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Dear Friends and Members of Club Fat Ass,
A belated "Happy New Year!" I hope you kicked off 2008 on the right foot, got the year off to a running start and are resolved to give Desmond Mott some serious competition for being the most active CFA member in 2008!
Thanks to all of you who renewed your membership or joined the Club over the holidays. Woo-hoo! Your 2008 club t-shirts have been ordered. I am looking forward to getting them in your hands by late February.
I am happy to say that the 2008 Club Steering Committee is almost complete. We are looking for one more keen member willing to take on the membership committee. This important role is also one of the most fun as its mandate is to widen our membership base and keep members happy. Contact me if you'd like to help.
Hope to see you all at the Pure Foolishness runs, the Lynn Loop Night Run (tonight!), the Run for the Haggis, the Squamish Scrambler and the Capilano Canyon Night Run in February.
Sibylle Tinsel
Chief Executive Fat Ass
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UPCOMING EVENTS
 Flash - Lynn Loop Night Run. 23 January 2008 - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. Ever wondered what night running is all about? Join Colin for an 8 km run counterclockwise on the Lynn Loop trail. In order to stay with the pack on this group run, you must be able to run this loop in under an hour in the daytime. No membership is required to participate in a Flash event, so tell your friends. Details here!
Photo left: Bill on the course for Pure Foolishness (during a past Pure Satisfaction Run)
Flash - Run For The Haggis. 2 February 2008 - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. This will be a run in and around the trails of North Vancouver followed by a full-on traditional Robbie Burns celebration with elements of poetry, music, swordsmanship, murder of the haggis, feasting, drinking of Scotch (and perhaps Irish) whisky. Party starts at 7:00. This is a potluck, so please bring an appie or desert as well
as your bagpipes and an appetite for boiled guts and oatmeal in a
sheep's stomach. Please also pair up with another couple of
participants to buy a nice bottle of whisky for the tasting. Wear your
kilt if you have one and at least a good fake Scottish accent if you
don't. More info here.
 Squamish Scrambler. 10 February 2008 - Squamish, BC, Canada. This is an out-and-back snowshoe hike/run up to Elfin Lakes Cabin in Squamish (22km). Bring the family as far as Red Heather, a 10km return snowshoe hike, or continue on up towards Little Diamond Head, or out towards Mamquam Lake, depending on conditions and motivation. Savour spectacular views of The Tantalus Range, Howe Sound and Sky Pilot. Snowshoes available for rent. More info here.
Photo right: Squamish Scrambler Event Host, Gary Robbins, of Raid The North Fame, out feeding the birds.
 Capilano Canyon Night Run. 16 February 2008 - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. A 90-minute run that starts in a suburban neighborhood, traverses the twilight zone, then stimulates your senses with a trail run in the mist and inky blackness of the Capilano Canyon. Choose between a guided group run at a gentle pace for the socially-inclined and first time night runner or a competitive run for those more motivated by the clock and the opportunity to rip their buddy's lungs out. Both runs followed by a potluck party and celebration of Fat Tuesday. Entry limited to first 50 entrants, so please register early!
Photo left: The potluck party after the Capilano Canyon Night Run is a great way for new members to mix and mingle.
Flash - Pure Foolishness 96km. 23 February 2008 - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. A few fools are planning to run the Pure Satisfaction course four times! Join them for all or part of the foolishness. More info!
Burnaby Mountain Run. 9 March (note the date change) - Burnaby, BC, Canada. Check out the trails around the Simon Fraser University. Great views - weather permitting - and a killer hill! Check it out here.
Spring Mountain Highway Madness. 16 March 2008 - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. This mind-numbing interval session is officialy held twice a year. Runners complete one or more 15 km laps (with approximately 1 km or 3,300' of elevation change per lap) on a wide dirt and gravel access road (no traffic). Check it out here!
 Sponsors. We are excited to announce that KintecFootlabs has joined the club as a Business Member. If you have been in one of their stores or have attended the late summer seminar on running injuries, you know already that Kintec does not just sell shoes!
All of their floor staff are university-trained Human Kinetic Specialists,
whether they have degrees in Human Kinetics, or in Kinesiology. You can
be confident in knowing that you are being served by the best in the
industry. They
take the time to understand and analyze your personal foot care
needs—from prescription orthotics to gait analysis, injury braces to
fitted footwear—ensuring you receive the best care possible.
Over the year Kintec staff will be at various CFA events, providing support, prizes and answering your questions. Look also for planned seminars in our Upcoming Events section on the website. The first seminars are scheduled for 20 and 27 February, details will be posted in the next newsletter and on the website.
Our club is supported by a growing number of Business Members. Please consider them when you are shopping. Click here to see who is a sponsor. Find out more about Business Memberships in Club Fat Ass here.
 2007 Point Series. Congratulations to Desmond Mott, the winner of the 2007 Club Fat Ass
Point Series. Des participated in 15 Scheduled Events and countless Flash
Events, earning a total of 37 points. Des is the happy recipient
of a gift certificate for a pair of shoes from KintecFootlabs. Honorable mention goes to Craig Moore, Ean Jackson, Baldwin Lee and Cheryl Johnson, who tried hard to keep up with Des.
Please refer to the Club Point Series for details on how you can work the system and earn great prizes this year. Hint from this year's winner: Pick up trash while you're running in a Club Fat Ass event!
Photo right: Des at the Vancouver New Years FA 50
Photo left: Ellie during her travels in India
 2007 Travelling Colours Contest.
The 2007 Travelling Colours Contest is coming to an end. This year all
photos in the contest have been uploaded to Flickr and the "voting" is
ongoing. The photo deemed "most interesting" by Flickr will win.
Currently, Glenn Pace handcuffed in Texas is leading - who could beat
that!? In Flickr you can add your "winner" to your favourites and add comments or notes (if
you have a free Flickr account). All activity on a photo will add up
and influence the final tally, so if you do not have a Flickr account
and don't care for one, clicking on your favourite photos to see them
larger will do just fine. If you would like to take part in the decision process click here.
 Photo right: Colin taking a break during the Rim 2 Rim 2 Rim run in the Grand Canyon last October.
If you haven't submitted your photo of this year's adventures in your
CFA shirt (any colour) please take a moment to either upload it to
Flickr or email it to your Chief Executive Fat Ass. You can find
instructions on how to upload to Flickr and enter the contest here.
2008 Membership Registration. Thanks to all the early birds who registered in 2007. Your 2008 collector's shirt has been special-ordered and you will hear from me as soon as they are ready for pick-up or shipping. I expect them in late February.
If you haven't yet joined the Club, what are you waiting for? Sign-up now to participte in almost 50 free events and get a classic black technical Club t-shirt as well. Such a deal!
Flash Events. The concept of the Flash Events is really taking off. Initially conceived to make it easier for new Event Hosts to launch the Club in their area, it is fast becoming the easiest way to earn Karma points by sharing your favorite trail or planning an adventure run. You get a free event website, tons of exposure for your run, and, unlike the Scheduled Events, anyone can join you for free. Tell a friend by forwarding this newsletter to them.
2008 Steering Committee. Thanks for all your offers of help. The first Steering Committee meeting of 2008 was held this week. If you are still sitting on the fence, but would like to help out in some way, please send me a note. We are particularly looking for somebody to chair the membership committee. Don't miss the "insider-only" Christmas party again in 2008! I am really looking forward to a fun-filled, successful 2008.
ADMINISTRIVIA
CFA Website. Those of you who have been using the Private Message function to get in touch with each other may have noticed that after the upgrade of our online clubhouse last fall, we experienced some problems with it. I had to temporarily take this feature down, but it is back up and running again. To enable your Private Message settings, please go to your account on the CFA website.
Ran Katzmann, our CFA Tech Committee Chair, has been very busy. Expect a site upgrade sometime in the next few weeks. New features will include a Gmap module that will allow us to add Google maps with start/finish and party locations to the event pages. As with the last upgrade, you shouldn't be affected much. Posting to the site will be temporarily disabled. We will announce this down-time on the website.
A reminder that website help is posted here. Instructions on how to upload photos and use Flickr to get photos on the Club Fat Ass website are here.
Club Fat Ass on Facebook. I have been amazed by the popularity of CFA on Facebook over the last few months. Our Club Fat Ass group has grown to 106 members. Recently, Facebook introduced a feature to add Clubs and Businesses, so I have added Club Fat Ass. Our url is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7145477626&ref=ts
Please do come by and check it out!
CLUB FAT ASS ON THE WEB
    
PAST EVENT RESULTS AND REPORTS
Pure Foolishness 72km. Event Host - Karl Jensen. The run started with a light rain that became quite lumpy and turned to
snow at higher elevations. At the top of the Seymour Grind there was
well over an inch of snow, which made descending the steep technical
sections quite a challenge. The snow was very wet in the lower sections
and where there wasn’t snow there were unavoidable puddles and mud.
Everyone suffered with cold, wet feet throughout. Ellie and Bill
sprinted out from the start in their usual fashion. On the return from
Lynn Canyon they decided to take a side trip onto Old Buck for some
bonus miles. Everyone else proceeded at a more civilized pace. Read on here.
 Vancouver New Year's Fat Ass 50 Run and Freeze Your Fat Ass Swim. Event Host - Ean Jackson. Yes, I guess you could say we kicked off 2008 on the
right foot . . . or 2008 is off to a running start . . . or har, har-har (add your own corny
running-related play on words in the comments below!) Just under 100 runners participated in the 15th running of
this Vancouver tradition, and for some reason, we received an unusually large
amount of media coverage this year. "What's
the big deal?," I asked many of the runners as we enjoyed our little resolution
run. It got me to thinking about what is
normal and my circle of friends. Read Ean's full report, see photos and results here.
Photo left: The enthusiasic Coquitlam members on their way to a great start to 2008
Flash - Mehune Madness. Event Host - Joel Jenkins. The Hawaiian contigent of CFA had a blast on this ultra. Pictures and report will be posted as soon as we receive them.
Christmas Fat Ass. Event Host - Karl Jensen. The Christmas Fat Ass 50K started in cold, rainy weather. The
organizers, Gilles (it was his idea) and Karl (only the messenger), got
quite a scare when Ellie appeared at the start line. Gilles and Karl
both had terrifying flashbacks of the punishment she inflicted on them
during the Big Fat Ass 100K last spring. Fortunately she joined the
fast boys, Tim and Bill, and was not seen again until that group, now
accompanied by Ran, was headed back from the turn around. Penny ran to
the start from her home in Edgemont, North Vancouver and turned around
at the intersection of the Admiralty and Salish Trails and ran back
from there. Chad started at his home near Trimble Street by Spanish
Banks and ran to Brocton Oval where he joined Penny and the old, slow
fat boys, Ron, John, Gilles and Karl. Ran joined the fast kids
somewhere near Jerico and ran the Pacific Spirit Park portion of the
course. The rain, while somewhat cold, made for excellent running.
Unfortunately, the rain had turned into about an inch of cold, wet
slush on the trails through Pacific Spirit Park, making it impossible to
complete that section without getting freezing water into shoes. Ron,
proving that at least he was not slow, by this point had surged ahead
of the slower pack. The return portion along Spanish Banks was against
a strong headwind, but by this time the rain had mercifully stopped.
Chad left the old, slow fat boys at Trimble and returned home, giving
him a few bonus kilometers. By unanimous vote he only gets credit for
50K since he set a pace that the old, slow fat boys found somewhat
challenging.
Photo right: Starters at the Galbraith Mountain Tour.
Galbraith Mountain Tour. Event Host - Daniel Probst. Results and photos here.
CONTESTS
2008 Travelling Colours Contest. Same contest, same rules, new year. Pictures of your 2008 adventures wearing your Club shirt (any colour) can be posted to Flickr following the instructions here. The 2007 contest winner will be announced next week, so make sure you have a look at the contenders.
2008 Point Series. Same contest, same rules, new year. Up-to-date standings here. Read about how to collect points here.
CAUSES YOUR CLUB SUPPORTS
If you have any causes close to your heart and want to raise awareness and/or funds let us know. A number of CFA Event Hosts use their events as fund raisers. Be sure to consider the special section on the Club website that offers ideas on how to raise money for your favorite cause while hosting a free, CFA event.
BC Lung Association. Event Host, Craig Moore, uses his events to raise awareness and funds for the BC Lung Association.
Mary Leliveld Tri BC Fund. Mary was a friend and member of Club Fat Ass. The fund was established in her memory to help deserving athletes get to competitions they otherwise might not be able to race in.
PRPAWS (Powell River Parks and Wilderness Society
The boys who ran the Sunshine Coast Trail 180 in 2003 and 2004 vowed to help raise funds for PRPAWS, a society that aims to protect old growth forest in the Powell River area.
SPONSORS
  
CFA does not sell or otherwise distribute our member list.
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North Shore Enduro. 10 May - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. A fun run in Vancouver's rugged North Shore mountains, the Enduro is on a 7.6 km loop. Run one loop or two, or a full 6h. This event has something for everyone, whether it's a safe and challenging first trail run featuring some easy and some technical terrain, a great social event for the team runner (2-6 runners can form a team), or a tune-up for Western States and other summer 100-milers for the competitive solo runner. Our friends at 
Flash - Baldy's Bonkfest. 24 May - Squamish, BC, Canada. This event is one of the training runs for the Stormy Trail Race. Details 
Vancouver 100. 7-8 June - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. The toughest 100 km in Canada... maybe the world! Due to the challenging nature of this
event, participation for the full 100 km is by invitation only, but
everyone can still participate by running part of the course with the
100 km participants, coming out to the aid station/picnic area at
Cleveland Dam or crewing for a runner. More info and applications 
Vancouver's famous North
Shore mountains. Runners can choose to run 25K "Up," 25K "Down," 50K
"Up and Down" or a "Roll Your Own" custom distance to suit their abilities. Runners will experience approximately 3,000 m (9,000 ft.) of elevation change over
the 50 km course on moderate to challenging trails. Find out more and
register 
The Slack Ass 50. 21 June - Edmonton, BC Canada. Join Event Host Alli Conroy
for 13 or 50 miles of Edmonton's extensive trail system along
the beautiful river valley. A mix of forest trails and pavement, the
trail will follow rolling, well-established trails through major parks
for most of the route. There will be some steeper cross country style
terrain to mix it up a bit so be prepared. Start/finish at the main
pavilion at Hawrelak Park. Find out more and register .JPG){kind=small}
Sponsors. A special thank you to the folks at 
Flash - Hyson's Hijinx. Flash Event Host - Chad Hyson.
Run to the Clouds. Event Host - Pete Stace-Smith.
2008 Travelling Colours Contest. The winner of this popular event will receive a full refund of his or her 2009 Club membership dues. Kintec Footlabs is recognizing the second place photo with a pair of running shoes. Pictures of your 2008 adventures wearing your Club shirt (any colour) can be posted to Flickr following the instructions 
Run to the Clouds. 12 April - Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada. A 12.5km or 25km run, all on trails with some gravel road sections. Come see and run around beautiful Buntzen Lake and surrounding mountains. A challenging route with over 2000 vertical feet (or 600 metres) of elevation gain/loss. Fantastic views of Buntzen Lake and the Greater Vancouver area. 
Photo left: a happy gaggle of women finishing last years Run to the Clouds.
Events of Interest. 
As we hop along we come
across what happens to you if you fall behind (in pictures to follow).
We make it to the turn around point in about 1:45, and start to
hop, slog back as I wonder where my skis are? When will this odyssey
end? Will the trail suddenly improve? No answers come as we slog along,
but what a beautiful day. I am in shorts, enjoying myself running in
the snow. Why do my shins hurt and bleed? I thought Ontario snow was
soft, go figure. Any way it is almost over 3 hours of slogging through
the forest can be tough on you, but also enjoyable I must be sick. 
2008 Travelling Colours Contest. Same contest, same rules, new year. Pictures of your 2008 adventures wearing your Club shirt (any colour) can be posted to Flickr following the instructions 
Spring Bunny Hop. 5 April - Claremont, ON, Canada. The opportunity for Ontario members to mix and mingle and show their loyalty. This 25 km trail run (which may turn into a cross country ski outing) takes you up and down two of the Oak Ridges Moraine forest tracks. Find out more 
Photo right: A crowd gathers at the super aidstation Pete Stace Smith orchestrated at last year's Run to the Clouds
Our newest advertising member is 
Spring Mountain Highway Madness. Event Host - Ean Jackson. Results, report, photo and comments 
Burnaby Mountain Run. Event Hosts - Tara Jackson and Katheryne Gardiner.
Thanks for everyone for coming out on Sunday! Some were unable to make
it due to the time change but all that showed enjoyed a warm and
rain-free day. A select few were brave enough to run the course
twice...even with that Killer Hill! Gord said that the second time
around on that hill was 200% harder than the first! Good Job!
Too bad we all didn't have energy like Ty -
Hope to see everyone next year! Full result 
Flash - Quad Qruncher. Flash Event Host - Karl Jensen. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Quad Qruncher. Hopefully all
are now enjoying sore calves and quads. This, of course, was the
ojective of the event. It provided excellent training to compliment
the strength and endurance building done on the earlier Pure
Foolishness runs. The Fools are about as ready as they can be for the
Coyote Two Moon 100 Mile race to be held in two weeks. It's too late
for training, our only hope now is luck.
The first few loops were cold and wet, but by late morning the sun came
out. All-in-all the running conditions were good. There were some
patches of snow at the top the the 10K loop, but that just made things
interesting.
They owed it
to us. 
2008 Travelling Colours Contest. Same contest, same rules, new year. Pictures of your 2008 adventures wearing your Club shirt (any colour) can be posted to Flickr following the instructions 
Speaker Series - Kintec Footlabs North Vancouver. 20 February 2008 - North Vancouver. Join Club Fat Ass Business Member, Kintec Footlabs, for a 45 minute run followed by
a seminar on the science of selecting footware and how to prevent injury by not getting injured in the first place. There will be pizza, a prize or two and lots
of opportunity for questions and answers.
This session is free and you do not need to be a member of
Club Fat Ass to attend. More info and registration 
Speaker Series - Kintec Footlabs Vancouver. 27 February 2008 - Vancouver. Same seminar, different (downtown Vancouver) location. There will be pizza, a prize
or two and lots
of opportunity for questions and answers.
This session is free and you do not need to be a member of
Club Fat Ass to attend. Register and find out more 
Burnaby Mountain Run. 9 March (note the date change) - Burnaby, BC, Canada. Check out the trails around the Simon Fraser University. Great views - weather permitting - and a killer hill! Check it out 
Spring Mountain Highway Madness. 16 March 2008 - North Vancouver, BC, Canada. This mind-numbing interval session is officialy held twice a year. Runners complete one or more 15 km laps (with approximately 1 km or 3,300' of elevation change per lap) on a wide dirt and gravel access road (no traffic). Check it out 
We have a winner in the 2007 Travelling Colours Contest. Glenn
from North Vancouver won with his photo of his uh, "arrest" in Texas.
Glenn received a refund on his 2008 CFA membership.
Congratulations. 
Second place goes to Rhonda for her photo up on Amasa Back, aprox 250m above the Colorado
River, looking out over Long Canyon and over to Dead Horse Point. Moab
Utah. 
Sponsors. Please support our Business Members and their upcoming events. 
Capilano Canyon Night Run. Both Event Hosts were out of action, so reports from the field are second-hand. Nobody got lost to death and the evening concluded with a great potluck at the Yellow Beacon. Results, photo and a report 
Squamish Scrambler. Event Host - Gary Robbins. As people trickled into the North Shore Athletics in Squamish, the
weather tempted us with patches of blue and views of the surrounding
snow covered peaks. Could we really get lucky for the third straight
year?
Even as we all collected in the parking area for our starter photo
the skies played with us. A small blue patch here, some climbing cloud
cover there...maybe, just maybe it would clear completely for us! This dream was quickly put to rest however, for as we ascended the trail the
cloud cover grew thicker, the temperature dipped, and the snow started
to fly! We had one brief vantage point back over Squamish after about
fifteen minutes of snowshoeing, but the rest of the day would be spent
in a winter wonderland.
Flash - Lynn Loop Night Run. Event Host - Colin Freeland. At first I thought it was just going to be Pano and myself running,
Monty and Penny had to cancel. Then Ron call at about 8:40 saying he
is on his way and John was running over. The reporter for the Globe and
Mail showed up (Patrick) but just to talk and not run. Pano showed up
with a friend and then we had 5 runners. It was a cold clear night and all the puddles where frozen, which
ment no mud on the shoes. I was suprised at how much snow was on the
trails. We had to take care it lots of spots exceptionally on the
stair that were covered in ice. The clear skies plus the snow made it
very easy to see your way. The trail was well tracked in the snow. We
all stay together in a group for most of the run. The offical finish
time was 1 hour and 8 min. More 
2008 Travelling Colours Contest. Same contest, same rules, new year. Pictures of your 2008 adventures wearing your Club shirt (any colour) can be posted to Flickr following the instructions 
Galbraith Mountain Tour. 15 December 2007 - Bellingham, WA, USA. A 20 or 5.8 mile trail run of the Lake Padden and Galbraith Mountain
trail systems near Bellingham, WA. Prepare for the lack of stairs, boulders, roots and
bears but all the fun of the true single track. If we have clear
weather there will be amazing views of Mt. Baker, the San Juan Islands and the North Shore mountains of Vancouver. More details 