“I fell so many times.” – Eric Lipuma, winner of the QMT 50K and new course record holder.

“I think we all did 😂.”

QMT 50K this year was a rough one. Raining all morning – the course was as slippery as can be, especially in the already incredibly difficult Mestachibo.

“Every runner you see will tell you they fell.” I warned a post-race meal server.

Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) for me, my falls were pretty bad. And unfortunately (or fortunately) for me, they were race-defining in terms of how I would manage the final 45K of the 52K race.

We started at 7AM local time in the rain. Normally rain and mud are two of my favourite things. I said as much to both Eric Lipuma and Robyn Mildren before the race. But this meant the course was going to be next level, in an already next level elite field, in an already next level trail.

“Yeah we have stuff like this in Vermont. But you’re not allowed to race on it.” – Eric Lipuma.

In Quebec, they do things differently.

From the gun, I watched Eric throw down on the roads, daring anyone to come with him. I stayed further back with the top woman, (*surprise surprise Robyn Mildren), a strategy I wish I took before my death march at the Gorge Waterfalls 50K back in April.

I trotted a touch with Robyn on the technical grass and then caught up to a pack of guys, passing them all on the first downhill.

Rather too politely, however, I let one of them go to the front as soon as we entered Mestachibo. He asked me in French if I wanted to pass.

“I will, but I’ll wait for the right moment. Stay where you are.”

Famous. Last. Words.

Thinking I was some technical savant that could best any Quebec guy, I followed far too closely. Instead of putting my money where my mouth was, I put dirt where my mouth was, and crashed into the side of the trail.

5K into the race, and my right quad was shooting stars into the air. Unideal all the more, since I’m still dealing with a baker’s cyst on that side, and the hamstring I tore back in 2018 is down the other side.

I worried that my gait would be affected and cause some gnarly hamstring cramps on that left side. But instead of wallowing, I shouldered the pain and finally passed the pack of guys. The tightness in my hamstring came soon afterward, and a lonely pickle did little to change that.

But feeling comfortable with the pace, I conservatively hung onto my position. The pack of runners (including cyclist Mathieu Bélanger-Barrett), caught up to me about 5K later. Distracted, I fell a second time, this time hitting my arm.

Knowing that it was going to be a difficult second half, I chilled in the pack for a bit before again putting on a surge to pass the guys and make my own mark on an uphill. I’ve become really good at just grinding up a runnable uphill for long periods, without needing to hike. So I felt confident that I could run the next few uphills until catching some of the elite 100-mile / 100K guys.

Alister Gardner (XACT Marketing) then met me at 22K for my first aid station transition. Mathieu snuck his way by me at this time, but I left feeling confident that the next few hours would involve two power hikes and two steep descents. Other than Mathieu I did not see another runner until the bottom of the second descent, when I caught up to Clément Perrier.

“That’s my favourite section” I told Clement, hoping he was hurting from it.

Nope. Clement telepathically said “BYEE!” and hopped away.

Up until this point, I had taken the race rather conservatively. I had also run most of the middle third alone. I had a three-minute gap on Cedrik behind me, but Mathieu and Clément were out of sight.

Suddenly starting to feel good, I adopted the SWAP mantra of “___ around and find out.” I made it my mission to run every step of the second half of the race, and powered up the third longest climb of the day. I caught a glimpse of Mathieu again just before the downhill started, where he immediately put another massive gap on me and my quad.

Throughout this time, I was also managing my hamstring cramp. I would take in XACT tabs or bars and it would go away. YAY!

Then I would leap to avoid a runner in a different race or hit a technical section and immediately cramp up again. NO!

This went on for most of the middle third. So much so, that between 37K and 42K I had some of my slowest kilometres by GAP. It was almost like my body forgot it was racing, even though my mind knew I could still make up ground. I hadn’t seen anyone behind or ahead in miles, and let myself relax to a heart-rate that wouldn’t normally be associated with racing.

The plan throughout this time was that I would hammer the final 10K from the final aid station to the finish. The coca-cola at the aid stations was stressing out more than most runners, so I stopped only for a brief moment before really taking off.

At this point, I thought that I had enough of a gap behind me on Cedrik (turns out – it was only a minute). I started throwing down the hammer, and here comes Cedrik, throwing down a SLEDGEHAMMER.

Visions of the Sulphur Springs 20K popped into my head as I picked up the pace and started chasing him down, all the way until the cramping started again. I slowed the pace and took two XACT bars to manage it, before finally laying down my own SLEDGEHAMMER.

Forget the hammer metaphor. It was like those two XACT bars put me on a motorbike. Riding the wave, from 45K to 50K, I passed Alvin Alexandre, then Vincent, then Cedrik, then finally, Mathieu. Not even the two consecutive rivers could stop me.

From there it was all out to the finish, with plenty of leg speed still left from my conservative first half. I finished in 5 hours 35 minutes, which in most years would be good enough for around the top five. But on a day where Eric Lipuma and Marcus Ribi were just on another level, I was incredibly happy with 7th place.

BUT WAIT. DON’T ORDER YET. THERE’S MORE.

The best part of the day for me was actually post-race, where I got to spend time chatting with Eric Lipuma and then Robyn Mildren. They both raced exceptionally, and so it was cool hearing their own stories – from Robyn getting lost to Eric falling twenty-thousand times and somehow still running 4h50. After Gorge in April, I could not move. Chris Myers had to ask me several times if I was okay.

I was not okay, Chris.

But this time, I walked around like an actual human rather than a zombie. So that was one small step but one big step for Rhys-kind. Especially when I’ll be racing Squamish 50K at the National Championships in 5 weeks from now. Walking after the craziness of QMT is a luxury.

Before closing, I need to thank XACT Nutrition for all the support over the weekend. I’ve been incredibly lucky to be backed by such an amazing team and could not have managed my cramps without them.

See you at Squamish. Thanks for reading and see you soon!