Travel to Huntsville takes 3 hours and with an 8am start it made for a rather early morning, Patrick Rose was running the race this year and stayed over after work Friday Evening. After a 3 hour sleep I got up ahalf hour ahead of my alarm at 2:30 am. Got Patrick out of bed at 3am for Coffee and an hour in the Hot Tub prior to our 4am departure. We stopped in Orillia at Tims for breakfast then arrived at the race around 7am as planned. It had been raining and was raining quite heavily when we arrived and I had a pretty good idea that it was going to be a wet and muddy day.
52 Men and 30 Woman lined up in the rain for the 8am start. Pre-race announcements were Mud, Mud and more Mud! The 56K course consists of a 14K loop done 4 times.
Loop 1 - Hung out on the first loop with Patrick, Liz, Ron and Jenn. It was an easy comfortable pace with lots of great conversation and we were all having fun. The mud wasn't too bad but we were the first of hundreds that would traverse the course and I had a pretty good idea that that would change. Finished the loop in 2 hrs13min40sec satisfied with the result but nonworking it was going to be a long day!
Loop 2- As expected the mud got deeper and more prevalent and the rain continued. I was wearing shorts , tech T with an on again off again ball cap and was pretty comfortable to slightly chilled when it was raining hard. My insurance was a water proof shell in my backpack wanting to be prepared in case I fell off pace if something happened. I blasted off at the first aide station on the 2nd loop leaving Patrick and friends behind. Started drinking more water and bringing i Gummy Worms, Pretzels and Potatoes. Met up with Adi who commented on how myself and Kim should be the running ambassador for the OutRace series because we were always smiling and having fun...a very nice compliment. Ran most of the 2nd half of the loop on my own occasionally exchanging pleasantry's with others that I came across on the course. Finished the loop in 2hrs13min49 seconds 9 seconds slower then loop 1.
Loop 3- The rain actually let up a little on this loop and things started to improve ever so slightly or at least they didn't get any worse. Continued to gel , eat and drink like loop 2. Noticed some nasty chafing that from the wet shorts rubbing on my skin. Used body glide like I normally do so the important parts were well protected but the worst part was the material that cover the top of the leg was really causing some problems ...should have used body glide to my Knee! Made a new running friend on this loop Steph Bales . Great conversation made the time go by and helped to get through the ever worsening conditions. Finished the loop in 2hrs22min18sec.
Loop 4- I was a little concerned about the cutoff but was relieved heading out that I had ample time to complete the race. Ran most of this loop by myself passing a few along the way. The rain came back and it was relentless. There was so much water and so much muck that the course was hard to recognize. This by far was the nastiest loop. I wiped out and rolled ankles so many times throughout the day that I lost count. In spite of the misery that was the course I relished the fact that I was getting it done. Every meter was one mercer that I didn`t have to do again. Finished the final loop super glad to be done in 2hrs30min6sec.
Finished the race in 36th position out of the 89 folks that started. I was 28th out of 52 men and 4th out of 8 in my age group.
Interesting race stats ...
LIMBERLOST CHALLENGE 2016
| Event Date : 09-07-2016 | Event Location : Huntsville Ontario | ||
| Event Type : Running | Event Description : 56 K | ||
| Total Entrants : 82 | Total Finishers : 54 | ||
| Male Entries : 52 | Male Finishers : 37 | ||
| Female Entries : 30 | Female Finishers : 17 | ||
| Unknown Entries : 0 | Unknown Finishers : 0 | ||
1 comment:
You did great out there, pretty consistent pace throughout, especially in worsening conditions. Nicely done!!
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