Grizzly Ultra

Finish line shot taken by Philippe Legace

I had three goals going into yesterdays Grizzly 50K. One was to have a solid tempo day finishing off a 100M week in preparation for the world 100K championships on November 21 in Qatar. Second, to go out slower than last years blistering pace set forth by studs like Duncan, Kuba, and Francois. Thirdly to run without a visor or hat and show off my newly grown long locks.

Shortly after the gun sounded I found myself alongside Devin Featherstone trotting away at a comfortable pace well slower than last years vomiting inducing one, this made me happy. Its a lot easier to do when you have a partner in crime deciding to induce the same tactics. Around the 7K mark we found ourselves running off course, we ran around 1K off course, stood around for a minute, scratched our heads and ran back from where we came from, where, to our chagrin we saw 5 big signs pointing us to the right, duh! It might have been my over the top cheering and high fiving other runners but I blame Devin for pointing out the smoking hot chicks and keeping my head on a constant swivel either way, finding yourself off course is apart of trail running. We got back on course and settled into a groove again. I didn't quite get comfortable until the 20 K mark, at that point I found myself slowly pulling away for Devin. Only a couple minutes later I bit it on a rocky descent, double rolled out of it and kneeled there for a second doing a systems check. My shoulder felt achy and right calf tightened but otherwise was a full go. Devin caught up and i cruised with him for awhile. In the next 5K my calf really started to shorten and with my "A" race in November I was cool pulling the plug if need be but at the beginning of the third leg the tightened eased and my stride opened again.

The third leg was fun, unlike last year when it felt like David Beckham kicked me in the nuts. I noticed that starting slower paid off and my general fitness level was better than years past. The trail in the second half of that race can be really enjoyable as long as you are not wishing upon death. I skittered lower and lower knowing very well I'd need to climb out of this hell I was burying myself in and my climbing legs were stowed somewhere between boxes in my attic. The climb out of leg three wasn't as disgusting as I remember and arrived back at the staging area to start leg 4 still feeling fresh.

Richard Reid, Tyson Smith, and me

The climb at the beginning of leg 4 reminded me of the limited climbing I've done this year but in my defence my fall calendar is riddled with super flat endurance events. The remainder of leg 4 flew by and the super fun descent was as delicious as pumpkin pie. The only thing that was missing was company. From the beginning of leg 3 I did not see another runner in sight, this made me sad and lonely. I was having so much fun I would love to share it with someone. I could of sworn that if a tree spoke to me I would talk back and even give it a hug… oh come on, lets not pretend you've never done it?

Starting leg 5 my right lower leg started to tighten again but only upon the climbing so I decided to back off on the intensity and not aggravate things any further. Leg 5 runs parallel to many other trails of previous legs, this was fun cuz I'd see many of my friends enjoying the trails just as much as I was. I finished in 3rd place and in a time of 4:26 still feeling relatively fresh. Given the extra K my time was about the same as last year but the effort and enjoyment made this years Grizzly ultra an absolute success and a boost in confidence going into my fall/winter race schedule. Congrats go out to Tyson Smith and Richard Reid with finishing strong in 1st and 2nd places respectively. Big congrats to Nadine Mueller for finishing in 4:37 in first and setting a new CR but most of all thanks to Grizzly mountain events and all there volunteers for once again putting on a world class event.

As for my three goals going into the race, the first two were a success. As for the hair thing, I had a few comments comparing me to Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber.

The dead sexy Jeff Daniels

A pacer's tale

Finish line

Last year I ran my first 100 miler at the Lost Soul ultra in Lethbridge AB. Successfully I won the race in 21hrs 26min and overall was very happy with my performance. It was only fitting that when my best friend John Hubbard told me he was running his first miler at Lost Soul that I be the dude crewing him. Last year my pacer and brother Dan Proctor played a key roll in getting me to the finish line. At one point during the final stretch he even open hand smack me upside the face to wake me from a sudden sleep spell. Later he told me he enjoyed it but I still think it was his way of showing his undivided love for his little brother.

Friday September 5th the gun went off at 8:00am and that's when I accepted the roll of crewing John. The day before I learned that my friend Alissa St. Laurent  who was running the 100K didn't have crew. I volunteered to help her whenever I could. Cumulatively during those two days I ended up sporadically crewing many of my buddies which I found exhilarating.

John would run the first two laps (106K) then I'd join him for the final 54K. All throughout the day I drove from aid station to aid station helping out as many runners as possible. The front runners would make their way through the aid stations as quick as possible whereas most runners would arrive at the stations, regroup, fuel and get back out on the trail. The stations are always one of a kind. Stocked with slushy machines, BBQ salmon, bacon, burgers, a ton of fruit and yes...even a chocolate fondu machine! It's impossible to leave an aid station not feeling upset you can't stay longer.

Over eager pacer

The funniest crew mishap that happened that day was I was running alongside Alissa entering the Pavan aid station. She asked me if I could put some pink powder from her pack into her bottle. My clumsy hands seemed to rip the baggy completely in half releasing a large pink pixie dust cloud all over me. Alissa stopped and started laughing hysterically. Well, the rest of the day I guess I was wearing pink.

Meanwhile, John was sitting comfortably in 3rd or 4th place for the first 50M. He looked strong and in control whereas his competitors were starting to show signs of fading. I knew that John's strength was really going to come into play into the wee hours of the morning. John is a very mentally strong dude who always needs to finish what he started. John and I do loads of training together. We feed off each other's energy and our meeting time is almost always at night after the kids go down to bed. Night running and John Hubbard went together like peanut butter and jam. We would run so often at night it almost seemed strange to run during daylight hours. Running at night after a long work day sucks and we'd often say "Embrace the suck!" I proudly wore my shirt displaying that very saying while I crewed my best bud that race day.

Heading out on final north loop

Around 9:00pm I was getting ready for my pacer role at the start/finish line for the long, overnight trek with John helping him through the final lap, the last 53K of this grueling course. I had all my gear but most importantly I had a speaker in my pack blaring rock music and 75 glow sticks attached to my body trying to get a rise from my exhausted compadre. We departed on the south loop, just a short 7K loop before heading out on the larger 46K north loop. John who was solid and looked in control all day started showing signs of fading. We got back to HQ, drank a Red Bull and learnt we had a 7 minute lead. A friend told us that Majo Snrik was looking strong and was asking how far he was behind John; Majo was hungry for a win. Not only that Philippe Legace was not far behind Majo. Now a bit scared, we left HQ to tackle the two hardest legs on the course. As we ran down the first coulee John and I had the same thought, "GAP LAP." We needed to gap Majo and Philippe enough in the next 20K that essentially the race would be over. Even if John is feeling destroyed, the chasers would feel so hopeless that they would give up the chase. It was impressive to watch John run like a stalked prey. I don't know if it was the Red Bull or running scared shitless but John seemed to find another gear. I kept turning around and telling him how impressive this pace was. He kept saying he was not at all comfortable with a 7 minute lead. When we got to the Pavan aid station, roughly the 130K mark we saw two friends Leanne Doerksen and Dennene Huntley. Dennene ran the 100K earlier and Leanne crewed her. Needless to say they were dog tired but there they were coffee in hand committing to crew us the rest of the race. We left that aid station not knowing what John's lead was but knew he ran damn well. If

John and Majo after finishing

Philippe or Majo could keep the 7 minute gap, then kudos to them. I was so proud watching John run away and up the next coulee, still not satisfied with his lead. I received a text from Leanne 16 minutes later telling me Majo ran straight through the aid station only stopping long enough to ask where John was. She said he looked strong. John turned to me and said he still wasn't comfortable with the new 16 minute lead. I told him there was a flat section ahead where we could carry some serious speed. John was hunched, quiet and obviously exhausted, yet the idea of winning was the carrot on the string that made him not only maintain but accelerate his pace. With 1K to go before the Pavan aid station, roughly the 147K mark, I ran ahead to get his drink and food ready allowing a crazy fast transition. Knowing that Dennene and Leanne would leave for the Pennaquim aid station I asked a friend if he could text me when Majo came in. We skittered right out of there, still moving at an unreal speed given this point of the race. John became more talkative, his spirit was lifting and 29 minutes after leaving the Pavan aid station I heard a loud beep. John immediately turned knowing we were receiving a very important text. The text read "Majo is leaving Pavan and is 29 minutes behind you and knows he is not catching." I turned to John and congratulated him on winning the Lost Soul 100miler and being the ACU 100M national champion! We high fived and that's when he said he was still not completely comfortable until he was climbing the last coulee, looks back and doesn't see a charging Eastern European hunting him down. That being said, we slowed the pace, had some good buddy time and every step was one closer to an ice cold celebratory beer. At 5:41am John Hubbard ran across the finish line as the winner of the Lost Soul 100mile!

As I reflect on what happened that night I think of how John and I met. Our friendship was forged by running at night, it only seems fair that running all through the night at Johnny's first 100 miler would be the definitive and most rewarding experience we have had together. 

Photos courtesy of Daniel Bowie

before

After

Chariots on fire

Moose mountain Aug. 24, 2014

There's nothing as breath taking as the views from atop a mountain, but whats even more spectacular is watching your children's faces as they pier upon the vast rocky mountains after there first summit and thats exactly what happened earlier this week atop Moose mountain. The 5 hour excursion with around 800m elevation was done with my 8 year old Julia hiking the entire way, my 2 younger kids Sam 5 and Adele 3 walking where they could but when the climbing and descending got too hard I put them in the jogging stroller and pushed. Bloody hell that was a task and a half! I know what you are thinking, are strollers supposed to go up mountains? The answer is probably no, but hell, our Chariot has been put through the ringer the past 8 years with little to no maintenance and has held up amazingly well.

Sometime in June 2014

Julia(3), Sam(9mths)

Eight years ago when Julia was a new born we arrived at Bow cycle to take a look at a jogging stroller called a Chariot. The unit looked good and sturdy but the price wasn't as attractive. At a whopping 700 dollars Sharon had to twist, twist, and twist my arm some more to sell me on the purchase. She said that given our active lifestyles we would get our moneys worth, I shrugged and handed over my credit card. At first we used it for short runs and family bike rides but as time went by Julia became very content and happy when riding in it. The runs got longer, I started getting interested in longer running races and we used the Chariot as a way of getting Julia to nap. Julia got older and the thought of a second child became palatable. Sam was born in 2009 and we were glad we bought a double stroller in the first place. Needless to say, pushing two monkeys is considerably harder than one, my mileage was increasing and thank god Sam

Moose mountain

Hot day selfie

was just as happy in the stroller as Julia was. March of 2010 was a sad month for the Proctors. Thats when we learnt of Sam's disability. For those of you who don't know, Sam has an undiagnosed form of Ataxia, that means he struggles with balance and coordination making  all gross and fine motor skills difficult. We didn't know it at the time but with this new knowledge the Chariot would play a key roll in all of our lives. In 2011 Adele arrived and our family was now complete. With three young children and a growing passion for distance running the Chariot became an integral part of our lives. Sometimes doing two-a-days in all weather conditions the stroller got abused. As the kids got older and Sam enjoyed Adele's company the stroller got heavier and heavier I found my legs got stronger because boy, pushing 100lbs up a hill really sucks! My running was improving especially when I wasn't behind a stroller. I started finding success in ultra running in 2012 and since have won many of the ultra events I've completed. The timing maybe a coincidence but this was right around the time the weight of the Chariot became uncomfortable.

Deep in thought on Moose

Just last year Julia asked me if she could ride in the Chariot, I laughed and said no. I asked her why and she mentioned that she likes the sound. She described it as "tap, tap, tap, tap, and Breath, breath, breath, breath. This made me smile. The idea of her childhood memories being somewhat tied to the rhythm of running leaves me thinking I've done something right.

Sam (1)

The reason I'm writing this post is that up to a few days ago I was fooled. Fooled into thinking that I was getting the lion's share of the enjoyment of running with the kids. Atop Moose mountain I was exhausted. I sat down with the kids to eat our sandwiches and my kids who normally never shut up were quiet. They were looking around at the 360 views and were dumbfounded. The enjoyment and sense of accomplishment I noticed upon there faces brought tears to my eyes. That was the moment I realized my unilateral view of the benefits I receive from the stroller have been exceeded by providing my kids active experiences and the gift of giving my son legs.

Thank you Chariot for giving our family a thousand excellent memories. Heres to all of the future experiences my two legs and those three wheels have in store.

Body image issues and ultra runners

During the Sinister 7 weekend, a friend and I were having a beer when he said something strange. He mentioned that if he was as lean as me he'd run much better. I said "Shut up! That's how I feel about you!" We both thought we could lose 5-8 more pounds. The fact is we both don't have any real weight to lose but when I look in the mirror I see a very different image than what others see. The rest of the weekend I went around having (sometimes awkward) conversations with fellow runners about weight loss and realized that nearly everyone I spoke with had most of the same issues. To be honest this is an issue I've been struggling with for awhile. When I think of ultra running I think of lean and efficient. However what happens when a runner gets carried away and loses too much? Dietician Samara Felesky-Hunt explained to me that endurance athletes face a serious dilemma when it comes to performance and nutrition. We simply think that cutting calories will lead to leaner bodies resulting in more efficient running. Felesky-Hunt warns that an endurance athlete's performance is only equal to the quality of nutrients and sustainable amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fats a person takes in. When we become nutrient or source deficient the byproduct can appear in different forms. Injury to tissue when the depleted structures can no longer take the gruelling load we ask it to take. Recovery can be compromised when the rebound effect becomes delayed. Exhaustion during training can make high quality sessions nearly impossible. Even if those symptoms don't give you a red flag, continuing to lose weight will conjure up more negative side effects that pertain to having a body fat percentage that is too low for a person's health. That is exactly what happened to me in the fall of 2013.

I went to Samara with a large list of symptoms including irritability, mood swings, lack of energy, night sweats and many other symptoms. Samara asked me about my diet and was shocked to hear of how little I was eating. After simply increasing my intake and the addition of a few other nutrients my symptoms, one by one, disappeared. We concluded that I had fallen below 6 percent body fat at 150 lbs and that was a significant tipping point for me (FYI - I'm 5'11"). I'm happy to say I'm now sitting at a healthy 156 lbs.

But…the problem still persists. When I look in the mirror I see a very different me than what others see. Case in point: At the Blackfoot 100K, around the 95K mark I decided to take my shirt off (in an earlier post I explained why I love running topless) but knowing the finish line was shortly approaching and there would be plenty of spectators there with cameras, feeling embarrassed I put my shirt back on. When running I look down at my body with exaggerated eyes and see all the flopping and flipping of a guy that could afford to lose a few pounds but when I see pictures of myself at a distance I'm shocked to see myself and how skinny I've gotten. So, I guess you can say that this is a healing mechanism and shine on reality for me.

This post and the numerous conversations I've had since the Sinister 7 weekend brought me and others to realize that we probably are leaner and better looking than what we think. Leaner isn't always better and we all have a tipping point. Accept compliments and believe them to be true as a distant eye (even if you just think they are being kind) has a wider lens than your own and simply start the discussion with your running community. I believe this is a much wider spread issue than what we make it and if I've learned anything about the ultra community, I've learned that it's a very close knit group with shared experiences and goals that the support knows no end. The choice to run is something we can easily support so lets also not forget about the other health components that go along with our sport.

Vincent Bouchard's Sinister 7 race report

Vincent Bouchard

It's been almost a week since Sinister 7 wrapped up and I'm sure you've heard by now but my weekend didn't go as planned. After dropping I had the pleasure of following fellow runners as they navigated this brutal 100M course. Along the way runners would come across obstacles they couldn't overcome, the heat and exposure being the most common. 75 percent of runners that toed the line that morning fell victim to the course and did not finish but as racers one by one cratered Vincent Bouchard seemed to gain strength as he went along. Vincent ended up winning in a time of 19:10:01 with a commanding lead over his second place competitor. His first major win and easily his best finish ever.  With all due respect Vincent has been known to struggle 2/3 into races and have a hard time regrouping, in fact, I remember telling him earlier this year that I can't wait for the day you put it all together and I'm soooo happy to tell you, that day has come! Vincent was nice enough to send me his race report and bare in mind: in a sport where the question isn't will you suffer but how do you endure the suffer, you might be surprised to read (take some notes)what drove him to such a feat.

Vincent writes:

Sinister 7 2014. 100 miles in the beautiful mountains of Crowsnest Pass. 5687m of elevation gain. An incredible race, perfectly organized and run by hundreds of awesome volunteers. An unforgettable experience!

Me and Vincent moments after finish

I finished the race in 19:10:01, for first place overall, by an hour and a half on the second finisher. My first 100 miler. I had definitely not foreseen this, not even in my wildest dreams. I'm bewildered! What just happened?

I could go through the different legs of the races, how I felt, the ups and downs, the numerous creek crossings, the crushing heat, etc. But to be honest, it would be rather boring; I really just felt great pretty much the whole way. Whatever was coming at me, I was taking it with a smile. Not to say that it was not difficult, but my state of mind was positive for the whole race. I have raced a number of ultras in the last three years, and it is the first time that this happens to me. So the question is: what did I do? What was different this time? I feel this is the most interesting aspect of my race. How did I manage to stay upbeat for 19 hours, how could I stay focused for 100 miles?

I think it really came down to one thing: mental focus. The one thing that has been my weakness in the last few years suddenly became my strength. How did I turn the tables around?

In previous races, this has always been what killed me. Every ultra runner knows that in the course of a long race one goes through successive ups and downs. A goal is to prevent the downs from being overwhelming, and keep pushing through. I have always managed to push through the downs (fortunately I have yet to DNF from an ultra race - I knock on wood!), but I know that they have very often prevented me for performing at my best. For Sinister 7, I was determined to try to overcome this weakness.

The week before the race I started reading a book on mind control in martial arts, which was fascinating. I still haven't finished the book yet, but I took one idea from it that turned out to be really inspiring.

One thing that they talk about in the book is the idea of associating the mental feeling of strength to a particular gesture, or a particular mantra. Once this association is ingrained in your brain, the idea is that whenever you recall the gesture or the mantra, you feel the strength going through your body, which enables you to stay focused and powerful.

So I decided to find a mantra that I would keep repeating myself during the race to stay focused. I didn't know what mantra to use, but in the end I went with one sentence that I remembered from my trip to Nepal many years ago, the famous Sanskrit mantra "Om mani padme hum".

My original idea was to recite this mantra whenever I felt bad, to help me push through the lows. But I ended up repeating this mantra in my head non-stop for pretty much the whole race. 19 hours of Om mani padme hum! (well at some point my brain was a little numb, and what I was repeating morphed into a song that I sing with my son - Petit poisson, petit poisson, nage nage nage - but it fluidly morphed back into Om mani padme hum .

While this sounds perhaps ridiculous, I am convinced that this mantra is the main reason why I felt great the whole race. Basically, whenever thoughts came into my mind (any kind of thoughts), I let them go, and refocused on the mantra. Thoughts of pain - Om mani padme hum. Thoughts of winning the race - Om mani padme hum. Thoughts of Oleg or Joe catching up with me on leg 6 - Om mani padme hum.

The result was that I remained focused in the present moment for the whole race. I never got ahead of myself. I never thought about winning until I was actually in the parking lot racing to the finish line. I never really let the thoughts of giving up, or the pain of running for 100 miles, get to me; as soon as they appeared in my head, I let them go and refocused. Basically, I never let the typical highs and downs of a long race get hold for me. I remained calm, peaceful, and focused. As the race progressed, Om mani padme hum became a refuge, a place to let my mind rest while my body kept moving. It became synchronized with the rhythm of my feet hitting the ground with metronomic regularity. I even composed a number of rhythmic variations of Om mani padme hum, to synchronize with the pace; the uphill power walking, the slow jogging, and the faster pace running.

Of course none of this has anything to do with the particular sentence Om mani padme hum; in fact I don't even remember what it translates to. The key was to find a primal chant, a mantra, that would allow my mind to rest and prevent thoughts from taking control of myself. The way I see it, is that I ended up doing 19 hours of meditation, which happened to be while my body was running. This is really what the race was about for me; a long running meditation in a beautiful mountainous setting. And this is the key difference with my previous races; I wasn't there thinking about who is in front, who is behind, what my pace is, what splits I am doing, how can I make it to the next aid station, etc. I was meditating, in the present, focused on the moment. My mind wasn't controlling me; on the contrary. It was at rest, calmly letting my legs and core muscles propel my body forward.

In retrospect, I think this is the key lesson that I learned from this race. Running long distances is not really about running. It is about letting the mind rest. The actual running is secondary. It happens because we have been training for months and running has become a normal state for our bodies. The difficulty is not that much in keeping running for a long time, but rather in letting our mind allow our body to run. The mind is both the obstacle and the enabler. Once it finds a peaceful, quiet place to rest, it opens up possibilities that did not exist before. A quiet mind brings incredible strength and focus.

And that goes way beyond racing. This race was a true life lesson for me.

Finishing strong

$H!T happens

The chickens have come home to roost. The past several months I've lied to friends, family and even myself. I'm coming clean...my ankle sucks ass. I've gotten away with murder really, first running the R2R2R with friends in early May. I was so close to pulling the plug envisioning my ankle blowing up on the canyon floor and me riding shamelessly atop a mule back out to safety. Alas my ankle behaved and the adventure was stellar. Then two weeks later at the Blackfoot 100K and National 100K trail championships I gave myself a 50/50 chance of completing the race. Not only did I finish it, I feel I ran one of my better races to date winning the damn thing and setting a CR. So hell, if a guy is batting 2 for 2 with a rusty, tattered ankle why not Sinister 7 right?

Wrong!

After dropping from the race

Twenty two kilometers into the 100M trail run the technical single track trail took the worst possible pitch for my ankle and the tall grass and brush nearly blocked all sight of my foot fall; as a result making my ankle scream bloody murder. The throbbing pain made me extremely tentative making running these rock blanketed descents downright dangerous. Any trail runner could guess what happened next, not one but two rolls of my ankle both accompanied by a prepubescent school girl screech. The voice of reason told me to stop but the ultra runner inside me reminded me of the pain I felt at the 45K mark of Blackfoot followed by the eventual numbing from flooding inflammation. Needless to say I was conflicted, that was until I found myself at the first creek crossing. Plunging my ankle knee deep in that glacier cold water erased all feelings of pain and in its place a smile came upon my face. I remember telling myself, "I'm tired of running in pain." I chilled in that creek for awhile very happy with my decision of dropping from the race.

Being really good at lying to ourselves makes us equipped with the best tool it takes to run ultras but it also sets us up to disregard proper sign of injury. I'm exhausted! I'm tired of telling people "Hey, my ankle is good." I'm tired of grimacing every downhill step of every run. Somewhere along the way I forgot the reason why I run. It's tough to enjoy a run when you're in pain.

Hi, my name is Dave and I have a lying problem.

BIG congrats goes out to Vincent Bouchard and Caroline Mcilroy for two earth shattering performances making hard to beat S7 course records.

Look mom, I'm on television!

I've never been on television before…until now! Cara Fullerton from Global news contacted me last week wanting to interview me about what it takes to run an ultra marathon. I was nervous because I heard the camera adds ten pounds but at the end I have to admit, it was a lot of fun.