Bear Aware... Wait a Minute.. This isn't Boston?

So some of you might know that on the 9th of October I ran a Virtual Marathon.. this was the Virtual Boston Marathon... With a bit of a twist... I was in Calgary, Canada

Having only been 3 weeks out of Ironman Austria, the idea was always just to finish this marathon and get that sweet sweet Unicorn Medal. Now typically to run Boston Marathon, you have to qualify with a near super human paced run.. a pace that I sadly will never be capable of.. even if someone doused me in petrol and set me alight, so alas the virtual effort was my next best option. Still an achievement in itself as they only opened up the field to 20, 000 competitors worldwide so elite in a sense still.

I set about planning a course in which to run.. First ball ache of this process.. I moved out of Canada over 18 years ago, and so I am absolutely not familiar with the area in the slightest. My mother suggested I run at Fish Creek Provincial Park which was near where she lived.. Perfect... My mom took me out on the Friday afternoon to help me scout out the park, show me where I would be running to give me an idea of the terrain and locale.. We pulled up to a residential road where I could take a walk over and check it out, I walked over while they waited in the car no sooner did I get to the edge of the hill as I felt a sharp stabbing pain in my leg just on the top of my shin just below my knee, I jumped and shouted I looked down and saw a huge what I can only assume was a hornet, I danced around at the shear size and pain of the sting of it, I jumped around like a lunatic to get rid of it, no sooner did I think it was gone did I then notice it had moved to my stomach to have another go... I danced around more like a cat on a hot tin roof and managed to get it off me... but the pain in my leg was horrendous and it swelled instantly. I thankfully had some antihistamines in my bag which helped, but it felt as though someone had stabbed me in the leg and this pain did not dissipate.. Great start I thought.. Also not helped by my mother jokingly saying to me.. "Oh I hope its not one of those murder hornets?!" I am sorry WHAT... Murder Hornet.. The Fuck??? With a swift google search we were both confident that there had been no reputable reports of Murder Hornets in Calgary.. But with the pain and reaction I had to the sting I did still wonder... :O

Well after that delightful start the next hurdle was to get home and get a route plotted out so I could have my Garmin navigate me safely around this park. I tried to use some pre plotted routes I found online that would have been perfect but for some reason only known to the IT gods who like to frequently take the piss out of me, neither the GPX or FIT file or any other format would sync to my Garmin... so instead I had to go old school, I signed into Strava and plotted it manually. Route Planning Done!....

I had not been overly organised for my endeavours as though I did look at the weather before we traveled and it did look like we were going to be blessed with sunny and warm weather... what I didn't look at, was the temperature fluctuation. The nights, and subsequent mornings were below zero with a temperature swing of 18-19 degrees with some of the days finishing at 17-22 degrees in the afternoon. I had only packed shorts, my Frimley flyers vest and my hydration vest... I also didn't have foresight enough to pack gels or thermals..I managed to source some gels at a sports shop in the shopping mall, they were not gels I had had before they were Clif gels which are quite similar to Gu gels, which I had had before, though preferred to have these type of gels on the bike as they are super thick and can be hard to run with due to their viscosity. I also bought some electrolyte tabs to put in my water.. I had my Saloman Hydration vest and 2 soft bottled with 250m liquid in each.. I was set??

The route I plotted was from my mothers house, the plan was that I set off around 8 am and hypothetically run in 5 ish hours and be done with enough of the day left to still do other things with the family. I showed my mother the map, and we agreed that she would meet me with the kids at a place called Shannon Terrace which fell just around the 11 Mile mark, She would be able to provide further fuel and water.. We had a good dinner of pasta shells, and I hydrated well the day before. The sting from the "not murder hornet" was still uncomfortable but with pain killers and antihistamines it was manageable... Bring it on I thought, I even cheekily thought.. hmm maybe I could get in a bit of a PB if the course is flat and I run well.. I always have these thoughts, but when it comes to it, I am not always up to acting on it when the day comes. I think it is just ingrained in us, to think hmm what if, but I know that unless your 100% invested in a PB once it gets hard, your brain will get in your way.. that's where it is make or break, and to be honest this was not that important that I was ever going to dig deep to achieve anything other than a finish.

The morning came, and I woke up at 6:30 and got my coffee and porridge. I prepped my gear and popped outside to gauge the temp.. Shit it is -5 on the thermometer.. Well that's bit Fresh... Thankfully I had brought another technical run shirt that I could wear under my Flyers vest, I would have been very much screwed had I not had that.. My mom lent me a pair of gloves, you know the type, the one size fits all stretchy "magic gloves". So I had those as well, and boy am I glad I did, as it didn't warm up for 3 hours or so into my run.. usually when I run and I have gloves I warm up within the first 15 min and then the gloves are nothing but a hindrance to me... Not this time... I kept them on for a good 3 hours

* Now it is a running joke that my husband is scared of Bears in Canada, and so we always tease him about the bears. I managed to catch Brian that morning on WhatsApp before I went out, which wasn't always easy with the 7 hour time difference but thankfully I did this morning. I told him I was going for a run through Fish creek, and I was going to go find him a bear... In the background my mom was mouthing to me, don't be silly Chels there's no bears down there, I know I said but I like winding him up*

I started to run, and it felt good. I generally run well in the cold and I had to focus on not running too fast off the cuff as it is easy to do when it is cold out. The adrenaline of running, mixed with the fresh coldness, often means I set off like a blaze of glory only to pay for it down the line and having run many many marathons before I know that you always start off slow and build up, because its a long ass way to run.. My fuel and nutrition plan were to drink little and often and have a gel after the first hour and then have something every 30 min or so after that, I had 4 clif gels and 2 packs of gummy Honey Stinger energy chews, also something new.. I was living life dangerously.. The first 3 miles went by in a flash, I went to have a sip of my drink and disaster... the spout of my bottle popped off and the entire bottle emptied all over me... I might mention it is still -5.. not ideal.. I am now wet and cold and a water bottle down... F*CK... Never mind I thought, mum will be at Shannon terrace and she will have water and I will refill, its only 8 or so miles totally fine in this temperature with just the one bottle left.. its fine..

I got to about Mile 9 and I see a bright yellow sign in the distance, I haven't got my glasses so as I run closer I try and focus and see what it says... Caution Bear In Area.... I am sorry WHAT... THE... FUCK... Well isn't that just typical, after all the teasing, that was just Karma wasn't it, there is a bear in the area... I am on my own, and due to Three being a shit phone network I was without a phone, as despite my many attempts to add an international data package it never worked and so I was on my own... Don't panic I thought, just make lots of noise, stay on the paths and you'll be fine, but I am not going to lie when I say that a whole new sense of alertness comes over you when you become aware that you are running through the woods, solo, with a bear in the area... at a time in the year when they are hungry and prepping for a winter of hibernation, they are not messing about!!! Just keep running, just keep running... I remembered seeing poo on the path and being annoyed with dog walkers for being so ignorant to have left a big pile of excrement right in the middle of the path... It was only until I came across a second yellow sign describing what to look for when keeping watch for bears... that I saw a picture and realised it was not dog poo... but BEAR poo on the path I was running on... Well needless to say I was AWAKE from that point on!!!

I finally get to the point where I start thinking Mom and the kids should be near, I have seen signs for Shannon Terrace and I am at 10.5 miles... shouldn't be long... I keep running, I see a car park, but I don't see them... never mind there must be another car park... Nope not there either... well maybe they are further up... Nope still not there... 13 Miles, Oh well I must have missed them... never mind I will catch them on the way back, no drama I can get some water then... as I continued on my merry way, I suddenly came across what I will loosely describe as a Hill, but it would be more accurate to describe it as a climbing wall, it was literally near vertical of an incline, and I thought to myself this is why I don't plot routes... I was so preoccupied with getting the miles plotted in, I didn't even think to look at elevation... What a mistake that was...the overall total ascent for the run was 1000 ft...

By this point it's suddenly starting to warm up and I could really use a water stop. But they were no where to be found.

By the time I got to Mile 17, I was desperate... the weather went from -5 to 17 in what felt like minutes...and transitioned from running through the arctic circle.. to running through the Serengeti.. I could swear at one point I spotted a vulture scouting me out for his next snack... I stopped and took off my second shirt, and started to look for other places I might be able to find water, I even looked at the Bow river thinking to myself its a moving river, I am sure it would be fine... Right?!.... now it is definitely worth mentioning that throughout the entire time running, the pain from the "not murder hornet" was present, the only way I can describe it, is when you have had an injection and you feel where the needle penetrated your muscle afterwards when you move your arm.. It felt as though someone had stabbed an ice pick into my leg and with each contraction of my calf.. Searing pain. Throughout the run it became more and more painful to the point that by the time I got to Mile 25 I was in excruciating pain and I was at this point now massively dehydrated...

The way I plotted my route was that I had to do a little extra loop before I headed back to mom's house to my victory finish, but at this point I had to be realistic with myself, I made the decision to cut out the extra loop and to go to my mom's house at 24.5 miles, I needed water in a bad way.. and I need something for my leg. I assumed that after Mom hadn't managed to catch up with me she would have gone home and waited for me there...

But.. I was wrong.. I got to my moms house, a wave of relief passed over me.. I was so grateful that I would soon have water, I literally cannot describe to you the desperation I felt at this point, only to get to the door... and it was locked.. I knocked... no on answered.. I went to the side gate thinking I could get around the back.. Locked... That was it I broke down and I started to cry.. I had reached the ultimate point of despair.. I was in agony where I had been stung and I was absolutely parched having run 24.5 miles on 1 water bottle..

I looked at my mobile, willing it to work and with what I consider to be a minor miracle my Mom's wifi signal worked through the wall and I was able to contact her on WhatsApp... "where are you?" I cried. "I am near the start" she say's "where are you?"... I explained to her what had happened and told her I was at hers now. She told me she would be right there... so I lay there on her front lawn crying... and to my surprise a Jack rabbit popped out of a bush nearby and scampered across the road....

To cut this long story short, My mom got home within 10 minutes of my desperate call and I was able to get some water in me.. never have I been so grateful for water in my life... I had 2.5 miles left and I just wanted to get it done... George and Lauren wanted to come with me, but I knew 2.5 miles was going to be a bit of a stretch for them and at this point I just wanted to get it over with, so I agreed with them they could run the last mile with me... so I set off and ran loops around my mothers block until I had only a Mile left, and I grabbed the kids... we set off and finished it once and for all with them forming a finish line with their hands for me!!!

My Mom said her and the Kids had left the house at 10:30 that morning and had been trying to catch me since then, we just kept missing each other... well that's annoying... I was so gutted that we didn't catch up with each other, the prospect of seeing their faces on the course kept me going, and once I got to a point where I realised I wasn't going to meet up with them... it did knock me a bit, I won't lie.. I told my mom of the bear warnings, and joked with her that it served me right for teasing Brian.. she said that when they were out looking for me they hadn't seen any bear warnings, but they had seen cougar warnings... :O Wonderful.... But also made it clear we were on different paths...

It was definitely an experience, and it was clear through the run, especially in the later stages that I still very much had Ironman in my legs... I did manage to also see two other runners on course who were also doing the Virtual Boston Marathon, identifiable by their numbers pinned to their tops and they had bought the Boston Marathon runners jacket...

The DOMS the next day were unreal, and I can only chock that up to the severe dehydration I suffered... It was an unfortunate series of events that led to that being the case, it is the nature of such events when you are completely self supported.. but also when you choose to run in a place where there are no facilities nearby. Another painful lesson learned, but despite the grim picture I have painted it wasn't all doom and gloom... It was a stunning place to run and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to run while I was back home... but it did present unique challenges which means this is definitely not a run I will swiftly forget..

Below is a picture of the sting after my run.. and some videos to show the progression of my mood... LOL