Notes from Dan the Trail Guy #27

Trail Bits

By now the extremely large contingent of Runners of Compassion marathoner runners should have all returned from Port Angles. The weekend away was amazing as was the positive energy that was given off by everyone. In total there were 22 runners in the full marathon, 46 runners in half marathon and 4 crew members in the marathon yachting division, plus several injured members and family members that came down to Port Angeles. (I will give you the details of the marathon yachting trip later). The day prior to race day started out with sunshine and very little, if any wind and held promise for nice conditions on race day. Well, that all changed by around 9:00 am that morning as the wind started to blow and continued to blow throughout the day, eventually getting so strong that the last Coho Ferry sailing out of Victoria had to turn around and be assisted back in to the Victoria Harbour. Was it an omen of things to come?

Marathon Boating Trip - As 64 of us were sitting down to dinner in Port Angeles, the 4 members in the marathon yachting division were still out on the water trying to battle their way in to Victoria’s Inner Harbour. The Richardson’s and Frazier’s had left Roche Harbour on Saturday afternoon for what was to be a “three hour cruise” (sound familiar) to Port Angeles. Shortly after entering Haro Straight the wind that we were encountering in Port Angeles hit the Strait with Gale Force winds which created HUGE cresting waves. The voyage across the straight to Port Angeles was quickly abandoned and the decision to make for shelter in Victoria was made. If you thought that the ferry crossing to Port Angeles was rough, well it was apparently nothing compared to what the 37ft Motor Vessel the Richardson’s and Frazier’s encountered. Big Winds, lots of big rolling breakers and lots of white and green water. Kathleen told me on the phone this morning that she can know claim to have stared death in the face and lived to tell about it. The good thing to report is that the boat and crew are all safe and sound in Nanaimo.

Anyways, back to the race. Race day started out a little bit cloudy with a light breeze. This breeze quickly turned into a fairly strong head wind by the start of the race. At least it was sunny. The course that both the full and half follows is an extremely beautiful trail way system that wanders through farming areas and wooded areas before working it’s way down to the ocean where the trail way follows the shore line all the way to the finish. The trail way surface included sections of pavement and chip gravel. Even with the wind and sun, the Nanaimo and the Central Island gang did extremely well. 8 of the marathoners’ ran times that qualified them for the Boston Marathon and numerous people in both the Half & Full collected hardware for finishing in the top three of their age groups. All in all a fantastic weekend was had; lots of laughs, suntans and lots of good times were had by all (except the members in the yachting division). The ROC booth that Charline Sinclair took care of arranging, setting up and manning for the duration of the Race Expo was a big hit with the Port Angeles race crowd as were the new ROC shirts that were on display. Charline ended up selling all of the display shirts.
Special Thanks to: Charline for taking care of the booth; Stefan and John who biked the course and were such positive support along the way; Owen, Lou, Karen & friend, Allan, Lisa R, Dale H, Steve G, Darren (Dee’s partner) and all the rest of you who helped make up such a big cheering section at the finish line. I know from talking to a lot of the finishers that your energy helped them to finish strong. And thank you to my neighbors!



New Balance Half Iron Man – Norm Thibault is in need of volunteers for this years New Balance Half Iron in Victoria this coming Sunday. If you would like to volunteer at the ½ Iron please contact Norm’s right hand gal, Allison at jasonandalison@shaw.ca

Mt. Doug GutBuster – While most of us were in Port Angeles slacking off, a number of our ROC Trail Runners were down in Victoria for what Stefan and John Lowen described as the toughest GB EVER!. The Mt. Doug GutBuster race was a qualifying race for the Canadian Trail Running Team, so the big dogs were in town…..results - Stefan 3rd over all; John 6th over all; Bobby Jensen 3rd female over all; Janine Widsten 6th female over all; Other Nanaimoites racing on Saturday included – Gary Croome, Eric Diebert, Tony Pires, John Bird, Matt Word and Barry Roscoe. Other than J. Bird, M. Word and B. Roscoe, all the Nanaimo trail racers present were ROC members….WAY TO GO EVERYONE>

Frontrunners Clinic - Frontrunners Tuesday Night Clinics. Tomorrow, June 14th will be the last drop-in clinic until September at Frontrunners. As is tradition they will be running the clinic Olympics "Climpics". This is a great time and a bit of a fast twitch workout. 6:30 at Frontrunners. Clinics will start up again early September.

10k and Half Marathon Learn to Run Programs – We need to get some more people signed up for the Learn to Run 10K Clinic. If you know of people that have been trying to make up their mind about it, ask them to sign up. Please pass the word around. There are still a few spots left in the Half Marathon Training Clinic.

Fund Raising Opportunity – July 9th is the Westwood lake GutBuster. We are still in need of a group or an organization to run a BBQ if you know of anyone?

GutBuster Long Course Work Party. – Is going to be held in conjunction with weeks Saturday Morning Trail run. I will need to call on a few volunteers to bring small hand pruners and small hand saws. We will be cleaning up the Humility/Abyss – Cabin Connector Section of the Long Course.

Port Angeles has now Cometh and now gone – I have attached a spread sheet showing the results of the Central Island runners.

ROC Technical shirts – ARE NOW IN STOCK at FRONTRUNNERS.

ROC SPONSORED EVENTS;
July 9th is the Westwood Lake Half Marathon GutBuster – ROC provides course marshals and start/finish line volunteers and receives a per racer commission in return.
September 11th is the Nanaimo Daily News Harbour City Half Marathon & 10K Road Race….what more need I say.

This weekend we return to the Humility Abyss for a combination of Trail Running and Trail Clearing. 7:00am on the side of the road, under the power lines on Harewood Mines Road. This will be a shortened version of the loop as we will be taking the Cabin Connector. Run time will be about 65 – 70 minutes