The Double - 60 miles
(Double Knacker)
North and West Vancouver BC
June 4th and 5th, 2005

Background
The Baden Powell Trail on Vancouver’s North Shore Mountains runs the full length of Vancouver’s North Shore from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove.  It is 30 Horton miles (16,000 feet elevation change) of arguably some of the most technical and difficult running terrain in North America.  This trail is the home of the Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run an epic event held on the 2nd Saturday of July each year.  The Double (60 miles, 32000 ft elevation change) is an out and back starting at Deep Cove running to Horseshoe Bay and then returning to Deep Cove.  The Double has only been accomplished once before by 2 runners (Mike Wardas and Randy Hunter).  It was also previously attempted by current year RD Craig Moore who had unfinished business on the trail (in his own words he previously “bonked big time”)  This event was structured as a pay back to prove that ... yes, it can be done !!

Executive Summary
7 starters, 7 finishers (plus a number of folk who ran part way)
The race was won by former finisher Randy Hunter of North Vancouver in 14:48.  2nd Place went to Rob MacDonald of Burnaby in 18:45.  Yours truly was in a 5 way tie for 3rd place in 22:51:37.   Ahem ... if you do the math you will quickly figure out that was also a 5 way tie for last place    =:-0  You will also figure out that almost 23 hours for 60 miles says a lot about the course difficulty.  I’ve described it here as a race, but it was really more of an adventure.

Highlights
-Just 20 minutes into the run at Deep Cove Lookout, with the entire field of runners still together, we ran into a black bear guarding a junction in the trail.  This Winnie the Pooh was obviously used to people (we have a lot ... I mean a lot ... of bear incidents in the built up part of this community) and he was not willing to give up one inch of the trail.  RD Craig Moore made a snap judgement and we took a different trail which circled around and met up with the normal course.  I’ve gotta say that a bear encounter with a whole lot of runners is a lot more comfortable than meeting a bear when you’re all by yourself ... I’ve now done both.
-the course was in great shape.  Virtually all of the snow in the high country was gone.  This meant that there was lots of mud in the alpine sections.  After tip toeing around the first few mud sections, everyone just gave in and ran through the muck.  Some muddy sections looked terrible but were actually quite firm.  Other sections looked firm and then tried to suck your shoe off.  You never know !!.
-running down Black Mountain was an experience.  The regular Knee Knacker Race goes up this climb.  It is very steep and there are many, many sections where you need to look for hand holds in the rock to pull yourself up.  Of course going up, you are leaning into the mountain.  Going down, on the other hand, you tend to lean out.  It was very tricky but we all survived to run again.
-the aid stations and volunteers were fabulous.  We also had the good fortune to have the same aid stations and volunteers at each location where the trail crossed a road or came close to a road.  With such a small field, the aid stations were run off a tailgate with the same volunteers moving along the course.  They were great, anticipating the runner’s every want and need.
-God’s aid stations - the earliest berries are Salmon berries and they were right in season with many nice plump berries lining much of the course.  I even found an early bearing mountain blueberry bush and lucked out in discovering an early wild strawberry at Eagle Bluff (elevation 3500 ft)
-Surprise aid stations - Former finisher Mike Wardas showed up at Capilano Lake (Cleveland Dam) with his BBQ and a pot of steaming hot chicken noodle soup.  Most of us showed up at this point right at sundown and the burgers and soup really hit the spot.  BTW - Did I mention how good a gooey cheese pizza is after 10 hours and at halfway ??  It really hit the spot and both the pizza and the burgers later were just what the doctor ordered to help keep the tummy happy and the legs moving :-)
-much is often said about the camaraderie in ultrarunning.  This was particularly the case in this run.  We started out as a bunch of friendly strangers at the start, buddies as the run went on, but after dark we became a group of friends united in the common purpose of achieving our quest.  Each of us now share a common bond of almost 23 hours together on the trail that we will treasure for a lifetime.
-I learned that there can be a big difference between a trail that is runnable in the daytime and a trail that is runnable at night.  Much of this trail is so technical that it cannot be run, particularly at night.  Staying together and not losing the trail (even a trail that we know so well in daylight) was a major accomplishment (hey, I even wrote the course description http://www.kneeknacker.com/RaceInfo/CourseDesc.htm )
 A big practical issue was the effect of fatigue after 20 hours or so, where runners normally as sure footed as mountain goats now had to really focus in order not to trip over all of the gnarly roots and rocks.
-ultrarunner extraordinare Ean “Action” Jackson (currently out of action due to injury) was out to greet the group at 2 am at Mountain Highway.  As befitting the occasion, he was dressed in a business suit and tie.  His excuse was that he had been at a wedding reception ... and we thought he was dressed up to greet a bunch of smelly ultrarunners on the brink of a historic achievement  :-)
-another highlight was the privilege (and privilege is the word) of running the whole way with Grand Slammer Karl Jensen who has just so much knowledge of running for 24 hours or more.  Karl will be running the Bighorn 100 miler in 2 weeks.  He told me that he was inspired to do that race by DC’s photos of last year’s event.  Early on, Karl kept telling us that he really enjoyed running at night, but with 5 miles to go we were within a few minutes of his home and he was tempted to head home to bed at 3 am.  It didn’t happen.  He stuck it out with all of the rest of us.  He had to.  His car was in Deep Cove :-)
-I had hoped that we would finish at night, but just in the last mile, the light steadily increased and we finished at 5 am in daylight, running into the finish line 5 abreast with RD Craig Moore in the centre of the group, thus accomplishing his own quest of “Completing the Double”  Congratulations to Craig and thank-you to Craig for the privilege of accompanying him in his quest.

Ron Adams
North Vancouver, British Columbia