“If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time” - Billy Joel
Number of Runners who participated: 117
Total Distance Achieved: 6048.49 kilometers
Elevation Gain: 261 414 meters
These runners in 36 hours traveled farther than the distance across Canada (5,514 km from Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador, to the Yukon and Alaska boundary) And climbed to the Summit of Mount Everest 29.5 times!
Me at the top of Millbrook Hill
“It takes two to make a thing go right” - Rob Base
I hope my math isn’t off. This is a report from my (John’s) perspective. Make no mistake, Deb and I do this (Race Directing) equally, we both have our strengths. It is also a recount of more or less the year leading up to Chiggy. Sorry in advance for the length.
My day job is a Paramedic in the NWT. I got home from work a few weeks ago, furiously worked with Deb to get last minute things done. There was a Hurricane. Let me start at the beginning.
About a year ago Deb told me she had applied through DNR to put a race on in Cape Chignecto Park, and got a response back with permission for Oct 1 and 2nd 2022.
“Whattttt?” I believe my response was. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Cape Chignecto. The utmost respect for the area. We have friends in there. I buy lumber from a few locals there. I had worked as a Paramedic in Parrsboro for 4 years recently.
This time last year we had run ‘A Day in Wentworth' once, and had run a 12 hour version ‘A Day in Amherst’ in 2019. But Cape Chignecto? The logistics. We didn’t have any gear required to run that race. But …. Why Not? Let’s do it.
I believe two main ingredients to running a successful race are 1 - Great location and 2 - Don’t screw up. We had 1 in the bag.
We learned a lot of lessons this year. A lot. We used a smaller clothing guy out of his garage. Sounds sketchy, but it’s a pretty nice setup. We made some smaller orders from him and liked the quality. He was our 3rd clothing guy we tried. Let’s order 20 Chiggy Hoodies. He said No Problem! Those are easy to get in stock.
That was a load of shit. When we tried to make another order, there was none to be had. We went to 2 other larger clothing producers, and they all said it was very difficult to get. So we pivoted to shirts. In the last 2 months before the race, we had switched to Sportwheels to order one last clothing bundle and they were amazing. Lesson learned! Next year, Sportwheels for the win!
We also had two other races we put on this year, aside from our A Day in Wentworth at the Prov Park, my baby was The Breakfast Club.
Without getting too much into this, it was an 18k run through some beautiful trails in Wentworth involving 5 different landowners. Oh and the trails aren’t maintained by anybody official. Cleaning up a race that long, flagging and adding signage was a lot of work. Then, after the race, go back out and take it all down.
The F-Bomb - Crazy fun downhill section
Deb and I pushing a wheelbarrow 2.5k into the woods to setup an Aid Station 2 hours before the race started
“Walk tall, or baby don’t walk at all” - Bruce Springsteen
Just before I was to begin my new job on August 1st, I also developed baaaaadddddd Vertigo. Never happened to me before, and it lasted the WHOLE month of August. I couldn’t walk straight, but I could start an IV lol.
Me in the Hospital 2 days before flying to Yellowknife to begin my new job for Aug 2nd.
Thursday Sept 22nd, Two days before Hurricane Fiona
We told Millard if WE could do anything to help with the race efforts, to let us know.
We all are aware of the effects of the storm. We lost power just after midnight on Saturday morning. Woke up to minimal damage to our place in Amherst. Drove to Wentworth to find some trees down on our property, not much damage. However our neighbor had a tree on his truck and several across his exit to the main highway. So we spent most of Sunday cutting him out, then returning home.
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud - Henry Rollins
Would we be willing to make a sweep of Chignecto to mark downed trees? They have a specific App they use which has a detailed layout of the Park. Could I mark pins on that app so Wednesday when they arrive back at Chignecto, they can hit the exact locations of the downed trees. If this is possible, it would help ensure the race could happen.
Also, the Park would need power.
So Monday I called a friend, Laurie Currie (Local Guy Adventures) who has a beautiful spot to stay an evening, a Lean to style accommodation with a Bed etc. He said no problem and we dropped our Dog Max off to the Sitter’s in Spensor’s Island.
I had my Laptop and before bed we watched an Episode of House of Dragon. Laurie had his Generator going to give us all power. Approx 8:30 that evening he shut his Generator off, but the light in our room still had power. Was it a sign?
Tuesday Morning we woke up at 0400, began at the Park at 0500 and the Initial McGahey Canyon loop was baaaaaaadddddd. Oh my.
I started to get slammed by people texting, emailing or FB Messaging about the status of the race. Rightfully so, it was less than a week away. A LOT of people wanted it to continue. We worried it would be insensitive to hold it after all this, but we had such a large level of interest.
We had done 40k of trail and it was getting dark. Millard was really happy with the outcome, as were we and he said it would be a go. He picked us up in Refugee Cove, as all the documenting took awhile.
Throughout the day I had tried to send a group email from my phone, but was unable to easily. So I sent off some personal emails answering and posted a hopeful FB message. We’d announce a decision before the end of the day.
One thing I’ll absolutely do prior to another race like this, is stop answering Emails a few days before we need to leave for the site. A lot of uncertainty was created because of the Storm, but I remember sitting at our Kitchen Table on Thursday morning, almost noon time still answering questions. We arrived late to the Park and it cut into setup time. My bad.
By later Thursday evening, we had found out two of our 3 Aid Station Race Marshals might not be coming, and was waiting for our 3rd. Friday morning we met with Jason (Arch Gulch RM) who helped me put flagging and signs up for the Bunkhouse area, Elliott Field and the Start / Finish.
Race Registration was at 2pm and a few other volunteers had some delays and Deb was initially doing registration by herself. A lesson we learned about Registration was our flow wasn’t the best. We also hadn’t really discussed with volunteers how they can help with registration ahead of time. Our bad too. I think our worry was it would be confusing to some runners, especially those never been in the park before, or those never done this route before where to go.
So after the signage was put up, I still tried to explain to those who wanted a demonstration with the large map what to do. We felt it was better than doing it in the dark just before the race starts.
Registration was a complete blur for me. I remember Jeff Mayhew bringing us Pizza and said he knew we’d forget to eat. He was right! I hadn’t eaten in many hours.
Registration finished, and due to the Storm, a volunteer who was supposed to take Drop bags to the Bunkhouse wasn’t able to make it yet (but we were told they’d be there early Saturday morning), and the RM for Big Bald couldn’t go at all.
Deb, myself and Matthew Burke (Who helped us out with Registration, Thank you!!!!) drove all the Aid Station stuff to Big Bald (about an hour drive from the Office), dropped it all off, put up the Chiggy Aid Sign on the trail, then back to the Office to grab the Drop Bags to head to the Bunkhouse for the evening. We arrived just after 11 pm.
Matthew went to bed as he was racing the next morning (What a champ putting up with all the pre-race stuff!). I had two glasses of wine and told Deb I wanted to go to bed until Monday. Those runners are pretty smart, I bet they’ll do just fine. The signs are already up! Haha. Joking. But serious. But joking …. Buuuuutttt …..
Here is where I ponder how much to divulge about how nerve wracking things had gotten.
The race was about to begin in less than 5 hours, we hadn’t had a good sleep in almost a week and 2 of our 3 Aid Stations had no crew in place prior to the race starting. Holy Shit!
Our alarm goes off at 3 am. Did I sleep? I did, I woke up and for a second forgot where I was and what was happening. It was relaxing lol. OH YEAH, CRAP!
“Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday
Saturday night's alright” - Elton John
Just after the 0600 group sendoff, Deb takes Nick and Katy Porter off to Big Bald to be the crew for that Aid Station (On their Anniversary Weekend!). Tony Fromm and Eric Sparling were arriving at the Bunkhouse at 0700 to setup. Jason, Roy and Bradley were already at Arch Gulch. Jason and Roy took part in heading to Refugee Cove to meet the 28k crew.
We had a few other people step in to Volunteer (I am going to miss a few people here and I deeply apologize!) Randy at the Bunkhouse and Patricia (and another very helpful woman too!) at the Start / Finish. We also had Krista Kierstead doing some course sweeping.
A lot of moving Parts. But it was coming together. Deb and I tried to always have one of us at the Start / Finish.
Nick Richards was very kind to come to help out with Big Bald early afternoon on Saturday with the Porters. Approx midnight Sunday morning I drove into the cabin to pick up the Porters to return them to the Start / Finish and left Nick Richards there by himself until early Sunday afternoon.
Bugging people out of Aid Stations. We spent a lot of time during the race doing this, leaving almost as soon as they arrived at the Cabins wanting out. Filled our truck up twice during the race. What we should have done is had specific pick up times for those not needing emergency evacuation.
“Now the record always spills on the trails we blazed
The walls are closin' in, but that's OK
Cause I been waitin' all week to feel this way
And it feels so good, so good
I'm on top of the world
The coolest kid in the neighborhood” - Paul Oakenfold
Sunday Morning:
Only a handful of runners have completed 3 loops of Chignecto Park, and to my knowledge, none of them had included the extra distance of the McGahey Canyon trail.
Sunday Morning when it was just Adam Harris on the trail, the Bunkhouse had packed up (after he went past). Deb and I went over to de-mobilize it as best as we could, and dropped off a number of Start/Finish items. We drove to Big Bald to meet up with Nick Richards, who had been there for more than 12 hours by himself.
Deb, Nick and myself helped Adam and his pacer before packing up and bringing Nick back to the Start / Finish so we could hit Arch Gulch to meet them again.
Once at Arch Gulch Deb and I put the Bluetooth speaker out again to play music for them. Adam came in, nice and strong. I asked him what distance his watch said. When he told me more than 150k, I told him to get over 160.9 before reaching the Finishing gate. To my knowledge, no runner had done a 100 miler at Chignecto Park. I am sure he was already thinking this, just wanted to make sure :)
We met up with some runners and Adam’s other half Erin at the Finish to wait for them to come. Deb and I asked Erin what his favorite song is and she said Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys. So we had that playing holding flagging tape as a Finishing Ribbon.
Just after 6:30 pm on Sunday, Deb went to get Pizza and Garlic Fingers for supper and we took the remaining items at the Finish line and returned to the Bunkhouse, where we had piled all the race stuff. The bunkhouse was FILLED with totes, stuff and the yard also. We ate some pizza, sat and I know I drank some wine.
Monday Morning, Deb spent 3 hours sorting all the items to take back to Amherst while I went out and removed all the Signs and Flagging we had put up. We got back to our apartment just before supper.
We watched an episode of House of Dragon, Deb worked first thing Tuesday morning, and I flew back to the NWT at noon to work.
There it is. Our first Chiggy Ultra race was in the books.
Will we do it again?
We think so. Stay tuned for an announcement
The Revenge of Millbrook Hill
- Coming Fall 2023
Acknowledgements!!!!!!
I tried to mention these during the Race, but I cannot mention it enough!
A Big thank you to Sportwheels! They helped us behind the scenes with ideas, suggestions, Tent, Swag, a final last minute clothing order. Wow, Thank you to them!
The Cape Chignecto Staff and Crew. They stepped up SO much in the weeks and especially after the storm. They made us feel SO comfortable, were really accommodating! If those guys didn't work their guts out the last few days before the race cutting those trees, it wouldn't have happened. The office staff were really helpful too. A Huge Thank you!
Aerobics First! Aid Station Tent and Swag / Coupons!
Two Islands Brewery for Discount Coupons!
Our Volunteers! Jason Warham, Roy Banks, Bradley Holmes (Arch Gulch Crew), Nick and Katy Porter / Nick Richards (Big Bald Crew), Tony Fromm, Eric Sparling, Mark McColgan, Randy Kuypers (Bunkhouse). Along with a few others who worked the Start / Finish (Patricia and another woman I am SO sorry I didn't get your name!) Matthew Burke for helping out on Friday. Krista Kierstead! Jason White! If I am forgetting anyone, My gosh I am sorry but we got a lot of help!
Stacey Kuypers for making the Rockhammer, Sledgehammer and Jackhammer wooden Disks!
Amanda Mae Dominix-Boucher for making the 2 and 3 Lap Dog Tags!
Finally the Community of Advocate! You are all amazing for welcoming us in for the weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment