Iron Knee – Epic 25km Trail Race

It’s Sunday evening, I’m sitting back with a beer and reflecting on what has been a big weekend of trail running (loved every minute of it).

Got up early on Saturday morning to a beautiful Vancouver day, ready to tackle my first race of the year. The Iron Knee is a 25km trail race from Grouse Mountain down into Deep Cove, a fairly fast course with a few technical sections and climbs thrown in. I went into the race placing no expectations on myself and would see how I felt on the day.

I started off quite conservatively, which kind of backfired as I got stuck behind a bit of traffic once we hit the single trails. After some interesting overtaking moves on the downhill I found my pace and the field started to open up. At about the 15km mark, we hit a 3km climb up Powerline Trail and this is where I felt all the Knee Knacker training paying dividends. I was able to gain a few places en route to the top, then hit the downhill section which covered the remaining 7km or so into Deep Cove. I am beginning to become a bit of a downhill freak and loved this section. I finished strongly at 2hrs 5 mins and still had a bit more in the tank, which would help for Sunday’s run.

Sunday’s training run was from Grouse Mountain to Deep Cove again, except on the Knee Knacker course (Baden Powell Trail) and a more technical run than the previous day’s. The legs were a bit tired but I was happy how well I recovered from Saturday. I got to run the long downhill section into Deep Cove again and kept reminding myself I wasn’t racing today – didn’t help though! A great weekend and the serious training runs start next Sunday with a 5-6 hour run.