Knackered

This write up will be a bit scattered and lacking details since it was a blur to me.

I did not want to ever run Knee Knacker, my argument was always why pay for running the Baden Powell when I can when I can run Van100 for double the fun with very little cost. But as everything you should never say never because this year I ran it. Kids remember this for the future, never say never because you can't predict the future. You might be wondering why I changed my mind, but you'll have to wait a couple weeks on my reason, some of you know the reasons.

The week of Knee Knacker, I was once again having some sleep issues and was a little worried about my performance, so I took 2 shots of Nyquil and went to bed at seven. 

With the sound of heavy rain, I was up just before three in the morning. I made a change in jacket and gear but still very lightweight compared to my usual outings. I got to the Deep Cove by 4.30 to catch the first bus to Nelson Creek. I was able to catch a little shut eye on the ride over.

My race plan was simple keep a head of the cut offs by 10-15mins. My climb up to Black was just pushing as hard as I could without destroying myself. No much happened expect I pushed a little too hard when I was almost at Eagle Bluffs. My claim to fame for the climb is I beat Nancy to Black Mountain. But on the downhill to the lodge she passed me and I never saw her again. 

About 5 minutes from the start, I jacket came off a couple minutes after this picture

By the time I got to the lodge, I was 30 minutes before the cut off and built myself I nice buffer. I quickly refueled, said hello to Sean and Phaedra and took off as quick as I could.

Downhill to the Cypress lodge

I maintained some good speed on the downhill and did my usual jog-run-walk-repeat all the way until I got to Craigmohr. I made it into Cleveland Dam with 15-20 minutes to spear before the cut-off. By this time I was starting to feel hot.

Sibylle, was running the aid station there, thanks for volunteering. There were others there but I can't remember who else was there, sorry but thanks for volunteering. 

Just afterwards, I hiked it up to Grouse for the dreaded Grouse section where I felt really slow for about 30 minutes and just like Van100, I lost my shirt in that section. 

I rushed into Skyline where I saw Holly and Andy, plus a lot of other people that I can't remember now but thanks for helping out. Andy had to warn me that I'm not allowed to lose my pants. 

From here on to the end I was in the fine balance between going fast and falling a part. Plus my thought was if I was going to DNF, I would of done it at Cleveland Dam. 

Just before getting to LSCR, I saw Ward just hanging out before his sweeping duties, he encouraged me to pick it up because if he caught up to me, he would use his poles to make me go faster. 

At LSCR, I have to give a special thanks to Willa and crew, where they hooked me up with Freezes. I have to admit those cooled me down a lot and it helped me push the pace for a bit. 

On the Seymour grind, I got the best compliment I could of ever received. One girl who now I forgot your name, sorry, recognized me from the Vancouver Mountain Film Festival and said that I was awesome to hear from someone from back of the pack since usually you just hear from front of the pack runners. That's the whole reason I started my blog, for the back of the packers and to say if I can do this anyone can do this.  

Getting to Mt Seymour Rd, was might tightest time to cutoff I think I was in less then 10 minutes before cut off. From here I knew I was going to finish no problem but I was still worried about making it before the 10 hour cut off. I knew I would struggle with the climbs after Quarry Rock so I made the best of it on the downhills. 

I don't think a single person passed me after Quarry Rock, and I "ran" into the finish with 13 minutes to spare. 

The finish line and my time

Where I proceeded to put my wet shirt back on and sit for about an hour before getting cold and started to feel not so good. I think I scared a everyone. Lucky Sibylle, Ean, Sean, Nancy, Meg & I think a few others helped lay down and all gave me jackets to warm up. I supposedly became a Gray Dude dying in the park for a bit.

All I can say is what a day, I know there were a lot of you out helping to make this race a success and I'd like to thank all the volunteers for helping out and making this race amazing and fun.