Notes from Dan the Trail Guy

Great turn out (25 +/-) for last Saturday’s run in the snow and rain on the trails of the Humility Abyss. I think everyone went home very impressed by the great trails we ran and by the pace that they were run at….Thanks to Kari for leading and thanks to Allan Richardson for bringing the Nanaimo Bars for after the run….I left in a big hurry and took them with me…sorry!……Starbucks must have loved it when you all showed up, covered in mud and soaking wet. It must have smelt really nice for the other customers coming in for coffee..…what’s with the Baby Wipes?

This weeks run will be a run starting out of Westwood Lake….7:30 am. Brad and Kathleen will be leading.

I would like to pre-book (or pre-warn, depending on how you look at it) that next Saturday will be a run along the top of the Westwood Ridges – GutBuster Route. I will make sure we have two leaders, so that we can break the group up into different tempo runs. Last run before Christmas…

Tidbits and News Bits of the Week


Training Clinics – As most of you already know there are two training clinics being offered for the North Olympic Discovery Trail Marathon, which is June 12th in Port Angeles, Washington. I have dropped off registration forms for the North Olympic Discovery Trail Marathon at the store. The Half and Full Marathons are both run on a paved trail way that starts in Sequim and ends in Port Angeles. According to the list of people that I have on the rooming list for Port Angeles, there are 30 of us confirmed as going down so far. I wouldn’t wait too long to register for either clinic as space is limited in both. www.northolympicdiscoverymarathon.com

Kim and Sherri are offering a 16 week early morning (6:00am) Port Angeles Half & Full Marathon Clinic starting in mid February….forms at Frontrunners
Stefan, John and Kari are offering a 16 week evening clinic for the Port Angeles Half & Full Marathon starting in mid February…..forms at Frontrunners.

Thursday Morning Road Run – For those of you looking for an early morning run, there is a group that goes out Thursday mornings, rain or shine from the New Starbucks at Country Club at 6:00am sharp

Waiver Form and Email confirmation: This will be last Trail Running Email that I will be sending out those of you that haven’t emailed me back the confirmation that they want to receive the weekly email. There are some fairly regular Saturday morning runners who are conspicuous by there lack of response.

Trail Run Rotation: I am going to try and keep a rotation of the following trails for our Saturday morning runs. Westwood/Morell, Westwood Ridge Valley Trail, Humility Abyss, Dumont Rd, Linley Valley and Lantzville Foothills. This will allow us to maintain some variety. The location will depend each week on the availability of leaders, weather and the level of Friday night wine consumption.

Gunner Shaw Video – If you ran the Gunners Shaw or if you want to see what the puddle and the finish were really like, go to the Prairie Inn Harriers Homepage and scroll down until you see the video link for the Puddle & Finish. Click on it and watch the fun.

Here is a copy of the Thank you note from Bill Jones of the Nanaimo Daily News. As you can read below, our support was appreciated.

Dan and Kelly,
Here is a note of thanks from all of us at the Daily News to the Runners of Compassion, Nanaimo Chapter, for coming out and helping us make Give and Go! Nanaimo such a success. We were impressed with the number of runners who came and gave us a hand. To our mind, this clearly demonstrates the partnership your organization has with our newspapers. Thanks again and we'll see you next year. Sincerely, Bill