An amazing day in the Pacific Northwest! Saturday provided great weather for a 50k stroll on the trails around Chuckanut Mountain in Bellingham, Washington. One year ago marks the day of my first ultramarathon at the 2009 version of this same race. One year later, one year older, and one year better. That's how it's supposed to go, right? It is funny how memories fade over a year, because I truly had myself convinced that the hills of this course were not as steep as I perceived them to be last year. However, somewhere around the 12 mile mark, my memory came back! Those hills are flippin' steep. A good example of the steepness is the signature climb (Li'l Chinscraper) which comes at mile 20 and gains 1000 feet in a mile.
The race starts in the Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham. Marty and I exchanged our good lucks and headed out. Marty would start a bit slower than me (that's called experience - he has more!) The first 6.3 miles are fairly unenventful on the Interurban trail that runs south and overlooks Chuckanut Bay. This portion is relatively flat and can have a big influence on the rest of the race. I comfortably reached the first aid station in 50 minutes - right on an 8 min/mile pace, which is what I wanted to do.
The next 4.2 miles begins with a reasonable uphill section of 2 miles that gains about 1000 feet up to Fragrance Lake. That's followed by 2.2 miles of flat and downhill to the 2nd aid station (42 min 5 sec). This is where Marty caught me last year. Next is a long uphill grind on a gravel road for nearly 3 miles that gains about 1600 feet, followed by a very technical 3 miles on the Ridge Trail and somewhat relaxing 2 miles, then a 3/4 mile climb and 1 mile descent to get to the base of Chinscraper. That whole portion was 9.8 miles that I covered in 2 hours, and still no sign of Marty, yet.
So, did I mention that Chiscraper is steep? It goes up, gets steeper, and just when you think it can't get any steeper, it does! After 6 minutes, I hear "This is where legends are made!" behind me and here comes Marty. Due to the steepness, we're both walking, however, our walking paces are at different ends of the spectrum. Marty passes me with 1/2 of the climb still to go. I managed to climb that 1 mile hill in 22 minutes and Marty is out of sight!
The best thing about reaching the highest point on the course is that you can only go down from there - 3.6 miles & 1800 feet. Now, downhill running definitely requires some skill, especially after 21 miles. Sure, I could just charge down and blast my legs, but what about the final 6.5 mile return to the finish? I spent the first 1/2 mile or so recovering from the last hill and the prior 20 miles, gradually allowing gravity pull me down the trail. I managed to pick off at least a dozen other runners on that section - completing it 27 minutes with Marty still out of sight. He is a bit faster on the downhills than I am now.
As I finished the downhill and tossed my extra bottle to my pal Eric, I knew the next 6.5 miles were going to be a challenge. Eric says that I'm just a couple of minutes behind Marty. I just need to go 10 seconds per mile quicker to reel him in.
A funny thing happens between 8:00 am and 12:00 pm on this race. The flat 6.3 miles that we ran at the start, has now become a constant uphill grind with some shorter, steep uphill sections. I swear that they must bring in some dozers and regrade the trail after the morning run. As soon as I get to a straight section, I can see Marty's white shirt and white hat. I'm pretty confident I'll catch up to him, so I plug away. At this point, I'm shuffling along at a 9 min/mile pace. That's going to have to be good enough. As Marty comes within a couple hundred yards, I pick up the pace and pull along side him with 3.5 miles to go. At that point, I've already decided that we're going to finish together. Although that last 3.5 miles was tough, it sure went by a bit quicker running with a buddy. We crossed the finish line in 5 hours 23 minutes. For Marty, that was the best time for him in that race by 2 minutes, and for me it was 31 minutes better than last year.
For those who are interested in such things, my race day nutrition included two bottles (22 ounces each) with coconut juice (from young coconut) and water that I had soaked raisins in overnight. I finished most of that and 1 other bottle of water. I felt fine. The weather was nice, but cool. Looking back, I might have taken more water or nutrition, but I was never hungry, thirsty or felt like I was lacking anything. But, after 31 miles, I was done!
Recovery has been good. Some minor soreness the day after. Monday's run was short, started slowly, but ended feeling really good. I'll get back on the mountain trails on Wednesday.
It was a great day for our whole group. We had 4 doing their first ultramarathon - they all had successful days. And, another had a 46 minute improvement over last year. So, a fantastic day had by all.
Some pictures;
Me on Chinscraper: http://www.pbase.com/gtach/image/122955343
Marty on Chinscraper: http://www.pbase.com/gtach/image/122955342
Me downhill at mile 10: http://www.pbase.com/gtach/image/122938610
