I was really excited at the beginning of this week. I just completed a successful double up at Capitol forest, a 10 mile run Sat followed by a 15 mile on Sunday. Felt great after both runs and was ready to taper for Chuckanut 50K the next weekend. Monday morning I showed up at CrossFit and started my warmup. I immediately felt a tightness in my chest, a hard time breathing and broke out into a sweat. I sat down to catch my breath and survey the situation. This felt all too familiar to the old heart trouble but I didn't feel anything over the weekend of hard workouts and I couldn't decide if it was serious or not. I quickly felt better and continued on with my work out though we shortened it due to my episode. Over the next couple of days I did feel some mild discomfort in my chest so I decided to get things check out before my Saturday race. My cardiologist got me in on Wednesday for a treadmill stress test. I normally beat the test so I was at least hoping to get a new read on my maximum heart rate. But after about 14 mins. with my heart rate just around 145bpm, they started to ask me if I was feeling anything. I started to feel a slight tightening in my chest and they immediately shut the treadmil off.  Dr. Wark said I had a problem and we needed to do an angiogram. So Friday morning I showed up at the hospital at 5am for my 7am procedure. I ended up needing two stents in the same artery to fix my blockage. So now I have 5 stints and a triple bypass! The good news is that I can get back to training in a week. The bad news is I missed Chuckanut but this is a lot better than croaking in the middle of a race.

Back in January 2005, I read an article in the local paper about a crazy race in a blizzard at Capitol Peak. I don't know why, but for some reason, I thought it looked liked fun. So began my ultra racing. After running the short course at the Mega Fat ass a couple of years, I decided to try the long course, but at the time, it was a double loop course. After the first loop, I would show up tired and cold spending time at the burn barrel to get warmed up and eventually dropped. I swept the course a couple of times then last year I decide to run the whole thing no matter what. Unfortunately, after about 10 miles I got dizzy and nauseated and had to turnaround and plod back to the finish with the flu.

I was excited about this year, I felt great and the weather was good. My only concern was that I ran the upper loop the day before marking with spray paint and I felt it in my legs from slogging through the snow. I started out slow and made it to the first aid station in good time and had a shot of Tequila from the FOCF Tequila Bar. The next section was a steady climb where I felt low energy and hiked more than I should. Once on top I felt better on the backside loop until I hit the mile road section with the deeper snow. My legs remembered the day before and I slogged along slowly. From there was a steep climb to the top, which didn't feel that bad and it was sunny and warm at the summit with great views of Rainier and the Olympics. From there it was a fast 6 mile downhill to the Tequila Bar. This time I skipped the shooter and charged off to the last climb of the race. I caught up to a runner who was hiking/running about the same which really helped getting over the hump. On the last 5 mile downhill I felt great and quickly passed the other runner. I felt great, just like a short training run. I crossed the line around 7 hours, pretty good time on tired legs. It's always good to finish strong. I feel that I have a good start on the season this year.