Race Report: The JaJa Trail Marathon

JaJa: The Canadian Barkley?

Photo Credit to Lay Vorasane

Its taken me a little over a week to be able to piece together a blog entry that could accurately describe my experiences at the JaJa Trail Marathon this Easter Sunday. To say that JaJa is something unique in life would be an understatement.

For those who are unaware the JaJa Trail Marathon is a Barkley Marathon inspired trail race masterminded by Albertan ultramarathon runner James Dalke. The tag line at the race this year read: "5 books...5 loops...1 map and that's all we know for sure!". The race was timed by how long a candle lit at the start held a flame. Are you living for it yet?

Photo credit to Lay Vorasane

2018 marked the second year for JaJa and when I received my invitation to apply I was thrilled to be considered to pursue a piece of a "Canadian Barkley"- in the grand scheme of Albertan racing I am nobody so it was incredibly cool to be accepted into the race. The funny thing about JaJa is that it is actually the only race this year that I didn't have set expectations for myself going into it- thankfully I had enough sense to know that in regards to the JaJa what I didn't know was a lot.

Fast-forward from my acceptance in round one to a day of an entirely different sort- March 25. I had just shot my sister in law's wedding the day before and we were visiting with my mom for Palm Sunday when my lovely trail buddy Taylor messaged me to let me know that the Dalkes had lost their sweet baby Henry. My heart broke for them remembering the pain my late brother-in-law had suffered after having lost his own daughter similarly. I was certain I would spend Easter Sunday at my inlaws' house praying for peace for James and Courtney rather than racing- a good indication that I had no idea just how strong the man behind the race was, as the race clearly went ahead as planned.

Race Day

The morning of the race the cold was heavily reminiscent of Gord's; -27 degree temps were the JaJa's greatest April Fool's prank. I strapped on my new Salming Trail 5's sure that the most striking thing about this race would be the conditions. But what struck me most was the sheer volume of people milling around, setting up, huddling in the covered gazebo to try to stay warm or eat donuts (or both!)- the trail community was out in full force to support this event and to support the Dalkes. Anyone present can tell you that between James and his dad the pre-race was something that can only be felt and understood by the heart.

Photo credit to Lay Vorasane

Into the Woods We Go....

Photo credit to Lay Vorasane

As pre-race wrapped I was scrambling last minute to jot coordinates onto my map that I had not noticed on the sign-in sheet earlier on. To say I am not a master navigator may be an understatement (stop laughing Chantel and Greg, I know!) and I was highly stressed out about veering off course into the multitudes of alternate trails in the J.J. Collett Natural Area. But, in the spirit of JaJa being Barkley inspired, I took a lesson from the virgins at Barkley and decided to try and tail someone who looked like they actually knew what they were doing for the first loop. But figuring who knew where they were going and who I could pace with reasonably was a bit of a challenge.

As we went out the fellow who would go on to win the race, Keith, led us all out of the gazebo area in a Christmas sweater, jorts and a generally infectious jubilance. He set a really great tone for the race in my mind- JaJa seemed immediately more concerned with the love of the game (and Goodwill finds!) and community than any kind of austerity which was calming. But as much as I enjoyed Keith's energy he and a few other gentlemen pulled forward quickly and I was back to my task of figuring who to try to pace with and memorizing the turns as best I could.

I kept the pace relaxed and followed a couple in blue until we made it to book number one, which was at the bottom of a fairly steep drop. My problematic knees were already unimpressed the first time I went down and it wasn't even slick at that point- I was a little worried about my cap stability and I hadn't even been out longer than fifteen minutes, which is not a good sign for me. I had lost the blue couple at this point and tried to make up some ground and catch up to them, only to pass them on the way to book two and run into someone who seemed right away very familiar; a friend of Taylor's who I was told was named Carl. I could not for the life of me place him so I decided to pace with Carl until I could figure it out. It later turned out that I recognized Carl from Gord's as we apparently like to frequent the same winter spectacles- he enjoyed the snow at Gord's about as much as I did.

Eventually we ran into Taylor and her pal Jen as we all searched for book five, which everyone was struggling to find (I won't give away where book five was in the event that James plans to use that clever location again) until someone called out and we all came running to tear our pages out to return to camp and clock in for loop one. As we waited in line my OCD was getting the better of me and I was checking and re-checking that I had all the pages which, again, is not a great sign for me. Once I handed over my tangle of pages I suddenly realized that there was another lesson I should've taken away from those boys at Barkley- bring a damn Ziploc so the pages don't get wet!

After hitting water and Elete add-in I happened to be going out the same time as Carl, Taylor and Jen for what would be my last clockwise loop at JaJa (JaJa is comprised of two clockwise loops, two counter-clockwise loops and the final alternating loop based on when you come into camp for your final page) and my fastest lap through the course. It didn't seem that long before we were back in camp again for our third lap pages and discussing that we had the perfect ratio for none of us having to run the last leg alone if we all managed to hold pace. So much optimism in loop two!

Photo credit to Lay Vorasane

Everybody Switch!

The first counter-clockwise loop felt wonky to me honestly. The out and back portion mid-way through the leg felt so much sloppier in this direction and as the day heated up some the downs were picking up more and more slide. Again I was getting worried about my knees running downhill and my left cap was catching a lot but at this point I didn't want to slow down if I didn't have to as we were making good time and I knew that the longer I took out there the longer my knees were going to be threatening a dramatic scene. Talking ultra plans for the season, Jen's OCR running and the Sinister Triple was a decent distraction for the most part. After all, who doesn't want to talk about running while they are running amiright?

On loop four my luck ran out and my left side went on me as I approached a down. In the interest of not freaking anyone out, like poor Carl who was behind me, I got back up and ran on it but I knew it wasn't stable and I was going to lose time to it much like I did to multiple subluxations at RDM in 2017. Taylor and Jen pulled ahead a bit, but we managed to catch up to them by book one as they were getting organized with their pages at the drop off and came into camp together to clock in for the final loop.

Photo credit to Lay Vorasane

While we waited in line for our last pages Keith stormed the camp for the win in his Christmas sweater with a most majestic and frosty beard. It was a really unique experience to see the winner charge the finish for me as, in most courses, I'm usually still out on course and unable to see that as another racer- I loved the joy of it all. And suddenly I was met with my middle child at my hip because Ben had gotten there quite a bit early with the girls. Seeing my kids was the push I needed going into loop five when I was really doubting my knees. There are no people on this earth I am less likely to quit anything in front of than my girls.

 Photo credit to Lay Vorasane

The final match-up had Taylor and Jen running strong in a clockwise direction and Carl and myself headed counter-clockwise for the third time that day. While we had lost a lot of the speed we had earlier on in the race we were still trucking along pretty well when we gathered up our third book and crossed paths with Taylor and Jen- Carl and I were both sure they would be beating us back to camp at this point, especially where we took the longer but less shifting route back to camp from the last book.

Staying the Candle

When we came back in I unfolded my last pages of the day, handed them in and it was done- I had run the JaJa Marathon, I had my little piece of Canadian Barkley. But that wasn't my first thought honestly. My first thought was "Wow." because the enormity of what broken hearts had managed to construct for this race was beyond me- the JaJa is a legacy of love. Of course I didn't want to come off as the hyper sensitive crazy person that I am, so I thanked them for the experience, took my wicked handcrafted medal and checked the rankings. 4th place female, 10th overall- not terrible for a JaJa virgin! That was also when I realized that Taylor and Jen were not back. It turns out they had missed a book and had to go back out, but they also managed to get a kick ass repeat photo op so they might be the real winners, haha!

Photo credit to Taylor Van Der Epp

Once I made it back to Ben and the girls I was immediately met with Easter eggs because an egg hunt had been put on for the kids while we were out on course. As we loaded up the car to drive the four hours home my oldest girl Emma said to me, "That was the best race ever! One day I'll run the race and you'll find the eggs Mom." and even though I laughed my kindergartener was right. JaJa, in the spirit of trail racing, made friends and family out of strangers, it brought excitement and love to people on the outside looking in and it inspired in everyone running the desire to push for more whether it was for one more loop, one stride faster, to just keep ahead of the candle's dimming flame. And I think in that way JaJa isn't really much about Barkley at all; JaJa is about chasing more and more life.

When I spoke to my mother on the phone the other day she asked me if I would ever go back to JaJa if they invited me to return. How could my answer be anything other than yes? This race encompassed everything I love about trail running in Alberta and about humanity. Will they invite me back? I have absolutely no idea, I hope so, but its an exclusive race and it might not ever happen again. If it doesn't that is okay. I will be forever glad that in 2018 I was able to share JaJa with new friends and was able to bare witness to the love for a little life taken too soon and for the wounded hearts left behind.

Since Easter I have kept my own candles lit for Henry, and I pray God brings peace to the Dalke family❤

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."
Psalm 34:18