Ladysmith Long Course Gutbuster

June 17, 2012

This was my first time doing this course so I was interested to see what the course would be like. I had heard from others that there was both a tough climb and a punishing decent and I didn't doubt them.

There were a number of solid runners in the field including Brad Crowe, Shawn Nelson, Travis Pirozzini, and Stefan Jakobsen. The race started with a steep road climb and I went out fairly hard, wondering if anyone else would go with me. This day, no one opted to do so and by the time I made my way onto the single track I was on my own. There was a bit of downhill back towards the highway before crossing Holland Creek and heading back up the other way. I kept a good solid pressure on myself without going crazy. There were a few good little grunt climbs along the creek, but nothing too sustained.

After a couple of kilometres, the course popped out onto some double track. Soon though came the major climb of the day (over 300m in just over 1km). It was tough, but I was determined to run all of it and just barley succeeded in that goal. The course eventually topped out at Heart Lake and the soon turned into a mostly flat rocky road. After a little more than a kilometer of this, the course turned downhill and quickly lost all the elevation previously gained. The decent wasn't that much fun being double track with some loose rocks. I hammered it out though keeping a good pace going. The course leveled off for a bit before heading back down the steep road we came up on. It was punishing, but is thankfully short.

I crossed the finish line feeling fairly strong in 1:11:50. Brad ran well, capturing 2nd in 1:14:20 with Shawn Nelson in 3rd. Julia Tschanz took the woman`s win edging out Kaylee Beales. Overall, I didn`t feel amazing, but was still a fairly solid race. Results.