Last Grande Cache training day

So we headed back to GC to fo our full leg minus the pavement sections last weekend. Forecast for 20 and no wind, ended up raining the whole time! So it was a tough day slugging it out.
I had some issues with digestion of my food and felt quite ill on the way up Grande. I have a tough one today to try and figure some food stuff out. Don't want to feel the same way race day!
Really slippery coming down the backside of the powerline to the cemetery. Do you think it's too much to ask for 10 degrees with cloud cover and no rain or wind for race day???

Marshall Death Race Update

We went for a family bike ride and it turned into a pretty long one. 10 km for Marshall on his two wheeler is a pretty good way but he did really good. We were about 1/4 way in and he turned to me and said, "this is great training for my death race".
So cute.

It's so nice to be in shape so that when a last minute offer to hike Bergeron Falls comes up....you can! Plus the fact that I have the support of my family of course.

A beautiful trip with beautiful people. We worked hard and laughed harder. So much fun.




Approx. 15 km round trip. Travelled from the trailhead steady up for 2 km then down to the Murray River. We then made our way up Bergeron creek across rock and through a wonderful canyon to the base of the falls. Lunch and some pictures and back the way we came for 500 M. Then a 2 km climb along the ridgeline to the top of the falls.

We did a few extra loops and then headed back to the trailhead.

MANHUNT 2010

Alarm goes off at 6:00 am Saturday morning. Shelley and I get dressed, have some breakfast and pack our camlebak's. Safety pack, first aid kit, about 5 liters of water, trail mix and protein bars, camera, Kleenex and gloves.

We are picked up at 6:45 am, jump in a pick up and taken to our starting location, 18 km (as the crow flies) from the finish line.

Job - Get to the finish line before the Mantrackers find you!

The Mantrackers are located only 1 mile to our east along a well site road. We have to wait until 8:00 am for the start of our race. We mill around, practice making some dummy tracks and covering them up. The road is hard packed and the tracks are hard to see. Advantage Prey.

At 8:00 am the signal flare goes off, the Mantrackers radio that they can see it and we are off.

We go directly into the bush. The horses will be here very quickly and we need to find cover. We find a overgrown quad trail quite early though which makes our travel quite easy. We follow this for a few kilometers, changing our direction and choosing trails that are taking us in a South-westerly direction. We have a couple clearing crossings in the first few kilometers and are very nervous about the Mantrackers coming across us in these spots.

We get into some deeper forest and lose our quad trail. Still have a pretty good game trail most of the time but still hard to slug through. Lots of dead fall from the May Long snow.

At about 6 or 7 km in we come to a well site road. It is bitter sweet. Happy to run/walk on a nice surface but very nervous about being caught. Road = horses advantage. We decide to run the road for a couple km's to make up some time and rest our legs.

The road ends in an opening so we hide a bit and sit down for our first rest. Eat, drink and plan the next move.

There was a choice between an overgrown cutline or the bush. I was nervous about the cutline and I know Shelley wanted to take it. Looking back now with the advantage of satellite mapping I can see we should have taken it and also how close we were to it! Although our slugfest through the bush and over the Saddle Hills was the hardest section, the cutline would have also been tough as it was very grown over and had alot of fallen trees. Either way we would have still been in the deepest forest possible. 20/20!

After another 6km of slugging through the bush we came to the large pipeline running though the area. We knew we would have to cross this but were quite nervous about it. Again basically because it switches the advantage back to the Mantrackers.

We don't see them and decide to travel North to the wellsite that we can see. Again we know we are on the pipeline but we aren't sure where along that pipeline we are. To far south or north and we would miss our opportunity to find a road.

At the well site we are able to find our exact location on the map using land locations. No guessing...we know exactly where we are. What a feeling!

We head West on a well site road and mainly stick to roads and cutlines for the next 9 or 10 km.

We have to run the last km across an open field to the finish line. So nervous that the Mantrackers are waiting for you but happy to be done. Everyone cheered us across the finish line and toasted us with champagne.

What an experience. 26 km across some pretty dense bush. Some areas we are sure no one has ever been! Thank you to The Evelyn Sutherland foundation and of course Shelley for being such a great partner.

Man Hunt

So last week I received a call from a friend who was hoping I would help her friend. Long story short, I was asked to become prey in a man hunt the next weekend. That would be this Saturday!
After thinking about it and confirming I could get a partner, we gave a resounding YES!
So now I am on the countdown. 4 sleeps until I run for my life from two men on horseback! Yikes

All on the bumpy road to an adventure race.

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).