Sulphur Springs 100k-end of May 2024

 The end of May 2024 I ran a 100k race-Sulphur Springs.  Sulphur Springs is the first ultra marathon in Ontario to qualify for a ticket for the Western States race . The stipulation was that 100 people between the 100k and 100mile races had to finish in 18 hours for 100k and 30 hours for the 100 mile.  The lap before my final lap my crew came down to let me know they'd gotten their 100 finishers.

I'd run the route many times with friends training. Sulphur Springs was the first ultra I was supposed to ever run-I'd signed up for the 50k back in 2020 as the pandemic started. Sulphur was the only race to refund race entries (the rest deferred, which made for a very busy 2022 season).  Last year, 2023 I was going to run it and my friends asked me if I'd crew for them for their 50 mile race.  I agreed to that and ran other races in 2023.  Crewing a race means like a pit crew for Nascar.  The Sulphur Springs route is a 20 km loop that you come back to the start for every loop. You can set up a tent and have support people to refill bottles, duct tape your feet, etc. etc.  So their 50mile race was 4 laps or 80km.  For this race a friend from my speed training group offered to crew for me.  As well as relay race with a trail run group we run with.  Then one person ended up not being available for the relay, so she crewed me as well as ran two 20km laps!

The day started pretty good. Weather forecast was a little iffy but not too hot and the first loop went great. I'd trained and gotten in all my runs including long runs up to 60km.  I knew the route well and because I'd only run without the aid stations in the loops I was happily surprised how fast it seemed the race was going. I got my first loop done in about 2 hours 15 minutes.  The loops are fairly hilly. Not serious elevation, but up and down, up and down.  Friends stopped by to surprise me after each loop and spaced it out to make the time go faster.  

I was glad I'd brought poles though because half way through the 2nd loop a thunderstorm started.  I finished my 2nd loop wet but still in good spirits. I was almost a marathon into this thing.  I grabbed my rain jacket and headed out for Loop 3

Then it kept raining. Way longer than was forecasted. The mud got deeper and more difficult to climb up the hills in it. That's when the poles got important.  It ended up raining for about 4 hours.  I saw lots of people who were walking the trail who talked about dropping out of their races the next time they got into the start/finish line.

My race photos are dark even though they were taken in the middle of the day because of the rain and forest canopy.

On the last lap it became clear I was going to need my headlamp for the last lap.

In just over 16 hours I finished and sprinted for the finish.

I felt it went really well. I changed my shoes and socks every lap and had to duct tape some blisters and wear gloves with my poles due to the extra moisture from the rain, but the fact I could sprint at the end and never wanted to quit make it a success in my books.