Whistler

Due to a lack of hours yesterday, this post is coming to you a day late, so if you are reading this post on Tuesday, pretend it’s Monday.

I usually do my race director debrief run the morning after a race, but because this was an out of town race, I really couldn’t do a full debrief until I got home so it had to wait until this morning. After four days of not enough rest and sleep, not enough (or the right) nutrition, a fair amount of stress, unstable weather (my Rheumatologist insists that barometric pressure has no effect on RA, I call bullshit) and not lifting with my knees, by this morning my body was a hurting unit. The days up to and the hours after a race are pretty much a complete blur, so my debrief run serves two purposes, I am able to blow off any left over stress and am also able to organize my thoughts to analyze the event. Like any good Canadian kid, this morning I sucked it up, put on my new Salomon XT Wings 2 (thank you JP) and hit the streets of Whonnock to reflect.

Thursday…
I hit the trails early with Conny. The only word that I can use to describe my run is aggressive. This kind of run doesn’t happen for me all that often, but I love it when they do, you feel fierce. As Conny was racing on Saturday her run was more of a stretch your legs kind of run, she was saving her fierceness for the race. To compare our running style to a music style, I was Metallica; she was Metric (slash Crash Test Dummies…kidding Conny). Despite being drizzly outside we finished our two different worlds tour run with a dip in the lake, man, I am going to miss that in a few short weeks.

Showered and feeling fierce I carried on with the rest of my day which consisted of dropping my car off for a “small service” (whatever) and picking up the remainder of the groceries for the race, a quick lunch with my Mum and Dad and packing for my trip to Whistler, nothing like waiting until the last minute.

With my car packed and the sun now shining, I hit the road at 5:30pm. I would like to send a shout out to the undercover officer (who I didn’t realize was an undercover officer until after our altercation) for scaring the crap out of me by blaring his horn and practically running me out of the HOV lane. Just because you can’t see a second person in a vehicle does not mean that there isn’t one, bonehead. Only a thought but perhaps next time make sure those really cool sunglasses are the prescription kind.

Friday…
The dilemmas started before I even left the hotel, shorts or pants. With no rain in the forecast and the 80lb pack that I knew Marky had packed for me to carry while I marked the course, I went with shorts.

What makes Whistler a bit of a logistical race nightmare is that most of what we need for the race has to be sent up by gondolas, but thanks to some awesome re-organization we were unloaded at the top, without any near divorces or bricks flying and were able to start the course marking an hour ahead of schedule! As we had a larger marking crew than normal, we were able to split into two groups and the course into two sections, cutting our marking time down dramatically. Three snow fields, 4.9km of lunges at 6100ft and carrying what felt like a medium child on my back (I know that if I was wearing the pack correctly I wouldn’t have felt a thing, I call bullshit again), the 5 Peaks Whistler Sport course was marked.

Absolutely famished we stopped at the GLC for what may have been the best burger and beer that I have ever had.

With just over an hour to spare before racer check-in started, I managed to squeeze in a well-deserved twenty-minute catnap, showered and was ready to rock again. Racer check-in was unusually slow for the most part, we joked that we felt like the judges from American Idol, six of us sitting at what looked like one long table, all eyes focused on the next person to walk to the back of the Salomon Store…maybe you just had to be there. I think that most racers forgot that they could pick-up their packages on Friday.

Saturday…
Showtime! Back to Salomon Store, the set-up crew headed up the mountain and we settled in for what I knew would be a gong show of a racer check-in. We started at 7:30am, and by 8:30am the main rush had still not hit, and would not do so until 9:00am, even though racer check-in closed at 9:30am. We did manage to get everyone checked in and registered, but just as an aside, if you do show up after racer check-in has closed and still want to register and/or check-in, you should always smile and be nice and have already gone to the bank machine.

The set-up crew had done a fantastic job so once MC John was in place, it was business as usual. I received course clearance, did my race director speech and started the race at 11:01! At last year’s race I was suffering from an unknown stomach bug, and spent most of the time from when the race started until the first racers came through the finish line in the fetal position beside the Red Chair. Feeling fantastic this year, I was able to watch the racers complete the lower loop and even managed to take a few pictures.

With the course clear and the awards ceremony underway on the deck of the Roundhouse (thank goodness that the threat of thunderstorms was over) we tore down the race compound and sent it back down to the Village on the gondolas. Once the trailer was reloaded, it was back to the hotel (with about the same time as Friday) to freshen up for the 6pm group dinner at the Brew House.

We had a great turnout; almost all of the Maple Ridge crew either stopped by for a visit and a quick drink or had dinner with us. By 8:45pm I was running on reserve and decided to call it a night…I think that I may be getting old?

Sunday…
Leaving a beautiful resort is always hard, but after packing up and one last trip into the Village it was time to start the trek home. The last thing that you ever want to see when driving is the “check the brake pads” symbol, so imagine driving the Sea to Sky Highway (described by one review as a two-lane scenic highway passing both the Pacific Ocean and rugged mountain peaks) in and out of rainstorms with your “check the brake pads” symbol illuminating your dash. You have to love technology, I’m not sure what is worse knowing on a two hour drive that you may not have brakes the next time you hit the brake pedal or not knowing at all and hitting the brake pedal and nothing happening (I have been assured since that I have plenty of brakes left, and that the sensor was just a warning…but have scheduled my brakes to be replaced).

Monday…
It wasn’t the fastest 5km run, but it was the best mind clearing 5km run EVER! I finished the run to Green Day’s “Time Of Your Life”. This song always gets me because it always takes me back to the wonderful slideshow at my daughter’s kindergarten graduation set to that very song (sniff, sniff). Hearing it today made me smile because even with all of the craziness of the weekend, the lack of sleep, the poor nutrition, we sure had the time of our lives this weekend!