Skyline XTC 50k June 13, 2009

[posted October 4]

June 13, 2009: Skyline XTC 50K in North Vancouver
I spent a bunch of time training on these trails so I would have as much chance as possible of finishing the race. For the first few minutes I ran behind two guys (Paul Cubbon and Desmond Mott) before deciding that was silly, and I caught up to them around the 2k mark. We ran together for most of the first 25K to the turnaround, staying close as one of us was always stopping to hydrate, eat, etc. At the turnaround we saw Meggan and I got some things from the car. Paul and I continued on a strong pace, but Des slowly dropped back. As we reached Cleveland Dam, I felt strong and Paul encouraged me to move ahead as he wasn't feeling great. I ran down to the Pipeline bridge and back to the Cleveland Dam parking lot, where I felt good until I started the climb up toward Grouse. After about 500 meters, I threw up. Twice. Then I felt better, but I couldn't get anything solid to stay down for the rest of the race. So I ran the last 90 minutes with nothing except water. Paul caught me climbing to Grouse, and we moved along together until we reached the Dogleg turnaround with 3.5k to go. As we climbed back up from the turnaround, we saw Des coming down the hill with what seemed to be boundless energy. At this sight, Paul took off (I had nothing since I was unable to eat). I was forced to move forward as quickly as I could down the last stretch of the course. I probably looked over my shoulder 50 times in the last 3km to see if Des was there, but I managed to hold him off by a couple minutes. I finished 2nd of six 50k finishers, in 6:13, on a course with approximately 9000' feet of elevation change. I am now an ultrarunner. We sat in the creek for 10 minutes to soak our legs from the hot day.

Running in the snow

This post is just to extoll the virtues of running in the snow. Today I went for a run on the Lower Seymour trails, and had a great 2 hours in the snow. Even though a rain/snow mix was falling from the sky, the deep snow on the ground made for fun running. Especially entertaining was the part where I had to pass a group of walkers who were oblivious to me until I jumped into the deep snow off the trail to pass them. Then I wallowed awkwardly while trying to move faster than they were moving on the packed trail. I think they took pity on me and slowed down so I'd be able to go by.

This week I registered for my first ultra, the Orcas Island 50K. I have registered for one ultra before, the Collegiate Peaks Trail Run in Colorado, but this time I hope I can actually run the race! One month from now...time to train a bit more.