CHUCKANUT 50K RACE
REPORT
03/18/2017
The 2017 running of the Chuckanut 50K celebrated its 25 year
anniversary by being selected as a qualifying race for the 2017 US World Trail
Championship team (for the Canadian team as well). As I still have a bitter taste in my mouth
from the 2016 trail world champs that did not go so well (thank you C-diff) I
made the trip to Bellingham, WA to take on the Chuckanut 50K and to earn a spot
on the 2017 team.
The day before the race I did a mini course pre-view and did
some promoting for “Bigger Than The Trail”, a non-profit organization that a
friend of mine started. Bigger Than The
Trail is an organization that focuses on advocacy for mental health with the mission
of enriching the lives of individuals struggling with their mental health. If want more information you can find Bigger
Than the Trail on facebook and instagram.
The forecast for race day called for 43 degrees and
rain. Mud and I usually don’t get along
all too well when it comes to racing so I wasn’t feeling overly optimistic
about having a great day on the trails.
Usually when the trails are muddy the faster I try to run the slower I
seem to go from all of the slipping.
None the less I kept a positive attitude and hoped for the best.
Race day weather predictions held true and it was 43 degrees
and rain for the start. I and five other
speedsters (King, Canaday, Laney, Hawks, and Morrison) get after the flat 1st
section of the course that runs along the inter-urban trail for roughly 10K
meters. Our group averages 5:50/mile for
the first 7 miles. As we begin the
climbs that make up the 2nd section of the course I settle into 5th
place not far behind Canaday and Hawks.
On the climbs I’d lose some ground on the front runners and on the downs
I would close the gap back up. Once we
reached the top of the climb up Cleator road I lost visual of Canaday and
Hawks.
I did my best to keep
it close through the technical section of the course and then use my leg speed
in the last 10K of the course on the inner-urban trail back to the finish. As I pull into the last aide station and the
start of the inner-urban trail I find out that I succeed in keeping Canaday and
Morrison within striking distance but King and Hawks were running out of their
minds and there was no catching them. I
grab a couple of chips at the aide station and go to make my move and the move
never comes. The spark is gone from my
legs. The sub 6-minute miles that I want
to be runner are ticking off in 7+ minute range. With 3 miles to go I start to see starts,
somewhere along the line I was off in my fueling, and I fear of an epic
meltdown. To make matters worse I hear
cheering for Laney who has closed the gap on me. I somehow manage to stave off
the epic meltdown and hold on to finish in 5th place in a time of
3:49:55.
All in all it wasn’t the most spectacular race that I’ve ran
but it was a good solid performance. I
was able to start the race healthy and injuries free (thanks to USANA health
sciences and my PT wife Jessica) and I was able to finish the race the same
way. With how muddy the course was and
the technicality of some of the trails I was a bit worried about walking away
from the race in one piece. I wore the
Salming T3 trail shoes for the 1st time in a race and I couldn’t
have been happier with my shoe choice. I
got great tracking the whole race, never slipped, never fell and I didn’t get
any blisters.
Having not been the race champion I did not garner an
automatic bid for the ’17 US world trail team so the waiting game begins. I submitted a resume along with a bunch of
other very talented runners in hopes of being selected to the team. The team will be announced no later than
March 31st. Fingers crossed
you’ll get to see me in Italy in June.
Gear worn:
Salming T3 trail shoes
Salming top and bottom
If you're interested in Salming you can check them out at: www.shopsalmingusa.com . Use promo code Sigl20 and save 20%.
Nutrition:
Prerace-USANA peanut
bar
Race- Tailwind
(20oz), 4 cliff gels
Post Race – USANA my
smart shake
