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..
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| (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!
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| (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!!
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| (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!
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| (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!
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| Official Finisher... |
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| Team picture the day after! Thanks girls for your support... |
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