Back from our family maritime trip, I jumped right back into training for my next trail race, being the Falling Water trail marathon hosted by Happy Trails Racing. A few friends have run this race in the past and all commented on how challenging the course was and since I have a lot of fond memories of motorcycle rides in the area years ago, I eagerly signed up for this. The event offers the marathon on Saturday, a half-marathon on Sunday, as well as the option to run both, known as the “Deuce”.
Being familiar with the Beaver Valley’s roadways, however, do not translate well to the Bruce Trail sections or the general navigation of the woods. To prepare for this, I ran to the Bruce Trail in Hockley Valley and Mono to both work on my hill endurance and ensure my legs were ready for the roots and rocks that awaited.
The only time that Mr. Serious appeared (before the race)
Course: The course starts and ends at the Beaver Valley ski club and primarily follows the Bruce Trail through the escarpment, with some sections of side trail and a crossing of the valley a few times over with some paved road and gravel sections. It is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful courses I’ve run, with densely populated cedar forests, many lookout points, limestone rock faces, the Beaver River and connecting creeks, and of course beautiful waterfalls. On the second half of the course, it crosses through the Beaver Valley ski club, including a full ascent up one of the ski hills. The course itself was well marked with orange ribbons and mostly followed the white blazes denoting the Bruce Trail and includes approximately 1,600m of elevation gain and equal loss over the distance.
On-course Support: In total 5 aid stations were available for the full marathon distance, with the 1st also doubling as the 4th at the top of Graham’s Hill, following the crossing of the valley. In the marathon distance, the course routes south past the first aid station, with additional stations setup near both Hogg’s Falls and Eugenia Falls. From there, you’ll cross back up to the Graham’s Hill aid station, and finally the 5th aid station with approximately 4km remaining. The options available included fresh fruits, PBJ, salty snacks, pickles, rice krispies, water, gatorade, ginger ale and coca cola. The final aid station was designated as a water drop but was still quite well stocked for a self-serve option!
Surface: The majority of the course is single track trail, with lots of stone, dirt, rocks, roots (the usual southern Ontario trail experience), quite a few raised wooden boardwalks, ski hill climb with a mix of grass, loose dirt and rocks, grassy sections, some gravel road downhill and back uphill as well as a few paved road crossings.
Weather: The forecast was looking grim most of the week; however we got a real mix of it. The morning started off quite humid and around 22°, with a yo-yo of sunshine and rolling thunderstorms throughout the remainder of the day. I got caught in a downpour on the valley floor crossing without any shelter or tree canopy and of course bright and punishing sun for the ski hill ascent 🤣.
Atmosphere: This was my first Happy Trails race and I had heard nothing but positives from friends who have participated in their events in the past. Those accolades were well earned as though it was a limited field (I heard 100 per day cap), everyone was friendly and ready for a fun but difficult day on the trails. From the race directors/organizers to the aid station crews, this was a group that wanted everyone to have a good time at the event and helped keep the smiles flowing.
As I arrived and checked in, I came across both Ashley and Jason Bonikowsky, who were the only folks I knew in advance were going to be there however, I also ran into Jason Cooney during the briefing, who also mentioned that Steve Hunter (also from the Dufferin Dirt Runners) had an early start on the course as well.
Post-race: The last few kilometers are downhill and send you through the parking lot to the tunnel and finish line. Immediately after, you are awarded your race medal (in effect, a locket-styled compass with the race logo on the cover), offered an Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic beer and more snacks at the table if you need them. The finish line also happens to abut one of the creeks, which was overflowing at this point due to all the rain, so if you wanted a quick dip to cool off, it was steps away from the finish line.
Overall: I knew going into this that I wasn’t specifically trained for the terrain, as I only started getting back on the trails in the middle of July but had tried my best to stack longer trail runs in those weeks leading up to it. During this training I also worked with trekking poles, as I knew the elevation was going to be challenging and having not ever raced with poles, I was hoping not to have issues.
The course was a lot of fun overall and so beautiful with lots of winding trail, a few rock scrambles and gorgeous scenery along the way. There was even supposed to be some horse event sharing a portion of the trail down near Hogg’s Falls however, I didn’t hear of anyone who came upon a horse during the race.
Finishing strong
I managed to restrain myself from going out too fast, and settled into a manageable pace that I was able to hold for the majority of the race. I traded positions a few times while hitting the aid stations but primarily ran amongst the same competitors after aid station #1 (Andrew Faulkner and Paul Haines). While the initial downpour was welcomed as it brought some relief from the humidity, it also dialed up the difficulty on some portions of the trails. Those poles certainly came in handy, and saved me a few times in helping me catch my balance and keep from sliding off trail. The downside however, was that in using the poles so much on the second half, I neglected to stay as tight on my nutrition as I had through the first half. This only became noticeable after the unending ski hill ascent, where I could finally feel some fatigue starting to creep in around 35kms.
I struggled getting to that 5th and final aid station where I was able to refill bottles and get some liquid carbs, which brought me back to life and from that point, I emptied the tank in those final 4kms and had a strong finish, making up 4 positions as I went.
As a result of this push, I caught up with and finished alongside Andrew, cooled off, grabbed some drinks and cheered at the finish line with a fun group, with jokes getting louder as the crowd grew. Just listening to the exclamations of finishing competitors brought about raucous laughter from our peanut gallery (the common refrain from those finishing being “THAT was SOMETHING” 😁). I don’t think I’ve laughed that much after a race either, so this was a fun and possibly delirious crew of awesome people (Jason Cooney, Steve Hunter, and also Howard Lau and Nancy Krochmalnicki).
Finish line peanut gallery
RESULTS
6:19:55 | 25/82 | 14/34 Male 40-59
Thank you to the organizers at Happy Trails Racing for all of their hard work, Sue Sitki for the photos, my fellow competitors, the event sponsors, and of course all of the volunteers who gave their time and energy for the day, as none of this is possible without community support.
One of the most beautiful races I’ve ever run but also one of the hardest. I think that pretty much balances it out 👌
