Gorge 100K

The day before the race, I went out for a nice shake out run and not surprised living in the Pacific Northwest, it's raining and blowing winds up to 40mph. I think to myself, "Of course this weather is happening to me, the last 4 races I've run have been terrible weather races, but I'm so damn lucky to be running in my backyard (the Gorge)." This past winter in Washington/Oregon it has been one of the worst but finally after 6 months of training in brutal weather, I was ready to tackle the many trails I train on. Since we had all our bad weather (snow, record rainfall, tons of wind), I didn't once set foot on the Gorge 100K course since about October 2016 (also when registration for the race opened up). Not ideal but I had a general knowledge of the course's topography and layout.

The Course:

Course profile

The Gorge Waterfalls 100k is an out-and-back 62 mile, ~12,000ft of gain race that runs along the Gorge #400 Trail, passing 7-8 amazing waterfalls on a rocky, technical trails with a little bit of road running mixed in.

Not to mention that this was a Golden Ticket/qualifying race for Western States 100, lots of high caliber runners come ready to race for the top 2 Male & Female places, myself included... I should say that every Male runner not named Jim Walmsley though was running for second place (Jim is a machine) I witnessed it first hand.

The Race:

ALARM CLOCK goes off... it's 3am, the 5 hours of sleep I managed to get was going to have to do since I got off late from work the night before.

Also don't wait until last minute to pack your race gear, it makes things 10x more stressful but I got it done and I was out the door to the race by 4am to go to race pick up and the start line.

On the road, already the first mishap... I forgot my ID. Luckily I caught it being about 10 minutes away or else I woulda been in trouble.
Blah blah blah, drive back home grab the ID and now back on track.

After checking into the race I had about 35 minutes to kill before the race start, my parents and my friend, Georgia were going to crew for me so I had them meet up. Very happy to have them along the course to cheer me on, which was definitely huge to look forward to.  While they met, I went and did my pre race rituals/visited with my other friends Sarah & Melissa Ostaszewski who were racing as well. After getting my race vest ready and paying my respects to the port-o-potty, I jogged around for a few minutes until I heard a Race Director, James Varner on the megaphone by the start calling all the runners to gather around.

Dad, me and mom

Me, Georgia, and my mom before race start

Starting Line

After working my way through the crowd, I get up to the front of the starting line as James is finishing his pre race speech. Amped up, looking around at all the big names and elite men I'd be racing it was surreal.

Pre-race speech done, race to go off any second, I take one more deep breath and exhale.

3, 2, 1...

Bang! We're off and running. Not even 400m into the race, Jim is opening the gap. The adrenaline in the air was buzzing and the chase pack of 8 of us stuck together while letting Jim go.

I was running well with Jesse Lang, Marc Laveson, Colton Gale, Tyler Green, Ben Stern and a couple other dude.

The first major climb up up Wahkeena/ Multnomah Falls were a blur being somewhat in the dark but you can still see & hear them going by. By the time we got to the first aid station, No Name about mile 6 the sun was up. Not stoping for any water since I had my pack, I proceeded on and left the aid in the top 5 and ready to get to the first crew access spot at Yeon Aid Station, mile 13.

The miles just kept clicking off and I kept on smiling. The trails between No name to Yeon aid station are super pretty but I can't remember any of it.
Finally a group of us hit the 2 mile road section that leads us into the the next check point. My dad was out taking photos so I smiled and seeing him gave me a boost.
"Sweet, 13 miles done, 49 more rocky trail miles to go" I got this.

On my way into Yeon

I saw my mom and Georgia as I reached the aid station #2, and got my bottle refilled and started to stuff my face with VFuel Peach Cobbler gel/Black Cherry Cola (big thanks to Lori and Alan at VFuel for sending out a big shipment prior to the race), chips, Oreos and gummy bears. Feeling good, check the watch, "1:57", oh gosh, I'm going way faster than my race plan. Internally, I'm thinking "well just go with the flow, you'll either blow up or you'll get through it."

Jumping back on course, I ran well with Mark, Tyler and Colton. This 9 mile section was a mix of both road and some trail. Legs at this point are starting to feel the miles we've put on them and my feet were kinda hurting due to the lugs I have on the shoes while running on the road. I kept on smiling through it and the pain kinda faded as soon as we got back onto singletrack.

Before I knew it, I was at the Wy'East Wolfpack/Cascade Locks PAJAMA PARTY aid station at mile 22.

Seeing Yassine Diboun, Willie McBride and a ton of other friends here was a game changer. I was inhaling chips, Oreos, gummy worms/bears like I hadn't eaten in days while my bottle was getting refilled. After taking a little extra time to get calories in me, I got a good jolt of energy and ran out of aid ready to get to the turnaround.

Mouthful of VFuel, Chips, Oreos and Gummy Worms

After leaving the aid, I got a side ache from all the good food I had stuffed my face with, but not wanting to slow down too much, I plugged in the headphones and blasted Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby' to combat pain I was feeling. Other then the minor side ache, I was still smiling. At this point I knew I would see the race leader, Jim and the other runners that were ahead of me at any time. I start counting one by one. There goes Jim, then a big time gap, then the next guy, and so on... I counted maybe 7-8 people that had come back towards me so I knew I was close to the turn. Then come up on RD, James shoveling steps into a snow field. Super grateful cause this snow field was on a slant and I was still sliding even with some good lugs.

Looking down at my watch, I see that I had about one more mile left before I would get to Wyeth Aid Station, so I buckled down and enjoyed the nice mile down to the aid. About 300m out from the aid, my dad is walking around and taking photos. Again, I start to smile to get the endorphins and dopamine back up as I entered Wyeth.

Coming into Wyeth, Mile 31

"Huzzuh!" Made it to the half way point. Once again, I'm beyond excited to see Georgia, my mom and dad. I get as much food as I can stuff in my mouth again and then stuff my pockets with chips. I believe at this point I was around 9th or 10th male. Not staying for too long, I bolted before the next racers could come in.

Making my way back through the familiar scenery, I had a mental flashback to February when I ran my first 100K. *Two months prior*, I had just raced my first 100K in Arizona at the Black Canyon 100K. The race did not play out in my favor but I grinded it out anyway. Knowing what a terrible back half I had at Black Canyon, I knew I wanted to run the second half of Gorge way better (even though the courses are entirely different). I mentally had to stay focused. I would constantly be rehearsing, "Don't stop smiling and high fiving people; run this hill, you'll be done sooner."

Soon enough I would see my next closest runner coming towards me. It looked like I had a ten minute gap. As I made my way back towards Cascade Locks, I start to see the many friends I have made through running that were also racing to get a WS qualifier. 

Hollering at the top of my lungs as I bombed down some sweet double-track trail, giving high fives. Shout out to all the runners cheering me on as I was coming back but especially to my friends, Joel Ballezza, Sarah & Melissa Ostaszewski, Sawna Guadarrama, Lani Advokat, Phil Kochik, Brad Guthrie, Hugh Davis, Katie Christianson. It was an absolute blast to see everyone crushing it and it gave me a rush of happiness that I used to keep pushing forward. 

Once again back at the Wy'east/Cascade Locks aid, ~mile 40,  I stocked up for the last 22 mile grind. I was starting to feel my hands/arms go numb which usually means a sign I am starting to hit the wall. So I grabbed more VFuel Salted Caramel Apple Gels and Black Cherry Cola, handfuls  Oreos, gummy bears for the instant sugar rush. 

Still running on joy and soaking it all in I was surprised nobody had caught me yet... I spoke to soon... soon enough on the road section, Sebastian Duesterhoeft caught me. I tried to hang with him but he was running really strong. So I let him go and proceed to run my own race. 

Now again running by myself, I turned up the tunes and had to readjust to getting passed late in the race. Next,  Ben Bucklin then came up on me and we worked together until we got to Yeon. 

At Yeon, saw the crew and switched out my shoes, got some calories and asked "how far up Sebastian was?" Volunteers told me and Ben, that next runner was about 40 seconds up. Awesome, he didn't get too far, so I left in a hurry to go catch him. 

Last 13 miles, I felt good but not great, just took it one step at a time and prayed my legs wouldn't seize up or buckle under me. I caught up to Sebastian and he was now hitting a low point. I used this to my advantage as I slowly broke away on the climbs but on the descents he'd catch back up since my quads were trashed. 

We worked well together silently, knowing each of us was fighting for 8th place or 9th place. 

Finally we hit No Name #2, mile 56.5 together and I refilled the bottles quickly before mentally preparing for the final climb up Multnomah/Wahkeena. The switchbacks were relentless and doubt started to creep into my headspace. 

10K to go I had two choices, 1) run/shuffle up this 1500ft climb and go for what was 8th place or 2) sit back, run with Sebastian and try and out kick him at the end... I went with choice 1. I like climbing and I didn't want to leave anything left out on the course. So I broke away, I gapped him using the switchbacks to my advantage. He was powerhiking but I still was running scared. 

After cresting the hill, it's a big downhill,  and you can see the highway/the finish. I ran-hobbled my way down the paved switch backing trail while weaving between day hikers. They were all cheering and giving high fives. Legs then shut off, about a mile to go... Looks like choice 1 wasn't such a great idea, but I had to try. Sebastian is a great downhill runner, he catches me and blasts past me and fighting as hard as I can I try to hang but my body is as empty and dead as Death Valley. About 400m left I'm "sprinting" but there isn't enough time or miles left to catch back up. The end result was 9th overall in 10:18:29. So exhausted, yet so happy I left it all on the course and it showed: A 100K PR & a top 10 finish on a tough course against world class/elite athletes.

WOO! DONE! 

Big thumbs ups to James Varner and the entire Rainshadow Running team, for preparing the course and getting the trail in decent shape to run the race. Huge thanks to all the volunteers helping and cheering. Thank you to my parents and Georgia for crewing for me, I couldn't have done it without you guys. Thank you to my coach, Michele Yates for putting the perfect training plan together.  Lastly major thank you to the many wonderful companies that believe in me and support my dream: Roll Recovery, VFuel Endurance, Glukos Energy, Nola Doughnuts, Rugged Running, Carson Footwear & Haeleum. 

Enlightenment

Few stats from the race:

Tailwind/Gu Brew: 1000 calories 

VFuel: 900 calories

Oreos, Chips, Gummy Worms: 300 calories

Glukos Tabs: 400 calories 

Salomon S-Lab SG: first 49 miles

Hoka Speed Instinct: last 13 miles

Nike Volt Shorts

Stance Run Calf Socks

Seven Hills Racing singlet