It's been a minute!
I'll keep this short, but since I am officially declaring this my last 100 mile (winter events included), I figured I should keep a written record. Maybe I will get back into the longer stuff again but I feel like my body and mind need a new focus and I like the idea of trying to regain some speed. So far 44 hasn't been the new 34 when it comes to running. But I like a good challenge.
I finished the inaugural Oregon Cascades 100M this morning. What a great event. Alpine Running Co. not only designed a sweet course on my backyard trails but also arranged for a smoke free weekend. How's that for event planning? I have run several of their events over the last few years (and missed a few due to injury/laziness) and they are always top notch, complete with kick-ass volunteers.
I signed up for this race on January 1st with a goal of 24 hours. Unlike most New Year resolutions I was still holding to that possibility until around the middle of May! Spring training was fun, including hill repeats and track sessions - stuff I haven't done for years. But after a few rough long training runs, followed by a long but fun day at Old Cascadia 50k, a DNS at Elkhorn 53M due to a torn calf, and a generally piss poor training schedule over the summer, I barely made it to the start line yesterday. My calf seemed to be healed up after 3 weeks off, some shorter runs and then 42 miles around Mt Hood on the Timberline Trail. That run was 2 weeks ago and no issues with the calf (it was a super fun weekend and deserves it's own post). So I decided I couldn't pass up the opportunity to enjoy a long day on some of my favourite local trails.
With Liz and Courtney signed up as pacers, I got down to a bit of planning last week. I made out a time chart with a finish time of 26:29. It seemed like a good goal given my previous 100M best was Leadville in 26:30. Of course, every race is wildly different in terms of terrain, elevation and weather. This race has only 11k gain but given the state of my training compared to prior 100 milers, I figured it was an achievable but not an easy goal. Liz would pace me from mile 56 (Dutchman, AS10) and switch off with Courtney at mile 81 (Quarry, AS14). This worked out well as Liz is super strong on the uphill and even though we were hiking the ups, it motivated me to try harder. And Courtney easily slips into coach mode, so having her push me to the finish was perfect. Chris was at Dutchman and all the crew AS after that, and several road crossings towards the end to make sure I was keeping up the pace!
The race started with a steady climb up Mrazek. I've run the lower part of this trail many times and the full trail less often, most recently with Liz back in early July. On that run we came across a small wildfire close to the top, called it in, and got out of there! No such excitement yesterday. I felt under control the first 12 miles, then I was in a train of runners for a half mile, a few stepped aside and I took the lead. Not really a good idea as it caused me to push a bit. I was watching my HR (my new thing) and backed off but the damage was done - by the mile 16 AS at Rock Creek my calf was knotted up and the pain was only increasing. Damn. I was not expecting this. I took a little bit of time at the AS and walked out of there trying to feel it out. The downhill felt ok but I had to keep my foot flat to avoid triggering it. The pain was nothing like when I pulled it during a run back in July, but it felt like it could go there fairly quickly. Climbed out of Happy Valley and onwards towards the Tumalo Creek AS hosted by the lively Vantucky crew. Messaged Chris at some point and his reply was "just fall and scrape up your knee, you'll forget all about the calf" - an apt suggestion given the state of my knees. It's a rare long run that I don't superman full spread on the ground at some point. What do you think about when you're running for hours, my non-ultra friends ask me? Don't fall, don't fall, I reply. Sounds stressful but it's more of a meditation.
Up and down the trail took us, through the trees with a few over the shoulder glances at Broken Top (as seen in above photo from @jamesholk), to Flagline Trail. Closed until mid-August for Elk-calving season, we knew Flagline would be the busiest trail for bikers. It's a beautiful trail that I have only run a handful of times given the late season opening. Most bikers were going the same direction as us and it was easy to step off the side to let them whizz by. They were all extremely courteous and encouraging. I still had a buff around my neck which I pulled up to block the dust. 10 miles later, a quick stop at Swede Ridge before more downhill, a short uphill and a switchback downhill into Skyliners AS. These trails are all super familiar to me and I enjoyed thinking about the various solo and group runs I've done on them. This was the first crew aid station, hosted by Footzone, and it was rocking! Mile 36.2 and I was just ahead of schedule at about 7h45. Walking out with a handful of food, a spectator commented "It's an eating competition the rest of the way" - indeed! I like eating was my response.
Onwards along Skyliners trail which is a lovely treed winding trail. A few miles later we popped out at the junction with Upper Whoops trail which I expected us to take up to Shooting Star aid station. I've run the trail quite recently and knew it would be a hike today. However, the RDs had different ideas! They took us along the parallel dirt road and then up an as yet unnamed trail, up, up and up, switchbacking over to the NW ridge with views back over Tumalo Falls area. It was a beautiful non-technical trail with perhaps the most gain per mile for a trail close to town - I'll be back for some hill training! So fun to discover a new trail. After some downhill, I rolled into the AS with 2 guys. This is one of my favourite spots - I regularly take a break to enjoy the mountain view. No time for that today! Onto Sector 16, another favourite trail of mine. My mind immediately goes to the Hunger Games and I imagine the private land that the trail borders to host some sort of other-worldly activities - and this is on regular trail runs, not 100 mile hallucinations :)
Back to Swede Ridge for a quick stop. The sun was beating down at this point but luckily we were in the trees for the most part. The next few miles to Swampy were a bit more open. Again, I am on familiar trails and know the contours of the land. I'm frog-leaping with a few other runners by this point and it's nice to exchange a few words of encouragement. But for the most part I run alone as I have all day. The calf is feeling quite a lot better by now. The pain has numbed to a dull ache and I am confident that if I can get through the climb out of Dutchman without issue, it'll be fine through the end. My right knee, meniscus surgery in March 2020 for a 20yr old ski injury, is bothering me more and more on the downhill but it's the sort of pain I can live with although I worry about the miles of downhill on the back half. I messaged Chris to have an Aleve for me at Dutchman which should do the trick.
Swampy, another crew AS was even livelier than Skyliners. It was so much fun running in to all the cheers. Thank you supporters! I grabbed my poles from my drop bag, filled my water, ate a baggie of salty potatoes I'd made the night before, took a pickle from the AS and headed for Dutchman. Many pickles were consumed throughout this run. Within a minute of leaving the AS I was hit with a wave of nausea that is fairly unusual for me. Probably a combination of running hard-ish the last few miles into the AS (hard-ish at mile 47= slow AF but feels like 8 min miles), the heat (80's) and eating 500 calories in 60 seconds. I've only been on this singletrack section a handful of times and forgot how pretty it is. Although being so close to the highway for this section takes away from soaking in the nature! I had to walk the first two miles until my various body systems settled down. That was unfortunate given the runnable terrain here. But it worked and I was able run on and off for the next miles, onto the double track that I've traversed more often by snowmobile heading up to Ball Butte, slight uphill grade, still under the full sun, but the heat easing off into the evening. I had messaged Chris and Liz from Swampy to estimate 7pm arrival at Dutchman but ended up getting there a bit after. But was out again by 7:15 per my plan. So I was happy to still be on track, feeling relatively good for 56 miles and now in the great company of Liz. If I had paid proper attention to the amazing 'Living Room' set up at Dutchman I might never have left! @americolt sure knows how to decorate an aid station.
After a mile or so of rolling terrain, we started to climb up and up as the light was fading. I was hoping to reach the AS before needing to pull out the headlamp but that didn't happen - it gets dark quickly in a forest full of huge pines! Soon we were back to the Vantucky crew settling in for the night and having fun taking care of racers. We got some warm food and quickly got back on the trail. A little farther up a racer was having difficulty with both his headlamp and back up. I knew I had a spare in my drop bag at Rock Creek, the next AS, so told him to grab it. We rolled in there just before 10pm, behind plan now but feeling pretty good. Enjoyed some broth and bacon, changed my socks and shoes which felt amazing, and headed out. I learned that I was now 4th place female with 3rd place just ahead. Game on.
The next section is still along the Met-Win trail as it reaches the last of the high points on the course at around 6800ft. I've run this 6-mile trail several times and somehow it always confuses me as to which direction has more climbing. But overall it didn't seem so bad. It is very sandy on the north end though, like running on a soft beach - not really what you want at mile 70! Along this section we caught glimpses of the beautiful rising half-moon, a dark orange at first, brightening up as it rose. And we could see the lights of Sisters a few thousand feet below us in the distance... the finish line.
We left Park Meadow (AS13) with almost 10 miles to the next stop where Liz would be done and Courtney would join me on the trail. I had moved into 3rd place now. After a few miles heading west, we rejoined the Met-Win trail and headed north and downhill... with a few short climbs thrown in along the way. I really enjoyed this section. The moon and stars were beautiful, the night was still warm with a few cool pockets, and the company was great. I had only run this trail once last year but had been out here recently when Chris and the COTA crew were clearing downed trees so I had a good sense of where the final descent started. I had added a headlamp around my waist at the last AS and it was a huge help navigating the rocky sections on this trail. Soon we were flowing down and down and down, with a fun final mile into the AS followed closely by another racer and his pacer. For those 10 (okay 12) minutes, it felt like we were just out for a fun run and the 80 miles in my legs kind of faded. If only that feeling could continue!
The bright lights of the Quarry aid station (AS14) greeted us, along with Chris and Courtney. I exchanged a few items from my drop bag, left my poles, refilled water/electrolyte mix, downed a cup of broth, and off we went. I had been doing well on hydration and fueling all day and wanted to make sure that continued. My body seemed to be keeping up. I peed and pooped several times throughout the day. I can't think of anything I would change in terms of fueling.* I was back on schedule by now, leaving the AS at 2:45am.
* After emptying my drop bags I realized how much food I did NOT eat. I was sure I’d eaten about 15 gels… more like 8!! I probably ate a quarter of the calories I’d packed, though I definitely packed extra, and then I did have hot food at all the AS in second half. So, not terrible but in hindsight probably should have taken in more early on. Likely why I felt so sluggish on the Swampy to Dutchman section.
Liz had stayed behind me while pacing which worked well. I ran where I could in the early miles and more consistently as we transitioned to downhill. The final 20 miles with Courtney were more of a gradual downhill/flat with a few bumps. From the start Courtney went in front and I was happy with mixing it up. We rolled through the next few miles, hitting the Peterson Ridge AS at mile 88, in familiar terrain from running various races on these trails over the years. I was running for the most part but not really pushing it. To be honest I had taken for granted that I would stay ahead of the lady I had passed a while back and was jazzed to think I could finish 3rd. And then, at about mile 90, a different runner and her pacer came storming along behind us. At least that's what it felt like when I'd been ambling along! Immediately Courtney locked in behind her pacer and I followed. Going from 15-16 min pace to 12-13 min is really quite a jolt, but it didn't feel awful (which makes me think, Why wasn't I already doing this? Answer: I am too good at 'sticking to my plan').
I knew we would get to Three Sisters Creek AS soon, run a loop back to the same AS and then head to the finish. I pulled out my mileage chart to check the mileage of the loop - 2.8. I had a little water left so as we arrived to the AS I told Courtney we'd keep going. Chris was waiting for us expecting a proper stop, but after a very quick exchange while I downed a cup of electrolyte mix, we shot out of there. I asked Courtney to keep leading at the same pace. I knew the runner and her pacer had stopped but had no idea if they'd take long, how she was feeling, whether she gave a shit about her place, etc. All I knew was that I wanted that 3rd place spot. But there were still 8 miles to go. On my pace chart I had 2:45 to take me to the finish. That was not going to cut it. Still dark, but close to sunrise, we kept up the pace as we wound our way through the Peterson Ridge trail system, passed a few runners, and headed back towards the same AS. I knew it was still before 6am given that it was just light at the race start the previous morning. By the time we were back at the AS, Chris was ready for a quick pitstop, I emptied anything extra from my pack and half-filled my water, super quick porta-potty and off we went, headlamp-free at 6:02am, 6.3 miles to the finish. I was going to crush my goal finish time of 8:30... but could I hold onto 3rd place?
We were on gravel roads for the next 3 miles, straightaways that made for a lot of looking behind (which my awesome pacer did regularly upon request!). I wanted to know the mileage as it helped me focus on the finish. I was mostly quiet along here with a few short responses to Courtney's encouragement which was much appreciated. Chris met us at a road crossing with 4 miles to go and said 4th place was about 5 mins back. She had looked so strong when she'd passed me earlier that I figured she could easily make that up. He advised to push hard on the road and get back onto trail unseen! I liked that advice as I am usually the chaser and it's much easier to chase someone you can see. With about 2 miles to go we finally turned onto trail. It seemed like we had been climbing to this point and surely it would be all downhill to the finish. No such luck. But as my pacer reminded me just focus on forward progress...
A few more ups and down, and then the glorious sight of Sisters Middle School through the trees. Across the road, through the parking lot and onto the track for a lap - what a fun way to finish. 25:21. Done and done. Video below courtesy of Treeline Journal who provided excellent coverage of the race. Check out their work.
Honestly it all seems a bit nonsensical writing this now. The drama of it all. This thing we do for fun. This thing we pay to do for fun no less! But it makes me feel alive in a way few things do. Betting on myself became my internal mantra in those final miles. I might not have trained the way I wanted to this year, but when you've done enough of these races, there is a well to draw from. And I did that every step to the finish line. But it takes a team and I had the best one.
Running highlights of the year so far have been Grand Canyon R2R2R, Old Cascadia 50K, Mt. Hood Timberline Trail loop, making new friends (looking at you Kelly & Melissa!), group training runs and track sessions, watching Melissa lean into her running talent. And now, sharing miles with Liz and Courtney on some of the best Central Oregon singletrack, with lots of encouragement from Chris along the way.
And 2021 isn't over yet! Next up: a week-long running trip on the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland with Adventure Running Co. and my longtime friend Kami, who I met through running, of course.
PS: Turns out this race was my 49th ultra... I guess I will have to add one more at some point. Maybe for my 50th birthday :)
