Friday, July 29, 2005

Notes from Dan the Trail Guy #32

Trail Bits

Couple of runs to report on. The night run was fun. We left Westwood Lake parking lot at 9:30 pm and headed up to the view point up on the Westwood Ridges. Beautiful night skies and some amazing views of Nanaimo’s night lights were taken in. One of the gang realized why it is recommended that you change your batteries in your headlamp before you start out on a night run. Running down off the ridges in absolute pitch black darkness with your head lamp giving out less lamp than a burnt out match stick is not fun. Luckily an extra flash light was brought along. Saturday was a group run of the original Linley Valley Trail race route. Lots of twists and turns and lots of fun.

Have a fun and safe BC Day Long Weekend

Harbour City Half Marathon Volunteers – Please remember that James Williams is in need of course marshals for the Big Event which takes place September 11th. James is asking those of you who are able to commit to volunteering as a course marshal of in any other capacity to please e-mail, James Williams, at jfwilly@shaw.ca or telephone him at 250-390-3738. Thank you so much for your consideration of his request!

A race report from Tim Stokes - I thought I would send you a short report on the SAFARI (Short and Fun Adventure Racing) event that I participated in at Ladysmith over the weekend (www.shortandfunadventureracing.com). There were about twenty five teams/plus solos in all, and the race included a 3 km kayak, a 5 km+ trail run and an 8 km mountain bike ride. The highlights of my (and team mate Heather’s) race included: picking the wrong type of kayak (two slow plastic singles and not a speedy fiberglass tandem), the run/dance along the beach among the rocks and oyster shells, traversing the flowing culvert under the highway, the run up the steps of Holland Creek trail, the logic test at the waterfall (failed miserably), the agility test in a play ground, the mountain bike ride down the Holland Creek trail including a water crossing (saved a 2 minute penalty), the eight bee stings (plus the approximate swearing), the final victory run around the Transfer Beach amphitheatre, and the Corona at the beer garden. Overall it was a really great fun event that was well organized. It is will be definitely worth mentioning it to the other ROC members, some of whom I am sure would be up for the challenge next year…..Cheers, Tim

This Weeks run is a return to The Dumont Trails – 7:00 am at the Yellow gate. Drop me a note if you need driving directions. The group decided this past weekend that we should try adding some short speed pursuits to the trail run on the easier terrain sections. What will happen is that who ever is leading (we will take turns) will call pursuit and take off at a faster for a period of 2 minutes. Once the 2 minutes is up the pursuit will end and the runners at the front will turn around and ran a loop back to the rest of the group. Something to try…comments please. The intent is that only those that want to do the pursuit will do so, the rest of the group will continue at the normal pace.

The following was forwarded to me - I am a volunteer of Island Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centre and I am emailing you in regards to the Sound and Silence Run/Walk. I want to let you know that this years' event is taking place on August 21st. I am attaching a link to our registration form to this email; http://www.idhhc.ca/funrunspot.htm forms can also be picked up at Frontrunners or at the Centre (#300 - 1627 Fort St). Also if you collect pledges and raise $65 or more you will receive a long sleeve technical shirt with event logo. Additional info: Event is taking place at Mitchell Bros. Farmers Marker located at Island View Road and Lochside Trail (off Pat Bay Highway)

New Websites – Please have a look at the new ROC website http://www.runnersofcompassionnanaimo.com and the new Frontrunners website http://www.frontrunners.ca/default.asp

Early Warnings:
· Frosty Foot Race - December 4th, 2005, Bowen Park, Nanaimo, 10 am start, registration 9:15, 10km Run, 5km Run or Walk, 1km Tot Trot
· Half Monty (25K) & Full Monty (50k) trail races are August 20th, 10:00 am start, just outside of Victoria. There are a few of us going down if you want to come along. Here is the race website http://www.clubfatass.com/events/FullMonty
· Log Train Trail Half and Full Marathons – Sunday, August 14th, Port Alberni. Mary Bauto one of our ROC members is the Race Director for this very nice trail race. http://www.arrowsmithradicalrunners.com/PDF%20files/LTTentry.pdf

Paul Karchut's Adventrures in the South Continue...

Hey everyone,

Man, a couple weeks since I last wrote... time4s flying yet still every hour4s chalka-block (sp?).

When I last wrote we4d just towed a cranky old van in to Santiago after a stint of stellar cat skiing and were sorting out where to head next.

The following day, Alex and I hit the road to Las Trancas, 8 hours south of Santiago. The elevation was lower than that of the hills we4d been skiing but since we were that much further south, the snow was on-the-money. And, once again due to the lower elevation, we were below tree line and could therefore get some tree runs in- which was nice, as this is such a huge part of our at-home ski diet. But the trees were mostly deciduous and well spaced, with gorgeous powder throughout, reminding me of the turns in northern Japan.

So it was 3 days there, a night stay in Chillan where we visited Chile4s largest outdoor market, then back to the hub of Santiago to head into Argentina.

A 10 hour bus ride through the most spectacular mountain pass I4ve ever seen set us into San Rafael, Argentina. Here we would meet up with the organizers of Cajon Grande, a backcountry ski operation 10 hours away. Three Swiss snowboarders were joining us as well and we quickly hit it off. In the Argentine way, we were a day late in our departure to Marlargue but on the morning of the 20th, we were off in a van at 6am, not knowing quite what to expect. 5 hours in the van later, we were in the middle of nowhere already seeing snow and crazy line potential abound. We then left the van, loaded our gear on mules, mounted horses of our own and traveled upward into the mountains, through river crossings, deep snow drifts, loose volcanic rock... it was awesome!

It was getting dark and very cold, the horses were spent and we left them with a wrangler, hiking in about -20 temperatures for another 1.5 hours before our arrival at the hut. We were cold, the place had been boarded up and we were the first arrivals of the season. No lifts, no snowmobiles, no power, no phone, no avi control, no waivers... this was skiing in it4s most puritanical sense. Our spirits were high and under a clear sky, lit by a full moon, Alex and I laid the first tracks of the season that night... it was brilliant.

Talking to the guys who run the hut, they turn out to be a set of French brothers. Talking to them further, I start realize these guys are kinda legendary. Phillipe, a professional photographer and mountain guide. And Serge, a pro snowboarder who in his fantastic french accent non-challantly drops comments like:
(When I was testing prototype boards in Alaska with McKonky..."

We all were hitting it off... the next day we looked at some charts and started hiking. The days kinda molded into 1. My routine going something like this:
1) Wake up early to the sound of my bunkmates snoring. 7ish. Still dark and clear, every day clear, and cold, freakin cold at night (-22 was usual).
2) Hit the hot open air hot springs (45 degrees), soak, read, wait for the sun to come up.
3) Breakfast, tea.
4) Hike 5, 6 hours a day... once the sun came up, things warmed up to 10 or so degrees. And we quickly gathered which facing slopes were best at which point in the day. Lunch was packed for us, home made bread, cheese, jam... so good.
5) Wait for dinner at 9 or so... dinner was brilliant. Talk to every in the hut, read, hot spring, etc.
6) Sleep by 10.

On the second to last day, I bagged two first descents within 6 hours of one another! The first was a solo run visible from the hut. A boney, rock littered face that I slowly picked my way through. I named it (Cabra Centrale(... goat central. Because a) the area is goat farming territory in the summer and b) only a goat would be stupid enough to try and pick it4s way through there. The second was a longer tour that I did with Crispin, one of the Swiss riders. It was a steep, beautiful bowl. We named it Swiada Ridge as an ammalgamation of the two rider4s homes (Switzerland and Canada). Now, while I plan to milk the whole, "I got two South American first descents in one day" line, I4ll break even with you, when you4re that far away from anything, bagging a first descent is fairly straight forward.

Phillipe and I toured together a lot and shot a lot of film together... his 41st birthday was on the last day of our trip and we skinned 3 peaks together that day. He is a skinning machine and I learned a lot about reading snow, pacing a skin track, backcountry and other general stuff from him.

Our horse ride out yesterday was much easier as we knew what to expect. We all pigged out on pizza last night and today is a rest day. Alex and I are now heading into Northern Argentina, then Bolivia to hike a 5000 plus metre volcano, then into the Atacama desert in northern Chile, then south for a bit more skiing.

Dude, life4s good on this end! Hope you4re doing well, too. Thinking of you all. Write me.

With love,
Paul

Stefan's Trans Alps Update

Stefan and partner finished up the 8 day Trans Alp mountainbike race in 7th place in the mixed division. This was an awesome finish for such a competitive race. We will post some more pictures in the gallery when Stefan gets over his jet lag.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Bastion Bits

Just got back from 3 days at Denman & Hornby Island and thought it was time to bring all members up-to-date again so here goes:
-Thanks to Judy Orosz and her assistant Debra Cross for putting on a fantastic "breakfast at the lake" last Saturday! Check our website for the next one coming up in August.
-Rick Harmeson, our webmaster, has made some adjustments to our Chatboard so we do not get any unwanted non-member advertisements posted. If you have not already done so, please register, sign in and start using this form of communication to other club members! Also, Rick is asking for any members who have club pictures of events, races, etc to post them on our Gallery.
-Remember, with the hot weather lately, to make sure you put on protective sunscreen and wear a hat or visor when you go out for your run!
-We have some club members competing at the Masters Championships this weekend in Edmonton so best of luck to them!

Hope everyone is having a great summer....Steve.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Stefan at Trans Alps

Stefan's team continues to do very well at the Trans Alp Challenge in Europe. For all the news and action you can check their web site out at: http://transalp.upsolutmv.com/en/

Stefan is competing in the Mixed category and is in 7th place with one day to go.

Notes from Dan the Trail Guy #31


Trail Bits

What a great weekend. Saturday saw us venturing onto the Dumont trails for what the group thought was one of the best trail runs we had in a long time. We took in a number of real nice new trails, ran at a good pace and ended up at Chapters as usual….perfect! We should have realized that the Duomont trails being real muddy in July was a sign from Mother Nature that she had some interesting things in store for us the next day. Sunday saw about 30 of us meeting in the parking lot of Chapters as we arranged car pooling on a beautiful sunny morning. After a quick drive up the mountain we set off on what ended up being a 2:40 trail run. The SPEED hiking group did a 2:00 hike. I apologize to those of you in the hiking group that had to wait for us to return. I didn’t think it would take us close to three hours to run only 16k. But it was a tough run due to the mud. Yes, more mud. But this mud was deep and nasty, the kind that wants to keep your running shoe as a souvenir. I have never seen such a dirty group of people after a run. Despite the mud, it was a classic run. Lots of great scenery, mud, roots, big views, mud, and two big switch back hills climbs, and very few bugs. Apparently the meal afterwards at Atlas in Courtenay was fantastic as well.

Harbour City Half Marathon – James Williams has graciously agreed to be in charge of recruiting course marshals for the event which takes place September 11th. James is asking those of you who are able to commit to volunteering as a course marshal of in any other capacity to please e-mail, James Williams, at jfwilly@shaw.ca or telephone him at 250-390-3738. Thank you so much for your consideration of his request!

This weeks run is a Run of Linley Valley – 7:00am – Burma Road. Burma Rd. is off of Lost Lake Rd. Turn onto Lost Lake Rd at the very top of Rutherford Hill. Follow it for a long ways (5 minutes). When you come to Burma Rd turn right. We will run for about 75 -85 minutes.

Full Moon is Thursday Night. Anyone interested in a night run? 9:30pm Start - You have to email me for more details. You need an LED Headlamp if you want to trail run at night.

Early Warnings: Frosty Foot Race - December 4th, 2005, Bowen Park, Nanaimo, 10 am start, registration 9:15, 10km Run, 5km Run or Walk, 1km Tot Trot

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Note from Bastion

Hello one and all
Just a reminder that there will be goodies at the lake this Saturday starting at 10:00 am see you there.

Judy
Social Director

Stefan reports from Europe #3

Hello Everyone,
I hope you are all well ... thought I would fill you in on the Austria weekend and wish everyone good wishes back home. Attached are some pics (see our Gallery) from the pre-ride, coffee in Luzern with a sleepy John and of course Euro cheer leaders ... I mean really, if the Tour gets Podium Girls we should at least get cheer leaders :-)

Off to Trans Alp tomorrow ... can't wait as I think it will be an amazing experience ...
See you all soon,
Stefan

July 6, 2005

I was really looking forward to the 2005 edition of the Athletissima Track Meet in Lausanne, and it definitely did not disappoint. I have never been to a big track meet, and to see athletes of this caliber was pretty amazing. This track meet is in its 30th year, and the city definitely backs it one hundred percent. I was shocked when we were walking the few kilometers from the parking area to the stadium I have never seen so many people going to see a track meet! I believe the stadium holds 15, 000 people and it was jam packed!

Prior to going to the track meet Myriam, Genevieve, Hugo and I first went into downtown Lausanne to have a little look around. Lausanne it hilly! They say that it is the city of women with the most beautiful legs, because of all the hills hmmm all cities should be hilly!!!! Lausanne is home to about 200,000 people, so a little smaller than Victoria. It is definitely not a big city, but has all hustle that one would expect. Situated above Lake Geneva, and most definitely full of history, it is quite a beautiful city.

The Stadium Olympic is apparently a very fast track. It was cool to see some Canadian athletes racing, with Mark Boswell in the high jump, Dianne Cummings in the 800 and Kevin Sullivan in the 1500. Perdita Felicien was running the 110 hurdles but unfortunately she went down with a bang on the 3rd to last hurdle! The events I enjoyed the most were definitely the men's 3000 and 1500. In the men's 3000 there were some pretty awesome faces in the crowd; Kipketer from Kenya and Tariky Bekele from Ethiopia were awesome to see! Bekele was definitely the star with almost a 100m victory. But the finest result definitely came from the women's pole vault where Russian Yelena Isinbayeva set a new world record of 4.93 meters! Very cool!

John arrived in Geneva on Thursday and we picked him up and pretty much keep him moving until we hit Austria on Friday. It was funny because today he said to me I can't believe I have been here four days. I got here, drove to Austria, rode up a mountain, got beat to crap on some crazy race course, drank beer and somehow ended up back in Nyon. I think it is really just a blur to him!

The drive to Austria was quite beautiful and is about 600km from Nyon. But at 200km an hour that really is not long! Seriously though they do drive fast! We would have made good time had it not been for the mandatory bakery (coffee) stop in Luzern! It took us a few minutes, but we found what we were looking for and it was well worth the stop love the bakeries in Europe and apparently John loves the coffee! From Luzern we made one more stop in Liechtenstein but Liechtenstein just looked expensive so here we had our picnic lunch of bread, cheese and pie! Myriam is good to travel with she brings pie!

Austria is stunning mountains everywhere! I just had a little look around and I knew that this was going to be a tough race! We didn't get to Austria until 5pm on Friday so we headed out straight away to pre-ride prior to the pasta party. Everyone kept telling us that the course was very technical but from the first while we could not see the truth in that. And then John crashed! Hmmm things got tough in a hurry. This course was indeed tough. It was awesome though, as it had a bit of everything. What made it really tough were the climbs and the mud. The fist part of the course was quite dry, but when you got into the forest it made me feel like I was riding at home, but in the winter; wet, muddy, and fully of roots! It was fun though, and you could tell it was going to be a course for the mountain bikers. Once back at our hotel (which was amazing) John started to feel his ribs hurting. As they continue to hurt more and more it would appear that John may be doing IronMan next week with a few wounds from X-terra opps!

The beauty of this race has to be the start time ahhh, 1pm! Sweet! The swim was so nice, as it was a typical mountain lake; clean and clear and cold! For me, the swim would definitely set the theme for the day. A great first lap kept me just off the leaders feet, and then the second lap I faded about a minute back. The bike was wicked fun, but again, I rode really well the first lap and managed to get into the top 5 by the end of the lap one, but then I faded again. I still felt within myself, but I just started to make some small mistakes and sure enough my lap split dropped off by about 2min. Coming into the run I was now in 8th place but lost two more places while I struggled with my insole bunching up in my shoe??? You would think I had done this before? The run was really, really hard and after a tough bike, it felt more like a death march. I managed okay the first lap, and actually put some time on a few people up the tough climb to the waterfalls, but alas, the second lap they would come back on me as I power walked the second climb to finish 11th. The cool thing was that the race was super tough, and I definitely feel satisfied in finishing not too bad. John too had a really solid race despite his sore ribs, and accomplished his goal of no more crashes.

The cool part of the evening was meeting some new people and having a few beers to celebrate Johns 3rd place podium finish in his age group! The life of the party had to be the Italians but the good thing is that they wanted everyone to join there party! Heck they even supplied all the food! The Italians must be proud of their food because they brought blocks and blocks of cheese, sausages galore, and drinks for plenty! Some of those drinks though they look like wine, but we call that the hard stuff. Yikes, watch out for the Italians!

Back in Nyon today. We took most of the day to drive home yesterday as we stopped in Zurich to visit some friends of Myriam's and they were kind enough to take us all around the city. The weather was pretty awful, but the sites were amazing and the coffee shops did not disappoint. It is so nice to have all these guided tours!

Just kicking back and getting ready for TransAlps which starts on Saturday, and for John, IronMan Switzerland on Sunday. We both feel like we met a big bad Swiss dude in some dark alley somewhere, but we can't really remember.

I hope everyone is well back home!!!
Best wishes,
Stefan

Update from ROC Dan for this Weekend

Couple of things to pass along.

We are a go for Sunday. 6:30 am in the parking lot between Chapters and Pier 1. Saturday at Duomont is still on as well, but I need help with leading.
Forecast for Sunday is full sunshine….yahoo! This means that you will need sun screen. Bug Spray is also a good idea.

Maria Frost (who is recovering from a leg injury) will be leading a hiking group on Sunday at Strathcona, so if you want to come run, but can’t bear the thought of leaving you partner at home, bring them along and Maria will hike with them for the time that we are running. The hikers should be in reasonably good shape as this is a 2 hour hike.

I have had several people ask me about how hard the run is. This is a trail run remember, there is one very rooty section with a switch just before we reach Kwai lake. Those that have done the run with us in the past are coming back and no one is complaining, so I guess you will have to come find out for your self.

Yvonne Visser asked me to pass along the following message in regards to the GutBuster; Hi Dan, can you pass this around?? I would like to thank all of you who spent countless hours to get everything ready so that I could participate in this run. It was amazing, and I thank you all. Yvonne

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Jimmy P.

Our friend Jim Pearson has a blog site mostly dedicated towards an annual ride up Hurricane Ridge. Link to the blog: http://jfpee.blogspot.com/

Marg in Europe

A good friend of the shop has a number of events lined up over the next few months including the Trans Alps which Stefan is racing. You can keep up to date with her through her web site at: http://eteamz.active.com/MargsRace/

Stefan Reports from Europe #2

Hey Guy's,
Lots of news to cath up on from home but just have a few moments to send a quick update. Thanks for all the emails and congrats to the staff on GB and to Kirsten on the house in Nanaimo ... sweet! I hope the superstars did great at nationals!!! Okay ... my quick update and then I will send you more info with pictures later in the day ....

The race in Austria was wicked ... but SOOO HARD! The course was brutal, but so fun. The swim was cold, but in an amazing mountain lake, the bike was steep, with some really tough but fun downhills, and it covered grass, pavement and major mud so I think we did a bit of everything. The run, well, it was darn hard too ... with a HUGE climb up to this waterfall each lap and a really steep and slippery descent. I had a good race ... a great half ... and a tougher half ... and as for my transition, damn, I can't believe it but everytime I put my shoe on my insole bunched up??? Finally I started to run like this until I realized I could not anymore ... and finally got it fixed. Too bad as this was probably 10th place gone, but then I bonked anyway :-)

The swim was good ... I was on the lead group for about 500m and then faded ... but it went really smooth. The first lap of the bike was great and I got to as high as 4th place (rode with Lebrun for the 2nd half of the first lap and even passed him on one climb and in the mud) but then the fun ended and I started to fade (and make more mistakes). The run too, I was solid for one lap, and then faded again .... so, I think it means I should have done the half race :-) Ah, considering two months ago I figure things are on the up and up. I feel pretty beat up now though, so need to try and loosen up!

Austria was amazing ... it is such a beautiful place here. I will be back there next week as this is right by where TA starts ... ohhhh, that is going to be hard but I think it will be so good for my fitness and maybe will mean that I do not fade as much in the shorter races :-)

I hope everyone is well at home and i will write more soon!
Take care,
Stefan

Stefan reports from Europe #1

Wow I can't believe that I am living in Europe! Albeit for only five weeks, I have always wanted to plunk myself down and take it all in on my list of high priority things to do: visits to the bakery, riding my bike, learning a very little bit of French, and truly relaxing on this exercise induced vacation.

I feel super fortunate to have met Myriam and continue to feel lucky as I invade her daily routine as she takes me around Switzerland. Being a tourist can be a lot of fun, but coming to a place where you have instant friends is hard to beat. Knowing people makes all the difference, and it takes some of the guess work out of traveling. Myriam knows all the spots, and she has been amazing in taking me around and showing me the sites. She already knows me all too well, as our first stop upon arrival was to the much talked about best ever ice-cream on the lake. It did not disappoint! Between this and bakeries on every corner (and up every mountain) I am glad that we also have an agenda of big miles in the saddle.

Nyon is a beautiful little town of about 20,000 people located on Lake Geneva. I have actually been to Lake Geneva before, but on the French side doing a triathlon back in 1996. I think the size of the town it perfect, as I find my way around quite easily, everything is in walking distance, and it has all the feel of a European haven a castle, roman columns, all the cute little European houses, cobbled streets, and of course the coffee shops, bakeries, and ice cream stores! It was cool to sit outside the castle on the first day and look over top all the old houses, packed together, listening to two men blow on traditional Swiss horns, and think of how different it all seemed from home.

The first stop was a visit to Sheila and Guy's for dinner on Thursday night. It is neat to see Sheila's new life as she has made it here in Switzerland. Her and Guy have a beautiful little flat about 20min away from Nyon and I am super proud of her when I think back to how hard she found those initial months after the move. Even more so, it was just like 6 years ago. best friends but it was in her new home and not back in Victoria!

After a huge sleep that night I did my first ride in Switzerland. Every theme of every ride has been hot and hilly! Hot is an understatement as it has been in the mid 30s and humid most days. We went out to buy a fan after a few nights only for the weather to finally cool down today isn't that always the way! As for hilly I thought Nanaimo was hilly? I must have been mistaken because after this trip Nanaimo will forever seem flat!

On the Friday night Myriam had organized a bbq down on the lake with a group of friends. It is cool how multi-national Switzerland is. I met people from Argentina, Ireland, Mexico, Columbia, and even Canada. Actually, one friend by the name of Lucas actually went to high-school at SMU in Victoria? It really is a small world. The bbq was super cool, as again, it felt like instant friends. It was a perfect spot as with the heat has come tropical-like storms and the covering available was perfect as I witnessed some of the most intense rain and lightning I have ever seen. It has actually been like this on more than one night intense heat building up to intense storms at night. I never knew Switzerland was tropical???

Saturday we headed up to Verbier which is the Whistler of Switzerland. What this really meant was that I was in for some pretty Epic rides. Upon getting to Verbier Myriam eased me into the hills with a small climb up some of the slopes in behind where we were staying. But on Sunday I was in for the big show. Jesus, and I prayed to him a few times, those were some brutal climbs. We rode 5hrs up through a few villages ending at a manmade hydro dam that was really quite the site. I included pictures of some of the tunnels that you went through winding your way up the mountains, but thankfully, also of the bakery that saved my life before the last climb back up to Verbier. Actually, it was cool to see the writing on the roads (although we were on the trails) from the recent Tour of Switzerland. Jan was a popular name on the roadside, but so too were many of the Italians. Cycling in Europe is just so different.

That night I was introduced to a traditional Swiss meal of potatoes and cheese. It is funny, as you have potatoes and cheese, potatoes and melted cheese, and grated potatoes, grated onions and grated cheese? The Swiss like their potatoes and cheese! BUT, to tell you the truth, I could take or leave the potatoes on their own, but add all the different cheeses and I have found a new favorite meal!!!!

Thankfully I ate a lot of potatoes and cheese as the next day we drove to Champery to pre-ride the Swiss Mountain Bike Marathon Championship course for next weekend. Here we met three others and were led up the gondola by Jean Christoph Guichard who in the mid 1990's was a great Swiss triathlete on the world cup circuit. I think Mark Bates may have had a good battle with him back in the day. This course is totally epic and I think it climbs close to 3000m in the day. The hills are tough, the single track is technical, and the downhills are so very bumpy. In the day we broke one spoke on Myriams wheel, loosened a few of my spokes (Norm brakes still squeal?), and had a huge blow out on a sidewall. This in itself is a story. Sam, one of the riders, blew a huge hole in his tire and we reinforced the sidewall with pieces of inner-tube and patches, and then tightly tied another piece of tube on the outside around the rim and tire to keep it all from bulging too much. This worked great, but with regular V-brakes it made it impossible to use his back brake. For many of the downhills Sam would hold on to my seat and I would do the breaking, until finally we made it out of the mountains and into a village where a bike shop gave us an old tire. However, this was after about 2 hours of nursing the one we had. It just made a long ride even longer and I think that day I logged 8 hours of saddle time thank god for chamois cream! The day ended off perfect though as Genvieve and Hugo had invited us over for dinner and that was topped off with more ice-cream!

Hmm swimming that is something that the Swiss do not do so well. I finally got to the pool this week and a beautiful pool it is. Right on the lake, 8 lanes, 50m, lots of areas for kids, volley ball courts absolutely stunning. The unfortunate thing is that this Swiss, so proficient in everything else, don't use lane ropes? There is simply no method to the madness and people swim up and down the pool in random patterns? Today I might have found a bit of an answer in going right at opening (nothing special here it only opens at 9:30) and this way I got about 1km before chaos broke out! Tomorrow it will be the lake I;ll take boats over public swimmers any day J

Yesterday was a bit of a relaxing day short interval ride in the morning and then off to visit Myriam's family just North of Lausanne. It was cool to meet such a great group of people, and they were all so welcoming and hospitable. Lunch was the main meal of the day at noon, and farming families cook up quite the lunches! After lunch we visited the grandparents and her brother took us to the location of an upcoming sporting (and beer) festival that he is helping organize. The Swiss like there festivals and the sight of the venue shocked and amazed me! In this region they used farmers fields and built venues for volleyball, wrestling, track etc., but also built amazing buildings for the bars and entertainment! During the 4 days they will have served thousands of liters of beer, played all sorts of games, and then tear it all down! Crazy, and yet cool. Definitely some huge support from a local community to make for a fun filled couple of days. I am hoping to check it out on the way to TransAlps in a few weeks as I think it would be quite the site.

Well that is it so far. Europe has been awesome, the scenery stunning, the people amazing, and yet still totally relaxing. This weekend will be the Swiss Marathon although I will not be racing. I think if I want a good race in Austria next weekend it would be better to not put myself in the hole. I feel okay, but have noticed how much the half iron took out of me and still feel like I am just bouncing back. I would rather not have a repeat of Temecula so will take in the show and will help out where I can. On Tuesday we will go to Lausanne to watch a big IAAF track meet and then Thursday John will arrive and it is off to Austria.

All the best to everyone and I will write more soon.
Take care,
Stefan

Side notes:
Switzerland has more flavors of yogurt than I could ever dream of. There are whole aisles of yogurt in the grocery store and I mean aisles!!! My favorite; pear and chocolate!

Switzerland has the cleanest public washrooms of all time. Something about the Swiss and cleanliness, but this is beyond what I could have imagined.

Still on the public washroom topic, I have never seen toilet paper as thick as in Switzerland. They must have very sensitive bottoms, unlike the tough Russians. If you ever go to Russia bring your own TP.

Driving in Switzerland is just like home but twice the speed. Kari, you would do just fine! Don't they know I am from Canada? I guess that is why most people drive Audis, BMWs and Mercedes you need to be able to keep up!

Some of the things you notice are weird (like the washrooms) but fixtures for doors, windows etc., are so nice here. I remember trying to get nice fixtures at home and for anything decent you would have to pay an arm and a leg. I think before I leave I will steal more than a few sets of handle fixtures from the public washrooms!

Notes from Dan the Trail Guy #30

Trail Bits

Boy what a busy weekend it was in Nanaimo. I hope everyone survived the rigors of trail running, dragon boating, volunteering, family time and/or beer gardening? It was a test of endurance.

This coming weekend – July 16 & 17th there will be two runs available: one on Saturday (Duomont Trails) and one on Sunday (Strathcona Trails). Take your pick or do the double. I am in need of leaders for Saturdays Duomont Trail run if any of you feel like leading….let me know.

Saturday – Duomont Trails – meet at 7:00am by the yellow gate. This will be a ONE HOUR run, as I am hoping to do the double. If you need driving directions to the Duomont Trails, please email me back.

Sunday - Strathcona Park Trail Run – we Leave Chapters at 6:30am - We will meet in the parking lot between Chapters and Pier 1 Importers and arrange the car pooling. We will drive up to the Nordic Lodge at Mt. Washington (most – but not all - elevation gain is done by car). From the lodge we will set out on the trails that lead through Paradise Meadows, up to Helene Mackenzie Lake, Kwai Lake, Battleship Lake and back to the lodge. There are hills to run, but no mountains to climb! The run will be split into two different groups – one group will be doing around two hours and the other around 80 minutes. You will need to bring water and a snack. We should be back in Nanaimo by around 1:00ish unless you choose to stop for lunch. I really need an email response from you if you are planning on coming up to Strathcona. Just in case there is a change in plans or something.

A message to pass along from Andrea Beiner of North Ridge Fitness. The Gut Buster was such a well organized event. It was fun being part of it. I would like to take this opportunity to invite the ROC group to enjoy a one week free membership @ North Ridge Fitness Centre. Fitness is more than running, even though running often seems like it's enough. If you would be so kind as to pass this along that would be awesome. They can contact me thru email or call me @ Northridge to book an appointment to activate their one week membership. It would be great to see you @ the centre as well. Once again, a great effort $680.00 raised. Looking forward to being involved in future ROC events. Keep Running and Keep that Core Strong...Andrea Andrea’s email is andreabiener@hotmail.com Thanks Andrea for the offer to the membership.

Harbour City Half Marathon – James Williams has graciously agreed to be in charge of recruiting course marshals for the event which takes place September 11th. James is asking those of you who are able to commit to volunteering as a course marshal of in any other capacity to please e-mail, James Williams, at jfwilly@shaw.ca or telephone him at 250-390-3738. Thank you so much for your consideration of his request!

GutBuster Race Results – are now up at the GB Website www.gutbustertrailrun.com

Early Warnings: Frosty Foot Race - December 4th, 2005, Bowen Park, Nanaimo, 10 am start, registration 9:15, 10km Run, 5km Run or Walk, 1km Tot Trot

ROC Rocks!

Hello ROC

I would like to Thank all of you for your fantastic support today at the GutBuster. Once again you all came through and did an amazing job. I won’t name names as I know I will forget someone’s name, but it was an amazing turnout of ROC members. We must have had over 30 people volunteering. Thanks to all of your efforts; Runners of Compassion raised $680.00 today.

The race went off with out a hitch (well okay, a few people went off track in the early portion) but other than that we rocked. The report back from the runners I spoke with was that they loved the course, they thought it was tough – some people thought it would an easy trail run….figure that out? They loved the constant changes in running surface and are already talking about coming back next year.

The two ladies that went down on the Cabin Connector section are okay. One lady had fallen down and cut her head, but is okay at last report. The other lady Bonked big time. She was apparently running like she was intoxicated and then became very disoriented and then fainted. Hubert, Kent, the medic and the radio crew did a great job.

If you want to see some amazing photos from the GutBuster go to the following site. www.pbase.com/autie/gutbuster_nanaimo_2005

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Dan

Paul Karchut's Adventures in the South.

Hey everyone,
It´s been a nutty week. The day after Alex and I arrived, we got to Farrellones and stayed at a hostel very close to 3 skis resorts (known as the 3 valleys). The snow was variable and unlike anything either of us had ever skied... wind blown ice to powder to breakable crust all within a 20 metre stretch of slope.
But the backcountry was brilliant! And required hitching back out to the summit... waits were variable for a ride- from 15 minutes to 1.5 hours. But worth it. It was on our last day that we did a backcountry run down the backside of El Colorado and ran into the sketchiest thing I´ve ever experienced on skis. Heavy, sluffing snow above a 100 plus foot cliff with extreme rock exposure below. We picked our way down over a 45 minutes period and were absolutely fried by the time we got to the cliff base.
It was during our stay in Farrellones that we met a group of skiers and boarders who we hit it off with. Sean, an Australian film maker who´s documenting the ski and extreme sport world of Chile. Susan, an American girl strong on Alpine and learning to tele (which by the way, is extremely uncommon down here). And Moritz, a 19 year old German snowboarder who´s working down here at a hostel for the winter. The 5 of us hit the road on Friday to ski at a backcountry cat ski operation near the border town of Los Andes. We needed a car and borrowed a 4x4 van from the Farrellones hostel manager. As I drove up a mountain pass, the worst sound I´ve ever heard a car make brought us to a fast halt. The van was fried. We put it in a safe place on the road side and got a bus back to Santiago to try and figure out what to do.
The next day, we tried again. This time in a rental pick up. The drive was a breeze and the hotel we stayed in at Los Andes was hilarious... roughly $6 a night and well, it had character.
So we drove up a sketchy switch backed gravel road the next morning where we had some amazing cat skiing for 2 days. Tony, the Austrian owner, bought 2000 hectares 20 years ago of some of the most brilliant terrain I´ve ever seen. From the peaks, the view was amazing with mount Aconcagua (the tallest peak outside of the himalayas) towering over us. It was only the five of us and one run was equal to $20. A private cat ski operation for 2 days!
Amazing.
On our way back to Santiago last night, we stopped at the broken down van, rigged a tow rope to the pick up and drove over 50 kms on a freeway towing the van behind. We had to drive through a toll booth and the attendant didn´t even bat an eye... common for Chile, I suppose. Got the van to a mechanic and thankfully, the problem seems minimal.
My Spanish is improving, we`re having a ball and I´m thinking of you all.
Soon to a backcountry hut in Argentina. Write me.

Paul