ZR Stanley Park Run and Stretch

Z1 BH practice

Z1 Stanley Park

Afternoon Trail Run

Multigrind: 2O Grinds with just 3 mins to spare - 2nd overall

It's been a big summer for fast times on the HSCT. Originally was aiming for lowering my North to South to something more respectable than my soft time, but Craig Fowler put paid to that with his incredible 4:15 effort. Re-evaluated for the faster south to north direction, but felt it was also out of reach. So i decided to try for the easier route at max effort and then go back for the double. Was aiming for sub-11 hours and just snuck it in. I've never been in such pain in my life, and the second harder direction was a slog like none other. I'm not sure I will ever try the double again, its just so challenging on that terrain, I would love some more runnable trails to focus on in future. I originally planned to do this last week but the smoke ended those plans. Unfortunately, I left it a bit late, the weekend rain made the trail really difficult for fast descending as the tree roots are now like soap.  I set out max effort for the first one hoping to go under 4 hours - but the added morning dew made for challenging and sometimes scary morning ..in the end my body wouldn't let it happen, after only training on dry trails all summer I just don't have technical skill or confidence to pull it off in the wet. I got to West Lion in 1:30 in reasonable time but over the peaks after the lion I started losing time behind record pace, which extended to 45 by the end. I lost a bunch of time dealing with gear failure from wet shoes - the inner soles kept sliding up into my toes around James peak, had to keep stopping to adjust things. After suffering until Brunswick pass, I decided to pull them out and run without inner soles for the full descent down to Porteau. I've never run in shoes without inserts and it hurt so much. In the end 4:12 was not a bad result all things considered. A dry trail and I think I can challenge close to 3:40ish but it may also be beyond my technical skillset - I wanted to know this year but will have to wait till next summer. Need better shoes for wet trails!  At Porteau, Brian Clements set me up an amazing aid station array of treats and joined me for the second leg. Really enjoyed the company to take the mind off the pain I was feeling. I was not keen to be alone in case I had a major bonk, but all was good. Unfortunately for Brian I stepped on a hornets nest and he got stung. Sorry mate!  Slow going on the descents because of feet and leg pain, but I climbed well enough - albeit slower than usual after all that pounding in the first 4 hours. Had to push hard from Unnecessary mountain to get under 11 hours, so what a painful descent and St Marks was super muddy and slick. Made it with 90 seconds to spare and slashed almost three hours off Peter Cave's record. I'm sure one of the fast boys can go sub-10 which I think is achievable by a handful of guys in BC - who is going to try!? Thanks so much to Brian for all his help today - he went above and beyond and so thankful for the help. He also ran the whole trail without eating all morning and during the run - really impressive! Also I filmed the whole run with gopro on the head, on the first leg so will be cool to edit that for a video. 

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James Stewart

Double HSCT FKT 10h58m20s (previous: 13h49) Cypress to Porteau 4:12. Porteau to Cypress: 6:30 + 16' Break at Porteau

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ZR Stanley Park Run and Stretch

Z1 BH practice

Z1 Stanley Park

Afternoon Trail Run

Multigrind: 2O Grinds with just 3 mins to spare - 2nd overall

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