Grinds 6 and 7 - Mountains beyond Mountains

Sponsorship Shoutout!

             
              This entry’s sponsorship shoutout goes to Duncan’s coworkers who have been very supportive and strongly believe in the cause (if not necessarily in Duncan’s borderline medical overheating condition). We had overwhelming support from his work. I think it's because they got to witness his suffering up front, sometimes they'd even bring Popcorn. They seem to set the athletic bar high for the office and is probably why we decided to ascend over 17km to raise money rather than the typical horizontal 5km run (thanks a lot, guys). Christian recently competed in the GranFondo bike race from Vancouver to Whistler and completed it in an insane 3 hours and 48 minutes. Andrew Wight is a successful Half-Ironman triathlete and Alcatraz Escapee who posted a ridiculous 38 minute time on the grind and will likely be the death of me. Ian Boyle is the orchestrator of the weekly Wednesday Grind for the Fast + Epp office and last year decided that the climb wasn’t challenging enough so he impressively loaded his bag up with Bocci balls (nice, Ian, real nice). Andrew Chad biked to conquer cancer this past summer with his father (two bikes) and impressively raised over $8500. Mehrdad is a weekly Grinder as well and as mentioned encourages our conditioning by pro-rating his contribution based on our time that day. Also a huge thanks to Gerry, Jerome, Lawrence, Duane and Natalie who've generously donated to the cause and to all of those that have offered words of support and encouragement!

Grind #6 - Our First Back-to-Back

Our sixth Grind was the first one where we completed back-to-back climbs and it definitely felt like it. It reminds one of those bouncy clown punching bags that would bounce back up after you hit them; except for instead of getting to play with that thing you go and climb up a frickin mountain two days in a row. We had just sent out our final group e-mail thanking everyone for their support and since we’d had such great feedback and more donations we were determined to earn our (your?) money! Approaching the mountain from the Lions Gate bridge Grouse was hiding itself amidst the thick clouds as it had taken to doing as of late. This makes for a darker ascent, but a refreshing one, as the crisp mist helps cool us off. We posted a time of 50:13, just out of the sub-50 zone, but were happy that we’d pushed ourselves through the pain and were glad that we were finally posting consistently decent times.
Our semi-milestone was that in the last 9 days we had ascended over 5km and broke the half-Everest point of our goal! For those of you who are nervously wondering if we’ll run away with it and Grind every single day; do not fret, this will not be a common occurrence .We’ve come a long way since the beginning of our first grind which coincidentally was turned into a short animated film by FOX studios. We're still insulted that they portrayed Duncan as bald, added 200lbs (okay 100 lbs) and threw in some kids for a good storyline.

 

Grind #7 - Mountains Beyond Mountains

Stuck in our head band - The Arcade Fire

 Grind 7 was one that we both feared and were excited about for many reasons. We knew that after this Grind we would be at the 1/3 point of our initial goal and have successfully ascended 5921m achieving our first Kilimanjaro!! Rarely do we bust out the double exclamation mark but this called for it. The reason why we feared this Grind was because two months ago a band known as The Arcade Fire announced that they were going to play a Vancouver show on Tuesday, September 28^th and we knew we had to go. Arguably one of the best bands in the world right now, The Arcade Fire had just released they’re 3^rd album and were touring across the country blowing fans away with their rock symphony. There’s one song on this album that we’d decided was the best song released this year and was adopted as the theme song of our cause: Sprawl II (Mountains beyond Mountains). The first time I (Duncan) had listened to it an almost painfully large smile had just formed upon my face seemingly without reason and I knew this song was going to be huge. It’s a later track on the album so it still hasn’t been totally discovered as the gem it is but anyone I’ve talked to has agreed that this is their favourite. For those of you who haven’t heard, or heard of, The Arcade Fire I recommend buying any of their albums as they appeal to all ages and genre-lovers.

Click here to Listen to Sprawl 2: Mountains Beyond Mountains (you'll be glad you did)

Needless to say they put on an unbelievable show and the most amazing part was that they all seemed to be able to play about five instruments which is how they’re able to create such creative and incredible sounds. It was like they were playing ‘musical chairs’ with their instruments! It was like they were playing ‘musical instruments’. They would switch almost every song including guitar, drums, bass, piano, violin, viola, cello, xylophone, glockenspiel, keyboard, French horn, accordion, harp, mandolin and hurdy-gurdy. For those simple music folk out there who don't know what a hurdy-gurdy is; you should probably look it up because we have no idea. Their final song was wake-up, also the theme song for the movie “Where the Wild Things Are”, when  10,000 fans were singing in chorus creating that incredible feeling that seems to send a warm electric current through one’s veins. As a bonus the band donates $1 from every ticket sold on their tour to Haiti relief, which with our Fund Raiser made us feel in tune with them. Still feeling their music, we ventured out for a couple of late Guinness to marvel in what we’d just experienced.

You've probably figured out that these Guinness were the source of our apprehension about today’s Grind and although we’ve been hydrating 24-7 we knew that we wouldn’t be 100%. However, we knew we had to reach our first Kilimanjaro mark with a bang so we gave’er while the Arcade Fires “Mountains Beyond Mountains” gloriously replayed in our heads. We posted a record 47:27 and were rewarded as the sun set over Vancouver Island on the first clear night we’d had in a long time.

DJ GRIND OUT