Mayo Midnight Marathon with Myra

Larger than Life.

That's the tagline for the Yukon Territory and after walking the Mayo Midnight Marathon as a guide for visually impaired power walker Myra Rodrigues, it feels necessary to edit that to Larger than Any Blog! Today, I will write a brief synopsis of just how LARGE it is to go to the Yukon for a race, but it will take further elaboration to get a full sense.

Mayo is a five hour drive north of Whitehorse. We left Whitehorse for Mayo around 1pm on Saturday after arriving in Whitehorse the evening before. Myra and I are entirely grateful for our most generous, enthusiastic, and energetic driver, Keith, who was going up there to run the full marathon. If you are going to Mayo, you need someone to drive you. Car rentals are virtually non-existent or exorbitant. This would be Keith's third Mayo Midnight run so we were well prepared for what lay ahead by the time we arrived.

The five hour drive to Mayo adds two hours of sunlight to the Yukon day. Really, it's always light. Myra and I saw no darkness from the time we left our homes early Friday morning to catch our flight from Lester Pearson airport until we returned to Toronto last night. The photo of Myra at the half way point of the race which you can see at the end of the video attached was taken at 1:36am.

There were 170 participants entered in the 5k, 10k, half, marathon events. Of those only 9 were participating in the full. The course was an out and back along the highway that we had driven in from Whitehorse. Once past the turn-around for the 10 k event, we were totally alone. We could see a walker about 1/4k ahead of us and there was another walker following by a 1/4 k. It was just us, the rugged Yukon landscape, and possibly, lurking bears!

Well, there was also a patrolling contingent looking out for us that included insomniac Mayo residents and supporters, an RCMP truck, a Conservation officer protecting us from bears, and an EMS vehicle. As well, aid stations were manned at every turn-around point and the 10k marker.

The race started magically at midnight amid swirling winds, rainbows, and a deep red sky reflecting light from the low sun on the horizon. A spitting rain cooled us off for the first few kilometres and then the weather was quite conducive to smooth walking. The road surface in the Yukon is not the friendliest to the soles of training shoes, but the relatively straight route allowed Myra to walk much of the event on her own without being tethered to me as her guide.

We finished the race at 3:09:31 in the morning. Keith, finished the full marathon 27 seconds behind us. We enjoyed home made chicken and lentil soup and all manner of bagels, fruit, and chocolate bars in the community centre after the race, showered up, and then returned to our motel for a 2 hour catnap. We were up again at 8:45am to make it to the same community centre for the best post-race breakfast known to marathoners (check it out on the video!).

Because I do not have more time to dedicate to the blog today, may I say simply that I stand in awe of Myra and her goal to walk a half marathon in every province and territory to raise money for the library at the CNIB. It was a privilege, and a lot fun (!), to accompany her on a small portion of her journey.

I'll return with more photos but for now check out the attached video of Myra talking to the crowd at the post-race celebration. I'll post more details about our weekend and the race today or late tomorrow.