Ultra Draille- James and Nat's first 120km run

I (Nat) decided I wanted to give Ultra running a shot and I wanted to try a long one.

I was having some time off in France in May and thought it would be a good occasion to do so.

I found a trail race not too far from where we were staying that would fit perfectly what I was looking for; The Ultra Draille http://www.festatrail.com/festa-trail/courses/120-km-ultra-draille/

A 120km in some of the most beautiful landscape you can see with 5000m D+.

When I asked James if he was keen on joining me he said yes and then mentioned he would run the 73km. A couple of weeks later I told him I had registered both of us for the 120km and that we could run it together :)

So we did. It is 5:30am and we are at the start line. It is dark and a little chilly but we know it is going to be hot day.

 

 

I wanted to put the emphasis on my mindset for this race. I wanted to be able to control those down that keep me down too long during races. I wanted to learn to snap out of them and be able to run and enjoyable race without worrying about what was going on around me.

In order to do so I decided to not "race" but only to focus on completing it in a good mindset.

The race starts and I am struggling to run properly. My left hamstring hurts from a track session I had done a few days prior to the race (my mistake, my bad). I am a little concerned about my ability to run and mostly about the first two cut offs but I jog along not worrying too much about what's going on around me. My two pairs of 2XU shorts I am wearing are helping me a lot.

After 15km or so a volunteer tells me I am in 5th place in the girls. I try not to pay attention too much. It will be a long race and I don't want to think about placing.

 

 

After 25km I am passed by another girl. I don't let it upset me. It is starting to be hot. It is 9:30-10am and I am already feeling super warm, a little dehydrated. I sweat like crazy. I mention it to James who points out to me the time and that we will have to take it very easy if we want to go through the warmest time of the day.

 

 

The day goes on and we get warmer and warmer. The peaks we are climbing don't have much shade and we drink a lot. We barely make it from aid station to aid station with our 1,5L each time.

We had a long winter and the temperatures at home were still pretty cold and only had one run on trails without snow/ice before leaving for France. The difference in climate is brutal but we love it anyway. The terrain I also very rocky. we are not used to it but our Pearl Izumi N2s are doing a good job at keeping us stable and running.

 

 

The mid point (60km) is where we can see our drop bag. Unfortunately I cant eat anything that I brought. It is too warm and only little fruit puree can go through and I am thankful they have some at the aid station so I can refuel now and then. I also made sure during my entire run to keep hydrated with Nuun and even dropped a few Nuun plus to get some calories in me.

I had in my bag a bottle of Endurox R4 that I drank there and it boosted me. I left that aid station feeling a lot better. it is now 3:30pm and I now the temperature is going to drop from there on and I am already feeling a little better.

Another big climb to get us to the 70km mark. On the way up I managed to pass a girl but didn't want to get excited. My climbing is going really well. I am trying not to think of the distance left and take some little rest here and there.

 

 

 

 

A volunteer tells me I am in 4th place as we are coming down. One girl ahead had DNF and the 3rd girl is 20min ahead.

I think "20min is a lot" and keep on doing my own little race. I can accelerate a little more as the day goes and the temperature cools down. I am feeling better and better.

 

 

 

On the way to the 90km mark the sun goes down and it is getting dark. I have managed to push off any negative thoughts that had come to mind but I am starting to think that maybe I should call it off. My elbows are starting to hurt from running with poles and I am wondering if I should stop to prevent injuries for the big expedition races to come. I tell James I will have to evaluate at the aid station at 90km. We get there and oh surprise the 3rd girl is there. She is just leaving as I get there.

Without thinking twice I fill up my bladder and I am gone. James runs after me and ask me what happened to the "evaluation". During the entire race other racers and volunteers would tell me to push to get the girl ahead but I ignored them to run my own race and I decided to not change that so I kept my pace thinking that I would probably see her again.

At the 100km mark I pass her. Since I was feeling pretty good I decided to push it a little harder from there on and so we did. The feeling of having someone right behind you is hard cause it makes you push a lot harder than wanted. I will never see the other girl again and ended up passing the line with James in 40th and 41st place overall, ranking 3rd in the women and 1st in my age category in 21h23:11.

 

 

My biggest victory of the day was my mind control and being able to enjoy the entire race with the man I love.

Team Canada AR Takes 3rd Place Co-Ed at the Shenandoah Epic Adventure Race in Virginia

On April 14^th, Nathalie, James and Jason joined up with Kevin Poirier, a fellow adventure racer from the Ottawa area, to head down to Front Royal, Virginia for the Rev 3 Shenandoah Epic adventure race. The race was billed as being 26-hours long, but after seeing the maps and having the race briefing, it became apparent that the race would be won in under 18 hours, partly due to having to cut the paddle short because of low water levels. The race format was quite straightforward – paddle, trek, then combination bike/trek to get the remaining checkpoints.

Jason got the race started at 9am on Saturday morning with a ~1 mile prologue, which only required one team member to complete. He came back tied for the lead and off we went on the paddle. There were a number of CPs along the way that could be gotten any time during the race, so we opted to grab the ones closest to shore as we paddled by. We could see that teams adopted different strategies here, so right from the start it became nearly impossible to tell who was in the lead during the race.

We were one of the first teams off the 12km paddle section which ended with teams having to designate one or more team members to traverse the boats to the opposite shore of the transition area and them swim back across the river (about 50 metres). James was “voluntold” for this task and paddled the attached canoes across and swam back in the very cold water and the team headed on the trek section.

The first portion of the trek was mainly uphill, ending at a 100 foot rappel site. The team was the second to arrive at the ropes, seconds behind one of the Rev 3 teams. A quick rappel had them regain the lead as they headed back up to the ridge and then worked their way down to the river below. The chosen route down turned somewhat sketchy and made for slow travel. Once down at the riverbed, the team expected easier travel, but due to being prohibited from crossing the river, we were forced to traverse along the steep rocky edge of the river for about a kilometre before finally getting to some flatter ground. The slow trekking along the river and difficulty finding a CP in this area allowed couple teams to get ahead of us at this point.

Once arrived at the next TA, we transitioned onto the bikes, opting to carry our running shoes for a 15+ km section that we planned to cover on foot. The first half of the bike/trek section had some roads, as well as a fair bit of technical trail riding. Again we worked our way up to a high point in the mountains where the trail seemed to get more technical. The plan was to ride in as far as we could and then begin trekking from there, since this section was basically one big loop from the start of the ridge. We rode a few hundred metres along the ridge and then decided to drop our bikes there and put on our running shoes. However, as we progressed further along the ridge on foot, we realized that the trail was rideable quite a bit further than where we had dropped our bikes. We saw bikes from the teams ahead of us further up the trail as we went along, which confirmed our thoughts about being able to ride further in. We arrived in the vicinity where we expected to find CP 16, only to spend about 30 minutes looking for it to no avail. We finally decided to move on and look for this CP while on the way back to our bikes at the end of the loop, since these CPs could be gotten in any order. We had little trouble finding the rest of the CPs to complete the loop, however it was a long steep climb back up to the ridge from the lowest CP in the section. Once back at the top and headed back to our bikes, we once again struggled to find CP 16, wasting another 15 minutes before stumbling upon it. After the race, we confirmed that, in fact, the CP was not in the right location – but all teams did manage to find it eventually.

From here we worked our way back to the start/finish, which acted as the final TA in the race. There was a word puzzle challenge to do here, which we guessed correctly on our first attempt.  We quickly refuelled and headed out on a final bike/trek o-course in the surrounding hills. The singletrack trails were flowy and relatively non-technical, however there was quite a bit of climbing to do in the area. We did a combination of biking, trekking, bushwhacking, and bikewhacking in this section. For the most part things went well, but we struggled to find a few CPs quickly and the bikewhacking and bushwhacking up hills was slow and difficult. There was a bonus CP in this section for which clues were given at 3 unspecified CPs in the section. After getting the 3 clues we made our way to where we expected to find the CP but couldn’t find it initially. Assuming we had incorrectly plotted the bonus CP, we searched the obvious features in the area, eventually finding the CP at a nearby high point. From here it was a quick ride to the finish line, crossing the line in under 16 hours. This was good enough for a 3^rd place finish in the co-ed 4-person division.

Overall the race went well, but the places where we struggled to find CPs cost us a fair bit of time. Combine this with the fact that it was an early season race (there’s still snow on the trails in Nat, James, and Kevin’s training grounds!) and the team (particularly Nat) is better-suited to multi-day expedition racing, we are pleased with our 3^rd place finish. The best part about finishing in 16 hours instead of 26 hours was that we were able to get some sleep before having to drive the 10 hours back home in time to work on Monday morning!

A huge thanks to our sponsors, whose gear and nutritional products were an immense help in the race. Our Osprey Rev18 and Rev24 packs were perfect for this style of racing, and the 2XU compression gear and Pearl Izumi cycling gear were excellent in these conditions.  We relied heavily on NUUN, StrongBars, and the Pacific Health Labs line of products (Accel Gels, Accelerade, and Endurox R4) for our nutrition during the race. James at not one, not two, but 3 Strongbars at once near the end of the race, after going a little too long without eating anything. Finally, since there’s still ice on our rivers and lakes at the moment, it was great to have a PaddleOne kayak ergometer to be able to get the paddling muscles ready to perform in this race.         

A Fitting End to Nathalie's Skimo Season

This winter, Nathalie and James discovered a new sport - "Skimo" - short for ski mountaineering. The racing version of this sport involves climbing up technical trails with skins on the bottom of your skis or hiking with your skis when then terrain is too steep to "skin" up, then descending on ski hills or backcountry terrain. Nathalie especially fell in love with this sport. Early in the season both Nat and James purchased equipment and started training - and racing!

The climbing part came pretty easily, owing to lots of hill training for adventure racing. But the downhills were something else altogether...  Many of these sections were ungroomed moguls, which were sometimes icy, sometimes lacking snow, and always steep and scary! A few races also boasted downhill sections through the trees. One important detail - Neither Nat nor James have much downhill skiing experience. James is from southwestern Ontario where the tallest hills are overpasses on the highway, and Nat hadn't done any downhill skiing since she was quite young.

James chose the option of not racing most of the SkimoEast race series, knowing that he would likely injure himself trying to race down ski hills that were clearly above his skill level. Nat chose a different path - her butt! When the downhills got too steep and scary, she just took off her skis and slid her way down the hill... On a few occasions where the course was very technical, she actually descended the moguls faster than her competitors on skis around her! And on the one occasion where the course matched Nat's skill level on the descents, she managed to finish 4th among the women.


Last weekend was the final race of the SkimoEast series at Mont Ste Anne near Quebec City. James decided to race the short course - a 5km climb followed by a  long descent on a trail called "La Familiale", where the most dangerous obstacles would be the small children skiing every which way.



Nat opted for the full course - the longest of the season with one of the most technical downhills to boot. James and Nat had gone the day before the race to check out this nasty downhill and it was exactly as advertised. But despite her fears, Nat chose to tackle it head on in the race. In the end she managed to make her way safely down the mountain and finish the race in just over 3 hours.

At the awards ceremony there were prizes for the podium finishers from the race, as well as prizes for the season's overall points series winners. Nat was awarded second place in the season's point series on the women's side. The photo below is her proudly sporting her prize - a new Dynafit jacket. The jacket serves as a testament to Nat's perseverance throughout the season, doing a new sport that she continuously described as more physically demanding on the uphills and scary on the downhills than any other sport she's ever done. Skimo racing took her way out of her comfort zone all season long, but she always found a way to finish each course. It goes to show the power of finding an activity you love to do - no matter how good or bad you may be at it - and just focusing on getting better each time you do it.

Congrats to Nat and all the other people out there who are willing to get out of their comfort zone to try something new! 



 









 

Raid International Gaspesie 2015-2nd coed 4 person team-12th overall

On Tuesday September 9^th, Nathalie, Yannick, Jean-François, and Me (James), along with Pete Dobos – the team’s support person for the race - headed out for the Raid International Gaspésie 3.5 day stage adventure race. This was our first race together as a team, although Nat and I had frequently raced against Yannick and J-F, who were regular team mates. After an overnight stop in Quebec City, we finally arrived in Carleton-Sur-Mer to jump right into the usual chaos that is pre-race preparation! There was an opening ceremony Wednesday evening where teams were introduced and we finally got the race maps. We already knew it was going to be a fast race based on last year, but with a sold-out 50 team race and 11 countries represented we knew this would really be a challenging event.

Prologue (From James' perspective):

The prologue started out the same way as the previous year – a blistering 2.1km run along the beach that had us red-lined right from the start. From there it was a short but challenging 1.2km bike ride along the beach and then into some double track trails. With such a short day, we knew there would be no letting up in the pace of the race all day, so everyone pushed as hard as they could. We dropped the bikes and headed up the very steep gravel road system leading to the top of Mt. St Joseph, the highest point in the area. Once at the top, I (James) was designated to head out onto a short ropes course (slackline) while the rest of the team took a quick break to re-fuel. From there it was a very fast descent on foot in single track trails.

At this point, Nat pointed out to the team that eating a meatball sub a few hours before the race may not have been the best decision ;-) but she managed to keep most (but not all!) of it down…  The team then hopped on the bikes again for a jaunt mostly downhill on a beautiful hiking trail. We then faced our first of many water-based challenges in the race – a wetsuit-mandatory canyoning section, complete with slippery rocks, very cold pools of water at the base of waterfalls, an underwater checkpoint, a ropes section, and a crazy 20+ foot drop down a cement “waterslide” (you have to see the video!). Then back on the bikes back into town and onto the 2^nd water-based challenge – a 15 foot leap off of a pier into the saltwater and a swim to a fishing boat to retrieve a checkpoint. This was a surprisingly tough little swim with the waves, fatigue, saltwater, and a difficult climb into the boat using only the fishing nets.

Then back on the bikes for a quick ride to the finish line. Prologue completed: We were wet, tired, excited, and amazed at how much action the organizers had managed to pack into only a few hours of racing. This certainly set the tone for the rest of the race. We finished the day in 11^th place overall, 2^nd in our category.

Day 1 (From James' perspective):

Day 1 was the team’s first full day of racing. The team was excited to get going once again but just like the prologue, the start had us red-lined right from the word “go”. We left from a farm on bikes and proceeded through a trail network. This led to a trekking section that featured a long hike in a very slippery riverbed with fast moving water carrying all of the team’s paddling gear. There was also a rappel down a waterfall for 2 team members, which was completed by Yannick and J-F. While this river trek was slow-going and cold, we were still able to keep a decent pace in relation to our competitors. The river finally led down to the team’s first paddling section of the race. The rivers in the area are shallow and fast-flowing, so the paddling was a constant search for the deepest water around while negotiating small to mid-sized rapids along the way.

We were able to make up a lot of ground on the flatwater sections of the paddle. In fact, we were so fast that we came in ahead of when our amazing one-man support crew – Pete – was expecting us. Pete was around the corner getting the team some hot beverages at the store when we came into the transition. But the team managed to find the support vehicle on our way out of transition, complete with race food, drinks, and sandwiches laid out waiting for us. Then on to a very steep climb on foot and then back down, mainly on trails, which initially seemed pretty straightforward. However, this turned our to be the costliest section of our race: the team lost about 10 minutes due to a navigation error, and Nathalie slipped on a muddy uphill section and smashed her knee pretty badly. While both of these things slowed the team’s pace temporarily, everyone worked well together to get the team back on pace. The next bike was a series of trails, gravel roads, and paved roads which enabled the team to push the pace and draft off of each other.

 The bike eventually led to the final challenge of the day, a short trek that involved crossing a fast flowing waist-deep river to get to the finish line. Another intense, wet, and chilly day completed!

At the end of Day 1 the weather was still rainy which made things difficult for us to repack for the next day knowing that nothing would dry overnight and attempting to keep some things dry for the following day's race.

As soon as we passed the finish line we were told to go to the white tent where some maple toffee and some smoked salmon were waiting for us…that was so great. We also used up a table there with the lights to work on the maps for day2 before heading to a small restaurant to get some warm food.

Day 2 (From Nat's perspective):

The start of day 2 was at 9am but we needed to be there at 8:30am and it was 45min away. We woke up shortly after 6am, made our breakfast and packed up the tent and gears. The results were up. We were still second in our category with the Brazilians and Danish in between 10 to 20 min behind us and we were standing in 12^th place overall.

We started on the bike from a big field and soon we were climbing.

My (Nat's) hip and knee were a little sore from the fall the previous day and were of a nice blue-blackish color at that point. The bike section went relatively well. The Danish were ahead and we didn’t know by how far.

We reached the transition and started a trek that was almost all runnable. We were hoping to make up some time but when we got to the canoe transition we couldn’t see the Danish team…they were on the water already.

We spent too much time at this transition trying to sort out the canoes. A lot of them were broken and we couldn’t decide which ones to take.

Once on the water we realized quickly that we wouldn’t make up too much time on that leg because it was a fast moving water leg. It is a lot harder to make up time on fast moving water with rapids than it is on flat water. To our surprise while going downstream we saw the Danish team going back upstream. They had missed the CP and had a couple rapids to paddle back. I think that gave us a little boost and we pushed a little harder.

We finished the paddle without any problems and jumped back on the bikes to get to the next TA which was coasteering section with a little swim and a zipline before getting to the finish.

We ran on the beach and then walked in the water along the cliff. We swam to a buoy and back for a CP then there was more running to the zipline CP. We got there just after a team of two from Canada - MOB. As we were waiting for James and Yannick to do the ropes section we saw the Danish arriving.

We left before they got on the rope and ran to the last CP and then on to the finish. We had a good day overall. We were happy.

Time to sort out the maps for the next day, pack our gear and sleep.

Day 3 (From Nat's perspective):

After spending our last night in bivouac, it was an early morning that was waiting for us.

The start of the race was scheduled at 5:30am from the top of Mt. St Joseph. We were a 35min drive from there and had to be there 30min prior to the start, making it a 3:45am wake up for us. A quick breakfast, packing up tents and gear, and off we went in the truck. We arrived at the top of Mont St Joseph in the pitch dark. The organisation decided to give us an extra 10min to have the first rays of sunshine rising for the start of the race.

The start was a MTB start again. I (Nathalie) am not at ease with mass starts. I feel comfortable once the crowd is spread out, that’s when my race begins.

We knew from the results posted that same morning that we had barely ten minutes on the Danish team (they got a 15min credit for waiting at the canoe section I think) and that today wouldn’t be an easy one. The two person co-ed team from Canada (MOB) had also passed us in the ranking. We were 13^th overall. Day 3 had a lot of biking, which is the Danish’s strength, but we would fight till the end for our second place.

We started on the bike, like the other days a little behind lots of people and then played catch up one team at a time. As we reached the first TA to go for a 1km out and back hike to a CP, my bike gears started jamming up and I couldn’t use the 4 easiest gears of my bike. After running to the CP and back James managed to gain back a couple of my gears quickly and we left again.

James helped me a lot during every MTB stage, pushing me up the hills and mentoring me in the more technical sections. We had a couple of hike-a-bike sections on that day, one big downhill bushwacking and a long zig-zagging uphill after a CP in the river.

We knew the Danish Merrell team was ahead of us, but we were catching up. We got to the second transition for a 2km hike to a swimming out-and-back CP. We dropped our bikes and started running. We caught up to the Danish team by the time we got to the lake. Yannick went for the swim and we ran back neck-and-neck with the other team.

We jumped back on the bikes to do an orienteering section. The Danish had passed us in transition and were now ahead. Our orienteering section went well and we were out of there and back on the road to get to another transition. We left that transition 5-10min behind the Danish. It was a short hike through a river to collect a couple of CPs to get back to the beach where we would eventually jump back on the bikes. We decided to bushwack instead of taking the road and the creek down to the river. We hit the river and saw the Danish just ahead of us. It was such a smart move… only problem was we were not sure if the CP was upstream or downstream from where we met up with the river.  So we decided to go upstream a little bit before coming back on our steps. The CP was barely ten meters further downstream from where we had originally hit the river on the bushwhack. We managed that river section very well and caught up and passed the Danish team again.

I knew the next section was a 4.5km ride on the beach and I am a terrible rider in the sand. I was so panicked by that section that I wanted to put as much time on foot on the Danish team as possible to have a buffer for the final bike on the beach. We got to the TA and jumped on the bikes. As I was expecting, the Danish team passed us (I don’t know how they were towing their girl in the sand…it amazes me!) but we managed to keep them in sight till the next and last transition. We went up some stairs, picked up two canoes and were up for a 9km paddle to finish up the race.

We got in the water a few minutes after the Danish but it didn’t take long before we caught up to them. We had a strong last paddle. We did a portage once we reached the barachoi (lagoon) and had a sluggish paddle to the finish line after that due to the shallow water and weeds in there.

We were very happy with how the race went and with our second place co-ed finish (12^th overall). It was a great event, fast, but great.

We want to thank the organisation - Endurance Aventure - for such a great event, and also our sponsors for their support. Thanks to Altra Running Canada, Nuun Hydration, Pacific Health Labs, Strongbar Nutrition, Osprey Packs, 2XU Canada, Pearl Izumi, and Natural fitness lab.

And I (Nathalie) want to thank my team for this amazing race!

Nat's Raid pulse 4h and Cataraqui adventure trek week end-double win in the women categories.

August was a busy month with the K2O paddle race followed by an extremely hard 3 days of trail running racing at xc de la vallee. We luckily had the chance to escape to Mexico where we were able to relax for 4 days before racing again. After taking a whole week off it was time to get back into training but I just started a new job with AgriCan working on my feet all days lifting bags full of grains. So except from my 1h15 of commuting a day I had been able to do nothing but work.

On Friday just before racing I had been asked to do some overtime. Let say that I was fried before getting to the start line. Saturday morning I was feeling relatively ok but had heavy legs.

The Raid Pulse started in La Peche near Wakefield on the bike. From the start on James and Adam Malory left ahead and I tried to hang out with the next pack behind them. I manage to do pretty well on the first bike and did a quick transition on foot. I put on my altra shoes and I was gone. I don't know why but I always end up with the same duo male in the trek in raid pulse races. And once again I got to hang out with those guys. We ended up doing the whole trek together. First time that a raid pulse trek goes super well for me without me getting lost for an hour or so. I was very happy and left the guys while running to the TA to get on the bike. I did a super quick transition and I was gone...or actually I thought I was gone but realized my back tire was totally flat. This was a brand new tire tubeless and it was flat :(. After struggling to get the tire off I had to ask Tanya's help to put it back on with the tube. I am usually petty fast at changing flats but I could not get this tire back on. After lots of effort from both of us it was on and I was pumping as fast as I could. I was ready to go, turned around, put my helmet on and realized the tube went flat!!! That was it, I was out!!! Tanya convinced me to pump it up to the max that maybe it would work. So I did and it seemed to work. We heard the tire popping which meant it was getting back in place...so I thought. I jumped on the bike to do the 6km to the next transition and after 4,5km saw my back tire becoming flatter and flatter. I ran the last km or so to the transition. I saw the RD Thierry, explained the situation real quick and jumped on the kayak. I had missed the cutoff to make the advanced CP on the kayak at that point (which added about 2km all up of paddling). I went around, struggle a little with the under water CPs but found them thanks to other people, and got back to transition. Thierry had taken his MTB off his car and asked me if i wanted to ride it to finish the race. Thanks to him I was able to go get the last advanced CP and get to the finish a few kms further.

This could have been a very good race but ended up being challenging because of the bike. The course was great with just enough optional CPs to get everybody on the course for the full 4h. There was also a pretty cool part in the caves.

I still managed to come 5th in the solo category (1st female and in front of female teams and mixed teams too) and 7th overall.

Now it was time to go back home and fix the bike for the CATARAQUI Adventure Trek the very next day in Kingston.

We ran into MEC that was about to close and managed to get a brand new tubeless kit which ended up not working. Not sure whats going on with the valve but it doesn't work. James managed to put a tube in which seemed to not deflate (for once) so we would see the next day how it would hold up.

We drove to the race early with a very nice sunrise.

The race was more of an off road triathlon composed by a 2.1km trail run, a 800m paddle and 6.2km bike course. The aim was to do as many laps as possible within 4h. Any lap started but not finished within the 4h would not count.

We could both feel the fatigue from the day before but our 2XU shorts and socks helped a lot forgetting that. I had decided to try and do the entire race in my pearl izumi bike shoes since it was a bike heavy race and there was only 2km or so of running but it was foggy and humid and the cleats were making me slip a lot. 

The start was a Le Mans start on foot. We had to go and pick up 3 items in 3 different corners of a field then get into the course. Some people didn't listen just before the start that going over or under the fence was not allowed and many people ended up cutting up time by doing so. But most important for me I didn't know now how many girls were ahead. I knew that one girl was just ahead of me and she was the only one who had gone around but I saw a few pony tails entering the run course ahead of me. I decided to run hard the first lap to try to be in a good position. By the end of the run I had caught up all but two girls and after the paddle I only had one ahead that I passed as we were starting the bike section. The bike section was mainly twisty single tracks that would lead up to an open field that was hard to ride on then back to single tracks to the end of the loop.

By the second lap my running wasn't as fast. My paddling was strong and my biking was good in the field and ok in the single tracks. On that second loop I had a bit too much confidence and before I knew it I flew off my bike and landed on a tree. My shoulder was screaming in pain but nothing was broken so I kept on going. For the 5 laps I did I was surrounded by the same two guys who kept on passing me on the run and in the technical MTBiking but I would catch up paddling and in the field section. Phil from Strongbars saved me after lap 3 giving me a banana. It was hot and only fruits and water were going down. It gave me a boost for my 4th lap and the competitiveness in me made me start to accelerate. By the end of the run of the 5th lap I still had one of the guy I was racing against the whole race just ahead of me and we started the bike at the same time. He said "catch me" so I tried to hammer that last lap and managed to catch up to him in the field and put the hammer down to the finish line finishing a few minutes ahead of him. I was happy :). The last two laps were very hard physically as my week and week end were starting to get in my legs. I finished the race with 5 laps in 3h37. James did 6 laps in 3h40. He won the race and I won the women by one lap over second place. I also placed 8th overall (in the men) which included some relay teams too.

Very nice race..we will be back :)

Nat

James hangs on at XC de la Vallée

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.
        

XC de la vallee 2015 - Nat finished in 6th place in the female category

As we started to run I felt my lungs so heavy and I had, since the day before, a stitch that didn’t want to go away (I probably strained my diaphragm or an intercostal muscle during the event the night before with the asthma attack). The air was so humid that I could not push hard and it was climbing and climbing and climbing.

I had as a strategy to aim for the aid stations breaking down the distances in more manageable tasks. The first one was a little before what was expected but hey I wasn’t going to complain as I was short in water already. I had left with one liter and clearly needed to refill already after 9+km only.

I kept on going at a very slow pace in that very technical terrain and made it to the second aid station that was over a km off further than expected, totally dehydrated again. 19km done and 3L of water/nuun later and a few gels and I was on my way again after over 3h30 hours of suffering through the heat. I was putputting away when a girl passed me and said we had to hurry cause we were not going to make the cutoff. What??? A cutoff? I won’t make a cutoff?

I realised that our pace was barely 5.5km/h. we were at 20-21km in about 4h and we had about 6km to the next aid station where the cut off was at 5h after start.

On the way I saw a girl taking a face plant and stopped and stayed with her for a bit to make sure she was ok to continue then I tried to push it harder to make the cut off.

By then the temperature started to warm up and the humidity to decrease so I could start pushing a little more. I made the cut off with 15min to spare but I stopped too long there. I left the transition with the girl who told me about the cut off and thought we could do a way together but soon I realised she had given a lot to make the cut off and was going to slow down a lot so I took off.

It was a massive climb from there on and the 10km race was going that way which mean that the mud fest was just awful after all those racers going through.

I climbed well and passed many people but got passed back by a few later on in the descent where I kept wiping out on mud patches.

I was very relieved to see the gravel road and the signs to the finish after 7h of racing.

I could not believe that it took me 7h to do 36km. I ran my 50km in Utah in 6h20 and my 60km Ultimate xc which is a hard and technical race in 8h36. This didn’t make sense. My toes and body in general were bruised and sore. My diaphragm was hurting (I used the puffer once on Saturday morning and once during the race). I was not sure I would take the start the next morning. I was feeling so rough.

Celine from our group was in 2^nd place in the women at the time and decided to not race the third day after wiping out and cutting her knee. Dave our awesome strong coach had stopped at the second aid station on the 36km due to trouble with humidity.

The next morning I learnt that a few more people wouldn’t start the day. I went to the physio tent and she tapped my ribs/intercostal muscles that were hurting more and more.

This was Sunday morning and this time we would be running 21km with the people who did the 10km the day before instead of the 36km but also with people doing the 21km only.

In the bus they announced to us that the terrain would be a little better than the day before but that there would be only one feed station and that it was hard to bring water there so we wouldn’t be able to fill up our bladders. WHAT??? I drank about 5L the day before during the 36km and I would be able to drink only 1L (that I had in my pack at the time of the announcement) and a glass after 10km??? for another 11km??

From the start on I took the puffer. It was as humid as the day before. I was scared of the outcome.

The cut off this time was on the finish line at 4 hours. I was worried to not make it if the terrain wasn’t better than the day before.

Thankfully the first few kms were runnable but it started climbing quickly and more and more. I was getting passed by many people but mainly by people who didn’t run the 3 days.

At the 4km mark I was climbing and feeling ok but a girl passed me and she was wearing perfume big time. Almost instantly the asthma started. I also started feeling nauseous which never happened before. I slowed down and took the puffer again.

After a while I started feeling a bit better and we got to the feed station. I tried to be conservative with the water but I had none left by the time I reached the aid station. I was allowed to half fill my bladder. I knew this wouldn’t be pretty as it was hotter and hotter and I would run out of water inevitably.

Soon after the feed station I hoped on a train composed by a brother (Stephane) and his sister (Louise).

Stephane had done the trans vallee like me and his sister the shorter one.

She was decided for both of them that they would make the cut off and kept being over positive the whole way. I liked it and asked if they minded if I jumped on the train.

They welcomed me and we worked as team to the finish. I wiped out again a couple of times, once two feet in the air and fell on the only rock around on my bum (still having trouble sitting right now).

They wiped out too. I ran out of water as expected 3-4km before the end of the race.

We passed the line hands in hands in 3h40 so happy to be done with that race and the mud.

I learnt looking at the results that I went from 10^th place to 6^th place in the women for the trans vallee which considering my health state at the time and the competitiveness of the field was a very good result.

My wolverine (James) cut is leg but still managed to finish 10^th in the men.

And what really made my day was wining the draw price, a new suunto ambit 3 sport :D

Thanks to 2XU for keeping me alive and going during this gruelling effort as well as Altra shoes. I ran the entire 3 days with my lonepeak and I seriously doubt I could have done it with any other shoes considering the beating they took over those 3 days.

Thanks to Accel gels (PacificHealthLab) and stongbars I kept fuelled up and Nuun kept me hydrated as much as can be.