Day 12- The other half

Welcome back! Thanks for your patience on this post. As you may have gathered from social media, the last few days have been a whirlwind and I am just getting to blog catching-up now.

To pick up where we left off Wednesday, Matt and Chantal were out on trail with Chantal. Their section was right downtown Hamilton which made for some busy and interesting sections. Chantal (Warriner) told me that they received a lot of looks from people wondering what the heck they were doing.

The next checkpoint was a bit of an adventure as it was at the top of a very steep hill through the woods. Apparently I missed the memo when I helped with route planning today... but I'm sure Alan LOVED carrying all the supplies up the hill... right Alan?

Leg 4 was Cayra and Mel- two awesome ladies who also jumped in at the last minute and were able to help pace. They paced Chantal from downtown Hamilton out to Stoney Creek. The weather for these ladies was HOT. I can't remember if it was this leg or the previous one, but either way, in there was also a big downpour which soaked everyone, but also provided some relief from the heat.

During this leg Cayra and Mel helped Chantal to find her 'daily rock'. Literally. Chantal has been choosing a small rock each day from somewhere along the route (not in any environmentally sensitive areas, don't worry nature lovers!). Why the rocks? No, she is not loading her knapsack with rocks for the extra workout, although I wouldn't put it past her... Chantal is planning to make a mini Inuksuk from the rocks she finds as a memento of her adventure. Neat!

Chantal also met someone out walking with their dogs and asked if she could pet them (the dogs, not the owner). Chantal was really missing her doggies and told me that she pet every dog she came across on the trail. We should have had a dog-count as well of how many dogs Chantal had made friends with en-route. Oh well... maybe next time ;)

The next leg was super trooper Tanya, and new recruit David H. David had come earlier in the week with his daughter to cheer on Chantal, and when he heard we were in need of pacers and aid station crew, he re-arranged his Wednesday and Thursday in order to help out. What a guy!

Here's a picture of leg 4, 5 and aid station crew. What a good-looking team!

At this point we were a bit behind schedule due to the heat, so the crew put on their headlights and headed out. A few km down the line they realized they had lost the 'baton' (bugspray), and since the bugs were really bad Craig met them at the next road intersection to hand over the juice.

The original plan was to run the approximately 16k remaining of the Iroquoia section and finish downtown Grimsby, however it was getting really close to our time cut-off we had imposed for the day (since Chantal would not be sleeping much tonight), and it was raining out, which made the going really slow and slippery. Chantal finished approx 2km out from the end of the Iroquoia section, then headed to the van for some much-deserved pizza.

At this point I (Cait) was really fortunate to have my friend Laura open up our house to the team. Chantal was soaking and cold, she was exhausted and we had laundry to do, and we thought having a roof overhead would be the best thing for the team. Laura graciously let us invade her house and yard with our stinky running clothes, and we are forever grateful to her for that! Thanks Laura and Derek! Chantal also lucked out as I brought my friend Sonya to come cheer with me, and Sonya just happens to be an amazing massage therapist! Sonya volunteered her time to give Chantal a massage tonight and help her relax for what was going to be a really short sleep before a really LONG day.

Pictured below: backyard camping!

After some planning between Alan, Craig and myself for the following day, the guys prepped Chantal's food, finished the laundry, and they went to bed ... for what was going to be the shortest rest yet. Tomorrow's plan was a 2am wakeup!

I am going to finish the blog post here (midnight on Wed July 12) even though 'day 12' technically doesn't end until Thursday July 13 at 6am (remember how we count days from the previous blog post?), just because I want to include all the stories and info from the 'final push' in one long and fun post.

Today's fun facts (up until midnight July 12)

Kms run: 74km! (the furthest of any day so far!)

Total kms so far: 823km*

Pacers: Jennifer, Laura, Lori, Chantal, Matthew, Cayra, Mel, Tanya, David H.

Support Crew: Craig, Alan, David H., Sylvie, Brian and the girls, Caitlin and Sonya

*NOTE- You may look at this total and think, oh, Chantal only has 890-823= 67km to go. Hooray! Well, you would be wrong. The Bruce trail is APPROXIMATELY 890km, but with detours etc this can vary from year to year. So how long does Chantal have left to run? Read tomorrow's post to find out!

#aspirebrucecelerity #ultra #trailrunning #motherrunner #fkt