Impostor no more - My Squamish 50 experience

By now I have about a dozen Ultras under my belt and although there was some chafing in the first one and some queasiness in quite a few of them, I couldn't help, but feel like an impostor. Why? I never experienced any of the Ultra running "rites of passage", like blisters, puking, debilitating cramping, lacerations and such.

That was about to change during this year's running of the Squamish 50 miler. This was to be my second 50 mile foot race. My first one, last year's Sun Mountain 50 miler in Winthrop Oregon (find my race report here), went shockingly well from start to finish without any issues whatsoever. Now, although there was no one single issue that slowed me down and made my plans go sideways at the Squamish 50, there were a few compounding issues that left me suffering in a fairly dark place for most of day.

Still having fun 20 k into the race (it's a smile not a grimace)

About half way through the race I developed some chafing on my thighs and later on in some other areas that shall not be further specified, but made the post race shower one of the least fun experiences of the day.

Furthermore my shins and calves were on the verge of cramping throughout the second half of the race. My shins on the uphills and my calves on the downhills, which had the added "bonus", that when I tried to stretch one of the areas the other one would immediately seize up.

Although I still didn't have to throw up I got to the point where outside of the aid stations I was hardly even able to tolerate water, leave alone food. Interestingly enough when stopping at the aid station (i.e. not moving) I was still able to take in some calories, although too much food at a time didn't work out so well either.

One other issue I dealt with were my lower abs which got really sore and hurt me quite a bit, especially on the downhills. Now this is an issue I have dealt with in the past, but never got quite as bad as in this race. This really upset me, because for the last 9 months I had been really consistent about adding some weekly strength and core work to my routine, which it seems did nothing to alleviate the problem.

Lastly my mental "fortitude" was such, that I was pretty much hosting an 8 hour pity party for myself. I got to the point where I was about 90 percent certain that I would drop at the 5th aid station about 53 k into the race. This was the biggest aid station of the day with lots of cheering friends and family. I continued mainly due to the volunteers doing a phenomenal job of pushing my sorry butt out of the aid station and back onto the trail. From this point forward there was a lot of hiking involved. My saving grace was that my friend Eric caught up to me at aid station six at around 62 k and we were commiserating for much of the remaining 18 kilometers. In the end I might have finished the race mainly, because I was too proud to ask for a car ride back to the finish line from any of the last 3 aid aid stations. In between aid stations there is not really a way to drop out anyway since you are in the middle of the forest. I violated the "beware the chair" rule and enjoyed a few minutes of chair time at each of the last two aid stations to "contemplate life", which seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn't have too much trouble getting back up either actually, so no regrets there.

Overall this was probably my worst race ever in terms of my finishing time vs my initial expectations. It is also the one I am most proud of though, since I managed to stick it out and not quit although my body begged me to. I shed my "ultra-impostor" label and am now able to move forward. I think I still have a ways to go in terms of improving on my mental fortitude. After finishing this race, I have a hard time imagining how people are able to finish -let alone excel in- events of even longer distances. Ultras are all about managing your body, which I thought I was getting pretty good at. It's back to the drawing board now though. I need to take stock of what happened and try to improve upon a few things in my training and preparation.

I suffered through a 50 mile footrace and all I got was this T-shirt :-)

If you are looking for a tough and beautiful 50 mile race with awesome support and course marking that makes getting lost near impossible, the Squamish 50 miler is for you. There are 50 k and 23 k options by the way, which now seem like incredibly appealing, more sane options to me. Co- Race Director Garry Robbins is known for designing  tough courses, but he really outdid himself on this one.

Happy running and racing,

Marc

Gorge Waterfall 50 k Race Report

The Gorge Waterfall 50 k was going to be my second Rainshhadow Running race after completing the Sun Mountain 50 miler in May of 2014 (check here for my race report).

After some tough negotiations we decided to go to Oregon as a family.

Going into this race I was confident about my gear and nutrition choices. The only tossup was my shoe choice, but in the end I had to opt for my slightly beyond broken-in Altra Lone Peak 1.5 over my newer still somewhat shiny 2.0 version. Why? Because I have trained in the 1.5s lots, but I haven't raced in them yet. I tend to remember my past footwear by the events I ran in them and the Lone Peaks deserve to be remembered after they fall apart down the road ... or rather down the trail.

Finish line high fives are the best high fives

When it comes to racing I am a bit spoiled I must confess. This race was something like my tenth ultra (depending on how many of the fat ass events I participated in you count). To this day I have not had a really bad race in which I had to suffer mightily. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I wish for it or that it's been all bees and butterflies. It's just that some rites of passage like losing a toe nail or puking my guts out mid-race have not been part of my racing experience yet. Things just happened to go well for me thus far. Going into this race I envisioned myself frolicking through a balmy springtime Oregon while enjoying the sights. Aside from one big climb towards the end of the race the course is very runnable and I was dreaming of maybe earning a sub 5 hour finishing time. That's not quite how it played out though.

Here are a few details on how the day went:

Scenery:

expected: 9/10

actual 7.5/10

Don't get me wrong. There were portions of the race that were clearly a 10/10. The course has singletrack, mossy rocks and beautiful vistas of the river valley till the cows come home. Just the road portion, which was not quite as low traffic / quaint as advertised or imagined,and the virtual absence of waterfalls in the first 2/3 of the race course were a bit of a bummer.

Multnomah Falls. Good news: You get to see it during the race.
Bad news: you'll have to climb up and over the hill it flows down.

Technicality of the course / ankle twist potential:

expected 4/10
actual 6.5/10

Running on North Vancouver trails, I found in the past if people tell you trails are technical, they are usually not all that bad, since we have some pretty gnarly conditions to train on around here. In this particular case my "North Van technicality adjustment factor" was off though. There are a lot of smooth stretches of singletrack in the race for sure, but there are a whole bunch of really rocky sections along the course that really demand your attention too. More often than not these are in the more scenic sections of the course too which doesn't help with focusing on the task at hand (i.e. staying upright and keeping both ankles intact).

Cheering / aid stations / finish line:

expected 7/10
actual 9/10

There is limited access and parking for spectators along the course. Therefore there was a higher concentration of family and friends in certain areas, which made for a great atmosphere. Cheers and cowbells always help to lift my spirits.

My finish line welcome committee.

My surefootedness:

expected 8/10
actual 4/10

One fall. One near ankle twist and several stumbles weren't what I was hoping for. Reciting the trusted Caballo Blanco mantra of "Easy, light, smooth, fast" in my head didn't remedy the troubles with my footing. I think going out too fast had me pretty knackered by km 30. If a world class athlete such as Krissy Moehl puts down a 5:13 it's not entirely realistic for me to be ahead of that by any margin. Stupid UltraSignUp algorithms put me at about 4:48. I think there was a course change at one point. So the course record on which this prediction was based could have been a wee bit off to say the least.

Mental Fortitude:

expected 8/10
actual 4/10

My head was a bit of a whiner during the race. For the better part of the first three hours I was running in a group of somewhere between 3 and 15 people. To my surprise there was zero chit chat going on though. Maybe we were too focused on moving somewhat swiftly across the ground. As a result I spend a bit more time in my head than I would have wished for. You know how it is with those heads. They are never happy:

"If you just ran slower this might actually be fun and it would definitely hurt less"

"Who comes up with these things? Why would you pick a hobby like ultra running anyway?"

I was well prepared physically, but hadn't really prepared myself mentally to race and run hard. During the tougher stretches of the race all I wanted was to sight-see, run with a friend, take pictures and take my time. Now that the event is over and the memory of the challenges I overcame faded, I am back to thinking: Let's race harder and crack the top 50, 30, 20 or whatever number it might be in a given event.

By the way if you're just some random guy or gal who slips by me towards the end of a race , be my guest and "out-kick" me. 9 out of 10 times I couldn't care less...unless I know you. That usually triggers my ego and I will give chase. I should probably develop a strategy for digging down deep and finishing strong regardless of who is around me.

Soreness after completion of the event:

expected 4/10
actual 8/10

I was about as sore as I have ever been after any race. On a few occasions in the past I raced hard and recovered really well. This time I was absolutely wiped for a couple of days after finishing with my legs, upper back and shoulders being the main areas of discomfort. To make matters worse, this happened after I was really, really good about strength training in the 4 months leading up to the race. Therefore I foolishly expected less soreness than usual rather than more. Baffling.

Gastrointestinal distress:

expected 1/10
actual 8/10

I promise I won't go into too much detail, but in the last hour of the race I had to step out of line twice, including a visit to the Multnomah falls visitor centre washroom with only about 5 mins worth of course left ahead of me. My tummy didn't agree with something I ingested pre-race, although I wouldn't know what it could have been.

In the end I finished a few minutes under six hours, but more importantly we spent a great family weekend exploring the beautiful area around Portland and, if nothing else,the experience of this race helped to keep me humble and reminded me that things don't always go as expected.

The Gorge Waterfall 50k is a very well organized event that lived up to its awesome reputation. Thanks to all the volunteers and to everybody who helped to make it such a memorable day. Special thanks to my family and race director James Varner for smiles and finish line high fives.  Also a big shout out to the fine folks working the wood burning pizza oven trailer for making a special meat and cheese free pizza for me and for being very generous with the serving size.

See you on the trails,

Marc