Bimbler’s Bash – The 120K Anniversary

One weekend every April for the last decade, our house is turned upside down with race shirts, post race snacks, course markers and other ‘stuff’ needed to organize a trail race. Over the following week this tide of paraphenalia slowly recedes back into storage from whence it came and life returns to routine normalcy. The Bimbler’s Bash is a whacky race on a gnarly compact course that confronts the runner with challenging obstacles – on a good day. For the first nine years, it has always seemed some higher power had smiled upon the event and blessed it with bright weather, occassionally breezy, but generally dry. However, the 2016 race, a celebration of 10 years at the Bash, will go down in history as something exceptional. Twenty-four hours before the race, social media was buzzing with speculation about the weather forecast suggesting snow and strong gusty winds. Rain showers came and went; the last one during the preceding night bursting with thunder, lightening and hail. Kerry and I finished marking the course in the dark of Saturday evening just as the night rained closed in. By the following morning when dawn broke, gusty wind and sleet greeted race volunteers as they gathered at the school. If anything wasn’t staked to the ground, the wind was happy to relocate it, but everyone persevered and just like the movie, ‘if you build it, he (and she) will come’, runners appeared collected their numbers or signed in. The crowd grew, the wind gusted, occasionally the sun broke through between fast moving clouds, but the temperatures remained cold. Pre-race announcements were some of the briefest on record – pay attention to the slippery conditions, you will get wet feet, you shouldn’t get lost if you follow the copious orange flags littering the trail, there will be warm food, stretches and traditional chocolate bunny awards for age group winners will be handed out. And with that they were off.

From my perspective as a spectactor, the Bash is like a trip to Vegas – what happens on the trails, stays on the trails! As we waited, organizing food, holding on to canopies and computers with every gust of wind, it is impossible not to worry whether the course markers had survived the night and if everyone was managing to stay upright and avoid injury. Trail runnings has its risks, but today the conditions were especially slippery and anyone unable to extract themselves from the woods without assistance was going to get cold, very quickly. But, right on expectation, the leaders appeared lead by Todd Bennett finishing in a time of 55:46.7. Todd was followed by 7 others within the space of 5 minutes; while Sybil Shapiro won the ladies race in a time of 1:04:11.1. With runners continuing to trickle across the finish, a persistent sleet shower closed in. At its height, finishers appeared from a white haze across the field. It was evident that everyone was taking a little bit of Westwoods home, judging by the mud spattered on legs and clothing, but no one could be heard complaining, in fact most were smiling even though you knew the past hour for many, had been particularly challenging.

And then it was over, the results have been posted, and the house is again bursting with ‘stuff’ waiting to be returned to its permanent home. To the 200 plus finishers, I hope you enjoyed the Bash experience, you are what makes this event unique. To the volunteers who handed out aid from the cold, exposed rock ledge overlooking Lost lake, to those who patiently waited in the woods directing participants, who handled registration and organized the post race refreshments, a huge thank you. Thank you to KC’s Restaurant & Pub for the Mac & Cheese, to the staff from the Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine Center for straightening a few runners out; to Doug Story, ten time Bash finisher and pervayer of fruit compliments of Food Works, to members of the Westwoods Trail Committee for maintaining the trails and Cathi Bosco, designer of the Bash logo. Finally, let’s not forget two people few runners actually see, the course sweeps, thank you Sara and Bob Sessions, for collecting all those flags and tape markers.

Why was the 10th Bimbler’s Bash billed as The 120K Anniversary? I have no idea but trust me, you know it makes sense!