Grinding Glaciers in Revelstoke

Having slowly been working my way back from niggling injuries (which are still far from 100% gone) I decided less than two weeks ago to race Glacier Grind 44k in Revelstoke this past weekend (a 5 Peaks race).  It was the perfect balance of being close enough to home that I could commit to the race not too far in advance, and yet it was far enough away from home that I'd get to experience the fun of racing on new-to-me trails.  The 44k distance and amount of climbing (around 2400m, and same of descent) was great too as it made it a good challenge yet not anything too extreme.

Speaking at the race briefing the evening before the race, with Adam Campbell.  Photo: Amy Golumbia

The race profile was relatively straight forward - complete an undulating loop of a few kms to warm up before hauling yourself up some huge mountain ascent that seemed to grind on for a very long time, play around in the alpine and some rocky sections for a while whilst admiring some pretty lakes swirling in the mist, before bombing back down the mountain on one crazy fun long descent to the finish line.

Alpine lake along the course.  Photo: Amy Golumbia

A runner in the swirling mist.  Photo: Steve Shannon Photography

 As usual I showed my weakness is long uphills climbs and I hiked a huge portion of that, but I was relatively good at just putting my head down and getting to work.  Well, I didn't put my head down entirely as we'd been warned at the pre-race briefing that there were both black and grizzly bears active in the area so my eyes and ears were open, but the most I saw was some fresh berry-filled poop on the trail and some footprints in the mud.  But the bears were definitely around with one racer I talked to having been (un)lucky enough to see 3 separate bears during the race.

Runners grinding their way up to Eva Pass.  Photo: Steve Shannon Photography

 The biggest kudos has to go out to the volunteers at this race and the Revelstoke National Park staff - whether they were runners from further afield or Revy locals, many folks stood out in the cold and drizzly rain for many hours to ensure that we stayed on track, didn't get eaten by bears, but did get to eat the usual aid station food.  It was a grey fall day and although it was warm at the lower elevations, by the time we were up at the high point of Eva Pass, I was definitely pulling out my jacket to stay warm on the descent over rocky slabs and through lush moss and fungi filled forests.

Volunteer ensuring we all arrived safely atop Eva Pass.  Photo: Steve Shannon Photography

 My friend Liza from Canmore led the female charge on the uphill and it honestly didn't surprise me - Liza is a strong and competitive adventure racer, mountain biker and runner - and well, she's just more of a mountain lady than I am.  But Liza and our fellow friend Fitzy were within sight on the final portion of the climb up to Eva Pass so I was hopeful that I could catch them both on the descent.  Unfortunately before I caught Liza I also caught my toe in some mud and before I knew it I'd splatted down onto a rock and bruised my knee.  To be honest I was more annoyed that my gloves were now super muddy and wet rather than bothered by my knee, but with a bit of on-the-run thinking I took off my wet gloves and instead used my arm sleeves to keep my hands warm.

Typical Fitzy ... and volunteer unicorn.  Photo: Steve Shannon Photography

Surface scrapes from getting a little too familiar with the trail.

 The final descent through what can only be described as an enchanted forest was far too much fun - a nice grade to pick up the pace and yet enough technicality to slow you down.  All the better was that on the final few kms of descent I caught a total of three men to secure an overall 4th place finish and 1st female.  Liza was not far behind over the line as 2nd woman.

Enchanted forest.  Photo: Stephanie O'Brien

All in all a great course, amazing volunteers, awesome to catch up with so many Banff/ Canmore buddies, and lots of fun to be back racing again - albeit at a low key event and still with much progress to make in terms of working through aches and pains, and working back to full fitness.

Top 3 ladies.  Photo: Jan Herman

Rainy Revy recovery run the day after the race.

Valley running in Revy.  Photo: self.

Pretty ceramic medal :)

The Rut - a Real Mountain Run

Whilst I'm certainly not unfamiliar with running in the mountains and have raced in many trail events, it is fair to say that if there was ever any doubt whether I'd raced a 'real' mountain run then that doubt is now 100% gone given I survived The Rut 50km course in Big Sky, Montana yesterday.  When I signed up for this race, which is the final of the World Skyrunning Ultra Championships, I knew it would be tough but the more I saw of the course in the few days prior to race day and the more I talked to folks I began to wonder what exactly I had got myself into.

Checking out Lone Peak in the snow 2 days pre-race

Terrain for mountain goats.  I am not a mountain goat.

A well earned view from Lone Peak

The start line was at over 2300m, which is about 2150m higher than where I live, and the course would only climb, climb, climb until it topped out at Lone Peak, the imposing summit which looms over the mountain resort of Big Sky at some 3400m.  Yikes!  I anticipated that the lack of oxygen could pose some challenges.  If that was not enough, in order to achieve the panoramic vistas from the summit of Lone Peak, I would have to scale not one, but two, scree/ boulder fields and mountain ridges, and given the start and finish line were in the same location, well I'd have to also descend some hair-raisingly steep slopes to reach the finish line.  How hair-raising?  Well, there were ropes on hand and a few yelps and whimpers may have escaped my mouth as, at times, I would descend haphazardly and ungainly down a trail-free mountainside, quite simply trying to do my best to remain upright and juddering from one  bright yellow course marker to another.

Local trail friends

But the course was not all scree slopes and mountain vistas which is what made the course so intriguing; many of the early and latter miles were cruisy wide double track trails or single track bike paths, buttery smooth and oh so runnable (especially if my red blood cell count had been a little higher).  These were easy miles where I managed to comfortably click off a 4min/ km on a smooth and sweet descent about 5kms from the finish line, and these miles lay in sharp contrast to the middle miles where I huffed and puffed and slipped and slided my way up a scree slope, knocking off a none too impressive, but very hard earned, 24min/ km!

Early miles on easy trails

The 'trail' up Lone Peak

All in all, just like Speedgoat 50km back in July, I felt that I held my own and I am more than happy with my fourth place finish.  I knew that it would be a likely unachievable goal to keep apace with the mountain gazelles of Emelie Forsberg, Kasie Enman and Anna Frost so I was just happy to share much of my time on the course with Hillary Allen and Becca Much, as we would switch back and forth between 4th and 6th for much of the course.  With a strong finish I managed to sneak into 4th place for a final time about 9kms before the finish line and then kept my legs spinning faster to maintain this position and earn my sub-7hr finish (6:57:33).

Full race results are available here
And a super photo album, which captures the pure beauty of the course, is available here.

A big shout out to the two Montana Mikes (Mike Foote and Mike Wolfe) who pulled off a true Euro-style mountain race and a great party!

Petzl-ing it up pre-race start.  Photo: Bryon/ iRunFar

3400m and looking forward to a screeching descent.  Photo: iRunFar

Speedgoat, Slowgoat, Stellargoat

'Welcome to Karl's party' was the call over the loud speakers as racers started to assemble at the start line of Speedgoat 50km at 6.30am yesterday.  And that for sure set the tone of the day; this was a race where there was so much energy and excitement, so much positivity and help from the aid station volunteers that it might threaten to overwhelm the breathtaking natural beauty of the race course if the course but not so amazingly stunning itself.  I've been lucky enough to run in many places but this course in the Wasatch mountains of Snowbird is definitely high up on the list of just plain pretty courses; whether it was the rocky and still slightly snowy scree slopes, or the meadows of wild flowers, or the fun technical scrambles, there was always something making a very good effort to distract you from the fact that you were ploughing your way up some long and steady climb to the course high point of over 3300m.

Seven weeks ago I ran Comrades 89km in 6h18, and I knew that coming into Speedgoat that it would take an amazing effort to run this course, some 39km shorter, in the same amount of time.  At the end of the day I posted 6h53 for what turned out to be a little over 52kms and I'm very happy with my 3rd place finish.  Speedgoat was always going to be a test of (1) how I would perform at altitude and (2) how I would perform on a true mountain course.  I don't like to be pigeon holed into doing only one type of running as that would mean missing out on many amazing races, but I know that my strengths are in more runnable courses.  I had to have a chuckle when I looked at the profile of the Speedgoat course and figured that there was about 2.5kms on flattish runnable terrain on the entire course!

Overall, the race panned out pretty much as I expected - after the first 9 miles and approx 800m of climbing I was in 8th place.  As I had feared, I was struggling with the altitude and my general weakness on uphills on the runnable climbs, plus it always takes me a while to warm up.  But as soon as we hit the descents I picked off a couple of places, despite being careful to not hammer hard, as I knew there was still an equally big climb, in addition to many smaller climbs, to come that I would need solid quads for.  The later climbs I found myself keeping apace with the runners around me, despite hiking practically all of them, and found the steeper climbs, although very tough, was were my decent ability to powerhike paid off.  And then once we were over Hidden Peak (approx km43) for the final time it was time to hammer hard down the final big descent (which also had a new mini climb in it!) to enjoy the finish and ensure I wasn't caught by Hilary who was just 2 minutes back of me at the top.

All in all, it was great to mix it up and do a race that was different from a lot of the runnable stuff I tend to do.  I now know what I can work on to improve on, and I also know that although the altitude likely slowed me down, I still managed to run well enough that I would race again up high - which is a good thing as I'm excited to be heading to Montana for The Rut 50km, another Skyrunning World Series race, in September!


Click here for my post-race interview with iRunFar.com

Thank you as always to my sponsors: Montrail, Mountain Hardwear, Clif, Nuun, Udos Oil the Machine, Drymax socks, Sundog Eyewear, CEP Compression Canada.


Gear I used on race day included:

Montrail Bajada shoes
Drymax Max Trail Pro socks (during race)
CEP Compression socks (post race)
8 x Clif gels, 1 x pack of Clif Shot Bloks, Clif hydration drink.
Mountain Hardwear Mighty Power Cooler Sports Bra, Wicked Lite Tank and Cool Runner Shorts
Sundog Dialed mela-lens sunglasses
Nuun (post-race hydration)

Approaching Hidden Peak after 1st climb.  Photo: iRunFar

Glad to have almost made it to top of first climb! Photo: Paul Nelson Photography

Hello Meghan! Photo: iRunFar

Heading down to Mineral Basin.

Congratulation Anna who won for 2nd time! Photo: Paul Nelson Photography

Speedgoat top 3 ladies: myself (3), Anna Frost (1), Kasie Enman (2).  Photo: iRunFar

With the Speedgoat himself, pre race.  Thanks for an amazing race Karl!  Photo: iRunFar

Towards Ridge Trail

End of Ridge Trail