Was'nt too sure I was going to run since my ankle twist thursday nite ended up worse than I thought. But felt ok Sat so Sunday morning I was there. Matt and I started together, the weather was about perfect, we ran the first mile in 7:00, oops! There was a good crowd this year, didn't have to worry about finishing last again. We settled down and started clicking off 7:28's like clockwork. Everything was going great until mile 6 when my ankle started hurting and I had to slow down a little. Matt continued running strong and passed a couple of runners in the second half. I tightened up in the last three miles and ended up finishing at 1:39, about a minute slower than last year. Matt ran a great race and we think he finished around 1:35. Might be a pr for him. All in all, this is a great, low key, early season speed event. By the way, the winner of the 10k ran a 32, thats 5:11 min/mile!

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I started the day early because I was going to help with parking and I knew the road conditions would be snowy. When I got to the Y, James and DJ were there warning people about the icy roads and arranging car pools. I chained up and gave Dave a ride to Fall Creek and we both did some parking help before the start. There was snow on the trail, but the weather wasn't all that bad, I didn't wear a windbreaker. At the start, I took the lead to guide the runners out of the campground and onto the trail. Then I stopped and let the group of fast guys go past. The first leg up to Capitol Peak, I went too fast to begin with and paid for it on the switchbacks. Got passed by a bunch of runners on the hiking part. Unfortunatly, Capitol Peak was socked in so no views this year. At the top I saw Kris who was dropped off up there to run after making a water run, and then Terry caught up to me and passed, only to almost take a wrong turn, then he stopped at the aid station to retrieve some clothes and never caught back up with me. On the way down, my legs felt like lead. Not a good sign since I was planning to do two laps. It was great to see Alexa and DJ at Wedikin cheering everyone on. But it wasn't going to be my day. I finished with the same time as last year and there was no way I could do another lap. After some of Jim's great soup and dry clothes, I spent the rest of the afternoon supporting Kris as she did a second lap sweep. I was disappointed I only did one lap, but I didn't fall, or hurt myself so all in all it was a good experience.

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The day started off with blue sky before the start, what a welcome change from the last few days. Kris drove James and I up there in her new car and we listened to some Christmas exchange tunes. We all started together and stayed that way for about a mile till Scott Jurick and the Seattle running co. group came storming by and James hooked up with them. I then took a potty break and took over an hour to catch up with Kris. The sky turned overcast but the weather was perfect, I even ran without a hat on (I never do that), however we soon were running in snow. The Tiger mtn trail just goes up and up then up some more, there was about a foot of snow on the ground for most of the race. But the footing wasn't too bad and it was beautiful winter wonderland in some places. Felt like cross country skiing through the trees in the Cascades! Unfortunately, the viewpoint at the top was socked in so no views this year. I was at my limit for climbing on the last hill, but I followed the same guy for the last hour and we were both very happy with reaching the 3 mile downhill to the finish. James finished in 3:08 complaining about some soccer injury(Scott Jurick finished in 2:38), I came in at 3:22, only a couple of minutes slower than last year, so I was very happy and I didn't fall! Kris finished at 3:40 and we headed down to the Issaqua brew pub, where we met a bunch of people that were at Orcas last year and Big Steve, who creates a party whenever he shows up! This is a great fat ass and now that we know about the brew pub, a must do for next year!

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The 5K had good weather, in-between rain storms, the course was three loops on the fitness trail with one 20ft long puddle with water almost up to your knees! Twice it untied my shoes going through it(forgot to double tie). First lap was was ok 7:20, but I slowed down from there and finished in 24 again. Just can't seem to generate any speed these days. Fortunately, I finished 7th out of 11 and they gave out pumpkin pies to the top ten.

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Wow! It's been over a month since I've done any long runs on trails. It was great to get out to the Capitol forest. I was joined by Chris, DJ, and James for a run from Camp Wedekind around the 17 mile Hell's Creek loop. We started around 8:30 under sunny skies, temp about 45, perfect conditions. However, the first mile was alittle brushy, and the brush was wet. James in the lead took the brunt of it, but he stayed in his "happy place" and plowed through. The trail was gently rolling, had a good run until about half way when I turned my ankle for the second time in 2 days. Took a few minutes to shake it off, hurt mostly on the downhills. The last of 4 of 5 miles are the climb of the run. Ran most of it till my ankle hurt too much, the last mile was all downhill, which was painful but ok. Finished in 3:42, felt sore and great, with a nice view of Mt Rainier in the distance. It was good to run a long run again, especially with great company!

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The run was planned as a loop out of Sol Duc along the High Divide with a side trip to the summit of Mt. Carrie. Robert McIntosh and I took off Thursday afternoon and made it to the Sol Duc resort restaurant in time for dinner. We spent a restful night in his VW camper, except for one errant mouse, with Robert setting his alarm for 4:20 in the morning. Fortunately, he slept through the alarm and we woke at a more civilized 7:00. On the trail at 7:30, we made it about a mile before Robert realized he forgot his water, and ran back to get it. The weather was promising as we ran the 8 miles to Heart Lake where we broke into a beautiful open valley of heather and huckleberries and one bear. Instead of going to the right to the High Divide, we broke left on a trail that skirted Cat mountain with outstanding views of the Hoh river valley, however clouds covered Mt. Olympus and the Bailey Range. To thirds the way around Cat Mountain the trail ends, and the mountain goat scramble starts. A knife edge ridge with sick drops on both sides, called the Cat Walk, is the bridge to Mt. Carrie. Would have been more fun if it wasn't wet. There's no real trail up Mt. Carrie, mostly scrambling up rock and scree, through misty clouds. Our main concern was losing visibility on the way down, but it cleared up a bit at the summit. After a couple of photos, we started down and immediately got caught in a small blizzard. It cleared up quickly, but it was slow going down. When we reached the cutoff to the High Divide, it was obvious we would be finishing in the dark, so we headed back the same way and reached the car around 9. All in all a great trip, the open meadows, glaciers and steep drops were amazing. Best of all, there were zillions of perfectly ripe huckleberries. When I'm reincarnated, I want to be a bear living in the upper Sol Duc!

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