Cle Elum - more volunteer duties - briefly

Cle Elum Ridge 50K volunteer report in brief.....

Friday night - beer and pizza in Roslyn with JV, AH and WW, followed by camping and sleeping under the stars at the race site.

Saturday morning - Socializing, ES shows off his fancy water, and race starts. DM and I head to AS2 and set up; enjoy beauty all around;



replace ES's fancy water (in drop box) with empty Pringles can.



Runners start coming: JV in lead; ES panics over missing water (priceless); chat with MB waiting for SS (they later go to crew EB and RH at Plain); yuk it up with DM and the ham radio guys; go out to meet sweeps....try to take GT's photo



GT's powers prevent clear pic



meet last three runners on trail; meet sweeps and head back; take LB back to finish.

At finish - eat good food and get one of GM's beers. Shoot the breeze then head home. Good times had by all.


photo -Glenn Tachiyama

Good busy Labor Day

This was a good day - I got up this morning and decided my body could handle a little run. After a shot of espresso and a little food, I got dressed and headed out the door towards Fremont. I was able to run/walk for 30 minutes with no bad effects! Yes! From that I had a lot of energy and did a little work around the house, til we decided to load the boats on the car and get in a little kayaking.

That was pretty sweet - we went over to Mercer Island, and drove around for half an hour til we found a little secluded pocket park to put in. It was nestled between some huge gated mansions - I still can't figure out who has that much money to build those things. Anyway, we were on public land, so they had to tolerate the riff-raff. We launched the boats - we were on the east side of MI. I won't say where because 1) I don't think those folks would be very happy and 2) I couldn't tell you if I tried! After crossing the East Channel, going under I-90, and heading past Enatai beach, we went into the Mercer Slough and paddled as far as 405, where it was blocked for further navigation. It was quite a nice paddle with calm waters, some wildlife and interesting scenery. Wish I had brought the camera, but there are plenty of photos online. Coming back out of the slough, we had to cross the channel again, through rough water and windy conditions. As soon as we went under I-90, it calmed down. Back at our destination, as I was getting out of the boat, I sat down in the water. That was the worst thing to happen, and that wasn't bad. All in all, nice afternoon - and good day! I'm pooped!

Cascade Crest 100 - volunteer duties

Last weekend I did my first volunteer stint at a 100 miler - Cascade Crest 100. I've been pretty lax getting something posted about it - even most of the bloggers who ran it have already managed to get a race report up. Oh well...At WR50 Alison asked if I wanted to work at No Name Ridge with her and James, and of course I jumped at the chance - even though it meant being awake most of the night (something that is harder to do - at least voluntarily - as I get older). So here is a brief report....

Saturday after dinner, I drove to Hyak to meet Alison, who was pacing Suzanna Bon from there to No Name. No one wanted to pace Suzanna the whole 47 - she's too dang fast! - so her training partner Paul was to pick her up at No Name. I met Paul at Hyak and gave him a ride to No Name. James called and said the trail between No Name and Thorp needed glow sticks - I was in no shape to run 9 miles (much less 2!) and he had fallen at Cutthroat Classic earlier that day and banged his knee up bad. We were definitely the gimp aid station! Adam was also going to be there, but he had run 26 miles earlier in the day and was refueling at Village Pizza in Roslyn. After adequate pizza and, more importantly, beer, he was ready to mark the course. Whew!

We arrived, after a nice little climb up logging roads, about midnight. Paul made a nest in my car to get some shut eye and I plopped down in the zero gravity chair to watch James putz around the aid station. About 1:30 a call came over the ham radio to expect our first runner. We waited...and waited...and waited...and a little after 2 am, Tom and his pacer Justin came through - not who we were expecting. They said Jesse (first runner) had left Mineral Creek 18 minutes ahead of them. Oops. Justin said the markers at the junction were hard to see and he may have gone off course. Since Adam was still out and I had the only other car (besides the ham radio operator), I was elected to go hang glow sticks at the turn and look for runner #22. I even got to carry a handheld to report back if I found him (my dad, a ham radio operator who is now a 'silent key' would have been pleased to see me finally using a ham radio). Sure 'nuff, after coming across a few runners and pacers, I saw Jesse climbing up the road. I reported in, marked the course and headed back to the AS.

From here on, runners trickled in every hour or two. I managed to get a little sleep in the back of my car after Suzanna and Alison came through (around 4 or 4:30) and she and Paul left. James would give a whoop every time he saw the lights of a runner approaching. I must have slept through a couple of those whoops because I came back out of the car a little after 5:30. The sunrise was really pretty.
Throughout the morning we heated up raviolis, made grilled cheese sandwiches, and crepes filed with Nutella or cheese or whatever we had on hand. I had brought some freshly roasted Ethiopian beans and a hand grinder and French press. Some of the tired runners seemed to really perk up after a hit of that. Alison tried to combine a nap with an escape from the mosquitos - see if you can find her in this photo:
At one point I was surprised to see the intrepid Rob Hester and his faithful pacer Eric Barnes heading up the road. I wasn't aware Rob had planned to do CCC! He looked really strong and seemed to be in pretty good spirits for someone with 81 miles under his belt! He's a machine!
Other familiar faces appeared throughout the morning and by 11:30, we were ready to strike the set and head back down to the finish. Alison rode back with me and it was really amazing to both of to see all that road they had to climb up! Really puts it in perspective...

Back at the finish, Devon and her runner Monica were soaking their tired feet along with others. Jonathan was tiredly walking/limping around after finishing his first 100 miler - he had decided last Tuesday to go ahead and get it done this year. And he ripped it out in 26:06!! Stud.

All in all it was a great experience - I love volunteering at these things. You get the best of both worlds - being outside and having energy left over to take it all in, plus a very minimal recovery time! Back in Seattle, I wore my volunteer shirt today at the University District Farmer's market and someone commented on it. I turned around and he had a blue version (mine is orange) - he crewed his nephew Devin Corcoran who came in at 23:48. Another person - a gal working at one of the stands- said she was getting ready for Seattle marathon but wanted to do some volunteering at ultraruns. I highly recommend it.

Week in review - WR50 and Tahoe Vacation

Since I wasn't able to run White River 50 miler, I got to volunteer. This was way more fun (I think) and recovery time was negligeble. My training partner Chris was running it and heading back to Seattle hours later to hop a plane to Michigan. We were sharing a hotel room and I thought it was silly for him to drive down, since I sort of had the same plan, but my plane was headed to California. So I offered to drive us both and let him relax for the ride back. We got in late Fri night and were up by 4:30 to make the early start. The pics from a volunteer's perspective, mostly at Buck Creek aid station. My favorite moments were two: first were the good ol' boys and gals who ventured over from their campsite to watch the runners come through Buckcreek aid station. Uli was standing next to them and they were asking us how long it takes to run one of these things. Then they asked how fast the fastest person was. Uli told them, without hesitation, 6:32. They were in awe, and then asked him if he was the one who did that. When he said (modestly) yes, they couldn't shake his hand enough! It was really cute!

Second was Lesa Overfield's husband and two dogs - a black and a blonde pug. The blonde pug liked to climb up on his back and hang out there. Never seen a dog do that, though I did have one that climbed trees. We were always having to rescue it. At any rate, enjoy the photos.



Sunday after that, we flew to Reno and drove down the west side of Lake Tahoe to visit Donn's uncle Bill. He lives in El Dorado National forest, and last year the Angora fire came up to 80 yds from his house. The fire damage is pretty dramatic; some of the pics below are on the trails behind his yard, where Donn and I hiked one afternoon. In places it looked like something out of the Princess Bride - really scary! We also hiked on the PCT a couple of times - once at Echo Lake and once to Lake Winnemuca. I took a nice "ice bath" in Winnemucca - felt so good!

Radioactive Hip

I went for my MRI arthrogram today on my hip. They were running a bit behind so I got to listen to this lady tell me her life story in the waiting room til the nurse thankfully rescued me. She got me prepped and then a couple of docs came in and, after some explanation, located the right spot and shot the lidocaine into my hip. We all donned thyroid shields and they proceeded to inject the dye. I guess it was bound up when it was in cuz we removed the thyroid shields. They let me out into the hallway where I got to run up and down and see if it hurt. Damn it felt good to run! Oh how I love drugs! The downer is, if it didn't hurt, then it is most likely a labral tear. The good news is that means it's probably not a stress fracture (which I doubted anyway).

Next I was sent to the MRI suite where I was greeted by Aaron, the tech who did my MRI on my ovaries last year - about a year ago exactly! We joked about seeing each other yearly and that this was our one year anniversary. Now we're going steady! Hope I don't see him next year. They strapped me down, tied my feet together (so the hips couldn't move), put my headphones on (I chose Beatles music) and slid me into the tube. You gotta have a high tolerance for small spaces as the top is inches above your face. I thought about camping in a small backpacking tent - that and remembering when I did a Yoga Nidra class. I was in there for twenty minutes - but it did help. One thing I remembered from last year was my rings - they aren't pure silver like I assumed they were. Whenever they would shoot the rays (or whatever you call it) they would vibrate - a weird sensation, indeed. When all was said and done, they released me, and Aaron and I said our fond goodbyes and hoped this was the last time we'd see each other.

When I got back to the lab, I got Mattias to hold the Geiger counter to my hip to see if we could get a signal. We managed to get a light one going; when he put the probe on my arm, it was silent. Cool - in a nerdy, geeky, science way! Tomorrow I meet with Dr. O'Kane to discuss results and strategy. I'm thinking of asking if he'd sponsor Chris, Tracy, and me since we all go to him. We could get Team O'Kane tshirts - that would be awesome!

Update: No labral tear or stress fracture - just a really cranky psoas muscle - off for some rest, stretching and PT!