ROC Trail Bits 2006 #31

Trail Bits # 31

Lots of new faces in the crowd on Saturday morning for the run of the Dumont trails. Do you know that over 300 people in Nanaimo now receive the Trail Bits each week? It shows you just how popular trail running has become and how much support there is within Nanaimo for Runners of Compassion and what we do. With so many new faces in the crowd it might be a nice gesture if we all took 20 or 30 seconds away from our usual socializing and introduced ourselves to one or two people that we don’t know or don’t recognize. Some of these new faces (and old faces –lots of those around) are new to Nanaimo and are joining us in order to share our love of trail running. Who knows, this new face could be the face of the person that picks you up off the trail and dusts you off after you have taken a fall. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to know the name of the person that helped you or just ran with you in the middle of no where for close to two hours?

Good luck to Norm Stefan, Robin and others that are off to Fernie, BC for the TRANS ROCKIES mountain bike race which starts on Sunday. 7 days of mountain bike riding with 22,000 meters of climbing.
Also Good Luck to Sean Lunny who is off to Kamloops for the Raid the North Adventure Race – 36 hours to non-stop fun (biking, climbing, running, canoeing, rappelling, orienteering), with no sleep.

Hey, did you know that our Half Marathon is giving short sleeve technical shirts this years to all registrants and that the 10km Road Race is giving away Brooks running hats to the first 300 people registered?



Ø Strathcona Park Run – I now have commitments from enough qualified leaders that I will start to organize a trip up to the park. It won’t happen until after the half marathon in September though. Now is a good time to start getting you mileage back up to where you are VERY comfortable with a two hour run, as this is how long the run is for us average folks.

Ø The Sprint to the Summit - is a grueling 2km race, THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!! straight up the face of Mount Washington on August 5th. Check out the web link for details. http://www.mountwashington.ca/summer/default.cfm?page=event_details&eventID=793

Ø Night Trail Runs- something that was missing last fall and winter were the Night Trail Runs. That’s right, running the trails in the dark. The BIG DIFFERENCE is that you run the same trails we run in the day with either a small halogen or LED light strapped on your forehead in the pitch dark. Incandescent lights, flashlights, etc don’t work. So, starting in October sometime there will be a scheduled night run, so get out and buy yourself a light. They are available at Frontrunners, Valhalla Pure, Alberni Outpost, ONO. Make sure you tell them what you will be using the light for as you want something very bright, but also very light. I will be sending out a separate email in regards to the Night Runs, so if you are interested, let me know and I will add you to the list. Space will be limited for these runs. These runs are a blast!!!!!

Ø AB Classes, Spinning Classes, Yoga Classes, MTB Clinics, Running Clinics - and other classes offering other assorted forms of self inflicted punishment will be starting up again in the fall. I have spoken to Robin, Sean, Norm, Stefan and others and will have more information to pass along to all of you in the later part of August. If you have a clinic or class you want to offer, let me know and I will pass along the information.

Trail Run this weekend. This weekend the group will be running into Ammonite Falls. Meet at the same yellow gate as last week at 7:00am. The run time will be about 1:20 and will be a bit of a mystery tour as the leaders will be using maps not first hand knowledge to get you in and out of the falls. It is actually a very straight forward run, so don’t worry.

I will be on my bike, riding in the general vicinity as usual if someone feels like riding with me….Dan

The driving directions are fairly simple.
If you live in north Nanaimo,
o Take Metral Drive to Duomont Road.
o Turn on to Duomont Road and head out past the Black Bear Pub.
o Follow this road for 10 minutes or until you come to the T-Junction with Biggs & Weigles Road.
o Turn Right and head up the hill for a couple of minutes.

If you live in central or South Nanaimo
o Take the Parkway to the Jingle Pot/Mostar exit – Turn Left at this intersection.
o Immediately turn right on to Biggs Road. Stay on this road.
o You will drive past the Correctional Facility, past the farm fields and will then start heading up the hill. Keep heading up the hill.
o This road simply changes its name and becomes Weigles Rd. Keep driving up the hill.
You will see us on the side of the road by the yellow gate. If you get to the flat part of road near the Wasteland Motto Cross Track, you have gone too far.