Conquer the Canuck 50K Trail Race - Saturday June 9th, 2018

  Did the 50K Conquer the Canuck 50K Trail Race yesterday.  Last year was a complete blowout ,   death marched the last 8Ks ...not fun.  Needless to say I had a fair bit of trepidation and was looking for redemption!   Last years it was hot ,  really hot and I wasn't acclimatized and didn't pay attention to the important things.  This years forecast was for much more favorable conditions ,  low to mid 20's.     The course is a 8.3 K loop done 6 times and it is super fast with only a few " walking" hills nd at least 2 very fast Ks.     I went out fast last year and things caught up to me ,  this year it was all about an even consistent pace getting enough water ,  nutrition and electrolytes.   I ended up doing 1 gel / loop for a total of 5 gels.  Did a race supplied Endurance Tap ( Maple Syrup ) in the last 2 laps.   I had my stuff set up at the start / finish and this is where I gelled ,  also did an S Cap with every gel ... hadn't done this before but it really worked well.   Did the first lap in 55min42sec,  going forward the goal was to keep every lap under 1 hour trying to average a minimum 7:30 pace throughout the race. 

Avg pace per loop ended up being

Loop #          Pace
   1                 6:39
   2                 6:46
   3                 6:47
   4                 6:48
   5                 6:51
   6                 6:52 

 I found myself pulling  back on the reigns that first 3 laps.  I could have posted a faster day but I really  wasn't interested in playing the fade vs risking the " Death March".

 The race unfolded in a planned ,  calculated manor and was my best effort in the woods this year.    I finished in 5hrs43min compared to last years   6hrs45min.    The race was the " Canadian 50K Championship " so there were a few extra fast runners on the course!   I finished 26th out of the 45 folks who I started with. 

Up next Saturday is one of my favorite races the " Niagara Ultra".