Redmond Watershed 12 Hour Recap

Well, there's honestly not a ton to recap from a loop race I guess. The loop doesn't change much over the course of the day- just the way your body feels. I finally put together a strong run on race day though, and it felt amazing and was a great confidence booster for Hardrock.

I shaved myself a Prefontaine-esque mustache prior to the race and went off the starting line accordingly (hard and fast). I just kept plowing on for quite a while with a marathon split right around 3:20 and 50k right around 4 hours. I kept eating and drinking consistently and really stayed on top of my calorie intake, which definitely helped me stay fairly steady throughout the day. Around 6-7 hours I hit a bit of a low point, stopped at the aid station to change socks, but kept on moving, albeit not quite so fast. My pacer unfortunately didn't show up, so that was a bit mentally tough. However, then my wife Kirsten showed up, and she volunteered to come out for some loops with me as she saw I was in a low point. I am one lucky lucky man. Brian Morrison caught me right around the 7 hour mark and passed me pretty easily. I tried to stay with him, but it just wasn't happening right then. I lost sight of him and kept on moving. When Kirsten showed up, my 2nd wind started to kick in, and we started cranking out loops at a quicker pace again. She pushed through 4 loops with me and kept me focused and on pace. We caught Brian again right around the 9 hour mark, and I was feeling strong so pushed on ahead. After 13 big loops, I had about 1:30 left in the race and opted to go ahead and shift to running the short loop (.7 miles) for the rest of the race. That was a really good choice, as it was much easier to stay focused and keep my spirits up. Fortunately another friend Jonathan had arrived at the race then too after putting in a lot of miles on Cougar/Squak Mts. earlier in the day. He gamely jumped in to pace me in for the rest of the race. He pushed me hard and we were able to hammer out 14 more little loops- just enough to break the course record by .7 miles. Wow, talk about close! It felt amazing and was a really great day.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors of the race- I am always amazed at all the work that goes into putting on an event like this, and this is definitely a first class race. Great job to all the other runners out there too and congratulations on whatever you achieved- I talked to many folks who ran their first ultra, first 50 miler, etc., etc. Pushing your own limits is so awesome to see, so congrats to all and see you back on the trails again somewhere soon!

Oh, I also put together a very rough simple video from the race- see it below. Not much photo/video from the race seeing as how my wife ended up being one of my pacers extraordinaire! You never know what a day will bring.