I recently ran my second Blackfoot Ultra Marathon. This year I ran the Baby Ultra, a 25 kilometre (km) loop. Last year, I ran the loop twice in the 50 km Ultra. I thought after a “regular” marathon of 42.2 km, what’s another 8 km, right? Ha! Boy was I wrong.
Running trail is a different beast from running road. Especially when it’s a hilly course like the Blackfoot. If I remember correctly the website boasts that the course contains “100 hills good for building nice butts,” or something like that. Trail takes a lot longer than road. Adjust your expectations. So, approximately for this runner, four hours for 42 km on road equals 7.5 hours for 50 km on trail.
A secret in ultra marathons is there is a lot of walking, power hiking and food to be eaten. Oh the food at the water stations knows no bounds. In addition to the usual fruit, water and electrolyte replacer, I’ve witnessed (and indulged in some) cookies, bacon, cookies-with-bacon, Twizzlers (personal favourite), grilled cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets, pop, pickles, chips, and more than I can remember. Calories are needed with choices between sweet and salty, depending on what the body needs/craves. These stations would not be possible without the volunteers who are hands down the best and the zaniest. Think costumes.
Part of the registration requires entrants to provide four hours of volunteer time at a self propelled individual sporting event. It can be in your local area and can encompass anything from volunteering at a running race, triathlon, cross country ski race, trail maintenance, coaching or officiating a school track team, river valley clean up, etc. This is a mandatory requirement as Friends of Blackfoot “believe all runners should give back a little”.
My first year I volunteered at one of the aid stations of the Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Race. I got into a car at 6 a.m. with a load of strangers to drive out to a remote location in the middle of winter and hand out such things as pickles and hot chocolate. My husband worried for my safety but I assured him “they’re runners, they’re fine”. And I was right. In fact I soon made new friends. Insert sigh.
The second year I spent an evening handing out race packages to participants of the Run Wild in St. Albert. I have wanted to volunteer for a race and give back for some time so I couldn’t have been happier.
All competitors of the Blackfoot Ultra must carry at a minimum a 600 ml. water bottle throughout the course. The 100 km starts at 5 a.m. and requires four loops of the 25 km course; the 50 miler starts at 6:30 with 5 km out and back then 3 loops, the 50 km starts at 9 a.m., 25 km at 11 a.m. Kids Ultra (double at 8 km) at 2 pm, Kids Ultra (4km) at 2:15, Canine Ultra (new in 2018 and runs 10 km) at 4. Funds from the Canine Ultra went towards Strides for Stroke. One of the three Race Directors (RD) of this race, Amber Poliquin, had a stroke in August of 2017. It took seven days in hospital, permanent loss of left peripheral vision, and months of rehab to get to where she is today. Instead of focusing on the why, Amber is training to run in the Fat Dog 120 Mile Ultramarathon in August 2018 and wants to raise $1,000 per mile. All this funding will go towards research for a University of Alberta scientist who is working hard to develop a blood test that could diagnose strokes within 30 minutes. Currently only five per cent of strokes are diagnosed in a timely manner.
The dogs and their humans had three hours total to do it. And the furry ones got a homemade treat of peanut butter, bacon, banana, and doughnuts. Confession time: I saw these doughnuts in the snack shack after finishing and with no idea at the time they were for the dogs, seriously considered if I could take one. It was a help yourself to pop, Dairy Queen Dilly Bars and smokie accoutrements so I wondered if I should take one or where they were being handed out. They looked amazingly delicious! Glad I had restraint.
The route direction alternates each year between clockwise and counterclockwise. This makes the experience, (and pain) different. Another interesting addition this year was that Blackfoot hosted the 50 Miles 2018 Canadian Trail Championships and they lived up to their name. New course record of 6:32:01 by Alex Petrosky. Even more amazing was second place, 2 minutes behind and 3rd place 10 minutes behind. For the women Roslyn Bergen won in a good time of 8:03.12. Roslyn was officially second in women but the first winner Adele Salt holds a British passport and not Canadian in terms of championships.
Like every race there’s cool swag. This year a t-shirt, last year a running vest. There have also been tights, hats, sleeves and flip flops. In 2018 we also received finishing medals (note I’ve run races just for a particularly cool medal).
I arrived an hour before race time as my running buddy reminded me we’d have to park a ways away and walk into the Islet Lake Staging Area. The 25 km was the last major race to go out so there would be a lot of cars parking on the road leading in. By the end of the day the cars are so covered in dust from passing cars on the gravel road, a wash is in order.
Once there, there’s time to put on sunscreen, bug spray, store a drop bag (honour policy you can just leave it anywhere and it’s safe) load up whatever supplies you’ll be carrying on your run, and of course, those last trip/s to the outhouse.
Before we could get going we were gathered for a pre race meeting by RD Gary Poliquin. Racers are reminded that they will not be allowed on course without their own water, course is well marked and code of the trail; if someone’s hurt, you stop and offer help. I felt the code about 6 km in when I took a tumble and a gentlemen beside me stopped and asked me if I was okay. Only thing hurting at the time was my ego. Other than a hand and knee, my water bottle and hat brim took the blow.
Gary asks how many are Blackfoot virgins. To which his young daughter asked, “what’s that mean?” They were to chat later.
For the 50 km my friend and I planned (and executed) to walk all the hills. We spent more time at the food stations stretching and eating then I did this year. This year I decided to run my own race and run it differently then last year. I decided to run more and walk less and didn’t spend time at the food/water stations other than a quick orange slice and cup of water. I felt good for a long time but the course direction this year meant a lot of steep hills at the end so the last 6 km or so, were a grind. I went in hoping for a three hour finish and ended up with a 2:41 finishing 20th out of 84 entries. I have to be happy.
Upon finishing I grabbed some more water and fruit, but even better was the bison smokie, Dilly Bar and full strength pop (I only drink diet usually but a Mug root beer looked amazing).
Course closes at 7 pm (all runners must start their last loop by 3 pm). Weather is always a wildcard with any race. There was a year at Blackfoot that people were pulling out and being pulled off with frostbite. The two years I’ve been participating it’s been quite warm.
Interesting to note there are 400 racers and a waiting list, there are slightly more women than men racing and 2018 was the16th anniversary of the race.
Very helpful is to go out for some training run/s before to get a feel for the course and what to expect and plan for. There are some organized group runs before to company can also be found.
The Blackfoot Ultra is a quality trail ultra marathon race in the Edmonton area held at the Cooking Lake Blackfoot Provincial Recreation area. The group that the Blackfoot Ultra supports is the “Friends of Blackfoot”. This group of dedicated volunteers and Park staff keep the trails in top shape during all seasons of the year.
The 97 square kilometre Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area contains forests, pastures and wetlands. It is a multiple use area that supports a variety of activities, including agriculture, wildlife management, natural gas extraction and outdoor recreation.