Royal Roads GutBuster

On what was an exceptionally sodden, west coast morning, Ally, Rumon and I (along with over 200 other brave souls) assembled on the grounds of Hatley Castle to participate in the first GutBuster race of the season. You may recognize the castle as it has been the home to Professor Charles Xavier and the rest of the X-Men during the recent movies. But, don’t be fooled by the building’s splendor as the grounds are more akin the Forbidden Forest surrounding Hogwarts. Though vastly dense and wild I have never enjoyed myself as much in recent years running through kilometers of thick rainforest, on incredibly mud soaked trails. With a huge grin on my face I jogged the course feeling like a 10-year old and out on an unplanned adventure: sliding down clay banks, passing gushing waterfalls and crawling up massive graveled slopes.

The plan had called for 65’ of easy running (given yesterday’s workout and tomorrows long run), but with a gentle push from Carter, resisting the temptation wasn’t all that difficult. Surprisingly enough, resisting the urge to race wasn’t that difficult either. I settled into a comfortable rhythm and befriended a local trail runner, Pano, who was also just out for a light jaunt as he has an epic long run scheduled for tomorrow.

Congratulation goes out to Ally, as she finished her second race (& run) of the season, partaking in the shorter (but equally challenging) 6km event. Rumon finished a very impressive 8th, but that only tells half the story as he is running a track workout this afternoon (talk about a rough double). Results.

Training: 1:16:29, with 11.7 km trail race (1:06:14)