Permanent Sandwich
by Eric Fergusson (with e mail text from Ken Bonner)

Ken's still out there riding in January of course. Maybe he was a little bored? To spice things up he decided to run an 8 km race in the middle of his routine permanent #96. Ken's account below is from a personal e mail to me. I really wanted to pass it along to our readers... Ken has agreed to let me put this in the newsletter.

This stunt will sound familiar to those of you who have been around for a while. In June 2001 Ken famously ran the "Edge to Edge" Marathon in the middle of the Langford Tofini Langford 600 km brevet. Despite cramping problems on the marathon Ken managed to finish the 600 km in 35:01. (It was Ken's 133rd marathon, finishing time = 4:42 which was his slowest.)

Now here's Ken's account of his January 13th, 2013 permanent #96:

Hi, Eric!

Here is Rslt-Bonner-Pm96-13Jan2013 – 202 km –elapsed time = 11h 33m

After realizing that I could run the Saanichton Prairie Inn Harriers Pioneer 8k in the middle of the Peninsula Wiggly Worm 200k permanent, I just had to try. Took a bit of juggling as to when to start the permanent as the run started at 11:00 a.m. not far from the control at 105 km. I eventually chose a 5:30 a.m. start which would theoretically get me to the start of the run with ¾ hour to spare.

The temp. varied from -4 to -3C until noon. Managed to get to the 105 km control in plenty of time with 2 hours to get to the next control at the Co-Op store. Rode back along the route a couple of miles to the start. Given my lack of running training and the 100k cycling in my legs, I figured I could finish in 60 minutes and just barely have enough time to get to the Co-Op control. Amazingly, I finished the run in about 45 minutes (a few years ago, that would be a slow time for a 10 km. run… my p.r. for that particular 8k is about 28 minutes, so I was well off my best pace) …. But, I had an extra 15 minutes to get to the Co-Op!
Here is the link to the results --- http://racedaytiming.ca/raceday-results?display=pioneer8k2013 I ended up as the 502nd finisher, and since there were only 10 runners in my age category, I was 10th out of 10.

Started gaining some of my lost time back until about 25 k from home when I had a flat tire. Just about froze my fingers off before I got the tire changed!

Cheers … Kens

January 18, 2013