On Thursday 14 December 06, a howler of a storm ripped through Vancouver's Stanley Park. Winds of 115-120 kilometers/hour blasted the park snapping and uprooting 3,000 trees and causing extensive damage to the famous seawall trail.
This coming Monday 1 January 2007, I host the 14th annual Vancouver Fat Ass 50K run and Freeze Your Fat Ass swim. About 100 friends and friends-to-be have signed up to join me for this combination hangover cure and resolution run. Stanley Park is the start and finish area for the run.
Friends and well-wishers have been telling me about the state of the Stanley Park trails for several days. I've seen sawed-off and uprooted trees from the main causeway that cuts through the park, but not witnessed the damage from a runner's perspective until yesterday.
It's heartbreaking to see what nature has done to Stanley Park.
Roads that access Prospect Point and Third Beach are still closed. Almost all of the trails in Stanley Park are very clearly marked "closed" with yellow tape and barriers.
Many of my guests at the New Years Day run are very experienced trail runners. Looking at the list of those who have registered, I can see a few former Canadian National Team members and other very accomplished back country bushwackers. These people are machines that can run in the woods for days at a time. They are the kind of people who enjoy just about any challenge nature can throw at them. They would want to try running the trails in Stanley Park on New Years Day even if those trails were closed for good reason.
As host of the Vancouver New Years Fat Ass 50, I rationalized that it would be irresponsible of me to *not* check the course route first hand. So I ducked under the tape...
Here is a slide show of what I saw as I ran the section of the Vancouver New Years Day Fat Ass 50 course in Stanley Park.
Yes, I survived, albeit with bloody legs from scratches received scrambling over the blowdown. The roughly 6K section of the trail I ran from Third Beach to Brockton Oval, where the Vancouver Fat Ass 50 starts, would normally take me about 20 minutes. Yesterday, it took me almost 5 times that long!
The net of it is that the trail is not runnable. It is barely passable and in places it is unsafe. Judging from the volume of downed trees and damage to the trail, it will be a long time before any of the trails near Prospect Point will be clear enough to run.
To keep it safe, 2007 will be the year of the detour for the Vancouver Fat Ass 50. We'll start and finish at Brockton Oval, as per tradition, but take the eastern seawall route and the north side of Lost Lagoon. Hopefully, the trails will be clear by this time next year.
'Hope to see you out there on New Years Day!
