Fat Ass Trail Race

I've been registered for this race for a while.  My friend who was supposed to join me in the 25k distance was in a car accident and can't participate... so my lovely husband has offered to take her
place.  I'm thankful because I'm still not sure if I have what it takes to do it alone.

So, it's finally November 11th and time for the adventure to begin!  There are five of us: Leanne, Kristi, Emma, my husband Rémi and I.  We take 2 cars and drive to Trenton - about 3 hours away from home.  We meet up at the Tri and Run store to pick up our race kits.  Afterwards, we made our way to our hotel to chill a little before dinner. 

Before race time, it's always a good time to load up on carbs.  We decide to drive to Belleville -20km away- to go eat at East Side Marios.  That was quite an adventure!  Started with a 40 minute wait.  The women decided to walk a bit in the attached mall while Remi waited for our names to be called.  While he waited, some stranger gave him a $20 gift certificate - bonus!  This will be important for later.  We finally get seated for dinner.  Pretty uneventful - we order and wait.  The adventure then starts.
Things that went wrong:

• Emma orders a drink that takes forever to come -it sat at the bar for ever.  Manager comes by and tells her they will make a new one (I sure hope so! It's pretty much all melted by now!).
• The waitress brings us salad offers us cheese but no plates.
• Leanne doesn't have a fork.
• There is no meat sauce for the spaghetti.
• Dinner arrives - my noodles are way over cooked while Leanne's are undercooked.
• The server offers parmesan - spills it all over Leanne's legs.
• Manager tells Leanne her drink will be free and everyone will get a little discount on their bill.  When the bills came, the drink was on the bill.  The manager came back to fix the issue and gave everyone another discount because of the time wasted.

The best part - when it came time for Remi to pay, he handed over the "gift certificate". The manager was surprised and asked "Where did you get that?" to which Remi explained what had happened.  I said perhaps the man was from out of town and new he wouldn't be coming back -to which she replied -no, he wasn't happy - I guess this means he won't be coming back.  We all had a good laugh.

We headed back to our hotel to get some sleep and be ready for early in the morning.

Leanne and Kristi were doing the 50km, Remi and I the 25 and Emma the 10k.  We all had different start times and routes.

We started at 9:00 am.  Started with a steep uphill -up the ski hill, and right back down again.  Through the forest, lots of mud and water, things are going well.  Until we hit km 2.  I thought uh oh, the knee doesn't feel great - think of something else maybe it'll go away.  My IT band sometimes feels tight a little but then goes away... not this time!  By the time I reached the 3rd km, I was already in pain.  That's not good as we still have 22 km to go!  When we reached the first aid station, I decided to apply some topical cream to see if that would help.  I knew it couldn't really hurt.  I can tell you it did nothing. Zip. Nada.  

All in all, we probably ran about 5 km and walked 20.  It was quite the painful experience.  If you've

ever had ITB problems, you know what I'm talking about.  The feeling someone is digging a knife in your knee with each step you take.  The downhills are the worst - it's pure torture as the more you bend the knee, the worse the pain is.  During the 10k loop portion of the race, I thought I may have to quit when we finished that loop which would've been 17.5 k or so.  After some debate (in my head), a few tears, I thought no way.  I'm not quitting.  I can't run but I surely can walk the last 7.5km.  I've been walking for the past 10!  So off we continued to complete the last 7.5 loop.  

Let me tell you... that last loop was pure hell.  It's has at least 3 very steep hills.  Each uphill meant I had to suffer since what goes up must come down.  The last downhill was the worst.  I cried a little more as the pain was truly unbearable.  I got really nauseous from the pain and thought I was going to  vomit.  I managed to hold it together and got down that hill - running sideways -looking like an orangutan (it was the "easiest" and "painless" way to get down any hill).  The few people who saw me must have thought I was a weirdo!  Hey, you do what you have to... right?! 

It took us 4 hours and 40 minutes to complete the 25k - not too bad for having to walk 20 of those kilometers! 

This ITB problem is driving me crazy.  We completed 30km in September with no pain whatsoever.  This time around, couldn't even handle 5!  What's up with that?   On Monday morning, the stairs in my house were not fun.  Rolling was not fun.  Bending and straightening my leg - not fun either.  This will pass and get better -hopefully sooner rather than later!  Oh well, race season is done for the year.  I will focus on getting my right hip stronger and hopefully that will help solve this ongoing problem.  

The Fat Ass was fun nonetheless.  It was disappointing but you know what, every run can't be great!  You have to enjoy every moment no matter what.  I sure wasn't enjoying the pain, but I did enjoy the company, the volunteers, the beautiful nature surrounding me, cool crisp air, the treats at every aid station, the friendly and encouraging volunteers, the snow, the leaves, the mud, the other runners, just plain being alive and able to participate.

Relentless @ Mad Trapper Racing

Phew! I made it! "Made what?" you are thinking.  I made it to the finish line of course!

It's 8am on a Saturday morning.  Sophie and I are up early to get ready for the arrival of Lisa Austin.  We three are headed to Gatineau to complete a 10km brutal trail race.  How do I know it will be brutal?  Because if it's anything like the 5k we did a couple months ago, it will be brutal!

We make our way to The Ark of the Mad Trapper, sign in and get ready to go.  The course is an uphill battle - it seems like the only way we go is up - of course we both know that is just not possible - what goes up must come down... right?  Well, it sure feels like the ups are more frequent than the downs - which really is not a bad thing since the downs are hard on the knees.

The trail is a difficult one - single track pretty much the whole time -with lots of roots, rocks and logs in the way -all this makes it that much more fun!  BTW, no tumbles this time around!  There are lots of twists and turns, and ups again -perfect time of year with perfect temperature. 

I was happy to see that we actually had a 10k loop and not completing two loops of the 5k -I always find repeats a little boring...and the hills on the 5k... ouch!

Mike made sure the trails were very well marked - I appreciated that as I didn't necessarily want to add any milage to this race!

We got to the finish line in 2 hours.  Had lunch (bbq) and headed home.  I'm now looking forward to the next race - a 25k trail race up a ski hill - What can I say - I'm a glutton for punishment!

Midnight Moose Night Trail Race

I've been wanting to start writing about my running experiences and figured this race was a good time to start.

The Midnight Moose Ultra Trail Race was my first official trail race.  You see, I've been running for about 4 years now.  My friends Kristi and Rebecca, got me into running.  Because I had the two of them, I was doomed!   This summer, I decided to try trail running with my friend Kristi (check out her awesome blog here).   She now has me hooked on trail running since this past July.  Road running will have to wait until the winter, when I can't use the trails anymore.

Back to the race at hand...

The Midnight Moose took place in Gatineau Park.  It was the first time a night race was held in the park.  When signing up, you had 3 choices: 25, 50 or 100 km.  Rémi and I registered for the 25km race (which was really 26.6 -trail runs are never really the actual distance - hard to measure in the trails I guess!).

The day of the race finally arrived -I had a busy day at work, and of course couldn't nap when I got home.  Any other day, I can lie down on the couch and have a short nap not on this day!  We left home at 8 to be there for 9 to sign in and pick up our race kits (Race start is 10pm).  After a short briefing, off we went in the dark trails of the park.

Within the first 500 meters or so, I took a tumble. (It's not a real trail run if you don't fall at least once!) I banged my right knee and left hand pretty hard on the ground but didn't really think much of it at the time.  Adrenaline is pumping through my veins -it's hurts a little but whatever, it's not going to stop me!    My hand throbbing, off we went.

The trail was marked by these "reflective" ribbons that were not very reflective at all.  Caution to everyone who buys reflective tape - they don't all reflect light even though it says on the package!  Many ribbons were place higher in trees - problem is, during trail running, you are always looking at the ground - so you don't trip and fall -so ribbons that are high are missed.  You often had to stop and look for ribbons to make sure you were on the right trail.  That took time -and so added time to our end time.

We managed to run up one side of Wolf, and down the other. We got to the first checkpoint just fine. We had a quick drink of water and back up we went.

The second leg of the race was absolutely brutal.  There was much more going up than down.  We got to trail 2 and I just wanted to cry.  The hills were just nuts!  One of them felt like it was 10km long.  It was steeper than the other hills and we fell behind.  I'm thankful Rémi was with me.  I might have quit at that point... which would've been ridiculous since I was in the middle of nowhere and still would've had to get out of there!  His encouragement got me up that darn hill.  It was hill after hill for what felt like an eternity.

A few people past by us on that hill from hell - they had gotten lost somewhere and were going in circles - made me glad I didn't miss that turn (I know where they missed it as we almost did ourselves but saw the little ribbon).

We finally got to the second checkpoint.  I believe it was somewhere between kilometer 18 and 19.  I refilled one of my water bottles and off we went.  At this point, we are on a paved road.  We ran and ran down a very long hill.  A car stopped by and asks if we are ok - to which we replied yes - doing great.  and off we continued down this hill.  At some point, we saw the headlights of people in the woods.  Uh oh! We must not be where we need to be!  We get to the bottom of the hill and meet people coming out of the woods.  I asked them: "Are you guys doing the 25km?" To which they responded: "No, we are doing the 100.  You guys missed the split."  OH MY GOD!  We had to go back UP the hill (I really really hate hills by this point) to find the entrance back in the woods so we can get to the split.  Get back to the top of the hill, literally the top, and we see the tiny little "reflective" ribbon tied up high onto a sign post.  Really?  There should've been a little sign with an arrow or something - it was so easy to miss.  Oh well, what can you do... off we go into the woods.  Not far from there was the little signs 50/100 km to the left, 25km to the right.  Yeah! We were on the right track again!

We did this bit with more running, bits of hiking since you guessed it -more major hills!  We hadn't seen people in a long time, and ends up we didn't see anyone until the end -except for Mike (Kristi's husband) in his car on a short stretch of road.  We entered the woods one last time -the last stretch.

The last I don't know, 5 km maybe?, were terribly long and painful - mostly walking at this point as We were both exhausted, the trail was single track, not very well marked and very technical -in the dark, the technical parts are particularly difficult as you lose your depth perception.  We didn't want to risk injuries. When it was flat and not so technical I would say "Un p'tit coup de coeur?" and we would run for a bit.  We finally got back on the trail #1 and knew we were almost there -about 1km to go.  Once we could see the lights at the finish line, we started running because we knew we were almost done.  It was quite a relief to be able to finish!  We finished with a time of 5hours and 55minutes.  We added 4 kilometers by missing a turn.

This was quite an adventure.  It's great to be able to challenge yourself - both mind and body - to see how far you can go.  All in all, great event! I would do it again!  First, I need to take a few days to recover as my legs are not really happy at the moment! That's ok -it's all worth it in the end.

I'm looking forward to the next big adventure - perhaps a 50k is in my future.

Before the race (forgot to take one at the end - too tired I guess!)

My knee -can't tell on photo, but it's quite swollen.

My poor hand!  

The badge we received at the finish.