What I Tried This Week: Racing for a Solid 48 Hours

Yes, you read the title correctly. This time, I truly did test my limits and this was the first race I signed up for that I was uncertain of whether or not I could complete it.

I have run marathons in the past, I have done bike races, I even even tried my hand at a few triathlons and ultramarathons, but I have never done a race that delivers on 160 miles of sheer hurt.

I signed up for the Equinox Traverse in Pennsylvania, a two-day adventure race that promises racers the thrill of a lifetime. The Equinox is an adventure race which is a combination of two or more endurance disciplines, including orienteering and navigation, cross-country running or trekking, mountain biking, paddling and climbing and related rope skills. It can range from the sprint distance to a seven-day event.

The longest adventure race I have tackled up to this point was eight hours so I knew I would be entering uncharted race territory in the first quarter of the race alone.

We began the race at 9 a.m. Saturday morning after an hour of carefully plotting check points and routes for the first leg, which was on mountain bikes. The terrain was extremely difficult for me to begin with as I am used to training in south-western Ontario where we don’t have the luxury of the 25,000+ feet of elevation gain we were treated to over the course of the race.

Following the bike leg, we transitioned to the trekking portion where we were trail running and bushwhacking to search for check points.

After we had completed this, we reached the transition area at 6 p.m. and plotted our night course which had us back on the bikes. This was my very first experience night racing and it was stunning to watch the stars as we cycled up hills in the darkness.

As the sun rose in the morning, I reached my lowest point of the race. It was akin to hitting the wall during a marathon. I was completely sapped of energy. I resorted to pushing my bike up the hills with my forehead resting on the handlebars.

I learned in my first race was that low times will arise through the course of a multi-day race, but if you persevere, they will pass.

My fatigue and a mistake on the course resulted in our team skipping over the second trekking portion and we cycled to the paddling transition. We missed the boat launch by minutes which meant an alternate course as we went into our second night. Although it would be easy for team morale to lower at this point, we had a strong team with great attitudes and we adjusted our expectations and headed out for the final leg of the race on our mountain bikes.

We completed the final leg with the final four check points and arrived at the finish line after over 40 hours of racing.

This was by far the most difficult race I have ever done and I look forward to trying my hand at a few more in the future!

You can find me on twitter @lacesandlattes and my personal blog.