Seeing the top of that hill and starting the descent was bittersweet since I was well aware that all the elevation I lost, I would have to gain again on my way up to the highest point on the route, Mt. Constitution (2,400′). This highest point in the San Juan Islands also came at mile 26 of the race. This was cruel. This was wonderful. The last long hill push to the summit was one of the most difficult mental and emotional things I have encountered while racing. My legs were just shot from pushing too hard in the opening climbs and descents and from being undertrained on hills. It felt like I had run out of gas and instead of coasting into the filling station, I had to push my car (in this case, a dump truck full of cement) to the only gas pump around that just so happened to be at the top of a damned mountain.
Volcanic 50k - 2015
Running the Volcanic 50k, a race with almost 8,000’ of gain during its circumnavigation of Mt. St. Helens, seemed terrifying, but I signed up anyway. I persuaded two familiar faces around PRC, Stephanie and Tiffany, to run as well. They are both very strong runners, and I knew they could at least give good directions to the rescuers after my legs had broken off. I am, after all, fairly new to this running thing.