Carkeek 12 hour, well 8.5 anyway

I made it, along with Rob (and definitely Margaret's help the last 3 loops) for a 50k at the Carkeek 12 hour. It was a beautiful fall day and the leaves were spectacular. I'll try to post some photos I got Margaret to take for me.

I met Rob at 5:30am and I drove. Rob brought the Starbucks. We made it in just under an hour and had plenty of time to organize, check in, use the restroom and chat before the race began at 7am. We headed out for the first loop in the dark. We used headlamps and could see fairly well. The trail is fairly clear, but there are stairs I would have killed myself on with out a light. I was lucky to be with Rob because he ran this race last year and knew the course. The trail was marked with tootsie roll pops hanging from trees and leaves brushed across trails you were not supposed to go down. They said there would be rock cairns, but I never saw any. Many people went straight at one point instead of turning due to lack if marking, but we never did.

The 1.93 mile long loop with 430 feet of gain ( and loss too I am sure) starts out flat then you come to the commando hill with lots of stairs going up. This was fine for about the first 8 or 9 loops, then it was just hard I decided once you made it to the top that the rest of the loop was recovery. By the end though I would have preferred those stairs to going down the steep un- evenly placed stairs trail on the other end of the loop. It was rolling hills for quite a while through beautiful forest with giant broad leaf maple leaves in all shades from green to bright yellow to reds and browns all over the ground and in the trees. Eventually you came down to a fish hatchery for about a quarter mile. This was the flat section before going up again. This part was shorter and at first didn't seem as steep as the first hill section, but again by the end was equally difficult. The last downhill section was steep and had steps that became hard to navigate towards the end with tired quads. We found ourselves trying to go around the steps along the side to avoid them altogether. Sometimes we were successful, sometimes not.

Running with Rob kept the conversation flowing and topics ranged from family- (how was your family gathering today Rob?) to school, to the elections to other runners. It was good times. We kept each other going and reminded each other when to eat. We quickly found that loops were either difficult or easy depending on how much you ate at the aid station. The soup was the best. I felt great after eating hot noodles and broth. I tried to also eat pb and j, potatoes or candy each loop and took an S cap and gel every two loops. It seems to work, but there were still some low energy loops where it was very hard to climb up those hills.

At about noon we kept looking forward to finding Margaret waiting for us at the aid station. We were bummed when she wasn't there. Then one loop we got to the top of the last climb and started to go down and I said that I wasn't going to get my hopes up this time about Margaret being at the aid station. Rob said he had had his hope us for about the last 15 minutes. Then not 10 seconds later we found her waiting for us along the trail! It was perfect! She helped us get through the last three loops for our 50k. It was great to have her talk to us and tell us about her MBA program she just started. Just having a person fresh and full of energy gives you energy to keep going. Thanks so much Margaret for coming out with us! It made my day!

Rob teased me as I climbed the stairs again and would say "Only two more times up!" He'd say yeah but we still have three loops! Yeah, but I only have to climb this stair two more times! Then the next time it was "one more time" then finally, this is the LAST time I have to climb up these stairs!!!" It was great!

Carkeek really was a fun 50k, or 8 hours of a 12 hour. Beautiful, great aid, and great people. I had a fantastic time. I don't know if I could have made it for 4 more hours on those hills. Today my legs are pretty sore and the stairs are painful. But I got what I wanted. A tough 50k for training for the 50 miles I want to run at Autumn Leaves. I am thankful for the soreness I feel today as it leads to the strength my legs will have tomorrow.

Grace and peace to you.