After last year's pentathlon I was more than nervous to go back to do this race.
I think it's important to state that for a start I only started skiing and skating a couple of years ago and quite frankly I am not a massive fan of training in big big cold like we had for the last two years.
James had bought for me some heated soles so that made training outside more bareable.
However for the race I didn't take it because they didn't expect temperature too cold and also because it's pretty long to put on and off and with transition every 30 to 45 min I shouldn't spend too much time with that.
That was my first mistake. I decided to go with my MTB shoes and only a goretex liner inside. I tested it quickly and it seemed fine. After 37min of racing on the bike i was pretty satisfied with my bike leg but disappointed i didn't take my clyclocross and went for the MTB. The previous year there was a part of the course that was in snow hence i decided to go with the stability but this year it was all clear :( !!! Anyway by the end of the bike I realised my toes were frozen.
In TA I struggle to put my shoes on and after a couple of steps I realise that something is wrong....so wrong!
I couldn't run properly my toes were too painful. I stopped 3-4 times during my first lap and tried to take off my shoes twice to warm my toes up. I can't describe this pain but it's not the kind i can take for long.
The medics came to see me a few times asking if I wanted to quit but I didn't want to.
The run was supposed to be my strength for this rae and i was wasting time...so much time. I was upset but continued on and eventually during the second lap my toes were warm, painful, but warm.
The medics ran to me in TA and patched my feet if toe warmers before I put on my ski boots and off i went. I knew the ski would be long for me (not a good skier) but what i wasn't expecting was to be stiff and sore from an alpine touring i did 2 days prior the race :/
I skied slowly but surely and went on the skate, my second weakness. I am pretty happy to say I shaved off 9 min from my time from last year on skates from 37 to 28min for 7.4km. Ok the first girl did it in 18min but hey i wasn't born with skates on my feet :)
By the time i got on snowshoes a lot of people had finished. I was cramping and dehydrated even if i spent my day drinking hot gatorade from the aid station and I must say it made me a little sick. I went through the 3 laps of snowshoe running and was happy to cross the finish line in 3h10.
I am not sure I will do it again however it is super well organised and it's a great event. I want to thanks a lot the volunteers and medics who supported me during the entire race :)
Nathalie
Saturday 28 February 2015
Saturday 21 February 2015
Mad Trapper race 2014 20km Snowshoe Race
I decided a bit at the last minute to register to what would be my first Mad Trapper race.
I took our puppy with me, I had asked prior to the event and since there wasn't many people running the 20km and that she is very good in the trails off leash, Mike, the race director,said yes.
There was a 10km starting at 10am and a 5km starting at the same time. Us doing the 20km the start was at 8am.
The course consisted on two wicked loops of approximately 10km.
A few "stompers" had gone through but all the fresh snow that had fallen the night before made the first loop pretty hard.
I decided from the start that I wouldn't be pushing hard on the first loop since people had warned me it was a very tough course.
One girl went ahead of me at the start but I passed her in the first hill. Towards the end of loop1 I passed one of the guy too.
With the fresh snow the first loop took me 1h40 to go around :/
At the end of the first loop I stopped for about 5min to try to find some water for the puppy and gave her a bit of food too. She followed me on the second loop. The second loop went a lot faster and was much easier now that a dozainr people had gone through.
My aim was to not get passed by a 10km runner since i had left 15min before they started. In the last 100m of the race one 10km runner passed me...dammit!!! However I managed to pass another guy in the middle of the second loop. I guess the two bites brownies I had in between both loops gave me a boost of energy :)
I finished the race in 3h10min47s in first place female and 4th overall. Puppy was awesome. She will be a great running partner this summer :)
Nathalie
I took our puppy with me, I had asked prior to the event and since there wasn't many people running the 20km and that she is very good in the trails off leash, Mike, the race director,said yes.
There was a 10km starting at 10am and a 5km starting at the same time. Us doing the 20km the start was at 8am.
The course consisted on two wicked loops of approximately 10km.
A few "stompers" had gone through but all the fresh snow that had fallen the night before made the first loop pretty hard.
I decided from the start that I wouldn't be pushing hard on the first loop since people had warned me it was a very tough course.
One girl went ahead of me at the start but I passed her in the first hill. Towards the end of loop1 I passed one of the guy too.
With the fresh snow the first loop took me 1h40 to go around :/
At the end of the first loop I stopped for about 5min to try to find some water for the puppy and gave her a bit of food too. She followed me on the second loop. The second loop went a lot faster and was much easier now that a dozainr people had gone through.
My aim was to not get passed by a 10km runner since i had left 15min before they started. In the last 100m of the race one 10km runner passed me...dammit!!! However I managed to pass another guy in the middle of the second loop. I guess the two bites brownies I had in between both loops gave me a boost of energy :)
I finished the race in 3h10min47s in first place female and 4th overall. Puppy was awesome. She will be a great running partner this summer :)
Nathalie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)