Race — Race Reports — Seth LaReau

Race: Orcas Island 50K

Location: Moran State Park — Orcas Island, WA

Date: February 2nd, 2019

Distance: 50 km (~30.7 miles)

Vertical gain: ~8,400 ft

Finish time: 7:59:21

Recap

I sit here, 10 days since finishing the Orcas Island 50K — my first ultramarathon — filled with gratitude.

Perhaps that’s partly due to the delicious Alvarado Street Brewing IPA I’m drinking, but mostly it’s because of how fortunate I feel to have spent my 33rd birthday running my first ultramarathon in one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen with my own eyes.

The quote above by Scott Jurek perfectly sums up the way I’ve felt this past week-and-a-half.

What I’ve described to others as “The Post-Race Blues” has been the emotional come-down from a magical experience connecting with nature and finding out more about myself and what I’m capable of.

An understanding of the beauty of the universe and a connectivity I’ve never quite felt before.

A feeling so fleeting that I now find myself grasping at ways to capture it once again.

(Sigh…)

Before I get into the recap of my race, a quick disclaimer. I’ll do my best to recap the experience as I remember it, but please keep in mind that it’s a biased view, influenced by my goals, life experiences, et cetera, et cetera. My goal is simply to provide insight and, most importantly, inspiration.

If I can help one person feel more confident or excited to take on this race (or any race I recap), then I’ll consider this to be a success.

That being said, I’m acutely aware that everyone has their own goals and their own measure of a challenge, so any descriptions I use will be of the sole purpose of describing my experience.

If I say something was “easy”, it means it was easy relative to what I consider difficult. I don’t mean to paint broad strokes about what is or isn’t easy for anyone reading this.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff!

Arriving on Orcas Island

The race was on Saturday, February 2nd (my birthday!).

We flew up from San Francisco on Thursday, January 31st and stayed in Seattle for the night before driving up to Anacortes and taking the ferry to Orcas Island on Friday, the 1st.

I say “we” because for some reason when I told my friends I was planning to run a 50K on my birthday in the Pacific Northwest, they decided the most logical reaction was to ask if they could come. Seriously, I have some of the best friends.

The travel was mostly uneventful, though my wife and I did stay in a cute Airbnb in Seattle and I got to visit a cool craft beer store in the Green Lake neighborhood. I bought a variety of PNW craft beers that lasted us through the weekend.

We got to Orcas Island Friday evening, checked into the Airbnb there, then made a grocery run in town.

At this point I realized I forgot to pack my Squirrel’s Nut Butter. I knew, inevitably, that I would forget something, but could not have imagined that it would be my anti-chafe solve. Not good. For any of my guys who have had chafing issues during long runs, you know how crucial this is.

Luckily, the Island Market had travel-sized vaseline, so I was back in business.

Consider that my first good omen.

As I laid down to sleep that night, I couldn’t help but carry two simultaneous thoughts in my head.

The first being the weather. The forecast had called for rain (it was raining all Friday when we arrived) and some snow later in the weekend, with temps in the mid-40s (high) to mid-30s (low), but looked to be relatively clear for race day. I was prepared for rain, but was definitely not opposed to a nice cloudy (read: dry) day in the woods.

The second thought, one I couldn’t shake, was one of an imminent change in my life.

I couldn’t help but bifurcate my life into “Before Orcas” and “After Orcas”. I’m not sure why, but for some reason I just felt like this would be a turning point of sorts for me.

Race Morning and Check-In

I slept surprisingly well considering I woke up at least once thinking I’d already overslept the start of the race.

I felt fresh, focused, and ready to take on the day.

That didn’t stop me from being nervous as shit, but as I recall my middle school basketball coach saying once, “If you’re not nervous, it means you don’t care enough.” Damn right.

I really glad I took the time to pack my vest and drop bag the night before, so I could just wake up and head to the start line.

My wife, Kasey, drove me to Camp Moran for check-in and the start of the race.

I spent time filling up my water bottles and picking out my unique Orcas Island 50K thrift store merchandise. For Orcas Island 50K, in lieu of a standard finisher medal, Rainshadow Running gets a bunch of thrift store clothes and screen prints the race logo on them.

I’m now the proud owner of a one-of-a-kind green ‘Orcas Island 50K’ North Face polo shirt.

I’ll note here that it was surreal being at Camp Moran getting ready for the start of this race. I’ve read so many race reports and watched so many videos, such as this one from the Ginger Runner, that I seemed to know the place before I ever showed up. Still, it was wild being there waiting for the race to start.

The race director, James, gave us some words of wisdom and joked that the course had been changed and we’d be doing repeats up the Powerline Trail (I was so nervous the joke easily landed with me) and before I knew it, we were off!

Start to Mile 6.0 (Mountain Lake aid station)

I’m resorting to breaking up this race by section between aid stations, since that’s how I broke it up mentally for myself during the race.

My goal during this first section was to let my nerves die down and settle into the race.

I knew it was mostly climbing for the first five or so miles, so I wanted to just get warmed up (it was 40 degrees, after all) and find my own easy pace that I could hit for several miles.

After the first few miles on trail, we ended up on Mt. Constitution road, winding up pretty steep switchbacks. At this point, I tried to just alternate running and walking, two minutes on, two minutes off, etc.

My goal was to keep a strongish pace, but also prevent myself from completely wrecking my legs so early on in the race.

Rolled into the Mountain Lake aid station right around 1:20 or so.

Mile 6.0 to Mile 13.9 (Mount Pickett aid station)

Finally dropped into more trails and more downhill / flat sections.

This was the point where I started feeling the best I felt all day, just cruising along and letting the miles click by as I ran along Mountain Lake.

I can’t overstate how beautiful and serene this section was, and I wish I could have taken more time — and more pictures — during the race to really enjoy it.

Right around miles 12 and 13 I started to feel a little tightness in my right calf when I extended over some creek crossings.

It was pretty muddy from the rain the day before, so I attempted to stay clean at the expense of triggering a calf cramp.

I’ve had cramps in the past that have plagued entire halves of races, so I consciously dialed it back here in order to prevent disaster.

This section — especially the downhills — was also WAY more technical than I had envisioned.

I was hoping I could really make up some time and just cruise on the downs and flats, but the combination of rocks, tree roots, and runner congestion made for a trying time. I rolled my left ankle pretty good like 2-3 times during this section alone.

I have to give the volunteers at Mount Pickett aid some huge props for:

Proclaiming they were “the best aid station” and living up to the hype by
Having beer and whiskey available (couldn’t bring myself to do it), and
Making made-to-order peanut butter and jelly tortillas.

I didn’t want to wait for a custom order, so I grabbed a ready-made peanut butter and jelly sandwich quarter and was on my way.

Mile 13.9 to Mile 20.3 (North Arch aid station)

I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that it took me no less than 10 minutes to finish my 1/4 of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

It was cold and I was far enough into the race that chewing was no longer fun. In fact, I brought many more Gu gels than normal for this exact situation, but due to the chilly temps, they were also all more hardened than normal.

I didn’t realize that my ‘Birthday Cake’ Gu was going to require me to chew it like an actual birthday cake (on my birthday…).

This section, perhaps unsurprisingly, was by far the lowest point for me.

I was starting to feel fatigued. My right quad was feeling really tight. My food was all cold and hard and difficult to chew.

I started to reflect on how I still had more than half the race to go and started to wonder how the hell I was going to finish this thing off. There was a climb around mile 16 or so that was much more steep than I anticipated, which really threw me off my game for a bit.

I decided to stop and dig the Tailwind out of my pack to mix with my water bottle. I figured an extra 200 calories and a couple minutes to regroup wouldn’t hurt.

After that, I started focusing on just getting to North Arch aid station. My drop bag was there, with extra food, and most importantly, my trekking poles.

My crew was also there waiting for me, and I knew just seeing them would give me a huge boost. I just kept grinding with those thoughts in mind, though I definitely believe I lost the most time during this section, as I walked more than anticipated and just overall had a rough experience.

Mile 20.3 to Mile 25.6 (Mt. Constitution aid station)

Coming into this race, the thing I probably looked forward to the most was rolling into aid stations and seeing my crew.

I’ve watched enough videos of people running Western States and other epic ultra events to know that hearing the cowbells and having people cheer for you is a such a pick-me-up, and after 20 miles I couldn’t wait.

To that end, North Arch aid station did not disappoint.

As I made my way up the hill into North Arch, I saw my crew and they started singing “happy birthday'“.

If that wasn’t enough, the entire aid station joined in. By the time I reach the aid station, I had taken my cap off to them (literally) and was in the best mood of the day!

It’s amazing how much of a mental rollercoaster these races become the deeper you get into them.

I chatted with my crew for a bit as I refilled my water bottles and got some food.

Meanwhile, one of the aid station volunteers remarked how she “wishes [she] was born on Groundhog Day” when another volunteer snapped back, “Yeah, but he’s been running this race every day for his entire life.”

As he handed my water bottle back to me he smiled and said, “Don’t worry, this is the year you finish!”

And with that, I was off to face the most challenging climbs of the day: the Powerline and Mt. Constitution.

Not much else to say other than two miles with almost 2,000 ft of gain, a couple flattish miles, and then another mile with 1,000 feet of gain.

I honest felt pretty prepared for this section given my recent forays up Willow Camp. I will note that vs. the average runner I’m much better at downhills than I am at hiking.

Something to work on I guess.

Powerline went fine even though I noted — out loud — how stupid it was. People aren’t supposed to run up those trails.

I took a pic at the top (see below), but the photo really doesn’t do justice to how steep it is. It was at this time that my quads were starting to seize up a bit, so I tried my best to take it easy.

To my surprise, the two downhill miles leading to the Mt. Constitution climb were fine. My quads actually felt good when I ran, even downhill, which was a nice surprise.

The climb up Mt. Constitution was a slog.

So many steep switchbacks.

To pass the time, I started dedicating each switchback to a different person or group of people and reflected on the role they played on getting me up that mountain.

My wife, my mom, my friends, my siblings, my Strava fam. I had a lot of time so I thought about them all.

Mile 25.6 to Finish

The view from the top of Mt. Constitution is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen with my own eyes.

You can see for what seems like miles and the view of all the islands in the sound is really something I’ll remember for awhile (even forgot to snap a pic).

The five miles downhill to the finish were great.

My quads held up and I was really able to push the pace relative to other runners. I think I passed like 10 people just in this section and only got passed by one guy who finished a couple minutes before me.

It felt really awesome to be able to run at a relaxed pace without pain so far into a race. I really wasn’t sure how my body would react, but what a pleasant surprise!

Just as I could hear the cowbells and cheers of the finish line, my quads really started to lock up.

I tried to take it easy on the uphills, but noticed I was flirting with a sub-8 hr time and was faced with a decision:

Continue to take it easy or grind through the pain and finish under 8 hours.

Not sure why it was that important, but 8 hours into a race it seemed like I need to close it out strong.

The race ends with a brief uphill from a parking lot and then a left turn into the finish.

I started to run, cramps and all.

Turning the corner filled me with joy and I finished just under 8 hours and could not have been more happy to give James (Race Director) a high five and a hug.

Capped it off with a couple beers, a slice of pizza, and a cold brew coffee.

Reflections as of March 26th, 2019 (when I’m finally finishing this recap)

Running an ultramarathon is really fucking hard (duh), but I was surprised at the rollercoaster of emotions and feelings I felt throughout. Things got pretty low during the middle and I was worried it would only get harder, but I was surprised at how rejuvenated I felt at mile 25 after reaching the top of Mt. Constitution.
There were points during this run, when the miles were flying by and I was just taking in the scenery, when I felt as through time was standing still. It was a truly magical feeling that I now find myself yearning for weeks later. This must be the runner’s high everyone talks about!
I’ll never be able to thank my crew enough. To have a wife and friends who will travel to another state, including a flight, drive, and ferry ride, to see me for literally five minutes during an 8-hr race means the world to me. Knowing I would see them at mile 20 got me to that point. Seeing them at mile 20 got me the rest of the way home.
I had heard and read good things about Rainshadow Running and their events and now I can confirm that they put on one hell of a race. So organized. Great aid stations. Amazing volunteers. Thanks to James and the rest of the team for an amazing event! I can’t wait to add another Rainshadow event to my calendar!
I’m already ready for another ultramarathon. I’ll be running the Whiskey Basin 60K in Prescott, AZ on April 13th, followed by the Titletown Ultra Series 8-Hour event in Green Bay, WI in June! As for this fall, I’ll save that news for a future date!

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