The morning weather in Granite Falls, WA, was rainy but was not as cold as I expected. Checking in 40 min before the 8am start allowed a little bit of comfort getting ready for a long day of running. 5 early starters were just heading out through the darkness. After a short race briefing by Tony Covarrubias, 40-ish brave ultra runners started breaking dawn.
My race plan was to take easy in the first half (mostly uphill) and then to pass at least a few runners in the second half. I started somewhere in the middle of the pack but I was soon passed by several runners until the mile 7 where the trail started to top off and flattened out a little bit. I began to raise my pace to pass about 4~5 runners next 1.5 miles.
At about mile 8.5, there was a split of trail where I took straight direction while the other was bending to the right. I kept going around a corner and met a couple of runners wondering if they were in the right course. Since I didn’t see any other course marking (pink ribbon) at the previous split, I told them we were on the right route. Shortly, two more runners appeared to join us, so I was pretty sure that we were okay and I continued down the hill quickly while the rest still talking about the course. It went down pretty steeply for 1 mile and I saw a couple of pink ribbons although they looked a little bit faded. About 1 more mile later, there was another gate with more pink ribbons hanging next to the gate. Again they didn’t look like fresh pink, but I kept running down the steep hill for about 1 more mile. There I saw a facility far down the hill. I didn't know what it was, but one thing for sure was that the trail was winding down straight to the facility. So I was wrong.
Okay, I had to climb 3 miles steep uphill to the place that trail spitted. After about half mile slow run on the hill, I decided to walk for a GU break when I heard a vehicle driving fast up the hill behind me. Suddenly a loud voice stopped me. “Please stop immediately right there! You have trespassed on a federally owned property!” I turned around to see what it was. Although the bright headlight blinded my eyes, the military police definitely saw me clearly, a guy licking a GU packet with runny nose, bib number on his shorts, hydration line dangling over the shoulder, soaked in the rain. I must not have looked like a dangerous guy (or a threat in military term). He said I entered a military area. OMG! He asked me a lot of questions including who I was, why I was there, how I entered the gate, what I did there. I explained everything. Literally everything about myself and everything I know about this race and everyone involved in this race. There was supposedly a sign at the gate 1 mile uphill reading like “Restricted area. Authorized Personnel Only” that I might have missed due to the joy of finding the faded pink ribbons. The most difficult part of discussion with this military police officer was to have him understand why I was running that long distance for fun in rainy weather in the forest. It wouldn't even be a question to the long distance trail runners who were sweating in the very same forest, but this Muggle needed an answer. Anyway, after all the verbal communication, he said he needed to report it in a written form. So he pulled out a notepad and then started to write down all about what we already talked. We had to repeat same questions and answers over and over again slowly this time. About 30 minutes of investigation, his attitude changed from interrogation mode to ultra marathon supporter’s mode. He asked me if I was okay with hydration and food. He even offered to follow me for the 2.5 miles uphill to the point I described I made a wrong turn.
After saying good bye to the officer, I continued running uphill passing the gate. Guess what? There was a sign at the gate. I could read "Restricted Area. Keep Out" even from behind the sign clearly. How could I have missed it. Now the pink ribbons looked at least one year old. It was clear that only thing left was to go back on the course and finish the race.
When I reached the end of the steep hill, I could see the main trail bending to the right from where I originally came and obviously I went off to a smaller branch. There I met Shawn McTaggart who was sweeping the course as a race director and made sure that I finally got in the right course. I also noticed the SUV was still following me in a distance. I waved a hand to him and he drove by where Shawn and I were standing and turned around to go back.
From that point, I could resume no-pressure trail run with no police escort. Some more miles of rolling hills and one steep stretch led me to "tank trap" section of the course. A rough terrain with lots of obstacles to huddle over or crawl under continued for about 3 more miles. There was no chance to run there. The only focus was on staying balanced. I slipped several times, got flat on bush a couple times, and happened to fall to hug a big tree hard once, but there was no major issue to go through the obstacle course. I met Tony in the middle of tank trap. He heard that I go on a wrong way from other runners and came to find me. I explained what happened and let him know that I was okay. He decided to wait for Shawn there who was sweeping behind me.
Getting out of the tank trap, there was a river crossing. It wasn't a big river but a small creek. There was a safety rope but I noticed it after hopping over slippery rocks with splash. After about 2-3 miles of flat run I finally reached the aid station that was supposed to be at the half point of the course. Tony and Shawn were already there using their car. It was a great relief to see our kind of people cheering up. I refilled my hydration bag and grabbed something to bite. Since I was the last runner, they were taking down the aid station as I left.
The second half of the course was mostly downhill. I sped up to catch up some time or hopefully any slow runner if any. However, I had to take some walk breaks on some rolling hills as I was getting low in energy level physically and emotionally after putting unnecessarily hard 6 extra miles.
After about 13 easy miles from the aid station, I reached the main road (Mt Loop HWY). I ran down the shoulder of the road about a mile but the entrance of Masonic Park didn't show up. I began to worry about my possibly getting lost again. I started to walk since the hot spot on my right foot started to scream. When I was limping on the road, I saw a car with a couple of familiar faces slowed down on the other side of the road, Tony and Ray drove up to make sure that I was still okay. Knowing that I was about 1 mile away, I found some energy left in me and decided to burn it down. As I approached the finish line, I saw several people still waiting for the last runner of the race while cheering and chanting, and I finished a tough race in a happy ending. The finish time was 7 hours 25 minutes and some seconds including 6 miles extra credit and an interesting investigation.
