Here is the elevation profile.
100 miles and 28,000 feet elevation gain.
Well; the short story is that I couldn't quite do it. I made it to the 120 km mark. I only went up and down the first three mountains, about 22,000 feet elev gain.
The weather gods are not on my side this year. At sinister it was 39 celsius, and apparently at fat dog it was hitting 30 degrees by 9 am and hit a max of 37 celsius. But I thought I was dealing with it well. I was taking gels regularly, intaking proper amounts of water/gatorade and salts, and my stomach was dealing with the solid food that I was putting in. My sweat/pee functions was good. And I even felt like my body temperature was all that high (well until midday hit, then I started to have issues).
The race started at 4 am in Keremeos, and finishes in Manning park. There was a shuttle bus offered that took you from Manning (assuming you were staying there) to the start line in Keremeos the night before. I hadn't planned far enough in advance to book a room in keremeos, so my plan was to sleep in my car in keremeos after the pre race meeting friday night. Turns out I slept in the hall after the meeting on a pallet. Ha. It was suprisingy comfortable, other than waking up in the middle of the night with a disturbing sensatioon that a bat had landed on me.
Morning of the race we took a school bus that left the hall at 3 am to the start line, arriving there at around 3:45 for the 4 am start. At the sound of a bear clapper 30 crazies started. I should backtrack a bit. The night before I had gone to dinner with a couple experienced runners from Washington state that were volunteering, many times over dinner I got told to go slow, no slower, no slower, you must pace yourself for an epic hard race and the distance. 42 hours time limit, plan for it. And I knew there were a few very expereinced 100 milers in the field, so I figured I wasn't going to go too far away from them.
The start of the race was a rather steep climb in the dark. I attached myself to the heels of a runner that this year had finished his second hardrock. We did a goood pace, good hike pace on the uphills and decent jog on the downhills. The first mountain ascent gave us the sunrise with a perfect view of the mountains around us. At the 31 km mark (which was at the bottom of the first mountain) there was a suggested time of 5 hours. Me and Larry arrived around 4:55 hours. At this point I was feeling great, highs of being at the top of an alpine mountain condition, and running down some nice hiills, felt like my body was holding up good, not too hot yet as we had a decent amount of shade.
Well, at the 31 km aid station is where the heat started. We ran a short ways along a foretsry road in the heat, and then started the ascent up mountain #2 in a very steap open trail. This was slow going. A very hot 5-8 kms later we had gotten back into shadier trails, running along lakes. But that passed and we were back into the open, nearing the peack of the next mountain. There was an 11 hour cutoff time at km 69, which was after a river crossing after going back down the second mountain. Climbing up the second mountain near the top, I was with three other runners and we were quite aware that we would not be hitting this cutoff time. It was far too agreesive. Nonetheless as we came down the awesome singletrack that was ont the side of the mountain face coming down we had to pick up the pace. This was lost a bit as one of the aid stations was moved further along for some reason or another. We had picked up another runner just before this, of the five I was with I was the only one not run out of water (even having shared some of it) hitting the aid station about 6 km before the river crossing at the very low point of the course. At this aid station, we were informed that the race directors were aware of the cut off time being missed by many (turns out had they kept the 11 hour cut off time they would have cut all but 5 runners) the cutoff time was seemingly randomly based off of the previous winners time, plus two hours. At the river crossing we were informed the cutoff had been extended an hour, we still had to book it to make it. Myself and about four other runners came in together, having ran way too fast for the last 4 km to the next aid station, and exerting ourselves too much the 3 km before the river. Turns out 10 runners came through between 3 pm and 4 pm (the extra hour) and they even let 5 more runners in before 5 pm. I wish they hadn't been so indecisive with this, I really felt like I had to push too much to hit this cut off time. I ran 36% of the course distance and about 45% of the elevation gain in about 28% of the total 42 hour cutoff time.
At the aid station at 69 km a fair amount of time was spent getting ready to move on. Shoe change, night time equipment was picked up, and away we went up the next mountain. I was a couple minutes behind a group of 5 runners. They kept jogging the flats. But I felt a little overstretched from trying to hit the last cutoff, so was planning on just power walking for awhile, turned on the music for the first time in the day and eventually I caught up to the group ahead. However, the muscles (perhaps tendons) behind my knees were starting to get tight. About halfway up the third mountain there was a descent, the runners ahead of me started to run, and I just didn't have it in me, the pain in the knees was rough. So I just kept power walking hoping it would go away. I never caught those runners again, but that was ok. Ascending the mountain was another scenic gem just like the last two. So many switchbacks on this one, seemed eternal. But getting to the top it was a beautiful view, canyons straight down on the other side, wonderful cool winds. A couple km's of easy going until the aid station at 88 km at the top of the third mountain. Wonderful folks, had a quesadilla made for me, some nice conversation and away I went. The sunset was watched at the top, and it was a blessed moment. However, just after heading out my legs started to go to shit, specifically now both legs were overly tight behind the knees. And this coincided with the arrival of night time. My first major mental hurdle came. And the low hit hard.
In my head at this point for some reason I thought it was downhill until the next aid station at 102 km. But I was wrong, and realized this very soon. Another mental low, just kept getting lower. As I was feeling like ass of course I stumbled and slightly rolled my ankle. I swore for the first time about 18 hours into the day. When I thought I was at about 95 km, I saw a sign saying 9 km to the next lake (which was where the next aid was) I was now getting further into a mental hole, only this far? I had been passed by several runners, but somehow picked it up and was at least powerwalking the uphills and even jogging the minor downhills. I finally made it to the 102 km aid station, considering dropping. Except there was no way to drop as the guys that were running this aid station only got there by hiking the 18 km up the mountain from the spot where our mext aid station was located. So no choice but to keep going.
I thought to myself that I would at least do my best to the next aid station and see how I felt. Perhaps even feeling recuperated enough to carry on past 120 km. From 102 km it was downhill. The type of trail that has been cut into the side of the mountain, narrow, but wide enough to feel like youi can run, with a steep drop going down the one side of the mountain. Well, my new mental high lasted maybe 10 km. for a 1 km stretch I slipped and stumbled, my legs gave out a bit and I slipped down the mountainside feeling as though I barely caught myself on the way down. I felt so unsafe. THis stumbling happened ten times. FUCK! I was actually feeling scared. What to do? instant low, I felt so mentally out of it. I couldn't even feel the pain in my posterior knee muscles, all I could think of was how am I going to get safely down this trail. So I stopped and sat there. I took my good headlight off, put my junk back up on, sat down and took off my pack and belt and waited. I was mentally prepared to wait until daylight so I could get out safely. However, eventually the next runner came along and I went along with him. I figured at least with someone else I would be safe. By this time I knew there was no other option but dropping when I got to the next aid station. The runner I was with was still holding onto the idea of finishing, but he was going slow. It took us four and a alf hours to go down the 18 km to the next aid station. In the meantime I picked the brain of Jefferey about his motivation to finish, and what gets him through the lows. Some good chats. Eventually we got to the aid station, and I dropped out.
In the end I ran 120 km in 25:25, and did approximately 22,000 ft elev gain, climbing up and down three of the most difficult climbs I've done. the fellow I ran with for a fair bit who has done hardrock said the course was harder than hardrock. I was on my feet continuously for the longest time ever for me, and this is the greatest amount of elevation gain I've ever done, and 5 km shy of my longest run in distance ever. I ran up and down three mountains; watching the sunrise on the first, and the sunset on the third, with so much amazing scenery in between. I am so glad I chose to come take on this course, the greater the challenge the better.
Six days later and I am still a little tight behind my knees, but am capable of comfortably walking. I've biked the last two days for 21 km and 31 km respectively. I could barely walk for three days after the race though. For the first time in three years of trail running I had blisters at the end of a race; one one each heal, the three smallest toes on each foot had blisters, the second largest toe on my left foor had a massive blood blister underthe nail (probably oing to lose it) and my big toe on my right foot is completely black.
I defintely feel like I've come out of this adventure having found the place to tap into in terms of motivatioon to finish/race. So quite pleased with that.
All in all; I am amaxingly blessed to live a life where I have the ability to pursue these sorts of acitivities where I can challenge myself and learn through them.
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