For me, I'm a typical marathoner/half marathon road runner. As much as I like road races, I enjoy training on the trails much more. There's much more to see and do on the trails. It feels good to be running in the woods, and.... I feel more like Tarzan, and that's what matters most. :-D
I'd never jumped into an ultra, but after joining a 23 person team to run 100KM for Kid's cancer on October 5th, I thought this race could be icing on the cake, since I'd already be putting in the distance to train.
After many Gatineau training runs and a lot of hill climbing, I was ready for the challenge that would be the Haliburton Forest 50 miler. Along with a crew of some other great runners, we all showed up hoping to achieve our goal times (8 hours in my case). We all set up camp right beside the race course, with hundreds of other tents and trailers. I enjoyed hanging with alot of GGT members that I'll be running with on October 5th, and there were a few other really good people to enjoy the weekend with. Word.
5AM
Up and dressed for the race. It's cool out, but that won't matter much with a bit of running. Our campsite is literally 200 meters from the start line. It's tent city and so different, but perfect. Gotta love the great outdoors. I haven't quite woken up yet, but my stomach is going! As usual I'm feeling the common race jitters.
After some food and coffee, we're good to go. Our headlamps are on and we're gone. This race offers distances of 12K, 26K, 50K, 50Mile, 100 Mile Relay, 100 Mile Solo. We were all signed up for the 50 mile. I'm up front with my training mate Neil, and we're trying to keep it fairly conservative to start. We're aiming to hit our 40KM turn around at around 4 hours.
auto-pilot......First 20KM
The first 20 were a bit rough for this guy. It took about 6KM to enter a long stretch of trail that crests a lake, at this point I was still quite sleepy. I tripped twice within 10 minutes of entering the trail! I felt like a rookie, I looked like a rookie, I shouldn't have taken my headlamp off. Mentally I had to wake up and change the way I was thinking about things. By 20KM, I'd finally sorted that out, and changed to auto-pilot. What's auto-pilot you ask...? For me, it's when you stop talking and in general, stop paying attention to jist of everything-pace, gait, etc. This makes things easier, because you can focus on something else...anything else....
Turn Around at 40KM
After I got in tune with the course and picked my feet up a bit, Neil and I had taken the head of the pack with another runner. All 3 of us stayed together until the turn around. Lots of elevation, enough to conserve some energy and walk some of those big hills. Once we reached 40KM, we filled our packs and headed back to the start. We were 20 minutes ahead of time, coming in the turn around at 3:40.
It's nice to know we're on our way back. My energy is good and I feel like I have a bit of energy left to get me to the finish. Neil and I have both got some more fluid from the rest stop at 39K and we're ready to go. Mike; the guy leading with us, has moved ahead. He's been pressing the pace for the first 40K, and now he's gone ahead, trying to create a wide gap on us. After a few KM on the way back, we've past a lot of our friends, it's great to see them and know that they're making it through on good pace. There's a turn coming up on the left and a big hill ahead. Mike has taken the hill and missed the turn. Neil yells for him, as I'm following him. Then I whistle at him and we follow Neil to the right route. Easy to get lost on this course. (More on that later.)
It's great to see the camaraderie that exists in a race like this. It's better than any race I've ever participated in so far.
Mike passes Neil and I again to take the lead, and he's gone. He rushes ahead, and we're at about 43KM in. Neil and I step off the pace a bit and cruise. Knowing we have a lot of time banked, and left to run, it's maybe the smart choice. Though after 10 minutes of this, I start getting anxious and tell Neil that I'd like to try and catch Mike. It's weird leaving, but I've got to see what I can make of it.
Solo Mission
Now that I'm on own, I'm excited to have a new game plan. I've got a burst of energy now that I'm on target to catch Mike. My new goal has allowed me to drive up the hills harder and jump into a quicker pace on the dirt road portions of the race. I jump to the first checkpoint after leaving Neil, they say: "He's about a minute ahead of you." Next checkpoint: " He's got about 30 seconds on you." Then I see our running friends Serena and Suzanne who yell "He's just ahead!" At this point it seemed like I was chasing him forever, and I started to think he was way too far ahead to catch. Though, as I wrap around a road ahead I see Mike taking the corner ahead. "Gotcha!" As I pull up behind him, I decided I'd pass him right away, and speed up, hopefully to break his groove a little bit. Thinking if I was passed, the same thing would apply.
Now I'm in the lead, and I'm scared! Just the concern of holding the pace is a huge weight. I've got 28KM left to hold on.
Downhill Fun
I decide that until my body tells me to take it easy, that I'm going to press the pace hard. My plan to stay ahead is to give it on the downhills 100%. I'm not one to love a downhill after a long distance, based on the knee pain and usually I slow down a fair bit. But, I'm pretty confident on downhills, and start thinking this could buy me a few minutes. Every downhill I hit opens my eyes up a bit, I had to really watch where I was stepping, I was flying, what a wake up call. It didn't take long until I had to start seeing 50K runners as I passed them on the slopes. "Great race, good Job!" What's amazing is that even in the lowest moments of a trail race, you're still forced to keep some sense of awareness and cognitive thought when you have to navigate the terrain. Though the road is also a nice change, because you get to go pick up the pace a bit.
As I hit one of the last aide stations before the turn around, I'm wiped, and white, and stumbly... They tell me to sit down... but I can't do that, I'm in the lead, I'm losing time just standing here! I'm willing to take some HEED and a Gel. That suffices the crew for me to continue. What a day!
LOST
How does one get lost on a trail race that's marked..? Well after one of the last checkpoints, I'm on a dirt road where I come up to a sign. Arrow to right for PASS 1, arrow straight for PASS 2. At about 68KM in at this point, with the low sugar in my head, I thought. "Well... this is my 2nd pass of the course" Straight I guess.... nope nope nope....
So I headed to the finish line yelling " I don't know where I have to go, I have to hit the lake again' Answer: "You have to go back and take a right at the road you came from!" F%^&!
I've never got lost in a race before. If I had a clear head at this point, I'd have realized that I should have went right at the sign. But I was in no shape to make any sort of educated decision when I made the wrong turn.... In my fatigue I race back to the sign at 4:05/km, now I'm sure all of that work to stay in the lead this last 30K has gone to waste and I've lost the lead.... I'm just done, and angry and using every last bit of will power to charge through the path that I should've been on 10 minutes ago. I'm now thinking that if I power through this portion, that I might be able to catch up to Mike and have a good last race battle royale. As I use every ounce of strength to get through the up and downs of the lake, I'm forced now to walk on the uphills. I've allowed myself 5 seconds when I NEED to walk. Then go, and "keep falling, just keep falling, I could do this all day." I'm in auto-pilot again, until I reach the checkpoint, where they tell me I'm the first 50 miler! What a relief! Along with that, It's also a relief knowing that this day is almost over, as I'm 2KM out from the finish. I'm quite dizzy at this point and I start thinking...maybe I'll pass out and that 1.7KM that I got lost will be the difference between consciousness....I turn off those thoughts and force the rest of my water down. A few minutes later I finally make it to the end. That was the longest physical fight, I'd ever have so far. 7:48minutes, It's very anti-climatic compared to other racers. I dig it.
"You a 50Ker?"
"No, 50 Miler"
"Wow, you're the first, congrats"
"Thanks"
From there, I'd get pretty white and dizzy, along with ceasing up. It took about 20 minutes for me to get myself back in order thanks to some excellent volunteers. Great volunteers. Including GGT's very own Alex Flint. Thank you sir, just a gentlemen!
Here's to you and Ultra trail running!
D
