I finished - 50k

I ran the Chuckanut 50K yesterday. It was my first ultra-marathon. The race is 31 miles on mostly trail. It starts on the interurban trail in Fairhaven and makes its way up to the Chuckanut mountains by Larrabee State Park. It is a very challenging course with thousands of feet of elevation gain and everything from technical trails, pounding downhills, daunting uphills, to rolling flats. I finished in 6 hours and 2 minutes, which I was pretty pleased with considering I didn't do as much training as I would have liked due to a nasty cold I got a month ago. I couldn't have asked for better weather - cool and crisp in the morning, a high of 60, mostly clear skies, and no rain or wind!

Amber (Mylo's cousin) and I chatted on the first 6 miles out the interurban. The climb up Fragrance Lake felt good. The views from the Two Dollar and Ridge trails were beautiful {and I only tripped once on the technical terrain on the ridge}. Even the 2.9 miles climb up Cleater Road wasn't so bad. The back side on Lost Lake trail flew by and by the time I got Little Chinscraper {who's name by the way, is an accurate description of the steap grade of that trail} at mile 21 I was still feeling pretty good. Chinscraper was a grind and my thighs were burning something fierce, but I powered through and started downhill on Cleater Road again. My right knee and hip started to hurt with all the pounding downhill so I took a couple off Ibuprofen and tried to ignore it. When I got to the Fragrance Lake road {last few miles of downhill before the final six miles on the interurban} my hip and knee were feeling pretty painful. I think I lost a little time here because I couldn't go as fast downhill since it was hurting so much. When I finally reached the last aid station on the flat I had some renewed energy and kept up a pretty good pace {except for the hills, which I pretty much crawled up}.

I qued up my i-pod to my PUMP IT UP mix and powered back down the interburban. I was feeling pretty tired by the time I got to Arroyo Park, but I never felt like I hit the proverbial wall like I had in my two previous road marathons. Maybe it was the trails, but I felt good. Tired but good. I sped up for the last few hundred meters and finished feeling strong. So there it is. I am officially an ultra runner now.

We celebrated my finish with fries, a coke, and strawberry milkshake from Wins Drive-In. Which by the way, tasted heavenly. I got a pretty good assortment of blisters on my feet, a little bit of chafing, and some sore muscles and joints. Even my arms are sore - go figure. I am moving a little slower today, but I feel pretty decent considering.

the start {Ollie was not happy when I left him}

the final aid station at mile 24ish


finishing strong in my Nuu-Muu exercise dress {which I got a ton of comments on}

almost done...


the finish

Amber {Mylo's cousin} and me and Ollie afterwards

Here are a couple videos from the day - one when me and Amber were coming into the first aid station at 6 miles {apparently he freaked out after I ran off - poor little guy} and one of Oliver snoring in his car seat. Obviously he thought the race was very exciting.