A DNF at the 2026 50k Pick Your Poison.

By Carl Wright3 hours ago

As both a runner and a blogger, having the absolute best possible finishing time has never been a priority for me. I like to take a lot of photos of the course, as it helps the reader experience the race better. Even though the reader may not have been on the course physically running it. Even though finishing time is not a factor, as I get older (and slower) making those cut-off times has been getting harder and harder. Last years’ Pick Your Poison I made the 3 loop (37.5 kilometer) cut-off and got back on the course with a mere 5 minutes to spare. The year 2026 Pick Your Poison would be my 9th time running the 50k at Pick Your Poison.

With last years Pick Your Poison, not only was I the oldest finisher, I was also the final finisher under the 9 hour cutoff. So I received the “Mountain Goat Award”. Still proudly displayed on top of my wife’s piano.

So for this year’s Pick Your Poison I came up with an ingenious idea. Take photos of some of the course the day before the race for the blog. It was a PA day on April 24th for elementary schools, so I wasn’t required to be on duty on Highway 93. There was an early bib pick-up at the Heights of Horseshoe from 1 to 4 pm the day before. I picked up my bib, then went out on the course to take some photos. With the course flagged, I thought maybe readers might not notice this wasn’t race day. My dear friend, my 18 year old Blackberry Torch died this past year. I had used it for course photos during practically every race in the past 12 years I had been running. I miss her deeply. This time, for my pre-race photos I decided to use my 17 year old Fuji Finepix camera. Nearly all the nature photography for this blog has been with this camera. The camera is not fancy, yet is very special to me. But it is heavy and bulky. Not idea to run a race with.

The day before the race, a trailer with supplies to go out to the aid stations. It is a lot of work organizing a race like this. Thank you to race directors Chris, Trish and Rhonda and to the many, many volunteers who make this happen.

At the bib pickup here is race director Rhonda and her daughter Lauryn. Each participant received a wonderful long sleeve Pick Your Poison quarter zip cardigan.

I love the trophies for the winning runners hand crafted by race sponsor Evans Tree Work. They look so amazing.

Arrow signage that points into the 1st part of single track.

A close up of the sign on the previous photo. I’m a paid member of Copeland Forest Friends. Copeland Forest has multiple user groups. As a member of Copeland Forest Friends you choose which user group to be a part of. There is hikers, mountain bikers, equestrian, hunters, local residents and naturalists. There is no trail running group. I am part of the nature (or naturalist) group.

With Copeland Forest being multi use, sometimes you’ll see trail features geared for mountain bikers. Pick Your Poison already has massive elevation. So I always choose to run around those.

A footbridge runners use to cross the headwaters of the Coldwater River. You’ll notice a big gnarly maple just above the footbridge in the photo. It’s a survivor. It gets a hug from me each time I go by. I tell myself those hugs help keep it alive.

Along this same stream I spotted the leaves of the trout lily plant. Their grey-green leaves mottles with brown are said to resemble the colouring of a brook trout. They will be flowering soon, as blooming at this time allows them unobstructed access to sunlight and time to grow when soil nutrient levels are high.

Was pleasantly surprised to come across this white trillium getting ready to flower.

It’s a couple kilometers since the course has left the stream. After a week of warm dry weather, the race course is remarkably dry. This is usually a wet section before the course trail winds and climbs through a red pine plantation forest.

After the red pine forest we continue to climb past this beautiful beech tree on the left. Do you notice that hanging branch on it? Hanging branches like that are called “widow makers”. No need to worry. It is not hanging over the trail and was even there during last years 2025 Pick Your Poison race.

If there was a wet area on the course, it would be that section ahead. It looks not bad at all.

The course circled up a steep hill, and past where the 1st aid station would be situated. Not far past the aid station runners would encounter their 1st snow.

I continued climbing to where the course drops down in single track hardwood forest. I decided not to go any further. As I paused to admire the beauty and the moss to my left, I noticed some movement on the ground at the edge of the moss.

It was a gorgeous Grass Spider. They are harmless and are very beneficial in our ecosystems. Being quite camouflaged, I wasn’t sure how well it would show up in a photo. Please be careful tomorrow little fellow. I don’t want to have you getting trampled.

So I decided to use my GoPro Hero 11 for race day photos. With the photos I would take the day before the race, all I will just need is 2 or 3 photos further in on the course on race day. My plan was brilliant. It will save me a massive amount of time. I originally specifically purchased the GoPro 3 years ago to record dangerous drivers at my school crosswalk on Highway 93. But I learned after I’m not allowed to use it because of privacy issues as I am working with children. So she sits nearly always in the original box. After my close relationship with my now deceased 18 year Blackberry Torch and 17 year old Fuji Finepix, I’ve never been comfortable with my GoPro. She is very complicated. I’m a button person. I’m old school. But with the GoPro, she is touchscreen. There are menus and submenus. I’ll read articles and watch YouTube tutorials on how to get to know her, but I come away just as confused. In the end I decided the only way to get to know her was to spend time with her. The only problem is that we had heavy rains the night before and in the 1st few hours of the race. The course ended up being completely different from the course the day before. My plan wasn’t as foolproof as I thought. I would end up taking many more photos than anticipated.

With temperatures hovering around 3 Celsius with heavy rain, the 50k runners really seemed very reluctant leaving the warm, dry conditions of the ski chalet and making it to the start line. There were ninety 50k runners.

Starting in on the course, the gentle spring fed stream the day before was swollen to nearly overflowing its banks on race day.

The ground here was very slightly damp and no mud the day before. The stream crosses here under this Ministry of Natural Resources access trail through a culvert. But the culvert under the trail couldn’t handle the volume of water. So the trail became a part of the stream and also became a floodplain. You can’t possibly go through here without wet feet. So just be a kid again. Go splash through and have some fun.

I took a photo near this same spot the day before. But now the ground ahead is much more saturated. What happened next changed the course of my day.

Further ahead at the wet section I was about to take another photo, but my feet almost went out from from under me. It was very slick. I caught myself in time. Be careful, Carl. Instead of taking the photo I tucked my GoPro back into its spot in the pouch of the waistband of my pack. Then I carried on. Through the mud, around a corner and then the course climbs. Starting gradually, then the climb got steeper. When it started to get steeper again, I reached into my pouch for my GoPro. Panic set in. My GoPro wasn’t there. The pouch was not zippered up like I thought and it must have fallen out. Trying to avoid a full fledged panic attack, I tried to collect my thoughts. Where did I last have it? Yes, that wet, muddy section at the bottom of the ski trail. As much as I was not comfortable using the GoPro, I needed to go back and try and find it. I’m not one for littering, and this was a $550 piece of litter. There were several runners behind me. Each runner I’d meet while backtracking I’d ask, “Did you happen to see a GoPro?” The answer each time was a “no”. I ended up back at the mud section at the bottom of the ski hill. It seemed like a hundred feet wide at the mud patch, and runners would venture through in different spots. But where did I go through? I started inching my way in where I estimated my route was. Looking ahead. Looking to the left. Looking to the right. I wasn’t far in and I spotted it. Fortunately it ended up on muddy ground and not in one of the massive number of water pockets that dotted this section. I was so grateful to find my GoPro and breathed a prayer of thanks. I picked her up, swished her in the water to clean her and then held her tenderly. Perhaps this will be a turning point in our relationship. I’ll make a better effort to try to understand her better. But for now I needed to make up some distance and time. The clock was ticking. I needed to complete 3 loops or 37.5 kilometers under the hard cutoff of 6.5 hours to be allowed to go out on my 4th loop. Mentally, this whole backtracking and panic searching made me feel totally wiped and overwhelmed. As I stood there all alone in the mud while the rain continued to pour down, the last words my dear wife shared with me as I headed out the door went through my mind. It was this “Even if you only run 2 kilometers, enjoy yourself and be safe”. I took my pack off and placed the GoPro in a special pocket inside the pack. Very consciously zippered it up. Put my pack back on. Buckled it up. And carried on. I wasn’t sure how far I ended backtracking, but my Garmin said it was 0.9 kilometers to the point I turned back. So 1.8 kilometers in total. Up that same elevation I came down and up the steeper pitch, around a bend and up to where the 1st aid station was. Taking photos takes time, but I made the conscious decision to continue taking photos. These volunteers at the aid stations are so amazing. It was so cold and wet, but these workers were so warm and welcoming. Off with the pack. Unzipper it. Pull out the GoPro. Turn it on and let it cycle. Swipe the screen to the left so the photo icon appears. Focus the camera. Take the photo. Hold the off button for several seconds while she cycles off. Back in the pack. Zipper it up. Put my pack back on. Buckle it up. I’m good to go again.

Looking at the race results there was 135 runners running the 12.5k (1 loop), 129 runners running 25k (2 loops) and 90 runners running 50k (4 loops). That is a lot of runners these amazing aid station volunteers assist with.

This was only loop 1, but each loop the three snowpacks we ran over showed more and more mud from runners.

I’ll often taken a photo climbing this big grind of a hill before the 2nd aid station. Further up there were lots of wet rocks which made it quite slippery.

The 2nd aid station formerly named the Golf Course Aid Station (because it is situated right beside Settler’s Ghost Golf Course) has been renamed Oakley’s Safe Haven. Named after the Oakley family who so kindly welcome, encourage and refuel runners year after year. Notice the “Oakley Safe Haven” banner created in their honour in the background.

We’re now on loop 2. It continues to rain. Water continues to build and find new places to channel. Such as our race course here.

This photo on loop 2 took a bit longer than normal as I waited for runners to come up from behind. My third attempt, I decided this would be the one I would use. Photo taken the same spot as last loop, but the water is deeper and muddier this time. Running through myself, it really felt like the mud was going to suck the shoes off my feet.

Out on loop two, it continued to pour rain. So much respect to Sue Sitki of Sue Sitki Photography for the thousands of runner photos she took in that heavy rain. With her business called Sue’s Soap Creations, she also provided fabulous prizes for the winning runners.

By 11:00 am the rain started to taper off. Just as the weather forecast predicted. This particular area of Copeland Forest is part of the Oro Moraine and is quite sandy. So it drains quickly. The waterlogged lower lands on the course will still remain wet and muddy. The higher elevations would see improvements on the course before the day was out. It may not be immediately, but definitely would be improving by the next loop. By the time I reached Oakley’s Safe Haven on my second loop I pretty much knew I was not going to make the cutoff. Even with the course conditions improving. I was totally okay with it. I love this course and was enjoying it so much. There were several runners I connected with on the course. It makes it all the more special. There was a young man named Adam. Just 50 meters into the race, he comes up beside me and asked, “Are you the Old Fellow Goes Running?” We crossed paths a few times on the course. So cool to learn he reads my blog and was excited to meet me. Others I listened to their story on how running has been game changing in their lives. On my third loop I was getting lapped by a quite a few 50k runners. I’d hear them coming up behind and would step off the single track trail well in advance. That way I would not slow them down. They would thank me profusely going by. I would say “You’re welcome. You are doing great”. They would call back, “You’re doing great yourself”. At the top of the ski hill before the descent to the start/finish a very athletic looking runner half my age came along beside me. He was finishing his 4th loop. But I was just on my 3rd. He said, “This it it man, we’ve done it”. I mentioned to him this was only my third loop, I missed the cutoff and it will be a DNF. The man slowed to my pace. I could sense his intense, constant gaze on my face for several seconds. Then he blurted out, “Look at yourself man. You’re f…..g amazing. Everyone else out there your age is just sitting on a f…..g soft couch. But not you, man. This course was f…..g brutal. You’ve f…..g killed it man”. With that he took off, sprinting down the steep ski hill to the finish line on his much younger knees. As a lay pastor, normally all those “f-bombs” would have really bothered me. But not this time. I knew he was really trying hard to get his point across. It worked. My last eight 50k Pick Your Poison finishes the tears were flowing as I descending that ski hill. They were also flowing freely as I more like hobbled my soon to be 68 year old body down the steep ski hill for my 1st Pick Your Poison DNF. I felt so extremely blessed. I have my health. I can still run. Blows me away, but I even have respect from so many other younger runners. What more could I ask for.

Thanks for reading. Have you ever had to backtrack in a race from losing something, or going off course? Do race course photos help you feel more a part of the race?

My Strava results: With the extra distance and elevation from backtracking, it ended up being 24.43 miles (39.32 kilometers) and 4,226 feet of elevation over the 3 loops. In the 50k race results, of the 90 runners who started the 50k, 70 finished.