Time: 28:40 (1:55 pr)
Sock changes: 6
Starbucks Espressos: 6
Swear words: too many to count,
Tc “Wanna” factor: 5 out of 10
Animal sightings: 1 frog, many chipmunks
Falls: 0
Asterisks by my name: 1 because had a pacer. (That is a joke – for those of you who know me, you know that I have many "rules" about “cheating.” But it is all in fun.)
Last year after finishing CCC I had the “runner’s high" - this time I'm just glad it's over. Maybe it was the collective groaning over the cold weather emanating from everyone around.
My wonderful crew this year was, as always, my brother Jay McTaggart, and in addition, his friend Erica and her 3 year old boy Setemio. Jay is all about being there for me. He dried out one of my sweaty shirt and my shoes on the car vents which made the car hot and noxious, and he picked up my sweaty socks, food wrappers, old band-aids without a word.
Sock changes: 6
Starbucks Espressos: 6
Swear words: too many to count,
Tc “Wanna” factor: 5 out of 10
Animal sightings: 1 frog, many chipmunks
Falls: 0
Asterisks by my name: 1 because had a pacer. (That is a joke – for those of you who know me, you know that I have many "rules" about “cheating.” But it is all in fun.)
Last year after finishing CCC I had the “runner’s high" - this time I'm just glad it's over. Maybe it was the collective groaning over the cold weather emanating from everyone around.
My wonderful crew this year was, as always, my brother Jay McTaggart, and in addition, his friend Erica and her 3 year old boy Setemio. Jay is all about being there for me. He dried out one of my sweaty shirt and my shoes on the car vents which made the car hot and noxious, and he picked up my sweaty socks, food wrappers, old band-aids without a word.
I had been dealing with some hip pain for past 3 weeks and had two massages this past week that helped A LOT, but I hadn’t gone on any test runs and had no idea what was going to happen. Someone asked me what my goal time was and I said “just to finish healthy,” but what I meant was just to be healthy on Sunday. A DNF was not out of the question.
I said hello to everyone at the start of the race. And Seth made a surprise appearance to wish me well just before the start. I gave him a hug and made one more visit to the bathroom before going to the start line.
I put on my virtual blinders as I didn’t want to see where anyone was at in comparison to me. It always takes me a couple miles to warm up and get moving at a comfortable pace, so I was at the back but during the first climbs I passed a lot of people. Not because I was being competitive – it’s just that my normal walking speed is fast and this year I was going to take advantage of that since it didn’t feel like I was expending a lot of energy. I had some confidence to just do my own thing and not worry if people thought “who the hell does she think she is?” I was going to slow down later no matter what I did now. You should see me darting in and out of people speed walking to my bus stop in downtown Seattle everyday :)
Between Cole Butte and Blowout Eric Barnes and I saw a lot of each other. We joked about me “chicking” up on the uphills and him “dicking” me on the downhills.
At Stampede Pass, I was bombarded with “Where’s Arthur?” Funny, funny. Jay told me that Arthur was 20 minutes ahead. The spread got farther and farther apart at each aid station, and eventually I quit asking! Arthur was having a great day and everyone said he was very focused and looking strong.
My hip was feeling painful and I made an attempt to stretch it out and Krissy came over and rubbed down my leg – and it really helped! Erica took mental notes on what Krissy was doing and gave me a nice rub down at a later aid station too – apparently rubbing your sister’s legs is where Jay drew the line at crewing! :)
I felt good on the next section was started to say to myself that I was out of the dark and that my hip would let me finish. I started hearing from others of the bee sting frenzy and thankfully I had escaped un-stung. I felt gravel in my socks on the back of both ankles and kept pausing to try to pick out, but would come up empty handed. I’d just have to wait until Stampede Pass when I could change socks.
At Stampede Pass, Jay again had my camelbak, a long sleeve shirt and my headlamp ready for me. I sat down to change my socks. That wasn’t gravel – those were blisters on my ankles. That’s a new spot for me. Fortunately I put band-aids over the top of them and never had a problem again. However, the blisters I always get on my heels had already come up and I dumped on the iodine and popped the blisters and put on new socks – and did the same at most every aid station after this.
I was thinking that Olallie was the next aid station where Jay was NOT going to meet me, so I was surprised to see him there…when I said this he said, no this is only Meadow Mountain. That made more sense because it was still pretty light out and last year I’d hit Olallie in the dark (which it was when I arrived this time too). It was pretty cool seeing things I hadn’t before in the light. I even got to see the creek bed I’d mistaken for the trail last year before getting rescued by Lisa Henson. When it started to finally get dark I was near Eric and another guy who Eric knew, Daniel from Bellingham. Also, I realized that I was AWAKE on this section of trail that had been miserable last year – it had seemed so steep, and I’d kept falling asleep and walking off the trail. This year was great though – I was actually running! (It is probably good that I didn’t realize at this point that come morning I would be on parts of the trail in the dark that I’d had the good “fortune” to run in daylight last year.)
At Olallie I sat in a chair and had warm soup and a pirogi. Someone put a blanket on me and I said I hoped I didn’t get too comfortable at which she quipped – well, that’s Olga’s blanket – so you can’t stay too long! This would not be the first time that Olga would unwittingly/unknowingly share with me during the long night. I got to meet Olga in person for the first time at the start of the race that morning. She was all smiles and such a warm person. I remember the first time I saw her “up close” she passed me like I was standing still on chinscraper at Chuckanut and I thought I want to learn to walk like that!
So, off I scurry not wanting to be caught sleeping in her chair. Now down to Hyak. This was a fun section for me. I was feeling good about my hip and found a lot of this runnable. I was one of the lucky ones I guess. At the “Y” where there’s an offshoot trail to the left, I carefully looked at the trail markings before deciding right/straight was the right way and found a confidence marker ~50 feet later. Relief! There was another runner behind me as we neared the “bad marker” turn and we both hear a runner yelling up “which way? I’m at a road, but the arrows point left!” It turned out to be Wendy who was down below and Bill Davenport behind me. Wendy got back on course and we all got down the rope section together. I first met Bill when we ran the last part of March Mudness together in 2006 – so we had some good laughs about the rainy weather coming back to haunt us. I was surprised to see both Wendy and Bill near me, but they both quickly took off once we hit the tunnel and I wouldn’t see either on the course again. Just before the ropes we also saw Rob pointing people down the hill. Later Rob told me that I was pretty lucky I hit that section when I did – much earlier and I wouldn’t have had any course markings to follow.
Once out of the tunnel and on the road I stupidly didn’t listen carefully to folks there about where to turn at the road that parallels I-90. I didn’t remember this road section from last year as Tom Chapman had been leading me the right way and I didn’t “have to” pay attention. I wasn’t seeing any ribbons, but on instinct took a left. Behind me I saw headlamps and so I kept looking back to make sure they were still there, and it seemed like those headlamps kept swinging around too as if they were trying to figure out which way to go – I hoped that if I was going the wrong way that they would know it and not keep following. Finally saw ribbons at the right to go under the overpass to Hyak.
Got in and saw Michelle Barnes. She said that *tc was thinking of dropping. I was like “oh no, he’s not” and Michelle took me to where he was keeping warm, but at that point he was already getting up and walking out. I think I was being too flippant at Tony’s wanting to stop. But I had kept thinking how easy it would be to quit given the weather, but Tony would say that I was just hitting a low spot, and that I should just evaluate what was really going on and if I was healthy then there was no reason to quit. Maybe I thought I was doing Tony a favor, but it turned out he did me the favor by getting me up to Keechelus with minimal sleepiness. I tried to say things that you’re supposed to say, but they came out all wrong, and Tony’s solid reasoning trumped my lame ass pleas to get him to come along with me. The aid station workers radioed down to Kendall at Kachess Lake who found Jay who would drive up and get Tony.
Down to Kachess was uneventful. I was wide awake and it was almost 4 a.m. That made me feel good – maybe for once I wouldn’t have those sleepiness issues. I was walking out of Kachess with Eric and Steve when Jay pulled back in and a bunch of people who had decided to stop (2? 3?) tumbled out of the car like it was a clown car at the circus. We said goodbye to Tony and Jay et al before heading out.
I tried to stick with Eric and Steve and was even feeling pretty confident running through parts of the “trail from hell.” I was awake and then suddenly I got tired and I lost Eric and Steve. They yelled back, but I wanted them to keep going – I was just going to have to go my own pace now. Alone now and going slow another runner came up behind me as I was straddling a log and contemplating a nap. “Is that Shawn” said the voice. It was Rob. Olga was injured and had dropped, but not before telling Rob to pace someone else. I was the lucky recipient of that goodwill. Unfortunately for Rob, he was going to see me at my worst for the next 8 hours. I didn’t wake up until somewhere between Thorpe Mtn. and French Cabin. There were moments of wakeful, purposeful running, but I think I really tested his patience and made him wonder if I would snap out of it.
We didn’t run much, if any, of the trail from hell. I kept saying I just needed to shut my eyes for a bit, and at Mineral Creek I tried, but the sound of many runners coming and going quickly made me anxious and we were off. Michelle and Sonya were still parked up the road after having seen Eric and Steve off. They walked us up to the cars and fed and clothed Rob and I met Jay and changed back into my old shoes and long sleeve which were now dry again.
Rob and I talked a lot about “the race that shall not be named” and Rob terrorized me by saying that 2008 would call for 36 Summit sandwich with one slice of CCC and one slice of Plain. I think he was obviously going for a laugh, because the Rob I know would never do anything crazy like that. We did get pretty silly at times – okay, I got a “tad” over-the-top screaming at the chipmunks, but it kept me going. At No Name Ridge Tony P, Lisa Bliss and Tim Englund fed us really well and again I got a warm blankie and a chair. But when I tried to close my eyes, that’s when the they kicked us out! :)
Next up was Thorpe Mountain and then I said to myself, it’s all downhill from there. This is what I remember: climbing, climbing and climbing, Thorpe Mountain, cold and wind, where’s the downhill?, more climbing, Rob “ditches” me, nap in the dirt, more climbing, hey I’m awake (!!!), catch back up with Rob, climbing, and finally French Cabin. During this section Rob started to re-evaluate our plan to run together at Plain. One, I can’t stay awake, and two, I guess I grunt an awful lot.
More good soup and food at French Cabin from the wonderful aid station workers. With 12 miles to go and me finally awake, Rob pushed and set a really good pace. I led for a while because I “felt” like I was having a hard time keeping up with Rob, but then I realized that I was pushing it too much myself, so Rob led again. Along the trail down to Silver Creek I let out a stream of expletives and Rob says “uh, that was a huge over-reaction to what?” A bee stung me in the ankle! It was not bad, just a surprise when it happened. We started to pass other runners. I feel like it’s the wrong time to pass people, but on the other hand, I want to be done! We came up on Eric and Steve and I said “oh no, not Eric.” But it was okay and Steve and Eric stepped out of the way and heckled us a bit too. It was good to see Eric was in good spirits and on his way to finishing his first 100.
At Silver Creek Michelle greeted us again and she took my camelbak and long sleeve from me to hand off to Jay while he ran to get me a water bottle. We were going to walk 1 minute, run 5, but it turned into running landmark to landmark. We got to the railroad tracks and we took one more walk break before running in. It was really cool getting my very own finisher buckle from RD Charlie Crissman who did an awesome job coordinating everything! Jay and Erica were right there with a chair and food. Eric finished right after me with his entourage of Y-club gals and Michelle. And of course, everyone told us that Arthur had finished in 25 hours – way to go!
Jay had to get Erica to the bus station (or else we’d be driving all the way to Skagit Valley – no!!), so we jetted out of there about a half hour later. I felt bad about not sticking around to see everyone come in, but I was cold, I just wanted to go home, and I felt no excitement. After writing this I realize that I had a great run with great friends. There's no reason to feel negative about it, but after finishing yesterday, I was done with running. I think it was just the rain clouds (plain clouds?) hanging over my head.
When we got home Jay and I both commented on how this race felt like a shared effort amongst all the crew and all the runners. So thank you to everyone and congratulations to everyone who ran!
I said hello to everyone at the start of the race. And Seth made a surprise appearance to wish me well just before the start. I gave him a hug and made one more visit to the bathroom before going to the start line.
I put on my virtual blinders as I didn’t want to see where anyone was at in comparison to me. It always takes me a couple miles to warm up and get moving at a comfortable pace, so I was at the back but during the first climbs I passed a lot of people. Not because I was being competitive – it’s just that my normal walking speed is fast and this year I was going to take advantage of that since it didn’t feel like I was expending a lot of energy. I had some confidence to just do my own thing and not worry if people thought “who the hell does she think she is?” I was going to slow down later no matter what I did now. You should see me darting in and out of people speed walking to my bus stop in downtown Seattle everyday :)
Between Cole Butte and Blowout Eric Barnes and I saw a lot of each other. We joked about me “chicking” up on the uphills and him “dicking” me on the downhills.
At Stampede Pass, I was bombarded with “Where’s Arthur?” Funny, funny. Jay told me that Arthur was 20 minutes ahead. The spread got farther and farther apart at each aid station, and eventually I quit asking! Arthur was having a great day and everyone said he was very focused and looking strong.
My hip was feeling painful and I made an attempt to stretch it out and Krissy came over and rubbed down my leg – and it really helped! Erica took mental notes on what Krissy was doing and gave me a nice rub down at a later aid station too – apparently rubbing your sister’s legs is where Jay drew the line at crewing! :)
I felt good on the next section was started to say to myself that I was out of the dark and that my hip would let me finish. I started hearing from others of the bee sting frenzy and thankfully I had escaped un-stung. I felt gravel in my socks on the back of both ankles and kept pausing to try to pick out, but would come up empty handed. I’d just have to wait until Stampede Pass when I could change socks.
At Stampede Pass, Jay again had my camelbak, a long sleeve shirt and my headlamp ready for me. I sat down to change my socks. That wasn’t gravel – those were blisters on my ankles. That’s a new spot for me. Fortunately I put band-aids over the top of them and never had a problem again. However, the blisters I always get on my heels had already come up and I dumped on the iodine and popped the blisters and put on new socks – and did the same at most every aid station after this.
I was thinking that Olallie was the next aid station where Jay was NOT going to meet me, so I was surprised to see him there…when I said this he said, no this is only Meadow Mountain. That made more sense because it was still pretty light out and last year I’d hit Olallie in the dark (which it was when I arrived this time too). It was pretty cool seeing things I hadn’t before in the light. I even got to see the creek bed I’d mistaken for the trail last year before getting rescued by Lisa Henson. When it started to finally get dark I was near Eric and another guy who Eric knew, Daniel from Bellingham. Also, I realized that I was AWAKE on this section of trail that had been miserable last year – it had seemed so steep, and I’d kept falling asleep and walking off the trail. This year was great though – I was actually running! (It is probably good that I didn’t realize at this point that come morning I would be on parts of the trail in the dark that I’d had the good “fortune” to run in daylight last year.)
At Olallie I sat in a chair and had warm soup and a pirogi. Someone put a blanket on me and I said I hoped I didn’t get too comfortable at which she quipped – well, that’s Olga’s blanket – so you can’t stay too long! This would not be the first time that Olga would unwittingly/unknowingly share with me during the long night. I got to meet Olga in person for the first time at the start of the race that morning. She was all smiles and such a warm person. I remember the first time I saw her “up close” she passed me like I was standing still on chinscraper at Chuckanut and I thought I want to learn to walk like that!
So, off I scurry not wanting to be caught sleeping in her chair. Now down to Hyak. This was a fun section for me. I was feeling good about my hip and found a lot of this runnable. I was one of the lucky ones I guess. At the “Y” where there’s an offshoot trail to the left, I carefully looked at the trail markings before deciding right/straight was the right way and found a confidence marker ~50 feet later. Relief! There was another runner behind me as we neared the “bad marker” turn and we both hear a runner yelling up “which way? I’m at a road, but the arrows point left!” It turned out to be Wendy who was down below and Bill Davenport behind me. Wendy got back on course and we all got down the rope section together. I first met Bill when we ran the last part of March Mudness together in 2006 – so we had some good laughs about the rainy weather coming back to haunt us. I was surprised to see both Wendy and Bill near me, but they both quickly took off once we hit the tunnel and I wouldn’t see either on the course again. Just before the ropes we also saw Rob pointing people down the hill. Later Rob told me that I was pretty lucky I hit that section when I did – much earlier and I wouldn’t have had any course markings to follow.
Once out of the tunnel and on the road I stupidly didn’t listen carefully to folks there about where to turn at the road that parallels I-90. I didn’t remember this road section from last year as Tom Chapman had been leading me the right way and I didn’t “have to” pay attention. I wasn’t seeing any ribbons, but on instinct took a left. Behind me I saw headlamps and so I kept looking back to make sure they were still there, and it seemed like those headlamps kept swinging around too as if they were trying to figure out which way to go – I hoped that if I was going the wrong way that they would know it and not keep following. Finally saw ribbons at the right to go under the overpass to Hyak.
Got in and saw Michelle Barnes. She said that *tc was thinking of dropping. I was like “oh no, he’s not” and Michelle took me to where he was keeping warm, but at that point he was already getting up and walking out. I think I was being too flippant at Tony’s wanting to stop. But I had kept thinking how easy it would be to quit given the weather, but Tony would say that I was just hitting a low spot, and that I should just evaluate what was really going on and if I was healthy then there was no reason to quit. Maybe I thought I was doing Tony a favor, but it turned out he did me the favor by getting me up to Keechelus with minimal sleepiness. I tried to say things that you’re supposed to say, but they came out all wrong, and Tony’s solid reasoning trumped my lame ass pleas to get him to come along with me. The aid station workers radioed down to Kendall at Kachess Lake who found Jay who would drive up and get Tony.
Down to Kachess was uneventful. I was wide awake and it was almost 4 a.m. That made me feel good – maybe for once I wouldn’t have those sleepiness issues. I was walking out of Kachess with Eric and Steve when Jay pulled back in and a bunch of people who had decided to stop (2? 3?) tumbled out of the car like it was a clown car at the circus. We said goodbye to Tony and Jay et al before heading out.
I tried to stick with Eric and Steve and was even feeling pretty confident running through parts of the “trail from hell.” I was awake and then suddenly I got tired and I lost Eric and Steve. They yelled back, but I wanted them to keep going – I was just going to have to go my own pace now. Alone now and going slow another runner came up behind me as I was straddling a log and contemplating a nap. “Is that Shawn” said the voice. It was Rob. Olga was injured and had dropped, but not before telling Rob to pace someone else. I was the lucky recipient of that goodwill. Unfortunately for Rob, he was going to see me at my worst for the next 8 hours. I didn’t wake up until somewhere between Thorpe Mtn. and French Cabin. There were moments of wakeful, purposeful running, but I think I really tested his patience and made him wonder if I would snap out of it.
We didn’t run much, if any, of the trail from hell. I kept saying I just needed to shut my eyes for a bit, and at Mineral Creek I tried, but the sound of many runners coming and going quickly made me anxious and we were off. Michelle and Sonya were still parked up the road after having seen Eric and Steve off. They walked us up to the cars and fed and clothed Rob and I met Jay and changed back into my old shoes and long sleeve which were now dry again.
Rob and I talked a lot about “the race that shall not be named” and Rob terrorized me by saying that 2008 would call for 36 Summit sandwich with one slice of CCC and one slice of Plain. I think he was obviously going for a laugh, because the Rob I know would never do anything crazy like that. We did get pretty silly at times – okay, I got a “tad” over-the-top screaming at the chipmunks, but it kept me going. At No Name Ridge Tony P, Lisa Bliss and Tim Englund fed us really well and again I got a warm blankie and a chair. But when I tried to close my eyes, that’s when the they kicked us out! :)
Next up was Thorpe Mountain and then I said to myself, it’s all downhill from there. This is what I remember: climbing, climbing and climbing, Thorpe Mountain, cold and wind, where’s the downhill?, more climbing, Rob “ditches” me, nap in the dirt, more climbing, hey I’m awake (!!!), catch back up with Rob, climbing, and finally French Cabin. During this section Rob started to re-evaluate our plan to run together at Plain. One, I can’t stay awake, and two, I guess I grunt an awful lot.
More good soup and food at French Cabin from the wonderful aid station workers. With 12 miles to go and me finally awake, Rob pushed and set a really good pace. I led for a while because I “felt” like I was having a hard time keeping up with Rob, but then I realized that I was pushing it too much myself, so Rob led again. Along the trail down to Silver Creek I let out a stream of expletives and Rob says “uh, that was a huge over-reaction to what?” A bee stung me in the ankle! It was not bad, just a surprise when it happened. We started to pass other runners. I feel like it’s the wrong time to pass people, but on the other hand, I want to be done! We came up on Eric and Steve and I said “oh no, not Eric.” But it was okay and Steve and Eric stepped out of the way and heckled us a bit too. It was good to see Eric was in good spirits and on his way to finishing his first 100.
At Silver Creek Michelle greeted us again and she took my camelbak and long sleeve from me to hand off to Jay while he ran to get me a water bottle. We were going to walk 1 minute, run 5, but it turned into running landmark to landmark. We got to the railroad tracks and we took one more walk break before running in. It was really cool getting my very own finisher buckle from RD Charlie Crissman who did an awesome job coordinating everything! Jay and Erica were right there with a chair and food. Eric finished right after me with his entourage of Y-club gals and Michelle. And of course, everyone told us that Arthur had finished in 25 hours – way to go!
Jay had to get Erica to the bus station (or else we’d be driving all the way to Skagit Valley – no!!), so we jetted out of there about a half hour later. I felt bad about not sticking around to see everyone come in, but I was cold, I just wanted to go home, and I felt no excitement. After writing this I realize that I had a great run with great friends. There's no reason to feel negative about it, but after finishing yesterday, I was done with running. I think it was just the rain clouds (plain clouds?) hanging over my head.
When we got home Jay and I both commented on how this race felt like a shared effort amongst all the crew and all the runners. So thank you to everyone and congratulations to everyone who ran!
