It wasn't until the starting gun went off that Loop the Lakes organizers knew six months of work had paid off.
"The main thing I'll remember from the day was the good vibe that was in the air once runners started coming across the line," said race director Roger Shirt. "It's then that you know the event has connected in the way that you hoped for six months ago."
On Sunday (Sept. 11), the Squamish Titans Athletic Club hosted 65 runners who took on the Loop the Lakes six and 15 km trail runs.
Both events started and finished in Alice Lake Provincial Park and covered some of Squamish's finest single-track trails.
"One of our goals was to show off the great trail network in Squamish, so I think we achieved that," said Shirt. "There was a lot of very positive feedback about both courses. The fast and furious downhill sections on both Four Lakes Trail and Entrails really seemed to be crowd-pleasers. One local person remarked that they didn't even know some of the trails on the racecourse existed."
The 6-km course followed the scenic Four Lakes Trail and was chosen for first time trail racers. The 15-km trail also followed the Four Lakes Trail and then continued on to the Garibaldi Highlands, offering more challenging technical single track trails for seasoned off-road runners.
The event raised hundreds of dollars for the Squamish Emergency Program, SORCA and the Squamish Trail Society. The race's future seems assured now that it is part of the Sea to Sky Running Series, which attracts several hundred athletes to the area every season.
"There's definitely the intention of putting on a race in 2006," said Shirt. "I think we've got a lot of positives from this year to build off of so that next year's event will be bigger and better, while still being an event for local trail running enthusiasts."
Shirt said he's sure to do one thing better next year: "I didn't get to try Teresa Hoivik's World Famous Peanut Butter Bars - they were a little too popular."
The top male finishers in the 6-km race were Toby Reid with a time of 30 minutes, 14 seconds, Ray Wilburn with 30:48 and Jason Eigr with 31:52. The top 6-km female finishers were Tiffany Fenton with 34:20, Olivia Montgomery with 34:47 and Carla Wilkie with 35:03.
The top male finishers for the 15-km race were Sean Wolfe with a time of one hour, five minutes and 17 seconds, John Kaandorn with 1:06:06 and Rich Rawling with 1:10:27. The top female finishers of the 15-km race were Sarah Herbert at 1:18:33, Daphne Radford-Park with 1:19:49 and Lee Edwards at 1:23:[email protected]
