West Coast Runner: BC High School XC

Back on November 4th/5th, we took our top 7 girls to Kelowna for the BC High School XC Championships. It was a successful trip. When we arrived, we headed straight up to the race course to check it out. The kids would run a 1 loop course of about 4.4km (I believe). It was a very frozen course with a bit of snow in places as it was up at the Telemark XC Ski Hill.

From there we checked into our hotel and then I attempted to figure out a place to do my own workout. I had intervals to run and looking out the windows at the hotel showed either the highway or hills. Not ideal. Thankfully one of the parents volunteered to drive me into Kelowna so that I could use the Greenway, which is a nice long gravel trail along Mission Creek. They dropped me off just as the sun was beginning to set. I rushed my warm up and started out. It felt tougher than normal. Still a good effort, but the overall paces felt faster than my gps said they were. Not to mention I was freezing for half the workout and due to limited sun, I cut my warm up short. My cool down was done after the sun went down and it was a tad creepy running through the trail not really knowing the area. In the end I survived and was grateful to get into a warm car for the trip back to Westbank.

A dinner at Boston Pizza with one of the girls and her dad and then back to the hotel and an early night to sleep. The next day we were up early at 6am as the kids needed to eat. We left at 8 and headed up to the race. Oh my god was it ever cold. I give credit to those kids running. It was a very tough race with tough weather conditions. Needless to say, I was frozen before the race even started. I had hand warmers in my gloves, about 3 layers of pants, 4 shirts/jackets and I even shoved hand warmers into my shoes (they didn't help) as I couldn't feel my toes.

The race was off and I headed back up to the finish area. Before I knew it the kids were coming in. Miryam ran a strong race to finish 4th (just barely) as our top finisher. Next we had Abigail, Carly, Rebecca, Emma and Rachel. Wait a minute.... that is 6, we are missing one? Rachel asked if we had seen Tkia as she had run by her laying on the ground with someone helping her. The other coach ran off to find her, while I stayed with the other kids making sure they got clothes on etc. Finally, Tkia comes back. She fell within the last portion of the race and hit the side of her head on a rock. Decision was made to head to Kelowna hospital. Thankfully, Emma's parents took me and Tkia to the hospital and hung out with us while we were there.

Tkia was a trooper as she ended up with 5 stitches (2 in one spot and 3 in the other) and a nice black eye with lots of bumps and bruises. Poor girl.

On the way to the hospital I was informed that even though Tkia didn't finish (She is usually our 5th scorer between Becca and Emma), we still placed 3rd for teams. This was awesome because we were 7th last year. Definite step in the right direction. I made sure to tell the girls to grab Tkia a medal as I felt she deserved one too.

I am thankful to Becca for packing up the rest of my stuff at the hotel and to the girls in Tkia's room for packing up her stuff. As far as I am aware I am not missing anything! It is always nerve wracking to have someone else pack your things.

Now for a few photos

Sunrise from the ferry to Vancouver