SRC-Brooks Team 2024 mid-year report

I haven’t been able to run much, so I’ve been doing a lot of hiking, strength training, and multiple methods of x-training including doing the stairs near my house, using a new-to-me elliptical that I got from my Buy Nothing group, and doing online video workouts. I’ve also gone up to Camp Muir every two to three weeks and most recently climbed Mt. Baker (on the 5th). My Brooks Cascadia GTX shoes have been ideal for each of my mountain trips.

While that’s still further out in the future, more immediately I’m looking forward to pacing a friend at the Hardrock 100 mile race on July 13th in Colorado. I’ll be carrying my Brooks Highpoint Waterproof jacket and pants with me so I’m prepared in case any storms roll in, which often happens during this race.

On the volunteer front, I’ve helped out with registration at the Cougar Mountain Trail Series races. It’s always fun to see people come out to the races who are new to trail running as well as folks who have been doing these races for years. Such a wonderful community and a fun time all around!

I started 2024 off with the Bridle Trails Winter Running Festival where I ran on a relay team with some of my SRC teammates. We came home with the win! I then took a little bit of a break from running to do some skiing. I went on a two-week trip to Norway with my mom in March and we did a 54k classic ski race together. It was fun to try out a different kind of race! I battled some mysterious fatigue for a bit but slowly eased back into running. I kicked off the racing season with a first-place finish at the Yakima Skyline 25k in April. I felt great and it was a good confidence booster! In May, I tackled the Tillamook Burn 50k, securing another first-place finish. Some unexpected life stress leading up to the event made me feel uncertain going into it, and I did experience a bit of a bonk near the end but overall I was happy with my performance given the circumstances and felt ready for Broken Arrow Skyrace 46k in June, which was my “A” race for the first half of the year. This is a mountainous race in Olympic Valley, CA with 9000 ft of gain and even a little bit of scrambling. I had a blast running it and the views were incredible! It was the most competitive race I’ve run, and I was thrilled to achieve my goal of a top 10 finish, coming in 8th place. The hot temperatures and high elevation were big unknowns going into it, so I started out conservatively and was able to gradually move my way up the field. I recovered at Lake Tahoe after the race, and the following weekend, I had the rewarding experience of crewing and pacing my partner Blake at the Western States 100. Broken Arrow and Western States are both iconic races in the trail running world and it was fun to experience them both in one trip!

Outside of racing, I found joy in giving back to the SRC and brooks communities by participating in trail work parties, making pancakes at the June Cougar race, and volunteering at the Brooks PR Invite, where I watched some speedy high schoolers race. Throughout these adventures, the new Catamount 3 shoes have been a reliable companion, still proving to be my favorite racing shoe and getting better with every version. It’s been a successful running year so far, and I’m excited for some summer FKT adventures and for gearing up for my first 100 miler at Run Rabbit Run in September!

2024 has been an interesting year to say the least. So many things have happened that it’s hard to know what to share first. I did start the year off with one of my favorite races in Arizona and took a solid second place. I also started a new coaching job which I thoroughly enjoy. I am very much enjoying summer now that it has finally arrived because it is my favorite season in the PNW. One of my favorite parts is volunteering at the Cougar race series. It is fun to be on the other side of the event and to cheer on runners of all different experience levels. When I first started running, I had no idea how much effort goes into putting on a single running event, so it’s wonderful to experience the camaraderie and teamwork at every single race I run or volunteer at.

The biggest hurdle I’ve encountered was being told I am perimenopausal. Learning to eat, train, and get the necessary support has been quite the adventure! I’ve had to completely rethink and reevaluate my running goals and training plans. I spent the spring track season running daily with my athletes. My go-to shoe for track workouts in the Hyperion Tempo. My focus now has been to build up slowly and try different running distances on both road and trail to see what feels best. They are all fun and challenging in their own ways. There is no sugar coating that menopausal running is a very different experience than anything I’ve had to adapt to prior to this point in time. But I am here to tell you that it by no means prevents you from having big running dreams and pursuing them.

Which leads me to my next big adventure run I have planned for this year. In 2022 I lost a very close trail running partner. We did countless runs and races together, and his passing left a huge hole in my life. We had a plan to run the Grand Canyon together in 2024, and I have decided to continue with this plan in honor of him. I find the thought of doing this without him is intimidating on multiple levels, but I feel confident that with the right approach and training I will succeed at this endeavor. This goal has been a big motivating factor as I reassess my summer/fall training plans. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to train down in Flagstaff, AZ both last year and this year which helped boost my confidence a bit as I learned to navigate the different climate and altitude. I have decided that I like both the Catamount and the Caldera for trail runs. I will have to decide which one to wear for the big run! The story of this venture will likely be in my next report, so until then, happy running!

May was an exciting running month for me, I completed a life goal of mine to run rim-to-rim-to-rim at the Grand Canyon (45 miles with 11,000 feet of elevation gain)! My running partners and I lucked out with temperatures only rising into the 70s and we were able to soak up all the beauty with minimal suffering.  In June, I volunteered and raced at the second Cougar Series race (14.5 mile distances). I felt extremely strong and came in 4th woman! I absolutely loved racing in the speedy Brooks Catamount Agils and can’t wait to use them for the rest of the Cougar Series races this summer, where I will also be volunteering.  In this hot weather, I’ve also been loving the Brooks Chaser 3” shorts and Sprint Free tanks!

May started off with our club’s Cougar Mountain Trail Series opener. I opted for the 10.8 miler which was the long option. It was a scorcher of a day for early May but I was familiar with the course and happy to be at  my go to training trails. I found myself isolated for much of the race before finally pulling up on the leader only to get dusted in the last quarter mile. Still, I was happy to finish in a solid second and make a beeline for the watermelon and post race refreshments. Towards the end of May I made my way to Leavenworth Skyline 27k, a race with one big climb and one big descent. The thought of 10 + miles of continuous downhill was a little scary for my quads as I’d been prone to big time quad soreness in the past. It was a game time decision between my Catamounts and Calderas. Would Caldera 7s provide the extra cushion for a gnarly descent? I believe so based on my longer adventure runs, but my Catamounts have been my go to racing shoe and the choice boiled down to wanting to jump into the aggressive switchback running in the first 6 miles. The race had some really strong climbers put the hurt on me early. “Surely I’ll get some ground back on the downhill” I thought….well I managed to sneak past third temporarily, but let’s just say when you a crush a downhill for so long , the next little hill you encounter feels like the biggest hill you’ve ever seen! Maybe I should have studied the course elevation a little more, but when you look at the 6 mile 4k plus climb vs a little few hundred foot climb you think “How bad could it be ?!?” Well the answer is bad in terms of losing that last podium spot you worked hard to catch up to, but boy does it feel good just to finish and interestingly the quads held up. You better believe the Caldera’s still got some love and made it into my cooldown. Rotating shoes is an underrated move people!

June brought on Cougar race number two, weighing in at 14.5 miles. I immediately was brought back to memories of my epic duel with Max Ferguson back in the summer of ’14. Which of course ended in a tragic miscalculation of the final climb and perhaps my first trail duel lost on the unforgiving late climbs. Wait am I detecting a pattern? Did I not learn lessons in 10 years? Perhaps mistakes were made but fun was had. Well this one ended in another 2nd place, but I promise you I was soundly defeated before the final climb. Never underestimate the jump from the 10.8 to the 14.5! June also brought the volunteering at the Brooks PR Invite where the best of high school track athletes compete right down the road from me in Renton. Talk about wishing I had more of a finishing kick……kids are fast these days. Awesome to see the best go at and even though the mile was never my event (for reasons you can probably guess) I love watching the 4 lapper. Some fantastic young talent and I hope we see some of them come to the trail world one day, but maybe let me get my Cougar win first.

The end of the month brought me to Missoula for what became the half instead of the full marathon due to an injury bug and deciding to lessen the risk of walking away more damaged. This trip had been long in planning and I would have been more bummed except my mom made her return to the marathon after a 10 plus year hiatus! I was proud to see her step to the plate and tackle this even after a few minor setbacks in training. We both ended the day running a little slower than what we set out to do but it’s a lot better when you make a family trip out of it and you learn to appreciate the loved ones that wake up at 4am to help with logistics and cheer all morning on little sleep. It’s always been a fault of mine to want to wait until I have some arbitrary level of fitness before stepping to the line but anytime I show up I find inspiration from the energy at great event. If you haven’t made it out to Missoula, it’s a great town!

January

Volunteering: 4 hours in the absolutely frozen tundra of Bridle Trails State Park, Running:  260mi (419km) @ 33 hours 41 minutes. 

Kicking off 2024, Smu and I continued our New Year’s Day tradition of logging a scenic trail run among the conifers of Cougar Mountain. As the Route Planner in Chief (RPIC) in our household, I assured my favorite run bud that it might take us close to three hours to complete the lollipop from the Licorice Fern Trailhead around the Whittaker Wilderness and Wilderness Cliffs trails. Better prepared for our adventure this year, Anna gave me the OK. We took to the forest, enjoyed the lush tree canopy, ran up and down some hills, and ended our outing at the local diner for brunch before returning to Seatown.

For the rest of January, I stuck to my Boston Marathon training plan like the packaging of a messy energy gel sticks to my fingers during a long run. 

February

Volunteering: 0hrs, Running: 242mi (391km) @ 29 hours 42 minutes

The month of February is my favorite month to run in the Pacific Northwest. The temperatures are ideal for distance running. It’s a fairly gloomy month, and I just absolutely love it. For the Brooks’ team run this month, we met on a damp and dark Sunday morning in West Seattle. I enjoyed getting out on the Alki Bike trail for the first time in a while. We split up once our group rounded the bend towards Lincoln Park.

Teammate Chris C. and I continued through the park. I led him on a route through the middle of the West Seattle peninsula. We climbed up from the shores along Fauntleroy and headed north past the central neighborhoods before descending through a delightful Greenbelt down Fairmount Ave.

The scenery among a dense forest in West Seattle almost compares to the views one experiences along the bluffs running through Ft. Ebey State Park in Coupeville on Whidbey Island. That’s where I opened up my racing for 2024 – the Kettles Trail Run. This one is hosted by our friends at Northwest Trail Runs.

I came away with a ~1-minute P.B. along the half marathon course and finished 4th overall. It was a super fun weekend. Here’s a pre-race snap with me and my friend Matt P. who also did the half.

March

Volunteering: 8hrs. SRC Aid Station atop Cleator Rd at the Chuckanut 50k; Trail Running Film Festival at the Egyptian.

Running: 314mi (506km) @ 37h 9 minutes.

One of the best parts of being on the SRC-Brooks team is getting to experience the annual Chuckanut 50k trail race in Bellingham. Having checked it off of my racing list last year, I planned to once again help out at our team’s aid station atop Cleator Rd. After we finished our shift, a few of us ran along the course, cheering on runners grinding through the last 10 kilometers of their 50ks.

For the second year in a row, the weather was pretty fantastic all weekend in B’ham. Running a 10k shakeout – and imbibing in the post-race celebrations was just about what I needed before one of the last big, long runs of my training cycle for Boston – a 39k (24.2mi) out and back between Sudden Valley and Wickersham.

This.run.was.the.business. I was genuinely terrified and excited to get out along the rolling roads nestled between the foothills of Mt. Baker and the Chuckanuts. On paper, it looked like a twisty, rugged, beast of a run. And it lived up to all of my expectations. With sweeping views of the Twin Sisters range and a few peeks at the peak of Mt. Baker – add that to the serene stretch next to Lake Whatcom, my running heart was full.

Other highlights for the month of March were volunteering at the return of the Trail Running Film Festival and a pair of long runs around Central Whidbey Island. Running along the ridges above the Puget Sound, cresting the spine of the Island, and climbing atop Bush Point Rd at the end of some 2+ hour stretches provided equal parts mental fortitude and lactic burn.

April

Volunteering: 0hrs, Running: 170mi (275km) @ 21h 13 minutes.

It was time to get down to business in April for the Boston Marathon. I’m not sure how many “serious runner” marathon cycles I have left in me, so my mindset was to make this one count. I gave myself ample time to get on the east coast schedule – I spent a few days at my childhood home in South Jersey, a couple of nights in Philadelphia with my brother, and then took the Acela up to Boston – that’s Amtrak’s “fast” train, for all the West Coasters reading this.

Boston really goes all in on their marathon weekend. Here’s an excerpt from the race recap on my personal blog (https://www.rocheam.com/move.html#BOSTON2024):

…everything about the Boston Marathon exceeded my expectations…My number one objective was to stay patient through the downhill parts of the course so that I wasn’t cooked by the time the hill sections appeared later in the race. And, as always, get to mile 20 so that there was something left to give for that last 10k.

…The race is described as a 26-mile-long parade. I saw it more as eight consecutive, small town 5k races…

…Having “summitted” … “Heartbreak Hill,” I prepared for what I expected to be a smooth, downhill cruise to the finish in Boston…

Well, it wasn’t exactly a cruise, but I stayed on my feet, kept up a respectable pace, and persevered better than a whole lot of other runners. From the hills to the finish, there were plenty of runners-turned-walkers who were overcooked from the hills, the “heat,” and their high expectations of running ~fast on this course.

…I craned my neck to look toward the horizon to see just how much farther I had to go for those final two turns at the finish – “right on Hereford, left on Boylston.” I ran beneath the I-90 overpass and climbed to the top of Commonwealth Ave on the other side and finally saw the first turn!

…I crossed the line in just over two hours and fifty minutes. A pretty good day’s work. B+ for the effort. A+ for the experience.

May

Volunteering: 1.5hrs. Brooks PR Invitational, Running: 170mi (273km) @ 22h 23 minutes.

A fun, end-of-spring tradition with the team has been to volunteer at the High School showcase meet known as the Brooks PR Invitational. This year’s race was held at the Renton Memorial Stadium. After watching junior athletes zip down the straightaway and around the track, we got to help with breaking down the event.

It’s a pretty fun atmosphere with high production value thanks to the involvement of major sponsors and top industry media coverage.

My other highlight for May was participating in a 20-mile race in the Methow Valley. From the valley, this race climbed to the foothills leading to the Chelan Sawtooth Wilderness. This run was good for my soul: sweeping views across the North Central Cascades, beautiful wildflowers in full bloom, and absolutely zero sorority members lining the course screeching at the top of their lungs.

June

Volunteering: 0hrs, Running: 216mi (347km) @ 31h 38 minutes.

June was a very chill month compared to May when every weekend I had at least ten things going on. Smu and I took a serendipitous day trip from Whidbey out to the San Juans to check-out the farmer’s market in Friday Harbor. We ran from the ferry and into one of the most beautiful forests I’d ever encountered.

The Friday Harbor Laboratories Biological Preserve was lush with old-growth conifers and melodious songbirds. The brief time we spent running from a peaceful country road and into one of the most exotic landscapes is something that will stick with me for a long while. 

Lastly for this mid-year report, I’ll recap the Brooks team run from Sunset Way on Tiger Mountain. Jenny led us on a casual mid-week jaunt up and around Tradition Plateau. It’s always a pleasure getting to catch-up while logging some miles with my kind teammates.

Well, that’s six months down and six more to go for 2024! Thanks to the support of Brooks Running and my teammates on the SRC-Brooks team. I appreciate ya! 👊 Hydrate. Breathe. Eat yo’ veggies. And Let’s Run There!

I participated in two Cougar Mountain trail work days, where I helped to clear a few downed trees on some major routes and generally prepare the course for upcoming races. I placed 7th overall and 2nd masters at the May 10.8 mile Cougar Mountain race.  I am excited to get some bigger races on the schedule for the second half of the season, in addition to a full slate of cross country races, culminating at nationals in Tacoma!

The first half of the year was an eventful one for me with more races, including two road 5k’s (it’s been forever since I’ve run one 5k, never mind two!), than in recent years. In addition to the St. Paddy’s Day and West Seattle 5k’s I ran the Yakima Skyline 25k and the June 8-mile and July 10-mile Cougar Mountain races. Solid finishes without any fireworks, which is fine by me at my ripe old age. That said, I did enjoy dueling it out with another oldster at the July Cougar Race. I came up short but have my eyes on revenge at the August PNW Trail championships.

I also kept busy with a number of volunteering opportunities, which began in March with staffing the Cleator Road Aid Station during the Chukanut 50k with a number of my SRC-Brooks teammates. The weather gods shined on us this year with a sunny, warm day. Other volunteering included clearing trails prior to the May Cougar Mountain Race, and managing parking at the June and July Cougar races. This can be a wee stressful but it’s kind of fun to keep everyone organized.

I spent a lot of time training in the new Ghost Max, which is now my favorite road shoe. It’s easy to churn out lots of miles in all that sweet, cushiony goodness and the fit is spot on. On the trails, I have been running a lot, including all my trail races, in the Catamount 2. It’s the perfect blend of trail feel, quickness, and traction; I can’t wait to give the 3 a tryout later this year! A final piece of gear I have been loving is the new High Point waterproof jacket. I got stuck in a late spring snow squall miles from the trailhead in the Teanaway and it kept me absolutely warm and dry. I would have been a hurting unit without that layer of protection and now it lives in my pack. The rest of 2024 is shaping up nicely with the Wy’East Trailfest 28k next on my list.

In January, I started my new life as an SRC-Brooks Team member off right by joining some of my teammates to run the Bridle Trails 50k relay, in unusually frigid conditions. I’ve enjoyed racing the 50k solo there in the past so it was a fun change to have just one five-mile lap to run as hard as I can. I’m primarily an ultramarathoner so hitting a race pace for a short lap is tough but a great way to introduce variety and become a stronger runner. Thanks mostly to my speedy teammates, we got the relay win!

During the dark Pacific Northwest winters, I have two strategies that help keep me active outdoors. First, I embrace the grey on our local trails; Tiger Mountain just feels right when the weather’s a bit ugly and my feet are wet. Second, all my favorite cross training happens on skis, both nordic skate skiing and backcountry ski touring.

As spring arrived my next racing outing was at the Yakima Skyline 50k. This race has been a longtime favorite for me; I have seven previous finishes there, more than anyone else. I love it for the usually warm and dry early-season conditions on the east side of the Cascades, and for the training motivation from remembering how tough its four monster climbs are. My time was about average for me, but was pleased that my out-and-back splits were just a few minutes apart, for a really well-paced race. I ran 6:18:25 to take fifth place among the men.

In June, I ran the Cougar Mountain Trail Series 14 mile race, which was a ton of fun. Trail and weather conditions were ideal, and despite the previously mentioned discomfort with running “short” races – I had a great time pushing the pace. I was happy with my 2:14:16 and 6th man.

The rest of the first half of 2024 was filled with volunteering and training for upcoming summer adventures. Working the top-of-Cleator-Road aid station at Chuckanut 50k in March with my teammates was great fun; filling bottles and handing out snacks is a great way to be a part of the race experience and help others hit their goals. I got in some good trail work days as well, both keeping the Cougar Mountain trails in great shape with SRC, and helping build new trail in the Teanaway with Washington Trails Association. Training is going well as I prep for a big mountain race later in July as well as to-be-determined challenges later in the summer.

The Brooks Catamount 3 was new to me this spring and has been a fantastic discovery! The fit suits me just right and I love the grippy but lightweight sole on smoother trails and when scrambling over rocks. I’m looking forward to seeing how fast and far they can carry me in the rest of 2024.