A Shilo, Man., soldier set a new Mountain Man record this week despite spending part of the race going the wrong way.
Cpl. Nicholas Cazelais of the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, was first across the finish line at Edmonton’s Rundle Park Thursday morning during the annual Exercise Mountain Man challenge.
Organized by 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, this year’s race saw about 240 soldiers from across western Canada run 29 km, portage 3.2 km, paddle 11.2 km along the North Saskatchewan, and then run 4.8 km as fast as possible, all while toting a 15 kg rucksack, as part of an epic test of physical and mental fortitude. Winners get medals and bragging rights.
Cazelais shattered the course record when he crossed the finish line after just 4:58:19, which was about 15 minutes faster than last year’s winner. (The race switched to its current course in 2018. The all-time Mountain Man record is 4:35:40.)
Cazelais, who last did the Mountain Man in 2015, said this new route was more interesting but also more challenging than the old one, as it had a lot of hills – something they didn’t have back at his training grounds in Wainwright.
“I thought I had another three kilometres to go when I turned the corner and saw the signs” for the finish, he said, soon after his record-setting run.
“I was very elated, because I wanted to get that (rucksack) off my back.”
Coming in five minutes behind Cazelais was Lt. Malcolm Madower of CFB Edmonton’s 1 Combat Engineer Regiment, followed 18 seconds later by Cpl. Steven Tessa of the British Columbia Regiment.
Madower, a Mountain Man rookie, said he had initially hoped that he’d finish the race in less than 5.5 hours. Once he realized he’d crushed his initial estimate at the 29 km mark, “I just gave her after that.”
But that wasn’t enough to shake Tessa, who was neck-and-neck with him for almost the entire event.
“We were actually running together at the start,” Madower noted – the race started in the darkness of 5 a.m., and Tessa asked to follow him, as he didn’t bring a head-lamp.
That sort of teamwork was everywhere in the race, they said, with runners sharing drinks and tips to help each other across the finish line.
Tessa said he wasn’t too surprised by his time, as he’d run this race twice before and got a 5:40 last year despite being sent down the wrong path at the start.
Tessa, Madower, and Cazelais said they spent months prepping for this race, mostly by running progressively longer distances with weights. Cazelais said he’d been doing 128 km a week earlier this month.
“It’s just abusing your body, really, and it becomes adapted to it,” he said.
All three agreed that the portage was the toughest part of the event, as you’re adding a roughly 30 kg canoe to your 15 kg pack.
“You just embrace it during the race and realize it’s going to be painful,” Madower said.
Cazelais said he took it slow at the start of the race on the advice of his coach, all-time Mountain Man record-holder Eric Henderson, who emphasized the importance of saving his strength. He got a big morale boost at the 25 km mark when he learned he was in third place (he thought he was 10th), and was able to pull ahead in the river segment.
“I used to be a whitewater rafting guy, so I’m good in the water,” he explained.
Cazelais said that he accidentally spent his first 100 meters in the water paddling in the wrong direction because he wasn’t paying attention. Race officials soon sorted him out, and he was able to power through to the finish.
Cazelais said he planned to retire from the army in November and hoped to continue running ultra-marathons once he becomes a police office in Edmonton or Calgary. Madower planned to bulk up for his next military exercise, while Tessa had his eyes on the Canada Army Run in Ottawa next month.
Cazelais said that the Mountain Man was a good “gut-check” for any soldier and a humbling experience.
“It’s a journey,” Tessa said of the race.
“You’re challenging yourself, representing your unit, and experiencing the best the army has to offer.”
Visit bit.ly/30KS4Xt for race results.
