Some Pictures from Recent Activities

Hugh and Chris on Forget-Me-Not Ridge

Well things have been good in the last while, running has been going better, getting out more often and even getting a little paddling in. I have been out more then this shows but I didn't always have a camera with me. The few pictures I do have are from a very wet run up Forget-Me-Not Ridge where it rained hard for the first 45 minutes of the run. I also got up Powderface Ridge a while ago and enjoyed great weather and fantastic views. This was the run where we beat the mtn. bikers to the top and also to the bottom. It is so satisfying when that happens. Lastly they are from a camping trip with my parents, my dad and I had a chance to go for a paddle from Banff to Canmore on the Bow River and it was a spectacular day, not to hot, a little breeze and a few hours on the water.

Crossing the Elbow River before going up Forget-Me-Not

The paddle has been my highlight so far this summer as my dad had always wanted to paddle the Bow and I was able to do that with him. I am so looking forward to the next trip that we have when I get to do a little paddling with him again.

Hugh and Allan on Powderface Ridge and the dogs



Some of the Trail Trash Gang heading up to Powderface Ridge

Me at the top of Powderface

Two Jack Lake

Me and my dad paddling the Bow River

The 2 Nott's heading off for a great paddle

Run for 1 Planet

Well, a few weeks ago I was reading the running edition of Impact magazine and read an article about these 2 people who were going to each run a marathon a day for a year. They were the founders of a charity called "Run for 1 planet" and their goal was to run around North America in a year raising awareness for environmental action. When I was on my vacation a couple of weeks ago we were driving through Northern Ontario and saw a runner on the side of the highway. My wife and I thought this was odd until we saw a motor home on the side of the highway that was all decaled up with run for 1 planet stuff. I remembered the article and told my wife about the group and what they are doing, so we decided to join them for a few kms.

The back of the motor home

Tasha went out first and ran with Steph for a while and I went down the highway and waited with the motor home. Matt came out and we had a little chat as we waited for Steph and Tasha to arrive. What a positive and energetic guy. We didn't get to talk for to long as he was also the driver of the motor home so he was heading down the high way to meet up with Steph and Tasha. I followed along and puled over a few kms down the road to wait for them and to get a couple of pictures. Matt and Steph switched at the next stop the motor home made so Tasha ran with Matt for a little while before I switched with Tasha.

Tasha running with Matt

I ran with Matt for about 5k and had a chance to talk to him about how the run was going. One of the goals they have is to start a marathon in each major city that they have run through during their year long run. So I am thinking about trying to get on started in Calgary, it would be a trail marathon as there are not many in the area. I am looking forward to the challenge or organizing and marketing such a race.

Tasha running with Steph

We wished we had more time to spending running with Matt and Steph but we did have to get moving as we were on our way to Sault Sainte Marie. We spent over an hour running with them and at the end of it I felt inspired to find something epic to do in my life. Anyone have an idea?

Me running with Matt

Blogging Frequency

Well, I have to admit I have down right sucked at keeping up on my blog postings. I think it is mostly due to that fact that I have not been doing much this summer. My running is down, being outdoors in general is down and it is almost half way through the summer man do I have some catching up to do. The first thing I am doing is going camping for the last week of July, not sure where yet but it will be in the beautiful outdoors and hopefully real close to a lake for some paddling the other thing it will need is trails close by. Oh, I can't wait.

Starting to get into Racing Season

The family at Chester Lake

Well, things are stating to get busy again as both Tasha and I get ready for up coming races. I know we have both done Diablo so the season has started but there are lots more coming like the Blackfoot 100k that Tasha is ding in about a week and a half and I have the Crazy Soles Trail Marathon on May 31st.

I am looking forward to crewing for Tasha at Blackfoot at I was a racer last year so this year I get to see the other side of things. It will be Tasha's first 100k and longest running race for her, but I know she will do great. It is always good to see a race from both sides, give you a new respect for all the people that organize and volunteer at these events. I am just hoping the weather will be as nice as last year.

The Crazy Soles marathon should be a great time. I have never really ran in that area before so I am really looking forward to seeing a new place, plus I can have a soak in the hot springs that are close by afterwards. My son Kael will be running his first race there which is a 3km kids fun run. Tasha might end up having to carry him a little bit but it will be fun for him no matter what.

Diablo 50 miler and San Francisco

Oh man, What a race. This is by far the toughest race I have ever ran. I would rather go back and run Lost Soul then do this one again, o.k. maybe I will do this one first but Lost Soul was allot easier. There was approx. 26,680 feet of elevation change and what felt like no flat area's. Now let me tell you how it went for me.

I flew down on Thursday night with my wife, Tasha, and a friend of ours Hugh. It was a good flight and when we got to San Fran it was a nice drive out to the city of Concord. We checked in a agreed to meet early for breakfast a day of sight seeing in San Fran. So Friday we ate breakfast and then headed to the BART train for our trip into SF and to enjoy the new sights and sounds. The city was fantastic, lots of stuff to see and do and never a dull moment. The down side was it was 28 degrees that day and far warmer then I was use to. I drank lots to stay hydrated but by the end of the day I was not feeling well and just wanted to find some shade. So we had dinner at a place called Tommy's Joynt which was a few blocks out of the way but so worth it, it had great food and low prices. Then it was back onto the BART for the trip back out to Concord.

Once we were back at the hotel things went down hill for me and spent the next few hours vomiting and trying to get over the effects of heat stroke. Finally around 9:30pm I managed to crawl into bed and not have any urge to vomit anymore. Tasha was helping me out and even packed my salomon pack for racing the next day, just in case I felt better and tried racing in the morning.

When the wake up call came at 5am I was feeling better but definitely not 100%, but I thought I would at least go to the start line and see how I felt before starting.

Once I was there I was not feeling to bad so I figured I would start the race and if things went bad I could always pull out at one of the aid stations. So I headed to the start line and waited for it to begin. This was a tough race and reminded me of a mountain marathon that I ran in Spain a few years ago, the first was almost everyone started walking right at the start. The hills started within the first km and never seamed to stop for the next 50 miles. For the first 6 miles I was feeling o.k. and spent allot of time walking the hills, which was not a bad thing. At the 6 mile aid station I saw Tasha and we started the next leg of the race up to the top of Diablo and back to this aid station for a total of 4 miles. The trip up to the top was not as bad as I thought it would be and enjoyed some amazing views from the top. The decent was on a mix of trails and fire roads which made for a quick trip down and more stunning views. Tasha and I stayed together until we made it back to the next aid station which was at the 10 mile mark. I left the buffet (aid station) a few minutes after Tasha and slowly watched her pull away from me and did not see her again until the out and back section. From the 10 mile to the 24.5 mile aid points things did not go well for me and thought about pulling out a few times, but each time told myself just go to the next aid station. When I got to the 24.5 mile station it was the start of a 12.4 mile out and back section that I was not looking forward to, however it turned out to be a great part of the race for me. I started to feel better as this section had lots of shade. There was a lot of hills in this section and saw everyone who came down from Calgary, Hugh was first then Lesley, and then Tasha. At the turn around aid station the worker was telling us that the leader would be finishing in about half an hour, so I have ran about 31 miles and the leader was around the 47-48 mile point. All I could think about was how slow I was running but also happy that I was still running. The return trip was good as things were continuing to improve for me and my pace coming back was about the same as going out and there was more climbing on the way back.

I have now covered 37 miles and was looking at 3 sections of the race until I would be finished. The first was a 3.5 mile up hill slog, it was not as tough as I was expecting but felt allot longer then what it was. I was now at an aid station and spent some time there trying to regroup and get some fuel into me. I was still picking up the pace and was looking forward to finishing. I had about a mile and a half to the summit of Mt. Diablo and about half way up I ran into Tasha. She was now about 20 minutes ahead of me and I was closing the gap. I didn't stay around the summit aid station and just headed off down the trail, only 8 miles to go. Things were going real well and my pace was great until I missed a turn at the 44 mile mark and it took me about 15-20 minutes to get back on the right trail. I tried to stay positive and saw a light in front of me so I pushed on trying to catch that person. When I finally caught up to the runner it was a girl that was crawling on all 4's like a crab working her way down the trail. It was steep but I thought this was a little extreme, I mean this is a trail race with huge elevation changes. I passed another runner and then the next person I cam across was Tasha.

It was good to finally run with her again and talk about the course and the whole experience of being on one of the toughest courses we have ever ran. Tasha had some real bad blisters from all the elevation changes and had to walk most of the way back but I didn't care. I was happy to run with my wife and spend a great evening with her on a beautiful California night.

We finally made it to the finish with only 20 minutes to spare but I didn't really care about the time as with all the issues I had the day before I was just happy to have finished. One thing Tasha and I did decided was to come back and this time prepare better and show this course what we are made of.

On Sunday Hugh, Tasha and I dropped Leslie off at the BART station and then headed off to San Fran to spend a few more hours looking around around. We decided to look around China town and have lunch before heading off to the airport.

You know the saying "the world is a small place" well once again this proved true for me at the airport. I was at the gate waiting for boarding to start when I heard someone call my name. I looked around and saw the manager of my department waiting for the same flight.

Lastly I will be back to show Mt. Diablo that I can do better and going back to San Francisco will also be nice.

Diablo 50 miler

Well, I have not done anything with the blog in months and have not done much in my running either. When finally got to a doctor after finishing Lost Soul last year it turned out I had tendonitis behind my left knee and needed physiotherapy for about a month to get over it and start any sort of running again. It has been good to relax a little and let my body recover from a tough season and now I am ready to go again and up next is Diablo 50 miler in Diablo state park. This race is just east of Oakland, California and should be a tough, scenic, enjoyable race and a chance to get away and enjoy some warm weather for a few days. I will keep you better informed of my adventures from now and and I look forward to telling my Diablo story next week. Later.