Running the Near Death

As an introduction, for the last 7 years I have been fundraising for a charity called Teen Challenge Canada. Each year I select a race to run for the Teen Challenge Freedom Run and fundraise for this drug and alcohol rehab center. There are numerous centers throughout Canada with Alberta’s being just outside of Calgary in the small hamlet of Priddis. With so many people caught in addiction it’s the least I can do to help.

I’ll start with Friday the day before the race, I had lots of things to prepare as my brother and I were traveling up to Grande Cache that afternoon and staying in tent city. When I leave the family I like to prepare food and have fun stuff on hand for the kids to play with. That way its easy for everyone left behind, I also wasn’t sure if there was going to be any place to eat in Grande Cache so I packed my supper, breakfast, and snacks. Turns out Grande Cache has a lot more than I remembered; I hadn’t been there since I was little!

We arrived about 3:00 pm and registered, I was sweating a bit as they couldn’t find my name but thankfully they found me and it was smooth sailing from there. Once we got registration and waivers sighed, my brother prepared his pack to do a drop bag at TA200 for the next day. We then had the racing brief at 8:00 pm that evening and met up with some friends who were running the Ultra. I also spotted Harvey Lewis and his wife in the crowd, he is from the USA, kind of neat to see someone famous for their ultra performances.

I slept pretty well that night but had to wear ear plugs as the camp was still lively at 10:00 pm. Woke up before my alarm at 5:30 am and spent some time thinking about the one transition that I wasn’t 100% sure about TA 200. How much water should I pack? Too much and I will be so heavy, too little and I will run out…

About 6:00 am the camp started to wake up. We had a leisurely breakfast, but it was cold out, I think it was less than 5 degrees. I was glad we brought chairs and while eating, chatted with a fellow next to us who was from Kelowna. He makes the trip every year to run the Ultra.

We didn’t need to pack up tents at this point so drove to the start line at 7:00 am. I prepared my pack making sure I had remembered to put everything in the night before and then headed into the Leisure Centre where it was warm and dry to do my prehab work.  At 7:30 I got all my gear ready and fought with the perfect placement of my bib before I did a brief warm up of lunges running in one spot, ankle hops and leg swings. I felt ready to go!

We were a bit late getting to the start line at 5 minutes to 8:00, the front was packed so we found space midway to the back, this was a mistake because I spent the first few km trying to find a spot where I could actually run. The race started very punctual, exactly at 8:00, the first 200 yards I was on the edge of the sidewalk and because there wasn’t tons of space, I ended up rolling my ankle off the sidewalk. It was quite painful, and I limped a few strides spending the next km warily setting my foot down and praying it would be ok to run the next 40 km on! What an unexpected thing to happen! Once that little set back sorted itself out I focused on finding a spot where I could run comfortably without being held back, I was thankful when we came off the trails for a bit to a wide but short stretch of road where I was able to get ahead of a few people. We dipped back into trees and single track, but the pace was better and I passed where I could safely, without being a jerk or ending up in the trees HA! From there it flowed nicely, I drank and ate by the alarm on my watch. The trail was relatively easy, and other than getting a little annoyed by a pushy guy on a steep incline I felt comfortable.

Checking my watch I was right on time with 12 km done in 11/2 hrs. The trail had been a fun section of 14 km and ended at the first aid station TA 200. I had planned to make sure I filled up here with 2 L of fluid, refilling my camel back and flasks. When I looked at the water in my camelback it was just shy where I needed it so I just filled my flasks, got my poles out and kept moving. In hind site I should have added that little extra to my camelback because I ended up needing it.

The first bit was easy and then we started to climb up and down on single track. The trail went through some low boggy spots, and it was interesting how people really slowed down in these sections. Maybe it was the years of playing in the trees and swamp as a kid but I made quick work of the swampy areas. Of course, it’s hard to get passed anyone on those sections because it’s a swamp, with low limbs on trees etc. Coming out of the swamp I was now climbing, and the trails opened up to a wider track where passing became easier to do but with the large amount of climbing everyone was holding their spot. It was getting hot, some people were stopping to get their air and standing in the shade. Thankfully I didn’t find it overly hot and just kept at a steady pace, running on the flat and downhill and hiking on the uphill. We climbed for the next 14 km with a few downhills mixed in. Some of the climbs were through clear cut logging so that was interesting. Here is where I had wished I had added that extra water, at this point I ran out of water before I got to the next aid station and started feeling a bit nauseous with just electrolytes. I had to do some mind work and pretend the electrolytes were water in order to drink at all! I couldn’t wait for the aid station! I did come across a couple clear streams where I dipped my hand in and took a swallow. At this point I was getting behind on my calories because I was feeling nauseous and didn’t want to eat.

The aid station came up quicker than I expected which I was SOOO grateful for. I refilled my flasks and drank probably ½ L of wonderful plain water, while I was at the station.  I grabbed a few candies and then headed out at a walk as the trail started climbing again. Every flat and downhill I ran and every uphill I hiked trying to keep my heart rate in a recovery so I could make the best time on the downhill. It continued going up on an old road (at one point I was feeling quite tired due to getting behind on my calories and contemplated either just stopping or crawling but realized how ridiculous that was and just kept putting one foot in front of the other;). I thought about how hard life is sometimes and how hard it must be to leave addiction behind which is why I chose to use this race as a means to get sponsors for Teen Challenge. With that thought I had a renewed strength to keep it up and complete the race with the best I had to give. I knew I would get to come down eventually, and once I reached the summit, I finally headed down on some crazy downhill trails.

With the downhill, I was super glad I had poles because I passed many people here who were struggling without them and afraid of falling. I felt bad for them but other than offering reassurance I couldn’t do anything to help. The next 6 km was steadily and sometimes sharply downhill. It was this stretch where I started curling my toes in my shoes because they were taking a beating. I kept drinking but forgot to eat because of the concentration it took to make the best time down to town. At the bottom right before we headed into town with 3 km left, they had a station set up and were handing out tiny freezies and water. I doused myself with water and drank half the bottle as I again was quite low on water at this point. The freezy tasted amazing and helped me get through the last few km at a decent pace through some uneven trails (was it even a trail) next to the highway and through town to the finish line. I finished just within my goal time 7:54 for a total of 40.78 km and 1899 metres of elevation.

 Overall I was pleased with how the race went and I learned so much on this race, individually and as a coach. In addition my fundraising goal was met for Teen Challenge and for that I am very grateful.

I will be back to attempt it again with some experience under my belt. If you are interested in doing the Near Death reach out to me, I have a 9 week training plan that I created as I was training and it can be tweaked to accommodate your schedule.