Two brave STARRs successfully tackled the challenge of Finlayson Arm Double.

Greg Balchin and Pauline Nielsen completed a 100K run that ran from Friday into Saturday and then took on a 28K run on Sunday. They had to make it to certain points under a time limit in order to be able to keep going. Greg’s time was 29:28:23 and Pauline finished in 29:29:49.

“So, the runners who completed the event, ran 128km and had a total climb of 24,500ft,” Greg said. “I’m borrowing the word ‘event’ from my buddy Bob Butterworth. In an ‘event,’ you can race against the clock, or other runners, or both. Ultra Trail runs, however, are ultimately against yourself. You are not just fighting fatigue, you are fighting self doubt, testing your mettle. The only worry we had was making sure we passed the check points before the ‘cut off’ times. … Pauline made sure we were well under the cut offs.”

Greg finished first in the men’s 60-99 age category. He was the oldest to complete the double. Pauline was third in the women’s 50-59 age category. A huge congrats to both!

While not an official running stat, Greg mentioned he stomped on Pauline’s heels six times over 128k.

“One of those times took her shoe right off! That was the closest I think she has ever come to actually hitting me,” Greg said. “She’s an awesome running partner. I’m very lucky she puts up with me!!”

The event is much more than literally running for days up and down hills.

“The race is only half about the runners, their blisters, their rolled ankles, etc.,” Greg said. “The most enjoyable, most memorable part of the run was the support of the volunteers, who went out of their way to make this run possible. Deep in the forest trails and at the aid stations, well-wishers cheered us on with cowbells and signs - all through the night, in the rain, whole families (even their dogs) turned out to keep us motivated and focused. They filled our hydration bags, handed us food, bandaged our feet, dried our tears, and sent us on our way. The most surreal experience I had was running into the aid stations in the dark of night. They had music playing and generators set up to power several hundred feet of Xmas lights on either side of the trail leading to the aid stations. Quite magical.

After all that, there is one obvious question. Greg said:

“Would I run it again? At the 90km mark, the answer was ‘Hell No,’ but now I’m already thinking about what I could do to cut two hours from my running time. I think I might do it again!”

The Course

The dynamic duo started the 100k run on Friday at 5 pm. With 26 hours to complete it.

“The run is the Finlayson Arm 50k with roughly 10,000 feet of total climb,” Greg said. “Normally, they give you 12 hours to complete it, but if you run it twice, as we did, they take a little pity on the runners, and allowed us one extra hour to complete each 50k loop.

“The run starts at Goldstream, weaves through the park, through the stream and back over the bridge to Mt. Finlayson. You climb the mountain, then run down the backside, and head to Gowland-Todd (Roundtree aid station #2). Then you run to Mt. Jocelyn, and continue to Durrance Lake, where you head up to the parking lot (aid station 3) at Mt. Work. Then you cross over Mt. Work to the fourth aid station, do a one-block loop, and head back over Mt. Work again to aid station #3 (that’s an 11km run).

“Next is a reverse run back the way we came until we hit the new path, bypassing the Bear Mountain trail. This is a tricky, bushwhacking trail, just long enough to mentally write your will and obit! The rest of the run, about 3km, is relatively easy and mostly downhill.

“We ran to Jocelyn without a headlamp, but after that headlamps lit the way. We arrived at Goldstream start/finish point around 4 a.m., got a drink, had some food, and started out again for the next 50k loop. By the time we started climbing Mt. Finlayson, the sun was coming up, so we packed up our headlights and retraced our route - finishing the total 100k in just over 24 hours.

“We were advised to slow our run down in order to conserve energy. We can run one loop in about 8 to 9 hours, but we timed the run to take us 11 hours. We came in at 10:55, that left us a total of 15 hours to complete the second loop. We finished that one in 13 hours.

“Pauline has an unwavering, disciplined fast pace. You can set your watch to it! In spite of all the protests and crying from me, she didn’t slow down for me until halfway through the 28k run on Sunday!

“The 28k was the same trail but you turn around and run back to Goldstream, once you hit the top of Mt. Jocelyn.”

Greg said 59 runners did the 100k event with 27 of them running the 28k event to complete The Double the next day.