Jasperite Viet Tieu has never been much of a runner, but as an avid cyclist he’s always had a drive to push his body to its limits. So when his girlfriend Teryn Warnke asked him to sign up for the Canadian Death Race back in April, without hesitation he jotted his name down right next to hers.
What he didn’t know then was that the 24-hour race—which took place July 30— would become one of the most physically demanding and emotionally draining experiences of his life.
“This was my first race ever, but when my girlfriend asked me to do it I just saw it as an opportunity to spend the day in the mountains with her,” Tieu said. “We supported each other throughout the race and just seeing her pushing her own limits was a real motivation for me to keep going.”
The Canadian Death Race is a grueling 125-km footrace through the Canadian Rockies that takes competitors up and down mountains, across rivers and streams and through muddy bogs.
The race is broken up into five timed legs which includes three mountain summits and more than 17,000 feet in elevation change. The 24-hour affair is divvied up into two categories—a solo and team challenge. There’s also a marathon option that has runners competing in the first two legs of the race. Both Tieu and Warnke participated in the solo category. Historically, only about a third of the solo competitors cross the finish line.
Tieu completed the race in 23 hours and 43 minutes, becoming the second Jasperite to cross this year’s finish line. About an hour before him, Marnie Oatway triumphantly finished the trek with a total time of 22 hours and 36 minutes—the second best time for her age category.
“Going into this my longest race was 60 kilometres so this was unknown territory,” Oatway said. “I felt like a million bucks starting the race—I had this amazing support team that really motivated me, but then at about 10 p.m. things just started going downhill.”
What started out as a clear blue day quickly turned into a kaleidoscope of weather, switching from a warm and sunny breeze to freezing rain and lightening to snow and harsh winds.
“It was crazy—just all four seasons,” Tieu said. “Teryn was a little ahead of me and there were points where I couldn’t even see her because it was so foggy and then at one point the lighting started and just lit up all the mountains and you could see everything.
“It was so wet and cold—at that point the race wasn’t even on my mind I just wanted to be done.”
During the fourth leg, Oatway said she almost called it quits.
“I stopped at this heating tent that was filled with a bunch of other racers that were practically hypothermic. I was soaked to the bone and just convulsing because I was so cold,” Oatway said. “A volunteer wrapped me up in two jackets and I sat by a heater for a long time and thought about what I should do.”
During that time, Oatway started texting her support crew asking for advice. With their encouragement she picked herself up and headed back out into the extreme weather.
“On my way out I actually ran into a friend of a friend and he said he would do the rest of the race with me. We stuck together for the remainder of the race and kept each other’s spirits high,” Oatway said.
“That’s the beauty of trail racing—everyone is so supportive and really wants to see each other succeed.”
For Tieu, he said the last leg was his biggest challenge. During the storms he lost track of his partner and was forced to do the final drag on his own.
“At this point I was just screaming at my legs to keep moving,” Tieu said. “I was looking at my watch and knew I only had about four hours left to complete the race, but I had no idea how many kilometres I had left—that was the worst feeling.”
After a while, Tieu popped out of the woods and was greeted by fellow local Lourdes Nunes—a member of Oatway’s support crew. With only a half an hour left until the race closed Nunes told Tieu he still had about three kilometres left.
“Up until that point I was averaging five kilometres an hour so I knew that last three kilometres was something I couldn’t normally do,” Tieu said. “Lourdes could see I was in bad shape and she started running beside me in her flip-flops.”
According to Tieu, Nunes ran beside him for about two kilometres. As he got closer to the finish line Tieu was greeted by his own support crew.
“I couldn’t even run at this point, but just seeing Lourdes and my support crew honking and blasting music just really pushed me,” Tieu said. “Then coming up to the finish line I saw a big line of Jasper locals just waiting to greet me which was cool.
“We have such a strong community here and for me I’ve always been inspired by our peers that live here so having them all cheer me on was really nice and such a motivation.”
Kayla Byrne
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