared Panorama Park.
More or less the same group of keeners
in the lead group last week were back again to push the pace.
We commenced running up Nancy Greene Way; none of this walking to
warm-up stuff for these guys and girls. And things didn't let
up once we hit the B-P. Trail conditions were great for the
most part, with most of the rocks and roots not being too slick.
Apart from the hard pace the run to Lynn Valley was enjoyable. We
hit the 3/4 mark of the course in about 1:20 and came across Team
Sandbagger, comprised of 10 time veterans Ron "Mr. Trail
Knowledge" Adams, Ean "Rain, No Train" Jackson and Paul
"That's Mr. R-D to you" Quinn. Seems as though they got
an early start and wanted to get some stealth training in. We also caught
some other early starters including Rick who wanted to have a
really long run today - he started his run all the way from False
Creek! Way to go Rick!
For the next leg the group spread out a
bit but kept the intensity up. At Lillooet Road we hooked up with
Alex Watson (women's course record holder and runner extraordinaire)
and Scott the crazy downhiller, who also started early. Geez,
does anyone check the schedule any more? These two speedsters
certainly didn't help to lessen the pace as the group hightailed it to
Deep Cove. Coming down to the finish I was surprised to see one of
the footbridges in the final mile had collapsed. This must have
happened in the last couple of weeks; sure hope no one was on the
thing when it fell. As we came down the final steps we ran
into co-RD Enzo Federico who must have gotten his time and
directions mixed up and was running the opposite way ;-)
The lead runners came into the Cove in
about 2:45 with a steady stream of runners flowing in after them. A
slight rain just started as we finished so we did the smart thing -
headed to Honey's Donuts for the perfect après run snack. A
great finish to a great run!
Next week be prepared for snow as
we're running an out and back from Cleveland Dam to Cypress.
Meeting time is at 8 a.m. I repeat, 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.
Have fun on the trails!
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