Weekend Warrior Runner - R2R & NODM

Photo: Autostock


The phone rang @ 5:00 AM Saturday morning. Our Y-Run Club relay team needed a runner because one of the guys had been called to investigate a crime scene. I had volunteered to be the reserve runner for the team because it looked like their team captain George wasn't going to be able to run due to some flu like symptoms. I'd gotten an email from George on Friday night telling me he was good to go so I thought I was off the hook. I ended up running leg three of the relay at a blistering pace and then the primary runner was able to show up to finish his other two legs. It was fun to participate and I got in a 5K which about the same distance I had planned to run that morning with our run club.

Michelle's 6 person team for the Rainier to Ruston 50mile Relay started the first of 12 legs at 8:00AM. Check Michelle's blog for full details and pictures.

When the relay ended and the awards were presented Margaret Barrett, Michelle, and I loaded up our car and headed to dinner. After dinner we drove to Port Angeles for the North Olympic Discovery Marathon (NODM). We met up with Abi in Port Angeles and dropped Margaret off. They were sharing a hotel room in town. Michelle and I had made our reservations eons ago and headed to our Super 8 hotel. Not the best choice of hotels but we hit the hay and tried to get as much sleep as possible before catching the shuttle bus to the start of this point to point marathon.

We picked up Abi & Margaret in the morning and caught the 7:00 AM bus. This put us at the start at about 7:40. NODM uses a nice community center to stage the runners before the event. It's large, warm, and has plenty of bathrooms and porta pottys. It's a nice time to meet some of the runners and relax before the race.

My game plan was to maintain a moderate pace for the first 20 miles and then hammer in the last 6.2. On some advice from a former participant I was told I should probably hold off on the big push until around mile 22.

The course is best described as flat with some moderate rolling sections and about four steep climbs out of some gullys. The bigger dips and valleys were between mile 18 and 22.

All went to plan and I felt really good at mile 20. I picked it up a bit but was holding back some for the next two miles. When I'm racing one of the things I like to do is pick a person in front of me to catch up with. Once I catch them I tuck in behind them for about a quarter mile to recover and then move on the the next victim. I had a young very fit looking runner pass me toward the end of mile 21. We had been playing cat and mouse the second half of the race. When he passed he looked strong and I decided to hitch on and try to keep up. Apparently he wasn't in a very cordial mood when it came to someone drafting him because he gave me a bunch of attitude and told me to get away from him. His approach shocked me and didn't sit well considering I was in full race mode and feeling just a little competitive at the time. I'm sure I had a touch of tude in my voice when I responded that I was just drafting him. Long story short, I don't think we will be drinking beers together anytime soon. Takes two to tango.... if I'd just let what I perceived as a pissy comment go I probably wouldn't be writing this right now.

The last miles were long but I pushed hard and was able to trigger the gun timer at 3:30:05. My Garmin time was 10 seconds faster than that. That's a PR for the year and I feel great today.

The runner that I had the run-in (pun intended) with walked by me a few minutes after the race. Perhaps our little incident did him some good because he got a PR with this being his second marathon. I'm glad he did well. He looked capable of running a much faster race so I'll probably see him at races in the future. Hopefully it will be before the race when we both aren't full of testosterone.

Now I have two weeks before my scheduled 36 Summits attempt. I've been giving it some long consideration and I know I will go for at least 24 Summits. I'm concerned that the 102 miles and 31,500 feet of climbing for the 36 Summit run might just be considered over training just 6 weeks out from the Canadian Death Race. Hester will probably tell me that bones heal in 6 weeks but I'd like to keep active before the race.

PEACE OUT