Weekend Adventures: New Year’s Day Fat Ass 50K

• • Weekend Adventures

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!

Weekend Adventures: Sweet Go Deep

• • Weekend Adventures

Wow, it’s been about 4 months since I posted about my weekend adventures. Here’s hoping I can stick with it going forward!

Saturday, November 19

I ran the Foretrails Phantom Run 24.5K. Read my race report here.

Sunday, November 20

I picked up Dikesh and we drove over to Deep Cove for the Club Fat Ass event, Sweet Go Deep. The run offered three distance options 14 km, 20 km, or 40 km (two laps of the 20 km route). Directions were posted prior as the course was not marked and it was an everyone for themselves kind of event.

My friends Gary and Sarah came too and we ran the route together. Dikesh joined us for the first 5 km but then split off to do the 14 km route.

The 20 km route took us on some vaguely familiar trails north of the BP. It was fun to navigate following the written directions and the rudimentary map on my GPS watch, but not too challenging.

It took us almost 4 hours to complete the course, which in actuality was only about 18 km due to checking directions, technical trails, and tired legs.

Dikesh and Eric (the organizer) were waiting in Honey Donuts. I grabbed a maple glazed, which I shoved in my face, and a coffee to go for the drive home.

Weekend Adventures: Chief Second Peak & Sea-to-Summit Trail

• • Weekend Adventures

Saturday, June 18

Dayna, Liana, and I ventured up the Sea-to-Summit trail for some elevation climbing. The guys were busy that day so it turned out to be a ladies trip. It was much more peaceful and less dramatic than usual, ha! We made a quick stop at the Chief Second Peak after I disclosed that I had never been up there. It’s a pretty cool trail with a couple chains and ladders. I’m sure you get a great few at the top if you aren’t stuck in a cloud like we were.

We went back down to the junction and then up the Sea-to-Summit trail to the lodge. This was my second time up this trail and I really enjoy it. It’s similar to the Grouse Grind but less groomed and more variety in terrain. There are some steep sections, a couple ropes, and then flatter areas as well. It has a similar elevation gain as the Grind, about twice as long in distance, and less busy (at least when I’ve been there). The whole trail is really well marked.

Once at the top, we decided to check out the Al’s Habrich trail which was recommended by a friend. We went a couple kilometres up where we got a bit of a view and then went back down. We were about 100 m from the lodge when it started pouring rain. Phew, good thing we turned around when we did! We warmed up inside with a burger and fries and then hopped in a gondola. They provided blankets for us to take for the ride down which was a nice surprise.