Repeat after me: Never ever think you cannot finish a race. Never.
Saturday February 1, 2020
We woke in the bunkhouses at Camp Moran on Orcas Island to find that the torrential downpour of rain had stopped. A Pineapple Express (warm wet air from Hawaii) brought in over 100 mm of rain over the past 24 hours. Camp Moran was pretty soggy, with water threatening to run into the main building.
Of course we knew that the rain meant that the race course would be wet. Charlene and I had gone for a shakeout Friday evening after we arrived. The trails we ran on were muddy with lots of puddles. We expected that today.
That's where the negativity for me started.
I don't usually get anxiety, but it shows up at times. This time it showed up in my subconscious with a vivid dream of trying to climb a muddy hill in my rather worn Caldera and not moving an inch. Meanwhile, other runners passed me. I woke up thinking I wished I brought runners with bigger lugs to handle the mud. I also woke wondering if I would be able to run this course. Not a great mindset to start with.
Start to Mountain Lake Aid Station (10 km)
The first 1.5 km is on road with a gentle climb. After the usual race briefing (the Race Director James joked that due to the heavy rain, we'll be doing six repeats of Powerline then a swim on the camp lawn) we were off. I set the same pace as last year, holding constant on the climb up the road. The difference this time was the rivers flowing over the road. Our feet were soaked within minutes of the start.
Off the road and our first trail and slippery mud. I had my poles which helped a bit to stablise but most it was trying to find traction and not slip and slide. I didn't bother trying to bypass puddles, it was easier to just go through. We had to be careful though as we could not see what was under the muddy water. By the time we reached the road I was 4 minutes behind last year's pace.
Off the trail and back on the road for the 3 km climb up Mount Constitution. I used the same strategy as last year, running 80 paces, walking one minute and repeat all the way up. Looking at the splits I'm pleased that the road climb was exactly the same time as last year. From here we had a steep down hill. Last year it was just a steep trail; this year it was for the most part a river, and where there was trail a mud slide. In sections we actually wondered if we'd gone off trail and were following a river instead. But then we'd see flagging and know this was the right route. It took me 4 minutes longer to get down than last year.
I arrived Mountain Lake Aid Station 8 minutes behind last year's time. That seemed reasonable to me. So far I was feeling pretty good and pretty confident.
Mountain Lake to Mount Pickett Aid Station (13 km)
I didn't stop at Mountain Lake. I just called out my number and keep going. Running feels hard after the climb and descent but after a few minutes the legs recover. I remembered that from the last two times I did this race. The lakeside run was nice and the trail wasn't too bad and fairly runable. I made it to Twin Lakes about 4 minutes slower than last year. Going around the lakes took 10 minutes, same as last year, despite wading through thigh high water on one 20 metres of so section of trail. The trail sign pointed into the lake, which stumped me at first until I realised it was a flooded trail. I stepped in and it went up to my thighs within two steps.
From here the course climbs to the summit of Mount Pickett, and I'm pleased to see my time to climb it this year was the same as last year. So I'm losing time on the down hills and some super muddy or flooded sections.
I arrived at Mount Pickett Aid Station about 25 minutes behind my time last year. It took me almost 20 minutes longer to get from Mountain Lake Aid Station to Mount Picket than it did last year.
Mount Pickett to North Arch Aid Station (10 km)
Leaving Mount Pickett Aid Station I was concerned about cut-offs at Mount Constitution. The trails were just as bad and slow going. My legs started seizing up, which was early in the race for that to happen. It took me 1 hour 44 minutes to get to North Arch, 14 minutes longer than last year. I arrived about 8 minutes before cut-off. I decided to keep going.
After North Arch
I started the climb up Powerline, with the usual slippery mud I'd come to expect today. I started doing math on the assumption it took me 2 hours to reach Mount Constitution Aid Station last year in good conditions. Given each leg has taken 8 to 20 minutes longer than last year, and on the assumption that trails on Mount Constitution were just as wet and slippery as the rest of the course, I figured I would miss the cut-off at Mount Constitution Aid Station by 10 to 15 minutes. I decided I didn't want to climb all the way up just to get driven down, so instead I gave up, returned to North Arch to drop.
My assumptions were wrong. Last year it took be 1 hour, 45 minutes from North Arch to Mount Constitution, and those that finished the race said the trails were better on the mountain. So if I'd have kept going I would have made it with some time to spare.
For whatever reason, I wasn't feeling it and didn't have the desire to push myself and finish this race. There could be many reasons, such as I've ran it twice before, I'm sweeping it next weekend and I'm still feeling the effects of running the 120 mile Fat Dog race last August.
Lesson learned. Keep moving and don't try to do math while running an ultra. And think positively. I had an off day mentally and it killed the race. I won't let that happen again.
Beer and pizza at the finish line still tasted awesome and I did enjoy watching others finish what had to be the toughest Orcas 50 k race ever.
Addendum
I returned to Orcas the following weekend to volunteer for the 100 mile event. This is four 40 km laps that goes up Mount Constitution, then Mount Pickett, then twice over Constitution on each lap. I, along with Charlene Waldner and Andrew Barclay did the overnight safety sweep starting at 8:30 pm and finishing at 5 am. While conditions were worse than the week before, with heavy rain, cold wind, dense fog, snow at the summit mixed with water and thick mud and flooded trails, I felt much stronger, and my heart rate was lower running up the hills. The 43 km loop took us 8 hours, 40 minutes, which given the terrible overnight weather and trail conditions and almost zero visibility in places, it was about what I would expect. I also wore my North Face Ultra Vertical shoes, which had much better lugs for muddy conditions. I had much better traction than I did at the 50 km, and I wished I'd wore these the week before.
Next is:
April 6 - Rim to Rim to Rim at Grand Canyon, a 70 km adventure run from South Rim, to North Rim and back in one day. Plan is to start in the dark, run down South Kaibab Trail, over Black Suspension Bridge and up North Kaibab to the North Rim (which will be closed with no services), turn around and go back down North Kaibab to the White Suspension Bridge, then come back up Bright Angel Trail to the South Rim.
July 25 - White River 50 Mile race in the shadow of Mount Raineer. This will be run more as a training run for Cascade Crest, which is one month later.
August 29-30 - Cascade Crest 100 Mile Endurance race along beautiful trails in the Cascade Mountains, including 50 km along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). I paced Andrew Barclay on the last 50 km of this course and ever since I've wanted to do it.
Then maybe a bit of rest for a month or so, and do some easy local trail runs through winter.
