Day 34: Iron Horse Ultra 100k trail race

The race started at 7am, with a group photo beforehand at 6:50.  I thought I'd given myself plenty of time in the morning, but ended up rushing, not having time to plait my hair, and forgetting my punch card for the aid stations.  I decided to wear a base layer, rather than t-shirt and arm warmers as the coldest temperatures were predicted for the morning.  The forecast was pretty good though.  I saw Patrick and Rob (my lift up there) and Patrick lent me some spare batteries for my head torch (my free one from last week's race)
This is the fifth year of the Iron Horse, and their biggest number of runners at over 100, which matches nicely with the 100k/100mile options.
It was still dark when we set off underneath the wrought iron archway, through the town of St Paul and out along the boardwalks at the edge of Upper Therien Lake. 

Some people sped off quickly from the start line, but it was good to see that I wasn't right at the back.  I also didn't seem to be going too fast, which was my other worry, and people were still close enough together to chat to a few different people as we went.  There was a stretch of gravel track along part of the Iron Horse Trail, then we went off road and into the rolling hills and scrub.  There were some steep climbs to deal with and some crawling through bushes, as well as negotiating a few barbed wire fences (much easier with help) until we emerged onto "the ridge" with amazing views of the landscape.

It seemed further than I thought to get to the first aid station (supposedly 21k), but time had flown. After a brief break and refuel, I abandoned my base layer to collect after the end of the race, grabbed a sandwich and headed off into the woods. I was mostly keeping pace with a guy called Corey, who was also a newbie at ultra.  He has never even run any races before and went straight up to 100k!  We ran through some farms and up what seemed like some endless hills before getting to the second aid station.

I continued on via a slightly altered route due to flooding.  We went past some oil industry equipment and some nice wide trails through the woods before a stretch along the highway with some long uphill drags.  I spoke to a 100miler who was really suffering from all the pavement pounding, trail is definitely easier on your joints.  I passed the 26.2mile point at just under 6 hours, which I thought was pretty funny.  There was an "out and back" section up to the top of a hill and back, where we got to see some of the other runners ahead and behind us.  somewhere on the way down the hill, I passed the halfway point, which is the furthest I had ever run before now. 

Leg three is long at 25K, but once we got off the highway it was stunning.  I took this photo while heading over some rolling hills and eating on the way down to the shore.  I ran alongside Moosehills lake for sometime with nothing but autumn trees all along the opposite bank.

After zigzagging up to a ridge, the route went along a wide gravel road for a while before joining onto the Iron Horse trail for a long 7.5km stretch into Elk Point.  There were fewer of the familiar green flags along the iron horse trail, which was initially really disheartening, the occasional quad bike throwing up dust wasn't great either and the heat meant I was running a bit low on water so the 3rd aid station was a sight for sore eyes.  It was staffed with some really helpful girls who filled our water bottles for us, bought us delicious home-made soup and generally looked after us.  This was well into unknown territory but I wasn't feeling too bad at all.  aching yes, but it wasn't getting any worse and I was still running and making good time averaging 13:30min/miles.

After setting off on leg 7 (100 milers head to leg 4,5,6, which we skip) along some more iron horse trail, my stomach started suffering and complaining so I'm glad I ate lots earlier in the race while I could.  We saw someone running back down the trail towards us and panicked that we'd gone the wrong way, but he called out that it's not us it's him, then when he caught us up he explained that he was a 100miler and had missed the turn off.  He had a couple of Km back to run.  I think I'd break down and give up if that happened to me so I was in awe of him for sticking it out.  We wondered how he figured it out, but the next day I met the guy who he caught up who told him.  As he was tired he asked which distance he was doing even though obviously it should only be 100k'ers at this point.  it was a good thing he did ask so he could let him know he'd gone wrong.
Leg seven had a few interesting hills to deal with and by this point, me and Corey were sticking together the whole time.  There was one section that looked like sand dunes but green.  In some woods we caught up with another runner on his own.  He turned out to be another newbie, his fiancée was also running about an hour behind him.  He was feeling pretty bad and I recognised exactly what my brain would be doing to me if I was on my own so I felt very grateful to have company now.  Earlier on being alone was OK, enjoying the scenery and the random songs in my head (mostly the "sir Robin" song thanks to a Python fan I had been talking to earlier) but by this stage it was a distraction from all the pain and doubt and "why am I doing this?!" type thoughts.  We were laughing and singing instead.  Corey also spotted a moose and some deer, which was brilliant!
A bit further along the track, I failed to spot the flags skirting around a bog and instead jumped straight in, sinking halfway up my legs.

We met some marshals in orange jackets who let us know that it was still a few km to go to the next aid station and there were some hills to negotiate first and I am so glad they were honest as these hills were particularly brutal.  the sun was starting to go down and the temperature was dropping, we could see the light of the base at the top of the really steep hill in front of us and thought "its OK, just one last hill" only to find out we were wrong!  The road dipped back down and up again.  This was a cruel trick, but the base was lovely, with a tent, fire, soup, coffee and cookies.  I also had a complete change of clothes in a drop bag here.  We stayed here for about an hour.  The guy on his own caught us up and decided he would wait there for his fiancée but probably call it a day.  I reminded him that he has run 80K, which is absolutely amazing and seen some wonderful scenery so not finishing is irrelevant really.  He has achieved something amazing and I hope he's pleased and proud and not disappointed. 
Melissa joined us when we finally left, but she had had less rest than us so dropped back after a while.  we could always see her torch behind us, usually catching us up through the woods, where we walked as we didn't trust our footing, I guess its a knack you learn, and dropping back a bit on the straight trails where we'd run and make up time.  A few times I switched off my head torch to stare at the stars as they are incredible this far from civilisation. We had a very sporadic run pattern, fartleking from one flag to the next or to a stop sign or the bottom of a hill.  The flags had red reflective strips on so it was very comforting to see them glowing. Glowing cow eyes did look like an alien invasion but apart from that it felt fairly safe.  Again I was glad to not be on my own with my own paranoia.
The lights from the city eventually started getting closer, which was lovely as it was starting to gradually hurt more and more whenever we ran.  A car approached us along the track and we wondered why it had stopped, then someone called out "Is that Amy?" and it was Pierre, my host.  it was great too see him, he had driven back to check where I was and he told us that it wasn't too far now, for real. 
Soon after that, we hit the outskirts of the city, switched off our headlamps and went back to following the green flags rather than the red reflective strips on the flags.  It was a wonderful feeling to be near the end, then we saw the big iron arch and felt amazing.  a sudden burst of energy led us to run through the tape across the finish line, it felt like a sprint!  And we were cheered all the way in by the waiting crowd.  It was just before midnight.
There was a lovely bonfire going, I sent a few ecstatic replies to texts from people who were rightly concerned about the craziness I was up to this weekend, then Aimee actually called me back, which was lovely!  I felt very happy and achey.  I cheered in Melissa who wasn't far behind us, then headed inside to eat some homemade chilli.  All of the organisers and marshals have been brilliant and it was such a good, friendly race.
Here is the "after" photo with Corey before Pierre took me back home for a cold beer, cold bath, hot shower and bed.

 

It was really late by the time I got to bed, and the breakfast/medal presentation was scheduled for 8:30am.  I was hoping I'd find a lift home from someone there, if not I'd have to wait for the Greyhound at about 4pm and costing $70.
Everything was hurting but I felt great!