The Golden Ears Trail is a popular hike in Golden Ears Provincial Park, near Maple Ridge, which offers some pretty spectacular views of Pitt Lake, the city, and the surrounding mountains including Mount Baker off in the distance. I ran the trail with friends Matt and Alexa in late July, by which time the snow had mostly melted.

The 5 Peaks Cypress Mountain Enduro on July 26th was to be my 2nd race back since getting injured a few months ago, much shorter and faster than I’m used to, especially given that I haven’t done anything even resembling speed work in a while. I went a little off-course last year to say the least, so I was still looking forward to a better result – provided I could put in a solid effort and suffer a little.

Earlier in the year, my good friend and Salomon West Vancouver athlete James Marshall briefed me on a brand new race he’d been asked to help design the course for, full of (yes!) ridge running. The event promised an entire weekend of trail running, expos, great food, and amazing views in beautiful Revelstoke, BC. How could I resist signing up for the inaugural 5 Peaks TrailStoke Ultra & Relay on July 19th?

In my May Training Recap, I stated that my goal for June would be to simply to get back to consistent running after the injury to my peroneal tendon in early April. I’d been hiking plenty including frequent trips up the BCMC but not logging any real mileage.

I’m happy to report that I managed to do that by about the 2nd week of June, hitting 61k that week and 86k the following. My ankle is still only about 90%, but I’m definitely able to manage the inflammation as it slowly continues to get better with each day. I don’t think it’s feasible at this point to wait until I’m 100% better as I need to be logging miles again – just as long as I’m not setting myself back at all, of course.

In just over a week, many of the top local runners will be lining up to run on some of their favourite North Shore trails. The Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run (or Knee Knacker for short) takes runners from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove on the Baden Powell – 16,000 feet of vertical climb and descent along 30 miles of technical trails.

The race is hugely popular, with almost 400 entrants competing for 200 spots in each year’s lottery. I wasn’t lucky enough to get a spot this year after running it last year for my first time, but you can bet I’ll be trying again next year.

With so many great runners signed up this year, it would be impossible for me to try to predict a winner, and the nature of this particular race is that anything really can happen on the day. I did manage to connect with 3 particularly fast local runners though to discuss their strategy and goals for this year’s race; Oliver Utting, Graeme Wilson, and Mike Murphy.