Saturday 2/20/2010
12 Summits
When you live in Washington or for that matter what is considered the Northwest, you are living in one of the United States ultra running Meccas. The Seattle area and Washington has produced some of the legends of the sport and currently has some of the elite, national runners. When you live in an area like this, there are some well known training runs. One of these training runs is the 12 summits. The 12 summits is actually the 6 summits of Tiger Mountain, but it is an out and back so your total summits in a day is 12. The distance in 34 miles and the elevation gain is 10,500 feet. It was a training run I read about it 16 months ago and told myself I wanted to do it. When my friend said a group was doing the 12, I was in. I describe the run simply as; climb up and run down, then repeat 11 times. It was a very grueling 8 hours and 11 minutes. One of the greatest things about this 12 summits experience was the day we picked to run. It was a beautiful, blue bird, sunny day. We saw Mt. Rainer, the Olympics, and the Capital peaks near Olympia. It was a great day for running and I can not think of a better way to have spent the day. I must admit, the 12 summits pushed me to places I haven't felt since my first 50 miler, which was my very first race over 18 miles in length. On the nice side, I am not as sore, nor as tired as I was after that race. Well, I will probably never be considered one of Washington's elite Ultra runners, but I can at least understand what it feels like to train like one of them. Ever time I complete training run like this I have more and more respect for those that have the physical and mental ability to run ultras and for those that do it competitively. They are also a supportive and pleasant group to associate with as well.
Sitka Sunrise
Sometimes it pays to walk the dog
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Orcas Island 2010
Orcas Island 50K February 6th, 2010
Well for the 2nd year in a row I headed to run the Orcas Island 50K and for the second year in a row the weather was fantastic!
Orcas Island 50k is run at the Moran State Park on Orcas Island. It is somewhat of a Ultra runners trek to Winter Camp. The run is based out of the Moran State Park learning center and camp. Some of the runners stay in the camp cabins and others camp there. My friends and I rented a cabin at West Beach Resort and Campground. We had a cabin on the beach and it was a wonderful time. I had a burger and a couple of beers before Friday night then got some good sleep.
The race started at 8:30 am. This is a late start for most 50K races, but because some people catch the early Saturday morning ferry to Orcas, the race starts a late to accommodate for that. The sun was out for the start of the race, temps were low 40’s I would say. I started with some running friends but then after we started to get to some of the first good climbs I started to pull away from them. It is always hard to know at the beginning of the race if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I train with one of these friends regularly and we have a similar pace and he was one of the people we were sharing the cabin with. So I don’t want to be going out to fast, and I also don’t want to leave my friend behind either. In the end though, they will catch me if I bonk and they will let me know about it. The goals for the race were come in around 6 hours (time last year 6 hours, 38 minutes) and try to stay strong through the entire race.
The race has two aid stations (mile 11, mile 24) and one water station (mile 21). I was moving really well in the first 11 miles which climbs up Mt Picket which is on the eastern (I think that is the compass direction) boarder of the park. I felt strong and arrived at the first aid station at 1 hour 45 minutes. I moved onto the second major climb so after that and again felt strong. The sun was out but there was a nice breeze hitting me in the back and the temperature wasn’t too hot. I moved into the water station at mile 21 at about 3 hours and 30 minutes. I felt strong and moved onto the Mt. Constitution climb to aid station 2 at mile 24. The climb was hard, but I felt like I was climbing well and the scenery was amazing. I caught the view towards Mt. Baker a few times. I arrived at the 2nd aid station at about 4hours and 15 minutes. Then I started on the steep quick downhill. After the downhill comes a one more uphill section that isn’t very steep and here is where I started to falter. There was a runner just a few yards ahead of me and I used him to set my pace. I wasn’t struggling enough following, but if I passed I wasn’t sure I what would happen. Then I started the long downhill to the lake and then the last long mile or so to the finish. That last long mile I was really pushing, but that didn’t mean I was going fast, it just meant I working really hard just to keep a decent pace. I pushed up the final small hill, then turned down the small hill to the finish in a final time 5 hours 45 minutes. So I managed to reach one goal, but the other goal eluded me. I still feel good about this run. Not a bad start for this time of the year.
Gear, Hydration, and Energy:
Asics running short
Headsweats running visor
REI long sleeve running shirt
Montrial Hardrock 09’s
Mountain Hardware gaiters
Drank one bottle of HEED from Hammer before the race started
Ran with two water bottles one ultimate direction water bottle and one Nathan water bottle. Started with one bottle of HEED and one bottle of Perpetum café latte flavor. Filled the bottles with one nuun and one water at each aid station.
After race drank one bottle of Recoverlyte from Hammer
4 hammer gels, peanut butter and jelly sandwich quarters at each, so keebler fudge strips, peanut m&m’s.
Well for the 2nd year in a row I headed to run the Orcas Island 50K and for the second year in a row the weather was fantastic!
Orcas Island 50k is run at the Moran State Park on Orcas Island. It is somewhat of a Ultra runners trek to Winter Camp. The run is based out of the Moran State Park learning center and camp. Some of the runners stay in the camp cabins and others camp there. My friends and I rented a cabin at West Beach Resort and Campground. We had a cabin on the beach and it was a wonderful time. I had a burger and a couple of beers before Friday night then got some good sleep.
The race started at 8:30 am. This is a late start for most 50K races, but because some people catch the early Saturday morning ferry to Orcas, the race starts a late to accommodate for that. The sun was out for the start of the race, temps were low 40’s I would say. I started with some running friends but then after we started to get to some of the first good climbs I started to pull away from them. It is always hard to know at the beginning of the race if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I train with one of these friends regularly and we have a similar pace and he was one of the people we were sharing the cabin with. So I don’t want to be going out to fast, and I also don’t want to leave my friend behind either. In the end though, they will catch me if I bonk and they will let me know about it. The goals for the race were come in around 6 hours (time last year 6 hours, 38 minutes) and try to stay strong through the entire race.
The race has two aid stations (mile 11, mile 24) and one water station (mile 21). I was moving really well in the first 11 miles which climbs up Mt Picket which is on the eastern (I think that is the compass direction) boarder of the park. I felt strong and arrived at the first aid station at 1 hour 45 minutes. I moved onto the second major climb so after that and again felt strong. The sun was out but there was a nice breeze hitting me in the back and the temperature wasn’t too hot. I moved into the water station at mile 21 at about 3 hours and 30 minutes. I felt strong and moved onto the Mt. Constitution climb to aid station 2 at mile 24. The climb was hard, but I felt like I was climbing well and the scenery was amazing. I caught the view towards Mt. Baker a few times. I arrived at the 2nd aid station at about 4hours and 15 minutes. Then I started on the steep quick downhill. After the downhill comes a one more uphill section that isn’t very steep and here is where I started to falter. There was a runner just a few yards ahead of me and I used him to set my pace. I wasn’t struggling enough following, but if I passed I wasn’t sure I what would happen. Then I started the long downhill to the lake and then the last long mile or so to the finish. That last long mile I was really pushing, but that didn’t mean I was going fast, it just meant I working really hard just to keep a decent pace. I pushed up the final small hill, then turned down the small hill to the finish in a final time 5 hours 45 minutes. So I managed to reach one goal, but the other goal eluded me. I still feel good about this run. Not a bad start for this time of the year.
Gear, Hydration, and Energy:
Asics running short
Headsweats running visor
REI long sleeve running shirt
Montrial Hardrock 09’s
Mountain Hardware gaiters
Drank one bottle of HEED from Hammer before the race started
Ran with two water bottles one ultimate direction water bottle and one Nathan water bottle. Started with one bottle of HEED and one bottle of Perpetum café latte flavor. Filled the bottles with one nuun and one water at each aid station.
After race drank one bottle of Recoverlyte from Hammer
4 hammer gels, peanut butter and jelly sandwich quarters at each, so keebler fudge strips, peanut m&m’s.
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