Since our Iroquoia section went so well, we decided 2 weeks later to do Toronto-sight unseen. None of us had ventured that far, luckily one of our running connections was able to give us a bit of insight. The Toronto section is just over 50km long. Our contact recommended parking at the north end (we traveled from South to North) at Spirit Tree Winery 1.4km from the Toronto/Caledon line. We really hoped we'd finish in time to have a celebratory dinner, but we went on a Sunday and they are only open until 5pm. They are open until 9pm on Friday and Saturday. We left the finish car there and headed to our start: Hilton Hills Conservation area just off Appleby Line. The area opens at 9am and requires a reservation so we reserved a 9am time slot for one person (we were only parking, not actually going into the Conservation area). The area closes at 9pm. The reservation comes with an online e-mail that we flashed to the gatehouse who let us in to park, there was a very clean pit toilet with hand sanitizer available at the parking lot. To get out you just go up to the gate and the gate opens. Reservations are for 3 hour timeslots to control the flow of people, but for just parking, we only reserved one slot to get in. The trail officially starts under the 401 overpass, where we started our N/S Iroquoia trip 2 weeks ago.
Overall we really enjoyed this section as a hiking trail. As a running trail it was a bit frustrating at how many large, difficult to maneuver around rocks there were on the trail. The trail was shaded 95% of the time, well kept 90-95% of the time (more on that later) and the elevation as far as what we'd encountered so far was minimal. The scenery was beautiful and there was very little road. Road sections are not looked forward to in trail running-typically trail shoes have little padding, large lugs for traction and the road sections can be very hot and sunny and not very attractive.
This was a large, well made bridge over a driveway to a quarry. (Dufferin Quarry Bridge- at 4.7km in) It wasn't very long, but a little shaky, esp for those who weren't fans of heights.
Due to all the rocks the going was a bit slower than we'd have liked, but the trail goes through many conservation areas and was well shaded.
We hit Limehouse around 20km and had drunk about 2-2.5L of electrolyte drink at that point. K and I were trying Trailwind for the first time to see if it might solve some of our nutrition issues we had on the 120km Iroquioa. Tailwind is used by many elite athletes who use it as their sole nutrition on long runs. Personally this was my review:
Cons:
VERY sweet (we were dying for plain, cold water by the end of our run. In the future I'd keep one of my flasks just plain water).
Because it's got 250 calories per serving, you have to add a LOT of powder. It's about $50 a bag for 30 servings, so this can get expensive fast. We used 6 scoops for a 2L hydration bag and 1.5 for a 500ml flask.
The scoop they give you is way too big for the flasks etc. so I ended up pre-portioning mine. K used the scoop and it made a big mess.
I still got hungry and was glad I'd brought some snacks.
Pros:
The caffeinated Tailwind really perked me up in the afternoon, in fact almost too much (as discussed previously I have 1 cup of coffee in the morning and usually it's 1/2 decaf).
While the taste when mixed full strength wasn't bad, it was super sweet (I think K wasn't impressed with the flavors-we tried lemon, mandarin and raspberry (caf))
I didn't use my salt tablets all day and felt well. Usually we take 1 an hour during the heat of the day.
No stomach problems even with the caffeinated version (We've dealt with stomach issues before so wanted to test this out before race day)
All in all I don't think it's terrible but I also don't think it's the miracle drink we'd been lead to believe it was.
At Limehouse, we filled up our water from a clear, moving stream right next to the Bruce trail.
Cons:
VERY sweet (we were dying for plain, cold water by the end of our run. In the future I'd keep one of my flasks just plain water).
Because it's got 250 calories per serving, you have to add a LOT of powder. It's about $50 a bag for 30 servings, so this can get expensive fast. We used 6 scoops for a 2L hydration bag and 1.5 for a 500ml flask.
The scoop they give you is way too big for the flasks etc. so I ended up pre-portioning mine. K used the scoop and it made a big mess.
I still got hungry and was glad I'd brought some snacks.
Pros:
The caffeinated Tailwind really perked me up in the afternoon, in fact almost too much (as discussed previously I have 1 cup of coffee in the morning and usually it's 1/2 decaf).
While the taste when mixed full strength wasn't bad, it was super sweet (I think K wasn't impressed with the flavors-we tried lemon, mandarin and raspberry (caf))
I didn't use my salt tablets all day and felt well. Usually we take 1 an hour during the heat of the day.
No stomach problems even with the caffeinated version (We've dealt with stomach issues before so wanted to test this out before race day)
All in all I don't think it's terrible but I also don't think it's the miracle drink we'd been lead to believe it was.
At Limehouse, we filled up our water from a clear, moving stream right next to the Bruce trail.
We are getting better and better at making our own water. One question we've got is "why bother making your own water?" Several reasons:
We aren't fast but we are competitive. Many of the fastest known times don't have an unsupported record. Unsupported means no one helps you along the way and you carry everything you need. You are allowed to make water from natural sources or use public water along the way. If you run as a team you have to start and finish together and can pool mutual resources (for instant, using one water maker kit or one first aid kit). An unsupported time, because it has more requirements means you can be slower than a supported runner, but still hold a record because it's slightly harder. We are not the fastest runners, but we are stubborn and willing to work.
We don't have to carry as much. Water weighs a lot, esp when you are running long distances. 1 liter of water weighs just over 2 pounds. If we know we can make some along the way, we can carry less.
We aren't fast but we are competitive. Many of the fastest known times don't have an unsupported record. Unsupported means no one helps you along the way and you carry everything you need. You are allowed to make water from natural sources or use public water along the way. If you run as a team you have to start and finish together and can pool mutual resources (for instant, using one water maker kit or one first aid kit). An unsupported time, because it has more requirements means you can be slower than a supported runner, but still hold a record because it's slightly harder. We are not the fastest runners, but we are stubborn and willing to work.
We don't have to carry as much. Water weighs a lot, esp when you are running long distances. 1 liter of water weighs just over 2 pounds. If we know we can make some along the way, we can carry less.
Drops (leaving water along the way to fill up) take time. You have to drop all your water along the way, hope no one takes it and you have to go pick up all your water containers at the end. This section is 40 minutes of driving from start to finish and we'd already needed a car at each end. Dropping and picking up water would have added time to that. Though B suggested putting the water in flexible water containers that you could then take along with you. If we could find the right containers, that might be an option going forward. Dropping water and supplies along the way is considered "self-supported" and your time must be faster than an unsupported run.
How do we make water? Well, as I said we are getting better at it. We're learning through research that making water is safest when you do two steps-use a physical filter to filter out chemicals like fertilizer run off and bugs and silt. Then use a chemical treatment like chlorine or iodine to kill any viruses, esp giardia and cryptosporidium. A runner who wasn't able to join us had bought this BeFree water flask and offered it up to us when she wasn't able to come. I'd previously passed over it because of the cost. But I have to say it worked well and FAST. We filled it with river water then squirted the water through the filter into our flasks and our water bladders. It had really good flow and worked quickly and easily.
Limehouse was very neat, there were wood stairs to climb and the trail goes right through rocks.
How do we make water? Well, as I said we are getting better at it. We're learning through research that making water is safest when you do two steps-use a physical filter to filter out chemicals like fertilizer run off and bugs and silt. Then use a chemical treatment like chlorine or iodine to kill any viruses, esp giardia and cryptosporidium. A runner who wasn't able to join us had bought this BeFree water flask and offered it up to us when she wasn't able to come. I'd previously passed over it because of the cost. But I have to say it worked well and FAST. We filled it with river water then squirted the water through the filter into our flasks and our water bladders. It had really good flow and worked quickly and easily.
Then we used this Pristine Water purification system . The system is 2 chemicals you mix together for 5 minutes, then add to your water. In 15 minutes the water is safe to drink. We like that it kills the two major viruses listed above, it's fast, and the water tastes good even if you don't add flavoring. Also, many tablets treat a liter of water. Fine for bladders but for our flasks that are only 1/2 a L we are able to mix just what we need. 5 drops of A and B liquids are 1 Liter, so for 1/2 we do 3 of each for a 2 liter 10 of each. The liquid turns from clear to liquid as it combines.
The system comes with a small plastic cup, but we learned last time when measuring for multiple water containers, it can be time consuming and when your brain is tired it can be hard to remember when the 5 minutes is up for each batch. So I went to the dollar store and picked up these 12 containers. We only needed about 6 of them, but they were lightweight and because we weren't carrying as much food I had the space. This was a huge time saver, I could mix up batches for all of us at once, put the lids on, wait 5 minutes and everything could be treated. K unloaded bags, B filled up the BeFree filter and helped K load our water containers while I mixed up batches of treatment. What would have otherwise taken us 30-40 minutes took only 10-15.
Here's a short video of the water we used with some beautiful blue winged dragonflies entertaining us:
Limehouse was very neat, there were wood stairs to climb and the trail goes right through rocks.
Along the trail there are several straight paths through the edges of farmer's fields. Normally these are open, hot and grassy. Appreciated way to get off the road and nice to make good time for distance, but usually a necessary evil. Toronto section however the farmers had left the trees over the path and they were shaded, created a wind block. There were even some benches along the way and we came across fellow travelers sitting for lunch.
Our one animal encounter was along one of these. This picture does not do this snake justice. It was big. Maybe the biggest I've encountered in person not in a zoo. We stopped. We tried to solve how to go around it. We tried to nudge it with a stick to motivate it to move. Nope. Finally I said, "we are going to have to jump it." I said, "I'll go first." I jumped it and B and K followed behind and we made it. Later on B did some research and believes it is an Eastern Ribbonsnake. They are normally calm and non venomous.
Our one animal encounter was along one of these. This picture does not do this snake justice. It was big. Maybe the biggest I've encountered in person not in a zoo. We stopped. We tried to solve how to go around it. We tried to nudge it with a stick to motivate it to move. Nope. Finally I said, "we are going to have to jump it." I said, "I'll go first." I jumped it and B and K followed behind and we made it. Later on B did some research and believes it is an Eastern Ribbonsnake. They are normally calm and non venomous.
Yeah, this is the trail....
Past that point the trails were better maintained and there were lots and lots of boardwalks.
We could have also filled up on water at Silver Creek Conservation area but it was getting later than we wanted to be and the temperatures were cooling and a wind was picking up. But there was a bridge right over a very clear, running stream that would have been another great water fill up.
We finally made our way to the end-50.5km taking 9 1/2 hours to complete. My Coros Apex Pro watch kept up-I had the heartrate monitor on and still had 77% battery at the end of this run.
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