Training Log Archive: Bash

The Bad Thing 50K

Funderstorm steered us toward this cool new point-to-point 25/50K trail race. The 50K followed the Maitland Trail along the north shore of the Maitland River from Goderich to Auburn. It's a part of Ontario we know little about and this was a great way to check it out. Greg and Julie Diamond invited some of the out-of-towners to stay at their place in Belgrave so we had a fun dinner party and a short drive for the 5-6 a.m. check-in.

LosDobos and his Mom were there. (Ilona took some of these photos - thanks! The rest came from the event Facebook page.) It turns out Pete's brother Paul lives in Goderich and was doing his first 50K. It was nice to see familiar faces along the route.



We had a 6:15 school bus ride to Goderich and the race started at 7 a.m. in a city park. Now that I have a Bat Girl costume, I need to get my money's worth. I was surprised to be the only runner in costume on Hallowe'en. I suspect the small field consisted mostly of (a) runners too fast to risk being slowed down by a costume, and (b) people with little or no ultrarunning experience who didn't want a costume to mess them up.



We crossed the river and started running single track. It was dark for the first hour or so as we ran a mix of trails and roads on our way out of Goderich.



Shortly after sunrise, Bat Girl checked to see whether she could fly after catching a foot on a tree root. Nope! Luckily, there were no rocks or poison ivy in the landing area.

I underestimated this race course. The elevation gain is about half as much as the Hockley Loop per km and there are several road sections. I knew I hadn't been able to train properly but it wasn't going to be the hardest 50K I've ever done, right?

Actually, it was. The trail was rooty and rocky like the trails in Caledon but a layer of autumn leaves often made it impossible to see the uneven ground and choose good footing. There were mucky sections and steep, punchy climbs up beautiful ridges. There were steep staircases with narrow, extremely slippery wooden steps. This photo shows some of those steps in one of the areas of devastating forest damage from the 2011 tornado. Parts of the trail had to be rerouted.



It's only been two weeks since I turned my ankle so I was super cautious. I didn't mind taking time to look around since the terrain was beautiful. We followed the Maitland River upstream and watched the changing nature of the river and its valley. I'm sure a lot of us thought about coming back to paddle. The late autumn colours were still vibrant, both on the trees and off. The terrain and forest were constantly changing - a rushing stream here, some gorgeous Carolinian forest there. It felt like we were on a journey.





The trail passes through Bender's grandmother's property. He had perfectly described his childhood play area along the trail and it was easy to recognize - a lovely place in the forest, straight out of a fairy tale. (This photo isn't it.)



With only 30 runners starting in the 50K, it didn't take long to spread out. I ran with Greg Diamond a bit early on but from 18.7 km to the finish line, I was alone without any other runners in sight - except one guy I passed at the 30K aid station.

I often train alone so that wasn't a big deal. The biggest risk was missing a trail marking since I had no one to follow. I eventually did that and added an extra half kilometre to my day.

The only other time it bothered me was when I heard gunshots at a few locations along the river. It occurred to me that I was running through the woods with big pointy animal ears sticking up from my head. I tucked my Bat Girl mask into my pack until the final half hour.

From a running perspective, there were no surprises from my mind or body. I knew it would quickly start to feel exhausting after I passed the 23 km mark - the longest long run I'd done in the past 3.5 months. I was pleased to see what base training can do; I never doubted that I could make it to the finish. On the other hand, I was equally pleased to observe that training for other races has made a difference. It's much nicer when running doesn't feel as hard as it did today! I had occasional coughing fits but my cold held off its worst until I was finished - then came back with a vengeance! (As deserved.)



The later aid stations were farther along than indicated on the map, which was a little disconcerting. I thought I'd missed Aid Station #3 when it was 2 km late. After that, I just worried about how long the race was really going to be. (Only a little long. My distance includes my 0.5 km error.)

Other than that minor niggle, the race organization was nearly flawless - impressive for a first time event. There were lots of friendly volunteers, some in costume. It felt like the Bruce Peninsula Multisport Race where a small town takes pride in hosting an event and the organizers have lots of good local connections. The shirts were great. There was still plenty of hot chili - veg and meat - when the final runners arrived, along with other treats. Well done.

Our AR friends represented! Bob and Hermes were the male and female winners of the 25K.



And STORM won the 50K just ahead of Bender.



'Bent was 40 minutes behind STORM in 10th place. The good news was that his stomach didn't let him down. That's the second ultra in a row where he's felt fine for 50K. (Too bad the other one was 51K!) Unfortunately, his bad knee became excruciating so our fingers are crossed that his meniscus isn't injured again.



I finished 1 hr 45 min behind my slowest previous 50K time but I couldn't have done any better today and I had fun out there - most of the time, anyway!



Note for later reference - details on my non-training for this race: In each of the last 3 months, I ran 8 hours (i.e. my TBT 50K race time) for a total of 183 km. I also did a 2-hr orienteering race, a sprint adventure race with no running (teammate's request) and the Killarney Loop trek in mid-August. Strength training and yoga have been almost non-existent compared to usual. I did the Eiger Ultra Trail (90K in the Alps) 3.5 months ago and felt reasonably well-trained for it. This strategy wasn't planned and isn't recommended; it was a mix of being too busy and sleepless, getting sick from being too busy and sleepless, and one minor injury.

Spent an hour coughing in the middle of the night. Ugh.

Not looking good for Saturday's race. :((

Not everyone is on Facebook so here's a little Hallowe'en atmosphere!

Here's my younger brother Dave and me playing with knives. Looks like I'm about 8 years old.



Dee, Mrs. Gally, me and Virginia at last weekend's Virginia vs. Bruce celebration party. She's a Super Woman and we are her loyal sidekicks!

Relapse. Also, I couldn't sleep. :(

The combination of cold remedies seems to be helping so I took a chance and attended the first class of Caron's new boot camp.

If there was any doubt that I've lost fitness over the past few months, it can be banished now! I felt so so weak but at least I wasn't alone. Great class, very well attended and free with my C3 membership. Looking forward to more!

My immunity is still feeble - sore throat and sniffles again. Only a few days left to recover for a 50K

DontGetLost Peak-2-Peak Adventure Run

I was exhausted after last night's Virginia vs. Bruce celebration in Horseshoe Valley, mostly because of coffee that kept me awake for the drive and a few hours afterward! I briefly considered just staying in bed but I'm glad I went to Ancaster to enjoy such a beautiful day in the woods. Nice to see so many AR and O friends too!

Not surprisingly, my fitness and navigational sharpness have been better at other times but I did OK. I made a major error at double black diamond control #60 when I marched up the wrong spur and went much higher than I needed to. I'd turned off the trail early to save climb but the attackpoint wasn't solid enough so I ended up climbing considerably more. Lesson noted. I made a similar error on a much smaller hill while chatting with Harps' neighbour and demonstrating the proper way to screw up a control.

In my sleepy state, I also forgot about the extra dummy flags at the Vertigo control. As in, totally forgot. I noticed that the flag was in the wrong place but that's OK - at least I'd found it. Then when I got there and realized there was no control to punch... "Oh right!"

Otherwise, it was relatively uneventful other than another ankle twist while bushwhacking - just a 3/10 this time so it won't prevent me from running.

DoubleDown, Gally and I enjoyed a post-race "Dirty Southern Lunch" - a double decker sandwich with chicken, BBQ sauce, arugula, maple syrup and waffles instead of bread. Tasty but I could do without the waffle in this case. Coincidentally, on my drive today, I was listening to a This American Life podcast about a team that invents crazy sandwiches and burgers. Apparently, the key is to have a good story that explains the food item; it's not sufficient for the combination of food items to taste good.

I was 1st old lady and top 15% overall with 540 pts. I probably couldn't have made it past 600 pts but my strategy near the end left something to be desired. Next time!!