WR 50 Preview 2 7-12-2009

Fun for all--moreso for myself and Ali who missed the first 6 miles along Skookum Flats and so did 17ish v. 23--
Grey skies and threats of thundershowers cleared to hot sun late in run; beautiful day to be out. I heard, then saw (but got no pix of) a good-sized owl; looking up/listening online, seems probably to have been a female barred or spotted owl. Can;t help you beyond that. Beautiful sight!

Can't lie--I hate the 6+ miles of gravel downhill. Picked up enough speed there last year to beat the cutoff (with early start) but otherwise nothing good to say.

Finished and had a delightful tailgate session with Ali cupcakes to toast Tracy's birthday, Robin's muffins, and Tracy's cookies. Good life!

So with a 20 min/mile pace vs last year's 17 min/mile and a couple of missed cutoffs in 50Ks this year, along with the knowledge that I have not successfully made time midweek to train, I'm out for White River and will happily volunteer instead. Good ol' Scott McCoubrey rolled over my entry fee to 2010.

So now I'm ramping up weekday training and aiming for the Cle Elum 50 K 9/19/09! Gotta keep moving!

White River preview part 1 (short version), 7/5/2009

Three weeks to WR50; two weeks since Lost Lake 50K; SOME crazies (Jane!) did that one AND the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon AND came out for this one as well.

Ali too had marathoned and graciously volunteered to babysit me on the short loop up to Ranger Creek and back. Jeff and Robin joined in, first sighting for me since their mega-hundreds-of-miles Appalachian Trail trip. Tracy frisky as has recently been true set off after a bit after Eric Barnes & pal, leaving only a trail of cookie crumbs...wait, it was actually a baggie-full and they were back in the car.

Beautiful sunny day, nice Rainier views, pretty little purple flowers, orange ones too; uphill walking pretty slow going for me. Nice to see fast young guns Uli & Brian, then Michael H, then a passel of others spring by 3-ish hours into it having started an hour or so behind.

Every uphill has a downhill! Ali came back to collect me and we fairly zoomed down beautiful soft trail with cool cover overhead and in very short order were crossing the bridge over a rushing White River and so to hom....but first, some of Ali's blueberry
pomegranate juice! Thanks ma'am.

Beauty day! Next week Suntop. There or square.

Good times!