The History of the George Smith Special
After teaching High School biology from 1969 to 1974 in southern Alberta, I moved back to Edmonton to take advantage of indoor training at the Kinsmen Field house during the winter of 1974. I continued to coach track and field, but this time with a new cast of characters. Cross Country was always part of my training regimen and training in the hills and flat next to the KFH was a natural. The George Smith Special evolved from ‘Multiplication Tag’ to ‘Hide and Seek’ to ‘Fox and Hounds’ to ‘The Lap’. The Lap was a two mile course that I designed in the middle of the area between the Power Plant and High Level Bridge from the river to U of A.
Since I hated hills as a runner, I made sure that ‘The Lap’ began on a level and then to a hill to a level run to recover and then a downhill to extend the speed, which was then followed by another level run and then to a hill, etc. This was in the days before mountain bikes so there were very few roots, lots of grass and trails. Hills with roots were uphill to avoid injury and thedownhills were clear of roots and free-wheeling. Unfortunately, this rule was only put in place because Barton Frauenfeld broke his wrist flying down Hill #1, but he was tough and didn’t say anything until the next day when it looked more like a large squash.
In the fall of 1977, my club volunteered to put on a cross country race with my runners as course marshals in what later became the Frank McNamara Wednesday Night Race Series. ‘The Lap’ race was set at 4 miles [2x2The Lap]. This race was on October 15 as the fifth race. In this era of the Wednesday Night Races, the series ended with a Halloween run [not necessarily on the 31st] at different locations. My training diaries show Halloween races at Grierson Hill, McNally, Jasper Avenue [including running through the various stores like The Bay], etc. My training diary has me running as an old lady in 1978. Now they crush me in the races, even when pushing shopping carts.
From the beginning, with the exception of the club members, the George Smith Special has a deep history of runners who get lost on the course. From the first race where we used rolls and rolls of pink tape to mark the course and a marshal at every corner, some runners have run off course. Never has there been a race where everyone followed directions. You might ask how can a runner go off course if there was a marshal at every corner? Ask Frank and he’ll tell you about the time him and I were marshals at the same corner and to make sure runners turned right instead of going straight. We stood in the middle of a narrow trail with a yellow caution tape totally blocking the trail in front of us when Susan Cameron and another top runner ran straight by us both and thru the caution tape at the same time telling us they knew were the course went, not us.
During the early days of the Special even with much smaller fields, runners still managed to go off course. We finally became desperate enough to show that we could put on a race on a course that everyone could follow. I borrowed the school’s field marker and bought enough bags of white lime to completely mark the two mile course with a solid white line. With a couple of rolls of pink marking tape and team members at most of the corners, we were set for a perfect running of ‘The Lap’. It snowed that day after the course was limed but before the race started, which of course made it extremely tough to follow a while line under snow and runners got lost!
Lyle Kuchmak, a top distance runner in Canada has the record for getting lost in the shortest time. After about 200m, Lyle took a hairpin left to head west and onto the road towards the Power Plant, while everyone else correctly went another 100m straight ahead before turning right. Lyle, it must be said in his defense would have been correct if the course has not been changed as we were want to do to make the course easier to follow. We had changed the course since more runners than usual had run off course the previous year. Even when we had run the same course for ten years in a row, runners would still run off course because new entrants to the series always showed up and they were prime candidates to be members of the “I don’t need no stinkin map” club. They were likely to follow any runner ahead of them, whether a runner in the race or a member of the public out on a jog. All you need is a new runner to the series to follow another new runner and then even experienced Special runners can become mesmerized and join them in running off course.
Every trail and many corners of the Special have their own nicknames. The Selby cut-off was named for Bruce Selby because he inadvertently used it to cut off the #6 hill; part of the bottom trail; root alley; and a third of the middle trail, magically giving him a new PR, which allowed him to beat many of his foes that day. Bruce had to jump over a log put across the trail to prevent someone from using the trail he took. He used his skill as a steeplechaser to easily clear the log. Pot Smokers Alley garnered its name because that section of trail was frequented by youth who liked to smoke pot away from prying eyes. One year the runners got another kind of runners high by going by a bunch of people seeking privacy and smoking pot.
Puke Peak was named because runners when they got to it were already tired only to find they had to climb straight up the side of it. If the trail was wet or snow covered, it was often 3 steps ahead and slide back down and repeat until one went far enough off to the side and into the bushes to pull themselves up. By the time they got to the top they were exhausted to the point where they would often lose their lunch. I started to call it Dry Heave because I learned not to have lunch before running it, but its original name stuck. Today, we only run the original Puke Peak [straight up, small path, north to south] on Special Anniversary Dates. Usually, we go up and around on it so that the grade is easier and only about 60m is very steep, but it is still a very tough hill to run. In the winter, we used it as a tobogganing hill, but before that Frank says it was used as a ski jump.
Sandy’s trail is that section of the course that many missed in 2014 when they sailed by the signs and arrows pointing back into the dirt trail from the bike bath. It was named for a club member who had her purse stolen while we were out training on The Lap. Afterwards, we searched this trail and found most of her stuff. Sandy’s trail goes east to west from the bike trail and then under the LRT and down north towards the river.
One year I had a particularly good year earning extra moneythru my thoroughbred business so I put up a $250 stereo if the winner broke the course record, other cash prizes, plus a couple of cases of beer in case the record attempt failed. The best field ever assembled up till then went to the starting line with the course marked and flagged. We decided to give them mile splits at the top of Puke Peak. Once the race was off we headed to Puke and read out the times as they raced past. One thing I did not anticipate, however, is that a group of cross country skiers on that day decided to do preconditioning hill training on the trail that led up to the university. They found it inconvenient that we had put warning tape completely blocking that trail while the race was on. Not wondering why it was there, they pulled it down and continued to do their hill training. In the meantime, the first runners to go by the mile marker and get their splits were from a junior high team that was bused in from a country school. What the heck happened to the lead runners? It seems that almost the entire field followed the cross country skiers up the hill and onto Saskatchewan Drive. After a short run on the sidewalk across from the U of A they realized there were no flags anywhere and auditing a night class was not a good option and made their way back to the course. The Junior High team had their moment of glory and we kept the stereo.
To be fair to runners and their ability to follow directions, the Special is not a simple perimeter run in a city park or a simple out and back course. If you’ve got lost on the Special you are in the same company of athletes that made the Commonwealth, Olympic and other International Games as well as countless numbers of people just having a good time or keeping fit. The good news is that no one has ever been permanently lost on the Special. Somehow, they always find their way home.
Frank is an amazing man. He was dynamite going up hills when racing.
Did you miss this arrow and the trail that follows or did you run right past it?
If this part of the course looks unfamiliar, you probably skipped Sandy’s Trail and took a short cut.
In 2017, I look forward to you turning left into Sandy’s trail, going down the dirt hill and turning left onto the orange arrows and following them to the grass and on to Lap 2 [straight ahead] or the Finish [left]
Things I havelearned from the race in 2017
No matter how many times we have ran the George Smith Special, we continue to attract not only some of the best runners in Edmonton, but another breed of runners who are out for a good time that is not measured with a stop watch, but by smiles and laughs.
I have also learned that no matter how well the course is marked that some runners will get lost and run a shortened or lengthened course. In 2017, 1 runner ran short and maybe 3 others, but since I had no other times for them this year I couldn’t say for sure. Meanwhile, 4 other runners ran too far, probably going off course and retracing their steps to get back on course.
As the George Smith Special has a tradition of runners getting lost, 2017 was a good year for “thinking” runners. The reason I designed this course was to give runners the greatest amount of benefit physically and mentally for the distance of the race. It requires the runners to think and run at the same time.
It is human nature that runners who stop thinking in this race often end the race by running a much shorter distance. Even though they successfully ran the entire first lap, given the choice to cut the second half of the race in half [and going back up Puke Peak a second time], they run straight ahead to the finish line, thus avoiding the hilly second half of the second lap. It is human to make things easier on a tough course. Yet few do; a mark of courage I admire. And this year none of you were sheep just following the runner ahead even though quite a few non-participant joggers passed through, you did not follow.
This year we had an amoral cyclist invade the trails during the race, thus causing some runners to move off to the side on trails, while yelling at the runners for blocking his path. At least you made the course tough enough for him that he had to walk his bike off the course.
I over-estimated the number of runners who would stay around or even heard there was an award and left early or did not want an award from me. I firmly believe that the George Smith Special Award is not a mere participation award, but an earned reward for runners with an attitude I admire much more than athletic ability. You have greatly enriched my life and made me a better person. Perhaps, you will in turn pass this message forward to people you care about.
I will give the following registered runners another chance to earn their trophy in 2018 if they again race in the George Smith Special. I may have missed a runner or two or you may have already picked up your award. Please talk to me if I left your name off or you have already picked up your trophy.
12 / 113 / 152 / 232 / 28254 / 116 / 166 / 245 / 283
64 / 119 / 167 / 246 / 285
67 / 123 / 188 / 248 / 286
68 / 132 / 189 / 258 / 297
89 / 138 / 191 / 259 / 298
99 / 140 / 198 / 265 / 448
106 / 142 / 199 / 266 / 500
108 / 148 / 202 / 268 / 738
110 / 149 / 206 / 276 / 769
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