Acorns, Part 2: Starvation Lake
< Acorns, Part 1: Coho Park and the Smoke Bluffs The term “maturity” is pretty odd when you think about it, especially in relation to modern, westernized, civilization. What is it to be a mature individual nowadays? There is a societal pressure to achieve maturity. To be called immature is an insult. Myself and Spring felt this pressure in Ireland. We felt a pressure from our peers and elders to secure stable income, to be responsible in our choices and move towards the expected goal of getting a mortgage, maybe having a child and settling down. When we left Ireland behind, and left everyone we knew behind, something changed. It was like that pressure valve to conform to our culture’s definition of maturity was released. A weight was lifted from our shoulders. We were no longer keeping up with anybody’s expectations. When I was a child my mother would send us out of the house during the Summer months, to get out of her hair but also to give her time to clean up our mess. With those long days free to do what I wished I’d usually, along with some friends, try and find some woods or fields nearby to explore. I was always curious, like most Children I believe, of the places that Man hadn’t seen fit to manicure. With age and the burden of responsibility I’d forgotten this curiosity, but now, In Canada, with no peers to speak of, I felt it rekindled. I don’t think people ever truly “grow up”. I don’t accept that we pass a rubicon where we have to lose touch with what motivated us as children. I feel we choose to suppress those “childish” inclinations for ones we have been told make more sense for adults. Similar to my youth, in Canada now I’d see wild places and wonder what’s hidden behind those trees or where that river flows to or what I could look out on if I was standing on that shimmering white summit. I didn’t care if exploring those places would advance my career, or lead to financial stability, or allow me to keep up with the Jones’, I was driven by pure curiosity. Shortly after our first few forays out on trails in 2010, mentioned in the first part of this series, we started looking at some trail maps for the vicinity around our home in Squamish, BC. At that time we didn’t have internet, we’d planned it that way so as to give ourselves a break from needing to be connected all the time. We’d use free wifi at the local Starbucks occasionally but in general we...
Survival of the Fittest - Race Recap
Beautiful view at the top of the Gondola. Post-race hike. Racing mindset is something that I have been trying to work on recently. Just gathering information from awesome running friends I have met over the last few years, learning what they do and focusing on working on my mental strength. I have said in previous posts that I don’t race often and I signed up for this race last minute, 2 nights before race day actually. I had a few friends running and was having a serious case of “fear of missing out” so decided to join in on the fun. I chose the 18km option which had a challenging 1000m elevation gain thrown in. This race, Survival of the Fittest, is part of the Coast Mountain Trail Series and if you know anything about this race series, you will know that they put you to the test! Everything for me is training for the Squamish 50 mile that I will be racing in August. I view everything like part of a training run and try to train my body to run tired most of the time. My reasoning behind this is that I want to prepare for the worst out there. I know that the worst I will feel training is probably the best I may feel at a low point during race day, so I need to be able to push through those moments. The day before Survival of the Fittest, I got up at 5am, ran to the First Peak of the The Chief, and then did a set of small hill repeats on my lunch break at work.I was going to do the Sea to Summit trail that evening with Leigh, but he convinced me to taper that evening…hahaha tapering the night before a race! My fellow crazy running buddy, Adam, stayed over at our place, since he was also running the 18km race.. It was nice to have a partner in crime to bounce pre-race jitter energy off of. I woke up feeling tried, pretty much as usual and on schedule, but after a coffee and oatmeal was feeling more race ready. I didn’t do a huge amount of research into the course, as I live in Squamish and know most of the trails in the area. The only thing I did check was the elevation profile which was 1000m over the 18km course. This seemed like it would be a challenge but definitely doable. When they made the call to get to the starting line, Gary (the race director) said everyone wanting to run fast and finish first needed to get up to...
4 Years, 4 Summits
Four years ago today, April 14th, 2014, myself and Spring finished our journey from Ireland to Canada and set foot in our new home in Squamish. Spring was returning to her home country after living away in Ireland for 6 years and I was moving somewhere completely new and foreign. The trip to Canada was not enjoyable. We ended up on a 9 hour flight in the middle seats of the middle isle of coach on the plane, wedged between an individual on our left who drank himself into a stupor within the first 45 minutes of the flight and an older, spindly lady on our right who packed the area around her seat with bags and clothes and then fell asleep in a ball on top of them. To add to this, in the seats in front of us were two mothers with newborns. They fully reclined their seats into our laps in the first minutes of the flight and they stayed that way for the duration. The crying and teething stopped us from being able to sleep through any of this. When we finally, wearily arrived at Vancouver airport, made our way through immigration services and went to pick up our rental car they told us that we could not have it. Spring had a driving license and I did not. But the credit cards we had were all in my name. The rental car company insisted that they’d only allow us to take the car if we provided a credit card in the drivers name. Without options, we got a taxi to the nearest Hotel and decided to figure this all out in the morning after sleeping off the day. The next morning, my first morning at my new home, I opened the curtains and the day was glorious. Blue skies and sunshine. We turned on the TV and switched to the news. Our jaws instantly dropped. Breaking news was coming in of the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, an Icelandic volcano, and European airspace was shut down. Had our flight been a day later we’d likely have been stuck in Ireland now. This delay may have also impacted my chances of getting my permanent residency in Canada. The permanent residency application insists that I be in Canada within 12 months of taking the medical exam that it requires. That 12 month deadline was on April 15th, my first day in Canada. The qualms we’d had with the previous days flight and being refused our rental car washed away. We were at least here, our 3 meager suitcases of clothes had arrived with us and we were fine....
Running Recap: Squamish 50 and Cap Crusher 13km
Ok so this post is well overdue, but better late than never! Here is a quick recap of some running fun I had 2 weekends ago. Leigh and I decided to charge in different directions the weekend of March 22/23. We both feel it is important to our personal and combined growth if we spend time apart in our chosen pursuits. What we learn separately we can share with each other on our next combined adventures. Saturday, March 22, I was signed up for the first of 4 Squamish 50 Orientation runs. I will be attempting to run the ultra distance of 50 miles(80km) on August 17th, which is definitely going to be the hardest thing I have ever done to date. Needless to say I do most of my training runs on the trails around Squamish, so I am quite familiar with the course route, but I still love attending the orientation runs. I get to run with friends, make some new friends on the trail and feed off of the general stoke of the day, which is usually very HIGH. It gets me excited to train! With a large group, of usually close to 60 people, there is ALOT of fun to be had on the trails. Plus these runs are almost like a mini race in themselves. Gary Robbins and Geoff Langford (directors of the Squamish 50 race) make sure to have the route marked pre-run with spray chalk and ribbons, making it almost impossible to get lost. They even have an aid station mid-run stocked with the usual goodies…cookies, salty chips, orange slices - it’s a veritable runners smorgasbord! The cutest Mascot ever! You will see Oreo at all the races. A veritable smorgasbord! So that Saturday, was no exception to the 5-star service all the runners have become accustomed to at these orientation runs. The morning started off chilly and we even had fresh SNOW! It was a large group of smiling, excited runners ready to hit the trails. I was excited to start that morning with 2 of my running buddies - Adam, who will be running his first 50km (so excited for him, he is going to crush it!) and Hailey(check out her page Run Like a Girl), who will be attempting to best her time from last year (I have no doubt that she will). Of course there was a lot of laughter, pre-run, run and post run that morning…runners are a crazy bunch of people…crazy good! Crazy good! Trail running is beautiful. Running through the lightly snow dusted trails was so beautiful. Winding through the forest, over the wooden bridges,...
