This is a recap of the Halifax Road Hammer Women’s 2024 Victory and Course Record at the 2024 Cabot Trail Relay and it’s a special team effort, brought to you by both El Jones and Erin Poirier.
Erin is lining up at the blog start line first:
If you are unfamiliar with this epic event- it’s a wild one in every way. It covers the 276km entirety of the Cabot Trail, run as a 17 leg, timed start relay. That means that every leg starts at a designated time vs a baton pass off relay. It goes all night. Start time 7am. End time, around 9:30am the next day. It covers wild terrain. Up mountains. Down mountains. Up and down roads that aren’t named mountains but could be. Through wild weather fluctuations and usually some wild wind- this year clocking 70km/hr on 2 legs. The legs range from 12 to 20km and are rated in difficulty on a scale which basically translates “hard to harder.” Even the ones rated “easy” are not easy. Plus nothing is easy when you are running your fastest to win and the Road Hammer Women were out to win. Nothing would be easy.
The Road Hammer Women’s last team appearance was at the 2022 running of the relay where we were determined to break the all time course record and finally bring it home to its rightful home in Nova Scotia after it had been held by the Maine Road Hags and then a Toronto based team called the Angels. We successfully broke the Angel’s 19:22:54 record, which had stood for 7 years, with a time of 19:18:07. You can read my novella length post about the 2022 team here.
In 2023, the women’s team didn’t return as a women’s team. The Road Hammer Women who ran at the relay did so as a Road Hammers Mixed Team. There was this feeling of…. what do you do after you break the course record? Where do you go next?
2024 rolled around and we hadn’t quite landed on what the relay would be for us when our teammate Doran came to a few of us with a proposal. He wanted to sponsor the women’s team to return to the relay to chase the record again. He shared that having us at the relay in pursuit of that goal added something special to the event for all of our Halifax Road Hammer teammates.
Take it away, El:
El’s perspective on putting the team together:
I joined the Hammers after the 2022 women’s victory. I had run by myself for many many years, not racing, occasionally making up little workouts for myself, but mostly just running to challenge myself. I had run track and cross country as a child, but like many girls I walked away in high school from competitive sport, worn down by the years of competition and pressure first in gymnastics and then as a runner. Running was one of the first things I discovered I could do for myself, just because I wanted to and not because I had to please anyone else. Working that out and reclaiming running for myself through my adulthood was an important moment in my self-determination as a woman.
In 2022, Andrea Macnevin (also now a Hammer woman!) heard I was a runner and invited me to join her team for the Cabot Trail relay. The training bug hit. How much faster could I go with consistent training, I wondered? My life had finally fallen into place, I had a full-time job, I was finished my PhD at long last, I had some income…and there was this team of runners who everyone kind of whispered about. The Halifax Road Hammers.
Like most of us admit, I hesitated a lot before joining. I doubted. Was I fast enough? I wouldn’t know anyone. I wasn’t sure about racing. I was used to running on my own for fun. Were they intimidating? Should I take this step? So I hit the internet for research and I found Erin’s blog about the 2022 team. I read it in awe. It was so inspiring to read about these women setting such a high goal and accomplishing it. It wasn’t just the fast running, it was the sense of collectivity, of women pulling together and getting a big goal done. I wanted it. I didn’t think I’d ever be fast enough to run on the team, but I wanted to be part of that spirit. I emailed Lee. Little did I know Erin lived only a few houses from me and would shepherd me through so much training and racing in the years to come! And of course, the Hammer women welcomed me at practice with open arms. I felt kind of like a creep because they’d introduce themselves and I would secretly already know what leg they had ran in the relay!
Fast forward to last Christmas. I was coming off a great half marathon with a win at Fredericton, building towards my first marathon goal for the fall when the dreaded Achilles tendinitis hit. Foolishly, I tried to run through it. I told myself I wanted to know I did everything I could to make it to the line in Toronto. I’m an incredibly nervous racer, so I wondered if I was just trying to give myself an excuse to drop out. It would be fine, I thought. I’d reduce volume for a few weeks and be good to go. It was a bad decision. I was not good to go, and the extra weeks of running took what could have been a couple of weeks off into not being able to run a step for the entire fall.
I watched the team have amazing races and set and work towards goals together while I ground it out in the gym alone. Nobody excluded me; in fact, they went out of their way to check in, to invite me to after-practice events, to cheer on each bit of progress, to commiserate when the setbacks happened. But with a long injury, away from the thing you love doing, there’s no way not to feel sad and alienated. I made an effort to be supportive of my teammates, committed to building strength in the gym, did endless heel drops on the steps – and began to worry I would never run a step again. I’m not getting younger. I waited too long to start again. Maybe this was it. I would be happy, I told myself, if I could just get back to half an hour of pain free jogging. Maybe that would have to be enough, and I’d have to let my goals go. There were a lot of moments of tears and despair. I came back and ran for two weeks, only for my other Achilles to go at the beginning of December.
So at Christmas I was sitting in Winnipeg, doing random ballet foot strength exercises on YouTube when I saw Doran’s email offering to sponsor a women’s team for another record run. And I felt a burning desire and determination. I was going to get back. I was going to run again, and I was going to do it with these women. I played it casual over text. “Anyone see that email? What are you thinking?” People weren’t sure; spring race plans weren’t firmed up yet, Cabot is hard and a lot of pressure at the end of a tough spring season. People had travel plans, worried about injuries. I worked my persuasion skills. Wasn’t it cool to have a sponsor? The other women who missed out on 2022 were enthusiastic. Our chance to be a part of something amazing! And so a team came together. And, came apart! As always happens we lost people. But the great thing about the Hammers is the squad is so deep, for every woman who couldn’t run, there was another woman running fast.
Erin:
Three things actually happened next. So yes, we came together and came apart. That’s the first thing that happened and it happens to most teams – you try to get your original team roster to the start line in Baddeck and it’s impossible with injuries and, well, life. So you get the best team possible to the line. And then Coach Lee gets his hands on your team roster and moves everyone’s legs around so that he has who he wants running each leg, playing to their strengths. That probably doesn’t happen to most teams, haha!
And thirdly, we discover that we will have a rival women’s team when the team names are released: ST FX Women Past and Present. This is a great development for women running fast. In 2022, we successfully chased the record but we finished more than 3 hours ahead of the next female team. It’s a sweeter win if you are challenged and we were ready to be challenged. The X women would be a formidable opponent. Remember when I said it wasn’t going to be easy? Now it really wouldn’t be easy. Where the X women were high on talent and sharp racing speed…. we were confident that we were high on gritty determination and experience. We had a mix of new Hammer women and seasoned veterans. Three of us were masters runners. Would it be enough? 28 hours and 276km of trail would tell.
Here on this blog, El will tell the story:
Leg 1: Meaghan is starting us off and closing us out. Coach Lee tells her before the leg that she doesn’t have to fly, she only has to “semi fly” because she also has leg 17 to do. We hit the finish line to see her come barrelling in. She hits the final cones at 1:03 exactly with a few metres to the mat, and so for hours we aren’t sure if she got the leg record. We know she came close. Finally Brett confirms it for us. Leg record, taking down the mark by a legendary runner Kristin Barry. We laugh: only Meaghan would go get a record when she’s supposed to be holding back. Meaghan doing Meaghan things.
Women’s Battle: Hammer Women with a 5:34 lead on ST FX Women
(Battle notes were added in during the aftermarth/recap. In the moment, we didn’t have a firm grip on how we were doing until leg 15, read on….)
Leg 2: After Meaghan starts us off with a bang it’s Kaili’s turn. There isn’t a tougher runner than Kaili. She’s nervous about Cabot because she’s been having Achilles issues so she’s been staying off the hills. Lee has assured us that she’ll be fine on leg 2, and then it starts on a steep uphill! The day is warming up – when Kaili comes into the finish she almost passes out. She’s run so hard. We are in awe. What a tough run for the leg win, going all the way to the well for us. It’s inspiring to witness.
Women’s Battle: 3:20 faster than the X woman on this leg gives us an 8:54 cummulative lead on ST FX Women
Leg 3: Okay, it’s really hot now. We run early in the morning and it hasn’t been that warm all spring so this leg is a shock to the system. We drive along the road to see a beautiful sight: Christy and Annie, Hammers running on other teams, working together with our runner Danielle and the runner from St. FX. The women are sweating out there. This is a hard run, and they’re suffering out there.
The Maine Road Hag is having a great run up front with the Glory Dames hot on her heels. Danielle doesn’t give up and when we get to the finish she’s pulled ahead of the pack of women she was with for a strong finish. We’re so proud of her, grinding it out on a tough leg and not giving up. That’s what we need to see – a tough as nails run to keep the momentum going.
Fun moment on the leg: Coach Lee is running for the Hammer Men, pulling out one of his rare performances on minimal training. We get to stand on the road and watch him run for a change, which to be honest feels kind of weird!
Women’s Battle: 1:12 under on this leg give us a 10:06 lead on X Women
Leg 4: The first mountain leg. This is the leg where the “easy” bits are all the hills before the mountain. Leah got told by Lee she was doing this leg only a few days ago when we lost a runner to a back injury at work and we had to shuffle the legs, so she hasn’t had a lot of time to get ready on the hills physically or mentally. Later, she tells us she drove the leg to scout it out. The veteran runners laugh: that was a mistake. It’s better to just do it and let your legs go numb. We drive up Smokey to the top. Reed keeps saying, is this the finish line? Is this the finish? He’s mad, he thinks the race should have finished 3 times before it actually reaches the top of Smokey.
The mountain women are so important to the team. They could do any other leg and crush it, and they take on a huge sacrifice to do the legs that everybody’s scared of. Leah has a strong run, stays calm and focused, and gets us over the mountain. This is the leg where the X women get a 5 minute time bonus, but even without that, Allie from X has a monster run for the win. Leah has kept it as close as she can and logged a huge achievement taking on a scary leg.
At this point we aren’t even thinking about the record – we’re so focused on the battle for the top of the standings. The Road Hags have thrown down some great legs, and X has edged in front of us. The battle for the win is on and nerves and competitiveness are starting to flow for the team. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy but we trust in our training and strength and most of all, all the hours we’ve trained together pushing each other and pulling each other up.
Women’s Battle: We are 9:17 behind X on this leg plus the awarded 5 minute bonus means we are now trailing X Women by 4:11
Leg 5: Madalyn’s first leg of the weekend. Madalyn is such a happy runner. This double is a late addition for her as well. She’s coming off her sub-3 marathon debut just 2 weeks ago at Fredericton but she’s totally unphased. Madalyn has also been taking care of our logistics – Erin and I definitely did not want to sit through the Captain’s meeting so we pulled age rank to get out of it. Madalyn smiles her way through the leg, charging along for the win looking completely unruffled and unbothered and getting us some time back.
Women’s Battle: 1:38 head of X on this lead cuts the X Women’s lead to 2:33
Leg 6: Another “Lee made me do it” leg for Erin. The toughest non-mountain leg of the race. Before the leg, we endure the caffeine emergency (see the “silly” checklist later on). I’m running Erin’s gym bag a kilometre along the road back to the start because I don’t know where anything is in the bag. I’m thinking, please don’t let me throw out my hip or something sprinting with this heavy bag before I have to run! Erin says she wants to know exactly where she is in the race, so I’m on timing duty. Catherine is having a super fast race for X, but Erin isn’t letting the gap get bigger: she stays fast and focused. At the finish, I congratulate Catherine on a great run and she gasps about how awful the wind was: Erin logs a 5:40 split being blown backwards on the course. It’s also turned freezing cold, so we’re having the full Cabot weather experience.
By Erin: Someone told me afterwards that it was actually 70km/hr winds. It was like I ran 2 different legs on leg 6. One leg had reasonable weather and I felt amazing, fast and powerful and could have had an awesome day. Then there was the other half of the leg into wind so strong that we were hunched over fighting it and it was blowing us into the centre of the road. I was wondering if I was in a hurricane. Like, you would never open your door and go running during a hurricane and now here we are. Running into it. There was no pacing there, just trying to keep the gap with the men ahead the same. It mostly stayed the same. Everyone fought this wind.
The start of the leg was not too bad with wind and really fun. I had a pack of 3 guys tuck in behind me. At first, I didn’t know what gender they were and I was making up an imaginary rule where they had to announce “males” or “females” upon attaching to a person’s shoulder like this. Where this was a daytime leg and we had 3 teams of Halifax Road Hammers out there, plus other friends scattered on other teams, I was getting a huge amount of cheering and “Go Erins.” Finally, one of them said, “what are you, the most popular person out here!?” I turned and looked at them and was relieved to see they were a group of dudes. I laughed and said they could ride my coattails of support but how about some help with the wind if it hits. And then it hit hard.
Women’s Battle: a loss of 3:21 to X increases the X Women’s Lead to 5:54
Now Back to El:
Leg 7: Holly takes on this leg. The wind is still out of control, and it’s stayed cold. We take a break from the Trail and link up with Denise who is getting ready to run leg 8. The weather is all over the place and she’s pulling clothes out all over her jeep trying to get ready. Meanwhile out on the Trail Holly battles the wind and the other women for a huge win, giving us a lot of time that we need back. A clutch performance from Holly to keep us right in it.
Women’s Battle: Holly is 13:43 faster than the X woman, restoring our lead, which is now 7:37
Leg 8: Denise’s first leg and her second last leg to finish the Trail. When we formed the team, Denise sent us an email, “I’m ready to bleed for this team!” Meaghan tells us that her first Cabot relay when she met Denise, Denise asked her the same thing: “Are you ready to bleed for it?” Denise is out there now giving it her all. Last night she said she didn’t feel that recovered from her Boston marathon but there’s no sign of that now, and she brings it in for another win for the Hammer Women.
Women’s Battle: 2:04 ahead of this X women to grow our lead to 9:41
Leg 9: The next two legs are beasts. Colleen, back from a biking and backpacking trip only a day ago is taking on North. When we were shuffling legs, she was worried we’d move her from this one, and we were thinking “no one wants this leg! It’s so hard!” We drive the trail…and drive and drive and drive and still no Colleen. Finally we see her motoring along out front, burning up the roads. By the time we get to the finish she’s taken the win and another leg record. The Hammer Men are laughing at her because she can barely walk once she cools off. I’m in awe again of these tough women who can reach so deep inside themselves when they run and embrace the pain.
Women’s Battle: 1:28 ahead on this lead to bring our cumulative lead to 11:09
Leg 10: We’re into the night legs now. Beyond the trail itself, these legs are hard because our running body clocks are out of wack, and we’ve also spent the day driving, screaming, and exhausting ourselves. Mackenzie has been looming over the race both literally and figuratively and now it’s time for Deanna to take on the mountain. Now that it’s night, the runners are alone out there. In the day, there’s tons of people to cheer, giving you motivation and a lift. Now it’s quiet, and the runners have to go deep inside themselves. We catch Deanna warming up and she says she’s ready to go. I’m getting ready to run and the nerves have completely taken over – I’m huddled over in the car trying to deep breathe at this point. We don’t see Deanna run, but she conquers the mountain – another huge sacrifice for the team to knock off this monster for us. Deanna stays in it and keeps us as close as she can to the X women so that we’re coming off the mountains in good shape.
Women’s Battle: We trail the X woman by 5:30 here, our lead is safe and sits at 5:39
Leg 11: Abby takes this leg. The next legs are supposed to be “easier” by Cabot standards, but that doesn’t take into account the shock to the body that running late at night is when you’re used to working out at 6am. Everything is thrown off: fueling, sleep, preparation. Midway through the leg, Abby gets sick, and now she’s running while throwing up. Astonishingly, she runs through it, only stops to walk for a few seconds, and finishes the race with actual vomit on her singlet having still kept the gap between the X runner and her as minimal as she can. What a performance – it’s what you do on a day like that when it all goes wrong that defines you as a runner, and this spirit defines our team as well.
Women’s Battle: we maintain a lead of 4:13 now
Leg 12: This is me.
I was in the UK on a fellowship for January-March. 2 days before I left, the doctor finally cleared me to run. 2-3 minutes she said. The pain can go to 6. We’re just gently loading and backing off. The squad showed up at my door, and ran me around the block to celebrate. Alone in the UK I began the long climb back. It was a struggle to hold back but I tried to be disciplined. The first time I ran 2 miles together with no breaks I felt like I was dying. I looked at the pace at my watch and I thought, I can barely run 2 miles 2 minutes slower than marathon pace. Cabot began to seem impossible. But I persisted, and slowly and then faster it came back. In March, 6 months after my last workout, I joined the Cambridge and Coleridge track club for a track workout. My speed was surprisingly still there. The Cabot dream was still alive!
Back in Halifax, Coach Lee was confident. You have tons of time, he reassured me. I wasn’t so sure. I came back into a block of marathon workouts. I hurt my back in the gym. I struggled to finish even half of the work. One Saturday I stopped dead in the middle of Marginal Road and cried. Part of me wanted to quit but I told myself that I had to go through the tough workouts for things to click. It wasn’t going to happen all at once. I had to be patient. The Hammer men stepped in. Dave Martin escorted me through workouts, gently and steadily dropping the pace week by week. Erin surprised me with a last minute confidence building race at the Beehive Five (me: “I can’t keep track of tomorrow’s workout!” her: “well, actually you’re doing the pre-race workout because we’re racing on Saturday!”)
Things were firing on all cylinders finally, and then 3 weeks before the race, an ill-fated shoe experiment. I strained my post-tib. Lee was calm. Trust your fitness, he told me. Don’t be afraid to take some days off. I was not calm. I couldn’t believe I’d come all this way only to mess it up when the goal was in sight! And then we lost another runner. The pressure was on. I’d never run so little heading into a race. I doubted myself entirely. My anxiety went into overdrive.
Getting to the start line at Cabot was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in running. Everyone else was confident. They believed in me. They knew I could do it. But my nerves were taking over. I didn’t run until 12:30am. The long wait through the day was the most anxious I’ve ever been. At one point a friend called me and I hysterically sobbed to her that I couldn’t do it, that I was going to let everyone down, that everyone else was working so hard and I was going to mess it all up. The pressure was only coming from inside me: over and over my team told me it didn’t matter, we were here to run the trail together, I just had to give my best. Erin hung in there with me, supporting me to the line even after her exhausting windy run on 6.
By the time I run I’m not convinced I can even stand up. All I’ve managed to eat all day is caffeinated running gels and Powerade, and now it’s 12:30am. Michael, a Hammer man I’ve run some recent workouts with, gives me a hug at the start line. The men have their own race but they’re also invested in ours, and as the battle between us and X heats up they’ve been getting just as competitive about what’s happening.
And like everyone (but me) knew, once I got started, I relaxed and just focused on doing what I had to do. My ankle felt fine. Except I’m unprepared for the steep downhill that starts the leg! I thought downhill running would be the easy part and give me time back, but I feel off-balance and scared to open up. At that point I think to myself, “okay, so you can’t run downhills, the uphills will be slower…guess you better sprint on the flats!” Once we’re off the downhill I feel better. Michael comes by me with words of encouragement and I just try to keep him in sight. I’m a bit scared to run super hard because I’m worried that I haven’t fueled and I’m scared of bonking before the finish and blowing it for us, but I tell myself I just need to keep the team alive. This run isn’t about me, I don’t need to take risks, all I need to do is stay steady and do my job for the team.
I passed the X girl on the hill so I just focus on running strong and clicking off the km. Running in the dark is fun. At least you can’t see the hills coming. The finish seems to take forever: you see the lights coming into town and then you just keep going…and going…and they’re not getting any closer. I randomly get a stitch at 12k which has never happened to me before in my life, but I close okay and do what I needed to do. At the finish I’m just relieved. It wasn’t the most aggressive run of my life but in terms of overcoming so many fears, pains, and challenges, it was definitely the one that took the most to do.
I’m proud of myself for getting through the hardest mental battle of my running life. And now I can finally relax and have fun!
Women’s Battle: we are 4:54 faster than X here to grow our lead to 9:07
Leg 13: We drive to cottages in Cheticamp to get a few hours sleep. Except with all the sugar and caffeine and adrenaline I can’t sleep so I lie awake trying to play online word games, but I’m basically not cognitively functioning at this point. Michaela runs 13 while we’re off the trail. She’s a very new Hammer: one day she rolled up on us during Saturday workout, hit the jog rest, and just kept going. Erin and I ask, “who is that?” We’re pleased she’s running so well and is on the team. Michaela gets us another leg win, casually pulling off a huge performance to earn her socks and get us more time back. We’re starting to pull ahead of X now, but in the moment, it’s too late at night to handle math.
Women’s Battle: 1:04 gained this leg for a 10:11 lead
Leg 14: After Michaela delivers us a drama-free 13, we’re back to the typical Cabot night shenanigans. Clara is running this leg for us, coming off a PB half at Fredericton. This is a longer leg so she’s almost doing another half here. Clara was out late the night before at Hammer man Allister’s graduation from dentistry, and then rushed up to the trail to run for us. We saw her after Colleen’s leg and her competitive juices were flowing. At the 10k water stop, she grabs her water, is drinking, and then in the dark doesn’t see the curb end and falls hard onto the gravel shoulder. She bounces back up, now with extra gravel in her body, and finishes the leg at a pace that would have smashed her Fredericton time. We ask her if she thought about just running for another kilometre and a half for the satisfaction of it.
Women’s Battle: X gets 1:11 on us, we maintain a lead of 9:00
Leg 15: Now we’re into our doubles. We’re back on the trail after not sleeping. We’re punch drunk now, we’ve been up over 24 hours. Reed has been in the car non-stop. We hit 15 in time to see Denise pushing it on an uphill in pursuit of Erin MacLean from the X women. Lee is out there clocking the gap, so we stop to chat for a minute and demand Road Hammer jackets because the X women look sharp in their gear and it’s cold out. We get to the finish to see Erin MacLean take the win in her first race back in 8 years. Then we get to see Denise come in, completing the last leg of the entire trail. She has left her mark on the trail, setting records years apart, and still holding the record on 17. It’s emotional watching this achievement, so many years in the making. Denise is the consummate Hammer woman. Like Erin Poirier, she’s been a Hammer from the start, and we’ve all heard legends about her. So this leg is really special.
Madalyn is warming up for 16 by doing some math. When we started this team, we were thinking about a record run, but we’ve completely forgotten about it in the focus on the competition with the X women. Madalyn tells us that before the last three legs we were in front of course record pace, and everyone just needs to run around sub-3 marathon pace on the last legs to take it. Erin and I are completely baffled: I could barely find the finish line cones on my leg, nevermind do a bunch of predictive math.
Women’s Battle: Hammer Women with a lead of 6:26
Leg 16: We pull over on 16 to see Madalyn bopping along on Paula James’ shoulder, putting in her double after her win on 5. She gives us a wave, looking fresh and happy even after all the kilometres she’s run this weekend. Before the leg she was talking about wanting ice cream, and Erin told her that she could have a scoop for every second under 4:00/km, so we’re driving by yelling nonsensically about ice cream while Paula is probably confused. Hammer man Ryan runs by and asks us what the distance is. Erin happens to know because we forgot to pay attention to where the 5k was so she pulled up a map to make sure we were far enough. She yells the distance but adds, “that’s a question for your Garmin!” Ryan yells back “it’s broken!” I yell, “Great! Run free then!”
Madalyn finishes well under sub-3 pace with a narrow second place finish to Paula. Now we’re all trying to do the math.
Women’s Battle: Hammer women with a lead of…. Somewhere between 5:17 and 6:02!
Leg 17: We run into Meaghan warming up and tell her not to worry, we think we have about 5 minutes on X. But she and Brett heard about the time bonus, so when Brett was doing the math, he didn’t know the time was already included in the leg. He’s taken off another 5 so all the way driving over Meaghan has thought that we only have a few seconds margin.
Meaghan ran this leg on the last Hammer Women record team and swore she wouldn’t do it again: not only is it tough and hot, but the last runner can’t help but feel all the pressure is on them. We’ve told her that we’re a whole team and it’s never on one woman, but obviously there’s no way not to have that stress. But Lee has spoken, and Meaghan is a team player, so she’s giving us this final leg.
Brett’s got a whole actuarial system going. He’s colour coded all the legs from the last record and calculated how much time we lost or gained on each leg compared to last time. We all know Meaghan is going to crush it, but no matter what it’s a hard leg and she’s going to be alone out there with no cheering.
We eat our pancakes (thank you Honking Geese team!) at the start and drive into town to set up at the runner tunnel at the end of the glory leg. We don’t have much time, because Meaghan comes screaming in. She’s ahead of the Hammer man even, who runs his race with a ton of heart and comes to the finish almost passing out but still pushing it in.
We run to hug Meaghan.
It’s a Female Team Win.
It’s a New Course Record of 18:54:15. That’s 23 minutes and 52 seconds faster than 2022 and the first women’s team ever to dip under 19 hours.
We’re all emotional: every woman has put in so much and had such a journey to get here.
A woman brings a little girl over to Meaghan and asks if she can get a picture with the “woman who beat her Daddy.”
What a perfect moment for women’s sports: Meaghan who works relentlessly, who goes out and runs with so much discipline and heart and is seeing it pay off in huge ways inspiring girls to know that women can run without limits.
If you hang in with El and Erin, we have 3 more pieces to cover. The relay is epic in length and so is this recap.
A Checklist of Silly Relay Constants by Erin
This was my 10th year running the relay and there’s a predictable set of things that happen every year, unique to this unique long event. These are the silly things. I’m gonna say there are 8 of them. All but one happened. In no particular order.
First, something absurdly funny at the time keeps you laughing for the whole relay. Usually it’s not even that funny. My relay car was El, her partner Reed, Madalyn for half and Erin MacLean Coates (yes, rival but still sisterhood….) for the ride home. This year, the absurdly funny moment was Reed. We watched the Maine Road Hags put on a show for legs 1 through 4. Out of all of our team members, it was only Denise and I who were around for the domination of the Maine Road Hags, where the sight of their running skirts would strike fear in your heart. Meaghan didn’t even know who Kristin Barry was when she broke her leg 1 record. Denise and I sure did because Kristin Barry and Sheri Piers destroyed everything in their way for years and we all just watched full of awe. These Road Hag women had updated 2024 running skirts and were bringing it, with authority, with finishes of second, second, first and second place over legs 1 to 4. But then the following team runner was out of 1st and 2nd place:
“Hmmm. That Hag ain’t hagging,” says Reed.
Absurdly funny. But actually just regular funny. I giggled at this for the rest of the relay.
The Brushes with Wildlife: Each year, at the captains meeting, teams are warned about what wildlife to look out for most. This is their territory, not ours. Over the years, there have been warnings about coyotes, moose, bears, etc. This year, Madalyn reports back, “There’s a mama bear on leg 12 with babies. Caution.”
“Oh great,” I say. “El is going to end up summoning the bear. I know it.”
El, animal rights activist. Who replies, “It would be an honour for me to be attacked by the bear.”
Luckily we are all still intact and El can continue her activism via the work she focused on during her fellowship instead of on the Cabot Trail, solo, at midnight.
A silly emergency emerges: In 2022, it was a Doritos Emergency. This year, it was a caffeine emergency. We arrive at leg 6 and I run my warm up and overall my body feels pretty good. My legs are a little more tight and tired than I want them to be though from walking all over the relay course since 7am. I ask Colleen, “Should I take a caffeine pill?” She answers definitively, “YES”! Ok, I need a caffeine pill. Back at the car. I run back towards the leg 6 start line, to my car, for my caffeine pill. I have a gel with caffeine. I have no water. It’s in the car.
Oh no, El and Reed are driving the car away from me. With my caffeine pill and my water. “Did you need something?” they ask when they see my alarmed face. “THE CAFFEINE!” It’s close to start time, that’s why they are trying to leave, to avoid the lockdown. I am panicked. The line of cars is long, they might not even be able to park and return before the gun goes.
I actually have better things to panic about than the missing caffeine as the weather forecast, per my phone, is for 69km/hr winds on this leg. The caffeine is what I’m spiraling on. I’m asking all of my hammer teammates. I get water. No one has caffeine. I’m resigned. I take a pic with my teammates Mustafa, who also has no caffeine. “Ready to race” I will caption it. But nope, I’m not ready.
I dart over to Ian, Ian and Johnny. No caffeine. But OMG El appears with my bag. Now I have the caffeine tab, it’s 100mg. I snap it in half. “Half or whole?” I ask anyone who will reply.
“Full Send, Erin, whole thing” says Johnny. I swallow it before I can change my mind. Now I am ready. But no, The Ians point out that I am not ready. I did not register. I have no bib. Because of the caffeine crisis, I have forgotten this critical detail. They chide me at registration, am I a rookie or something? Or one of the oldest veterans on my team lol.
So I now have an ideal fatigue reducing caffeine buzz and the leg can start and it does. The wind should have been the emergency I was focused on.
Elite Level Cheer Performance: Moving on, the next relay checklist item is that the cumulative fatigue enhances your cheering to the point where you say something both amazing and ridiculous to your runner. On my checklist, this is leg 16. Madalyn and Paula/X-Women are shoulder to shoulder, chatting, racing fast and hunting down the men in front of them. If your runner is fast, you pretty much have to leave the finishing leg before the 10 minute lockdown and drive to beyond 5km. Otherwise, you are only going to see them once because you have to serve a 30 minute lockdown and then you are in a long line of rather slow relay traffic to reach them and it’s now like 48 minutes into the leg and your runner is well beyond 10km in. So we most often drive ahead. We are waiting at 5km and therefore see the Madalyn-and-Paula-Man-Hunt.
The gap is narrowing. Finally, the third time we drive past them, all are in earshot. I roll down the window and say to them, “Hello men, I am very sorry for what these fast women are about to do to you.” And we drive off. Max elite cheering.
Brain function ceases: The relay lasts so long that at some point, you just stop functioning rationally. This was the end of leg 15 for me. We are at the start area, gathered as a team and Madalyn is listing off TONS of math- the over/under on the X Women. The over/under on our course record. The paces required to close out. Math. So much math. It’s too much computing. I’m not even sure what leg it is anymore. How is Madalyn functioning at this advanced stage of counting? We get back to the car and Reed asks when we have to leave and I say 5:50am and he’s like, “ERIN! IT’S 7AM!!”
Ya leave someone behind: So here, I almost leave myself behind. Or ahead. Abby is running leg 11 and we’ve put many women to bed for the night. It’s just El and I and Abby left. I need to drive Abby’s car, alone, for her leg. We successfully find her and the car in the inky blackness of leg 11 start. I am intending to drive right to El’s leg 12 start. Then I make a last minute decision to stop and cheer for Abby. But I gotta yell at the women: “Abby!? Is that you!?” She’s the second woman, I know because the first place X woman sweetly says, nope! So now I am kinda late driving to the end of leg 11 which is not actually civilization but just the side of the mountain. The parking before the finish line looks like too far to walk. I will park after the finish. Oh no. There’s no parking. Oh no, now there’s just guard rails and the side of a mountain. I keep driving. I can’t make a decision. I reach a beach pull off. I will park here. It’s so dark. Now I am walking up the mountain, in the pitch black night, no cars, no humans, no cell reception, nothing but my phone flashlight. It’s 1.2 km of walking… Please Erin, don’t fall off the side of this mountain, no one even knows where you are. Thankfully, I get to the top after a lonely and foolish walk.
It’s not the relay until you nearly drop your car off the road: I’m pretty sure this is universal as we all try to both park in a reasonable spot and have our wheels over the white line, given that we all want to follow the rules and are parking alongside the edge of mountains. Reed and I do pretty well driving. Until….end of leg 12. We find this amazing spot in the Coop grocery store to wait for El. We reverse in so we can see the finish and leave easily. Reed: “Should I back up a bit more?” Me, so confidently, “oh yes.” Confidence disappears when we exit the car and see we almost backed it into the Cheticamp Harbour. Opps!
An entire box of snacks get emptied all over the car: this one we actually avoided! win!
Now back to seriousness.
What does it all mean to us by Erin
This experience, this race win, this course record; it all meant a lot to me. It meant a lot to all of us. The emotion was palpable in Brett’s finish line video. It was visible as tears streamed down Denise’s face first, then mine, then others, as we sat with our victory plaques and the road sign at our banquet table.
Why does it mean so much? As best I can answer, this is why. A team weekend like this takes every single woman at her best and giving her best. You are taking on the trail. You are taking on the field of other teams. You are taking on Mother Nature. You run your leg alone but you are very much not alone. Every woman counts. The woman running counts. The women alongside her on the road count and they show her their belief in her. Their belief becomes your own belief and you run faster. Unlike a road race, we get to watch, in real time, each other take on the field, the trail and Mother Nature. If you couldn’t find the Road Hammer Women as a pack at the start/finish line of each leg, it’s because we were so locked in to each, we were already waiting at the 5km mark of the next leg to see our girl.
Some of us Hammer women are just getting started. Some are new Hammers. Some of us are old and seasoned Hammers. Denise and I were sitting together at the banquet, thinking about how we are coming up on 9 years together with Coach Lee and many years before that with Coach Cliff. A few other runners and I were together even before that in a postcollegiate group (even though we didn’t run collegiately) with Coach Matt Sheffield. That’s so many years running.
Years spent with the women on this team and the rest of my Road Hammer teammates, in pursuit of what we love, together. For me, the masters runner with many years behind her, I find myself still at this place where I am still learning how excellent I can be. For my younger women, they have many years of this ahead of them. This relay was meaningful because it was so special to be together as a team, to experience this collectively and to find out that we are 23 minutes more excellent than we were on our last trip around the trail.
This relay meant a lot to me as a female athlete. For decades, we have watched the men’s teams battle it out at the top and it’s so satisfying to be a part of this being true for the women teams as well.
What does is all mean by El:
After my leg 12, high on caffeinated gels and Powerade, I couldn’t sleep. We got back up, and drove to the trail in time to cheer Denise finishing leg 15, her final leg to complete the trail. As she finished, I was standing by the chute screaming, “Final leg of the trail for all the glory!” It was an honour to be a part of that piece of women’s running history, cheering on a legend who has meant so much to all of us. It was everything I dreamed of when I joined the Hammers, and when I set the goal at Christmas to run.
All the newer Hammer women said the same thing after. We watched Hammer women run, and were so inspired. We dreamed one day it could be us. And now here we were wearing the Hammer singlet at Cabot, battling for the win, and setting the course record.
People don’t know what goes into this running, though. From the outside, maybe it looks easy. You can never know the doubts and nerves and setbacks and tears that everyone, even the fastest woman you know, goes through. And that’s what’s brilliant about women’s running, that we are all fierce competitors who care so deeply about the sport, so we do it together, for ourselves and each other.
After Cabot, every time I open my mouth, Reed sighs and says, “is this about running?” Not only was he on mental health duty through the weekend, he drove the entire time with only a two leg break, listening to days of conversation about a sport he does not care about. In mixed frustration and amusement he wonders, “how can there be anything left to say about running?” But as Erin says, one road race requires days of post-mortem and discussion. A race with 17 different legs? That’s weeks of content!
I’m also proud that I was part of this win and record as a Black woman. On leg 15, I saw one other Black woman on the trail, a woman named Ashley. We talked about how great it was to see another sister out there. It’s nice to think that maybe some Black woman will read this post like I read Erin’s post, and push past her own doubts to do the race she dreams she can do. We have so much pressure around our bodies and being as Black women, so many places we’re told we can’t go, so much criticism that we face from the world. Running is never easy, but it is also a place of liberation and healing, and I hope more Black women and girls in Nova Scotia find that joy because we deserve it.
Erin’s Women’s Sports Epilogue:
Finally, I want to comment on an issue that was much discussed at the relay and that’s the matter of awarding time bonuses to teams because it also matters to women’s sports. I have been in touch with the race organizers already. They have thanked me for sharing my views and have committed to discuss this as a committee prior to the 2025 relay.
As a member of a winning women’s team and a coach of women in multiple sports, I am struggling with the fact that the bonus points were awarded to another women’s team who were competing for the win, especially if we zoom out and look at the landscape of women’s sports in 2024. While not strictly related to Cabot Trail Relay, there remains a cultural narrative of women rarely being allowed to simply be excellent in sports. Women end up being valued for things like “inspiring the next generation” or for “overcoming obstacles like childbirth” or for “juggling the work of raising a family/working” or for “giving back” (kindness). This valuation continues to happen while men are allowed to be admired and valued for simply being excellent.
The parallel to this year’s relay is now the St FX X Women are being placed into a spot where they are fulfilling this narrative of “being nice” instead of simply being excellent (which they are, excellent). I can not recall a 5 minute bonus ever being awarded to any of the elite men’s teams: the Maniacs, the Black Lungs, the Cape Breton Roadrunners or the Halifax Road Hammer Men while they were battling each other for the win. Where it would potentially become a bonus that could ultimately sway the outcome of a 276+km race. If my memory serves me correctly, the camaraderie bonuses were incorporated in the year 2009. I searched back through all team results to 2009 and I don’t see any evidence of time bonuses being awarded to the top men’s teams as they competed for the win against each other.
I believe that we can offer both recognition for sportsmanship and a fair race to win by removing the time bonus associated with the sportsmanship recognition. The 5 minute bonus did not matter in our 2024 Hammer Women victory but I am thinking about the women who will come after us and I want to see future teams of women be able to win based on their own performances.
Now because this is my blog and I can write what I want, what I want to end on is that transwomen are women and belong in women’s sports.
Here is where we thank many people:
First, our people at home who share us with the space to chase our running goals.
We thank Coach Lee for the role that he plays in helping each of us get the best out of ourselves, in a combo of writing the workouts and dishing out praise and pointers at the right moments. With a team of 14 women, that’s 14 different right moments, 14 different versions of praise and he manages to get it right.
We thank the partners on the road with us: Reed, Brett, Kyle and Drew. Even just surviving the set of 6 sillies we detailed is a lot…. Nevermind trailing alongside us and supporting from behind.
Thank you for our competitors: the St FX Women, the Maine Road Hags and the Glory Dames. With excellent competition, we are all reach higher.
A massive thank you to our Halifax Road Hammer Men and the Halifax Old Hammers. The men are an important ingredient in our success. They are our pacers in workouts; our cheerleaders on the course; our friends grown from miles and miles of camaraderie; our teammates who want to see us succeed. And a shout out to all of the women on other relay teams and the ones who stayed back home. We are all better together.
