Morning Trail Run

Afternoon Run

Lunch Run

Morning Run

For no apparent reason, the microclimate in that area was *very* cold - I could see my breath. Even with my down jacket and balaclava on, my summer weight sleeping bag was totally inadequate. I woke up shivering hard at 3:20 am and had no choice but to get going, while cursing the rodent that ate my beloved peanut butter pretzels out of my poorly hung backpack.

I once again felt strong in the morning and was able to run the flat and downhill sections with confidence. I was amazed at how good my muscles felt. Around mid-morning Karel Sabbe and team passed me again, still moving very well. I’m surprised it took them so long to catch back up - perhaps he stops early to avoid the heat? 

My feeling of strength lasted for about 4 hours and then I was ready to be done. My muscles were still feeling strong but my body was done working. The coup de grace came when my watch misinformed me about a big climb. It claimed a climb was 1k’ during a water-free stretch, so I filled my bottles only partway. After 1k’ of climbing, the watch said, “now begin your descent!”. I looked at the trail and it very much went up, not down. I think it was another 1k’ of climbing, all above 6k elevation. I was getting passed by day hikers which was really demoralizing, and I ran out of water long before the next stream. This was the low point of the trip physically, and also the high point vertically. The Proclaimers were replaced by Peter Tosh’s “(You Gotta Walk) Don’t Look Back”.

The trail passed along a really cool knife edge ridge that would have had great views, but the haze was extreme. You could barely see the shadow of Tahoma in the morning, even though it was very close, and it was completely obscured by the afternoon. Visibility was probably less than 10 miles. A huge bummer. The ridge was rocky and exposed and I didn’t feel comfortable running much of it - another bummer. I’m going to have to come back and do this section again. This was definitely the most beautiful section of the trail by far. It was also the busiest.

With about 25 miles left it became a countdown to the finish. That’s really quite a long time to count down. The run ended with a 1500’ climb and 5.5 mile descent. The climb sucked. The descent was awesome. Somehow my amazing body still had enough energy to run solidly, and I pushed it all the way to the finish. I was met by my awesome in-laws Kevin and Jill, and an Aspire Adventure Running group at the trailhead gave me some watermelon.

In the end, I ran the route in 2 days, 13 hours, 10 minutes and will be submitting it for certification as an unsupported FKT. This wouldn’t be a hard time to beat if a great athlete put some effort into it, but to be honest I’m not really sure why you would. It’s not a particularly distinctive section of trail. I’m still glad to have done it. This was a very meaningful experience that taught me to appreciate whatever my body can give me and have compassion for it whether it’s performing well or not.


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