800 Mile Club

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Rattlesnake Ridge Half Marathon in Marathon Monk zori straw sandals (Read 0 times)


MM#209 / JapanJoyful#803

     

    Carkeek Park 12-hour Halloween Fun Run (Seattle)

    . . . Japanese Marathon Monk zori thongs

    . . . from their temple on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto
    Saturday, October 26, 2019 (7am-7pm)
    distance - 31.98 miles

    elevation - 7,310'

    stairs  3,760
    ranking - 22/44 (3.4 miles to 57.0 miles)

     

    With two hilly ascents of 228' and 202' on either side of a little salmon spawning stream running between the two, the 12 hours around the 1.93 mile perimeter of Carkeek Park are known as “the toughest 12 hour out there.” Since my running motivation in race events is the most exercise possible, it’s been my favorite race event since 2009 when I discovered that, by judicious pacing and sticking it out as long as possible (even if not the full 12 hours, it doesn’t matter), even regular runners can enjoy otherwise way-too-daunting ultra-marathon distances.

     

    In particular, even though the faster runners’ll be racking up up-to-60 miles and most all will 2-lap my every lap, somehow, we’re all in it together and everyone, elites-to-duffers, almost always exchange urgings and encouragements along the way, becoming especially raucous in the latter miles that "we made it," "you did it," with even more cheering and clapping for everyone at the finish without regard to final lap counts that’s reminiscent of the Ironman finish lines, and probably the Western States 100-miler Leslie has described where, for one shining moment, all runners are equal, . . . except, especially at my stage, I can’t imagine anyone being happier than I am for still being capable of 12 hours of physical exertion of any kind, at no matter whatever pace.

     

    Though my laps have been slipping from the nearly 20 or so that would get me close to 40 miles in my mid-sixties a dozen years ago to the last four years barely exceeding the 14 laps necessary for a marathon distances, maybe all this year’s hike/running up local trails and once repeating the steepest top 54 stairs of the 1,000 stair course around the nearby Hillside Park 200 times for 10,800 stairs must have contributed to reaching the 50K distance once again.
    .
    The only thing that would be better would be to be able share the 12 hours of fun with other runners herein sometime who might be able to get out to Seattleon Halloween Saturday, . . . or the last Saturday of April for the Spring Cottontail edition.

     

    stairs, stairs and more stairs

    . ...

     

    .Image may contain: plant, outdoor and nature. . .

    fashion report - Halloween pumpkin hat

    Portland Marathon windbreaker for morning chill.

    Marathon Monk straw zori (thongs) from Mt. Hiei.

    distance in 12 hours - 31.98 miles
    elevation - 7,432  / ranking - 16/22

     

     

    Since I run for fun, fitness and the most exercise possible, the Carkeek Park 12-hour Fun Run around the park’s 1.93 mile perimeter and up-and-down the South Bluff and North Bluff hills so steep they need some 75 stairs built into each hillside each and 50-60 stairs along other sections has been a favorite ever since I learned from my ultra-marathon mentor in 2008 that there’s no shame in being slow in a time-limit race as everyone finishes at the same time.

     

    In addition, especially for slow running laps such as Carkeek’s 1.93 mile loop, since everyone who sticks it out finishes at the same time after 12 hours, the last lap is a celebration for 12 hours of running at any pace.

     

    Further, since results reflect miles run in 12 hours, those of us who stick it out for the 12 hours end up higher in the rankings than runners who drop out for Sunday shopping, family service, etc., e.g. one year my 28 miles was two more miles than a local speedster who would have had nearly 60 miles if he’d been able to stick around.
    .
    A combination of stair running that reached peak of 10,800 in 200 repeats of the steepest section of steps in the nearby Hillside Park plus more hike/run/jogging up local trails seem to have combined to not only reach my goal marathon distance for the 12 hours but slipped over the 50K distance for the first time since doing it three times in a row in 2012-2014.

    Hmmm. Maybe this training I haven’t done all my life on the premise that races are my training isn’t so bad, after all.

     

    perennial winner

    .

    wore Marathon Monk zori sandals

    from Mt. Hiei from near Kyoto.

    s

     

    Rattlesnake Ridge Half Marathon

    Issaquah, Washington USA

    June 15, 2019

    4:08:56.5 (19:01m/m)

    cutoff - 5:00hr (22:55m/m)

    2019-06-15 0155 . . . 2019-06-15 0367

    Japanese straw zori purchased

    at Mt. Hiei of Marathon Monks

     

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    Illustration for article titled Mailbox Peak - True Suffering

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    ,fame near Kyoto, Japanb

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    attlesnake Ridge Half Marathon
    barefoot jon (76) - Marathon Monk straw zori
    5:30am / June 15, 2019 / Issaquah, WA
    4:08:56.5 (19:01m/m) . . . vs. 5hr cutoff (22:55m/m).
    O/A - 82/83
    ♂ - 45/46
    AG - 1/1

    First trail race in three years after being so slow at 8:16:36 in the Mt. Taylor Marathon in 2016 that I gave up the trail racing I used to love and started thinking about regular hiking as an alternative excuse for getting up onto the nearby foothills of the Cascade Mountains. In this regard, though, except for annual three hour, late-summer, drives with DW to Paradise Lodge at the 5,000' level on Mt. Rainier and hiking four miles up to Camp Muir (10,000') or, in more recent years, short hikes around lower base trails with their spectacular Rainier views, I never had much interest in the nearby local trails with such high timberlines up to 4-5,000' thwarting the kind of alpine experience and vistas overlooking glaciers, fjords, lakes and forests I was used to from growing up a little southeast of erika-land with more accessible 1,800' timberlines of the more northern climes.
    .
    However, one of the hikes with somewhat of a view (weather permitting, down the Snoqualmie Valley to Puget Sound) that I’ve liked down here was the 2-mile trek from Rattlesnake Lake (about 30 miles east of Seattle at exit 32 of I-90) up to the cliffs of the Rattlesnake Ledges.  I’d often looked up to the Ledges over the years in several marathons and ultras that cross through the Rattlesnake Lake picnic/campgrounds but only made the hike myself for the first time last fall. I liked it so much even thought about doing it as many times as possible in one day.  Therefore, I signed up right away when I saw that the cutoff for a Rattlesnake Ridge Half Marathon was a generous five hours, a 22;55 pace that, depending on terrain and steepness, I was easily maintaining on most of my recent hike-running.

    In particular, on power hikes up to the ledges and running down, I’d often thought about continuing on up above the ledges onto the Rattlesnake Ridge Trail but time had never permitted.  Therefore, it would be interesting to be coming from the other end of the ridge from down I-90 at Snoqualmie Point Park at Exit 27, eventually reaching the ledges at mile 8.5 of the race for a two mile descent down to the lake and final 1.5 mile out-and-back on the Iron Horse Rails-to-Trails I’ve run parts of many times, e.g. in several of the Snoqualmie Tunnel Marathons, a century 100K, etc. .

    Starting at 5:30am (to avoid most of the morning/afternoon hikers) in a morning marine layer concealing the rising sun on Saturday, June 15, runners were immediately greeted with dozens of short, sharp pitches but they were only about a block or two long and, instead of the steep ascents I expected to be necessary to get up to the altitude of the ledges, we were mostly running on long, gentle traverses through old logging second-growths still featuring so many branches and snags from more than a hundred years ago that there was little room for new, green, early-summer, underbrush, just bare brown, pine-needled ground full of logging debris with the only greenery being the flowers and weeds on two transmission line cuts each about 1/4 mile wide. It sure would not have been characterized as the “scenic area” noted on USGS maps if it’d been up in erika-land,
    .
    Though we really hadn’t seemed to have ascended that much yet, what a relief it was when the trail started descending at six miles and, because I’m still pretty good on the downhills, my pace picked up from the barely minimum 21-22m/m clockings for the first six miles needed to finish w/i the five hour deadline to a speedy 15-16m/m.  However, when my MapMyRun app was indicating the easy descending was extending well into seven miles, I started worrying about how steep a climb back up to the Rattlesnake Ledges at 8.5 miles was in store for me up ahead. At eight miles, the worrying was more like panic about the impending climb to the ledges that would probably erase any time advantage so far over the dreaded five hour cut-off when, all-of-a-sudden, voila, at 8.5 miles, there were the Ledges, not high above me as feared but right down below me and the two mile descent to the lake was quickly under my feet.

    It was a delight coming down from the Rattlesnake Ledges on the familiar descent filling with upcoming hikers wondering what was going on and on to the lake and then, still running all the way, the mile-and-half out-and-back on the familiar Iron Horse Trail  

    At a 4:08:56.5 finish and unbelievable, for me, 19:01 average pace, I not only finished 52 minutes ahead of the five hour cutoff but also avoided my accustomed DGL <<<(“dead-glorious-last&rdquoWink>>> albeit only ahead of one other 52-yo runner and two runners in their thirties with the ignominious DNF’s this time.

    As if anything could top that off, got an AG award entry into one of the summer’s Cougar Mountain Running Series I’d given up more than ten years ago when it started becoming so embarrassing to have become so slow in trail races I used to run with ease.

    Not anymore!
                            
    In addition, a raffle prize auto waxing kit that DW’s car needed helped make up the missing time from the usual domestic chores every Saturday morning.

    Yippee.        
    No wonder I love running so much.


    ps - not having purchased running shoes since 1990, I had no problem running the Rattlesnake in the same Japanese straw zori (thongs) from many trail marathons and ultras of the past with their durable hard-rubber soles I’d purchased during one of my several outings up Mt. Hiei of Marathon Monk fame near Kyoto.

    sadf


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    "Enjoy yourself. Your younger days never come again." 100yo T. Igarashi to me in geta at top of Mt. Fuji (8/2/87)