Marathonialbert: The Manitoba Trail Marathon

The Trail Run Manitoba

June 1, 2013

The majority of marathons I have run have taken place in Europe where I lived for 25 years.

Hiking trails as well as marathon trails in the Black Forest and in Switzerland are all well marked and colour-coded with names, directional arrows as well as elevation signs.

Canada is a much bigger country and we pride ourselves in the open spaces and pure wilderness without the clutter of signs and colour codes and arrows.

This therefore was my first nature ‘off the road’ marathon experience in Canada. The Spruce Woods Provincial Park (Epinette entrance) offers some fantastic scenery.

The marathon started where Dwayne Sandall drew a line in the sand with his shoe. Count down at 9:00 a.m. and we were off and running into the wilderness. Dwayne had briefed us before the start – “Keep the orange flags on your left…’show me your left hand’. The last stretch will have pink flags after the T intersection and those pink flags will bring you to the finish line.” That sounded clear and simple to follow.

There were fantastic Aid stations along the road with a variety of sweet energy treats as well as salty treats, not to speak of things like Coke besides the water! The first Aid station was 9 km in, and then the turn onto the Newfoundland 25 km loop with the next station being at the 18 km mark. The third station came after Jackfish Lake where I was met by my grandson, who was helping ‘man’ an aid station. Altogether there were 5 stations and these were extremely well equipped.

The trails were fairly easy to follow even though there were no kilometre markers. Two runners passed me, and as they went ahead along the “bumpy” trail - they were visible on the little hills, then disappeared into the little dips of the trail - then their heads came up again and again smaller as they disappeared into the distance.

The scenery was incredible and the terrain was anything but boring with its elevation changes and curves…all 42 kilometres of it. The trail went through a treed area and then you would come upon a beautiful meadow with rolling hills…(just no Swiss cows with bells).

By km 18 (at the second checkpoint) I noted that the ball of my foot was beginning to hurt. Shoes were not tied tightly enough. Blisters had already formed by the time I stopped to re-tie my shoes. Running uphill and downhill, pushing the foot forward in the shoe had created the problems. This also created the typical runner’s toenails – black ones, which will eventually fall off.

At times the trail was soft from the sand and this required more energy.

Observing the small pinecones on the ground, the open meadows, the forest, the sandy embankments, the creeks and hearing the sounds of the birds…what a way to run a marathon! The stretches between the stations were totally peaceful and with no cell reception it was a great time to think, reflect and feel really adventurous.

I was still about 30 minutes out when I was met by me grandson coming to fetch me – he was on a bike. That was a huge encouragement and a great finish to my run. And at the very end my granddaughter came out and ran in with me.

My oldest son also ran this race – and although he missed a turn and ran an extra 5 miles still managed to finish the run before I came in. This was a 3-generation event for the Martens family.

Dwayne is to be recommended for a great job organizing the Manitoba Wilderness Trail Marathon.

Albert Martens