Conquer the Canuck 12 hour

I've lost count of how many attempts I've made at breaking 70K for 12 hours..3-5 times is my guess. I've come very very close, but blister problems, Patty-can't-do-math problems, and mental state problems would foil my plans.

The past 2 years I've signed up for Conquer the Canuck 12 hour but stopped after 50K for various reasons. This year I had this race in mind as my "A" race.

I prepared by having chatgpt write a loop by loop fueling plan based on the foods that I brought, and calculating how much time I had to complete each loop.

Race day brought beautiful weather, sunny and under 20 degrees, with dry trails. I made sure to wear my Topo shoes with the wide toe box, because I finally learned my lesson after getting baby toe squish/blisters at every single race in 2024 due to the narrow toe box.

Lucky #13, being friends with the timer/bib number
 assigner has its benefits.

It was pretty damn cold at the race start, and I wore my hoodie for the first loop, but it got warmer fairly quickly. I was taking it loop by loop, trying not to take any extended walk breaks. 

Peter paced me loops 5-7, fairly aggressively, considering I still had 7 hours to run.  At one point I mused whether I should stop at 70K, if I hit that number early, or run straight through to 12 hours and decided that I wanted to stop at 70K. Peter then asked if I would change my mind if I was in first place and I laughed and said, "well that would never happen!"

Almost all of my favourite people.

I had trouble eating food that I normally love during races, and I was constantly craving fruity, juicy foods. The aid stations had soft pretzels which were amazing! I ran loop 8 with Lori, taking it a little bit easier. I think the compression socks I was wearing were squishing my toes inward, plus I had neglected to cut my toenails and they were smashing against the toe of my shoe. 

Three more loops to hit my goal - only 18K - so little but yet so far! 70K was actually 11 loops plus 1.25K so during loop 9, I called Audrey to ask if I'd be officially credited with 70K with a partial loop done before time ran out.

The news came in that partial loops were credited only at the end of the race. Then Peter called to tell me that I was 1st AG since around 25K, and that he and Audrey decided not to tell me, in order to not freak me out. This was definitely the right call, because I would have 100% freaked the fuck out. I was of course feeling pretty tired but hearing that I was 1st AG gave my legs new life, and my throbbing toes went a bit numb.

I only slowed to grab an applesauce packet before loop 11 and I was constantly looking to see if any women around my age were coming up behind me. 

There was about 40 minutes left when I finished loop 11 and I was going to run hard until time ran out, but the thing about partial loops is that you have to be careful where in the loop you stop, or else you have a long walk back to the start/finish with nothing to show for it. Since the CtC loop is a 4K section, then a 2K section, stopping at 3K was the worst because it was the farthest, and also at the top of a hill. So I walked the last 2K fairly slowly. Thankfully every woman who passed me was in the relay. Maria was at the 2K marker, and she said even if the 2nd AG woman reached that point, I got there first. So I tapped out at officially 70.75K (but 72.3K on my watch). I had accidentally turned my watch off around 28K, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a 6:30 marathon in the back half of the race.

Joyfully accepting my 1st AG award hat from Marjolein.

2024 Year in Review

This has been a year of great change for me on a personal level, not all of it positive. Since this is a blog about running, I'll keep the details under wraps.

Again, I hit my 2024 mile goal on Christmas Day, the seventh year in a row running the year (in miles), so the consistency is still there. 

I'm looking for highlights from (most) months:

January - NYE (day, really) midnight run, Beamsville Bench wine run with Lori and Andrea, ice wine run with the gang.

March - Met Elvis in Dundas, 5th annual Easterbrooks Challenge.

April - ran the Hamilton Brantford rail trail E2E. It was still an adventure. The date stamps on my photos say that I did the Burly stair challenge and PBd the next day. Wow, what was I thinking?

Later in the month, I ran Foxtail 25K with a course PB.

May - Conquer the Canuck 12 hour, stopped at 50K for the second year in a row because I was using it as my peak week long run for...

Sulphur 100K. I wanted to go sub 20 hours, but rain, mud , and blisters put a stop to that.

June - birthday run with Veuve Cliquot. Fancy!

July - volunteered at First Blaze. Tally 24 hours, had to bail after 13 hours/70K due to those damn blisters.

August - volunteered and swept at Stone Cairn.

September - went to PEC for Sugarbush Shenanigans 12 hour. Didn't make 70K, blisters, blah blah blah getting sick of this shit.

they had CHEEZIES at the aid station though!

I WON A BEER MILE!

watch my post-race interview starting at 27:15

October - ran Sticks & Stones 25K just because I needed a long run that day.

Hosted the annual Halloween night run, where we ended up at the bar mid-run, singing karaoke, as you do.

November - went to the most epic Gatsby party, and poor Harry got lost. But then he was found, over a month later. I claim that I had no involvement in his disappearance.

December - getting faster whether I want to or not, because I am chasing fast people more often. 

I had sudden FOMO listening to people talk about Cayuga Trails at the Burly Christmas party and signed up. But due to uncertainty in my personal life that is sure to happen in 2025, I'm reluctant to sign up for too many races.

You still have until December 27th to vote for me as Best Dressed at the Keep Trail Running Weird awards!

Tally not 24 hours

It started with a sub-par lunch on Friday. The salad that came with my sushi was waterlogged and mushy. Then I woke up with a headache on Saturday morning that I reduced with 4 ibuprofen washed down with coffee.

All I wanted weather wise was it to not be a mud pit, and for that, I got my wish. High 29, sunny, and low humidity, I thought it could be a lot worse.

By race start, my headache had subsided but still was low level, usually when I start running, it goes away completely. That day it didn't. The first few loops were uneventful. I was able to eat and drink on schedule, but the headache made me not really want to eat and eating made me feel better, yet worse at the same time.

🥥🥥 for luck

I wrote out a schedule for every loop and at one point, I had an hour's buffer time, so I was doing great despite not feeling it. 

Then my baby toes started hurting. I had put toe condoms on my big and baby toes, and KT on my 4th toes. I felt something flapping in my sock and expected it to be the KT, but it was the baby condom that had fallen off. I put a bandaid on those toes, but my right toe was getting more and more painful, along with my head. 

A shoe change didn't help much when what I really needed was better pre-taping strategies and/or blister cures (I don't want 200 2nd Skin squares when I know they dry out!) My legs felt pretty good, but I was exhausted from the headache, super annoyed at constantly having to stop and fix my baby toes and my hour buffer had dwindled to nothing. Of course I am tired heading into the night of a long race, but this was different - I was tired and continuing for another 12 hours was unbearable, all I wanted was to go home and sleep.

probably the only bad pic Sue has ever taken of me.

if only Harry made room on his hammock for me.

Due to a personel shortage at the aid station, Agnes had to jump in and help Delano, and I managed to slice a few bananas despite the temperature plummetting after sunset.

thanks Eunice for sharing hugs and your blanket for warmth!

I'm feeling down as I write this. I know that pushing onward would have been stupid. I really thought that my goal of 120K was within reach in the right conditions. Now to regroup for Sugarbush Shenanigans 12 hour (my favourite "distance") in the fall.

Sulphur Springs 100K 2024 edition

I had a very strong training block leading up to the race. No major injuries or illness except for my glute, which continues be relatively under control as it bothers me only at night. I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes in March, which led to me overhauling my eating habits and consulting a registered dietitian to help me figure out race fueling.

The first 2 loops were fantastic, I ran them faster than the relay in 2022. The first loop was dry and the second was only light drizzle. I decided to stop dreading the parts of the loop that I hated and instead focus on the parts that I did like that were coming up. 

happy, dry, and clean

I ran most of loop 2 with Lorraine, which made time go by very quickly.

The dietitian had suggested that I eat 60g of carbs per hour, but I stupidly didn't carry food with me on loop 2, only eating small handfuls of food from the aid station, and I was thinking of baaaaaaacon and feeling pretty hungry during the last hour of that loop.

Loop 3 was run with Delano. I was scarfing down Portuguese egg tarts like there was no tomorrow, but I think I had already dug myself into a bit of a hole nutritionally. It was still raining and there were large puddles on the trail, so I did not think it was worth it to change my socks. They were still comfortable, just wet.

G Donald, as always, was the worst part of the course, in terms of both mud and general difficulty. It was starting to draw comparisons to the absolute mud hellhole of 2019. I was wearing toe condoms on my big toes only, having mainly blistered there previously. A sock and shirt change at the end of loop 3 was a big mental boost. Thanks to Liz for changing my socks, refiling my bladder, and grabbing my poles!

The weather finally started to clear up by loop 4, it was a beautiful golden hour. 

📷 Agnes

But I was having trouble mentally running even the downhills, and I was starting to feel hot spots on the smaller toes. I made the right decision to start out with the Xodus Ultra shoes, which had bigger lugs and more cushion than the UVPros. I thought the narrower toe box was possibly the cause of the blisters, so after loop 4, I went for the shoe change. There were some really nasty blisters on my middle and 4th toes. Eileen gingerly cleaned them with an alcohol wipe while I screamed bloody murder. 

foot first aid 📷 Eileen

My dreams of a giant PB slipped away during the very slow fourth loop and slow turnaround. There were times when I wanted to quit after 50 miles, but the thought of finishing, when so many had dropped that day kept me going.

Into the dark night with Josh for the final loop. I was several hours slower than expected, but kept plodding onward. I'll be honest, at this point I was 100% sure I was DFL and was looking forward to winning the Red Lantern. We met Wenna on the final lollipop and in my delirium, offered to pole fight her for last place, which she refused. Amazingly, neither of us were actually DFL!

📷Josh

As the sun rose over the horizon, I made my way up Martin Road for the last time. I find it amusing how I'm magically able to run again once I make the turn into the parking lot.

Unlike after my previous Sulphur 100K finish in 2017, when I promptly swore I'd never do this again and took a year to get over, I gotta do this again and then some in two short months at Tally 24 hour.

2023 Year in Review - barely made it!

 

In January 2023, I wrote:

I don't plan to run 100 miles again until 2024, and will spend 2023 building mileage and working on my race day weaknesses. Mileage wise, I will stick with running 2023 miles (3256K) and anything beyond that will be bonus. 

 January 2023 Patty thought that running 2023 miles/3256K would be a walk in the park compared to 3650K, but she didn't count on my left piriformis being, well, a pain in the ass most of the year. This injury started mid-2022 and crept up on me like a...something scary and pounced during one awful run at the end of March, where I also tweaked a muscle in my left foot, rendering the entire left side of my body useless. On doctor's orders, I took an entire week off running and started physio. Unfortunately, I only got better up to a point and there was no more improvement, and the physio only recommended more frequent sessions, which set off alarm bells. This past month, I have started with a new physio, and while I am still having bad days, I have made noticeable improvement in only 3 sessions. I hit my 2023 mile goal on Christmas Day after reduced mileage the first half of the year.

Race wise, I ran The Flurry Not A Snowshoe Race in February, followed by the 2 months of being in massive pain/low mileage. I recovered enough to run 50K at Conquer the Canuck, then celebrated my birthday by WINNING A RACE!

In August, I ran my longest distance of the year at Tally 12 hour and recovered with hydrotherapy.

My fall race was the 50K at Allegany State Park in Salamanca, NY, but DNF'd due to getting turned around on the course, so my race season ended on a low note.

Due to my IPOS state, I will most definitely NOT be running 100 miles in January 2024 as I originally planned. I'd like to have a really solid year of training down before my brain can even think about 100 miles again. My A race for the first half of 2024 is Sulphur 100K..then we shall see.

I had a "come to Jesus" moment with drinking in October, and I have greatly cut down alcohol consumption, which feels good.

To finish, a selection of Harry's costumes, and Yours Truly as Sexy Laz.

Tally 12 hour day

 I have mostly recovered from the piriformis syndrome that knocked me out during the early spring. In the thick of working through the injury, I barely felt like a runner, so I dropped down to 12 hour day for Tally, because the thought of running 24 hours was overwhelming. 

The training went smoothly, although I felt more tired than usual, maybe because I didn't have as much of a mileage base?

I already knew it would be a challenge to go for a mileage PB for 12 hours on the clockwise course, plus the weather forecast wasn't looking great either. Nevertheless, time to try out my goal minimizing rest between loops. 

There was no Burly tent, and I didn't bring mine, so I walked around for a bit looking for someone to tent share with, and found Hanna. It was an absolute downpour before the start, and I decided to go with my inov-8 shoes with the fantastic grip, even though they are narrow in the toe box and I haven't worn them for longer than 20K. In the past, my big toe was irritated when I wore those shoes, so I bought toe condoms to cushion. 

After 3 loops, I was totally done with those shoes (save for my big toes which felt great) and switched to Topos. That was also when the route change was announced, which included an extra kilometre uphill on the rail trail, but left out the big and extremely muddy hills on Sawmill.

"The Swamp"

Previously, at every timed event, I just ran without any specific plan. This time, I thought I should do the math (1:12/loop for 70K) and debated different ways of tracking this but settled on, race starts at 9, so start loop 2 by 10:12, loop 3 at 11:24, loop 4 at 12:48...

.

.

Obviously, I should never try to math while running ever again, because I didn't realize my mistake until 6 loops in. With the course change, my watch was measuring the reroute loop a bit longer, and while I hit 42K in time, I was still 1K out from the start/finish. 

The rain and mud made it a pretty easy decision to take a longer break and not bust my ass to the finish. Greg brought me a slushie and did loop 7 with me, his longest run in a year.

Step in time.

I was really considering stopping after 8 loops, but I met a lady (Natalie) who had been in the Gong Show and she reminded me that there was still 1:40 left, plenty of time to do 1 more loop, even if it was only walking. I bumped into Jer as I was finishing loop 8 and asked him to keep me company, he was volunteering at the aid station but sent Robin to pace me instead.

The silver lining of the course reroute was that there was a nice out and back to see people, and then the last km almost entirely downhill to the start/finish. Robin and I picked up the pace at the end, and I finished in 11:55, perfect timing!

I'm Number One!

 I don't even remember why I was browsing Race Guide, but I found a new race: Run Forest Run. I sent the link to Shannon because it's close to where she is currently and she and Darek signed up. Then she asked me to go too, and I couldn't refuse, seeing The Jenny as an option, and I love me a timed race.

My first shock via the pre-race email:

I'm the least elite runner, how did 

I end up with bib #1?

Looking at the list of participants, I was the only "out of towner", despite a 1:45 drive. Race morning was cool and cloudy. I arrived at the trailhead and skeeters swarmed the car the moment I opened the door, so I doused myself liberally with bug spray.

The blue crew.

The events had different start times, and there were 2 other people besides me doing the 4 hour - a woman and her teen son. The woman told me that they were only going to run "a few" loops and took off VERY fast, while I settled into my easy trot. I had been told by Shannon and Varty that the 3K loop was very runnable. I ran the entire loop save a few steps, but hiked the hills on the subsequent laps, just to have a little break. 

At the start of the second loop, I thought I could just keep my head down, feeling settled in, and just run. But soon after the start of the lap, I was running up a gradual sandy incline that didn't seem familiar. Checked my watch and sure enough I had missed a turn.

Jenny, right; Everyone else, left. 

I backtracked at top speed but at the end of the loop, I had done more than 1K extra. The lady and her son passed me again at the start of my third loop and I didn't see them on course again.

I'm very pleased that my splits for each loop were very even. By the last few loops, the RD and the Full Gump finishers knew my name and were cheering me on every time I finished another loop. 

With about 1K left in the final loop, 3 runners came to run me in. They said they just wanted to have more fun. I'm down with that.

It's hard to believe, but I WON A RACE! Shannon won a box of chocolates "you never know what you're gonna git" and I won a can of peas and carrots because..

Email shock #2 - I made the post-race roundup. Just call me Fireball Patty from now on.

I'm leveling up to a new age group this week, and *fingers crossed* I seem to be on the road to recovery from the horrific bout of piriformis syndrome and training for Tally 12 hour.