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Mt. Si 50k - RunUltra Marathon


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Snoqualmie, Washington
United States
72F / 22C
Sunny
Total Time = 6h 28m 43s
Overall Rank = 48/56
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Okay I totally had the dumb the morning of the race. The race started at 8:30 so my plan was to leave at 7:30 to arrive an hour early.

The race is an hour away. Roy very gently (I am cranky on stressful race mornings) pointed out my error at 7:35, so we tossed everything into the car, left my muffins baking (on a timer) and whipped down the road! What a dolt! Thank heavens I had made myself get EVERYTHING ready the night before!
Event warmup:

Arrived at the race site about 35 minutes before race start, which gave me plenty of time. Went and grabbed my AWESOME sweatshirt (I love it) and race number and then found Marie. Roy parked and brought out my drop bag. I found the drop bag drop area and left it there. Went over to the start about 5 minutes after the Relay started. Stretched a little, hugged Ann, and wished her a good race (she was on a relay team). Had a nice chat with a father/daughter team who were SO excited to finish this race and become official Marathon Maniacs!
Run
  • 6h 28m 43s
  • 31.55 miles
  • 12m 19s  min/mile
Comments:

What an absolutely fantastic 50k! The first 14 miles or so are mostly a incline that raises gently into the hills. Along the way we ran past rivers, waterfalls, forests, fields, and were always surrounded by the most beautiful mountains out there. Mt. Si is breathtaking (think Twin Peaks for those who remember that great show).

Marie and I talked the entire way. We greeted other maniacs and cheered non maniacs on. We stopped for photos. Her husband, Tim, is training for his first marathon so he joined us for the first 7 miles. It was fun to run with him and get some pictures of the two of them running together. I know how much I love running with Roy and am mourning the fact that we may never run again. He was diagnosed with severe arthritis of the knee last week. Sigh.

The first few miles just seemed to zip by. Roy met us at the first water stop. The race director had very kindly given us driving directions to find different places for people to see their runners. What a nice touch! This is a pretty small field, so that was really a neat perk! I got a kiss and a quick hug and an "I love you" and continued on with Marie and Tim (after Tim shed his shirt and gave it to Roy, who also took my jacket).

It seemed like in no time, we were at mile ten and the first food stop, and there was Roybee! Yay! It was great to see him, although curiously it felt like we had barely just begun! I made a pit stop and was already starting to feel the heat. We spent too long at the pit stop but the chocolate oatmeal cookie was worth it! Roy took some pictures and we were off for the next leg of the race!

I think the prettiest section was next, and the best part is that it lasted 5 miles then we got to run past it again. The river was running high and was beautiful. We ran past a few just breathtaking waterfalls. I took pictures, but they don't begin to do it justice. As we got a little higher suddenly the temperatures plummeted, which was really fascinating. I mean it literally dumped 15 degrees! Suddenly we noticed, there was SNOW around us! Wow! We had to get pictures of our feet in snow! I think that amused some runners who were on their way back out. This was about mile 13.5 or so.

At mile 14 we had a drop down over some VERY rocky terrain. It was kind of brutal and I bruised the outside of my right foot on a sharp rock. I was glad I'd opted for trail shoes and gaiters that morning! We picked our way down a semi steep hill and gladly enjoyed sugar wafers and boiled potatoes at the fuel stop. We both refilled our water bottles and started talking to the father/daughter team (Tim and Wendy) we'd seen at the beginning. We kept talking as all four of us started back up the hill to the trail. Marie and I were doing 5:1 splits (run 5 walk 1) and convinced them that since they'd run a marathon the weekend before, that they should join us.

What fun to pick up two new runners on the route! We had a great time swapping stories, answering questions about Marathon Maniacs. Tim was starting to waver about mile 17 or so and bid us go on ahead. Wendy, Marie, and I ran on, but tried to keep him in our sights. We lost him about a mile down the road and almost lost ourselves when we nearly missed a turn. Realizing that Tim, who wasn't feeling great, might also miss it, we all turned back to get him. Didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time, but I'll tell you that at mile 31.1 I might have grumbled a tiny bit. Naw, not really. I'd hope someone would do it for me, and I don't mind a little extra mileage.

Mile 21 and there was my Roybee again! I was amazed at how good my legs felt! I had the bruise on my foot and a bit of tightness, but was otherwise feeling really fantastic! We'd been running fast, too! Wendy is only 23 and she dragged our middle aged butts down the trail! Roy took pictures and Wendy and I exclaimed loud and long over the amazing peanut butter sandwiches. Marie made a pit stop and we waited for Tim. Wendy, Marie, and Tim all disrobed and dumped sweaty clothes on Roy. Do I have a great husband, or what? He took sweaty clothes from a friend and two strangers!

We started on after about, I am embarrassed to say, 15 minutes! Apparently we thought it was Club Med or something!

The next 7 miles went by at a nice clip. We continued our run walk and swapped more and more stories. At mile 28 or so we stopped for another pit stop. Wendy was feeling great and I know I was still feeling good, but was starting to get a little tired. We told her to go on without us. While waiting for Marie I got the EXTREME pleasure of a hug from Leslie. That was hug number TWO! Am I lucky gal or what?

I really started to feel the pain in my foot these last three miles, and the last mile was particularly hard. I think the fatigue just finally set in. However, I am AMAZED that it really didn't set in until we'd been running about 30.5 miles! I found myself favoring that foot and trying to avoid too much pressure on my right foot! Unfortunately it was one of those "It is what it is" moments. Couldn't make it go away, certainly wasn't going to stop.

About 2.5 miles out I called Roy and Marie called Tim to let them both know we were on our way and hoped to be in within 25 or so minutes. Tim met us at the golf course where he was relaxing, and took both of our packs. Very nice to lose that as it was hot again!

We ran back across this BEAUTIFUL iron bridge at about mile 30 or so (by our watches). At the end...stairs...stairs going down...stairs going down that we had to go down after having run 30 miles. God obviously was laughing when he had them put THOSE in!

Ouch
ouch
Ow
owie
Ouch
Oy!
Ew
Eh
Eh
Eh
Ahhhhhh

Picked the pace back up and ran into North Bend. What a welcome sight! As we rounded the corner to the Elementary school I was amazed at how many people were out who weren't racing. I think that's awesome! We both ran in hard with Roy taking our pictures. They announced my name first, and then Marie's (age before beauty? Oh wait...she's older than me.) Roy, Wendy, and Marie's Tim cheered us in! It was awesome to have our own little cheer squad!

What would you do differently?:

I think the only thing I'd do differently would be to not spend quite so much time at the fuel stops, although I did enjoy those breaks. Other than that, I really felt like I ran a good race. Had we not spent as much time, I honestly think we might have broken six hours. Not by much, but we could have.
Post race
Warm down:

We finished feeling really pretty doggone good for having just run 31 miles. I was really trying not to let on, though, that I was feeling REALLY dizzy! I don't know what it is, but I honestly thought I might pass out. I finally did tell Roy that I needed to hang onto him and sit down really soon, or there was going to be problems.

As soon as I sat down I felt completely fine! Roy took some pictures of us and we all hugged big sweaty "We did it!" hugs! I grabbed some water and they had cinnamon crunch bagels and organic natural peanut butter! Obviously, they love me very very much. Dang that was AWESOME!

We waited for Tim (Wendey's Tim) to finish up. He came in about 5 minutes behind us. It was so cool. The lady giving out medals gave his medal to Wendy so she could put it around her Dads neck. It was GREAT! He thanked us over and over again for keeping an eye on his daughter (like she needed it). We congratulated them both on becoming official maniacs. We did some more pictures and then Marie and I agreed to meet for coffee at Starbucks.

We took off and headed into Starbucks for a venti iced coffee. Man that felt and tasted GREAT!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

The fact that I'm not very fast, bruised foot, the 65 photographs I took!

Event comments:

Absolutely LOVED this race. I ran the Relay a few years ago with my favorite Racy Girls and have always wanted to go back. My initial plan was to make this my first 50k, but Marie talked me into the West Seattle Fat Ass (she had to work REALLY hard on that...about as hard as I had to work to get her to run this one with me).

I plan to definitely run it again...maybe 50 miler next time?




Last updated: 2009-04-21 12:00 AM
Running
06:28:43 | 31.55 miles | 12m 19s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/56
Performance: Good
Total run time was 6 hours but we spent way too long at a few of the water/fuel stops. I'm not positive, but I believe we ran negative splits.
Course: The course started at Snoqualmie Elementary and wound around Mt. Si on a variety of surfaces; sidewalk, road, gravel trail, rocky trail, muddy trail, snowy trail, stumbly trail, and stairs. Yes. Stairs. Do you want to know how much stairs suck at about mile 1? Not even 1/10th as much as they suck at about mile 30!
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

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2009-04-21 11:13 PM

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Subject: Mt. Si 50k


2009-04-21 11:35 PM
in reply to: #2101709

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Master
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Subject: RE: Mt. Si 50k

Great report, Tory!  You continue to amaze me with your love of all things (and distances) running.  I have to say, the ultra people looked like they were having a really fun day for the most part!  Tempting.  50 miles, though?  YIKES!  I will bet money now that you are doing that next year.

It was such a treat to get to see you during the race. I also had stairs on both of my legs, and wondered WTF that was about??!!???

--Leslie

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