 |
| Welcome to Easton! |
The welcome sign that we stopped to take a picture of just about summed up our experience here. On the hour or so drive up from Seattle, Julie and I couldn't stop taking about the amazing trees and dense forest that lined the highway. The trees were so tall that you couldn't even catch a view of the entire towns that laid just behind them. Definitely a contrast to Colorado where the main attraction are the 14ers that line our skylines.
I'm so happy that Cascade Crest 100 found me. The idea to travel to Washington for a 100 mile race started when I looked into doing a race close to a good college friend of mine that moved to Washington several years ago. I hadn't seen him or his family in years, and it would be an excuse to both see them and have an epic adventure at the same time.
I had heard about the Cascade Crest 100 from a couple of friends that had raced it previously. As a Hard Rock 100 Qualifier, the race had a reputation of both difficulty and beauty. With over 23,000 feet of vertical gain, Cascade Crest has the respect of ultrarunners everywhere.
 |
| Course Profile |
I entered the lottery in January and after the draw, I was disappointed to learn that I was #78 on the waitlist and the race only allowed 175 runners. I heard from numerous people though, that the waitlist moves pretty fast about a month before the race, so I held out hope and kept training as if I'd get in. Sure enough, one month before the race, I got the email that I was officially in. I could barely believe it!
I had a decent season of training leading into the race. For the first time in a decade, I took most of the winter off of running to focus on strength training and snow sports. I ramped up my run training in March and put an early season 50 miler on the calendar to keep me honest. Everything was clicking for me and my aging body seemed to be handling the load pretty well. I pulled out a top 10 overall finish at the Collegiate Peaks 50 mile in May and stayed focused on consistency in my training.
 |
| Collegiate Peaks 50 Mile Finish, May 4th |
As I made race plans for Washington, I received a text from my college buddy in WA that they planned a trip out of town to be with family the weekend of Cascade Crest. I understood, but it took some wind out of my sails. In addition, one of my Colorado friends I was traveling to race with called me and told me his fitness wasn't where he needed it to be so he was dropping out.
I took a little time to process the news on both accounts. Through that time, I was stoked to learn that my great running friend Oliver who had moved to Seattle from Denver wanted to pace me. In addition. our good friend and Leadville finisher Joel would be taking a traveling PT assignment in Seattle around the time of the race and wanted to pace as well. While the original travel plans wouldn't play out as we thought, we had an amazing crew and good friends to share the journey with. I was back to my original stoke pretty quickly.
Cascade Crest is a non-profit ultramarathon where no one who
puts on the race is paid. The result is a race that focuses entirely on the
racing community and feels like one of the 'old school' ultra marathons without
all the hype/cameras/live-feeds etc. This is in stark contrast to the big field races with huge crowds and media attention. Don't get me wrong, I also love those other races,
but this one just had a different vibe.
 |
| Race Check-in with Julie and Micah |
With the race starting at 9AM on Friday, all the pre-race
activities took place on race morning. We showed up about 7:30AM, checked in
and listened to the pre-race talk at 8AM. From there we sat anxiously around in
the car until 8:45 and then walked to the start.
 |
| Race Start |
Everyone was super chill as the Canadian and US national anthems were sung by a local kids group and then the race director counted us down "3-2-1-GO!"
We were off down a flat fire road for a couple of miles and
I slotted somewhere in the middle of the large group prior to the first major
4,000 foot climb of the day. My goal was to take it super conservative the
first 50K if possible and then see how I felt. I know I have the ability to
finish stronger than most if I start more conservatively, so that was my plan.
We hit the first climb and I was at an easy/conversational
pace. There was an extreme heat warning in effect and the temperatures were
already in the 90's so I found myself drinking more fluid than normal. The
trail basically climbed up for another 8 miles or so till we hit the top of the
mountain where the terrain would be rolling for a bit.
 |
| Climbing for days |
While I was running conservatively, I was starting to regret not doing more heat training leading into the race. The humidity and heat combined were evident as sweat rolled into my eyes by the gallon. I wiped my eyes so much that my eyelids started chaffing!
If the uphill wasn't challenging enough, the downhills were crushing. A mix of steep jeep road, rocky technical downhill and steep traverse greeted us, and I could feel my toes slamming into the front of my shoes as I made my way down the slopes. What fun!
Clocking off miles I was feeling good for the most part. The
scenery was epic with tall trees breaking view occasionally to showcase Mt
Rainier in the background.
 |
| Views of Mt. Rainier |
Around mile 18, I had been making steady progress but the inside of my quads began to twinge a bit. This was a warning sign that I was down on sodium and electrolytes. I drank some more and popped a sodium tablet while changing up my foot strike a bit to try and relieve the cramping symptoms. This worked for a few minutes until I found myself screaming out in pain. "NO NO NO!!!" I yelled out as I came crashing down in the middle of the trail. Both my legs were in full extension cramping in the worst pain I think I've ever had. If you have never experienced a leg cramp consider yourself lucky. I think I'd rather be stabbed with a knife than cramp up in the legs.
I immediately chewed up some more sodium tablets I had in my pack and drained what was left of my hydration. I had a face full of tears and several runners stopped to try and help me. I took some scratch hydration from a runner and several people tried to help me stand with no luck. Eventually I told them to leave and I'd try and figure it out.
After several minutes of lying there, I was able to get to my feet and start walking. I had about 2 miles to the next aid station up the hill so I walked the best I could, stopping when I felt a cramp coming on. I was able to get so-so cell service and called Julie to let her know the situation.
"I'm problem solving the best I can, but if I can't stop the craping, my race may be done" I told her.
 |
| Focusing on trying not to cramp up |
I finally made it to the Little Bear aid station and I spent what felt like forever in a chair drinking as much electrolyte hydration as possible. I ate 4 more sodium capsules and ate some food till I felt good enough to move again. The aid station volunteers were incredible and so nice to me there. It calmed me down mentally a ton.
So I got back up. I moved cautiously down the next hill but
found that after a mile or so I was able to run again. And run I did! The next
15 miles went by in a blur. I had some great tunes to listen to and the trails
were like butter! I was having a blast and slowly making my way back through
the field one runner at a time.
 |
| Buttery Trails |
I finally made it to Julie, Micah and Joel at the Stampede Pass (mile 36) aid station and it was the first time I had seen them since Easton. I had been out on course about 8 hours at that point. I was feeling much better in terms of cramping. My toes were jacked a bit from the downhill but that was about it. I ate a PB+J tortilla roll up, drank a Mexican coke and ate a bunch of watermelon. We reloaded my pack and off I went to tackle the next 18 miles till I saw them again.
I was still moving well, and outside one more cramp of my
left quad, I was able to run 90% of the next couple of sections. There was a
brutal and rock-filled technical section of trail from mile 43-49, but it was
stunning in terms of scenery so I considered it a wash. I took confidence in
the fact that I was still running past other athletes as they were now walking.
The high alpine running I trained on in Colorado was paying off in terms of my
ability to tackle the more technical sections of trail.
 |
| Technical trails but beautiful views |
I hit the Ollie Meadows aid station at mile 49.1 at about the 12 hour mark. It was getting dark enough through the trees that I pulled out my headlamp.
I ran through the trees at dusk and punched out at another
rocky and steep downhill jeep road. My toes were yelling at me in pain! Coming
to the bottom of the downhill, there was a sign with a rope that draped down
the side of the mountain. The sign said "hold on to this rope on your
descent"!
 |
| The rope into the abyss |
So here I was, alone, in the dark, repelling down a loose side of a mountain twice as steep as the previous downhill! I held onto the rope for dear life, and boy was I glad the rope was there. I took one bad step and found myself swinging out over the void while I held onto the rope with both hands to bring me back to the trail!
After the 1/4 mile or so of repelling, the trail spilled out onto a fire road. I could see two runner's headlamps up the road about 200 yards, but that was it. The moon was not out yet so the darkness was closing in.
After about a mile on the fire road, I came face to face with the 2.5 mile Squamish Tunnel. This tunnel is an old railroad tunnel that takes you under the mountain. It was daunting to look at the entrance and see nothing but blackness ahead, but this was one part of the race I was really excited for.
Entering the tunnel, I got into a running rhythm I could
hold and just focused on the path in front of me. It is disorienting in the
dark space and my head went to some unhealthy places. "What if there is an
earthquake and I'm buried alive? I wonder if there are ghosts in here? What if
I entered the wrong tunnel and they never found me?" You get the idea.
 |
| Tunnel Fun |
It felt like forever in the dark wet space as I listened to the echo of my footsteps and the dripping water from above. The race directors hung some joke skeletons in there for good fun. I embraced every step though and thought how cool it was to have this in a race.
Popping out of the tunnel, you almost immediately spill out into the 54-mile Hyak aid station. It was so crazy to go from sensory deprivation to overload! I was relieved to see Julie, Joel and Micah at the aid station. Looking up in the sky a full moon had risen and I knew there was a glorious night ahead.
I was so stoked to know I'd have a pacer from here to the finish. The mental game that is played in ultras is often tempered with having people around you to distract from the pain and fatigue. I was getting a bit sleepy at this point and my toes were in a lot of pain.
We changed shoes and socks at the aid station and taped up my right big toe to help with some of the blisters that were forming on top of the toe. I ate a full cup of ramen and loaded up on a new pack with water. With a hug and kiss for Julie and a fist bump for Micah, Joel and I were off on the next 16 mile section.
Joel and I were moving amazingly well running most of our section together. It was a mix of asphalt and fire road climbing so I welcomed the relief from the technical trail sections I had covered earlier. Mentally, I just had to move forward which was easy with Joel's company.
I like to think that I'm an easier runner to pace than I was when I first started in this sport. I do a decent job of eating and drinking on my own, but also do an okay job of listening to my pacers when they make suggestions to do more. Some of this is just the experience of understanding my own body at the later stages of a race, and some of it is due to regrets I have in the way I've treated some pacers in the past. Either way, hopefully I'm a little more fun to be around.
Joel and I had a great time talking about everything and
catching up on life. We also passed a ton of people just moving at our steady
pace. We made such good time, that we were an hour ahead our projected time to
Lake Kachess the 69 mile aid station!
Arriving there early, Julie hadn't made it there yet with Oliver. We were able to call her, and she was still 7 minutes away, so we used the time to refill my hydration and eat. Julie arrived and I said hello to everyone, goodbye to Joel and then Oliver and I headed off into the night to get the last 50K knocked out.
Oliver and I wasted no time getting to it. The next section was called the "Trail from Hell". This 6 mile stretch of trail features every obstacle you could imagine! Narrow trail, huge logs to crawl over, steep rocks to slide down, muddy bogs to fall into (which I did) and hardly any runnable terrain. I was surprised post-race to learn that somehow we were still able to knock out 20-25 minute miles over this section.
Leaving Mineral Creek Aid at mile 76, we had a bit of reprieve. We were able to run and hike while Oliver told me FBI stories and we caught up on the joys of Fatherhood and the contrast in CO and WA running. I miss this guy so much as he was one of my main running buddies in CO before he moved. You know you share a bond when years go by and you can pick up like you never separated.
 |
| Sunrise on Saturday |
About mile 81 things began to get real. There was still several thousand feet of climbing to do before the descent to the finish. I was tired, having a tough time staying on top of calories and struggling to be myself. Moving into a section they call "The Needles" we would hit super steep climbs of 1/4 mile or so, just to come down the other side and repeat.
 |
| Down a "Needle" |
Oliver looked over at me and said 'dude, you're fading. You need to eat at this next aid station". He was spot on. I was struggling. My toes hurt and I was blasted. Each "needle" had be begging for the finish line. Fortunately or unfortunately the sun had risen an hour or two earlier so I could see the monsters that were in front of me.
 |
| Oliver and I at the top of Thorp Needle |
We finally made the Thorp aid station at mile 86 after an
out-and-back summit. I ate as much as I could get down, even to my disgust. I
popped 2 Espresso Gu gels and the combo seemed to work. I was able to run
again!
 |
| Getting back after it... |
We descended down the hills, my toes still yelling at me till we hit mile 96 where Julie, Joel and Micah were waiting.
I started to tear up here. Julie looked at me, eyes full of
water and said "you're going to finish this thing babe!" I let the
tears flow a bit as Joel and Micah joined Oliver and I up for the final 4
miles.
 |
| Joel, Micah and I head out of Silver Creek (photo credit Oliver) |
Micah put together a music playlist and Joel carried a JBL speaker as we began clocking off a good clip in the now 97 degree heat. I could smell the finish line, but also wanted to stop time. I had my 12-year-old son next to me RUNNING while my amazing friends gave up their time to help me reach this goal. I can't even describe how this felt. I'm tearing up just writing about it.
 |
| Smelling the finish! |
 |
| The finish! |
I stop and think frequently about these races and what they mean to me. Each one is different and special in its own way. Cascade Crest my be my favorite 100 miler yet. It had all the elements of hardship, difficulty, beauty and family. It also showed me that while we lay out some plans in the beginning of a journey, sometimes the pivot in those plans that are outside our control open the door for an experience that is more colorful than you could have ever dreamed up. Julie, Micah, Joel and Oliver, I love you all and thank you for being part of this story. You are family.
 |
| RIP Toenail |
Comments
Post a Comment