Leg 3: Old Mine Road (19km)

What just happened?
As I ran through the side-streets and back out of Grande Cache I tried to process the last few minutes - physically I hadn't expected to run so hard just to finish Leg 2 (this turned out to be my fastest km of the whole race); emotionally it felt crappy leaving Greg when we had been so close; mentally I wasn't even sure that I had made it out on time, maybe I had just DNF'd...

While I still had phone signal I tried checking the live results to see my status. I was able to exchange a couple of texts with Greg and confirmed he'd been pulled for being 6 minutes over cut-off.  My time was listed as 09:02. Two minutes over time, but not flagged as DNF.  I wasn't sure what that meant, maybe the sprint had saved me, or maybe I'd get pulled from the course at the next checkpoint or transition area.

I realized that I didn't have a lot of time to think about it. We had been warned that the cut off at end of Leg 3 was the hardest one to make and I literally had no buffer left. I was in a daze as I left the town. Three of us had planned this race for over a year, now only two of us were left in, and I was running alone.


© Raven Eye Photography

The next volunteer I saw warned "bears in the area - stay alert", making me even more aware that I was by myself. Without the marathon runners, and at the back of the pack, the trail was much quieter. I made a conscious effort to noisily clear my throat and talk out loud. Catching up to a couple of runners, I overheard them talking about the grizzly and cub they had seen along this section last year - it turns out that Leg 3 passes the rubbish dump and local bears regularly hang around looking for scraps.  My talking got louder and I ran faster.

I guessed that Tony couldn't be too far ahead of me so I should try and catch him up, but the pace felt unsustainable. Every time I caught up with other runners we would exchange a few words about how tough the time cut was on this leg, and I would push on, knowing that this stage was going to be all or nothing.
Leg 3 is flatter but very rocky, so going fast was punishing my feet and knees. At this rate I wasn't sure I would have anything left for Leg 4, but I figured I would need to beat the cut off before I needed to worry about Mt Hamel. Run the stage you're in.

©2019 Government of Alberta 'BearSmart Guide'

I hadn't bothered to refill my hydration pack at the first transition area, and hadn't stopped at all in the second, so about halfway along the third stage my water ran out. I also had no solid food left - just some salted maple syrup, but I was craving something more substantial.  At this point I figured my race might be over at the next transition area. Unless I got there with a good 10-15 minutes to refuel and grab overnight kit then there was no way I could get through the night (if I even had the legs left to get up the mountain).

Eventually the course trail turned into track, and then road and crossed the river.  A last bit of technical trail before a couple of kms along the roadside (because the trail had been washed out by a landslide). I was done. I couldn't wait for it to end, but around each bend the course just kept going. Until all of a sudden there was the transition area, crowds of people and cheering and noise. I was running through the flags and choking up. Physically, emotionally, and mentally spent - but within the cut off - a whole 12 and a half minutes to spare!

I was a overwhelmed and a bit of a mess. A special area was set up for soloists running without a support crew. The volunteers were angels.  Like a formula 1 pit crew they got me to a chair, immediately gave me some electrolytes and fruit, took my hydration pack to refill, and brought my drop bag over.  And there in the chair in front of me was Tony: he'd arrived 5 mins earlier.

We were both pretty happy to be reunited, but we didn't have much time. "8 minutes to cut": the announcement spurred us to start sorting out our night-running kit. "4 minutes": I hurriedly closed my drop bag and shouldered my pack and, still just scraping ahead of the cut, we were on our way. Just 50-something kilometres to go, and a bit more than 12 hours left to do it.