Survivorfest 24-hour track race was another one of those races that brought an unexpected result - I ended up finishing second placed lady, giving me the silver medal in the Canadian National Championships, something I seriously did not expect, especially at the age of 51! If I'm honest, I know that there were much stronger athletes than me competing at the event, and I personally feel that the poor weather likely affected their races. For me personally , I coped pretty well with the persistent rain and cool temperatures, and even the relatively brisk winds didn't have me yelling in frustration for a change.
My initial race plans for 2024 didn't include Survivorfest, but having finally become a Canadian citizen back in April, I wanted to take part in a national championship and attempt to qualify for the national 24-hour team before I get much older. I wasn't really interested in the competition - my only goal was to exceed 180km, which is the minimum standard for the Canadian 24-hour team that would be selected to go to the World Championships next year. There was no guarantee I would hit that kind of distance, and even if I did, there are plenty of other strong Canadian female runners that could undoubtedly run much further. I figured that if I didn't hit my target, I would at least have a year to try again at another race, without leaving things until the last minute and putting pressure on myself just days before the team would be announced.
Heading into my tenth 24-hour event, I was going to do things a little differently this time. In the past, I've set time and distance targets in the 24-hours, "I must hit 50km in xx time", "I want to be at 50 miles within xx hours", "if I hit 100 miles in xx, it means I have x hours to run another xx miles". Whilst this approach in my previous races hasn't been detrimental to my performance, I did want to change things up and remove some of the pressures I set upon myself. It would also allow me the flexibility to vary my pace throughout the race, depending on how my body and mind are feeling at a particular time. My simple strategy was to count down the distance rather than count up - in my mind's eye, seeing the numbers getting less and less was far better than thinking how far I had already done. Ultra running really is a mental game, and this was once again apparent to me whilst running around the track on that soggy weekend just a couple of weeks ago.
It was raining steadily when arriving at the Strathcona Athletics Track on the Saturday morning, but despite the cloudy skies, there was a buzz of activity in the air as athletes and crew set up their individual aid zones which would remain in place for the next 24 hours. We found our allocated spot, quickly setting things up before sheltering inside our tent where it was much warmer and drier. For the past couple of years, race day here has been hot and sunny - the rain and chilly temperatures were definitely not what we were accustomed to, but then this summer has been all to pot weather wise, and it should have come as no surprise that it was raining on race day. I was just glad that I had kept my recent training runs outdoors regardless of the weather, and I'm convinced that this helped me to be better prepared for anything on race day.
By 8.45am, athletes dressed in waterproof jackets and warm layers had started to gather on the track, I tend to run hot, so I had opted for a t-shirt and a waterproof jacket, along with just a pair of shorts - the only thing I do tend to struggle with is cold hands, so I was sure to have a few pairs of gloves with me that I could swap into if needed. There was a good crowd on the start line, a mix of athletes competing in the national championships, others running the open event on the track, and the remainder would be running loop B which would take them on a lap of the track, before heading out to complete a loop on the roads in the local neighbourhood. The different ability of runners at this event is what makes it so special, and along with the slick organisation, the extremely friendly and welcoming atmosphere, and the professionalism required for hosting a race that will crown champions and record breakers, these are just some of reasons why I'm drawn back to race here year after year.
The national anthem was sang, me quietly joining in the singing as I'm now a proud Canadian, and after a few last minute reminders about rules and etiquette, we were off.
I always find it amusing at the start of these kind of events. As a teenager, I did alot of track racing, and each race started with a sprint start, with the aim of running the distance as fast as possible. In a 24-hour race, it's more of a jog start, and I started off at around 9.30 miling pace, with no intentions of going any faster. It didn't take me too long to find my rhythm, and for the next several hours, my 400m laps were coming in pretty consistently.
On a 400m track, it is difficult to know what position you are in, or how much distance separates you from the athletes ahead and behind. Some folks find this difficult, worrying early on that they are already losing distance to others, and they end up running much more quickly that originally intended. One of the things I have learnt is to be patient and trust in my own race plan. I don't get too concerned about how far ahead a competitor is when we are only 6 hours in as the race doesn't really start until many hours later - by the 23rd hour, everybody has a much better idea of what they need to do, and that last hour is always so exciting as the runners continue to push towards their goals.
I was running around about 2 minute 25 second laps, and it felt comfortable. Even when the wind picked up and the heavy rain started, I was still managing to maintain the same pace and focused on my goal. Some people were still layered up for running, whereas I needed to take off the waterproof to feel that freedom of running. Occasionally I needed to reach for my gloves as my hands got cold, but in the main, i wasn't too bothered by the weather. Puddles were forming on the track but it wasn't exactly flooded, and I was happy that my feet were staying relatively dry. I did change my socks a couple of times, but I didn't bother changing my shoes, and I had no problems with blisters or bruised toe nails whatsoever which was impressive considering how wet things were.
For the first few hours, I was still eating and drinking regularly, and every hour I was on the toilet just like clockwork. I certainly wasn't dehydrated, and I was eating well, so much so that I needed to poop twice during the race. I fuelled mostly on gels this time, making sure I took in calories every half an hour or so - mixed with some solid foods intermittently, this appeared to be working well, and I was feeling strong and full of energy. I've said it before that there isn't much to talk about when it comes to timed, looped events. Every lap is the same, every hour is pretty much the same, and everything becomes a blur. I seem to recall passing the 50km mark in around 5 hours, I went through 50 miles in around 8 hours 30 minutes, and 100km in a little over 10 hours 20 minutes. I was moving well, and feeling pretty good. Andy was doing a great job of feeding me, I was still maintaining my pace, only slowing slightly when compared to many hours ago. The four hour change in direction is always a welcome stage in the race, not only physically by giving those hips, knees and ankles a break, but also mentally as the views change and things look a little different. At the 12 hour turnaround, we all celebrated the half way stage and I couldn't believe how quickly that time had passed by already.
The weather had been hit an miss all day, and whilst things had dried up somewhat as we heading into the evening hours, things were still cool and breezy. As the sun started to go down, I threw on a long sleeved top to give me a little more warmth - I hadn't really changed all day, and my damp clothes were starting to bring a bit of a chill. I was also now getting quite hungry and having cravings for solid food, so Andy slipped away to the local stores, bring back some pizza and donuts for me to munch on. Unfortunately, by the time he came back, I had lost my appetite, and I had got to the point where my body just didn't want any food again. I tried to eat small mouth fulls of food but the flavour did nothing to get me interested, so I was back to refuelling on fluids only despite being bored of the flavour of water and Tailwind - there really needs to be more variety of flavours for us ultra runners as I think most of us get bored of drinking the same stuff for hours on end!
Having already gone through 100km, I now only had 80km or 50 miles to go to hit my goal, and I had a whopping 14 hours or thereabouts to do it. I was doing the maths in my head, and even if I walked, I knew I would do it. I have quite a fast paced walk that is sometimes faster than my fatigued jog, and I knew I could do 4 miles an hour at a good walking pace. I wasn't feeling quite as good as I had been a couple of hours earlier, but I knew that I had every chance of hitting the qualifying standard.
In previous 24 hour races, the distance and time between 100km and the next milestone of 100 miles has seemed to take forever. This time however, the miles were passing by quickly, and with the pace I was still running, it looked like I would hit the hundred miles in around 19 hour 30 minutes that would give me a good four hours to do the remaining 20km which would see me exceeding the 180km that I was targeting. I was excited, and it gave me the motivation to keep pushing forwards.
Night time had now arrived, and things were really starting to get quite chilly. I was able to drink hot tea and coffee which was helping to keep me warm, but I was still struggling to eat which meant I was low on energy. I was also starting to feel the cool, night air in my bones, so I put on some warm running tights and a couple of long sleeved layers to keep me warm. I wasn't moving quite as quickly now, and I really didn't want to finish short of my goal just because I wasn't dressed appropriately for the conditions. The warmth the extra layers gave made me feel much, much better, and so I pushed on.
The night hours in 24 hour races are always so quiet - I'm not sure if it's because crew try to catch a couple of hours sleep, or whether it's the lower number of athletes on the track, but regardless, there only seemed to be about ten of us now running around in circles. I wasn't passing people so much now, and there weren't many people passing me, although we could see each other on the other side of the track, all of us still digging deep. It was during the night hours that I found myself retching again at the side of the track, the nausea and vomiting coming out of nowhere and without warning. The fluids I had been drinking came up, but there was absolutely nothing else in my stomach, and yet my body just kept trying to reject things. It seriously didn't make any sense, and I was terribly frustrated.
I got myself going again, feeling much better even though I hadn't actually been feeling that bad, and I tried a few laps of jogging the straights and walking the bends. It was whilst I was doing this that I was asked by a volunteer what my goal was as I was still moving well, all things considered. I mentioned 180km and they told me that the 50+ age group Canadian women's record is just under 192km and I was well on target to hit that, and more. I hadn't even looked at records, but hearing this fired me up somewhat - I still had a good few hours to go, and having already thought that 200km was within my reach earlier (this had now drifted due to the vomiting, but still ...), the 192km seemed like a reasonable revised target.
For the next few laps, I tried ... tried to keep the slow jog going, tried to get some miles under my belt to give me every chance at setting a Canadian record, but the lack of food and drink had me feeling lightheaded and spaced out, and I couldn't keep it going.
I went back to walking again, and shortly after 4am, dawn started to break in the east. The sky became lighter over the next hour, and as the came up, so too did the temperature, the warmth of the sun a welcome relief from the damp cold and chill of yesterday and the overnight. The daylight seemed to wake everybody up, and as we moved in to the final four hours of the event, there were more bodies back on the track, some moving extremely well, others shuffling, but everybody still doing their best I was now lying in a comfortable second place in the ladies race, and with no chance of me catching the ladies leader, my focus was on seeing how far I could go over the 180km.
I don't recall at what point I did it, but I do remember celebrating, I do remember feeling a huge sense of achievement, relief and happiness. I remember celebrating with Andy, and both of us agreeing that I just keep going to put as much distance on top of that as possible.
Heading into the final hour, some friends came out to the track to offer support to us all. It was so good to see them, and their enthusiasm was infectious. Every time I passed them, they cheered or clapped or yelled encouragement, and it made a huge difference in those last few minutes. I had been walking for ages now, head down, one foot in front of the other, not stopping, but as we moved in to the five minutes to go, I started to run. I wanted a nice round figure to finish on, and I ran hard, my last lap being close to 8 minute miling which is pretty fast for me given that I had already been on my feet for almost 24 hours. As "The Final Countdown" played over the speakers, I pushed hard to make sure I finished a complete lap, and as the final whistle blew, I finished with just over 184km, or just over 114 miles - I was ecstatic!
There were some incredible performances that weekend, but those stories are not for me to tell. Rest assured though that sharing the track with such inspirational athletes was an honour, and despite the difficulties once again in my own race, I had the most amazing time. A part of me wishes that I had known ahead of time that the age group record was 192km - I honestly think I could have done that had I known, but I hadn't thought I'd be anywhere near the possibility of setting a national record and had therefore not really looked into it. I guess it's something I can aim for next time.
In closing, I have to say that Survivorfest 24-hour this year was the best one yet - not only was the event a huge success, but it is the first time where I have comfortably hit my target having gone into the race without any real pressure. I hadn't really trained for the event nor made it my main focus, so the fact that I was able to run as far as I did, with a messed up nutrition plan yet again, speaks volumes - if I can get things right on the day, if I focus and train specifically for a 24-hour event and don't get distracted by backyard ultras and mountain races, then maybe, just maybe, I can run a PR even in my early 50s - I truly believe I can.
For now though, I have a 12 month wait to see whether I will be selected to represent Canada at the World 24-hour championships next year. I'm currently 5th on the list, and I know there are a couple of other ladies who are far better than me that may want to try again before the deadline. Time will tell, and whilst I want the strongest team possible to be sent to France next year, I'm really hoping that my name is on the list, and I can do Canada proud.
