We had the most glorious day to race this year, right down to the final minutes; it was good while it lasted but for the last half hour the rain poured down and the wind blew up! Of course, the runners were both mentally and physically very prepared to bring their best to the Baden Powell Trail, as always.
In the few years I've been running the Knee Knacker, I've seen snow (way too much in '99) and sun (a little bit much most years but blocked by the trees thankfully). It was quite dry in '01 but there was still some mud around then. This year was very dry and even pleasantly cool atop Black Mountain. The biggest of mud pits were dry enough to wander through the middle of if you were just a little careful.
So what makes a Knee Knacker perfect? If I listed out all the important things the list would be too long to read. My involvement with running the race has made me realise that having nice weather is great, but in the end, not terribly relevant. We train all year around and I'm sure most of us are so used to running in cold and wet weather that we likely wouldn't even notice it on race day. And if you've run in muggy conditions, like last year, you'd be praying for rain the whole way regardless.
I guess perfection could be having everyone that started in Horseshoe Bay at 6:00 am also then finish in their hoped for time or maybe in their personal best if they've gone before. But we know that won't ever happen so let's stick to reality. And seeing everyone finish, without DNF's, would be great too, but life just isn't like that. Instead, on race day, what we get is an amazing mix of people, each with compelling and perhaps perplexing circumstances, come to cover 30 miles of ground on foot as fast as they can for a reason basically known only to themselves. How many times have we been asked, "why do you do it?", only to shrug our shoulders and answer, "because". We all have our reasons and we all put our lives on hold to share in this single experience.
Now, get me straight. There are lots of other great (and perfectly insane) races out there. But, when it all comes down to it, the only thing that matters in each of them is the experience that we have as individuals. We take that adventure away with us and let it shape our thoughts and personalities for many years if not the rest of our lives. In that way the Knee Knacker is no different and certainly only equally perfect as all the others.
We could let the organisation of the event itself define how perfect things were on July 12th this year. Are you aware that there were 13 people that dedicated much of their spare, and not so spare, time to assembling thing as you saw them? Enzo, Francine, Michael, Melissa, Andrew, Sharon, Rod, Terry, Kelsy, Jeff, Curb, Debbie and me (Craig) felt the need to keep the vision going and make it all just as "perfect" as ever. More than 6 months of meetings and scrambling to make it all happen. And in Enzo's case, multiply that pretty much by 15 years - thank you Enzo!
And how about those volunteers on the course? Marshals, timers, pre-sweepers, post sweepers, photographers, a human pylon (at the start, thank you Melissa! ... did you get bruised much?) and very importantly, the aid station groups. The aid stations were more amazing than ever this year and the people involved are very important to our achievements. Thanks go out to all of them for the perfectly good food and good humour to boost our weary spirits.
And let's remember we had some record setting finishing times. How could it be more perfect to have both the men's and women's course records broken in the same year? The men's record stood for a very long time, since 1991. Now Kevin Titus has raised the bar for what will likely be another several years. Clearly that is a momentous accomplishment. And the women's record was recently beaten in 2001 by only 1 second and now has been reset better than 4 minutes faster by Patricia Jensen. I know Kevin dug deep and gave it his all and I also know that Patricia overcame exceptional circumstances to even finish the race, let alone come in first and ahead of the next woman by well over a half hour.
So what about the rest of us? Did we have a perfect day as well? I for one am so thankful to even be able to run this race, let alone help with the organisation as volunteer coordinator. That makes it perfect for me. I also know that for some odd reason many of us ran with an uncomfortable nausea for much of our five to 10 hours out there. For me the nausea was unusual and it seemed odd that so many others said the same thing. I also know that the third quarter and more was a huge challenge for me and many others. It was almost as if the sun came out and we got distracted for awhile. Then finally realised, "crap, I'm running a race here so let's get serious". I thankfully regrouped for the downhill charge into Deep Cove and gladly reclaimed a few positions that I grudgingly gave up earlier.
Perfection comes in many forms, clearly. Some of the best experiences of the day for me were to simply have my good friends around to share with. Some are brand new friends but after Saturday we feel much closer. And for the people I've known for years and who were doing the Knee Knacker for the first time, I can't get out of my mind how happy they must be to be finished and with a great feeling of accomplishment. The other thing that sticks in my mind is that this run just doesn't seem to get any easier in successive years; how could I ever have thought it would!
In the end, it did rain on our parade across the North Shore mountains. Actually, it was more than just rain, it was a downpour, but so what? That just gave us one more crazy thing to tell our friends and families.
And the banquet was perfect too. We had a full house and eventually stomachs full of salmon and chicken and lots of other good stuff (beer). Once again this part of the day helps to make the Knee Knacker decidedly unique and keep us coming back for more.
It's a funny thing ... we probably all thought we could have done better on our run. If we had just run down the ramp a little faster at the beginning and gotten on the trail ahead of a few more people we could have shaved off some time. Or maybe we might have spent less time at the aid stations and then somehow run a few more sections instead of walking so much. Or if we had trained more during the weeks and run longer on our long runs we might have been more prepared. Maybe, but maybe not. We do what we can and make the most of it. The perfect race is then ultimately bounded only by our own imagination of what it could have been or will be some day.
Thanks to everyone for making this year's Knee Knacker a special event. I hope to see you all again next year.
