Cascade Crest goals... How did I do?

update: Glenn's picutres are posted at the end.


#1. Success
My first goal in a race of this magnitude is to just travel from the Start to the Finish under my own power. A subset of which would be to not get injured. I had some sharp pain in my lower calf area while climbing up Keechelus Ridge. I guess it would be my Soleus or some other minor flexor muscle above my Achilles. From then on I ran/walked uphill flat footed. I tested it once in a while and it would always came back. I think if I had not changed my stride or really pressed hard going up the needles it would have gotten ugly fast.
#2. Success
My second goal was to beat last years time of 25:05. I felt this was an easy goal as long as I didn't make any Big mistakes. I didn't train with big mileage last year like I did this year but I had done a ton of cross training (re: remodeled a house). Last year I just ran every section really well with no bonking.
#3. Success
My third goal was to break 24 hours. Why 24 hours, well why 100 miles? 24 is one day, dah! I think it's a standard of measure in 100 miler's. CCC had 10 runners finish under 24 hours this year, 9 last year, and 5 the year before that. In the first ten years there have been 65 finishes under 24 hours by 45 different runners (by my foggy headed math).
#4. Success
This goal was more subjective. It was to finish in the top 10. So depending on who showed up healthy and who added their name in the last week, it could go either way with goal #3. I don't know the names or faces of a lot of fast runners from other parts of the country so I just tried to run my own race according to goal #5.
#5. Success... well almost... close enough.
This goal ended up being my main focus throughout the day and night and morning. This one was to run each section a little faster than last year. This meant I had to run smart and not have any bad sections. When I added up all the times it came out to 22:55. I ran every section, except the section to Thorpe Mt., faster than last year. It was about 18-20 minutes slower. And my time of 23:05 was just off the mark also. I guess that gives me something to strive for next year.
#6. Fail!
My sixth goal was the pipe dream of finishing in under 22 hours. I came up with that when I was playing with the numbers. It's 4% faster than 22:55.

I huge portion of my success has to go to my pacer Shawn "McTagyoureit", she really helped me out with this race. She kept me from making a few big mistakes. She got me to take in some drink and gel when I was bonking and nauseous. She kept me motivated and entertained in the middle of the night. She even stopped twice to let my wife know where we were on the course, and then busted her rear to catch up. I recommend her as a pacer if she hasn't already been hired as a full time pacer by Sam.





Glenn's Pictures

Thorpe

Goat Peak

Tacoma & Stampede

2008 Cascade Crest Results

It was another successful CCC100 for RD extraordinaire Charlie Crissman. I turned in a good improvement over last year. Here are the results.


A few photo's from the finish.

The hay is in the barn.

It's tapering time at the Martineau Tribe.

This past weekend I ran my last double workout of the season. Saturday I ran the Cougar Mt. 13.1 miler. And on Sunday I ran part of the 2ND loop of the Plain 100 course, about 38 miles.

Saturday's race went well. I started off fast as to not get stuck in the dreaded Congo line (that back-up of runners that stretches from here to Africa). I pushed hard the whole race. I broke down into a walk a few times because it was faster or I was stuck behind someone. I had one Gel, on a downhill section about 5 miles into the race. While hauling ass and sucking on the gel, I hit my head on a tree that was across the trail about 6 feet high. It knocked me back on my rear-end and the string of F-bombs lasted about 5 minutes. Damn that hurt. I don't know how I wasn't bleeding all over the trail. Seeing stars slowed me down for a while but after that I was determined to catch back up to where I was. I did. My goal for this race has always been to break 2 hours. This was my 4Th attempt. When I got to Red Town I looked at my watch and saw the I had just under 10 minutes to cover the last .9 miles, all of which was uphill. I figured it would take me 15 minutes if I ran most of it (it's a really steep hill). I almost gave up a few times but I didn't. I covered the distance up the trail and across the finish in nine minutes finishing in 1:59:25. I was 20Th overall, 20Th male, and 7Th old guy (over 40).

Sunday I was up before the Sun for the long ride out to Plain. It was a nice day out there, partly sunny but a bit chilly in the wind at 6000 feet. We ran the loop in just under 8 1/2 hours.

I stopped here to try and catch some sun but I was too cold and actually had to put my jacket on.




I saw about a dozen of these birds.


I'm ready to race.

I'm about one pint low!

UPDATE:
The slide is roughly here, 47.304378, -121.174479 according to S.P.O.T.

Saturday I did some trail work on Silver Creek, I had to see it firsthand. The avalanche debris is truly amazing. I don't think any picture could do it justice. I would have taken a video but I didn't want Charlie or Justin to fall off any logs. They are both already hurt, one with a kankle and the other bum shoulder.






We were able to reroute the trail around the end of the debris field in no time. It was agreed that this could end up being the permanent route. There are only about a dozen trees you have to step over but most of them are really low so you can continue to run right over them, assuming you haven't just run 93 miles, then it'll be a different story.
If you go up there please don't go out into the debris field it's very hazardous. There's a lot of half melted snow still under it and many hollow cave like areas that you could fall through.



I brought bug spray but as you can see from the picture, the mosquitoes were very hungry. The backs of my arms and shoulders look like I have chickenpox! I think they sucked at least a pint of blood from me.

UPDATE:
The slide is roughly here, 47.304378, -121.174479 according to S.P.O.T.