Before I get to Sunday's big run, I'm gonna jump back to Thursday. I missed Thursdays run because I was buying myself a new truck!
Saturday was 2 miles at what was supposed to be EB + strides. Ended up being EA + strides. Donna ran it with me which made it fun!!
Sunday. Chuckanut 50k!!!
Well. I finished it. It was a miserable day. Cold, snow, sleet, wind, rain. Everything except warm.
So, I found out Saturday when I went to pick up my race packet that I needed to submit my time by noon on Sunday. Obviously that wasn't going to happen. I would have had to start at 4am. Now, I'm not opposed to running at 4am but on a trail that I hadn't run the first 6 miles of with a head lamp seemed like a bad idea. So I stuck to my plan to start at 7am and not worry about submitting my results.
Anyway. Actually took off at 0655. Ran into the first challenge just past mile 2. The bridge that crosses a creek had a tree fall down on it and they had it fenced off. Sooooo, thru the creek I went. It was cold! and now I had wet feet. Not to worry really, the feet would have been wet a couple miles down the road anyway.
As expected the first 7 miles was pretty easy. Stuck to a slow but steady pace, trying to reserve as much energy as I could for the mountain itself. (good planning) Donna met me at the turn around and I had a half of a pb&j sandwich. I'd already had GU's at 3 & 5 miles. Just wanted to have some other stuff along the trail.
After mile 7 the tough part started. I walked when I had to and ran when I could. Up to 10.75 miles, it was pretty uneventful. Then a very pleasant surprise. My niece met me on the trail!! It wasn't the niece I started training with. This niece had run Chuckanut before and knew that Cleator road would be a challenge. So she ran and walked with me up Cleator. About 4 miles in total. Then she headed home, but she'll appear again, later in the story. Donna met me at the intersection of Cleator and the Ridge Trail. Half a banana and a hug and kiss!!! Still taking GU and water every 2 miles as well. As I would throughout the run.
Somewhere around mile 14 I started getting twinges of calf cramps. Crap! Not like super bad but when I would have to jump over something or or make an awkward movement of some kind. Which is often along the ridge. Also, sometime around now is when I started getting some twinges in the groin. F. This is not good. Oh, and I forgot to mention, at mile 12 it had started snowing. And the wind on top of the ridge was brutal. I had dressed for 40 and dry, but the snow, sleet and rain had me soaked thru already. But as long as I was running I was still feeling ok.
From mile 18 to 21 ish it's just a sloppy soupy mess. Cold deep mud everywhere on the trail. I eventually got tired of trying to get around them and just started running through them. My feet were already soaked so it really didn't make that much difference. Well..... not right away. My nephew rode his mountain bike along the trail backwards and met up with me at about 18 miles. What a great surprise!!! He followed me until the beginning of chinscraper (mile 21) where he headed home to warm up and I headed up.... and up... and up. This is where things started to really turn south for me.
Chinscraper is basically straight up for a little more than a mile and 800ish ft of elevation gain. As I was walking, the wet and cold really started to hit me. By the time I got to the top, my fingers and toes were starting to go numb. The stop to get another PB&J, a half of a banana, refill my water bottles with water and gatorade took some time. I kinda felt like I might puke and I really didn't want to eat. But I knew I needed fuel so I forced the food in. And all that standing still didn't help. I started back down and thought if I could just get running again, maybe I could warm up. After about a mile I started to get feeling back into my fingers and toes on my left side, weird that it was just the left side. After about 1.5 miles, the right digits started to thaw. It was still a super wet slog down, but at least I was out of the wind on that side of the mountain and the snow had changed back to rain.
At about mile 25 I got back on the original trail and started heading back to the start/finish. Donna met me there with more PB&J, bananas and gatorade. When I took off from this very short break, my right knee started protesting. Not sure when I tweaked it or if it is my IT band, but it was painful to run! Eventually it loosened up enough that I could keep up a slow but reasonable pace and as long as I was moving it seemed to be holding up ok. The problem was, that I was so freaking tired I couldn't keep running. I would run for a few minutes and then walk for a few and every time I would start back to running it was the same process of pain.
At about mile 26 my niece showed back up on her mountain bike!! And she brought pickle juice for me! Now I'm not one to drink pickle juice normally, but I'd heard in the past that it helps with cramping and she confirmed from her experience that it was true. And to be honest, at this point I would have put just about anything in my body that might help with the cramping. Turns out, pickle juice might just be a magical elixir or possibly a placebo, either way at least in my case, it definitely helped. It didn't completely eliminate the cramps. But it made them manageable enough that I didn't have to stop and stretch.
When I told my niece that I had run through the creek, she laughed at me and said I didn't have to do that. There's a different route that avoids the creek. (would have been nice to know that 7 hours prior) Anyway, she showed me how to avoid one more trip through the creek and rode her bike all the way to the finish line with me. I did a fair bit of walking the last 4 miles. My legs felt numb by now and it was all I could do to trot for a few minutes at a time.
Got to the finish line at 30.9 miles. Seriously Garmin you couldn't just give me the extra .1. No worries, I ran the extra .1 in the parking lot. No way was I coming up short on distance!!
Tim and Kelly (nephew and niece, aka bike riders and runner) were a Godsend. There were several places along the route where I had thoughts of saying screw this. But them meeting up with me and encouragement were perfectly timed!! Afterwards, their offer of a hot shower and relaxing at their home was a welcome offer!! I don't a have the words to express how much their help was appreciated.
Donna was trooper! She is not one to like driving in snow, especially on an old logging road. But she never once complained and her hugs, kisses and PB&J's were just what I needed and honestly kept me going. She stood out in the cold and snow looking for me and was always ready when I showed up!!
Biggest lesson learned. Running on a mountain, even a small one is to be taken seriously!! Weather at the top, is not the same as the weather at the bottom. If I'm to do anything this nuts again, (which i doubt will happen) I'll be investing in better rain gear and waterproof gloves! I think the cold might have contributed to the cramping and overall fatigue.
@DopeyBadger Billy, thanks for another amazing training plan! Given the conditions I believe I did about as well as I could with your help!!
Not really sure what the next goal is. Right now it's to be able to stand up and walk pain free. After that, I'll reevaluate!!!
