Spring Fever
Spring is Nature’s Way of Saying, “Let’s Party”
-Robin Williams
Ah Spring. How I’ve missed you.
It’s been way, way too long since I’ve written here and I’m blaming it on Winter. Winter and I had a falling out and weren’t talking for awhile. I had nothing good to say about it and it wasn’t too pleased with me either. I let the grey skies and the rain cramp my outdoor style.
Bad Rachel.
Truth is of course it was my fault. Spring doesn’t have to work hard for my love like Winter does. Spring is my baby, my secret favourite child. Winter is dark and moody. And I lost the girl somewhere along the way who sees the beauty in every season, who loves the place she lives so much that all the rain here just means the proverbial glass isn’t just half full, it’s damn near overflowing. Apparently slinking away underneath my throw blanket was much more enticing.
But no more. Today is the first day of Spring and whether it was last night’s Super Moon or the cherry blossoms bursting on my street, I am renewed, rejoicing, and re-inspired. I was out and about today and it was like all of the residents of the North Shore exploded into our parks and playgrounds. That combined with my Vitamin D fix made me downright giddy.
I’m going to head back to the forests this week and beg their forgiveness for my absence. I’m going to sweet talk my trail shoes into just a few more miles, beguile my abandoned mountain bike that I bought new in the fall (and never used!) into spending some quality time with me.
This time of year also holds a special place in my heart because it was March last year when I trained for the Tender Knee trail race in North Vancouver and remembered what it felt like to be a kid again, running through mud puddles, jumping over twigs and rocks, traipsing through the forest in the early morning hours. It was that feeling that led to this website in the first place. It’s been my quest ever since to re-capture that feeling.
And now, so can you. A great organization on the North Shore, Mountain Madness, is running clinics for two of the most popular trail races on the North Shore, The Tender Knee Race and The Iron Knee Race. The Tender Knee and Iron Knee races are 12km and 15km races taking place May 29th starting from the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve and the base of Grouse Mountain respectively. The clinics for both start on March 26th- you meet at 8:30am at North Shore Athletics. From there you will get all the information you need on both races and take off from the store for your first run of the clinic. Go to http://www.mountainmadness.ca/clinics.php for complete details.
Another great option for beginner trail runners is My First Trail race. You choose either a 5km or 10km run taking place in the the beautiful Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve on April 3, 2011. Go to http://www.runthenorthshore.com/ for all the details and plenty of inspiration.
Spring also means one thing for plenty of Shore dwellers: triathlon. They’ll be able to get their fix at the North Shore Spring Triathlon happening on May 23rd in North Vancouver. It’s a 740 meter pool swim, a 20km bike ride on Mt. Seymour Parkway, and a 5km run on the trails surrounding Ron Andrews Rec. Centre. There is also a kids triathlon offered on the same day with age groups split into 7 and under, 8-11, and 12-15, all with modified lengths of the 3 events. How awesome is that? Their website is http://northshoretriathlon.ca/.