Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival Trail Running Show, Thursday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre, part of the 18th annual festival, running Feb. 13-21. Tickets: $19, visit vimff.org.
Nicola Gildersleeve was feeling low.
Having set off at 8 a.m. in an attempt to run, non-stop, the 180-kilometre Sunshine Coast Trail (the equivalent of four back-to-back marathons), night had fallen and she was lost. "That was the first time that I wanted to stop," she says. "Up until that point I was really confident that everything was going well and then all of a sudden it wasn't going well and I was getting sick and I wanted to stop. I was devising a plan in my head of how I was going to do this, and how I was going to tell my crew."
Feeling like it was time to throw in the towel, Gildersleeve received a further blow: due to she and her pacer's missteps, they were no longer within a couple of kilometres of their support team - and much-desired food and water - they estimated they were now 35 km away from a rendezvous. "We had to rally," she says. "We went to a lake and we filled up water.My mindset just totally changed when I realized that I wasn't going to be able to drop out." Recommitting herself to her goal, Gildersleeve set off once more, back on course, and continued to traverse the rugged mountain trail. She was beyond grateful when a half hour later, she met up with her crew that had been nearby all along. Instilled with confidence once more, she no longer wanted to quit and went on to finish the course in record-breaking time. The first person to run the route non-stop was Ean Jackson in 2004, in 43 hours and 50 minutes. Gildersleeve beat his time by 10 hours, coming in at 33 hours and 50 minutes, earning her a fastest known time.
"Because I also thought I was going to drop out at one point, I was so happy to get through it - It was just a really magical, surreal moment. I was the second person to have ever done it (and the) first female to have done it. Ean, who had the record before, said, 'I think you can beat this by 10 hours' and I literally beat it by 10 hours on the dot. That was really cool so I'm really happy," she says.
Gildersleeve ran the distance pretty much non-stop, with the exception of an extremely brief nap.
"At one point during the night, I just had to lie down, so I laid down on the forest floor for 10 minutes," she says.
"Besides that one low that was the only time that I really suffered emotionally. Physically, I actually felt really good throughout the whole thing. I had no major aches and pains. I was very lucky that way," she adds.
The 30-year-old North Vancouver resident is set to offer further insight into her journey, completed in September 2014, when she takes the stage at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival Trail Running Show Thursday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre.
The festival opens tonight at the North Vancouver theatre and is offering a host of daily programming at various local venues through Saturday, Feb. 21.
The Trail Running Show will include a mix of presentations and films. In addition to Gildersleeve, who is making her festival debut with How I Earned a FKT (Fastest Known Time), presentations include Running From Rhinos by Gary Robbins, a North Vancouver-based ultra-distance runner, coach and race director. He'll speak about his recent experience in South Africa where he finished second at the 100-km Salomon Skyrun. In Running The Kokopelli, Liz Decario will speak about the highs and lows of running 240 km from
Moab, Utah to Loma, Colo. Films being screened that evening are Wainwright Record Attempt, Travailen, Home and The Ingenuous Choice.
Gildersleeve, who is an ambassador on the La Sportiva mountain running team and currently serves as outreach co-ordinator for MEC North Vancouver as well as race director for the MEC North Vancouver Running Series, started taking running more seriously as an adult. Having a background in basketball, including playing for Capilano University, she did her first marathon a decade ago.
"I found running because it was something that I could do on my own. I chose when I could run, and there was no one telling me when I could play or not play so I think that's what really appealed to me at the time. I started off just really casually - I did a marathon. It was such a mind-blowing experience for me and then I just grew from there," she says.
After completing a degree in human kinetics, Gildersleeve worked as a personal trainer and a run coach for a number of years.
It was through working at North Shore Athletics that she met people who were training for ultra-marathons, opening her eyes to a whole new world of opportunity.
"Without meaning to be competitive, I was competitive and so that's made me more goal-oriented I suppose, wanting to compete and pursue some loftier goals," she says.
Some of Gildersleeve's best finishes to date include winning the Stormy 50-miler trail race in 2007, the 50-km Knee Knacker in 2008, and the 120-mile Fat Dog in 2013.
She was inspired to tackle the Sunshine Coast Trail after watching a documentary, XS-NRG by Angus Mclennan, which screened during the 2013 VIMFF. The film profiled her predecessor Jackson's journey, and Gildersleeve knew right away knew she wanted to give it a shot.
Finding the right time proved to be a bit of a challenge, but after she and her boyfriend took a leave of absence from their jobs last summer to hike 1,300 miles straight on the Pacific Crest Trail, averaging 30 miles per day, the timing suddenly felt right.
After the Pacific Crest Trail, the couple went to stay with Gildersleeve's family in Powell River. With a bit of time on her hands, she sought out some local people who were familiar with the trail to serve as pacers, got some friends on board as a support crew, and spent a week scoping out different logging roads and crew access points.
"It all came together really quickly and unexpectedly," she says.
Next up, she's planning to run the Gorge Waterfalls 100k on March 28.
When asked where her motivation comes from, Gildersleeve laughs. "I don't know, it's funny, because I'm inherently really lazy. I like to park really close to the grocery store. I used to cheat on runs in high school. But at some point in my life I started to believe in myself I guess and I just believe that I really can do anything and I don't question really whether I can or can't do something when it comes to my running. In other areas of my life I might be different but when it comes to running I really never think that I can't do anything. So taking on new challenges is just something I do," she says.
Gildersleeve blogs about her experiences at ngildersleeve.blogspot.ca.
