Notes from Dan the trail guy #43

Trail Bits

Hornby Island Trip on Saturday is Postponed..sorry. As a result of the trail leader for this Saturdays Hornby Island Trail run being injured we are going to have to postpone the Road Trip until a later date. I apologize for any inconvenience that my being injured may have caused any of you.

Okay, back to business; the Trail Run of the saddle on Saturday was very well attended as usual with lots of new and not so new faces in the crowd. Other than the fact that the route was far drier than we expected, which meant we weren't able to fully welcome all of the newbie's to the joys(water & mud) of fall and winter trail running, we did have a great time running through a little bit of water and deep blankets of leaves. The runwas about 1:20 in length. Believe it or not we still got attacked by hornets. Little buggers! One comment that was passed my way Saturday by a large number of the runners was the quickness of the pace in the very early stages of the run. A large number of folks thought it was too fast too soon. I think perhaps we should try and keep the early 5 - 10 minutes of the run at a real easy pace. This will give everyone a chance to properly warm up their muscles and to finish their entire chit chatting before we hit the main portion of the run. I was the one leading at the beginning of the run and therefore will take the blame for the pace. When you are the leader in the early portion of the run and are running in front of 30 people you get this subliminal push from behind. Your legs feel fresh and you can feel and hear the energy of the group behind you as everyone is catching up on the latest bits of gossip"Trail Bits". Feeding off of that energy, the pace just starts to get fasterand faster..sorry.

For those of you that help with leading the runs lets al ltry and remember to take it out at an easy pace. After the initial 10 minutes of running we generally try and regroup and then split up the group for the main part of the run. So let's take it easy at first, have a bit ofa chat and save the energy for the hills.

I have spoken with Nanaimo Parks & Rec and they will be opening the backparking lot at Westwood Lake on Saturday and Sunday mornings in order to ensure that there is enough room to park when both Bastion and Roc are running at Westwood. The lot was actually full this Saturday at 9:00am.

Trail runs now start at 7:30 am

1. Hornby Island Run - Trail, Beach and Bluff Run is Postponed

2. ROC Toques, ROC Technical Shirts & 2006 ROC Calendars - are all now in stock at Frontrunners and will make great Christmas presents or stocking stuffers. The toques are embroidered with the "ROC- Every Step Counts". Thes hirts you have all seen by now. The calendar is really nice and has most ofthe races that happen on Vancouver Island listed in it. Please think of buying one of these items as they have been brought in and paid for by Norm and Stefan with Frontrunners making virtually no profit on any of these items. In fact, any profit they make on these items they split with ROC. This is just one example of the continuing support that Stefan and Norm giveto ROC.

3. CHRISTMAS PARTY - The combined Bastion/ROC Christmas Party (FallDance) is confirmed for November 19th in the Legion Hall at Townsite &Bowen.

4. This weekends trail run - This coming weekend - October the 22ndwill be a run of the lower trails of THE LINLEY VALLEY. ..7:30am, please note I said 7:30 and not 7:35, please try and be on time. A number of people need to get to work after the run, so we need to try and start on time. We will really endeavor to keep the pace at the beginning of the run at an easy pace. Meet at the end of Burma Rd. Burma Rd runs off of Lost Lake road,which runs off of Rutherford Rd at the very top of the hill. Email me if youneed more directions. See you at coffee afterwards. I will need to leave upto the group leaders to figure out who can lead the groups on Saturday.

Early Warnings

* OCT 30 Shawnigan Lake Half Marathon - check out the P.I.H.website for details http://pih.bc.ca/Calendar.php

* NOV 11 Thetis Lake Relays - ROAD TRIP! - The Thetis Lake Relays($20.00 for a team) which takes place on Friday November 11th (RemembranceDay) is a 4 X 5km Team Relay all run on single track trails.

* NOV 12 Frontrunners Annual Shop Party - November 12th, DJ, Lotsof Friends, Lots of Food, Lots of Fun, Scooter Racing, more details to comeeach week.

* NOV 20 Nanaimo Track & Field Harbour Front 5Km - November 20th ,Location and time to be announced, this is a fundraiser for the Track &Field Club

* NOV 26 Gunner Shaw Cross Country - Saturday November 26th,Thetis Lake Park Victoria, if you consider yourself a trail runner then youmust come to this race with us. It is one of the oldest x/c trail racesin BC. Draws a great crowd. Amazing course. It can be wet!!!! Put it onyour calendar right now, so you don't double book yourself.

* NOV 27 Women Run Wild - Girls only. Annual fund raiser forHaven House. Details at Frontrunners or via Women's Pace website.

* DEC 1 Nanaimo Give & Go! - Thursday December 1st is the dateof the 3rd Annual Nanaimo Give and Go!

* DEC 10 Stewart Mountain Cross Country - 10 miles on a reallyclassic cross country course.

* DEC 4 Frosty Foot Race - December 4th, 2005, Bowen Park,Nanaimo, 10 am start, registration 9:15, 10km Run, 5km Run or Walk, 1km TotTrot

* JAN 1st Bastion Running Club's Run & Dip - New Years Day,Westwood Lake, Time - TBA, one lap or more of the lake, followed by a very quick dip in the lake. Rain or shine, snow or sleet, it doesn't matter, Darrell and the Bastion crew will be there waiting for you. Great way tos tart off 2006.

That's enough..Gotta go!
Dan