After more than 10 years as a trail runner, Ramo Gencay has many memories to share.
But interestingly, it’s one of his worst race memories that has turned into one of his best.
In 2007, Gencay heard about a local event known as the “Knee Knacker.”
Officially called the Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run, the 50-kilometre course travels from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove and is so popular that entry into the race is by lottery each year.
New to the sport of trail running at the time, Gencay, a Deep Cove resident and economics professor at SFU, won a spot and set out on his first try at the course that follows the Baden Powell trail across the North Shore mountains and comprises about 16,000 feet of vertical climb.
“I trained for it as much as I could with the knowledge that I had at the time,” recalls Gencay. “The first time I couldn’t finish. I was almost at Lillooet Road (a little more than three-quarters of the way), after eight-and-a-half hours, and I had to let it go. I was so dehydrated that it was impossible to continue. I was totally dizzy.”
He met his wife at the finish line.
“I said, ‘Sweetie, just take me home,’” says Gencay of his early exit from the race. He was tired and disappointed. It became one of his worst running memories.
But the next year he got in again. This time, he was still going strong at Cleveland Dam. “The race really starts after that,” notes Gencay.
This time he was still going strong at Lillooet Road, the end of his race the year before.
The cut-off to finish Knee Knacker is 10 hours, and at nine hours and 47 minutes Ramo Gencay crossed the finish line in Panorama Park with 13 minutes to spare.
“Not being able to finish the first time after eight-and-a-half hours, that was hard, and so for the second time when I was coming down from the Quarry Rock trail and I heard people cheering, I said, ‘Hmmm, I think it’s going to happen this time,’” he says.
“It was hard. Prior to that I couldn’t finish and then I trained so hard and even then it was hard. But there were so many people waiting for me and cheering for me to the end. That was so fun to cross that line.”
At that point, he turned his worst running memory into one of his best: finishing Knee Knacker for the first time. He went on to complete it four more times.
Although he didn’t get in to the race last year or this year, a two-year lottery rule means he will automatically get in next year if he wants to do it again. He hasn’t decided yet but he always enjoys the experience.
“When you do the Knee Knacker it’s almost a month-and-a-half-long training and the group of individuals who come there are so fun. So that process of training for the race is absolutely so cool.”
Although Knee Knacker’s not on this year’s roster, Gencay has other events lined up, including the Jungfrau Marathon in Switzerland, which winds through alpine villages on its way up the Swiss Alps. It’s a race he has done before and says he loves the scenery and the atmosphere of it. Gencay has also completed other 50-kilometre races, and the popular Grand Canyon Rim to Rim run (on his own).
When he’s not training for a race, a regular week includes at least seven hours of trail running: one hour on Wednesdays, three hours on Saturdays, and three hours on Sundays. It’s a schedule that is common among the many local trail runners who meet up to traverse the North Shore mountains all year round.
These are not fair-weather friends. Local trail runners meet consistently, early and late, in the dark, in the rain, in the cold, and in the heat. What keeps them motivated to get out of bed at 6 a.m. every weekend and head out in the pouring rain?
“I think there’s a lot of humour there,” says Gencay. “When we get together the degree of humour is so massive it’s so much fun. I think the recipe is knowing that it’s cold, knowing that it’s raining, everybody brings a piece of humour and then with the beauty of the nature it becomes a really, really fun morning.”
There are many local running groups, clinics, and race series, and Gencay is a member of two groups, including Mountain Madness. He credits founder Heather Macdonald with piquing his interest in trail running in 2004 after Gencay’s wife presented him with a special Christmas gift: registration for a Sun Run clinic.
“It just came out of the blue,” says Gencay, noting he hadn’t expressed interest in training for a race and worried that he hadn’t run since high school. That first year he was a participant. He then became a volunteer leader.
Guest speakers are a part of the clinics and when Macdonald spoke to the group about trail running a few years later, Gencay took note.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, this sounds really interesting,’” he recalls.
The description of the trails appealed to him, and that call to nature is still a large part of what keeps him interested in the sport.
“I think the most fun part of being on the North Shore is the beauty of our North Shore trails,” he says. “The other part of it is that it’s such a fun community. All types of wonderful personalities. It’s a very tight, close group of people that we run with.”
Now 54, Gencay shows no signs of slowing down and plans to keep running as long as he can, noting: “I’m not fast but I love it.”
