Decided a couple of days ago to run this race as prep for White River 50 and Cascade Crest 100, since it has a ton of climbing and descending (6800'), is mostly technical single track, and my legs needed to get beat up a bit. It definitely lived up to its billing as the toughest 50K in the state. Up at 2am, out the door by 2:30 to drive across the mountains to the Ahtanum State Forest near Tampico, WA. Made good time (very little traffic, imagine that). A bit tired since I didn't really taper much, wound up moving gravel yesterday, and only got about 4.5 hours of sleep. Oh well. The course follows the Grey Rock trail up and over 2 ridges. It starts off at about 4600', climbs to 6200' then descends down to 4200' to hit the first aid station at mile 8. Then it climbs to about 6400', rolls up and down for a bit to the turnaround aid station, then the climbs/descends occur in reverse as we retrace our steps. Race started a few minutes late as the briefing ran a tad over and some people showed up late. New race director this year and evidently one call he made was to move the start line a few hundred meters from the trailhead to give the pack a chance to thin a bit. He also split the 50K, 25K, and 12K starts. I whole-heartedly applaud both moves as it made the start fairly reasonable. First climb was pretty brutal. Calves were screaming pretty quickly and I don't think my heels touched the ground much. I was pushing a bit early, pretty much like everyone else, but I actually had a purpose. My time in this race wasn't so important, but I wanted to push things early a bit to get the legs beat up a bit and to suffer. I know, sounds crazy, but with a difficult 50 miler and then a still unfathomable difficult 100 milers on the schedule, I really need to get used to suffering. And if my legs bounce back stronger, it'll all be worth it. After cresting the first ridge, I let loose a bit on the descent and managed to pass some folks and was doing well until the GI issues hit and I had to make a pit stop. Discovered later I lost about 4 places there. Hit aid station #1 at the bottom of the next valley over in 1:22. The second climb was seriously brutal. First, it was longer, since the initial descent was longer than the climb. Second, the rocks were everywhere. They really should've named this grey rocks 50k because rocks were everywhere. At times, it was difficult if not impossible to run. My legs were already feeling pretty beat-up and I was tiring quickly. I wasn't thinking this at the time, but really, that's what I was aiming for. Dropped into the run all flats and downhills and reasonable uphills and power-hike the rest mode pretty quickly. Hit some mud and then snow towards the top, but got rewarded with some nice views. Finally broke out and hit the short dirt-road section out-and-back to the aid station and here's where I got a chance to size up the competition. I was 7th when I hit the aid station and 6th when I left at 2:54. The descent was definitely easier than the climb but the rocks really made things treacherous. Took a couple of stumbles which made me really cautious since I didn't want to get seriously hurt. Unfortunately, I had #7 & 8 hot on my heels and I really didn't want to give up a placing, so I pushed pretty hard. It was warming up and I was putting away the water, but the stinger gels were starting to give me a nauseous feeling. The boiled potatoes at aid #2 helped, but the feeling really returned on this stretch. Very glad to hit aid 1/3 again so I could tackle the last climb and descent, but I was surprised (and skeptical) to hear that I was in 5th. 4:06. As I left aid 1/3, #7 (now #6) came in so I knew lollygagging wasn't an option, but my climbing gear was shot. I was basically running the rare flats and then running short stretches...a dozen paces here, 1/10th mile there, any time my HR dropped to about 145, even though I was really sucking down the O2. This climb really hurt, but at least the really bad rocks were gone. I caught and passed another runner and moved into 4th towards the top, then spotted and nearly caught #3 as we crested the hill. Unfortunately, he still had a descending gear and mine was slipping badly. I managed 8 minute miles on the last 2 miles down but I was really risking a wreck as my legs were just shot. Fortunately, it was enough to hold off the pursuit, so I crossed in 4th place (3rd had me by at least a few minutes....said when he heard me come up from behind at the top of the ridge, he woke up and got busy holding me off, so at least I'm good for something). So a successful (and pretty painful day). My feet really got beat up by the rocks, and I was wishing I had a pair of those Hoka One One Bondi B shoes one of the guys was wearing for about 25 miles of the race. A 10 minute stint in the 40F stream nearby helped, but the 3+ hour drive back home did not. Time to rest up, heal, and get ready for WR50. | 