Last week I was on an ultracation that started on
Wednesday at Manning Park, it was part camping, part ultrarunning in
the Fat Dog 120 mile endurance run. Kyndra and I arrived at the camp
site in the afternoon with beautiful weather for us to enjoy. We quickly set up camp so that we would have lots of time to
relax. As we finished setting up the tent and sleeping quarters,
Gareth and Katie pulled up. They were also eager to setup camp.
We decided to set up a tarp over the cooking &
eating area so if there was rain we would be dry while cooking. I
decided to nominate myself to climb on top of a car's roof top get
the rope over a branch. This was an extremely smart idea since it
help test my balance and had to be careful not to dent the roof with
my fat ass. This was not going so well, so Kyndra suggested using trekking
poles as spears with the rope attached was a better idea. Time seems to fly by and we
had a blast that night. We feasted like royalty, for our supper we
had patty pan squash, savoury apple & onions, veggie quesadillas
with salsa & guacamole. For desert we had dips ahoy and hot
chocolate.
Thursday morning Gareth and I were up early and
decided to walk over to Lightning lake to see if the finish line was
set up for the race, sadly there wasn't anything there and we headed
back to see if the girls were awake and ready. Just as we arrived at
the camp site the girls slowly made their way out of the tents with
big smiles to start the day. Thanks to Katie we had some very filling
oatmeal with lots of nuts and dried fruit. After breakfast we headed
to the lake to have a stroll around and check out the wildlife.
Kyndra has a special relationship with animals, they come right up to
her for food and eat out of her hand.
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| Checking out the route |
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| Kyndra and her special relationship with animals |
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| Cute little guy eating his treats |
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| Nice little runnable section at the end |
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| Pointing out Skyline |
After feeding the
marmots, we headed back to camp taking the loop around the lake. We
needed to fill up our stomachs with some tomato basil soup,
sandwiches & salad. As we were cleaning up from our delicious
lunch, Dustin and Bayly showed up. It was Dustin's birthday and he
was ready to party, but first he needed to set up a tent and get his
drop bags ready. Dustin and I are very different when it comes to our
running, I use a spreadsheet and carefully calculated out my calorie
intake through out the run with extra food just in case, I need to
train a lot and often just to able to finish. Dustin just throws some
food in zip lock bags, maybe has a beer or two and is ready to run,
always faster then me.
Once he was ready we
headed over to the drop bag area to drop off our bags and pick up our
race package before the race briefing. By this time we were wondering
where Shawn was, he was suppose to be here for the afternoon and was
no where in site. Lucky he showed up just after the briefing and we
decided to treat ourselves by heading over to the pub for some food.
I decided to go with an order of wings, chicken strips and fries; not
my usual pre-run dinner but did the job. That evening there was a bit
of rain that night and sadly Dustin & Bayly's tent was a little
wet, the rest of us were okay. Poor Dustin and Bayly ended up
sleeping in a car for the night.
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| Drop bag drop off location |
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| Me with my drop bags |
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| Aid station supplies |
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| Package pick up |
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| My mugshot to ID the body if I'm lost |
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| Dustin's mugshot |
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| The runners with their pacers |
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| Gareth being Gareth |
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| Nice |
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| Fun times at the pub |
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| Some serious conversation |
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| Shawn looking cool as always |
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| Team Ultrafirm, no softies allowed |
Friday morning I was up and quickly was getting
ready to head out. I had a helping of Katie's oatmeal and was ready
to go, doing my double checks on the car ride to the start. I was
nervous but felt ready to tackle the beast, I was a little worried
since this would be almost double the distance of my last race,
Vancouver 100. We got to the start line and checked in, said hello to
other runners and took in the beautiful sights. We all lined up on
the bridge waiting for the start, as soon as we hear the bear banger
go off, there was over 100 of us starting to make our way up the
mountain. I started off with Dustin right in front of me and
instantly knew I was going too fast, I kept up with him for about 60
minutes before I let myself slow down to a more comfortable pace. The
climb was long with some steep sections but I managed to keep a smile
the whole way up, I even saw a guy with a Vancouver 100 patch on his
bag from a couple of years ago. There were some breathtaking views on
the way up and there wasn't anywhere else that I wanted to be.
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| All smiles and ready to start |
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| Dustin's custom backpack |
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| Start of the race |
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| Looks like someone is excited about the first climb |
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| Making my way down to the start |
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| Getting a pep-talk from Kyndra |
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| Pacer love |
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| Looking down at the start bridge |
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| Someone is having too much fun |
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| Part of the crew |
The aid station come up quicker than I thought it
would and it was a nice surprise, I loaded up with some food and
drinks before making my way up before the decent. I stopped and took
a few pictures but honestly the pictures do not do the terrain
justice. The sights were just breathtaking. At the top, I could see
Red Mountain just steps away from me but no time to climb that peak,
I was on a mission towards Ashnola River Road to meet my crew. The
meadows and down hill through the trees was amazing and the narrow
trail was easy to follow. Since I was still feeling fresh I was
bombing down where I could and walking in the more technical areas. I
was lucky to run with lots of different people on this section. As I
was getting close to the aid station there was a guy taking photos of
the runners. I picked up the pace a bit because I was excited to see
my crew.
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| Heading to the top of Cathedral |
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| Getting into Ashnola River Road |
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| Getting treated like royalty |
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| Getting escorted out |
Getting into Ashnola
River Road station, there was some real energy around. My crew had be
fed and out quickly so I can continue with the next climb, Flattop
Mountain. The climb up took a lot out of me, I was moving at what
felt like a snail's pace uphill, many people passed me. Once the
terrain levelled out I was able to pick up the pace and power hike
much of the top section all the way to Trapper aid station. Where I
quickly repacked from my drop bag, had some food and coke to energize
myself for the long 21k section to Calcite. Shortly after Trapper, I
have some unbelievable cramping on my left calf that made me scream
in pain. It slowed me down a little but I kept going. By the time I
made it to Trapper Lake, I had a few down moments, mostly through the
muddy bog but the views made it hard to say down for long. I pressed
on until I got to the meadows and was anxious to get to the next aid
station by now, since I didn't know how far I was I had to press on
and just ride the highs and get through the lows. I meet many nice
people along the way were we chatted for a bit. I realized the
training I did on my own really helped out with the lows of the race.
Just as it was getting dark and I wanted to catch up to a couple people that were ahead of
me, all of a sudden something brushed my
legs and I let out a scream like a frighten school girl, I looked
down to see what scared me I realized it was just my jacket fell out
of the bungee. I didn't want to waste time putting the
jacket back again so I wore it like a cape and soldered on. Shortly
after I caught the group, while running
as a threesome, I heard something running downhill through the forest
but wasn't sure what it was. The sound followed us for quite sometime
and the whole time I just hoped that it would just stay in the trees
and not come out on the trail. Thankfully we never got to learn what
was following us. By the time we were at Calcite I was tired and
wanted a break, and to my surprise I saw Dustin sitting there with my
drop bag, poor guy was out and done for the race. I had some broth,
cheese quesadillas and coke before saying bye to my little buddy and
headed towards Pasayten River for the river crossing. This was a very
runnable section where I was making up some good time. As I was
running, I saw a truck drive by along the gravel road just above me
and some people yield at me asking where Calcite was, when I
responded, they knew my name. This really shocked me, but turns out
it was Gareth and Bayly going to pick up Dustin. I give them the best
instructions I could and we went our separate ways.
The downhill to the river crossing was brutal, just
felt like a shear drop but lucky the North Shore mountain prepared me
for terrain like this. Once at the river, I put my poles in one hand
and grabbed the guide rope with the other and made my way into the
river. The water was cold, just above the knees and the current was
strong. A couple of times I almost lost my balance. On the other side
of the river there was a fresh pair of socks for me as well as some
tasty treats. I knew I was close to my crew now so I thanked
volunteers for their help and pressed on to Bonnevier where I was
hoping to have a bit of a rest, boy was I wrong about that. The road
section was easy and felt relatively quick but by now I have lost all
judgement of time. Once in Bonnevier I unloaded what I didn't need,
told my crew that all I want for food in my bag was gels and dates.
Someone brought me food from the aid station while Kyndra and Gareth
quickly changed my socks again, by now my shoes were almost dry and I
was saying it was a good time to take a small break, Kyndra was
having none of that. She got me on my feet and started walking with
me, can't remember what she said to me but by the time I was finished
my broth, she took the cup out of my hands and with a gentle nudge up
hill I was out of the aid station and was heading uphill again. The
short break did make my legs feel energized. By far this was the most
memorable stops and can't thank the crew enough for getting me out
and moving quickly.
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| Getting in at Bonnevier |
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| Getting taken care of by Gareth |
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| Checking for other food options |
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| No rest for me, need to get climbing |
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| Getting escorted out |
Once I was on the service road up to the trail head
I was making good time, I even got to turn off my headlamp and do a
little stargazing. That didn't really last more then a few seconds
because walking uphill while looking at the sky really doesn't work.
I passed by the section where the 70 milers would be joining the race
and continued my trek to the trail head. I didn't let the dark night
ruin my momentum. In the dark forest I made some good time climbing
with some fellow 120 milers. We climbed together for a couple hours
before Kevin had to slow down because of blisters on his foot. Paul
and I played leap frog for a bit before he over took me and continued
on. As I got on the ridge towards Heather I was dying for some hot
food, I kept calling out but got no responses then in the far
distance I saw green glow sticks calling to me. As soon as I was at
the station the volunteers asked if I wanted a hot quesadilla and my
response was, “YES PLEASE!”. Someone got me a blanket and some
hot broth to warm me up. I only used to blanket to loosely cover
myself as I was still hot from the climb up to the top. Peter (one of
the race directors) commented on how well I looked at the top, and I
let him know I was still feeling strong. This was my longest stop,
time flew by as I ate and rearranged my pack to have fuel for the
down hill. I knew Nicomen Lake was about 14kms away and in my mind
this would be a quick decent down, I could not have been more wrong.
I covered the first 5kms with a slow but steady pace and got to the
sign directing me to Nicomen Lake, 9kms. I started to pick up the
pace where I could but eventually it became a slow crawl for me. I
had no idea how far I was from the aid station when I made the
decision to stop and have some food. As the 70 milers were passing
me, one stopped to say hello, it was Brad Cockrane, he was setting a
blistering pace. I meet him last year after the Frosty Mountain race,
it's because if him I heard about this beast. We wished each other
luck and I finished my little rest stop before continuing. When I
finally made it to Nicomen Lake aid station I only had two things on
my mind, coke and will I make the cut off at Cascades. The guy at the
station said it was very runnable all the way to Cascades and I
should be able to make it but sadly there was no coke. I quickly
looked at my watch and realized I am setting a personal best for my
100k time at about 24.5hrs with 3 significant climbs, not bad for the
first half I thought to myself. I had some salted crackers and took
off like my shorts were on fire trying to make the cut off. I was
about 18kms from a change of shoes and 26kms from seeing my crew. I
thought as long as I can get to Cascades I would be fine.
After about an hour to hour and a half of making
good time I started to slow down considerably. My right knee was
hurting, my muscles were fatigued, I felt like I had my first blister
on my left foot and my left angle just started to throb. Sadly I
realized this was becoming a difficult moment for me to continue. All
I could think about was getting to Cascades so I could talk to my
crew, but I slowed down to pace so slow that it was becoming slowly
apparent that my chances for finishing this race were getting slim. I
was moving at an estimated pace of 2 to 2.5kms an hour and trying to
move any faster hurt my ankle even more. I kept telling myself there
is still time to get to Cascades before the cut off just get there. I
could hear Sean's voice in my head saying, “Do whatever it takes to
get to make the cut-off and worry about how you'll feel later.” This
helped a little but once the sweeps caught up to my I knew my race
was over. I hobbled along the trail and eventually one of the sweeps
ran ahead to see where I how far I was. He brought back some coke
with him and said it's just over a kilometre back to the road, where
my crew would be waiting to pick me up. As I got close to the road I
saw my mom coming up the trail, I had to smile and didn't want her
worry about me and the state I was in. Bayly and Dustin were also
there. I told them what happened and we piled into the car where my
dad drove us to Cascades for the first aid people were going to look
me over.
When I got there Katie was there to get me food, I
found out that Kyndra was able to pick up a runner to pace with. She
quickly was getting ready, I wished her luck and she was gone. I was
checked over by the first aid people before we headed back towards
towards camp. After a shower we headed towards the pub for some
dinner, I called it an early night because I had to be up by 2AM to
go with Katie to see the finishers and catch Gareth and Kyndra bring
home the guys they were now pacing.
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| The end of my race |
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| Getting some food in me |
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| Feet don't look bad at all |
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| Chatting with Peter |
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| Kyndra getting ready |
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| Runner and pacer ready to go |
Katie and I were at the
finish line just after 2 in the morning on Sunday, still didn't know
when Gareth would be in and not sure if Kyndra's guy made it to
Skyline before the cut off. It was awesome to cheer on the finishers
but I also felt sad. Katie finally saw a runner across the lake and
said, “that's Gareth's run, he always runs like this” and
proceeded to demonstrate Gareth's running style, I laughed because I
realized it was so true. We saw Gareth bring Gary home and as Gary
cross the finish line, he just stood there asking, “Where's my
buckle?” in his calm but determined voice. Shortly after we saw
Kyndra bring home her guy. We all celebrated at the finish line
congratulating the finishers.
As I write this I have
had a week to reflect on my first DNF, what can I say, “IT
SUCKS”. No amount of, well you gave it a good shot actually makes
it any better. By now my left ankle swelling has gone down, the
muscle soreness was gone in less than two days and my knee issue is
only a problem when I've been sitting for long periods of time. So I
have to ask, did I not push hard enough through the issues to make it
at least to the next station, did I let my mind give up, did I wuss
out, or was it that I tried to quadruple my distance in less than a
year and my body just wasn't ready for the punishment of a 100miler. All
these things now race in my mind as I sit here without a buckle. What
now, I have been taking it easy, preparing for my next run and reading about other runner's DNF
experience and have gained some insight into what others have gone
through. I wish it turned out differently, and I'll never know
what would of happened if I just pushed on with the pain, can't
remember if it was really that bad. One thing I will be doing before
my next attempt, I will do more back to back day with long hikes and
runs.
In the words of Ian
Torrence from irunfar.com:
“The DNF is a result
of us knocking on that door. Next time use a battering ram!”
I
think I did show up at Fat Dog just knocking, next time I'll be
bringing the battering ram and a few stick of dynamite just in case,
you can never have too much fire power to tackle a hundred+ miler or
any other run for that matter.
I want to thank Kyndra, Gareth, Katie, Shawn, Dustin, Bayly, Heather, Peter and all the volunteers that make an event like this possible. I was an amazing experience and I will be back to conquer this course.
I've
added a few links for those who want to battle their DNF:
Here's
some humour about DNF (I did the first thing on the list):
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