K-100 2010 report

June 20, 2010:

There's epic, and there's the K-100. I had thought that only my run would be the exciting part, but it's such a logistical operation that it keeps you occupied the entire time, and you get pretty pumped cheering for your teammates. A-Chang stayed at home because I said she'd get bored. Next time I'll bring her along. I took her pink camera with me ("it's my wife's") to take in the race and a bit of scenery.
From Longview to Nakiska, this 160km relay is split into 10 legs and takes in the highest paved raod in Canada. It seemed like even my car was short of breath.

It was here that leg 5 finished, with Darren pleased to hand over to Erin (all of us work at the same place). She had an all downhill leg, but not as easy as it sounds - slightly downhill is easy, but there is such a thing as too steep.

Before I knew it it was my turn. My car would be driven to the end of my leg, weird as it was to see my own car driving past me. Every leg was sunny and it was pretty hot that day. A little clue as to what snook up on me is above my head here. I stood still for this one, but this blog's main picture was taken in full flight.

To backtrack a touch, it was sunny when I started my leg. Then as the valley narrowed, the sun went in. "Less sweating, good." I said. The guy I overtook with no shirt on would surely be pleased too. 5 minutes further on while climbing the clouds seemed to get within touching distance. Drizzle. Only a bit of water I said. Rain. Once I said "nooo" out loud it came down very hard. No choice but to keep going. I was completely drenched.

A teammate saved my life by handing me an extra shirt, longsleeve, to wear. Another few km on - my leg was 16.5 long - the valley widened and I was now going mostly downhill. The deluge abated, I took off the longsleeve and dried out in a couple of minutes. Thanks technical gear! This brief wintery weather caught me unprepared for one of every runner's least favourite afflictions, bloody nipple. Sprinting the last downhill part, I quickly found my way to a sink after handing over to Mary. Cold water and scrubbing very soon after gets it all out!

Now acting as Mary's support car, I was able to stop to get a reasonable photo that shows it still to largely be a road race.



 The last 2 legs are cross-country, and the mud was tough for me to walk in, not ready for trails yet. Save the best for last as they say, and it was Scott who did leg 10. I believe he finished top 10 for his leg, I was about 30th in mine. I'd only done the marathon 3 weeks before, so no complaints. We came in 9th out of 48 corporate teams, so extra pleased all round.

 It's certainly a beautiful part of the world, the drive home also being a pleasure, what could be better than this view?