Gah!!!! Excellent report, StevieRay! That was awesome.

I thouroughly enjoyed reading your report StevieRay...yup, the whole thing! Heck I've been known to be a little long winded myslef and I really do enjoy reading reports like yours where you can really get the feel of being there running with the author. Great job and way to hang in there with that heel blister...ouch. Congratulations on enduring through it all, hmmmm maybe someday I'll run one of those ultras...maybe.

Wow Robert, I knew your White River RR would be good and I've been checking your blog every day to forward it on to two buddies I've talked into running three WR's already with me and to several more no-longer-unsuspecting candidates I hope will be there in 2009 too. <>arf/franci/posie/ilene/tammy)>>> It must be different for fitness running just trying to get as much exercise as possible, the longer and harder the better whether going all the way or not , but, as the White River has become one of my favorite pure running events of all time, I fully expected it to be one of yours too and can't help but wondering which one is and why. I'll have to check more of your rr's. I appreciate your detail a lot, . . . such as putting a little better perspective on getting lost at the big washout. Seemingly stranded in the middle of a forested nowhere, I was ready to sit cry in hopeless frustration or quit or both until finally spotting the red trail marker flag at what-seemed-even-higher-up-the-slope than where we started the detour. The getting out of the way for passing/on-coming runners on the narrow trails too. It took me three years but I finally got my first compliment ever on the White River trails with “nice form, guy” as a clung for life around a small Douglas Fir over a precipitous ledge as one of the lead packs caught up to the early starters and passed us by. It took me three times too to figure out what you figured it out right away about the value and necessity of some substantial hill practice. After finishing with a DQ more than an hour after the 14 hour early start cutoff in 2006, my Scott Jurek story is saying that I could probably make the cutoff if I practiced until I could do the ~2,000 foot ascent/descent of Mt. Si near Seattle six times. After a reflective pause, he replied, "no, I think three would be enough." Unfortunately, I didn't heed his advice at all this year but, instead, thought running all or part of more ultras already this year than in my whole life (4 - DizzyDaze / Mt.Si / Redmond Watershed / 20thCent100K) would produce my best finish yet. However, all of them were FLAT, worthless flat and I ended up with my first DNF (mile 31.7 half way up Sun Top Mountain at what was less than 30 minutes behind you (actually 1hr/30min) but there was no way I’d be making the cutoff at the top where the volunteers had already been waiting on and for us all day). You did so well maintaining your pace like clockwork until Skookum at mile 43.4 where, even though your final 1:46 to the finish was a slow 10K for you, it was forty-five minutes faster than my first one there mirrors what seems to happen to everyone on the first tries. Maybe compared to your other 177 marathons/ultras you don’t seem to know it yet but you did so fantastically well just minutes behind a 12 hour pace for over eleven hours over 43.4 miles of the hardest running out of anything I’ve ever done in my life. I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you on the out-and-backs again sometime. I hope. In the meantime, I hope you still might be considering my response to your post in our SeattleRnR topic about a possible Saturday/Sunday home-town Seattle-Kona double for you next year. For your information only - don't tell anyone who's coming for the inaugural Seattle RnR, the White River training agenda for 2009 will include an assault on Corral Pass the day after or before the RnR depending on whether it is on Saturday or Sunday ps - don’t talk about being in the top ten from the bottom either; there were 62 of us DNF’ers who were even behind that. pps - When I talked to Uli a little at the bottom of the way up to Fawn Ridge too, he said he'd run White River again if his current 6hr/32min course record (faster than all my halfway times) is ever broken - 20 minutes to go after this year's winner.

Robert, Good thing I mentally committed to the next WR before I read you RR because you gave a very good description of a race I would not want to do. Of course I am also quite stubborn and determined, so I'll treasure your words and conclusions and make sure I'll get plenty of hill training and trail running before next Juy! Thank you for such detailed account and I would be very happy to finish at the same time ofday you did! ( and I will take the early start for sure!) See you at the Tunnel Marathon? Francesca

The long reports have the detail, and it's the detail that provides the learning. Well done. Hope the heel is better. Spareribs

I met you back at the PV Marathon a few years ago

Twas last year. 15 short months ago!

oh jeez, was 2006 only 15 months ago? The mind is the SECOND thing to go...I forgot what the first thing was.... I'll be in your neck of the woods in Sept. doing that tourist half marathon in Maui. Will you be around?

I dunno about 2006, but I ran PV in 2007. Yes, I will be running the full at Maui this year.