{"id":629,"date":"2013-11-13T19:02:49","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T02:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/?p=629"},"modified":"2013-11-13T19:02:49","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T02:02:49","slug":"cascade-crest-100-the-build-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/?p=629","title":{"rendered":"Cascade Crest 100: The Build-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cascade Crest is the big leagues, and even though I’ve run a few gnarly trail races (Yakima Skyline, Beacon Rock, White River, Waldo), I knew I’d have to step things up.\u00a0 I gave myself ample time to recover from Rocky Raccoon, and didn’t start my “formal” training until the beginning of May, although I worked in a few races in March and April.\u00a0 The first was the Chuckanut 50K; pumped up on antibiotics and steroids to fight a lung infection I managed a cold, wet slog, barely beating last year’s time.\u00a0 Next up was the American River 50 where I ran a PR in 11:22.\u00a0 However, things went downhill after that.<\/p>\n

While my lung infection had cleared, I still had a persistent cough — something that had plagued me for almost two years.\u00a0 Thinking it might be acid reflux, a year ago my doctor put me on Prilosec; while the cough diminished it never went away.\u00a0 We were both eager to fully eliminate it, so in mid April I started a 30-day grain elimination diet, thinking it could possibly be caused by an allergy to wheat and\/or grain.\u00a0 Knowing it could affect my races I waited to start it the day after running the Yakima Skyline 25K.<\/p>\n

Last year I swore I’d never return to that race.\u00a0 While the scenery is gorgeous, I don’t do well on steep, rocky descents — something this race is known for.\u00a0 But with Cascade Crest coming up, I hiked up my big girl pants and gave it another go.\u00a0 I was a good half hour ahead of last year’s time when disaster struck: after a particularly gnarly climb I decided to push the pace once I hit level ground.\u00a0 My foot clipped a rock and I went down\u2026 HARD.\u00a0 Both knees sustained deep gashes, enough to require a tetanus shot.<\/p>\n

A week later I toed the line for the Capitol Peak 50-miler.\u00a0 Between my trepidation over falling and my lack of energy due to my diet restrictions, it was a personal worst.\u00a0 My only consolation was receiving a handmade mug for coming in DFL.\u00a0 Two weeks later I once again earned that distinction — sans mug — at the Lost Lake 50K.\u00a0 My 10-hour finish demoralized me and I questioned whether I was capable of — or deserved to be — running Cascade Crest.\u00a0 There were more than 100 people on the wait list at that point, and I figured they were far more prepared than me.<\/p>\n

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The diet experiment left me lethargic and irritable, and although my cough had indeed quieted down, I didn’t think an allergy was to blame.\u00a0 I started reintroducing grains back into my diet and my energy soon returned.\u00a0 The fear of falling, however?\u00a0 THAT stayed with me.\u00a0 (Didn’t help that I took a couple more tumbles).<\/p>\n

Then came my Bighorn 50 disaster.<\/p>\n

Based upon rave reviews from friends my darling signed up for the 100-mile race and I for the 50-mile.\u00a0 I was concerned about the elevation (tops out just above 9,000 feet), but I figured the worst that could happen would be I’d have to slow down a bit and my breathing might get a bit heavy.\u00a0 Sure enough, my heart rate climbed somewhat on the ascents and my legs felt dead.\u00a0 I pushed through as best I could.\u00a0 However, I did not anticipate the rocky terrain.\u00a0 As the course descended down into a manageable elevation the trail became steep and strewn with rocks — again, my nemesis.\u00a0 Just when I thought I could pick up some time I found myself gingerly picking my way down.\u00a0 I barely made the first cutoff at mile 18.<\/p>\n

Despite feeling good I couldn’t muster up the strength to do much running; my legs had no energy.\u00a0 The next cutoff was at mile 34.5 (Dry Fork Ridge); I nervously scanned my watch periodically to monitor my progress.\u00a0 As I descended into the mile 29 aid station I could see the Dry Fork station far in the distance (this is big sky country and you can see for miles).\u00a0 I prayed I could make it in time, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.\u00a0 I powered up the last climb to the station, thinking perhaps one of the volunteers would see me and think I was capable of continuing on.\u00a0 Nope!\u00a0 Although I was less than 5 minutes over cutoff, they pulled me.\u00a0 I was devastated.<\/p>\n

With that weighing heavily on me I seriously considered pulling out of Cascade Crest.\u00a0 Seemed none of my races — or even training runs — were going well and I felt unworthy.\u00a0 But I allowed myself a pity party and eventually got back in the game.\u00a0 Had a couple of great training runs on the White River 50 course, as well as a a 30+ mile run on Tiger Mountain with approximately 8,000 feet of elevation gain.\u00a0 My hill training paid off as I ran a 14-minute course PR at White River, gaining most of that time on the climb from Buck Creek to Suntop. The following weekend I ran several portions of the CCC course — the start to Goat Peak on day 1, Stampede Pass to Hyak on day 2, and Lake Kachess to Silver Creek on day 3.\u00a0 I was so happy I did, especially since I got to experience the Cardiac Needles.\u00a0 Still, it wasn’t the confidence boost I was looking for and I feared I’d be swept for not making cutoff.<\/p>\n

With three weeks left to go there was nothing more I could do to improve my fitness, so I concentrated on eating healthfully and getting lots of rest.\u00a0 I ran a handful of short, easy runs just to keep my legs limber.\u00a0 I also tried to keep my taper madness at bay lest I drive my husband\/pacer\/crew insane.\u00a0 Not sure if I succeeded, however \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Next up: It’s show time!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cascade Crest is the big leagues, and even though I’ve run a few gnarly trail races (Yakima Skyline, Beacon Rock, White River, Waldo), I knew I’d have to step things up.\u00a0 I gave myself ample time to recover from Rocky Raccoon, and didn’t start my “formal” training until the beginning of May, although I worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[161],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-reports","tag-cascade-crest-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}