Sulphur Springs 100-Mile Trail Run: Humble pie and other lessons

A few weeks ago I jumped into my first running race of the season, a bit of a late start I suppose, but I had committed to this event several months ago and hate to go back on my word. My longtime friend Mark Tamminga had organized two teams to compete for the record on the 100-mile relay in the Sulphur Springs Trail Run. Our teams, Don’t Get Lost 1 and 2 (aka Great the Great and the Trixinator – named after our respective Vizsla mascots) were composed of local, and ex-Hamilton runners who have all trained together at some point in the past, so there were a lot of friendly faces and catching up at the event. Last year, Mark had pulled a team together that set the relay record with a sub-12 hour finish. This year, he was convinced he could beat it.

Each eight-person team was created at random. Mark emailed all of us the predicted start times for each lap and opened it up on a first come, first served basis. I opted for the anchor leg (4:30 p.m.) since I was flying in from Calgary that morning, only arriving in Hamilton at 12:30 p.m. The random team allocation resulted in Greta the Great looking pretty stacked compared to my team, and a week prior to the event, I emailed Mark asking if he felt that it would be a fair contest. His reply was “The other team has the faster runners on paper, but we have bigger hearts and greater purity of purpose”, ummmm, okay. Not reassured in the slightest, I boarded the plane expecting to arrive to a drubbing in progress, and live with a year of jabs and teasing by the other team, which of course included my pal Turbo, who was running particularly well at the time.

My flight landed on schedule, and since the airport was only a short drive from the race start, I decided to make a detour to Subway for lunch since I had some time. Although I rarely eat sandwiches, I opted for a foot-long (against my better judgment to go for a six-inch) tuna on flatbread. I powered it down quickly, and immediately noticed how heavy it felt in my stomach. I arrived at the start line soon after, and to my amazement, “Trixinator” was ahead by 70 seconds. Despite amassing an early lead of over 10 minutes, “Great the Great” was beginning to slow down. I was in shock. It was a legitimate race now and our final few runners were pretty evenly matched, so all things considered, we had a chance to hold them off. I’m not going to lie – I was pretty stoked.

As we got closer to my leg, and our lead continued to hold, the more “senior” runners on the team took the opportunity to remind me about my earlier comments to Mark regarding us not being evenly matched. I was definitely eating crow at that point and alternated between apologizing to, and congratulating my teammates for proving me wrong in spectacular fashion.

As the minutes ticked down to my anchor leg, I began to worry that I would be the weak-link on the team, and potentially blow our tenuous lead. The now partially digested foot-long sub that I had eaten for lunch still felt heavy in my gut, and as I started my warm-up, I felt lethargic, lead footed, and dyspeptic. In a bit of a panic I asked Mark if he thought that it might be a good idea to “purge” myself before I ran, so that I wouldn’t have this undigested mass sitting in my stomach. Although he had never taken that drastic action to help his own racing, he encouraged me to do what was necessary to run fast, and hold the lead. Empowered by his endorsement, I emptied my stomach contents into the forest (surprisingly hard to do when sober), had a few swigs of water, and the finished my warm-up, feeling extraordinarily, much better. My leg began soon after and for the most part, I had an incredible run. I felt light, fast, and most importantly, held the lead to seal the victory and set a new team record.

Racing as part of a team reminded me how enjoyable these events are when you get to work for a common goal, and have the camaraderie and support to help motivate you to do your best. I also (re)learned two very important lessons: 1. Don’t eat a heavy meal close to race time, and 2. Predictions about people made on paper don’t always stand-up in real life, especially when you fail to consider their motivation, desire, and heart. In the end, Mark was right: The other team had the faster runners on paper, but we had bigger hearts and greater purity of purpose”. This episode reminded me that if we continually strive to do our best, anything is possible, and it’s always important to have faith in your team.