Welcome to another one of Matt’s ramblings about his rapturous running adventures. Welcome to my race report bbaling baout my experinces at the 2023 edition of the Cape Chignecto Chiggy Ultra – MIllrbooks Revenge What an event this was! My very first 100 km run on one of the hardest courses I possibly could have chosen to do it on. This was far from my first option to do 100 km on. My first choice was a Day in Wentworth, which was supposed to be in June. That would have entailed a 4 km loop done twenty-five times and then I’m done, super easy right? Unfortunately, Nova Scotia’s wildfires in June closed all provincial parks during the time Day in Wentworth was supposed to take place so I was forced to change my plans. A year earlier I had a terrible run at the 2022 edition of the Chiggy Ultra and so I immediately swore to do better next year and signed up for two loops. I really was somewhat less than half confident I could even finish this. For those that don’t know Cape Chigencto Provincial Park is one of the most beautiful and most technical hiking trails in this entire region. Not exactly the best walk in the park to do for your first ever 100 km run. But I was fresh off of 85.6km at Capes 100 a month earlier so how bad could this be? That took me just over 16 hours so 24 should be a good estimate for my time right? Oh, how innocent and naive pre-100km-Chiggy Matt was. My total time was about Thirty-One hours and twenty-two minutes. This challenged me in ways I was expecting (seriously!) and got me to up my game and quite frankly I couldn’t be happier I did this. It was my first ever overnight run, my longest distance to date and the most challenging course I could have picked. My next big races are 100 miles at Riverlands 100 in Maine in May 2024 and 100 miles at Capes 100 in August 2024. I am feeling a but more confident about completing them successfully now. But you’re not here for me to babble about my expectations for 2024 are you. You want to hear the tale of my epic 100km trail adventure. So just sit right and you’ll hear a tale of a fateful trip and a thirty-one-hour tour of some of the most beautiful scenery Nova Scotia has to offer.
Loop 1 – Back in Black & back on the track
6 am Saturday! Everyone starts at the parking lot in Red Rocks no matter your distance. I was hoping to get to the first aid station at Eatonville in three hours and I did! The first leg of loop one was off to a good start. This loop starts with a slight detour through the New Yarmouth area in the dark. This covers the first few kms before you end up back on the main Chignecto trail. There was some minor storm damage here but nothing major. Some mud but nothing worth writing about. The New Yarmouth section starts drawing to a close when you start going downhill usually just as the sun starts poking out of the darkness. Getting back on the main trail this section has the most runnable sections of the first part of the course. Its fairly straight forward trail running getting to Eatonville at around 15-16km in. You have a nice run into the aid station and again up the road for a short time before you’re back on a single-track trail. Its not too far now from Seal Cove and the start of the torture chamber. This draws us to the end of the most runnable section of the park before we get to the infamous torture chamber.
The torture chamber has its reputation for a reason. Trail runners are always quick to mention this is the worst part of the Chigencto loop. This is the section from roughly Seal Cove down to Cape Chignecto itself. It is the flattest part of the park. But sadly there is always a but, it is about 10-12km of mud and rocks and trees and roots all the trail. For basically the entire time. Did I mention the mud? Last year I struggled hard on this. I dug into my strava data from last year and it took me about four hours to do this section as I slipped and stumbled on everything every step of the way. This year however, I found it was never a big deal. At no point during this section did I ever find myself struggling like I did last year. This year I made sure to run this with much better shoes that didn’t have 750km on them at the start. My shoes this year had actual traction left. I had a lot more trail running under my belt and several more 50kms so I was better prepared for the distance and no longer afraid of the mud. Last year I wasted a lot of time trying to avoid mud. Now, I just yolo’d that and ran through unless it looked really awful. No point in being scared of getting dirty if you’re a trail runner. I had to take some time to learn to love the mud and to be one with the mud and I’d say it worked out pretty well for me. I had better socks and spent a lot of time practicing on some of the more technical trails around HRM like the South Granite Ridge trail in Musquodoboit. This was a rambling waw of saying, I’m not sure if the torture chamber was in better shape this year, if it wasn’t and I’m just a superior runner than I used to or both but it wasn’t that bad. This was the section where I found my hiking poles where the most useful not counting Refugee and Millbrook. Which I will expand upon later.
Right in the middle of this section at about 30km in is the second aid station at Big Bould. Two km short of this I Ran into Tyler Isbister who was out for a short run with another volunteer. We chatted briefly and they ran off back to the aid station. I was going at a slower pace as I still had about 70km left to go while they had just two. And this is where the fun begins. There was a swampy area shortly after this where the trail marker was on the ground, and I missed it. I ended up at a place where the trail looked like it went off into two different directions. So I made my best guess and went off into the woods. Unfortunately, I didn’t pick the right one but thankfully I didn’t pick up on that right away. I just ran deeper into the woods when the trail I was on stopped looking like a trail. It was still runnable so that should have been my first clue. I thought I’d heard some voices and called out a few times, but no one responded. I was roughly one full km off trail. I still had a cell signal so I turned on the strava heatmap and realized wow I was really, really far off trail. So rather than screw up my pace time even more and backtrack I just went in a straight line to the trail so make sure I actually hit it. No idea what I was getting myself into except I had to do some epic bushwacking going through fairly thick underbrush that took me quite a while to go through. A few stops to double check I was in the right direction later and I stumbled across the actual trail about 1.5km from Big Bould. I eventually got there to find Tyler asking “What happened to you. I thought you were right behind us and I was going to take a pic of you running in.” Tyler, the other volunteers and myself all had a good laugh as I told them what happened to me. My off-trail bushwhacking adventure left me roughly 45- 60 minutes behind where I should have been. But I’m still alive didn’t get into trouble and had a good story to tell so…win win win? Whisky was offered at the aid station, and I happily took some. That tasted so good and was a good pick me up I needed. I stuffed my face with food downed one of my red bulls and cans of Pepsi for a caffeine boost and headed on my way. My goal for Big Bould was six hours and I did it in roughly 6 hours twenty-five minutes or so. If I hadn’t gotten lost, I would have come under my goal. So even though I missed my goal, I am still counting that as a win.
Heading out form Big Bould there’s roughly three or four km left of the torture chamber then I can start ‘running again. It also starts getting very hilly but that’s a good trade off. Things got much easier for me on the way to Arch Gulch. I pulled into Arch Gulch at roughly 43km at around Nine and a half hours. Adam Haris and his family were manning this aid station dressed as pirates I believe. Adam greeted with a big hug which helped boost my spirits after a long day of trail running. After catching up with Adam and stuffing my face it was back to the races! Arch Gulch is in a unique place in this race. It is sandwiched between the two biggest climbs in the park, and they are both fairly close together. Before getting to Arch Gulch, you do the climb out of Refugee Cove. It’s a very steep climb a few hundred meters straight up. No point in looking up as it’ll just ruin your mood. So, look down at your feet and keep moving forward. Then about a few kms after Arch Gulch you run into the climb called Millbrook. Its about twice as big as the climb out of Refugee cove and has a bench 3/4th of the way up for you to rest on. I pride myself on not sitting on the bench and on this loop, I continued doing just that. There is still some smaller climbs after this point but none of them are nearly as bad as the climbs in Refugee or Millbrook so they get overlooked. But they can still be challenging, especially when you’re 51km or so into the race.
Finally, I got back to the start of the race at just under twelve hours in, with minutes to spare! Everyone greeted me and congratulated me on a good run, and I chatted with them and started getting ready for my next loop. I borrowed a chair from the race organizers to relax in and got my camping supplies after finding my pacer, Jess. I had a tin of Chunky soup with my name on it I was looking forward to for a few hours now. I Decided awhile ago that under no circumstances was I going to start the second loop without a warm hearty meal. Many people were very helpful here helping me get ready for the next loop. Helping me refill my water bottles and assisting me with cleaning my cookware so I could get back on the road faster. My friend Corey was one of the ones helping me here and I’m very thankful for that help. It was still light for about 50 minutes or so at this point and Jess and I both wanted to start the next loop in the light. The previous year I had finished one loop in nearly thirteen hours and it kicked my butt hard. To paraphrase and misquote a wise man it kicked my butt from here to Albuquerque. It was really important to me that I beat that time and I absolutely did! Not as much as I planned on due to my off-trail adventure but I beat it all the same and I was in much better shape this year after it. Very pleased was I with this information.
At this point most people who had signed up for multiple loops had dropped down to one loop. Cape Chignecto is a harsh mistress that doesn’t take pity on or go easy on anyone. Someone had been mentioning to Jess, what id Matt drops. What are you going to do? She was confident I was not going to drop. And she was wright. I was not going to drop. I am too stubborn to call it quits and come hell or highwater I was going to finish 100 km no matter if I had to crawl across the whole park on my hands and knees. My first choice to run 100km on a much easier course was foiled by the wildfires we had in June so this was the last race this year I could really count on doing 100km on. And it also coincided with what would have been my late Fathers 73rd birthday if he was still with us. Oh, did I forget to mention that earlier? Silly me. That was top of mind the whole weekend. One of the reasons I’m inspired to run is because of the poor health my father was in the last few years of his life. Because I’m hoping that if I live a healthier lifestyle, I can live a longer healthier life. Before I started (road) running seven years ago my hobbies consisted of sitting on my bum staring at screens, and after years of hard work I finally had a good job with a future that also involved sitting on my bum staring at screens so between those two things someone had to give. Additionally, my mother also has a lot of health issues and one year earlier a good friend of mine passed away. I think of these people often, taking advantage of the privilege I have to be able to run at all much less the ultra distances I have been working towards. I am inspired to run for those that can’t because life is short, and you never know what tomorrow brings. So go and do the thing you’ve been outing off because you think you’re not good at it. Paint that painting, write that story, enroll in that course! You don’t have to be good at it just give it your best shot. Being good can come later as long as you try. You don’t want to look back later in life with regrets. In my case I run ultra marathons. There’s just something about being in the woods for that long constantly moving that just is really cool. Kind of like an epic movie staring you. Anyway, I’m getting lost in the weeds here. Back to the race. I did a complete change of clothes and shoes. This was very important as I had learned at Waskally Wabbit in May that a change of clothes between the 31km loops at that race really boosted my spirits and made the second loop easier, so I did the same thing here. Of course, at that race between loops I also shot gunned a full rockstar after eating a large amount of peperoni and even my iron stomach had a hard time with that, so what do I know. I was finally ready fully stocked up with a fresh change of clothes and couldn’t find the glow sticks I Planned to attach to my bucket hat. With all that out of the way Jess and I were off to the races! As they say in Mortal Kombat…round two! fight!
Loop 2 – You spin me right round, baby right round
And we’re off! With my excellent pacer Jess Gibson. We still had about thirty to forty minutes of light left when we started. A few kms deep into the first detour loop around New Yarmouth we were greeted with total darkness…nightfall and headlamp time! We actually ran into some headlamps going in the opposite direction, towards us. We thought maybe they were campers but they were actually racers finishing their first loop who took a wrong turn and didn’t realize it right away. We assured them that they were headed in the right direction to get back to the main trail and finish their race. My headlamp has not gotten much use in night runs that don’t involve 30-50 of my closest Halifax Hares friends so I found myself marvelling at how well this lit up the trail. This was my first ever attempt at an overnight run and so I had both sets of rechargeable battery packs that came with my headlamp and 3-4 packs of batteries from the dollar store. At one point overnight I expressed concern that maybe I should have sprung for a more quality brand such as Duracell or Energizer, but it was a bit late for that now.
This first stretch back to Eatonville is one of the more runnable sections of the park and I tried my best to do that here but with the darkness settling in we ended up walking basically all of it. Night running is one thing I haven’t done much of and I need to practice that more often. Maybe some evening trips to Spider Lake this fall are in order. Because I have such a great sense of direction and a knack for knowing exactly where I am on the course at all times, I insisted to Jess that it was just over 14km to Eatonville. I swore that’s what my watch said this morning. So naturally I was proven wrong when it turned out to be just over 16km to the bunkhouse at Eatonville. Oops. Apart from being tired and sore after getting 60-70km into my run I just felt safter walking this out overnight. So, walk we did! I think it took us just over four hours to get to the bunkhouse where I had a good laugh. When I got there in the morning on my first loop Skid Row was playing. I think it was I remember you but I’m unsure about that at this time. When I got there with Jess at night many, many hours later, the exact same Skid Row song was playing as we rolled in. As an 80’s glam metal fan I did enjoy that very much. We jogged a little bit on the dirt road until it got time to make a hard left to the trail out to Seal Cove. The first time I was here I mindlessly followed the person in front of me and accidentally ended up taking an extra km or so walk on the beach. This time I was paying better attention to the trail and did not make such a detour. Somewhere along the path to this point we were surprised to be walking through someone’s camp site. No, the trail does NOT go through any campsites. It goes by campsites but never through. But not far from one of the many river crossings we found ourselves coming face to face with two tens set up in the middle of the path. Jess and I both exchanged curious looks and asked the other if they saw it too to be sure we weren’t hallucinating. Some group of hikers had set up camp in the middle of the trail. We had no idea if they just skipped out on paying for a site or overestimated how long it would take to get to their campsite. Either way we had a good laugh over this and moved on.
The trail was starting to get technical as we got closer to the start of the torture chamber. But as it got more technical it also got more beautiful. Looking back, I think I had more gas in my tank than I realized and could have run more sections up to this point than what I actually did. But nearly everything here was uncharted territory and I wanted to save my strength for when I felt I needed it and not risk burning out too early into a DNF. Which was starting to get dangerously close to being a possibility which I will get to in a minute. The coast of Cape Chignecto was beautiful at night. And it was a clear night, so we made sure to take a few moments at different times to stop, turn off our headlamps and take in the stars. My god, its full of stars. We just don’t get stargazing this good in the city. I marveled as well as how looking out onto the Bay of Fundy I was looking into complete darkness. There was no light except the stars, and they weren’t’ very bright so the ocean looked like a dark empty void of nothingness. We saw a small island with trees and the only source of light was our headlamps. Our headlamps lit up the island so all we could see was a dark outline of the trees and the land on the dark backdrop of the sky. It was spooky Erie and extremely beautiful too in its own way. We wanted to get a picture, but our cell phones weren’t up to the task. It was one of those moments where a picture could ever do it justice, so you had to ne there to enjoy it. The woods and the ocean are beautiful at night, and I do enjoy it, but I also am mindful that this is not the world of humans. We are guests out here in the wilderness and need to show it respect and take it very seriously or else risk getting into trouble.
Speaking of trouble, one of the highlights of night running is how easier it is to stay on trail and not get lost. Our headlamps make finding the trail markers far easier at night than in the daytime so while we were slow going walking the whole route out, I found it was impossible to get lost like I did in the day time. At this stage I was mostly in uncharted territory but not fully in uncharted territory. First time with a pacer, first real night run, first overnight run yadda yadda yadda. The aid station at Big Bould was 85 km which was the longest run I’d ever had to this point. Everything after Big Bould was 100% uncharted territory. I had been using poles all day and my legs were feeling great my feet were dry, so I felt confident about that however as I got closer to Big Bould a few hiccups started appearing. I was wearing my winter thermal gear as it was cold overnight but as we got into Big Bould we were 23 hours and 85km in. About two to three hours before hand I started getting cold and very tired and I needed a break. My thermals were getting messed up and I needed a rest badly. I was starting to get slightly cranky needing a rest that seemed to be ever more elusive as it seemed to take forever to get to Big Bould. When we finally got there at about five am I was in rough shape. I was cold tired hungry and not entirely confident I could finish the rest of this race safely. It had been many years since I was up for 24 hours, and I certainly wasn’t doing any athletic activities the whole time back then either. And I still had many more hours to go! I never expressed this openly, but it was written on my face and how my body moved, a DNF was crossing my mind. If I was ever going to DNF it would be here at this spot. Jess had the patience of a saint putting up with my rambling complaining at this point.
Thank goodness for the superheroes manning the Big Bould aid station! They got me a chair and some blankets, and I feel asleep instantly. I don’t really remember nodding off but I absolutely did sleep soundly for at least ten good minutes. After I woke form my power nap I had a few cupful’s of warm soup, ate the aid station food drank my last red bull and mini-pepsi And took another moment to marvel at the stars. I was at this aid station for about forty-five minutes to an hour. And My god I needed that rest. I don’t fully remember what I was babbling about on my way in and around the time I took my nap but the wonderful volunteers here gave me the best pep talk of my life, gave me some things for my gloves to help keep me warm. I think I’d been talking about some of my local trail running friends that helped inspire me to do this race and keep going when I wasn’t sure if I could because the aid station volunteers made sure to mention to me that this was my epic running story if only I keep going and didn’t quit. This was where I found out I was looking at a top ten finish no matter what I did, and all I had to do was keep moving. Two women had spent a few hours at this aid station overnight and left about an hour before I did. Only about 5-6 people had come through on a second loop in total. They weren’t sure how many were pacers but it was possible for me to place in the top five or six! Essentially these amazing superhero volunteers gave me the best pep talk of my life and told me exactly what I needed to hear to get motivated to keep going. After spending nearly an hour in that camp chair chatting and hanging out I was ready to go. Only three and bit km left in the torture chamber and less than two hours to sunrise! Getting out of Big Bould I felt like a whole new man. I was full of confidence with a full belly and was warm again as my thermals were back in sync and not screwing with me anymore. As Jess and I hit the trail I was ready to attack the rest of this run and take no prisoners. A top ten finish? Maybe even top five? Me? Slow ass me that has no issue doing long distances, but I always do so extremely slowly. I never thought that was possible but here we are.
We finished the rest of the torture chamber with ease and as we get closer to Refugee Cove the sun had started to rise. We were now in a runnable section of the park once again. Of course, my legs were having none of that but it was nice to have the option again. Running wasn’t working out as my legs were a bit sore for that so I tried walking as fast as I could. Which also wasn’t very fast at all. Maybe something to work on for next year. The hike up refugee cove was in the light, and I was so happy for my poles. I could not have done this race without hiking poles. Especially doing this dastardly climb again for the second time in 24 hours. At this stage the sun had risen hours earlier and I was excited to be getting to more runnable trails even if I wasn’t in a runnable state of mind. Plus, the last aid station was only about 2-3 km ahead of us at the top of the Refugee climb.
That climb was rough the second time around. In fact, you could say it kind of sucked. I rolled into Arch Gulch to once again see Adam Harris and his family as well as Deb, one of the race directors and a few others. I was still sore and tired but feeling much better than I was at Big Bould. I did need to rest for a bit. Ate as much as I could rested in a camp chair and took a minute to relax. I planned on not taking as much time as I did at Big Bould and I didn’t. Everyone was very happy to see me and making sure I had everything I needed to finish and get back at it which was quite moving for me. I’m extremely used to doing everything by myself so having others voluntarily help me out on a run when they don’t have to I found touching and I still don’t quite know what to say except thank you. It really helped motivate me to finish and I’m still not entirely sure what to say except thank you. I love how supportive the trail community is. Its part of why I’ve started volunteering at races. Anyway, getting back to this, my legs were a bit sore, so I was given some Tylenol to help. Which is something I confess to never having taken before in my life in any capacity. Doing something for the first time at an ultra is a good idea right? Right? Well generally no but in this case, it helped a lot. Lastly, it was confirmed that I was the last person still out on the course but that I was possibly looking at a top five finish as only four or five other people finished two loops. With all that in mind, Jess and I took off for the last 8 km, this is it! The final countdown.
We ran out of the aid station for good luck and took off for the next 3-4 km until the last big climb out of Millbrook. This part of the park from Refugee Cove to the other side of Millbrook is the hardest with all the vert but its also the prettiest and my favorite section of the park. I Love the way the trees and bushes are for this part. Its very green and it keeps me coming back. Finally, we’re at Millbrook. The sign says six km to Red Rock and the end. THs is the hardest tallest climb in the park. Roughly km straight up I think. Just in case you don’t get a feel for exactly how much climbing it is there’s a lovely little bench about 3/4th of the way up. I usually pride myself on not resting there but today I rested. I was already past 100 km and still had a bit to go. 100 km was my goal and I hit it! I did it! First time ever. But I still had work to do and was not ready to celebrate just yet. There was still climbing to do after Millbrook, but it wasn’t too bad. With about three km left we got into the last climbs before things leveled out again. After going through a swampy section with lots of boards to walk on we eventually got back to the first climb about one and a half or so km from the finish. I swear that downhill took forever to get to, seems like its way longer at 100 km than it was at 51. Jess and I had decided that we were going to run this downhill, and we had been discussing what songs I wanted to play on my phone for the downhill and the final stretch back to the finish. It was decided that we’d start with the Final Countdown and finish with Free bird. So I out on the Final Countdown. But as I got to the end of the downhill and the end of the song I changed my mind and thew the Final Countdown on repeat. That was going to be my jam when I crawled across the finish.
We made it to the final stretch climbing one last time just past the “its no walk in the park” sign when it hit me. I Noticed I was getting wet, but it wasn’t raining. It was a bright sunny day. It turns out the cap on one of my flasks lost the top of the cap that prevents water from spilling all over me. No big deal, I’ll worry about that later as I was about 100 meters from the end! We ran up to the finish and as is tradition touched the gate. That’s it! I was done! 108km and change for the first time ever. The first thing I did was collapse into the first camping chair I found and stripped off my top layers and just relaxed shirtless. It was hard to believe it was finally done after thirty-one and a half hours. I eve n won a prize for being the hardest working person at Chiggy. At least I think that was the general reason. It was for how much I impressed everyone with my perseverance, and I find today I’m still as speechless as I was a month ago when I got it. You can see it in the pic below.
I fully expect I lost most of you a half dozen pages back and that’s ok. I know I need an editor with these things. Sorry, this took a month to finish writing. Regardless, this is one of the highlights of my adult life having done this. It makes me feel like if I stick to it and take it seriously, I can accomplish nearly anything. It definitely boosted my confidence with general everyday things. I guess you’re just not the same after running 100 km in one go. In any event thank you for reading this. Thank you to all the local trail runners for your inspiration and friendship. I’m a far better man today than I was a few years ago because of the shenanigans I get into with this sport and I can’t wait to see what trouble I get into next. Good night everyone!
Takeaways & Conclusion
When it was all said and done, I placed 6th over all. Which I still final absolutely insane. I have never, ever placed anywhere remotely close to being that high in the standings before. And all I had to do was be too stubborn to quit. But I do want to make it clear that I absolutely could not have done this without a lot of help from my friends. Jess, you were an absolutely fantastic pacer to put up with my bullshit for eighteen hours and still want to talk to me after. The help and support I had from everyone at the aid stations, especially Big Bould when I was at my lowest, I’ll carry with me for many, many years. The whole thing seems kind of surreal l looking back, and I find myself asking if it really happened. But it did and the biggest motivations were as I said, earlier, the help and support I got from so many on the course. I’m, sure I forgot to mention a few names and I am a=sorry for that. As I believe I mentioned earlier this race coincided with what would have been my late fathers 73rd birthday. Doing my first 100 km race on his birthday weekend was a big motivator to finish. I Couldn’t dedicate a run to hum and then DNF, that would just be rude. Wherever you are Dad, that was race was for you and I know you’re looking down proud at what I did.
A year earlier when I ran one loop of Chiggy it kicked my butt hard. Made me question if I ever knew how to trail run. I could have picked an easier place to run my first 100 km but no sense in dwelling on that. A year earlier I had a list of things I wanted to focus on to improve my trail running. Having multiple sets of shoes that don’t have too many kms on them, using poles, and getting better on technical running and I like to think I achieved all those goals. Looking back I think I could have done 160km at Capes this year. It seems like its easier than doing 100 km at Chigneto. Chiggy is a harsh mistress that doesn’t go easy on you, will beat you up but leaves you wanting more. Theres something addictive about this place that keeps me coming back even though I can run easier places that also have pretty views. But it just isn’t the same.
My first loop was just under twelve hours and my second one was eighteen, and I walked the entire second loop. That’s not a strategy that will work at Capes or Riverlands but I’m feeling pretty confident that I have what it takes to run 100 miles. I’ve got a good solid foundation and feel I’ve come along waw over the last two years from where I was. I’m still weak on running consistently over long distances and with technical single-track trails in general. But I feel like I can improve on that by spending more time in places like Musquodoboit. There’s not a lot take aways this year except for those things. I had better socks too which helped so much. I had road running ankle socks under my Smartwool socks, and my feet loved that.
It’s time I start winding this down. Before I go, I want to give Jess Gibson a special shoutout for being my pacer and putting up with all of my nonsense overnight, which is no easy feat. I’d ended up going through the full gambit of emotions on this one and I couldn’t have done without her. Without a pacer I doubt I’d be able to finish the overnight section alone. It might have been near impossible for me to continue when I got to Big Bould as I don’t think I’d be comfortable continuing by myself with the state I was in at 23 hours in. I usually self support everything because I don’t like bothering others with asks for assistance. But I’m extremely slowly getting the idea that you can accomplish a lot more in this sport a lot easier with a little help from your friends. I guess my theme this year if I had to pick one is that it’s not a sign of weakness to ask for assistance from others to support your ultra running efforts. Stay hard but don’t stay so hard that you make things needlessly difficult for yourself.
Caffeinated Scotian 