When we signed up for Wakely we knew
that it was very much unlike any other race and that it would involve
different training, expectations and potential outcomes.
However, it was just so damn intriguing that we just had to do it.
My
biggest concern leading up to the race was hydration.
Purify often or go with a larger bladder? I was fortunate enough to
talk to a few former Wakely runners I knew (fellow Canadians Jim Morrison
and Ryne Melcher, as well as Vermont snowshoe guru, Bob Dion) and they all
gave some very valuable tips about Wakely.
After considering all the advice, I opted to go with a 3litre bladder
and also take a handheld bottle as well.
That way if the weather wasn’t too hot, I could probably get most
if not all the way without having to stop to get more.
I think that for any first time Wakely runner, this is definitely the
way to go and I would probably do the same next time too.
Setting
goals going into Wakely is something that you probably should do very
lightly and keep them very vague, but it is afterall a race, so good to have
something in mind going into it. My
goals were (in no particular order): Don’t get lost.
Don’t get hurt. Hopefully
aim to finish in about 5 and a half hours.
Be somewhat competitive if all goes well.
Learn something more along the way about these ultra things.
Having
only run two 50km’s going into the race, I was planning to be cautious.
The fact that my wife, Sara Montgomery and I have also done some long
fastpacks gave me some added confidence as well though.
As for my race, things went
reasonably well at the start. I
settled into a good group of runners who I recognized from the race website
who had run it before. I felt
pretty smooth and reasonably comfortable for the first 1.5-2hours and was
happy just to be moving towards the dam.
Then a little while before the halfway point, I started feeling
pretty nauseous. Things sort of went from bad to worse as, without warning,
I all of a sudden started projectile vomiting (you can thank me for not
hitting the trail). The worst
part lasted for about 90 minutes. During
that time other runners started passing me like I was standing still.
I remember Kerry Arsenault passing me a little after halfway and
thinking she was probably running at about 6hr pace, so knew that a 5:30 was
out of the question. That really
didn’t bother me though as I was feeling so lousy I just wanted to be
done. I kept moving slowing
forward, then after getting some more watered down gels into me, I gradually
started to feel better after about 4 hours.
In fact, I started picking up the pace, running harder than I had all
day and passing some of the people who had passed me early.
I know a lot of people found the grass road long, but it seemed to
fly by for me and it seemed like no time before I hit the final stretch to
the dam. I felt really good
crossing the finish line and almost felt like I could have kept going at
that point.
Now
it was time to wait for Sara and see how her race played out.
It turned out that she had a strong one which makes for a more
enjoyable ride home than if we both had struggled.
