Despite dragging my ass around the world on many various adventures throughout the years, I had amazingly never been anywhere in Canada east of Toronto (technically Montreal if we are counting layovers). Then one day, this scrappy ULCC airline started flying out to St. John's from Calgary for roughly half of what I would pay on a mainline, so I checked with what my bud out there was up to for September long. He said he was out of town running the Steep 50k in Corner Brook, so I signed up for the 100k of that iteration to tag along with him.
Yes, you've read this story before.
 |
| Me, MEL'NIE! and Tim before the race |
And just like that race - I didn't need to run this. Western and Hardrock were done, I literally had no idea what to do with my training and I was still feeling like running was a chore. But this race had been on my list since its inception in 2020 as I was drawn to its not-the-Rockies brand of vert and the fact it was so far from home but yet so close, so I thought it was divine that my buddy Tim had signed up for it too.
All I wanted was to play tourist on this race and not let others' performances get into my head, but nevertheless my time goals for this race were as follows:
- 14-15h. This was based on my previous 100k time at Quicksilver - I knew the course was less pedestrian and had more vert than that so I figured an extra 60-120 mins should do.
- sub-19h30m. after a ton of races filled with a larger elite field than normal, Ultrasignup predicted I would finish in 19h30m based on my percentile rankings as of late. even though this race had a 22h cutoff, that algorithm can fuck right off.
also, yes there were only 19 entrants a week prior to the race. of which I was the only one from west of Ontario. - sub-22h, I guess.
The race itself is an out-and-back - we would start just outside downtown Corner Brook, run through a park and then some mountain bike trails behind the suburb of Massey Drive, then somehow end up on the Marble Mountain ski hill. After a short road interlude parallel to the TCH to Humber Village, we would then slog our way to the Man in the Mountain geological feature, which was actually pretty much back in Corner Brook. And then we would come back the way we came.
Because Lynx Air only flew Tuesdays and Saturdays, I ended up getting to sea level four days before the race which wasn't ideal, but it gave me some time to mosey around the St. John's area and get screeched in and murder my liver with craft beer and what not. Tim, his girl Melanie and I drove out across the island to Corner Brook Thursday before the race for more of that, which gave us a bit of time to explore the West Coast a bit on Friday before picking up our bibs and meeting a few fellow 100k runners. I had a 6am start from the finish line for my out-and-back, while they had an 8am start from my 100k turnaround - so I wouldn't see them until I was well into the north side of the TCH the next day, and they'd be coming in the opposing direction.
The 100k ended up having 14 starters, which meant the start was pretty subdued and low-key. Literally, it was a 5-mins-to-go announcement, then a 10 second countdown. I went out with some of the faster locals and tried to hang on so I wouldn't get lost looking for flags, but the uneven strides amongst the roots and rocks was giving my upper legs some grief so I ceded my position all the way down to 11th by the time we crossed over the TCH to the Massey Drive side, just short of an hour in. My headlamp turned off about 40 mins as well so that I could make out some landmarks in the light as I noticed there was rather sparse flagging on this section. No, this is not foreshadowing anything whatsoever.
We went up a couple of switchbacks where I caught up to #10, and I led him around the Maple Valley quarry before losing him while I was pounding down some salt tabs. I didn't see him again until well past the Massey Drive aid, where I only stopped to pound down two PB&J sandwich quarters. The trail after the AS turned from mountain bike trail to jeep trail, before dipping down to a swampy powerline right of way, where I caught back up to Gabriel from St. John's via Bogota after he followed the wrong flag. I got him back and we finally started chatting - apparently he was running his first race ever (just gonna skip the 50k/50m distance there) and was shooting for 18h. I told him I was shooting for 15h, but somehow I just knew both of us were going to fuck over those two time goals.
He worked for Wood Group out of St. John's, so we shot the shit a bit talking about oil and gas, and it wasn't soon before long before we were at the out and back at the Corner Brook doppler station on Mt. Musgrave, the highest point of the race. I had to pee so I let Gabriel descend before me, but I was only seconds after him at the end of the descent into the Marble Mountain aid station. I knew the next little bit was flat and undulating so I spent very little time here and told Gabriel to not keep me waiting before I left ahead of him.
I didn't stop running on this 89m D+ treeless road section between Steady Brook and Humber Village, as I didn't want to be caught out in the now blazing sun for too long. I was getting rather worried I hadn't seen any 50k's yet as I was now past 30k on my end, but sure enough, once I crossed the Humber River I saw the lead runner/lady pushing it through the gravel road. I came into the aid station seconds before the 2nd 50k, and didn't spend much time here as I barely drank any water on the road run.
It was 15k to the next aid station and I knew I had about 7-8k to an unmanned water drop, but after a k of running gravel I entered into a whole other jungle full of bushwhacking and humidity. I literally could not see fuck all with where I was planting my foot, and my 6min/k road miles suddenly devolved into 16min/k uphills......and downhills.
 |
| Taken by the course photographer right at the beginning of this nonsense |
Gabriel had not caught up yet but I finally saw all my buds, starting with Steve, then his other half Fleur and Mel running together. I was super glad she was 3rd lady at her first 50k race, especially after putting up with all this bushwhacking.
 |
| Then a couple minutes later, when I was fully in the "fuck this shit" part of the race. |
Next, I ran into Jen and Andrea who I had met at Rough Waters Brewing two days before, and a whole bunch of girls travelling in a whole group. This was followed by Tim and another fellow cursing out a section where they got lost because of insufficient flagging around deadfall. And soon after, the 50k volume slowed to a trickle and I was all alone in the velociraptor den again.
I ran out of water roughly around where I expected the water drop to be, but there was also a relatively fast flowing creek right there which I used to sit my legs down in. I was also tempted to filter some water here but with the ultra-real risk of beaver fever, I decided to pass and ran on zero water for approximately 10m before finding the water drop.
About 40mins later I ran into 1st place blowing through the bushes going the other way, and 2nd/3rd did not materialize for another half hour or so after I did the second lookout out-and-back. I was watching the clock get closer to 8h, my km's float closer to 17 mins, the odometer drift towards 50k with absolutely no drop in altitude, my stomach start to grumble from rationing one Clif bar for the last 3 hours, and hikers start to appear with fuck all in hydration gear. But still no aid station. There was a sharp descent about a mile out, but we only ended up at a pond still quite clearly above the highway. Finally, another sharp drop in switchbacks and a drainage basin, and I found myself back in civilization with a giant "No Trespassing" sign in someone's backyard, and a couple 100m later I found a tent full of volunteers eager to help. My moving time was just barely shy of 8h when I got it
After keeping my prior aid station loitering to a minimum, I absolutely splurged here - I changed my shoes and socks (even though they would get soaked again prior to the next aid station), grabbed my charging stuff, topped up on three more Clif bars, ingested a 200mg caffeine pill and rolled out my legs a bit. Uncharacteristically, I also ate a lot of fruit here and drank a lot of fruit juice, as I knew that with my bushwhacking pace and steep climbs in the next hour, the chances of fructose malabsorption were pretty low. The aid station staff mentioned something about waiting for only four more runners, so after almost ten minutes I got my rear in gear and hiked out.
Gabriel showed up roughly 30 mins after that, and I told him I'd see him in a little bit. This was followed by the last three runners in short order. With the knowledge there were no course marshals on this section, I was very much tempted to cut through a few shortcuts and skip the out-and-backs now that my A-goal had gone completely to shit, but I declined to do so as I figured I'd gain literally not enough time for it to make a difference in ranking.
The next couple of hours were uneventful - I only got lost once bushwhacking back, but only lost two minutes finding my way back with a gpx file on my phone. A tailwind presented itself when I was high enough but it was getting dark under the canopy, and I nuked one Clif bar by the time the jungle spit me out back into the sun just before 5pm.
There was only one volunteer at Humber Village at this time, but I had to bleed a bit of time here over-concentrating the Gatorade that was supplied in lieu of Xact electrolyte after the race stuff got lost in the mail. I knew there was a headwind running west back to Steady Brook, but somehow I still averaged 6-6:15/k on the pavement. Despite the desert of that road, it felt rather pleasant shuffling through with it cooling into the evening.
I got to Marble Mountain in just under an hour, and I would have kept my stay short here too had it not been someone who had abandoned their last Nuun tablet next to the Gatorade - I dumped out my electrolyte here and switched out to a half tablet, before rushing out to what I knew was going to be around an hour of uphill hiking.
It actually took a little bit less for me to reach the junction with the Doppler out and back, distracting myself by chasing the sun and running on short plateaus. Again, I contemplated skipping out on this section, but I needed to pee and I figured I should pee up at the top again just like the last time. Sure enough, I ran into the second lady on this segment while she was coming down, so I would have been caught if I skipped this part.
I passed her just exiting the ski hill twenty minutes later, and my headlamp turned on shortly after clearing the powerline swamp and extra water drop 4k short of Massey Drive. With a 14-15h A-goal I elected to bring my shitty Petzl, so my illumination range wasn't as good as the headlamp I used for WSER and Hardrock, which led to me running slower on certain corners. This was supplemented by suddenly inconsistent flagging on some sections devoid of intersections, making me question my navigation at times.
The three ladies at Massey Drive aid had a fire going, but I knew Tim would be waiting for me at the finish line to see my finish, so I kept my time there short and sweet. My flasks were still more than half full, having last filled at Marble, so I grabbed some chips and PB&J and got the hell out of dodge. I texted Tim once everything was in my mouth and shuffled along to 7-8min km's.
I saw nothing in the dark until I hit the quarry, where I saw a faint headlamp on the other side. I knew it could be my buddy Mike as he was a bit ahead of 2nd lady on the jungle section, but I had no intentions of picking it up a bit to reel him in as I was running pretty comfortably. After a few minutes of circular MTB trail running that made me question if I was running in circles, I finally came out into Massey Drive proper to see a runner with Mike's quiver/pack running under the TCH back into Corner Brook. We only had 4km left at this point.
I caught up with him reentering the trails, wished him well and told him I'd leave some moose soup for him at the finish line before leaving him behind. This last little bit was incredibly devoid of flagging, but somehow I managed to pick up my inbound trail without stopping by picking out landmarks - first a bridge over a creek, then a right turn, then up a stupid hill, then down along a leaky above-grade water pipeline, then back down a hill, then next to a substation and then a full spring on a double-track trail back to Margaret Bowater park. If the lack of flagging I experienced was also there for the 50k, I thought that they must have had a ton of fun on this section.
I finished just before 11pm, with Mike coming in shortly thereafter - he had paused a few times to consult his map. Tim was there to watch me come in, which was a good feeling despite what looked to be my worst 100k showing ever.
 |
| I had joked at the start that runners should be expected to limbo across their low hanging start/finish banner. And here I am demonstrating a proof of concept. |
By the numbers:
- Placement: 6/14
- Time:16:54:45
- DNF%: 36%, including unofficial finishes
- Distance: 101.2km
- Elevation gain: 4152m
- Tim/Mel for taking me in and their hospitality. Congrats on running your longest run ever, it only gets better from here! I'll definitely be back to heckle and ghost the ECT accordingly.
- The vollies - I'm sorry my sense of urgency came off a bit snobby but I couldn't have done this without all y'all.
Stray observations:
- For those of you keeping track, the last Canadian ultra I ran prior to this race, excluding any pace bunny gigs at the Calgary Marathon 50k, was Lost Soul during 2015.
- I managed to tear the toe cap of my left Brooks Cascadia 16 on this terrain while snagging my toe.
- Gabriel finished with an unofficial time of over 22h, but somehow still got the DFL title.
- The title of this post comes from Mike's retelling of the events around km96 to Tim.
- If you are coming from a place of many trail ultra finishes like myself, you need to approach this race with the attitude that NL trail running is still in its infancy. You won't have volunteers grabbing your poles and flasks right as you enter the aid station, then asking what they can get you. You will encounter questionable flagging choices. You will realize that the provided GPX file is not what was flagged. You will realize there are contradictions in the runners' manual. You will realize that not enough trail maintenance is done for this race prior to the event. You will ask yourself if it was worth the entry fee.
- And every single fucking time, it is 100% worth it. No matter where you came from, your home trail running community had these growing pains as well. But the passion behind this race is amazing, and having a low runner count just means more awesome volunteers to attend to you. Despite my experience, I'm super stoked to see how this community grows and evolves.
- Crewing/pacing at HURT 100 in January.
- I'll probably throw my name into WSER and Hardrock again, but I have no intention of completing any additional qualifiers.
- Cocodona 250 is seriously being contemplated.
No comments:
Post a Comment