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

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This month, I had decided to again review and rewrite my goals. We're officially 5 months into the year (where is the time going?) and I decided it was a great time to add some new goals in. This month, I've decided to try to explore more of Nova Scotia, since I've lived here my entire life and there's still places Kirk and I haven't gone yet. To start, we went to Evangeline beach, a cute little beach close to our apartment where the tides are so high, you can either walk a kilometre out on mud, or there's too much water to even see any ground. We ended up there when the tide was in, and it was all the way to the stairs.

Also as a big goal this month, my boyfriend Kirk and I decided to go all of May sugar free. So far were on day 7 and haven't broken down and eaten any sweets. This challenge is pretty difficult because I constantly crave sugar whether it's chocolate, cookies, froyo.. Etc. It's also hard because families at work always bring in treats to leave at the nursing station, and we almost ALWAYS have goodies on night shift (gotta make shift work more bearable right?).

Some of the reactions I've gotten upon declining sugary treats are funny, others concerning. The main response is "oh I could never do that for an entire month" or "um why.. You're crazy.." Also got "so basically you're just going to eat vegetables all month?!"

Let me clear one thing up, when we said were giving up sugar for one month, that means no processed or fake sugars. No donuts, no ice cream, no pop (at all. Diet is just as bad if not worse), no candy. Fruit is FINE. I'm tired of everyone being so afraid of eating fruit "there's too much sugar" and then going and eating a fricken Big Mac (etc.). Fruit is natural, fruit helps with metabolism and to keep you regular, fruit can prevent heart disease and stroke, even some forms of cancer. Fruit is delicious, eat your fruits!!

And now we're off to start the drive to Fredericton, NB for our race this weekend! Race recap will come after.

Happy trails, 

The Rural Runner

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I'm finally back to work full time (long story short.. Was on a leave of absence), and feel like I've been busier than ever!

So far, January has been jam packed with work, reading, spending time in Cape Breton and of course training runs and workouts!

Since finishing my January half marathon.. My runs seem to be few and far between.. Only reaching 62km so far for the month. I've been lacking motivation lately, as I had finished the half that I trained for since October, and then kinda thought.. "Well, what now?". So I decided a good way to kick that motivation up a notch, is by making a new goal.. 

Enter Spartan Race ULTRA BEAST!

By 26+ miles, that really means... 

"of course it's gonna be more than 26 miles.. Expect to die on the side of a mountain for atleast 27 or 28 long and gruelling miles."

Just paraphrasing here.

Having not officially registered yet.. Because the race cost the same as like.. 4 months of groceries for me (plus $40 parking? What an expensive lifestyle!).

Yup $235 is a steep price to pay to torture yourself for 12 hours.

Which, by the way, my goal is to finish in under 12 hours. Kind of because I think that's an appropriate time for my first one.. But mostly just because I don't want to be out there for absolutely any longer than 12 hours. Seriously.

**UPDATE (March) - So I Have purchased and Eastern Canada Seasons Pass for Spartan Race, and have officially committed to the Montreal Ultra Beast on July 31!**

Sure, for the typical marathoner who is doing 26 miles no problem.. 12 hours sounds INCREDIBLY SLOW! But! You must realize that we will be going UP and then down.. Then up and down again.. Then up and down AGAIN, on the side of a 2000 foot mountain, all while mixing in 50 different obstacles including monkey bars, barbed wire crawls, rope climbs, bucket/log carries.. And whatever other instruments of torture Spartan Race has up its sleeves.

SO, my point is.. 12 hours is a pretty decent time for a first ultra beast. As long as I do not miss the cut off time, I'll be a happy camper!

Next topic, what I've been up to this month!

Since finishing the half, and deciding on this big new goal.. I've been focusing a lot more on building strength for carries and monkey bars at races, and doing longer runs.

We did a nice 16km run, slow because of the ice, but a gorgeous day for it.

Afterwards we worked on some obstacles. The 8 foot walls are my arch nemesis.

Don't let the smile fool you.. Sandbag carries are harder than they look!

We also did a 10km run along the water, the snow was super deep which made the run a tad difficult. Gotta embrace the Cape Breton weather.

We also spent a couple hours snowshoeing as our cross training, a super fun way to get outside in the winter and be active!

This month I also was able to go out with my sister and friend Lee to The Middle Spoon. A local desert bar, and we stayed for lunch.. And of course cake!

I had the squash soup and chocolate cake for desert. 

Lisa and Lee shared the sweet and savoury platter in behind.

The hint of raspberry was delish!

Lisa had the peanut butter cheesecake and Lee had the lava cake (would totally get this one next time).. And yes, that says "spoon" and it's made of chocolate, too cute!

This month I've also been spending a lot of time reading..

So many books.. So little time!

This new year I had a personal resolution to read atleast one book a month, and so far it's going well. I've already read the book my sister Keshia gave me.. Girl on the Run by B. R. Myers and enjoyed that. Sometimes there's nothing better than resting the legs and getting lost in a book.

I'm currently enjoying Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. Such a great read so far and filled with plenty of laughs, also an interesting read being a mental health nurse with the book written all about how she handles her depression/anxiety.

Next up for light casual reading is The Maze Runner by James Dashner. I've watched the movies with Kirk and loved them, so he gave me the first book in the series for Christmas! I'm looking forward to beginning this series of books (4 total I believe).

I also have a new book that I like to refer to as my bible. It's called Relentless Forward Progress: A guide to running ultramarathons by Bryon Powell. There seems to be some great advice and tips in here that I'm hoping will help me with training, nutrition, etc during my race coming up in 3 months. There's also training plans within the book, and chapters on basically ANY question a beginner ultra runner like myself might ask. I'm excited to read this book, but will need to set aside a time where I can focus fully on it, and start to develop a training plan for myself, especially now that I have an official goal for April!

The other new book I have on my to read list is actually a big vegetarian cookbook. Which is great because I can simply flip through and find something to make for dinner. This cookbook, called Meatless has vegetarian recipes that range from simple quick snacks, to homemade soup, and even full meals! The pictures inside are absolutely gorgeous and detailed, and I can't wait to give some of these recipes a test run.

So that's how my January has been so far, a busy but wonderful start to the new year!

How has your 2016 been going? Any new goals for the year?

Cheers,

The Rural Runner

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The past week I've been spending time with Kirk and his family in Cape Breton. There's no better way to spend the holidays than with family. I baked some vegan cookies before I left to bring with me, since I hate showing up empty handed if I'm staying for a bit.

I found an awesome vegan eggnog spice cookie recipe and decided to give it a try. Original recipe here. I love it when websites offer vegetarian alternatives!

They didn't spread out as well as I thought.. Opps. Had to flatten them with a fork.

Kinda look like timbits, YUM!

The finished product was a hit!

I stayed with Kirk and his family for a few days and had an amazing time as always. I love Cape Breton and plan on living there eventually.

Of course while I was visiting, Kirk and myself went for a couple runs.

Our first run was 8km on the Ceildh Trail. It's old an old train track trail that runs for hundreds of kilometres along the Western Coast of Cape Breton that's well maintained and (for the most part) sheltered by trees. It's also pretty flat, so it made for a good run.

Zoom, zoom!

Of course we also found some obstacles to play on.

Some day, I plan to climb across this entire thing.. Ninja warrior training!

The next day we did a quick 5k up the mountain and back down, which really made me realize how much I need to start adding hill training to my workouts!

It was a much more difficult trail than I normally train on.. With a couple technical climbs and some rivers to cross. We go until we reach a hunters cabin hidden in the woods, then turn around as our half way point.

It was a great week away and I love spending it with Kirk and his family.

This week we're planning on spending time in the valley with my family over Christmas, and fitting in our long run tomorrow on Xmas eve! My longest distance ever - 24 km (cause we're all festive and shit). Stay tuned for a recap.

Merry Christmas friends,

The Rural Runner

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Recently I discovered a post on Pinterest for 1 ingredient ice cream.. All it called for was bananas! Being a lover of all things banana, and simple recipes, I decided to give it a try!

Similar to banana bread, it works best if you let the bananas get very ripe! The riper the banana, and the more brown little specks on it, the more nutritious and flavourful they are! Once they've hit this stage, peel the bananas (I used 2) and cut them into small pieces. Then throw em into a ziplock bag and stash them in the freezer over night. I always like to have bananas in the freezer for smoothie emergencies anyways, so this step was easy for me ;)

Once they're completely frozen.. Toss them into the blender. Mine got pretty thick, and my blender isn't all that great, so I added a little almond milk (really any milk will work, this choice is just great because it's lactose free!) guess that means it's 2 ingredients haha. Use your own discretion here.. Whether you want it to be thick and crunchy.. Or like liquidy.

Easiest ice cream ever with only 2 ingredients!

The final product was great, so I decided to make it even better.. And added vanilla extract and a couple pieces of chocolate. It's so delicious it's comparable to chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.. Without the added calories and sugar.. And dairy free!

Up close and personal with my yummy guilt free dessert.

This is a new favorite for me and I'll definitely be making it again. I think next time I'll make it more festive with peppermint extract and pieces of candy cane.. Or maybe some peanut butter, or Nutella! The options are endless with this easy basic recipe, and you can really add anything to the base and create a delicious healthy alternative to typical ice cream!

Enjoy your dessert friends,

The Rural Runner

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Sunday:

Sunday evening, Kirk and I made a dish I found on one ingredient chef, the author, Andrew, creates generally easy to make vegan recipes which all start off with basic whole ingredients. I love his blog and decided to give a coconut sweet potatoe curry a go (original recipe here). Now, mind you, we made this for my family, and they're not the kind of people that like eating anything with vegetables in it, especially if it's spicy. Since I've been trying to get them to eat healthier, I figured it was worth a try, and I knew if no one liked it.. there would be plenty of left overs for me ;)

The recipe included chickpeas (love them!!), diced tomatoes, sweet potatoe, coconut milk, onion, chilli (for me, the spicier the better), ginger, garlic and lots of spices (yay!), all on a delicious bed of rice (it called for jasmine, but I used white and it tasted just as well). The recipe was easy to follow and surprisingly just as easy to make. Here it is simmering (50 minutes felt like forever when the entire house smelt delicious)

I was worried about it being too soupy/runny because we didn't drain the can of diced tomatoes, but it ended up being a great spicy kind of sauce on top, and added more flavour to the rice.

The finished product.

I loved it.. And so did everyone else too! It was relatively cheap to make (assuming you already have all the spices) and was a delicious healthy meal! The leftovers lasted me all week.. It made ALOT of servings.

Recently I've been cutting meat out of my diet. Mostly for the reason that the only meat I really ate anyways was chicken and sometimes a burger, but mainly because of the way it makes me feel lately. It's like my body doesn't want to digest it (not surprisingly) and I just end up with a bad stomach ache. So anyways, for the past almost month I haven't eaten meat (I can't drink milk either because of lactose intolerance.. So that part was easy haha), honestly it's been going great. I'm at my lowest weight I've been in years (not that I had toooo much weight to lose, but this makes me happy!), I have more energy for my runs, and now less digestion problems. It really hasn't been all that difficult for me to cut meat out, except for the fact that it's the only thing my family eats. So basically I just bring my own rice and salads to family dinners haha. Since the change, I don't even crave meat anymore, and it's opened my eyes to just how many meat free options and meals there actually are! Just gotta do a little research. I'll probably still eat eggs every once in a while (eggs are in cookies okay don't judge me.) so I guess that means I'm not a full on vegan.. And I still love honey (sorry not sorry.. Bees are scary insects.. Not animals..) but that's okay because I'm happy with my change so far! 

Srsly.. This meme is spot on.. I've already gotten the "but how will you get your protein?!" Judgement question like 20 times. Hmm lets see, chickpeas, broccoli, kale, soy.. Want me to keep going? "But you need meat!!" And then I respond with this sassy answer.. "Have you ever actually seen someone end up in the hospital because they haven't eaten enough meat? No? Me neither, in fact I've seen more people in the hospital because they eat too much meat and fat and bacon, etc.".. Then I awkwardly laugh and say "just sayin" as they stand there with their mouths open trying to think of a comeback.

Anyways rant over. On to the next topic..

Monday:

Me and Kirk were talking on the phone and decided to do a New Year's Eve fun run this year!

It's free and is only 5km and isn't timed or anything.. But we're doing it together and I'm going to dress up and it'll be a great time! There's chilli and hot beverages afterwards, and then we will probably head to Cape Breton to ring in the New Year with his family.

Tuesday:

I had a wonderful 10km run yesterday evening, everything went smoothly and I ran basically the entire thing without walking, which is an accomplishment for me. I finished with 64 minutes.

Note to self.. Selfies while running = bad haha.

Next week.. I'm determined to do 10k in under an hour. It's been a long term goal for me and I'm SO close. I know I can do it if I just push myself a little more, especially now that I've been way more on top of my nutrition.

Wednesday:

Remembrance Day.

A very important day of the year for me, being in the military. Today was my 3rd year attending the ceremony. It's honestly an amazing feeling marching in on parade to the cenotaph with the veterans. It's so humbling being able to speak with them afterwards and I'm so proud to be able to serve my country. My fellow soldiers are like brothers and sisters to me, there's very few jobs out there where you become a family like we all are.

Here's a couple of us after the ceremony.

There was a wonderful turn out this year with hundreds of veterans, soldiers and civilians attending the ceremony, and the weather was perfect.

Also, exciting news.. I got promoted today! Officially Cpl Misner. Been a long time waiting for this, so it was great to be able to celebrate after with everyone. And yes, I'll have to update my DEU's now with my new rank :)

With all the activities going on, and my long drive home, I didn't have time to get my run in today.. Which is probably best since my dress shoes gave me HORRIBLE blisters on both heels. I lost a couple layers of skin (yuck) so will probably go for a bike ride tomorrow to cross train instead of making up the kilometres by running.. It is what it is and I'd rather not make my feet worse. Especially since I will be doing a long run this weekend, 16.1km is on the schedule. Stay tuned, I'll post my running schedule later this week.

If you're still reading, God bless you, what a long pointless post haha. But now you're all updated!

Until next time friends,

The Rural Runner

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