Gary Robbins back on race scene, this time as a director, days after the Barkley
Gary Robbins, days after running the 2017 Barkley Marathons, was back on the racing scene on Saturday directing the Diez Vista 50K and 100K.
North Vancouver’s Gary Robbins endured one of the toughest footraces in the world early last week. On Saturday, while still in recovery mode, the Barkley Marathons participant, and near-finisher, was back on the racing scene, though this time not as a competitor but as a race co-director.
Ridgeline Events, a local events company founded and managed by Robbins and Geoff Langford, put on the Diez Vista 50K and 100K in Port Moody, B.C. on Saturday. The event is one of Canada’s oldest ultras and is one of many trail races in Metro Vancouver and the surrounding areas. For Robbins, the Diez Vista trail race was five days after he came agonizingly close to finishing the Barkley Marathons in Frozen Head State Park, Tenn. (In case you missed it, read all about the Barkley here, here and here.)
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“For [the] record, directing Diez Vista less than [a] week after [the] Barkley Marathons was not [a] good idea and choice,” Robbins wrote on Twitter. “Literally hanging on by [a] thread right now.” Robbins and his family, including his wife Linda and son Reed, flew back to Vancouver from Tennessee on April 6. That left Robbins two days to finalize any last-minute details before the April 8 event.
Arrived home safe& sound early this morn &straight in2 @DiezVista 50k/100k logistics 2day Excited 2c so many in community at Sasamat on Sat!
— Gary Robbins (@gary_robbins) April 6, 2017
4 record directing @DiezVista less than week after @BarkleyMarathon was not good idea & not choice Literally hanging on by thread right now
— Gary Robbins (@gary_robbins) April 8, 2017
To put the proximity of racing the Barkley and directing a race into perspective, it took Robbins approximately six months to fully recover from the 2016 Barkley Marathons, a five-loop, more than 160K trail race that must be completed within 60 hours. A navigational error in both 2016 and 2017 prevented Robbins from completing the race within the necessary time limit.
Robbins recaps Diez Vista
As part of his role with Ridgeline Events, Robbins manages, with Langford, the Squamish 50 and the Coast Mountain Trail Series, a six-race circuit around Vancouver’s North Shore and the Sea to Sky Corridor. The Diez Vista added a 100K this year to the already-popular 50K, which sold out within 14 hours of registration opening in late 2016.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSnwWH1BGyx/
The Diez Vista begins at Sasamat Lake and runners battle the up and down terrain of neighbouring Buntzen Lake and the Diez Vista trails. The 50K features 1,825m of elevation gain and loss and the 100K features double that at 3,650m.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSqpCg9BK1a/
After Saturday’s race, participants were quick to commend the race volunteers for keeping runners fuelled and warm (with hot chocolate) on a cool and soggy day. Nick Williams, in 4:53:58, and Darbykai Standrick, in 5:04:51, won the 2017 Diez Vista 50K. Ullas Narayana and Joanna Ford are your 2017 Diez Vista 100K champions in 12:13:19 and 13:15:40, respectively.