My journey to the 2021 Squamish 50/50
That River is Not on the Map
My journey to Squamish 50/50 in 2021 was a circuitous one. Really though, when I decided that I was going to choose a goal race several months away during a global pandemic, I knew I was going to have to be ready to roll with the punches. And roll I did.
I chose the Whistler Alpine Meadows 110km distance as my goal race, and I enlisted the help of Ridgeline Athletics to get there. It could only help that race director Gary Robbins would also be my coach. Any inside information has to be good, right?!
I chose this particular race because it seemed like a crazy enough test that I could accomplish, but I didn’t really know if I could actually make it. It’s a very cool thing to be able to take on a challenge you don’t know if you will be able to accomplish. It’s thrilling. It’s also a huge privilege. I’m very lucky to be able to just go run in the bush for hours on end, in the hopes of being able to run through the bush for a whole bunch more hours on end. You can choose any “life is short” cliche you want, but it’s true. So I’m super happy when I can do something that makes me so happy and scares me a bit :)
Training commenced on January 1st of 2021, and the plan was to build a base during the first 4 months of the year so that I was ready to take on the necessary volume over the summer months for the goal race in September. This was great. I got to know my coaches Gary and Eric, and they got to know me as well. I’m a Postie so it was great to have them adjust my training load based on how much walking and exercise I was already getting from delivering the mail. We were making all the gains we needed to be in a great place for the summer working towards WAM 110.
The WAM 110 was not meant to be though, which was just a punch to roll with. The Coast Mountain team did everything they could, including adjusting and attempting to get a 90km course approved. It was not possible to get approval though, and that meant I had to find another goal race. Squamish 50/50 had already been approved, and so I was set for my new challenge.
After a brief period of being slightly depressed about the loss of WAM as a goal, training picked up and went great. The summer was very productive, including plenty of hill training, interval running, back-to-backs, long runs, and more.
One long run in particular really made my summer. It was a run with two friends, Chris and Jeff, on the Coast Mountain Trail Series “Buckin Hell” course. We called our version “Huckin Bell” and my wife Sheena was awesome enough to make us some bibs and come out and crew us (along with another great friend of ours, Dani). It was such a treat to have a crew out there and I think it was a huge help for all of us. Jeff finished his first-ever 50k that day. The day also saw Chris finish his 2nd ever, and I could not have been more proud of those two. Especially as I watched them come across the line, unable to make it myself, DNF’ing and seizing out at the last aid station.
That DNF is the best thing that’s happened in my running “career”. Staying strong for a long distance is actually pretty simple, but it is really easy to get off track. There are five things you want to stay on top of to keep in control of your race day:
Hydration - You need to drink enough water.
Electrolytes - Your body needs water and electrolytes.
Food/Fuel - You gotta take in calories to have any chance of lasting.
Pace - If you blow yourself up, well, you blew yourself up…
Stay Cool/Warm - If it’s hot, keep your core temperature down. Cold? Keep your core warm.
Simple right?
I blew 4 of those that day (pace was bang on), but the others were a mess. I ignored the signs when my pee got darker, or when my shoulder muscles spasmed and I joked it was because I was an old man. I stopped eating as much as I needed. I got completely off track. To stay on track is hard, but I learned that day that you need to do everything possible to do so because there are so few variables you can actually control. I didn’t control my day at all and as a result, I finished before the finish.
The rest of my training was amazing. We got the plan humming along, I took those lessons forward and nailed my next super long run. I learned to slow down and eat and drink even more. I took breaks and ordered hot food. My mentality changed and my runs became even “easier”. Taking a few extra minutes here and there to eat and drink properly made runs feel shorter in the end. I felt like I had a strategy nailed down and I had enough km on my legs to be ready for the challenge of 50 miles on day 1 and 50km on day 2.
The last challenge I experienced before race day was mentally being ready to race, and still having to wait. The slight change in schedule from WAM in September to Squamish 50 in October meant a few extra weeks of training. I was definitely irritable during those last few weeks and just wanted to get after it. I had been training all summer after all, and I was ready for whatever Squamish had in store for me.
Turns out what Squamish had in store for me and the hundreds of other runners that weekend was a relentless torrential downpour that weather pundits referred to as an “atmospheric river”. Good fun. 180mm of good fun from Thursday night to Sunday morning. Super duper good fun.
It actually was mostly, super-duper good fun. The thing with rain is, you can only get so wet before you can’t really get wetter. Sure, we were running up Galactic Scheisse in a few inches of water. But have you ever gone up Galactic before? I’ve done that climb a few times now, and let me tell you, the distraction and pure hilarity (a few of the trail marking flags were underwater, you couldn’t help but laugh) of the amount of water flowing down the trail was welcome. It felt like the amount of water on the course created more camaraderie than usual between the runners and volunteers alike, a sort of “we’re all in this together” mentality. One of those volunteers was my friend Jeannine, so it was awesome to see her at the “Corners” aid station! It was all a blast, just as it was a blast descending waterfalls on the trails. I really felt all my training had prepared me for this weekend and I was enjoying the fruits of my labour.
*Quick pause here to shout out and thank all you race volunteers. From this race of course, but every race in general. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It’s because of you we get to play, you’re the best.*
Of course, being prepared as possible doesn’t mean it was perfect. Far from it! Gary actually said (sarcastically) during his pre-race speech that there would be prizes for anyone who didn’t fall during the race because it’s so slippery out there. I thought I was actually going to get through and I was more than 55 km in before I turfed it. Wet woodwork did me in. I hit my hand off the wood hard, but I was more upset about falling after being told I would fall. My ego really wanted to make it through that challenge. Instead, I took a big ole slice of humble pie and moved on.
Thankfully it wasn’t real pie, a big slice wouldn’t have gone down so well, I don’t think. I had a difficult time with my appetite during the last 5 hours of my run. But my experience picked me up here. I slowed down my pace and jammed down my food. I knew in order to have any chance of finishing, and successfully starting the following day, I would need to keep eating. I washed it down with Nuun electrolytes and never stopped eating during the last 25km or so. Had I not blown up so bad during that training run over the summer, I don’t think I would have stayed on top of this in the same way. Those lessons will continue to pay dividends for a long time I think. This allowed me to stay strong and cross the finish line in just over 13 hours. “I feel surprisingly good!” I told Gary at the finish line, and his response was “You look surprisingly good!”. Day 1, a little over 50 miles (though not on Strava, as my watch died about 2 miles short of the finish line), the longest run of my life, was done. All I had to do was get up in the morning and run 50 more km.
Of course, there is a whole lot left to do before getting up in the morning. Recovery is important and that means getting as much food in as you can, staying hydrated, getting the blood out of your legs (lie with your legs up the wall), and getting sleep are all very important. I had to trade a bit of sleep for food, as my appetite took a while to kick in. I had actually lied down and was attempting to go to sleep when my stomach finally said “feed me”. So I got out of bed and ate some food fairly quickly before lying back down. I fell asleep sometime around 10:45 pm and I believe I slept well through the night.
Thankfully, as Gary had warned me to do, I set multiple alarms. Because the main one I set didn’t go off. I had not paid close enough attention when setting it. A backup for 5 minutes later went off and I was up at 4:05 am, slightly bemused at the sound of the foreign alarm, but up and ready for more singletrack and liquid sunshine.
Getting to the start line was surprisingly easy (shoutout Howe Sound Inn and Brewery, you can’t stay any closer to the 50m start/finish and 50km finish than the Inn, and they’re great), my body felt good and even on limited sleep I was ready to take on the day. I was even more ready than I thought I would be, because I had met a fellow runner named Aaron during the 50-mile course who was also staying at the Inn, and we split a cab to the start line. So we got to chat all about the day before and how crazy it was, and what we had ahead of us, and how crazy it was gonna be. It was fantastic. I was loose and limber and even had a running partner for a short while when we were set free at 6 am.
It’s an awesome feeling to start running and have your legs under you, even after having run 50 miles the day before. I felt great as we started under headlamp again, making our way over trails that had seen more rain and more boots since the day before. I used visualization techniques anytime a negative thought crept into my head. I simply “crumpled” that thought in my hand, and blew it away into the wind. This was really effective and helped me focus on the tough course. The focus was good because it was a bit more slippery, and a few degrees colder than the day before, but I was in great spirits passing through the first aid station “Corners”. Corners is a bit of a landmark during the 50/50 on day 2. They say just to get there, and you’ll know whether you should be out there or not. I knew I should be out there, and I was loving it.
I made my way up and through the Galactic River once more and felt great. I was excited as the trail started to descend, and the waterfalls awaited our anxious pitter-pattering. These conditions made a technical descent all the more difficult. Adding even more difficulty was the fact that the water rushing over our feet felt colder than it did the day before. So I made a decision. 100km into my weekend, I was going to run full idiot downhill to get past the large groups of slower runners, so I could get space and not have to pick down slowly in the rushing cold water with the large groups. I heard a few members of those large groups comment as I blasted past on some rather hilarious lines, through the knee-deep water and labyrinth of whitecapped tree roots and rocks, making sure to joke and laugh along with them. The joke, however, was on me.
The span of downhill that I ran full moron was maybe 600m. But it nearly ended my weekend. Remember how “pace” is super important? Yeah, a max heart rate descent through the water park from hell is a good way to blow yourself up quick. And that’s pretty much what I did! That could have ended my weekend, but here again, the experience from the DNF over the summer picked me up. I immediately killed my pace and had some food and drink. I took my time and got through the second aid station and onto aid station three, Quest University. This was the lowest I had felt all weekend, but I also knew that this aid station was where I could get my day back on track.
I took nearly 30 minutes and ate a whack of food (cream cheese and swiss cheese bagel, ham and cheese croissant, a few mini chocolate bars). I drank 600ml of electrolytes. My wife Sheena had met me there with a change of tights, socks, and shoes as well. She had met me several times throughout the races and even went to the laundromat on the 1st day to make sure I had dry stuff for day 2. It sure helps when you have support like this, let me tell you! Her support was amazing and she even had her friend Jacqueline along her side for some extra cheering. I was happy to have had the great company, and I managed to get my race back on track. As I headed off onto the back half of the course, I was pretty confident I was going to be getting that 1blue hat.
Turns out my confidence was well placed, as the rest of the day went really well. I just went from aid station to aid station, eating and drinking the entire time. At the very last aid station “far side”, they are so encouraging. One lady sent a text to Sheena for me to let her know I was on my way. Another volunteer even showed off their own blue hat and told me mine is just around the corner! Leaving that aid station was a damn good feeling and the rest of the run felt like a celebration of 9+ months of hard work. I felt like I blasted through that last 10k. I ran and cried on and off during the last 3km. Good cathartic crying! My last kilometre of the weekend was also my fastest and when I heard Sheena cheering, along with our friends Elaine, Aaron, Addison, and Charlie, I gave it all I had. Spotting Gary and coming in hot for a high five was amazing.
Twenty-two hours, forty-eight minutes, and eight seconds. Over nine months and four hundred hours of training. Finished. Blue hat acquired. Job done.
I didn’t do the job alone and wouldn’t pretend that was true for a second. Sheena is always supportive of me chasing my goals, and I’m so grateful for everything she does for me. Eric and Gary at Ridgeline Athletics were incredible to work with. If you have the opportunity to work with a coach, I highly recommend it. I had so many running friends who were incredibly supportive as well and joined me out on the trails way more often than I would have ever expected (it’s always amazing when I ask someone if they want to go spend several hours running through the bush and they say yes). Thank you all for getting me over the finish line.
This one feels different. I have more control over my day than I ever have before. I’ve gone further than I’ve ever imagined and felt stronger than I could have ever hoped for. I’m so excited to be at this point. I’m not sure where I go next, but I know if there’s dirt under my feet, mountains and forests to dance through, and even if there is an atmospheric river to deal with, I’ll be pretty fucking pumped. As always ;)
2022 Squamish 50 runs August 20-21. Registration opens Friday, November 19 @ 7 am PST and the 50k usually fills in a few minutes.
1st time Squamish 50/50 finishers receive a Blue “Squamish 50” trucker-style hat. There are different colours awarded depending on how many times an individual has finished the race.