My desire to run the Gatineau Park Perimeter Loop started just over a year ago when my friend Jeff Harvey, current FKT holder in the supported category, ran the route and told me all about it. Over the past years, I've run most of the sections of the route and thought it would be great to link a lot of my favorite trails and try to lower the unsupported time and spend a day in the park where I do most of my runs.
The conditions and weather couldn't have been better. 5C at the start with a forecasted high of 18C and sunny. It hadn't rained much in the past week therefore the trails were mostly dry. I started in the dark at 5:06am from the Visitors Centre in Chelsea. I knew I would have to run a couple of hours in the dark as the days are much shorter this time of year (compromise for the summer heat).
I ran a good pace through the first 50k and felt good, stopping for water at the Relais Plein Air, Lauriault Falls and a creek just north of Heron cabin along the way. I then started having shooting pain in my right hip which slowed me down in the more technical sections. The pain lasted until the 95k mark and then switched to a light pain in my left knee, most likely from trying to compensate for the pain on my right side.
I stopped at many creeks as well as Breton Beach for water during the second half of the course. I carried 1.5L of flasks, 500ml of which I would use for Maurten drink mix. I also had a mix of Naak bars and waffles, gummies and Maurten gels. My pack never felt heavy.
I "sprinted" the last 1k and I arrived back at the Visitors Centre in the dark just past 8pm and only 11 seconds under the 15h mark to the cheers of my good friend Pat and his girlfriend.