After a week of recovery from the K2O paddling race, it was on to our next adventure - a 3-day stage trail running race. Friday night would kick off with a 10km night race, Saturday would feature an epic 35km course, and Sunday would have a 21km race to finish off the weekend.
We opted for the camping option, which I was actually very excited for, since we have not had the time to camp all summer as of yet. Not the best for physical recovery between races, but still great to be outdoors. We spent the Thursday night in Quebec City at Nat's dad's place, so we were able to get to the race venue with plenty of time to get ourselves organized before the Friday night race.
Just as darkness was setting in, we were off on a 3-loop course that featured a pretty long and steep climb, an equally steep downhill, a few mud pits, and a little bit of road and grass to tie it all together. As expected, this race was way too fast for me off the start. I usually take a good 20-40 minutes before I'm truly warmed up in a trail run. And despite my warm-up jogs and stretching before the race start, right from the start of the race I was working harder than I should be. There was about 600m of road before getting into the singletrack trails, which helped a little to spread out the crowd, but when we got into the trails and the first climb there was still quite a bit of traffic. I was actually both frustrated and relieved at this - frustrated because I knew it was slowing me down, and relieved because it forced me to not be able to redline up the first hill by trying to run it. So I power hiked it with the rest of the people around me and tried to pass wherever there was an opening (and there were not many for quite a while). Once we reached the top of the climb, the rolling terrain allowed for a few more passing opportunities, so I was able to get a little more momentum going. The second loop felt a little better than the first and by the third loop, I was actually able to run most of the big uphill. I caught up to Dave McMahon just as we were heading down the last long downhill of the final loop. As I got right behind him we crossed a mud pit, which I thought was about knee deep - Boy was I wrong! With the speed I had I figured I would just take the hit and go right through the middle. Turns out the mud pit was over my waist and I paid for it dearly! I went full speed into the pit, put both arms out to protect myself once I was waist deep in the mud, and still ended up doing a full face plant into the pit (as it was deeper than my arms are long!). No injuries from it, but it took a huge amount of momentum and energy out of me. But I got up and hurried to catch back up to Dave. When I caught him, he signaled to let me pass and we proceeded to hammer the rest of the downhill at what felt like breakneck speeds. I was continually screaming "on your left" as we lapped many of the participants while Dave's light right behind me helped to light the way. A very fun descent! As we hit the last road section, I was pretty well cooked and sent Dave along his way to sprint to the finish. He finished about 30 seconds ahead of me, but we were both passed by some guy who ran past us like we were standing still... I stood in 15th after Day 1.
Day 2 promised to be the crux of the race for most of us. We were told to expect a tough technical course... Little did we know that this was an understatement. The course was very demanding both technically and physically and the wet/muddy conditions made things even worse. I love tough and technical trail races and this one really put me to the test. There were tons of boulders and mud pits to manoeuvre around each one of them required extra effort to get through, both mentally and physically. I did a lot of slipping and sliding and falling down. Most often it was not a question of how fast you could go, but more about how fast you were willing to go and how much risk you were willing to assume in the process. Also, there was so much humidity in the air that it was stifling. Sweat just poured out of me through the entire race. (Dave and I had agreed to run the first part of the race together, but early on it became clear that something was not right with Dave. He was overheating early on and his pace was slowing as we moved forward. I found out later that he had been sick leading up to the race, and clearly he wasn't quite over it yet). I filled my 1.5L Osprey bladder at each of the 3 aid stations and I ran out of liquids way before reaching the next aid station.I was out of water for the last 5km of the race - and very tempted to drink out of the stream we kept on crossing. Instead I opted to stop and pour water over my head and face at each water crossing. I arrived at the finish line in 14th place on the day, battered and bruised, but still in one piece. I was 11th after the 2-day combined times. I spent the next few hours watching participants coming across the finish line with a look of relief that their day was finally done. The result later revealed that 36 of the 140 participants on the day did not finish the race.
The reports about the race course for Day 3 were conflicting. Some people had told us that the course was just as muddy and technical as Day 2 and others said it was still tough and muddy, but not as bad as Day 2. So I wasn't really sure what I was going to get. I was feeling tired from the 2 previous days and not sure how much I would have left in the tank for Day 3. It turned out that the trails were wider, mostly less technical (although definitely still many technical spots) and less muddy overall than the previous day's race. I started out with about 30+ people ahead of me, still feeling like I was pushing a little too hard out of the gate. It was a steady uphill climb and I just tried to hold my speed to match the people around me. The trails were actually very nice and took us to some beautiful lookouts. As the race wore on, I could tell that I just didn't have it in me to push super hard. I could feel that the previous weekend's 30+ hours of paddling and the previous 2 days of racing were starting to catch up to me. The most interesting part of it was that my fatigue was actually more psychological than physical. Sure I was exhausted, but I began to notice that as I was getting to climbing sections on the trail (one of my strengths), I would immediately start walking (like the other racers around me), telling myself that I just don't have the energy to climb anymore. But there were a few times where I pushed a little harder and decided to try and run instead of walk a climb. To my surprise my legs actually responded quite well and I was able to run. From this I started to understand that was actually the psychological fatigue I was feeling even more than the physical fatigue. My mind just didn't want to struggle to push at 85-90% effort on the uphills anymore, while my body still had the energy to do it (although it didn't really want to either!). When I'm racing I always tell myself that I don't want my mind to be what stops me - if I'm going to stop it's because my body can't go any further. Generally I am pretty good at following that rule, but given the effort of the previous 2 weeks, I just accepted that I was getting to my limits and opted to just try to keep a strong steady pace and finish the race.
By the final 5km of the race I was feeling like a rag doll bouncing my way down the last steep descents. With about 4km left to go, I slipped on a boulder and came down on my right knee on a smaller, sharper rock. I immediately saw the gash and blood coming to the surface. With nobody around and no water on me, I decided to pull up my 2XU calf sleeve over the wound and just keep going. I was pretty sure I would need stitches, but there wasn't much I could do out in the middle of nowhere. So I just plugged away to the finish line. It was such a relief to finally know that I could stop running once I hit the finish line. I waddled over into the nice cold river, sat down for a while, tried to clean some of the mud and sweat off of myself and then wandered over to see the medic for a good old fashioned wound scrubbing. Once taped up I got changed and then sat and watched a few friends and many strangers cross the finish line with an elated smile. Pretty cool to watch all those people celebrate their accomplishment. It was also great to see Nat cross the finish line with a brother and sister "team" that had adopted her for about half of the race, opting to stay together and finish the race together. It's nice to see teamwork like that, even in a solo event. Found out a little later that I finished 10th overall and I was pleased with that, given the strong field of racers.
In terms of gear, clothing, and nutrition for the races, I was pretty happy with all of them.I started my pre-race ritual with a 1L bottle of Nuun every morning. I went with the Osprey Rev 6L pack in the 35km and 21km races which was light and comfortable. I had a 1.5L bladder which I filled at every aid station, but ran out of liquids early every time, however I think going with a 2L bladder for races like this might have been too heavy anyway. I wore my 2XU compression shorts and calf sleeves, and as usual, they were fantastic. I tested my new 2XU XTRM compression shorts and Elite MCS Comp Calf Guards for the 35km and the extra compression was awesome. We didn't need to carry much food on the course because there were aid stations, but I did carry some Accel gels with me each day, which came in very handy when I needed an extra boost.
All in all a challenging but good weekend. Now we are off for a little R&R this weekend in Mexico!!! First "real" (non-racing) vacation since Nat and I met... I guess we were due.
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