We started at 11am at the Toronto/Iroquoia boundary under Hwy 401 on Appleby Line with approx. 5000+calories in snacks and 4L of water (2L bladder, 2 500ml flasks, 2 500ml plastic bottles each. Goal was to eat a 240ish calorie snack in a ratio of 1g protein to 3-4g carbs. Our goal was 24 hours-we'd run the trail in 4 sections, one a week over the last month.
I fell and scraped up my arm pretty good at 10k.
We were able to fill water bladders (I think we still had water in flasks) at the entrance to River & Ruin side trail at marker 96.6. We used a product that has two liquids that you mix together and let sit 5 minutes, then poor into the water collected and then wait 15 minutes to drink. We didn’t get sick, the water did not smell or taste funny.
We also filled up from Grindstone Creek at 71.4km marker before dark hit. Between changing shirts, dealing with blisters, updating Erin’s husband about where we were, charging Kat’s watch, etc. We stopped at both of these stops for approx. 20 minutes or so-we only treated bladder water at the first stop and at the second, we treated both bladders, Kat’s flasks, and did one of Erin’s and her other one while we were running.
We also filled up a couple flasks and treated them in Dundas at one of the creeks that was flowing well with clear water while Erin dealt with some blistered toes and put some salve on the tops of her feet where her shoelaces were rubbing at the skin in the middle of the night.
Overnight was one of the parts of the run we were most worried about. We'd run a few hours in the dark before but never all night. It ended up being just fine. Fireflies were everywhere for the first hour or so after dusk, then we had some sections in Dundas conservation area where the trails are wide and relatively easy to navigate. Our headlamps caught some eyes watching us of deer and racoons. We listened as the birds slowly quieted and went to bed and then in the morning we caught the first birds chirping as we got to Chedoke Bike trail and saw the sunrise.
We filled up with treated water at the public water stations at Chedoke Park km 38.5 (both bladders and 4 flasks total)
We were doing well, averaging about 11 ½ minutes per km when dawn came. Katherine started thinking about quitting, she was feeling poorly and hallucinating, so we decided to give her a 10 minute nap. She slept on Erin’s hand towel on the paved Escarpment rail trail while Erin did some repacking of her pack as well as taking care of some other issues.
A discussion was had and it was decided that finishing together was a more important goal than how long the run took. From then on, Erin promised Katherine if she stuck with it until the end, she wouldn’t have to run anymore unless she felt up to it. We were walking about 4 km/hour at times through the 2nd half of the run. There were a couple of 5 minute cat naps, but for the most part they kept moving forward no matter how slow.
We ended up drinking about 14L of water (much of it with electrolytes) each. I used up two full tubes and a partial of Nuun electrolyte tablets The temperatures were from about 65F at night to 78F during the night. It never really seemed to cool off overnight and I ended up drinking more than I expected.
I also used about 20 salt tabs.