Test your limits with N.L.'s only 50-mile ultra marathon this Saturday
Women leading the way in registration
An endurance race designed to test both body and mind — with top runners hitting a course that is up to 50 miles — will be asking athletes to head to the woods of eastern Newfoundland this weekend.
Liminiality Endurance Races is sponsoring its second-ever race on Saturday in Clarenville.
"It's a very unique race to Newfoundland," said Rob Pond, the race's founder, organizer and man on the ground when it comes to clearing trails for the course.
The course is built around a 13 km loop, with athletes welcome to repeat as necessary.
"They continue doing this until they either finish — which we kind of set as a six-loop max — [or] they time out or they quit."
As of Monday, the race has over 240 runners registered to compete in the gruelling competition, which will take them through rugged, wooded paths similar to the East Coast Trail. The course begins near the East Link Events Centre.
Not all entrants have to compete in the 50-mile bracket portion of the race. The race is broken down into other brackets, with fewer laps to allow for athletes of all levels and capabilities to participate. There is even a one-mile, one-lap race for kids, for which 50 people are already registered.
"When I kind of came up with this concept, my four-year-old son said, 'Do you have any races for me?' and I was like, 'Of course, I'll create a race for you,'" he said.
"So we did the one-mile fun run. It's a family run, it's not branded as a race, it's just for people to be active," Pond told CBC Radio's On The Go.
Also on tap are 16.6-mile, 8.3-mile, and 4.3-mile brackets.
Numbers are up
The inaugural race saw only 17 participants attempt to run more than one lap in 2018.
As of Monday, Saturday's race has more than 87 runners registered to reach beyond one lap, with another 84 registered for a single loop.
More women are getting involved in this year's race, too.
"Last year we had one female attempting the more than one-loop option, and this year in fact the majority of our runners attempting more than one loop are female," Pond said.
"We're really proud to say that we have an ultra marathon superstar here in Newfoundland — Katie Wadden. She's pretty widely known to be a great trail running advocate and she's attempting the 50-mile as well. We have some high hopes for her actually, and we think, really think, that she will pull through and get it done."
Interested runners, Pond said, can register at any point up until race day.
"I'm not in any position to turn away people from experiencing such an incredible atmosphere," he said.
With files from On The Go