Batawa 6 Hour Ultra - November 13, 2016

  Well this was one of those WTF were you thinking doing this race.   This was my 3rd Ultra in 4 weeks ,  it involved a small Ski Hill, it was a 3+ hour drive from home,  it had a 07:00 meeting followed by an 07:30 start and to boot I am just coming off three weeks of evening shift with my bed time the same time that I  need to have the alarm set for this race.   If it wasn't for the fact that Grant was meeting me at my house at 3am this probably would have been the race that I skipped!    

 The alarm was set for 2:40 am but I woke up at 2:30 am after a 4 hour sleep barely enough to sustain me through the day but I knew I was OK.   The  trip to Trenton flew by chatting it up with Grant all the way.   We arrived around 6:40 am with plenty of time to spare.    The race meeting was at 7:00 ,  not allot of info other then we were running slightly over a 6K loop with an aide station at 3K,  5K and the 6Kish start finish.  Ditched the backpack,  ditched the water bottle it was going to be an AS day.     Temps were a pleasant 5C expecting to go up to 10C but it was suppose to be windy.   Greta debate this time of year...what to wear.  Started and finished the day with shorts ,   long sleeve tech T and over that a short sleeve tech T and of course gloves!    The first few Ks were done with a shell on but I quickly lost it when I warmed up.  I was pretty comfortable most of the day with the occasional chill but never overheating.  

 The 6K started with a climb up the Ski hill.

Twice per loop we climbed the hill...not as bad as it looks we went up the side and it was much more gradual then the straight line.   Once at the top we headed along a rooty rocky ridge for about a K before making a rather steep decent bleeding off all the initial elevation gain.  There was a few Ks of trails and a K of an old rail bed  ( the gift ) before we headed back up the hill coming down one of the runs back to the start finish.   Fueled the entire day with chocolate ,  every 3K for the first 5 hours.  No gels,  no s caps just chocolate and water.    Felt pretty solid through the first 30Ks.  On the 6th lap my right calve began to complain and i was slowing down.   By the last lap I had switched gears and found a new comfortable pace .   Finished the last lap in 5hrs54min logging 43.7 Ks good enough for 7th place out of the 27 folks who participated.  

I paused to take a few pictures before finishing up my last lap.   Had a slice of Pizza at then end chatted a bit then didn't waste any time wrapping the day up satisfied that I did it.   I would do this race again next year I really enjoyed the loop and the organizers did a great job of putting on the vent.  I would just want to ensure that it fits better with my sleep schedule!