johnsjar

In an amazingly-blazingly fast 1:40 (a 9:05 pace) I did…11 km. OK, so I was slower than a dead goat. So sue me. I guess my body decided that it was going out for a run on a Sunday so it must be going to be a huge run…let’s flood his system with insulin because as always he must be guzzling Gatorade. Not. I crashed big time and felt like a diabetic with no sugar for about 4 km. And it was hot.

Now that I’m done whining, I just calculated how fast one needs to run to finish the Grand Cache Death Race. In 24 hours over a 125 km course you have to run an average of 11:30 minutes per kilometer pace to finish. “Eleven and a half minutes per kilometer???” you exclaim incredulously. Yes, I say. But before you think you could crawl that race before lunchtime, don’t think for a minute it’s as easy as the nominal minimum pace would indicate.

Almost anyone could keep that pace, and with training almost anyone could walk 125 km in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately in the real race you will encounter a hill or two, and some pretty tough terrain. On the uphills, you think it’s hard. Reaching the top and finally cruising downhill your relief at the ease of going downhill gradually turns to consternation at how much harder it is to go downhill than uphill. Then you are relieved to reach some flat ground. But don’t look up, you’ll just see another hill. We are talking Rocky Mountain elevation changes here in all kinds of weather, plus you are as self-sufficient as possible. You need to carry a lot of things with you including headlamps for running in the dark. You need to cross the River Styx (actually the Smoky River at Hell’s Gate), but if you don’t have that coin to pay the dreaded Charon, the ferryman of the dead, you are stranded. They don’t call it the “Death Race” for nothing. It’s only a matter af time before they build a cemetery atop one of the mountains and call it “Boot Hill”. Or maybe “Running Shoe Hill”. Oh, COME ON people - work with me here, I’m trying to create a myth.

If I have never run any part of that course myself, how do I know anything about it? Well, I don’t, however as a Geological Assistant (many years ago) I have hiked a lot of mountain carrying packs of rock samples and I worked all summer in the wilderness in the Northwest Territories, plus I’ve hiked the West Coast Trail (recently) so I know a bit about wilderness hiking.

Besides, isn’t everything you need on the internet? *hee hee snicker*

Cool. I can hardly wait.