Saturday Sept 18th my Aunt Helen dropped me off at Springbank Park in London Ontario to run That DAM Hill 24Hour ultra marathon event. This is my 4th time racing on this course and I’ve ran so many loops at this park that I’m pretty sure I can run the 2.25km loop in my sleep. You would think I would be bored of this race by now however it’s a fact, that every time you run and push yourself for 24hours or for the 100mile distance, it’s a new, exciting, challenging and epic experience. No 2 races are ever the same, especially 100mile races they will alway be different. New challenges, new highs, new lows I love it all, I love the experience and testing my body and mind. The only guarantee in these races is that by the time you complete your 100mile/24hour race, you will have learned something new about yourself and as a result be better for it. I truly believe that through suffering we can find a clear perspective on what is important in our lives and who we truly are – time for the report!
We had a nice little camp set up right on the side of the course in Springbank park, as it was myself, my mom and my dad all running/walking the 24 hour race. This gave us space to hold all our food/hydration and a tent in case someone needed to lay down and rest. We all had done this race a few times so we were well prepared and knew what we were getting into. The race started at 8am on Saturday morning with great weather. I started out strong and got into a rhythm early feeding off the energy from the beautiful park and the many runners who were out on the course. The first 50km rolled by without an issue and I felt great. During that first 50km I didn’t listen to music or podcasts, like I had planned, but rather stayed in the moment and stayed with my thoughts. I also didn’t eat that much but rather drank a fair amount of pineapple and turmeric juice as well as watermelon and ginger juice, which both seemed to be hydrating and fuelling me very well. My wife Mallory and daughters; Sophie, Sadie and Sydnie all came to cheer me on and we actually ran an entire loop together which was a very happy and emotional moment for me and gave me strength and focus to continue.
Between 50-80km (50miles) I started to have some serious stomach issues. The legs were working great, the odd sore ankle, or knee, or quad, or hamstring, but really none of those things stuck around or turned into a real issue. Good ultra running is the ability to problem solve on the run and keep the athlete moving. This stomach issue however turned painful and I eventually had to take the time to hit the bathroom which ended up as we say in our house “was an angry poop” (diarrhea), which is not great at any time, let alone during a 24 hour run. Luckily there is a bathroom right on the course and after I took 5-10min to deal with that, I started to feel much better and though maybe that was behind me… however, about 30min later I projectile vomited all the contents of my stomach! That was painful but again after a little bit I started to feel pretty good again and able to get back to running. I would like to say that this was the end of it all and I had a wonderfully uneventful race, however the rest of the race followed this pattern and had me reaching a total of 4 vomits and 7 trips to the bathroom, which technically is a record for me, just not the record I was looking for. In the end my stomach issues did slow down a bit thanks to the help from my amazing Mallory who paced/ran with me for 25km and served me broth soup, non-juice liquids and kept me moving and in a positive mental state pushing me closer to closing the gap on 100miles. Around 3-4am when my buddy Jordan showed up to pace/run with me, we were able to run with less interruptions and put the finishing touches on my race and push for the 100mile goal. Anyways believe it or not I had fun, I ended up running 162km in 23hours and 4 minutes, I got to run with my wife and my buddy late at night (great time to chat and catch up – Jordan told me all about his recent 500km 8 day Bruce Trail solo hike – BEASTMODE), I got to do a lap with my beautiful strong girls, and I got to see my parents (dad 74, mom72) once again dominate the field (especially their age group) by walking 81km (50miles) in 23hours raising money for their charity ‘Servant’s Heart Ministries’ specifically their mission work in the Dominican Republic. Overall it was a great day and a BIG success for us all!
The Good: The feet felt great, the legs felt strong and the mind was clear and focused. I did multiple back to back weeks of 130-150km and it seems to have paid off. I did mostly road training as this race was all on asphalt. I also did a little hill training for strength and a little speed work to keep it fun. Overall I felt my training leading up to the race was appropriate.
The Bad: The food didn’t work out great for me as I couldn’t keep it down, which led to some major issues. I did respond very well to the soup broth and since it got cold at night having warm broth was indeed a game changer. Back to the drawing board for fuelling my races.
The Ugly: STOMACH ISSUES (is an understatement)!!! This would have been a game ender if the bathrooms weren’t so close on the course. A trail race in the mountains? this would have been a disaster. With that said I’m very impressed with how I was able to push through it and stay positive and keep that finish line in my mind. Reflecting back it may have been all the watermelon juice I drank (which I do love very much but maybe not so much). Next time I will make sure to pack Imodium in the tool kit, and yes we do have an ultra running tool kit with pain meds, mole skins, blister aids, chaffing gel glide and almost every other thing you can think of to care for distance foot races. The tool kit continues to grow!
Reflecting now, I’m glad I got the opportunity to get back into the racing world and suffer a little (12+hours of upset stomach…), test myself and learn and grow as a runner and as a person. Racing is a great metaphor to life, challenges will arise, make you uncomfortable and slow you down or force you to change your approach, but if there is something you really want to achieve its your mind, your willpower and determination that will help you overcome and persevere and keep you moving. Get outside and move!
Be Kind To Each Other, Over And Out!
CH
Run Far Crew. 