Cascade Crest Classic Race Report

Here's a quick race report:

The Cascade Crest Classic 100-miler has 21,000 feet of climb, (with an additional 21,000 feet of descent). I only got through about 25,000 feet of elevation change before I re-ruptured my
hamstring that I screwed-up back in June. Oh well, another couple of weeks of recovery. It's too bad, because my feet were unblistered and doing fine, I had just gotten over some stomach problems (by emptying its contents), and I still had plenty of energy at that point.

As far as he race goes, the course location was beautiful. Being in the rugged wilderness areas of the sheer-sided Cascade Mountains of Washington was awesome. The race organizers did a fantastic job putting the event on. This "one huge loop" course is a logistics nightmare for both the race officials and any support crews, but is pretty cool.

About the course. Within the first 3 miles we climbed 4500 feet and had a great view. We then lost 4000 feet within the next 2 miles. This pattern would repeat itself, in increments of 1000, 2000, 4000 and whatever feet. The footing was very tenuous, also, (when you could see the trail)...a lot of areas were overgrown to the point of not being able to see the trail at all. The race started at 10 a.m., and it was actually a warm 80+ degrees at the start and through the
rest of the day. There were a lot of sun-exposure areas while climbing, and that took quite a toll on a lot of runners. This year's race had about a 50-percent DNF rate, even with the generous cut-off times.

My hamstring injury had an additional side effect: after sitting on the plane for 4 hours, my back started hurting pretty bad. It has gotten progressively worse. I had to stay home yesterday afternoon from work and just lay on a cold pack with my legs up on pillows. (I couldn't even tie my own shoes, and couldn't sit up in a chair). Luckily, my "beer elbow" still works perfectly.

I will recover shortly, train hard, and be back there on race day next year. I wouldn't miss it for any reason. This race has me hooked! If anyone wants a decent fitness challenge, send in your
entry. I've got some good friends (up in Washington) that will crew for us.

I finally got to meet the bloggers, Rob and Michelle. I'll put out a more in-depth race report (with photos), later.

Happy trails,
Bad Ben

One last race before my 100-miler

Normally, I rarely post anything about running race distances shorter than 5o kilometers. I consider these shorter races fun diversions, instead of the taxing & insidious foes of both body and mind that "ultra" trail runs can be. I'll make an exception, in this case:
This past Saturday, I ran in the second 10K trail race of the 3-race XTerra trail race series. I did okay...I took first place in my age group for a 2nd straight time. Read more.

It's a pretty sad state of affairs for me to win, though!!! You see, I was running at only an 85% effort in both races, and I am not a "fast-twitch" speedy runner, by any means. My main reason for running at 85%, was to save myself for my upcoming ultra-distance trail races. The first of these short-distance series races was just prior to my 50-miler in Oregon, and this last race was 1-week out from my 100-miler. I ran at an okay pace, but a lack of very many folks in my age group significantly contributed to my having two gold medals in the series. (I'll keep the medals, though). :-)
The course was moderately technical, mainly because of the mud, and it was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning with my trailrunning friends.

On Sunday, seven of us ran on the very technical & rocky trails at Kill Creek Park. I ran for 1.5 hours. My son ran with us. At over 7 or 8 miles, it was the longest run that he's ever run in his life. In fact, he ran with us on hilly trails a total of 3 times, this past week. He's continuing to lose more weight and get into better shape. His goal is to speed-up somewhat, and not hold our pace up at all, within one month. He also wants to run at least the 10-mile distance in my club's February trail race. It's really nice to see him doing (even more) positive things in his life.