This is not your conventional race. Even for a trail race I think it was slightly nutty. Nutty in an awesome “I’m gonna do that again next year” kind of way. The Mad Dog Scramble is put on by a local running group, XSNRG, starts at a public school in Toronto’s toniest neighbourhood and winds its way through the ravines of the Don River. To make things interesting and fun, runners are divided into packs based on speed with time handicaps and longer routes for the fastholes. I was seeded with group 5 (those who can run a 50-55 minute 10k) which had a 9 minute handicap and followed the “crazy” course which was a little longer and tougher than the “wild” course but easier than the “insane” one.
Since the race was on Halloween, there was a really festive mood with lots of runners dressed up in costume. The start was pretty casual and about 15 people lined up for my wave. A ready, set, go from the race director and we were off. The first 400 m is across the school yard and along a paved road to the ravine. I really wasn’t thinking about race strategy at the start. Perhaps I was too busy gawking at the $10m++ houses we were running by. If I had been thinking, I would have followed the advice a friend gave me about trail races. She said to take speed where you can find it. Uh, a slight downhill paved road at the start would have been the place but alas, I just held steady with the pack and entered the ravine and single track course behind everyone else in my wave. I soon realized my mistake as I then spent the next 5 minutes finding holes to pass the more cautious and slower runners. In fact, due to the wave nature of the start, I spent a lot of time and effort passing people. No worries though, as I was in turn passed by many as well and everybody was super nice about it.
Once in the ravine, the race had tons of steep ups and downs, river crossings (some up to your knees, lots of muddy spots and copious amounts of leaves on the trails to hide potential hazards. I only took a tumble once on a downhill section but the leaves provided a soft cushion and in fact I think it was faster to slide down on my rear than if I had run down it! All in all, I think I ran about 90% of the course with the only walking happening on some of the uphills and perhaps a few seconds at the top to catch my breath. The last hill out of the ravine was a doozy and actually required a rope to scale it. At the top of that one, I was toast but knew it was an easy sprint to the finish. Out onto the road I saw one guy from my wave retching on a well manicured lawn, obviously a victim of that last hill. A volunteer was helping him so took off and ran it home. A Running Free teammate was at the last turn onto the school property cheering loudly and taking pictures.
Once over the finish line we were given a door prize ticket and a plastic bag for our wet shoes and clothes. After I got changed, I headed into the school for refreshments (they had chocolate milk yum!) and the awards which were lots of fun. Prizes were given to 1st, 2nd, 4th and last place (3rd place is SOL) as well as dirtiest dog. There were tons of door prizes of which I won one (yay!). With just 140 people in the race and the possibility for any level of runner to win, this race has a really friendly vibe. Anyone looking for something different and challenging within the city, check out the Mad Dog Scramble next year!
