A day on the Juan de Fuca trail...

Let me begin by saying that I agree with you all, and yes we did it anyway ; )

  It all started as few months ago when I was chatting with a mate of mine name Josh, MJW to some. With the news of my moving north of Victoria but still on the island to a city(village) called Courtenay, we did some brain storming to come up with something completely awesome and out of this world to accomplish....we agreed on the one thing that both of our perspective partners told us we were absolutely crazy to do and in a way that kinda made them cross with us, only because they love us so much, well that's what we like to think anyway. What was this idea? You may be asking, it was to hike the Juan de Fuca trail...in a day, that's right all 47km in one glorious, fantastic, foot demolishing, knee crushing, soul draining day. Hahaha I think of it and it make me laugh that we had such a crazy plan and that it worked!!! Hahaha so fun : D

  To give some preface, we were thinking of doing it back in Januaryish time frame when we both had a bit more free time to drive up on a whim and pound out as much as we could. At the time we thought it would be fine, but probably because sub-consciously if we waited we would come to our scenes and not do it all. Trying to complete it then, on a whim, during days that don't have as much sunlight and WAY more rain wasn't the smartest of ideas so we looked at a more workable date...ie the day with the most sunlight and hopefully least amount of rain. This led us to decide on June 23rd and with one more like minded, ie crazy, fellow in tow we met up at the ungodly hour of 0345 in the effing morning to be at the trail head for 0500 and hammer out this trail.

  The reason why you have read this far! The Juan de Fuca trail. We started on the south end of the trail, Mystic beach, why here? you may ask.
               
                           Pro - It was the closer trail head so we didn't have to wake up even earlier to be on it by sunrise.
                           Con - The majority of the harder trail was in the southern end :  (
                           Pro - The majority of the harder trail was in the southern end AND we didn't have to make up earlier!!!!!

Soaker #1

  So mystic beach won! Hah. The trail it's self was very nice, the beaches were clean, trails were well marked and taken care of but understandably rugged, however the drainage, it could use some work but that isn't the fault of BC Parks only mother nature ;  )  After the first little while more and more puddles of mud were appearing and getting larger too!! Soon enough Jason got a soaker then Josh! And yes even eventually yours truly got some mud in my boots!, a wee footnote to those not in the know; as "soaker" is when water/mud/slush enters your boot and well soaks your foot, not very pleasant for the receiver but absolutely hilarious for those around to see hehe,   In all good fun we shook it off as all apart of getting your trail badges as it were and carried on, lets face it if you go through a hike of any decent length and don't get a bug bite, minor scratch, or the beloved soaker, maybe more adventuresome trails should be looked at.  7ish hours and 20km into our hike and we got to our first stop of the day, in the emergency shelter at the boundary for Chin and East Sombrio beach we had a quick change of socks and some food that pretty much consisted of Cliff bars, landjagers, and electrolyte supplements a lunch that any mother would be proud of.  Sitting there on the landing changing my socks and shoveling food down my throat there was a part of me that wanted to stay, have a solid rest and enjoy the fact that we were 20km into the wilderness with no reception and no civilization;  but very quickly I had realized that this was beginning to be more that just a hike, it had become a monster that we had to tame.  With little rest and protein rich food in our hands we pressed on and into Sombrio Beach, here is where we met most of our fellow hiking kind although they were on a more leisurely pace plus their sanity was a titch higher than ours too, we were grasping the magnitude of our challenge by the looks we were receiving, it did make me laugh some and still does hehe.

Soaker #2

Soaker #3

Moving along through Sombrio beach and nailing down the kilometers the distance is starting to take its toll, with feet getting sore, water and food running low and most serious of all a recurring knee injury on one of the fellows was as bad as it has ever been, at one point 1km took us 45min to complete, sadly we had already passed the last bail out trail by a few km's.  Pressing on we weren't counting up the km markers any more we were counting down the ones we had left, taking breaks when necessary and cracking jokes too, gotta admit even with all the tension in those last few kilometers we can still joke about who would be bear meat if one showed up.  The majority of the day I had thought for sure that we would crack on and get this challenge under our belts in 10-12 hours totally enough time to go to the pub and wait for our ride there! such was not the case, with the adversity of mother nature, minor lack of hydration, and injuries this little walk took us just over 15hrs 30min.  I'm sure that there are people out there that may have done it faster and with less problems, that is great I applaud them.  The point of an expedition like this is that you don't know what will really happen out there, talking and planning till you are blue in the face will only help you so far, eventually you need to get out there and do it.

 I am glad I did it, I'm glad I did it with two of my best friends, and when people ask me if I would do it again? I can't say yes and I can't say no...all I can think of is comparing it to Christmas or Thanksgiving, you have a great time laughing, eating, playing games and by the end of it you are so ruined that you say to yourself, "self never again!", some years you pay attention and feel perfect at the end of it, other times you throw caution to the wind and giver pig!

Cheers to my trail mates, cheers to you for reading and cheers to those who giver pig!
 















If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from the trail please follow the link to my facebook page,

https://www.facebook.com/jonny.parker.73/media_set?set=a.10152914095540577.1073741826.663300576&type=3

Oh what a marathon indeed!

On the fabulous day of May the 5th in the year 2013, it was beautiful on the west coast with not a cloud in the sky, sun shining with full intensity to break weather records in Vancouver and have a fantastic day on the beach! I ,however silly it may or may have not been, decided to run the BMO Vancouver Marathon. HAH! Take that you normal sane people sipping on your iced coffee and relaxing in the shade....oh how there is a part of me that is jealous to no end, let me enlighten you on the events of this race of mine that was one of the most difficult and painful things I have ever endured.....

First off since this race wasn't an out and back I spent the evening in a quaint B&B in downtown Van near to the finish line, as a result of this the wake up time to get my butt to the start line for 0800hrs start was a spirit lifting 0530hrs, I do hope that you are sensing some of this sarcasm here it's on pretty thick ; ). With the heat we were having I knew it wasn't going to be a cool run but I was not expecting to hit the 28 that it reached by a long shot, more on this later. On the walk to my subway there was an excitement in the air, you could almost wrap yourself in it as the more and more racers stared showing up on the sidewalk to make their way to the same subway almost like a right of passage, if you wake up before the sun and start walking while eating your bagel with cream cheese and make it to the start with out dodging into the nearest breakfast joint for some steak and eggs then your have earned the right to start the race (please note.....START the race)

It all was going according to plan, waking up in time, getting to the start area, staying calm and warm in the wee hours of the morning and catching up with of a few of my fellow crazy runners. At the start I was happy felt light on the feet of mine that I have been punishing since January and to top it all off I had some great conversations with a few perfectly good strangers whom I have never met and didn't see again, but I hope to again one day. As the kilometers dwindled the race was going fantastic then it hit, as I'm sure you all were expecting , the heat she had bitten and there was no stopping it there was only to survive. Here is the part where the pain begins on a level that I have never experienced before tho I'm sure ill many more fights with this beauty in my sporting adventures hahaha. With 16km or 10miles to complete on the race I had forgotten about the goal time I had been training for, and up to that point I was on pace for too, and concentrated on finishing this challenge. The emotions that ran through me from anger and frustration to sadness and despair, it took every last bit of strength to not give in to every fiber willing me to stop as a result from the heat exhaustion, tho I'm sure it was pretty close to worse. For 16 glorious kilometers I learnt the power of the human body and mind and much stronger they become when the counter part starts to wane, there isn't a better event that I could have chosen to to learn these things, I'm glad that this happened to me as I do not feel any doubt about what can be done, anything is possible with the right attitude and water hah!

When people ask me how the race went, I say "like $hit, but I can't wait to do it all over again!" I guess this is what happens when you have a crap race but an awesome experience, if there is anything that I can say to anyone doing anything, go do it! Push yourself get that experience of the lows and when you get the highs, and you will! They will be so much higher than you could have ever imagined.

On a personal note I was to thank my lovely girlfriend for supporting me, my training partners for enduring me, and my family especially my Mum for guiding me. This one was for you......the next one is mine tho ; )


PS finish time was 04:39:00

        Well, it's been close to a year since I have posted a new blog.  Much has changed, moved back to Vancouver island after completing school, drove west from T-Dot in roughly 3 days, took to the next level in running like a fish to water and started co-habitating with the lady!  Working everyday in 2013 plus training for a marathon in May all the while having great adventures, revisiting some of my favorite places and discovering new ones too. Phew getting kinda tired just thinking about it all!!  with some new breath and motivation to write about my tales, and there are some good ones coming up!, I'm excited to see what kind of fun aka trouble I can get into this year...hehehe should a great time, just like the start line :  D

ready feet?......and GO!

J

we are ready!!!