Well, I ran Where's Waldo 100k (http://www.wpsp.org/ww100k/) for the 3rd time. The first year I ran it I had a great time, ran a good race and came in 17th overall. Last year my race really sucked, 57th place and it was not a good day, too cold for me. This year was different. I had a goal of beating my previous best time of 14:29. I felt pretty good and the weather was to my liking, nice and warm. As the day got warmer, I seemed to feel better. I was actually having a great time out there. I spent as little time in each aid station as possible while looking at all the poor souls sitting because of the heat. Glad I run daily in the Utah heat.
The competition has been much stiffer in the last couple of years since the race serves as the USATF 100K Trail National Championship. There’s some pretty good prize money on the line ($1000 overall, $500 masters) so some very good ultrarunners show up.
I compared my splits this year with last and found it really interesting that my splits thru the half way point were within 1-2 minutes of last year. I certainly didn't plan that. Here’s a short description of each section:
Start to Gold Lake – A one mile climb (1000’) up a haul road at the Willamette Pass ski area followed by a long primarily downhill run on some really nice single track trail to the Gold Lake campground.
Gold Lake to Fuji Mtn. Uphill the entire way, some pretty steep sections.
Fuji Mtn to Fuji Mtn – a 1.25 mile climb to the summit of Fuji Mtn (7100'), enjoy the view for a minute and a blazing fast downhill back to the aid station. Lots of fun and stunning views of the central Oregon forests.
Fuji Mtn. to Mt. Ray – Meandering trail, primarily downhill thru fairly open forest.
Mt. Ray to Twins – Mostly uphill, but very runnable as the grade is not as steep as other sections of the course.
Twins to Charlton Lake – Lots of fun, one of my favorite sections. Mostly downhill and an aid station right next to a very pretty lake.
Charlton Lake to Road 4290 – Very open as the trees are much smaller thru here. Can be tough since the day is now getting pretty warm.
Road 4290 to Twins – Not my favorite section. This is where the wheels came off last year. You end up crossing over a 7000’ pass before dropping back into the Twins aid station for the second time. There were actually snowbanks still on the ground along here.
Twins to Maiden Peak – Starts out going down but ends up going uphill as you begin the grinding climb up Maiden Peak.
Maiden Peak to Maiden Lake – 3.2 miles uphill (2000’) climb to the summit of Maiden Peak (7816’). Once again, gorgeous views. This is probably the toughest section for most everyone. I did really well on this section this year. The last mile or so is very steep as is the first mile coming down the other side. Lots of loose volcanic rock.
Maiden Lake to the finish – 7.5 miles of gradual downhill very nice trail. Some of it on the Pacific Crest trail. You go past three very pretty lakes. I pushed really hard thru this section trying to go under 14 hours. I actually had to back off the pace just a bit when my stomach started to protest. That last ¼ mile to the finish was sweet. They announce your name and the RD is there to greet you, everyone cheering.
Here are my splits for each section. 2006 had a slightly different course and a couple of sections can’t really be compared.
|
Aid station
|
Total Miles
|
2006
|
2007
|
2008
|
|
Gold Lake (7.4 miles)
|
7.4
|
--
|
1:23
|
1:24
|
|
Fuji Up (5.0 miles)
|
12.4
|
1:09
|
1:07
|
1:08
|
|
Fuji Down (2.5 miles)
|
14.9
|
0:32
|
0:37
|
0:36
|
|
Mt. Ray (5.6 miles)
|
20.5
|
1:02
|
1:06
|
1:04
|
|
Twins 1 (6.6 miles)
|
27.1
|
1:23
|
1:30
|
1:35
|
|
Charlton Lake (4.9 miles)
|
32.0
|
0:56
|
1:08
|
1:01
|
|
Road 4290 (5.2 miles)
|
37.2
|
1:01
|
1:14
|
1:08
|
|
Twins 2 (7.5 miles)
|
44.7
|
--
|
2:07
|
1:02
|
|
Maiden Peak (5.2 miles)
|
49.9
|
1:04
|
1:31
|
1:10
|
|
Maiden Lake (5.1 miles)
|
55.0
|
1:44
|
1:56
|
1:33
|
|
Finish (7.5 miles)
|
62.5
|
1:35
|
2:08
|
1:23
|
|
Total time
|
|
14:29
|
15:47
|
14:08
|
After the half way point this year, my pace really picked up from last year. Better training I think. Anyway, the second half was almost as fast as the first half (6:48 and 7:20). I had too much fun catching a bunch of people on the big climb up Maiden Peak (3.2 miles, 2000'). My second half split probably would have been as fast as the first half if that climb up Maiden Peak wasn't there.
Anyway, my time ended up being 14:08, over 1.5 hours faster than last year and over 20 minutes faster than the year before that. Good enough for 39th place and 4th in my age group. Best of all, I had a great time the entire race. | 