I would never have run a Backyard ultra as I prefer mountain
trails, and I can’t run 4 miles an hour in the mountains. But thanks to a global pandemic that led to the
closure of all provincial parks and many trails, the stars aligned for me to
run 100 miles on pavement. Plus, I’ve
always wanted to run 100 miles in under 24 hours, so this was my shot.
The training block was aggressive, 450km in
4 weeks, followed by a 2 week taper.
On Saturday June 6th at 8am I started out on lap
#1 in the rain with Marc. The plan was
to hold back at 7:30 min/km pace. I knew that pacing properly was the only way
I would finish, and I enjoyed the jogging pace.
Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day I did the same thing over
and over again. Run for 50 minutes, sit
down, eat, drink, repeat. Christina
coordinated people to run with me and in 24 hours I was alone for less than 90
minutes. 17 different people ran or
biked with me. I had never actually met
Charles and he ran 13 laps with me overnight.
In addition to my pacers 4 families came
out at various times to cheer me on. This
lifted my spirits and gave me the push to keep on going, especially as the agony
and boredom set in during the second half.
There were a few really dark times during the night. The stretch from midnight to 5am was
particularly bad. Darien joined me at
3am, yet that was my slowest lap. I was
worried we’d start slipping time, but after a 52 minute lap at 3am we got back
on track with 50 minutes at 4am and 5am.
When Brendan showed up at 5am and Aarash at 6am I was really miserable,
but still shuffling forward at the right pace.
Starting the final lap with Charles, Brendan, Darien,
Camille, Christina, Aarash, Parisa, Denna, Abby and Matt was amazing. I was less than an hour from an official DNF,
but this was my victory lap. With a mile
to go I realized the faster I ran the sooner it would be done, so we picked up
the pace for the quickest lap of the day.
A dozen friends were waiting at 7:47am to celebrate the
finish.
This was a great experience for so many reasons, mainly due
to the friends and family that ran with me and cheered throughout the day and
night. Officially I dropped out after 100 miles in 23 hours and 47 minutes.
There were only 3 runners that continued onto lap 25 and the winner ran 29
laps. I will never run 100 miles on
pavement again.
