Race Review: 5 Peaks Golden Ears

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Back in January, I joined a Pay it Forward challenge, and my 'gift' from Brandi was this race entry!

I was nervous and excited come Saturday morning. I had felt really good at the orientation run a few weeks ago but my foot has still been giving me troubles. Cindy was also coming out to race with me so shortly after she arrived at my house, we headed out to Golden Ears, which is only about a 20 minute drive. I was particularly wanting to do this race in the series because it's pretty close to the community where I live in Maple Ridge, and there aren't that many races here so I definitely wanted to be part of it.

I hardly took any pictures so I'm certainly glad other people did, thanks everyone!

I wasn't really planning to run with anyone or go for a great time, I just wanted to get out there for my first serious trail run and make it to the finish alive!

Also, a little bit of advice: I tried to be cool and pin my bib to my pant leg like all the experienced trail runners, but apparently my running tights weren't made to be cool and I ripped a hole in my FAVORITE compression tights, so yea, don't try to be cool.

As we got going, I followed another running friend and went out WAY too fast! My first kilometer was just over 5 minutes.

Once we made it through the first water crossing and up the first few hills, I realized that I was incredibly short of breath for the beginning of a run. I looked back and there was Brandi, so I thought I'd just ease off and follow her the rest of the way since she is a more experienced trail runner than myself, but I sure was struggling for barely 2 kilometers in. This picture says it all...

Photo Credit: Rob Shaer @ 5 Peaks

The rest of the race was pretty much the same. Downhill: Run, try not to fall on my face. Uphill: No running, hiking and barely catching my breath.

Towards the end of the race, the fast Enduro runners had caught up and we were moving aside to let them pass every couple minutes.

What an awkward smile, but yay almost done!

Photo Credit: Robert Shaer @ 5 Peaks

Photo Credit: Robert Shaer @ 5 Peaks

We made it to the finish in 1:20:09, roughly the same time it took to do the orientation run. What I don't understand is I felt good during the orientation run and I felt like we were stopped A LOT, this was the total opposite for me and we came out with almost the exact same time. All in all I will call it a success for my first real trail race though.

I enjoyed the 5 Peaks event and Solana did a great job putting it all together. I'm hoping to volunteer at another one this summer and then (maybe) do the Whistler event in the series in August.

Race Review Summary 

Package Pickup/Expo:
No expo. Package pickup on race morning, went very smoothly other than the fact that my name was spelled wrong, oops Brandi lol!

Price/Value: $47.25 (Early Bird)
Pretty decent price for a local race. I'm a sucker for a medal and a race t-shirt but the souvenir is worth about $23 so that's a decent deal.
 
Aid Stations: 
One aid station on the sport course which had water and an electrolyte drink.

Course Difficulty: 
Hard. For me, new to trail racing, it was difficult. I hear the Enduro course has a much tougher climb so I'm glad I stuck with the Sport.

Medals:
No medals but you get an authentic Buff from Buff Canada, who is the new title sponsor for 5 Peaks this year. I really like this year's pattern. 

Learning to like Trail Running

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I have a trail race planned in 2 weeks and this weekend 5 Peaks held an orientation run at Golden Ears to preview the course. I figured I'd better check it out, since I am not that familiar with running on trails. Also, Brandi offered up her Solomon trail shoes, so I wanted to give them a go before the actual race!

It turns out that I might actually like trail running, I know right, I never thought it could happen! Even though it was sort of raining, it sure was pretty out there.

Great to see a bunch of running buddies from Langley make the trek to the other side of the river!

 Look at those purdy shoes! Thanks Brandi :)

I feel pretty wimpy compared to some of the trail runners who were out there, but I totally walked through a waterfall, so there's that. I'm going to have to work on getting used to running with wet feet though. Anyways, the update is that I am no longer all together terrified of doing a trail race.