This weekend Brianne and I headed from home to the beautiful Mt St Helen's area where I participated in a mountain trail race.
We left on Friday afternoon with the car loaded with the tent and a load of home made organic food stuff for the weekend.
Arriving at the race location where the event organiser hired the Mt StHelen's Education Center where we had the use of the camping field and all the building facilities.
With the tent setup it was time for an early night ready for the race in the morning.
On Saturday morning the view from the tent door was stunning, with the double peaks of Mt St Helen's shrouded each with a lenticular cap.
It must have been pretty windy up there on the summit. The lenticular clouds are formed by strong wind over the rounded summit peaks where the airflow acts like an airplane wing.
View from the tent.
At the start line keeping warm, where it was pretty cold in the morning up at the 3,000 or so foot start/finish area. My race started at 9am, I snagged the last spot in the 20 miler when I booked this event.
I had a great time on the run.
Cruising down the hill somewhere between mile 1 and 4.
This worked out really well for me because I always feel warmed up and ready to go by about 5 miles into a run. The 5 mile area on this course is where it starts to climb almost 3,000 feet in only 4 miles in a constant climb. Hill climbs are where I excel.
(Photo credit to Pursuit Films)
At one point in this area I had quite a number of people following me, I guess they must have liked the pace I set for the pack, or was I just going too damn slow... I think not :) They all disappeared one by one till I got to the first aid station alone.
(Photo credit to Pursuit Films)
I crossed the finish line in 3hrs 39 mins 12 seconds feeling great. Jeremy Long the race director greets every finisher. I have a nice new pint glass for the effort and a reminder of a fantastic weekend out in the mountains.
(Photo credit to Pursuit Films)
It took a lot of mental effort to process the fact I came inside the top 10 male finishers and got my name on the finishers board. There were about 150 ish others behind me so I was elated to get a top ten result (9th Male, 11th overall).
I've been training for longer distance races and runs, and I went into this race not feeling like I was very well prepared or tuned for a short distance race and I didn't expect to place very well. How wrong I was!
Along the way I met and ran with a great bunch of like minded runners. Thanks to all of you who shared the trails with me.
After the race the RD provided hot food and drinks, which I really enjoyed.
The elevation profile for the race is below. About 5,000 feet of climbing and 5,000 feet back down over the 20 mile route in stunning back-country scenery. It was a privilege to get to run in the Mt St Helen's monument area and across the 1980 Volcano blast zone where the Earth literally turned inside out!
The picture below is a view of the route we took in the race. It dropped the 500 feet down to the lake, then went clockwise up the lake and at the top end climbed up and over the mountain just to the left of the center of the picture. The route then headed down and across the ridge at the right rear of the picture, its the second ridge back with the mostly clear top in the center of the right hand side. Then it went all they way back down and round the lake to make a complete loop then 500 feet back up to the start in the last mile.
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