Oh my! I haven’t blogged in awhile. I could blame the coronavirus and, honestly, that is part of it, but that’s not all of it. Here’s to getting back on the blog horse!
——————————————————————————————————————
When you wait until the last minute to do something, it doesn't always go as planned. Despite that, I’m pleased with how well my body held up today.
The Story
I've been thinking about doing The Golden 6 Hour Virtual Run put on by my friend, Gretchen Walla, for a couple of months. My idea was to re-run the Lake Washington loop I ran as a member of the US Team for the IAU 6HR Virtual Global Solidarity Run in August and try to do the entire distance in 6 hours.
Instead, I went on more exciting mountain adventures. None of which were conducive to me running faster around the lake. 😬
Friday evening I decided I would probably go for it (seeing as how the final day is today - Sunday). BUT, it would depend on how my back was feeling.
I had taken Wednesday off because my back was hurting badly for a few days. With age and experience comes wisdom (thank goodness) and I knew that continuing to run with this type of back issue could mean a week or two of laying flat on my back to recover.
So by Friday, while my back had improved, it still was far from 100%. I decided to do a mini workout Saturday to test it out. If I could get through that without negative repercussions, I thought/hoped I'd be fine for a big, slow run on Sunday.
Saturday's run went well, so the next step was to figure out a course I could run that wouldn't aggravate my back. That meant it couldn't be very hilly. Uphill running had caused the initial aggravation and the downhill I ran Tuesday hurt so much I knew I needed to stay away from that, too. Running flat ground presents its own set of difficulties - both for my back and general muscle fatigue - but it was the best way to ensure the least amount of aggravation to my back and make it more likely that I could run the entire time/distance.
This resulted in me finding the Snoqualmie Valley Trail (SVT). I've only run on a couple of short sections of this trail in the past, so I thought it would be a fun challenge to run the whole thing, from Rattlesnake Lake to Duvall. The problem is that the stated distance is "only" 31-31.5 miles (depending on the map) and I needed something longer for a 6 hour run. I found a side trail that, combined with a stop at Snoqualmie Falls for a photo op, would give me enough distance and then decided to go for it!
While Saturday’s weather was nice, Sunday’s forecast was for rain and wind. Oh well. That’s what you get when you wait until the last day to do something. Fortunately, the temps looked decent and for that I was thankful.
It was pouring rain when I started and ended up raining fairly hard for most of the first hour and being quite windy for the first 2-3 hours of the run. At some points early on I had flashbacks to Tuesday’s adventure with my friend Kate where it got intensely gusty and trees were cracking and falling. Thankfully, I didn’t see or hear any branches or trees fall today, but it was still a little nerve wracking.
Which one’s the trail and which one’s the river? OK, it wasn’t quite that bad, but I felt almost as wet as if I had gone in the river. PC: Trisha
The side trail I took to add mileage ended up being a little more interesting than planned. It wasn’t much of a trail for a good portion and there were a lot of “no trespassing” and “private property” signs. I don’t believe I was ever on private property, but eventually the “trail” appeared to go directly onto someone’s yard. Ironically, there was no sign deterring people from continuing on there, but I decided to turn around before someone got irritated. I didn’t want to get yelled at on an otherwise peaceful Sunday morning, especially when there was still lots of running left to do.
You can kind of see that there is a little bit of a trail here. PC: Trisha
Since I didn’t make it to the end of that side trail, I figured I’d better add on some more mileage soon as I didn’t want to be doing that at the end of the run when I was tired. Fortunately, there was another, very nice trail a few minutes further down the SVT. I didn’t know how much I needed to add on, but figured somewhere between a half mile and a mile. I ran to a road then turned around and headed back, which ended up being just over a mile. On my way back, I saw a beautiful coyote! It stopped to look at me while I stopped to look at it. Of course, the coyote took off the moment I reached for my phone to snap a photo.
My next stop was Snoqualmie Falls. It was drizzling when I got there, which encouraged me to keep this stop quick. The Falls were impressive as usual and kicked up quite a bit of fog and mist, making a good photo difficult in addition to my screen being wet and hard to see and focus.
Snoqualmie Falls, PC: Trisha
After the brief stop at the Falls, I ran up the hill to rejoin the SVT. The next couple of hours weren’t too exciting. Mostly I focused on eating every 40 minutes, maintaining a decent pace, and saying, “Good morning!” to other trail users with whom I crossed paths (there weren’t many people out). There were a few places where I wish I had taken a photo because it looked like the quintessential fall photo of a trail with beautiful trees lining as far as the eye could see, but I wasn’t in the mood to stop and get my phone out.
Actual photo of the SVT, PC: bikingbis.com
There are blue mile markers along the entire length of the SVT (on my left) posted every half mile, except for where they aren’t (there are quite a few areas that don’t seem to have any of these markers - where did they go?!). After the earlier side trail snafu, I eventually was able to see one of these blue markers and figured out that I would hit 39 miles when I got to the end of the SVT. I had planned on 38-38.5 (depending on whether the SVT is actually 31 or 31.5 miles), so 39 was fine. I’d rather run further than planned than shorter.
When I saw the “17.0” marker, I looked at my Garmin and saw more specifically that I would have 39.15 miles by the end. However, there appeared some sage green posts on the right side of the trail that showed different mileage. Near the 17 mile blue marker the green post said 14. What?! What were these green posts? Was I going to be 3 miles short?? These blue markers appear on other trails I’ve run and were accurate, so I decided to trust them. Besides, the mileage matched up with how long the trail was including the additional mileage I estimated was added on earlier via the side trails.
The “4.0” blue marker was the last one I saw. At this point, Uli had come from his run in the mountains to join me for my last few miles - what a nice surprise! I told him there were only a few more miles left and that I was confused by these green posts that were telling me I only had one mile to go. To my surprise, he told me that the trail did indeed end in one mile. What?!?! But the blue markers said 4 and that is what I still needed to run!
We continued past the end as there was still something that looked trail-like to follow. I was convinced it would continue on and kept looking for a blue marker.
No blue marker was found and the trail ended (the wall of blackberry bushes and other foliage made that quite clear).
So, I ended up doing the one thing I had strived to not have to do: We turned around and ran back the way we’d come. No! I wanted to be done when I got to the end!
We added on a trail through a small park, then back out on the SVT, then turned around, ran to the “end” and then came back again to near where the car was parked to get 39 miles. I could’ve stopped at 38 or 38.5 like I had initially planned, but when you run for a few hours thinking you’re going to do 39 total, you run 39 total! Even if you’ve already been to the end of the trail.
STATS:
Time: 5:35:05
Distance: 39.01 miles
Watches worn: 2 - Garmin so I could submit my track and, of course, my trusty Timex
Pee stops: 11 (what the heck?!)
Hydration consumed: 1.75 soft flasks worth (you’re right, that’s not much)
Gels consumed: 8 apple cinnamon Hammer, 1 Tastefully Nude GU
Bloks consumed: 7 orange Clif (would’ve been 8, but the first one was as hard as a rock)
Wildlife seen: 1 coyote (literally nothing else “wild;” there were also some birds and a few squirrels)
Comments on the BLM sign on my pack: 1 - thank you for noticing and for your positive comment
The individuals with the top three longest distances for the Golden 6HR are all women (as of this posting)!
For those who are curious, to my surprise, my back ended up faring quite well. It got tight, but nothing terrible and this run didn’t seem to make it feel worse - hurray!
Thanks to my friend, Michael, for being willing to help me, even if it didn’t work out as planned.
Footnote: I still would like to know why the blue markers are off. Anyone more familiar with the trail in that area (Duvall) know what’s up? What/where are the last 3 miles supposed to be? Even what Google Maps shows as the last portion of the trail (which isn’t actually the trail) isn’t long enough to make up the difference. 🤷♀️
Neat cloud line over the valley in Carnation. PC: Trisha