Bre Mirynech.

The Sinister 7 Ultra event holds a very special place in my heart. The 50 mile was my first official ultramarathon race in 2021, and last year I went back to crew my friend as she completed the 50 mile for herself. Each year I always thought to myself how fun it would be to do the 100 mile relay with some friends. Well finally this year, a group of us decided to sign up and go for it. Myself and my friends Rachel, Sarah, and Nikki made up what we called the Quad Squad. 4 girls, 100 miles, with a whole lot of fun in store. I counted down the days for a long time out of excitement, and finally it was time to make the annual trip down to Crowsnest Pass. 

We got there early Friday evening and after a giant pasta dinner we made our way over to the sportsplex to pick up our bibs and go to the racer meeting. The racer meeting goes over the details of the race, any sudden changes, good to knows, and mostly gets everyone excited for what’s to come the next morning. When we got back to the house, I organized all of my gear and laid out my clothes as it was going to be an early 5:00am wake up. The alarm came around quickly, and although it was a quick sleep, I was buzzing. Nikki and I were up first making breakfast and getting ready, as I was running the first leg and Nikki had to catch a bus right after I started to go up to the start of leg 2. Zac made us pancake snacks, I had two coffees, and slowly everyone else woke up to get ready to go.

Start line energy always gets me excited, and admittedly a little emotional. It’s just so awesome to see so many people out there going after their goals. Nichole and Sam came to watch us start, and it wasn’t long until everyone was counting down and cheering. I was off, and the start of the race was slightly chaotic. There were a lot of runners, and within 1km or so it switched from a big open road to a small trail in the ditch beside the highway. The options were to run a little too fast and pass people when possible, or hang back and run a little slower in the long line of runners. I opted to run a little faster than I would have liked, but I wanted to get out of the crowd. After a while, we got off the narrow trail and were back on a dirt road running through Frank slide. It was very neat to run through this area and I soaked in the moment.

Eventually we turned up a road through town to make our way up to the trails. Rachel was on the side of the road cheering as I came through this section and it was the nicest surprise. After passing through the houses, we turned onto the trail and started heading up. This whole leg was much more runnable than I anticipated. The hills were manageable and I was able to run more of them than I had expected. The views were beautiful, the wildflowers were starting to come out, and the sun was hot. It was already a hot day out there at 8:00 in the morning. I continued my way through the rolling terrain and before I knew it, I was closing in on the aid station where I would finish and Nikki would start. I came running down towards Nikki, squeaking in just under 2 hours, and with a pass off of the tracker and a quick high five, Nikki was off on leg 2. We started off in a solid fourth place for the female relays team. 

Nikki left a backpack for me, so I changed my shirt and ate some pancakes while I waited for the bus that would take me back to town. It didn’t take long until the bus was full and dropped us back off. I walked over to the aid station area for the next leg where Nikki would come in and Sarah would head out. The group was back at the house getting Sarah geared up, so I sat in the sun, drank some water, and watched the other runners. Alongside the relay, there were 100 mile soloists and 50km runners on this part of the course, so there was a lot of action to watch while I waited. Eventually the group met me at the aid station, and we waited excitedly for Nikki to come in. It was HOT and just standing there waiting in the shade felt hot. I had no clue how Sarah was going to head out onto the hottest leg in these temperatures. For reference, leg 3 is nick named “Satan’s Sack”.

We caught sight of Nikki running down into the transition area. The girls tagged each other off quickly and then Sarah was off heading back up that same hill. Nikki ran a strong leg and said she really felt the heat out there. We got her some fluids and food and then we all headed back to the house so that I could gear up for leg 4. Leg 3 is a huge leg so we had enough time to hang out, escape the heat, and get ready. A few hours later we headed back to the same aid station (this one gets hit twice), and this time it was my turn waiting for Sarah to come in. I was a little nervous about how hot it was. I’d done this race in the heat before, and it was rough. Heat is not my strength at all, so I tried to focus on what I could control. I put on my white shirt, white hat, got an ice bandana ready, and made sure I had lots of fluids and electrolytes. I was standing waiting in the shade and soon enough I got the nod from Rachel that Sarah was coming in, so I walked out to meet her, grabbed the tracker, and off I went.

I started heading uphill right away and it was HOT. I tried my best not to think about it and just focus on enjoying the new-to-me trails. Not far from the start, I got a bit confused by the flagging (they had flagging for the kids race out as well), so I turned back around to a junction as I thought I was going the wrong way. Turns out I was going the right way, but luckily had only backtracked a couple hundred meters. I continued through rolling terrain through the forest, soaking in every moment in the shade, before the trail continued going up. The views on this section were beautiful and a welcome distraction from the heat.

After climbing for a while I finally started to descend and eventually found myself on the section of this leg that I ran during the 50 miler a few years back. This next section seemed to drag on. I was feeling tired and mentally at a low. I played a game with myself where I would pick a tree, run to it, then let myself walk for a short section. I also put on a big booty mix to try to pump myself up. I kept doing this until I got to the final few km’s of the leg where it was all downhill. I decided at that moment that I was going to leave it all out on this course and finish with a bang. I picked up my pace from a 7:00-8:00 min/km to a 5:26 min/km and just ran to the end until I wasn’t even sure what my legs were doing anymore. I came into the aid station, tagged out Nikki again, and hit the ground covered in salt and with nothing left in the tank. My parts of the relay were now done, and it was time to focus my energy onto supporting the girls through the rest of it. 

While Nikki was out on leg 5 (what we were told was the wettest leg), we went back to the airbnb to eat, nap, and get Rachel prepared for her night leg. Somehow you always feel like you have so much time, but before you know it it’s time to head back to the next station. We headed back to the station, followed Nikki on her garmin tracker, and just a few minutes before midnight Nikki and Rachel were high fiving and Rachel was heading out into the night on Leg 6 with our team still sitting in 4th place. We stayed there for a bit listening to Nikki tell us about her adventures out on the leg (she is such a champ), and then we went back to the airbnb again for more food, more naps, and to get Sarah ready for the final leg. 

Leg 6 is a giant loop, so around 4:30 am we were back at the same aid station waiting to see Rachel’s headlamp bobbing towards us. Soon enough, she came running in towards Sarah and as she tagged her out for the last leg Rachel said “we’re in third place”, so off Sarah charged. It turns out that Rachel saw the third place team member stopped at an aid station, so she picked up the pace and didn’t stop to put some distance on them. The fact that she managed to do this on a leg like leg 6 is crazy! It’s an absolute monster of a leg, but she is so strong! 

The last leg is about 11km, so from that station we headed straight for the finish line. When we got to the finish line we set up our camp chairs and got ready to wait it out for a little while. Not too long after however, someone yelled “I think I see Sarah” and we all jumped out of our chairs so caught off guard! We ran over to the finish line and started yelling and cheering her in. Sarah came in absolutely sprinting to the finish, wrapping up that leg in such a speedy and impressive time. We hugged, cheered, and guess what!? We came in third place for the female relay teams! We were ecstatic, tired, happy, and just all of the emotions. It was 6:00am on the dot, giving us a 23 hour finish time. 

If there’s one takeaway I hope you get from reading this, it’s to go do a race with your friends. It’s pure magic sharing the experience together, taking turns running and supporting, cheering, laughing, every second of it is just incredible. To share that kind of experience over that kind of distance is something I will never forget. So don’t hesitate- do the crazy thing and do it with those you love. It will be a highlight of your lifetime!