Last year, Rossland’s Thomas Mellish ran 65 kilometers over old Cascade highway from Rossand to Christina Lake as a fundraiser for the Advocacy Centre.
For an encore, he’ll participate on July 18 in the Broken Goat 50K, described on the registration website as “one of BC’s most challenging and scenic ultra-marathons.” (There are also 12K and 25K routes.)
This time Mellish will raise money for the Save Record Ridge Action Committee, which is appealing a recent judge’s decision over a proposed magnesium mine.
The race will take him and others along the Seven Summits Trail. Whether it will be easier or harder than last year’s run remains to be seen. While the Cascade highway was longer, Mellish says it “isn’t as undulating as the Broken Goat is going to be. This race is shorter, but the elevation gain is far higher over a shorter distance. So it could be harder than my previous run or it could be easier.
“You only really find out when you’re 30 kilometers in and looking up at the top of a peak and going, ‘I guess I need to summit this and then have another five hills after this I need to summit as well.'”
Mellish has being training for the run, and covered some of the same ground, but not all of it. Last week, he and a friend did a marathon along Seven Summits. After summiting Old Glory, then went to the top of Plewman Trail and continued until joined the Cedar Trail.
“So that was 30-ish kilometers,” Mellish said. “So I have a very rough idea of the trail, but a lot of it I’m going into blind, which I kind of prefer because I think if I knew the full extent of what I was getting into, I may be in my head about it.”
Whereas in his last run, he was accompanied by a friend who cycled alongside with food and water, this time Mellish will carry his own supplies and have the benefit of aid stations along the way. He also expects to be motivated by running with others, although he doesn’t know any of the other runners signed up for the 50K version of the race.
Mellish has set up a GoFundMe page with a goal of raising $2,400.
He moved to Rossland about a year and a half ago from the UK. He says Record Ridge is one of his favourite places, which is why he agrees that the proposed mine should be subject to a full environmental assessment.
“I love the outdoors and I love trail running,” he said. “And I also like community-focused action. So it’s doing something I really enjoy and having the added benefit or intrinsic motivation that this is also going to be of some very tangible benefit to a community and place that I’ve really enjoyed and do enjoy.”
