If I have learned ONE thing this weekend and over the past 20 months since I started running, it is that you really CAN do anything you set your mind to!!! Surround yourself with positive people, never say "I cant do this" and keep doing your best!!
It all started 2 yrs ago when my brother, Steve convinced me to sign up for the half marathon in Vancouver in May of 2016. After finishing that race, running got in my blood. I completed the a halft marathon in Edmonton as well as Emperors Challenge, my first trail half marathon throughout the summer.
In the fall, I decided to run my first full marathon in Calgary in May 2017. Training started in January and I completed the race, with my brother Steve in a dead sprint at 4 hrs 42 minutes. (He could have done it much faster, but chose to finish with me!!)
During my marathon training, he told me about the Golden Ultra Marathon and said we should do the Half Pint. (Day 1: 3 km, Day 2: 30 km, and Day 3: 10 km). I looked at it online and saw there was a FULL Pint too!!! If we are gonna be crazy....lets go FULL on CRAZY, so I signed up for the full ultra marathon!!
After a 2 week recovery period from Calgary marathon, I joined the run group again. This time, I hung up my road shoes and bought a pair of trail shoes!!!
The last 4 months of training have not always been easy...actually, very rarely was it easy. Coach Krista would get me going, then the rest of the team pushed me when I didnt think I could do it. Every one of them help me and taught me something.
Sometimes, it was just the shear drive and determination to watch one of them fight through 10 km of hill repeats. Or watch someone loose thier lunch after sprints, then go back out and run again!!! I was surrounded by incredible people!!!
This weekend was no disappointment either. The 5 km hill climb on day 1 was a good warm up and a great way to get out the racing jitters.
Day 2 I analyzed and studied in great depth. I knew all the details for each of the 5 legs on the 60 kilometer mountain course. I knew what I had to do to be successful, and I knew I could do it!!!
I will admit, day 2 was not easy. Everything went pretty much as I had planned and I had a finish time of 11 hrs, 31 minutes!!! The course up the mountain was definitly a grind, and tested me to core. But not once did I ever think of quitting. I KNEW I could do it physically, and if I didnt finish the race it would be because I didnt make one of the cut off times.
Leg one was pretty much a breeze. The 13 km track was relatively flat and my body was fresh. Leg two started out the same way. Then the course became a bit more technical and roughly 6 km into the leg, the climb started!! The majority of it was under a dense cedar canopy and the trail was powder dry. The climb to the next checkpoint at kilometer 25 seemed to never end!!
After a quick stop at the aid station to refill my water pack, I kept going. I hadnt eaten much yet in the day, but my stomach was feeling slighly upset so I didnt want to put too much into it.
About 3 kilometers after the aid station, the real climb started. It was all rock and the trail was very technical and steep. Fortunately, there was no wind. The sparse trees were stunted and swisted and would have provided no wind break. From kilometer 30 to 33, it was pretty much all rock and out in the open with no protection from the weather. I put on a warmer hat and gloves that I had with me and pushed on to checkpoint 3.
It was snowing lightly when I arrived and the wind had picked up a bit. Kevin, whose wife Rachel was also running in the race, was crewing for her so he and his daughter helped me out too!! I sat on the steps and added some vaseline to my one heal, while Kevin refilled my hydration pack and got me some warm vegetable broth. I had a few snacks then started the steep decent down leg 4.
The trail wound its way down through a large open bowl. The first 4 kilometers were very technical with lots of rock but still some muddy sections from the snow that was melting. After I hit the bike track for a kilometer or two, then it was onto the gravel service road.
At this point in the day, roughly 9 hrs in, the road was mind numbing!!! There was nothing to focus on, just keep moving forward!! Luckly, I had caught up to Shari from our run group. Her knee was slowing her down, so I was able to go her pace on the few uphill portions but could go a bit faster on the downhill. About a kilometer from aid station 4, I ran ahead so I would have some time there to eat before she arrived. About a minute after I sat down, she ran into the aid station.
After she got her knee taped up, we headed out together on the final leg. It was 15.5 km of rolling hills in the same terrain as leg 1. My watch died just as we were starting the leg so I was not able to track our kilometers or my pace. The leg had a lot of hills and switchbacks. I couldnt keep up to Shari going up the hills, but I could make up a bit of time on her on the down hill portions, but soon she moved ahead of me and I was running solo.
The last 5 kilometers of the race were pure mental. I didnt know exactly how much farther I had to go. I knew by the clock on my phone that I would definitly make the final cut off of 12.5 hrs, but I had nothing to keep track of my distance.
Finally, I broke out of the bush and onto the paved road!! I knew the finish line was only 2 km away!! I was finally back into good cell service, so I did a Facebook live update as I had been doing periodically thoughout the course. As soon as I started to talk, it was too emotional, I didnt know what to say, I didnt know how to say how I felt. Words couldnt describe what I was feeling.
The last 1.5 km were on the side of the road. Every passing vehicle would honk, cheer and wave. Just these simple jestures from complete strangers stirred up the emotions each time.
The road was marked with pylons every 100 meters or so. I would run 2 pylons, then walk 1 pylon. By this time, by run was more of a shuffle, and probably not much faster than a power walk, but I seemed to be going faster.
When I rounded the final turn into Spirit Square, coach Krista had run out to meet me. I turned my shuffle almost into a run. The entire running team was standing along the fence holding out thier hands for high fives and cheering me in as I ran to the finish line!!!
More high fives and hugs, and a few more tears, and my first ultra marathon was complete!!! The faint thoughts of doubt and "What if....?" in the back of my mind were gone. I had FINISHED it!!!! After 11 hours and 30 minutes of running, 60 kilometers and 2800 meters of elevation gain, I had reached my goal that I had been training for.
Rachel bought me a 30 minute finish line massage. As I laid there on the bed, I tried to recap all of what had happened throughout the day. It was simply too much to understand or comprehend. The big day was finished, but there was still day three to complete the weekend.
My legs and joints were quite stiff when I woke up. The plan was to power walk the entire 19 kilometers. Shari's knee was not in any condition to run, so I agreed to power walk with her for the day.
The first cut off was at km 5 at 10AM. One hour into the race. About km 3, Shari wasnt sure if she could make the cutoff so told me to run ahead to make sure I didnt get disquallified at the first cut off.
By now, my body was loosened up and I was able to make good time. I made the cut off with 13 minutes to spare. I didnt even slow down at the aid station. The next cut off was at km 10 at 11AM. I wasnt sure what the terrain would be like, so I just wanted to make up as much time as I could.
At roughly 10:45 I started looking for the aid station that marked the cut off. I started to panic a bit as the time ticked on. By 10:50, with no aid station in site, I was running as fast as I could. Down hills, around switchbacks, up hills and through the rock slides. I passed numerous people who must have though I was crazy for running so fast, but I was not about the get disqualified half way into a half marathon!!!
Soon I noticed I was at km 13, and it was shortly after 11:00. I hoped the timing on my watch was off... it was my only hope!!! Kilometer 14, and I ran into an opening and could see the aid station. I wasnt about to stop, but asked them if I made cut off. "Oh yes" they said, "you are way ahead of schedule...." Such relief!!!
I still dont know what happened or where the 10 km cut off was, but it sure put a panic in my run!!! I didnt even take any pictures the whole run.
The remainder of the course was down hill on a bike trail. We came into town about 4 km from the finish line. Then it was flat road running all the way in.
It gave me a lot of time to think and reflect on the weekend and the past months of training. When I first started running, I couldnt run 3 km without stopping....over the past 3 days, I had just run 83 kilometers in just under 16.5 hrs!!!
After crossing the finish line, I asked about Shari, she had made the second cut off and was on her way to the finish line!!! She was going to make it too!!!
It didnt take long for the realization to settle in that I had really finished my first ultra marathon. For the past 9 months of training, all my focus has been on this goal. My diet, my sleep, my days, my weeks; running and training was always in the front of my mind, now it was finished. An odd sense of completeness, but lack of focus filled my mind...what do I do now? What is my next goal? What can I set my mind to do next?
I still plan to keep on running. Id like to run a couple times a week. Not just because I do love to run, but I also dont want to loose all my conditioning. Hunting season is in full swing so I will focus on that for a while, but I do have to set another running goal.
At supper tonight with the run group, Krista envited us all to come run with her new Thursday night run group. Fifty one new runners, training for 5 or 10 kilometer runs....thats what I want to do!!! Inspire other people to do MORE than they ever imagined they could do!!
Tomorrow we drive home. Christine is riding back with me. She has run many ultra marathons, including running the Canadian Death Race twice. I think by the time I get home tomorrow, I will probably have set another goal for me for 2018.
It might be a 50 mile race, maybe a 100 km race... or maybe even to solo the 125 km Canadian Death Race. Whatever I set my mind to do, I KNOW I can do it!
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