Trapline Marathon, Happy
Valley/Goose Bay, LB Oct. 11, 2015
4:22:01 8/15 overall 1/4 Age Group
Thanks to encouragement from Jodi, I finally
took the plunge and decided to do this marathon in the far northeast part of
Canada in Labrador. I’d been a bit reluctant to do this 9th (of 10)
Canadian provinces because it was so far away and so expensive to get to. I
left Fresno on Thursday at 9AM, going to San Francisco airport (where there are
some neat NFL displays up in
anticipation of Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara), then to Toronto, then to Gander,
Newfoundland where I arrived at 2:30AM (NF has its own time zone and is 4.5
hours ahead of us in CA). I spent the night in a drafty room on a couch,
getting up at 6 to get a bite of food (Fruit LoopsJ) and then fly out at 7:30 to HVGB arriving
at 8:41AM . (It’s in the Atlantic time zone which is 4 hours ahead of us.) I
drove to my motel (which uses the old-style motel keys) and got a bit more to
eat and crawled into bed for a nap.
Getting up, I explored the area,
finding the tiny library and driving the road out to the start of the marathon.
There were lots of fall colors in the trees and beautiful blue sky, lakes and
rivers. I even found that they have an 18 hole golf course which is busy during
the summer, but was due to close in a few days since winter was fast
approaching. The temperature was 34 on
Fri. and heading down.
On Sat. I picked up my race kit at
the local community college gym. I met a fellow from Texas who has run over 333
marathons including all the states 3 times and numerous countries. (He’s the
one who finished last in the race; I’m sure that’s not the way I want to run
marathons at this point.) Then it started snowing and you can see it sticking
to my car and the ground in the pictures. I went out for pasta at a restaurant
that night and met the race director, Jonathan, who gave me some useful tips.
We also talked to Kristof who is from Germany and lost over 100 lbs from before
he was a runner. Interestingly, he had been in the German military and about 15
years ago had been to HVGB for military exercises; this was his first North
American marathon, but he’d run about 30 or so in Europe.
Sunday morning at 6:45 we all got on
the bus to Northwest River, the town where the race starts. It was 30 degrees
and windy and still dark as we drove there. We gathered in a small building
where we could use the rest room, stay warm and wait for the start. They took
rollcall to be sure we were all there (all 15 of us) and took our pictures with
oversized snowshoes. A real trapper also sent us off with a “Trapper’s Prayer”.
I wore two long sleeve shirts, cap
with ear flaps, tights, and gloves and was warm enough after the first few
miles. But we had a steady headwind for 22 miles (at a couple points the wind
literally stopped me in my tracks, and going over a bridge, I had to hold my
hat on to keep it from flying off) and that got really tedious to fight. The
last 4 miles we finally had some tailwind and my last miles were my only miles
under 9 minutes. I was 2:12 the first half and 2:10 the second so was happy for
negative splits. This was not a day to run very fast; I just stayed steady with
my 9:30-10+ minute pace, walking a minute at the aid stations which were 5k
apart. The folks at the aid stations were a big encouragement since there were
few other spectators along the way. When I finished, my legs didn’t feel too
bad, but my face was windburned and I was tired from fighting the wind. I
figured I’d had a 26.2 mile ice bath so didn’t take one.
At the airport on Monday, I met the
guy who is the original race director, but this year couldn’t do it because he
ruptured his achilles playing soccer and had his foot in a boot. He had some
pictures from the race and sent 2 of me finishing which was really great of
him. It was a 14 hour flight going back on Monday and I was miserable since I
was coming down with a cold. I think it started with my night in the airport
Friday morning because I was coughing the night before the marathon and was
really stuffed up by Monday. All this week I’ve pretty much stayed home, taken
cold medicine, and slept except for getting out to do a couple things I had to
do. I’m glad I can say I did it, and it needed to be done to finish the
provinces, and I enjoyed the people and places, but all those flight changes
and the time flying took a real toll on my body. I’m not planning to do
anything like it anytime soon. (Even crazy people have limits! lol)
This was Marathon #144; 21 states on 2d go
round; 9 Canadian provinces. Next up: Memphis Marathon with Jodi on Dec. 5,
2015.
Pictures at:
