Notes from Dan the Trail Guy #2

Tidbits and News Bits of the Week

Stewart Mountain – was this past Saturday and was attended by Tom Barr, John Hannon, Tom Buckley, Super Dave Kuhawly, Russ Watson, Stefan Jacobsen and Bobbie Jenson. Stefan won the inaugural event and Bobbie was the third place female. Congratulations to all of you that went. Here are a few quotes from those hardy soles that went and conquered Stewart Mountain;
· “Forget whatever Stefan says about the race, 'cause the mountain climb was f...... hard!! I guess it's a love, hate thing 'cause I'd do it again in a snap. It certainly puts the Gunner Shaw race to shame”
· “The race was pretty wicked, so much water, lots of climbing, single track, mud, yet sunny out! Couldn't have asked for better conditions. Turnout was a tad low, most likely due to the proximity to X-Mas, but still a great first year event. A good preview to March”!
· ”it was an awesome run, quite wet and muddy, twice as good as Gunner Shaw. Went through the mud hole twice and another one for fun. Then through lots of holes that were twenty feet long with no escape, with roots and hidden stuff and a long, long hill that was %#!#// long to the top of the mountain .was a great time to be had .the first hour I was thinking I should watch TV on Saturdays NOT!!! .it was a very enjoyable time”
· “Gunner Shaw on steroids is the way the course was described before the start. It lived up to its name. We crossed the swamp twice, mud everywhere, had three creek crossings (knee high with a good current), and probably 10 -15 (puddles?) which were mid calf to knee high and muddy. The 'puddles' also hid surprises which consisted of sunken logs, rocks, and mud, did I mention mud? My feet would go a little numb after coming out of the water but soon warmed up with running”….So get ready, March 12th is the first race in the 2005 GutBuster Race Series and Stewart Mountain is the first race of the series….more details in the New Year….mark your calendars. It is only 14 weeks away.

Cedar 12k – Bastion Running Club is in need of volunteers to sign up for the club's Cedar 12k race on February 13th, 2005. If interested please contact Darrell Orosz at janddorosz@shaw.ca or call 754-5139.

Marathon Training Clinics – you know the drill….info at Frontrunners

Thursday Morning Road Run –rain or shine from the New Starbucks at Country Club at 6:00am sharp.

Waiver Form – Don’t forget to bring it along.

Après Run - Coffee and Trail Gear – Frontrunners would like to host us after this Saturday’s run for après run coffee and sweets back at the store. We will meet and run the Westwood Ridges as planned and then come back for coffee at the store. Norm, Stefan, Kari and the rest of their “band of renown’s” will show off all the latest gadgets, gear and footwear that you can use when running off road. A little bit of an expo. Norm and Stefan can entertain you with stories about their great adventures around the world if the expo doesn’t interest you.

Boxing Day Run – seeing how Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, the run will move to Sunday (Boxing Day) and we will try and have a bit of a social run..,.. Are there any preferences of location? Steve G, can you please invite the Bastion membership to come along to any of the runs we do.

Bastion Running Clubs New Years Day Run & Dip – will be on New Years Day, 11:00am starting in the Westwood Lake parking lot at 11:00am. This is a free drop in event, so plan on coming out and running out those cobwebs left over from New Years Eve…..


Okay, here are the run details for this coming weekend, December 18th, 2004

We will be running the actual Westwood Ridges or what is better known as the GutBuster Route. Start time is 7:30 as usual. This will be the last “tempo run” of the year as the following week is scheduled to be a Social Run. We will break the group up as per usual based on tempo. So if you haven’t run the Ridges before or have had it on your list of things to do in 2004 this is your chance. We should have a group that will fit most people’s ability. If you have been comfortable with the past 3 or 4 runs (Lantzville, Humility Abyss, Westwood Valley) that we have done you will be okay with running the ridges…. See you Saturday. Remember that coffee is back at the store after the run. For those of you not running, but would like to meet us at the store, I would estimate that we would be back by around 9:15 ish.