(Moose Mountain from Merlin View Trail)
Summer did not go as planned. We had it all figured out. Meet the Minotaur at the end of June, Rockwall end of July, Brazeau Loop (50 miles) towards the end of August. But I went into the Minotaur not healthy, didn’t rest properly afterwards, hurt an achilles tendon doing some ill-advised speedwork (sorry again Del, I would have loved pacing you during the Divide 200), and nothing ever came of another ultra this year. After a few months of tendon rehab, and a busy season with Finn chasing birds all over, things finally started to feel a little better.
Enter the Iron Legs Mountain Races Chasing Dusk “20-miler”, to be held in West-Bragg Creek, in December. Somehow this race appealed, and I figured I’d try some of its loops, to see how the legs felt. After all, I’d not ran more than 10K or so in a long time. The trial runs went OK, I survived the twenty kilometers of two of the loops combined, so a quick click had me signed up. Whatever made me think I should try to run the entire 34K at the pace of the single 14K loop that I tried is beyond me. But that thought just buried itself deep in my brain, and I couldn’t shake it. A sub-five-hour goal would leave me a little wiggle room. I’d just start fast and see where things would blow up. “There is but one pace, and that is suicide pace, and today feels like a good day to die!” Words to live by. If you are trained up and healthy.
(Apparent chaos at the start – runners could depart in both directions)
Conditions were pretty comfortable, with ice-packed trails, a light frost and some sunshine at the start, and after 5-4-3-2-1 we were off. I’d chosen to do the longest loop first, and stuck myself behind a few racers that had a pace that felt good. When we got overtaken by a couple, I hitched myself onto their wagon, more or less, since they dropped me right around the turn-around point. I made good time around the first 14K, just 7 minutes behind the pace of the trial run, which had taken place on mostly dry trails. The climb up Ranger Summit (in the second loop) felt a little harder than I expected, but the descent was great, going at reckless speed. Suicide pace. Back at the start/finish/aid station area in 3h15min, well inside the schedule for a five-hour finish. Only 10K to go!
Though quite tired, I was still harboring some delusional feelings of pushing the pace and seeing how close I could get to 4h30m. However, roughly two kilometers into the last loop the wheels came off. My knee started hurting in that fashion that tells you “OK, we can keep going, but if you push it, you’ll regret it”. The run slowed down to a jog initially, but a few minutes later it deteriorated into a walk/shuffle/hobble forward motion. Any time I tried a genuine jog the pain crept up to that breaking point quickly. The fact that this trail was more snow-covered and softer than the other two didn’t help.
For the rest of the race, I hobbled and shuffled and occasionally jogged for thirty seconds, doing math in my head. A ten minute per kilometer pace should get me to the finish in under five hours, with five minutes to spare. I recalled similar discomfort during the Minotaur, and how the poles had done wonders buffering some of the impact on the joints on the final descent. I had briefly thought about carrying poles, but in a bout of misguided confidence decided that I wouldn’t need them. I regretted that now.
Somehow, I managed to stay under that 10min pace for the last five kilometers and finished under my goal time. It is likely that no coach would ever recommend tackling a race in this fashion. Generally, the idea is to start conservatively, and finish strong. But sometimes you just have to try something different. Given my deplorable training record, blowing up after a fast start was very likely, and it happened. But not until I had kept up the pace long enough to reach the goal. Unconventional perhaps, but loads of fun!
(Looking sharp for the finish photo / empty tank)