WR Training Run

Yesterday was the first of two White River training runs.  The 50 mile course is split into two 25 mile loops, both of which are run as training runs in the weeks leading up to the race.  The Seattle Running club is kind enough to organize the event, and lead folks so they do not get lost.  Unfortunately our little crew from Olympia were not able to meet up with the greater group, there was a bit of a time miscommunication. 

After standing around for about 45 minutes we realized what had happened and hit the trails.  Thankfully there were two things working in our favor 1) one of our group had previously run the course, so he generally knew where we were supposed to go; and 2) the Seattle Running folks drew arrows in the sand to make sure everyone went the right way.   

The first few miles felt rough, it seems to take me awhile to get warmed up.  Once that happens things improve, but I generally find the first hour (at least) to be pretty rough.  The first 6 miles (last 6 of the race) followed the White River along beautiful forested single track.  This may be the last time you hear me say something nice about that stretch, it is full or rocks and roots, that after 44 miles could lead to some bloodshed. 

View of the White River from the trail

Happy at the beginning

Trail, I should have taken a more representative picture

The trail is around here somewhere...

After 6 miles on the nice wooded trails the run started in earnest, we began the climb to Sun Top.   As we were motoring uphill I made a silly comment - "I don't think we will run into snow".  Wrong...  A few miles later we hit our first patch, it continued until we got high enough up for the trees to thin out.  We were not moving very fast and the snow slowed us down ever more.  At this point or little group had shifted our thinking from "we're going for a run" to "we are going on an adventure".

Creek...

...we had to cross

Going up

And then there was snow

That we had to slide down

Until we got out of tree cover

And were rewarded with views of Mt. Rainier

Proof our little group made it to the top

By the time we reached Sun Top we had covered ~19 miles and had 6 miles to go, downhill on a dirt road.  I think our little group had wordlessly decided that we were done, the hard part was over [side note: running downhill is hard, it is a quad crushing event].   We sat down and took in the views, spending the better part of a half-hour enjoying the sun, surroundings, and munching on snacks.  We finally collected ourselves and started the pounding downhill.  The miles flew and before we knew it we were back at the car. 

All in all the day was a success - time on my feet, good company, and beautiful views.  Our trip took 5 hours and 40 minutes from car to car, however, I would say 40 minutes of that was spent enjoying the views up top and a small stint of route finding at a road crossing.  As for the course, it is going to be hard as hell.  I don't know that I am going to go to next weeks training run, I think ignorance may be bliss in this case!