SPOKANE RIVER RUN - 50K

Yesterday I ran the Spokane River Run 50k. I set an aggressive goal of sub-6 hours, which was silly considering I haven’t been running much all winter, but thought it would be fun to see what I could do on no training. I finished in 6:15, which included a bonus .5 mile for getting off course after some signs were moved (or something). I finished 54/70 total.

The race was really well organized and the trails were quite pretty. I had no idea that the area around Spokane was so nice. Not that I’m prejudiced against Spokane like some people are, but I never thought of it as a great trail running place. There is a large system of trails along and near the Spokane River and some interesting terrain. The course was primarily runnable though there were some climbs and some really rocky portions that were difficult to run. On the whole it is a fairly fast course for trails.

The 50k course consists of two separate 25k loops, and the loops are marked every mile. I have never done an ultra where every single mile is marked. I actually like it and it seemed to make the race go faster, even though I was also wearing my Garmin and knew my distance. There was some sort of military practice thing going on in the woods and the soliders readily allowed me to take their pictures. I thought this was weird.

It was sunny and hot, maybe in the 70s, which made me feel especially drained. Our dinner Saturday night left much to be desired, as did my choice of breakfast. I decided against using the Caffe Latte Perpetuem for the race and decided to bring my camera rather than gels. I would consume whatever was available at aid stations, which ended up being primarily fig newtons and potatos. Normally I can do fine on anything for this distance but all of these things combined left me with a really upset and sporadically painful stomach. I finished the first loop in 2:45 feeling pretty tired but still optimistic that I could finish under 6 hours.

Early into the second loop there was a fork in the trail that was marked “10k” one direction and just arrows the other. I, along with these other guys, decided we should go the “other” way (since we were not running the 10k), and quickly realized we were going the wrong way. This course is so well marked that there are arrows every few feet it seems like – it became apparent once we reached another fork, that was unmarked, that we had gone the wrong direction. I was upset at first but thought of all the people I know who have gotten lost and run many bonus miles – and realized an extra half mile was nothing. So, no big deal. But, it was a half mile extra and would make it that much more difficult to run under 6 hours.
The second loop had many pretty sections and the miles ticked down. Eventually I made it to the finish in 6:15 and was sad to learn that all the people I went to Spokane with (and my new friend I was hoping would be the women’s winner like last year) had horrible races. The heat combined with the fact that it is APRIL, which means Montanans haven’t had a lot of opportunity to do long trail runs, made it difficult for the high-achievers to achieve characteristically high. They all still had to wait 2 or more hours for me though :p

I am pleased that I have some sort of endurance-memory that allows me to run 50k on little running. I’m increasingly appreciating the fact that keeping generally active can be enough to allow me to participate in stuff like this, though it would be more fun and I would do better if I were specifically trained. On the whole I enjoyed myself thoroughly and would definitely do this race again.