Notes from Dan the trail guy #6

TIDBITS & OTHER BITS

1. New Years Day Run
Amazing!!! A dozen or so of us (where wereyou?) managed to pull our sorry butts out of bed and run in the fresh snow along the power lines trail and through Morell on New Years Day you missed an amazingly beautiful run.... Let me tell you, 9:00am is a very late time to start running, it through my whole day out of whack.

2. Run for Relief
As some of you may or may not know, I was trying to arrange a run for Runners of Compassion to raise funds for theTsunami victims. My original intent was to try and stage the run in time to take advantage of the federal governments offer to match private donations dollar for dollar. With this program scheduled to end on January 11th, I simply won't be able to stage the run in time.Therefore I am going to hold off staging the Run for Relief until sometime in March. I am sure that there will still be a large need for fund raising efforts at that time. In the mean time if you were thinking of donating funds for the relief victims, try and do it prior to January11th, that way your monies can be applied to the matching funds program.

3. Run Rotation
This week we return for a run of the area known as the Extension Ridge or as the Humility Abyss, same area, two different names. Either way, please be at the power lines on Harewood Mines Road by 7:30 am. Directions are below. The run includes part ofthe Trans-Canada Trail. The run should be an hour and 20 minutes inlength. For those of you that haven't run in this area before, the trails are great single track with no large hills (This is Nanaimo and it is a ridge run so there is some elevation gain, but it is minimal) I think Steve Laird refers to it as "undulating". A still to be announced speedster will lead the Greyhounds on a quick run. Apparently some of you speedier folks have a need to burn off some post Christmas energy. Well this person will do his/her best to accommodate you, and will ensure that you are out for the requisite hour and 20min or so... I on the other hand will lead a far more moderate pace group run.
Here are the directions to get to where you need to be, assuming you are coming off the Parkway.
Turn on to 5th Street - Malaspina College and head down thehill
Turn Right on to Wakesiah
Turn Right on to Nanaimo Lakes Road - Travel for 4 -5 minutes
Turn Sharp Left on to Harewood Mines Road drive past animalshelter
Travel for very short distance.
Park under the Hydro Lines

SNOW, we might have snow this week, so if on the Saturday the roads are clear and there isn't more than an inch or two of snow, we will be a go. If it is nasty out and the snow is deep, stay home, stay in bed and stay off the roads. Enjoy your chance to have a sleep in.

January 15th - Lantzville Foothills
January 22nd - Dumont Rd Trails
January 29th - Linley Valley
February or March - I will try to get Snow Shoeing organized..details to come later....all tentative and subject to weather, trail conditions and mood swings.

4. Help send Wendy Simms to the World Championships
Wendy has qualified to represent Canada and Nanaimo at the World CycloCross Championships in St Wendel Germany, January 31, 2005. Because CycloCross is not an Olympic sport, there is no financial support available for theCanadian team, so all funds required must be raised by the individual athletes. In order to help raise funds and lessen the financial burdenon Wendy a raffle has been organized which will help to off set some of Wendy's expenses. Tickets are $5.00 each and are available at Frontrunners.
Prizes include;
Dinner for two at the Discovery Room (Malaspina University - College)
Dinner for two at the Discovery Room (Malaspina University - College)
Lunch for two at the Discovery Room (Malaspina University - College)
Gift Certificate for Malaspina University - College Bookstore
Family Star Gazing Night with M.U.C Dept of Physics and Astronomy
Breakfast for 4 in the Millstone Restaurant (Howard Johnson - Nanaimo)
Shoes from Frontrunners

Draw date is January 7th

5. Runners of Compassion - Annual General Meeting
Monday January10th is the date of the Runners of Compassion - Nanaimo Chapter, AnnualGeneral Meeting. The meeting takes place at 7:00pm and is being held in the Nanaimo Hornets Rugby Clubhouse on Dover Road.

6. Training Clinics
Lots of options - Train for either PortAngeles (June 12th) or Vancouver (May1st), train either in the morning or in the evening... your choice! Now that Christmas has come and gone space will fill up quickly.So Don't Procrastinate or it may be too late!Details available from Kim Gagliano, Sherri Wade, Stefan Jakobsen, KariMacIntyre, John Lowen or at Frontrunners