The Finlayson Arm 50km trail race climbs over 10,000 feet and actually measures 52.5km, but who's counting? There were 123 runners participating in this weekend's 50km race. The event includes 100k, a 28k and a double.
Saturday Sept 10th, I ran the Finlayson 50km (which is actually 52.5km). I have been training for this for the last 5 months to prepare myself for what I knew was going to be a challenging course. The course was even more challenging than I expected but I had a great time and I am happy to have that one checked off my list.
We started at 7am, it was a nice temperature, cool enough to start off in a very light long sleeve shirt. Within the first km the course takes us under the Highway through a culvert with no chance of keeping your feet dry! What a way to start a 50km (or 28km or 100km) race! Last year when I did the 28km the anticipation of this was worse, this year I knew what was coming so that helped. Then we run through Goldstream park up to the second dry but dark tunnel to get back to the Finlayson side of the highway. That's when the race starts to get real as it is quite a grind from here on in. I felt good going up Finlayson, I tried not to push too hard as I knew there was a lot more vertical to come and last year, I think pushing too hard up Finny was the main reason I experienced leg cramps for the first time ever. I think I may have still pushed too hard though as when I was approaching the 1st Aid Station and Bag drop at Rowntree (11.1km in) I started to get some of those awful leg cramps. I awkwardly changed my shoes here and said hi to my husband and dog Noodle all while being very worried about getting cramps so early on. I filled my hydration bladder and carried on, determined to get my cramping under control, which meant I needed to slow down a bit and especially not push so hard up the hills and start taking my electrolytes more regularly. Taking smaller steps up the steep parts seemed to really help. From here it seemed like a long way to the second Aid Station. It was unchartered territory for me as the turnaround for the 28km was a few kms after that 1st Aid station, at Jocelyn Hill. I passed Greg B and Pauline around Jocelyn Hill, it once again amazed me that they had been up all night and this was Lap 2 for them!
The course is lovely with amazing views of Finlayson Arm and the hills beyond. Up to this point it was quite clear. Most of the course was thankfully in the shade of the forest with not too much direct sun. Coming down to Mackenzie Bight and then up again to the 2nd Aid Station and Bag drop at Durrance Rd I was feeling kind of okay but happy to be able to stop for a few minutes and get more water, load up on more fuel, grab myself a cucumber from my bag and also some watermelon from the Aid folks. There were a lot of wasps so hopefully none of the volunteers or runners got stung! I missed my crew (husband and Noodle) so it made me worried about my pace and sad not to have a familiar face to encourage me on, it was so hard to judge how my race was going being green and I was starting to lose a bit of confidence here, not sure at all when I might finally be done.
More of a grind from here up Mt Work with lots of roots and technical trail which seemed harder than usual. It's basically an out and back course so I started to see more runners on their way back which was somewhat encouraging but also a bit of a downer as I wanted to know when do I get to turn around? How far ahead of me are these people? Up and up and the light started to get a bit weird around here with the hazy skies. The course started to even out onto easier flat trail and then there were some encouraging and funny signs so I knew I was finally coming up to the Munn Rd Aid Station. I didn't stop here for too long as I still had a good amount of water, just grabbed yet again more watermelon, I felt pretty good.
Here I turned around and headed back down the same trail but then after 1/2km I hit a junction with runners coming at me from both ways and my stomach sunk. I asked the runners coming from the left if I went the wrong way, they said yep there's a loop so back I went to retrace my steps to the Aid Station and then saw the signs to head through and carried on through the loop, kind of pissed off about doing extra so I foolishly sped up to try to regain some time. Finally I brushed off my bad attitude about my mistake and I started to feel a bit loopy by this point, I could feel myself on the verge of cramps so I went back to my baby steps up the steep parts and tried to enjoy seeing all the faces that were still heading up to Munn Rd and giving (and receiving) encouragement to/from the folks heading the opposite way. I started to get a second wind around here so I tried to enjoy that and also remember it wasn't going to last.
The downhills were really starting to feel hard at this point. Once finally back to the Durrance Aid Station (now the 4th Aid Station) I finally saw my husband and he seemed surprised in a good way to finally see me after missing me at Aid Station #2&3 so I felt better about my progress. I filled up on water again and had another cuke and watermelon and a much-needed bathroom break and then off to tackle the BS long steady downhill back to Mackenzie Bight. At this point I started to look forward to the uphill sections and dread the downhill sections. I was feeling pretty good again once we started back uphill to Jocelyn Hill so that was a nice surprise, my third wind was kicking in so I just ran with it and was able to pass a few people from this point on.
This is where you could really see the race was taking a toll on folks. I filled my small water flask at the bonus/surprise Aid Station set up at Jocelyn Hill and carried on down to the 5th and last Aid Station at Rowntree where I quickly got my wee flask filled again as I still had water in my vest bladder and at this point I didn't want to stop, I called to my husband who was ready with my bag that I was just going to keep going. Two kms along a bit of easy road and then there was a sign 5km left and we were back onto trail for the final leg, you can bet I was doing a serious countdown at this point. Some ups on fairly fresh trail here and there were a few trees down that we had to scramble over which was really hard by this point and I worried about that setting off my cramps.
This part is the Finlayson bypass and there's a steep downhill section of trail that was brutal but after that not too bad thankfully mostly uphill to the finish. I did go the wrong way again for about 50m as there was a few old ribbons at the part where at the start we head down to the culvert, so I sprinted back (oops, that got me dry heaving!) and headed towards the finish, if someone passed me at this point I would have been very annoyed. There was one lady with poles (my line-up friend) that I was trying to stay ahead of at this point as we had been jockeying back and forth since Munn Rd and I didn't know how far back she was. I was able to pick it up to cross the finish line and felt pretty good at the end, compared to some of the Trail Series races.
I gratefully received my beer glass and a fist bump from the Race Director and then hobbled over to find my bag and husband and dog. I felt nauseous but not crampy, super stiff and wobbly at this point and I just wanted to start to head home so we skipped the beer and burgers and I walked my old dog down the road while my husband went and fetched the car. My 14-year-old dog was able to walk faster than me at this point. My biggest surprise is that my stomach muscles (esp. the obliques) felt sore I guess from running for so long and all the uphills. I have been very hungry for the last couple days and my metabolism is revved right up.
I finished in 9:37'07" (second in age group) which I was happy about as I had been aiming for under 10 hours. This is my longest time on feet by a long shot.
This was a great race and I would like to try it again another year, I feel I could shave an hour off my time if things went well. I'm still not sure about trying the 100km Finlayson, but I am hoping to do more 50km races and maybe an 80km (the Brigade Race on historical trails, check it out!) for 2023. I am looking forward to a bit of a rest from training so hard and letting my body recover.