2014 is turning out to be quite the year!

We have been in New Zealand for around two and a half months now, summer is arriving with the odd day of showers so we have been able to enjoy a few BBQ teas already. It's quite bizarre being away for Christmas in a place that is the furthest away from what you usually associate the season with. It is no where as near commercialised here as it is in UK and most people have a BBQ instead of the traditional Christmas dinner, but that's one tradition that we are keeping with us :).

Race Video - http://youtu.be/fVi7h5ot2W4

We have been doing a lot of planning for the new year with Tarawera  ultra already secured for March we also managed to secure a spot each in TNF100 Australia which will be held in the blue mountains in May . We are both excited that we are able to compete in such stunning surroundings this will also hopefully see the start of my ultra racing after a disappointing circumstances in Canada. So with two 100k races entered we have started knuckling down to training which has given us new places and trails to explore which we are both enjoying.

Pre-Race video 2014 - http://vimeo.com/79842907

We have also booked a lifetime goal/dream and a definite bucket list top spot contender a trek in the Himalayas which will see us reaching Everest base camp as well as the Gokyo lakes. The lovely Marie will be joining us for this eighteen day trek , we are both really excited about seeing Marie again as by the time we see her it will have been just over a year since we last saw her in Canada. It is really great that we can meet up with friends we have made during our travels, I'm sure Marie will not be the only one we will meet again :).

A short update from us this time to round the year off so a Merry Christmas  & A Happy New Year from us both! A quick little fact for you New Zealand is the first place to wish in the new year in the whole world! 
Happy reading
Gem & Paul xx

Work hard, Play harder….

It's been a few weeks now since our last blog.. So we thought we do just do a little update and let everyone know what we have been up too.

We are both settling in nicely into work and we are busying up now as we go into our summer months here in New Zealand. I have had a very nice surprise with moving up the ranks to manager of the store now! So it will be a nice challenge to take on a new managerial role in a different country.. Something for me to get my teeth into over the next 12 months.

Routburn Track profile. 

Gem enjoying the trek!

Since our last blog we have been exploring a bit more in the mountains and trails. We planned to take on the world famous 'Routeburn Track' 32km in distance, most people take 3-4 days to complete the route each way. We were attempting to complete it in one day then the following day do the return leg of 32km.. Little did we know 3 days before we had some heavy down pore of snow in the mountains and unfortunately this stopped us at Lake Harries (Half way on the route) due to high risk of avalanches, the DOC office here in New Zealand had closed the track down that morning over the saddle path for every ones safety. Full of disappointment we decided to take out out stoves and had a break in the snow next to the lake with Ian and Izzy who had joined us on our trek… After a small break we decided to hike back to the 'Flats Huts' and find a camp spot for our tents and settle down for the night. The following day the weather was amazing and a total change to the previous days therefore we decided to hike to the summit of 'Mt Alfred' what was a nice steep trek through the tree line before heading onto a scree scramble followed by a track to the final summit where we was rewarded with amazing 360degrees views..

Not a bad view at all… 

Recently we have been really getting into our MTB on the lower trails around town and decided to buy some bikes, saves on renting them each week. And are going to use them as strength training and hopefully stay injury free for a year! In previous years I have over raced or trained to much and upset my bad hamstring and really want a year of full running! Not missing 2-3 months with injury.. (Fingers crossed)

Mixing the training up on the local trails.

Last week was the week where Gem had decided to try and kill me off and get me to bungy off a bridge into the river between a canyon. Sounds simple? no not for us, the day final arrived after trying to jump 3 times previously but was un able due to weather and the fast flowing water in the river we were 4th time lucky! Neither was as nervous this time round until we actually saw the bridge, once we had both set our eyes on the bridge you could tell neither of us wanted to be there anymore! But we had committed to jumping and had to now.. There was only us two jumping that morning so everyone who was about was looking at us eagerly to see how we got on. I decided to go first and get it over and done with, not sure it was the right choice but off I went. I was ok getting tide up ready and fine when I stood on the platform but as soon as I shuffled out to the end of the platform my heart went in my mouth and froze for a second… But after a little hesitation and thinking I've paid good money for this I found the courage to dive off into the river below. What was a huge shock as I had a full body dunk in this cold river, luckily it was a nice warm day to help matters. The jump lasted longer than I thought it would, but I way laying in the boat at the bottom thinking thank god its over! I won't be rushing into another one put it that way but I'm glad I did it. It pushed me way outside my comfort zone and was really challenging but it's good to see sometime what you really can make yourself do.

Putting on a show for the crowd… 

Gem was up next and again only really felt it when we shuffled out to the end of the platform ready to jump. Same as me after a little hesitation managed to throw her self off into the water and it was over.. Well after screaming a few times!

All smiles before the jump.

That about covers everything for now.. We are going to have a lot more adventures to share next time with the summer fast approaching! And the weather getting better.

Thanks for reading..

Paul and Gem x

New Country, New Chapter!!

A lot has happened since our last blog in a space of a couple of weeks. Firstly we left Los Angeles to Nadi in Fiji , we flew with Fiji airlines which has now become one of my favourite airlines as for the first time ever the plane food was lovely. I usually hate plane food and go hungry as I can't eat what has been served to me but we were served fresh chicken curry, fruit salad, brownies and a mini twix, yummy! When we arrived in Fiji we had already flown through the time zone so instead of being eight hours behind UK we were now eleven hours in front so we had basically lost a whole day which  was really hard to get my head around.

Fiji Islands.. 

We had a few hours to kill in Nadi before we had to board our next plane to Auckland we were given the option of whether or not we wanted to go through customs or stay in airport. Of course it was a no brainer for us , so through customs we went and off we went to explore. Even though it was only six am and an overcast day the temperature was still fairly high. It turned out the airport is in the middle of no where, just a tiny rural town close by. The locals we in countered were all really friendly with not a single one passing us without smiling or saying 'Bula' which is hello in Fijian. One other thing we noticed whilst we were there is how cheap Fiji is the British Pound practically triples there as this is going off airport food prices. So even though it was a very short visit we both were impressed and hope to go back to spend some more time there and hopefully do some island hopping.

Auckland Sky Tower..

We got into Auckland around tea time that evening we headed towards border control we got to our desk and got asked what our purpose of our visit was where we replied that we were on a working holiday visa she scanned our passports and said we were all set. I naively asked her where did we have to go for our working visa to be authorised to which she replied I have seen them online your all set to go! In my defence in Canada we had to go into a separate room for our visas! We next went to catch our bus Paul had managed to book us a hostel that was right next to one of the bus stops which was handy as he hadn't realised this when booking. When we got on to the bus I noticed there was free local SIM cards so we picked two up as we had already decided that this time around we were going to get New Zealand Numbers to make life easier for us. It was dark and raining when we got off the bus we got to our hostel to check in they had no record of us turned out there was two hostels from the same company , my heart dropped but was quickly lifted again once they said our hostel was just a few doors down on the same street, phew! So we finally got checked in had some free cottage pie courtesy of our hostel and off to bed we went.

The next morning we woke up and headed out to apply for our IRD numbers which is New Zealand  UK's national insurance number, we also activated our new sims and topped them up, with your first
top up you got a free five minute international call this was great as it was my mum birthday so I was able to surprise her with a phone call, it was really strange to speak on my mobile as I hadn't done that the whole time in Canada. What had already been in my eyes a productive day turned out even more so that evening when we got an email off a website we had joined aimed at finding places to live in Queenstown (where we were heading in a couple of days to try and set roots) asking if we're still looking for a place. After a few text exchanges and a picture of the view from the properties balcony which was a stunning lake view. We had secured a place to stay for when we would arrive we will be sharing with Kat who is from the Czech Republic and turns out had been in Canada just
before she had came out to New Zealand and had been living in Canmore! What a crazy small world this is.

Queenstown from one of our mountain runs! 

We genuinely couldn't believe our luck a job for Paul and a place to live all before we had even set foot in Queenstown. We were able to enjoy Auckland for the remaining amount of Stay with so much already achieved . We visited parks and markets and were lucky enough to get up the Sky Tower on our last evening there as we finally had a clear day( the rest of the time we had been greeted by rain). I was also reunited with a good friend from school who I hadn't seen in Six years Cat and her husband Rupert as they had also just arrived a few days before us on a year working visa , it also turned out were heading to Queenstown to set up Camp for a while, again it really is a small world we live in!
It was time to say goodbye to Auckland and the North island and board our final plane for a while to the South Island and Queenstown . We arrived mid afternoon and headed straight for town to drop off our bags with our new housemate who had kindly offered us a lift to where we would be calling home for the near future once she had finished work. Once we had our first face to face contact with Kat we left her to finish work and went exploring Paul went to say Hello to his new work colleagues and have a look around the shop.

Queenstown towards the bottom of South Island NZ.

Within a few hours we were in love with Queenstown and were really happy with our new home. Paul had noticed a trail path right next to the lake whilst on the bus from the airport turns out the path can be taken all the way to Queenstown it's just over 5k from our house to heart of Queenstown but with our stunning surroundings it really doesn't feel that long. So it was now down to searching for a job for myself to complete the puzzle. I had my heart set on trying to get back into the outdoor industry out here don't get me wrong I met some lovely people during my time in Canada but I wanted to get back to what I was really passionate about.  I noticed most places weren't hiring yet as it was shoulder season but I found an outdoor shop that had a hiring sign and it was none other than Macpac which is one of New Zealand premium brands turns out they were wanting someone straight away (I thought this is going to be too good to be true) but as luck would have it I got the job !

So far Queenstown as become a dream come true for us both it has just been under two weeks since moving here but we have already settled into a routine of walking and running to and from work and are both enjoying our jobs. We have started exploring the trails in our free time but there is still so much to explore I don't think we are going to get bored!  We have also entered the world famous 'Tarawera 100k' which is in March next year and has just been announced as being part of the 'Ultra Trail World Tour' so hopefully get to meet some more of idols!

Can't wait to race here! 

Thanks for reading
Gemma & Paul x

North America - Adventure and Final Chapter for the States...

Bryce Canyon.

So we said our goodbyes to Canada at the end of August with mixed emotions excited for our next part of our adventures but also genuinely sad to be saying bye as we both had made some good friends, during our time in Banff. Our first stop saw us board a plane from Calgary to Las Vegas , the first that hit us was the humidity as we had both forgot that factor regarding Vegas and a mild summer in Banff hadn't prepared us either but regardless it was nice to see the Sun. The next morning we boarded our coach to head towards the national parks of Utah and Arizona . We were really excited as when we first travelled America in 2010 we didn't have enough time to fit in any of America 's National Parks which was on both of our lists to visit.

Lake Powell - Horseshoe Bend

Our first stop was Zion National Park which was just a nice appetiser for what came next Bryce Canyon which looked like somewhere from another planet , on the way to the park we experienced a downpour which actually worked in our favour as when we got off the coach there was hardly anyone around so it allowed us to explore our stunning surroundings with hardly seeing another soul.

The next morning we took a an open top jeep to visit Antelope Canyon specifically the upper antelope canyon which is known as the place where water runs through rock. This leaves behind some stunning shapes. Afterwards we visited Lake Powell where there was an option to go on a cruise on the lake but me and Paul decided to take a taxi to see the horseshoe bend as it is the most photographed and well known part of Lake Powell we had asked the taxi to come back to collect us to take us back to our group to re-board the coach back to Vegas but in good old fashioned it wasn't there and since it was bank holiday and in a small town we already knew he was the only taxi available that day. So we were stranded in the desert with no drinks which was a lot of fun! We had to hike our way back into Page before being reunited with the rest of our group and a nice refreshing drink! The rest of Vegas was spent chilling and eating all you can eat buffets. 
Inside Antelope Canyon.

 Next stop Hawaii now this is huge for us if you had asked either of us if we had even dreamt of ticking this location off our list during our current adventures we both would of gone 'I wish' as from the UK visiting here comes with a big price tag but with a bargain flight and cheap accommodation it became a must. It certainly didn't disappoint we flew it Honolulu and stayed in a condo up in mountains away from Waikiki beach 'heaven'. During our stay we hiked waterfalls & diamond head , raced a half marathon , saw sea turtles up close in the their natural habitat , photographed historic landmarks (Aloha Tower, King Kamehameha Statue) & eat haupia pie . 
Our new sea friend! 'Herby the turtle'
Basically just a small portion of what Hawaii has to offer the islands are a lot more reasonable than we had imagined and hopefully we will definitely be revisiting sometime again as there is so much more to to discover and explore.

We are now currently in Los Angeles where we have visited Santa Monica Pier, the original and new muscle beach , Venice beach and raced another half marathon and are now waiting to fly to New Zealand via Fiji where we will be calling our home for the next year.
Sunset in Hawaii. 
We are flying into Auckland where we will stay for four days before we will be heading to Queenstown where we should fit in just great, as most people know Queenstown is known as one of the best adventure capitals in the world! Covering everything from Trail Running to Bungee jumping and water rafting.. We are both very excited to explore all the activities on offer.  


Thanks again for reading Gemma & Paul x

Aloha Tower. 

Gem working hard in the heat of LA. 

Santa Monica Pier entrance ..

TNF Banff 3 Peaks Challenge - 21st of August 2013

A couple of months ago I had an idea of doing something out of the ordinary before I left Canada. 

I came up with the idea of running from The North Face Banff store in town out to Norquay Ski Resort then to the summit of Cascade Mountain then back down to the store for a refuel station then out to the top of top to pick up the trail to summit Mt Rundle before descending and finishing off with a summit of Sulphur Mountain, and finish where I had started in town outside The North Face store.. As far as we knew after doing some research and asking around this was going to be a first for this challenge and many others had ran the 3 peaks but used a car to get in between each trail head. This made it more exciting for me to know if I completed the challenge I would have the fastest known time!

Route/Elevation data..  

The summer didn't go to well for me with a injury to my hamstring, I ended up not running for 5 weeks before I competed in this years TNF Canadian Death Race. Therefore I had really not given this new challenge any though with time running out and recovery from my race... Until last week I was speaking to my manager Randy about this weeks rota and he mentioned I could have Wednesday off to try my challenge.. Well this got my mind thinking could I put everything in place and get my mind into the frame of doing this challenge in a matter of 5 days and only two and a half weeks after race TNFCDR! It was easier than I thought all I had to do was sort my self out.. The support I received before running was amazing, I had a number of people jump at me to become my support crew which was amazing as I was never going to get it done with out them! The amount of messages I received was out of this world! And I thank each and every one who did take the time to help me out and send me messages of good luck on my Facebook and Twitter this is truly what got me though the day! 

• Cascade Mt - Shawn and Conor

• Mt Rundle - Jason

• Sulphur Mt - My little Gem / Randy

Spot the runner!.. My descent from Cascade Mt.

Wednesday the 21st of August come round so quick.. 5:00am start and I was off! I was nervous about doing Cascade Mountain as with being injured over the summer I hadn't had time to go up and see the mountain/route.. And this was the longest and highest of the 3 peaks.. I set off down Banff Avenue with a good clear positive mind of giving this challenge a good go! I wasn't going to not finish and fail twice while being in Canada after my DNF in the Fernie 80k Ultra. After leaving Banff town it was a bit of a road run up to Norquay Ski resort where the trail for Cascade Mountain started. Once onto this trail I was feeling much happier running on undulating single file tracks till I hit the river crossing where I knew (after looking the day before) that there was no way around this and I had to take my shoes and socks off and walk through freezing cold water at 6:00am to continue up Cascade! But it could of been worse my support crew Conor and Shawn had all ready had to cross at 4:00am in the morning to get up onto the top ridge before I made it there to offer me some food and water as fuel. After running for a further 1:20 I caught up to the guys on the false summit ridge.. by this time the sun had started to rise and the views were out of this world! I continued up to the summit before descending back down the ridge to get some food and drink of the guys before heading back to the ski resort. The summit was so cold! The wind was really strong and I had to pick my route really well to save getting to close to the edges along the way.. After re-fueling with the guys I left them and headed down, crossed the river and bumped into two black bears along the trail! Only in Canada.. This was an amazing experience and strangely gave me a little boost. On reaching the car park again for the ski resort I noticed I had a good solid run hitting summit and back in 3hours 54minutes! Down the road I went and back to The North Face store in Banff to collect some fresh water and take on some fuel to ready me for the second peak Mt Rundle. 

I decided to take a good 15 minutes in store to recover and get some good fuel on board before I headed off as the weather was getting well above 25 degrees by now and I need to take on as much water and food as possible.. 25minutes later down some trails I had the trail head for Mt Rundle and started to climb, this trail just goes up from the start and just gets steeper along the way. I was feeling so warm and dehydrated once I had been climbing for an hour, I started to drinking my water like it was going out of fashion.. That was the worst mistake I was every going to do! 30 minutes later I was on the dragons back of Mt Rundle and still had a lot of climbing to do to hit the summit I ran out of water! I had drank all 2L I had in my pack and I was just getting to the most exposed area with the sun. Different to Cascade, Rundle had no wind at all just sun beaming down on me and I am never good in the heat. 3/4 of the way to the summit I really started to loose control a little and had to keep sitting down on the scree slope as I was loosing focus and my vision was even blur!! I started to panic a little as I knew I wasn't in a great place to be loosing control and I was a long way from Jason (my next support crew) I managed to reach the summit somehow and just took a lengthy break while sat on the summit I started to hallucinating that there was bears on the summit with me?? Crazy I know! I have never ever been so dehydrated that it has got that bad, I took my bladder out of my pack took the top off and tried to tip anything out I had into my mouth, this was nothing! The bladder was bone dry and nothing left in the tube either, my mouth was like a desert by this time. The only I could think was open my tub of Vaseline I had and rub some on the inside of my mouth and on my tongue to give it some moisture. The other down side to my mouth being so dry I couldn't take any fuel/food on board as it just stuck to my mouth like glue. After a very very long and slow descent down to the forest trail I finally bumped into Jason 3 hours later! I have never been so happy so him ha! I think he could tell straight away something was wrong with how pale I looked and my whole body language was down, I breifly explained what had happened and took a full bottle of water on board followed by a bottle of coke and then a second bottle of water while Jason filled my bladder up with water also. Little did I know at the time he had given me all his water to me too! (Thanks man, but that was crazy! You should of kept some too) I felt a different man after spending 20 minutes with Jason just eating and drinking. Shortly after I contiuned down the trail to head over to Sulphur Mountain my 3rd and final peak of the day before heading back into town to stop the watch. My total time for up and down Mt Rundle to trail head was my slowest ever, but I was glad just to be down and off the mountain safely - 6Hours and 15 Minutes. 

Climbing up to summit one.

After a run from the trail behind the Fairmont hotel up to the Gondola for Sulphur I had hit the trail head to tackle Sulphur Mountain, with it taking so long unfortunately I had missed Randy my next part of my support crew as he was looking after his baby. (Thanks for waiting around for 40 minutes for me anyway Randy!) Sulphur Mountain is totally different to the first two peak as there is no exposed areas and it is switch backs all the way up in the trees to the board walk to the summit. I was really struggling by this point with my legs feeling so heavy and I just felt like I didn't have much energy left. I really started to notice that The Canadian Death Race 125k Ultra from two and a half weeks ago was clearly still in my legs and was making things a lot harder. But after what felt like a real long climb I had reached my final summit! And was starting to make my way back town the trail before running back into town to finish my challenge, half way down the trail I was met by my little monkey Gem who had finished work and ran out to run me in for the last few miles! This was a great little boost for me and I started to run a little quicker down into town. Jason had also drove up to see me on my final road into the finish to offer the last bit of support too. After 15 Hours and 32 minutes I was final back at the store and the challenge was complete!! I had done it, not sure how but I had completed what I had set out to do from 5:00am that morning. It was great to reach the store and see many friendly faces I was greeted by some good friends who was working Marie, Kayla and Josh and also Shawn, Conor and Jason was all in store too. The feeling inside was amazing I felt I had done something big and I had all this buzzing energy from finishing... 

We had asked around a lot before the challenge about who had done this before and it came about that many had done the three peaks in 24hours before but had drove in between each trail head but not the way I had done it, and as far as we know I had just set the fastest know time for this challenge with running in-between each trail heads.. :-) 

Again a huge thank you to everyone who got involved to support me by coming out on the day or sending me good luck and well messages! It all means a lot to me... 

Finished! 15hr 32mins later...

I have put a very small video together (on the link below) of some footage I took throughout the day for people to see if your interested.. (But no laughing at my commentary along the way, not sure what I was doing!) 

http://youtu.be/XepVvfuAlq0

Thanks for reading 

Paul x

The Final Countdown for Canada and whats next?

As I am writing this, we only have two weeks left in Canada! Time has flown by since we left our old life behind in the UK back in January and here we are again about to move forward once more...

The time and experiences we have had in Canada have been out of this world! We have had everything from Ice skating on frozen Canals, Hiking to the summit of 10,000ft Peaks, Grizzly Bear encounters to seeing the Northern Lights with even a crazy Ultra Marathon thrown in the middle. We have met some amazing people and have made new friends for life! I do hope we continue to keep in touch and meet up further down the line once again.. I have had an amazing time working for The North Face Banff, being apart of such a great team has given me some great experiences and learnt so much. Gemma has been working all hours possible to keep the funds coming in to fund the rest of our amazing worldwide adventure and I am very grateful for what she has done whilst we have been here! Being the best always..

As mentioned above we have both had truly an amazing time here in Canada but for what we have booked and coming up is just mind blowing! When we first left everything behind in the UK we were both very determined to make it really worth while to leave, but little did I think we would do it how we are! We have the following booked and planned for the next steps in our adventure around the world :

• Time in Las Vegas 
• A Trip to Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon in Utah National Park
• Time in LA 
• A trip/holiday in Hawaii
• Quick stop off in Fiji
• One Year working holiday visa in the stunning country of New Zealand
• A trek adventure up to Everest Base Camp in Nepal 

I'm sure this list will go grow as we go along.. But for now it's looking pretty good so far! Also we have some awesome races coming up, as we will be racing in Hawaii and in New Zealand to date! Really looking forward to adding new places to my list of "Places we have raced in around the world!" 

The plan for the next two weeks now is to enjoy our last little bit of time here, finish up in work and keep planning for our future! 

Question is : How much of this world can we tick off?? 

Thanks for following our adventure! 

Paul and Little Gem x 

The Canadian Death Race Ultra Marathon..

After 5 weeks of pain and suffering with my hamstring pull it was time to try and run 'The North Face Canadian Death Race', every year on the August long weekend here in Canada this race takes to the trails and mountains of Grande Cache.. This year was my turn to try and become part of the group that "Beats Death" and complete the whole 125km with 17,000ft of elevation change.. It wasn't looking good! 39km was all I had ran in the 5 weeks build up to it, my mind still freshly had my unfortunate DNF In Fernie Ultra too... But never the less I do love a good challenge! 

If I was going to take on such a challenge and complete it I needed a good plan and support crew! For this I had been looking at each leg and times I needed to run, the elevation change etc etc.. My support crew was my lovely little monkey Gem and a good friend of mine Jaime who works with me at TNF Banff.
On Friday the 2nd of August we drove up to Grande Cache in time for the 8am start on  the Saturday 3rd of August, the drive from Banff to Jasper was stunning! Right through the heart of the Rocky Mountains.. This was getting me very excited  knowing I would be soon running in the mountain trails myself. After a break in Jasper for lunch we arrived in Grande Cache early afternoon. On arrival we checked into our hotel room what TNF had kindly sorted out for me and my team.. (A Huge thank you to them!) and went down to the Death Race field area to pick up my number/time-chip/coin and race bag of goodies! Things suddenly started to sink in that I was going to take on this mammoth challenge in less than 24 hours! We finished our evening off by meeting everyone from TNF Canada and had our racer briefing ready for the morning followed by a early night to get some rest..

Start/Finish Area

5:30am soon came around and the alarm sounded... My first thought was "Here we go! No turning back now.." I jump up out of bed to finish getting my kit ready and put my race kit on. After sorting everything out and was happy to go, we all went down to the restaurant to get some breakfast before our long day out on the trails, as time passed it felt like forever before my porridge oats came as obviously I was getting a little nervous and just wanted to get started. After food and a short car drive down to the start area the place and atmosphere was in full swing! People every where getting ready and doing warm ups, checking their timing chip activated.. My heart was starting to go a little faster at this time and the nerves were starting to creep in. My legs felt some how heavier and my mind was going over everything at 100 miles an hour. 15minutes before the gun was due to go everyone started lining up and wishing each other good luck and so on. (It was a great friendly race) 8:00am struck and we were off! This is how it unravelled: 

First leg, 19 km: The Downtown Jaunt The third leg was know as the easiest leg of the event but I found being so fresh and having lots of excitement energy leg one went by so fast! We set off racing down the road before we took onto the single track trails. The pace was good, the sun was shinning and best of all my hamstring was 'ok' at that moment in time! As we got further into leg one it was coming clear that this race was going to need full attention all the time the terrain was forever changing from track to rocks to soft mud and waist deep bogs! I started to really enjoy it and ran with the leading group for that leg, I knew I wasn't going to run with them for the whole event but I just wanted to get stuck in and go on from there... 19km soon past and we arrived at checkpoint one! I was still feeling good, fresh and full energy so I stopped briefly with Gemma and Jaime, took some water on board and raced off into the forest.

Taking on some extra water..

Second leg, 27 km: Flood & Grande Mountain Slugfest Many people argue that leg two is the hardest of the five legs due to it's two mountain climbs (Flood and Grande) the very challenging rugged terrain and the two creek crossing it has to offer all within 27km of running! We started off running along side a old railway line before hitting the single track trails for some undulating km.. Then the fun really started by running through real rocky and swampy sections along the trail before climbing up towards the summit of Flood Mountain.. Mentally I had broken the race down to section by each leg then down again into smaller portions, therefore on summiting Flood I knew one summit down two to go! The trail between Flood and Grande Mountain was  some of the toughest and most rugged trails that I have ran on. The running was very hard on the feet and legs with all the rocks and routes but just as we summited Grande Mountain the sky had filled with clouds and it had gone very dark! I knew this wasn't a great place to be if this storm broke out, after quickly checking in on the summit with my timing chip I quickly headed down the power line.... Well that wasn't really fast running at all, it has to be some of most technical and steep descents I have ever ran! The whole way down was rocky drop-offs and  unstable footing for each step you took.. Towards the bottom of the mountain the heavens opened up! Hail the size of golf balls came down followed by heavy rain.. I quickly ran thought the town of Grande Cache and into my next checkpoint where it wasn't  really doing anything just really overcast. After a great tasting banana sandwich Jamie and Gemma had put together for me along with other snacks and a couple cups of coke I was off running up the road to tackle leg three!

(47km) Coming into a checkpoint..

Third leg, 21 km: Old Mine Road (or “City Slicker Valley”)Everyone had said to me this was the easiest leg of the race. On setting off into the distance from the checkpoint the heavens opened up again! Even worse this time the rain was driving right into my face and it soaked me thought within minutes. I quickly stopped again to put another top on and my hat and gloves as the temperature had also just plummeted, the wind was picking up, thunder and lightening was in full swing! and I really started to feel cold. I was more worried about getting cold with my hamstring! I knew if that got cold I was in trouble and it was still a long way to go before I was going to complete this challenge. I kept eating in small amounts so my body would use the food as warmth while digesting in my stomach. This was the first real low point I had in the event two runners behind me had decided to go off track into the trees for shelter out of the storm.. It crossed my mind but by looking up at the sky it wasn't going to go away anytime soon so my thoughts were keep going, push the pace a little get the heart working more and fingers crossed keep warm! Well my plan was going really well as this point, as the trail was downhill mainly, very slippy but I was use to that living in the UK where it is always wet and muddy on the trails... The views across the Smoky River were amazing! By this time the weather had not let up one bit and people were really struggling and slowing right down, as I past many on the trail I briefly stopped to ask each one if they were ok and continued pushing on down the trail to the next check point.. 7km from the next check my worse nightmare was happening, my hamstring all of a sudden was really bothering me and felt very tight. I immediately stopped and stretch it out knowing that running through it was no good as I found out in Fernie where it got so much I had a DNF. After a good 5-8 minutes stop and stretch I decided to continue slowly and just had it in my head to get to the next checkpoint and work it out from there. 50 minutes later I had arrived into my checkpoint, thank god! 

(70km) About the only flat running in the whole course! 

Fourth leg, 36 km: Hamel AssaultBefore starting this leg I decided to take a good rest in the checkpoint area and fuel up well before taking on the hardest leg of the whole race. It was great to see Gemma and Jaime again with my food! But I also had a nice surprise as some from TNF Canada were around giving me some support and Dave from Wild Mountain, this was a good little boost I needed! Dave was great he explained the next legs section by section for me so I knew what was coming up in my mind and to push thought to the next checkpoint and ultimately a step closer to finishing. Dave had kindly got my a chair to sit on while I fuelled up again and had brought some dry socks for me! This was a great help knowing that he had so much experience in ultra running his hints and tips was going to help me along the road to finish! So off I went to tackle the fourth leg of the race, This leg contained mainly dirt trail and hard packed gravel but the elevation change was well over 6500ft which all came at once! The climb up to the summit of Mt Hamel was broken into two long sections and it felt like climbing to hell.. My legs were burning, hamstring was firing a little and my lungs had decided to start complaining too. But on the plus side the weather was looking good, the clouds had starting to lift and the sun was back out in full swing! But going from really wet to really warm in my man area I had lots of problems going on with the good old runners chafe! Just another wall to get over to the finish right? Or I had done something bad in my past life because the last 3 hours of this event I had just ran was hell! On reaching the summit of Mt Hamel we had to run along the ridge to collect a flag before we checked in at the hut to prove we had been to the end and back up. Dave had told me that once I had reached the top the descent was good running as it wasn't really technical running. But by this time my legs were getting really heavy and with not training at all over the last 5 weeks it had started to get really really tough ! Downhill running all of a sudden was just as hard as running up a hill. Even bumped into a black bear just off the trail to make things even more interesting... But I was so focused on completing this event, the time wasn't  a major for me to be really honest as I knew I wasn't in great shape but the finish line was my goal and where there I was running or crawling I was getting to that line... A good few hours later I was at the 4th and final checkpoint before the finish line!!

(100km) Some extra support before heading into the final leg.. 

Fifth and final leg, 24km, The River Crossing  Coming into the checkpoint at the end of leg four was a different from the rest as it was now night time and the head torches had to be put on to see the trail. Again before setting off on the final leg I took a seat and re-fuelled up and took on board some chicken oxo to warm me up, a sandwich and some other snacks and a couple cups of coke! It was different at this check point from the rest also because unfortunately one of my support crew Jaime had taken really ill and had been taken into hospital! ( I just thought she'd do anything to get out of having to put up with me anymore at the checkpoints! ;-) ... ) But Gemma did great getting everything ready for me and thanks to the TNF crew who had helped in driving Gem to the check point and cooking me some chicken broth. (Much appreciated!) On leaving the checkpoint the trail went straight up!! It was now pitch black and we were following small silver round reflectors, which may I add looked like animal eyes as you turned a corner.... I don't know how many times I thought "Oh come on, Really! deal with animals in dark now too?" But I was good thank god, the bear on leg four was enough wild life for one race. The final leg was over single track and dirt trail with a little gravel road oh and a big river crossing where we had to take a boat over with our coin we had carried for the last 110km. I was more than pleased to finally pass it over as every time I went in my pack for food etc.. All I could think of was "DO NOT LOSE THE COIN!!" or my race would be done whether I liked it or not! After leaving the boat we started to climb up a very steep bank for 5km but in my mind I knew this was the last climb until the small road section back into town. With my hamstring so painful and my whole right leg having gone numb I was forced to walk most of the last bit of this leg but I wasn't going to beat myself up to much as I had done it (Nearly!) off no training and was still going forward no matter what the speed was now. After another hour or so I finally hit the FINAL road climb!! All of a sudden I had a big grin on my face and I felt so happy inside, that one I was going to finish but two I want' going to get two DNF's in Canada! I somehow found a little energy and powered up the road and finished with a little sprint finish... I was so glad to Gem on the line with some fluid and a big hug! On stopping my body just filled with pain and felt warm all over.. I was well and truly done! But what an experience and an amazing race... I was so glad I got the opportunity to run at this years Death Race. I will be back one year fully fit and injury free to run a quicker time and cheat death once again! 

(125km) Made it!! Finish Line picture... 

Overall the race was a huge success in my eyes.. I finished 30th Overall and I could walk the next day! A big thank you to 'The North Face Canada' for looking after me in the race from providing race kit to putting a roof over my head for my stay in Grande Cache. Thanks to 'The North Face Banff and Wild Mountain' for helping me and making it possible I could go to the event to compete. A huge thank you to 'CompresSport Canada' for supplying some compression kit to help me around the course.. 'Energy Bits' for fuelling me along the way. Finally a massive Thank You to Gemma and Jaime for being a great support crew, I couldn't of done it with out you!! I hope I did everyone proud and didn't let anyone down. But for sure I will be back! 

Official Finisher... 

Team picture the day after! Thanks girls for your support... 

The end of our Canadian adventure is getting close...

Sorry it's been a while for an update but it's been quite an eventful month to say the least. So this post could end up being a bit of an essay, sorry....

It started in June when Alberta was hit with massive floods which saw Canmore (the next town to us) suffer massive devastation with many losing their homes , part of the highway was completely destroyed also calgary suffered badly too and therefore caused us in Banff to be completely isolated as both ways of the highway closed no one could get in or out. This caused initial panic buying with the supermarkets running out of the essentials bread, milk etc within hours. The outskirts of Banff also started to flood and the whole town experienced a huge blackout that lasted for hours on the flipside to this it was the night of the supermoon so got some great pictures. So as you can see it was quite an experience unfortunately this all happened the week leading up to my ultra and you can guess where the location was (Canmore) and you can also guess the outcome (cancelled). Even though I am gutted that I didn't get to compete im very lucky that was the only real affect the floods had on me personally it could of been a lot worse.
Supermoon in Banff! 



Next stop is Paul's ultra race in the Wild Mountain Fernie 80k, which saw him go away for the weekend with work where they hired a cabin in the beautiful surroundings of landscape of Fernie. Paul's race was on the Saturday with the day being a scorcher and a hard course with climbs over 10,000ft to conquer it was going to be a challenging race. Due to Paul's ever present hamstring Problems and a bad case of sickness he was forced to pull out after 56k , for all that know Paul you will know that he is his worse critic and therefore he was devastated how the day ended playing out but I am as proud as ever at what he managed to accomplish. Fernie is also where Paul had his first run in with the Canadian mosquitos they seem to love him and his body seems to hate them as each bite was coming out the size of golfballs,ouch! But as we all know you can't keep a good guy down for long, under a week after the ultra he raced in the kanakankis3 trail race which saw him come 2nd overall after taking a nasty tumble which saw him busting up his leg pretty bad , took the sting out of his disappointment, quite literally.

Fernie Ultra Start Line

Paul's leg the day after his race.

Over the last few weeks Paul has been fortunate enough to experience more amazing scenery that the Rockies has to offer with his good friend Marie which has seen him visit Emerald Lake, Natural Stone Bridge, Lake O'Hara, Moraine Lake and Plain 6 of Glaciers, Johnston Canyon and the Ink Pots, I have been super jealous that I couldn't go due to work as the pictures look truly breathtaking. I managed to get on outing today whilst Paul was in work where I visited Wapta Falls and Takakkaw Falls with Marie, Alex and Rachel, Again the Rockies didn't disappoint . 
Lake Emerald 


We were both lucky enough to get a day off together last week so we decided to visit Lake Louise it started off as such a rainy day which was slightly disappointing due to the really good weather we had been having but we both had good waterproofs on so we weren't going to let some bad weather spoil our day after all we are Welsh we are use to it! After exploring the town and walking to the lake we treated ourselves to dinner out as the town is made up of a handful of shops & cafes and doesn't take long to cover. It was still raining once we had finished our lunch but we decided to walk out to the gondola which is suppose to be one of the top places to see a bear in the wild. We sat at the bottom of the resort debating on whether or not to go up and as we were sitting discussing we spotted a bear! So we decided we had to go on the gondola by the time we had brought our tickets the rain had stopped and the clouds lifted. So we eagerly got on the chair praying we would get to see another and it didn't disappoint we spotted 4 bears up and 4 Bears down. Clearly buzzing from finally seeing bears we decided to head back to the lake now that the weather had improved drastically to take some good pictures. As we were walking towards the lake we were heading to a road crossing when all of sudden we could see orange flashing lights and at a closer inspection a group of people with cameras pointing in our direction the other side of the trees with one hand on the bear spray we tried to quickly and quietly see what the fuse was about and you will never guess what it was grizzly bears we were literally a few meters away I was in awe finally the wait was over and boy was it worth it a perfect end to a perfect day.
Grizzly's !



We only have a month and a half left in Canada now and we plan to get out as much as possible too see as much of the landscape This beautiful place we have been lucky enough to call home for the last several months has to offer before we have to say bye for now too, including the Canadian Death Race. Before we land in New Zealand for a year we have just finalised our itinerary from the time we leave Canada to the time we board the plane to Auckland. It includes Las Vegas, a trip to Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and Lake Powell , a week away in Hawaii and a few days in Los Angeles with a pit stop to Fiji on our way to Auckland, I personally can't wait. 

Thanks for reading 
Gemma & Paul x

Johnston Canyon 

Looking over  Lake O'Hara 

Bucket List..

Gem running for the finishing funnel. 
 Since we last blogged we have managed to tick a couple of things off our bucket list first up was the marathon in Calgary this is helping us get towards our goal of running 50 marathons and also another country where we have completed a marathon. It was a sunny hot day (beginning to think that's the only conditions i am going to get for racing marathons) which was unexpected due to the rain we had all week leading up to race day and with only a couple ours sleep due to a party in the room downstairs and a 4am wake up alarm wasn't the best preparation for a marathon but nothing was going to stop us getting to the start line. It wasn't the easiest of marathons that I have completed due to somehow injuring my ankle and foot during the course and Paul was using it as training run for his ultra season coming up we both managed not to disgrace ourselves. Paul was 2nd male under 25 over the line and i was 4th female under 25 to finish. 

Paul's second place medals (Belt Buckles)


The second tick off the bucket list came on night of May 31st\morning of the 1st of June which will stay with us forever as this was the moment that we finally got to see the Aurora Borealis aka the Northern lights for the first time with our very own eyes. After missing out seeing them already a couple times here we starting to believe it wasn't going to happen during our time here, but we having been keeping a close eye on forecast and we were super excited when we saw that the Aurora was at storm level , the next step was frantically finding a lift to Lake Minniewanka which is a hotspot for seeing Aurora due to its ideal conditions. Luckily some of Paul's work mates also had the Northern lights on their bucket list too. So after a comical car journey to the lake which is another story in it self we stood their waiting patiently. It was fairly overcast so we weren't sure whether we were going to be able to see anything but shortly after midnight the wait was over , you could clearly see the sky putting on a show it would have been out of this world if it was a clear night.
Northern Lights....
I'm also very proud to announce that Paul has become a Brand Ambassador for Energybits ( www.energybits.com ). Energybits is a 100% organic spirulina algae which is used as a healthy high protein low calorie snack which gives you natural energy. Paul will be using this as a fuel to aid his ultras this summer rather than using high sugar/artificial supplements. 



Next up on our agenda is me completing my first ultra marathon and for us to see a bear in the wild more and more of our friends are seeing them and it making us very jealous can Canada produce the goods once again .....

Thanks for reading 
Gemma & Paul x