The Year That Was 2020

 

Top 9, that I don't think accurately represented my 2020.

I reached my goal of 2020 miles almost 2 months earlier than years past. I am currently working to reach 3600K by NYE. 

In person races: 2

Badges: 4 (Thames Valley, Grand Valley, Elgin, Lambton Shores) Bonus: Speed River E2E, no badge available. 😓

Ultras: 3 (Elgin Trail, TVT, Adrenaline Dawn Breaker 106K) - not counting GVRAT 1000K, Yeti 24h Challenge, or the 43K I ran on Tally in the Valley day.

It was my goal to run 3x100K this year to prepare for my first 100 miler in 2021, I will have to settle for a distance PB at Dawn Breaker and my annual mileage PB as adequate preparation.

Highlights: 

- being present at the finish for for THREE awesome friends' first ultras. 

- running 42.2K for my 42nd birthday.

- exploring unmarked but local trails when the main trails were closed during the spring lockdown.

- having wonderful support with pacing and crewing for the 106K.

Lowlights:

- tripping on a washed out hole on a suburban gravel trail, eating shit, and spraining my ankle in all directions. I don't think my ankle will ever be the same again.

- getting my legs really stuck in a swamp on a solo run somewhere on the GVT. 

Goals for 2021: 100 miler! Currently working on at least 1 Bruce Trail club winter E2E. First winter ultra. I'm afraid to make more solid plans beyond that, with the uncertain future.

Lambton Shores

Way back in the days of yore (2019), I saw a FB post that showed the largest collection of non Bruce Trail badges that I had ever seen. I have been working on collecting all those same badges since. 

The Lambton Shores trails are different in that there are 7 short trails to run, and 7 questions about each trail to answer. The map is a bit misleading in that it looked like it was possible to connect all 7 trails by foot, but upon Googling, it would probably be at least 50K of road running, so we drove, a much wiser choice. The easy/moderate/difficult ratings are from the brochure.

1. Mystery Falls (moderate/difficult)

📷Lori

The falls was very close to the parking lot, and the gorge was accessed via a rope down the muddy bank. All singletrack, somewhat hilly and muddy made this a slow go.

2. Forest Trails (easy)

Very very easy rail trail. Not much to write about. There's no forest, that's the name of the town.

3. Ipperwash Dunes and Swales (easy)

This was my favourite, with flowing singletrack through magical pine/cedar forests and multiple boardwalks across the swales. I guess we were busy running because I don't have a picture from this trail! The beach was just down the street and I did take a picture of gorgeously blue Lake Huron.

4/5. L Lake Management Area/Forested Dunes Nature Reserve (easy) << HECCIN LIES

These two trails shared the same street address and I thought they would be on the opposite sides of the road, but turns out L Lake is a very short loop and Forested Dunes branches off at the top of the L Lake loop. Forested Dunes is the red trail in the green boundary, which I promptly described as "sperm shaped".

The first couple kilometers were uneventful, leaf covered fairly flat singletrack. Then all of a sudden the trail vanished and we were in a hell of branches, brambles, mud, and murky puddles.

📷Lori
We were screaming non-stop F bombs at this point.

Bushwhacked to a bamboo grove that led to nowhere and tried to find our way out only to find that we had gone in a circle (the "sperm head"). No way out except back through the muck.

There is no trail.

6. Lambton County Heritage Forest (easy/difficult)

There were three trails here that were impossible to do all of without adding on a lot more distance by doing some out and backs, so we devised a route by running the outer perimeter. The parts that were easy was flat singletrack, and the difficult parts involved fairly major climbs up a ridge and then lots of rolling hills at the top of the ridge.

Carvings from a teaching circle near the trailhead.

7. Ausable River Cut Conservation Area (easy/moderate)

We headed to the final trail, that was only 2K long. Lori didn't bother carrying her pack and I switched to my short run Orange Mud pack. The first kilometer was really flat and we said, "this is not moderate at all!". It was the golden hour and the colours of the river were beautiful.

We saw a boy trying to push his bike up a huge sand dune and we were really glad that the trail stayed flat along the river. Then it happened.

With less than 1K to go, there was a ridiculously steep climb up a sand dune. I would say with the soft sand, and the angle of the hill, it was one of the most difficult climbs I'd ever done. Fortunately there was a chair to rest and enjoy the sunset for a few minutes before heading back to the car.

📷 Lori

I did it all for the cream puff

(with minimal apologies to Limp Bizkit)

I did it all for the cream puff
Come on
The cream puff
Come on
So you can take that cream puff
And stick it up your, yeah!
Stick it up your, yeah!
Stick it up your, yeah!

I signed up for The Bad Thing right when it opened at midnight, I heard that the race was sold out by 12:07. Crazy to think this is the last in person race of the year. Two major changes was that the race started at a park in Auburn instead of the hall, and would be out and back instead of point to point. I should have reread my old blogs more carefully, because both times I wrote that the worst part was between 30-35K on the p2p course and I trained crazy hills to prepare for this. Before the race, I talked to Hellen, one of the RD's and she said, "it'll be much easier without the up-and-down parts!" 

There was a socially distanced kit pickup, stayed relatively warm near the fire pits and was motivated by really loud AC/DC. The louder AC/DC is, the more motivating it is, because science. There were also two waves for each distance, and being a sloth runner, I was in the final wave. Before I knew what was happening, the first water crossing was there.  The water was so cold, it took my breath away. I made sure to wear shoes that drained quickly, and wool socks, so thankfully my legs and feet had feeling again after only a few minutes.

There was quite a bit of rain in the days leading up to the race, and the trail was quite soggy, so I kept my eyes down. After about 3K, I turned onto a road that was unfamiliar and also had no flags, but I figured it was a straight shot so maybe that was the reason for no markers? I probably should have backtracked, but DID NOT and came to a T where there were flags in both directions, so I turned right to keep the river on my left and to get back on course. Later, I suggested to one of the RDs that maybe a big arrow sign could be put at that junction and he said, "Patty, you've been running trails long enough and done this race enough times to know you should be following blazes." That was a nasty burn, but he was 100% right.

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I reached the turnaround point at 13K, maybe the wrong route that I took was longer, or maybe it was trail math, doesn't really matter. 

There is a row of apple trees that usually bear glorious fruit, but this year was slim pickins and thankfully I wasn't relying upon them completely for my race nutrition strategy.

In the second water crossing, staring at the fast moving water under my feet made me really dizzy. To top things off, I must've rolled my ankle on the rocks but couldn't feel it due to the icy water. I definitely felt it as the feeling returned to my legs and feet in the last 100 metres of road to the finish. I enjoyed this year's finish, as it was much less hilly and mostly downhill instead of the usual road grind.

Aravaipa Running Adrenaline Dawn Breaker 106K

Of course Sulphur 100K got postponed, I have kept up training for the race because I was planning on doing the distance no matter what, because I feel it necessary to gain more experience doing 100K+ before attempting 100 miles in 2021. Then as things usually happen, I saw the perfect virtual race. Adrenaline Dawn Breaker 106K. What's 6K more?!

I chose Wildwood Conservation Area because a) it was open and b) I enjoyed running there during Rugged Raccoon. I did the first 6K solo, out and back in the other direction than the main loop. It was not difficult to convince people to come out to keep me company.

 Socially distanced hello to Bogdan. 📷Lori 

Lori, Bogdan and Dan came out for loop 1. We took the Field of Burrs loop, which made the loop a bit too long, so I didn't do it again.

📷 Lori Me, Bogdan and Dan

Refueled with a lemon-lavender donut from Lady Glaze.

Lori stuck around for a second loop, and Agnes and Delano joined us. I had had a poor sleep the night before, and I started feeling very tired. Salty snacks helped a bit to revive me. 

Tired enough for a trail nap. 📷 Lori

Towards the end of loop 2, we passed a man, who teaches Lori's son, we had passed him at the beginning of loop 1 and he seemed fairly impressed by my goal, but this time, he asked Lori why I was so slow - big talk for a guy who didn't finish 23K in 8 hours and without the balls to say it to my face!

A GVRAT1000k new tradition: pose with yellow gates.

A changing of the guard for the evening. Steve had paced me from 60-80K at Sulphur 2017 and offered to bring it home this year. We made sure to bring headlamps, warm clothes and headed out into the night. The night was filled with critters: bounding deer, worms sneaking back into the ground at our footsteps, a weasel fighting with a mouse, carp, turkeys, June beetles (gross!), mysterious eyes staring into the headlamp glow, and flappy things (birds or bats?) unseen but flapping very closely overhead.

Before loop 3. 📷 Lori

It would have been so easy for me to call it quits after 3 loops, I told Steve not to let me quit. Slowly the darkness began to lift.

My first time seeing a second sunrise.

My watch showed low battery for the 2nd time and immediately died before I could attach the charger, so I had to start a 2nd run. I was sure the watch had read 98 something when it died, so Steve and I had a disagreement with how much there was left to run.

When I got home, it was an ISH run, according to my watch.

During this run, I achieved new PBs in 50 mile, 100K, longest distance run, and highest weekly mileage. I ran 106K in less time than it took me to run 100K in 2017. I am feeling confident in running 24 hours at Tally in the Valley, whether the race happens officially or not. I am proud at having organized such an epic event on my own. I am immensely grateful for all the people who came out to support me. ❤💕💖❤💕💖

Yeti Ultra 24 hr Challenge

With all races cancelled, the Yeti Ultra 24 hr Challenge originally flew under the radar, but when I realized it was a chance to run a Yeti race and get some of my favourite swag, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Run 5 miles (8.05K) every 4 hours, for 24 hours. My friend Alissa did the challenge last week, and she explained her choice to start at 5 am, which made sense, but I knew I couldn't motivate myself to get up that early, so I settled on 6 am for a start time.

I had a rough idea of where I wanted to do each run, and I also knew I wanted to run 2K extra somewhere to make it an even 50K for the day. I also was open to a road or dreadmill run if necessary, but only as a last resort.

The first run started promptly at 6 am in the pre-dawn. I had brought my headlamp, but realized I didn't need it 5 minutes in. The only other people I saw were dog walkers and thought it was a bad omen when an off leash German Shepherd lunged, barked and snarled at me. I finished unscathed and took a shower when I got home, because I was freezing, and ate Second Breakfast.

I picked mostly easy trails for the runs, but I knew this section wasn't quite 4K out and back so I went in the other direction for a bit, which is very steep and technical. I started out wearing fleece tights under my skirt and I stopped off at the car to lose my pants before completing the run in the other easier direction. Got lunch after this run and lay down with the heated blanket a bit..because I was again freezing.

2 pm on a sunny Saturday meant that it would be busy, closed trails be damned. I was going to do a secret 8K loop, but because parking lots are all closed in that area, the loop would be a lot longer, and since the secret loop is very hilly, I didn't want to add on distance. This was the muddiest run. I was thinking about wearing 6 different outfits and the sheer amount of laundry intimidated me to the point where I gritted my teeth and put a damp shirt and bra back in. Ewwww. I showered my bottom half to rinse off the mud, then back to bed and the heated blanket, where I warmed up but couldn't sleep.

6 pm meant there were still quite a few people on the trails. I added a fresh tank under the shirt but the wind was insane and I was cold. This was the most technical run and I'm glad I did it before sunset. Then dinner...I wanted a beer but I was too damn cold to drink a beer so Lori's suggestion of hot tea was a great one. Ran my first of the 2 9K runs here.

First of two night runs at 10 pm. I was debating going back and doing the 6 am route again, but I wanted something absolutely 100% non technical because this klutzy lady really does suck at night running. This was the first time I really put my headlamp through the paces since I got it for Christmas and it did not disappoint!

Since it is my goal to run a 100 miler in 2021, I really need to get more experience with night running. I saw a pair of glowing eyes in the dark and nearly shit myself, but it turned out to be just Mr. Raccoon wondering what I was doing in his forest.

It was around 8-10 degrees, according to the thermometer, but I wore a fleece and leggings and was still pretty cold when the wind gusted.

I saved the easiest trail for last. I can't believe that originally I was going to do 10K here instead of 9K twice. I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed, I was really groggy and drank some Coke before heading out. Walking felt really good still. Actually my legs and body felt really good throughout, except on the first 1-2K of each run. But my brain was SOOO tired, so I forced myself to run and not think about it too much. The temperature was still around 8C, but I dressed like I would have for a -15C run in the daytime (merino l/s base layer, fleece, tights, earwarmer) and felt just right when the wind blew.

Then I was DONE, woohoo!



Thoughts:

• My cumulative 50K time was one of my faster 50K times, if it had been done in one chunk. I know this is comparing apples and oranges with the 6 different routes I ran, but there was only a 10 minute difference between my fastest and slowest loops. 

• Was this an ultra? You could call it one if you want, but to me personally, an ultra should be done at one venue, without stopping, except for chäir breaks.

• Apparently I get REALLY cold post-run. I mean, I knew I did, but normally I have a hot shower and hot food afterwards to mitigate the damage.

• I really wasn't prepared for the amount of laundry this would generate.

If I was to do a similar challenge again, I'd start at night to get that part over with first. And if I wanted to add extra distance to any run, I'd definitely get those over with earlier too!