The Faceplant

Photo by Glenn Tachiyama, 2014.

The summer that I turned 50, I resolved to participate in as many 50K trail runs as possible “until the wheels fell off the bus”. At the time of my resolution, I regarded myself as a back-of-the-pack, half-marathon “Half Fanatic”. I had never actually completed the 50K distance. So naturally, for that first weekend, I went all-in for a double-header: the “Snoqualmie Pass Trail Runs” training event for the Cascade Crest 100-Mile Endurance Run. This training weekend included 31 miles on Saturday from Tacoma Pass to Alpental, and 32 miles on Sunday from Lake Kachess to Easton via Thorp Mountain.

Except that “Snoqualmie Pass Trail Runs” is a triple-header, if you count Friday afternoon’s 14-mile warmup run to Goat Peak, which - of course - I could not resist.

Birthday miles in the bank, baby…

Fortunately this delusional madness came to a humbling halt first thing Saturday morning at Tacoma Pass, where I promptly tripped and face-planted in the dirt the moment the last shuttle drove out of sight. We hadn’t even started running yet! My knee swelled up traitorously while I picked the gravel out of my shin, and then I proceeded to pirate peg-leg my way from Tacoma Pass to Alpental. I did manage to finish in just under 9 hours, according to my watch. Another 10 minutes elapsed by the time I tracked down the Race Director in the dining hall, where he officially recorded a proper blueberry-picking performance of 9 hours and 2 minutes.

The next morning my knee was so swollen I wasn’t able to bend it at all. Instead of the planned 32-mile run over Thorp Mt., I treated myself to 6 miles out-and-back along the infamous “Trail from Hell”, well past Mineral Creek but then back to my car. It took me nearly 5 hours to negotiate 12 miles with the one dependable leg.

The final score for that first weekend? My plan to run back-to-back 50K trail runs for my 50^th birthday was…50 percent successful.

During that first year I completed twelve 50K trail runs, one 12-hour event, three 50-mile endurance runs, and more. I unofficially completed one 100K run and officially failed to complete another 100K run. I still have my delusional sights set on the 100-mile distance, which continues to mock me from afar.

But the wheels are still on the bus; otherwise, you would not be reading this right now.