Well, I've got a lot of catching up to - it's been over a month since I finished up on 1990! That's it till next time! Enzo
To help myself out, I'm going to cheat a bit. I dug out a post-race report I produced for Ultrarunning magazine. I've added a few more of my observations after the report from 1991.
Vancouver, B.C.
July 13th, 6:00AM
30 Miles
The Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run takes runners the entire 30 miles of the Baden-Powell Centennial Trail from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove, up and over the mountains that grace the North Shore of the city of Vancouver. The trail was established in 1971 by the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, to mark the centennial of the province of British Columbia. In 1989, Shane Collins and myself invited 6 of our friends to join us for the inaugural edition of the K.K.N.S.T.R. We were in awe of the magnificent ocean, mountain, and city views along the trail, and both humbled and inspired by the challenge of the trail, with its 16,300 feet of elevation change (8,000 up and 8,300 down).
We covered the trail in its entirety twice that summer. Most of our non-ultrarunning friends thought we were NUTS, and thus was born the acronym for our new informal running group, the Northshore Ultra Trailrunning Society. The next year was spent planning and organizing an open race on the trail in 1990, and hoping we'd be able to talk a few people into actually paying $50 to enter. We managed to attract 57 runners to the starting line, with most signing up the two weeks prior to race day. The majority of entrants were new to the sport of ultramarathoning, but that didn't stop 53 of them from collecting the very distinctive finsher's shirt.
Which brings us to this year's edition of the K.K.N.S.T.R. We were overwhelmed by the response, as the reputation of the race spread quickly by word-of-mouth. The race limit of 100 runners was reached two weeks prior to race day, which now makes it possibly the largest ultramarathon race ever held in Canada! A whole weekend's worth of activities was planned, with the addition of a post-race Awards dinner and dance, as well as the already established pre-race carbo dinner and trail briefing. Another new feature was the attractive, multi-coloured plaque awaiting each and every runner reaching the finish in under ten hours.
As race day approached, much of the talk was centred on what would happen to the course records set last year, as defending champions Peter Findlay and Mary Nicell were both returning, as well as masters men's winner Neil Wakelin. Everyone was trying to come up with reasons why they wouldn't be touched. First was the weather, and the condition of the first ten miles of trail. The winter was pretty severe, and combined with the cool, wet spring and first few days of summer, three to four feet of snow remained above 3000 feet less than three weeks prior to race day. If the snow wouldn't stop Peter, surely he couldn't be fully recovered a mere two weeks after his brilliant third-place finish at Western States (17:02 - fastest time ever by a Canadian, or anyone outside the state of California).
The snow was removed as a factor thanks to a couple of weeks of warmer, sunnier weather. This continued until a couple of days before the race, when the infamous rains of the Pacific Northwest returned. The runners were sent off at 6:00 a.m. during a brief dry spell, but the precipitation quickly returned, thus ensuring the runners would be greeted by muddy trails strewn with wet boulders. Footing would also prove precarious on the many narrow, slick, wooden bridges. Surely this would slow down Peter, Mary, and the many other challengers.
The first major checkpoint at 7.5 miles is in the parking lot of the Cypress Bowl downhill ski area, at which point the toughest climb of the course has been conquered - the 3,500 foot ascent to the top of Black Mountain between miles 1 and 5. Last year, the lead pack (including Peter Findlay) reached this point in about 1:28. This year, half-a-dozen runners arrived within a couple of minutes of each other in just under 1:30. To their dismay, they learned that Peter had arrived in an amazing 1:21. So much for the theory that he hadn't recovered from Western States.
The only hope for the chase pack, which included last year's second place finisher Brian Nemethy and former Victoria Marathon champion Ron Wichmann (2:27 PR), was for Peter to fall apart in the latter stages of the race. This didn't seem likely at half-way, as he arrived at the Cleveland Dam checkpoint (15 miles) in 2:21, 20 minutes ahead of last year's split, and 12 minutes clear of his chasers. All told, another 4 runners were ahead of the record-setting pace of last year at half-way, but, on this day only Peter would be able to maintain this through the second half. The torrid early pace meant that very few would be able to manage negative splits, as was quite common last year.
The finish line was set up just minutes before Peter arrived in a new course record of 4:45:11, knocking an astounding 30 minutes off his time of last year. After catching his breath, he did reveal he felt a bit "bagged" after the 24th mile, the start of a tough 1,300-foot climb out of the Seymour River valley over the next 2 miles. This must have accounted for the fact his second half was all of 4 minutes slower than his first. Meanwhile, a real battle was developing for second place between Brian and Ron, with Ron finally pulling away at the same point where Peter slowed, and reaching the finish in 5:19:38 to place second in his first ultramarathon race.
Over on the women's side, the number of entrants had doubled this year to 12. Last year's runner-up, Deborah Askew, was back to challenge defending champion Mary Nicell. Following the script laid out in the men's race, Mary took off to an early lead and forced everyone else to try and catch her. She arrived at the half-way point in 3:10, 10 minutes ahead of her record-setting pace of the previous year. Veteran Ironman triathlete Eeva Lantela was next to arrive in 3:25, surprised to find she was in second place in her first ultra, followed closely by Deborah in 3:27.
Over the second 15 miles, Mary just kept extending her lead, arriving in Deep Cove in 6:39:00, almost 5 minutes faster than her previous course record. So much for the rumours about various injuries Mary was recovering from in the weeks leading up to the race. The battle for second place was quite different from the men's race, as Deborah and Eeva decided to cross the finish line in identical times of 7:04:59, after running much of the second half of the race together.
The masters mens division proved to be very competitive this year, accounting for six of the top thirteen overall places. Neil Wakelin repeated as champion in a time of 5:38:59, knocking over 16 minutes off his course-record time from 1990. He surprised everyone with his planned five minute break at the half-way point, after opening up a ten minute lead over Ken Hirst. The break allowed him to take in the nourishment he felt he would need in the latter stages of the race to avoid "bonking" as he did last year. It obviously worked like a charm, as he finished over 13 minutes ahead of Ken, who was also under last year's record time.
This year also saw finishers in two new divisions for the first time. Gail Bazeley won the women's masters division in 9:24:05 in her first ultra, while veteran Joe Marchand won the men's 50+ division. Joe recovered from an early route-finding error to finish in 6:44:57, just two weeks after he also buckled at Western States. We may have to create a whole new division just for our youngest entrant next year. Fifteen-year old Ian Hetherington ran strong and steady the whole way to finish in a time of 7:09:15. I think we'll see a lot more of him in years to come. Look out Peter!
So where do we go from here? Shane Collins will take over at the helm again for next year, under our agreement to alternate the race directorship. Despite pressures to the contrary, we have made a pledge to this year's participants not to let the numbers grow for the next couple of years. This will allow us to stabilize, rather than growing too quickly, and focus on improving the quality of the event first. We feel this is what our runners want, and is very much in line with the philosophy that bigger is not always better, "better is better", as expressed by the editors of Ultrarunning in the June 1991 issue.
Come join us on Saturday July 11, 1992, and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. But, don't hesitate, as we can only accommodate 100.
Epilogue
Just a few closing comments to add to my 1991 report:
Read the rest of this post!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
1991 - The Race Starts Growing
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