Frozen Ass 50k Calgary Report

What a difference a year makes!  Last year I headed to the Canadian Frozen Tundra in Alberta for the Frozen Ass 50k.  Not sure why I expected it to be somewhat mild dead smack in the middle of a Canadian winter especially having lived in Calgary for a year.  I guess living in Vancouver where we are currently hosting what seems more like the summer Olympics makes you soft.   The starting temperature last year was a bonechilling -20F (yes that negative sign is supposed to be there).   I cried for the first half of the race wearing five layers.  At that temperature your tears just freeze your eyes shut so I had to abolish that in the second half!  By the end the temperature had reached a balmy -14F.  It took about 3 days for me to get feeling back in certain areas of my body, or so it seemed.  I got passed with about 15k to go by a guy wearing shorts.  I thought I was so cold and frozen I may have hallucinated that happening.  Never again I said.

Fast forward to this year and for some reason I ventured back.   Teammate Ellie Greenwood who now lives in Banff was going to be there as well so we had our own little Montrail Party in the Texas of the north.   Unfortunately I came down with pnuemonia the week before the race and it made the running a little more challenging.   To get to the race start participants walk across what is an assumed frozen over canal.  This made me feel more at home about my decision to run with pnuemonia, strange and perhaps lacking sense more or less sums up ultras!  The starting temperature was around 34F so much more pleasant to run 50k.

All things considered I had a decent race at 3:46 after a 10 day layoff of running.  Ellie just absolutely crushed it.  She came bounding across the line right on my heels at 3:48 for a 38 minute course record.  I’m pretty sure she could of turned around and run it again she looked that fresh!  All in all a fun little event with about 125 people in it to keep fit during those winter months.

Happy trails!

Ryne