Alicia Woodside: Ultrapreneur

Alicia Woodside is an ultra runner and entrepreneur living in Squamish, BC. She seeks and sometimes struggles to find a balance between kicking ass in races and keeping it fun. She is one of the founders of the non-profit organization Girls Gone Wilderness which is a program for girls who are currently intimidated by or not connected to the outdoor world. When not adventuring in the mountains, you can typically find Alicia working on her new business Teffles Waffles and she sells them at the Squamish farmers market every other weekend. Alicia has raced distances from 10k to 100 miles and her journey to ultra is very inspiring. 

Instagram:

@funtimes.Woodside

@teffles_waffles

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Rory Bosio: The Colourful Mountain Runner

Rory Bosio is a talented ultra marathon runner who some might say is best known for her course record setting win at the UTMB in 2013 - placing 7th overall! Others might say she is best known for her sick dance moves, blinged out hand painted race kits, and goofy personality. In this episode we chat with Rory about her recent win at the Ushuaia 130k by UTMB race in Argentina, family life and growing up in Tahoe, her incredible launch into the world of ultra marathon running, her life changing trip to Ethiopia (with Girls Gotta Run), speed flying, and so much more. 

Girls Gotta Run - Is a non-profit organization that invests in girls who use running and education to empower themselves and their communities. Please consider donating :)

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Shanda Hill: Redefining Limits

in 2003 Shanda Hill was riding her bike home when was struck by a truck, flew 30 feet in the air, and suffered a traumatic brain injury. After clawing her way back from the depths of hell she started putting one foot in front of the other and the rest is history. Tune in to find out how she became an ultra marathon runner and a Deca Ironman World Champion (that's the same as 10 Ironmans!!!).

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Finding Inspiration and starting a new project!!!

Inspiration - what has been inspiring you lately? Does anyone else constantly delete and re-download Instagram from their phones? Over the last several months I was having a love hate relationship with social media. I was wasting so much time just scrolling and watching story after story. So I took a break. I deleted IG and FB off my iPhone. I kept FB on my iPad and would check in from time to time but getting it off my phone significantly reduced the amount of time I spent on it. I'd find myself reaching for my phone to check IG, out of habit, only to realize that I had deleted it and then id put the phone down and figure out another way to fill the time/silence.

It's interesting nowadays how tied we are to our devices. Why sit there and do nothing when we could be scrolling IG. We live in a day where we can be stimulated and entertained at all times - while we cook, in grocery line-ups, going to the bathroom, elevator, waiting rooms etc etc etc. 

I decided to delete the apps because I was having a hard time coming up with my own inspiration. It's interesting you know, I didn't miss it. Not one bit. It was actually really fun not knowing what everyone was up to all the time. It was nice going out for runs or skiing and not bringing my phone with me. If I did, I wasn't with the sole purpose of posting it to IG. 

In this time I discovered podcasts. I became obsessed with podcasts. I love listening to interviews. I find people so incredibly fascinating. The journeys that people take to becoming who they are is such a fun tangled web of experience. Every experience breaths life into the next one - paths take twists and turns on the journey to becoming who we are today. The cool thing is that the journey isn't over and where we are today may be very different from where we are tomorrow.

A few of my favs: Arm chair expert, Rich Roll, any of the ultra running ones, and girls gotta eat (thanks Tory). 

At some point I got this idea that it might be fun to start a podcast. I used to interview people for a newsletter I used to write for North Shore Athletics and some for my blog. The last one was an interview I did with Pam Smith - before she won the 2013 western states 100. I had a feeling she would win and because iRunFar hadn't interview her, I figured I would! This one with Ellie Greenwood is entertaining too (pre-100 milers)! Of course, I am notorious for coming up with ideas and never implementing them. Usually I go out for a run, get so amped on an idea, and come back and tell Peter about another thing I'd like to do. Then the high fades and it gets added to the imaginary list of things I don't actually do. Anyone else get grandiose ideas while running? 

Six weeks ago I was sitting in the waiting room of my Chiro appointment. I had my phone but I had deleted the social media apps so I had nothing to keep me distracted while I sat there patiently. I looked over to the magazine rack and noticed a program calendar for courses at the local College. I opened it up and was so surprised at all the continuing education courses they offered. You could literally learn about anything...EVEN PODCASTING! I couldn't believe it. Needless to say I sneakily ripped the page out of the magazine and signed up for the 2 night course. I felt a lot of excitement being in school again, especially because I was learning something totally unrelated to my work - a passion project if you will. The course gave a very basic intro into how to start a low cost podcast. I really enjoyed it but I soon realized there was a lot still to learn. 

Never in my life (outside of actual school) have I spent so much time researching how to do something. I literally started from scratch. I have no tech background, so I had to teach it all to myself. I wanted to throw in the towel at one point because it seemed silly to invest a lot of money into something I didn't even know if I would enjoy and something I wasn't deriving any revenue from. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I didn't want this to be another idea that just gets washed down the cascading waterfall of forgotten one's. So I went out and invested in some gear.

My podcast is called Journey to Ultra. It's about people's journeys to becoming the incredible humans they are today and what led them to ultra running. As my interest is running, the podcast will be mainly about ultra runners, however really it can be anyone doing ultra incredible things. I'm inspired by all kinds of people these days and I'm excited to connect and share stories.

I chose Peter Watson (my partner) to be my first guest. Firstly, because I had easy access to him (no pun intended) and it was fun to test out my gear and fail a few times before getting it right.

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If you know of anyone you think would make a great guest or any topics you think would be interesting for the show please email nicola.gildersleeve@gmail.com.

I hope you enjoy it!

Nicola

Peter Watson: turning loss into a life of adventure

Peter grew up living on the North Shore and has been adventuring/mis-adventuring in the mountains from a very young age. After losing his best friend in an avalanche at 18 years old, Peter finds himself a little lost. In 2002 he finds himself working at the local running shop and gains an entry into his first ultra marathon with only 2.5 weeks notice. Catching the bug, Peter sets his sights on the Western States 100. Tune in to find out how it all played out.

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Happy trails,

Nicola Gildersleeve

WILDHORSE 50K RACE REPORT

When I moved to Vernon I was really excited to check out some of the races that are local to the Okanagan. We are really lucky here because there are a couple of trail racing companies that put on races. I have long heard of the P.A.C.E trail running series and had yet to check it out! Wildhorse 50k would be my first shot.

I haven't laced up my ultra shoes since September 2016 when I did the Golden Ultra and I've really been looking forward to getting back at it. A lot of the 50k's in our area are double 25k loop courses and that is why the Wildhorse 50k really caught my eye. A point to point trail run from Kelwona to Naramata. Yeehaw!

Note: If you are planning to have a car at the finish there is a shuttle that meets you at the finish (very early 5am-ish) and takes you to the start race morning. That means a 3am wake up to get to Penticton in time to catch the shuttle. Luckily, Peter drove me to the start line and picked me up at the finish. Another good thought is to camp right at the finish in Naramata and save yourself the morning drive.

The start at Bertram Creek Park, Photo: Peter Watson

The race starts at Bertram Creek Park in Kelowna right down at the beach. There's a short climb up from the beach to the road and then a few nice easy k's along the road to the trail. The road parallels Okanagan Lake and the views are very beautiful. I found myself in the lead pack of women. There were 5 of us. My friend Tory Sholtz had mentioned that her friend Becky Bates was running the race too and so I asked the group if there was a Becky among us...and there was! Becky is a 55 year old Bad ass living in Kimberly, BC. She said she used to climb quite competitively but has only been running about 3 years. She is training for the Hardrock 100 which she got into...through the lottery! It was her first time applying and she had a 0.8 chance of being selected, How cool!

The 5 of us started up the trail together and my training buddy Tom Craik was right behind us. Tom and I shot the shit for a bit as we made our way up the steep climb. Eventually the trail began to flatten out and I passed 3 of the women and was now running in second. Oh and Becky, she gapped us super fast going up the first climb and was out of sight pretty quick. After the climb you drop down a bit and end up on a flatter section of trail which consisted of mud puddle after mud puddle. These puddles were long and deep and made for some interesting travel. I didn't mind though! The gnarlier the better. After many km you climb back up a bit and drop back down 200m to the first aid station which was at 21km. This aid station was a re-route from where it was originally supposed to be at 7km.

Aid # 1 was pretty cool. The volunteers boated and jet skied supplies into the aid station and due to flooding we were warned of a chest deep swim to get to the aid. However, there was a really long downed log that allowed us to avoid getting wet. I was very appreciative of that! I filled up my pack with water and grabbed some gels and got out of there. The aid station is an out and back so I got to see how far ahead Becky was. I wouldn't say she was more than a minute or 2 ahead before I got to the aid station. Adria Snowden, who was in 3rd, left the aid station just behind me. We climbed back up out of the aid station together and chit chatted/ran for a while. The next 13km were the toughest of the day. We were really lucky weather wise. It could have been smouldering but there was some nice cloud cover which kept the temperatures at a reasonable level for the Okanagan. Adria and I leap frogged a few times going up the climb with me taking the lead on the descents. She pulled ahead just before aid #2.

I was almost out of water by the time I got to aid # 2. It was also around this time that I started to get the gurgles in my throat. I don't know how to describe it but it sucks and I suffer from this in most of my long races. I think if I knew how to burp I could calm it but I've never had that skill. I may be the only person I know that doesn't know how to burp. Any tips?

From Aid #2 to the finish is 16k of "easy" running. It reminds me of the last 10km of the chuckanut course. It's easy miles but mentally it's challenging. For those of you not familiar with Chuckanut, it's a flat wide gravel path to the finish. Once we got onto he KVR I believe it's a 2% grade downhill. Adria, another gentleman, and I left Aid # 2 together and pretty quickly I put a gap on them. Really quickly I stopped to pee and noticed the guy (didn't get his name) go by. He laughed to himself as he passed and later told me he laughed because Adria had also pulled over to pee at the same time. Quickly after my pit stop I passed the guy and was running solo. My energy levels felt good and I was ready to rock this last section. My energy surge faded very fast and the gels I was taking weren't perking me up for very long. My throat gurgling wasn't helping my want to ingest calories but I was forcing them down every 20-30 min in the hopes of getting some energy.

I can't remember exactly when it happened but Adria passed me. I would say it was with roughly 6-7km to go. However for those 6-7k she was never out of sight. Just after the last said station at 46k my quads started twinging. Shoot! I slammed some salt pills and hoped for the best. They continued to twinge any time I tried to run faster so I compromised to just keep trucking. We finally got off the KVR and began our descent (on the road) to the beach/finish. We winded our way down towards the beach and I swear the twists and turns kept coming and this race was never going to end. My watch said 50k and the volunteer said 1km to go! Up ahead, I could see Adria was cramping to and was reduced to a limp but then she'd start to run again. My heart wanted to run faster but my muscles were't so into that. There was a tiny minuscule hill just before the last descent to the finish and as I went to run it, both my medial quad muscles cramped and I had to walk it.

I crossed the line in 5:32, 40 seconds behind Adria (10 minutes behind Becky) good enough for 3rd place female and 9th overall. I was greeted with a giant hug from RD Rene Unser and was gifted (as all racers were) a nice bottle of Tinhorn Creek wine.

That race had it all. Amazing views, challenging course, and required a good amount of mental toughness. Initially the course was 45km but due to the flooding it was re-routed and became 50 (maybe 51km). I highly recommend it to everyone! The complimentary lunch at the finish was gourmet and amazing and Tinhorn Creek and Elephant Island wine were there sampling wine.

You can camp or stay in cabins right at the finish line and there's a lake for swimming to.Thanks to all the amazing volunteers that helped make this event so awesome. Thanks again to La Sportiva for all your support. I love knowing that I don't have to worry about my feet.

Gear:

La Sportiva Helios SR - I love these shoes. They were perfect for the conditions and I finished with no blisters and no falls!

La Sportiva Speed T-Shirt - I love the front zipper for that extra ventilation!

La Sportiva Snap Shorts - so many awesome pockets!

La Sportiva Trucker Hat - It was awesome to dip in streams to cool off!

Next race: Slay the Dragon 50k, July 1st, Silverstar mountain, Vernon, BC.

DIRTY FEET KAL PARK 25K

My first race of 2017!!! Eeek :)

Last year I raced very little, I think twice. This year I vowed to step it up a little bit so I signed up for 3 races...ha! I write my board exams for Massage Therapy in September so I am packing all of my racing in before July as to have ample time to focus on passing my board exams. I'll most likely do more racing after that but nothings on the schedule.

Last year I won the Kal Park 25k and was excited/nervous to test myself out on this course again. However, due to a trail closure, we would be running an old version of this race. I was totally stoked on this because new to me trails are always a blast. Peter and I joked about this being a "C" race, as in, let's "C" what I can do.

I woke up Saturday morning feeling a bit unmotivated or maybe subconsciously I was nervous for the run. The thought of racing is sometimes daunting when you haven't done it in a while. Last year I biked to and from the event and I took great pride in having done my first race completely self-propelled. The thought of doing that again gave me my mojo back so I decided to run to the event, which is roughly 9k from home. I'm also running a 47k race on June 3rd and really needed to get in a higher mileage day.

It was a beautiful sunny (with clouds) kinda day and my warm-up run felt pretty good. I got to the race with roughly 25 minutes to spare. Enough time to pick up my package, catch up with friends and hit up the little girls room in the bushes. Before I knew it, we were off!

The first 8k or so is mostly climbing. I'm never the first one up the hill. This year, I got to the top of the hill in roughly 6th place. As we began a small descent I passed the next female (Narumi) at the exact same place I passed her last year. We exchanged some nice words and I continued my chase. I passed 2 more females going down Parabola, which is one of my favorite steeper downhill sections. The trail meanders flat and downhill a bit longer before skipping across the Cousen's bay parking lot and over to the other side of Kalamalka Park.

Photo: Claudia Richard

I was getting into a nice groove and feeling good and was nearing the first aid station at 12.5k (half way). Sometimes the problem with having a trail race in your own back yard is you are used to the way the trail typically goes to a certain place. There is a set of switchbacks that go up to the aid station but as I began on the last switchback I realized there was white chalk blocking the way. It was then I realized I was off course. I re-traced my steps and realized they cut the switchbacks off early and diverted the runners on a narrow steep trail that just went straight up to the aid station. I had never taken that off shoot before. It didn't cost me too much time but when I got to the aid station, 2 women that I had previously passed were now ahead of me and weren't stopping to fill up water like I was.

Photo: Claudia Richard

This error messed with my head a bit. I couldn't believe I didn't see the turn off. At any rate I kept going to the best of my ability. I was heading into an area of Kal park I had never been and the trails were really fun. It was wet and muddy! Good coastal conditions. There was one guy ahead of me and he was tip toeing around all the flooded trails but I enjoyed barreling through them. I didn't see another female for quite a while which made sense because we were on a long uphill section. I was hoping I wasn't losing too much ground because there was a nice juicy descent coming up. Just before the descent began I could see another female up ahead. I caught her not long after the descent began and wondered if I would ever see the other women who were ahead. This downhill is so fun and goes on for a while. Towards the bottom I spotted 2 women and a man. They seemed to be running together. I caught up to them and ascended with them to the aid station. This is the same aid station as before- you hit it twice in this race. At this point there was 5km to go. I stopped to fill up my water bottle and no one else stopped.

At this point I was in flight or fight mode and I wanted to catch and pass these ladies. I caught them both on the short descent from aid station and knew it was time to put the legs into high gear. I had a 1 km flat section, 1 km meandering uphill and 2km flat and downhill to the finish. If I could just hold them off to the top of the hill I knew I had them beat. I cruised the flat section, although I got stopped in my tracks by 3 people horseback riding. They politely moved out of the way and I continued on, As I made my way up the final switchbacks I could see one of the girls was on the switchback below. This only gave me more fuel for the fire. The next 2km I ran as hard as I could and was able to hold them off all the way to the finish. I finished in a time of 2:28 and 2nd female.

It felt really good to race again. I enjoyed running my own race at the beginning and then switching gears and having to work hard at the end. The competitive mental game is always a fun experience and something I just don't get very often in training (I train solo a lot of the time)

Thank you Dirty Feet Trail Series for putting on a great event. I'm looking forward to checking out some of your other events soon too!

My La Sportiva Helios were the perfect shoe for the day (and for everything).

My next race is The Wildhorse 45km on June 3rd. It's a point to point event from Kelowna to Naramata. 

Happy Trails!