900 kilometres in 10 days on gnarly trails and in the summer heat. I can do it. This is the thought that I haven’t been able to shake since March. Ever since I realized that the big race that I had planned for July was most likely going to be canceled because of Covid-19. I’m describing a fastest known time (FKT) attempt of the entire Bruce Trail.
This is a massive undertaking but the thought of it somehow, wasn’t overwhelming. I had it all sorted out, my wife and I would rent a camper and travel with our family, North to South along the Bruce Trail while I ran 100km days. We would make the attempt at the end of August before school started. To my surprise and delight, my wife agreed to this adventure. God bless her. My good friends Chris and Matt also agreed to come crew and pace with me for a few days each. I bought the complete map set of the Bruce Trail and mapped a day by day schedule that I would need to break the current FKT – 9 days and 21 hours. This was an exciting exercise and really helped me envision what was needed to break the record. The current FKT is held by my friend Adam Burnett. Adam took 13 hours off the previous fastest known time in September, 2017. Adam is an amazing athlete who has completed some of the toughest trail races on the planet including Badwater 135 and Leadville 100. Adam helped me with the planning of my attempt and I was very grateful for his input.
I was inspired to do something big. While ultra-running in itself is an amazing feat, I wanted to do something that would set me apart among ultra-runners. I felt like the FKT attempt suited my strengths as a runner. I was picking up some momentum with my last few races. I finished 2nd place overall in the Midnight Moose 100 miler in September, 2019. Shared 3rd place (4th place officially) in the Fat Ass 6 hour trail race in November, 2019 and picked up another 3rd place in the 6 hour, Stride Inside indoor track race in January, 2020. These aren’t top tier races but I was still proud of my strong showing and felt like I was ready for a big ultra-running project. After these races, I realized that I wasn’t going to set myself apart with my speed. I’m fast, but I’m not that fast. At 6’1” and 195 lbs, I look very different from the speed demons in the sport. If I was going to set myself apart, it would have to be over a long haul.
I got after my training in March and April and things were going really well. At this point, I was still training for a race called UTMB Val D’Aran in Spain. This is a 100 mile race with just over 10,000m of vertical gain. As you can imagine, I started doing a lot of hill training. In the end, it was too much hill training. At the peak of my training I did 2, 4 hour sessions of hill training back to back. I had the cardio capacity for the training but my quads weren’t ready for it. As a result, I developed some knee pain in late April which would stick with me for the rest of the summer. It wasn’t serious but it was the first time that I’d ever had knee pain as an ultra-runner. It scared me and I decided to back off from running after I got confirmation that UTMB Val D’Aran was canceled because of Covid-19.
I started doing more strength training and cycling in May and June and my knees started to feel better. I wasn’t running nearly as much as before the knee strain though. I still kept the Bruce Trail FKT as a goal for the end of the Summer. Things came to a head last weekend when I realized that I needed to make a final decision on the FKT attempt. I couldn’t wait any longer, there was a lot to prepare for and I was going to need the time. I needed a clear sign on whether or not I should go for it.
My solution was an 8 hour training session on the Bruce Trail. If my knees held up over 8 hours, I would have a chance at completing the FKT attempt. I left at 5am on Sunday morning and ran for 4 hours before turning around and coming back. It was a hot and humid day and I wasn’t moving very fast. In the end, I finished 50km in 8 hours – I documented the experience in last week’s post. I was completely spent and couldn’t fathom going back on the trails for 8 hours to run another 50km. Not only that, I couldn’t imagine doing this for 10 days straight. It was clear that I didn’t have the fitness for the FKT attempt. Although this was disappointing, I was happy that my knees held up. I didn’t have any knee pain during the whole run. The time that I took off from running had helped strengthen my knees but it had been to the detriment of my fitness level.
I had my clear sign that I should postpone my Bruce Trail FKT attempt. This is disappointing but I haven’t given up, I plan on making an attempt in the Fall of 2021. I can handle the heat but I’m not great in it. I would be doing myself a big favour by running in the cooler weather of September or October as opposed to July or August. Over the next 12 months, I plan on doing some big training runs on the Bruce Trail and getting more comfortable with back to back big mileage days. I have a lot of training ahead of me and I’m looking forward to the journey.
