51暗网

Halfway up Dead Woman鈥檚 Pass, Lorraine Wilkinson reverted back to the same headspace she inhabited as a little girl.

鈥淚 put myself back in my childhood, where I was like, 鈥業鈥檓 going to take 10 steps.鈥� And then I would take 10 steps,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檇 count to 10, stop and take a breath; and then I鈥檇 count to 15, stop and take a breath; and then I鈥檇 count to 20 and then I would carry on back to zero again.鈥�

It was the only way she could push herself to the top of the 13,800 foot (4,200 metre) climb and still have enough time to make it to the checkpoint.

Wilkinson had until 3:15 p.m. to get to the Winay Winyna aid station, before she would be yanked off the course and have to pack it in for the day.

She was running the Inca Trail Marathon鈥攁 grueling race through the Peruvian trail to Machu Picchu that normally takes hikers three days to complete. During the race she scrambled through close to 2,000 metres of altitude change, passing through three separate ecological zones.

The run is so tough that half of those who began, July 10, took two days to finish, and Wilkinson鈥攚ho was the third female across the finish line鈥攔an for more than 10 hours to complete it.

The 32 racers started at 5 a.m., picking their way along the trail with flashlights. Wilkinson fell about 10 minutes in, and had to run the whole race with tensor bandages wrapped around her bloodied knee.

On July 24, Wilkinson still had bruising down the length of her leg from that tumble, but she was reeling from the experience of the race.

鈥淚t was the most difficult, most amazing, most beautiful thing I鈥檝e ever done in my life,鈥� she said.

Beautiful because she ran by ruins of ancient civilizations and up mountain passes that offered breathtaking vistas of the Peruvian landscape. Amazing because she careened down giant stone steps while descending mountains and marveled at Machu Picchu as she crested the Sun-Gate. Difficult because at times the elevation left her barely able to breathe.

鈥淵ou get this feeling where you take a breath and it only goes to here,鈥� she said, holding her hand just below her neck, 鈥渁nd you can鈥檛 take a breath and it just feels heavy and tight.鈥�

She recalled two thirds of the way up Dead Woman鈥檚 Pass, when she could barely breathe, thinking of her father, who passed away more than a decade ago. She would always go to him when she needed help, or an answer, and at that moment she said she felt him with her.

鈥淚 got to the stage where it was really steep and emotional, and I thought of my dad, and I thought 鈥榶a, I know you鈥檙e behind me kicking my butt, I鈥檓 going to get moving,鈥欌�� she said, noting that Jasper鈥檚 Tracy Garneau also helped immensely in getting her ready for the race.

And get moving she did.

While in the middle of the race, organizers told her she only had a 50/50 chance of making it to her checkpoint on time, Wilkinson turned it on for the back half, rocketing to third place among the female racers.

鈥淏ecause I knew I鈥檝e got a challenge and I knew I鈥檝e got to do it, and I wanted to finish in one day, so I kept pushing and pushing and pushing,鈥� she said.

She said she couldn鈥檛 believe it when she found out how well she finished, because she ran most of the race without seeing any other runners. She joked that it was only when she passed a small group early in the day that she realized she wasn鈥檛 in last place.

But just getting to the finish was enough reward for Wilkinson, who said she couldn鈥檛 put into words what it felt like to stand at the finish line at the end of that 10-hour day.

Having completed the Inca Trail Marathon, Wilkinson is only two races away from achieving her goal of running a marathon on all seven continents. Earlier this year she and fellow Jasperite Kim Stark even travelled to Antarctica for the Antarctica Marathon and Half Marathon. Wilkinson has also run marathons in Athens, along the Great Wall of China and here in Canada.

聽Trevor Nichols
[email protected]