So a brief play-by-play of todays @Squamish50 miler since I have terrible wifi and no cell: The RDs and volunteers are incredible. Dont know how, but better each year. My crew is the reason I finished. Their smiles & support pushed me beyond my ability. This course is BRUTAL. I seemed to have forgotten just how brutal. SoCal mountain trails pale in comparison to the technical Squamish nonsense, absolutely no doubt. Something was wrong from the beginning for me. TERRIBLE nausea from mile 6 to mile 23. That was the toughest 17 miles I have ever run. But something happened at 23 and seemingly in an instant, I was fired up. Despite being over 40 minutes slower through aid stations from last years splits, I knew I had some work to do. I made a decision somewhere deep in the Squamish forests that if I could keep the pace up and shoot for a PR, I had to do it. Tomorrows 50k be damned. I wanted at least a great 50 mile run. By aid station #7 (mile 43) I had made up the 40 minutes exactly. In the last 7 miles, I made up over an hour and finished in 11:58ish. This course is terrible. This course is incredible. This course eats up runners and spits them out without a second thought. Tomorrow, I will do whatever I can to run the 50k version. No matter what happens, I am STOKED with how today played out, I am AMAZED by the runners who finished HOURS ahead of me and the runners who are still out there currently. If you ever get the chance, run this race. It will be tougher than you expect and more rewarding then you will ever know. Thank you for all of your support. Could NOT have done this without each and every one of you. Time for beer, food, sleep.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 02:52:14 +0000