Canadian Death Race - Adventure

***I'm not sure why I can't find any other places to enter info... I enter it and it doesn't show... so it's all crammed into this comment section!! Also, if you right click on the image below, and view image you can see the terrain from the race***


Started at the rail yard, underneath the highway, up a short hill, then into the meat of the race 28 km of hiking/running/falling/climbing/struggling!! It starts right away into the climb and it just keeps going, up and up and up. Then it descends (even though you can see that the mountain top is still a ways ahead of you!).. descent and climb, descent and climb... rinse and repeat. The final climb up to the top of the first mountain (Flood Mntn) was rough to say the least, it was very steep, on a very small trail.Flood mntn is 6085 ft.

At the top of flood mountain it was POURING, ice cold, huge, hard rain drops, and it was blowing horizontally across the top. It was INSANE... I was frozen and feeling pretty dizzy (I guess from Alt and exertion..).. at the top I couldn't really look left or right cause my body would just follow my gaze! I just kept on going...one step at a time, and finally got to the top! Sweet... made my way down flood, the first part is pretty easy quad (ATV) trail then you get to a check point at the top of the very aptly named SLUGFEST...

Slugfest began with a bang as I went for a nice fall/slide down the grass/rock and look up to find myself right in the lense of the camera man!! And yes, it did end up on the death race dvd!! Cause i got up and couldn't stop laughing...till I remembered what was to come. The descent down slugfest is pretty ridiculous... one of my miles DOWN took me 31 minutes!!! It was so steep, I was so worried about getting injured and killing the rest of my teams chances, I took my time and picked my way down without any major incidents... couple times i ended up hugging a tree to stop my momentum, but it was all good...

Finally get to the bottom of flood, feet are totally soaked in mud from treading through calf high water/bog mix, and then you look across a little creek and see the climb to come... it was a good 40-50 minutes of straight climbing.. and not these little hills from normal courses... this was mind numbing, body killing, lung busting UP UP UP....with very few breaks...

I could go on forever about the course... it kept alternating between steep up and steep down till we got to the bottom of the next mountain (Grande Mountain) and the only emergency aid station on the leg...about 16km into the leg! Grabbed three glasses of water, a power bar and stuffed some more food in my pouch for the climb to come. Didn't spend much time, but enough time to hear that someone had blown out a knee on slugfest and he was trying to climb up so someone could rescue him. For most of slugfest you are totally unreachable if you need any help...

Started the long, relentless climb up Grande (6520ft. It's a gravel road, so footing isn't bad, it's just a non stop climb. It took me about 45 minutes to get to the top from the aid station. It was cold, windy and rainy at the top of grande, but I've never been so happy!! Stuck my timing stick in, adjusted my pack, deep breath... and got ready to head down the other side of Grande..which my body still remembered as very painful :-)

From the top of Grande back into Grande Cache and the relay hand off was about another 8km, but it was all at a very steep, very slippery, muddy, wet, trecherous down hill... it was very painful and very fun all at once...hmmm.. People would rush by me down the hill and then I'd see them go flying down as they slipped in the mud... ouch! Saw a few people with huge tears in their pants... again, I took my time on the down hill, but was much faster than my practice of it.

The practice run I did of this leg I really went slow on this down hill and found it excruciating on my knees... this time I went a big faster and tried to use my butt and quads more and it felt way better, even though I felt like i was going to fall most of the time.. it was still pretty uncomfortable, toes got sore, by this point the bottoms of my feet were just screaming, and my quads were trembling haha I remember stopping once on the down hill and both of my legs were just shaking!!

During the downhill you can hear the cheers coming from town, which is like a double edged knife, you're so pumped cause you are close... but you still have 8km to go!!

FINALLY made it to the bottom of Grande Mntn and was so relieved!! Only a few more KM to go!! You run UP another hill into town, and then about 2km on the side walks to the finish line! I actually managed to run about the last 5km with lead legs, and was pulling off about a 9min30 sec mile! I don't know how... but i had to believe what my garmin was telling me!! There were people cheering for the last 3 km or so, and all those words of encouragement really make a difference..

I started getting so emotional on the last bit, I could hardly contain myself as I saw the finishing chute! It was ridiculous !! I wanted to smile and explode I was so happy, but tears were all that wanted to come up! I had to stop my chin from quivering so I could get some nice finish photos. As I crossed under the finish arch I had a quick exchange with my leg#3, still trying to hold in the crying!, wished him luck, turned around and grabbed some grub from the aid table...




So get this....my dad flew up from the other side of the country and was standing at my finish line!! I knew he was coming up, but I didn't think he'd made the finish time... I was so happy to see him there, and so emotional that I just totally burst into tears in his arms.

I had our entire team in tears :-) I've never done anything so draining and challenging and rewarding both physically and mentally, and when I crossed that line I was so relieved and excited and happy, it all came out in quick burst of tears!

This was an incredible experience!! I can't wait to do it next year, my team was awesome! We took 18hr 30 minutes and finished at 2:30 am... every team member went out for the start and finish of each leg, and we were surrounded by some of the most incredible and inspiring athletes I've been around.

There are people that do this race as a solo effort, and I can't even imagine how that feels, I'd love to do it someday, but it'll be a few years for sure till I enter those ranks.

The race was very well organized, the people were incredible, there was some pretty good race swag given out, and you were given a "Canadian Death Race" coin with a personalized engraving on the inside.

Had a blast, still coming down off the death race high, and can't WAIT to do it again!!!