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White River 50 Race Report

Better late than never, right?  (Admittedly, though, this is ridiculous.)

As promised, White River 50 is a damn tough race.  Also as promised, the course is beautiful and the green, forest pine tree trails aren’t like anything we have down here in Southern California.  The icing on the cake is that Race Director Scott McCoubrey puts on a fantastic top-notch race.  I would definitely recommend this race to anyone looking for a mid-summer mountain running challenge.

Friday morning, Elizabeth and I flew direct from LAX to Seattle, got our rental car and drove down to Crystal Mountain Resort, the official race hotel.

At Crystal Mountain, it was chilly and overcast with low clouds – just like I expect weather to be in (or near) Seattle.  Despite those conditions, the forecast for the race was calling for near perfect conditions – clear and sunny with temperatures in the high 60s and low 70s.

Race check-in was a breeze and after settling in at the hotel and making sure I had everything I needed for the race, I went to the pre-race pasta dinner and race briefing.  When I looked at the list of registered runners in the weeks before the race, I didn’t recognize any names.  I still figured there’d be plenty of fast dudes (and ladies) and looking around the pre-race meeting pretty much confirmed that thought.  This was a pretty fast looking crowd.  I heard that Ellie Greenwood was racing, which alone instantly made it actually a fast crowd!  After dinner, Elizabeth and I relaxed in front of the TV watching the Olympics Opening Ceremonies and fell asleep long before they showed the US team come through the stadium.

Race morning was an early one – I have my pre-race morning routine that usually involves getting up two-and-a-half or three hours before the race start.  With a 6:30 start, I was up at four to use the bathroom, eat my Clif Bar, apple and a small bowl of oatmeal from the hotel breakfast (which opened special for racers at 5am) and drive the seven miles to the start at Buck Creek airstrip.

 

 

The beauty of White River 50, as Scott McCoubrey reminded us many times, is that there are only two climbs.

That’s mostly true, but those two climbs are killer.  The first one, after about 4.5 miles of rollers through shaded forest trails, climbs more than 4,000 feet over nine miles, then after 6 miles on the ridge up near 6,000 feet (including another short-ish climb or two) and a long descent back down to the start, you get the second climb, which starts around mile 27 and finally tops out at mile 37 after another 4,000+ feet of climbing over eight or nine miles.  In all, the race has somewhere between 8,700 feet (according to the race website) and 9,700 feet (according to my Garmin) of total elevation gain.

My favorite part of the race was right around mile 16.  After finishing the first climb, you run along the ridge on your way to the Corral Pass aid station at mile 16.9.  You turn this one corner and BAM!  There’s snow covered Mt. Rainier.  We had a crystal clear day and the view was just beautiful.  There it is in the background behind me.

Other than the two climbs and the beautiful scenery, the other memorable thing about the course are the two descents that complement the climbs.  The first one, from mile 20 to 27 is on switchback forest trails.  It’s a little technical and some of the switchback turns are tight, but it should be fast and fun.  The second one, from mile 37 to 43.4, is on a dirt and gravel road with wide, easy turns that is unquestionably fast.  During that second descent, gravity alone was pushing me along at a 7:00/mile pace.      

As you may have noticed from my very quick blog post on the Monday after the race, I was a little disappointed with my result, but wasn’t really sure why.  Based on prior year results, I figured I would realistically run somewhere between 8:15 and 8:45.  And my 8:32 split that right down the middle.  Physically, I felt good for most of the race.  I was strong hiking the two climbs and ran decent on the rolling sections.  It wasn’t until the final six miles of the race that I started to suffer (and boy did I suffer in that twisty, turny, up, down, root and rock covered section that’s a huge mind-f–k after the fast easy descent right before it).  My nutrition and hydration were pretty much spot on.  In case you’re curious, I carried two bottles for the whole race, one with water and electrolytes and the other with Infinit.  Most of the aid stations are around six miles apart, and I rarely finished both bottles between aid, but, for me at least, one bottle wouldn’t have always been enough.  Most of the aid stations are really well stocked with gels, fruit, potatoes, snack food and salt pills.  In addition to around 750 calories of Infinit, I had some gels, some potatoes dipped in salt and a lot of juicy watermelon slices.  I’d guess I had somewhere around 1,500 calories over those 8.5 hours., which may be a little low for me, but close enough.

So I should be happy with the result.  And really I am.  The problem that was plaguing me post-race was that I just wasn’t particularly mentally strong.  I never “gave up” but I also didn’t trust my ability to push myself.  During the first long descent, after what I felt was a successful climb, I got worried that I’d gone out too fast and held back.  Too much.  I let tons of people catch up to me during that descent.  I could see them through the switchbacks above getting closer and closer.  But instead of using that as motivation to run harder, I resigned myself to being caught and probably even slowed down.  That’s just bullshit.  Many of them might have caught me sooner or later anyway, but why did I give up so easily?  I ran well for most of the rest of the race but there were a few more times where I had the choice of keeping my own pace or pushing a little harder with some other people and each time I chose not to push.  This is becoming something of a theme for me.  It happened, in varying degrees, during North Face and the LA Marathon also.  Hmmm… If you have any thoughts or advice about how I can get out of my head and remain confident through the tough times in a race, I’d love to hear them!

The nice thing about waiting so long to write my race report is that with a little time to reflect, I accept that I am pleased with the race.  It was a great training day for the Bear 100.  Even though running another 50 miles (with another 10,000+ feet of climbing) the other weekend might have been disastrous, running those 50 miles proved that my training is “working” and I’m on my way to being able to suffer through 100 miles (again)!

After the race we drove back to Seattle and had a great 24 hours in the city.  The weather was amazing, we had a friend to show us around town (including the Ballard farmer’s market and of course, Pike Place Market).  Everyone was out, walking around, running, on bikes, headed to the water and being active.  I had a couple minutes there where I thought that we should move to Seattle.  Then I remembered that we live in LA.  🙂