It didn’t go quite as Murray Tuininga had hoped.
On Saturday, Aug. 5, after successfully completing three stages of the Canadian Death Race in Grande Cache, he decided to pull out of the race for safety reasons.
The Canadian Death Race is a 125-kilometre ultra marathon which traverses three mountain ranges and a major river crossing, and includes more than 17,000 feet of elevation change.
“I’m a bit disappointed not to be able to finish, but unfortunately fatigue got the better of me,” he said, adding he contributed much of his fatigue was because he had not physically recovered from his last race.
On July 11, Tuininga competed in the 160-kilometre Sinister Seven race in Crowsnest Pass with a time of 24:40:00, good enough for 10th place in the men’s category and 11th overall.
“I was running with a guy who ran the full thing [Sinister Seven] and I asked him if he was still feeling the fatigue from the event four weeks ago and he told me he felt like he was pulling a boat anchor,” Tuininga said, adding the vast majority of competitors decided to only run a portion of that race due to the heat. Temperatures for the Sinister Seven peaked at above 30 degrees.
Also adding to Tuininga’s fatigue level was that a week after the Sinister Seven he decided to compete in his first ever Spartan race in Red Deer. In Tuininga’s category, the super solo category, athletes had to traverse a 12 kilometre cross-country track with 29 obstacles. He finished 21st in the male solo division qualifying for the World Spartan Championships.
Although Tuininga said he was feeling fatigued the first portion of the Canadian Death Race, a 45-kilometre leg, he was actually doing quite well. So he decided to proceed to the next checkpoint at about the 65 kilometre point where he would be able to meet his wife, Simone, who would be there waiting for him with fluids and nutrition.
“But I couldn’t get any fluids or nutrition in me. Eventually I was able to get some chicken soup and a bit more water in me, but I lost everything when I threw up a short while later,” he said.
Despite that, Tuininga made the decision to continue on to the next checkpoint, the Hamel, which is at the top of the third mountain peak. It was here, after eleven hours and 40 minutes that he decided discretion was the better part of valour and pulled himself out of the race.
“By that point I had gone over six hours on only 500 milliliters of water and I was showing all the signs of dehydration so for my own safety I decided to pull myself out of the race,” he said.
This is the second straight year Tuininga has not been able to complete the Canadian Death Race. Last year he dropped out at about the 65 kilometre mark due to fracturing two ribs after taking a tumble.
Although Tuininga is comfortable with his decision he said he had already completed the most strenuous part of the course and he could have finished it if he really pushed himself.
“At that point I was in about 10th [place] and I had a lot of time so I could have probably walked the rest of the way and finished, but if I had done that I knew that would have probably meant that my season would be over,” he said, adding that is something he wasn’t prepared to do.
As for what is next for Tuininga, he is hopeful he will be recovered enough to compete at the Wilderness X-Warrior Challenge at the Boneyard OCR facility near Peanut Lake on Aug 26.
The Boneyard OCR course is just over five kilometres and includes about 20 natural and manmade obstacles. Tuininga will participate in the titan category in which competitors try to complete the course multiple times, receiving different rewards for each lap completed, in a set period of time.
After that, Tuininga, plans to take part in the Spartan Ultra Beast at Sun Peaks Resort, outside of Kamloops, B.C. on Sept. 22. In October, he will also be competing at the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships in Ontario.
