Emperors Challenge 2024 - Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia

Описание: The Emperors Challenge is a northern BC, Epic, Half Marathon Mountain Trail race, up and around Mount Babcock. It is a 5 hour timed race with 2 timed check points…you don’t make the check point cut offs, you get swept off the course!

Even though I am not a runner, this race has been on my bucket list for years! Being a strong hiker and backpacker, I fully believed I could hike this race within the time frame allotted.

This past summer, I finally had my opportunity when my amazing cousin Kyla decided to join me for this adventure!

I had good intentions of training, learning to run, build up some running endurance. But those intentions went to die where most good intentions often do 😂🥴 and I went into this race pretty cold. Other than one hiking trip a couple weeks ahead of time to scope out the race route, I did very little in preparation 🫢

I was sure thankful we had at least checked out the route…I knew what to expect and where, when to give it my all to help buy some time and when I could relax and slow it down a bit.

Even still, I did try to do some running and my heart quickly told me to stop doing that. I made it to the first checkpoint with lots of time to spare (as was my plan), and told Kyla I was going to dial it back for the next section. At one point, when she finally caught up to me, she said “this is you dealing it back?” lol! I guess I had caught my second wind, and found my groove!

That was until just passed the half way mark, when upon trying to overtake someone, my left calf muscle Charlie horsed like I’ve never experienced before in my life! The muscle completely seized and cramped up, so badly you could see a huge solid indentation in my leg! It hurt SO bad! For a few meters I seriously thought I would have to quit…but it eventually released, and although it tried to keep cramping, it never did to that extent again. Thank goodness!

We made it to the second check point with loads of time to spare and chose to power walk the last 6kms back to the finish. Kyla and I crossed the finish line together at exactly 4hours20minutes! I was super proud of us! My goal was to qualify, but to have 40minutes to spare was amazing!

And it sparked something inside of me. It ignited my goal centred, challenge driven brain…and a whole new world opened up to me….could it be that this long time running hater…might just become a runner??!

At the very least, I MUST run this race again in 2025 and beat my 2024 time!
I’ve already been training and working towards improving my overall fitness as well as make gains on my lung and heart cardio capacity… looking back at the footage, there were so many places I could run today that I didn’t then.

I am excited about the possibilities within the trail racing world…it is the ONLY thing that I have found that even comes close to the feeling that Thru hiking the PCT did…and I want to explore it!

Hope you enjoy my very first race ever, the amazing Emperors Challenge….and I apologize for the very heavy breathing…I quite literally was trying not to die! lol! 🫣

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