Gorge Waterfalls 100k April 2, 2016Gorge Waterfalls 100k April 2, 2016
The nightmares of tripping on rocks have ceased, so I can write a race report now. It required several therapy sessions and appropriate quantities of beer, but I've mostly stopped the involuntary flinching. Seriously, though... ROCKS. OMG. We finished though.
Gorge Waterfalls is a beautiful course in Cascade Locks, OR that touts numerous waterfalls and shares some trail with the Pacific Crest Trail. It was the first ultra that Kristin and I flew to and therefore had to take some care to pack and prepare. It is also the first race that we had never set foot on the course before race day. That made us both anxious especially since we talked to a lot of people and most Did Not Finish (DNF) in prior years. What did David Li (his report with better pictures) make us sign up for!? :)
We used other peoples' knowledge to our advantage and came up with the following things that we wanted to plan for:
Regarding #1: We had finished a 100 miler late last year and we took the first months of 2016 to ramp up training slowly to prevent injury. We started having more focused training (e.g. speed days) this season and also replaced one 5 mile run a week with strength training instead. Strength training for me was mostly core work, single leg squats, glute exercises, and push-ups. I believe that this paid off well and we were running hills strongly coming into the race. We even joked during some training runs that our pushing was to "chase the cut-offs" but little did we know how true this would be... I think this also probably improved our stability over the rocky terrain.
Regarding #2: We tried to practice more technical trails. We ran on Matt Davis trail in Marin, we hiked the rocky Twin Peaks, and we also did some stairs during our city run on a route we called the "Ass Kicker" (a 10 mile 3k ft elevation city route I made). Despite this, the rocky trails made us nervous still.
Regarding #3: We had the perfect wet weather practice. Marin Ultra Challenge 50k was incredibly wet. The training run the weekend before that was also sopping wet. We had this down, but, unfortunately (or fortunately), it was bone dry on race day. It was good practice anyhow!
The first half marathon (and last...) was the biggest climb of the day and had most of the waterfalls. The first aid station was about a mile further than the course guide suggested. We ended up making the first cut-off at aid station #2 with only about 25 minutes to spare. Not the way I wanted to start a race. We were almost going to be pulled at mile 13 of 62!!
Did I mention there would be waterfalls? (Pictures by Dwight Brown) I actually had that stupid TLC song in my head all day...
Having gotten the biggest climb out of the way, we started to push the pace. I wasn't feeling too good the first section -- probably because I ate donuts before the race. However, I started to have more energy after this. Kristin was in front most of the time and the single track trails along with occasional road noise made for a pretty boring time. I like to talk to people and this wasn't the terrain for it. I tried talking to a couple from Vancouver and immediately tripped on a root and pulled my shoe off. Pay attention, Matt! The good part about the road was that you knew an aid station was close when you heard the highway.
The next 15-20 miles was pretty uneventful.
We saw the leaders return a few miles from the turn-around. We texted Kristin's parents who were crewing for us to have our shoes and socks ready to change at the 50k point. When we arrived at the turn-around, we had about 45 minutes to spare before the cut-off and took some time to prep for the return run. It was pretty depressing at the turn-around. People were dropping, a lady was crying, and so we just got out of there as soon as possible. We wanted to get as far as we could before dark and try to get as big of a margin as possible before we hit the last 10 miles of the course which we knew would be rocky and difficult in the dark.
The next 15-20 miles was again uneventful. The Cascade Locks aid station (mile 40) was out of Gu and Coke. Don was nice and got a bottle of Coke before they saw us the next time (mile 52). I was glad, because this aid station was also out of Coke! Diet Coke doesn't cut it in an ultra... sugar, please! We also got our flashlights and headlamps since we wouldn't see Don and Kathy until the finish.
As the sun went down, it was hard to see in the trees. We did a lot of fast walking since the trail was very twisty and rocky. I estimated that we could still finish if we kept up a 19-20 min/mile pace, but we had the biggest climb ahead and we were starting to hurt. A few times we wondered if we had missed a course marker, because there were so few of them. I really wish there were a couple more "confidence ribbons" after key turns or intersections. We ended up cruising up the hill at a brisk walk and made good time. We stopped only once for a pee break and once more to catch our breath. The paved switchbacks ended and there was still another 1k feet of climb through the waterfall areas in the dark. It was pretty eerie hearing so much water moving but not being able to see it.
At the very top, I started to get really dizzy as we started to descend but we had only about 3 miles left. I had trouble standing and finding foot placement for a few minutes. Kristin suggested that I eat a Gu and this eventually helped me.
We slowly decended and we knew that it was about a mile around the lake to the finish from the bottom of the hill. At the bottom, there was a runner (not in the race) hanging out and we weren't sure which way to go. They had no idea. We had about 35 minutes to go the last mile, but we didn't know which way! It was dark and looked different and we only saw some ribbons going back UP a trail. What the heck!? We eventually went up this trail. Nothing looked familiar. Were we going to blow it in the last mile? That would be depressing.
We kept going for what seemed like forever. At one point, we stopped and a runner we passed at the top caught up to us. He recognized a "square rock" which reassured us. It didn't take much at this point, but it turned out to be right. There were no markers until we saw a crossing guard at the end of the trail. This looked familiar now and there were volunteers along the last 3/4 mile. We ended up running the last bit and physically felt really good. Mentally is another thing, though.
We finished in 16:34 which was sub-17 hours and qualified us for the Western States lottery in 2017. Woo! I literally had dreams of tripping on rocks all night along with some post-ultra night sweats. The next day, we also figured out that our eyes hurt all day from the pollen. It felt like your eyelids were coated with sand paper. I had the worst allergies ever for the next 3 days. The nice weather was both a blessing and a curse, but it was a good time still. And we finished!
What I learned: