The new courses for 2012 featured a combination of rolling hills, technical terrain, pine needles, mud, tight switchbacks and some sweet single track trails. And you even got to run though a plowed field! The competition was fierce too with many runners travelling from out of town to collect points for the 5 Peaks Trail Running Series.

In the Enduro 10km race, Derrick St. John of Ottawa and Patrick Foran of Belleville battled hard throughout, with St. John pulling away in the final few hundred meters for a 9 second victory in a time of 41:22. Foran finished second in 41:31. Richard Hayes of Kingston finished third in a time of 43:46.

The woman’s Enduro race had another good battle with Natasha Elliot of Ottawa winning in a time of 45:19, followed by Erin Gregory of Napanee in 45:39. Nicole Phythian of Kingston finished third in a time of 53:03.

In the men’s Sport 5km race, Dave McMahon of Chelsea, Quebec ran a smoking time of 17:34 for the victory. Justin Raycroft of Kingston was second in 19:44, followed by Peter Drake of Montreal in 20:37.

Lise Meloche also of Chelsea, won the woman’s Sport course in a time of 21:26. Myra MacDonald of Kingston was second in 22:12, followed by Grace Harju of Ottawa in 22:44.

For complete results, please go to…

Enduro 10km Overall

Enduro 10km Age Group

Sport 5km  Overall

Sport 5km Age Group

The highlight of the day was truly the free Kid’s Challenge Fun Run. This rolling course featured a number of ‘kid size’ sand hills. It was wonderful to see the pure joy and smiles on the kids faces.

A very special thank you to all of our wonderful sponsors and volunteers who made this race possible.

Congratulations again to all who participated and we hope to see you back next year!

Derrick Spafford
Kingston 5 Peaks Race Director
www.HealthandAdventure.com

With the recent growth in popularity of ultra marathons, there is great information available about all aspects of our sport. As a running coach I have noticed a few areas that people tend to benefit most from having objective guidance. Here are some things that you might want to incorporate in your own training…. [Read my complete article on La Sportiva Mountain Running Website]

Ungulate

This ungulate has a sore hoof!

Training has been going very well for the past few months. My mileage has been consistently strong. I’ve had some good long runs, and even mixed in some decent harder, quality workouts as well. I was really beginning to look forward to doing the Bear Mountain 50 miler on May 5. Then, of course, the inevitable happens, and you get hurt. The frustrating thing is that I didn’t hurt my foot by doing anything stupid, but it seems that I just had some bad luck during a run a few weeks ago.

The course for the Kingston 5 Peaks race needs to be changed this year, and being the Race Director I was checking out potential courses during a run. Everything was feeling good until I was running up a long climb on a bit of a traverse. My left foot was inverted inward for this entire climb, while running over some fairly technical terrain. This put strain on the outside of my left foot, and by the time I got to the top I could feel some pain. I just assumed that I’d dinged it a bit and things would come around in a few days.

I gave it a few easy days of running with the hope that it would improve, but it never really did. I booked an appointment for physio as I was now beginning to get a bit concerned. I always get hypersensitive on the rare times that I have foot pain and begin stressing that I may have a stress fracture. My mind was put to ease by our physio though. Stacee was convinced this wasn’t the case, but that the injury was caused by my foot being a little locked up, which didn’t allow it to move and flex properly. This in turn caused some irritation between my fourth and fifth metatarsals. Part of the problem from this might have been that this is the same leg where I broke my ankle a number of years ago, so I have less range of motion in it.

Injured ungulate with fancy tape job to relieve strain

I’ve had a couple of appointments now to try to free up the mobility in my foot, reduce the inflammation and work out some of the scar tissue. Stacee has a whole bag of tricks at her disposal. I am also throwing everything I can at it from my end at home as well with massaging, manipulation, foot rolling, Zanagen, Tanda and ice.

I’ve continued to do easy and short runs each day on the flat rail trail and this hasn’t felt too bad. Having my foot taped has taken some strain off of the injured area. As soon as I hit anything technical, I feel sharper pain though. At this point, I’m not too hopeful for Bear Mountain this weekend since it is a very technical course…which is really what appealed to both Sara and I to begin with. I’ll have to see how things progress over the next few days, and possibly get out to try a real trail run again and see how that goes. I’d really like to race, but not if it potentially sets me back.

This whole injury thing is quite frustrating, and even a little ironic since I had just finished writing an article that discussed injuries and returning to training approaches. Now, I’m finding myself having to listen to this very advice first hand.

While you’re at it, check out all of the other great stuff happening at i2P!

Running through the juniper tunnel

It’s very rare that a week goes by that we don’t go to Frontenac Provincial Park for at least one run. While Frontenac is a wonderful place to run, it is usually our default and we sometimes overlook many of the other great trails in the area.

One such trail that we haven’t run in a while is the Opinicon section of the Rideau Trail (see maps 5 & 6). Sara and I found it hard to believe that it’s been a couple of years since we’ve run there. In the past, we’ve just run it as a loop off of Opinicon Road, but we wanted to get in a little longer run this time, so drove the extra distance up to Massassauga Road and ran the out and back to get to the loop.

From the Massassauga Road trailhead to the Cataraqui Trail, the Rideau Trail is quite technical and rolling. My favourite part of this trail includes a fun section that weaves through junipers that are as high as your head. We kept expecting to surprise a coyote or other wildlife as we went around each corner.

Just before reaching the Cataraqui Trail, we passed a small private cabin in the woods, situated on a tiny pond/lake. Talk about paradise. The only way to get into the cabin is by foot. We noticed that the owners had mountain biked in on the Cataraqui Trail, before hiking into the cabin.

Once on the Cataraqui Trail, it’s just a short 1 km jaunt on the rail trail before turning off onto more single track. The actual Opinicon Loop of the Rideau Trail has some spectacular views. The trail continues to be quite technical in places, and even has a leanto where you can stop and rest, or I suppose could camp for the night. We looked at the log book in the leanto and noticed that there had only been a handful of people who had signed the book since October. While, this didn’t indicate that there had been much traffic on the trails, we were surprised that the trails were in very good shape and well maintained.

The trail also connects with a substantial trail network that is owned by the Skycroft Campground. Many of the Skycroft Trails intersect with the Rideau Trail, so you need to pay close attention to make sure that you are following the Rideau Trail markers to stay on route.

Another highlight of the trail was a massive gully that we came out of. This featured a long climb up a stream/riverbed/waterfall that had been damned up by beavers. Looking up from the bottom to the pond above left you feeling rather insignificant, while being in awe of the beaver’s handiwork.

Finally, upon getting back to the Cataraqui Trail, we had about a 7km section of more rail trail. While rail trail can get pretty old, pretty quick, this section is some of the most beautiful that you will see (see Cataraqui Trail article in Canadian Running Magazine). Cliffs to the north, and lakes/ponds to the south. We actually welcomed the flat, non-technical trail during this section to give our eyes a break from focusing on the trails for so long.

Once off the Cataraqui Trail, we were back on the technical trails again to return to the Massassauga Road trailhead. This was the only duplicate section of our run, but going in this direction it looked totally different, especially with the extra climbing involved.

This run took us just over 4 hours, but we took our time on the route. It could certainly be done quicker, but with how technical the trail was in places, you wouldn’t be able to go too fast.

We didn’t take a lot of pictures, but this gives you an idea about the trails.

Training Update:
Since I last updated, I’ve begun to get some decent training in again and feeling stronger. My volume has slowly increased up to almost 15 hours of running over each of the past few weeks. I’ve also been adding some tempo runs to the mix, with a little more focus on the hills. This is all with the goal of running the Bear Mountain 50 miler next month in New York. Bear Mountain should be a fun race. The trails look rugged, technical and feature some good hills. It will be nice for Sara and I to get back into a race again. It’s certainly not a big goal race at this point, but will be fun to just get back into a race and play.

Not much snow left in many areas

Well, spring is here. At least in Eastern Ontario. Hard to believe that the winter that wasn’t is now behind us. Sure, I expect that we’ll have a few flurries in the forecast over the next month or so, but I can’t imagine getting anything substantial that will stick.

Even with the warm conditions, there is still some snow and ice on some of the trails we’ve been running. Traction devices continue to be necessary at times with La Sportiva hobnails and Kahtoola MicroSpikes being the required ‘go to’ items when our snowshoes aren’t needed. If you run trails in the fall, winter or spring in Canada, these items are vital to your existence as a trail runner. And Dion snowshoes of course too!

Speaking of Dions, while it has been a relatively quiet winter of snowshoe running with the mild weather (anybody want a good deal on a whack of snowshoes?), there have been a number of races that have still happened. I wanted to give another shout out to Dion/SHA sponsored snowshoe racer Beth Primrose who finished 5th in the woman’s race at the World Snowshoe Championships this past weekend near Quebec City. Congrats Beth!

Upon returning to our car, we found a personalized URG comic on our dirty back window

So, with that, the snowshoe season is now officially over. For most of the winter I found myself longing for snow, hating where we live and resentful of the places that had good snow. With winter being a big period for snowshoe sales, snowshoe races, as well as conditions needed when I was training for the YAU100, this winter officially sucked!

I shouldn’t sound so negative though. This past weekend has seen some unseasonably warm weather, and I must say that I’ve enjoyed it. Running in shorts and a t-shirt instead of multiple layers is a nice treat and I do find myself looking forward to more of the warmer weather, instead of cursing it. One such run occurred on Sunday during a long, hilly run. We had a nice tour around Gould Lake Conservation Area. Sara had forgotten her traction devices, so unfortunately had to keep to the roads. That isn’t too bad though because the roads at Gould are all dirt and Everett Lane narrows down to practically a trail by the time you get to the end. I hit some of the regular trails then we met up at various points throughout our runs. We even bumped into EJ who was out for her long run, and I got to share the last 30 minutes of my run with her. We were fortunate enough to get an Ultra Running Guy comic drawn on the back window of Floyd the Forester. Not the sort of thing that happens every day!

Run to Eat vs Eat to Run? Eating Ella's jelly donuts in the car after a long run is a messy ordeal!

Inevitably during a long run, discussion turns to food and Sunday was no different. This time Ella’s jelly donuts were the topic of discussion. If you haven’t tried Ella’s Bakery in Harrowsmith, you should! We have been buying most of our wholewheat bread there as it’s the same price as in the grocery store, but is homemade, tastes better and uses real ingredients. Ella’s french bread is also fantastic, as is everything that she makes. Her jelly donuts and cinnamon buns are by far the best I have ever tasted. The only bad thing is that we probably end up consuming far more calories after a long run than we burn from running. Oh well, guess we’ll have to increase our long runs.

As for training, things are starting to go much better again. It’s been over 5 weeks since the Yukon Arctic Ultra 100 and I’m finally starting to feel like I’m getting my strength back. Runs have started to get longer and I’m stacking more longer run days together again. With the renewed strength, I’m starting to think about what race is next. I half considered hopping into a 50 km for fun in April, but we’ll have to see how things go. As for now, I’m happy enough to just be back starting to run more again. I’ve never been the type of runner who races often as a means of training, as I much prefer to train and prepare properly to race.

Leaving checkpoint #1

It’s been three weeks since I finished the Yukon Arctic Ultra 100 miler. I’ve had a lot of time to think about and process things from the race, as well as the experience itself. In general, I am still pleased with how things went and what I was able to do and accomplish on the day.

After completing any race though, you tend to go through stages of your mental and physical recovery and begin to analyze things; and YAU100 was certainly no different.

Reflections
The first stage, depending on how the race goes, is usually one of relief, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. This hit me hard in the days immediately following the race, as I was very pleased to have achieved my goal of completing the race and running a fast time on the course. Adding to this was the fact that the Yukon really spoke to me, and I was taken by it’s beauty.

Losing layers

Next, after a few days of recovery and thinking about it, I inevitably found myself thinking of what I could have done differently. Nutrition is the big thing that keeps coming to mind. My nutrition plan of Honey Stinger chews, gels, stroop waffles, and granola bars worked very well and if it had been a summer race or if the race had only lasted for 12-15hrs, I still would have been in a good place. However, I needed more protein and fat. It would have been easy to add some peanut butter and jam (or honey) into a soft tortilla. Or Nutella is another favourite that would have worked well too. And a little cheese curds and some macadamia nuts would have been enough that would have helped me to run stronger for the final 10hrs of the race. I’m not sure how much faster I could have run, but I do think that there was substantially more there.

Other than nutrition, I am still very pleased with how things went, and wouldn’t change much. I did discover after the fact that I suffered from some frostbite during the race. It was strange as I didn’t notice it at the time, but I have a few toes, my face and a thumb that were all affected. Nothing serious, but will have to be more careful in the future. Discussing this with Ray Zahab after, his thought was that I might have been a little dehydrated with the minimal amount that I drank due to the long distance between aid stations, and this could have been a contributing factor. Makes sense.

Finish line

What’s next?
I still find myself thinking a lot about the YAU and can’t wait to run another northern event. I’ve been pouring over 100+ mile northern races, but looks like it will have to wait until 2013. I’ve been looking at races in Alaska, Yukon and Tuktoyaktuk. While many of the races, and particularly the Iditorad Trail Invitational 350 sound very appealing, I do find it very hard to think of not returning to YAU to try and run the perfect 100 mile race on that course that I feel I have in me. There will be plenty of time for me to run the longer expedition type races in the future, but I really feel that now is the time where I would like to focus on the ‘shorter(?)’ 100 mile distance.

In the short term, it’s looking like Sara and I will be heading to Pennsylvania in June to run the Laurel Hylands 70 miler. The course is point to point and sounds beautiful. It’s a race that I’ve wanted to do for a long time and the timing makes sense this year. We may do a shorter 50km ultra before then, but will have to wait and see how recovery goes first.

Recovery
With regards to recovery, I have to say that YAU100 has hit me harder than any other race I have run. With a summer ultra in the past I have found that my legs have been very sore for the following week after the race, but after two weeks I am feeling pretty much back to normal and able to run almost as much as I want to. Well, it’s been three weeks now and I’m still feeling the affects of the race and quite tired. I am still running every day, but only doing short easy runs at this point. Any time that I try to increase back closer to normal training, I feel exhausted during the run and the following few days. A large reason for this I expect was due to running with a heavy pulk, how depleted my body got in the cold temperatures and nutrition. I’m trying not to rush a return to heavy training and expect that within the next week or so I’ll be getting back closer to normal. The ironic thing right now is that we actually have decent snow conditions in Eastern Ontario now and it would be ideal for some beautiful long winter runs.

Frosty at the Finish

The first few steps of the Yukon Arctic Ultra 100 mile

After competing at the Rock and Ice Ultra in Yellowknife in 2008 and 2009, I have had a burning desire to run the Yukon Arctic Ultra. Rock and Ice gave me a taste of what is required to run a northern race, and I was able to use much of this experience with YAU100.

Training had gone about as well as I could have expected. I felt that everything I did in the 12 weeks leading up to the race was about as specific as I could get. Even though we didn’t have much snow in Yarker, I gained great strength from running while dragging a tire, running consistently high mileage, and getting in some good long runs. I feel that I got pretty lucky with being able to get some specific training sessions in while dragging the pulk in what snow we had and even lucked out with a 6 hour long run on snow during the coldest stretch of weather we had with it dipping to -23C one night.

The week leading up to the race was a bit hectic, with flight changes and travel. I went into the race feeling a little tired physically, but felt that mentally I was as strong as I could be and would take strength out on the trail from thoughts of family, among other things.

Thursday, February 2
I arrived in Whitehorse, after a quick overnight visit with my sister Deb and her husband Jack in Vancouver. I was tired upon arriving, but happy to be here. A few trips to Coast Mountain Sports helped me put the final touches on my gear requirements. I also picked up the pulk that I was going to be using from Greg and Denise McHale. I was disappointed that I would miss seeing them, but happy to be using Greg’s much talked about pulk. It’s sleek design was very impressive. After a short run to test out the pulk, I was feeling comfortable with my gear choices.

Friday, February 3
It was now time to really start thinking about the race. The day flew by with a pre-race trail briefing, gear check and pasta dinner. I enjoyed another short shake-out run. It was great to have David and Kim Bohn at the race as well, with David running the marathon. Being able to hang out with them, and draw off of their excitement and positive attitude helped me feel in a good place.

The pulk

Saturday, February 4
Race day arrived and we walked the 15 minutes from our hotel to the starting line. I remember saying it seemed like a long walk while pulling a pulk, then realized how silly this statement was since I was soon going to be starting to run 100 miles with it.

Lining up at the start line helped to put my mind at ease. I was interviewed briefly by CBC Radio North, and then had a quick chat with the brother of a clients friend. Even though I’d never met Brett before, he was very helpful with information leading up to the race and it meant a lot to see him there at the start. I found the people of Whitehorse to be very hospitable and proud of their city and the Yukon in general. The laid back approach to the start certainly added to this feeling as well.

My biggest two fears going into the race were overflows and the cold. From the weather forecast, it sounded like it wasn’t going to be too cold. We were told it might approach -20C, which seemed reasonable and very doable coming from Eastern Ontario. As for the overflows, we were treated to a nice one barely a mile into the race. I was running in 4th place with Justin Wallace when we saw the two early race leaders go through the overflow and both went down. They got up quick, but were a bit wet. Justin and I were able to avoid this by going around it. I had purchased Neos Adventurer Overshoes from Coast Mountain Sports the day before, just in case, but felt comfortable with just going with my La Sportiva Crossover Goretex trail running shoes, and would never need the overshoes.

The remainder of the run going into the first checkpoint was on the river and fairly uneventful. It was great hitting CP#1 and knowing that the race was now firmly underway. It was also exciting seeing David had run so well to finish second in the marathon, even though he’s been fighting a bad cold. Nice job!

One of the big things about winter ultra racing is that you want to avoid sweating. Overheating can be very dangerous. I had started off with too much clothing, but used the CP to strip down a bit while trying to get some extra calories in me too.

Justin was having a very solid race. I let him go in the earlier miles as he was running faster than I was prepared to at that point. I was hoping that I might be able to reel him in a bit in the later miles if things went well. After leaving CP#1, I felt recharged and full of energy. The trail continued along the river, with the views getting better and better. It was at about 50km, that I started to feel like pushing the pace to see if I could cut into Justin’s lead a bit. This might come back to haunt me, but I figured that I was taking care of nutrition and still running within myself. During this stretch I even put some music on and was rocking to the Dropkick Murphy’s, Headstones and assortment of other punk.

When we switched off the lake and onto the trail, I kept finding myself saying things out loud like ‘wow’ or ‘holy f#&% it’s beautiful here’. Things just kept getting increasingly remote and I was smitten. Winding through the trails, there were spruce on both sides, water below and mountains on both sides as well. Just before it got dark, I was treated to the sight of a wolf scampering off in the distance below the trail.

Checkpoint #1

It was starting to get dark, so I grabbed my headlamp. The funny thing though was that I didn’t need it. The moon was shining so brightly that I was able to run without it turned on for a large portion of the night time running. I only turned it on when there were shadows from the trees affecting my depth perception.

From 50-100km, I pushed fairly hard and came into CP#2 tired. CP#2 was at a remote spot on the course that had no road access. Everything was snowmobiled in. It consisted of a tent heated by a barrel wood stove. It was also starting to get quite cold, so I knew that I really needed to take care of myself, since it was going to be about another 60km to the end and there were no further checkpoints for the remainder of the race. I was cold, and my stomach had stopped being able to handle my gel-blok-granola bar rotation. I underestimated the need for real food and specifically protein. I had a bit of soup and cheese sandwich, but had to deal with a ham sandwich and beef stew at CP#2. This was probably not the best thing for this vegetarian stomach, but you do what you have to do.

After some hot food and adding a few layers of clothing, I got back on the trail again and was running well again. I had a small thermometer with me and it read -30C. The tough part is that I was slowing down now and not able to run as hard, which in turn would help to generate heat. I slid a couple of instant hand warmers inside the built in gator of my Crossover GTX and that seemed to help. Any time I tried to eat something, my fingers would get terribly cold though. I finally resorted to pulling out Ray Zahab’s South Pole mitts that I borrowed for the race and they were a blessing.

The trail at this point was spectacular. The frost was dancing and sparkling off of the trees. I kept thinking that it was other runners or that I was coming into a town, but neither was the case. I heard after of other runners talking about wild hallucinations at this point too. To further add to the magic of the run, we were treated to a display of the northern lights. It wasn’t as bright as what Sara and I saw in Yellowknife, but was still very special to see in this environment.

I saw many wildlife tracks on the trail. Some I assumed were Elk or Moose, some wolves, but the one that spooked me the most was what I thought must be cougar tracks. After CP#2, I figured that Justin was maybe 30mins ahead of me. I had been able to see his footprints the whole time. The really eerie thing though was seeing a cougar footprint overtop of his. I’m sure that the cougar knew where we were, but we didn’t see it, though I did hear some rustling in the trees a few times.

Soup time

This part of the race was now getting difficult. I was very tired, not fueling with what I needed at this point and just in survival mode. Somehow though, in a very strange way, I was enjoying this. In a race like this, and at this point, things get quite raw. As strange as it sounds, the most important thing you need to look at doing is surviving. I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s 25-35 miles between checkpoints, and you just need to look after yourself and do all the little things that will help you keep moving forward. This is also when your brain starts misfiring too. For hydration, I was wearing a hydration pack under my jacket. The warmth of my body and remembering to blow out the water from the hose after each sip would keep it from freezing. A couple of times I forgot though and had to deal with trying to unthaw my water. I was lucky to be able to do so.

If things had gotten bad, I had the equipment to bivy down for a nap or until I felt like I could move again. I just really didn’t want to do this though. The goal was to finish as fast as possible.

When morning came, I had a new sense of hope. I was still moving forward, even though slowly, but I knew that I was going to finish. Going into the race, I was thinking that depending on the conditions, 28 hours would be a strong effort. I now knew that both Justin and I were running solid times for the course. I let myself start thinking about 24-25 hours and I knew I would be very pleased with that. Then I started thinking it would be very cool if I broke 24 hours to complete the race within a full day of running. I snuck a peek at the map for the first time and thought this might still be a possibility.

The final section through the tall evergreens went on forever. I knew that once we hit Braeburn Lake, I only had another 30 minutes of running to the finish. Braeburn Lake just seemed to take forever to come though. Every corner I kept thinking that it must be around the next one. This went on for what seemed like hours. Finally with what was bordering on joy and the ultimate in relief, I saw the lake. A short painful drop onto the lake, and I was running hard to get to the other side. I had forgot that I still had a nasty little hill to climb off of the lake before finishing. The best part of the final few miles was when a happy dog joined me and showed me the way to the finish. The dog’s person was cheering from the lake and the dog seemed to feel it was his duty to usher me home.

Seeing Braeburn Lodge after running 100 miles while pulling a pulk was a very welcome sight. I crossed the finish line in 2nd place in 23 hours and 15 minutes. This was much better than I had expected going into the race. Good and fast conditions of course, but I was very pleased. A huge congratulations to Justin Wallace for nailing it and getting a new course record in 22:19.

River

Post Race
We had to wait at the lodge for a while before getting shuttled back into Whitehorse. Braeburn Lodge has big eats! I have never seen portions so large. Unfortunately, I couldn’t eat much at that point and preferred to curl up with my friend the siberian husky in front of the woodstove.

Memories
This race and the Yukon has really spoken to me. I loved everything about it. The event, the rugged wilderness, the people, the test. The scenery that I experienced in that setting is by far more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. The next day I found myself teary when thinking about it, and even when walking around Whitehorse. The people of Whitehorse seemed larger than life. The lifestyle seems plain and pure with no fluff. From Sam the shuttle driver, to the hotel staff, to a momentary friend I met at the grocery store, everything seemed so Yukon.

Race Strategy:
As mentioned, I missed on the fueling a bit. I was great up to 12-15hrs with my race fueling plan, but I needed more protein and fat. I guess I thought there might have been peanut butter sandwiches at the aid stations, but it was my fault for not bringing some in a wrap. As for effort, as mentioned, I may have pushed a little hard for the middle 50km, but I don’t think it really affected my race much.

Gear:
I think I did well in this department. My layering system worked well, and after a small adjustment early on, I don’t think I could have improved on this.

Shoes – La Sportiva Crossover GTX
Socks – Wigwam Merino wool knee high sock (added Sugoi wool sock at CP#2)
Lower body – GoLite 1/2 tights + OR Vert pant (added winter weight tights under pants at CP#2)
Upper body – Start to CP1: Mountain Hardware LS Hoodie, MH Jacket. CP1-CP2: GoLite Wisp Jacket, MH Hoodie, CP2-Finish: IceBreaker SS zip, MH hoodie, Sugoi Heavy Wool 1/2 zip, MH Jacket.
Mitts: Varying combinations of Icebreaker gloves, Icebreaker mitts, Stonehaven string mitts, Ray Zahab/Richard Weber perforated mitt and breathable mitt.
Hats: Start to CP2: Buff. CP2-Finish: Balaclava, PolarBuff
Headlamp: Petzl Tikka XP

Starting to get into some more remote places now. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any more photos because of darkness.

Fuel:
Clif Shots
Clif Bloks
Honey Chews
Honey Waffles
Granola Bars
Aid Station food
~ Started off alternating every 30 mins with shot, blok and nola bar, but then switched to every 20mins. Was good to 12+hrs.

Hydration:
2 litre Nathan pack under coat
2 x HydroFlask bottles
Filled up at each CP & drank a lot there

Electrolytes:
S-Caps – 1 cap x 1.5-2hrs

Traction:
Hobnails – brought, but didn’t wear due to overflow concern.
MicroSpikes – in bag, didn’t wear
Dion 121 Snowshoes w/Deep Cleats – brought, but didn’t wear.

Remainder was mandatory gear from list mostly.

Thank you very much to race director Robert Polihammer and his crew for putting on an amazing, well organized event that everyone will remember for a long time. Hope to return again very soon.

Dawg tired. Sharing a nap with a friend shortly after finishing.

For more information on Dions, or to order in Canada, please visit HealthandAdventure.com