Lost Soul Ultra in Lethbridge

Greetings Everyone,





As an almost yearly event a group of us from the Trail Trash group headed of to Lethbridge, Alberta for the Lost Soul Ultras. There is 3 distances at this race a 50k which is actually 53k, a 100k which is basically 100k and a 100 miler which again is basically right on for distance. I was heading down on Thursday afternoon on September 13th with a couple of friends, Hugh and Alan. Alan was coming down to help support Hugh who like me was running the 100 miler, Alan was running the 50k on the 15th. We arrived in Lethbridge around 4:30 and went to the hotel, which is also the start and finish area, to check in and drop off our stuff. Then it was off to the Runner's Soul running store to pick up race package's.





Once we had picked up our race packages we went back to the hotel to relax and sort out our gear into the drops bags. Hugh and I were allowed to have 3 while Alan could have 1. I had no idea what to put in each bag because I didn't know where I would be3 when I needed something. I took a guess at what time I would be at each aid station and packed my clothes according to that. For the most part this guessing game worked out for me and I had no aid station issues with my gear.



On Thursday night Hugh, Alan and I headed out to find a good place to have dinner at. We found a place to park and were walking down a couple of streets looking for a restaurant and couldn't find anything. Hugh finally asked this guy if he knew of a nice place to eat, well this guy opened his mouth showed us his one tooth and then said some word that none of us could make out. So off we went searching for some good food once again, that is when we spotted a couple of cops walking down the other side of the street. Hugh thought we should ask them but I was worried they would point us towards the best donut shop in town at best a fast food place. Hugh crossed over so Alan and I followed and heard the cop tell Hugh about a pasta place in the old firehall, which was only a couple of blocks away. This restaurant was fantastic, we sat out on the patio in a big sun beam and enjoyed a wonderful pre-run meal, I will definitely be going back to that place next time I am in Lethbridge.



We finished up with dinner and headed off to the car and back to the hotel to try and get some restless sleep. I had the hide-a-bed while Hugh and Alan share the queen sized bed. I was asleep fairly early for me 9:30-10:00pm and slept fairly well until about 4am when the temp dropped off and I started to get cold, the bed only had a thin blanket on it.



The wake up call was set for 5:45am and it sure came early, Hugh and I reluctantly got out of bed and started to get ready knowing it would be along day(s). The pre-race weigh in was at 6am and I came in at 85.5 kgs which was good and bad because I could loose up to 5% before being pulled from the course. The pre-race briefing was at 7am and were told about the issues on the course or concerns anyways. It turned out 2 weeks before a bear was chased off of the course, there was a real angry bull in on of the areas we had to run through, there was lots of cows on the course and to top it of 6 rickety ladders to climb over some fences. What a great way to build up the spirits of all the runners, I saw a few of them look at each other and then the door. Oh, the other news was the forecast was for high 20's during the day and zero at night. Now it was just time to sit and wait for the 8 am start.

I moved out to the start around 7:50-7:55. It was cool, but I wore my shorts and a t-shirt anyways knowing I would warm up soon. The start was a little anticlimactic as the race director didn't do a countdown and suddenly bust out with "Start". I looked at the person beside me and they had the same look as me, the look that says "was that the actual start". Well off we went for the first 7k before coming back to the start/finish area, which was also an aid station. It didn't take me long to warm up and soon found a pace I thought I could handle for the first lap or two, the 100 milers had to do 3-53.5k laps. I don't remember what time it was when I came back through the start finish area but I was only there long enough to refill my water bottles and head out to the Peenaquim aid-station. For me the next 5k was one of the hardest sections of the race, no matter which lap I was on this section was always the slowest part of that lap. I pushed myself also and went past the unmanned water station and then into the Peenaquim station. It was nice to get there as I used each aid-station as a small goal to get me through each lap, again I didn't stop long at the station just long enough to refill my bottles and grab my sun glasses. I had brought enough food with me to get me through the lap so food was not an issue I just had to make sure I had water and also something with electrolytes, the race was serving a drink made by GU. GU turned out to be not bad, I had never had it before the race, and each aid station had a different flavour.

As I left Peenaquim, it was a flat area for a short while and then the climbing started again. The course weaved its way up and down what seamed like every coulee along the course. I seamed to be doing well as I could keep the leaders within sight for all this section. The trail opens up out of one of the coulees and I could see the next aid-station, Pavan, and thought of the loop on the north end and then the return trip back to the start/finish area. Pavan was a well setup aid-station in a paved parking lot and had great lighting for the night time stops I would be taking.

From the aid-station it is approximately a 16.5k loop and I would be back in Pavan. While in the aid-station I again only needed water and GU so the stop was short. Leaving the aid-station started out along 1km of pavement before another big climb. It turns out that each lap has about 3000 feet of elevation gain and also elevation loss, that is a fair bit when you consider the race is in the prairies. I was about 2kms from the aid-station when I was about half way around the lap at the 33km mark I could still see the leaders about 10 or 12 minutes ahead of me. At this point I looked at my GPS and did some quick math. I had covered the first half in about 3 hours and my goal was around a 7 to 71/2 hour lap so I had to slow down. At the 35km mark there was another unmanned water station and I filled both bottles with water.

Back at Pavan I topped up my water, made sure I had a bottle of GU with me and took some salt tablets, might have grabbed a few chips to munch on as I headed off down the trail. It was a short 5 kms back to Peenaquim and then 7kms from there back to the start/finish area. At Peenaquim it was the same old story water and GU only and push on as fast as I could.

When I got into the start/finish area my time was around 7 hours, a little on the fast side of what I wanted but I was o.k. with it as I still felt strong and the farther I could cover in the cool temps of the morning the better. At the aid-station I was takenin for my first weigh in and found that I had gained weight over the first loop, I now weighed 85.9kgs and people say they run to loose weight. I helped my self to the food table, known as the buffet and filled up my bottles. I figured I had drank around 15 bottles of liquid on that first lap which was about 8 liters of fluid that I had put into me and I wish I had been able to drink more.

The second loop started out fairly well. The 7km loop that brought me back to the start/finish area was about half pavement and with the heat going up it felt like a furnace radiating up from the pavement. My pace was down to about 7km an hour which was a comfortable pace for me at the time. When I got back to the aid-station Alan and Hugh were there to greet me, which I did not expect, Hugh should have been miles ahead of me. It turned out that Hugh was having some IT band problems and had pulled himself from the race. He was limping with every step and even still I could see the disapointment on his face. The good ting for me was Hugh was able tolend me his hicking poles, I had forgot mine at home and wouldn't have them until Tasha arrived.

As I headed off north running and power hiking. I had little food with me but only had to get to Peenaquim as I had a full supply of food waiting for me there. It took me a little longer then I had hoped to but the temp was still climbing and my pace was slowing a little. Getting to Peenaquim was my current goal and I was going to get there no matter what. Having the hiking poles was a great help as I was able to tackle the hills at a much faster pace then I would have been able to do other wise.

Peenaquim was such a happy sight. Hugh and Alan where there to greet me and help me any in way they could. Alan grabed my water bottles and filled them up, I went to my drop bag and filled up on food. I started to pack my drop bag when Hugh told me to leave it and he would repack it once I had left. The other great part of getting to this aid-stationis Chris was there, he like Alan was running th 50k the next day and had come down a little early to cheer us on.

Leaving Peenaquim I was feeling good and was still moving fairly fast but some how by the time I made it to Pavan I was feelingfairly low. I had tried to talk to other runners through out the race but I found most of them made me feel lower so I just seperated myself from them and carried on alone. This time in Pavan it was the first time I actually sat down in an aid-station. I sat down and spent about 15 minutes eating, drinking and basicly getting my head cleared. The aid-station volunteers were fantastic, they really helped get me back into the game and onto my feet. I had some of the salmon a volunteer had brought and it was so good, also had some salted potatoes, there were other things that I had but can't remember. Finally I grabbed my head lamp and spare batteries and headed out onto the course.

It took a few kms before I started to feel an energy boost from the food I ate at the aid-station but at least it was coming and I was feeling stronger. I had gone about 6km from Pavan before I had to put on the head lamp and light my way. Now that the temp had dropped a little I was making sure I really downed the water bottles to make sure I rehydrated. I had a great return trip back to Pavan and was running faster then my first lap.

I made another sit down break at Pavan, this time it was only about 5 minutes and I just crammed as much food down my throat as I could. About 2kms from Pavan I saw a bunch of lights making their way towards me and I knew I was not that tired so it wasn't a halucination. It turned out to be one of the 100k runners and somehow she had turned her self around and was running back to Pavan. It didn't take me long to convince her she was going the wrong way and she followed along behind me. Over the next couple of climbs I pulled away from her and made it into Peenaquim long before she made it into it.

This next section took its toll on my toes. There was a section that ran along the Old Man river for about 2kms that was nothing but loose rocks and lots were the size of baseballs. I think I stubbed each toe twice along this section. I had to slow down and walk for most of this section other wise my feet would really pay for it later.

I will continue with the final lap later.

J