The 14th running of the Pick Your Poison Trail Race was held on April 27, 2024 at the Heights of Horseshoe, Ontario Canada. It is a very popular race with distances of 12.5 kilometers, 25 kilometers and 50 kilometers. Every year it seems to get more popular and when registration took place on December 1st, 2023, all three distances sold out within an hour. Martin, who is one of my running friends in Hillsdale reminded me, and I reminded him to not forget about the registration. We could not miss this. We both got in for the 50k.

Given that there was no physical race during Covid for two years, this would be my 7th consecutive time running the 50k. My first year I ran it was 2016. The race is a favorite of mine because it takes place in my beloved Copeland Forest. Plus, as myself being a Green Runner, I’m very conscious of my travel footprint for races. Pick Your Poison takes place only 10 kilometers from where I live.

Because Pick your Poison takes place very early in the season, it is a hard race to properly train for. Plus things happen. Eight weeks before race day I had a major fall while running in Copeland Forest. Went around a corner and hit one of the few remaining patches of ice. Down I went. Banged up my wrist, hip and knee. Everything was healing up except for the left knee. Every few days I’d try running. But the knee was just too painful. I was able to run one kilometer pain free two weeks before the event. Over the next few days I slightly built up my mileages until I was up to 8 kilometers of training two days before the event.

My friend Martin even had it worse than me. He blacked out in our local Hillsdale restaurant and fell flat on his face. He had a major concussion and ended up in the hospital for a few days. Unfortunately, he had to cancel his race, but was kindly deferred to 2025. My other Hillsdale running friend, Samantha, is also laid up with a knee injury. For myself, I didn’t expect to finish. I almost dropped my distance to 25k. But decided to still start the 50k. Just didn’t want to create more work for the organizers. In the back of my mind I had already decided to just run two loops (or 25 kilometers). And even told a few people that was what I was planning to do. External factors also played a factor with my decision of only running 25k. I am a lay pastor. The next day I would be speaking at three different churches. The congregations are very dear to my heart. It takes a lot of endurance in itself to speak at the three churches. Like an aid station, the 1st church sends me on my way each week with coffee and treats to keep me going. But I really needed some reserve for the next day after Pick Your Poison. Who knows what kind of shape I’d be in if I attempted the 50k. Usually I speak the first three Sundays each month. Somehow in April I ended up scheduled for the last Sunday. The day after Pick Your Poison.

The weather forecast on race day was rain with a high of 13c. Lighter, intermittent showers from the 8 am race start until 11 am, with heavier rain after 11 and lasting until 3 pm, when it was supposed to taper off. It was going to be an interesting day. At the start line I met Pick Your Poison veteran Joe Smith. I had 1st met Joe at the notoriously tough 150k Bad Beaver Ultra in 2018. Joe was wearing that years’ Pick Your Poison race jersey. Naturally I had some questions.

There was a light rain at the start of the race. I started literally at the very back. Within a few minutes all the other runners had distanced themselves from me. I was on my own. Despite a little bit of rain, the course was in excellent shape. Just the usual mud at the bottom of the ski hill before aid station #1. I ended up taking off my rain jacket a couple of kilometers into the race. I was getting too warm. My time for loop #1 was 1:48:24. I was quite happy with how things were going. The knee was holding up.

The intermittent rain was continuing, and with the 25k and 12.5k now started the course was a bit more stirred up and a bit more slick. Shortly into my 2nd loop I was lapped by 50k race leader Giancarlo Otani from Lima Peru. He was so fast and running so effortlessly. Boy to be young again. I was now feeling it in my knee while running the second loop. Later in the loop the rain was steadier and heavier. It was very likely I would drop after the 2nd loop. I knew I was a bit slower during my 2nd loop, which ended up being 2:03:48. But even then I had actually had gained a little more cushion on my cutoff times. I decided one more loop.

I do run with an old Garmin. But never turn GPS on during races because with it turned on it only has a battery capacity of about 5 hours. I only use my Garmin as a wristwatch and to check my heartrate. Using the Karvonen method of 220 minus your age (which is 65), my maximum heart rate would be 155 beats per minute. Several times in the 1st loop and a couple of times in the 2nd loop my heart rate climbed well into the 170’s. I knew I hadn’t properly trained for this, so I pulled back my pace each time when my heart rate got too high. The last thing the directors need is a runner having a heart attack on the course. Loop three my excessive heart rate was a non-issue. The rain continued and the course on the single track had gotten so frightening treacherous. I needed to go slower. But not too slow to miss the 6:30 cutoff after 3 loops. I was out of my comfort zone and was questioning my sanity running this as a soon to be 66 year old. A couple of times I was choking back tears. Loop 3 would definitely be my final loop. I must have looked a total wreck and looking like something the cat dragged in when I finished loop 3. For the 1st two loops the Grim Reaper had been calling out morale destroying comments through his megaphone as myself and all the other runners descended the ski hill towards the start/finish. The 3rd loop ski hill descent I could see him closely watching me descend, but was met with total silence. When I ran past the gazebo which kept the Grim Reaper dry from the rain, he simply said, “Hang in there. You are dong great”.

At the start/finish line before I could even get the words out that I was calling it a day after three loops, race director Rhonda had pulled me aside saying I had 15 minutes to get back on the course to beat the cutoff. She must have been reading my body signals that there was nothing left in the tank, because she then added with a firm voice “You can do this”. My mind was spinning. My 3rd loop of 2:22:40 wasn’t that great. Yet timewise overall I was in fairly good shape to finish before the final cutoff. I walked over to the aid station to try and think this over. The kind volunteers were really trying so hard to get me back on the course ASAP. Don’t waste precious time. I thought of my friend Martin, who would love to be running this race. I know there will come a time I won’t be able to run this. All I have is just one loop to go.

I spent five minutes making up my mind. Ten minutes before the cutoff I was back on the course. The rain had pretty much tapered off. Since the east part of Copeland Forest is part of the sand and gravel Oro Moraine, it drains quite well. Although still slick, loop #4 was an improvement over loop #3. As I continued to plod my way around the final loop, trail conditions continued to improve. Physically there was nothing left in me. But mentally I kept pushing. Finally there was the descent of the last ski hill and across the finish line as the 3rd last finisher in a time of 8:34:46 in a nine hour finishing cutoff. Of the 99 runners that started the 50k, 12 dropped and did not finish.

Race recaps from my previous 50k Pick Your Poisons. 2016. 2017. 2018. 2019. 2020 (virtual). 2022. 2023.