5Peaks HalfMara

Earlier this year I did Rundles Revenge - a 25km trail race, 20 out of 25km in the Grizzly Half Ultra...and countless other 5Peaks trail races (with distances varying from 6 to 16km).

So doing a trail half would be NBD, right? Apparently not. Cause I like mind games. Clearly.

I left my place at 645 to get Sue. Then we stopped at Starbucks for cawfee (and oatmeal). 

The trip out to Canmore is always awesome. The views are so thrilling.
No matter how many times you do it. Its gorgeous! 

As we arrive it is clear it is super foggy. That's not uncommon this time of year. 

It will lift, we proclaim. But it is still weird with the mountains hiding! 

No matter. Sue, Deb, Michelle and I are ready to go.

 Bear spray is checked by the wildlife officers and we are off! 

Eat Mountains For Breakfast
The PERFECT shirt for this race!

 Basically the halfmara is a combo of the sport (7.5km) and enduro (14.5) courses of this race. 

The enduro has about 775metres of elevation and the sport 175metres of elevation! 

So yeh. #climbyourarseoff

Since we quite the snow dump earlier this week, there was bound to be snow at the higher elevation.
Yup. No disappointment there! But it was a lovely, cool 13+C (56F). I realize at this point hey I think this is my 28th half - actually it took a recount - it was my 29th half. But my first official trail half!

We are now about 6 km into the race. This is the point where the first of the Enduro racers come blazing by us. (They started 30 minutes after us.) And the first 6 mena are on bloody fire. Then the first woman comes in nipping at their heels.This is a great competitive race. 

And, surprizingly - at this point - it really lights a fire to push on and keep up. These first several miles have just been climbing...and then we hit a wicked downhill. Thank the lord it wasnt super skinny single track at that point. But fear not, there was lots of that too. Some muddy wipeouts and some cheering as runners raced by or stopped to help others who slipped. 

The snow made it slick, there was lots of mud, the climbing was tough ...

some single track, some double track ...

 But the views are FRIGGING AMAZING!!! 

 At this point with only 3km left in the Enduro course Sue called out and said we need a selfie!

 It was too awesome to pass up!!

Spending 30+% longer out (compared to road race halfmara pace) is worth it with these views! 

We finish the enduro part of the race ahead of where we thought we would be. Michelle and eb are a little behind us, but we know they are cruising along! We keep thinking they are gonna catch us any second. The last 7km of the race is hard. Legs buning, sweatdripping, heart singing kinda miles. A bit of hiking up a few short steep hills. And, along those slick slippy muddy single tracks. We have to stop to hydrate and eat a little gel and lara bar. But we finally know we have less than 2km. We pump up and get our strong back on to get to the finish area. 

And i thought I called out to Sue lets go! But instead I burn by her a bit right in those last few metres. She still beat me by a second. She was one hellova awesome pacebunny to be sure.

 High 5s all round and we wait for Michelle and Deb! 

As you can see - by the green grass - the finish area was a lot different than those higher elevations! It was still gorgeous and green. It's a great run for all of us! So much fun. 

I was pretty chuffed with a 3rd place Athena class finish. Not speedy but steady. 

And it proved to be a nice ego boost! I got a top three finish in all my 5Peaks races this year! yahoo!

  We finished the race with a lovely lunch, then....CUPCAKES! 

 Best Treat Ever (thanks to Sue for that)

 Then before leaving Canmore, stopped for one last look at Policeman's Creek. Beauty. Fun

 And, we are totally coming back next week for a training run for the Grizzly Ultra 50k Relay!

Do you trailrace? 

If not, you should!! 

We have bears on our trails on occasion - black, brown, grizz.

What you got on your trails?

For another great viewpoint of this race check out THIS vid 
from Get Out There Magazine!