New Video! LMS at the Cabot Trail Relay

I know I’ve been absent for a little while, but getting sick, getting a new job, and traveling have gotten in the way.  But, I managed to get a race in, here’s the race report and a new video. – chris

My first trip to the Cabot Trail Relay was an awesome experience! I can’t believe I had never done it before! I never knew how much I was missing out on. Even though, I was really tired and sore for a couple days (mostly from all the time in the car), I don’t care, it was a small price to pay. Between all the runners, spectators, the record-breaking performances, the all-night racing, the mountains, the pain, the triumph, etc. – it was an amazing couple of days!

There were teams dressed up as convicts and gnomes, others wearing 80′s outfits, an all-women’s team wearing pink tutus over their running gear (who were not only hot, but smokin’ fast runners, I mean really good), and, most impressive (or insane, depending on your opinion), a team of two! That means they each did half of the total relay of ~280 KMs!! Or, roughly 140 KM each!! Well done Mark and Jodi, incredible job, very motivating!

I was given the chance to take part in the race thanks to the Cape Breton Road Runners.  They finished 3rd last year and were going to try and make a run at the top spot this year, so they went out in search of some recruits. One of UNB XC (cross country running) friends, Shawn Miller is from Cape Breton, raced with then last year, and was asked if he could find some other runners from UNB who might want to go. Three of us volunteered and we were in!

The relay consists of 17 separate legs, which are essentially 17 different races, that go on round-the-clock starting Saturday at 7:00 straight through to Sunday at 10AM. Each team member’s time is recorded and all are combined at the end for a cumulative total team race time. You don’t actually pass a relay baton or anything, all racers start together, with each leg starting at a specified time. In order to keep the schedule, there is a cut-off time for each leg (6-minute per K pace) and, something I think is cool, if your team member doesn’t get to the finish in time, your team gets a 5 minute penalty – for being too slow!

There are actually a lot of ways to get time penalties, so you have to be careful. It’s a good thing though because they have all been put in place for the safety of the runners, the officials, and the cars since the whole race takes place on public roads.

Anyways, so back to our races. Friday morning we packed up Dave’s car (oddly enough, it was a Subaru Outback, just like Cliff’s during the LMS adventure) and we drove the 7 hours to Sidney, NS to spend the night with Miller’s mom. None of us had to race early on Saturday morning, so we tried to sleep-in, got some breakfast, and went for a little run to loosen up legs – mine felt TERRIBLE, I was really worried.

So, how did we know what legs we were doing? Well, in the order of fairness, all 17 members chose their top 3 legs they wanted to do. All of these were put into a hat and pulled out one at a time. If any of your legs were still open, you got that one, if not, your name went off to the side. Once all the names were pulled, the remaining names went back in the hat, and again pulled out. But this time, you were assigned one of the “unwanted” legs.

Now, most of these “less-desirable” legs are the uber-tough mountain legs or the legs that occur during the middle of the night. Turns out, that somehow, out of the four of us, we all got one of these legs! Miller drew leg #9, I got #10 (2 of the 3 toughest rated legs), Derek got #13 (starts at 2:02 AM), and Dave drew #17 – otherwise known as the “Glory Leg”. This is an amazing leg to run because you run into the town of Baddeck where the streets are lined with people cheering you on. But, on the other hand, it is also the 4th toughest leg, and worst of all, you have to try and keep yourself ready to run for over 24 hours while trying to get any sleep when/where-ever you can!

Ok, so as I said, Sat morn, we chilled til around 10, then departed for the Cabot Trail. We wanted to get there in time to watch leg #4, the 3rd big mountain leg, “Smokey” Mountain. As soon as we got there, the atmosphere was amazing, I was lovin’ it! There were tons of people cheering on all the runners as a huge “train” of cars (see pic) pass them on the way to the finish.

I guess I should mention how that works. Well, since the race takes place on a public highway, safety is the main thing. So, after the race starts, no cars are allowed to drive on the roads for 10 minutes. Then after that, two “team cars” (for runners aid) are allowed to go, one at 10 and the other at 15 mintues. Then all the reminaing cars can go at 25 minutes – thus the “huge train” of cars.

So, it’s really neat, cuz you get to see the start of the race, then the see them in the middle as you drive (and you can stop if there’s a spot to pull over), then again at the finish. Now, the finish is just like that of any triathlon/marathon – so great, so much energy!

Alright, this is getting long, now that you know how things work, here’s the gist of how us UNB boys did. Miller had to climb up and descend North Mountain (385m elevation) and then a few rolling hills for a total of 18 Km. It was a killer leg, but he did awesome and finished 2nd! Great job dude.

Then, it was my turn. As you would expect, after everything that has happened to me over the last 9 months, I was pretty nervous. I never usually worry about my form, but I really had no idea how things were going to go. But, I felt pretty good during the warmup (as opposed to the run that morning), so that was good. My plan was to just stay as close to the leaders as possible and try and not lose a ton of time. I knew the steep parts would be my weakness so I hoped to open up my stride on the less-steep parts. And, that’s just what happened. I would lose so time, then get close again, then drop back as it got steep again. I actually led for the first 3K until we really got into McKenzie Mountain (elev 385m), but, I was super happy with how it went!

I finished 4th, but only lost a little over a minute and was really able to get into a good rhythm! Man, so nice to be racing again!! It was such an amazing experience to be running in the pitch-black darkness, barely being able to see the road ahead of you are dying as you run up the side of a mountain. I think it’s something every runner should experience at some point – can’t think of much that could compare to it.

Now, Derek: As I said, his race started at 2AM. Leg #13 is <span style=”font-style:italic;”>only </span> 16K, but not a lot of hills, so not that tough. But, I can’t explain just how weird it is to be trying to prepare to run in the middle of the night. But, anyway, Derek ran most of the leg in 2nd, but over the last few K, passed the leader and WON! Awesome job buddy.

Now, Dave. Man, poor Dave. He had, by far the toughest weekend. First of all, he did nearly all of the driving. Plus, he got nearly no sleep because of the ways our legs were spaced out and there were some loud people “celebrating” in the hotel room (not sure who that could have been…insert a “sheepish” tone here…). Also, leg #17 is NOT easy, it’s actually a really hard 18.7K route with some tough climbs. Anyways, he did really well too and finished 4th and looked really strong coming into the finishing chute as probably a thousand people cheered him on!

Then, there was the awards banquet, where they fed you lobster or steak. I got lobster and it was delish! Then they gave out plaques for the top three teams and each leg winner got a prize. They also gave something to all the finished of leg #10, MacKenzie Mnt., so I got a really cool picture of the mountain (See pic).

Anyways, sorry this got so long, but it was an amazing weekend! I am definitely going to this again! I’d also like to do it as a team of 3 or 4m and eventually as a team of 2! Now, that would be epic!

Check out the pics, thanks for reading,
chris