 posted May-22-2007 11:03 AM
   
by finish line photogINTREPID SUMMARY (tetsujin, not embarrassed at all by being slow or by long rr’s) Race name . . . COUGAR MOUNTAIN. . . CAPITAL CITY MARATHON
Date. . . . . . . . Saturday 5/19 . . . . . . . . . . . Sunday 5/20
distance . . . . .. 5 miles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.2 miles
time. . . . . . . . . 57:05 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5:00:20
oa. . . . . . . . . . 232/280. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270/324
sex . . . . . . . . . none. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192/223
ag . . . . . . . . . .1/2. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/16 As a weekend runner, I've never had taper madness for not being able to run in the days leading up to weekend races. However, for some reason, I couldn't wait any longer until our Sunday Capital City Marathon while the PV’ers were already enjoying their day on the hills so I didn't flip-flop at all when Divechief, who hadn't run much this month and was getting antsy and starting to imagine niggles and injuries all over the place again, called about the five-mile season opener in the annual Cougar Mountain Trail series. In particular, I love trail running as I used to go up and down coastal mountain trails in Alaska after school in the fall for bird hunting and had to run back all the time to get back home in time for dinner way before I knew it was running and, even today, the woods don’’t seem like running at all.
Since it was my downfall in a PW half marathon in March when I bonked badly at mile seven after trying to keep up to the pretty president of our triathlon club in the early miles, I knew I should take it slow and easy and not try to break my current PR of 1:00:29 on the five mile Cougar course. As dive mentions in his rr, most trail races feature runners packed tight together in an unbroken line. As a result, it's often hard to see roots, rocks and other erratics on the trail. Accordingly, an informal early warning system of lightly touching the runner ahead when getting too near has developed like drafting in in-line skating packs. It happens a lot at my pace but when one of the runners starting having to say "sorry" for having to touch me so much all the time and changing positions back and forth with me, she started commenting on my thongs and it turned out she remembered running with me and my barefoot guru buddy in the January 2002 San Diego Marathon. Interestingly, though I wear thongs because they feel so good, the RD said being low to the ground helps avoid twisting ankles. Then, when she noticed my stylish grey San Diego poly shorts and matching grey White River 50 mile t-shirt and said she was planning on the same ultra this summer for the first time, I tried to keep up with her almost all the way and ended up with a course PR of 57:05. The too-fast time worried me a little but I'd had a blast and, after a jump in the Jacuzzi and nap on the bus, I arrived in Olympia feeling fresh as a daisy with vim and vigor to go for the next day’’s marathon. After meeting my new friend Karl at the outdoor packet pick-up for the first time (anyone who has run a five hour plus and more marathon is my friend, Karl), we got together with dove for some carbo-loading and were joined by mike and rnrwfe and divechief even though they were not running. Thanks mike/sue/dave. Unfortunately, solarrunner didn't make it but we hope she enjoyed her first marathon even without our advice on the hilly sections
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(sidebar) - I arrived a little early at the restaurant and was shown to a still-empty reserved table for about sixteen people. I knew dove might have some extra friends coming but when two real pretty girls were shown in and introduced themselves as "lover" and "heart," my own heart just about exploded. Unfortunately, she had said "I’m a liver" as they were part of a transplant runner group and, though I’ll try most any ruse, hair didn't count.
One of the best parts of racing is the chance to spend time with family and friends and, with my cousin living in Olympia and doing the half, the Capital City Marathon, half marathon and 5k is practically a hometown race replete with home made signs along the way such as "Go like Miguel." Unfortunately, the CCM has not been a great event for bragging about my marathons. Thus, in 1998, when I told another runner I’d been running a marathon a year since 1977, he said it was his 250th (this year’s was #405) and wondered why I only ran one a year. Now, this year, while shuffle running up the first major hill, when another runner told me the CCM was his 792nd marathon since 1993 and I tried nonchalantly to respond by mentioning that "actually, though I'm exactly 700 marathons behind you, I just ran a five mile trail race on Saturday," he said he’’d done a trail race on Saturday too but it was, get this, . . . 52 miles! <<<hugh ego deflate>>> I got to see my boomer buddies Karl and Dove at the start but missed hippo and solar (so will have to wait for their rr's to find out what was going on) and also MM friends, including the one who had creamed me in the Eugene Marathon.
The marathon race starts earlier than the other races so we lined up with the marathoners at the start line, and after a recording of the national anthem, we were off with Karl and me on either side of dove doing our best to try to box her in to keep her from getting ahead too far right away. I had actually hoped to see dove’s pretty pink rs again but her shiny black one from Brooks still made her the prettiest gal in the race that’s for sure. WARNING - FR - WARNING:
After being so stylish at Cougar Mountain, I was worried about what to wear with a Capital City goddess but the attractive black Cougar Mountain Series caps given to entrants the day before looked great with their blue trimming so I wore my black MM singlet with bright blue poly shorts for the CCM. Some people somehow don't like black and blue but I’ve liked it ever since it was highlighted by a popular goddess in a photo session last Halloween and, indeed, I got quite a few comments during the marathon on whether I usually wear bright blue with black.
END FR WARNING (or maybe next para) Except for the fact that I like to run barefoot or in thongs, I would have worn the same blue and white Brooks shoes and white wright socks to complete my ensemble that I had worn at the carbo-fest in honor of dove's new sponsorship. The weather was perfect, cool and overcast until the last miles, the views along the waterfront parts were spectacular, and the course was as hilly as advertised. Except for secretly hoping that the hugher hills in the PV would defeat ilene (NOT!) so I could beat her this time (NOT! ), I was just hoping to be getting in good enough shape by now to be able to set a PR for the year (better than the 5:34 in Eugene and 6:09 Valentine) and maybe get revenge for being passed at mile 21 in Eugene by the MM’er I’d left in the dust at mile 13. I knew I might be in trouble though when a volunteer at the bottom of a hill said, “water at the top, . . . in a mile and a quarter!"). Fortunately, maybe the magical effect of knowing dove and karl were up ahead or pretending I was deep in the PV or whatever, I was able to maintain a pretty steady 11:30 pace and my 5:00:40 finish clobbered Mr. MM by 15 minutes for sweet revenge (this time). though some runners might be disappointed to miss five hours by only 20 seconds, it let's me still look forward to breaking the five hour barrier at the upcoming GreenRiverMarathon.com with huskydon's family team or in July’s Seafair I hope with other boomers again. [This message has been edited by Tetsujin30 (edited May-22-2007).] [This message has been edited by Tetsujin30 (edited May-25-2007).]
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Your race reports are actually too short for me! I love hearing all the details, history, friends and other facts from your always interesting perspective.
