Blackfly 24hr race report: long cuz the race was very very long.
Short version: I hiked and ran for 21.5 hours for 111.1 km and 5500m of vertical to finish 2nd overall. I even had the unusual position for me of holding the lead for a few hours near the end of the race, until my body and mind shut down :) Thanks to the organizers for an amazing event.
Training for race:
Spring skiing this year was just soooo good (skied on May 1st) so I went into the running season with less km running than other years. I had been running efficiently for 3 hours, but, BUT this was a 24hour run that I signed up for last year!!! Now, with 230m of vertical on a 5km loop there was a lot of power hiking and that I can do all day :) My cardio and leg strength have been the best they have been in years.
Why this race? Blackfly is an early season ultra, with loops back to the start every 5km. This allowed me to test out my fueling as my biggest issue last year in my ultras was not getting enough food in and/or not being able to process that food. So, I wanted a test event to figure things out.
Food: Based on my training I prepared roasted potatoes, oranges, bananas, maple syrup, Epic almond-butter chocolate bars, chips, beef jerky, bacon, tuna, instant rice noodles and oatmeal with blueberries and almond flakes: a combo of carbs, sugars, proteins and salt.
Pre-race: 8am wakeup, couldn't sleep any more, fret and putter around, show up to site at 3:30pm, set up monster tent (see pic), chat with fellow competitors, have a great meal of rice noodles, pesto and chicken at 5pm.
Race start: There were ten of us (fool)hardy souls who had entered the 24hour event (there were more sane 3,6 and, 12 hour events). We started at the bottom of Camp Fortune at Skyline lodge on Meech Lake road and climbed 100+m to the top with a nice route choice to the top of Skyline. A couple of guys took off running up the hill with four of us in a middle pack and four at a more reasonable pace just behind. I tried to keep my pace down but with the excitement and enjoying running with others I finished it in 36:30.
From there the pace slowed down to a more respectable pace and I ended up running around the two women in the event, though I was faster on the steep uphills and technical downhills and they went quicker on Humdinger Road and more gentle ascents.
When you run for a long time you want to run efficiently, something that hasn't always been my forte and it was one of my goals. I really enjoyed running smoothly over the solid rock single track sections beside Fortune Creek and Chemin Dunlop.
Back to feeding. I started with potatoes and shotblocks and they worked well. At the checkpoint I was eating pieces of oranges, and bananas. My strategy was to eat soon and keep eating as ultras are eating contests! Unfortunately I ate too many orange pieces and my stomach rebelled for a few loops from 10pm to midnight and my energy and pace lagged. I still managed to keep eating and ate some of the bars, maple syrup and a few chips.
Memories:
- Hearing and seeing a party (wedding?) at Fortune lodge as I passed by at night - I wonder if they looked out and saw lights running across the ski hills?
- The big lights of the Fortune garage which we saw for then minutes as looped around it.
- Slogging up North American ski hill trying to find a path through the mud and snow towards km 4.
- The support of the amazing feed station crew throughout the day and night and day.
Photo credits: Basia, Ray