Training Trip #1

So we sent the kids to grandparents, packed up the husbands and Rhinos and headed South to take our first peek at our leg for the Death Race.

We parked at the La Prairie staging on the Hwy and headed up Flood Mountain. Once on the quad trail (which is the actually leg of the race) it is quite well marked. Lots of orange tagging in the trees anyway.

Ran into Mike who was out training that day as well and he advised us not to try slugfest. So once we got snowed out of quading to the top of Flood we took his advice. But Amanda and I parted ways with the guys for awhile and ran down Flood the 9 km back to the trucks in about an hour.

Then we packed up the rhinos and moved back West 10 km to the Grande parking area and had the boys take us up that way. Lots of snow covering the trail and even more at the top.



But we were able to pick our way around on foot and the boys found their way around in the rhinos as well.

We had wanted to do the "powerline" as well but weren't sure about snow. You can see in the picture the line of snow on the far hill is where we had to go!




But we got out the binoculars and thought we could pick our way through. So, Amanda and I headed off, leaving the boys at the top.

The next picture is the view from where we came!



So the boys waited for us to make sure we could make it around at the bottom (as we couldn't see it from the top) and when we said we were good they took off back the way they came to organize the rhinos and meet us back on the North of Grande Cache at the cemetery (where the leg meets the highway)

We booked it and ended up getting there in less than an hour beating the boys by 20 min!

All in all, we felt good. Still had fuel in the tank. Feel better about our training. And not too sore today!

From the Death Race website.

Second leg, 27 km: Flood & Grande Mountain Slugfest
Includes about.1 km of pavement. The rest is dirt trail with rocky and swampy sections, and approximately 6 km of hard packed dirt road.. Net elevation gain is 500 feet, but the total elevation change is well over 6000 feet. This leg of the race is characterized by long sustained climbing with about 3 km of very rough terrain and two creek crossings. The trail from the summit of Flood Mountain to the summit of Grande Mountain is the roughest piece of trail in the Death Race. The power line down the front of Grande Mountain leading back into town is the most dangerous part of the entire course. This is due to the steep, rocky drop-offs and unstable footing while running downhill. The Slugfest is the most technical section and is rated the second hardest leg of the Death Race (although many rate this leg as the hardest of all).

Marshall entered the kids Death Race!

So after the main race on Saturday they have a fun kids race Sunday. They get a t-shirt and a medal if they finish 5 k in 90 min.

So Marshall and I did our first training run together and he did pretty good. Quite a bit of coaxing from me and a bit of whining but all in all he was very excited to go and happy to be out.

He had lots of energy and could have gone further which is good. It think 5 km in 1 hour will be our goal!

Great job bud!