Sunday, March 16, 2008

50 Cubed

It was a 50's weekend! I ran my 50th Marathon or greater distance race at Chuckanut , It was a 50K, and Michelle ran her first 50 miler at Pacific Rim 24 hour!


Shawn Lawson finishing Chuckanut 50K. How did I get that picture?results


















Jenny and Michelle finishing their first 50 miler at Pacific Rim 24HR






Steve Stoyles finishing Pacific Rim with 105 miles, His first 100 miler.


















Lisa Bliss 2007 womans winner of Badwater running at Pacific Rim 24 HR.













Rob "Rattler" Hester talking to his cardiologist before attempting to eat the worlds largest cinnamon roll.
















Chuckanut 50K had good weather this year with just light rain at the start and a few spittles along the way. The temperature was perfect at around 45 degrees F. I arrived at the start at 7:00 AM after walking just a short 1/4 mile from my fathers home where I spent the night. The race seemed to have a lot of late arrivals with a long line of people still trying to pickup race bibs and chips just 10 min. before the start. The race seemed to start on time and I tried to work my way up to the front third of the pack. The first 6 miles of the run are on a fairly wide gravel trail with just a short section going to single track along a small creek. Eric Gierke a Marathon Maniac took the first fall of the day in this section making a mud dive and scraping up his knee. Annie Thiessen was witness to his crash and was trying to tend to Eric. Since I knew Annie was a potential front runner I encouraged her to move on and that I'd make sure Eric was OK. She took off and ended up placing 3rd. Eric was fine once he got moving again. It always sucks the joy out of a run when you crash, especially when it's in the early miles. The first aid station is located at mile 6 and then you head out to the first real climbing. The middle section of the run which is about 18 miles is on or around Chuckanut Mt. and has one epic climb they call chinscraper. The trails were muddy but I was glad that I was up in the top third of the pack because they were going to get much worse as more runners stirred it up. I stayed steady in the climbing and went to a 50-50 pace walk/run in the tough parts to keep my momentum going. This worked well for me. When I hit the last aid station with 6 miles to go I was feeling good after a long down hill run. As soon as I hit the slight up hill grade of the flat trail I felt a bit heavy legged. I managed to run about 2 miles and then I started my 50-50 routine again. I finally got my legs back with just two miles to go and ran it in. With a time of 5:34:40 I shaved 10 min. from my time last year. I saw Bushwacker, Olga, & Gail from Oregon at the finish.

After the race I showered at my dad's place and then jumped in the car for the drive down to Longview WA where Michelle, Steve, Rob, Jenny, Cat, and Jamal were running the Pacific Rim 24HR. The five hour drive when surprisingly well and I didn't need to stop for any rest along the way. Jess Mullen, and Leslie Miller who both ran Chuckanut 50K also came down to the race and were attempting to run another 50K distance. Crazy women! The course is a one (1) mile loop around a lake. The path is mostly crushed rock with a few short sections of concrete sidewalk.

When I arrived in Longview Rob and Jamal had finished. Rob had not had a very good day and Jamal banged out 46 miles really fast and paid the price with some total body pain. I ran them out to get a burger and picked up some coffee for Michelle and Jenny. When we got back I changed and ran the last four miles with Michelle and Jenny. I got to chase a muskrat that was up feeding on the grass near the lake. I came fairly close to it but when it realized I was coming after it, it showed amazing speed and agility as it headed back into the lake. After Michelle's and Jenny's 50 mile celebration I ran one lap with Steve Stoyles who was at mile 73. Then Michelle and I went to a motel for a good nights rest.

Michelle and I went back to the race in the morning and managed to witness Steve finish with 105 miles. We all headed out to breakfast at Stuffy's. This restaurant serves massive portions. We were joined by tc who had run around 107 miles, and Wendy & Jessica who drove down to run some of the final miles with Michelle and Jenny.



We finished the weekend by going out on a 3 hour cruise on a friends 90 foot boat. It was a great weekend! It's the one on the left.

27 comments:

Olga said...

Great run, and Michelle rocked! I had no doubts. I found the course to be less muddy than last year, despite been in the last third of the pack:) But the weather was surely better.

Sarah said...

Congrats on your 50th! Sorry to miss you at Pac Rim. We left just before 7pm.

That is the scariest looking cinnamon roll ever!

Donald said...

Funny picture of Rob. Congrats on your 50th. What a great weekend for you and Michelle!

Laura H said...

Great weekend for you all! The mud was really really really stirred up by the time I got to it. Still a good course (though I could do without that flat six miles at the end!) Congrats to both of you!

Unknown said...

Nice job at Chuckanut! When a Rattler panics he usually strikes. I think it's time to panic rather than just go about life accepting my suckage. Don't worry I won't go slithering off into the bushes.

Rattler

King Arthur said...

10 min. PR great job.
I passed a lot of runners in the last 10 miles that had "dead legs" and were walking or shuffling along but sadly none of them were you! :*)

Meghan said...

How exciting, for so many different reasons! Congrats to you and Michelle for each of your gigantic milestones this weekend!

I have to know, what the heck is Rob trying to eat? It looks like a big pile of cake icing with a few dollops of ice cream on top! He better have been consulting with the cardiologist before tackling that thing!

And, the boat, was it the floating garage on the left side of the photo? Hmmmn, maybe I would have stayed ashore. ;)

Again, congrats to everyone!
Meghan

Jon said...

Nice work at Chuckanut! Your times are not only improving from before, but you're turning into quite the climber. You'll be smokin' the Canadian Death Race for sure at this rate!

And you got to tell me where Rob got ahold of a cinnamon roll the size of a boulder!

Lisa B said...

Great run at Chuck, Eric! Also very nice to see you at Pac Rim for Michelle. Congrats to you both!

Devon said...

Great run. It was awesome to see you guys out there.

I used my top secret road running prowess to hang with the lead pack on the flats...now I just have to work on my uphills and I will be set!

Congrats on a great run!

seagull junker said...

way to run man. michelle and jenny looked great all day. when we left steve was cranking 'em out man. he looked good too. sounds like a most excellent weekend.

Thomas said...

Wow, what a jubilee! Not many people ever get that far. I'm in awe - what a great couple.

Say, is that monster in front of Rob really edible?

Leslie said...

WOW! That's a good weekend. It's my West Coast Wet Dream! Ahem - so to speak...

A dirty 50k on trail, a dirty weekend with my honey, a shared run and a great accomplishment to top it all off! Congrats to you both, it sounds like a great weekend.

Leslie

Joe said...

Awesome weekend Eric. Nice run for you...congrats on 50!!

Gotta hear that story of Rob's cinnimon roll...

Scott McMurtrey said...

congrats on #50. most impressive, though, was the successful five hour drive afterwards.

you may have a keeper in michelle. ;)

aquaasho said...

Congrats Eric to you and Michelle! You're an inspiration!
Thanks for your kind and motivational words over at mine> It's extra special coming from an ultra-ultra-runner like yourself!

Steve S said...

See, you are faster without me slowing you down. Nice run AmiBro and thanks for the company at Pac Rim. Go easy on Shawn, I'm surprised she is running any ultras this soon after Susitna. Hopefully, I'll be walking Thursday night if my feet recover.

shawn said...

You really showed some "spirit" on Saturday Eric. Congratulations on your PR! I'll have to tell Michelle Maislen how it felt to get dicked.

I'm most impressed, however, with the fact that you didn't have to stop on your drive down to PR. Hey - that's PR squared! :)

Also, I hate you for posting that picture of me :) ...I did NOT want to "push it in" (that sounds dirty), but the lady on the microphone was screaming for us to sprint and the guy beside me told me to take the lead across the finsih line.

Shawn "Dirty Shoes and Dirty Mind" Lawson

Trevor Garner said...

Nice work on your successful Chuckanut! I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend especially since you incoporated a five hour drive to support Michelle and Jenny and then got yer sea-legs on out on the open water... ARRRRRRRGGGHHHH!

Jack said...

Congratulations on your 50th marathon and the PR. I hope I make it to 50 before my body falls apart :-)

runliarun said...

Michelle is my hero. Did Rob finish that cinnamon roll?

adam said...

I'd have to say that a 10min. PR while running your 50th bodes very well for the next 50 races! Congrats!

Adelyn said...

Sounds like 50 is a great number for all of you :)

Congrats to all for stellar performances

(of course, with all the genuine amazingness in the post, the one thing that my mind is still fixated on is that cinnamon roll....wow!)

Sarah Elaine said...

Congrats on your 50th!

As for that cinnamon roll - WTF?! I gotta get me one of those. Can you bring one with you when you come up?? :-)

Dori said...

What would you have done if you actually caught up with the muskrat?

Congratulations on your 50th marathon or greater. I'm looking forward to meeting you at Big Sur.

Anonymous said...

OK, I can't even remember anything you wrote. I'm just amazed at that cinnamon roll! That's crazy!

Glad you had a good weekend and accomplished yet another milestone! (Almost as amazing as that cinnamon roll!) :)

Darrell said...

Nicely done. I will use you as inspiration to get back to it here soon.