I can finally wrap my head around the 83 kilometres I spent running, hiking and cursing at Sinister 7 with a week of perspective under my belt.
Otherwise it would be a lacklustre blah blah blah, heat, rocks, climbs, never again etc. post.
To begin with, I’m not sure why I signed up for this $%! 50-miler. Likely it was a just moment of weakness when the registration opened up and I wanted to feel like I was part of something. Also I think it would be a good training run for Lost Soul 100K in September.
Race morning, as I squatted one behind a truck in an open field for one last nervous pee, I tried to tune out all the pre-race chaos around me. Old friends greeting one another. Lame small talk. Crazy talk about just wanting to finish and so on. Excitement. Fear.
Me? I just wanted to puke. But I think that’s a good thing because the pre-race jitters are a sign that I was taking the race seriously and I wanted to do well. I lined up in the middle of the pack and took a deep breath. I had the next 24 hours of my life to cross the finish line.
The 50-miler consisted of four legs of the seven legs of the usual Sinister 7 course. This year the legs were run in reverse (7-6-5-4-3-2-1), and the 50-miler ran 4 legs of the 100 mile course (4-3-2-1) with something like 3,150 elevation gain.
None of these details really mattered to me. I just needed to know the distance between legs and aid stations. Right?
I had loosely estimated times for each leg with a finishing time around 14 hours. I wasn’t really sure what to expect on race day. Mother Nature and our bodies are notoriously known to throw in a curve ball or three.
First leg (part of leg 4) (17.5 k, 883 metre gain)
Nothing much to say about this leg. Honestly I can’t really remember it. Glimpses of Ron and Lori at the beginning, a little climb and that’s about it. While I had run the legs in training, I wasn’t sure what the difference would be on race day. For this first leg, I was under my estimated time by about 20 minutes.
Second leg (leg 3 of original course) (30.8 k, 1,385 metre gain)
Hot, dry and exposed. I knew to expect the so I didn’t exert myself too much but I tried to keep a steady pace of hiking and running. When we ran this leg in training, it was cooler and there was some rain. I think that’s why I was so much slower on this leg. I was over by 40 minutes than I had expected.
At the end of this leg, I swapped my sneakers because my the bottom of my feet were killing me. Weeks ago I had tempted fate and bought a pair of Hoka Tecton X carbon plated sneakers. I thought they were good to go but apparently after 50K not so much (for me).
Third leg (leg 2 of original course) (16.7k, 942 m gain)
Leg 2 (the third leg) was one leg that I dreaded all day. Okay maybe just the beast of a climb through the burnt forest. It sucked just as I knew it would but I got through it. At the top of the climb, I pulled out my iPhone to discover Apple’s security measures had locked me out. No photos of Sinister 7 for me!
The rest of the leg was pretty basic trail running over rocks, road and single track. I kept leap frogging and running with a few women – Kelsey from Calgary, Lou from the UK and Trish. It was fun to have some company at the end of the leg. Turns out I knew Trish from my CrossFit days in Red Deer. Small world.
Kelsey and I ran most of the rest of the leg 2 together trying to beat the sun going down. Thankfully we made it to the final aid station before I had to pull out my headlamp. At this final station, I was greeted by Hilary who shoved some hot soup in my hands. She walked me out of the aid station while I gulped the soup. I looked around for Kelsey but I didn’t see her so I kept going.
Final leg (leg 1 of original course) (18.3K, 334 m gain)
It was so dark. I have never run in the mountains alone in the dark before. Pretty cool when I think about it now. The thought of running into a bear or a cougar never occurred to me. I just didn’t want to get lost. I didn’t see any headlamps in front or behind me so I kept my pace steady. At one point, I saw a runner come from nowhere off trail. She had missed a trail marker, which quickly heightened my senses. Getting lost would not be fun.
Eventually Kelsey caught up and we proceeded to stick together and battle the random rain and wind with laughter. Man it was great to have company on this final leg. There were times when I was straggling and there were times she was falling back. We drew from each other’s strengths. The funny thing is neither one of us was really hurting or negative, tired yes, but we were determined to get it done.
When we hit the final road section to the finish line, of course, we went the wrong way. Thankfully a bearded hippie spotted us and yelled, “Runners you’re going the wrong way.”
After cursing and correcting ourselves, we headed down the road when I heard another runner greet me by name. We had chatted earlier in the race for a few kilometres. The three of us stuck plogged together through the Frank Slide section before he took off on the final section along the train tracks.
As the finish line drew nearer, I mumbled to Kelsey that I am not racing. I felt like we had run so much together that we should finish together. And we did. Lovely to see her husband all smiles at the finish line waiting for her. Amazing work Kelsey!
Final thoughts
I didn’t meet my estimated time goal of 14 hours. I finished in 15 hours and 22 minutes. (See the full results here.) Not a great time but I have a lot of wins in this race. Namely I was bang on with my nutrition and hydration. I ate so much and I think it really made the difference. Secondly I managed my effort during the super hot sections. Often I find runners do not dial it down when Mother Nature is turning up the heat. Lastly I thought my pacing was bang on. I took it super slow in the beginning and I was able to conserve my energy.
Generally if we are talking about the negatives, I think I conserved a little too much. Lots left in the tank. I’ve always had a problem with pushing myself in race. I am such a tree hugger. I just want to enjoy the moment and smell the flowers. Then I look at my results and think, why do I suck so much? I could have run parts of the third and final leg faster.
Lots of lessons from this race that I will take with me to the next one.