The Bruce Trail is a 900km long trail that goes from north to south in Ontario, Canada. The trail is divided into 9 sections. Running Partner Katherine and I ran the Iroquoia section which is just over 120km (75 miles) this weekend.
We started at 11am at the Toronto/Iroquoia boundary under Hwy 401 on Appleby Line with approx. 5000+calories in snacks and 4L of water (2L bladder, 2 500ml flasks, 2 500ml plastic bottles each. Goal was to eat a 240ish calorie snack in a ratio of 1g protein to 3-4g carbs. Our goal was to not only set a female team FKT (Fastest Known Time) for this route, but also to practice for Capes 100, our 100 mile race a month from now to fine-tune how to do an ultra distance of over 100km.
We were able to fill water bladders (I think we still had water in flasks) at the entrance to River & Ruin side trail at marker 96.6. We used a product that has two liquids that you mix together and let sit 5 minutes, then poor into the water collected and then wait 15 minutes to drink. We didn’t get sick, the water did not smell or taste funny.
We also filled up from Grindstone Creek at 71.4km marker before dark hit. Between changing shirts, dealing with blisters, updating Erin’s husband about where we were, charging Kat’s watch, etc. We stopped at both of these stops for approx. 20 minutes or so-we only treated bladder water at the first stop and at the second, we treated both bladders, Kat’s flasks, and did one of Erin’s and her other one while we were running. At Grindstone creek while stopping for a photo that a nearby teen took for us, the teen asked, “are you guys on a reality show like Amazing Race or something?”
We also filled up a couple flasks and treated them in Dundas at one of the
creeks that was flowing well with clear water while Erin dealt with some
blistered toes and put some salve on the tops of her feet where her shoelaces
were rubbing at the skin in the middle of the night.
We'd run the sections over the past 4 weeks so we had an idea of what to expect which helped us to focus on the scenery and keeping track of what we were doing during the run.
Overnight was one of the parts of the run we were most worried about. We'd run a few hours in the dark before but never all night. It ended up being just fine. Fireflies were everywhere for the first hour or so after dusk, then we had some sections in Dundas conservation area where the trails are wide and relatively easy to navigate. Our headlamps caught some eyes watching us of deer and racoons. We listened as the birds slowly quieted and went to bed and then in the morning we caught the first birds chirping as we got to Chedoke Bike trail and saw the sunrise.
We filled up with treated water at the public water stations at Chedoke Park km
38.5 (both bladders and 4 flasks total)
item of note at Chedoke Park at 3am, there was a woman doing a Tabata
workout and a man with weights doing a star climbing workout. We are maybe not the craziest ones out and about
this night. and Kimberly Drive 29.4km (just 3 flasks between us).
We were doing well, averaging about 11 ½ minutes per km when dawn came. Katherine started thinking about quitting, she was feeling poorly and hallucinating, so we decided to give her a 10 minute nap. She slept on Erin’s hand towel on the paved Escarpment rail trail while Erin did some repacking of her pack as well as taking care of some other issues.
A discussion was had and it was decided that finishing together was a more important goal than how long the run took. From then on, Erin promised Katherine if she stuck with it until the end, she wouldn’t have to run anymore unless she felt up to it. We were walking about 4 km/hour at times through the 2nd half of the run. There were a couple of 5 minute cat naps, but for the most part they kept moving forward no matter how slow.
One of my favorite parts is Felker's Falls conservation area. We caught a marriage proposal around 9am!
After relaying several revised finish times to Erin’s husband, their ride home, they finally finished up around 3:30pm, 28 ½ hours after starting on Friday morning. Our original hope had been 24 hours, but the water purification as well as running overnight and dealing with some nutrition and exhaustion extended the run, but we met our goal of finishing together.
I ended up drinking about 14L of water (much of it with electrolytes) I used up two full tubes and a partial of Nuun electrolyte tablets (I did get some from Kat and she got some from me). The temperatures were from about 65F at night to 78F during the night. It never really seemed to cool off overnight and I ended up drinking more than I expected.
I also used about 20 salt tabs.
We learned so many things on this run:
Start rested and hydrated. (I'd slept really well lately and had started hydrated, Kat had some rough nights of sleep before this run).
Salt, ginger and staying on top of food and hydration are key to keeping nausea at bay.
Eat your snacks (240c per hour) even if you don't want to. Watching the total time of run on watch and making sure during each hour you eat is helpful.
Don't ration water. We never did and felt hydrated. My contact lenses were a little dirty and blurry on day 2-I did put in a tube of saline solution at night but they didn't hurt at all, I think a lot of this was that we were drinking well.
When things are going poorly-you feel sick, you are tired, something is chafing. Stop and deal with it. The race is long. Ignoring something won't make it better, it may make it harder to come back from, and may not save you that much time in the long run. A nap or some salt or just resting a few minutes may make a huge difference in how you feel.
Any movement forward is movement forward. As long as you can move, do it, no matter how slowly.
We also got really good at loading and unloading our packs, including connecting and disconnecting our bladder straws and finding where kinks are in the line preventing flow. I found organizing everything in baggies so that you are only taking out 3-4 bags rather than a ton of small items so that you can remove and refill the hydration bladder fully was very helpful.
