I’ve heard about the K-100 since last summer. People said great things about it. So I wanted to participate. The K-100 is a 100 MILE relay from Longview, Alberta (just south of Calgary) around (West) on highway 40 [mostly] and then as #40 winds North, the race continues to the Nakiska Ski hill, just north of Kananaskis Village. This is a 10 person relay event, and I was lucky and found a team which included a few friends from Regina.

First off – the scenery. The Kananaskis area is absolutely magnificent. I made me wish I had a high quality digital camera in order to captures some of the fabulous views that I experienced. As it was, all I had was my iPhone camera, so the picture quality is minimal. You’ll just have to imagine the extra sharpness, colours, and fine quality that are associated with a better picture.

I have more images of the K-100 on my Facebook image album; click here.

The K-100 is run almost entirely on the highway. The only exceptions are the last 2 legs of the race. And luckily, I got one of them. I ran leg 9, which was 90% trail run. And it was as beautiful as everyone said it was. That helped in doing well, since that was scenery that I was not used to – and absorbing the fabulous streams, rivers, and occasional elk just made my day. My leg of the race started on the edge of the highway, but the trail run was mostly around the Kananaskis village area, finishing at the Nakiska ski hill. If you’re wondering how my leg of the race, and the 10th leg of the race can finish at the same place (yes, it does) then you are correct if you jump to the reasoning that the last leg of the race is an “out and back” run. Leg 10 starts and ends at the ski hill. Even though I’ve only run this race one time, from everything I know I would say that leg 9 was the choice pick for the race. If I do this again next year, I think I will try and get this leg again. It was so peaceful and quiet and beautiful. A sharp contrast to most of my running around Regina.

The race consisted of 169 teams. Some were uber competitive, and others were struggling. Our team finished about mid-pack. finishing 79th overall. We were team #203, called Fast Forward.

Here is our team’s times: K-100FastForward

I finished my leg of the race in 44th place, with a time of just over 1:06, which I was happy with. After the race I met most of the team, and had a great visit with my friends from Regina, and also with an old high school friend who I’ve only seen a few times in recent years. It was a great event and I’m looking forward to running this one next year.

Next up, Moose Jawg 10 km on July 1st, 2010