A Case of the Mondays...

Recap from TNF Endurance Challenge 50 Miler

Here's a short recap I wrote on the sweet 50 miler last week in Bellingham. Super fun race, and amazing course!

http://www2.thenorthface.com/endurancechallenge/highlights/2009/wa_review.html

Mt. Adams Recap

This weekend’s adventure proved to be a particularly spectacular one. Often one has a few niceties or worldly luxuries sprinkled in with an arduous trek like this. For example, on an ultra-run, you might revel in the momentary solace of some peanut M&M’s at an aid station or a hot cheeseburger that your crew brings you. Or maybe you’re on a weekend camping trip with friends and you suffer through the extra pounds of a few bottles of wine in your pack for enjoying a few glasses around the campfire that night... Let me just say that this excursion involved no such luxuries of any sort. Though the views were spectacular and the conditions ideal, this was a hard push in its most simplest form.

We headed out of Seattle late evening on Friday, opting to cram 4 fairly good sized men with a ton of gear into one very small car. Unable to move in the back seat, our adventure began by mistakenly getting on the express lanes and being forced north out of downtown (Mt. Adams is south…). We eventually got turned around and headed back south toward Portland. The trip was long and cramped, but the Pearl Jam was good. After about 5 hours we got in the vicinity of Mt Adams. Since our trip began in the wrong direction, it was only fitting that it ended with a missed turn and plenty of confusion amongst 4 very tired guys arguing over a map. After much back and forth, hunting for the right road, mistaken bear sightings, etc. we eventually found ourselves on the proper road for the summit route trail head. We had heard the snow level was so low that we’d have to stop about 3 miles short of the trailhead. The 2 ultrarunners in the car loved the idea of 6 bonus miles, while the 2 climbers were not so excited. The reality ended up being that we parked a good 5 miles short of the normal trailhead, making for a sweet 10 mile bonus.

We parked around 1 or 2am and decided to lay down for an hour or so to regroup. We just lay under the stars in the woods for about an hour, but no one actually slept. Then we were back up around 3 to get packed up and ready to roll. Brock cooked up some fresh Caffe Vita coffee to get us going (ok, our one luxury of the trip), and we shared some Red Bulls for an extra boost out of the gates. We hiked up the snowed in road all geared up and the first 5 or so miles to the trailhead proper went by relatively quickly by headlamp. The sun was up then and we made a few adjustments before heading up. Quigley, Dan, and Brock all put on their skis/skins, but I had no such gear (oops) and just bootpacked it up. It was a challenge keeping up with them to say the least, but it all worked out. The climb was long, fun, and tough, and eventually we got up to the headwall. There were a surprising number of folks out there, but it was by no means crowded. Up the headwall we went and onto the false summit. Dan was having a little altitude issue and I was moving slow with all the extra weight, so Quigley and Brock got a good bit ahead of us. They headed up for the short extra shot up to the true summit. As Dan and I sat on the false summit we knew the view would be the same from up there and decided our best bet was just to hang there and save what was left of our legs for the trip down. Eventually Brock and Quigley reappeared and we all strapped on our skis and took off down the headwall in picture perfect snow. The trip down was incredible and we managed to stay on course (fortunately) and eventually found ourselves skiing back down the snowed in road. We soon took off our skis though and hiked in the rest of the way. I was tired of banging my calves on my skis hanging too low off my ill-equipped pack though and opted to just carry my skis, etc. the rest of the way. We were a motley, haggard crew arriving back at the car, but we made it and it felt great. We loaded all the gear back in, wedged our bodies back into the sardine can, and headed back to Seattle. Again, the trip was long and had few stops and no luxuries, but the Pearl Jam was good and we eventually got back to town late on Saturday night. Our creaky bodies emerged from the car and all the suffering of the day was well worth it for a picture perfect blue bird Pac NW day on the mountain.

Mt. Adams

This evening I'm headed out for an assault on Mt. Adams with a few friends. It's the 2nd highest mountain in Washington (behind Rainier) at 12,281 ft, and the conditions should be spectacular. We'll get down there and start our push around midnight tonight with a summit hopefully sometime around sunrise. Should be ideal Hardrock training and a super fun time!

Hope everyone is able to get outside and enjoy the weather this weekend!

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.

Ready to Run in Circles

Tomorrow is the Redmond Watershed Preserve 12 Hour race, and I'm locked, loaded, and ready to roll! If you're not familiar with a 12 hour race format, basically the deal is you just run as far as you can on a fairly short loop; whoever runs the farthest wins. I've run this race twice before, and am excited to go back tomorrow. It's extremely well organized and supported, and just a lot of fun to be a part of. I'm feeling great, and excited to charge hard all day long. I'll be sure to post an update after the race. Oh, and I am still working on editing my China video footage, but I'll have a finished video posted someday soon I promise! Have a great weekend!

Carkeek Loop Fiesta on Tax Day