Fragrance Lake Half Marathon

Saturday Neil and I headed south to the USA to participate in the Fragrance Lake Trail Half Marathon. We always allow extra time to account for the border crossing. It's about 1.5 hour drive from home if all is smooth sailing at the border. The border line up was minimal so we arrived in plenty of time. We took the opportunity to fill up the monster truck with the cheap American fuel - it's almost half the cost of Canadian fuel! 

For the event you park at the finish and walk to the start which is across Chuckanutt Drive. Somewhat confusing but thankfully we were here in November for another half marathon so we were familiar with the area. 

It was a cold morning around 4 degrees C but clear skies and no rain - yah!! The event has about 3500 feet of climbing. So it is not your typical half marathon event. One trail was called the "Rock Trail". We started climbing and running past rocks as big as houses. We deduced this must be the "Rock Trail". Neil and I did the event together as we have done many events before. This year we are celebrating  our 25th wedding anniversary so we are planning a few trail events together. It's going to be a team effort! 😍 Our Anniversary date is in June where we will celebrate with 100km's on the trail together at Vancouver 100. (More details of the event to come!) 

Here's the  Fragrance Lake Half Marathon course profile: 

These trails have a unique mud to them that is super slippery. We don't have this kind of mud in Vancouver 😜 so it always adds to the fun factor when on these trails. 

Some of the trails were familiar from previous events we have participated in although we were going in the opposite direction which made them appear "new" to us! We enjoyed the day together with spectacular views of the Cascade Mountains and coastal views of the state of Washington. The trail was well marked and it was a well organized event on very nice trails. 

Happy Trails! 

Super Bowl Weekend

We are not avid football fans despite the Seattle Seahawks being in the Super Bowl this weekend. Seattle is the closest NFL team to Vancouver and excitement filled the city. Game day was wet so we were somewhat tempted to stay indoors and watch the game. We overcame the temptation to sit in front of the TV and enjoyed a peaceful trail run from Riverside Road on the Baden Powell. Both the rain and the game must have kept folk at home. We had the trails to ourselves which was very special. We called it quits when we started to feel a bit chilled from being so wet after 1.5 hours. 

Saturday I joined Craig and Lynette for a hike on another section of the Baden Powelll from Skyline Drive where we did an out and back. The Baden Powell trail can be accessed from many points to do a section of the trail for training runs. 

                             Craig and Lynette Baden Powell Trail 

Earlier this week we witnessed a beautiful sunset on the Pitt Meadows Dyke while out for a run. A motor boat had just gone by and created the wake. 

                                      Pitt Meadows Dykes 

          Fergus and I enjoying the view on the Pitt Meadows Dykes. 

This week I did 2 Spin classes, 1 TRX class, 5 runs and 1 hike. Trying to keep the wheels turning!