It was a race that I was familiar with as last year, I won the race and was planning to come back to defend.
I knew that this year’s race was going to be tough as the field was loaded with talented athletes and each of them was gunning for a victory and the chance to be National Champion.
I arrived at the race site on Friday evening and was able to get a feel for who was running and what type of shape everyone was in. My first surprise was that the runner up from 2008, Adam Lint was not running. He was still recovering from some injury or other and a huge trip cross-country from Pennsylvania to Washington State. I was also advised that Scott Jurek was running which was cool, as I know Scott and had just read “Born To Run” and he was one of the main characters in the book and I was hoping to get a chance to test my fitness against him.
In addition, I heard that Anton Krupicka was in the field and that he either runs well or is hurt, not much in between with him and his running. I was very interested to see where I stood against Anton, so this we going to be fun.
There were some other great runners there too such as: Greg Crowther, who was on the same USATF 100K World team with me, William Emerson, a great runner and all around super guy, Hal Koerner, 2007 & 2009 Western States 100 miler winner and I knew I had my hands full but that is fine with me and I love the challenge.
I want to race these people and I love that anyone in the race and the above guys had a chance to win the race, that is what it is all about and why I like to race.
I then saw some of the legends of the Ultra World such as David Horton and Howard Nippert and got to chat with them for a few minutes before the pasta dinner put on by the Seattle Running Company who were terrific hosts. Scott McCoubrey and Leslie Bray are the best and treat all the runners with such care it is ridiculous.
I had a few plates of pasta, some salad and bread and then waited for the pre-race briefing.
Scott McCoubrey does a first class job with the entire race and the pre-race briefing was no exception. He detailed all the issues that might arise and then let us all get to bed. I was staying near the race start so I got to bed and was ready to go by 6:30am the next day.
The race weather was better than expected and my thoughts were to see how I felt and race accordingly.
Well, the race started moving pretty fast from the gun and I decided that if I wanted to be in contention to win that I needed to go with the leaders after about 4 miles and at the beginning of the first major climb. I have been working on my climbing but I am definitely not the best climber around so I started slow and worked my way up until the only guy ahead of me was Anton.
We ran together for the next 16 or so miles, passing some crazy views, saw Mt. Rainier, and that made my day, but as we hit the first turn around I got some water, PowerGels, and had to go to the bathroom and Anton bolted out of the aid station ahead of me and I didn’t see him again the rest of the race.
I was still close to Anton though, within 3 minutes as we went back down the mountain and then started up the 2nd big climb but by the top of the climb Anton had 17-18 mins on me with only 12 miles to go. It was going to be hard to win and that is when I started to think about what someone had told me the night before.
They said there are different definitions of winning and I knew that I was probably not going to win the race and we still had a few hours of running to go but I just took the news in stride and figured that I was going to hammer the rest of the course to run better than I did the year before and to ensure that I did my best.
I ended up 2nd overall in 6:51:49 and was about 1 minute faster than 2008.
I know that there can only be one National Champion and this year it was not me. I ran into someone that was better than me that day and that is fine and he deserved to win the race and I am glad that I had the experience and that I know that I can improve various aspects of my running. I am always trying to get better and this is just more motivation for me to keep pushing myself beyond what I have done in the past.
Each run is an experience and I am so glad I had the opportunity to compete and can’t wait to race again.
Hope all is well with your training and that you have had some good experiences lately.
I like that everyone has been putting quotes up, so I found this one that I thought was applicable:
“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.”
– David Frost
THX to Michael
ShareThis