SRC Member Race Reports – June 2018

The Bend Beer Chase always starts in the cool morning hours and then summer heat breaks out almost instantly and turns any porta-potty into a porta-sauna. Team Beerly Running managed to stay cool thanks to the conveniently-located breweries along the exchanges. Our team of 5 was also supporting a solo runner so while we managed to gain several leads into the exchanges, we spent time in the care and feeding of our maniacal friend in his quest to be the solo division champ. A great way to enjoy the run (and brewery) community instead of our likely Men’s Masters champion position. We arranged to keep the finish open so Our Beery Godmother could finish all 56 miles with a roaring crowd and an awaiting champion plaque. Two teams, one race, and free beer. Seems like a win all the way around.

I arrived in the parking lot, used the port-o-potty facilities, and began to embark on my warmup. I was locked in for this extremely competitive race – I had just begun my sponsorship from RunGum and knew that a bad race would put me off to a bad relationship with the organization. I scouted out my competition, but oddly enough, just saw a bunch of guys jogging in baggy t shirts and basketball shorts. “An easier win for me I guess,” I thought to himself.

The starting gun went off and my body was full of adrenaline. I didn’t want to get boxed in, so I went out hard, threw some elbows (knocked down a kid in the process, but oh well) and found myself quickly in the lead. After the first turn, I noticed a bunch of hoodlum teenagers covered in purple clothing trying to throw purple powder at me! I was both perplexed and infuriated, as I had no idea what these kids were doing, but angrier because this distraction was slowing down my running!

I encountered more of these troublesome individuals throughout the race, though each group had a different color (My guess was that the colors corresponded to each group’s gang affiliation). I crossed the finish line, glanced at my watch, and was shocked. “13:44? There’s no way this was a full 5k. Why did I spend 40 bucks on this stupid race?” I asked myself in utter rage.

Suddenly, I found myself in a foreign land. I was lying down, covered in blankets, and my alarm clock was beeping.

“What an odd dream. It’s already starting to get real fuzzy, but I think it was about running or something,” I thought to myself as I groggily got up to brush my teeth. I checked my phone’s calendar and realized I needed to get going quickly for my race later that morning. I was about to race the Color Run 2k18, a classic Seattle road race known for its fierce competition. I rushed to my car stuffing down a Clif bar, and off I went…

I beat Dakota Jones! Is there any need to say more?

This event was in Benton City at Hedges Winery about 2 miles from my new home. I rode my Stumpjumper on vineyard roads which I discovered are difficult to ride. I was probably the only person that did not come in a car. There were 175 entrants at this wine-themed American Cancer Society fund raiser. The start had a long uphill followed by a long downhill on a paved road with amazing scenery. This was probably the most scenic 5k that I have run, I ran all-out. The course was not marked and there seemed to be some confusion in the directions given by volunteers about half of us ran about 3.5 miles including me. My 3.5mi finish time was 31:06 good enough for 12th overall. I raced with much younger people! I talked with a few people afterwards. A local senior told me about a senior meetup running group in Richland which I will go to some time. This was a fun event for me. Then rode the difficult vineyard roads to home.

Highlights/lowlights:

I think we passed two (or was it three?) gun stores on the course on the way out of town.

[SHAMLESS NAME DROP ALERT] I looked down at my watch as we came off the bridge with 600m to go, turned to Amber (Morrison of the Bellingham Distance Project) and exclaimed, “Holy Sh!t, we’re gonna break 37!!?

I thought we were out of the nipple bleeding season and that a race of this distance wouldn’t be a problem up there. Nerp. They buh-led. It wasn’t uncomfortable during the race, though it could have been embarrassing had I noticed it while chatting with anyone shortly after the race in my copper-tinged, sky blue Seattle Running Club singlet.

After a pulled hamstring kept me out of the first Cougar race of the year, I was excited to get back onto the trails for some racing. I took the first few miles out easy and settled into a comfortable pace not too far off the lead (that’s the 14.5 mile lead, Evan (Williams) and Brett (Winegar) were way ahead in the 8.2 mile race). I stopped to tie my shoe at aid station 1 and was only a few seconds off the lead pack of 3 as I passed a raucous aid station 2. I caught the leaders near the top of Wilderness Peak and then opened up a small lead on the 1.5 mile decent. I was immediately confused. I never run the downhills well. What was this alternative reality that I had entered? The lead was short lived as former Portland U stud Alex Bowns caught me about halfway up the ensuing ascent. He sat on my shoulder until I inexplicably fell on the uphill when he decided to pass. Little did I know, that would not the only time I would eat trail on this day. The next 5ish or so miles were mostly uneventful. I didn’t see Alex again, I didn’t see 3rd place again, and the DeLeo Wall still hurt a lot. The real action occurred about 2.5 miles from finish line on the last few downhill switchbacks of Marshall’s Hill. My left leg decided not to lift high enough so my toes caught a root driving me straight into the ground. My right knee was pretty banged up and I had scrapes all along my right side. I got up, screamed a few expletives, and jogged toward Quarry. The last 2 miles were uneventful except for the few hikers that I freaked out with my bloody knees.

North Cascades is a spectacular place to run. In the long-long ago when I wasn’t a runner, I used to backpack along Ross Lake every year. Now that I’m often a runner, I’ve wanted to return to those trails. This year Aspire Adventure Running Company hosted a trip with an overnight camp and a boat ride that dropped us mere feet away from Canada. It’s a low-key trip with great folks, really more of a group run than a race and just the way I wanted to ease into 50k season. After a 45 minute boat ride with raging water falls and misty mountain peaks, we ran through a campground only accessible from Canada and incurred some puzzled looks. Nice, soft single-track through mossy woods with lake and creek views; there was no shortage of scenery. My watch suggests I spent 3 hours stopping for the scenery and taking photos, otherwise it was one of my faster 50k runs. It was a good opportunity to practice fueling and pacing, and highlight my first run of the season with a pack (oops). Most everything held up pretty well even though I wasn’t quite ready for the distance yet, but I did learn that when everything starts going South just pick up the pace again for a bit and work through it. So I was able to scream the last 5k downhill and finish strong. Just have to work on my middle game a bit more for the Lake Marlette 50k in August above Lake Tahoe.

I ran my first official Ultra on June 2nd back in my home state of Utah! 50 miles, 14,000 ft of gain/loss, topping out at 9,300 ft.

I had a lot of fun racing this course. The first half of the course is primarily paved trails and residential roads, whereas the second half is primarily ski runs/roads, with a short section of single track, finishing back on paved trail.

The half and 30k start together, so it’s difficult to tell who is racing which distance. There is an out-and-back section fairly early on in the race, though, so you can look at the bibs ahead of and behind you to see (distances each have their own colour on the bib).

For the first ~10k of the race I was with a group of women. I felt a great energy running in a group with 5 other women for awhile. I can’t recall the last time I had an experience like that. I savoured it while it lasted.

I also felt like the local ladies were using team tactics on me early in the race. It didn’t pan out as I ended up passing almost all of those ladies later on in the race, but it sure was fun!

One lady had started super fast (and looked strong doing so) and was way out front already by the short out-and-back section and I was able to see she was racing the 30k. Just before the half-way point, all of a sudden I saw a lady ahead of me who looked like that lady. I thought, “Gosh, did she take a wrong turn somehow (virtually impossible as the course is really well marked)? Or did she have to answer the call of nature? Or maybe it’s not the lady who had been in first and just looks like her?” Turned out to be her. No wrong turn, just bonked. HARD.

After that point, it was pretty much me against myself, the clock, and a couple of guys as the now first place lady was fairly far ahead and I knew the third place woman wasn’t going to bounce back without some serious magic happening.

I was able to push fairly well, but took a gel that had 35mg of caffeine in it, which is not something I usually use, which seemed to backfire. It actually made me feel more tired (I have actually had another experience with caffeine making me feel tired, but it was significantly more than this)! That was a bummer, but nothing I could do about it other than keep pushing.

The last 3k+ is back on paved trail and the half-marathoners and 30k runners meet again. The trail isn’t very wide and I spent a lot of energy calling out, “On your left,” and other, similar things. At one point, a lady was in front of me and despite calling out three times, she didn’t move to the side. Since I expected her to move, I hadn’t slowed down at all and by the time I figured out she wasn’t going to move, *I* didn’t have time to move (and there wasn’t anywhere for me to go as there was a small drop off to the left of the path and more people to our right). I put my hands out, grabbed her shoulders and, as gently as possible, but still firmly moved her slightly to the right so I could squeeze by on the left. The weird thing is that she didn’t even seem surprised by it (nor did she apologize…there really wasn’t any response…strange). Crisis averted!

I was able to hold onto second and put ~7 minutes on the third place woman, beating the previous CR, but, of course, that didn’t mean much since the woman who won beat me and bested it by quite a bit.

The best news is that my hammy held up for the most part! There was still a concerning twinge, some discomfort, and I didn’t feel I could fully push the last 5-ish miles, but such a big, positive step forward!! I hope I can go back next year!

This was the 3rd edition of this race and I’m so glad to have finally run it. I usually do better and prefer races with some vertical gain but course takes that to the next level with 10k of climbing. For reference, people were taking about 2 hours longer to finish this than your “average” 50k.

This race starts and finishes in Easton, WA. The first half of this race is remote! Which is cool! You are running through old, big trees, climbing over logs that are 5′ in diameter and you don’t see anyone that isn’t part of this event. Oh yeah, it’s a “Fat Ass” style event so there are only two aid stations which pretty much just have water. Not literally, but pretty much. Plan your nutrition and hydration accordingly.

The second half of this course is more-or-less the last 15 miles of the Cascade Crest 100 course. You climb up to the Thorp Mountain fire lookout and then head back down to Easton.

Everything that goes up must come down and this last descent is a quad buster if you have not been training your descents…

If there is very little aid (and no timing mats, etc.), how does the promoter tell that you really ran the course? Well, they give you a map at the start and there are two hole punches hung on trees along the route. And you need to punch your map with them. For real.

Thanks to fellow SRC member Arthur Martineau for taking the only picture of me actually running in this race.