Seek The Peak

Seek the Peak 2008

Seek The Peak 2008

Destination: 2008 Seek The Peak
Date: July 6th 2008
Location: Ambleside to the peak of Grouse Mountain
Duration: 16 km- can be done solo, as a team of 4 or in stages ranging from 2-6 km.
Cost: Approx $ 40
Discipline: running and power Hiking
Rating: 10 / 10
Group Recommendation: I would highly suggest this event to anyone. If you want more of a challenge I suggest doing it solo. You can go as hard or as easy as you want and there are a lot of people volunteering and cheering.

Description: The day started off with a wonderful 5:20am rise. My training partner, Peter, and me were scheduled to run for 5 hours in preparation for White River 50 miler (July 26th). We started our day off at the Lynn Headwaters and after a nice hour and forty five minute ‘warm-up’ we had reached Ambleside and were ready to take on Seek The Peak.



This year was the 5th Annual Grouse Mountain Seek The Peak Relay raising funds for Breast Cancer. It is a challenging 16 km course that starts on the beach at Ambleside Park in West Vancouver, winds its way through North Vancouver, then heads up the legendary Grouse Grind to the peak of Vancouver. There were close to 600 participants and this event has raised more than $110,000 for Breast Cancer. You can either run it by yourself as a solo or do it as a relay team, which consists of 2-4 people. There were quite a few solo participants this year and it was great to be around so many people at the start of the event. It really took your mind off how daunting a journey it was going to be. Team Innovative Fitness all got together for a picture and then my teammate Rob Elliot lead all the participants through a group warm-up.

I started off with 2 of my co-workers, Kate Perry and Shauna Connaughton, and we were off to a really fun start. The adrenaline of the race had us off to a quick start but we quickly settled into a nice pace. The beginning is a lot more run-able than you would have thought. When you leave Ambleside Park you head onto the Capilano Pacific Trail. This trail heads up into Cleveland Dam. If you have never been up there, I highly suggest it because it is amazing. Capilano Pacific Trail winds up quite a ways and spits you out onto Nancy Green Road, which leads you up to the base of Grouse Mountain. Some may choose to run this relentlessly long hill, and others (such as myself) may choose to power hike (really fast walking). It was here that I really noticed people from all walks of life participating in this event; everyone working as hard as they could and sweating from top to bottom. Some participants were working as a team and wearing team shirts that supported great causes.



The Grouse Grind is one of the hardest sections along the course. It seemed like there was one long line of people going from top to bottom. Some people content to just get up and others were pushing hard to pass up the hill. Everyone was being very supportive of each other and I even heard some loud cheering whenever they passed a ¼ marker. I was happy to reach the top and I am sure everyone else was too. All there was left was a trek to the Peak of Grouse Mountain and then a steep downhill decent back to the Chalet. I do not usually sweat very much but it was pretty deceivingly hot out and I was getting a good sweat on. At the top of the Grind the weather changed completely. It suddenly got very cold, cloudy and misty. You couldn’t see more than 30 feet ahead of you, which made it harder to know how far away you were from the peak. I walked most of this section, as it was quite steep. Once I reached the turn around I booked it back down the hill to the chalet. It was very steep and I was really trying to watch my footing so I didn’t roll an ankle on a loose rock. It was only a few minutes back to the chalet and I really had no intention on a sprint finish since I still had another hour and a half to run afterwards. I just planned on enjoying the day’s run. There was mini hill and after that there was 45 seconds to the finish. This guy ahead of me got to the top of the hill and started walking. I tried to get him to start running in with me but he was pretty content where he was. I was 10 seconds away from the finish and all of a sudden people started cheering. That guy who was behind me all of a sudden started sprinting towards me. I am a pretty competitive person and was not about to be out sprinted. So, in the last 10 seconds of this race I was in the midst of a sprint off. It was actually pretty funny and really exciting and I believe I finished just ahead of him in 2 hours and 10 minutes. There were so many people at the finish line to cheer you on and it was very motivating. My boyfriend and my amazing teammates from Innovative Fitness greeted me as I crossed the finish line and I cheered them in as well. I didn’t hang around for too long because I had another hour to do. Me and Peter ran down towards Lynn Headwaters running down some of the best Mountain Bike trails North Vancouver has to offer. We were running over ladders, jumping down off huge rocks, and having way too much fun. It’s surprising how good your legs can feel after having already run for 4 hours!

The day ended with some delicious chocolate milk and a nice hot shower! I look forward to work tomorrow to celebrate all the victories that many of our Innovative Fitness customers achieved and they will all be awarded with a round of thunder claps!

Hope to see you all out next year for this amazing event!!!

Nicola Gildersleeve