Chuckanut 50K

Ray and I had a very interesting and nice getaway, I think?? Wait till you read on. We stayed overnight in Bellingham for Ray's first ultra marathon called Chuckanut 50K race. It gave him the shivers and nerves just thinking about it with butterflies in his stomach. Torrential downpour and gusty winds on our way down south as we were crossing the border on Fri afternoon didn't really help with the idea of running on the muddy and wet trails of Chuckanut. The rain tapered off as we got into Bellingham and the sun was peeking out. Negative thoughts piling up in our minds suddenly went away. The weather did turn out fine after all.

After we met up with some volunteers for the race that late Fri afternoon, we all drove up in different cars to help to lug up jugs of water to Aid Station #3. It wasn't fun as we were driving up. In my mind, I didn't know what I got myself into. The van that Ray and I were in almost couldn't make it up due to muddy, washed-out road and to the left of us, there was sheer cliff the whole way up. I heard this one passenger asking whether we needed to get out and push the car. I thought to myself that there was NO FRIGGING WAY that I was going to push the van. With prayers in our hearts, we finally made it up and started our 1K hike up with 2 gallons of water in our hands to the aid station. Wow...that was sure something that I wouldn't want to do again unless I know what to expect beforehand. The next morning, my arms and back were sore from carrying the water!!! Of course, I'm not asking for your pitiness. I was just glad that was over and looked forward to a nice pasta and fish dinner with Hozumi and Tara at this restaurant called "The Big Fish Co." in Fairhaven.

Next morning came, we were up early at 6am to get ready for the race. Left the hotel at 7am and got to Fairhaven Park for the race. We met up the others for a briefing. Everyone looked pumped up for the race, at least Ray was since he couldn't really sleep well the night before... "adrenaline rush or race anticipation" like what some racers have. Thinking back, I know I had that the night before my first half marathon back in Sep 2008.
It was interesting just looking at the racers coming through the aid stations and seeing what they do especially after running for more than 20K or so, all feeling delirious and exhausted but amazingly enough, they are trained for distances like that and after drinking gels/nuun drinks and popping in potatoes/pretzels/bananas, the body was able to go on for another 30K. I do feel really proud for Ray finishing his first ultra. A few muscle aches and pains here and there was definitely expected but it sure feels good thinking that he has tackled a 50K trail race. Well...yeah, what's next?? Sun Run will be the next game for us. I am hoping to try to run it under 52mins which will be a PB for me...fingers crossed!!!

Here are the official race result: Ray came in 69th/279 overall with the time of 5hrs 26mins.