Well my race is over and I am sitting here with very sore legs and slightly deflated confidence. This was clearly the hardest of my 50ks to date. I’ll start from the beginning. Friday night, I packed up the green machine and headed over to Wyeth Campground in the Gorge. I got there around 11pm, pulled into the first open site and climbed into the back of my car and into my sleeping bag. I didn’t sleep very well, not that I ever do the night before a race, and got cold during the night. The alarm went off around 6am as I struggled to locate any other movement in the campground. It was still dark and not much movement in any of the other sites. I waited until 6:15am before I got out of my bag and headed down to the check-in. When I got there, the parking lot was bustling and there seem to be ppl everywhere. I waited in line for the restroom (which is always packed before these kinds of events) then headed back to the car to get dressed and get ready. Once I was all ready to go, I dropped off my drop bags, picked up my bib number and jumped on the bus.
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| Activity at Aid Station 1 |
It took about 40 mins to get to the Wahkenna Falls TH, where I then proceeded to stretch and mingle with some of the other racers. After 20mins, I maneuvered my way to the front of the starting line and listened to the pre-race briefing. A few minutes later the countdown concluded and we were off! I settled into 11th place and prepared for the 1,500ft climb that started 200 yards into the race. I knew this climb would take a lot out of me if I hit it hard so I tried by best to take it easy and walked a little here and there. It was cool looking down from the top and seeing all 150 runners making their way up the steep switchbacks. I settled into a groove, taking it pretty easy. We quickly made it to the top and then headed down past Multnomah Falls.
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| Coming into Aid 1 |
Around mile 8.5, we popped out on a road, which we followed 2 miles into Aid Station 1. I came into the Aid Station chatting with a nice guy from the Seattle area. My mom and sister were waiting for me at the aid station and quickly refilled my water bottle with Nuun and gave me my waist pack with a bottle of Perpetuem. In a flash, I was back on the trail and feeling pretty good heading towards Elowah Falls. A group of runners made a wrong turn around mile 13 or so and I found myself in the top ten. This made me feel pretty good so I began to push myself as I could feel the pressure of the stronger runners coming up behind me. This part of the trail had a rolling section of shorter steeper climbs and I began to slow down as I could feel my legs getting unusually heavy. A handful of people passed me at this point as I began bonking at mile 17ish. At this point, I knew it was going to be a long day as I still had almost half the race to still complete. My legs were just taking a beating from all the unanticipated miniature climbs and descends.
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| Coming into Aid 2 |
Around this time, my sister Megan met me on the trail. She needed to do some training for her XC team so she ran from Aid Station 2 towards me then came back with me. I informed her that I wasn’t feeling very fresh at this point and that the last 10 miles were really going to test my resolve. I swapped the waist pack for another handheld, grabbed some more gels and more nuun then headed towards the finish a daunting 10-11 miles away. Around 2 miles from Aid 2, my wheels officially came off. My legs were feeling very tight and my quads and knees began hurting when I tried to run downhill. Also, at this point in the race, it had been awhile since I hadn't seen any other racers and I felt like I had a pretty good lead on the ones behind me. However, when I got to the OAB section up to the waterfall, which I don’t remember even looking at since I was so tired, I got passed by an older gentleman, which would be the first of many encounters over the remaining race.
Around mile 25.5, I headed down towards Herman Creek and was barely able to run downhill at all, grimacing the whole way down. My legs were officially shot and I was running on pure will power at this point. I started to feel the first twinge of cramping in my calves as my water bottle was empty. That was the end of my 3rd bottle of nuun and I have never cramped in a race before. Luckily, the last water station was up ahead so I was able to fill my bottle and drop in my last nuun tablet. Once dissolved, I began drinking as much as my stomach would allow, but it wasn’t much. I knew I needed electrolytes and wished that I was grabbed some pills at the last aid station. In preparation, I felt that nuun would be enough and that endurolyte pills would not be needed. However, I can now see the benefit of them bc you can take a couple pills all at once without having to down half a bottle of nuun. Yes you still would need to drink lots of water after consuming a few pills, but this method would definitely get the electrolytes into your body faster. (Note to self!)
The last four miles of the race were torturous. I walked way more than I would have liked and ran only so much as my body allowed. Unfortunately, the last 5 miles of the race were all downhill which was VERY hard on my aching quads and calves. I got passed by a few people during my time in the pain cave, which was predictable given the wasted state of my body, but it was still very frustrating. With roughly ¾ of a mile to go, I saw a guy coming up behind me, who I recognized from earlier in the race. He was wearing all MHW gear with Montrail shoes so I figured he also worked for Columbia Sportswear. I decided enough was enough and no one else was going to pass me, especially not MHW man. All of a sudden all the pain lifted as adrenaline finally rushed into my body. I nearly sprinted (downhill) the last ¾ of the mile, cruised past my mom waiting by the bridge and pulled through the finish line with a time of 5hrs and 35mins. I was completely spent at time point and was humbled by the hardest thing I have ever down physically. I ended up getting 14th overall and was 2nd in my age group. The guy in my age group that beat me was the first place finisher overall and he beat me by over an hour!
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| Megan and I at the finish |
I found out later that the guy who came in behind me (otherwise known as MHW man, was Ryne Melcher, a member of the Montrail Ultra Trail Running Team). I suspect he wasn’t going very hard bc he is racing Chuckanut in the next few weeks, but it still felt good to beat him, even if he wasn’t going all out like I was at that point.
So in conclusion, I was disappointed about how beat up I was physically at the end of the race considering how much training I put in. But my almost complete lack of hill training was clearly my Achilles heel in my train. Ill definitely have to hill the hills hard if I expect to finish the Peterson Ridge Rumble 40m in April.
Also big thanks to my mom and sister, who took all the pictures, but more importantly, came out to support me during one of the hardest things Ive ever done.
UNT
Bryan
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| Megan and Ry Dog |
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