Where's Waldo 100k Race Report

Finish

(Photo by Richard Bolt)

This year's Where's Waldo 100k, designated the 2009 USA 100k Trail National Championships, also kicked off the revamped 2009/2010 Montrail Ultra Cup. Taking place in the Willamette National Forest in Crescent Lake, Oregon and being only 1 hour and 20 minutes from my front door, it is the closest I have gotten to a "local" ultra marathon.

Three weeks prior to the race I had a great 50K training run on the the course, including solid climbs up Mt Fuji and Maiden Peak done in 5:03. From that point on I had a sketchy hip flexor/knee injury that had me in serious doubt for finishing the WW100k. Race week I took three days off and had a massage and two Active Release/Chiropractic treatments in hopes of maximizing my chances of finishing.

Lewis Taylor and I arrived early evening the night before the race, just in time to attend the pre-race meeting/instructions. After that I hit up the pasta dinner (which would come back to haunt me) prior to settling down for a short night of sleep in the back of my truck. The alarm went off at 2:30AM and I was up for my pre-race coffee. We lined up behind the Willamette Pass Ski Lodge (5,100 ft. ASL) and at 5AM we we headed up the slop by the light of headlamps.

I immediately settled in to a very conservative pace, monitoring my body and not even thinking about racing. For the first time, I went to the start line not knowing if I could finish, never mind finish in the top 5. So it went, following the glow sticks on our way to the Gold Lake Aid Station (7M).

Casual Start

(Photo by Richard Bolt)

Within a few miles of the start I made my first bathroom stop. I jumped out of the bushes, back onto the trail and caught up to a small group, including Joell Vaught of Boise and Brian Schmidt of Virginia. Before long I was back in the bushes for stop number 2. Back on the trail...no worries its a 10 hour race. Right. Hold on...upon arriving at Gold Lake, I was in the real bathroom maintained by the park service for stop number 3. No problem...only down a few minutes at the first aid station arriving there in (1:07). Normally this is where everyone drops off their headlamps prior to the 2,300 ft. climb up to the summit of Mt. Fuji (7,300 ft.), but I ran through and forgot until I was well passed.

Crossing over Rd. 4290 (Waldo Lake Road) for the first time, I moved passed Bev Anderson-Abbs. At this point I was still sorting through my stomach issues, while trying to stay comfortable. From here to Fuji Mt. 1 aid station (1:58), I would make pit stops 4 and 5. The climb up to the summit of Mt. Fuji was uneventful. It was my first look at who was actually up ahead of me. As the leaders were coming down from the summit I recognized most (Skaggs, Miller, Bryant, Andrish, Olsen, Lantz, Anderson-Abbs, Vought) and arrived arrived at the top with William Emerson. At this point, I was quite happy that my hip was not an issue at all and I told RD Craig Thornley as much when I saw him. I was also ok with my 13th place overall after the first peak. Normally I would have liked to have been closer to the top 5 but with my pre-race concerns, I was very happy. If my GI tract would only finish what is was dealing with, I would be on my way to moving closer to the front of the field. Just prior to Fuji Mtn 2 AS (2:28), I hit the bushes for pit stop 6. Once that was through, I passed my headlamp to Gary Stott (who was working the AS), grabbed my re-filled bottles from the super volunteers and headed down the South Waldo Trail in search of those ahead of me.

Mt Fuji Summit

(Photo by Laurie Monico)

From Fuji Mt 2 AS (14.9M) to Twins 1 AS (27.1M), I would finally finish my business in the bushes with 5 more pit stops. En route to the to Twins 1, I moved from 13th overall to 9th by passing Bev Anderson Abbs, William Emerson, Brett Rivers, and Brian Schmidt arriving at (4:18) into the race. I felt like I was finally moving forward and was actually having alot of fun being able to compete. This is the point in the race where I just tried to pass the time and let the miles go by. Arriving at Charlton Lake AS (32M) in 5:02, it was great to see RD and local guy Craig Thornley again. As usual I tried to move through as quick as possible.

It was at this point that I actually gained serious time on those ahead of me. Heading into Rd4290 AS (5:47) at 37M, I would catch and go back and forth with Women's Leader Joelle Vaught. She was running very tough and was a great steady climber. We would continue to run close to each other until the climb up the Twins. Her and I would both catch up with Mark Lantz and then Mark and I would climb up The Twins (7,100 ft.) together. Arriving at The Twins 2 AS (7:09) at 44.5 miles, I had moved into 7th place and was feeling very good about my chances of moving into the top 5. Ever since I got rid of my small waist pack at 21 miles, I had started a great routine of taking gels and S-Caps at the aid stations. This was the first time in 8 ultras that I have not carried all my own gels and S-Caps. This worked quite well. I think I may have found a new routine!

Soon after the Twins 2 AS, I got a visual up ahead of Yassine Diboun and he looked to be cramping up. I knew that Mark Lantz was right behind me and thought that this was where the race would really start to heat up. After moving past Yassine (into 6th place), I felt a stabbing pain on the medial side of my knee. This was one of those pains where you think to yourself "this is not good". The downhill stretches were excruciating and I knew I would pay for it after the race. There was not much else to do but push through it and move forward as quick as possible. I often took brief stops to massage the area, knowing that it was not doing a dam thing. My only respite was the dreaded climb up Maiden Peak, which involved a solid amount of hiking. This was the one action that would not elicit the pain.

Maintaining my 6th place, I arrived at the Maiden Peak AS (50 miles) in 7:55. After filling bottles, grabbing 2 gels, and swallowing 2 S-Caps, I started the steep 3 mile climb up to the Maiden Peak Summit (7,800 ft.). Just behind me, I could here someone else arriving, most likely Mark Lantz. Sure enough Mark and I were together 1/3 of the way up. He relayed to me that Yassine was in trouble with cramps behind us. I knew that everyone had a problem or two. Halfway up, the climb started to get on Mark and I moved ahead to try and put some ground between us.

My last long run 3 weeks earlier I had climbed this stretch in the middle of 31 miles in 44 minutes. Today, I thought 60-65. Nearing the summit and going through the rocky final 300 meters I came across last years' winner Neil Olsen coming down. I was surprised that 5th was so close! I pushed on to the summit, arriving in 55 minutes from the AS. However, I knew I was going to have to pay the piper on the steepest decent of the course...."The Leap of Faith Trail". Just before this trail head I saw Lantz and "alive again" Diboun approaching the summit together with Joelle just behind them. The race was on over the final 9 miles.

Just as I thought, Lantz and Diboun closed the gap on me on the downhill, as my knee was screaming at me. We arrived pretty much together at the final Maiden Lakes AS (55 miles) in 9:10. I was back in 8th place, hoping to stay in the race. I often caught myself looking over my shoulder, hoping not to see anyone behind me. There were times on the final 7 mile stretch were I thought I was still moving well and was close to a finish of 10:20. Somewhere, a couple miles from the finish, I saw Yassine up ahead and thought maybe I still had a shot at him. Before I knew it, I came across Sean Meissner at the final turn of the course telling me I had only 400m to the finish. Once on the final straight away, I could see that I was very close to both Yassine and Mark Lantz. Pushing hard to the finish, I ran out of trail finishing in 8th place (10:16:36).

At the finish...I had never been as fresh and as full of energy after 50M+ as I was on this day. I guess I attribute this to not being able to go to the well like I normally would because of the stomach and then the knee. This gives me hope for the future at races of 60-100 miles. All in all, this was a great experience and a confidence booster. I look forward to coming back to Waldo and really getting after it. WW100k was the best organized trail race that I have yet to take part in! The trail markings were unbelievable, the volunteers on top of everything, and the course was awesome! Thanks Craig and Curt and everyone else for putting on a top notch event.

Top 10 Overall

1. Erik Skaggs, OR (9:11:05) CR

2. Zach Miller, MT (9:39:35)

3. Jason Bryant, NC (9:49:08)

4. Neil Olsen, OR (10:02:39)

5. Sean Andrish, VA (10:03:36)

6. Mark Lantz, CA (10:15:49)

7. Yassine Diboun, OR (10:16:16)

8. Matt Lonergan, OR (10:16:34)

9. Joelle Vaught, ID (10:23:32) CR

10. Jace Ives, OR (10:55:54)

Full Results

PCTR Forest Park 50k

It was hard to believe that I had lived in Oregon for 13 years and had yet to experience the Wildwood Trail of Forest Park within downtown Portland.  That changed this past weekend when I headed north for the PCTR Forest Park 50k.  Forest Park is one of the largest urban forest reserves in the United States, stretching nearly 8 miles (5,100 acres) through the hillsides overlooking the Willamette River.  The Wildwood Trail seems to be the most popular and travels 31 miles end to end.  The majority of this event was run on the Wildwood Trail but started at the Lower Macleay Trail and utilized other trails and dirt roads in a lolipop configuration.  In retrospect, most of the race was on rolling single track with a few longer climbs.

This event was a chance to put in a good hard training effort, while not backing off to much in volume like I normally would.  It seems I had just returned to normal training volume this past week and wanted to stay focused on bigger events this summer.  Having said that...I still would like to have a shot a winning the race.

I arrived early to make sure I got where I needed to go and learned as much as I could about the course.  According to the RD, the course markings have been vandalized (moved) by the those hoping to guide runners off course the past three years.  This year the RD made the ribbons very small so as not to offend the locals.  At the start my biggest concern turned out to be not missing a turn and being sent off in to the wilderness.

Within a few minutes we were on the single track and climbing.  A few guys took off up ahead, while I was happy to run with the a guy I knew had won the race last year (Ruben Galbraith).  I knew he new the course!  He tucked in behind and we started the normal conversation that runners start up during a lower key ultra event (the course, the weather, why some like to vandalize course markings, etc.).  The weather was great and the course very rolling, winding, and mostly dry and fast.  I always come to a time during the first 20 minutes of a new trail event where I feel like I am running in to the great unknown.  For the most part, I have no idea what to expect out of this course.  What I do know is ~3,500 ft. gain/loss, single track, and aid every 10k.

I lead the way up to the first aid station at Firelane 1, refilled my bottle, and headed out with Ruben down a wide dirt road to the next section of single track.  It was hear that we picked up one of the members of the early break away group, Ryne Melcher, and we were now three.  This was also the turn around for those running the 20k event.  As I lead the way back onto the single track, we came across a guy cussing and swearing coming back at us and looking for the 20k turn around.  After pointing him in the right direction we continued on.  Ruben and Ryne were talking up a storm behind me while I was just content on keeping the train rolling.

Since the American River 50 April 10th, I had been dealing with a knee issue that had pretty much kept me on the flats.  Therefore, I was really trying to focus on how my knee was feeling on this rolling terraine.  I was very happy so far and felt pretty good.

Somewhere around the 1 hour mark Ruben was at the front leading (after I took a wrong turn and then caught myself) and Ryne was in the third position.  We made it to the Saltman 1 aid station (20k) uneventfully.  However, soon after leaving the aid station, Ruben and I separated ourselves from Ryne and would not see him again until the finish.  From Saltman 1 to Saltman 2 aid stations we would tackle the longest climbs and decents on the course on our way around the 10k loop.  Just prior to leaving the aid station I over heard Ruben tell the volunteer that he was going to leave his bottle on the table (which I thought was odd) until he got back.  This is something I would not do, as I would not want to be without fluid for the 45 min loop. However, strategically he probably saved a bit of time at a crucial part later in the race.

Ruben was one of the nicest competitors I have come across.  He was very relaxed, talkative and polite throughout the whole event.  At one point around 35k he stopped to wait for me while I re-tied my shoelaces.  This he did not have to do and in a 50k event is rare.  All of this combined with the bounce he had the whole day told me he had alot left for last half of a course he trained on daily and had won the year before.  When he opened a gap on me on the longest climb of the day back up to the 30k Saltman 2 aid station, I was not surprised.  I still felt great and was running well but he seemed to have a bit more pop and opened a gap.  I climbed well up to Saltman 2 and realized, as I filled my bottle that Ruben picked up 20 seconds or so by just grabbing his filled bottle (that he had left at the start of the 10k loop).  Damn!

Up through 30k, I had stuck to my typical nutrition plan of a Powergel every 45 minutes and as much electrolyte drink as I could get down (~16 oz. every 10k).  Leaving the 30k aid station at 2:14, I would up my Powergel consumption to every 30 min.  Initially, we were back on the wide expansive dirt road and I could see Ruben up ahead 200m.  I felt like I was maintaining or closing the gap.  However, once we got back on the winding single track, I did not feel safe taking my eyes off the trail to look ahead for him.  Still feeling good I just ran my rythym.

When I hit the Firelane 1 aid station, which involves a bit of an out and back from the return trail, I did not see Ruben and new that he had a good gap.  Leaving the 40k aid station  at 2:59 with my 6th and final bottle of electrolytes, I new I was still at course record pace (3:45 by Mike Wolfe).  After a mile or two, I was starting to slow a bit on the rolling up hills but felt great on the downs.  Recalling that Ruben said the final three miles was mostly downhill, I felt encouraged.  As I approached the final 30 min of the course, winding my way back down to Lower Macleay Trailhead, I had an odd sensation of just being on a training run on the Ridgeline Trail in Eugene.  I ran by 2-3 people (not in the race) that I knew and we yelled a hello.  It was the first time I was finishing an ultra event with a fresh mind and body.  I guess I have learned much over the last year since my first ultra at the Way Too Cool 50k.  Much of what I learned has been about the importance of calories and electrolytes.  At WTC, I only put down 2 1/2 gels and a few bottles of electrolytes.  Contrast that to the 5 gels and nearly 6 bottles of electrolytes consumed this day would explain why I was feeling the way I was.

Back to the race.  As I ran down the last 1-2 miles to the Lower Macleay Trailhead, I had to do a fair amount of shouting  of "coming up behind you".  This was because of the locals out on the trail with young children, dogs, etc.. who were for some reason not expecting a half-naked, approaching middle-aged ultra running zealot to be barreling down the trail at them.  Needless to say, I had a strong finish feeling great and surprised by my time of 3:41:39.  Ruben had set the new course record of 3:38:48 and Ryne (the Canadian) came home 3rd in 4:02:09.  On the Women's side, Erin Perkin of Portland 4:19:01 had a smokin last 100m to run away from Martha Blackwell 4:19:09 and Amy Cowan came third in 4:44:07

I was very happy with my result but would be lying if I said I was not surprised my the young Galbraith lad.  I look forward to seeing his debut at 50M at the PCT50 later in the summer.  

Full Results

Photos