Not once did the thought of quitting force its way into Corinne Legault's mind.
Not when she was still in the training phase, slogging through knee-high snow on a 20-kilometre trail run on Boxing Day.
And certainly at no time during the Canadian Death Race, which was the reason for her training in the first place.
Legault kept pushing forward, even after she tripped and quite literally landed on her face after a long, rocky climb to the top of Mount Hamel. No matter what, she kept the finish line as her sole focus, even during a violent storm that soaked her for four nighttime hours and threatened to blow her off her feet.
And in the end, she was rewarded. Legault completed the 125km ultra marathon in 20 hours 27 minutes 39 seconds. She was one of only 81 soloists (out of 305 who entered) who completed all five stages and she ended up 46th overall in the final standings. For her age group - 40 to 49 - she was first.
"I'm very happy with it," said the 43-year-old Legault, who was in Grande Cache, Alta., for the Death Race, held last Saturday and Sunday. According to local ultra-marathoner Jeff Hunter, who set up Legault's training program, she became the first Prince George woman to finish the infamous race as a solo competitor.
"The time that Jeff and I had planned out was a little bit faster than that, but given the conditions I was quite happy," Legault added. "And being my first (Death Race), not knowing what to expect and how the body would be, I was very happy with the time."
Yes, Legault was a Death Race rookie, which makes her accomplishment that much more impressive. She had a background as a distance runner and decided more than 10 years ago that she wanted to do the Death Race with her brother, Steve. The two of them did some training but got sidetracked by life circumstances and then Steve passed away three years ago.
While Legault was on course during the race - which takes participants over three mountain summits and punishes them with 17,000 feet of elevation change - she kept her brother very much with her. A picture of him was on her cell phone and served as extra inspiration - not to mention a sounding board when things got tough.
"I was verbally giving him heck during the thundershowers and torrential downpours: 'Make it stop!,'" Legault said with a chuckle. "During my training, it was always kind of funny how the weather would be so crappy, and then I'd go for my run and it would clear up. I'd be like, 'Hey, thanks.' It was one of those things where I kind of felt like he was there with me the whole time. It was neat."
For Legault, who started serious preparation for the Death Race almost a year in advance, the wipeout at the top of Mount Hamel - some 12 hours into the race - was one of those challenging moments. The outcome of the crash was a solid knock to the head, as well as a cut and swelling near her right eye.
"Climbing up there, it got extremely windy and it's quite steep," Legault said. "I think it's a 10km climb so you're tired by the top. It's switchbacks and it's all shale up there. So there was no running, just climbing.
"So when I got to the top you had to run a ridge to go put your timing chip in. At the end of this ridge is where the timing chip (station) was, and it was a slight downhill. I thought I'd warm up and get the blood flowing in my legs, and it was probably the only time I tripped through that whole thing. I caught a piece of shale or a rock and I stumbled a bit and couldn't catch myself. So I went down sideways and I remember thinking '(protect) your knees.' I went down and put my hands (in front of me) and it created a teeter effect. And I smacked. I was worried at first because I saw stars. There were two guys there and they were like, 'Oh my God, are you OK?'"
After about 20 seconds, Legault managed to get back to her feet.
"I touched (my face) and it was just pouring with blood," she said. "(One of the guys) said it looked like just a scratch but my gloves were covered and I had blood everywhere. I got him to get some tissue from my pack and I just put it on there and kept going. It took about 10 minutes for the blood to stop."
At around the same time, the weather conditions were turning nasty. First came thunder and lightning and wind. And then the bone-chilling rain - so heavy that lakes were forming on parts of the course. Legault, who didn't have a proper raincoat, stopped briefly to warm up in a large tent that was packed with other runners who were calling it quits. But then she managed to get a black garbage bag from a volunteer for a bit of extra protection from the elements and pushed onward.
Trying to persevere through the rotten weather, Legault said, was the most difficult part of the Death Race.
"That was definitely the most challenging," she said. "I was actually scared to leave the tent without something (like the garbage bag) because I didn't think I'd make it the nine kilometres down (for the start of the last leg)."
The final leg, 22km in length, was exhausting but Legault got a little boost when she reached the Hell's Gate Crossing, a point at which competitors pay a coin to a grim reaper-like ferryman who takes them across a river. If they've lost the coin, which they receive at the start of the race, they are denied entrance to the boat and their Death Race is over.
Legault - who had her coin safely stashed - was granted passage and knew she had only about 15km left to go.
"That was probably the best feeling of the whole run because I knew we were on the last stretch," she said. "So the last leg, thinking it would be hard on the mind, was actually very good. I was in a good place."
After one last climb, on which she felt like she was crawling, Legault reached the finish. It was 4:30 a.m. on Sunday. Waiting for her were two of her daughters, 12-year-old Sarah and 16-year-old Kayla, as well as boyfriend Terry, all of whom had helped her through the Death Race by acting as her crew - meeting her at aid stations and helping her with things like food, drink and clothing.
"Seeing those guys, I don't have the words to explain it, how I felt," she said.
"Crossing that line, it was like, 'I can't believe I'm done.'"
Hunter, Legault's Death Race trainer, is proud of her efforts and her result.
"It's her first big ultra and it's not an easy one," said Hunter, who has done the Death Race five times as an individual and placed second in the solo category in 2013 (time of 13:25:25). "The conditions were tough and she did spectacular. She trained really, really hard and stuck to a good program and the results paid off."
Several local ultra-marathoners will be in the Manning Park region of the province next weekend for the Fat Dog 120 Trail Race. Courses range from 40 miles to 120 miles. The 120-mile race is considered one of the toughest in North America.
"Fat Dog's a great race," Hunter said. "It's a spectacular location and it's more of a mainstream ultra than the Death Race."
