All about kills and blisters: Ragnar Relay Niagara race report

There's nothing quite like living in a van down by the river. :)

Unless it's spending two days in a van with five people you'd never met and trying to plot out how you're going to run 300+ km together.

That was the task that lay before us at this past weekend's Ragnar Relay Niagara as one of two teams sponsored by Reebok Canada.  The first team was a 'corporate team', comprised of 12 employees of Adidas-Reebok, and our team was an 'ultra' team where none of us was officially employed by Reebok (although one of our members is an officially sponsored Reebok athlete).  I had the honour of being recruited to the ultra team by my friend Martyna, and even though I had no practical concerns of covering the distance that would be allocated to me (a total of 49.6km) I was legitimately worried that I would be completely outclassed by my fellow ultra-mates.  I'm happy to say that throughout our time on the road together the last thing that I felt was out of place, and that's entirely to the credit of my generous and incredibly encouraging new friends.

R to L:  Sara, Elisa, Jeph, Filsan, photobomber, Mandy

The overall schedule had our team beginning with the 8:30am wave on Friday May 31 from Legion Fields in Cobourg, Ontario.  We met initially at the Reebok Canada offices in Woodbridge and then loaded our van and traveled in teams to the start line - once there we were treated to a 10-minute 'safety essentials' video (including guidelines about obeying traffic laws and not pooping on people's lawns) and then it was just about waiting to see our first runner (Filsan) embark on the first leg of the journey.  To be fair since we were an 'ultra' team she would be taking on the first two legs of the journey - we had coordinated in advance to split each person's allotment of miles into three double-leg segments instead of six single-legs, thinking that this would provide us with more of an opportunity to get into a decent rhythm as well as not having to play 'race the racer' to the next exchange point (especially since the shortest leg was something like 3km, and watching vans depart from that exchange to get to the next one was akin to watching an episode of The Amazing Race).

Rather than provide a detailed blow-by-blow of the entire 300km run let me provide some highlights from the three segments that I took on, along with some other notable observations and moments ...

Legs 9 & 10 I received the snap-bracelet (in place of a baton) hand-off from a speedy Elisa at the Canlan Ice Sports complex in Oshawa at just before 4pm on Friday.  I tried to offer the team a guesstimate of when I might finish up my 15.4kms, but honestly having just come off of the Sulphur Springs 50 miler not a week before and having twisted my left ankle nicely just two nights before on the trails I wasn't confident about presenting anything that looked like a run effort.  I offered up "1:15 if I'm feeling good, probably more like 1:20-1:25, and less than 1:15 if I run stupid" - and this is what the team had to work off of in terms of timing their arrival at C4 Church in Ajax (exchange point #10).

The legs were officially given the ratings of "easy" (leg 9) and "hard" (leg 10), but from what I could tell the only quality that differentiated the two was that leg 10 had about a kilometre-long stretch that wound its way through a wooded park on dirt trail.  Some of the other legs that were ranked "hard" or "very hard" had significant elevation gains, but for the most part I found that the rating scale had more to do with how much of a clear, safe path runners had underfoot.

I should also note here the "kill" factor - I learned that when you passed a runner on any given leg that was counted as a "kill", and you tallied the number of kills you accumulated and marked them on the side of your team van (along with all sorts of other expressive decor).  Of course the competitor in me found this to be motivating, so the kill count was an important part of each leg.

It was within the first kilometre of leg 9 that I logged my first kill ... and then before completing km 2 I tracked another runner down.  2 kills in 2 km.  "Hmmm" I thought ... I wonder if I could keep this ratio up - and so it went that kilometre after kilometre I was able to catch up to at least one other runner.  By the time that I hit 15km on my Epson RunSense 810 I'd racked up a kill count of 15, and was shoulder-to-shoulder with another runner.

400m to go on a straightaway section of path, with the exchange point in sight.

We each started to pick up the pace.

We each saw one another's raise.

By the time that we had less than 80m to go we were full-out sprinting ... and I was grateful that I'd chosen to wear to the Floatride Run Fast Pro, as the quicker the pace got the more responsive it was.  In the end I managed to edge out my fellow Ragnarian by the slimmest of margins, only to look around and note that my team was not there for the bracelet hand-off.

I had run faster than I said I would, and arrived too early.

Apparently the team joked that I would finish in and around 1:10, but I came in closer to 1:08 ... and my friend Jeph (who had the next legs) was still in the port-a-potty.  After a bit of a mad scramble to try to locate him I was able to complete the exchange and he took off like a rocket.

Distance:  15.7k / Time:  1:07:49 / Shoes:  Reebok Floatride Run Fast Pro

Legs 21 & 22
I managed to get next-to-no sleep in advance of my next turn which came at around 12:15am on Saturday - I am grateful to Mandy (the most incredibly positive and enthusiastic person ever, by the way!!) who offered to drive to the exchange point so as to afford me just a bit of shuteye even if it was only in the form of a power-nap.  By the time that it came for me to meet Elisa after her 20km stretch I was the only one not snoozing the night away.

I knew that I was feeling pretty depleted from residual fatigue and the fact that I'd been on the go since 4:00am Friday, so I wasn't sure what kind of pace I would keep over the next 17.3km.  Being that the streets were pretty lonely on the border between Mississauga and Oakville at that hour I just tried to keep some kind of mental focus by eyeballing the next runner ahead of me.  This was made somewhat easier by virtue of the fact that in addition to wearing a headlamp and a reflective vest it was mandatory for each of the nighttime runners to wear a taillight of some kind.

It was pretty surreal plodding through the nearly-deserted streets of the city, being passed by the occasional vehicle (usually a Ragnar team van) and the odd (in more ways than one) pedestrian.  In total I managed to accumulate 17 legitimate kills ... my original count was 23, but then Jeph pointed out to me that at night a number of runners often have a teammate pace them just for safety/company.  After all was said and done I was pleased that I'd managed to keep a respectable pace for this part of my load and felt somewhat refreshed (and ready to drive again) by the time that I handed off to Jeph at exchange point 22.

Distance:  17.3k / Time:  1:25:11 / Shoes:  Reebok Floatride Forever Energy

Legs 33 & 34
This was a challenge from even before I received the bracelet - en route to exchange point 32 we took an unintended circuitous route to hit a Starbucks and that wound up adding some time to our van commute.  Our concerns about making it to the exchange in time to meet up with Elisa were compounded exponentially when we arrived at an open drawbridge at the first lock of the Welland Canal ... needless to say there was no option for vehicles (or runners for that matter) around it and we were held up at least an extra 7-8 minutes awaiting six pleasure-craft to make their way across.

After the exchange finally happened (yes, we left Elisa hanging as she made it there first ...) I tried to once again settle into a manageable 'predatorial' pace.  I gathered that everyone was beginning to feel the weariness of event but there were definitely more than a few folks who were looking fresher than others, and my best guess is that they were probably 12-person team runners who had perhaps snatched a half-decent rest through the night.  While I managed to tally 12 kills I was also passed twice - once in the first leg by a runner who said he'd been hunting me down for about 6km, and once in the second leg by a runner whom I had passed but then managed to pick up speed and overtake me back.

It may have been that my legs were beginning to fail me, or the slowly rising humidity on the day but I could definitely sense my entry into pain cave territory.  The last 4km of the final leg were downright nasty and I imagined that I looked something like a lumbering ent from "The Return of the King".

In my head I kept thinking "Jeph is fast, all I have to do is make it to the hand-off to Jeph" ... add to that the threat of being passed by any other runners and I managed to pick up the pace for the last kilometre to get to exchange point 34.

Distance:  16.8k / Time:  1:23:27 / Shoes: Reebok Floatride Run Fast

Last Stop:  Niagara Falls
I'm not sure that it's mandatory, but it's at least 'tradition' for each team to run the final 100m or so together to cross the finish line.  By now the day had been brought to a slow simmer with pretty close to full sun and temps in the mid-20s ... this left Jeph really toughing it out as the ultimate leg of the relay is essentially all uphill, but we found him and managed to put a bow on our first ever Ragnar Relay together in just over 28 hours.

I simply can't overstate what amazing people my teammates are - to a person I'm confident that we'd all say that we had a fabulous time together, cheering each other on and laughing about the blisters (yep, there were serious blisters - on everyone but me somehow - and even more serious laughter ... right, Sara?!?) that were accumulated over the course of 300+ km of pavement pounding.  Certainly there's something about the ethos of the running community that made this group click, but beyond that we had a kind of chemistry that you really can't orchestrate.  We legitimately started out as strangers and ended our journey as family - and that beats any medal-bling or bragging rights that would come our way.

So many thanks have to go out to:

• Martyna, Cheyenne and the good people at Reebok Canada for providing us with this amazing opportunity and entrusting us to carry one of the banners for the presenting sponsor.  They took amazing care of us, providing for all of our needs from start to finish
• Ben Flanagan (Canadian soil 5k record holder and Team Reebok athlete) for sending a hugely-inspiring send-off video to our teams
• The organizers of the Ragnar Relay for a really well-marked course (coming from a guy who's taken more than a few wrong turns in races) even if there were no "1 mile-ish to go" signs
• Mandy for suggesting last year that Reebok should consider entering an 'ultra' team, and for being our unwaveringly positive bright light even when half-asleep
• Filsan for kicking us off in the perfect fashion and looking fashionable the whole way - no one else could have been as reliable, relentless and rock solid
• Elisa for having that championship spirit and taking on the witching hour 20k section
• Sara for bringing the heat, taking on the hills and creating the greatest gut-busting moment of the whole experience
• Jeph for being 'car-dad #1' and showing us that poutine and pizza can turn into jet fuel
• Our significant others and families for supporting us in crazy ventures like these.

The Reebok Ragnar Relay Niagara was unlike any other running event I'd participated in before - but if this experience was indicative of why there is a whole 'Ragnar culture' that exists (as evidenced by teams from New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Wisconsin, and more) then I can wholeheartedly endorse this as something that every runner should consider trying at least once.

You just might come away from it with friends for life.

#bemorehuman #feelthefloatride #TeamReebok #RagnarRelay #mindoverblisters

All about kills and blisters: Ragnar Relay Niagara race report

Taking a thrashing at the 2019 Sulphur Springs Trail Run (50 mile race report)

I contemplated titling this post "Confessions of a Perpetual Overtrainer".

Whatever you want to call it, this year's edition of the Sulphur Springs Trail Run was nothing short of ridiculously awful.  Still, I lived to tell the tale, and would recommend it to anyone who'd care to give it a shot.

My second ultramarathon-distance race of the year turned out (yet again!) to be not just a test of endurance but an environmental challenge ... last month it was the snow and wind, and this time around it was the thunder, lightning, copious amounts of rain and subsequent pits of mud.  As my friend Tyler (who finished 3rd overall for the 50-mile distance) described it, the course offered up 1/3 of its trail as an experience of running through glue.  I would amend that and say that it was some devious combination of glue and Crisco.  Imagine combining an ultramarathon with mud-wrestling, and you'll understand how I (and about 1200 other people) spent our Saturday.

To be fair, I had a great first loop running with my friend Nick Wagner whom I hadn't seen since the 2016 EndurRUN.  Back in 2016 Nick hadn't yet run anything beyond a half-marathon in terms of distance, but now he was an experienced ultramarathoner with at least one 100k race under his belt.  I remember how strong a runner he was a few years ago, and he's only become fitter and more durable since then.  We had a great 25k or so chatting it up and busting along not-yet-damp footing until I got a pebble in my shoe and had to stop to extricate it - I insisted that he continue forward, and while I was able to keep him within visual distance after starting up again I was never able to catch back up.

It wasn't long after that that the monsoon rains hit in the midst of what may well have been a severe thunderstorm warning.  Of course this transformed the softer ground into tarpits, and while I was able to continue to stubbornly plug away it was at about 35k that I weebled-and-wobbled my way into a groin pull while trying to maintain my balance on one particularly greasy section.  I knew pretty quickly that this didn't bode well.

During the third loop my knees felt wrecked, my inner thighs overdone, and I was walking a significant portion of the loop.  I seriously wanted to pull the plug after 60k but told myself that if I did that then there'd be no way that I'd have any hope of making it through a 100-miler ... so I resolved that even if it meant walking through the entire final 20k I'd finish this race.  Two things helped me to see this resolution through:  (1) the spring roll at aid station #3 was an out-of-body experience at 53k, and (2) the thought that if I could get done by 6pm I'd have a hope of making it back in time for the game 6 tip-off between the Toronto Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks.

I have to say that having given myself that bit of margin was a real relief, and even though I saw many people passing me by (even the 50-mile winner lapped me with about 50 metres left to the start/finish line) I was content to just to try to pack the training miles in.  I approached each long tract of mud with trepidation as I was concerned about doing any kind of serious damage that might jeopardize the next couple months' worth of running and racing.  Plodding my way along I was also grateful to cross paths with Sherman Lam (a former Running Free teammate) at 73k - his positive attitude and trekking poles helped pace me through the next 5k or so, and I finally finished a shade over 11 hours.

Half-baked ramblings after hobbling my way to the car post-race

The long car ride home was made even longer by torrential rains that brought Hwy. 403 to a crawl between Hamilton and Oakville, so a 90 min. drive had an extra hour tacked on to that because of the weather.  So running or automobiling, the environmental conditions had my number that day.

I've now given myself a few days off of running this week to try to be ready to contribute to the Team Reebok effort at the Ragnar Relay - Niagara event starting tomorrow.  I'll be running as part of the 'ultra' team, so each of our 6 members will have 6 legs of the course to do (ballpark of about 50 km as the total distance from Cobourg to Niagara Falls is 306 km).  The only snag in this whole 'week of recovery' plan was going out last night for an easy trail run with the RunNinjas only to have turned my ankle for the first time all year leading to what quite possibly is a moderate strain of the extensor digitorum brevis muscle.  

Pain cave, once again here I come.

Taking a thrashing at the 2019 Sulphur Springs Trail Run (50 mile race report)

From PYP 2019 (50k) to Sulphur Springs 2019 (50 miler)

It's T-minus 20 hours until the start of my second-ever 50 mile race ... and boy, do I ever feel underpowered.

Just about a month ago I completed the first ultra on my race calendar for 2019, the Pick Your Poison Trail Run. There's so much to like about it - a hometown race, early enough in the year to keep you motivated for winter training, plenty of elevation changes, scenic trails and fabulous goodies (the jar of honey at packet pick-up and the pair of socks at the finish line) - but this year it proved to be a doozie of a day with wicked winds and snow greeting competitors first thing in the morning.

Feeling like I've pulled into the base camp for an ascent of Mt. Everest!

 

Yup ... I could just stay cozy inside the chalet all morning ...

Knowing that I was approaching this event as a 'training day' (with my long-term preparation for the Hallucination 100 mile run in view) I wanted to do my best to exercise restraint and hold a controlled and manageable pace throughout this run.  However, the formula of snowy trails + 375 runners equalled major mud + packed ice by the time that loops 3 and 4 (each loop being 12.5k) came around, so it felt more like a "how can I get through this uninjured" type of day.  All in all though it turned out to be quite survivable, even enjoyable given the company along the route, great encouragement from spectating crowds and unbelievable support from the folks who willingly braved the elements to staff the aid stations.  I was happy to walk away with a 6:09 finish time, and four reasonably even split times for each loop.

A quick post-event video rundown!

Now I get to stretch out my trail running legs a bit longer - the last time that I took on Sulphur Springs was four years ago for the 50k distance, so this will definitely be a tougher test distance-wise, compounded by the forecast of thunderstorms.

Got my gels, pizza, cupcakes and cinnamon buns packed - let's do this thing!

From PYP 2019 (50k) to Sulphur Springs 2019 (50 miler)

Long may you (and I) run

Tomorrow the racing season begins - or at least the racing season as I had planned it for 2019.

With the 50km Pick Your Poison Trail Run set to go on soggy (and perhaps loggy ...?) terrain I'll be embarking on my year of all-ultramarathon racing.  It's been a pretty solid training season thus far, having focused my efforts on just banging out mile after mile and teaching/training myself to get out there even when I don't feel like it at all.  My friend Steven Parke (a wise, competitive and very experienced ultrarunner) recommended to me that one of the things that I might consider doing in preparation for my first 100-mile race this September (the Hallucination 100) is to take a month to run every day.  This sounded like a good idea, so I picked January (all 31 days of nasty-ness) to lace up and get out every day ... and then I did so again in March, and hopefully will continue to pick off alternating months comprised of 31 days.  I feel like I'm beating up my legs pretty well, but so far no real injuries and mentally I feel like I'm becoming more anti-fragile.

But to be fair, this will not be my first registered race of the year ... earlier this month I participated in the MEC Barrie Race One (10k), but not running for myself.  I had the privilege of being asked to help with MyTeam Triumph Canada as an 'angel', pushing my 'captain' in a race-specific wheelchair.  My captain's name was Matthew, and as someone confined to a wheelchair because of a disability it was a special opportunity for him to participate in a competition that was otherwise run by able-bodied individuals.  We had an absolute blast ... Matthew with his cowbell in hand, ringing it to cheer on other competitors and to signal to me when he wanted us to throw it into 'high gear' (at one point we even managed to chase down the race leaders! ... for a few seconds).  I was glad to have my new pair of Reebok Floatride Run Fast on my feet as they seriously helped me recruit speed on demand, especially considering that I'd run a 20km warmup before the start of the race. :)

Captain Matthew has requested me as an 'angel' again for the MEC Barrie Race Two, which will be a half-marathon distance ... it's an honour to have been asked, and I hope to help make it another great experience for us both.  As such my season will be peppered with non-ultra races ... or perhaps we can call those 'ultra-special' races, at least for me.

#sporttheunexpected #MyTeamTriumph #highgear #feeltheFloatride #RunNinjas #werunthistown

Long may you (and I) run

Washing away the grime of 2018

I can hardly believe that I've not posted anything since last September.

But with January quickly winding down, I thought that perhaps I'd better provide a bit of a wrap-up on how my 2018 went ... so if I could describe it in just one word it'd be:

disappointingfrustratingconfusingdeflatingfutile

(c'mon ... I bet that someone would want to use that every now and again to describe their feelings 'in one word')

My single focus, my one all-consuming goal for 2018 was to cross the finish line in a marathon before the race clock read 3:00:00.  To that end I worked once again with a coach (who happened to also be my friend and RunNinja leader Mike MacInnes) to try to make me sub-3 ready for last year's Mississauga Marathon.  Under his guidance I incorporated strength work that I'd not put in since my university days, and bumped my weekly mileage as high as it had ever been (to 100 miles in a single week).

Alas, my efforts were fruitless ... I bumbled my way to a gun time of 3:19:58, one of my slowest efforts in a long time.

Less than two weeks later, out of sheer stupidity, I ran the MEC London Marathon in 32°C unbridled heat, and it took me 3:32:02.

It was getting worse.

Trying to reinject some speed I tackled a couple of 10ks over the summer, not being able to log anything better than a 45 minute gun time.

In an effort to keep the streak alive, I went back for a fifth time to perform pacing duties at The County Marathon (as the 3:30 bunny), wholly unsure that I was able to actually complete the job this year.  However I managed somehow to keep it together to peg a 3:28:58.

Feeling like maybe I had one more kick at the can I accepted a bib transfer from my fleet-of-foot friend Jeremy Grampola and took on the Hamilton Marathon (a race that I've never really enjoyed or performed well at) - and sure enough, the best that I could muster was 3:17:16.

Whatever balloon I had, had burst.

Caveat:  I completely understand and appreciate that running two Boston qualifying times (for my age group) in one year should provide enough satisfaction to anyone.  I don't want to diminish the objective accomplishment, nor cast any judgment on anyone else's performances or capabilities relative to those times.  It's just that in comparison to my goal, and what I felt like I was fit and healthy enough to accomplish, I fell flat on my face.

Perhaps I've gotten too old for fast racing.  Maybe I fooled myself thinking that I had the right stuff to go sub-3 in the first place.

The truth may lie somewhere in-between or elsewhere.

So with the books closed on 2018, my 2019 plans have shifted away from the marathon.  Time to circle back around to the race that I bailed on back in 2016.  It's time to go after that belt buckle again.

I've resolved to focus on running ultras this year - so far I'm registered to tackle:

• Pick Your Poison (50k) - April 27
• Sulphur Springs Trail Race (50 miles) - May 25
• The Limberlost Challenge (56k) - July 6
• Hallucination Run (100 miles) - September 6 

Needless to say this means that I will be shifting my focus from road-speed to trail-endurance, and testing my mental limits perhaps more than my physical ones.  

Also by way of a mini-update, I've elected not to renew my ambassadorships with Salming Running and Endurance Tap.  Please don't get me wrong - I believe that both organizations and their respective product lines are great, and I would happily endorse them with anyone interested in stepping up their running performance.  However I found that I personally did not have the best feel and feedback with my Salming running shoes despite the great technology and design elements integrated into their footwear, and even though many many people do experience them to be fantastic weapons in their arsenals and leading them to new personal bests.  As for Endurance Tap, I'll probably still be packing my running vest pockets with their gels but I'm also looking to experiment a bit with Maurten as a number of friends have given it a big double-thumbs up.

That's a wrap for now - looking forward to turning a corner in 2019, and hoping all the best for you in your running and life adventures!

Washing away the grime of 2018