This post is one in a series about my personal running; training and racing. For other posts like this, click here.
I’m writing this a full month after the race, but better late than never I guess.
The Knee Knacker was a race I was really looking forward too. After completing my first marathon in 2010, I was hoping to run this in 2011 but didn’t get selected in the lottery. Two years in the waiting, this was my first ultra.
In hindsight, looking back on my training, I was severely under-trained for this race. In the 8 weeks leading up to this race after the Van marathon, my average weekly ‘training’ mileage was only ~30km, mostly easy runs on pavement. 2 weeks out I managed a 70km week with one day of 32km, on an easy logging road in Kelowna, which at least had some elevation but it was a gradual climb on non-technical terrain. I didn’t manage to make it out to any of the official or unofficial training runs which I really regret. Perhaps it comes down to the goals you set for yourself, and since my goal was just to finish, I did enough training to do just that, finish.
Regardless, I had run a 3:16 marathon 2 months prior to this race, so its not like I was just getting off the couch, and I was really excited to see how I would fare.
Race day was hot and humid. It turns out the 2012 race would have the 2nd highest drop-out rate in the 24 year history of the event, and 2nd slowest median time. Yikes. The race started out good enough. The slog up Black Mountain was a rude awakening (I had only partially climbed Black Mountain for the first time 6 days prior). The view up at Eagle’s Bluff was amazing (top photo) and I was actually running with the top female at the time, Brooke, and feeling OK. After the first aid station at Cypress (below photo) and the first extended downhill section of the course my right quad cramped, bad! A measly 20km into a 48km race! Uh oh.
I walked it out for a minute and carried on to Cleveland Dam. By this point I felt ok, but sat down and sorted through my drop bag. I had to ditch my 1.5 litre hydration pack as a small hole had broken the seam in the first 10km of the race and soaked my butt (‘I can’t be sweating that much!’, I had thought). With help from the vollies, I refilled my hand-held with coconut water, stuffed some food down my gullet, stuffed some gels in my pocket and was off up Nancy Green way. I passed a few people on the hill, but that would be the rest of my energy for the day. By the time I was back on the Baden Powell and making my way over to Lynn Headwaters, I hit a wall. I got a headache, I was light headed, I was cramping like crazy and I was getting passed.
By Lynn Headwaters I was in rough shape and started to lose my spirit a bit. I was a few minutes past the aid station, when I had my first big trail running wipeout. Considering I’ve been trail running for almost 3 full years now, I think I was overdue. I was at the bottom of a small hill and rather than go up and over a short boardwalk, I decided to save the energy of climbing the single stair and go around it since it was dry ground. Just at the bottom of the hill my foot caught something I didn’t see, and the next thing I know I was supermanning. In mid air, both my legs (the entire legs – calves, quads, hammies, EVERYTHING) cramped up bad, before I even hit the ground. My water bottle flew off my hand, and I skidded a good distance, with my face coming to rest on a large rock. An elderly couple walking the trail had just passed by and yelled over to see if I was ok. ‘Yeah…. I’m fine…. I just can’t move because my legs are cramped!’ I forced myself to get onto my feet so my legs would loosen up. Turns out the water bottle, which flew out of my hand with forward momentum, had ended up a good 5 feet behind me.
The lady handed me the bottle and I said ‘Thanks, that could have been worse!’, and was off and running again, albeit very slowly.
At the Hyannis aid station Tom Craik, who was cheering on his wife, spotted me and snapped a photo for Twitter. At the time, I had never actually met Tom in person, so I was like ‘uh ok, who is that dude?’
The rest of the run was somewhat uneventful. Just long and arduous. By the point I got to the Seymour Grind I really wanted to be finished and was just trying to push through the pain/ cramping legs.
My favorite photo comes via Karen Chow, who snapped the below pic. Just as I came around the corner of behind a tree on the Seymour Grind (walking when I wish I could have been running) I fired out a huge snot-rocket, only to look up see Karen and her camera hiding in the bush (‘click, click, click!) and began to laugh. I was dizzy, cramping, exhausted, grumpy and bloody, but still smiling. ‘Don’t worry, I didn’t get a photo of that!’ she laughed back.
So I finished 23/127 M, and in 6:29:00. It was a great feeling to run my first 30miler and meet some new running friends. With some half-decent training and the experience from this year, I don’t think sub 6 hours should be a problem next year if I get in.
