So... the Sinister 7.
Last fall, I was in a small animal joint tap lab when I got accosted by Heather, Danyse and Karen. Whilst surrounding me and giving me menacing looks, they asked if I wanted to run a race with them. Having run my first half marathon last summer, I said yes without asking what it was. That was my first mistake. Once I actually went to the website (this is after we registered), I realized it was an 148km (yes, it was that long) adventure race and began to question what the heck I"d gotten myself into.
My first clue to having got myself in over my head was that the mandatory gear included a first aid kit. The second was that my leg was called "Iron Ridge" and was 32 km long. However, it was too late to go back; our $1300 entry fee had been paid and we were going to do this come hell (or high water as it actually turn out to be)
The Sinister 7 is divided into 7 legs. Each leg has a different degree of difficulty as well as a different length that ranged from 12km to 35km. While some people chose to run the race themselves (do not ask me why) we decided to make a team. Our team consisted of Heather, Danyse, Karen, Danyse's friend Karen, Jay (Heather's boyfriend), Tania (my sister in law) and myself. The race begins in Blairmore, AB runs 16 km to Frank Slide, back to Blairmore, around a mountain, up into Coleman, up another mountain (this one with an elevation gain of 3200 feet), down the mountain and a leg back into town. Because the race is 148km total, we were told that if we were not able to complete the race in under 14 hours we would be running in the dark. For those of you doing your rapid math calculations right now, thats approximately 10km an hour. While this is a fair speed if you are running on flat ground, I challenge anyone to run up a mountain (my leg started running up the Powder Keg ski hill) at 10km/hr. We therefore knew we would be running in the dark. In the mountains. With the bears. And cougars. Nonetheless, we were going to do this.
The race weekend started off with us all arriving in Blairmore on a beautiful friday night in July and attending the pre-race supper. We walked into for registration and were all in awe of people who had calves of steel (seriously, I wanted to go hug their legs they were so beautiful but I was told that would be frowned upon) as well as teams who had shirts made for them (I had bought shirts at Target and used Neon paint to decorate them). Again, over our heads. The race directors got us all pumped up as well as reminded us of what to do should we encounter a bear. Super. We headed back to our campsite, had a shirt giving ceremony and got ready for the morning.
It was an early start the next morning when the alarm clocks started buzzing at 5:30am but we were all very excited. Danyse was the first leg of the race and Tania had to get on a bus to head to the second. Tania decided to down a hard boiled egg (she had read this was a good idea before a run - I thought it sounded good too but my bowels knew better that to do something that silly) and hopped on the bus. We cheered Danyse off and excitedly waited for Tania to return.
Tania came in around 11:30am after Danyse' 16.5km leg and her 16km leg. Danyse has been in the top 20 people to come in and Tania had kept up a good pace (despite her first 5km being climbing the mountain). Karen was then off to run 35km and returned around 4pm for me to start my leg. As I stood at the bottom of the ski hill I was so excited but at the same time was crapping my pants (seriously if you me). I started off and thought it was going to be awesome. Until I attempted to keep up my pace running the hill. Have you ever tried to run up a ski hill? Ya, I challenge you to do that. So about 30s later, I decided that I wasn't going to be a hero and decided to walk. For the next 5 km it was up and down but easy running. I met a running partner around then and we chatted and ran for the next 20 km (which included crossing multiple streams, running through a raging rain/lightning/thunder storm and running out of drinking water) I finished just after 7pm, hugged Heather off and proceeded to collapse on a chair because my legs hated me.
Heather's leg of the race was rated 6/5. Personally, I think they make rating scales so 5/5 appears to be the most difficult. 6/5 then would seem impossible. But it wasn't - Heather had her ski poles and was off. She came in around 12:30am (after running in the pitch black!) and off Karen 2 went. Karen had to run through the night as well which I think she was amazing for. I couldn't have done it! Jay finished the leg off and we crossed the finish line 23hours after starting. I was super proud of our team and decided it was one of the coolest things I had every signed up to do.
So, if you like to run - even a bit - I know this race may sound a bit intense but it seriously is amazing. The views are beautiful and the thrill of saying you were part of an adventure race is totally worth it.
If you want to check out the website here it is: http://sinister7.com/race_details.html
I appreciate you including me in your blog. Also I appreciate that you posted more to your blog it was getting a little boring. Love you :)
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