If you don’t live here (Calgary), I am sorry and I don’t mean to rub this in your face or anything, but check out the pictures from my Saturday training run with my buddy Bryon.

Bryon Howard and me at the 9100 feet summit of Mount Allen in Kananaskis

It has been a long-time goal of mine to complete an ultramarathon, and I am very happy that I was able to accomplish my goal 2 weeks ago by finishing the Northface endurance challenge 50 miler ultramarathon which was an amazing experience.

After the race, my knees were swollen, achillies tendons very sore, my quads were trashed and my toes are black and blue and I will lose 3 toe nails. A long, restful recovery is required and I am happy and satisfied that I have achieved my goal.

NOT!!!

Instead, I went and signed up for a 90 MILE (146 km) ultramarathon called the Sinister 7 in Crowsnest pass in 9 days from now! YA!!!! Bring it on!

me running (& lost) following an animal trail trail

The Sinister 7 solo race starts at 7:00 am on Saturday morning, July 4. The 146km course will take me through the most rugged, remote and beautiful terrain in Alberta’s stunning Rocky Mountains. With over 5,050m (15,150 feet) of elevation gain across the course, this race will punish those who are not prepared.

The Sinister 7 is open to solo runners or teams of up to seven and racers have 27 hours to complete the grueling event. The course is split into seven stages, each featuring a geographic and historic highlight of the area. The race’s name is inspired by the treacherous Seven Sisters Mountain that looms over much of the course.

my buddy Bryon sitting at the summit

I actually think I can leverage the Northface race and use it as a training stage for the Sinister – the two races are about 4 weeks apart. I spent the last 2 week in active recovery from Northface, and I felt like I could put in a really tough 2 day training weekend before tapering for the Sinister race. So, last weekend my buddy Bryon and I headed out to Kananaskis to fast hike / climb Mount Allan. Wow! What a hike. It was straight up for 2 hours to the 9000 foot summit. the views were breathtaking!

There was a bit of climbing, but not much, and not very technical

ON the way back down, we got off track and ended up on the other side of the wrong ridge and followed a mountain goat trail to a water fall where a heard of big horn sheep were crossing. That was a really incredible sight. We ended up making our way back over the ridge by following goat trails and eventually made it back to our hiking trail. It was a really cool day.

Then on Sunday I climbed Moose Mountain to the fire lookout station at the top. It took me 4.5 hours for the 30 km round trip and 8000 feet of elevation gain/lost. Now it’s rest and recovery time and I feel ready to tackle the Sinister.

I was looking at the solo race results from last years Sinister, and the winner completed the race in a blazing 17 hours! the next finisher was almost 21 hours, then 22 hrs, 23 hrs and the remaining finishers were all over 24 hours. 50% of the starters were able to finish the race within the cut-off time of 27 hours. YIKES! I think my goal will be to just be able to finish this in less than 27 hours. This is going to be TOUGH.

Bryon Howard

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In other news, we are still making progress on WiTHiN – the expedition boat. The portlight and hatch holes have been cut-out and we have started preparing the edges which is a very time-consuming job! Each of the cut-out holes have to be de-cored, filled with micro, then reinforced with 20 layers of unidirectional carbon running around the perimeter of the hole with a final layer of bidirectional carbon to cap it off.