Run 70 km on a trail to cross the Eastern Townships

Q&A with boutique employee August Myers who took up the challenge

Run 70 km,
Face winter conditions,
Discover the Sentiers de l'Estrie,
Run peak to peak,
Going beyond your limits

Video byRémi Leroux, Youtube

Leaving for the summit of Mont Sutton on February 26, August and Jean-Christophe, current and former employee of the store, had several objectives in mindTheir main challenge was to run 70 km in the Sentiers de l’Estrie in the middle of the winter season – a way for them to push their limits while discovering the mountains that surround them daily.

After several weeks of training, they got into action on the scheduled day, despite a heavy snowfall the day before making the course much more difficult than expectedDespite the obstacles and pitfalls of the day, August managed to cross the finish line on behalf of the duo after 13 hours and 30 minutes of trail runningTo learn more about this winter endurance challenge, August was asked to answer a few questions about this memorable day 👇🏼

Before embarking on such a challenge, what was your physical and mental preparation?

Our physical preparation was diligent and very variedWe went out running regularly: several short outings to properly prepare the biomechanics and long weekend outings to plan our diet and equipment strategies.We also did a few cross-country and ski touring outings, as well as race-specific strength training to avoid injuries.In terms of mental preparation, we simply took advantage of our learning from the last few years as athletes

Photo:Rémi Leroux

What were your highlights from this race day?

It's very simple, but the landscapes encountered during this day were really highlights! The view of the snow-capped mountains, the small lakes between Sutton and Bolton, and even the moose tracks seen on our route amazed us.Also, when we got to the summit sign of Mt Singer, you could call that a highlight – we knew we were finishing the first (and biggest) section of the race!

What were the biggest challenges of the day now?

One of the biggest challenges of this day was certainly the fresh fall and the difficulty of the course! There was nearly 20cm of fresh snow for about 40km of the trail, and the trail was very steep in places.As the paths taken are not very used, the snow that fell the day before was not beaten at all, making the strides more difficult

Another big challenge of the day was the separation of our teamJean-Christophe experienced physical difficulties - frozen feet, cramped quadriceps - so he had to stop the race and I continued on my own

Photo: Rémi Leroux

What gear did you have? What was most helpful?

The most useful gear was definitely our snowshoesWe had the TSL Symbioz Race snowshoes, absolutely necessary for the conditions we had! We also had hydration vests, Black Diamond Distance cleats and three pairs of shoes to always have one ready and dryAnother essential: a running watch with downloaded GPS route

Does it make you want to do other challenges like this? Do you already have any planned?

For the moment, we are planning rather shorter challenges in order to work on our speed on road racesWe will of course keep a long outing on weekends in our training structure to continue exploring the beautiful places of the region, whether on dirt roads or trails!

Photo: Rémi Leroux

About

August Myers has been employed at Le Coureur for 5 yearsHe focused his years of competitive sport on cross-country skiingJean-Christophe Lacasse is a triathlete, long distance swimmer and runnerHe worked at the store for more than 5 years