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All posts for the month December, 2017

Years ago I couldn’t run more than 15km without my IT-band seizing and getting a severe pain in my knee.  5 years ago I ran the Calgary marathon and tried to run through the pain.  I ended up really damaging my IT-band and was out for 6 months recovering.  I had come close to resigning myself that I may just not be able to run more than a half marathon.  On a shot in the dark I went into a physio clinic and signed up for a running assessment (I was actually trying to burn leftover heath benefits).  The verdict was that I was a habitual heel striker.  Recommendations were simple:

  • Run in minimalist shoes
  • Run with a cadence of more than 175 steps per minute
  • Change up runs with tempo, long, intervals
  • Ramp up miles no more than 10% a week
  • Use walk-run while ramping

To be honest the biggest change I felt was increasing my cadence and being conscience about smaller faster strides.  The result was I could run as long as I wanted with absolutely no knee pain.  I did suffer extremely sore calves which I attributed to the new stride, but that faded as the new muscles got use to the new stride.

With this new found ability I decided to see if I could run a marathon.  I signed up for the Calgary marathon and took it easy.  My humble goal was to at least finish, in under 4 hours.  I completed it in 3:45 and felt great the whole time.  With this momentum I registered for the Banff Marathon and ran it in 3:31.  I was feeling so good after I kept running for another 8km.  50km was the longest I had ever run and I felt great.

2017 Calgary Marathon @ 3:46:45

2017 Banff Marathon @ 3:31:41

 

Getting bored of road running, I decided to look into trail running options.  There is actually quite a few world class runs in the Alberta Rockies and I signed up for the Iron Legs 60km Ultra to see what would happen.  At this point I was still gunshy about injury, but I had been running for a year with absolutely no issues so I put in some training miles and showed up.

I went with the Ultimate Direction Mountain 3.0 vest and its been one of the vest purchases I’ve made.  Unbelievably comfortable and has pockets at all the right places.  Expensive, but worth every penny.  I went with heavier shoes than I normally would run in, but it turned out to be a good decision with the really rough terrain I would encounter.

Race day was a perfect summer day without a cloud in the sky.

The race started at sunrise with an easy 10km cruise along Elbow Valley train towards the Powerface staging area.  It was a mass start on single track so the pace was very regulated and slower than I would have started, but I followed the lead of others.  Walking up steep hills and taking it easy for the first 10km seemed the norm.  The sun was rising by the time we hit Powderface Creek Trail and continued on a gradual incline for another 10km.

At this point I was 21km into the race and feeling great.  Lets were fine, early pacing meant I had lots of energy and the weather was amazing.  Reaching Powederface Ridge Trail was a very steep switchback heading up to the ridge.  Running turned into power walking until we crested the top.

Once at the top I followed the ridgeline waiting to see the next marker.  I could see another runner out in the distance so assumed I was on the right track.  It turned out someone had removed the red marker tape the night before and about 10 of us ran past the turnoff, running to end of the ridge which came to a steep drop.  Realize I made a mistake I ran back about 2km until I could find the last marker.  There was a switchback leading down the backside of Powerface Ridge, but with no markers it was a drop of faith that it was the right way.  By this time we had 10 of us bunched up and the drop from the ridge was a fast pounding potential ankle destroying journey down to the bottom aid station.  Frustrated with the wrong turn I just let gravity take me, and the trail was perfect for a quick descent. 

  

30km in to the race, and feeling great lead me to my first inexperienced decision.  I blasted past the aid station grabbing nothing but a quick refill of water on one of my bottles.  The race had been relatively easy, weather nice and cool and I was feeling good.  The decision was made to just keep going. 

I would end up in the most grueling section of the course: Ford Knoll Trail and Ford Creek Trail.  I was not expecting steep incline after incline.  The declines were too steep to run, so they took just as much energy as the inclines.  By this time the mid day heat arrived and the temp was getting close to 30oC.  By the end of the trail I was getting mentally pounded and running out of water.  The third aid station couldn’t have come soon enough.  I loaded up on water, fruit and anything I could get down.  My stomach had rejected gels after the 3rd or 4th so I needed another mechanism to get electrolytes and sugars back in my body. 

Hooking on to Prairie Creek Trail would provide a great yet technical route back to Elbow Valley Trail.  It was smooth and provided a good opportunity to stretch the legs.  The way back we hooked onto Sulphur Springs Trail, which would normally be a great easy way to finish, but by this time the sun was in full force and the trail was totally exposed to the sun.  I was baking and started to feel the effects of heat stroke.  At the top some saintly volunteers were handing out freezies.  I ate it so fast it gave me a crushing brain freeze, but I was dying for a way to cool down. 

The Sulphur Springs trail back side was in the thick forest and smooth trail which made for some easy cruising back to the end.  Getting sloppy I stumbled on a tree root and in an attempt to stop myself from falling on my face did a quick stutter step. Immediately my legs felt like a jolt of electricity went through them, my calves instantly seized up and I slammed to the ground.  Rolling around, screaming on the ground like and idiot as my my legs felt like my achillies had snapped, one of the runners up in front of me heard and came back.  By this time I was laying in the brush with both legs stretched out straight, pain was slowly starting to fade and my embarrassment urged him to continue on. I lay there for another minute, absolutely gutted that I would injure myself this close to the finish.  I got up, started slowing walking, then into a slow run and after about 500 meters was feeling 100% again – strange. 

Feeling great and day dreaming I missed the last turn and ended up coming out in a field by the highway.  By this time I was just done, yet doubled back a kilo to the trail and took the right trail back to Station Flats and the finish line.

(below pictures are not mine, but are of the optional 80km route up moose mountain) 

It was nice to see my wife and little kids had come out to greet me.  My oldest was dressed up as a ninja and wanted to play flight with me, yet I just laid down and tried to recover.

The high of finishing subsided in about 15 minutes and the reality of heat stroke kicked in.  I wasn’t feeling tired, but the constant ingestion of gels and sugars was putting me off.  About 20 minutes after finishing I puked my guts out, then felt back to 100%. 

My total time was 9:38:02, my goal was to beat 10 hours so I was happy about that.  It wasn’t the distance that was hard, it was the elevation and heat.  Just under 2700 meters for the day.  

Overall it was a great day, very well organized event and one of the most enjoyable activities I’ve done in a long time.  With 60km under my belt I’m interested in the 80km next year, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Check out my relive.