It seems like my transition into the world of Ultra Marathons is well underway. My goal for the past few years had been to run in the Boston Marathon, and then with that goal being accomplished earlier this year, I really wanted to be able to focus more on trails. When I got my confirmation last fall about getting into Boston for 2014, I started thinking about where I wanted to go to dive into the world of Ultra Marathons, and I came across this race- The North Face Ultra Trail Harricana (http://harricana.info/en/) in La Malbaie QC, which is in the Charlevoix region of Quebec, to the east of Quebec City. It's a good one too- 65km, point to point, 2200m (7200 ft) of climbing, with a mix of wicked single track, 4 wheeler trail, and logging roads.
We arrived in La Malbaie around Friday at lunch, early enough to take a look around the town (which is spectacularly beautiful by the way- a charming little town on the St Lawrence River, with the mountains rising behind the town) and then head out to the campground to get set up and relax in the sun for the afternoon. I wanted to take it pretty easy, as it was going to be an early start on Saturday- I had to catch the bus at 3am to head to the start line.
When my alarm went off at 1:45am, it was a bit of a shock. I'd tossed and turned until after 11, so I really had about 2.5 hrs of sleep, and it was cold- hovering right around freezing. I got dressed, ate quickly, and then headed out. We got on the school buses at the finish line, and then headed out for an hour's drive to the start. We got there about 30 mins before the start, and hung out on the warm bus until about 5 mins before starting, and then we were off.
The race starts off on very easy crushed gravel paths, and then on to 4 wheeler trails for the first 8km, and then things got gnarly quickly- very rocky, rooty, muddy, slippery and twisty single track. I was regretting not going out just a touch more quickly as I was in a long conga line of runners, and there was no room to pass, so I had to hold my position as I could see the headlamps of the runners ahead of us disappearing into the forest. Not to worry though I figured- there was still a long way to go, and lots of room to make up that time. After about 2 hours on the trail, we came up to our first really spectacular view of the day- we were up high on a ridge just as the sun was coming up, and the mountains all around us were glowing pink in the sunrise.
We arrived in La Malbaie around Friday at lunch, early enough to take a look around the town (which is spectacularly beautiful by the way- a charming little town on the St Lawrence River, with the mountains rising behind the town) and then head out to the campground to get set up and relax in the sun for the afternoon. I wanted to take it pretty easy, as it was going to be an early start on Saturday- I had to catch the bus at 3am to head to the start line.
When my alarm went off at 1:45am, it was a bit of a shock. I'd tossed and turned until after 11, so I really had about 2.5 hrs of sleep, and it was cold- hovering right around freezing. I got dressed, ate quickly, and then headed out. We got on the school buses at the finish line, and then headed out for an hour's drive to the start. We got there about 30 mins before the start, and hung out on the warm bus until about 5 mins before starting, and then we were off.
The race starts off on very easy crushed gravel paths, and then on to 4 wheeler trails for the first 8km, and then things got gnarly quickly- very rocky, rooty, muddy, slippery and twisty single track. I was regretting not going out just a touch more quickly as I was in a long conga line of runners, and there was no room to pass, so I had to hold my position as I could see the headlamps of the runners ahead of us disappearing into the forest. Not to worry though I figured- there was still a long way to go, and lots of room to make up that time. After about 2 hours on the trail, we came up to our first really spectacular view of the day- we were up high on a ridge just as the sun was coming up, and the mountains all around us were glowing pink in the sunrise.
For the next 20km it was more of the same sort of terrain- mostly rough, which is what suits me best, mixed with sections of nice singletrack, and I was feeling good. My strategy for this race was to stay relaxed and feeling good until about 50km, and then see what I had left in the tank. Fairly early on I connected with 2 younger guys who were running the 80km race, so they were being pretty mindful of pace too- trying to conserve their energy for the later stages, so running with them worked well. We were spending a good amount of time in the aid stations to fuel up well, and being with them was a good encouragement when I was feeling a bit tired around 35km. Speaking of aid stations- they were really good. The volunteers were so helpful and cheerful, and there was a great selection of food on hand. The hot gnocchi & chicken noodle soup went down really well, as did the watermelon.
Every once in a while we'd come out of the singletrack and on to sections of either logging road or 4 Wheeler trails. I found those sections pretty tough. While it was easier to keep a faster pace, they often were covered in grapefruit sized rocks, so you had to be careful of your footing, and I was always relieved when I would get off those and back into the forest on the single track. One nice thing though about the logging roads was that they were often more wide open for views, and there were some pretty spectacular vistas at times.
At about 40km, we had come out of another aid station, and the pace was feeling really slow to me. We got passed by a few guys, and I was thinking to myself that maybe I should pick up the pace and head out on my own. I toyed with that idea for a few minutes, then realized that the reason I was feeling so good was that I was keeping to a good, easy pace with these guys, so I decided to stick with them until the 50km aid station. When I got there, I took about 5 mins to fuel up and rest, checked with them, and they said they wanted to wait a few more minutes, so I told them I was going to start my push for the finish and take off. I was feeling quite good, and I was able to pick up my pace substantially, and over the course of the next 10km overtake quite a few of the guys who had passed us, and put some distance on them. I came to the last aid station, which was at km 57, grabbed some food, and quickly got on my way again. At that point I felt like the end was in sight, and I wanted to take advantage of feeling good while it lasted, so I kept pushing hard. With 5km to go, we came out of the trails and on to a logging road- there was 3km of very steep road, with more ankle breaker rocks, and that was tough. I didn't want to slow down in case the guys I had passed caught up to me, so I was going as fast as I could, and my quads were screaming. There were a few long straight stretches were I could see behind me (I know, you're never supposed to look back.........) and I could see 1 guy that I had passed a while back, and it seemed like he was gaining on me. I just kept pushing as much as I could, and before long the ski lodge was in sight, and I could hear the crowds. When I came around the final bend into the finishing chute it was pretty amazing- the crowds were super loud, and the music was pumping. I came across the line in 7:28:43, which was good for 17th overall (out of 124) and 3rd in my age group.
I'm very happy with how this race went. As I'm just getting into the Ultra distances (I did a 50k a few weeks ago too) this was more about figuring things out than trying for a fast time, and I feel like a learned a lot- how to fuel (real food works way better for me than gels), taking time in the aid stations (felt great to rest a bit, but I think I added quite a few more minutes to my overall time than necessary), and pacing (it's way better to have something in the tank for later on than crashing 15km from the end and taking 4 hours to death march in). I loved the experience. I already knew that I loved running on trails, and I was pretty confident that I would enjoy racing the longer distances, but this totally confirmed it for me. Now I just have to decide what to do next.