A rest day and memories….

OMG I look young!..I think this was at the end of Leg 5 at Death Race in Grande Cache Alberta in, 2001?

So much fun running the dark…..there are so many things on that long weekend in August that bring back so many awesome memories…

sharing a hotel room with 6 other guys, because there were no other rooms available…

sitting comfortably in our room, thinking our Leg 4 guy was no where near done, then casually driving out to the transition spot, and finding out Rod had been waiting almost 30 minutes for us/me..then me taking off like a rocket on the route….along the highway, up through the trees, eventually on a gravel road, in the dark, scrambling down a slippery hill to get to a jet boat that took me across the Sulphur River to a crazy climb….did I say it rained like crazy!…..scrambling, then running along a trail covered in roots and branches and rocks….and what was that I heard in the trees (a bear? cougar? a mouse?)…and yes, if I slipped and fell to the left, I’d end up falling into those trees, if I fell to the right, off a cliff into that river I just crossed….more trails, then another gravel road, and of course up hill, back into town and to the finish line….

I returned 9 more times…the last time was in 2008….I’d run legs 2, 4 and 5…my final goal was to start and finish leg 5 before the sun went down….and I did..

honest, it was daylight..the camera just had a slow shutter speed…

Since then I’ve taken part in other off road races…..they’ve all been fun, but not like this……on that weekend every August, Death Race and us is the only thing going on…..I love the drive up to Grande Cache, as soon as I’d pull into town it felt like I was home, where I was supposed to be….