so last year, jodi isenor tells me he has this 'great' idea of doing the entire 280k cabot trail running relay with a team of 3. only thing is, he had never done it or even watched it. luckily, dave parkinson, the long-time race director for the relay, gave jan, jodi and I the opportunity, and was humouring us again this year with only 2 of us this time. He did help put doubt in our minds with his, "are u sure you want to do this?".
This cabot trail relay idea had spawned from a few years ago, when we started running the 50k hiking trail at cape chignecto to set what jodi calls "world records". Although we have done some big events, we are much more accustomed to starting & finishing our adventures at a deserted trailhead, with maybe a few others, & only our watches taking note. when we arrived at the event last year we really had no idea that anyone would take much notice, and we also feared we may be accused of taking something away from the relay event itself. we got just the opposite!
this past year, with more to do, we were intimidated for sure, but if we were going to come back as a team of 2, it had to have a purpose bigger than us. the plan for Brigadoon, a children’s camp for chronically ill kids, we had known about for some time, and is a very easy one to get behind. with both of us fortunate to be healthy and able play at our own favourite activities, the fact is, that many kids get a diagnosis that means they don’t get a normal chance to play and just be a kid. Brigadoon wants to change that and help kids to play, to mentor other kids, and have their own rewarding experiences despite any diagnosis. with a chance to help a little bit with such a great project, how could we not be motivated. all we had to do was run around the cabot trail and help spread awareness of the project.
having not trained specifically for last year, jodi laid out, and stuck diligently to, a training plan that he started in November peaking in the 120-130k/week range. after much prodding, he got me started running in march. So after a few weeks back running i ripped off a ‘huge’ 45k week. of course the next week it jumped to a 105k week with a 50k run monday, hill repeats wednesday, and a 3X10k workout on thursday! somehow my body held together and the following week we upped it to 4X10k repeats with 30 min rest, and jodi whipped off a 38 min 10k as his last one! he was ready, and i was secretly thinking he could take up my slack.
the nasty trick with the relay is that the leg times only allow us to run, at the very slowest, a 6min/km pace (9:35/mile), and still get there before the race moves on to the next leg. our best weapon to combat this was our gps watches which allows us to keep pace without going to fast and wasting energy. As much as we thought we could do it on paper, the unexpected was always there. Gut issues from a mobile diet, pulled muscles, a rolled ankle. Anything could derail it. The other thing about having to run approx 150k is that it takes a lot of patience to go slower than you are capable of, especially with all the energy and cheering surrounding you, and save enough to do the distance. Luckily we had a fantastic support crew consisting of jodi’s dad, leta, kim fougere, and my wife amy. They certainly took amazing care of us throughout the entire event and kept us on track with a very positive attitude and willingness to help, which was a huge contribution to make this a successful weekend for us.
with an alternating strategy as the plan, it all began and seemed to be going as planned until jodi had quad pain starting after running leg 3. can only guess that jodi's legs were resenting not being abused the way they had been accustomed so we have concluded tapering is bad. Luckily for me I didn’t have time to taper.
Jodi continued to gut it out with shredded quads and made it through leg seven, his 4th, but while i was running leg 8, i heard my wife yell from the van "you're doing the next one.". north mtn! given the quad busting downhill of north and down french, it really was the best plan to preserve jodi’s quads and also the chance of us making it. However, that did still leave him with the leg 10, the all uphill mackenzie, "the toughest leg" (according to jodi). after leg 8, i had about 6 minutes to get to the van, lace in a new timing chip, put on a safety vest, shoot down a bottle of boost and head off. It was one of the toughest struggles i have had racing and barely made it in time to send jodi and the next group of leg runners off.
Jodi beat it up Mackenzie for leg 10 and i got to go down French mtn for leg 11. we sent jodi off shuffling to start leg 12, his 6th, and by this point jodi’s quads were wrecked. as we drove by he was barely shuffling and yelled that the “cutoff’s not goin’ happen”. no worries i figured . he would still get the distance and it was relatively flat for his last 2 legs. 2 minutes before leg 13 start, i was unfolding my own body like an old lawn chair, trying to get ready for my run, and i hear kim say, “look who i found”. i look to where i heard her voice and am dumbfounded. its jodi. he made it! all i could say was “holy sh..!”. it really pumped me up.
On leg 14 we needed jodi again, 19.8km. he set off at the back of the group moving like someone who could not bend at the knee would attempt to run. he looked to be in a shuffling rhythm and there were others behind him. This time he did not arrive before the next leg started missing it by just a few minutes. after seeing him on the previous leg i had thoughts that we were so close, i may have to try do the last 3 legs. when i finished leg 15, i went looking for jodi right away. I found him ready and looking better, fueled by the closeness of the end and that ‘it’ was really going to happen. he would rip off leg 16, his 8th, as one of his quickest of the relay. it was an emotional finish as he had dug deeper than ever before and we had a good team crydown before sending me off for the final leg.
i chatted and joked with a few other runners and crested hunter mtn, the last one, well under 6 min/k. the rest of the 18.7k felt long, but finally, the top of the final hill came into view. i realized that it was all downhill to the finish in baddeck and that we had done it! now, suddenly i wanted to slow it all down. it had taken so much more out of us than we thought, but the support we got from our own crew and all the teams, had helped keep it together and fueled us to somehow make it. jodi met me up the street and we ran in together overflowing with emotion as we were cheered into the finish.
This event is challenging and fun no matter how you do it and we absolutely never want to take anything away
from the spirit of it. we were lucky to be allowed to harness that energy, enjoy it, and were very fortunate to be considered part of it. Sincere thanks also to the generous folks at the awards dinner stuffing over $400 into our can, which means our run has raised $2300 so far for Brigadoon.
as yoda says, ‘do or do not, there is no try’. which i guess means there is still plenty of work to do to make brigadoon a reality, but, we have realized that there is not much that can't be accomplished with the will to attempt it, so we will keep up our efforts, continue to challenge ourselves & turn what we may thought to be impossible, into an amazing experience.
gudhealth2all,
brigadoon honey badgers (aka mark and jodi)
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