Happy New Year!

I know ... I've been off the grid for a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking of you.
All the best for 2012! Here's to more fun, more adventures and a year brimming with possibility!

Tor des Geants: race report

Tor des Geants was a great experience and I must say, I really enjoyed it. Sure, there were moments of feeling utterly exhausted, craving real food and a long, deep sleep but what an incredible journey. On the whole, I kept pretty happy throughout the week with just one day of wondering why I was doing this to myself, but that thought soon passed! It took a day or two to settle into the race, getting to know how the life bases and refuge huts worked, but it's surprising how quickly we adapt.

The route runs along the Alta Via 1 and Alta Via 2 of the Valle d'Aosta, with the start and finishing line in Courmayeur and is a self-paced race of 336 km (200 miles) with an altitude range of 24,000 metres with 150 hours to complete it. There are life bases set up throughout the week where you can get a hot meal, shower, access your drop bag and get some sleep. These tend to be busy places with people coming and going so the chances of getting any real sleep are slim but they're a great place to get yourself clean and fed before heading out into the mountains again.



There are also certain refuge huts in the mountains that you're able to sleep at for no more than 2 hours. I quickly found that these were the best places to get some shut-eye as they're not as busy as the life bases and a 2 hour sleep when you're exhausted feels wonderful!
Even though this is a self-paced race, you still have to make various cut-off times throughout the course but I realized on Day One that this wouldn't be a problem so I didn't bother take much notice of my times/pace etc and because of this, it made TdG one of the most relaxing "races" I've been in. There are some weird timings as to when you have to leave a life base ie you have to leave by midnight on one day, 2 am on another .... this means that you're forced to run during the night time which added to the sleep deprivation. And that was a whole new experience for me - I was having early morning hallucinations by the end of the week which I've never had before but were fun and entertaining.

One thing I learnt from racing UTMB last summer was that it is super steep in the Alps so I knew that TdG would be an incredibly challenging course every day for 6 days. I took it pretty easy on Day One as this is the day that will either contribute to your success or your demise; it's amazing how many people take off as if they're in a 10-km race from the starting line - this is great if you're some super-fit mountain goat, but it sure is a difficult pace to maintain for that type of distance. I took the tourist approach - get there when you get there and remember to stop and enjoy the views en route. The one thing that is hard in this type of steep environment is getting your head around how long it takes to cover a short distance. On the first day, it took me 13 hours to cover 43 km which is super long (even for me!) And there are times when even 5 km will take a couple of hours so I found having a "get there when you get there" approach kept me from going insane!

My goal from the beginning was to get to the finishing line on the morning of the 6th day, hopefully in one piece, but my main goal was to enjoy it as much as possible and I found this easy to do. When you break it down to its bare bones, the only things you need to know on a daily basis is that you're going to be hoofing it up a steep uphill for hours and hours (and hours), and then you'll cross some crazy mountain pass, and then you'll drop down for hours and hours until you reach the valley floor and then you do it all again, sometimes many times over during a 20-hour period including doing all this through the night when you're so tired that you end up staggering on the trail, hoping you don't fall off the mountain. Oh, and if you're lucky, you may get to sleep for a couple of hours here and there.

I bumped into Steve periodically either on the trail or at a life base which was great. During the last leg, I decided to stay at a couple of refuge huts en route to the finishing line. By this time, a huge part of me was eager to get finished - my stomach was sick of all the running food and I was having a hard time getting calories down me. But on the other hand, I really wanted to finish in the daylight as it's a shame to miss out on the beautiful mountain scenery. Plus it's way safer to hit the last downhill section in the daylight. So I ended up making an additional stop at the Bonatti refuge hut for a 2 hour sleep and just before going to the dorm, Steve walked in! Talk about perfect timing - it meant that we could sleep for a couple of hours and then head off at sunrise and cross the finishing line together.

I met loads of great people at TdG and also saw some of our Calgary friends out there too which was a treat. There was a nice feeling amongst people - everyone trying to get to the finishing line and everyone dealing with their own challenges either physical or mental while doing so. The scenery throughout this course is utterly amazing. And the towns and villages that we ran through were very neat and tidy, with friendly people giving support. It's a very well run event and the volunteers do a great job. What a great event - thank you to everyone involved!

Tor des Geants

Well, it's time for another big adventure and this one will take me to the Italian Alps. I signed up for Tor des Geants back in January and it's a race that has somehow come around very quickly.

Banff, like the rest of the northern hemisphere, had a very long winter and I still have to do a double-take every time I look at my calender; is it really the end of August already? It feels like summer has only just begun.

Tor des Geants is a multi-day mountain race which ran for the first time in 2010 but is a race that filled up within days of opening this year. I will be on the starting line with 499 other people who will all be hoping to get to the finishing line in one piece! The course is 330 km in length and you get 150 hours to complete it. There are some life bases en route where you can get a shower, food and sleep so I'm hoping to be able to get some shut-eye during the week but am not counting on it. When I ran UTMB last year, I was shocked at how steep it is in the Alps so I've got a pretty good idea of how long it takes to cover a small distance and how challenging this course will be - pain is definitely in the forecast!!!

My only goal is to get to the finishing line without too much long-term damage but if the body blows up on me, then Plan B is to sit back in a gelato shop and watch the world go by - now that's an attractive idea. Maybe I should just skip the race and go straight to the gelato shop!!

Anyway, wish me luck! I'll let you know how I get on after I've hobbled back home.

Images from a week in Jasper

I raced the Iron Leg 50 miler last weekend and then took a week's holiday and spent it running in neighbouring Jasper National Park - what a blast! I ran on lots of new trails and also did my old favourite, the classic Skyline Trail. Together with the race, I managed to rack up about 300km so was pretty happy with that as I felt great at the end of the week.

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Fryatt Valley

Fryatt Valley from the Headwall.

A very misty Sulphur Skyline

We don't usually have a lot of mist here so this was fun.

Whistlers summit overlooking the town of Jasper

Mt Edith Cavell.

The Tonquin Valley

A moose!

The view from Wilcox Peak

The view from Bow Summit.

A quick fastpacking trip into Floe Lake

It was my birthday on Wednesday and I decided on a spontaneous fastpacking trip into Floe Lake to celebrate.
Floe Lake is part of the classic Rockwall Trail and is easily accessible from the 93 South Highway. After a couple of hours of climbing up and around, you step into the beautiful and quiet Floe Lake area. There were quite a few campers already set up, fed and hunkered down in their tents for the night. I'd gone in straight after work so didn't expect to see too many people up and about but I still had quite a few hours of daylight left and sat on the edge of Floe, eating my pre-made dinner and just marveling at how easy it can be to "get away from it all".
I had a pretty good night's sleep and was up super early to pack everything up, make some hot coffee and then boogie back down the trail to my car where I had my office clothes waiting for me. After a quick wash and change, I was back on the highway and at my desk by 8.35 am what a great start to the day!

Helen Lake

Exploring beyond Helen Lake

Isabel Lake

Western States: race report

Wow! What a race. After all these months of training and fretting, the big day finally arrived at Squaw Valley and I took my place at 5.00 am with all the other runners, looking forward to a long day of running some beautiful trails. I tried not to think too much about the distance because 100 miles (160km) is a very long way and I figured I would just let the day unfold as best as possible. My pre-race nerves had actually kicked in the day before during registration so I ended up feeling super calm on race morning and felt even better once I'd hooked up with friends Angela and Leslie. Leslie was pacing Angela from Foresthill so after our good luck hugs, we said goodbye to Leslie and Angela and myself pushed our way as close to the front as possible before the countdown had us on our way.

My only goal for this race was to finish under 30 hours and to try to enjoy it as much as possible. I wasn't hung up on exactly when I was going to get over the finishing line so didn't have any split times or anything like that. I did however run with a list of the aid stations and their cut off times as there was always that small niggling doubt of whether I could keep ahead of these.

It was just getting light as we started pushing our way uphill and I was amazed at how many people were out to support us. I even saw some sponsored athletes cheering us on. Once I reached the snow, I found that my legs were feeling pretty nimble and I ended up overtaking loads of people who seemed quite shy of this hard white stuff under our feet. That's one good thing about having lived in Canada for so long - I've gotten very used to being on snow!

Some of the course was a little slick, especially on the snow slopes and I wiped out a couple of times so pulled myself back a little as it's no good getting hurt so early on in this type of race. The scenery was stunning and as the course opened up, I forced myself to take it in as much as possible. It felt like it was going to be a good day. There was a warm breeze and the skies were clear.

I figured that the key to success for this distance, especially in the heat of the canyons, would be to keep myself hydrated and fueled as much as possible. My weight on race morning was 127 and by the time I got to the first aid station, I was down to 124 so this was a good cue to start drinking more and to add some electrolytes. My weight all day only fluctuated by a couple of pounds and when I got on the scale at the finishing line, I was 126.

I think most of my day was occupied with monitoring my food and drink, always looking at my watch and taking a gel or some solid food at regular intervals. I tend to start these long races eating sweet food and I was extremely happy to see chocolate chip cookies at the first few aid stations so I grabbed some of those to munch on inbetween my gels or blok shots. I was impressed that the aid stations had plain gels so I didn't have to gag on all the strong flavours that are usually on offer.

Later on in the day, I switched to saltier foods ... things like Ritz crackers, chips, boiled potatoes etc. I must be honest and say that I love eating during these races and usually have a really good appetite. Western States was no different; I had a solid stomach all the way through which I was very happy with as I passed at least 4 people throwing up on the course and I can't imagine how crappy that must feel, plus how difficult it must be to try and refuel your body after that. I also used Carbo Pro which is a non-tasting powder that you add to your water/nuun and this is a good way of sneaking in some extra calories.

I'd opted to make Michigan Bluff my main aid station and this is where I was picking up my headlamps and also getting changed into dry clothing for the night time section. It was still daylight when I got there but I thought it would allow me to skip through the larger aid station of Foresthill as quickly as possible as I imagined that it would be a gonk show there what with people picking up their pacers and lots of spectators etc. I never had any intention of running with a pacer as I really wanted to do this race by myself and, even though I knew it would be a little more challenging running solo, I also knew that I'd get a kick out of doing it this way. It was quite funny to have people pass me at night telling me how ballsy they thought I was. I'd never dream of running at night by myself at home, but it doesn't bother me in a race. I actually like it. But maybe I'm too tired at that point to really care!

It always surprises me how quickly time passes during these races. I remember looking at my watch at some point and realizing that I'd already been going to 15 hours straight and yet I felt reasonably fresh. I'm sure I was moving fairly slowly but it all felt good. Until the blisters on the bottom of both feet appeared. I can't tell you how painful that is. It felt like I was trying to run on hot coals and the bad news was that I still had 30 miles to go. I was quite relieved when they finally burst as they now just felt like someone was cutting into my feet each time I placed them down. However, there comes a time when you have to suck it up and just get 'er done. I think this part of our British genes - stiff upper lip and all that!!

In some ways, the last 30 miles felt a little easier as the aid stations seemed to string together nicely and I managed to get myself a steady pace - not fast, but at least moving forward. I hadn't seen Angela since the race started and I assumed that she was still ahead of me so I tried to pick up my pace a bit in the hope of maybe catching her up (I found out later that she was actually behind me and was suffering from knee problems - hardly surprising considering the amount of downhill elevation involved). I was also wondering how my friend Ellie was doing as I'd been hoping that she'd come in as first female (she's super speedy!) The one aid station wasn't sure but once I got to Highway 49, they were able to confirm that yes, Ellie Greenwood was first female! I can't tell you how elated I felt. Somehow it put a spring in my step and I was off, ready to knock off the final few miles to the finishing line.

There's a section between Highway 49 and No Hands Bridge which is the prettiest section of the race - lucky for me, I was running across this during daybreak and it was amazing. It's an area which is open and flat, with beautiful long soft grass and gorgeous soft billowing trees - it's like something out of a poster.

I managed to make my way down to No Hands Bridge without too much pain. My feet were in a stable state of painful numbness and my quads were still screaming, but were losing their voice. I was starting to realize that I was going to make it afterall! I was surprised at how early it was in the morning and didn't feel in a massive rush to get finished because I had nothing at the finishing line and they didn't start serving breakfast until later in the morning so it seemed pointless breaking my butt to finish, just to sit around waiting. So I kept to as good a pace I could maintain without stressing over the hour.

And finally I got to the very last aid station and pavement. Who would have thought that a paved road would look so good?!! It was surprising to see so many people out on this warm morning and how fantastic they were at cheering us on. I managed to overtake quite a few folks on the last stretch and then ran onto the track of the high school for the final push to the finishing line. I can't tell you how excited I was. I was laughing, pumping my arms, clapping my hands, giggling ..... what an amazing journey! I crossed the finishing line in 26:11 hours. I was so proud of myself for keeping myself strong, looking after hydration/nutrition and remaining happy throughout.

A ton of work goes into these events. In some ways, us racers have it easy. The course is marked, there are aid stations set up in remote areas, all of them have ice to put in with your fluid, the volunteers are amazing - they go out of their way to treat you like an Olympian and thousands of hours of trail work and paperwork is done well before race day. My job was to show up, run as best as I could and to enjoy it as much as I could. And that I did. Thank you Western States for making this such a special event.