(August 2014 – Crowsnest Pass, AB) – Sinister 7: From Start to Finish
I can’t help but breathe that little bit faster when I hear, speak or type the words “Sinister 7”. It also instills in me mixed emotions, which include but are not limited to – highs, lows, nervousness, exhaustion, pain and the occasional bout of sheer panic. Pretty much what every challenging Ultra should entail. Located in the Crowsnest Pass, inches into Alberta over the BC border, surrounded by mountains and steeped in history, Sinister 7 is a 7 year old Ultra which should feature on everyone’s Ultra Bucket List. For an ultra-number of reasons.
It accidentally fell onto my Bucket List after witnessing my now husband tackle S7, his first Ultra, in 2011. Thinking him completely nuts and subsequently slightly questioningly marrying the mad man a month later, whilst supporting him through the then 148 km steep learning curve successfully to the finish line, I got thinking. And of course, the seed was sown and 6 months later I blind panic entered for the following year. A mere forty minutes’ drive from my front door, and the knowledge first hand that it can be done, my Ultra Running endeavours began over a bottle of wine and PayPal.
S7 began back in 2007 with 160 racers. Seven years on it now sees over 1,400 racers hit the start line, over 200 of which are soloists, on the first Saturday in July. Over the years the course has changed, with slight differences in distance, but each year coming in close to 8 miles short of a 100 miler. However, with 2014 being Sinister 7’s 7 year anniversary, it begged the need for that 8 mile increase from both Race Directors and runners. An official 100 mile rugged, technical, un-relentless and challenging race. Organisers set the challenge this year and racers answered, (in a variety of ways).
Three years in, I’ve got to know the Race Directors, Andrew Fairhurst and Brian Gallant and their front-line wives, Erin and Sarah well. I truly admire their race organisation, growth and insight as they year after year draw in racers, supporters and the most enigmatic and best dress-up volunteers I’ve ever met. I also somewhat question their compassion and humanity, but after the pain subsides we are back on speaking terms like it never happened. I’m pretty sure, they feel the same way too.
With the recent change to a 100 miles, it was time to find out why, what and how things have changed over the 7 year growth of Sinister 7 (shudder)…
Can you share some S7 history? How it came about, changed over years and any special moments or mentions along the way?
Erin Fairhurst: “We recently just found a stack of photos of year 1 of S7 and could not get over how bare bones it all looked then. So tiny! The shots of the finish line basically show an empty field, a crooked finish line structure and a few people sleeping on the grass. In our first year, we had 160 athletes sign up. I remember when we first opened registration, I would go to the website every day and keep hitting ‘refresh’ as I’d held my breath to see if we had any new registrations. At the time, Brian was trying to track visitor history with Google Analytics and eventually had to tell me to stop visiting the website so much because I was skewing his data!”
Google Analytics might spontaneously combust these days. 1,200 team spots are sold out in ~13 minutes, with an eager waiting list each and every year. December 1st at noon MST brings about refresh madness in households across Canada and beyond, as people try and bag a sinisterly satisfyingly spot.
Andrew Fairhurst: “The memorable moments in the first 7 years of the event for me have been the growth and huge satisfaction I see in our athletes. I’m driven by seeing people have a sense of accomplishment, when team athletes and especially solos leave our event knowing they did their best and (hopefully) accomplished their personal goals. I love knowing we created that opportunity.”
Why the change to 100 miles, and how long had it been in the works? How did the change alter the race for both you as organisers, and racers?
Now I first caught wind of this mere 8 mile increase as I shuffled my way out of the post-race meal after 2013’s race. Declaring, (for the then second time) I was “never doing this race again”, I didn’t bat an eyelid, partly because I was too tired, but mainly as I was never doing this race again. My husband on the other hand was stoked and committed on the spot. I took a little convincing, but with 5 months of forgiveness on board, I jumped on the bandwagon come December 1st, apparently suffering from a severe stint of amnesia or idiocy.
Brian “The original course was based on the route we wanted to use so the distance wasn’t a standard number like many Ultras. We were already so close to 100 miles, we had a lot of feedback from runners, especially soloists, that this would be a great change. We talked about it for two years. Really it was about giving the running community what they wanted.”
Erin: “It seemed crazy that racers would want this suffer-fest to be even longer, but they did! I was curious to see if anyone would crack 20 hours but Andrew was confident that first place would. And Vincent Bouchard proved him right.”
Did the change alter the race as you expected?
Andrew: “The change altered the course and that’s why we wanted to take the time to do it right, figure out what was going to work how we were going to keep course flow, adjust layouts, checkpoints and transition areas all while making sure anything behind the scenes was updated accordingly. We knew that upon the official announcement all of our ducks would have to be in line. We really had to bite our tongues for a few months leading into the official announcement, it was super exciting news for us to share.”
Brian: “The change definitely generated a lot of new interest in the running community, especially with the solo runners, which is exactly what we wanted. It all worked out how we wanted. We saw a slightly higher dropout rate in the soloists but that is to be expected. It’s a tough race and that won’t change.”
Sinister 7 indeed has a high dropout rate. It’s tough and relentless. And with 8 itty-bitty additional miles and a slight course re-route, now has a 36km leg with 3,500ft of elevation gain 115km into the race. That’s a big deal, and as a sufferer from a severe case of the 2014 DNF, can call it a severe game changer both mentally and physically.
What was the feedback as a result of the change? Both before and after…
Brian: “The feedback has been great. We saw the strongest field of runners in the 7 year history of the event, as well as higher solo numbers, so that shows us that this was the right decision. After the race the feedback we received was “tough”, “really tough”, “incredibly tough”, “the toughest race I have done”, with a number of “best race ever”, and “amazing course” thrown in. So mission accomplished.”
What’s next year’s plan?
Andrew: “No crazy plans or changes in the works for next year, certainly not relating to the course anyways. We’re always listening to racer feedback as well as that from volunteers and coordinators.”
In fact Brian sends out a ‘feedback’ questionnaire, appropriately about two weeks after the event. Giving enough time to both rationalise and gather your thoughts. It’s a considerate yet smart move for both parties, as you gradually find yourself forgiving Brian, Andrew, Erin and Sarah for all they have done to you, and instead share helpful suggestions rather than profanities. Before entering again the following year.
Erin then supplied me with a few fun facts, of the sinister variety…
“Fact 1: Andrew and I are on our 4th truck since the beginning of S7. Coincidence or conspiracy? Fact 2: You can show Andrew a snapshot from anywhere on the course and he will be able to identify it by leg and km. Fact 3: This was the only year that I have not cried at the end of S7 (possibly too exhausted?). But when I saw the ‘best of” slide show from Ravens Eye Photography, I bawled my eyes out. Fact 4: Andrew would love to race solo in S7 one day.” In which case, watch out.
And lastly, as a race which offers up two free team entries to High School Students each year, Erin says with confidence, “the Crowsnest Consolidated Highschool S7 team is seriously becoming a force to be reckoned with. You heard it here first, but one day a kid from Crowsnest Pass is going to win Western States.”
You heard it here first indeed. From a town of 5,000 bears a dream team of Ultra race organisers, a plethora of volunteers who are more memorable than the steepest climb, and a Western States winner.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.