Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: Ultra trail of Mont Blanc
 

And they're off! The UTMB just started from Chamonix a few minutes ago. They have live web TV so I saw some of the excitement. This is the final event of the 4 races in this ultrarunning festival. I hope that a bunch of us will win the lottery and get there next year!

Runners will be a little disappointed with the modified course - something that happens occasionally in the Alps. The forecast was wintry at higher altitudes - snow, wind and -10C windchill. "Weather conditions too difficult on the mountain pass. New course 100km France only. see ultratrailmb.com"

I am watching Brian Culbert, one of my fellow Salomon brand ambassadors in the GTA. The website has him listed as not leaving the start. I know he was fine yesterday; I wonder if they gave people the option to come back next year in hopes of doing the full course. That could wreak havoc on the lottery. Gary Robbins, an ultrarunner from North Vancouver, has started.

http://www.utmb.livetrail.net/coureurentete.php

I'm meeting Myka for an moderate-paced Hockley Loop tomorrow at 9 a.m., main parking lot on Hockley Rd. Eco will do a dog hike, then we'll all go to the Hockley General Store for a light lunch around 12:30-ish.

'Bent is looking for someone to run The Loop faster with him but may just end up running circles around us.

I know others have been considering coming. Please let me know if you'll be there so we'll know whether to wait for anyone. Forecast is sunny and hot but we'll be done before the hottest time of the day.

Wishing my parents a very happy 57th wedding anniversary!

I wonder which anniversary that is. 50th is gold, 60th is diamond.

Hilly mid-day run. Gravel roads to Innis Lake Rd., then through Glen Haffy Conservation Area and home via the Bruce Side Trail. Two main purposes:

1) Heat acclimation - I hope we're almost finished with oven-hot days for the year but I was interested in the article Hansel posted that said heat acclimation training causes some of the same biological changes in our bodies as altitude training. So I guess it's useful even in late summer. Regardless of how much I train in the heat, I still can't believe how much better I feel in the shade. I feel like I weigh 15 lb less and can breathe right down to the soles of my feet (if that makes *any* sense!)

2) Tempo - Kinda sorta, in ultrarunner style. What this meant was that I ran up all the hills except for two short steep ones, and focused on higher cadence, quick turnover and good posture during the rest of the run.

Note: Heat acclimation runs are just supposed to be easy runs. So do as I say, not as I do!

To the Inglewood Market and back via Palgrave West single track, Duffy's Lane and the rail trail. It was a great time to be out - lots of other people enjoying the evening light and deliciously cool temperature. Tragically, the Mushroom Lady did not attend the market today - a huge disappointment. But Knobless' homemade salsa and preserves, the handmade 3-grain bagels, the garlic sheep cheddar, and the organic vegetables and fruit made it all worth it. I rode back with a 13 lb pack. I detoured to the Caledon East LCBO in hopes of making it a heavier pack but alas, I had missed closing time.

Many thanks to Crash for convincing me to join her for a run to start the day. She is just getting back into running after dealing with some post-Tour Divide sore body parts, otherwise she wouldn't be training at my slow pace. Nice to catch up!

BazingaDog came along and was fairly well-behaved. Of course the fact that I have two collars and two leash attachments on him means that he can't get into as much trouble as he might. When he saw wild turkeys, he pulled but didn't *really* try to escape, and when he saw Crash, he jumped up on her but stayed down after the first admonishment. He only tried to chew through his leash once early in the run. After that, he just hustled along and sniffed the occasional bush. Our little boy is growing up.

P.S. GPS went wonky.

I've posted some Race HQ highlights from Wilderness Traverse. Not an exciting race report like everyone else but it's the best I can do after spending 48 hours in the same building!

Salomon's Kilian Jornet has won the Trofeo Kima 50K trail run. Looks like a scenic race course but I'd suggest that most people stick to Run for the Toad or Sulphur Springs for their first 50K!

'Bent and I went for an easy ride to test both our bikes after our respective races. Mine passed; his failed. 'Bent's derailleur was either bent or derailed. So we skipped our planned loop through the northeast trails of Albion HIlls and just headed to Caledon East by rail trail to buy a few groceries.

We ran into Slowrunner enroute and commiserated about her missing the 76-mile cut-off at Leadville last weekend by just 7 minutes. Ouch!! Apparently, the organizers added 3 extra miles of single track this year so it is really the Leadville 103. Last year she would have made the cut-off easily.

On the way back, Crash and Peter drove up and stopped for a quick chat on Duffy's Lane. A nice (but hot!!) day. Great to see friends out enjoying the day as well.

I'm still weirdly exhausted and didn't feel like going for a run. I convinced myself to do it as mental toughness training. Imagine how tired I will feel after 140 km at UTMB, but I will still have to push myself another 28 km. 'Bent and I went for a run around Palgrave West. He's getting ready for his first 50K at Run for the Toad, and I'm going to do the 25K then stand by the trail making supportive comments. We both brought back a lot of burrs on our shorts... a project for tomorrow.

For cycling fans only... The director of Team Radio Shack Nissan Trek goes for his morning run.

Home from the cottage. Exhausted. Glad there are people in the world with the energy to raise small children into useful citizens. Parenting is by far the toughest endurance event in existence. Way too hard for me. Props to those of you who are Moms or Dads, and are still able to accomplish other things in your lives. You have my admiration.

I had some pent-up energy to dissipate so I took the surfski out for a quick tour of the southeast part of Peninsula Lake. I got too far too fast, then had to paddle back at race pace. Arrived at dinner at 6:59 p.m. Phew!

I got an e-mail earlier today from a friend's name associated with an unfamiliar e-mail ID (as it turns out). Subject "FOR BARB". It was a link finishing with /images. I clicked without thinking then quickly closed the tab before it came up. The website domain looks legit but has no obvious /images page on its menu.

Another friend received a similar message from my name and unfamiliar e-mail ID. Different website, also legitimate looking - also an /images page that probably doesn't exist.

Anyone else get a message from my name? Does this ring any bells?

I took BazingaDog with me in an attempt to tire him out since he has been bouncing around full of energy at the cottage with my in-laws, and unnerving our young niece and nephew, all of which makes things somewhat stressful. It's not really his fault but because of his escape artist tendencies, he has to stay on leash or be confined in his crate, whining loudly while people are splashing, throwing sticks and having fun. That drives him nuts - and us too. Oh, the relaxation of a cottage getaway with family! ;)

We didn't get too far before I started worrying that I was overheating him. We're on the same lake as Deerhurst Resort and I couldn't find public access to water where I could cool him off during the run. So I poured most of my bladder on his head and tried to get him to drink some of it, then we ran back. This would be a great place for hill training.

Easy paddle with 'Bent on Peninsula Lake. He had the surfski and I had the Eclipse kayak in windy conditions. It is a great place for paddling but between the dogs and the kids, it isn't easy to get away from the cottage for training so we enjoyed our brief getaway.

I'm not one of those people who has trouble tapering for a race. I quite enjoy taking it easy in the final week or two before an event. But I am going crazy now! Can't wait to get back to a regular training schedule. Only 7 weeks to the 100K Oil Creek ultra.

Another loser day for training. Because of a Hwy 400 closure due to an accident followed by construction further up Hwy 11, it took us almost 5 hours to get to the Huntsville cottage where we are staying with my in-laws for a few days. After spending a sufficient amount of time (I hope) being social, I excused myself to "tire out BazingaDog", i.e. sneak out for a run. I got dressed with my Garmin on and was heading toward the gravel road when I was called back. The only child-friendly reservation time the local restaurant had was 5 p.m. and it was already 4:35 p.m. So... no run. I did some swimming with BazingaDog on leash, which is unfortunately necessary due to his past record of great escapes. One-armed swimming has to be worth something on my training log, right?

No time! Snuck in 10 minutes of leg strength between WT follow-up and Mom's 80th birthday dinner.

Some highlights from Wilderness Traverse Race HQ:


Photo Credit: Luis Moreira

- Up on Saturday at 5:20 a.m. Asleep on Sunday at 8 p.m. No naps.

- We want Wilderness Traverse to be an entertaining race to watch. We had great volunteers to help with this year's live coverage. Huge thanks to Pete Dobos and Marie-Pierre Schippers.

- Unfortunately, our race HQ was in an area of radio silence. The radios worked in some areas of the race course but we mostly relied on the excellent cell coverage. I did more texting in 24 hours than I'd ever imagined possible! Our CP volunteers were great about texting us team numbers and times, and we managed to update the leaderboard several times per hour with new info. What we missed was the useful cross-pollination that occurs when people overhear other people's conversations.

- Uh oh, phone call from Pentathlon des Neiges early in the race. Our CP1 volunteers were still enroute to the CP when they went by. I'll bet the volunteers were among the few people who were disappointed that the race started 15 minutes early! The volunteers were able to warn a number of teams who passed them, but not all. We never want that to happen but as an fyi, these volunteers were amazing. They went on to CP5 on the trek where they stayed up until the wee hours making noise and loading fuel on their fire so that a team with an injured member could find them more easily in the dark. They kept the injured racer with them for the night, then paddled him out in the morning. Awesome people in a crisis. As far as I know, they're not racers themselves but they sure had the right skills to staff a remote CP!

- SPOT coverage was good for most teams for most of the race, and we got volunteers to help teams reset SPOTs if there were problems. Grant Killian was a hero, helping me out and answering questions. For some reason, Beowulf's SPOT track moved around in Muskoka but was never on the race course. Too bad - we enjoy watching our friends.

- As expected, the first trek separated the teams, and it was interesting to watch them spread out. Salomon Suunto leapfrogged Pentathlon des Neiges on the way to CP5, and they finished the trek just 2 minutes back. Exciting!

- But we weren't just watching the lead teams. We were impressed to see Kinetic Konnection flying across the map toward CP5, right on the heels of the lead teams. I texted CP4 since I assumed they had forgotten to send me KK's check-in time. But they hadn't seen them. Arggh... sinking feeling. I texted the CP5 volunteers to make sure KK knew. The eventual sad ending to the story was that KK had to be DQ'ed, and it upset us because they're our friends and we believed them when they said that they had gone close to the CP. But we had to make the same decision we would make if they were strangers whose nav skills we didn't know, since we needed to be consistent if a similar situation arose in future. :(

- We watched the teams at the back too - the ones in contention for the new Lanterne Rouge award. It became clear that some of them would be navigating parts of that difficult trek at night. I was cheering for them! Around sunset I got a phone call from Team 12 who had an injured racer and were moving slowly toward CP5, they hoped. Oh, and their cell phone battery was low. I could see their SPOT track from 30 minutes earlier so I asked them to describe what they'd been doing for the last 30 minutes, then asked them questions like, "Are you on a hill? Can you see a big wetland below you? OK, here's what you do... then call me back." We talked on the phone once again; meanwhile, I asked the CP5 volunteers to make things a little brighter and noisier than usual. It was a happy moment to get a text from the volunteers when they finally saw the racers' lights approaching. These remote navigation problems are some of the most rewarding things we get to work on at Race HQ!

- It was sad to see rookie Team 24 get soooo close to CP5, then decide to stop for the night and bail out in the morning. They were fairly confident of where they were, too. The cool thing was how well they handled it. They called to let us know. They weren't cold; they used their mandatory gear and started a fire. A team of veteran adventure racers stopped for awhile at night too but their emergency blankets were so old that they didn't work very well. That's a good lesson for all of us who have been racing for awhile. Time to take that emergency blanket out of the package and make sure it's OK!

- Meanwhile, poor Chetan was waiting at TA2 without camping gear. Wayne Leek gave him a sleeping bag but we hadn't expected TA2 to be such a lengthy volunteer assignment! The last team arrived around 10 a.m. on Sunday.

- Farther along the race course, we watched the lead group of teams get out of the bike trails in time to make the cut-off for the full course. It got chilly, and some parts of the race course got rain. Then came the witching hour at Race HQ. This is when teams start to drop out at different places, and we need to find them rides back to HQ before they get chilled. This year I'd offered Richard's Bullfrog van for the purpose, and Wayne drove it for much of the event. There was a time when both Bob and Wayne were out on the course driving people and equipment around, so I woke Sean in the middle of the night to ask him if he'd mind picking up Heather's team. For a guy who'd had a tough day, he was really nice about it! :)

- Watching the SPOT trackers for the lead teams on the second trek, I naturally checked out Richard's Team Shed. Well, crap - they were heading east of Hwy 400 on the way to CP11. WTF were they thinking? I pulled up a couple of different maps. To me, it looked like they would pass through private property. I watched as they did some bushwhacking. It looked like they were trying to avoid private property but I wasn't sure if they could succeed. And because it was my husband, I felt an extra obligation to report this to Bob, then remove myself from any decision making. In the end, Bob drove out there and felt they should have known. They got a 2-hour penalty and it could have been worse. This rule has grey areas since it is likely that many teams passed through private property because it wasn't marked on the map, so each case is a judgement call. And in all honesty, we weren't able to watch all the teams closely enough to see other possible infractions, so Team Shed was unlucky that I was keeping a close eye on them. Bob had answered a question about this area after the briefing but they hadn't heard it. The silly thing was that it didn't really gain them much. I felt stressed over this.

- The stress got worse later when I heard from a couple of sources that Richard had been in really rough shape at the start of the second trek. He had done the entire TA lying on the ground and had felt so bad that he wanted to drop out but his team wouldn't let him. Oh, and then the rain started, and Jack texted me from CP12 to say that he heard thunder. By that time, Team Shed had passed CP12 to the east and were continuing to head north. They could be out in the rain a long time since it could be tough to relocate in that featureless area.

- They weren't the only team we were watching on the second trek. Salomon Suunto zipped along on a perfect line and gained back a ton of time that they'd lost on the previous bike leg. TRL, who had been poised for the podium at the start of the trek, was having trouble. We could see where they were and where they had been, and we knew how confusing it would be in the dark. I was anxious for them and kept texting CP12 in hopes that they'd forgotten to let me know: "No TRL yet?" It turns out they'd stopped and waited several hours for daylight. Meanwhile Team Shed relocated on the power line and came into CP12 from the north. Their SPOT track hadn't moved for 90 minutes and I was so relieved to get that text from CP12!

- It sounded like CP12 was a fun place to hang out. I've been there, and I know how beautiful it is. Our volunteers took turns sleeping and greeting teams with guacamole and cookies. Nice!

- With the race so stretched out, we were still watching a team on the first trek after the winners had crossed the finish line. Volunteers became increasingly interested in the estimated arrival times of their final teams. My brain got foggier. Most racers were cheerful at the finish line and seemed to have enjoyed themselves. But one racer finished the short course and lashed out saying, "I can 100% guarantee that you and Bob never rode that last section". I assured him several times that we had, then finally brought up the GPS track on my Attackpoint log to show him. He then insisted that I couldn't have taken my bike with me. When I promised him that I had, he reviewed it closely against his map, looking for some way we had cheated and gone an easier way. And who knows - maybe he didn't find the right trail. We certainly didn't ride that section quickly, and I can't say I'd do it regularly for fun, but we did ride it (and hike-a-bike it) - in a late October rainstorm right before dark, then we had to ride back to Nine Mile Lake on roads since we didn't have buses to take us around! It was interesting how different the reactions were from different racers. Yes, it was tough biking but most of our racers have a pretty good approach to handling challenges.

- Eventually, the remaining racers made their way back to HQ. I was especially excited to see Will Hitchon finishing ranked in his first overnight adventure race at age 16. I'd been on Facebook with his Mom during the night, and I knew she was a little worried but very proud of him. She and his sister were there at CP9 in the middle of the night and helped to inspire him to finish.

- It was great to see so many teams finish a tough course, whether they were on the short or full course. We had a rookie team finish near the top, and our friends on Team Mountain Goats stuck it out and were the last team to cross the finish line. (Possibly unranked after completing most of the short course but there are some details to confirm.) It was cool to see Untamed Torpedoes - also a rookie team - do so well. In spite of their bad nav decision, I was proud of Richard's great result. Last year he wasn't happy at the finish line because his knee hurt so much but this year his team was in good spirits. And lots of other friends finished the race, which definitely was a tough one. I admit I was jealous!

- Then came the detailed checking of results, decisions about penalties and preparation of Coed/Open podium lists for Bob.

- During the entire weekend, I was also updating the leaderboard, posting on Facebook and monitoring tweets and Attackpoint. Marie-Pierre handled the Live Coverage updates on our website while Pete posted articles and videos to the Breathe Magazine Flashblog. Phew!

That isn't everything but it's a glimpse of life behind the scenes at HQ.

Event: Wilderness Traverse
 

Wilderness Traverse, the most competitive 24-hour adventure race in Canada, will kick off at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning and finish on Sunday morning. We know you can't all be here, and we take pride in providing the best spectator experience possible for family, friends and adventure racing fans.

The central hub is the Wilderness Traverse Live Coverage web page which will have news updates and links to our leaderboard, SPOT tracker, Breathe Magazine flashblog (already full of great pre-race articles by LosDobos), race maps (starting Friday night), awesome race photos by Luis Moreira, Twitter discussions (hashtag #wtrav), our Facebook page (where you're invited to chat with us), the Attackpoint AR Discussion Forum and more.

You can also explore the WT website to find information on this year's teams and other event details.

We'd love to have you stop by our site to check things out, ask a question on Facebook or put a note in the AP Forum or on Facebook/Twitter to cheer racers on. We'll be adding new info all weekend, including all through Saturday night - yikes! We've asked our volunteers to tweet or post to Facebook from the field, so we're hoping you'll feel like you're out there on the race course - except drier and more comfortable, of course.

Have a great weekend, whatever you have planned! :)

Flowers and coffee in bed from 'Bent, balloons and cookies at the end of the driveway from Goose and Coach LD, and a long Wilderness Traverse "to do" list from Getawaystix. It's shaping up to be a perfect birthday. :)

BazingaDog and I did an easy run around Palgrave West, starting out in rain and finishing in jungle-like humidity. This was just a quick reminder to my legs that running season is not over yet. In fact, I have the Oil Creek 100K trail race in 8 weeks so there isn't much time to slack off at all!

Paddlers, watch where you go! A 63-year-old C1 canoe racer was frisked near his home on Monday evening after stumbling onto Prime Minister Stephen Harper's picnic along the Credit River. "One officer unzipped the pocket of Mr. Almond’s life jacket and confiscated the rescue knife he keeps for emergencies. Then, the policeman lifted up his spray skirt to check underneath, pulled the airbags out of his canoe and poked his head inside the boat to have a look."

"Why was his life jacket so thick and bulging? they asked. Was he carrying more weapons?" Police also "cracked jokes about his tight neoprene shorts". It actually sounds like the encounter was fairly good-natured although the canoeist was sent away in the opposite direction.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-a...

The North Face Endurance Challenge San Francisco 50-miler and 50K are both sold out now. So much for my great idea of getting 'Bent to do his first 50-miler there this year.

A year ago, BazingaPuppy left his rescue foster home and joined our family. He sure keeps himself busy - and keeps *us* busy and even BulletDog too - but we love our crazy little guy. Happy anniversary!

Excellent New York Times article by Jonathan Vaughters, former pro cyclist and manager of cycling team Garmin-Sharp - a team that prides itself on racing clean and works hard to enforce it. I've long suspected that Jonathan founded this team because he felt forced to dope during his career, and that turns out to be the case. He describes the pressure and the pain eloquently.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/h...

Event: Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race
 

Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race - Time estimated due to thunderstorm stoppage.

The BPMR travels the Bruce Peninsula from north to south. Last year I described the race course in detail with photos and maps so I'll keep it brief this time. Bottom line: The Bruce Peninsula is a spectacular part of Ontario and the BPMR is a well-organized event with an epic race course. Do it!

I did a little 125 km warm-up last weekend at the Canadian Death Race so I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling. As it turned out, it was a minor injury that almost kept me from the start line - a painful blister under my big toenail. I hadn't worn shoes all week but tested them out on Friday night and made the final decision to race. (Shortly after that, I dropped my bike helmet on my toe and it bled profusely - sigh.) I spent quite awhile devising an intricate toe protection system using Leukotape and Second Skin.



Yahoo - a 3:30 a.m. alarm and a 4:30 a.m. race briefing to ensure that all racers make it down the peninsula before dark.



Even after a double espresso, I looked totally spaced out.



We had a long bus ride up to the start. The weather forecast wasn't promising but the waves on Georgian Bay were reasonable so Frankenjack made the call to go ahead with the beautiful 16K Leg 3 paddle.

We started at dawn from Cabot Head Lighthouse. (Photo by Hermes)



I knew the Death Race would affect me but wasn't sure how. As we headed off on our mountain bikes, I felt as if I'd been riding for several hours, not several minutes. This wasn't terrible since I'm *used* to riding for several hours but it was strange not to feel fresh at the start. The BPMR has varied and technical riding, and my body was missing the extra "gear" I normally use to power over larger obstacles and through deep mud. I hopped off my bike more than usual but it was manageable.

I made a Good Samaritan stop for several minutes to assist a fellow whose bike pump wasn't working. Even though today was supposed to be a "tour", not a "race" for me, I felt edgy watching other racers pass by!

Thunder started late in our bike ride and we were held at TA1 for about 80 minutes. Some of the faster racers had made it onto the next running leg and were held at the next TA. This provided an all-too-rare opportunity to read and comment on Facebook coverage of the race! :)



It's hard to stop mid-race but I am appreciative of the BPMR's serious policies regarding lightning and wish all events took the same precautions. We were eventually released onto the run with a time credit from our in/out SI punches.

The Bruce Trail run around Lion's Head may be the most technical run I've done, and today it was harder because the rocks and moss were slick from the heavy rain. Gratuitous thought the run was epic - worth the flight from California all on its own! Unexpectedly, I felt great running - nimble and relatively strong, even though conditions weren't as fast as last year.

Some louder thunder and even heavier rain started up in the middle of the run and I started thinking that the organizers would have to pull the plug on the event. I let my eating and drinking slide since I figured my day was almost over.

But it wasn't! The thunder stopped and the rain kept falling, so they didn't need to remove the paddling section completely. Instead they switched to an alternate plan where we paddled three loops of Little Lake totalling 5 km. I knew it wouldn't take much to make me hypothermic so I put on my light Salomon toque and arm warmers for the paddle. It felt like cheating to be out there in the V8 surfski; it helped me make up some time.

After the paddle, I put on a warm waterproof jacket and headed out on the alternate bike route to Hope Bay and the trails beyond. The most technical riding of the race is in this section, and eventually I was warm enough to ditch the jacket. It was nice to see 'Bent volunteering as a field marshal - in an actual cow field. Amazingly, I didn't fall on foot or bike all day in the slick conditions but I did manage to bang my injured toe against the end of my bike shoes a couple of times in this section. Both times it made me gasp for breath for a minute or two. PAIN!!

A woman arrived into the final bike/run TA shortly after I did, and I took off thinking she was right behind me. This was terrific, as it kept me pushing right to the finish line but in reality, she was hurting too much to turn it into a chase. I crossed the finish line soaked to the skin in pouring rain and feeling surprisingly OK.



Gratuitous and Ursula had finished long before in 2nd and 4th places overall.



It was great to see Hodgepodge at the finish and to say hello to Nelvia and BabyHodge afterward.

The overall podium was filled with friends - Getawaystix in 1st, Gratuitous in 2nd and Logie in 3rd. Congrats, guys! :)



Mique and Tom were the relay winners but I missed that pic! The one sad note of the day was that Chief slipped in the gravel on his bike and managed to gouge his knee enough to earn a trip to the hospital to get sewn up. Get well soon!

I was 2nd woman behind Ursula and mid-pack in the solos. Now that I've done my "active recovery" from the Death Race, I think I'll get more passive for awhile. Time for a break! :)

We made a "wet trip" from the cottage to get our boats to the car, then we could make a relatively dry trip with our luggage by a combination of beach portage and motorboat. Goose soloed his whitewater canoe while 'Bent took the surfski (definitely the best boat for the rough conditions) and I paddled the Wavemaster kayak. It was an adventure making it out through the big breakers to the swells, then we paddled parallel to the shoreline. When it was time to come into shore, the waves gave us quite a ride! I really thought I was going to make it until a wave flipped me close to shore. As Urthbuoy knows, it's not one of my favourite things to bash around underwater while fumbling at a kayak skirt, and in the shallow breaking surf, there was no way I was going to succeed in a roll. But I got out and watched as 'Bent did the same thing in the surfski. Goose, whose whitewater canoe was the least well-suited for the conditions, floated over the waves and landed on the beach like a feather.

'Bent and I are on beautiful Lake Huron enjoying the excellent hospitality of Goose and Coach LD at their cottage.



After a tough weekend, it was tempting to take Coach LD up on her offer of a ride along the beach.



But foolishly, I'm entered in the Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race this Saturday so I needed some paddle training. Goose, 'Bent and I went along the lakeshore for a couple of kilometers than paddled up the Ausauble River and up the old channel into the middle of The Pinery park. It rained most of the time - pretty hard for awhile - but since we were wet from paddling anyway, it didn't matter.



The vegetation in the Pinery was so lush that I kept expecting to see alligators or boa constrictors!



On our return, Goose tested the surfski but the waves had died down so there wasn't much excitement.



If I race on Saturday, it will be the surfski's first event! The only reason I may not race is that I am still not wearing shoes due to a nasty blister on my big toe. Obviously, I'm not recovered from the Death Race yet but I feel pretty good aside from the toe.

Canadian Death race report is now posted on Sun. Aug. 5. It is long!

Arriving at Coach LD and Goose's cottage turned out to be training log-worthy. After parking the car, 'Bent and I paddled kayak and surfski to the portage while the Doughtys took our gear in their motorboat. Then as Goose walked along the beach, he *encouraged* us to go out into the big waves. I was in the surfski and it was great to get in some more paddling - until a wave broke over me and then I got to do some swimming. After that, I walked the surfski closer to shore and did some high-resistance water walking while dragging the boat through shallow water along the lakeshore until we got to the cottage.

A nice mixed training session. Always an adventure with the Doughtys!

I've won a 3-month Fitness Plus membership at Goodlife Fitness and am unable to use it. It needs to be redeemed by this Friday, Aug. 10. Anyone wanting to use it would need to make an appointment at their local club and take my letter and coupon. Depending on where you are, we'd figure out a way to get it to you.

Canadian Death Race Report
(Warning: this is long!)
(Garmin battery died partway through.)

The Canadian Death Race is a 125 km mountain trail run near Grande Cache in northern Alberta. The route travels single track, ATV trails and gravel roads, and crosses over three scenic mountain summits. The race attracts about 370 solo runners and 270 relay teams of 2-5 runners. It was my major racing goal for 2012 and would be my longest run to date by 43 km. In a typical year, fewer than 50% of solo racers finish the race so this was definitely a journey into the unknown. Some of the best runners I know have had DNFs at CDR, and a few others have finished with considerable suffering.

When I first signed up, I divided the 125 km by the overall 24 hour cut-off and thought it sounded possible in theory. But then a few weeks ago, I discovered that the important cut-off was 67 km at 11 hours; we had to finish more than half the race in less than half the time. Now that wouldn’t sound too bad if we were talking about the Bruce Trail in Caledon, but this 67 km included Leg 2, the most technical leg of the course with two mountain summits surrounded by steep ascents and descents. My average pace would plunge there and I’d need to make it up on Legs 1 and 3, which are easier but far from “easy”.

This didn’t suit me well since I’m pretty good at pacing myself consistently but I would need to go out hard and then slow down – the exact thing I try not to do. I’d set a time goal of 22 hours since I would be crazy to aim for the absolute cut-off of 24 hours, so I reviewed the results from the past two years and found median leg times for runners who had finished around 22 hours. Those became my race day targets for each leg, and they were scary. For example, I would need to do the first 19 km leg at my usual 25 km trail race pace. I’d never started an ultra that way and didn’t know if it would work for me. As race day approached, the forecast got hotter and there were reports of unusually boggy conditions due to heavy rains, so conditions would be slow. Lovely.

Sean Roper, Marian Grant (adventure racer from PEI) and I were lucky to share an excellent support crew in Pat Chan, a very experienced adventure racer and volunteer from Edmonton, and Erin Ruttan, my longtime friend from Calgary who has just completed her first half-Ironman. Our group arrived in Grande Cache on Thursday and Friday, did last minute shopping, enjoyed the pre-race pasta dinner and attended the race briefing by “Dr. Death”.







Phil Villeneuve was in town along with three elite Salomon runners – Grant Guise, Julia Boettger and Jeremy Ritcey. (That’s Marcelo on the left, who helped them out.) Great to see Phil and meet these top athletes.





Here they are doing their pre-race course analysis. (These Salomon team pics are Phil’s.)



I seldom sleep well before a race but things were OK until my good hydration woke me at 4 a.m. From that point on, I lay awake in a bedroom filled with wildlife. Not actual bears and cougars, of course - just the 2 m poster boards that I’d seen at the visitor centre. My mind churned. When a bear is silent, I’m supposed to… what was it again? And when it says “woof!”, I should speak and make myself look big? Or was that the cougar? No, I’m supposed to stab the cougar in the nose with my trekking pole – I remember that one.





In the morning, Pat went ahead to TA1 while Erin came to the start with Sean, Marian and me.









The weather was perfect which meant that it would be way too hot later in the day. The forecast was 27C and the heat would magnify in the valley on Leg 3, where we would spend much of the afternoon. There was also the threat of thunderstorms on the climb to Mt. Hamel, which scared me more than the heat since it would be hard to get to safety quickly if a storm arose suddenly.

Erin took this awesome photo of the start area.



After the opening ceremonies, the RCMP led us out and we began to run. Erin got pics of us as we passed by. Here’s Salomon runner Grant Guise from New Zealand, the eventual winner.



And Marian, Sean and me. (Yes, I was already bringing up the rear of our little group.)







The first 5 km is the only part of the course on paved road, then we headed into the forest. This was a crowded section with short, steep climbs and huge mud bogs. Leg 1 may be the shortest but it still isn’t super easy as trails go. It was the only leg where I didn’t use trekking poles, but some other people did and I had to watch that I didn’t get their pole tips in my eyes.


(Photo by Joanna Hall)

I had started about 75% of the way back in the pack, and as I watched my Garmin, I started having panicked flashbacks to my missed cut-off at Speight’s Coast to Coast in New Zealand where I paced myself for an all-day effort rather than sprinting at top intensity for the first 3 km as I should have. I knew that half the solos were not going to finish the Death Race, and in starting back where I did, was my pace was being determined by people who weren’t going to finish? Had I blown it right at the start of another big race? Argghh. Although the photos show that it was beautiful running by the lake, I was too stressed to notice the scenery.


(Photoscapes by Margaret)

My target for Leg 1 was 2 hours and I was late – 2:07. My time targets only gave me a 1-hour cushion for the cut-off at the end of Leg 3. If I kept this up, I wasn’t going to make it. I learned later that I was in 185th place here in a race that only ended up with 133 finishers. Finishing Leg 1, I tried to be optimistic but I was already thinking about putting a brave face on my defeat. At this point, I would have bet against myself but I would go down fighting.

This photo of the first transition area was taken by Erin Ruttan, who is a part-time professional photographer and graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design. She took a lot of the photos in this report and I carried an iPhone for pics along the trail.





I changed my shoes from Salomon Crossmax to Speedcross, which I used for the rest of the day. I also took trekking poles and fingerless gloves, which I kept until the end of the race. With the help of our excellent support crew, I was in and out in 5 minutes with 2L of eLoad, a Boost and lots of food. The target for Leg 2 was 5 hours in the heat of the day, and it included the most technical stretches of trail in the race. We started climbing Mt. Flood almost immediately. The ascent was relentless, sunny and humid. I’d expected it to be dry but my shoes were caked in mud soon enough.







When we had climbed for awhile, we met a couple of super cheerful volunteers who directed us up onto a nearly invisible track through thick vegetation. It was a slow, steep climb until we finally got above the vegetation into open terrain. Along the way, a number of people pulled off and took a break in the shrubs, gasping for breath. Those of us who were still mobile spent a lot of this section asking, “Are you OK?” “Need anything?”

Then we emerged into the open land near the top of Mt. Flood, and the cool breeze was fantastic.




(Photoscapes by Margaret)



It was beautiful, and some runners stopped to eat and enjoy the view. I was too worried about cut-offs to stop so I just took a few photos and started my descent. After an initial steep downhill on ATV trail, we headed into the Slugfest. Looking at a map, it looks like someone drew a straight line between two trails that needed to be joined in order to create the Death Race course, then they put up some flagging tape and trimmed a few branches. For several kilometers, we marched in single file. Some of the descents were insanely steep and slippery with loose earth and rocks; basically, they were cliffs with dirt on them. Different people attacked them in different ways, and that added to the challenge. There were times when I used my trekking poles and other times when I held them in one hand while I dangled from saplings to get down a slope. There is lots of talk about the steep powerline descent from Mt. Grande but I felt this section was much tougher, partly because it was necessary to negotiate very difficult terrain with so many people around. Racers had spread out more by the time we hit the powerline.

When we had gone down far enough, it was time to start the climb back up to the summit of Mt. Grande. The Slugfest continued for awhile – scrambling up rocks and muck and roots. Finally, we emerged onto a gravel road. I had developed a sudden hatred for my favourite eLoad and was thrilled to hit the emergency aid station where I glugged down a huge amount of pure water. Then I phoned Erin (one of the joys of having cell signal on much of the race course) to tell her that I wanted water in my bladder at the next TA. I stopped at every creek to dump icy water on my head. Other runners were drinking directly from the streams.





We made it to the top of Mt. Grande where we had a terrific view of Grande Cache. This nice photo was “borrowed” from Phil Villeneuve, who ran up the day before.





I could feel the altitude (3,000-7,000’) in the early parts of the race but it became less apparent as time went on – perhaps because there was such a range of other discomforts to distract me. ;) From Grande, the descent was steep, rocky and definitely could have used a few switchbacks! (Phil’s photo. When I saw this view, I was a little too preoccupied to think about photography.)



It didn’t ever feel risky like the descent from Flood but it was very long, rocky and unrelenting, particularly the famous portion along the powerline. I can’t imagine doing it without trekking poles, and I bounced cheerfully past a few people who were struggling. I still felt my quads by the time I got halfway down but the poles took much of the stress off my knees and prevented a few falls.

When we got to town, we had a couple of kilometers through the streets where locals cheered and shouted, “Go Death Racer!” Lots of fun! TA2 was at the start/finish of the race, and I met Erin there. Pat had already moved ahead to meet Sean at the end of Leg 3. My target time for this leg was 5 hours and I came in at 5:04. I was 97th on this leg split so as expected, the mountain legs suited me better than the flat ones where running speed mattered more. Things were looking good for meeting the Leg 3 cut-off but it was too soon to slack off. After another 5-minute TA with delicious fruit, I was off for Leg 3.

The third leg is considered to be one of the easier ones because it is mostly downhill or flat after an initial steep climb through the landfill. (Hello? Bears?) However, it was insanely hot because much of it was in a valley along a river, and the trail had lots of ruts, loose rocks and mud. I didn’t find it easy but once again, that’s because I felt obliged to push harder than I wanted to go. Because of the mottled light and the rough trail, this is a section where people often get injured in falls so it required good concentration. Sean saw a bear on this section and I felt like there could be a bear around every bend. Fortunately, there were other runners around most of the time so it wasn’t a big deal. It was around this time that I started to notice a big difference between the relay runners and the solos. The solos were all dirtier, and some of us were really dragging. As we suffered, the relay runners would come tripping cheerfully by in their clean, shiny running outfits with big smiles and neat hair and hearty cries of “Good work!” as they left us in their happy dust.



Finally, the technical trail emerged onto a gravel road, then we crossed the river and ran along the highway to the TA. I had been doing math with my Garmin for the entire leg, and by 5:30 p.m., I finally allowed myself to believe that I was going to make the 7 p.m. cut-off so I did a little walk-run for the last 5 km, figuring that I should start conserving energy for the second half of the race. I felt the worst on Leg 3 of the entire race – a little light-headed in the heat. Really blah. I am so glad that I did so much training in the heat back in Ontario since I’m sure I would have felt much worse. I seriously wondered if I had blown all my energy too soon in my attempt to meet the cut-off. I promised myself to never do another ultrarun where early cut-offs would stress me out. I got into TA3 at 6:13 p.m. in plenty of time for the 7 p.m. cut-off. I was 105th on the leg split, so I guess I was running better than I felt.

Ursula, who was the female winner last year, had told me that she had taken a 15-minute break at TA3 for a hot meal, so that was in my plans as well. By the time I ate, lubed my feet, taped a blistered finger, changed my socks and shirt and grabbed food, drink and headlamps for the longest leg, I’d been in the TA for 25 minutes. I could have been quicker but all this TLC gave me a new lease on life. I headed up toward Mt. Hamel feeling fantastic physically and mentally.





It was a 10 km climb where the first part was on rocky ATV trails and the final part was on gravel roads. I ran any little downhills and passed a number of people who were starting to flag.


(Photoscapes by Margaret)

Unfortunately, I saw Marian in this section, cramping and feeling terrible. When we emerged from the trees, we could see the little hut on the Hamel summit but we still had a long climb to get there. The last part of the climb was beautiful in the evening light, and the other racers were chatty and happy now that we’d survived the worst of the race course.



The top of Hamel came sooner than expected. We had to run downhill along the mountain ridge on a rocky trail for about 400-500 m to get a flag and return it to the volunteers at the summit.

The perspective in this photo from the highway doesn’t make it clear that the hut is on the summit but this is what Hamel looks like from the bottom. We ran to the clifftop on the right.



You could not wipe the smile off my face. It was 9 p.m. and I had until 8 a.m. to finish the last 45 km. There would be more climbing but this was the final mountain summit.





I texted Richard and Erin as I started my descent. I learned the sad news that Pat had taken Marian to our hotel after I’d seen her. I gritted my teeth, flung out my poles and pounded my quads – ouch, ouch, ouch. I stopped to put on my headlamp before it was necessary since I was often alone now. I used Richard’s ‘BentBlaster for the first time and it was awesome. Super bright, lightweight and it worked all night on a very bright medium setting.

We had more climbing to get to the Ambler Loop, and we crossed the biggest bog of the race. There were some spooky sections around there. I pushed a little harder in hopes of catching up with people but whenever I did, I would eventually get restless and feel like I should push a little more. I spent awhile with Bob Nicol who was running Legs 1 and 4 in bare feet. Not barefoot-style shoes - actual bare feet. He loved the mud puddles!

The Ambler Loop is a 5 km downhill-uphill loop that racers do on the descent from Hamel. There is an aid station at the start and end of the loop, and it is the one place on the course where we could send a drop bag. I had been regretting that I didn’t eat any of the peaches I’d brought so I was over the moon to find little cups of peaches on the table. I did much of the Ambler Loop with a fellow wearing Vibram Five Fingers. He was happy with them but slipped on the sides of the big bogs so I was happy with my more aggressive tread.

At the aid station, I put a litre of water into my bladder, then we had about 7 km of downhill running on a gravel road. I ran into George Duffy from Whitecourt, BC, whom I’d met on the climb to Hamel and we took turns pushing each other whenever our interest in downhill running waned. “Sure it hurts, but this is as easy as it’s going to get for the rest of the race. We can’t waste it.”

When we hit the ATV trail along the highway, we walked the last 2 km to the TA. We were going to finish within the cut-off unless a mountain lion ate us. Yay.


(Photo by Erin)

When I set my original targets, I was supposed to arrive at TA4 at 1:40 a.m. I got there at 1:37 and did a happy dance. I was 69th on the Hamel leg split with a time of 7:24. As I got food and drink for the final stretch, Pat and Erin told me that Sean wasn’t feeling well but was pushing to the finish to get his UTMB points. Good on him!



It wasn’t until I saw Erin’s photos that I noticed how much Sean was wearing at this TA compared to me. I stayed warm for the entire race but it looks like Sean got cold since he wasn’t running at his usual pace.



I’d seen George head out before me and wanted to catch him. The first part of the Leg 5 trail is eerie singletrack. Perfect bear country. I was alone for quite awhile and banged my trekking poles together and against trees as I went by. Eventually, a guy named Steve Acorn from Edson joined me and we kept up a decent pace until we met George. Awesome – I wouldn’t have to be alone in the dark for the rest of the race since George and I had been maintaining a similar pace. The three of us were doing a walk-run although we walked every uphill.

At one point, the trail goes right through two big rocks – the Crack of Doom. Phil took this scenic photo in daylight.



It looks much more ominous at night when we were there! (Photo by Dave Pilgrim)



After almost 2 hours, we reached the boat where we needed to give the Grim Reaper our Death Race coin in order to get a ride across the river. Even though I’d checked it several times, naturally when I reached into the zipper pocket, I couldn’t find the damned thing. I didn’t want to run 110 km only to DNF! I emptied things out one at a time and found it tucked into the bottom corner. We rode across, then had a big jump from the boat onto slippery rocks.

The last section of Leg 5 includes 1,000’ of climbing out of the river valley which started immediately. It was steep and tiring but we pushed hard because we knew we were almost there – about 13-14 km left. I thought I was chatting with George until the guy behind me in the dark said, “No, I’m Steve.” Then he passed me, and I was alone and couldn’t see anyone else’s light behind me. Crap. So I ended up walk-running the rest of the way alone in the dark, banging my trekking poles and thinking non-wildlife thoughts.



It actually wasn’t that bad and there was nothing else to do but keep going. I would occasionally catch up with other runners but I didn’t stay with them. At the race briefing, we’d been warned that we would hear bear bangers on Leg 5 because the park wardens would be trying to clear out bears since they like the area near the river. Sean heard some but I didn’t; I guess they care more about the good runners than the rest of us! ;)

During this last section of trail, I started to run a little more in hopes of hitting my target, and when we emerged onto the uphill gravel road leading into town, I aimed for 50 m walk/run. I was amazed that my body didn’t hurt any more than it did at the 40 km mark of Run for the Toad. Three cheers for trekking poles!

I came out into a subdivision at 21:32. No problem – I could get anywhere in town in 28 minutes. I ran up to the intersection where a volunteer took my number and radioed it in to the finish. There was a pylon directly across the road beside a walkway that led up a hill. I asked the other volunteer (or maybe she was unofficial, given what happened) if I needed to go up that hill. “Yes, up that hill and follow the sidewalk to the finish line.” I went up. It seemed weird that there were no markings but I could hear the loudspeaker and I was on a sidewalk. I ran a couple of blocks and hit a street with no markings. The loudspeaker was quieter. This wasn’t right.

I returned to the walkway and asked a passing man who pointed me to a different sidewalk inside a fenced area. I ran a short distance in here and met a woman who cheered me on. It still didn’t feel right. “Is this the way the other racers have been coming?” “No,” she said, “they go along the road. But don’t worry about it – you’re almost at the finish and this sidewalk will take you there.” Rats. I turned around and went back down the walkway to the intersection with the volunteers. As I looked further down the road, I could see pylons along that sidewalk. Oh well. I wasted almost 10 minutes on my little detour and got passed by a few people.

Maybe it was a good thing because I think I was going to bawl my eyes out at the finish line, but instead I just laughed, shook my head and rolled my eyes at my inability to stay on a marked trail.

Here I am crossing the finish line at such high speed that I am blurry. ;)



I was 69th on the last leg even with my navigational stupidity and finished in 21:45, first in my age group, 15th of 81 women and 70th of 369 overall. (I haven’t yet reviewed the results but they include people who registered but did not start.) As usual, about half the solos did not finish; there were a lot of issues with heat and missed cut-offs due to unusually wet trail conditions.

Congrats to Sean for sticking it out to the finish when his body rebelled and to Marian for hanging in there as long as she did in spite of the pain. Huge thanks to Pat and Erin who made it much, much, much more feasible to do this thing solo. I would also like to thank my Salomon Skin Pack, Honey Stinger energy chews, the ‘BentBlaster light, Black Diamond trekking poles, Leukotape, and my Salomon compression calf sleeves, Speedcross shoes and XR shorts. :)

At the awards ceremony, all solo finishers from past years were invited up, then the new solos went by and got a high five from everyone.



Salomon runners Grant and Jeremy placed 1-2 and Julia was 1st woman. A great day for our team.



And that makes 7 UTMB points for Sean and me! The lottery opens in December. We’ve done everything we can control and from now on, it’s all luck. Naturally, this deserved a DQ celebration.

Event: Canadian Death Race
 

The Death Race starts at 8 a.m. Alberta time Saturday morning and the course closes at 8 a.m. on Sunday. If anyone is interested in following along, there is supposed to be live coverage in the form of "Raw Results" from our SI timing cards. I'm Bib #156. [updated] STORM's number is #374.

http://canadiandeathrace.com/node/100

If anyone checks on it, it would be great if you could add a comment here since I suspect the raw SI data may be a little awkward. I'm going to tell my parents to check Attackpoint.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone! :)

It's feeling real! Dinner with Pat Chan (support crew) and Marian Grant (one of the other runners supported by our crew). Philly Cheesesteak and the elite Salomon runners ate in the same restaurant so we had a chance to say hello to them.

Big thanks to FB for the 6:30 am ride to the airport. Grande Cache, here I come!

Omigod, there are a bunch of people waiting for the flight from Edmonton to Grande Prairie who are obviously Death Racers, and they are all 6' tall and 150 lb of pure muscle - and that's just the women! I really doubt anyone would pick me out in a crowd and say, "There's only one reason *that* woman would be heading to Grande Prairie!" But I have no doubt about these folks. Yikes.