Wy'East Howl 100k Race

A long race with a short-ish report and a few pictures.
My first 100k (63 mile) race.

I planned my year where my big "A" race event was in the middle of my race calendar with a 50 miler one side and a 50k the other and lots of recovery time in between them.

A few things didn't quite go as planned leading up the race, but that's life and it's how you deal with those challenges that makes the difference between success and failure or misery and enjoyment.  Hard as it was I kept positive but realistic and continued to do the best I could.  After having a cold/flu type bug that took me out for almost three weeks I managed to get to one week away from the race feeling like I was at a reasonable level of fitness but knowing I wasn't anywhere near as fit as I had planned to be at that point.

I left home on Friday afternoon, drove over to My Hood (Wy'east) and spent the night in the car.  Well when I say spent the "night" it was more like a few hours of attempted sleep as I was up at 3am to get prepared for the long day ahead.

My mental preparation was done in the week leading up to the race so Saturday morning was simply a case of getting up and going for a run in the hills with a bunch of like minded people.

For this race, although it's my longest run to date I decided my minimalist Lems shoes were the best option.  I had ran 34 miles with 7,500 feet of climbing the week before the race in them and my feet felt great, so I decided it was a good idea to go a bit further in them.  My reasoning for doing this would make the blog rather lengthy, so I may cover that separately in the future.

At the start line it was still dark at 4:45 ish so we needed headlights.
I'm right in the middle of this picture between number 28  & 50.  My head was in a really calm place and I wasn't even thinking about the long day ahead, I was just really grateful to be there and enjoy the event.

Almost time to go,  I'm the old person on the right.  I usually go light, but for this race I used my running vest/pack so I could carry all the food I needed and it was somewhere to stash my headlight and long sleeve shirt once it got light and warmed up.

The race started at 5am exactly.  We had to do a group howl before the start.  I guess it's not the Wy'east Howl 100k Trail Race without one!

A few miles into the race it got warm and light.

Being happy and smiling helps in a lot of ways.

I think this is somewhere near to the turn around point probably at about mile 28 ish.  Wy'east was looking much smaller now!

I'm not in this picture, but I liked this view, it was very typical of the whole route with the trees and dusty dry trails.

For such a warm and very dry place there were lots of patches of green trees and lots of wild plants.

When it warmed up it was tempting to jump into these cool streams.

Wy'east in the distance.

Somewhere around mile 38 on a seven mile long climbing section of the route I was in a bit of a low point feeling the fatigue and knowing there was still a long way to go so it was the first point I stopped running and slowed down to a fast walk.  As much as I love running up hills I was really looking forward to getting to the top of this one and running down hill for a bit.  I had no intention or thoughts of stopping, I just didn't feel like running much of it and hoped it would save some reserves for the remaining 20 plus miles.

Having now slowed down I knew the huge lead I had at the beginning of the climb was slowly shrinking.  I knew I was in 7th place at this point and at the turn around point I could see I was really far ahead, but I had no idea how fast anyone was gaining on me so it was good motivation to keep going.  I thought I could maybe stay in the top 10 for the finish.

In that section after having ran 30+ miles on my own I was glad of some company when Kami Semick caught up with me and we started a conversation and that got me back on track.  Kami is an elite ultra runner athlete with a lot of experience, I didn't know that it was her until some time into the conversation when we exchanged names.  That's another thing I really love about ultra running, nobody cares who you "are" or "aren't" we are all out there suffering/enjoying the sport together!

We went back and forth for 20 something miles taking it in turns to take the lead and to keep us both moving forward as fast as we could.

I think I still have a smile in this picture.  This was taken in the last 7 mile section.  You can smile and tell yourself it's only 7 miles to go which is usually just a warm-up run distance for me but it doesn't necessarily make it "easy" when you're already at mile 50 something into a run.

I crossed the finish line in 13hrs 30 minutes and 10 seconds.
Still smiling but really glad to be finished and looking forward to some real food.
Kami came in just a second or two behind me and she was also happy to finish and also to see me get into the top 10.  The conversations we had kept us both going for that last 20 miles.

Credit for all the photos above here goes to Steven Mortinson.
https://vimeo.com/stevenmortinson


In 8th place overall and 5th male.  Not bad for my first 100k race!

Elevation profile.  Total climbing was about 11,600 feet.
First half was 5,100 feet gain and 6,500 loss, the return was 6,500 gain and 5,100 loss.
In short, a lot of climbing and a tough return leg with more climbing than the first half and higher temperatures.

The age I feel... Ha! ha!

Cool finishers award.  We got a pint glass too, but that's currently in the dishwasher as it was used after the race for a much needed nice cold drink.

The good stuff:

• I had a great time.  That's always number one goal.
• Had some great conversations along the way. 
• As usual at theses events I met some really interesting people that I know I will see again.
• I finished the race. Bonus!  
• I was struggling to make a good estimate of how long this was going to take me, but I had sub 14 hrs in mind on a good day and 13 hrs on a really good day.  Got bang in the middle of that and happy with the finish time.  The placing doesn't matter and is just a bonus to do well.
• The race was really well organised.  Thanks Jeremy at Daybreak Racing.
• Thanks to all the volunteers at the aid stations.
• My minimalist Lems shoes gamble paid off.  I'm glad I used them and not the alternative.

The not so good stuff:

• Need to work on eating more during a long race.  I took lots with me but I just didn't eat it.  I think I faded on the long grueling climbs partly due to lack of fuel in the tank.
• Add more speed work to my regular running!  I neglected that partly due to losing pretty much three weeks training so I got slower over time.
• There's always room for improvement in mental toughness training too.

If you got this far, thanks for reading my blog.  If not then I guess I done a good job of curing insomnia!

Coldwater Peak loop with Brianne

Another run around Coldwater Peak loop and to the Summit.

Brianne and I took a trip to Mt St Helens, so we started the day at 3am and drove to the Coldwater Lake boat launch, which is roughly a 3 hour drive.  Quickly ate some food and headed out on our run as soon as we could so we would be back to the car before the heat really built up.

Since it was going to be a burning hot day we had to carry a lot of weight in food and water.
I was feeling a bit fatigued from the start from the previous 9 days running load, the extra weight of water added to that fun feeling.  This run rounded off a 10 day block where I ran 130 miles and was a really good high intensity block leading up to my next race.  For me running is fun and I run for enjoyment not just to log miles for training.

We started at the boat launch, ran round the side of the lake for 4.5 miles and then headed up hill for 6 miles to get to the summit of Coldwater Peak.

First views of Mt St Helens after climbing from the lake side.  The flattened tree corpses still left where they were snapped off in 1980 from the eruption blast are just visible.

Coldwater Peak where we were heading for.

We were up above the snow line but it was mostly melted out.  I noticed quite a bit of change in the snow level since being here a week before this picture.

Action shot of Brianne part way up.

Mt St Helens behind Brianne.  This was about 50 feet below the Coldwater Peak summit.

Its such a beautiful place and views like this make the early start and long drive there and back worth the effort.

At the summit of Coldwater Peak.  Mt Rainier is behind us.  The wind was quite strong but the heat from the sun was still very evident.

Brianne enjoying the view.  This is on the way down about 2 miles from the summit.

Beside the rock with the hole in it.

The trail heads though this hole in the rock. 

This is an interesting rock feature.  Its apparently a massive land slide which exposed the harder rock.  The picture doesn't give the scale but it was quite a few hundred feet high.

The mountain in the background adds a little perspective.

After we eventually finished the run (I was feeling the effects of my high mileage 10 days block) we cooled off in the lake after eating.  Then it was time for the long drive home.

See my previous blog entry for the stats of the route.  I don't need to repeat them here again.

This is quite an interesting bridge on the Spirit Lake Highway, the bridge is about 400 feet high.  The little dot on the road in the distance was a fairly large pickup truck for scale.

Some details about the bridge.

Coldwater Peak Run

A short blog about a run in the Mt StHelens volcanic monument area.

One of the races I have on the calendar for 2019 is the Backcoutry Rise 50k race which starts at the Mt StHelens Science and Learning Center, travels along the edge of Coldwater Lake and then heads up hill into the real backcountry area where there's mountain lakes, amazing views and wildlife to be seen.
The run was hosted and organized by Daybreak Racing and North West Dirtchurners so a big thanks to Jeremy and Shane for hosting this race preview run.  There were about 25 of us in the group.

I've been to a lot of mountainous and back country location, lakes, beaches and forests, but the area around Mt StHelens has to be my favorite.  The pictures below just cant do the amazing scenery justice.

The group run covered 18 miles of the 20 mile race route. The 50k route heads further into the mountains and I'm looking forward to seeing than during the race.

Below are some pictures from the first higher point after clearing the forests trail and lake side.

Coldwater Lake is below this ridge.

Looking over the valley

Dusty dry trails all the way when up higher.  Every where you look there's a view of some sort.

A few miles further along we stopped to regroup.

Even more scenic views.

We were higher up into the mountain side at this point.

Mt StHelens.  You can see all the dead trees pointed in the direction of the blast which occurred on May 18th 1980.

The pointed summit in this picture is Coldwater Peak, myself and one of the other runners decided to go to the summit to add a few more miles to the run and for a higher 360 degree vista.

This is the top of Coldwater Peak, there's two peaks up there and this is Yassine heading between the two of them to the high point.

Sign showing the elevation.  5,727 feet ASL

Me with Mt StHelens behind me.

Mt Rainier in the background.
I don't have pictures that turned out showing them all, but Mt Hood, Mt Addams & Mt Rainier were all clearly visible from this mountain top.

The gray part in the lake below is sun bleached dead trees still there from the 1980 blast when they were pretty much all snapped off at about 6 feet from the ground and left there like bones.  Over time the snow and ice melting causes them to slip into the water.  Most of the lakes have dead trees in them.

Heading back down to the lake the temperature was rising and heating the ground so It was a bit hot for my liking.  Being a bit higher up increased the intensity of the sun a bit more too.

Screen print of the map showing the route.

Elevation profile.

Overall it was a great day out.  The three hour drive out to the location was well worth it.
Brianne and I will be going there some time soon so I can show her the location beyond what she has already seen there.

Thanks for reading my blog. More adventure runs and race reports to come in the near future.

Tillamook Burn 50 Mile Trail Race

As mentioned in my last blog I had signed up for the Tillamook Burn 50 Mile race.

It was a long race, so its a fairly lengthy blog post, but there are plenty pictures to look through too.

Leading up to the race day I pushed myself through a fairly intense five week program, including some high mileage weeks and a reasonable amount of recovery between harder efforts culminating in five days of no running and some very light cycling effort just to keep the muscles active.  I included a 100 mile week somewhere in that lead up too.  My average weekly mileage ranges throughout the year between 50-70 ish.

The night before the race I got my things ready as it was a really early rise the next morning.  3 AM in fact, way before the birds even thought about waking!

Gear needed for the 50 mile race.

When I put my small waist pack together and all the clothes I needed for the race it reminded me how vastly different endurance running is from my mountaineering adventures.  I seem to pride myself in how little weight I need to carry while running, but still maintaining the safety essentials and other required items.  On the flip side of that with mountaineering and the training for that it seemed peers boasted about how much weight we could carry.

This was all the gear I needed for a short mountain climb for comparison.

So with the stuff all ready for the morning it was off to bed early ready for the 3 AM alarm clock wake-up call.

On the drive over from home to the start location it was slightly damp but not raining.  About 7 miles East of Cannon Beach the rain started and at points it was so heavy that the wipers on the car were struggling with the volume of water hitting them.  That lasted until about only 8 or 10 miles away from the start location where it was pretty much dry except for a very slight hint of misty rain.
I wasn't too concerned about running in a bit of rain though.  In fact it can be really nice.

After checking in and getting my race bib number, having some breakfast and hydrating it was time to stand by the very welcoming fire blazing by the start line.

Photo credit for all the pictures below here go to Steven Mortinson https://stevenmortinson.com/

Check-in location, ran by volunteers.

A very nice welcoming fire to warm up beside.

I'm just left of the middle area of this picture.

 The daylight arrives very quickly once it starts.  Here is Jeremy the Race Director (RD) getting us ready for the off.
I'm one row back at the left in the orange shirt.  I like to get quite far up the pack at the start and try to stay there for the duration of the race.

Almost time to go, you can see everyone getting ready to set the start time on the watches.

And we are off.  Its a long run ahead, but you're not thinking about that at this point.

My thoughts in this first stretch were:
1. Don't over cook the pace at the start
2. Keep relaxed
3. This is fun.

From the start there's a fairly flat section with a slight decline as it heads for the forest.  That "slight" decline I know on the way back was going to feel like a bloody mountain!
After the first mile and a bit, hardly enough time to realize you're running the first hill climb starts.  I was feeling far from warmed up at this point and some muscles were asking me why I was even running at 6 am and not sleeping.  I knew after the first climb and then the 6 mile descent that I'd be ready for the next set of climbs.  Well, I hoped that was going to be the case as I've experienced in the past.  There was nothing else to do but run at this point.
I got to the first aid station and there was someone I know working there, got my water bottle topped up and headed out really efficiently.  I like to have my water bottle ready and with the lid off as I'm entering the station so I don't waste valuable clock time messing about.

I found myself a nice speed to run at and passed a few others and got into a group of four going about the same pace as I felt comfortable with.  After a few miles this ended up with only myself and another runner for the next 8 or 10 miles.  As usual you get into a conversation and find common ground to pass the miles.  The next major land mark on the trail came and went in what seemed like good time, then the climb to the next aid station went well.  My complaining muscles realized I wasn't stopping and decided to cooperate on this climb so I didn't notice them any more.

This aid station was operated like a 5 star kitchen and the humor of the workers here in their chefs attire was very welcome.  Thanks Wy'East Wolf Pack!

Next was the run down a long section and across a bridge over the Wilson river.  I was very well aware while running down this section at a good clip that I had to climb back up there on the way back.

Getting my feet wet at a small crossing.

I had been intentionally drinking more water than I usually would since the aid stations were mostly only 5 miles or so apart.  Since I am pretty well fat adapted I opted to hold off eating until about 16 miles, so just before the University Falls aid station I had a date and nut butter bar followed by some cashew nut butter.

Once again, in and out of the aid station as fast as possible.  Again someone else I know was here so good to see another familiar face. (thanks Shane).
There was a short out and back section on a side trail to the waterfall.

Once out of the aid station it was off down the trail towards the first turn around point at Rodgers Camp trail head.  This was a varied terrain section some open clear areas and other parts through gorgeous forest which at this time of the year was really starting to turn green and lush.

I was analyzing my pace and unusually I was coasting down hills faster than usual and the up hill parts felt a bit more labored than normal.  I'm normally a really strong hill climber and this perceived slowing up hills was annoying me.  I suspect since I've just got much better after working on my down hill skills that the up parts "feel" slower.  I know my average pace has been getting much better this year.

Somewhere about the 30 mile mark and still going strong, but I was starting to feel the distance at this time.  Overall though I was making progress faster than I had predicted, I was also saving some energy for the final climb much later.

After running back though the last two aid stations for the second time it was off to the final 6 mile out and back section.  This lead up to the Summit Trail Head aid station.  I got my water topped off there ready for the longest leg between water points and the 6 mile hill climb which I hoped I had left enough energy in the bank for.

 Thanks folks for getting me in and out really quickly.

I was flagging a bit on this section but mentally knowing that it was all going in the direction back to the finish line really helped.  After 37 miles and only 13 to go it felt good to be heading back.
Quite some time before here I caught up with (or possibly he caught up with me, I really don't remember) another runner and we went back and forth for the final section.  Thanks Kevin for helping me pass the miles and allowing me to ignore my brain which was telling me to stop while I told it to shut up because there was no way I was even thinking of stopping.

On the final climb, the one I have mentioned I don't know how often now it was tough to keep running.  I had no doubt that I could finish the race but every step I walked on the steeper parts I was cursing the time I was letting slip past towards my goal time.  I really wanted to reach my goal.
Interestingly nothing was hurting, mentally I think I was also fine, but a couple of muscles were just not firing as fast as I was asking them to.  I was getting a little frustrated at this because nothing hurt but I just couldn't get the speed out of my legs that I wanted.  I had to keep pushing on as every step got me one step closer to the finish and some hot food and music.

I finally got back to the last aid station where the friendly familiar face (Nate) greeted me and I got my water re-filled, which since it was just over 9 miles since the last top-up was now empty.  I did have a small reserve bottle but I only ran out about 10 minutes before the aid station so I didn't feel like digging it out of my pack.
I ran the last part with another runner (Adrian) and finished the race feeling great.
Somehow I found the reserves to run at a reasonable pace down the last hills and the "mountain" of a slight "decline" at the start didn't feel as brutal as I expected going back up it.  I guess after 50 miles the sound of the finish line was a strong lure pulling me towards it.

 The final few meters to go.  Adrian and I ran the last 3.5 miles together and with his help I kept a good pace so I made sure he got into the finish just before me as I told him should happen.

As at every Daybreak Racing event and for every finisher, Jeremy the RD greeted me with my finishers pint glass and a friendly welcome back. Thanks Jeremy!

Now its eating time and I was really looking forward to some hot salty food!

After finishing the race the photographer Steven Mortinson somehow shot these less than complimentary pictures. Thanks very much!  I thought I would share them here for some laughs.

This I think has to be the worst picture of me I have ever seen.  I now know what I will look like in 20 years 😲 I had just crossed the finish line with eyes filled with dust and salt residue so I was squinting somewhere into the distance.

I really don't know what to say about this one, leave a comment below if you can think of a good caption.  I can only assume I was wiping of crusted layers of dried sweat and dust from my face.

Summary of the race.

50 Miles. 8,600 feet of climbing up and down.
Start time 6 am on April 27th 2019.
My finishing time was 9 hrs 16 mins 52 secs
17th place overall out of 101 finishers and 118 that started.
I had a goal of sub 10 hours, and a stretch goal of 9 hrs 30 mins.  I somehow managed to not just reach my stretch goal but smash it.  I am usually quite accurate with my time goals and I rarely meet my stretch goal let alone smash them!
The weather was interesting.  Out on the course through the rain forest we got some sun, a little bit of misty rain and even some hail stones.  The temperature was perfect, and not too hot or cold.  At the finish line sitting around in wet clothes you could feel the chill in the air.  The fire was very welcoming.

Where I placed and my finishing time.
Full results here: Results 50 mile race

Route map. Start and finish is just off the top.

Elevation profile.  As can be seen some fairly aggressive climbs.

Ready for the drive home after some enjoyable time by the fire chatting with new acquaintances and listening to the blue grass band.


Credits:
Race Director: Jeremy Long - https://www.daybreakracing.com/tillamook-burn
Photos: Steven Mortinson - https://stevenmortinson.com/