A St. Albert women beat every racer in the solo category in her first ultramarathon race.
Ailsa MacDonald finished the 160-km race in 18:54:57, beating out the second place finisher by over 90 minutes.
The Sinister 7 Ultra race is around the Crowsnest Pass area. The 100-mile trail race weaves through the Seven Sisters Mountain range and racers have to handle 6,400 metres of elevation gain.
MacDonald said that the first place finish was completely unexpected.
“I was just shooting for a finish,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald said that after the race she was pretty sore for about four or five days and her feet were “really messed up.”
This year was the 10-year anniversary of the race. Typically only one third of registered racers end up finishing the contest, but this year due to the extreme heat only 18 per cent of the runners crossed the finish line.
Before this run, the longest race MacDonald had been in was a 100 km race, which is 60 km shorter than the Sinister 7.
Although this was her longest run, MacDonald is no stranger to winning. She recently won the 25-km Rundle’s Revenge at Canmore Nordic Centre and won the women’s category of the Calgary 50 km, finishing third overall.
The 37-year-old has been running her whole life but didn’t race in her first marathon until 2006. MacDonald is also an avid triathlon runner.
MacDonald said that she thinks she is a bit of a natural when it comes to running, especially at higher elevations. She said that when she was young her family built endurance into her.
“I spent a lot of time with my grandfather in the mountains in Scotland. He’s a Scottish mountaineer and we would go for days – pack up all our gear and just spend days in the mountains. I would often run the peaks and I think it is just instinct for me now when I go to the mountains I just feel like running them,” MacDonald said.
When MacDonald trains for races she said that she approaches things a bit differently than the average long distance runner. While most long distance runners frequently run a lot of high mileage, MacDonald focuses more on strength work.
“I do all my long runs on tired legs. I will do a really hard leg workout at the gym one day and then the next day I will do a long run or I will try and run fast on tired legs,” MacDonald said.
The racer typically runs one long 32 km run per week, which is part of the total 75 km a week she runs. She gains most of her aerobic capacity on the bike.
Next MacDonald will be heading to Victoria for a 50 km ultra race. This race will feature even more elevation than the Sinister 7 with the race having an elevation gain of 10,075 feet.
