Yesterday I was introduced to a whole new concept in distance running: total events completed.
Stan Kakashima is in his early 60s. He's been running marathons since 1980 and ultras since the mid '80s. He did Wasatch 100 in 1987. Yesterday, with a bum hamstring, he swept Chuckanut. Again. For the 10th time. It was interesting to hear him speak about the local and national people who hold records for most marathon and ultra event finishes. Stan says he's up to ~375, and wants to get to 400. He also volunteers at many races in the area and I hope to see him again in the future.
He'll be at
Greenlake on Saturday; please cheer him on if you're there. As the sweeping coordinator described him to me,
"He's a 60+ Asian man who likes 40, and he'll be wearing a windbreaker held together with safety pins."
Anita also swept the whole course while
Big Steve and
Andy did the first and last 10 miles with us. There are a lot of ultra finishes among that group.
The sweeping itself was promised to be a long day and it didn't disappoint: over nine hours. But the rain didn't come until the last hour and it was good to be on my legs literally all day, even if it was a lot of standing and walking. There were a few drops at various aid stations, but we only had to cut off one runner. It was clear she was not yet ready for a trail 50k, but she made it 21 miles and was doing her best. She cried, but hopefully she'll be back out at another ultra soon.
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| Early in the day. |
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| Chuckanut Ridge trail; doing the course made me want to race here again. |
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| The wind took out a few aid station pop-up tents. |
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| Looping around toward Chinscraper. |
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| Coming to appreciate flags you can just pull out or well-tied ribbon slipknots. |
The week totaled out to 65.2m, just what I was hoping for. Now for a bit of a taper heading into Gorge.
