Snow turns Run Ridge Run trail race into winter wonderland

Trail races – with significant elevation change, distance and tricky footing – are hard enough. Now, imagine trail running in knee-deep snow.

Run Ridge Run, the first race in the Coast Mountain Trail Race series, was held in the Port Moody, B.C. area on Saturday, the day after significant snowfall in Metro Vancouver. According to the CBC, the area received upwards of 20 cm of snow.

RELATED: Coach shovels entire lane for team track workout after B.C. snowstorm.

To accommodate the snowfall, Run Ridge Run organizers altered the 25K course slightly. A “precipitous rock face” was one of the deciding factors in the course change as runner safety was the race’s number one priority.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bflt1v5hseG/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfmsz-fBUu5/

RELATED: This clip of a group running in split shorts after a blizzard is everything.

Race co-director Gary Robbins shared a video to his Instagram page of the snowfall and trail conditions the morning of Run Ridge Run. “We figured it all out and safely guided over 250 happy runners through our Run Ridge Run 13K and 25K courses,” Robbins wrote in the post’s caption. “So impressed by our team. So impressed by all the volunteers. So impressed by all the runners.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfmwODKH5wF/

World-class stair climber Shaun Stephens-Whale and Anne-Marie Madden won the altered 25K event in 2:09:02 and 2:28:49.