6TH PLACE IN THE FEMALE CAT-XC DE LA VALLEE 2015

As we started to run I felt my lungs so heavy and I had, since the day before, a stitch that didn’t want to go away (I probably strained my diaphragm or an intercostal muscle during the event the night before with the asthma attack). The air was so humid that I could not push hard and it was climbing and climbing and climbing.

I had as a strategy to aim for the aid stations breaking down the distances in more manageable tasks. The first one was a little before what was expected but hey I wasn’t going to complain as I was short in water already. I had left with one liter and clearly needed to refill already after 9+km only.

I kept on going at a very slow pace in that very technical terrain and made it to the second aid station that was over a km off further than expected, totally dehydrated again. 19km done and 3L of water/nuun later and a few gels and I was on my way again after over 3h30 hours of suffering through the heat. I was putputting away when a girl passed me and said we had to hurry cause we were not going to make the cutoff. What??? A cutoff? I won’t make a cutoff?

I realised that our pace was barely 5.5km/h. we were at 20-21km in about 4h and we had about 6km to the next aid station where the cut off was at 5h after start.

On the way I saw a girl taking a face plant and stopped and stayed with her for a bit to make sure she was ok to continue then I tried to push it harder to make the cut off.

By then the temperature started to warm up and the humidity to decrease so I could start pushing a little more. I made the cut off with 15min to spare but I stopped too long there. I left the transition with the girl who told me about the cut off and thought we could do a way together but soon I realised she had given a lot to make the cut off and was going to slow down a lot so I took off.

It was a massive climb from there on and the 10km race was going that way which mean that the mud fest was just awful after all those racers going through.

I climbed well and passed many people but got passed back by a few later on in the descent where I kept wiping out on mud patches.

I was very relieved to see the gravel road and the signs to the finish after 7h of racing.

I could not believe that it took me 7h to do 36km. I ran my 50km in Utah in 6h20 and my 60km Ultimate xc which is a hard and technical race in 8h36. This didn’t make sense. My toes and body in general were bruised and sore. My diaphragm was hurting (I used the puffer once on Saturday morning and once during the race). I was not sure I would take the start the next morning. I was feeling so rough.

Celine from our group was in 2^nd place in the women at the time and decided to not race the third day after wiping out and cutting her knee. Dave our awesome strong coach had stopped at the second aid station on the 36km due to trouble with humidity.

The next morning I learnt that a few more people wouldn’t start the day. I went to the physio tent and she tapped my ribs/intercostal muscles that were hurting more and more.

This was Sunday morning and this time we would be running 21km with the people who did the 10km the day before instead of the 36km but also with people doing the 21km only.

In the bus they announced to us that the terrain would be a little better than the day before but that there would be only one feed station and that it was hard to bring water there so we wouldn’t be able to fill up our bladders. WHAT??? I drank about 5L the day before during the 36km and I would be able to drink only 1L (that I had in my pack at the time of the announcement) and a glass after 10km??? for another 11km??

From the start on I took the puffer. It was as humid as the day before. I was scared of the outcome.

The cut off this time was on the finish line at 4 hours. I was worried to not make it if the terrain wasn’t better than the day before.

Thankfully the first few kms were runnable but it started climbing quickly and more and more. I was getting passed by many people but mainly by people who didn’t run the 3 days.

At the 4km mark I was climbing and feeling ok but a girl passed me and she was wearing perfume big time. Almost instantly the asthma started. I also started feeling nauseous which never happened before. I slowed down and took the puffer again.

After a while I started feeling a bit better and we got to the feed station. I tried to be conservative with the water but I had none left by the time I reached the aid station. I was allowed to half fill my bladder. I knew this wouldn’t be pretty as it was hotter and hotter and I would run out of water inevitably.

Soon after the feed station I hoped on a train composed by a brother (Stephane) and his sister (Louise).

Stephane had done the trans vallee like me and his sister the shorter one.

She was decided for both of them that they would make the cut off and kept being over positive the whole way. I liked it and asked if they minded if I jumped on the train.

They welcomed me and we worked as team to the finish. I wiped out again a couple of times, once two feet in the air and fell on the only rock around on my bum (still having trouble sitting right now).

They wiped out too. I ran out of water as expected 3-4km before the end of the race.

We passed the line hands in hands in 3h40 so happy to be done with that race and the mud.

I learnt looking at the results that I went from 10^th place to 6^th place in the women for the trans vallee which considering my health state at the time and the competitiveness of the field was a very good result.

My wolverine (James) cut is leg but still managed to finish 10^th in the men.

And what really made my day was wining the draw price, a new suunto ambit 3 sport :D

Thanks to 2XU for keeping me alive and going during this gruelling effort as well as Altra shoes. I ran the entire 3 days with my lonepeak and I seriously doubt I could have done it with any other shoes considering the beating they took over those 3 days.

Thanks to Accel gels (PacificHealthLab) and stongbars I kept fuelled up and Nuun kept me hydrated as much as can be.

K2O 2015-NAT DNF AFTER 115.4KM OF PADDLING

James, John (his team mate) and I left on Friday afternoon to Kingston to participate in the 200km paddle K2O from Kingston to Ottawa. The boys were going to paddle a canoe and I had borrowed a light and fast surfski from a friend (a think surfski).

I had a lot of troubles last year with another think boat because of weeds getting caught in the rudder and the race had been cancelled last year half way due to the rough weather.

I had made it to the 72-75km mark and was nervous for this year although I had this year a weed deflector…so I thought I would be off the weeds.

My super awesome support crew, Joel Perrella from Breathe Magazine, met me on Friday night and we went through gears and food etc..

On Saturday morning we started the race at 6am.

From the start on I was stuck in a massive patch of weeds. To the point that I saw even the SUP going away at the distance while I was still fighting with the weeds. I begged ahead for help since there were no more boats ahead and luckily Rick, another racer, waited and took the weeds off for me. The first leg was hard as the weeds seemed to be everywhere.

As I was going along another surfski was struggling so we were de-weeding each other’s as we went.

Matt (that helped me out last year) did also a way with me taking the weeds every so often so we could keep a good pace.

We finally made some ground and went back ahead of the SUPs and other kayaks.

At the first lock I saw just ahead of me James canoe and Brad Jenning’s canoe from get out there.

 I caught up to James’ boat during that second leg and as I past them the weeds got me again. I asked if he could grab the weeds as I was next to the boat and James did but his team mate wasn’t happy and let me know that they would not spend their time helping me out…So I left them and went ahead.

I then caught up to Brad’s canoe on the next leg and they nicely helped me out as I was passing them.

The next few legs went ok but the weeds started to be more abundant again and after a little while I got caught back up by the two canoes (Brad and James). I did half that leg next to Brad’s boat chit chatting along until we reached the 69.7km lock.

That was the last lock I saw last year, being rescued a few kms later.

I made it through the lock and went on for the 30km+ leg. As I left I grabbed 3 gels, thinking it would be enough for 30km…big mistake. I think I was already really hungry by that point (despite the multiple sandwiches that Joel had prepared for me) and dehydrated a bit.

I had my first gel early on and by the time I got ti the 20kmm or so I was out of food. Just when I realise that I wouldn’t see my support crew until the 34km mark because they couldn’t reach the poonamalie lockstation at 30km. Hunger settled in. I had caught back to James’s boat by that point but didn’t dare asking for food after the reaction of his team mate earlier.

A few kms before Poonamalie I hit a patch of weeds and I was exhausted. I hit the wall big time. By the time I reached Poonamalie (101km mark of the race) James’s boat was 30min ahead (I was with them 2km before) and I was in a really bad shape. My stomach was burning from what I thought was a little bit of chaffing and the inside of my stomach was hurting by hunger. I am so lucky and thankful the volunteer in place gave me something to drink (an ensure) and I was off to Smith Falls.

The weeds were even worse than before and the 4km seemed to never end.

When I got to Smith Falls at 8h30pm after 14h30 I was tired.

 Most of the field would stop the race there (doing the ½ course). I showed to someone my belly and they patched it up and they made me stop for a bit before going again. My entire belly was red and some places more burnt than others.

The cut off was at midnight at Smith so I was way ahead of schedule and i was actually very decently placed in the 100km race if i had stopped there.

I left soon after (around 9pm) in the dark alone. By that point my friend Augusto had met up with Joel to give him a hand.

The next couple of locks went ok although very weedy. 

I didn’t see my support crew at one of the lock but saw the race director. I was then only 5-7km away from the next lock (Killarnock I think it is). That’s when things went wrong. I had nobody ahead or behind me. I was following my map which said to stay on the left shore but after a while I got in a massive swamp with lily pads all around and no room to even put a paddle in the middle….Just imagine what was going on in the back of my boat with my pretty long rudder getting literally stuck there. I couldn’t move much (less than a km per hour), the fog settled and I couldn’t see any buoys. Thanks to the headlamp the thousand bugs around me had decided to crawl through my face in my ear and nose. I couldn’t turn off the light as I really needed to find the navigational channel.

I then took my gps that I had tested before and that was working but I had to change the map for the second half of the race and for some reason the gps was telling me to go left. There was no left!!! It was lily pads and the shore. After what felt like a really long panick moment I decided to call the race director. I asked him if he could see me on his map explaining that I couldn’t see the navigational channel because of the fog and whether I was still in the right lake?? He told me I was in the right direction. “Keep left” he said. After telling him that left was NOT an option I started wandering on the right more and more and finally spotted a buoy far in the distance…on the other side of the lake on the Right-hand side.

I followed the buoys going all around the bloody lake to finally find the lockstation…It was now 11:30pm and I was at 115.4km. I had done the last 11.4km in 2h30…BRUTAL!!!

I knew the weeds wouldn’t get much better but I also knew there was only 10,5km left in open lakes before getting into the narrow canal where you can’t get lost anymore.

I asked the guys for some arm warmers and was going to continue when the race director came to ask me to stop the race. He was worried about my safety. He said all the other boats behind me (and there were many according to him at smith falls) had quit and he was concerned letting me continue alone.

That is the first time I get stopped from a race without missing any cut offs, being ahead of my schedule.

I had done 115.4km in 17h30 and I had 18h left to do the remaining 87…I could totally do it. But Hey he was the race director. He left and we started packing up my stuff. 45min later I was changed and ready to go when I saw a canoe at the lock, it was a team..and they let them keep on going…WTF???

The next morning when I woke up early I saw that two other teams had kept on going hours after I had been asked to stop. I wasn’t and I am still not happy about it. The race director sent me an email to apologies and told me that afterthought he should have asked me to just stop for a while…After all I had time…but all the apologies in the world won’t unfortunately make the failure feeling to go away.

James, strong as always, kept on going and finished a little after 30h of paddling.

I would never do this race again with a fixed rudder…maybe with a kick up rudder….If I can get over this year’s race.

I want to say that my support crew, Joel Perrella was the best in the world and that you all should check out his awesome magazine breathemag J

I also want to thank my sponsors for supporting me through this gruelling event, Nuun hydration, PacificHealthlab and strongbar nutrition. NRS and 2XU for the awesome gears to keep me moving and warm.

Nat