Perseverance 2008 Race Report

What a day! It has been a wild ride but we all survived another great Perseverance Trail Run! Complete results will be posted on the elm website tomorrow and a link will be posted here...along with pictures from race day! Following is my race day report...

But first... A HUGE THANK YOU to the more than 35 volunteers who spent countless hours of their time preparing for, setting up, cheering on, feeding/watering, supporting and tearing down for this years race. Special thanks to the 10 members of CV Search and Rescue for spending the day keeping track of our racers from start to finish. Special thank you to Terry Lewis for designing a new course this year - after losing a large portion of the 2007 course to logging (all the more reason to support the cause). Special thanks to Andy for keeping the crowd informed and the energy up as MC.

This is a community event that comes from the people via community support and gives back to the community through fundraising dollars donated to protect and preserve the Cumberland Forest. It is a wonderful cycle and I am proud to be a part of it. The final numbers are not in but you 177 racers raised over $2500 for the CCFS. In addition a special donation of $500 was made by Zen Zero to the Forest Society. Thank you Thank you Thank you. I cannot thank you enough!

Race directors report:

We were greeted with beautiful blue sky fall day which took a huge weight off our shoulders. Something about the sun shining on your face during a sweet fall run...and not having to deal with soggy equipment and mud on everything all day. Our set up crew of volunteers arrived early and we had race central ready for action when our early bird racers began arriving at 9am. This year we developed a new fee schedule to encourage racers to sign up early and take some of the pressure off race morning. It definitely worked and we were pleased to have 100 pre-registered racers this year! But we also had 77 racers join us on race day so registration was still jumping. The girls did a great job moving 177 racers through registration and after a few hiccups (Pins anyone? A special thank you to racer 'Jordon' for riding his bmx to the mini-mart for extra pins!) everyone made their way down to the trailhead to start the race.

And they're off! The 3k crew went left and the 10k crew went right and they all hit the ground running. Both courses featured a gruelling start with incline right off the mark. A hint of things to come!

The 3k course went off without a hitch and within 15 minutes racers were flying over the bank and into the finish chute! Racers wound their way through the lower XC trails including: Matts trail, Spanker and Space Nugget. Good times were had by all! The top racers in the 3k were:

Top results on the 3k XC course were:

Males
1KENT GILROY14:45 M 13-15
2PHILIPE GRAVIL17:54 M 16+
3CALEB BURGQUIST17:58 M 10-12

Females
1KRISTINA HOSKIN17.55 F 16+
2LAURA WAYATT18:04 F 16+
3MARY ANN ROLFE 20.34 F 16+

The 10K course was a true mountain run with steep climbs up Off Broadway and Bear Buns following the Perseverance Creek and boasting amazing views into the ravine below. After a loooong ascent racers were provided with some steep relief as they made their way back to via newly rebuilt Dodge Balls, Ginger Minge and Broadway before finishing on the 3k XC course.

Top overall results in the 10k mountain run:
Males
1CHRIS BARTH 55:05 M 20-39
2JAMES POWSEY 58:07 M 40-59
3STEVE SPIERS 58:13 M 40-59

Females
1MARGUERITE MASON WOOD 1:05:10 F 40-59
2BEV PEAVOY 1:05:29 F 20-39
3LISA LUDWIG 1:05 35 F 20-39

For many racers this grueling distance was not enough however! Some racers took the scenic route and ran past the marked exit trail on Short and Curly...seemingly looking for more of our beautiful trails:) We learned that racers had missed the marked exit trail and ran all of Short and Curly all the way up at Allan Lake...and some even continued on and decided to pull off the 15k loop by running around the back of Allan Lake! Good lord is a 10k mountain run not enough for you?!

Of course when you learn that your 'little chicks' are running off course this is a very bad feeling. I cannot explain the actual feeling in my stomach at that moment. BUT...our wandering little chicks managed to navigate back onto the marked course and carry on with the rest of the route with ease (albeit with a few extra kms under their sneakers).

After driving up with CV Search and Rescue to check out the 'scene of the crime' we discovered that yes indeed the turn off Short and Curly was still marked well with red flagging but even so racers had missed it somehow. Just like racers, race directors learn plenty at their races. Mostly, this year we learned that we need to flag and lime the !@#$ out of that intersection next year. So next year, when you come across a crazy person wearing a race t-shirt, waving their arms and sounding a blowhorn on Short and Curly you know when to exit the trail=)

After returning to the finish area everyone seemed to have a great time and enjoyed the post race snackfest, awards and prizes. A HUGE thank you to our community food sponsors Thrifty Foods, Tim Hortons and Mudsharks Coffee for providing the food and beverages for our hungry racers.

A giant thank you to our draw prize donation sponsors:

Valhalla Pure

Riding Fool Hostel

Fitness Excellence

Ascent Physiotherapy

Comox Valley Acupuncture

Brooks

Zen Zero

Hi Tech

Jim Smiley

Ecological Shop

Extreme Runners

ELM

Category winners received chocolate medals from Hot Chocolates!

Our BEST COSTUME winner, Lo Lanning received a tasty chocolate package from Darkside Chocolates in Cumberland!

A huge thank you to our community sponsors for donating time and resources to make this event a success:

ABC Printing- beautiful full colour banner!

Odlum Brown

Hitech Screen printing

Natasha Designhouse

Cumberland Recreation Centre

Village of Cumberland

Timberwest

Hancock

We are looking forward to making next years race better than ever and hope that you will mark your calendars for another great race: Sunday, October 25th, 2009!!

Pics and results to come...

S