Doppler 50K

Nice weather and near-perfect trail condition in Green Mountain near Bremerton, WA. 





It was first long trail run getting off my injury in hamstring and ankle. Took an easy pace and had some moments for snap shot.

Transcendence 12 Hour Ultra

It turned out to be my 6-hr race instead of 12-hr thanks to the family schedule. I had fun to run 22 laps around Capital Lake for 6:04:15 covering 33.526 miles.

Call of the Summer Marathon

Again, a wonderful race was organized by RD Adrian Call and his family in Sammamish River Trail in Bothell, WA. I ran a nice and easy first half (2:08) and a little bit tough second half (2:30) in one of the easiest nicely paved course in the planet. Probably, I paid for my lazy summer. My marathon finish time is 4:37:50 and it's even 2 minutes slower than previous 50K run last year here in the same course. Oh, well, I have 12 hours endurance run in Olympia next weekend. So, I hope I can make up some running mileage there.

Taylor Mountain 50K

Taylor Mountain 50K

Green River Marathon

Green River Marathon

Solo Marathon in Bainbridge Island

A solo run for 26.4 miles around Bainbridge Island for 4.5 hours. It was the first long (marathon distance and beyond)  run after Lumberjack in April.

Lumberjack Endurance Run

First attempt for 100 miler ended up in 76 milers after running 22 hours.

Redmond Watershed Preserve Marathon

Redmond Watershed Preserve Marathon changed its course this year. The original 8.74 mi loop (x3 laps) was cut short to 6.55 mi (x4 laps). It's same as 5 mi course but a couple of out-and-back sections were added. I am not sure if this new course is harder or easier than old one. Well... one thing for sure is that it is a great trail to run around.

I was a little bit concerned about the trail condition because of the steady rain from the night before not to mention to western Washington's record breaking rainfall in March. I arrived at Redmond Watershed Preserve just after 8am and geared up for a warm-up lap of 6.55 mi before the official marathon event. I met Eric Bone, the race director, at the trail head by chance. He kindly explained the course changes and the turn signs for my warm-up run. The rain continued during my run, but the trail condition was surprisingly good. I mean it was wet and muddy of course but very much runnable with no sucking mud-traps.

After finishing my warm-up lap, I picked up my running bib (#807) and refilled my water bottle. It was about the right time for the race briefing. There were over 100 people getting ready for the event, but most of them were running either 5 mi or 10 mi. Only 20~30 were headed to the start line for a marathon.

I happened to be in the front line and started to run much faster than I planned. After the turnaround of the 2nd out-and-back section of the first lap (mile 3), I decided to slow down. Roger Michel caught me up there and we ran the rest of the first lap together. It was nice time to learn about his race organization and some of his long races including 100 milers.

After the 1st lap, I came back to the car and changed my hand-help bottle since it was sort of leaking, ate some snack, and returned to the trail for more laps. My 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lap became slower and slower. Actually I didn't want to push myself because I would also add at least one extra lap after the official race. During my 3rd lap, I met Takao Suzuki, a running friend of mine, who ran a marathon at Dizzy Daze one day before and came out to take some pictures. On my returning bound of 4th lap, I caught up Monte Pascual in his 3rd lap and had some good conversation. Always there are good things to learn from 10-star Maniacs. My official marathon finish time was 4:43:30 and it was 19th place out of 26 finishers.

After finishing the official marathon, I came back to my car, ate some more snack, refilled more hydration, and returned to the trail again for some more run. I notified Eric the race director that I would run some extra miles. I ran in a relaxing pace without iPod just to listen to the rain drops, my foot steps, and whatever was around in the trail (a true me-time).

Total mileage of the day was 6.55 mi + 26.2 mi + 6.55 mi = 39.3 mi, and the running time = 7 hrs and 3 mins. It was definitely a slow run but I wanted to take advantage of this race to get a long trail training for a preparation of my first 100 miler in April. I felt great and very satisfactory for this run.

Woolley 50K

Woolley 50K at Sedro-Woolley, WA. Finish time 4:52.

Fishline 50K

Back to Port Gamble forest. A couple of 25K loop with consistent pace. Finish time 5:20.

WSFA 50K

West Seattle Fat Ass 50K in a classic Seattle weather in early Feb. I ran very consistently along double out-and-back course with the splits of 1:09-1:05-1:11-1:12. Finish time is 4:41 including 6 min of aid break at half-way point. Many thanks to Nic Plemel, the race director, and wonderful volunteers. Nice way to start Super Bowl Sunday. Overall 6th place out of 24 50K finishers.

Bridle Trails 50K

A lot more people were running in this small trail located in Kirkland WA. More than 100 were running 5.2 miles (1 loop), another 100 were running 10.4 miles (2 loops), a little more than a dozen teams were running 50 Km relay, and about 50 people were running their 50 Km solo. 

The race started with 5 milers at about 3:10 pm, followed by 10 milers a few minutes later. Finally all 50K relay teams and solo runners started at around 3:20 pm when sun was still hung over the horizon. Despite the wave start, the first lap was truly messy with the crowd of runners in the narrow muddy trail. Especially passing the tailing end of 1-loopers and 2-loopers was really tricky not to mention to the technical and muddy trail condition. I came around the aid station after the first lap for 43 minutes which was faster than my goal pace of 50 min per loop. I pulled out my head lamp from my drop bag and continued for the 2nd lap.

It was getting dark and my headlamp with fresh batteries made me feel comfortable in the beginning of 2nd lap with all 1 loopers were gone. I tried to slow down my pace slightly since I sped a little too much in the 1st lap. True night-time trail running started under dark sky. Even with head lamp, footing was very tricky so I gave up evading muddy puddles. My feet were all soaked and muddy from there. At the end of the 2nd lap, I got a hot spot on my left foot but kept going. After using potty, eating some food, and refilling water bottle at aid station, I went out for the 3rd lap.

About 1 mile into the 3rd lap, I got a blister issue on my left foot. I regretted not treating the blister in the previous aid station. I had fresh and dry socks in my drop bag there. Well, I had to slow down my pace a little more. Other than the blister on the left foot, I felt good. Several speedy runners passed me in the 3rd lap. I assumed they were relay teams or really competitive solo runners who were at their 4th lap. I arrived at the aid station, pulled off the wet socks, popped the blister, put a bandaid on it, and pulled up new socks on. I felt really good for the moment.

My 4th lap didn't go fast either. I needed to wait for my popped blister to settle in the bandaid and new socks. Probably, it wast the slowest lap out of all 6. At the aid station, Tony warned me that Shawn was very close to finish her 5th lap and might catch me up pretty soon. 

I decided to put together and make a good run on my 5th lap. I felt pretty good with increased pace. No one had passed me in my 5th lap which took me 45 minutes. It happened to be my 2nd fastest lap. I grabbed a few things at aid station and went out for the last lap.

Knowing that I was almost done, my legs were getting heavier. So, I just slowed down and enjoyed the last lap of the race. My batteries were getting low since the light was getting dimmer. I needed to carry some extra batteries or run really fast. But it was just good enough to finish.

I came back to the parking lot and got changed. My shoes (Brooks Cascadia 4) looked horrible after running through muddy Bridle Trails. Without comprehending how to make them look like shoes again, I just pounded them on the ground repeatedly and threw them in the trunk. Another lesson that I learned in this race was to bing some gallons of water to wash after the run. 

It was a great training course for night-time trail run. 5:27:17 finish time was 26th place out of 46 solo finishers.

Second Chance Marathon

Picked up the first marathon of the year today in "2nd Chance Marathon". 


The course was double out-and-back starting at Woodland Park parking lot across Green Lake, running along Burke-Gilman trail to Ballard, returning at ShilShole Bay marina. Cold winter air but uncharacteristic sunny day was good enough for a long run to start a new year.

Nice and easy run for 4:04:32. Had no chance to get lost thanks to the clear course marking. Got 4th place out of 30 finishers. Congrats for all Winter Triple finishers.