Many of you have been encouraging me in my crazy quest to complete the Comrades UP run, this June, in Durban South Africa (www.comrades.com). For those of you who don’t know about Comrades, it is THE biggest ultramarathon race in the world, and likely the most famous (provided you are generally speaking to someone not from North America). It’s been my dream for 10+ years to do this race - I nearly did in 2007 before having to stop running to address an autoimmune disorder (blech) - but this year is the year. It’s been a busy few months, lots of double-long weekends, lots of interesting foot stuffs, food stuffs, chafage, and I think I am starting to go a bit nuts (ok, more than usual). Part of the plan towards June 2nd was to complete one or more 50k races, so when my bud JenSw told me about the Chuckanut 50k - as close to home as could be - and in March, well… seemed like a good idea at the time.
Here’s the course map, with the profile on the right-hand side… this seems… benign…?
Here let me zoom in on that profile fer ya:
Just in case you couldn’t see it, it’s 10k “flatish”, then ~5000ft of elevation change in the middle 30k, then the same 10k back to the start - lollipop course. Hey neat-o, they listed the trail names with such pastoral sounding names like Fragrance Lake Trail… visions of woodland birds on my shoulders as I run through early green growth… Cleator Road… er, visions of perhaps a windy forest service road, hey still better than pavement… Chinscraper?!? WTF?!? that cannot be good.
So I signed up, ended up on the waitlist, but got the call to the show about 10 days before race day. OK, obstacle #1 overcome. Entry secured. I had to go to El Paso TX (ok technically Juarez MX) the week of the race for work, so I manged to get in a 20mi run on Sunday and a 7mi run on Monday in some warm + sun:
The view from my trail run up in the Franklin Mountain State Park.
I also visited with my old pal Francois and the fam, I hadn’t seen him since Silverman in Nov 2010. Two very busy work days, then flying home - so three days with no running - and I slept like sh*t the entire trip (I often do on work trips). I was so happy to SLEEP that night. I took Friday off work, got in a nice peppy 30min run with some pick-ups, legs felt fantastic. Ate my typical pre-race meal that I would have before a 1/2IM or longer: a huge mess of spaghetti bolognais at ~4pm in the afternoon (yes 4pm I like to have the lower deck cleared before I race) and a tasty cold beverage (yes it was beer, in fact I think it was an Alameda Yellow Wolf yummy stuff that). Put on the Thanksgiving pants and loafed on the couch, watched a movie with the kidlet and P, went to bed pretty darn early.
5am came early, the dog was not happy about being woken up at that time and not going for a run. It had been raining very heavily pretty much the entire last 7-10 days, so it was a nice surprise to wake up to overcast but dry conditions. Got the coffee, made a PBJ, and got in the car to go to Bellingham. Border line up at Peach Arch was ~20min (yes even at 6am), the border guard gave me the “you’re crazy” look (getting used to that), and wished me luck. Obstacle #2 overcome. 25min more and get into Fairhaven - holy crap there’s a LOT of people running this race. Now I’m getting nervous. Change up - went with knickers, a deSoto longsleeve skincooler top (in black, it will be muddy), my LBS bike jersey, hat, gloves, high-ankle socks, and my older pair of Mizuno Wave Riders. I had heard that sections of the course can be very muddy… but I am one of those stubborn people who just wears her typical runners on trails. I used to wear Brooks Cascadias and Salomon CXs, but that was ~3-5 yrs ago, and to be honest I always found the soles stiff, and I like to feel the surface on which I am running. So for the last 2-3 years, I have run all trail runs in my #2 or #3 (or #4 shoes) With all the recent rain, I knew this could be a bad decision but my options were limited. Last portaloo visit, ditch the hoodie in the car, load up the jersey pockets with gels, etc. grab my bottle belt, and this little piece of awesomeness:
Yep, this race is CUPLESS. These cups even seal slightly (by pressing the edges together) at the top so you can sip via the corner, and they have a loop for a carabiner. Most excellent idea.
We started right on time at 8, most of the runners ran to the first aid station at about the same easy pace, 57min, yep, that’s about what I wanted. Good. Ran with a fellow from North Vancouver for a bit, he’s doing Comrades as well so we shared some thoughts on the training so far. The LBS jersey actually got a LOT of Metro Vancouver peeps to say Hi and chat for a bit - they all recognized the logo (and yes the owner of the shop actually owns many pennyfarthings and he rides them a fair bit in the summer in top hat and tails, it’s hilarious).
After Aid station 1, it was UP UP UP, a bit muddy but actually not too bad. I am a much stronger uphill runner than downhill, in fact I actually REALLY SUCK at running down hills, so I was feeling pretty comfortable running this second leg. Stop at aid station 2, get a boiled potato rolled in coarse salt (yum!) and grab a bit more fluid. Turn the corner and start the next leg, Cleator road. So it was a FSR, but it was just solid 5k UP. Yep, it was 5k of up. I walked much of it, knowing I would have a lot more up and down ahead of me, and since I really had no goals beyond 1: finish and 2: feel good finishing, I took it as it came. I had been doing some lunch-time uphill walking on the treadmill at work (max gradient, 4mi/hr, 40-60min) and I could see it had helped, my calves were not a problem (as they often had been - getting too tight). Took this time to suck back a couple gels and more fluids. It took a solid 50min to walk up this hill. Ugh.
Aid station 3 was basically at the top of this 5k hill, then we started the BEST part of this course. This was flowy, fun, up, down, twisty, turny, forwards not backwards, and always twirling…
Ran smooth, felt very good, kept taking calories in. I really enjoyed this part of the trail. For you YVR peeps, this was a lot like the top half of Ridge Runner on Seymour.
Aid station 4. They had a fire going, and shots of Jameson whiskey. I like these people. Eat, drink, brief chat with the volunteers, tehn I turn around and see a wooden sign, hanging from the trees, like this one:
Except this one said “Chinscraper”.
Here it was. Oh man. JenSw had said to me “once you are past Chinscraper, you are OK” so I just had to get up this… thing… I didn’t even know what to call it.
Only one thing to do:
Oh Chinscraper, how do I describe you? Part Grouse Grind, part Chief, no wooden stairs, just ~1.5km of climbing up in the mud. By climbing, I mean actually climbing sections of this trail. Here is my one token pic of me on Chinscraper:
It was about 1/2 way up this monster when it started raining. And getting colder. And I still had almost 10 miles to go. And I have a boo-boo on my right foot. And I just want a hot shower and my fleece tights. 
Suk Suk Suk. Poor me. I could see that border guard just laughing at my misery (Mwhahah! Foolish Canadian!)
A friend of mine, Deanna, wrote something on my facebook post about getting into this race, and it just popped into my head at about this point. What she wrote was this:
“Relentless Forward Progress”
Three little words. But what perfect three words they were. I repeated those words over and over as I slipped and slimed up the hill. Took in a handful of gummybears that I had pinched at the last aid station (when feeling down, eat some carbs!), and eventually, I saw the top. It was just pouring now and my hands were frozen. My gloves had been tucked in my waistband of my tights, and they were soaked - thus useless. Legs covered in mud. My shoe choice was definitely a factor in getting up that hill. I’m sure I wasted a lot of energy being an emotional wuss and slippy-pants person, often both at the same time. But I had done it! I was at the top! yay!
Oh yeah, I still have 15k to go. Doh!
But hey how bad can it be, right?
WRONG WRONG WRONG
The worst was still to come. remember earlier when I wrote something about how bad I am at running down hills? So after having clocked 35k of challenging running so far, the course took a sharp DOWN for 5 straight kilometers. Wait a minute! 5k - that sounds familiar… it’s like deja vu but backwards somehow… oh yes, it’s my buddy, good ole Cleator Road! Yay!
That had to be the suckiest 5k I have run in a looooong time. I hobble my way to the bottom, to the last aid station, and realize that it’s been almost 6 hours of running (yes, that 30k segment took me 5 HOURS to complete, hey I never said I was fast, but I lost a lot of time trying to get down that hill). The rain started to ease slightly, and I grabbed some snax and fluids, thanks the volunteers and started the last 10k back to the finish.
This was the moment of truth: if I had trained well, if my training progression was as planned, as expected, then this last 10k should not be a death march. And… it wasn’t. In fact I got into a nice rhythm, and actually started passing a bunch of people. I actually felt… good… almost on the edge of… great… I felt so happy about that, it was as if I had already finished the race. The last 10k was 1h07, only 10min more than the same leg out. I finished the race in 7h01min. To put that in perspective, the top female finisher came in at 4h01.
Finished, won a Patagonia running jacket, changed out of the muddy gear, chucked my socks and shoes in the trash (oh yes I didn’t want to see those again - I’d run them for almost 14 months, they were due to give up the ghost), and headed homeward. Quick Burger King drive thru (ugh bad call on my part oh well salty fries are always OK). Border wait wasn’t bad, 30min, and the Canadian border guard, after hearing about my craziness, asked if I’d do the Suburban Rush Adventure race with her… not sure if that was an attempt at a pickup line or what… m’kay…
Got home, soaked the legs and feet, put on my deSoto fleece tights and my hard-earned long sleeve race shirt (also Patagonia, really nice!) and, you guessed it, had a beer. P had picked this one up for me, seemed fitting:
What’s next? Prairie Inn Harriers 50k on May 11th (Victoria area). Possibly the BMO Vancouver marathon or half marathon the week before that (May 5th). I have 51 days to go. Flights are all booked, hotels arranged, I just need to put in the miles, and get enough rest between long runs to keep myself injury free. One thing I learned from this race was that I was cooked for almost a whole week afterwards. I had been riding to work as usual, but by Friday I was toast. I should have skipped the riding, at least for a few days. If I had taken 3 solid days OFF (no running or riding or swimming, only some walking), I would have recovered better.
Thanks for reading. I’m no Dave Roche, hope it was worth your time.
AP
