Creemore Fat Ass 100 Miler

I have been busy with races this fall, whether it be running them or supporting others and with most them in the US, it was nice to finish the racing season with a home grown event. On December 1st I took part in the Creemore Fat Ass 100 mile run. This was put on for Scott Garret as his last (12th) 100 miler of the year, put on by the ultrarunning community, by his friends.
I was more than a little apprehensive about running as 100 miler in this part of the world in December. Who knows what the weather would be like. In the weeks before it was all over the place and we had a bit of snow in the week prior to, but as the weekend approached the temperatures looked like they would be pretty good. On Saturday morning it was cool (below 0C) and breezy, the forecast was for the temperature to increase as the day progressed and through the night with rain coming over night.
There were 27 of us to toe the line at the start and at 7 am we were off. The wind was rather bitter as we ran out the drive way from Pierre and Leanne’s place. We ran out on the main road towards Airport Road for a few hundred meters to get in the extra distance before turning around and heading out on the course proper. The course consisted of running the road into Creemore, through town to Collingwood St and then south up the hills. Eventually we would turn into a farm and through the fields and trails of the Creemore Vertical Challenge course. Through a ravine and up the other side to the midpoint aid station which is where Joan was stationed. From here we would run the roads back to Airport Road and then after 100 metres or so head back into the trails back to the start finish area. A total of 10.6k that we had to repeat 15 times.
After a few laps I got into a groove where I would walk about 100 metres through town and walk most of the uphills, I would also walk the stretch on Airport Rd. This seemed to work well. The weather though was not cooperating very well. With the wind the temperature never seemed to warm up at all, and of course the more you ran the more tired you felt and therefore the colder you felt. I never felt cold, but I never felt warm either.
I found that the aid stations didn’t have a lot of food that I was interested in early on so I was taking a gel every hour and also trying to take my S caps too, although I wasn’t really sweating a lot. Joan had made up some Ionix/Energenix mix for me to drink after every lap. A good recovery drink to flush the system of lactic acids, etc.
The first few laps were:

1:15, 1:17, 1:14, 1:18, 1:27.

I was feeling pretty good and part way through the day Shawn Patton and Crystal Fetcher joined me to pace for a lap. So I got to talk to Crystal about her first book being published and what it was about etc.

The first part of the course was pancake flat until you leave Creemore and head across the bridge up Collingwood St. It’s a good climb from there and then a sharpe downhill before another climb. Cresting that hill doesn’t end the climb though as you have to continue for another kilometer to the entrance to the farmers field and a nice downhill to the trails. The trails although snow covered were very runnable, a little slippery in places, especially the downhills in the ravine. The uphill out of the ravine was steep and another walking section to the aid station. The southerly wind would howl through the aid station and all along the road it was a head wind to the next turn. The road to Airport Rd was all downhill for about 2k and I was hitting 4:30k’s along this stretch for most of the day and into the night. The last trail section was quite long, but fairly flat, but nothing but single track.

Next few loops were:

1:20, 1:24, 1:37, 1:36, 1:40

As you can see the pace slowed somewhat, but after ten loops I was feeling a little fatigued, but knowing that I was counting down single digits for laps to finish. Just after 9pm arriving at the midpoint aid station I had Bryan Pellerin join me to pace for a few laps, this helped a lot as I was struggling at this point, but he got me running when I didn’t want to. I would still spend more time running than walking at times, but I was still moving forward.
Half through Bryan’s 3rd lap with me, Helleina Rothenburg joined me for a couple of laps. Helleina is great to run with because she likes to talk. Which keeps you awake. We hadn’t seen each other in a while so we had lots to chat about. I did a lot of walking on these laps and Helleina would try to keep me running, mostly unsuccessfully. Helleina left me with only 2 laps to go, it was raining and had been since about 1 am and although the temperature had gone up, it didn’t feel like it, because the wind was still blowing. I headed out for the final two loops with thought that my head light might not make it through the loop. I had extra batteries, but was not hopeful about being able to replace them out on the course. I got the first set of trails and the mud was getting very difficult to maneuver through, slipping and sliding everywhere. I was surprised not to go down at all. The last section of trails were even worse. But I got to the start/finish area and had Pierre change my batteries. Off I went for the last lap I figured I had 3 hours to beat 24 hours and decided I could walk the entire loop and still have time to spare, so that’s what I did. I kept my light off through town to conserve the batteries. Just as well as into the trails they were fading again and I was almost on hands and knees looking for the trail in the mud. It was very difficult going. At the aid station Joan had some relief and would head off to the finish to see me there when I was done. She had been at the aid station for the entire 23 hours!! Wow, what a trooper. She is amazing.
On the walk down the big hill I passed two runners, running, I was walking! One of them was Chris Battaglia who was in some serious pain and a hurting unit.

I finished in 23hours and 1 minute a new PB for a hundred miler.

The last 5 laps were:

1:45, 1:55, 1:43, 1:31, 1:57

Over all I felt quite pleased about my performance. A good run, took it easy when I needed too and got through the tough parts. Some great support on a tough day weather wise. This has definitely got my confidence back up for my next great adventure. Thanks Joannie!