2011 has been an awesome year of running for me, a few PRs, several goals accomplished and new distances obtained. I wish I had been better about blogging about things along the way and recapping races. I know that several weeks before a race I am always searching the Internet for race reports and I savoring every word I read. In 2012 I will be better about recapping my races.
2011 Running Milestones
Disney Princess Half Marathon
February 27 - 2:08:52
This was my annual half marathon with my dad. My step sister, step mom and sister-in-law also joined us. We had to get up at 3am for this race and I swore I would never do this again, I think the rest of the family did as well. It was difficult running in the Florida heat coming from the cold rain and snow in Oregon, but it was a lot of run running through Disney with all the other "Princesses".
For the Love of Dove 5k
June 12 - 0:24:27 PR
This race benefited Dove Lewis a local non-profit animal hospital, which I got to run with my favorite 4 legged running partner, Oscar. I normally don't want to pay to run a 5k, but I couldn't resist a chance to run a race with Oscar. Oscar is an ex-sled dog, I am sure that helped with the PR and accomplishing my goal of running a 5k in less than 25 minutes.
Reeds Lake 5k and 10k
June 25 - 0:26:09 and 0:56:11
A local race in Grand Rapids, MI I ran this summer with my dad and Gretchen while visiting. It was nice that the 5k and 10k were back to back, so I was able to run both of them. The 5k was first and I ran it a little bit slower than I normally would of since the 10k was after.
Hood to Coast Team "Honey Buckets and Buckettes"
August 26 - 27 - 32:10:41
Hood to Coast has to be one of the most insane and fun things you can do as a runner. I had a lot of fun doing this with Susan, my dad and Chris W.
Hood to Coast explained
Columbia Gorge Half Marathon
October 23 - 1:55:04 PR
Susan and I have run this race for the last 3 years. This year they changed the route, which avoided the huge hill at the beginning, we were actually a little disappointed by this since we were training for the insanely hilly Lithia Loop Marathon. Moving the start meant they had to bus everyone to the beginning, which ended up causing the race to start 30 minutes late. Luckily the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. Eliminating the hill at the start added a new hill in the middle of the race which we did not anticipate. I could of sworn this slowed us down a lot, but somehow we ended up PRing - 1:55:04.
Lithia Loop Trail Marathon November 5
5:10:08 - Goal Obtained: first trail marathon
Not my fastest race, but it is a close tie with Hood to Coast as the craziest and most fun. In the first 8 miles we gained almost 5000 feet of elevation. It snowed on us for 22 miles and there was already several inches of snow on the ground, which made for an interesting running experience. There were times when I could barely feel my lips or nose. The volunteers at the aid stations were awesome, every time we approached they asked what we wanted and made sure we refilled out water bottles. This was the first race where I had Sprite at an aid station, I could not get enough of it, and I never drink soda. The course itself was amazingly beautiful, once again it reiterated my love of trail running. I will probably do this race again in the future.
Birthday Run "Girls Gone Wildwood"
Ran all of the Wildwood trail 30.25 miles - November 27 - New distance
A few months ago during one of our long runs, Susan and I had the brilliant idea of running the whole Wildwood trail for our birthdays. I am blaming this insane idea on our "runner's high". We accomplished our goal. The Wildwood trail is 30.25 miles long we added on a little extra getting to one of our DIY aid stations, we probably ended up doing ~31miles/50km. It was difficult, cold, wet, muddy but effing awesome! Susan is the best running partner.
Our family hiking trip this year was to the Dolomites, more specifically Alta Via 1. John and I have done several hut to hut hiking trips in the Alps and planned them all ourselves, we never had any problems. As I started to plan our trip to the Dolomites, it became clear to me that it might be easier if we used a local company to help us book our accommodations and transportation. That way when questions came up from family members there was someone we could ask. Also letting the ultrarunner of the group plan the daily hiking itinerary probably isn't the best idea.
I ended up contacting Dolomite Mountains, I sent them my itinerary, the places I had already booked and a few other specifications and Monica created an agenda pretty similar to the one I already had in mind. As much as I like to plan things myself, it was nice to have someone local and not feel responsible for 5 other people's vacation. Plus if they thought the hike was too hard they couldn't blame me.
16-18 Aug 2015
No run has reshaped the borders of my soul like circumnavigating Mt Rainier. No run has infiltrated my dreams like spending three days just running and not much else, in the middle of the longest summer in the Pacific Northwest's recent memory. No run has made me fall so deeply in love with the magical combination of mountains, wilderness, and summertime.
Like all of our great long runs, Ann researched and planned this one. She discovered that most people run the 93-mile Wonderland Trail clockwise, and that we could split the route into three days with a cushy hotel stay each night. We, however, would run the route counterclockwise to start with the longest day of running first. We had a beer with our friend Heather McGrath, who had run around Rainier the previous year, to hear more about her trip, get tips, and make sure that our plan wasn't too crazy.
The Enchantments is probably one of the most photographed areas in the Cascades and there is a good reason. The drama of the sharp peaks of the Stuart Range reflecting in the blue waters of the lake basins makes it hard to take a bad picture. The picturesque beauty has made a popular area even more popular, which makes it extremely difficult to an overnight permit in the permit lottery.
Last year John and I got a permit to the Eightmile Lake zone, but there was a forest fire and our pass got pulled. We put a reminder on the calendar for the lottery in 2018, but somehow missed the reminder. When we finally got around to getting a pass we got one for midweek the first week of October for Eightmile Lake. I was happy to have a pass but weather at the beginning of October can be a little iffy.
Looking at the weather before we headed out there was a 50% chance of rain and was suppose to be close to freezing overnight, so we decided to camp in the van and to do day hikes instead. The nice thi…
Our first day off to run in 2018 (Wednesday, 4 April), and I was thrilled. While on a family hike a month or two ago, I noticed a trail sign with some good distances on it. I looked them up when I got home, and discovered the Tarbell Trail-- a 24.75 mile loop in southwest Washington in the Silver Star Mountain and Grouse Mountain area. After lots of research, I was excited to have planned our first adventure since it's usually Ann who does the work.
Well now we know why that's the case. After a bunch of rescheduling, we finally settled on Wednesday, 4 April for our run. On Tuesday, Ann called the ranger station and was told that part of the trail was closed for logging and that there was also snow. Last-minute back-up plan: the Wilson River trail. It's a 22 mile point-to-point trail that's safe from snow, we've only run it twice, and it's been three years since we did the whole thing.
Susan was spending time at the coast with her family, so #trailrunning and I decided to meet her 1/2 between Portland and the coast in the Tillamook forest area. We took advantage of having 2 cars and being able to shuttle, we ran the of the majority (22 miles) of the Wilson River trail, starting at Elk Creek and ending at Keening Creek.
The weather was perfect, Susan was in capris and a short sleeved shirt, I over dressed in long pants and a long sleeved shirt. The trail was completely runnable, I would describe it as rolling hills, though Susan and #trailrunning might disagree with me about the hill at the very end that seemed like it would never end. There were a few times when the trail hit a forest road and the other side of the trail wasn't obvious but it didn't take us very long to find it. If I would of done a better job of reading the trail description on Oregon Hikers we probably wouldn't of had any problems.
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