ML:
Tellusabouthowyouendedup inenduranceand
trail running.
Mindy:
I’ve been running since 2009. I picked
up running for health reasons. I used to be a
smoker and I ate the typical NorthAmerican diet.
After I became a vegetarian my family didn’t
believe I would be strong enough to run. So I
wanted to show them I could be an endurance
athleteon a vegetariandiet. Thesedays I findmy
endurance is improving fromdoing a lot of cross-
training, not strictly running. My best training
was the year I did Ironman [Mont Tremblant]. For
a race like that, training is not about speed
—
for
endurance, it’s all about slowing the pace down
and enjoying that time outside with people you
want to be with. Or running alone and either
listening to music or a podcast, or just thinking
things through. Youget endurance from spending
the time on your feet.
Matt:
I started running when I was eight, aping
my older brother. I was out training while other
kids were playing video games. Later on, I
started trail running as training for marathons.
You have softer ground, it’s easier on the body,
more picturesque and more sociable, because
all the challenges in trail running
—
the routes,
the rocks, the hills
—
slow you down. About five
years ago I started training for the Comrades
Marathon in South Africa. It’s generally heralded
as the largest ultra marathon in the world. In
preparation for this 90km race I was doing four-
and-a-half hour training runs. And since that
time I find I can get into a groove and just keep
going… and keep going. It’s not really a question
of speed; when I’m running at an easy pace, I
feel like I can go on forever. In competition, on
the other hand, it’s a matter of how fast I can
turnmy legs over.
ML:
What’s the toughest event you’vecompleted?
Mindy:
In terms of endurance, my longest is
Ironman [Mont Tremblant], a 3.8km swim, a
180km bike, and after all that, a full marathon
[42.2km run]. Matt and I went with a group of 30
people anddependingonwho you ask, everyone
will have different opinions on how gruelling
it was. Matt and I both wanted to qualify for
Kona [Ironman World Championships in Hawaii]
and place in our divisions. So we put a lot of
pressureonourselves. But a coupleofmy friends
wanted to have fun with it and so they finished
together while holding hands
—
so they wouldn’t
describe it as gruelling. But definitely Matt and
I would because we tackled it in a different way.
Matt:
I brokemy foot about twoandahalfmonths
before Ironman
—
a stress fracture, a small break,
but it meant that I didn’t run until
about two weeks before the race.
So for me the toughest part was
themarathon, especially the second
half, from about 25km forward was
just terrible. I hated every step of it.
Mindy:
The swim was my weakest
event. And the mass start was very
intimidating. Even though I was going out to try
to place and be top-three, I started at the very
back of the swim because how many people
compete in that?
Matt:
A couple thousand, all getting into the
water at the same time.
Mindy:
And you’re all entering the same body of
water at the same time when the gun goes off,
and I was terrified of that. I held back and when
people started to make their way out I then got
in and foundmy own area. On an Ironman swim
you get punched in the face, you get kicked, you
get pushed
—
it’s intense. It’s part of the swim.
Matt:
My family members who were watching
said the lake looked like a washing machine,
with somany people churning through thewater.
ML:
You eachplacedfirst in your respectivegenders
in last year’sNorth Face Endurance Challenge 50km
trail raceatBlueMountain. Tell usabout it.
Matt: That hill is really unbelievable. And to have
to run up it three times in the 50km. There’s
a general logic that if you’re doing a trail ultra-
marathon, you walk up the hills because the
energy you expend in running doesn’t equate to
the time you save. But I have a big ego I guess
and I was going to run every single hill. It was
really tough.
Mindy:
I don’t knowwhat was more painful
—
the
mental or the physical aspect.
Matt:
Although the uphills were brutal, my slowest
kms in the Endurance Challenge were going down
the hill, on a very technical section; in the late
stages I was exhausted to the point where I didn’t
trust my footing.
WINTER2016
MOUNTAINLIFEONTARIO
55
“Wedoa lot ofwork in theArctic, and
thiswas coldevenby thosestandards.”
–photographer JasonVanBruggen
Matt andMindy atopBlueMountain.
