From 0 to 100k - Part 6: Steep Ultra Course Test Run (1/2)

When I travelled to Corner Brook on July 30/31 for a test run on the Steep Ultra course, part of my plan was to write a blog detailing the trip and discussing the course, to help some of my friends, and any other runners, who weren't going to get a chance to see it before race day.

After the race got cancelled, I lost the motivation to write that post, but I still think it's a good story that's worth telling. Unlike the rest of the posts in this series, this post (and the next one) will only cover a two-day window and will be focused entirely on that adventure. I hope you enjoy it.

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When I woke on the morning of Thursday, July 30, 2020, I was prepared for a hectic and exciting two days. My plan was to leave mid-morning, drive across the province to Corner Brook, have a quick night in a hotel, wake up super early the next morning, run 50k, and then drive home. I was planning for all of this to take somewhere in the vicinity of 36 hours. As with many things in life, things didn't go exactly to plan.

Before I hit the road, I had a 75-minute easy run to fit in. For those of you non-runners who are reading this, yes, us runners know we are a little bit off! Between fitting in my run, finishing up final preparations, and getting Rosi to the kennel, it ended up being around noon before I hit the road.

Thankfully, the driving conditions were near perfect. I had a brief stop in Clarenville for food, and another in Badger for gas and a bathroom break. Otherwise, it was clear sailing across the province, and I arrived at the bottom of Marble Mountain around 6:30 pm.

While I've been to the west coast and seen Marble before, I think this was the first time I had ever stood directly at the bottom. And it was definitely my first time doing so while contemplating the reality of hiking/running up it 75 km into a 100 km race. Let's just say that the idea of completing the Steep Ultra 100k got a little more daunting at that moment!

The reason for my stop at Marble was to stash supplies for a mid-run refuelling station. I had a cooler with water, food, and clothing, which would permit me to complete the run without having to carry 50k worth of supplies right from the start.

I was a little bit nervous about where to hide the cooler, because, while the contents weren't worth much, if it did happen to get stolen it would be extremely detrimental to my chances of finishing my run the next day. Luckily, some of the crew from Marble Zip Line were around, and after having a brief chat with them I found a nice, secluded spot to hide it.

With the cooler sufficiently concealed, I took out my phone and opened up the Gaia GPS app. I had a copy of the course map downloaded, and took some time to visualize the path that I would need to take up the mountain. It was the first time I had actually used the app, and it was great to see that it pinpointed my location, and allowed me to tell exactly where I was in relation to the course. My use of this app (and lack thereof) would play an important role in my run the next day.

I left Marble and headed to the Steep Ultra finish line, up near the Grenfell Campus. I was planning an early start and would need to drop my car here and get a taxi to the 50k start line, so I wanted to be sure that I knew exactly how to get there from my hotel.

With the logistics taken care of, I went to my hotel and checked-in, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and headed to bed just after 9:00 pm, with a 4:00 am alarm set for the morning.

I woke right on time Friday morning and began my final preparations. I was estimating the run to take between 8-10 hours, and I had specific plans in place for food and water intake. I loaded up my pack and filled up my water bottles, and then had a small breakfast of a Tim Horton's muffin and a glass of Perpetuem (an ultra endurance fuel produced by Hammer Nutrition).

I called a taxi and asked them to meet me near the Grenfell Campus at 4:40 am, and headed out to the car to drive over. I arrived, made sure I had everything (since I wouldn't see my car again until the finish) and jumped in the cab to head to the start of my first ever ultra marathon!

Before I go too much further, I should probably give a brief outline of the route that I intended to run (the full description can be found here: https://nlmountainultra.weebly.com/route-info.html)

The Steep Ultra 50k route consists of 4 legs, and during the race there would be an aid station with volunteers and supplies at the end of each.

Leg 1 runs from Man in the Mountain to Humber Village. It is 13.2 km, and has 910 m (2,985 feet) of elevation gain. This leg is almost entirely on trails.

Leg 2 runs from Humber Village to Marble Mountain. It is 10.1 km, and has only 77 m (252 feet) of elevation gain. This leg is mainly on paved and gravel roads.

Leg 3 runs from Marble Mountain to Massey Drive. It is 17.3 km, and has 859 m (2,818 feet) of elevation gain. This leg goes up some of the ski runs on Marble Mountain and then consists of a variety of different trails.

Leg 4 runs from Massey Drive to Corner Brook. It is 10.4 km, and has 384 m (1,259 feet) of elevation gain. This leg has a mixture of trails and roads.

So, that is what I was prepared to tackle when I exited the taxi and headed to the Man in the Mountain trailhead. Since it was right around 5:00 am, and sunrise that day wasn't until around 5:55 am, I started out in the dark with a headlamp. Thankfully the trail wasn't too difficult to navigate in limited light, because I discovered that morning that my headlamp was not sufficient for running in dark conditions on technical trails. Part of the reason you do a test run is to learn things like this, and so from the first step I already had "buy new headlamp" on my list of lessons learned.

The trail up Man in the Mountain is probably the steepest one I encountered all year. The first 2 km had just under 300 m (984 feet) of elevation gain, and it took me over a half hour to cover them. By the time I got to the top, the sun had started to come out and I was able to remove my headlamp. I also took in my first food, as my nutrition plan was to eat every 30 minutes.

Not much to see during the initial climb.

As I started to move forward, I realized that the trail was a little more difficult to follow at the top, so I took out my phone and checked the Gaia app to ensure I was heading in the right direction. I was also aware that there was an out and back section around the 4 km mark, and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss it.

The next couple of kilometres were pretty slow going, due to a combination of growth on the trails, double-checking my navigation, and light rain which made using my phone a bit trickier than normal. Eventually, I reached the turnoff to the out and back section, and when I got to the top and saw the view, I understood completely why this short little section had been added to the route.

Even on a wet, foggy morning, this was a pretty incredible view.

After a brief stop to enjoy the view, I headed back to the main portion of the trail and made my first minor navigation error of the day. I assumed that I had to go back to where I had made a right turn to leave the main trail. Unfortunately, I got back to that point, turned right to continue on, and ran onto the side of a pond about 20 feet later! So I retreated, headed back up the out and back, and realized there was another branch of the trail that I had missed on my return from the lookout point. I took a left turn here and continued on my way.

Unless this is a triathlon, I don't think this is the right way.

A few minutes later, I came upon another pond, and even using the Gaia app I couldn't figure out the best way around it. I ended up navigating through the brush, and by the time I reached the other side I had been moving for about 80 minutes, had only covered 5 kilometres, and was starting to become pretty frustrated with this part of the course!

Part of the problem was that the trail was much more grown in than what I was used to on the East Coast Trail, so I was less confident that I was actually following the proper route. Around this point, I had the good fortune of noticing that there were pink flags and pink tape on some of the trees. While I wasn't 100% certain that they were flags for the Steep race, it seemed like the most logical conclusion. So I made the decision to put my phone away, follow the flags, and do my best to enjoy the roughly 8 kilometres I had left on Leg 1.

This is part of the trail I was running. You can see why I
wasn't always sure I was going the right way!

This ended up being a great decision in the short term, and one that contributed to completely side-tracking my run in the long term. I spent the next hour getting into a nice zone and covering another roughly 5 kilometres. I came across a gravel road, and shortly thereafter a river crossing, which I took some pics of to be able to share with other runners. After another kilometre or so, I came to the top of a mini-peak, and I was a little unsure how to continue. I attempted one path down and realized it was much too precarious to be part of the race course. I turned around, noticed some pink flags, and began to follow them down.

I continued on and eventually came across another river crossing, followed by a second gravel road. I was now over 2.5 hours into the run, had covered 11.5 kilometres, and was anxious to get to the Humber Valley checkpoint in the next 20 minutes or so for some nice, easy running on the roads.

As my watch reached 3 hours and 13 kilometres and I was still in dense woods, I began to question the distance of 13.2 km that was listed on the course info for Leg 1. By the time I got to 14 km and still hadn't reached Humber Valley, I was getting more than a little frustrated. And when I got to 15 km, and 3.5 hours of time on feet, I was really struggling to imagine how I was going to write a blog post discussing this course without seeming like I was really challenging the race director.

I got to see lots of these little guys along the way,
and had to be careful not to step on them!

Around this time, I had a fortuitous pocket dial which allowed me to clear up all my confusion. I was running through the woods, when all of I sudden I heard my father's voice saying, "Hello?". After a brief moment where I wondered if I was hallucinating, I realized the sound was coming from my pack, and I grabbed my phone. I asked Dad if he had just called me, and he said, "No, you called me!".

Now, I will note here that I had shared my phone location with my parents before I left, partially so they would have it in case I got injured and needed assistance, and partially to help ease their nerves over me spending 8-10 hours in the woods on the other side of the province by myself. My father had been following my progress since he woke around 7:00 am (it was now around 8:30 am), and the following conversation ensued:

Dad: "Where are you?"

Ryan: "I don't know! I've covered about 15.5 km, and I should have been at Humber Valley around 13k. I've been following course markings for the last two hours, but it appears the distance they listed is wrong."

Dad: "Well, you were near Steady Brook when I woke up an hour and a half ago, but now you're almost back to Corner Brook."

Ryan: "That's not possible."

(Opens Gaia app on phone, checks the map and sees that I'm near the pond I referenced a few paragraphs back, 5 kilometres from the start.)

Ryan: "F#$k! F@#k, f#$k, F#@k!!!!!!"

Needless to say, I'm incredibly grateful no one was around me at this moment. I was so angry and frustrated. After planning this whole trip, driving across the island, and spending 3.5 hours in the woods, it felt like the entire run was ruined. I'm not someone who gets mad too often, but I was livid at that moment.

I hung up from speaking to Dad, and called Ginny to give her an update, vent, and commiserate. I knew she'd help me cool down, and get my head in the right space to figure out the best solution. After speaking to her, I considered my options:

(1) Turn around and try to complete the entire course. This would have turned my 50k into a 60k, added at least 2 more hours, and would require covering 33k instead of 23k before reaching my supplies at Marble. This option was out.

(2) Run to Marble for 33k total and call it there, or possibly add in some climbing/descent in that area after refuelling. This wasn't a terrible option, but would likely leave me less than 50k, and would omit a decent portion of the trails on the latter half of the course.

(3) Throw my hands in the air, run back to my starting point, cab back to my car, and drive home. While this was my immediate reaction, once I cooled down this was obviously not the correct solution.

(4) Run back to my starting point, get a cab to Marble, refuel at roughly the same time/distance as originally planned, and then complete the final 27k from there.

Ultimately, I went with option 4. It allowed me to cover about 80% of the course, and I'd only be missing the road sections from Humber Valley to Marble, which didn't require much scouting. It also meant I'd be able to complete my goal distance of 50k, which would permit me to look back on this mishap as a funny part of the story, instead of a decision that ruined my entire run.

So, I spent the next hour or so running back to the Man in the Mountain trailhead. Along the way, I exchanged texts with Ginny, my parents, and my brother to let them know the new plan. I also discovered that I somehow lost $20 on the trail. Then, at 9:45 am, 4 hours and 45 minutes after leaving, I was back to the start, having covered just over 20 kilometres, and waiting for a taxi to drive me to Marble to begin the second "half" of my run.

I fully intended to tell this story in a single post, but since this one is already about twice as long as I've been trying to keep the posts in this series, I think I should break it in two. Before I conclude, I'm going to ask you to scroll back up to the picture of the overgrown trail and read the two paragraphs that follow again.

It wasn't until I got home after the run that I was able to really think about where it went wrong. My mind eventually settled on that little mini-peak that I couldn't find my way down from. I opened up my Strava map to see what time I hit that point, and then used the map plus the timestamps on some of my pictures to put the puzzle together. Those two river crossings and two gravel roads I referenced? They were the same river and road, in opposite directions. Below are two pics of the river crossing, one taken at 7:13 am, the other at 7:38 am!

If you've managed to make it all the way to here, I hope you've found this story as entertaining as I do. I'll try to get part 2 out before too long, and I promise there are still some good parts left, including more wandering in the woods, a wildlife encounter, and a conclusion to this adventure that was simultaneously a real punch in the guts, and somehow perfectly fitting. 

As always, I thank you for following along, and until next time, take care.