Friday night we did a 1 hour run to warm us up for Saturday's Bonkfest in Squamish. We arrived Saturday morning in Squamish just after 10AM to find a few cars parked at Power House that were participating in the event. It is a low key event where you time yourself and do as many loops or a modified version to suit your needs. Karl and Gilles were out there doing a 100 miles on the same course, they started Friday night at 7pm. We ran into them shortly into our first loop. Karl and Gilles were both looking great considering they had been out there for 15 hours when we saw them. Karl was focused to complete the 100 miles in under 24 hours and he did! Gilles was just over the 24 hour mark and very content with his result. Wow, now that is inspiring! 2 guys with a crazy goal...no glory or finish line ceremony, just shear determination to complete the task! No aid, just drunk campers to cheer them on in the dark and the occasional bear to shout at. OK...I am only here for 2 loops so get your butt in gear and get going girl! We managed the first loop of 14 miles in just under 3 hours. I have enclosed a video clip of some of the terrain. Not the fastest terrain to get around on. Once we completed the first loop we decided to change our plans and stick with the distance/time we had planned for but modified the route. We opted for another climb up nine mile hill and decided to run down to toughen up the quads! It took us 3 hours for going up this hill and down for a total of 6 hours of running for Saturday (46km!) Another Ultra! That's number 23 for me and 6 in my training for West Highland Way. Sunday we ran for 1hour 20 minutes...I was tired! Monday (holiday today!) we ran for 2 hours and I felt great! Funny thing, how one day can be good, the next terrible and the next great! Good experience to realize that the journey on the WHW will be like that. Good times and not so good times! It is always such a good feeling when you have worked through the issues and finished the goal. Sunday night we had a special party to attend. Cynnimon a good running budding is off to Officer Training, she has been accepted to the Canadian Armed Forces and is planning to commit for 13 years! Cynnimon is very special to me as she literally taught me how to run ultras! She provided a training schedule for my very first Ultra and taught me about pace, nutrition, working through the issues and to be thankful that we can do this! She will always hold a special place in my thoughts for encouraging me to take on what appeared to be impossible and always raising the goal a little higher each time! I have no doubt that she will take her troops to be the best they can in what they undertake! It was also an opportunity to see what harbour/boat living is about. Rhonda who hosted the party lives in the marina on her boat. The party was in the club house/"lounge" of the marina. Excellent community living going on there with spectacular views of Vancouver's skyline. Nice to experience such a contrast to rural farm life! Feeling tired tonight but oh what a good tired it is!! :)
Hopefully we will figure out how to upload the entire video of Saturday's Running Bonkfest!
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