This is the fourth year to do this race. It's one of my favorites. It's a woman's only race in Canmore, well organized and the hill at the end is challenging.
Three of the girls were able to join me this year. Emily, Melissa and Taylor (it was her first time). Missy ran the fast and female kids race prior to our race. I love watching her run and the pure joy on her face.
We tried to make it a weekend get away but it seemed like the holiday demons were against us and things just didn't work out. We were able to go up Friday night but had to leave Saturday after the race.
Liam and Jarom came up with me and did a bunch of down hill biking on Friday and Saturday. Jody came up Saturday morning to cheer all of us on and to go for a hike after.
I didn't really think through the-hike after running a half marathon idea. Afterwards it probably wasn't the best idea. I was pretty sore after.
The girls started out so strong and I had a hard time keeping up with them. I pushed myself so that they were never too far in front of me. I'm pretty good on downhills and that was were I could overtake them. They would catch up on the up hills and then I would jump ahead on the downhills. Finally on one big downhill I took off and was able to stay ahead of them for the rest of the race.
I try so hard not to be competitive, especially with the girls but this beast just comes out of me and I have to push myself as hard as I can.
In all fairness all the girls were pretty close on my heels and our times were all close.
I was able to run up the entire hill again this year. Every time I do the race as I start on the hill I think to myself, "why did I not do more hill training?"
This has become a tradition for us now. Next year we want to have a girls only weekend.
Race stats
Overall time: 2:01:42- I had wanted a sub two hour
Overall Finish: 55/293
Age Group Finish: 7/26
Overall time: 2:01:42- I had wanted a sub two hour
Overall Finish: 55/293
Age Group Finish: 7/26