M'kay

Northwest Passage Relay - Day 2

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Location:

Eatonville,WA,USA

Member Since:

Nov 01, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

Short-Term Running Goals:

Regain consistency.

Build up slowly and come out strong.

Regain "speed" (relative)

Finish WR50 again.

Improve at Cascade Crest. 

2013 Races:

  • Capital Peak Mega Fat Ass 17M (1/19) - 2:48:48
  • Yakima Skyline Rim 50K (4/21) - 7:16:20
  • Grey Rock 50K (5/13)
  • White River 50M (7/27)
  • Cascade Crest 100M (8/24-25)

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Find my true running potential, then exceed it.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Hoka Stinson B Lifetime Miles: 982.34
Hoka Stinson Evo Lifetime Miles: 452.95
Altra Provision Lifetime Miles: 139.73
Altra Torin Lifetime Miles: 380.08
Hoka Bondi 2 Lifetime Miles: 706.15
Hoka Mafate 3 Lifetime Miles: 81.12
Race: Northwest Passage Relay - Day 2 (184.5 Miles) 20:31:02, Place overall: 2, Place in age division: 1
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.007.800.007.80

Got the phonecall from Van 2 at around 3:10am that they were on their last runner, so a quick scramble to wake up, redress, load the truck and drive the short distance to the start.  Just in time but some confusion at the start.....got there with literally no time to warm up, which was probably a good thing since I was tired and half-asleep, so I couldn't really grasp how tired I really was.  I heard someone say that two runners were coming in and thought I heard that ours was the second.  The first came in and blew by me, followed shortly by Andy saying "There's Dave" or something similar, and sure enough Dave turned around and I managed to snap out of my stupor and took off.  I heard the exchange volunteer someone say "blah blah turn left blah" so I did, and got about three steps before a chorus of voices shouted "Wrong Way!!!".  I was clearly not thinking well and missed the part about running on the left side of the road and turning left at the *next* left up the hill!  So I lost a few seconds but finally got started. 

Again, Garmin struggles.....this time with the short time to get ready, I'd forgotten to set it up so a longer struggle a bit later down the road to get something started on it.  Probably just as well because I knew it was 7.8 miles, I was tired, didn't bother relooking my projection so I could just concentrate on enduring as much pain for as much speed as possible this leg.  My goal:  Leave everything I had on the road this leg.  A fairly brutal leg that had a few hundred feet of rolling elevation gain, some nice downhills, followed by a significant 200+' uphill for the final mile.  Things I remember about this leg include passing several runners, it being very dark and desolate, the power lines literally humming and crackling (presumably with the dew from the night air), my legs feeling better than leg 13-14 but being more drained, and feeling like I was crawling up the hills.  When I finally got to the 1 mile left mark at the base of the final climb, I knew it would hurt but also that my team was waiting and I had to put that hill behind me as quickly as possible.  Developed the wheeze in my breathing that has only happened a few times while running, always previously in a marathon when the end is near (both the race and my ability to run!).  Managed a feeble kick at the end and finished 8 seconds over my projection (53:27 versus 53:19).  My body promptly quit, legs stiffened substantially and I couldn't go at faster than a slow jog for the remainder of the race, so I guess my timing was great. ***Relooking the times, I finished in 53:28 so I was 9 seconds slow.  But I was 98 seconds fast overall....pretty darned close estimating, I'd say!***

The rest of our guys ran their remaining legs well.  Aaron and Matt both smoked their sections, Matt surprised us all into thinking he'd be a couple minutes behind his projection on his hilly leg only to appear while Cody was still getting ready to take the handoff (and under his projection on a killer leg!), and Cody hammered his to finish us out.  Then Cody hopped into Van 2 to run a 5th leg as a Van 2 runner to help carry some of the burden they were enduring....amazing!

The remaining 4 in our van selfishly ate some crappy breakfast and showered at the exchange, drove to the finish and ate some excellent breakfast at a local diner before meeting our Van 2 teammates to run across the finish line in 20:31:02.  We knew we'd definitely beaten every team except the ultra team that started at 3:30pm, so we planned to wait an hour and a half to see if we'd won.  An hour and a quarter later, the ultra team arrived indicating their last runner was about a mile away.  Sure enough, they beat us by a measley 6 minutes!  Nonetheless, we were able to claim the course record for a little over an hour and had a blast doing it!

Overall, I was happy that I managed to beat my total time projection even with the extra leg, and with our 2nd place overall (1st in the Open category) finish.  I had a great time, managing to make it home to collapse for 10 hours of sleep at about 7pm last evening.  I saw my last teammate, Matt, off to the airport early this morning, and the glow of a great race and a grand time is still in full effect today.  I really liked the relay experience, got to meet some great runners (yes, I'm still in absolute awe of Cody's running form.....nothing moves except his legs and they're a blur at full speed), and felt like I'm getting back near the top of my previous highest fitness level.  A great way to spend a weekend!

 

Adrenaline 8 - 365.04 miles.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Comments
From Cody on Sun, Jul 27, 2008 at 23:11:31

Dale-

You ran awesome and you were a lot of fun to hang out with. Especially when you were all flustered about the truck. Fun stuff! One of those once in a life experiences that we will never forget. I look forward to a sub 3 from you. Oh, my form was once compared to an elephant (ask Sasha about that one...) Not sure if it has improved but thanks for the compliment anyway.

From David on Sun, Jul 27, 2008 at 23:23:22

Great entry, you've inspired me to get my done tonight. It was pleasure to hand you the baton each time.

One point of clarification I'll do here instead of on mine: At the exchange from 24 to 25, I passed someone between the time the spotter called me in second and when I got to the chute. So that, in addition to Dale clearing the cobwebs, was why there was some confusion. I ended up running through the shoot and out ten feet, then back to it to do the hand off.

From Dale on Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 10:38:03

Cody - Sorry to subject you to an hour or so of potty mouth.....it usually takes quite an event for me to spew vileness like that and the truck incident unfortunately fit the bill. Thanks again for keeping cool and calm and sorting things out! I will have to find out about the elephant comparison!

David - I figured that's probably what had happened. Unfortunately, I didn't figure that out until hours afterwards! Did I mention I don't function well without sleep? Great running with you!

From Mark on Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 21:52:11

Great running Dale. Thanks for volunteering all your services!

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