The Death Race
Aug 12, 2011
It was quite a roller coaster ride up to the Death Race. Our team, made up of Graham Glennie, Arri McWatt and myself, as team ST. Albert Physio, were going to run the 5 legs, just the three of us. After my bad experience at Coeur d’Alene Ironman, I had asked Graham and Arri if it would be okay to trade my leg 4 (36km Mt. Hamel leg) to Arri for his leg 3 and 5. Then my plan was to get my wife, Celine, to run leg 3 and I would run leg 5. I had also planned to do a 90km cycle just prior to my leg as training for Ironman Canada. I would then repeat the 90km bike/21km run in Jasper the following day.
Nothing went as planned!
My poor wife came down with an infection on the Thursday before the run. She would not run. Okay, I’ll do leg 3 and 5 and do my bike prior to leg 3. Then my coach stated I had to do my bike/run on both days on the same course. Not easily possible. Then, Arri made the decision (as he was dreading leg 4 all along) to take this opportunity and switch back.
So, Graham would run leg 1 and 2, Arri 3 and 5 and I would run leg 4.
The first leg was a fast 19km trail run. Graham started in a solid pack of 4 guys running behind the three leaders. Arri and I went for a casual breakfast. 50 minutes in, we had polished off plates of pancakes, eggs, bacon, ham and french toast and decided we should probably meet Graham to see if he needed chaffing cream, new socks or his camel back. We headed out as the transition was about 10km north of Grande Cache. I was talking to my wife on the phone as we drove past the 4/5 transition. We were headed south!!! “STOP the car. Celine, I will call you back.” We had very little time to make it to the 1/2 transition. We arrived at 1:19:30. Graham came in at 1:20. I had sprinted out to meet him as Arri was close behind. He gave us his water bottle on the hand strap and we gave him his camel back and watched him take off, still in a solid 3rd place! We watched for another 5 minutes as a few more runners came in. Then we headed back as Graham predicted about 3 hours for leg 2. 5 minutes after that, my cell phone rang. It was Graham! He left his timing chip in the water bottle handle zipper pocket. “STOP the car!” We headed back amongst very heavy traffic now and it took us 14 more minutes to hook up with Graham. He had run an extra 3km and we lost 24 minutes and dropped about 200 places. WHAT A START!!
Meanwhile, back at the start, we are getting hammered my the race DJ. Constant bashing tothe St. Albert Physio team for letting Graham hang out to dry! Ouch!
Graham put in a solid 2nd leg with 2 mountain passess and 25km, he came in at 4:47. And Arri was off. Arri had a solid 22km coming up for leg 3 and ran it in 1:50. Between Arri and Graham, they worked our team back up to 17th place by the time the timing chip and coin were passed to me for leg 4.
Ah, Mt Hamel. 5000 feet climb in the first 11km. Switch back after switch back. A lot of walk/hike/jog/walk. I managed to make it to the first opening in about 38 minutes. I was feeling good, trying to keep my HR below 170. It flattens out for about 1.5km with some downhil, then right back up again for another slog. Made it to the top of Mt Hamel in 1:25, then did the 1km jog for the flag and back by 1:30 and then down the mountain. At the time, running down 5000 was pretty exhiliarating, fast, a little crazy, and at times, out of control. I did not want any injuries, so I kept a decent pace. The slowing down over the next 25km proved to shred my quads, something I felt every step I took over the next 7 days. My quads were fine during the run, but screamed agony for an entire week later.
I finished the 36km leg in 3:35. I was hoping to give Arri enough of a cushion so he could finish in daylight. He still had 25km to do for leg 5 with a nice hill at the end.
We did okay! 5th team overall, the first to finish with less than a team of 5 runners! Not bad. We might actually come back next year and see what we can do without the timing chip fiasco.
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