“I’m considering running the Fat Ass trail run in Batawa on Sunday morning. You have plans that day? ” I said.
“What day?” said Chris.
“Sunday morning at 7:30am,”.
“This Sunday?”.
Chris and I had this text conversation on the Friday morning before the race. It was not surprising when Chris responded that he was absolutely up for it, even after I explained that we would have to leave at 4:30am and that the race course was covered with snow.
We arrived at the Batawa ski hill at around 6:45am on Sunday morning. Neither Chris nor I had ever heard of Batawa. Batawa is a small community in Quinte West, Ontario which is about twenty minutes West of Belleville. The Bata shoe company set up the community around a shoe factory in 1939. The factory closed in 2000 and is now being used as a condo complex.
Chris and I had come to run the Bad Ass, 6 hour trail race. It is a 7.5km loop through the woods around a small ski hill. There are two aid stations, one mid-loop and one about 200m from the start/finish. You would not get credit for partial loops so it was important to be strategic with your time. The name Fat Ass is hilarious but is also used by the trail running community to describe large group runs. I found an interesting history on fat ass runs on OutThere Outdoors.
Chris and I were expecting to start in the dark and were glad to see the sun rise before the race. The race started with “okay, you can go,” from a race volunteer and we ran up the steep, snow-covered ski hill. Chris and I immediately noticed a runner named Jeffrey who charged out in front of the pack. Chris and I were doing the race as a training run but we also wanted to compete. We knew that we could not keep up with Jeffrey’s pace though. It’s not uncommon for runners to go out too fast during ultra-marathons. We decided to keep an eye on Jeffrey to see if he would slow down in the later loops. We were very pleased with the course, it was runnable with a good mix of climbs and descents. Blue skies and beautiful views greeted us as we ran in and out of the woods. It was a frosty -9 degrees Celsius but we were comfortable in our running gear.
We finished our first loop in 46 minutes and our second loop in 47 minutes. We started our third loop at the same time as the 17.5km and 25km race was starting. We had to push hard to get to the front of this group of 180 runners. We didn’t want to be stuck behind slower runners on the narrow trails. We expended a lot of energy passing runners but we got to the front of the pack with the faster runners at the mid-way point of the loop. We finished loop 3 in just under 46 minutes, putting up our fastest loop so far. Chris and I were both feeling tired from working hard on passing the runners from the 17.5km and 25km races. We slowed down on loop 4 but still progressed well. We were about 200m from the start/finish line when Jeffrey came flying out of the woods. He called out “Aren’t these great conditions?” as he passed us. Chris and I knew that we were in the top 5 for this race but we had just been lapped by Jeffrey. It was clear that Jeffrey could easily hold his fast pace and that he was not going to blow up. We were both very impressed. Chris and I finished loop 4 in just under 52 minutes.
We were running well on loop 5 when Chris mentioned that he wasn’t feeling great. We pressed on until we reached a good sized downhill, about a quarter of the way into the loop. Chris cramped up badly and had to stop and walk. We decided that I would go on while Chris dealt with the cramping. I was reluctant to leave but this sort of thing is common in ultra running. It’s good etiquette to ask the other person to go on if you can’t hold the pace. I finished loop 5 in 53 minutes which gave me around 2 hours to complete two more loops. Our goal was 7 loops or 52.5km and I was going to have to be mindful of my time to complete it.
I was getting minor cramps in my hamstrings but kept them at bay by taking two salt pills every 45 minutes and Clifshot gels every 30 minutes. Loop 6 was tough and I started to do a lot of self-talk to keep myself going. “You got this – keep going,” was my mantra and I repeated it in my head, and even out loud when I was running alone. I pushed through the pain and finished this loop in just under 55 minutes.
I climbed the icy ski hill for the last time as I started my seventh and final loop. A painful groin cramp slowed me down to a walk when I was about 15 minutes into the loop. I knew from previous races that the cramp would get better if I walked for a little while. Sure enough the cramp went away after a few minutes of walking. I reminded myself that I was almost done and picked up the pace. I finally made it to the last aid station and ran past it without stopping. I was about 100m from the finish line when I heard “Hey buddy!”. Chris came sprinting out of the woods and we both whooped with joy. We ran through the finish line together to a small amount of applause. There were only three or four people at the finish line at this point but that didn’t bother us. We had finished in 3rd place (3rd and 4th officially) out of 30 runners with a distance of 52.5km and a time of 5:52.29. Better yet, we had started and finished the race together. Chris and I do a lot of our training together and it was really special to share this finish. Chris had run his last loop in an amazing 48 minutes, his fourth fastest loop which was a great feat of determination and will power. We were gathering the gear that we had left at the finish line when Jeffrey came bounding out of the woods. He ran through the finish line with only four minutes to spare. Jeffrey had completed an amazing nine loops for 67.5km in 5:55.58 (full results below). I felt great about my 3rd place finish but I was inspired and humbled by Jeffrey’s race. Racing is a great way to truly test your fitness and Jeffrey’s race showed me that there is always room to improve.
We had a blast at the Fat Ass trail race and plan on running it next year. The Race Director, Erin McDougall is a very friendly guy and he did a great job organizing the race. All of the volunteers were very nice and helpful and the aid stations were well stocked and well placed on the course. Looking forward to Fat Ass 2020!
