Tunnel Hill and OUTRace

Lee Anne and I drove down to Illinois for the Tunnel Hill 50M/100M race.  Let's be perfectly clear that I was crew and Lee Anne would run.  Lee Anne was originally going to run the 100 miles, but decided on the 50M instead.  It was more her head space than training.  You have to really really want to run 100 miles in order to achieve success.  Even if you have an overwhelming desire to run 100 miles, sometime it is not enough.  Friends Dawn Hamel, Chris and Christa Baker, and Karen would all be attempting the longer race.

Dawn is freakishly fast for a 60 year old.  How fast?  She had a very good chance of breaking the 100 mile world record for her age category.  She was on pace at 50 miles, although a possible IT issue was causing her grief.  Even with the injury, she had a chance until the unusually cold weather (-4C in Illinois?  Come on!) forced her to slow down.  A combination of hypothermia and dizziness made running at speed difficult, if not dangerous.  Nevertheless, Dawn took 4 hours off the Canadian record.  Yes, she has run 100 miles at least 4 hours faster than any other Canadian women 60 and above.  Her time of 22:27:39 was good enough for 9th woman, in a fast field.  Well done Dawn!

Lee Anne had a successful 50 mile race and ran well for most of it.  With a time of 10:38:22, she was 38th out of 137 women finishers.  Her biggest concern was that she would miss her Sunday morning run, as we had to travel north.  That's the good news...

Speaking of travelling, who sets the estimates on Google map, to calculate travelling time?  The estimate from my house to Marion, Illinois is 12 hours and 39 minutes.  Those who have driven with me know that I don't exceed the speed limit by much, but I am hesitant to slow down.  If I'm on an 80 KPH road, then I usually travel at 95 KPH.  I don't slow down for corners, intersections, construction or slower drivers.  There are typically 2 lanes and 2 shoulders and I use all 4, sometimes during one passing attempt, if a transport truck and 2 tractors are involved...

I also don't like to stop unless absolutely necessary.  It is possible to get to Illinois with only 2 stops for fuel.  Think of stopping at an aid station.  The timer starts when I pull off the highway and I like to be back on the highway before 3 minutes are up.  I would prefer Formula 1 pit stop timing (a new record was set this year at 1.96 seconds) but I realize the fueling stations are antiquated and this would cause Lee Anne some anxiety.

So, I travel about 10-20 percent faster than the speed limit for about 99.67% of the time and I make no unnecessary stops.  It took me almost 14 hours to get to Marion, Illinois.  I was not very happy.

I think that next time we have a destination race, we will include some sightseeing.  We drove far too much in such a short time.  On the road at 6:00 Friday morning, arrive in Illinois at about 8:00 PM.  Up early Saturday morning for the race and got to bed around 9:00 PM.  Back on the road at 5:00 Sunday morning and arrived at Niagara-on-the-lake at 6:30 PM.

My new rule of thumb is that I won't travel more than 8 hours for a 1 day visit...

OUTRace Coordinator

Because I help with the OUTRace email campaigns and Lee Anne helps with Facebook, I was aware that Kim Van Delst was planning to step down as OUTRace coordinator at the end of this year's racing season.  I also announced that I would not continue with the Creemore Vertical Challenge.  Bad timing!  I joke about how I was given the job of OUTRace coordinator as punishment for cancelling Creemore, but the truth is that I hope to be able to make the series stronger.  Kim set a very high standard, as she was adept at communicating and engaging the OUTRace exec and the race directors.  I plan to follow her in this regard.

As OUTRace coordinator, I don't see any big changes over the next few years.  Yes, I would love to attract more big sponsors and add another race or two, but I believe the primary focus should be to make more of Ontario's trail and ultra runners aware of the series.  It is a fun, diverse series and I have enjoyed running in most of the series races.  The small races are personable and the larger races provide some incredible challenges.  They also have the advantage of being close to home.  None of this driving for 14 hours...


Cheers!