Countdown is on...Québec Mega Trail starts tonight!
We’re running 200 miles this weekend!
Well, we’re running 100 miles each. At the same time. What fun! 😊
Hello everyone! Adam and Kelsey here, checking in with you before the Quebec Mega Trail 100-mile (160km) ultramarathon. We’ve arrived at the base of Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, the location of the ultra-trail village for this weekend’s events. The QMT 100-mile race kicks off tonight (Friday) at 8:00pm EST (yes, 8:00 in the EVENING – we get to start by running all through the night!). The weather is calling for lots of humidity, rain, and scattered thunderstorms which will make for a very different experience than last year's sunshine and clear skies!
This will be Adam’s first time doing a 100-mile race, and he’s ready for redemption after DNF-ing the 110km course last year. He'll have his Dad (Bruce) and cousin (Jaime) pacing him for two different segments in the final 55km, and is curious what he'll experience over the course of 100-miles. As he said today, he expects that "it's going to have good moments and hard moments, I'll want to be running and then have times when I won't feel like I can keep running, and eventually I'll finish the damn thing". Wish him luck and send him all your good vibes!
Kelsey is returning as the women’s course record holder after finishing in 28 hours, 18 minutes, and 49 seconds at last year’s event. Even though the course is familiar, each race is unique so she’s excited to embrace all of the challenges and opportunities along the way. Like practicing her French while sleep-deprived and eating lots of good snacks (squeaky cheese, fuzzy peach candy, and watermelon, please!). She'll be joined by our friend Jonathan as a pacer in the final stretch, who ran the 100 mile race in Snowdonia and finished QMT just ahead of Kelsey last year. Woooohoooo!
We’re joined by a wonderful group of friends and family as support crew/pacers/cheerleaders who will meet us at aid stations along the way: Bruce and Barb (Adam’s parents), Jane and Noel (Kelsey's parents), Lyndsay, Jaime, Renata, Hilary, Stephen, Fergie, Stef and Jonathan. It takes a village to run 100 miles, and we deeply appreciate having their support on-the-ground here as well as the love from our community far and wide.
There are six different crew-accessible checkpoints throughout the course, and it’s a huge boost to see our crew as well as restock on some key nutrition and gear items along the way. Having loved ones there to help us through the hard moments and making memories together is something we are both very grateful for.
How to follow the race:
The QMT race has live tracking available online at this link. Our recommendation is to follow our individual race pages by searching for our names, and clicking the “follow” button next to our names (the little star). When you do that you’ll be building a list called “my favourite runners” that you can view at any time. Kelsey is Bib #70 and Adam is Bib #50!
The race has also announced that there will be a live broadcast at the finish line of the race, available on their website here.
We have also created a group chat for anyone who's interested in connecting with others who are following the race! You can join (or rejoin) Kelsey's Crew Telegram group using this link. Telegram is a messaging app similar to Whatsapp or Signal and is available on the Apple and Android App stores. This group gives people who are invested in following the race a way to talk to one another. It can be really helpful to watch a race with others because the live tracking can often be difficult to decipher! Our crew may also be able to provide some updates on-the-ground along the way, depending on cell service! Please take care when interacting with each other on the app, and be kind to one another.
Podcast Announcement: Two-part series about QMT 2022!
While you’re watching our dots move along the map this weekend and wondering what we might be thinking about out there, we’ve just released two episodes of a podcast we recorded after coming home from QMT last year. You can take a listen to the two-part series here (or wherever you listen to your podcasts):
Part 1: Kelsey's race
Part 2: Adam's race
Finally, thank you all for being with us throughout these adventures. We are grateful for your interest in our running adventures, and feel all the love and support from our communities while we're out on the trail. Lastly, if you're interested, here's a video of the 2022 event to give you a glimpse of the trails we're about to run: https://youtu.be/9BqDIFaV0OE
Happy trails,
Adam and Kelsey