Where to begin?!
Brace yourselves for a lengthy post, a 24 hours race means a long recap. But before I can begin talking about my experience, I will provide an explanation of how the race works as best as I can.

The Cabot Trail Relay.

A 276km, 24 hour, 17 leg relay through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.

(Note yellow highlighted road on the map below!)

The relay begins at the Gaelic College in St. Ann's (near Baddeck). Each runner (from a team of 17 members) runs one leg of the relay. We had 2 support vehicles to assist in driving runners to and from legs as well as providing water/food/encouragement along the way for each leg. The legs varied from about 13 to 20 km each, all on a variety of different elevations, according to their location along the Cabot Trail (See below). Each leg connected together completes an entire lap of the 276km Cabot Trail. The start of one leg would also be the finish line for the previous leg. When you start your leg, you have a certain amount of time to reach the start for the next leg.

For example, leg 1 started at 0700 in the morning. Kirk ran this one, and he had until 0840 to reach the start line for leg 2 (which is also the finish for leg 1). Because they have to continue to move the finish lines along with each leg, if you don't make it to the finish line/start of the next leg, you will miss the mat and the chip cannot be tracked, so you get the same time as the last tracked runner that made the finish +5 minutes as your final time). At the end, the times from each of the 17 legs is added up, and the team with the fastest overall time wins (this year 1st place actually took only 16 hours to run ALL 17 legs.. thats crazy!). Our team only had 9 people, as opposed to the normal 17, which meant the majority of us would be running 2 legs (or more).

Our team name was Running Dirty as we are all primarily OCR and trail runners!

We all met bright and early Saturday morning in Baddeck for a quick breakfast of egg and avocado sandwiches, then drove to the official start line of the race at the Gaelic College. Kirk was our first runner and we cheered him on as he left. We then waited our required 25 minute period before leaving (each support vehicle had a different time, to prevent car congestion). Driving along the first leg of the relay was a great indication of how the race would go. Support vehicles were cheering out the windows of the cars, everyone was having a blast, and the route was absolutely gorgeous. Anytime I get to be near/run by water, I'm a happy clam :D

Kirk made it to the finish of his leg with a time of 1 hour 19 minutes.

Kirk and I after leg 1!

Martin was up next, and his leg started within 20 minutes of Kirk arriving. After we picked up Kirk/dropped Martin off and cheered him on as he began his leg, we started to drive toward the beginning of leg 3.

I was running leg 3 and my excitement/nervousness was growing. Doing the calculations, I knew I would be cutting it close to the cut off time. I had to maintain a pace of 5:58 to reach the finish line at leg 4 before it would be closed. This was stressful because not only is my average pace during EVERY training run EVER only 6:30-7:00 a kilometre, but I would still have another leg to run after this one. Regardless, I braced myself and got my kit ready to go.

Rock tape saved my life.

Starting out, I tried to maintain an even pace at anywhere below 6 minute/km. Running an entire minute per kilometre faster than I've ever ran was hard, but physically I felt great. I maintained this pace for the first 5k, thinking maybe I just might be able to make the cut off time. Somewhere along the way, whether it was a hill, or just that pushing that hard was getting the best of me, I ended up with a couple kilometres being a 6:30 pace. I came into the finish line a mere 2 minutes after they closed it, missing the cut off time. After spending the entire week before this race panicking and stressed out about how I knew I wouldn't make the cut off times, this was very disappointing. I basically collapsed into Kirk's arms sobbing, feeling like a failure and very embarrassed about being such a slow runner. I know I'm still a newbie at this and I can't expect to get fast right away, however I felt like I was letting my team down.

Luckily, team Running Dirty was there for the fun times, and not for placement. Everyone was really just excited about me finishing strong, as opposed to caring at all that I didn't make the mat.

After some talking to Kirk, he convinced me to be proud of the fact that I had just ran almost 16km in an hour and 22 minutes (this is a good 20 minutes faster than an average run for me) and I've realized how much more I am actually capable of when I push myself.

Next up was leg 4, which was up Cape Smokey and run by Mike. He started a few minutes late and still finished 13th out of about 70 people!

Leg 5 was run by Tara, the other female on the team, who is super fast and can easily keep up/pass all the guys!

After Tara was done, it was past lunch and we were all starving so we stopped at a grocery store for some hummus and carrots, apples, orange juice, crackers and chocolate. Not a real lunch by any means but it really hit the spot.

Carrying on, leg 6 was run by Justin, leg 7 was run by Mark and leg 8 was run by Lloyd. I'm going to be honest, most of the day after I ran was a complete blur. Between eating, trying to get some rest (I was still recovering from working a night shift the day before) and checking into our airBnB Tara got in Pleasant Bay, I wasn't really sure where the time went.

Our rental had a short path to a look off! Selfies in-between napping haha.

Before we knew it, it was 8 pm and time for Kirk to begin his second leg, #9. This leg had the most elevation change (gain and loss), was the first night leg, and it was raining. At the top, ironically, the team doing the water station was dressed as devils with signs reading "Welcome to Hell".

Wet and cold. Bad combination.

Looking happy, but inside probably dying.

When Kirk finally reached the end of his leg, we could all tell he was exhausted. We fed him a club sandwich and he got into the shower at our rental to warm up.

Our team was also in charge of a water station, except ours was for 1230 at night. I slept through it in the support van so I can't really talk about how that went, opps! Had to sleep a bit before my next leg at 5 am.

Throughout the night, Martin ran his second leg (10) - the hardest leg, straight up with a lot of turns and no downhill, Tara ran her second (#11), Adam ran his first (#12), Mike his second leg (#13) and Lloyd his second (leg 14).

Before I knew it, my team was waking me up in the back of the van and saying I had less than an hour until I ran again (leg 15). I can confirm one thing.. you don't get a great sleep in the back of a car thats driving up mountains haha. Another thing.. running was the last thing I wanted to do at that moment. Freezing cold, exhausted from barely any sleep, sore/stiff from running and then sitting in a car for hours... I was miserable and really dreading my run. This leg was just under 16km of rolling hills and I knew the cut off time would be tight. There came the anxiety again.

Once I started going however, I was surprised how well my body managed to run while sore/tired/etc. I was maintaining just around the pace I needed. Around 9km in though, I could really feel the effects of the past day and knew I was beginning to be dehydrated. Luckily my team was there to support me and give me water. I carried on, spending some time running with/behind my old friend from high school, Jessica. Having my team cheering me on, and Jessica there was just the push I needed to carry on and finish the leg strong.

I came up short again, by barely a minute, as I saw the next leg leaving as I was rounding the final corner (which meant they had closed the finish). However, instead of feeling disappointed this time, I felt proud that I had maintained a long run at a much faster pace than I had ever been used to before. The crowd was still at the finish since leg 16 had only JUST left (Kirks 3rd leg) which was great because the cheers while finishing the leg was amazing.

Once I arrived, we drove to the finish of Kirks leg, at the start of leg 17 - Martins 3rd, and the last leg.

They had a pancake breakfast set up at the end of leg 16 and it was just what we all needed to refuel!

Is it sad I have to stand on a tree stump to be the same height?

Finally, after over 24 hours the race was winding down. We met our entire team at the finish line in Baddeck and waited for Martin. The crowd was unreal and there were a thousand people there cheering everyone on!

Quite a tall team! Minus the 2 shorties in front ;)

After the race was over, all 1300 of us racers/support crew headed to the arena for a post race meal.

The Lion Club had worked so hard to prepare steak, lobster and vegetarian trays. I had the vegetarian, which had pizza, quinoa/grain mixture and a pasta salad. Everything was delicious, especially the carrot cake for desert! I was so hungry and excited I completely forgot to take pictures of the actual food!

Food, new friends and good conversations

After the lunch, we took some more pictures and said our final goodbyes before everyone left for a long drive/flight home.

Yay team Running Dirty!

Also in the picture are our lovely support crew/driver ladies! I cannot thank everyone enough for such an amazing weekend. Our captains Tara and Mike, for putting so much effort and time into planning everything, and for allowing a slow poke such as myself the opportunity to join such an amazing group of runners for the weekend. I feel blessed for being able to run one of my bucket list races so early in my running journey and cannot wait to run this next year (faster and more improved, of course!!).

Not only did I prove to myself that I can run 30km on little to no sleep, that I can push myself to go faster, but also that I can maintain a 6 minute pace for that a longer distance.

Once my legs recover, I cannot wait to get back out and continue training to see how much I can improve from here. My goal for next years relay (hopefully we can all return!) is to maintain a pace of 5 minutes/km. Tons of time to train.

For now, I continue training for the Ultra Beast in the end of July! A couple months of solid training left to go! I'll be ready in no time.

Happy Trails,

The Rural Runner

Continue Reading

Yesterday my boyfriend Kirk drove from Cape Breton to meet me early in Halifax. We spent the morning wandering around a craft fair and shopping for Xmas presents, then headed downtown in the evening to find our race host hotel. After checking in, we found the race kit pick up area and grabbed our swag. The kit came with a nice bright long sleeve finisher shirt a magazine, a race sticker and our bibs. We were super excited when our race bibs all were personalized with our team name (Captain Kirk and his Crew) as well as our own names.

Holy moly they actually spelt my name right, haha. #impressed

I'll more than likely wear this shirt again, it's pretty nice.

After we picked up our race kits, we decided to head out to a restaurant downtown, and found a place called The Wooden Monkey. The food there was all organic and local, with plenty of vegan options. Kirk and myself both got the lentil burger and roasties (potato wedges with spices), if only I had taken a picture.. I need to work on my white girl skills.. Sorry.

It was delicious and just what we needed pre-race.. pretty healthy too, and while we were there we decided last minute to head over to the Scotiabank Center to catch the mooseheads hockey game (they won in overtime.. GO MOOSE GO!).

After the game we were pooped so we walked back to the hotel to catch some zzz's.

The next morning we woke up at 7am (my 630 alarm didn't go off.. Opps). Luckily the hotel was right by the race venue, and they had free breakfast, so we popped down to the lobby for some food, grabbed our jackets and blankets and headed to the hill.

The race was done in teams of 3, with each team member running 6.5 laps around Citadel Hill. This equals out to be 7km each. My leg was first at 8am, Erika was running second at 9am, and Kirk was our anchor running at 10am. We got to the top of Citadel Hill to see a big crown (with many people in costumes), music playing, and a generally excited and buzzing atmosphere! I instantly got pumped up to run. We found the Atlantic chip vehicle and strapped on the ankle for our timer.

It was clear skies with a slight chill from the very strong wind. I stripped some layers down and handed them off to Kirk to take care of while I ran the first leg. Standing on the start line, a mixture of pre-race jitters and excitement.. The horn blew and we were off. I wanted to open up and go full speed ahead, but remembering what Kirk had taught me, I held back at a steady pace to maintain energy and keep my heart rate under control.

Im behind bat girl in the white.. took my sweater off and threw it to Kirk after the first lap.
The race was going great, it was very scenic up top of the hill, and the route was relatively flat. Every lap around I would get excited all over again when I saw Kirk, Erika and our friend Lee there cheering me on. It was great motivation to carry on and keep pushing every lap. Only problem was one side was SO windy I could feel it pushing against me, and losing seconds off my pace.

My goal coming into the race was to finish in under 45 minutes. Checking the clock every lap, I knew I was close, but right on pace to hit my goal. Coming around on lap 6, the final lap, I was halfway and saw the clock timer was at 42 minutes. I had less than 3 minutes to get across the finish line on the other side or I wouldn't make my goal. Muttering a quick couple curse words under my breath, and knowing that my team was waiting for me at the finish line, I put the pedal to the metal and pushed my pace.

I reached the finish line just under my goal of 45 minutes! It was such an amazing feeling knowing I ran the entire way, and that I accomplished my goal.

Acting like a goof reaching the finish line.
Getting that medal put around my neck was a pretty good victory!

And it's a sweet medal (the 3 teammate medals attach at the bottom by magnets). Plus it makes me laugh that it says Hampton in is where I got lucky (we stayed there the night before haha).

Once my leg was done, we switched off and Erika took the timing strap and she was off to complete leg 2. Standing by the finish line cheering her on for every lap she did was super fun (even though we were freezing our asses off by this point). Erika finished at 38 minutes! By this point, the wind had picked up a lot more and was really strong on one entire side of the course. Luckily, speedy Gonzales was our last runner.

Kirk is the one leading the pack there in black (don't let the sunshine fool you, it was like 3 degrees and thousand km winds haha).

He cruised through his leg of the race,running the 7km in less that 29 minutes, even with the crazy wind (hello top 10 finish for Kirk!!). Now you understand why he was team captain.

It was such a fun day spent with friends, and everyone had an awesome time!

Go team Captain Kirk and his Crew! Erika ran with us again (she joined us for the Valley Harvest Half as well, and is a pretty strong runner). It was great to be reunited!

Here's us with our friend Lee, who I met at the Halifax spartan race in June. Oh the people you meet through running!

Victory is sweet! Especially when it's with people you love.

After the race, we walked back to the hotel to have the complimentary post race meal, then packed up, checked out and headed home.

Overall, the Lucky 7 Relay was a day well spent, and I would definitely recommend it as a fun relay to do with a team. Until next time..

Stay lucky friends,

The Rural Runner

Continue Reading