North Face Endurance Challenge Ontario half marathon review

I heard about this event on Twitter and decided to enter this to provide a challenge and change it up from just road running. My training partner and I accepted the challenge and began to work on mileage training.

We have both run numerous half marathons but this would not only be our first trail race, but on what is listed as one of the most challenging courses in Canada. Just what were we getting ourselves into? We were soon to find out…

The morning started out with showers as we drove the hour north to Blue Mountain and I knew it was going to be tough as I was running with traditional road shoes, the weather was only going to make it tougher.

The run started with a quick dash across a few slopes and it became obvious that we were going to be battling showers all morning and dealing with mud and slick conditions. As we made our way across the slopes we encountered a few bottlenecks and the crowd kept moving and warnings were shouted to keep runners behind aware of mud, water, and dangerous footing.

Kerry and I kept a good pace for the first few KM with the constant climbs and narrow passages in the trees it was important to keep moving and my first break was once we hit an open area with a bit of road on the downhill portion of the first part.

The climb approaching the first aid station was long and challenging but I walked when I needed to so that I had the energy to carry on. At the first station (5.5km) I caught back up to Kerry and we carried on now that I had recovered and again we ran on this second section feeling strong.

The views were spectacular and the trail was in good shape considering the rain we had. This second section was not as challenging as the first but it had sections once we crossed the second ladder that worked through the hills with a few series of switchbacks and single paths that were slippery and made everyone cautious about footing and grabbing the small trees for balance and support. It was during this portion that Kerry pulled away in traffic as I struggled in spots with footing but kept on determined to run strong heading towards the second aid station.

Knowing that the major climbs had passed was relieving, but having seen the elevation map, I also knew that the next 10km was going to be a constant series of ups and downs as we headed into the loop sections that brought us back and forth across Blue Mountain with gorgeous views of Georgian Bay.

It was through this section that I carried on conversations with numerous people as we ran and walked along and began to enjoy more of the trail camaraderie that I would normally have missed by running with earbuds and music. Many were veterans of trail races or marathons, but we were all enjoying the challenge of this course and inaugural race as the first Canadian stop in the North Face Endurance series.

Mentally I was fine until around 16km at which point “Just. Keep. Moving. Forward” became my mantra. At some points the trails was hard to see in the trees especially if there was no one else around so it forced me to pay attention to all possible paths which also kept my mind of the distance and fatigue that was settling in.

I had properly hydrated and fueled using both ENERGYbits and PocketFuel packets which kept me from “crashing” but the energy output definitely was high as this course  was way more challenging than the local trail I had run on for training.

My goal since registering was to finish the race – which meant I needed to stay ahead of the 4hr pace, which was never in doubt even with the much needed walk breaks. No matter how bad I felt, or tired I was, I was not going to stop or complain, and this was more a result of coming across a female running the 10k who was navigating the course with one prosthetic leg (a blade) and whose determination was incredibly inspiring.

As we made the final descent the course was again tricky and treacherous as evidenced by my wipeout going down a set of stairs. Thankfully I landed on my butt and avoided a major injury – only a few bruises and sore ankle…

As we cleared the downhill section and doubled back on the path we started the Village and crowd was audible in the distance and that motivated me to carry on strong and finish with a smile. Triumphant.

As I came to the line there was Kerry to cheer me on and the rest of the crowd at the finish line was inspiring and realizing that I had completed this course intact and with little energy left meant that I had left it all out on the slopes.

With many refills of water bottles, a quick spray of the hoses, a stop at the Clif tent for fuel we headed to the ice bath to soak the aching legs and change into dry clothes. The weather by then had cleared and warmed up significantly so the atmosphere was just one big party – a great reception to end a great day.

The event staff are to be congratulated for an amazing event, one that I will definitely be back for… next time I will train for the hills and will then focus on running a stronger race.

The goal was to finish. I did. That was a victory and I can’t wait to get back out there again – but I will take some time off to rest the aching legs… they earned it.

Summer running

Now that the days are longer, and supposedly warmer, my training program will focus on morning runs to avoid the humidity and late day sun and heat… and even at 5am it is light enough that I don’t have to carry a light (but do to be safe).

My morning run consists of a simple 6+km loop down the hill, and through town, returning uphill to finish off… from here I can add a small paved path run to add on 2km or depending on time of day and add significantly more distance as required.  Ideally I like to run the loop 3x a week and then at least one long weekend run.

I have recently begun running around the lake on a trail and if running this as part of a loop I can significantly add both mileage and difficulty to a simple road run…and if I drop the boys off at the skate park I can do an “out and back” on the trail as part of a 15+km run in under 90min.

The addition of the trail run has been great as it has helped me to train for The North Face Endurance Challenge Half Marathon trail run in July. This race is taking place at Blue Mountain, near Collingwood ON, and I am so looking forward to the experience. This event sounds more fun than Warrior Dash and Tough Mudder, both of which I have previously run. I love the idea of trail runs and am looking at making them a staple in my annual running calendar.

The training plan has merely been a continuation of the half marathon training I did for Mississauga in May, with the trail runs added on to give me more of a feel for what is in store in a couple of weeks. The thought of running up the ski hill is still daunting, but having completed a few obstacle races I am sure it is something that I can handle…

This year my race calendar is full – 7 planned races with the gem being the Chicago Marathon in Oct, but the actual highlight has been my 13yr old son asking to run with me, and to date he has completed a 15k race and today we signed up to run the Oasis Zoo Run 10k at the Toronto Zoo in Sept. He has trained with me in Florida over the holidays and has run with me in evenings and on weekends and his desire to spend time with me and keep active is what is keeping me going.

Having a training buddy is great, it motivates me, and hopefully inspires both of us to remain active and healthy. We are working on healthy eating – gluten-free where possible and have eliminated most processed foods to keep clean. We also fuel our runs with ENERGYbits and PocketFuel as needed. I am beginning to think that Kris runs just so he can have a smoothie to recover when we get home… but I am not going to argue….

So as the summer begins and kids are out of school, I hope to keep going – I set a goal for 1500km in 2014 and am almost halfway there, so with the marathon training kicking into gear, it should be achievable and having my son there to run with me and cheer me on, I am looking forward to the next run….