Ever since I ran Longmire to Mowich (32ish miles/10,800 ft vert) with Kait 2 years ago, I’ve had it in my head that I could see how running 50 miles would be possible. It’s been quite a long while since I’ve given myself a hard physical challenge to go after. With this being the last year in my 30’s, I decided this was the year to go for it.
I’ve never really cared about races or organized events when it comes to outdoor sports. My main motivation for adventure is to push myself, get away from the crowds, enjoy nature and share the experience with friends. Choosing 50 miles was the sweet spot where I knew it would cause me to alter my training/lifestyle enough, but not so much that it took over my life. I also wanted it to be inspiring. MRNP is one of the best places on the planet. After spending 20+ years exploring and adventuring, it is still one of my top favorite places to be.
The route: Mowich to Sunrise to Narada Falls (Tattoosh parking lot). 50 miles + 15K ft of vert
Sept 1, 2023
Justin graciously said yes to my request to pick me up at 3am and drive me to Mowich lake for my 5am start time. It was cool, foggy and wet. After a long dry summer, smoke and a fire in the park the week before – 3 days of rain was perfect. The air was fresh and clear and the weather improved as the day went.
Starting in the dark – I checked my headlamp but should have just put new batteries in because they didn’t last more than 5 min. I ran the first 45 min in the dark using my cell phone light. It slowed me down slightly but not a big deal.
Spray park was magical as always during the sunrise.
Justin’s shot from Tolmie peak: ^^^
I made pretty good time and had a moment talking with Brian. He would have loved hearing about this and so encouraging.
I made it down to the carbon river suspension bridge in 2 hours (on pace for my super optimistic 4 mile/hour pace).
I popped in the headphones for the climb up the first longer ascent. I enjoyed seeing all of the massive glaciers and rivers pouring out of them.
2 weeks earlier, we went to Banks lake with best friends and families for an awesome family camping/boating weekend. I of course wanted to cliff jump and went straight to the biggest jump – 60ft. When I hit the water, it shocked me how much it hurt. The water cut the inside of my lip and destroyed the right side of my rib cage. I figured I would be sore for a few days and then fine, but I was not. 8 days later it had not gotten better and actually got worse. Was it fractured or broken? Would I be able to run this route I had planned all year?
I ended up going to urgent care and getting an x-ray. No fracture! I was so relieved because I knew that if I had actually broken something, the run was off. It turns out it was a bone bruise. It also changed how I was treating it. Instead of massaging/ART/etc I just left it alone and iced it. It improved dramatically in just 4 days. So much so that I didn’t even notice it on the run. Stoked!
However, because of the rib, I didn’t actually run at all for 9 days before Rainier. Just walking and stair climbing (lots of stair climbing). I definitely think this didn’t help set me up for the ideal taper I really wanted. But all good, I was able to give it a go.
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Getting into the 3rd climb of the day up to sunrise it started to get tough. I was actually surprised. There was alot of just slightly uphill grade that I wanted to run, but felt so much harder to run than normal. Power hiking was much more efficient.
I rolled into sunrise 6 hours after starting to the best greeting from the fam. So great to have excited daughters there to run and give me hugs. I rested and ate quite a bit before heading out. Wyn was the best refilling my supplies while I ate.
From there it was a nice grade downhill to meet up with Kait at white river. We made the flat trek over to base of the summerland section in good time. But as predicted, I knew this would be a tough part of the day.
It was great to have Kait there telling stories, catching up and making sure I was stopping to eat enough. She is one of the most encouraging people I know who always supports her friends.
The upper section to the crest and over to Indian bar was pretty rough. Steep downs were not feeling great on the legs/knees. I am fortunate to never have knee problems but they were definitely mad at me by this point. But the views are soooo good.
In what felt like forever we finally made it down to the Cowlitz divide where Kait veered off and graciously gave me the rest of her plain water. Super grateful for her coming out to support. Thanks Kait!
From the cutoff is great running terrain. I was able to get the legs moving well again for a while. I made it down to box canyon where I finally saw the top of the mountain for the first time all day. The temps were perfect.
From here I knew I was on the final stretch and was feeling good but very worked. Lots of flatish rollers were tough because I couldn’t run very fast. They were mostly tough because I wanted to be going faster.
The real challenge came for the final climb. Mile 45-47 were BRUTAL. I just had to stop at 1 point. I pulled out all of salty snacks and started eating everything while walking slowly. I finished that off with a bunch of chocolate covered coffee beans. That definitely saved me. I was able to keep moving after that much better (but still slow).
After the climb I made it up to the lakes and felt like I was so close, but it was still taking forever in my mind to finish up those last few miles. The sun started going down for a great sunset and back to using the phone flashlight.
I made it to the last sign telling me I had 1.2 miles left to go. Yes! So close. I knew the kids were probably getting antsy waiting for me so I tried to move faster but it wasn’t very easy in the dark + phone flashlight.
I came around the last corner before the parking lot before the falls and heard the kids screaming at me. Hey Dad!!
Victory. Done. Finished. 50 miles. 15,000 feet of vert. Possible and accomplished. 15 hours and 45 min.
Slower than I wanted, but that’s ok.
I got what I wanted out of it, which was to push myself and see what I was capable of.
Huge shout out to my amazing wife for crewing and driving all day to support me. She is always the biggest supporter and I appreciate her tremendously.
Learnings:
Higher training volume would definitely have helped.
Spending the day before at altitude would help.
Actually sleeping more than 3 hours the night before would help.
Food was pretty good – probably more PBnJ sandwiches would have been helpful.
More plain water in the second half of day (larger or second bottle for this).
Random:
Cracked 100K steps in a day.
davidmweaver 