Why did the Thursty Elk run Around the Lake? 2022 Race Recap
- Greg Luesink
- Oct 15, 2022
- 10 min read
TLDR: Chasing the heels of the Vedder-Cultus DIY Ultra, I signed up for my first race: Thursty Elk 25k's inaugural edition in July. I had a lot of fun, and made some new friends! In October, I got a free entry through work into Around the Lake Give'r Take 30k. That race didn't go quite as planned, life was a tad hectic!
Written Nov 2024
Prologue
Usually, I'm not one for racing or competing. Partly put off by the expense of registration, and partly because I'd rather choose my own adventure, like with the Vedder-Cultus Ultra. Also, I'd rather spend my time and money climbing, hiking, or biking in a new area with friends rather than training for and running a race.
Part of my hesitation also hinges on avoiding letting myself get competitive. When I played basketball as a teenager, I didn't like getting so invested in a game that winning or losing would impact the rest of day or week. So, I learned to hold it loosely, and I enjoyed playing a lot more. The same feelings persist now: if I let something ultimately frivolous (like racing) become too built up and important in my head, I stop having fun. Making a mistake, or something going wrong can derail my enjoyment of the experience. Sometimes it's hard to hold things loosely, but when I do, I find that I appreciate the moment so much more.
But all that aside, after two years of running, I still hadn't done an actual race. So, despite my reservations, my interest was piqued when I heard rumours about a new event in my backyard...
Thursty Elk 25k - July 9, 2022
A new race from Community Forest to Elk Mountain was being whispered about, so I kept my eyes open for news. I didn't have to wait long - the Thursty Elk trail race was announced soon after. Starting at Unity Christian School, the course would take runners straight up the Gloria Lookout trail, over to Mt Thurston, Elk Mountain, and down the trail to Slesse Park, accumulating 2000m of elevation gain and descent over 25 kilometres.
I like steep hills, so it sounded like the perfect race for me! I found out that a few other friends like Nathanael were signed up as well. After suffering together for almost 10 hours running around Vedder and Cultus, I was looking forward to sharing the trails again with him!
Race Day
My friend Zack (from April's ultra adventure) was there to snap some photos. Pictured are myself and Nathanael warming up at the start line. As runners lined up to take a turn in the porta-potty, I recalled the blessing that morning of a timely bowel evacuation before leaving the house.
Nathanael and I had carpooled to the start line, and would get picked up at the finish by my grandparents to get back into town. I felt the pre-race jitters as I warmed up in the parking lot, unsure of how I'd do in this format. I snapped a pic of the group of runners waiting in the corral: quite a few of us anxiously waiting for the race to start! Finally, they called the remaining runners over the bullhorn...
"Everyone to the start line please. The race will begin in 10, 9, 8 ...
... 3, 2, 1 - BEEEEP"
And we were off! I was near the front of the corral, and I quickly realized as we ran down the road that the pace was too high for me. So, I settled into a comfortable trot, knowing that I would have a chance to catch up on the climb and descent. Many people passed me, and I took the opportunity to pull aside and go pee in the bushes. I guess I didn't notice my full bladder amidst all the pre-race nerves!
Sure enough, as the runners thinned out on the flat kilometres, I found myself near the back. As soon as we started climbing our way up towards Community Forest, I settled into a groove with a nice pack of folks.
Aid Station 1 was at the parking lot of Community Forest. It had only been perhaps 5k of running, so I was still almost fully loaded with snacks and water. I grabbed a couple gummies, but opted to keep moving rather than stop and browse the nutrition selection.
The Climb
As I suspected, once the runners hit the steep trail up Gloria, I started making my way up the ranks. Keeping it light, I would chat for a bit with the person ahead, until they got perturbed by my conversation. On repeat, each person would pull over to let me pass and beckon me in front of them. This happened on repeat until I met a race official, who told me that I was in the top-20! That was a fun fact to realize, I just had to hold it together for the ridgeline and downhill. My quads had started cramping, and I took it a little easier to try and recover, with 2/3rds remaining of distance.
I ended up catching up to a guy named Mike on the ridge to Thurston. We stuck together for quite a ways, and Thea (women's winner) caught up to us as well. We all got to the Thurston Aid Stations together.
Much to our dismay, the race directors had encountered a rather significant hiccup in their plans to 4x4 water and nutrition to Mt. Thurston. Alas, due to snowline, they could not 4x4 up the water. Instead, they recruited a handful of volunteers to haul as much water on their backs as possible. Among them, was Nate the Great! Thankfully, I had an inside man and Nate gave me a whole 500 ml of water, rather than the rationed 250ml... after sweating up a storm on the climb, my water levels were abysmal, further adding to my muscle cramps. My right gastrocnemius was seized, and my foot was in perpetual plantarflexion. My gait was pretty awkward at this point, with my toes pointed down. My hip flexors were also cramping. I was an absolute mess.
Thea quickly dropped Mike and myself, and I made an effort to catch up to her, but that idea quickly vanished. That was the last I saw of her until the finish line - what a crusher! Further along the ridge, I caught up to Allan and Dario. Dario was an absolute legend, with road runners, no poles, no vest, and only a plastic water bottle. Later, I found out that he was an MMA fighter, and he was just doing this race for fun. As we neared Elk, Allan and I picked up the pace, and I spotted a photographer.
With a grin on my face, I decided to leprechaun kick for the photo-op... only to have every muscle in my legs cramp mid-air.
The Descent
Nearly stumbling after my antics, I continued on to the Elk descent with Allan in tow. What proceeded was a chaotic shamble of calling out to hikers as they slogged uphill and we sprinted down the trail. "HEEEEYYYOOO, RUNNERS COMING DOWN." I kept the pace going, always looking back and thinking "Allan is keeping up, I gotta go faster!" Meanwhile, I found out later, Allan was thinking to himself "Greg keeps picking up the pace, I gotta keep up!"
In this way, we blasted the downhill to the next aid station where Jess from Garrison Run Co. had a lovely spread of run nutrition. We took a short break to re-fuel, downed some Coca-cola, and continued down to the parking lot. But after our leg-shattering descent, both of us were pretty gassed, and our pace slowed significantly.
We passed the parking lot, and continued to the "Full Monty" trail that led down to the valley floor. As we paced ourselves and our cramping muscles for the last 5k, we heard footsteps behind us. Dario had caught up to us! Not a minute later, another voice from behind: it was Mike! The four of us trotted down the trail, keeping one another going. Those last kilometres were hard but fun to share together, and we all decided to cross the finish line together. I was fading hard by the time we hit the pavement, but I stuck with the gents and they pulled me along.
We rounded the last corner, and stayed true to our promise, crossing the finish line four-abreast: 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th all within 0.5s. It was an awesome display of camaraderie and so fun to push each other to our limits.
With the Chilliwack river at the finish line, I used the opportunity to ice my battered legs while I waited for Nathanael. Not long after, Nathanael, Dario, and myself caught a ride back into town with my grandparents.
I might add, I wore my HR chest monitor, and my average heart rate for the entire race was 180 bpm! I was sufficiently destroyed, and decided to turn my attention back to climbing, biking, and hiking in the summer.
Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/7442689280/overview
Around the Lake Give'r Take 30k - Oct 15, 2022
Through working at Mt Waddington's Outdoors, I got a free entry since we were sponsoring the Around the Lake Give'r Take 30k race. As you will read in other blog posts, between Thursty Elk 25k and this race, I had a wild summer of hiking, biking, and climbing... without much running. Still, I figured it could be fun to try out another race since I enjoyed the last one.
The major difference from Thursty Elk was that I was busy. Back in school, I was working on my undergrad research thesis. I was studying the effects of different training methods on finger strength and endurance in climbers. Of course, it was perfect timing that my baseline testing with 24 climbers landed on the exact same weekend as the race based on participant availability. I was also in 3 other classes that semester, and working 3 part-time jobs (Waddingtons, Banter, and Project climbing)... I also met Jas (my future wife) a month before the race, and we started to hang out. But that's a story for another time.
In undoubtedly the busiest season of (hopefully) my entire life, time was hard to come by, sleep was even harder to come by, and the last thing on my mind was preparing for this race.
Race Week
The day before the race was Jas' birthday. Her friends knew she had a crush on me (and I wasn't exactly secretive about liking her), so they asked if I would take them outdoor climbing to celebrate. Thursday night I stayed up until 2 am working on a card for Jas. She had made me a birthday card the week prior and it was my opportunity to reciprocate my interest! On Friday morning, I took them to the Prison Crag. Right after, I had to rush to the climbing gym to conduct the first of two days of data collection. For about 5 hours, I was at the gym with half of the climbers testing their finger strength and endurance. That night, I finished inputting data and updating each participant's file. Finally, I was able to shut the computer and try to get some sleep.
Race Day
On Saturday, I woke up to my alarm, and gathered my things to get ready for the race. I didn't own a car, so I biked up to Cultus Lake from Sardis to the start line at Main Beach.
Much to my excitement, I lined up near Gary Robbins! I said hello, and tried to hide my enthralment. I got a little too excited, and when the gun went off, I decided to see how long I could stick with Gary.
That was a silly idea. After a flat 2k of 4min/km pace I was absolutely gassed, and as soon as we hit the first uphill, my heart rate skyrocketed to above 190 bpm.
I knew immediately that I needed to slow down. Unlike Thursty Elk, I went out way too hard, and many people passed me in the following kilometres.
There's not much to recap on for the rest of the race. I'd run around the lake a few times before, but this was the first time in a race format. I chatted with some people, caught up to some, got passed by some others, and kept moving at what felt like a sustainable pace.
By the time I got to the Buddhist Monastery, I was feeling fairly recovered from my impetuous and impulsive start-line decision. I let my legs spin as I descended the pavement towards Lindell Beach. I made it to the Watt Creek Aid Station quite tired. I refilled water, got some snacks, and started up the next climb. Immediately, I started to fall apart. Not only was I demoralized by relay team's fresh runners blowing by me, I was really feeling the effects of my recent lack of sleep and hectic schedule. I slogged away for the remainder of the race, walking the hills, and jogging the downs when I felt I could. My friend Rhys passed me and said "Greg, you look rough man, what happened?!"
The flats from Edmeston to Main Beach were agonizing. I felt much worse than I did in the Vedder-Cultus Ultra that I did in spring, when I ran the exact same section. Except that time, I had a lot more miles on my feet already, but somehow felt a lot better that I did now. This photo is a pretty accurate representation of how garbage between Watt and Edmeston.
Somehow, I made it to Main Beach and mustered up the energy for a cartwheel across the finish line. I recall checking out the photographer's website and he didn't exactly capture the most flattering angle... basically snapping a picture up my shorts. Suffice to say I did not end up purchasing that photo.
Much to my surprise, I ended up winning the 21-29 age category. I later found out that there were like 3 of us in the race - LOL! I ended up running the 30k with ~1100m of elevation in 3h 42m, finishing somewhere in the top 30.
To top it all off, I retrieved my bike, and made my way to conduct 4 hours of data collection at the climbing gym right after the race.
Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/7968422946/overview
Concluding Thoughts
I really enjoyed the Thursty Elk Race. The context of my life was more conducive to enjoying the race, and I was physically and mentally able to push my limits.
Around the Lake was a completely different experience. I was so insanely busy leading up the race, and continued to be busy after the race for the whole semester. I was tired, no, exhausted. Spread too thin across too many things. I recall that I have never napped more in my life, just to catch up on sleep when I could fit it in. Jas told me later that she had some doubts about wanting to date me... does Greg exist on this level all the time?! Thankfully, that didn't deter Jas from going out with me, but that's a story for another blog post.
Overall, my main takeaways from these two races is balance. My personality is one that wants to fill up my life with a lot of activities. On their own, they are all good things and worth pursuing. But, the true joy in them comes when I can balance time and energy between them. A balance that I was obviously still learning... and one that I am still working on today.
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