Crazy Muley 25km

When registering for the Crazy Muley, my original plan was to run the 50km distance at a leisurely pace, and maybe do a little bit of videoing so that I could throw together a simple YouTube video about the event. Having already registered for the backyard ultra, there would only be two weeks between the races, and with high hopes of going beyond 30 hours at the backyard, I figured I wouldn't be in any fit state to run a hard 50k just a couple of weeks later. But then I got my Canadian Citizenship and I found myself registering for the 24-hour race at Survivorfest with the intention of achieving the qualification standard for Team Canada at the World Championships in 2025. The 24-hour race came just one week after Crazy Muley, and given my goals for the 24-hour race, I decided to drop down to the 25km race at Crazy Muley instead, to ensure I didn't overdo things, and hence giving me every opportunity to qualify for the national 24-hour team.

Having heard great reviews about the Crazy Muley, I'd had my eye on running it since the inaugural race a couple of years ago, not least because I wanted to support my friend Shane who is the race organiser. I was also intrigued to do a race in a new area of Alberta, on a course that consisted mostly of sandy trails, with about 3 or 4km of that running up and down sand dunes. I had never been to Wainwright - I had never even heard of Edgerton which is where the race starts and finishes - so I was pretty excited about heading east for a change rather than west towards the mountains.

Arriving shortly before eight on the Saturday morning, I was surprised at how popular the race seemed to be, and the small hamlet of Edgerton was awash with runners. The weather had been really warm and very windy leading up to race day, and whilst it was still warm on morning of the race, the wind had died down considerably which was a huge relief. 

Arriving at the start, I bumped in to Shane who had paced me at the Divide 200 last year, and my friend Barb - who had placed third lady at the Blackfoot Ultra 50 miler just one week earlier - was also running, and it was nice to see some familiar faces despite being in a strange town.

The Divide 200 pacer reunion :)

I was feeling pretty chilled out when I got there. Whilst I wasn't now going to be filming any of the race, I was still intending to just have a fun time and not take the race too seriously, and I have to say that it felt good not having to carry that weight of expectation on my shoulders, and being able to run without any pressure. One of the other things that I quite enjoyed was not knowing my competition - I had no idea who anybody was, so I had no way of comparing myself to anybody, and I knew that I was able to run my own race. I had of course looked at previous years' results to get some idea of how to pace things, and it looked like I could probably finish in around 3 hours. Saying that, I had no idea as to what the course was like - I had heard that it was relatively flat with no big climbs which suited me perfectly, but then the sandy sections would undoubtedly make the run somewhat more difficult and interesting. The only thing I was sure of was that I really wanted to finish in the top three ladies - the awards for the podium looked amazing and I so wanted to take home one of those trophies!

Race day awards

The race started bang on 8am, and a decent number of runners set off along the trail. I found myself in the middle of the pack, shuffling along the grassy trail and not really able to overtake anybody for the first couple of kilometres. This was ok as it stopped me from going off too quick, but I was feeling really good with strong legs and lungs, and I felt like I really needed to push on. The trail followed the train tracks for a short while before veering away and following a few small, rolling hills. Things were already getting a little sandy underfoot but I was moving well and slowly progressing through the field. There were a couple of ladies ahead of me, but with the 50k and 25k runners all being mixed in together, I didn't know what distance any of them were doing. All I could go by was their pace, and given that they were ahead of me and I was running a 9-minute mile, I figured they must be doing the 25k or else on track for a most excellent 50km finishing time!

One could argue that I too was perhaps going a little fast yet I was feeling great. My legs felt smooth and strong, and my breathing was controlled, and I was very surprised given that I had ran 100km a couple of weeks before at the backyard ultra. I seriously didn't think I would recover in time, and yet here I was, gaining ground on the ladies ahead of me without putting in too much effort.

After about 4km, there was just one lady now ahead of me, and she definitely looked strong. If I wanted to checkout my competition, I had no doubt that this lady would be it, and she was certainly motoring and on a mission. It was so early on in the race that I had no intentions of kicking early - crikey, there was still another 15 miles to go, things were starting to warm up and we hadn't even hit the true sandy sections just yet - and I knew it would be far too reckless to attack now. But here's the thing - I held back, running well within myself, and yet I was slowly gaining on the other lady, so much so that by the 5km mark, I had moved ahead. 

It’s always strange in a race that I always seem to know what position I'm in. I don't really observe the other ladies nor count how many are ahead, yet I always seem to have some idea of the state of play. It's almost like a subconscious awareness of things, and I knew that unless there was a lady that really had bombed off at the start, I had now taken the lead in the ladies’ race, and I was now the hare that everybody was trying to catch.

As I took the lead, I tried to keep things controlled and not get too carried away, and I could sense that the other lady was now trying to keep pace with me, albeit it a few metres behind. I knew that she was going to try and keep me in her sights - my mission now was to stay focused, stay in control, and maintain that lead as long as possible. I will admit that it has been a very long time since I have taken the lead in a race like this, and it has definitely become unfamiliar territory. There used to be a time when I would have the confidence to push hard to open a gap, knowing that I could hold that faster pace - these days, I have no idea how long I can keep that faster pace going especially on trails that I am unfamiliar with, so I just tried to maintain the same level of effort and stay ahead.

The gap was definitely widening, I could hear the lady chatting to the folks around her, their voices carrying on the breeze, but becoming more distant as the race progressed. I looked around me to take my mind off things, and was amazed by the beauty of my surroundings - sure, there were no mountains, but there was vast open space, lots of green, and it looked so beautiful with the clear blue skies and the blazing sun. I was loving every minute!

A short while later, we came to a road section, and I knew that I needed to use this to my advantage. Whilst I love my trail running, I am still a much faster road runner, so I picked up the pace for the road section, running a sub-8-minute mile and widening the gap between myself and the chasing lady. The route was very well marked and there were also lots of marshalls out there, all of them offering tremendous support and encouragement as we ran past. My bib was number 1, and this of course attracted comments of being the number 1 female at that point - it felt good, but that sense of pressure was also resurfacing, which brought with it that competitiveness in me. We were now at around 10km and there was still a good way to go, but I was feeling so determined to win this race, thinking to myself that if this lady wanted the win, I was going to make her work for it - if she did beat me, she deserved it.

Start of those sand dunes :)

I think it was shortly after this that the real sand dunes started, and boy were they gorgeous. The ups were a slog as I tried to grip on the incline, but the downhill was lots of fun and I really didn’t mind that my socks and shoes were now accumulating grains of sand. The views were wonderful with things way greener than I was expecting. I stopped to take some photos, admiring the views and wanting to savour this experience, and I noted that the lady was closing the gap on me and was moving extremely well just a couple of hundred metres behind. I tried to act nonchalant, acting chilled out and unruffled, but I knew I needed to keep moving and stay ahead - if I got overtaken here, I figured it would be much harder to close the gap again.

Time for a  quick piccie! :)

A treed section with lower handing branches came next, and I was starting to race, starting to run harder than planned but by golly was I excited by it! I meandered my way through that small wooded section, overtaking a few men in the process, before coming out on a wider track alongside a lake. The lake looked beautiful, I was enamoured by my surroundings, but I knew I had to keep pushing on.

There was another road section, this time a little longer, and as I rounded a corner, I sneaked a peek behind to see if the lady was close. I couldn't see her anywhere near, but I still picked up the pace a bit, knocking out 7.30 pace as I pushed on. There were a couple of hills, nothing major, but enough to just slow me a little, but the race was now on, and I was determined to hold onto my lead.

We passed a couple of marshalls before joining a lush green grassy trail adjacent to the railway tracks. I could hear the train tooting its horn in the distance, making its way along the tracks, the toot tooting getting closer. I tried to avoid looking behind me, focused on just reaching the first aid station which I knew was only a couple of kilometres away. I knew we had to cross the train tracks and a part of me was hoping that the train came along after I had crossed, to slow down the chasing ladies, but then that would give me an unfair advantage - if I was meant to win this race, it would be done fair and square, and through my own efforts and determination. I was also thinking that if I could get in and out of the aid station before the lady saw me, she would have no idea how far ahead of her I was, and that would make it harder to determine just how fast she needed to run to catch me.

I arrived at the aid station, desperate for a drink having not carried any fluids with me, and I downed some coke and water, grabbed an energy gel and some jelly sweets, thanked the volunteers, and left whilst still munching on food and drinking. There was a slight hill leaving the aid station, and as I reached the top, I sneaked a peak behind me. I was now around 400 metres from the train tracks and there was still no sign of the other lady. I had about 12km to go to the finish - my legs were still feeling pretty good, but I was definitely noticing just how warm it was, and being on the sandy trails with minimal shade, I was sweating quite a lot. I was still thirsty, but I thought back to the training runs I've done of more than 12k, where I've not taken a drink with me - I reckoned I would be ok.

Coming into the aid station, and 
desperately needing a drink!

There was a man ahead of me and I noticed that I was gradually gaining on him. We'd been playing cat and mouse with each other for the last few miles, but I was now running a little faster than him, and it wasn't long before I passed him. The trail was now back to being sandy again, making things hard work as we slogged our way through the soft ground underfoot. I tried to run at the same of the trail where there was more grass, but I kept slipping back into the sand so just decided to stay where I was. I shortened my stride, thinking back to running in the soft snow during the winter months where taking a shorter stride made things somewhat easier, and I found that I was making efficient progress through the sand. This trail was far more undulating and with the sand and the fatigue setting in, it was starting to feel like the hardest part of the course. I was once again struck by how nice my surroundings were, and I tried to distract myself by admiring the views. At the top of every little incline, I took a peek behind me, the gap between the male runner already widening by a considerable distance, and absolutely no sign of anybody else following behind. Every kilometre that I checked off brought me closer to the finish line, and I became more determined than ever that I was going to take the win. My pace increased again, the walking became less frequent, and my progress was good. I saw somebody else ahead of me. I knew it was another male runner so I wasn't too concerned, and whilst I didn't catch him in the end, I did close the gap in the final miles and he admitted afterwards that he was worried that I was going to pass him which kept he going.

Although the race was advertised at 25km, I knew it was closer to 28km or around 17 miles. AT 14 miles, I was well clear of anybody else, and I was tempted to slow things down a bit. But I didn't want to take the risk - I was running at close to 9 minute miles on trails - the chasing lady would have to be doing an 8 minute mile to catch me now, and I knew that was very unlikely. Yet I still didn't relax - it ain't over until the fat lady sings, right?

Those last couple of miles seemed to take forever. I could see the train tracks again now, and I could see some of the buildings starting to emerge in Edgerton - there really couldn't be much further to go now, but with not knowing the course, I wasn't too sure. We hit a road section that looked vaguely familiar from earlier in the race, but we were running in the opposite direction which made it look different. At the start, we had followed a meandering trail for a good couple of miles - surely there couldn't still be 2 miles to go?! But then we turned off the road, hit a hilly, grassy, overgrown section, and I started to see spectators alongside the trail, cheering me on to the finish. Before I knew it, I rounded the corner, and there was the finish line.  I finished as first placed lady in around 2 hours 41 minutes, some 20 minutes faster than I could have hoped for. I was hot, thirsty, tired, but very, very happy.

First place lady, receiving award from Shane :)

It was some 10 minutes or so before the second placed lady finished, and we chatted afterwards about how things had gone. I had the feeling that she was expecting to win today based on past results, and was somewhat surprised at the competition - that competition was me, and it felt very strange to me to have taken the win over somebody much younger than me. I had gone into the race pretty chilled and not really expecting anything - hoping for at least a top 3 finish if possible, but definitely not expecting to come away as the victor. These are the kind of races I really do love - great competition, lots of fun, challenging course, and a result that is completely unexpected. I was happy, and it gave me the confidence for my next race - Survivorfest 24 hour track race just one week later.

Top three ladies in the Crazy Muley 25km :)