Solstice

Remember how I was trying to be a little more sensible?

It sort of worked. I have ACTUALLY TAPERED for Sunburn Solstice tomorrow! I did run down to the market on Saturday, taking the pretty (and coincidentally, longer) way through the RARE trails.

Don't know when I'll have another chance to get in here.

While I did have a brush with a tick (EEEEEK!), I was fortunate to avoid being bitten by all but a few determined mosquitoes, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Happy girl!

That was it for Saturday, though - just 11-odd kilometers in the morning. We got our car in for service, took care of a bunch of errands, and I did try to take it easy...though I ended up putting in over 22,000 steps for the day. 

Sunday morning we were up early for a couple of special events - first up was a run with some friendly folks for Patty's birthday, on the trails around Hilton Falls.

At which black hats, mint green packs, skirts and blue Topo Ultraventure shoes were de rigeur

It was a lovely day to ramble around the trails at "sexy pace" for a few hours, taking in the beauty around us.

Some on the small scale..

..and some much larger.

For once, at a group run, I didn't end up being left behind!

Though I did occasionally have to catch up a bit, due to stopping to get photos like this.

Heck, I didn't even really hurt myself - just a minor tweak of my left ankle, which is kind of a miracle considering the technical nature of some of the trails.

Rocky, slippery fun.

After 20-ish kilometers (officially 19.78k, per tradition), we scarfed back the delicious cupcakes that Patty had sweetly brought and then - after one last wish for a happy birthday - it was off to my mum's in Mississauga to make her a late lunch for her birthday. Two awesome women were born June 16th!

No photos from that, so more from the trails instead.

I took Monday off completely, and did a modest lunch run (~5.5k) on Tuesday. I even managed to get myself to bed not long past 10pm, getting closer to 8hrs of sleep than the 6-ish I'm used to!

Birdie spotted on Tuesday's hot, sunny run

Wednesday morning - as is usual during race week, and has been for several years now - I foam rolled instead of doing a strength workout. I emerged from that with horribly sore calves that felt like they were going to cramp and seize all day. I had no plans to run, taking a short (~3k) lunch walk instead. I hoped the calves would resolve with rest, and then I discovered another problem while making dinner.

What's that up ahead?
Dunno - just keep paddling.

I rose up onto my toes to reach the olive oil out of a cupboard above the stove, and something stabbed me in the outside of my left calf! A bit more testing revealed that trying to plantar flex my left foot with a straight leg was horribly painful for a moment, then it would pass...until the next time I tried. 

Not awesome.

It felt about the same yesterday morning, but I had no issues with plantar flexion while my leg was bent...so decided I'd go for the little shake-out run I'd planned last night, just to see how things felt. I vowed I'd shut it down immediately if it got painful, but fortunately, I only got a couple of twinges.

Pictured: an idiot, but a lucky one.
Also: outfit by OUTRace - Sulphur Springs hat, Dirty Girls shirt & Pick Your Poison socks.

Waking up this morning, though, I was still having some issues. So, I wandered into my chiropractor's office before I came to work, and had him adjust both my left fibula and the 1st metatarsal on my left foot. 

Plus some cold laser on the sore peroneals.

As was my experience last week with getting my feet and lower legs adjusted, I'm more sore now than I was before - the calf issue did show improvement right after the re-positioning of my fibula, but my left foot is quite unhappy about having the metatarsal back where it's supposed to be. I've just done the only "workout" I plan for today (a 15min walk in the sun on my lunch), and 

And it's now approximately 13 hours until the start of Sunburn Solstice.

So, I'm throwing any expectations out the window. I had originally hoped to get in 25 laps for 100km, but now I'm just going to get up (at TWO FREAKIN' THIRTY A.M.), put my shoes on, and go try to have fun on the trails for as much of that 15 hours and 23 minutes as possible. With the forecast calling for a warm, summery sunshine and the interesting race format that will see more and more runners joining in during the hours between sun up and sun down, it should be a great day.

Even if I'm not in great shape.

Running for joy rather than for performance is just so much nicer anyway, don't you think?

Happy summer everyone!

Listening

I'm trying to be slightly less of a jerk to my body.

With mixed results, as you shall see.

With Sunburn Solstice approaching like a freight train, it's finally time to take things down from peak mileage levels into a taper - while it's not actually my goal race for the year, it seems reasonable to try to rest my worn-out carcass a bit before trying to drag it 'round a 4km loop for more than 15 hours.

So, of course I took my rest day on Friday to relax..

By doing a full-body workout I've only done one other time this year.

I knew it would be a bad idea to get my paddleboard out, as we'd have to be up super early on Saturday...but the evening was so warm and lovely, I simply couldn't help myself. Tanker was happy to do some fishing on Puslinch Lake while I paddled, and I was filled with serene bliss at being out on the water again.

I did take a few minutes to just sit and relax, breathing in the calm of a perfect evening.

It as sunset when we got home, though, and much later than that before we finally rolled into bed. Up just after 6am, we hit the market (in the CAR!) and then jammed back home so I could send Tanker off to help the Happy Trails Racing team set up the full-service aid station at Conquer the Canuck before the race started at 8am.

Me? I hung back to make up a couple of breakfast bagels, which I then loaded into a pack...and then ran down to Shade's Mills Conservation Area to join in the fun.

It sounded good on paper.

I shouldn't have been surprised when my legs felt like crap - I'd had just over 6 hours of sleep (which is my usual amount during the week, but I do my best to get 8hrs on Friday & Saturday nights), and I knew one day of sort-of-rest wouldn't be enough to unwind the fatigue and soreness from almost 178km in the 13 days from Sulphur Springs to my lovely evening paddle. At the same time, I really could have done without the sun being quite so hot at 9am, the lack of shade subjecting me to its full blast, and the strong headwind I faced for most of the run down.

Most confoundingly on the ~3.5km span of Bishop Street from King to Franklin, which is almost all uphill.

I finally plodded my way down by around 10am, happy to finally find some shade along the park driveway...not to mention the thermos full of coffee Tanker had brought down with him.

Shade and caffeine are two of my favourite things.

From then until around 6pm, I tried to help as many people as I could achieve their goals at Conquer the Canuck. Filling bottles, chopping fruit, and offering up encouragement to the runners striving in the 8.33k (though most of those were finished by the time I arrived), 25k, 50k and 12-hour races - I was on my feet constantly, with only a few moments of down time here and there. I dodged out for half an hour or so in the evening to go pick up freshii for dinner for Tank and I, then headed out around 6:45pm to do a sweep lap of the course to see if there was any rubbish that needed picking up.

And just to enjoy the beauty of the trails.

That resulted in a grocery bag full of trash, and a total of almost 19km of running for me for the day. Once the 12-hour ended at 8pm, we scarfed our dinner, then headed over to the grocery store to get that chore out of the way. It was nearly 10pm by the time we got home, and I was absolutely shagged out. 

Sunday morning I kicked Tanker out of bed at 6:30am, and he got on his motorcycle to ride down to Shade's Mills for day 2 of volunteering - just the marathon event. I greedily tried to get back to sleep for a bit, but utterly failed to do so.

Though I did get to snuggle with these monsters, who graciously allowed me -just- enough space in bed.

I finally rolled out a little after 7am, made up a thermos of coffee and a couple of breakfast sandwiches, then got on my own bike and rolled on down.

Of course it was a cooler, overcast morning when I wasn't trying to run.

It was all about the runners again until around 1:30pm, when there were only a couple left on course. Then I got changed and headed out for another cleanup lap, happily coming back with much less trash this time!

But enjoying the trails just as much.

It was significantly hotter and more humid than the day before, and I suffered pretty badly even at the easy pace I was moving. I had originally thought I might try to get 2 laps in, but as fatigued and sore as I was, I only did one...well, plus the extra bit down to the beach and back for 9k. 

Let me tell you - I was completely spent after we got home. I was so happy we'd done our grocery shopping the day before, and I could just sit on the couch for awhile. This "taper" thing so far? Working about as well as taking 4 days off for a canoe trip. I had just enough energy left to take the kitties out for a sniff around the backyard..

Almost as lazy as I was.

I was dragging pretty badly at work on Monday and almost decided to nix my lunch run, but figured that's no way to behave, so went out anyway. It actually went better than expected, other than getting rained on...but afterward, my left foot was sore in a strange, new way. There'd been no incident on the run, but now it hurt to dorsiflex my foot or pull my toes up, and the pain was really odd; not like a sore muscle or bruise, but a weird feeling of weakness. Tendon? Nerve? I didn't know, but I hoped it would go away.

Tuesday morning it was still there. So, what did I do?

I'll give you 3 guesses.

It didn't hurt while running, or really at any time I had weight on the foot. It didn't seem to get worse, either, and seemed to have something to do with my 4th metatarsal. I could feel some connection to my 4th toe when I'd move it. I hoped that a couple of days of shorter mileage (just 6k-ish Monday & Tuesday) would sort it out.

It did not. It was as bad as ever on Wednesday morning, and something was sore at the outside of my knee - I wondered if I'd popped the fibula out of position, or knocked something else out of alignment. So, as I walked back to my office after seeing Tanker on his lunch break Wednesday afternoon, I popped into my chiropractor's office along the way to see if I could get an appointment for Monday or something. To my surprise, the receptionist said I could be seen right away! My chiro adjusted both of my feet: it was still feeling like I'd popped something out of place in my right foot on our Victoria Day trip, and he found my 1st metatarsal lifted a bit. He also found my left fibula out of place and adjusted it, plus did an adjustment on my back as he suspected my S1 was causing at least some of the trouble with my cranky left hamstrings. I wandered out 20mins later with high hopes, though the left foot didn't seem to have let up its grouchiness.

Eeeh, daisies.

Unfortunately, when I ran that evening (which was maybe not my best bet), my right foot actually felt somewhat worse and there seemed to be no change at all in my left foot.

A moment's peace in Cooksville Creek on Wednesday evening

So, I finally tried to get a little smarter. Hoping that this might just be a bit of extensor tendinitis brought on my tight calves, I resolved not to run yesterday. Having only 9 days to sort myself out before Sunburn Solstice, I gagged the voice in my head telling me I wouldn't be running Friday anyway, and took. A day. Off.

Well, not completely. I couldn't quite resign myself to just sitting on the couch, so I hit the pool for my first swim in almost 2 months.

Perhaps the universe decided to reward me for FINALLY GETTING A DAMN CLUE, because I awoke this morning with no pain in my left foot. Nothing. There's still some sensation there of stiffness in the 3rd and 4th toes, but I'm almost positive it's due to tight calves now - while I might have been able to resolve it without the extra day off, I'm actually perversely proud of myself for making the call not to run yesterday. 

Fionn the Fuzzy approves!

With any luck, these two days off will help the rest of the general fatigue and soreness resolve - while I have a run down to the market planned for tomorrow morning and a celebration run on Sunday, everything from here on out needs to be focused on getting me to the start line for 5:39am (blaaaaarrgh..) next Saturday as healthy as possible.

I'm even planning on taking TWO days off running next week. Mon dieu!

Perhaps I'm getting a little smarter about listening to my body? 

Nah, seems unlikely. Maybe I'll get my paddleboard out tomorrow..

Peaky

With Sunburn Solstice now just a hair over 2 weeks away, I've been busy getting whatever hay I can into that gaping, ever-hungry maw of a barn.

Will I ever actually feel prepared for an ultra?

This past weekend was really my last chance to do any big, long, punishing training with enough time to absorb the work and recover (hopefully) before the race. I'd been fortunate not to have too rough a time getting back on track after the Sulphur Spring 50k mudfest - I cut my usual Sunday run from ~15k of trail down to an easy 5k on road, but then ran my usual routes/distances every day until my Friday off.

Come Saturday morning, it was time to make the chimichangas. I started off National Trails Day in beautiful sunshine at 17c - a great shock, as the last time I'd had the opportunity to run down to the market it was only about 4c when I left! I only made it a couple of kilometers before I hit a Canadian roadblock, though.

"I just need to get by real quick - I'm not after your babies, I swear it!
STOP HISSING AT ME!"

My legs felt like trash, and the unaccustomed heat and sun were not helping my pace at all.

I spotted turkey vultures, though they weren't circling...yet.

Still, it was a beautiful day, and the wildflowers were finally blooming all over the trails.

The phlox might be a couple of weeks later than usual, but it was finally out!

I had something I was looking forward to, as well - the seasonal closure of the rare trails ended almost 2 months prior, but between one thing and another (testing new road shoes, time constraints, muddy conditions) I hadn't actually gone diving into them yet. That needed to change!

It's the most beautiful part of Cambridge, really.

Singletrack makes me smile!

Making friends along the way

While my legs didn't feel any better by the time I reached the market, I'd quite enjoyed the journey. I had planned to get out to another trail tract in the afternoon to get around 30k in (on top of the morning's 11.5-ish), but raging thunderstorms with nasty winds came banging through in the afternoon. After the madness of Sulphur the week before, I wasn't really ready to deal with torrential rain, lashings of mud and lightning cracking overhead again. 

So, I decided on a road run. Around my neighbourhood.

Five freakin' laps of suburbia.

Some of which is still in the process of being built.

I got it in my head that it would be a good mental challenge, as running loops of a little less than 6km around my 'hood was sort of a decent proxy for running 3-4km laps around a park/conservation area for hours on end. Because I've definitely never run laps of anywhere from 235m to 7km for an absurdly long time in the past or anything.

Highlight of the run: seeing another toad, just chilling on the sidewalk.

Running really long distances on pavement sucks at the best of times. Add in a sore high hamstring, a couple of messed up ankles, a ridiculous amount of humidity from the rain (which fortunately was just ending as I headed out), and an 8pm start after already running for over an hour in the morning, and it was just bloody misery. I plodded along, with my feet complaining louder and louder with each loop, generally hating every step.

Though my sweetheart did join me for a partial lap around halfway through, then the last half of my final lap.
He's pretty awesome like that.

By the end, I was in rough condition - it was after 11pm, and I was so knackered I almost fell asleep in my dinner. Knowing I wanted to get one last weekend of back-to-back long runs in, I wondered if I'd even be able to run a single step the following day.

Fortunately, Sunday came up bright and beautiful - as lovely a sunny day as anyone could desire. I also took it back to the trails, heading over to Huron Natural Area to do a few laps that would probably mostly be hiking rather than running.

No trial to spend a lot of time on feet in these conditions.

I was delighted to find that there was very little mud - really just the one bit over by the smallest pond that's always a bit mucky - and the cycles of rain and bits of sunshine we'd had this spring had brought out some lush foliage to shield me from the still-stiff wind.

Spring has definitely sprung!

It was also wonderful to realise that - after the initial 20mins or so of horrible stiffness and creakiness - that my legs could come alive once more. I took things very easy, taking almost 2.75hrs to put in 20k, but each of my laps of the conservation area was a little quicker/had a little more running than the last.

Almost as sweet as the scent of lily of the valley, which permeated the Plantation Trail

With over 61km down for the weekend, I figured I could keep it rolling just a little further. The usual lunch runs on Monday and Tuesday, then (out of necessity) a little longer run after work on Wednesday. I had just enough left by Thursday evening to go hit a trail I haven't run for ages - maybe years - not far from my house, while testing a new pair of shoes.

Perfect way to end my training week, even if the trail was a bit rocky and buggy.

So here I find myself: sore and tired, but with my peak week of training in the bag.

Who knew I'd actually make the top of the Slowtwitch 7-day leaderboard?

It's a good thing, too, as I won't be able to get a lot of big training in this weekend - instead, I'll be hanging out at beautiful Shade's Mills Conservation Area for the Conquer the Canuck trail races! This year they're hosting the Canadian 12-hour championships, so Saturday will be quite a long day on my feet of a different sort as Tanker, myself and some wonderful folks from Happy Trails Racing work at the main aid station.

I'll probably get a couple of laps of the course in over the weekend - just to pick up garbage and to see the gorgeous scenery that the conservation area has to offer - but I'm happy not to have the pressure of running long on my radar at the moment. I had actually considered running the 50k on Saturday and then staying to volunteer after, but with the couple of minor injuries I have at the moment and Sunburn Solstice just 2 weeks away, I managed to talk myself out of it in order to try to get some recovery time in before the very big, long day ahead. After last night's 8km to finish off nearly 93k in 6 days, I found myself turning to Tanker as we got ready for bed and saying I was very happy I didn't have to run 50k on Saturday!

Maybe I'm finally learning some sense after all?
Nah, seems unlikely..

So if you'll be at Conquer the Canuck this weekend, I'll see you there - just look for the tired-looking dork!

Sulphur Springs Trail Run 50k - Saturday, May 25th, 2019

It's a really good thing I didn't have any performance goals for this one.

Partly so I could enjoy the beauty of Dundas Valley

The 4 days I took off running for the long weekend were it as far as tapering goes: I was right back at it from Tuesday to Thursday, putting in about 23km total (6.2k/10.6k/6.3k) with my usual Friday off. Looking at the weather Saturday morning, I actually had to wonder if the canoe trip was better preparation.

I've never even seen "strong thunderstorms" as a prediction before.

To make it all even better, I hadn't even managed to bring a rain jacket - or even my wind vest to run in. I just had to keep telling myself in the cool morning air that it was supposed to warm up, and hope that the course wouldn't get too muddy until it did; if I was forced to walk a lot off the bat, it would be difficult to keep from getting chilled in rain and wind.

Having arrived at DVCA around 6:05am (5mins after the 100 milers and 50 milers took off) after 2hrs of overtime at the office the day before and just under 4hrs of broken sleep (thanks for all the wakeups, cats!), I was honestly starting to wonder what the hell I was doing there.

Other than hanging out with awesome people.

The Weather Network said the rain would start at 6:20am, and so it did. Little sprinkles at first, but by 6:35am it was full-on rain and I was seriously considering going the hell home. Nonetheless, I went through all the usual pre-race stuff: kit pickup (including my swanky new yellow duffel bag with the race logo embossed on a leather-ish patch), portajohn visits, and flailing of limbs. Tanker was sweet enough to lend me his rain jacket so I didn't have to get my sweater soaked walking over to the loo and while swinging my legs around - there was nowhere covered that was safe to do so, as every tent was full of runners hiding from the downpour.

I left it as late as I could to head to the starting line, but with 5mins to gun time I ditched my sweater just as the first couple of rumbles of thunder rolled through, got one last smooch from Tank and headed over to the growing crowd milling around in the rain. I was soaked to the skin within moments, and really kicking myself about failing to pack my vest, which I easily could have ditched after the first 10km loop once I'd warmed up - fortunately the wind wasn't bad at all, so I was just a bit chilly.

Without any fanfare that I could hear from the back of the pack, the horn sounded and off we went. The steep descent down Martin Road is always a great way to beat yourself up early on, so I just tried to take it easy and stay out of the way as people streamed past me and lightning flashed overhead. Within the first few minutes a familiar face showed up beside me and hung back to chat - apparently Dion was doing his first longer race after some injury woes (don't I know about those..) and was hoping there would be someone he knew with whom he could do a taking-it-easy-day. With my goal set to put in my slowest ever 50k in order to get in a lot of time on my feet before Sunburn Solstice, I was definitely down with taking it easy.

The question would be how long Dion would be able to put up with me..

We ended up running the whole thing together, despite him being a much faster runner than I am. It was great to have good company as we splashed through the puddles on the first, shorter loop - fortunately noone was hit by lightning, though there was one crack of thunder that was REALLY close by. The course, however, degenerated into a mud pit - at least as bad as the 2017 mudfest, if not actually worse.

With my only goal to finish the race without damaging myself any further - did I mention that during the 4 days off running to camp and paddle I somehow managed to mess up both ankles? - I was in no rush at all, so there was a lot of walking through muddy sections in an effort to stay upright.

Also some time spent moving juvenile salamanders off the Headwaters Trail
(This one on lap 2)

Don't want to see this poor little guy get smushed by one of the 1,100+ runners out there!

It poured through the first 10km lap or the Headwaters Trail, which we meandered through in a bit less than 1h17m, with me sharing my homemade sea salt maple crisp rice squares with Dion as we hiked up Martin Road for the first of three times. Turns out he loves crisp rice treats - good thing I brought lots! After a quick stop for me to reload the pockets of my vest and skirt with more goodies and get a smooch from Tanker, we were off again. While it was still dripping for the first hour or so, the rain actually stopped midway through our second lap - the first full lap of the 20km course. 

Ah, the baby pterodactyl in all its convoluted glory.
(Spoiler alert for finish time)

The sun came out and shone brightly through the trees, and that warm air finally made an appearance. I had almost dried out by the time we ascended Martin Road for the second time. This was nice, partly because it had become very difficult in a lot of places to rely on my own effort to keep me warm, and also because I finally stopped needing to pee all the time. Whether due to the cool morning, the rain, or just over-hydrating, I had needed a portajohn almost every time we passed one - probably 3 times in the first 4 hours! I did finally manage to start taking S!caps around 2hrs in (when I noticed my fingers getting a bit sausage-y), taking a total of 6 over the course of the whole day, essentially popping one whenever I'd remember; not sure if they were what finally stopped my peanut bladder tendencies or whether it was some other factor.

Dion out-hiking me just before the 30k mark while I much back a turkey wrap.

Tanker was sweet enough to meet me just past the finish arch after each lap, and since he had the UltraCooler™ with him after the second lap, I grabbed my phone from it to take photos of the mudfest through which we'd be trudging another 20k. Dion changed up shoes from Hokas to Salomons with bigger lugs to get traction in the slippery mud, and I grabbed one more smooch from Tank before we headed out to finish this thing off. We'd done lap 2 in around 3h21m, for a 30k split of about 4h38m.

No waiting to get into it - the Murray Ferguson Way was a splurpy mess right from the start off Martin Road

The hour or so of sunshine had allowed water levels to drop significantly, but the creeks that flow through the conservation area were still running higher than I'd ever seen them.

Powerful water flow.

The mud had also got worse off the start of the last loop with the additional hundreds of feet churning the trails into a soggy mess.

Didn't I just do this a couple of weeks ago..?

The aid station volunteers were amazing, though - they toughed out a nasty day and did it with a smile. I probably took more advantage of the aid stations in this race than I have at almost any other - apart from my own nutrition, I took about 3 banana chunks, 2 pieces of cooked sweet potato, a chunk of cantaloupe that gave me the closest thing I had to G.I. distress all day (in the form of one big burp - grateful my belly is generally pretty happy these days!), and a couple of small pieces of watermelon as the day heated up.

Roll on up to the buffet!

The sunshine was stunning as we rolled around the main loop for the last time, past the prettiest parts of Dundas Valley.

Dappled sunshine

Unfortunately the combination of sunshine and warmth brought out the bugs. While this year has been refreshingly free of insects so far, suddenly there were swarms of tiny black flies that would fly directly into my eyes! Extremely annoying and distracting, but at least the course wasn't getting any worse.

The water flow had been so high on our second lap you couldn't see the steps of the cascade at all!

Dion rolling along well as I try to keep from holding him back too much..

The crushed gravel of the main loop remained runnable, so we tried to make some time there despite my grouchy left hamstring whining a bunch, particularly when I'd ask it to run uphill. I hoped that the sun would last and help dry out the trail a bit, as I remembered how badly I'd been beaten down by the mud at Rugged Raccoon; I didn't really want another sufferfest like that, especially since this was twice the length.

In some places you'd barely have known it rained at all..

..then you'd find yourself splashing through an inch-deep puddle.

While I've never had a problem there (well, except for nearly losing a poor, trusting, blind fellow on it last year), I always rather fear the Sulphur Creek crossover. It's narrow, side-sloped, and quite slippery when muddy or icy - Dion and I had actually stopped to assist a fellow on our second lap who'd fallen on his way down, and apparently bashed his face off the mud. He was ok and kept on trucking along after Dion helped clean him up a bit, but I was leery of the same thing happening to me! 

Dion moving much more confidently

Trepidation - I HAS IT

The narrow top of the trail was a bit nerve-wracking because it's so narrow and plunges so steeply into the ravine (full of plenty of fallen timber to break bones and tear ligaments if you were to fall in), but the bottom of the steep downhill was actually the sketchiest portion. The mud was so slick you could hardly get any footing; I tried to stick to places with roots that wouldn't slip away beneath me, but there are a couple of places you have to just go for it and try to catch yourself on a tree if (or when) you slip.

Look at all the slide marks from other people's shoes..

I did eventually make it down safely (both times), but it definitely involved stopping completely to try to pick my line, and a deep breath or two along the way. Dion has the patience of a saint to put up with my wussy ways! Here's the thing, though - I have this bad habit of falling when I race at Sulphur. In both 2015 and 2017 I ended up bruised and bloody due to catching a toe and yard saleing myself somewhere around halfway through. I (thankfully) avoided eating dirt while guiding a loop last year, but it's always in my mind that my clumsy oafish ways have bitten me in the arse there in the past. Thus, with the particularly sketchy conditions this year, I think I could be forgiven for an overabundance of caution.

Climbing up the Sulphur Creek Trail on the other side of the bridge, having survived my last crossing of the day.

With two exceptions, the mud on the Sulphur Creek Trail was the worst we saw all day. 

Who knew it could get worse than 2017?

Even if you could manage to keep your feet under you, the sticky mud would just suck all of the energy out of your stride, so there was a whole lot of walking. That walking became more like skating in some places, too, as the looser mud would have your feet sliding all over. My left hamstring was complaining loudly, and had started pulling all the other stuff in my left hip out of place in its tantrum - my psoas and glutes were whining a bunch with the extra strain, and even my adductors were getting in on the grouchiness...though I'm sure some of that had less to do with the hamstring issue than the slippery mud. I'd had to employ some interpretive dance moves a couple of times already - Dion would just hear a "FWAAA!" from behind him as my foot would go rogue and I'd flail my arms around to keep from splashing into the muck.

We'd really had enough of this.

Fortunately - after telling the stupid hamstring it wasn't the boss of me - we eventually made it back to the safety of the main loop, and used the crushed gravel to crush some mileage.

The creek still running super high and Dion getting it done.

I was feeling a bit hungry by this point, but didn't want anything sweet. Then I remembered I had bacon left! As we hiked up toward the Hermitage I munched away on a slice, and offered my last one to Dion, remembering how much he enjoyed bacon from when we volunteered together at the Conquer the Canuck main aid station last year. It was just what I needed, and I guess he was in the same boat - bacon FTW!

It does make climbing a bit more pleasant.

The sun was quite hot by this point, so I had to revise my earlier estimation that the heat and solar radiation would not be a limiting factor for the day. While the mud and my laissez-faire attitude toward pace were certainly slowing me down much more, I could definitely feel the heat sapping my energy.

The forget-me-nots were loving it, though, and I was loving them.

The worst energy suck, though - and also the part of the course to which I was least looking forward - was the G. Donald Trail. When the rain first started, I predicted it would turn into a quagmire of slippery hills. I'm sorry to say that I was entirely correct, and the horror began right at the entrance to the lollipop trail.

Dion picking his way along the side, while I barge right through the worst of it.

Fortunately for my sanity, the sunnier sections had dried out a bit so you could get some footing. 

It had been worse on our first full lap.

But the low spots - as well as lots of the hills - remained a squishy, slippery mess.

Just...ew.

This is AFTER it dried out a bunch.

Again, the most nerve-wracking parts for me were the downhills. I can handle slipping while I'm climbing - you just fall on your hands and knees, mostly. Downhill, though...if a foot goes out from under you, there's a good chance you'll hit the back of your head when you go down. I can't afford to get any dumber!

Dion's shoe change proved super helpful through this section.

I mostly picked my way down like an arthritic 80 year old, but sometimes you've just gotta go for it when there's nothing but slippery mud below. I had to employ the "tapdancing on quicksand" method of running on a couple of occasions.

NEEEEEROOOOOOOOOM
Pleasedon'tfallpleasedon'tfallpleasedon'tfall

I was seriously relieved when I got through the G. Donald Trail for the final time without landing on my head and breaking my fool neck, though I did angry up my hamstring even more by doing a straight-legged, 1-footed downhill slide on the injured side. We were far from done with the mud, too: one of the nastiest bit was actually due to a small course change for this year - instead of having the aid station on Martin Road itself, they moved it to a field on the side of the road with a small cross-over portion from the Headwaters Trail.

That small crossover did not bear the effects of thousands of feet and 15mm of rain within a couple of hours terribly well.

Don't try to avoid the muck on the left - you'll just slide sideways into it anyway.

The field itself fared no better, turning into a squelchy mess of mud before we even got there the first time and continuing to deteriorate all day.

Put the aid station in the field, they said.

It will be fun, they said.

As we hit the lollipop portion of the Headwaters Trail for the last time, I mentioned to Dion that the sunshine and blue skies made it appear we'd get through the rest of the race without getting wet again, despite a second cell of thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon.

It was really beautiful out there.

Lots of lush vegetation looking so vividly green after the morning's rain.

He basically told me I should shut my mouth lest I curse us, which was sound reasoning - I just hoped we'd get through the Headwaters loop before it dumped any more rain on us, as I didn't particularly want to end up sliding backwards while trying to climb the Three Sisters.

Assuming we could even get there.

No idea why he put up with me, other than sharing my bacon & crisp rice treats

I did try to make him feel better by saying we were on the last trail, as we were both starting to get a little worn and weary. I didn't really feel tired per se; I just wanted to be done with the mud and climbing, and even my non-injured hamstrings were starting to get whiny. I also managed to step on something around this time and jam my left ankle, which began to complain quite loudly about the abuse.

Even the trilliums were having a rough, muddy time of it.

Cloud cover started moving back in as we turned onto the loop, leading us to the Three Sisters. MEC has a contest on to name them, and I guess that's why they had put out signs along that section of the course.

Yes. Yes I have.

Many people do not.

That's one way of putting it.

Of course, why not pause for a little shoe wash partway up?

The cool water actually felt lovely on my hard-working feet

Onward and upward.

The slippery here was real.

Second sign says "and the steepest", and is definitely not wrong.

Thanks, MEC.

Sweet relief in sight!

I had one last gel - an Endurance Tap - as we hiked up the the Three Sisters. I had kept up pretty well with nutrition all day, having had a full flask of EFS Liquid Shot (which I finished before the end of lap 2 so I could ditch the empty flask with Tank and have an open pocket for my phone), a campfire s'mores Gu, a chai latté Gu Roctane around 6h37m (which didn't taste very good - it was my first one of that flavour - but I wanted the caffeine for a bit of a boost in the last bit of the race), 2 pieces of bacon, 3 crisp rice treats, and my turkey wrap at the end of lap 2 on top of the fruit and veg from the aid stations. It generally worked out to something every half hour, with an extra bite here and there, and I had pretty good energy throughout the day. I was determined to keep that up, especially since everything sat just fine - I farted a couple of times (good thing Dion was mostly ahead of me!), but never needed a portajohn for anything but a pee. Of course, when you're not moving very fast it's easy to keep from having G.I. issues! I did also wash my food down with plenty of water, filling my bottle from the aid station basically every time we passed one; as the day heated up and the mud slowed us down, I never quite ran out but I always grateful to be able to top off. I even filled at the fluids-only aid station at the top of the Three Sisters the last time just to make sure I wouldn't run out, as it had really got quite hot out by then despite the increasingly overcast sky.

We sort of argued about this, with Dion indicating "2.5" laps.
I said we were more than halfway through our third lap.
He said we only do two 20k laps plus a 10k (half) lap, so we were on lap 2.5.
I'm not sure if there's a correct answer here, so we'll just leave it at "we were both right".

Actually, we were pretty close percentage-wise by this point, no matter how you count the laps.

5k left to go
The girl in bright yellow was running her first 50k ever!

The open portions of the top of the Headwaters loop, thanks to a combination of sun and many feet, had dried out quite a bit. There was a runnable strip through most of it, though I can't say that we ran it all.

I was feeling the fatigue of having been on my feet and moving for more than 7hrs.

We definitely took advantage of the long downhill on the south side of the loop, though, cruising along with some of the best speed we'd seen all day as it started to look more and more like rain. We almost felt like we were racing the weather; trying to make it back to the gravel of Martin Road before it got any wetter and muddier.

Though I did stop to move another little salamander off the trail.

Once more through the unholy mess of the M.A.S.H. aid station, with no need for me to stop - I had a bit of water left and knew we were less than a kilometer from the finish. It looked like we might be up against it to avoid getting rained on during the final ascent, but we hadn't got wet again yet!

Bye portajohns - thanks for being here for me when I needed you!

Steven Parke coming through the muck on his last lap of the 50 miler

When we got back onto Martin Road, I was smelling the barn and ready to be done. That Endurance Tap might have kicked in, too, as I was ready to rock and roll! I actually ran up and over the small hill on Martin Road, trying to drag Dion along with me. 

He didn't buy in, but did run down the other side.

I kept it rolling when he caught up to me, and asked if he wanted to run up to 222. He said he didn't know what I meant - if you're not familiar with Martin Road, it's actually a house number on a metal stake on the right side as you're ascending, and it basically marks the start of the steepest section of the hill. 

It's by that little break in the grass on the right, just before the curve.

Well, Dion wasn't having it, but my legs were actually feeling pretty good so I ran it myself.

Proof I did actually run some of the course, anyway.

I dropped to a walk when I got there, and Dion quickly caught me up.

Happy we didn't sign up for anything longer.

We hiked the leg-burningly steep middle section together, with me urging us on - I'd checked my watch and seen that if we hustled, we could make it in under the 8 hour mark.

Which is still slow as hell, but why not shoot for some arbitrary marker?

Of course, when we rounded the final curve where it flattens out a bit, Dion was off like a shot! I broke into a run, but he left me well behind by the time I entered the finishing chute.

Running it in.
(Photo credit to Will Spaetzel)

Dion was kind enough to wait at the line, though, so we could cross together.

I'm coming, I'm coming!

Official time: 7:59:28 @ 9:35/km

(Full results are here)
(Garmin workout data is here)

I was very happy to finish off strong, not really feeling any worse for wear apart from my grouchy left ankle and complaining hamstrings - my right ankle, which had been hurting in an all new way since the canoe trip, was only occasionally talkative and seemed not to have cared about nearly 8 hours of pounding.


I was also grateful to have had Dion's company throughout the day, though I'm not sure I was a very good companion - I certainly held him up with my over-cautious mincing through the sketchy bits, superfluous portajohn stops and general shenanigans. Still, having a friend along the way definitely made the day much more fun than it might otherwise have been!

Neither of us taking our medals out of their plastic baggies, lest we get them covered in mud!

 Then, of course, it was all over but the cleanup...which would be rather extensive.

Wee bit of mud.

It probably would have been easier had I not carried 18lbs of the damn course around with me most of the day.

Extremely thankful we got done before the second, more powerful cell of thunderstorms came crashing through. I heard tell later of trees and limbs falling in ridiculous wind gusts, and of course even more effin' mud!

And considering this was the INSIDE of my sock, I certainly didn't need any more.

Lastly, I was actually quite happy to have taken so long out there, as it gave me a really good, long day on my feet as my last ultra-distance workout before Sunburn Solstice. They say you're good for about twice as long as your longest run - I'm hoping that this 8-hour, 50 kilometer day will see me through 15 hours and 23 minutes next month.

That'll do.

More encouraging still, I actually ended up running the following day - just a slow, easy 5k, on delightfully non-muddy roads, but still a run just because it was a lovely evening. I've resumed normal training since, with no ill effects, so it seems like the high mileage weeks I've put in recently are paying off.

Now if I can just get that stupid hamstring to behave itself..