White River 50 Mile Trail Run

I decided to "become a runner" this year and upped my trail running to a base of 50 miles per week. My ultimate goal is to run Cascade Crest 100 mile race coming up on August 29th, but I also decided that I wanted to do well in the Washington Ultra Series. After a solid performance in the Capitol Peak 50 mile race earlier this year, I might even win the Ultra Series, so I decided to try my hardest at White River this year. I really wanted to to beat Chris Twardzik, who I always seem to be chasing down at the end of trail races this year. He has started to run a lot of 50km trail runs this year and has been doing really well.

I drove up to White River with Murray Maitland on Friday night to check in. Adam Hewey heckled me a bit about just turning 40. He is 41 and had his eye on the prize money for the top 5 Masters finishers; however, I decided not to join the USATF and so was not eligible. I was pretty sure that I could finish in the top 5 Masters, but I wanted to enjoy my race without feeling like I was competing with everyone. Murray and I headed back to our campsite at Buck Creek (within earshot of the starting line) to prepare for the morning's race.

The race started at 6:31am on Saturday morning after we waited an extra minute for Scott Jurek to get to the starting line. I intentionally stayed in the middle of the pack for as long as I could, and after 15 minutes of warming up, I moved my way slowly up through the field until I was right behind Chris Twardzik. I ran behind him for a while, but once we reached the hills, I decided to push myself a little harder and see if I could create a sizeable lead before the turnaround at Corral Pass at mile 17. I caught up with the next group of runners and followed them as we worked our way up to Ranger Creek. There were two women in our group of runners: Kami Semick and Prudence L'Heureux. They would be fighting it out for first place.

At Corral Pass (mile 16.9, 2:44), I was feeling great. I remember two years ago, I reached Corral Pass and I didn't want to leave the aid station as I was already feeling the pain. It's amazing how much training helps. Chris Twardzik was two minutes behind me. As there were a lot of early starters, I couldn't really tell how I was doing as far as position went, but I was definitely on pace for a sub-8:20 finish (10 minutes/mile), which was my goal.

The downhill from Ranger Creek to Buck Creek was the best part of the course: soft easy downhills with long switchbacks let me pick up the pace without hurting myself. I was feeling even better. I heard footsteps behind me and saw Adam Hewey trying to reel me in. At Buck Creek (mile 27.2/4:10) , I stopped for him so that we could run together up the steep climb to Suntop. It was good to have company, and time flew by as we mostly hiked the climb under mostly cloudy skies. We caught up with Phil Kochik as well, and the three of us stuck mostly together all the way to Suntop. We passed Kami Semick during this section, which really made my day. Kami was more worried about where Prudence was, but we hadn't seen her and figured that she was a fair ways back. Kami seemed relieved.

At Suntop (mile 37/6:05), we started the quad-busting 7 mile downhill on a logging road to Skookum Flats. I had a blister on my heel that was increasingly bothering me, but I ignored it and pushed on. Phil, Adam and I all ran this together, although I was working a little harder than they were. I still felt good, but in retrospect I should have been more concerned with eating and drinking in preparation for the last section through Skookum Flats.

We quickly breezed into Skookum Flats aid station (mile 43.4/6:50). I looked for a few Gus to pep me up, but didn't see any. I quickly filled up one of my bottles with water, thinking that was all I would need for the last 6.6 miles to the finish. Adam and Phil left the aid station and I charged after them, but after a few hundred yards, I had to stop to eat something. After that, I couldn't get going again. I had bonked. I struggled to run, but hiked some of the harder parts. I nibbled at another cookie that I had in my waist pouch. I drank the last of my water and realized that I was overheating as well. The day was really heating up. The minutes seemed to drag by, and Adam and Phil were long gone. Then Chris Twardzik flew by, looking good. Ugh. I pushed myself to run as much as I could. Only 15 more minutes. When I saw the road, I gained some renewed vigor and ran in to the finish: 7:50:15. Very respectable and about a half hour better than I had been aiming for.

Adam and I headed down to White River to soak our feet, where we joined some of the trail running luminaries (Uli Steidl, Mike Wardian, William Emerson). Then I hobbled to the medical tent to have them clean the grit out of my blister, which covered most of my heel. I really enjoyed hanging around and chatting with the other runners. The finish line at White River is a very social place and most people hang out and cheer on the other runners that are coming in.
Murray said that he was planning on running in 10 hours, so I had a few hours to relax and recover while waiting. After Murray finished (10 seconds ahead of schedule), we enjoyed some post-race BBQ and then drove home, happy and satisfied. I'll definitely be back next year.