Tender Foot - Sweepers Experience!

Crossing a large boulder field in the 50 mile event.

John and I coming down the boulder field.

Wendy, myself and John.

A Pond in Bloom!

A Nice view of Black Tusk and a Glacier

More Glacier Views

Wild Flowers growing out of the side of a large boulder

More great views from the trail

We followed the river for quite awhile

This was a tunnel made of rocks - the Squamish area has many boulder formations.

John telling me one of his funny stories. We had just heard what sounded like fighter jets overhead...it was! F-18 jets escorted Cathay Pacific into Vancouver today.We had a moment of what was that?? A rare sound here. (thankfully)

Wendy, John and I on the old highway to Whistler.

A new run from Squamish to Whistler took place today. It had 4 events a 50 mile, a 50 km, a 28km and a relay. Neil, Wendy, John Macray and myself volunteered to sweep the 50 mile course. We met at 5am in Squamish (the alarm went at 2:30am!) Another crazy outing! The start was the Adventure Center in Squamish and we set out shortly after the 50 milers were off. Our purpose as sweepers is to remove the ribbons marking the route and make sure everyone finishes safely. Wendy and John knew the area well which was good as Neil and I were on new territory. We were a bit slow early on as the course had many markers to remove and it was a slow stop-start for the first few hours. After time the markers became less frequent. Thankfully the 3 aid stations waited for us to arrive so we could fill up on fluid and food. We travelled through some very scenic areas and also some very remote trails that you could tell were not well travelled. Several times we had to pop out of the trails onto the main highway to Whistler and once onto the old highway. Despite this road being improved for the Olympics I would recommend not to go for a run on it! As many of you know who have travelled the road to Whistler the drivers are crazy and the route has many dangerous curves in the road. Despite an immense network of trails between Squamish and Whistler - the road is the only option at times - Yikes! While we were running on the road sections the temperature was rising and wow did the heat reflect off the pavement. Future plans are in the works to make a trail that connects Squamish and Whistler. For the final section the route markers had been removed and we went too far along the trail and missed the turn off where we were finishing our portion of the course. Wendy was on her cell phone a few times throughout the day making sure we were on the route. We did not sweep the entire course there was a final sweeper for the last section. We were on the course for 10 hours but the distances seemed a bit off so we are unsure at how far we actually travelled. We ran out of liquid at about hour 9 and we were all feeling the effects of this. My feet were sore again this weekend but I did notice that when I took some "S" Caps (electrolyte tabs) the pain became less intense. I really need to improve this before WHW. The rock underfoot at times on today's course reminded my of the rocks at WHW. Don and Jackie very kindly waited at their aid station and drove us all to Whistler where John was meeting up with Gilles and then drove us back to Squamish where we had started the route. A quick stop at Starbuck's and a stop at A&W for Wendy and Neil to have a burger before the drive home. An incredible journey on a new course...a good 10 hour training run! This course is designed for very experienced Ultra Runners - might be a good idea to stick together with others.