This race would be my first one using an ankle brace thanks to my first ever sports injury suffered at the previous trail race. After the Golden Ears event, I booked in with a physiotherapist who examined my injured paw and pronounced it a mild grade 2 sprain. That meant that with some strengthening exercises and with the use of a brace, I could continue participating in trail races in 2008. The brace I selected looks like a mini-corset, which adds a whole new dimension to the term "race gear".
The Cypress Mountain race takes place along the ski runs and mountain trails just north of Vancouver. To get to the race start requires a drive up a long and winding road, so the car gets a great workout just going to the race. I suppose if I was really serious about outdoor activities, I should bike up this road to the race start, but that sounds a bit crazy. Actually, no, it sounds like a duathlon. Ack!
Compared to the other trail races I have completed to date, Cypress was the most "mountain-y". Most of the running was either up or down, and since the race starts in the bowl formed by several mountain peaks, you can stand at the start line and gaze up to where you sore butt will be after a lot of sweating and straining. There seemed to be fewer participants at this race than the others and the pre-race vibe was a bit different. My guess is that since the race start area is in a very open parking lot and not in a lovely forested area next to a beautiful lake, like Buntzen or Golden Ears, there were not as many families participating in the event as an all day race/picnic/chillout activity.
The race started with the course taking us across some dusty construction areas (2010 Olympics construction) and into a fairly flat area with some nice ponds to lull is into thinking this would be a cakewalk. Soon enough, the ascent began. The trail very quickly became Grouse Grind-like, in which you are not looking ahead at the trail but rather you are looking directly at the path because it is so steep as to be almost in your face. The group of racers I started with was not trying to run up this bit. One chap apparently had second thoughts about the event as he was heading down the trail at its steepest. He didn't look injured but he had a very determined look on his face so perhaps he was just not into racing that day.
We arrived at a plateau and then immediately began a descent. As mentioned in previous logs, I have some issues with down. This part was particularly treacherous as there were sharp roots and rocks at strategic spots on this part of the trail, making it slow picking to go down. A few folks leapt ahead of me but most were OK with just carefully getting through this bit. The trail levelled out a bit then the real descent began.
The next part of the trail seemed to be designed like a mini-luge run. There were many twists and turns along this sharp descent but the trail was banked at a large angle so I felt much more comfortable running down this trail at a faster speed. At one point, I felt I was running at a 45 degree angle to the trail! If only all the descents could be like that. This part of the trail soon ended and the course led out to the open part of the hill which no doubt was the ski run in the winter months. This was strewn with small rocks and scree, so I did my best to screee-am down this part.
One good part of all this focus on upness and downness was that I was feeling no pain nor complaint from my ankle brace.
The course levelled out at the bottom of the hill, at which point the sport course participants veered off to return to the start/finish line while the enduro course took us up a second peak. This ascent and descent was somewhat more gentle; however, by that time I was feeling the fatigue from all the up and down action, so the pace slackened somewhat.
Similar to the first peak, the second peak descent was a screefest, so speed was tempered somewhat in favour of staying upright. I crossed the finish line upright and happy, with my ankle no worse for the wear.
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