Quebec Mega Trail 142km (QMT135) takes place in July just north of Quebec City, Canada in the Charlevoix and Côte-de-Beaupré regions. QMT135 is part of the World Trail Majors series and claims to be one of the most prestigious ultra distance events in Canada. The course is an 88-mile (142km) point to point adventure that includes over 21,500ft (6500m) of climbing. It starts in Baie-Saint-Paul along the expansive St. Lawrence River and heads southwest back to the finish at Monte-Sainte-Anne ski area. To qualify for registration, runners must run an ultra race of 75km (46mi), or a shorter race with significant gain. This year, approximately 342 people signed up for the 142km race and 280 participated on race day (232 men and 48 women). Of those, only 42% finished (100 men and 18 women). (*Featured photo by Daniel Thilbault.)
To start the 142km race, runners take a shuttle from the finish at Monte-Sainte-Anne ski area to the start at Baie-Saint-Paul at 6:30pm Friday. After a mandatory gear check and a race briefing, the race starts at 10pm EST from Hotel Le Germain Charlevoix.
The first night consists of running 24 miles south with 6000ft gain along coastal mountains, to the base of Massif ski area where the first drop bag was located. Runners made their way through the dark along the characteristically rocky, rooty, wet, muddy, slippery, and overall challenging technical trails of this region through thick forests. Many sections of trail, being saturated with rains from earlier in the week, consisted of wide swaths of unavoidable, deep mud. Some shorter sections of ground were bypassed by sections of wood planking due to chronically water-bogged ground. Additionally, the temperatures and humidities in the region are characteristically high, even at night, so this first section can easily take over 6h, bringing racers into Massif at the beginning of the day around 4am. Already by Massif, about 11% of the field had dropped out of the race (5 women and 27 men).
Leaving Massif, the course continues to traverse the mountains along the Saint Lawrence river, on a famous regional trail called the Sentier des Caps. During this section, nearly 500 80km racers join the trail, to share the journey and aid stations on the way back to Monte-Sainte-Anne. This mostly single track route occasionally offers some views from the peaks (Caps), and passes several idyllic mountain huts before dropping down to cross under the highway in a culvert through a river to reach the town of Sainte-tite-des-Caps around mile 53 (~85km). This is the next major aid station where drop bags are available.
With the challenges of the day mounting, including ever increasing heat and humidity, along with long stretches of deep mud, relentless rocky and rooted sections, punchy ascents, difficult to navigate and sometimes dangerous descents, and the necessity to get off the trail for hundreds of shorter distance runners passing, this second section of about 29mi with about 6000ft gain started to take its toll on everyone. Seventy-five more runners (27% of the original field) dropped in this section.
From here only 173 of the original 280 runners in the 135km went on to attempt the final 35 miles. Following the highway for some time, the course at last heads further west into the picturesque Canyon Sainte-Anne to follow and cross several times on hanging bridges the Sainte-Anne-du-Norde River.
Along this section runners follow the ruthless boulders of the Mestachibo trail and eventually climb 437 stairs alongside the massive Jean Larose Falls up to the base area of Monte-Sainte-Anne ski area around mile 68 (110km). Although this section was the shortest between drop points, at 12mi (~20km) it held up to its reputation as being almost entirely not runnable. Thirty-five more people dropped from the race in this section.
From here, the remaining 138 runners attempted the last 20 miles summiting the Monte-Sainte-Anne ski area mountain twice before encircling the mountain clockwise to head back again to Monte-Sainte-Anne to the finish. For many of us, this meant spending some of, if not all, an entire second night out. As night started to fall, a drenching rain came in for a couple hours, and winds at the summit were stiff and relentless. The course dropped down out of the wind quickly though passing into several humid drainages while circumnavigating the mountain. During this time, the trek managed to include about seven stream and river crossings. The last two deep river crossings in the final miles of the run were a sinister nod to the relentless nature of the entire adventure.
…it’s important to avoid expectations of a perfect day.
The course ended up being about 88mi (142km) long with about 21,500ft gain (6550m). One hundred and 18 of the 280 participants (42%) finished between the blazing fast times of first male Xavier St-Cyr of Canada in 17:18h and first female Maryline Nakache of France in 19:11h, to the final finisher in 31:41h. I finished 16th out of 48 women in 30:53h (104th overall of 280 starters), and was the only American female to finish.
Helpful Strategies Prior to the Race
QMT135 is a mountainous race early in July, in a distance over 100km with over 20,000ft of gain, which was the perfect time frame and steepness for my next build up event. One of the major challenges of QMT135 was a night start with slow and extremely technical trails, therefore requiring more than one night out. I was hoping to gain experience working through many hours of sleep without crew or pacers. Using an event that mimics your key event in terms of steepness, difficulty, and logistics helps build experience and confidence.
I adjusted training to include more gain during endurance runs. Where I currently live, this means driving over 30min to run multiple laps of nearby buttes to get more than 1000ft of gain per lap. I also focused on strength and conditioning work to ensure I had the postural stability required for many hours in difficult terrain. Generally, although running in the mountains regularly is ideal, if you don’t have mountains nearby, lapping your closest climb is a great option. Additionally, supplemental strength and conditioning goes a long way to facilitate durability and resilience in tough conditions.
I also adjusted my gear to fit the specifics of the race, practicing regularly with my larger Salomon Advanced Skin 12L pack and quiver with Leki poles. I practiced carrying more water and nutrition to prepare to be more self-sufficient with longer times between aid stations and drop bags. I used a Naked belt to hold my gels, drink mix, and bars so that I could use my vest mostly for water and required gear. In the final build up to an event, using your required gear on all endurance runs is recommended to get used to the extra weight and develop a system for organizing where you’ll keep everything in your bag.
Finally, with temperatures in the 80s and humidity regularly over 80% in the Quebec area, I focused on ensuring I was getting enough electrolytes to avoid getting hyponatremia which I’d gotten in the hot, humid conditions at UTMB in 2024. Humidity reduces the body’s ability to regulate temperature through evaporative cooling, leading to greater sweat rates. Insufficient salt intake combined with greater water intake can dilute the blood leading to a dangerous and potentially fatal condition called hyponatremia. It’s important to test sweat rate and concentration to ensure your electrolyte intake is sufficient for these conditions.
Key Takeaways After the Race
Start with zero expectations. Although preparation is essential, you can’t plan for everything. It’s important to be humble and approach the course with respect and humility. You have no idea what will happen out there. Unfortunately for me, during the first 8mi of the event, I sustained an injury to my left ankle making it difficult to walk for several miles. The stress on my arms trying to support myself with my poles strained an old elbow and wrist injury, and the stress on my right leg, flared up old ankle, achilles and foot injuries on the right side that had resurfaced during my last race. So within the first 2h of the race I actually thought I’d have to drop at the first aid station. I did take tylenol and was eventually able to slowly resume running with a great deal of gratitude. I ended up spending the next 29h managing pain on both sides, but I was able to finish. In order to continue, I had to let go of all expectations and time goals. When I started, my worst case scenario calculation was based off of a 24h finish, and by mile 53 I was already 2h behind that pace. I finished in 30:53min, nearly 7h behind my worst case scenario estimate, and spent most of the last ten hours walking and unable to use poles.
Be prepared for the worst case scenario and then some. One thing that went suprisingly well was when planning my fuel, I added six extra caffeinated gels to the 24-hour worst-case-scenario plan, and ended up with enough fuel for the whole race. One thing I didn’t anticipate, however, was the issues I had with my feet being wet for 31 hours. In general, when your feet are wet for many hours, the skin becomes macerated (when it turns white and wrinkly in water) and fragile, and the thicker outer skin starts to separate from the underlying layers, creating blisters over large areas of every part of the foot. It becomes extremely difficult to descend because the shearing friction on the detached skin is immensely painful, and sometimes the blisters will open allowing the skin to start to tear away making it difficult even to walk. I don’t usually carry extra socks but I did have some in two of my drop bags and I did change them there. I had an extra pair of shoes at mile 68 but at that stage my feet were too painful to put them on. The only alternative would have been changing shoes and socks at every drop bag.
Caffeine. A practiced nutrition strategy that includes a plan for carbs and electrolytes is critical to keeping energy consistent throughout the event and to minimize decision fatigue and gut issues. The only thing I added to the routine was about 6 caffeinated gels that I took spread out throughout the first and second night. Without caffeine, I don’t think I could have made it through a second night. I could feel myself falling asleep while walking and was experiencing auditory hallucinations–hearing people running up behind me to pass that weren’t there. My watch died in the middle of the night and I lost track of where I was and how far left I had to go. So the only thing that continued to be a regular source of energy for me was my one gel every hour.
Stay strong by focusing on micro-goals and a positive mental space. I’ve also said before that to stay strong, use mental strategies, and the last third of the course is when you can start thinking about the outcome of the race. If you’re competitive, you can use the proximity of other racers or the goal of finishing under a certain time as motivation to push with everything you have. But if you end up in a scenario like this where you are actually in the back of the pack, you may need to be thinking more about staying ahead of cutoffs. Surprisingly other runners and their pacers are extremely encouraging. I met a runner and her pacer from Canada and tried to run with them for several miles. The conversation and their energy definitely kept me awake and moving.
After the race, observe what went well, what could be better, and what you would change for next time. Take the time to write out your experience like this so next time you race you can reflect on what you learned and put these hard earned lessons to work.
QMT 135 was incredibly difficult for me for various reasons, and the longest duration I’ve raced(31h), making it an enormous grind of will. And I was determined to finish despite a myriad of challenges that took out most of the field. It was incredibly humbling, and it did feel like everything went wrong. I was unprepared for that type of technical terrain, the mud, and the humidity, even though I knew they would all be factors during this race. More importantly though, I approached the race with the mindset that I didn’t fully know what I was going to encounter, and that made it easier to adjust my mindset from racing to finishing. I was also able to rely on my training and experience for the distance, gain, time, and physical and mental fatigue. It’s a good reminder that the longer the race, the more things that can go wrong or extend a race, and no race goes perfect. So it’s important to avoid expectations of a perfect day. Instead, aim to recognize as many of the challenges as you can ahead of time that you will encounter during the race. This allows you to start envisioning how you will problem solve and keep yourself moving when things do come up.