After having very little sleep Friday night we piled into Brigid Pomeroy's minivan at 1:45 am Saturday and were off to Gold River with coffees in hand.
Our group was composed of Brigid, on her fifth Walk, Penny Hagel, on number 3, and four Great Walk virgins, Brent, Jenni Rozich, Toni Peniuk and myself.
After a noisy ride we arrived in Gold River with no time to spare. I was the last person to register, #883, then it was a dash to the start.
We held hands and with Brent leading the way wound our way up to the front of the crowd, past the rope that separates runners from walkers. Now I'm freaking! Moments later we were off in the still, deep dark of early morning. There was only the faintest trace of light in the sky.
We jogged for the first couple hundred metres to get ahead of the crowd then settled into a fast walk. We kept together at first but I found it harder to walk than to do a slow jog. I never practice walking for long periods so I'm not good at it.
It was raining on and off as we climbed the first 15 km to the top of the pass. At the top there was stil1 a metre or so of snow and the wind and rain were very cold. I was worried that I was under-dressed in shorts, a long-sleeve shirt, running jacket and running hat.
Toni, Jenni and I ran together over the pass and down to checkpoint 3. I hadn't intended to do it as a race but rather, to stay in a group and finish, probably in nine hours. But I was worried about walking too much -- it was harder than running.
Running slowly felt good. Once we started going downhill I found it easy to go faster so I started to pick it up. It was then I thought I could catch my friend, Dale Hedquist, who had a goal of seven hours. I caught him before the halfway point. Now that I was racing I started to pace myself by doing eight minutes of running and 1-4 minutes of walking, depending how tired I felt.
At about 45 km I really felt intimidated because I was getting tired. I had just run more than a marathon, the most I had ever run, and I had 19 km to go.
The hills started after the eighth checkpoint and it was very hard to stick to the eight and one routine.
I took more two-minute walk breaks and was trying all sorts of things to make my legs feel better like shaking them and doing squats.
At the next check point they told me I had finished the hills and it was all flat and downhill home.
The check points got more frequent near the end. The rain was really coming down over the last 10 K. I had been drinking Powerade steadily, eating cookies and about three Powerbars.
At the last few checkpoints I started eating pretzels, which helped replenish my salt.
I had to pry myself away from the aid stations.
It was getting difticult to continue.
After the 11th checkpoint the road went steeply down hill and I went quite fast but my right knee started to hurt and I felt pressure was building inside it.
At checkpoint 12, with 3.6K to go, an older fellow walked out and handed me a cup of Powerade. They asked me how I was doing and they told me I was 18th overall!
I said thanks and started running immediately to see if I could catch any more people. A moment later I was crying. I think it was the shock of being so far up and feeling so strong after such a long ordeal.
The home stretch with Tahsis in sight was heavenly and when I finally put my foot on pavement I knew it was completed. Seconds later I could hear the distant reverberation of a siren as the arrows led me through the streets to the finish.
I finished in 6:41, 17th overall. I was warmly greet- ed at the front door of the hall. My hand was shaken by the mayor and everyone was clapping.
Inside the hall they asked me if I was cold and I said no, just wet but warm. I was instructed to remove my wet clothes (down to the shorts) and was handed a towel and a blanket.
I proceeded to have my feet massaged in a foot massager.
All in all it was a very grueling experience, matched only by the hospitality and attention we received from the wonderful volunteers who make this event very worthwhile.
You truly feel like you have completed something Great when you step in the door at the hall in Tahsis.
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