Mountain Girl Conquers Flats…

Mountain Girl Conquers Flats…

So, not sure if “conquers” is the correct word to use….but I’ve been thinking about how to write this report for a little while…and since the ending happened to be re-written this week… I guess there was a reason for that!

I decided to do this race just outside of Seattle near Bellevue, for 2 reasons…

1.  Our friend Vince was coming out from Ontario to run it, and I felt the need to see if he could lose his stomach in yet another state.

2.  It was the 1 year anniversary of Vince, myself and my buddy Wade running the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim, so thought it would be fun to have the gang together yet again!

I didn’t want to do this race…because I was told it was 50 miles around a mountain and not up…

So, us 50 milers got out of bed at the ungodly hour of 4am and Nobis headed to the cold, dark, rainy start…it was pretty low key and we gathered by the fire hydrant where the race director counted down said, “go”. And we were off. So, we began through the little town and turned left onto a road and off we went, soon we hopped into an old railway trail. It rained off and on, was a little chilly and I had decided on shorts for the day (what was I thinking?!, I was frozen for most of the day), but I settled in running with a few people and as we would turn Nobis outlet online corners I would look up and see the next section of trail and…..it would be…flat as a pancake. 2 hours in I was done 14 miles, wasn’t sure if I had gone out too fast, but I figured I might as well just keep trucking away. This race is basically 2 out and backs so we started to see the other runners on the way back and cheer them on which was motivating for a little while. And then back to the road we were, where we came around a corner up some stairs onto a bridge and onto….another flat section, where you could see for miles, and then the weather decided to close in. Finally the trail took a turn into the woods and started to go ever so slight uphill (1000ft over 5 miles)…a welcome change for the legs. At the top of the hill I saw my friends Kristin and Ryne and was excited to see Kristin was leading the women’s 50km and Ryne who was injured was still running! However, after that point I started to get completely bored, wanted a nap and really wished I’d opted for the 50km, my legs were wet and cold, I was mentally tired and bored and to be completely honest, I was hating running this race and was struggling hard to find motivation…it just wasn’t my style of running! I saw Vince on the way down the hill again and complained that I was done and needed a nap and then felt bad for being so cranky!  Then I just settled in and thought the faster you run, the faster this will end so just finish it already!

Anyhow, to make a long story short, in the end, I happened to do a personal best in a 50-mile race by and hour and a half, finishing 2nd woman and 5th overall in 7:40. A big congrats to Kristin who got a 50km PB and won the women’s 50k, Ryne who finished 50k with a fractured rib and Vince who almost got another PB!

AND…to give this story a little excitement…this week I got a completely unexpected e-mail telling me that I have been selected as the 3rd woman on the Canadian National team for the World Trail Championships in Ireland on July 9…and this is the race that qualified me….crazy, but TRUE!!

So…a big thanks to Kintec, Hoka and smartwool socks for getting me through the day!