Ailsa MacDonald to race Quebec Mega Trail 110K in 2023
This year's QMT 25K is set to be the only Canadian race in the Golden Trail Series
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Western States Endurance Run
The team at Québec Mega Trail (QMT), one of Canada’s toughest trail races, has released the elite start lists for this year’s events, which includes Alberta’s Ailsa MacDonald. MacDonald will be joined by 41 other runners from around the world in Charlevoix, Que., this summer. The QMT features nine different races, ranging from a 1K run for kids all the way up to a 100-miler. This year, the 25K race has been selected to be part of the 2023 Golden Trail Series. The various QMT events will run from June 29 to July 2.
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110K
Coming off a stellar 2022 season that saw her take multiple wins and run to a second-place finish at the Western States 100, MacDonald will enter the QMT 110K as a heavy favourite. She will face off against fellow Canadian MyleÌ€ne Sansoucy, who has plenty of experience at the Quebec event, with multiple QMT top-five finishes. She has also won the Ultra-Trail Harricana 80K, and in 2019 she finished 17th in the 98K CCC race at UTMB. In the men’s 110K race, 2022 Bromont Ultra 80K champion Marvin Foucher of Montreal will be a top Canadian looking for another win close to home.
100-miler
In 2022, Newfoundland’s Kelsey Hogan won the 100-miler, crossing the line in a course record 28:18:49, and went on to a top 10 finish at Diagonale des Fous on Reunion Island three months later. She will be back in Quebec this summer looking to defend her crown, but she will have plenty of competition. Alberta’s Nichole Abma will be a big threat to Hogan’s title hopes. Abma is new to the world of 100-milers, with her first shot at the distance coming last summer at a race in B.C., but her inexperience didn’t slow her down, and she ended up finishing in third place.
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Vanessa Morales of France is another athlete to watch come race day. Morales is an experienced ultrarunner who is best known for her women’s record for the fastest ascent and descent of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
On the men’s side, last year’s second-place finisher, Quebec local Jean-François Cauchon, will lead the way. In 2022, Cauchon finished just half an hour behind Nepal’s Sangé Sherpa, who set a course record in 19:35:52, and this year he will look to take one more step up to the top of the podium. He will face many international challengers, as well as a couple of fellow Quebecers in Marc-Antoine Forand (second-place finisher at the 2021 Bromont Ultra 160) and Matthieu Pelletier (winner of the 2022 Bromont Ultra 160).
25K
The 25K race may be much shorter than some of the other distances offered, but it is sure to be a tough and exciting race, especially with the added importance of the Golden Trail Series label. In the men’s race, Quebec’s Samuël Poher will be a name to watch. Poher won the 65K race at last year’s Ultra-Trail Harricana by more than half an hour. On the women’s side, Canadian Olympic cross-country skier and former University of Laval cross-country runner Anne-Marie Comeau will look to steal the win from a stacked international lineup.
To see the full start lists, click here.
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