Jelly's Somewhat Removed Report of the Canadian Death Race

As I mentioned previously, my boyfriend did the Canadian Death Race in Grande Cache, AB this past weekend.

At first, I wasn't going to be joining him, but one thing derouled into another, and I got to go. I wasn't running, just cheerleading, but a weekend of camping (despite my novice camper status) was too good to be denied.

Especially with the eye-candy provided by ultra-runners.

Anyways, we took off on Friday at around noon. It takes about five hours to get to Grande Cache from Edmonton, but the going is pretty smooth.  Getting the day off was also no problem, because my boss was also competing.

The drive to Grande Cache was uneventful, and we made good time. Upon arrival, we discovered that Ragnar's team had a little cluster of tents in 'Tent City'. We had been warned that space would be rare, so we brought a little 2-man tent with us - however, we could have easily fit our borrowed 5-man tent!

The group also had no fire pit. But no! These are army engineers, of course they will build a fire pit! Except no one had a shovel. Ragnar's friend had just sharpened his axe and Ragnar probably wouldn't want me volunteering his tomahawk (don't ask me why he has one, it just is that way), so they were left to their own sticks, rocks, and devices. They're a resourceful lot, though, and as us womenfolk (numbering two) looked on, the boys got a nice fire going.

I sat up with my friends, chatting and showing chutzpah in licker-drinkins' (even if I don't like the taste, I'll swig it like a good Alberta-strong girl). Eventually we went to be... er, sleeping bag, and slept.

Saturday was more tense. The race was done in relay, and the first two runners had had a fair amount to drink the night before. However, they got their runs done, and suddenly Ragnar was carted away to do leg 4 of the race. I had been just been coming back from the out-houses (FYI, Death Race outhouses are beautifully maintained - cleaned once a day! Can you imagine?), so I didn't get to go with him.

This is the elevation chart of the race. That big peak? Yeah, that was Ragnar's job.

Ragnar's friend would be doing the leg after him (the last one), but leg 4 was the killer - it's called the Hamel Assault for good reason. You go up a mountain (Mt. Hamel, in fact), go around, come down a bit, and then go back up again. At one point in the leg, I got a call from Ragnar. He was quite out of breath, and dismayed to tell me that he had underestimated Mt. Hamel - he was going slower than he thought, and he didn't think he'd make the time he'd estimated. However, since he was out of breath, I got only half the message, and eventually, it was a good thing I did.

Ragnar's friend, his wife, and I hung around for a little longer, and then accepted a drive to the relay point where Ragnar's friend would take over the race. At this point, I was keeping an eye out for my boss (who had actually passed the point three or so hours earlier), but it was good we arrived when we did. Friend got a text about 10km out from Ragnar, and my own calculations were that he could do that in about 45 minutes.

And so he did. As Ragnar was pounding into the chute to the last leg, catching his breath, and generally not-falling-over, he revealed that due to the elevations of the mountain, there were some points that his Garmin watch wasn't getting GPS signals, so he thought he was doing 10min/km, rather than the 7min/km reality. Thank goodness I didn't really hear him say something like, "I'm going to be an hour late," because then the last leg would have started later.

We left Grande Cache on Sunday, Ragnar content to let his teammate pick up the medallions for the team. They finished 53rd overall, which I figure is pretty good for a first time.

As for me, I'll definitely be going back. Who knows, maybe I'll run a leg myself...

My Week In Running

I discovered a lot of new things in running this past week:

1. BC has a lot of hills. Sweetie and I did our 15km long run on Saturday, as we were planning to drive home on Sunday. This began with a big downhill, which meant on the return, there would be a big uphill. However, it was a nice run, fully enjoyable time with Ragnar, and I was able to enjoy the beautiful near-countryside of BC. Weird thing seen: a couch in the ditch.
2. Podcasting: I've heard of podcasting, but never figured it out until I needed something, anything, to block out the Flames of War podcast Ragnar was listening to. So I hooked up to Geeks in Running Shoes, which is a couple of self-proclaimed geeks who are recording their continuing efforts in making running a norm in their lives. They have guests, they talk about their race results, and they're super-nice: one already responded to me on Twitter! They also led me to the Slow Runners' Club, which espouses a joy in running and racing that is based on having fun, not racing for time, personal bests, or a win. Also, running while listening to podcasts? Not awesome, because you may have to laugh too hard.
3. Upon returning to Edmonton, it was, as my sister had described it, as hot as the seventh level of Dante's Hell. Constantly 28-30C, and humid to boot! Fortunately, I had lived in Ottawa, so this humidity was a mosquito's bite compared to some I'd experienced, but it made me start running in the morning again, because running at noon was torturous.
4. Which I did, actually, because I hadn't woken up early enough Thursday morning (the invasive heat and resulting two-hour thunderstorm broke my sleep too much). In deference, I brought a bottle of water with me, and took more walk-breaks than usual. It was a light 5k, but ended up taking a bit longer than usual.
5. Speaking of torturous running and podcasting, one of the topics that Geeks in Running Shoes covered at one point was Ultra running. This was very interesting for me because my boss runs ultras, and Ragnar is getting into them. As a matter of fact, Ragnar is training to participate in the Canadian Death Race (my boss is also training for this, but I'm not his pit crew). Listening to GiRS's podcast, I got a sense of what Ragnar will need on his run in the Death Race: yes-or-no or other equally simple questions, like "Are you peeing? When did you last pee? Are you drinking water? Electrolytes?" Quadratic equations are right out at a time when someone is concentrating on one foot in front of the other.
6. Last but not least, I really hope the wildfires in northern Alberta die down fast because I want everyone to be safe, and I want the air in Edmonton to clear up - right now, it's a disturbing yellow-peach colour during the day, stings my eyes, and doesn't feel healthy in the lungs. I wanted to go rollerblading tonight, but maybe I'll wait for a clearer day.

And that is what I learned.

Addendum: Dear hip, shut up. Just because we're turning 30 tomorrow does not mean my warranty has run out. Stop whining. You just have two more half-marathons to do this season. Quiet.

The Hills

Bad updater, no cookie.

We did our first round of hill-training this week! I was so super-excited that I was bouncing on my toes before we went out for our run.

We took a slow run to the hill, over at Bronson Place. Then there was a small hill, supposed to be 400 metres. We went up and down it three times, and by the end of the third, I was thinking, "Is that it?"

However, on the run back, I was definitely feeling the thighs!

Then we received strict instruction not to run the following day.