Monday 7 July 2014

Rundles Revenge 50 K

Wow! What a Beautiful weekend away in the mountains of Banff, AB!
I ran my second Ultra marathon on June 22, It was The Northface TransRockies event called Rundles Revenge, held in the rocky mountains of Canmore, AB.
The event itself is a weekend event, with Mountain biking on Saturday and Running on Sunday. Racers have the choice of doing one or both events in a variety of distances.
I chose to only run the 50K running race which consists of 4 12.5km loops around the Olympic Nordic Center. The course was pretty much 2.5km up, 4.5km down, 3km back up with 2.5km of flat in there somewhere :)


The first loop was extremely crowded with all of the 7K, 12.5K, 25K, and 50K runners out there on the trail at one time, but it was fun!
The second loop I felt extremely challenged. My ankle was hurting, a lot, and for the first time ever, I thought that I might not finish after the 3rd loop. But by the 3rd loop the Tylenol kicked in and I was starting to get into my groove :) I try not to use medication while running, but man! Was I ever glad for Tylenol Joint and Muscle!
By the time I came into transition for the 4th loop, quitting was not an option at all! My husband (support crew) filled up my water pack, shoved nutrition at me and stocked my salt pills and EFS and I was back out for one more.
The first 50K run I ever did was in the rolling hills of Edmonton and seemed quite easy compared to this! It took me much longer than I expected to finish, but I don't think I took into consideration the mountains that I would be running.
I crossed the finish line in just under 6hours, 22 minutes. What a great feeling! Finishing 50 kilometres!

I was on a cloud when they announced that they would be awarding the medals for the open women's category in the 50K event. "In 3rd place, With a time of 6:21:56" (At this point I was not sure of my time and I thought, Darn! I just missed it!) and then he finishes with "Kristina Meyer".
I was so excited and in disbelief that I could barely move. I was looking, trying to figure the shortest distance to the podium. It was probably only 200 meters, but it felt much longer as I ran, once again, this time bouncing with joy!
The announcement that put me over the top though was when they announced that Abi Moore won 1st! I was on the podium with Abi Moore!!!! My idol! I could not believe what an amazing day I was having!!!

The fun for this weekend was over, next on to Sinister 7...