Some Pictures from Recent Activities

Hugh and Chris on Forget-Me-Not Ridge

Well things have been good in the last while, running has been going better, getting out more often and even getting a little paddling in. I have been out more then this shows but I didn't always have a camera with me. The few pictures I do have are from a very wet run up Forget-Me-Not Ridge where it rained hard for the first 45 minutes of the run. I also got up Powderface Ridge a while ago and enjoyed great weather and fantastic views. This was the run where we beat the mtn. bikers to the top and also to the bottom. It is so satisfying when that happens. Lastly they are from a camping trip with my parents, my dad and I had a chance to go for a paddle from Banff to Canmore on the Bow River and it was a spectacular day, not to hot, a little breeze and a few hours on the water.

Crossing the Elbow River before going up Forget-Me-Not

The paddle has been my highlight so far this summer as my dad had always wanted to paddle the Bow and I was able to do that with him. I am so looking forward to the next trip that we have when I get to do a little paddling with him again.

Hugh and Allan on Powderface Ridge and the dogs



Some of the Trail Trash Gang heading up to Powderface Ridge

Me at the top of Powderface

Two Jack Lake

Me and my dad paddling the Bow River

The 2 Nott's heading off for a great paddle

Run for 1 Planet

Well, a few weeks ago I was reading the running edition of Impact magazine and read an article about these 2 people who were going to each run a marathon a day for a year. They were the founders of a charity called "Run for 1 planet" and their goal was to run around North America in a year raising awareness for environmental action. When I was on my vacation a couple of weeks ago we were driving through Northern Ontario and saw a runner on the side of the highway. My wife and I thought this was odd until we saw a motor home on the side of the highway that was all decaled up with run for 1 planet stuff. I remembered the article and told my wife about the group and what they are doing, so we decided to join them for a few kms.

The back of the motor home

Tasha went out first and ran with Steph for a while and I went down the highway and waited with the motor home. Matt came out and we had a little chat as we waited for Steph and Tasha to arrive. What a positive and energetic guy. We didn't get to talk for to long as he was also the driver of the motor home so he was heading down the high way to meet up with Steph and Tasha. I followed along and puled over a few kms down the road to wait for them and to get a couple of pictures. Matt and Steph switched at the next stop the motor home made so Tasha ran with Matt for a little while before I switched with Tasha.

Tasha running with Matt

I ran with Matt for about 5k and had a chance to talk to him about how the run was going. One of the goals they have is to start a marathon in each major city that they have run through during their year long run. So I am thinking about trying to get on started in Calgary, it would be a trail marathon as there are not many in the area. I am looking forward to the challenge or organizing and marketing such a race.

Tasha running with Steph

We wished we had more time to spending running with Matt and Steph but we did have to get moving as we were on our way to Sault Sainte Marie. We spent over an hour running with them and at the end of it I felt inspired to find something epic to do in my life. Anyone have an idea?

Me running with Matt

Blogging Frequency

Well, I have to admit I have down right sucked at keeping up on my blog postings. I think it is mostly due to that fact that I have not been doing much this summer. My running is down, being outdoors in general is down and it is almost half way through the summer man do I have some catching up to do. The first thing I am doing is going camping for the last week of July, not sure where yet but it will be in the beautiful outdoors and hopefully real close to a lake for some paddling the other thing it will need is trails close by. Oh, I can't wait.

Starting to get into Racing Season

The family at Chester Lake

Well, things are stating to get busy again as both Tasha and I get ready for up coming races. I know we have both done Diablo so the season has started but there are lots more coming like the Blackfoot 100k that Tasha is ding in about a week and a half and I have the Crazy Soles Trail Marathon on May 31st.

I am looking forward to crewing for Tasha at Blackfoot at I was a racer last year so this year I get to see the other side of things. It will be Tasha's first 100k and longest running race for her, but I know she will do great. It is always good to see a race from both sides, give you a new respect for all the people that organize and volunteer at these events. I am just hoping the weather will be as nice as last year.

The Crazy Soles marathon should be a great time. I have never really ran in that area before so I am really looking forward to seeing a new place, plus I can have a soak in the hot springs that are close by afterwards. My son Kael will be running his first race there which is a 3km kids fun run. Tasha might end up having to carry him a little bit but it will be fun for him no matter what.

Diablo 50 miler and San Francisco

Oh man, What a race. This is by far the toughest race I have ever ran. I would rather go back and run Lost Soul then do this one again, o.k. maybe I will do this one first but Lost Soul was allot easier. There was approx. 26,680 feet of elevation change and what felt like no flat area's. Now let me tell you how it went for me.

I flew down on Thursday night with my wife, Tasha, and a friend of ours Hugh. It was a good flight and when we got to San Fran it was a nice drive out to the city of Concord. We checked in a agreed to meet early for breakfast a day of sight seeing in San Fran. So Friday we ate breakfast and then headed to the BART train for our trip into SF and to enjoy the new sights and sounds. The city was fantastic, lots of stuff to see and do and never a dull moment. The down side was it was 28 degrees that day and far warmer then I was use to. I drank lots to stay hydrated but by the end of the day I was not feeling well and just wanted to find some shade. So we had dinner at a place called Tommy's Joynt which was a few blocks out of the way but so worth it, it had great food and low prices. Then it was back onto the BART for the trip back out to Concord.

Once we were back at the hotel things went down hill for me and spent the next few hours vomiting and trying to get over the effects of heat stroke. Finally around 9:30pm I managed to crawl into bed and not have any urge to vomit anymore. Tasha was helping me out and even packed my salomon pack for racing the next day, just in case I felt better and tried racing in the morning.

When the wake up call came at 5am I was feeling better but definitely not 100%, but I thought I would at least go to the start line and see how I felt before starting.

Once I was there I was not feeling to bad so I figured I would start the race and if things went bad I could always pull out at one of the aid stations. So I headed to the start line and waited for it to begin. This was a tough race and reminded me of a mountain marathon that I ran in Spain a few years ago, the first was almost everyone started walking right at the start. The hills started within the first km and never seamed to stop for the next 50 miles. For the first 6 miles I was feeling o.k. and spent allot of time walking the hills, which was not a bad thing. At the 6 mile aid station I saw Tasha and we started the next leg of the race up to the top of Diablo and back to this aid station for a total of 4 miles. The trip up to the top was not as bad as I thought it would be and enjoyed some amazing views from the top. The decent was on a mix of trails and fire roads which made for a quick trip down and more stunning views. Tasha and I stayed together until we made it back to the next aid station which was at the 10 mile mark. I left the buffet (aid station) a few minutes after Tasha and slowly watched her pull away from me and did not see her again until the out and back section. From the 10 mile to the 24.5 mile aid points things did not go well for me and thought about pulling out a few times, but each time told myself just go to the next aid station. When I got to the 24.5 mile station it was the start of a 12.4 mile out and back section that I was not looking forward to, however it turned out to be a great part of the race for me. I started to feel better as this section had lots of shade. There was a lot of hills in this section and saw everyone who came down from Calgary, Hugh was first then Lesley, and then Tasha. At the turn around aid station the worker was telling us that the leader would be finishing in about half an hour, so I have ran about 31 miles and the leader was around the 47-48 mile point. All I could think about was how slow I was running but also happy that I was still running. The return trip was good as things were continuing to improve for me and my pace coming back was about the same as going out and there was more climbing on the way back.

I have now covered 37 miles and was looking at 3 sections of the race until I would be finished. The first was a 3.5 mile up hill slog, it was not as tough as I was expecting but felt allot longer then what it was. I was now at an aid station and spent some time there trying to regroup and get some fuel into me. I was still picking up the pace and was looking forward to finishing. I had about a mile and a half to the summit of Mt. Diablo and about half way up I ran into Tasha. She was now about 20 minutes ahead of me and I was closing the gap. I didn't stay around the summit aid station and just headed off down the trail, only 8 miles to go. Things were going real well and my pace was great until I missed a turn at the 44 mile mark and it took me about 15-20 minutes to get back on the right trail. I tried to stay positive and saw a light in front of me so I pushed on trying to catch that person. When I finally caught up to the runner it was a girl that was crawling on all 4's like a crab working her way down the trail. It was steep but I thought this was a little extreme, I mean this is a trail race with huge elevation changes. I passed another runner and then the next person I cam across was Tasha.

It was good to finally run with her again and talk about the course and the whole experience of being on one of the toughest courses we have ever ran. Tasha had some real bad blisters from all the elevation changes and had to walk most of the way back but I didn't care. I was happy to run with my wife and spend a great evening with her on a beautiful California night.

We finally made it to the finish with only 20 minutes to spare but I didn't really care about the time as with all the issues I had the day before I was just happy to have finished. One thing Tasha and I did decided was to come back and this time prepare better and show this course what we are made of.

On Sunday Hugh, Tasha and I dropped Leslie off at the BART station and then headed off to San Fran to spend a few more hours looking around around. We decided to look around China town and have lunch before heading off to the airport.

You know the saying "the world is a small place" well once again this proved true for me at the airport. I was at the gate waiting for boarding to start when I heard someone call my name. I looked around and saw the manager of my department waiting for the same flight.

Lastly I will be back to show Mt. Diablo that I can do better and going back to San Francisco will also be nice.

Diablo 50 miler

Well, I have not done anything with the blog in months and have not done much in my running either. When finally got to a doctor after finishing Lost Soul last year it turned out I had tendonitis behind my left knee and needed physiotherapy for about a month to get over it and start any sort of running again. It has been good to relax a little and let my body recover from a tough season and now I am ready to go again and up next is Diablo 50 miler in Diablo state park. This race is just east of Oakland, California and should be a tough, scenic, enjoyable race and a chance to get away and enjoy some warm weather for a few days. I will keep you better informed of my adventures from now and and I look forward to telling my Diablo story next week. Later.

Trail Trash Results

It was a good race weekend for the trail trash gang. We had people running in the 100 miler and in the 50k this year.

In the 50k race we had Chris, Adrian, Rich, Bernadette, and Alan running this year.

Chris had a fantastic race and was first over all. Bernadette surprised herself and was the first woman, she almost didn't come down because she thought it would be to hot, good thing she came. Then there was Adrian, his first ultra, I think it was his first trail race and he was second over all and first in the 50 and over category.
Rich had a good race considering I had
to help him get back on course and ended up in 9th. Poor Alan had a tough race but still managed to finish.

In the 100 miler there was Hugh, Gary, Wayne and myself. Miles was not able to make it as he was fighting an injury.

Wayne and Gary had a fantastic race, they stayed together and finished tied for 3rd over all and 1st in the 50 and over category. Hugh had a fast first lap but an IT band issue forced him to pull out about 61k into the race. I surprised myself with a 3rd place finish in the 49 and under category and 9th overall.


To me it was a very successful year for all of us. Gary also set a new record for the Alberta Triple, 51:21:30 which is about 4 hours faster then the old record. Wayne was also faster then the old record but Gary had beat him by half and hour at Blackfoot. Wayne also ran and completed every race in the Alberta Ultra Series, so 6 ultras in 1 season.

Now we all have the winter to recover and reflect on a fantastic race season. Which races we will all do next year nobody knows but I am sure that the Trail Trash will be up near the front.

Lost Soul Ultra part 2

Well after stubbing my toes so many times it was a fairly easy run to the start finish area.


Once in the start/finish area it was another weigh in and this time I had dropped a little bit, I now weighed 85.3 kgs. It was a small drop and I was only just under my start weight so I was not to worried.


This is when I met up with Tasha as she was going to run the last lap with me as my pacer. I was still dress in my t-shirt and shorts but the temp had started to drop, I wasn't cold yet so I didn't change and headed out on the south loop with Tasha. I still had the poles I borrowed from Hugh and was thankful for them. The last lap was going to be a tough one but I felt that I could still put together a strong performance. When we gone about 3.5kms and started running/walking on the pavement, it was about 3.5kms to the start/finish area and it was all on pavement. The downhills hurt the most and I was walking all the uphills so it was just a matter of running the flats the best that I could. I still managed to run the first 7km in about an hour so the pace was good.


When we got into the start/finish area I was starting to cool off so I threw on a long sleeve shirt over top of my t-shirt. I grabbed as much food as I could carry in my hands and ate it as I walked out of the aid-station. Calories at this point would be very crucial in getting me to the finish line. There was still alot of race ahead of me, more then a marathon and I wanted to get to the end so bad. Just like on the second lap I found the 5kms from the start/finish area to the unmanned aid-station tough and took over an hour to get through it. We picked up the pace a little for the next 7kms but the top of my left calf started to tighten up on me on this section of the race. When we got into Peenaquim I went straight to my drop bag, I was getting a little cold on the last few kms and wanted to put on my vest and polypro gloves. The vest wasn't thick but, along with the gloves, it was enough to take the edge off of the cool night. Just like I have done at every other aid-station I topped up my bottles and grabbed a handful of food and walked out and headed down the course. There was a huge climb leaving this aid-station and even with my sore calf I was able to power up the slope at a good pace.


It was about 6.5kms from Peenaquim to Pavan and I found that it was going fairly well. The temp was dropping still and it was getting real cold. I resorted to putting on all the cloths I had with me which was only a toque.


Pavan was a welcomed sight, I was still able to run and pushed the pace to the aid-station where I promptly found a chair and parked my butt. I ate all the remaining bacon, mmmmm salty protein, and a hand full of chips. Tasha was getting a little cold so she put on my extra shirt that I had in the drop bag, also put on my BUFF and stole my over mitts. I changed my shoes and socks here for the first time in the race. The socks felt so good on my feet but the shoes where feeling a little weird. I thought I would try them for the next section of the race and if the shoes still didn't feel good I would be coming back through Pavan in about 16.5kms.


Leaving the aid-station with topped up bottles and a belly with some food in it I was feeling as good as I could after covering over 130kms. This was all new ground for me as I had never been over 125km. The first 1km or so from Pavan is on paved roads so I walked them and tryed to get my feet into a faster pace. As we left the pavement there was a good climb up onto the top of a coulee and I was able to climb at a good pace. My left leg was bothering me more and more and as a result my down hill pace was slowing down. We pushed on with me apologizing to Tasha for having her join me on what was becoming a walk.


We finally got out of the coulees and made it to the unmanned aid-station at the far north end of the loop, from here I had about 19kms to the finish. My pace had been slowing more and more over the last few kms as my left leg became more tight and more sore. I was walking all the uphill, all the down hill and most of the flat areas now and it really beat me up mentally not being able to run. There was 6kms to Pavan and about 4 ladder crossings, I almost took a couple of tumbles on the ladder crossings. Tasha had given up running behind me and was now up in front slowly pulling away from me. I asked her to slow down and she politely told me to stuff it and keep up. I managed to increase my pace a little but was cursing her name under my breath. There was about a km of pavement before getting into the Pavan aid-station and the shoes that I had put on really bothered my feet. I knew I had to change them.



When we got into Pavan I sat down and changed my shoes, had my bottles topped up and ate some food. There was still some salmon left so I had a piece of that and a little bit of bacon. The sun was up now so we left our head lamps and I left most of the clothes I had put on over the night, Tasha also shed a few layers. While I sat there Tasha started to give me grief for sitting there so long so I reluctantly got up and prepared to shuffle off down the trail.



This next section of trail was flat to start with and I was doing alright on it, I was even able to run a little bit. Tasha was still up in front trying to get me to go a little faster. When I got to a portion of the trail that had some hills to climb I hit my lowest point in the whole race, actually in any race that I have ever done. I was coming down a big climb when my leg was so sore I thought I couldn't go on. Tasha had to come back up the hill and talk to me for a bit to get my spirits back up and prepare me to continue. This is when I saw Rich, a fellow trail trash runner who was running the 50k, on the trail in front of me. He some how got off course and was running towards me on the wrong trail, I could see the trail he should be on, it was on top of the coulee he was running in. We sent him off in the right direction and headed of down the trail towards Peenaquim.


Peenaquim was a quick stop. I was not allowed to sit down and didn't want to as I was trying to get to the finish line by noon. I topped up my water bottles, ate a few salty things and left as quick as my tired and weary legs would carry me. I had about 7km to go and knew I was going to finish.


This last section had some good points and bad ones. I was moving as fast as I could, I knew I was going to finish, and I would be off of my feet soon. My left leg was real sore now and there was no way I could run, a couple of times I tried to run and only got a couple of steps before I had to walk again. I was about a km from the finish line when I was caught and passed by another 100 mile runner. For a second I was so mad that I had been passed, but then I thought about it and knew I had nothing left, I had pushed myself harder then I ever have before and being passed was o.k. they were better that day.


When I got up to the top of the hill and was in the parking lot of the finish line I wanted to run across the finish line but just couldn't get my leg to cooperate. I crossed the finish line in 28 hours and 5 minutes, close enough to my goal of 28 hours. I went into the tent sat down and did not move for about 20 minutes, like every other aid-station the folks at this one went out of their way to make sure I was looked after. The only thing I wanted at this point was a nice glass of coke, which was promptly brought to me.


When I finally got up from the chair I staggered over to the grass and laid down for a while. Tasha went up to the hotel room, cleaned up and went out with her mom and Kael for lunch. I stayed on the grass and watched other runners come in. There was one goal that I have not mentioned, I wanted to finish before any of the 50k runners, and I made this goal. It was about 15 minutes after I finished when Chris crossed the finish line.


I think I layed on the grass for about an hour and a half. I watched some 100 miler runners finish, some 100km runners finish and even a few 50k runners finish. It was such a feeling of accomplishment that I had while laying there.


I was done. I had finished my pre-season goal of completing the Alberta Triple. Now to figure out what to do next?


Later.

J

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