1990 - From a Run to a Race (Part I)

We were all on quite the high after our inaugural run in 1989 - was it the 30-mile run or the pints we were consuming at the pub :-) Regardless, there was much talk about taking this from a group run with 8 of us that day to an actual race in 1990. The main question we asked ourselves was - will anybody actually pay money to run 30 miles on these trails?

Before answering that question, some background on the race co-founders - Shane Collins and myself.

In 1988, just 1 year before our inaugural run, neither Shane nor I were living on the North Shore and we had not crossed paths yet in life. In fact, neither of us had done much trail running in the North Shore mountains. Yet, we were both looking for athletic challenges/adventures beyond what we had experienced to this point as individuals.

Shane's athletic background was as a competitive swimmer in his youth. Later in life, he moved on to triathlon and was involved in the early days of Ironman competitions in the 70's and 80's and also completed many road marathons. Myself, on the other hand, came mostly from a road running background in my early adult years - starting with 10K fun runs and then progressing to marathons.

By mid-1988, we were both looking for something different to occupy our non-working time in our lives. We both also decided a change was in order for our home base, so that we would be closer to where we really wanted to spend our free time. For Shane, that meant a move from the "Centre of the Universe" (Toronto) to West Vancouver, while for me it was a more modest shuffle from the streets of East Vancouver (Commercial Drive) to North Vancouver (just a block-and-a-half from Cleveland Dam). Over the next few months, a series of events would lead to the 2 of us meeting for a run on the Baden-Powell trail in the spring of 1989, which is what eventually gave birth to the Knee Knackering Shore Trail Run.

In 1988, I finally achieved one of my big road-running goals - running in the Boston Marathon! My qualifying race was done in October 1987 at the Victoria Marathon. In those days, the qualifying time for men under 40 was 3:00. I ran my first and only sub-3 hour marathon in a time of 2:59:55!! Although thrilled at having finally qualified to run Boston, I was not so excited to put myself through the rigorous and intense training to perform my best at the marathon distance. I wanted to have a bit more fun in the process, so I turned to the trails.

After running Boston in April 1988, I spent the ensuing summer and fall exploring the trails of Vancouver's North Shore, as well as up and down the Sea-to-Sky Highway in the trails near Squamish and Whistler. Eventually I knew I wanted to challenge myself with a race on trails such as these. There weren't any of these types of races in British Columbia at the time, so I turned my sites to California to look for a race. After all, they were the only ones that were wackier than us on the wacky West Coast :-)

I had always heard, read and seen on TV the grand-daddy of them all - the Western States Endurance Run. It starts high up in the Sierras at Squaw Valley and 100 miles later arrives in Auburn, California, following the Western States trail and gaining 15,540 feet while descending 22,970 feet. No problems, it's a downhill run :-)

Well, better sense prevailed and I decided a couple of 50-mile races might be in order before stepping up to Western States. So I perused my copies of Ultrarunning magazine, which I had just started subscribing to earlier in the year. I picked a low-key 50-miler just outside San Francisco in November, 1988 as my first ultra, by the name of Skyline To The Sea. It was cold, wet and muddy, and I had found my calling!

My next ultra was much closer to home in Tsawassen in March, 1989, which was the good news. The not-so-good news was that it was 50 miles of roads!?! But, my buddy Tom Brown (another one of the Original 8) was also running this race, and he introduced me to Louis Briere (who also ended up being in the Original 8). Finally, Louis was the one who told me he met a crazy Englishman by the name of Shane Collins just the week before. He said Shane was planning on running the entire length of the 30-mile Baden-Powell Trail in the summer, and he was looking for company.

I did not need much talking into, and a couple of weeks later the 4 of us (Shane, Louis, Tom and me) met for our first run on the North Shore trails. Over the next couple of months, this became a twice-weekly ritual as we familiarized ourselves with the Baden-Powell and many other intersecting trails. It turned out that both Shane and I were preparing for longer trail races towards the end of the summer of '89 - myself for the Elkhorn Mountain 100 Km Endurance Run, while Shane was aiming for the Leadville Trail 100-miler. Our training on the North Shore Trails proved to be excellent preparation for these 2 events, and I had the privilege of pacing Shane for the last 40 miles of his 100 miles in Leadville, Colorado. It was a great close to our summer, with the highlight of course being the inaugural Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run.

Of course, none of had ever organized a race from scratch before. But we were young and naive, and figured we could do anything especially after we had conquered 30 miles on the Baden-Powell Trail. Little did we know what was in store for us in the coming 12 months as we prepared to transform our little group run into a full-blown race in 1990, but more on that next week in Part II. For now, I'll just leave you to have a look at our first-ever entry form for the July 14, 1990 race.

Till next time...Enzo


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1989 - The first one!

June 24, 1989

The Presidente Rivera, a 749 foot Uruguayan tanker, ran aground in the Delaware River...

St. Louis Cardinals Vince Coleman steals record 39th and 40th consecutive bases

Meanwhile, at 6:00 am just above the Upper Levels Highway in West Vancouver, 8 young (and not-so-young) and adventurous lads embark on a 30-mile journey across the North shore Mountains. They would call this event the first-ever (and maybe last-ever) Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run. In coming years, they would come to be known as the "Original 8". Their names are:

• Louis Briere
• David Brown
• Tom Brown
• Gavin Cameron
• Shane Collins
• Enzo Federico
• Rob Hartvikson
• Brendan Kennelly

What follows is the abbreviated story of that fateful day that started the tradition that is celebrated for the 20th consecutive year in 2008.

As any self-respecting runner (or other long-distance athlete) knows, the day must begin a couple of hours earlier with a hearty breakfast. Half of the Original 8 were staying at my North Vancouver townhouse - just a block and a-half from Cleveland Dam (site of the future halfway aid station and drop-bag location for the race).

After a hearty breakfast (and ensuing bodily functions to dispose of any excess waste), we were off in my VW van to Panorama Park in Deep Cove to meet the other half of our group for a shuttle to our starting point just above Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. We were all quite anxious in that seemingly never-ending drive so early on a beautiful Saturday morning, with 6 of the Original 8 questioning why they ever let me and Shane talk them into this! For Shane and I it seemed like a good idea as we were both training for much longer races later in the summer - 100 Km. and 100 miles, respectively. More on that in a future post, as this is about June 24, 1989.

We started at the western end of the Baden-Powell trail in the Eagleridge parking lot just off the Upper Levels Highway. This would be the same start used for the next 16 years, until the Sea-to-Sky Highway construction project blasted that whole area out of existence in 2006. For those familiar with the race, you might ask about the out-and-back on the highway on-ramp. Well, it was not a part of the inaugural event. We did not think it would be necessary to spread out the 8 of us as we headed into the trail, and besides we all agreed ahead of time that this would be a group run - one for all and all for one :-)

Did I also forget to mention that I was the only one that actually was familiar with the entire 30 miles we were going to run that day? No extra marking with ribbons on this day, and also no triangular markers on the trees. I learned it mostly the hard way by trial and error (and error and ...). I was fortunate enough to get one of the last copies of my North Shore trail "bible" - Exploring Vancouver's North Shore Mountains, by Roger & Ethel Freeman. It's been out of print for over 20 years now, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it listed here at amazon.com. If you do buy one of the used copies, make sure it contains the separate maps that go inside a special jacket with a pocket. Bear in mind that the trails have changed a bit since then.

Back to "the day", and our start at the familiar trailhead signpost. Ignore the 45 km on the signpost, as the Freemans wheeled the trail twice and assured us it was 29.76 miles (47.87 km.). We would up it to 30 miles by adding a jaunt to the beach in Deep Cove, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our initial climb on the way to the south summit of Black Mountain was a grunt - what else can I say! But we did eventually reach the spectacular viewpoint at Eagle Bluff. As you can see from the picture, the 8 of us are are still together - count 7 runners plus the photographer (me). You'll also notice we were eating and drinking early on, like any good ultrarunner. From here, it was still a bit of a climb to the Black summit and some dispsy-doodles before our mile-long descent into Cypress Bowl. Quite a different scene there than what we have today at the quarter point in the race, with our first major aid station manned by the Pacific Road Runners. On this day, it would be family and friends meeting us at Cypress, Cleveland Dam, Lynn Canyon and Mt. Seymour Parkway.

Over the next section to the Hollyburn ski area, we did encounter a couple of miles of snow. We made a mental note that perhaps we should have done this a couple of weeks later - say, the second Saturday in July? However, we quickly descended from Hollyburn down what we now call the "Chute" and over Brothers Creek. And before long we were back into "civilization" and views of West Vancouver and the city beyond.

Now we were close to another significant milestone - the halfway point at Cleveland Dam. But, no fuss or fanfare there in 1989. Instead I made the 8 of us jog a couple of hundred yards off-course to my townhouse for our 15-mile aid station. By now, I think you're getting the idea that this was actually a day-long eating event interrupted by bouts of running :-)

Of course getting back on the road/trail for the last 15 miles proved to be quite a chore, especially the 1+ miles on the road heading back up to the re-entry point to the trail at the bottom of Grouse Mountain. We were all quite relieved to get back into the cool shade of the forest, except for maybe Louis. But, I must say that he did get it back about a half-hour after that point and we all went through many ups and downs that day - emotionally, physically, ...

The rest of the journey ended up being the start of our celebration as we all seemed to get stronger, especially in the last quarter. Our route followed the "classic" course over the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge, but not before fueling up at the old concession stand just before the bridge. That was not our last feeding opportunity, as our original volunteer (Ed Edmondson) met us at Mt. Seymour Parkway. The fluids he supplied were much appreciated as the temperature was into the upper 20's C by that time of the day.

We were now ready for the final 2.5 "downhill" miles to Deep Cove, with a bit of swearing and cussing from those who had never seen this section of trail before. No sounds of music and announcing from the Finish Line as made our way across and down the side of the mountain and finally reaching the small sign marking the eastern end of the Baden-Powell trail. But, our journey was not over until we reached the beach!

A few traditions started immediately:

• a post-run dip in the cool waters of Indian Arm
• carbo re-loading at Honey's Doughnuts
• first post-race banquet at Squarerigger Pub in West Vancouver
• handing out of the original finisher T-shirt
• collecting donations from the runners for our first charity - BC Children's Hospital

By the time the day and night ended for us, we had been up for almost 24 hours straight. The results of the run are posted here, but the real story was with us on the trails and is one that is still near and dear to our hearts.

If you've gotten this far, I hope I've been able to relate to your some sense of our day of adventure back in 1989. If so, please come back here over the next 4 months leading up to this year's race on July 12, 2008, as I add an account of each of our first 19 years. I also welcome your comments on my story (by clicking the comments link right after my post), and to add stories/pictures/videos of your own as they relate to each of my posts.

See you on the trails...Enzo

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