Sunday, January 1
I started off the year not with a hangover, but with a local grassroots ultra, the Club Fat Ass New Year’s Day Fat Ass 50K & Freeze Your Fat Ass Off Swim. It’s an unsupported, un-timed 50K mainly on urban paths and trails in Vancouver, BC. The event is held as a fundraiser for the club and costs only $25. I tagged along with a group of friends as a sort of mobile New Year’s Day party.
We started with the group at 9am from Brockton Oval in Stanley Park, ran the out-and-back route following the RunGo app and RunGo app creator, Craig Slagel, and returned back to kiss the fire hydrant (apparently it’s a thing?) shortly after sunset. It was a slow, leisurely, fun run with a couple Starbucks breaks for a total elapsed time of just under 8 hours.
Having never done a polar bear swim before, I decided to finish with the optional dip in the ocean after starting my car and cranking the heat. It was quick and I only went up to my shoulders. I would have liked to do a full, head-under dunk but I just couldn’t deal with wet, rats-nest hair for the rest of the night.
It was a great beginning to 2017 and I look forward to finding out what else the year brings!
