The Canadian Death Race or
Death Takes a Runner`s Holiday

By Darryn "Zawi" Zawitz
(January 1, 2008)

Editor's Note: I found this in the "bottom" of my e-mail in-box when cleaning it out for 2008. My apologies to Zawi for taking so long to share this incredible story with our fellow Striders.

Back on August 5 of this year (2006), I competed in the Canadian Death Race which is located in Grande Cache, Alberta. The race was one of the toughest things I've ever run (and I've run the marathon in Antarctica)! Of course, I'm not crazy enough to go it alone and ran it on a team. I'm just now getting around to writing a little bit about it, and thought some of our more adventurous members might like to hear about it. Hopefully, you can use this somewhere in the next newsletter. Enjoy!

Darryn "Zawi" Zawitz

PS: My team finished just 6 up from the bottom, finishing in 21 hours, 37 minutes, and 4 seconds. I ran the last leg of the race, which was 22KM (about 13.6 miles) in 2:37. To give you an idea how difficult this race is, my half marathon time PR is 1:19, so running nearly the same distance in twice the time should indicate something about the level of difficulty of this race. Much of my writing is tongue-in-cheek, but if anyone decides they'd like to take on this challenge (it's well worth it in the end) I'd highly recommend training very hard for it.

This race is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the weak of knee, sore of ankle, light of pocketbook, or those not intimately familiar with the terms "contusion" "abrasion" "hypothermia", or their own personal symptoms of severe dehydration. And it probably wouldn`t hurt to actually be a mountain goat. It is one of the toughest 24 hours a runner could possibly think to put him/herself through, consisting of long and arduous ascents and descents, constant obstacles to trip you up, narrow lanes making it hard to pass others, soggy or stale food, challenging weather, and seemingly endless miles laid out in front of you. And that`s just the airline journey to the start of the race!

It takes a very special blend of dedication, determination, intestinal fortitude, alcohol, and hemorragic fever to reach the decision to begin training for, and actually run, the Canadian Death Race. Reason and logic simply have no place in planning for and running 125KM (77.5 miles) through the Canadian Rockies. In fact, if you even begin to think about doing this race it`s a good bet reason and logic have already headed off for a nice vacation in some tropical locale with scantily clad sun worshipers, white sand, and drinks with little umbrellas in them, seeing as how you won`t be calling on them anytime soon. But hey, we're runners! And if little things like blisters, shin splints, ankle pain, and passing out on marathon courses doesn`t stop us, then surely the threat of severe bodily harm, agonizing crippling pain, and even the chance to meet the grim reaper himself won`t keep us away from taking on this challenge! Take THAT reason and logic!

Okay, that means you need to get started planning this little stroll through the woods. The very first thing you`ll need to do (after you sober up and your friends have finished with the intervention) is go to the Death Race website at www.canadiandeathrace.com. Read the warnings and disclaimers (I really wish I had done this part myself). Read them again. They are serious (in fact, I believe they tell you this very thing several times in the warnings and disclaimers). Trust me, after having run this thing I can tell you there are no exaggerations or false bravado on the website about how tough this race is. To paraphrase them: How hard is it? Hard!!!

Reason and logic still have their cellphones off? Then step 2 is to consult with common sense (who hopefully hasn`t decided that reason and logic had the right idea, and is now headed to the airport to join them) and make the somewhat-less-than-manly-but-more-prone-not-to-kill-yourself decision to run it as a member of a relay team rather than solo. Your team may have up to 5 members (the race has 5 legs), but if the taunting you`re taking from your friends who thought you were insane but amazing for taking on this challenge and who now think you`re more tigger than tiger for running it on a team is too much for you to handle, you may opt to run on a team with less than 5 members and run multiple legs. Two words of advice on that one: don`t do it. Hey, even the person who runs the shortest, easiest leg of the race still gets the honorable moniker of "Death Racer" (as well as a neato pure silver coin to boot), so why knock yourself out trying to prove something (along the lines of even a man who drinks arsenic, occasionally won`t die) to a bunch of friends and family who really don`t care anyway?

Still gonna do it, huh? That brings us to training. Simple, really. Run hard, run long. Hill work is CRITICAL! I would also suggest race-specific training. Oh dear, no 12000 foot mountain peaks in your backyard? No problem! I`ve devised this simple and very clever (if I do say so myself) Death Race simulation. Find the steepest, longest, narrowest set of stairs in your town. Put on a blindfold (depending on how fast you or your team is, a good portion of the race may be run in the middle of the night). Have a friend randomly place pieces of furniture with very sharp edges on the stairs. Finally, have that friend dump a large bag of marbles onto the stairs. Now all you need to do is run up and down the stairs as fast as you can for 3 or 4 hours and voila! you`re good to go!

At last we come to the race itself! You`ve trained hard, traveled far, and changed the locks so reason and logic can just stay on vacation (those traitors!). Runners don`t need to be told how to run, so it`s time to do what you know how to do. I only have a few unwritten rules to follow during the race itself.

• First, there`s no shame in walking. The very title of "runner" would seem to preclude the mere trace of a thought about doing anything slower, but there are some seriously long and steep ascents, as well as numerous technical sections in this race, and you will be walking, quite a bit. So send pride to check on reason and logic and defer to your true friend common sense, and just accept it. Want to average better than 12 minutes/mile? Enter a different race.
• Second, when running on a trail called "Route of Roots", make it a point to STOP before turning around to check on someone behind you. Otherwise, refer to the first paragraph of this story and reference "contusions" and "abrasions".
• Third, it`s remote wilderness folks. Really. That means wildlife. Yes, bears. But try not to be too much of a greenhorn. Do a little research first. Common lore says to wear little bells to make noise in order to warn the bears that you`re approaching, in the hopes that your little silvery bell sound will scare off a 1500lb. quadruped with claws as long as your fingers and fangs designed to snap the bones of similarly sized quadrupeds. You know what the locals call these bells? Bear dinner bells. Nuff said.
• Fourth, invest in the quality gear the race organizers tell you to bring. You may be sweating through the valleys carrying extra clothes, food, a camelback hydration system, headlamp, and first aid kit, but by the time you`ve slogged up 3000 feet of mountain (which, by the way, you`ll do 3 times through the course of this race) where the temperature has plummeted to below freezing and there`s sleet, hail, and snow to go with the howling wind and, oh yeah, it`s now dark, you`ll be glad you have all that gear.
• And finally, bring your own supply of enthusiasm and food, because especially if you`re running the last leg, you`ll discover the volunteers are fresh out of both. I ran the last leg for my team. I didn`t start until 3:00 A. M., and when I finally crossed the finish line at 5:37 A.M. (a mere 2:23 before the cutoff) it was only myself, a few loyal teammates, some crickets, and two bleary-eyed race volunteers to clock me in and hand me a leftover cup of Jell-O pudding that hadn`t been refrigerated in 15 hours (sadly, fresh out of spoons).

And you know what? I`d do it all again in a heartbeat! In addition to the pain and suffering and lessons hard-learned (see unwritten rule #2 above), there was stunning mountain scenery, great camaraderie, running through the woods at night on a single-track trail with a teammate named Wolf, a small mountain town that got behind this event 110%, fantastic race volunteers, a middle-of-the-night jetboat ride across Hell`s Gate (where I had to pay the ferryman, Charron, 1 silver coin to pass), and the privilege of landing smack dab in the middle of an honest-to-goodness running adventure! Was it worth it? You bet!

One final thought. While you`re there, don`t forget to purchase as much Death Race paraphernalia as you can afford as early as you can because it goes fast. After all the wounds have healed, after all the stories have been told, after all the pictures have been developed, and after your fitness level has returned to mere mortal, the only thing you`ll have to remember this experience by is all the mass-produced commercial trinkets you bought while you were there.

And one really cool silver coin.