Day35: Medals, thank yous and smugness

Only time for a few hours sleep, packed up all my stuff to take to the post-race breakfast.  Joanne made me a lovely pot of herbal tea before Pierre drove me to the race HQ.
The breakfast was delayed slightly to about 9am so we could wait for the last few 100milers to finish and cheer them over the line.  Every single finisher got to break through tape at the line to wooping and applause.  the last two crossed the line together looking tired but happy and then we all went for our lovely breakfast: sausages, eggs, pancakes, fruit and maple syrup.
This was followed by the medal presentations.  I thought they would just call up the first few in each category, but they got everybody to go up and collect their medals (unless they had already left, like the guys who drove me up - but it was good to hear that they did really well and hit their target time).  No extra credit for finishing faster, just finishing is spectacular enough.  They announced me as coming all the way from England for the race... not strictly true but they seemed pleased to be able to claim international interest in their race via me and a kiwi (one of the two last 100mile finishers).
The medals were designed and made out of pottery by a local, so more special than any road race medal.  The lady sat next to me was the second to finish 100k and she got back before sunset.  The fastest 100k runner finished before any of the relay teams setting a new course record.  The fastest 100mile runner wasn't too far behind me!  Then there were the exhausted looking few who had only recently finished.  There were lots of faces that I recognised as I had spoken to most of them at some point during the event.

The organisers managed to find me a lift home with a team who had been camping next door to race HQ, they had kindly offered two of us strays a lift back.
I bought myself a souvenir hat and said some final thankyous to Pierre, Monique, Corey and lots of "well done" and "wasn't this awesome", "see you at the next one" before grabbing my bags and heading back to Edmonton.

It was a lovely journey back, discussing the joys of ultrarunning and trail running, as well as possible wildlife that could be encountered.
My legs were pretty achey and I was really tired but feeling so pleased with myself and happy to have met so many wonderful people.
I ate an enormous pizza and gradually limped around unpacking, doing laundry, trying to stretch, but mostly lazing.  I tied my medal round my neck and do not intend to take it off anytime soon.  Drank some wine, watched some telly, chatted to my housemate and played with Oscar.  Bed time was around 9pm I think.