The Canadian Death Race 2009

[Robert]

The Canadian Death Race!

Just finished leg 3, a 19 km run down a valley. I felt fantastic today and finished in 1:10. The footing was brutal, big round rocks one minute, sharp, pointy shale stuff the next. Halfway through, it started raining, so the slope got pretty slippery. Brilliant! Made me go faster!

This is an eventful day. I volunteered for a team, since I didn't have my own team this year. As it turned out, I'm on a British Commando Soldier team! :master: They are really nice blokes, and I'm picking up some of their language I think. :messedup: Really funny guys too, I'm going to enjoy having a beer with them tomorrow night.

Now, the next thing that happened - the guy who was supposed to run leg 5 got injured when he ran leg 1... so, of course I volunteered to run leg 5 too. :AOK: Stupid or considerate?

The thing is the last leg is run partly in the dark, and head lights are mandatory. It is also a really long leg at 22 kilometres and a lot of it steep uphill... so, I think I'm going to sleep well as long as Death doesn't catch me tonight. ancake:

 

[just strum]

Runners have headlights? Never knew that.

 

[street music]

Strum , take another look at the beer girls you post all the time. Notice anything??

 

[just strum]

Strum , take another look at the beer girls you post all the time. Notice anything??

I think those are high beams.

 

[Spudman]

Good job Roberto. With unsure footing you still made great time. :bravo:

Strum - I think those beams are so that everyone else can see them coming. The runners headlights are a whole different thing.

 

[just strum]

I've seen LED flashing lights on joggers, but never gave thought to headlights for joggers. I guess that would come in handy when running on the terrain described above.

http://www.mrgadget.com.au/gadget/2008/led-lenser-joggled-headlight-night-visibility-for-joggers/

I'm surprised there aren't a whole lot of different ones available. I Googled jogger headlights and got minimal hits.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Meeting new friends, beer, and Night missions . . . sounds fun!

 

[Robert]

Boy, I'm sore today.... I ran that last leg in the evening, finishing up just as it was getting dark at 10:30. I think our Commando team finished 10th overall, not bad. I ran out of steam a bit with 5 km to go. Lots of hills to cover on this leg, really steep ones to, as you come out of a river valley and have to run/walk all the way to the top.

People who come in later than I did all need to wear head lights, or they can't see where to put their feet. There's a lot of roots to run over (a part of the course is called "Root Route") and as it was getting dark, I almost fell over a few times, stumbling my way through this part before it was getting completely black out. I didn't want to have to dig up the head light from my CamelBak, so I just kept plugging along.

Today, I have sore knees, I tell ya!

 

[Tig]

Great job, Robert! Sounds rough, but a great accomplishment. You gotta' love these kinds of challenges.

I raced MTB XC (cross country) for years, but never liked the longer 6, 12, or 24 hour endurance events, even on a team. Shorter, faster events were plenty challenging for me, and sometimes just finishing was the accomplishment (muddy slick rocks and roots, or crashing and dislocating a shoulder). Looking back, I learned to push through pain and expand my limitations, as I'm sure you have.