Race report: Ultranza Trail 15 km Ste-Adèle de @TopchronoInfo
Posted In: Running August 13th, 2015 divider No Comments »Last Saturday started off as a lovely day. To be honest, the major reason for this trip to the Laurentians was to celebrate my lovely mother’s 65th birthday the way she loves to; By being active!
It was supposed to be a nice training run and it’s always picturesque in the area. I also had to somewhat avenge after last year’s DNF after a spill on the mountain bike portion of the off-road triathlon.
The weather turned out to be pretty nice for it with a temperature of low 20’s and a slight breeze. The sun was in and out for the most part so good thing the race was in the woods.
I started off very slowly partly because I haven’t done many hills recently but I also wanted to ease into this run and enjoy it throughout. It took a while to get warmed up as probably 25 minutes passed before my hamster brain shut off and simply let me enjoy it. Then I got into a beautiful rhythm, simply letting my body and gravity dictate the pace.
The terrain was mostly single track with lots of roots and uneven dirt. It was the same course that we did last year on the bike so I knew it a bit. It was mostly slightly up and down switch-backs.
Once I got to near the end of the first loop, that’s when disaster struck (I’m being a bit of a drama queen here): I got stung by something. It really rattled me because it really got me out my almost euphoric zone. I guess I swatted my arm instantly since I looked down and saw nothing but a bad wrist tan since I had lost my watch with the swat.
And then looked at my other hand and blood was gushing. I guess I cut my finger when I hit my watch and subsequently sent it flying, never to see it again. Bye bye Basis Band!
I wanted to be cautious, especially since the race was in the middle of nowhere with not much access to medics, so I decided to end it after the first loop. The worst part is that I was just starting to enjoy it when I got stung…
Oh well, went to see the medics near the finish line and got cleaned up and dropped off my ankle chip in shame on the way back. Womp womp…
All in all, it was another nice adventure even if I still have wounds from it. And I must now finally initialize my new watch. Ste-Adèle: You win the first two rounds. But I’m not sure if this is over just yet…