Wow! What an epic day! I am happy with my result from yesterday. It was a real breakthrough day for me, and I'll explain later why that is. Let me start at the beginning, or earlier... I made my way over to North Van via the 351 bus-skytrain-seabus-228 bus to have a pre-race meal of pasta and chicken. Afterwards he dropped me off at Monty's place, a fellow knee knacker and all around good guy. He and his lovely wife Linda let me stay at their place the night before the race so that Jen (my wife) wouldn't have to drive me all the way to the start line from South Surrey at 4 am!!! We chatted excitedly about the race, but I managed to get to sleep by about 10 pm. I had the first decent sleep I've had in a long time, and woke up to my alarm at 4:25 am. Monty made us each a special coffee, and I managed to gobble down a couple of pieces of toast with peanut butter, and an elevate-me bar. Linda drove us to the start, and we were both checked in by 5:35. Lots of happy, nervous people milling around the start. The gun went off at 6 am, and away we went. Monty and I stayed near the front of the pack down the dirt road to the single track. This was a good thing because this section is a real bottle neck, and if you aren't at the front, you will end up stuck behind slower folks for some time. I don't remember when I got separated from Monty, but I didn't see him until after the race was over. The run/hike up Black mountain was really nice, and I was felling really good through this section. I was very happy to see the first aid station, because that meant I had topped out, and could begin my slosh through the snow to Cypress Bowl. This next section was alot of fun, and at times I was actually skiing an my shoes down some of the snowy downhill sections!! I realized at this time that my original goal of a 6 hr race was unattainable because of the snow, and also because my legs were already starting to feel crampy, so I reconfigured my mind to be happy with a sub 6:30. With that in my head, I backed of my pace a little and cruised in to Cypress Bowl in 1:44, quarter of the way there! The crowd there was very enthusiastic, and they quickly filled my hand helds for me, and I was off again! I caught up to a group of 4 guys that I had run with on several training runs, but the pace they were travelling at was a bit to speedy for this stage of the race, so I backed off, going down the cross country ski trails. Again I stopped at the ranger station aid station and refilled my bottles. I ran down the chute with Patrick, and we had a nice chat which helped pass the time. I ran into Clevland Dam in 3:10. Refilled my gels, and had a potato with salt on it, and was off again running up Nancy Green Way. I began the climb up grouse, and began to feel the twinge of pre cramps coming on and got a little worried. By the time I reached the top of the climb, I was feeling really low in my mind. This was my bad patch, this was also the most important moment of the race to me. I just turned the switch in my mind to focus on feeling better. I took in about 4 gels in 10 minutes, and a ton of fluids as well as some thermolyte tabs. withing another 15 minutes I was feeling way better and was running at what i felt was a manageable pace. I felt really good heading down the Varley trail towards the third quarter aid station, and even managed to run the whole section hills and all. I made in to the aid station with a time of 4:45. again they quickly filled my bottles for me, I had a couple of glasses of flat coke (ahhhh sugar!!) and I was off again with my sights now on the finish line. The last quarter felt good, and I ha made it to hyannis drive aid station without to much suffering! This is my favorite aid station because they have sponges and buckets of cold water to rub you down with! I asked the volunteers to just dump a bunch right on my head, and they happily obliged! SOOOOO refreshing! The Seymour grind was next, and I actually passed to guys going up this section! I wasn't sure if I was going to make my predicted time of 6:30, as i was getting a bit stupid in the brain by this time. I upped my pace, and flew down Seymour to Deep Cove. This section I like to call the soul sucker cause it's a gruelling 2.5 km of nasty little hills that is riddled with roots, rocks and casual hikers! I managed to cross the finish line in 6:28:18, with Caleb, my three year old sprinting across the finish line with me! Over all I am extremely happy with my effort.
This race is dear to my heart. The RD Kelsy Trigg, and her amazing crew put on what I think is the best ultra race in north america. they have over 250 volunteers for 200 racers, that is awesome!!! It is an amazingly tough race, but it is worth every ounce of suffering I experienced. Yes, I will be back to race this race again, how could I not!!
I could not have done this race without the support of my loving wife Jen, who sacrificed many Sundays so I could train in the mountains. Thank you Jen, you'll never know how much your support means to me. And to my boys, Daddy is sorry he missed so much time with you guys, but I will make it up in spades this summer!!! Until next year...
Some stats if you are interested. 32nd overall, 25th male, 9th in my age division, and I beat my previous PB by 1 hour and 10 minutes! Not to shabby at all.
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