Sun Mountain 50km

Kathy and I went up to Winthrop with Chase to participate in James Varner's 1st annual Sun Mountain trail run. We rented a cabin at the Chewuch Inn for a couple nights. It was a nice little spot, just right for our Saturday night barbeque while relaxing after the trail run. It sure beat driving five hours to get home on the same day as the run. Winthrop is a beautiful area in which to spend the weekend, too.

The trail run itself was an alternate course, due to lots of snow still lingering on the higher parts of the course. James enlisted some volunteers to help put down dirt and hay and remove ice from the lower section of the course, and he came up with a pretty good 10 mile figure 8 loop, which we ran three times. There was one aid station right in the middle of the figure 8, so we got to pass by it every 5 miles. It was also close to the finish, and I think a few people dropped before they completed all the loops because they heard the siren call of pizza and beer calling them from the finishing area.

At the start, I tried to hold back (as I had no idea where the course went), but I got caught up with the front group of runners who went out extremely fast. On the second loop of the first figure 8, we had some steeper hill climbs, and the front group of about five 50km runners disappeared ahead of me. I struggled some more with the hills and eventually convinced myself that I should finish the run a little easier and forget about catching up to the front pack - out of sight, out of mind. Needless to say, I think I enjoyed the run more when I wasn't trying to vye for placement. Right near the finish, I ended up running with two other runners, as we had all caught up with each other at the same time, and we ended up running the last quarter mile together in a reasonable time: 4:40-ish or so. Chris Twardczik put in a valiant effort of leading the pack for a majority of the way, but Brian Morrison snuck past him at the end to win. Brian likes to run a faster second half of the race, so you never know when he is going to sneak up behind you. Chase finished the race in a reasonable time, but suffered a little from cramping issues, which seems to be somewhat of a perennial problem for him.

After chowing down on pizza and beer and cheering on the other runners for a while under cool, sunny skies, Chase, Kathy and I headed back to the Inn for a relaxing barbeque on the back porch, followed by tequila shots when the beer ran out (Chase is a bad influence).

The next morning, Easter, we headed out for breakfast in Winthrop, and ran into James and Allison at the local cafe. Allison is the trail running poster child for the Methow Valley, although she has only lived up there for a year. James, too, is really settling in as a trail running race director up there, and told us about three more ideas for trail runs that he is thinking about putting on, only hours after this one has finished. I'm sure I'll be up there again soon.