The North Face Canadian Death Race ’08

Race: The North Face Canadian Death Race – 125km in 24hrs
Date: August Long Weekend Annually – Sat/Sun
Location: Grande Cache, Alberta
Sport: Adventure Running!
Website: http://www.canadiandeathrace.com

“For nearly a decade, elite racers have come to Grande Cache to cheat Death in one of the world’s toughest adventure races. The 125 km course begins and ends on a 4200 foot plateau, passes over three mountain summits and includes 17,000 feet of elevation change and a major river crossing at the spectacular Hell’s Gate canyon at the confluence of the Smoky and Sulphur Rivers. During the August long weekend each year, extreme athletes, individually and in relays, push themselves to the limits of their endurance against the breathtaking background of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Each year, well-trained and totally committed, they battle heat, cold, altitude and themselves…..There are no big cash prizes for winning: finishing is hard enough. And the bragging rights are priceless” You can say that again!!!

I’m not quite back down to earth yet after my exhilarating experience with the Canadian Death Race, and it took a week or two of reflecting on the excitement of the big event (and a few days of sleep!) to really know how to put into words how much I loved every moment, although timing out after Leg 3. I think I made about 5 lists for this race, one for each Leg just to be as organized and as prepared as possible. Being uber prepared just made the ride of getting there even more exciting. I just wanted to get on the trails and see the mountains! I could not believe that it was finally happening, & it didn’t feel real at all.

A quick plane-ride to Calgary and a very scenic route through Banff/Jasper/Canmore with a perfect tour-guide who knows the names of every mountain, made all pre-race nerves subside. Seeing a baby bear on the roadside and getting pics was worth the long 7~ish+ hours drive! I have never been to the mountains, so seeing them up close was fantastic and breathtaking.

Grande Cache is charming & quaint…population almost 4000, although it felt like there was only a few 100, and it grew as 1000+ racers, crews and family settled down on the tiny town days before the race. The weather was cool, overcast and looming clouds hung low amongst the mountains the day before the race, which set the tone…fitting for a race with Death in it! I did what every racer does their first time in Grande Cache….looked and pointed at every peak…”is that Hamel?”….”is that Grande?”…”where’s the Valley?”… Lucky for me Bob knew where all the Legs started & ended, we even drove up the last 10K of Leg 4 up to Ambler Loop with our good friend Kenny who was running Leg 4 with Bob & my friends in Team. It wasn’t going to help us run any faster…but it added to the excitement and anticipation that we would be running and climbing on these trails soon.

Race kit pickup on Friday was held this year in the arena, a bit maddening for the relay teams but for a soloist it was a breeze & the volunteers before, after and during the race were amazing…and this year’s CDR was sponsored by the North Face so the schwag was great (& the girls got the better shirts…that’s another story!) Friday night we had a pre-race prep-talk, lots of crew-jockeying & car-moving & people-moving to talk about…I didn’t need to concern myself thankfully. I was the only one going solo along with a couple other gals I knew, and my good friend Colette who was running Leg 5 was going to take care of Bob & myself between Leg 1&2 – after that Bob would be crewing for me…piece of cake.

Saturday, Race Day, 530AM – we had 3 different wakeups..I was completely paranoid about sleeping in…dark, overcast, chilly, calling for some rain…Java…Bagel….last minute double-check of gear…omg I cant believe I’m doing this!! Surprisingly I was calm but inside I was thrilled. In my head I had this race cut up in chunks…one step at a time. First leg 19K….piece of cake…that’s all I focused on.

Leg 1 – 19K Rolling Trails- 8AM Race Start: National Anthem, Mounties, Screaming Death Race Fans, Cowbells, Kiddos, and running with my friends at the start of an Epic Adventure Race…it just doesn’t get any better than that. I left my iPod off until we cleared the first ~5K of people/road, and when I hit the forest for the first time I had Fly by Night come on, and a huge smile crossed my face and I felt like I had arrived. I rocked my way down the trail and passed all sorts of runners…first time I have ever said “On your left”…I was passing soloists as well as relay folks…I power-climbed all the hills like Ms. Rispolie taught me, and hammered all the crazy downhills like Coach said to do…including the last one which felt like it took a half hour…great hill, and I can honestly say I don’t think I could have run that first leg any faster….2hrs 13min…I was freaking out when I came through grinning and looking for my girl…fans were hi5ing me…going solo you definitely get some serious fanfare…Colette was waiting for me, Coke in hand, and first thing she says “Bob did it in an hour and a half!”….I knew he would…good because I was going to need him after the next leg! Chips, pack-change & poles…and off I went. It was starting to rain finally which felt good b/c I was hot after that first leg. Loved having arm-warmers –they worked perfectly!

Leg 2 – 27K, 2Peaks…well I think I lost track of time…I cant really explain it and I guess I thought I had more time….that and not fully being ready for falling fast enough – I laugh because I can recall the words so clearly from Bob…”controlled falling”….If you were too careful to avoid injury you would slow down…but if I went too fast I was scared to get injured and these hills were vertical in some spots…so I just kept moving forward. The steep climbs and the multiple steep descents in what they call the slugfest were brutal…and as crazy as it sounds I felt relaxed and calm thinking it was no problem, because I had finished Ultimate XC and some of that terrain was crazier! The other part of leg 2 that was a challenge was freezing my butt off on the 2nd peak – lucky me got rain/freezing-rain on top of both peaks on Flood/Grand Mountains….my hands were like icicles…Denise told me it would be cold…she was right! Finally, the powerline mudslide came….I wish I had a magic-carpet the kids use in the snow because I’m certain I would have made up the half hour I needed sliding down Grande! It was slippery mud from top to bottom (and I was wearing most of it!), and just when I thought I was getting close….the cruel joke you could see ahead, was another muddy steep climb up. At this point I was obsessively doing math in my head…”OK if I can get through this in the next half hour I will have the time I need for transition then 3hrs for leg 3….” This thought circled and circled, and the time crunched closer and closer…the final muddy/grassy/steep downhill came which I remember from the day before and I hammered it…and ran back into town with my head held high, poles in hand & mud from head to toe..….no tears from this death-racer….the race wasn’t over yet. The sad thing was there were racers I ditched in the slugfest that had already thrown in the towel – I had overheard them yakkin so I turned up my iPod…they were doing “math” earlier than I was, and I wasn’t coming all this way to throw any towel in after 30K particularly in the slugfest!

Leg 2 transition & Leg 3 – 19K Trail -They called my name as I approached the start/finish line which is where the end of Leg 2 also was, so I had a great sense of accomplishment as I ran back through after completing Leg 2 in 6hr 26min, not great, and I still had 2hr&12min to run 19K for Leg 3 (clock was at 8:48)…still doable in my head. I was so happy to see a friendly face even though he was snapping pix of me telling me I had mud on my face! Bob put a warm jacket on me as I was getting cold and probably shivering but I didn’t notice – he obviously did…(my perception of this transition is skewed of course after 9hours…) & made me drink some nasty vanilla/salty concoction, and as I sat and ate a half waffle and some chips, all I could see was the big Start/Finish Time clock count down to the 9hr mark which would only leave me 2hrs…”Comon!” I said…”I need to go!!” I was soaked from running for well over 8 hours and all the rain I went through, so we changed my shirt fast, and finally got me out with 2 hours to go…I didn’t even care at that point because in my head I wasn’t quitting and I was mostly going downhill! How easy is that! “All I want is Carbopro!” I recall I had said when I came into transition too…Everyone told me I would…and they were right! The closer to water the better, as I had enough of the gels and other items I had with me so Carbopro was perfect! I took off and my personal paparazzi chased me down snapping some last minute pix. I was in my glory rockin away to my iPod again. To my amazement, there were still Team Relayers coming up behind me and I managed to catch up to a couple more soloists. I was getting sore, my feet were just starting to ache and then finally after 10.5 hours I got my first stomach cramp. FUN! Well if I am going to get the full experience, I might as well get it all! As the 7pm mark approached and I made some last ditch efforts to run thinking maybe, just maybe… I could see where I was across the water nearing the bridge so I had less than 5K to go…dam them for changing the 715p cutoff! Oh well what could I do…so I just kept moving forward….So many what-ifs going through my head…I saw a stream up ahead and just stood in it…oh the icy water felt good! A group of soloists ran up behind me and asked if I saw the bears….nope….thankfully! There was no time to worry about bears in this race!

Once back at the Leg 4 exchange I was still high after completing almost 65K in 11+hours of the toughest terrain of my life….Hamel was looking pretty scary as I settled into the realization that I wasnt climbing the “Behemoth”…although I still wanted to.

Was I prepared for my first DNF? Nope

Was I disappointed at that moment? Nope – quite proud

Was it everything I imagined? More!

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!!

I was so happy to see my friends and all caught up in the excitement of the race as we were still waiting for Kenny to come off Leg 4, and send Colette off into the pitch black night for the final leg of the race….by 2am though I was done! I think we finally got to sleep after all the excitement at ~5am…well at least I can say I was awake for 24hrs!! Bob and my team of friends finished the race in 18hrs 26min – 75/131 mixed team ranking…with Bob doing leg 1&2 – Leg 1 in 1hr&30 and Leg 2 in 4hours…!! 5.5hrs…he makes it look so easy!! The team was thrilled and I couldn’t be happier for them!

The next morning was when the real disappointment set in…I was so close to the cutoff…

One thing is for certain…I know what I need to do for next year…and next year I am going back with some unfinished business to attend to, and my friends who ran in Team will be joining me in the epic solo quest. Only 1/3 of the soloists finished this year…next year I will be in that top 3rd!

Leg 6 was legendary…another 24hr Epic Adventure!..And THAT is an entirely different race report!! 🙂

Thanks to everyone for their encouragement and support. Every one of you knows who you are and you were with me every step of the way!

Go Death Racers!