As mentioned in a previous post, I had registered for the 5 Peaks trail run at Camp Fortune ski hill on June 7th. My race was the 15km Enduro course. It was a two lap race that went up one side of Camp Fortune, down, then back up another peak and down to the finish. During my first lap a female racer absolutely sailed past me about 3km into the race. I ran another two kilometers and there was the same female racer in bad shape. She had Jello legs, was losing her balance and yet proclaiming that she could still run. After almost falling into the woods, another racer and I got her to stop, he stayed with her and I was tasked with getting help. I should point out that there was a heat advisory in Ottawa over that weekend. 

 

I absolutely flew down the hill, passed by all kinds of people, threw in some short cuts (to the protest of other racers), got to the bottom, hollered for help, gave the first-aid guys the details, and then tried to catch my breath. After a couple of minutes, I felt o.k. and decided to do my second loop.

 

Back out I went and I was pretty gassed, yet making the best of it. While climbing the toughest section, low and behold a bear appears right in front of me and another racer! We started backing up, the bear started moving forward, and my heart started racing! Fortunately some other racers arrived, we made lots of noise and the bear decided to head-off into the woods. Back running again and I arrived at the section where I had taken the earlier short-cuts. Being an honorable guy, I ran the sections as I was supposed to, arrived at my short-cut, ran the short-cut in reverse, arrived back at the section I just did, then ran it again so that I completed the whole course plus my short-cut distances. Finally finished the race, it was now over 30 degrees and I was drained. I heard that apart from the female racer that I saw having problems, several other racers had difficulty with the heat and required assistance. Fortunately I don’t think anyone was ever in serious trouble. Outside of these heat related incidents, the race course and overall event was great and I think the majority of racers had a tough yet enjoyable time.

 

I hope to race in the next local 5 Peaks race on July 26th.