Brothers Michael and Denis Ryan, from Marystown, ran the ‘Canadian Death Race’ in Grande Cache, Alberta July 31-Aug 1.
The Canadian Death Race is one of the world’s toughest adventure races. It starts at 8 a.m. Saturday and runs through the night to finish Sunday morning.
The race has five stages with cutoff times for each stage, and has a 24 hour time limit in which to finish.
The 125-kilometre course in the Canadian Rockies begins and ends on a 4,200 foot plateau, passes over three mountain summits and includes 17,000 feet of elevation change and a major river crossing at the spectacular Hell’s Gate Canyon at the meeting of the Smoky and Sulphur Rivers.
Denis managed to finish the race in 18 hours, 34 minutes – good for 26th place overall out of 418 starters.
Michael put in a valiant effort as well, but unfortunately suffered from dehydration and stomach sickness and had to drop out after 95 km, failing to meet the cutoff time for stage 4 of the race, which included an almost 7,000 foot climb of Mount Hamel.
Denis and Michael are the sons of Lou and Anne Marie Ryan. Lou is an avid runner in the Marystown area.
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