5 Years Nomad - Chapter 6
Winter 2023
My goal with Nomade for the new year is to start surrounding myself with an administrative team, since I’m beginning to understand that “alone we go fast, but together we go far.”
It doesn’t start quite as planned, with Kassandra announcing her departure. Even though we love her very much and I’m sure she loves us too, she decided to go seek out other marketing expertise at an agency.
At that point, Émilie and I have close to a hundred Nomads under our care. We’re the only point of contact with them, and we owe it to ourselves to keep offering 5-star service, since that’s one of our trademarks. However, I have a hard time looking further than 24-48h ahead, since we have to put out fires left and right at all times. Despite Jennifer’s incredible help on the administrative side, we’re starting to struggle a bit.
We don’t let anything show to the Nomads, but behind the scenes, it really isn’t a viable system for us. It would take us 10 days a week to even start seeing the end of it!
So we hire Éloïse, who’ll come help us on the human resources side. My plan is to hand her the management of all the Islands Nomads to start with, so she can learn how we operate from A to Z.
Éloïse quickly comes to spend a week at the house in Gaspésie with us and her boyfriend Olivier, who’s enjoying spring break and even offers to do a couple of DIY projects around the house (thanks again haha). We get to know each other better, and we can tell right away that we have a good fit with her. The workload doesn’t scare her, and she doesn’t seem too thrown off when she starts.
It’s promising for what’s to come.
Through all of that, we still manage to enjoy winter with the Nomads. We do ski outings at Mont St-Joseph, afternoons at Pin-Rouge, Igloofest Gaspésie edition, seaside brunches, bowling, etc.
Spring 2023
Through the work and the Nomade activities, I’m also preparing my first big athletic goal of the year with repeat up/down runs of Mont St-Joseph several times a week. We leave in April for Madeira Island. If you haven’t been yet, this is your sign to book your flight! What a gem of a place! An athletic destination with so many hikes you won’t know where to turn.
I take on the Madeira International Ultra Trail. 115 km with 7,000 meters of elevation gain. My full race report is right here: /en/blog/madeira-island-ultra-trail-115km-mon-recit-de-course
Spoiler alert: it was an incredible race in the good company of 2 great friends, Vincent & Nico. We literally crossed Madeira Island from end to end!
The time difference in Europe is actually pretty handy, since it lets us make the most of the day until early/mid-afternoon before heading back to the accommodation to put in some work, because “business never sleeps.” Éloïse handles her files very well; it gives us confidence, and I imagine it gives her confidence too.
When we get back from the trip, Émilie heads off to the USA in a van with her best friend (because if not now, when?), while I head off to the Islands with Enzo. We had major renovations done on the Islands house, so I go there for the tail end of the work to be able to do the big cleanup and set the house up properly for the Nomads who’ll be there for the summer season.
I reunite with Émilie at the end of May and we hit the road for Western Canada.
Émilie has been waiting for her practice license for British Columbia since February. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation tells us we should receive her license by mid-June, so we decide to get a head start and set off on the crossing of Canada with Enzo. We try to throw out feelers for Émilie from her aunt’s condo in BC to land a work contract, but before moving on to the next step, we really need to have the practice license in hand.
We’re still a little too busy with managing the agency, despite the help of Jennifer, Éloïse, and now Vickie, who’s giving us a nice hand with marketing. I decide to hire Camille on the human resources side to help us take care of the Nomads and their assignments, mainly in non-remote regions (the piece Éloïse isn’t in charge of).
We’re starting to have a nice administrative team, and I find myself in a new role: supervising/coaching the administrative team rather than managing the Nomads directly.
It’s a hard jump to make, since I love handling the management of the Nomads personally, and I know that letting another person take charge of that part could make some Nomads react more negatively.
I’ve forged wonderful bonds with all the Nomads, but I know that Éloïse and Camille will know how to take care of them as much as we do. That’s what I want to pass on to them, so that there’s no difference between me, Camille, Émilie, and Éloïse when it comes to taking care of the Nomads.
We decide to do it to let ourselves breathe on one hand, but also to free up time to bring to life the wonderful ideas we have in mind for what’s next, which we can’t get done while being the go-to person every single day for the Nomads.
Once it’s mid-to-late June and still no word from the British Columbia nurses’ order, we decide to put an end to our getaway out West, and Émilie lands a work contract in the Saguenay in day medicine for the rest of the summer. BC will be for a next time!
Off to La Baie, 20 minutes from Chicoutimi. We found the last available dog-friendly rental on Airbnb. It’s not a dream place, but we have a lovely view of the Fjord, hard to complain!
We make the most of the summer and the outdoors the region offers. Émilie takes on her first 35 km trail race (which was more like a 40 km). “Never again, she said when she arrived.” She pushed herself like never before, and I know the effect it has on you when you pull off such a feat. I wouldn’t write off her trail career just yet…!
As for me, I take on the 100 km with sawtooth training, since my foot has been giving me trouble ever since we got back from Western Canada. Against all odds, a wonderful race, no pain. It’s promising for the “A” athletic goal of the year in October: the Bromont Ultra 160 km!
Fall 2023
Surprise surprise… we’re off to the Islands for 2 weeks in September! We can never say no to the Islands. Never.
As usual, we spend good times with friends, we organize a lovely happy hour on the beach with the Nomads, and I take part in the Islands marathon (with a 50 km run the day before) with the Bromont Ultra in mind; the training has been going great since the race in the Saguenay. I’m confident about tackling my first 160 km.
We decide to head back to the Saguenay for the fall, and we find a wonderful place north of Chicoutimi. The season of colors is upon us. I discover the trails of a beautiful maple grove right near the place. It lets me finish my preparation for the Bromont Ultra.
D-Day arrives in mid-October; I take on my first 160 km.
You have to understand that the 160 km (100 miles) is somewhat the “mythical” distance of ultramarathoning. It’s a distance that many long-distance runners aspire to accomplish one day. I’ve already been preparing for it for 5 years, step by step, increasing the distances little by little.
Unfortunately, on the day of the Bromont Ultra, it starts to rain, up to 100 mm of rain. The weather is dreadful. I have to stop at the 93rd KM because I didn’t prepare enough of a warm-clothing kit. Being someone who gets cold easily by nature, I hadn’t even packed a set of waterproof running pants to get through the night and the rain. The cold got into my bones, and I wasn’t able to warm back up after 1 hour at the aid station under a heat lamp, for lack of a change of clothes. Goes to show that an ultramarathon isn’t only a matter of physical fitness or willpower!
Émilie is back on the trails for the 25 km of the Bromont Ultra the day after my attempt at the 160. SHE got a race without rain. Lots of mud from the day before, but certainly lots of fun! I find her in better shape than when she arrived in the Saguenay, in any case!
Back in the Saguenay, I take it fairly easy on training in the weeks that follow.
Émilie casually comes home from a workday with a positive pregnancy test.
The rest next week!