Local and regional ultra-marathon runners are about to test their mettle on one of the toughest, most unforgiving courses in the world.
Today, at 10 a.m., Reid Roberts and Adrian Smith of Prince George, and Nikolay Ossetinskiy of Mackenzie, will leave the starting line at the Fat Dog 120. The race, 120 miles long (or 193 kilometres), begins near Keremeos and finishes at Lightning Lake in E.C. Manning Provincial Park.
Roberts, Smith and Ossetinskiy are three of 179 athletes entered in the grueling event, which will take them over four mountain passes in the Cascades range and has a total elevation gain of 8,673 metres.
Mount Everest, by comparison, stands 8,848m.
The runners will go through Cathedral Provincial Park, Skagit Valley Provincial Park and E.C. Manning. The race has a 48-hour cutoff and has been deemed by Outside Online one of the top nine toughest ultras on the planet.
Roberts, 47, was training for the race when he was attacked by a mother black bear near the Forests for the World parking lot on May 17. He suffered injuries to his left hand but said training still went well.
The Fat Dog also offers other distances, including 70 miles (113km), 50 miles (80km) and 40 miles (64km).
Four P.G. runners - Aaron Bond, Trevor Joyce, Matt Isaak and Grant Paulson - will tackle the 70-mile course, as will former resident Nicole Rishaug, who now lives in Kelowna. There is no local representation in the 50-mile race but Quesnel's Dayyan Robbie is in the 40-miler.
Start times are staggered, according to the distance being run.
