When I registered for the Sahara Race I had little ``real`` ultra marathon experience. I have finished many marathons and a few 50K mountain races but to many ``real`` ultras don`t start until you run 50 miles.  When I was in the process of developing the training schedule I knew that the longest stage for the Sahara Race would be just over 50 miles. To my mind this is not a distance you want to ``wing`` for first the time in the middle of the Sahara desert. So incorporating a 50 miler into the training schedule was essential. The Stormy 50 miler fit perfectly into the plan. The race is located in the mountains near Squamish, only a few miles from Whistler where the 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be held. This tough mountainous terrain is an outdoor paradise for rock climbers, hikers, mountain bikers and trail runners.

Saturday morning I woke up at the hotel around 4:00am, ate my usual oatmeal, double checked my drop bag, geared up and waited for the coffee to kick in. We arrived at the start line just after 5:15 and went about the usual pre-race rituals of chatting, stretching and waiting in line for the port-a-potty. Apparently the local mosquito population also heard about the race and the beasts feasted on us like this was their own private buffet. It was quite funny to look around this grassy field to see a few hundred people twisting and convulsing as they flailed their arms around, slapping and swatting at the vicious little creatures.  

The weather was perfect for running, cool and overcast. A nice break from the record heat we`ve had most of this summer. With little fanfare the 6:00am gun went off and away we went. I knew that the two most important aspects of successful ultra running were; maintain a steady pace and manage my nutrition. Over the summer I had spent a lot of time conditioning my body to run at a slower speed. My team mate Lara came up with a wonderful phrase, ``slow is our new fast``. It sounds simple, but if you’re an experienced marathoner your body is used to a quicker pace, learning to slow down takes effort. After months of training I learned to enjoy this new lower gear. As for nutrition, ideally you want to be taking in 200-250 calories per hour in an ultra marathon. Being the obsessive, details oriented person I am I had calculated all my nutrition for the entire race. All I had to do was stick to my plan and regularly suck back those gels, gu chomps and chips.

In the first few miles of any race there is the inevitable jockeying for space while trying not to get caught up in the excitement. We all know that going out too fast has cost many runners dearly. Keeping calm and on pace was especially hard in the early miles at Stormy because a large part of this race was made up of people running the course as a relay. They were flying out of the gate like little rabbits all eager to zip through their short stage. I kept reminding myself that they are running 6-10 miles to the next check point, you`re running the whole course! Do not be lead astray! After a few miles my team mates and I slowly fell to the back of the pack with many other solo 50 mile participants.

By the half way point I everything seemed to be going as planned, but it`s never that easy. I knew that 25 hard, hilly miles lay ahead and anything could happen. My first real test came as we started to run what looked like a small loop on the map. During our orientation runs we cut out this section so we had no idea what we were in for. The section started with a very long dirt road eventually turning onto a logging road, with a short single track section that looped back to the check point. It was here that my right quad started to signal that it might not want to cooperate today. After finishing the section we shuffled off to the 30 mile check point at the base of ``9 Mile Hill``. We stopped for a few minutes to replenish our fuel and water then set off. This was the section we all worried about most. ``9 Mile Hill`` even the name sends shivers up my spine. This is a very long, seemingly endless dirt road that meanders up the side of a mountain. At the top is ``9 Mile Bridge`` from there it`s 7 miles downhill back to the check point and 7 more to the finish line.

At about 36 miles we started to come across the first casualties, lone runners obviously in intense pain struggling to get their legs to move up this endless hill. Was this an omen?  At this point my right quad started to scream louder and louder. It was like being jolted with bolts of electricity. To make things worse this pain was accompanied by feelings of light headedness and confusion. This was not good. My mind suddenly snapped back to a beautiful book that I recently read called ``What I Talk About, When I Talk About Running`` by renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. Murakami discusses his deep love of running as a spiritual and psychological journey rather than competitive sport. In a wonderful passage he states`` you cannot choose your pain, but you can choose your suffering``. Over the summer this quote has become something of a mantra for me. At that moment I literally started to talk to my quad, telling it to relax. I tried to shake the fog away from my mind as I struggled to find a way through this tough moment. Then I embraced my situation, I chose not to suffer. As I pushed on through the last part of the hill I felt this incredible wave of clarity, a calm and peaceful feeling that completely brought my focus back. This is why I run! My mind emptied. The dark thoughts that had imposed themselves on me disappeared like a gust of wind – I was left refreshed and completely centred. I was euphoric. The next 14 miles were some of the most peaceful and wonderful moments I have ever experienced. This is why I run! 

After finishing the section I managed to get back to the 43 mile station only to find my son and Lara`s kids at the top of a little hill. They charged down hooting and jumping and then escorted me to the check point. After some final words of encouragement from my family and a good luck kiss from my son I was off – just 7 miles to go. Soon after I left the check point my team mates abandoned me and I was left to gut it out on my own. I did smell particularly bad at this point so I can`t really blame them. As luck would have it I caught up to a woman and we settled into a great little groove encouraging each other and chatting away those last few miles. Thanks Lori, you made those final miles a lot easier! When I turned the final corner I saw my son and the rest of the little rascals waiting just up the path. They all ran down the trail towards me and surrounded by a gaggle of cheering, spirited children I finished my first 50 miler. 

This is why I run.

Well it finally hit me, I will be running 250 km through the Sahara desert in just over 4 months – and I’m feeling pretty ... pretty good about it! The training plan seems to be paying off and my team mates are looking strong. We’re now running upwards of 100 km a week. We're also in the gym twice a week doing weight training and core workouts. What`s great is that everyone on the team seems to be enjoying themselves. It`s tough juggling work, family and training but we all seem to make it work. I think this is partly due to the incredible support we get from our families and friends. Everyone is in good spirits and thankfully no one is nursing any injuries or serious doubts about this adventure. Sure, we still have days when we feel a little stiff, but I think all those years of running have given us a strong base to work from.

The West Coast of British Columbia is beautiful and I`m very grateful to have the miles and miles mountain trails right in my backyard. Running in this magnificent wilderness is not without its risks. Many trails are technically difficult and there is always the danger of falling, especially when coming down fast rocky sections. The woods are also home to some beautiful animals: deer, bald eagles, cougars, bobcats, black bears and just a little further north the infamous grizzly bear. When you’re out on the trails a few times a week it’s just a matter of time before you have some kind of wildlife encounter. This past Sunday a group of us were out for a 3 hour run along the Diez Vistas Ridge and back along the Academy Trail. We were about 5 minutes the end running along a section of narrow single track. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye a large black bear popped up from behind some brush at the side of the trail. She stood up on her hind legs no less than 10 feet away and snorted. At this moment I also noticed a very young cub scrambling up a tree. Surprising a mother and her cub up close is potentially one of the most dangerous situations you can get into with a bear. Most experts say that when you come across a bear stop, back up slowly and give the bear lots of room. Another bit of advice is to NOT run as this may only encourage an attack. We did everything wrong! We were simply too close to stop as it would have meant standing only a few feet from the bear. So we took the chance and kept running until we got to the fire road at the end of the trail. Thankfully, the bear did not charge but it sure caused my heart rate to spike! 

Our fundraising for Variety Children`s Charity is also going very well. A few weeks ago my son`s school held a mini-stage race as a fundraising event. We thought it would be fun to add another dimension to race so I gave the school a number of questions about the Sahara desert that they reviewed with the children in the days leading up to the race. Then at each check-point the kids were asked a question about the Sahara for example ``How are sand dunes created? or ``Name an animal found in the Sahara?`` etc. It was a wonderful sight to see the kids with their little back packs racing around the school field. Of course as a proud father it was awesome to see my 5 year old son, complete with a Sahara Cap running his little heart out. It was a fantastic day and the kids raised close to $1,000 for Variety! 

At the end of June we also have our first weekend away camping and running up in Squamish. We have the Stormy 50 mile race scheduled for early August so our plan is to camp and run the course over two days. It will also be nice to have our families along. They will do what normal people do when camping, relax, eat, play while we are out like a bunch of lunatics running around in the woods! This will be my son`s first experience camping so it should be a blast. Just hope we get good weather!  

Flights and hotels are booked and the pre-race sightseeing is all coming together. My team mates and I decided that if we’re going to go all the way to Egypt we might as well try to take in some of the sights. We’ll have just over a week prior to the race to see Luxor and Cairo. This should also help a little with the acclimation period. Planning for this race has been a huge, but fascinating, undertaking and since I love planning I feel very good about how things are coming together. Getting ready for this race requires a huge amount of time and a great deal of effort has gone into developing the training plan, researching gear, nutrition, travel options and fundraising for our charity. I’m also very grateful to all the wonderful former Sahara, MDS and Gobi runners I’ve talked to who have been willing to take the time to answer all my “newbie” questions - thank you! For me the fun part thus far has been researching the gear. I will openly admit that I am a gear junkie with a full blown problem. My friends constantly tease me, but I’m happy to take the ribbing. So far, we’ve managed to pull together most of the gear we will need. I thought it was important to have as much time as possible to test out everything before we go. There are still a number of items missing from the list but we should have everything by early summer. That's when we will be doing a number of camping trips that will include back-to-back long runs. I hope to provide updates as we test the gear through the summer.  I’m also happy to say that I am finally starting to feel better. I’m not really sure what caused my rather profound drop in energy, but the dark, wet and dreary west coast months of January and February really take their toll. However, spring is in the air, flowers are starting to bloom and the forecast finally calls for some warm and sunny weather! On the team side we all had a good day at the Chuckanut 50k Mountain Race. Though I stupidly forgot to put Bodyglide on my hips and back and yes this caused some rather nasty chaffing - my bad. Other than that I felt great and look forward to my next 50k mountain race, The North Face Challenge in June. Thanks to the efforts of my team mate Lara our website is looking great. Our charitable work raising money for Variety Children’s Charities are also going very well. To date we have raised over $1,000 and have a few fundraising events coming up soon. We have also been getting a little bit of media attention and have been invited to be on a local morning news program. I hope that this attention will continue to help us with meet our fundraising goals. In short, it’s been a good month and I’m really looking forward to the spring and summer training.

It’s official I've just signed up for the 2009 Sahara Race - now the real work begins! In December I plan to start an intense training program with my team mates, Marc Bremner and Lara Rintoul, that I hope will prepare us for this race. While this will be my first stage race (what on earth have I got myself into!), I do have a lot of marathon experience that I hope will provide me with a strong enough level of fitness to start from. I am also a gear geek and an obsessive planner so I am hopeful that these traits will help me prepare over the next year. I have already scoured the internet and read dozens of blogs, websites and books from runners who have done this race and other similar events like the Marathon des Sables. So far the number one tip I have read is – be prepared, test all your gear before hand and learn to take care of your feet! OK – so that’s a good start.