White River 50 mile passes me by

Update on White River 50 Mile Endurance Run

I'll start off by saying I didn't run it today :(

But let me go back a few weeks and get caught up. On July 10th, I did the second training run on the course. It was the first half of the course. I didn't bring a camera with me so I didn't get any pix. My run went really well. I felt good--strong, in fact. No blood in urine or abdominal pain. It was an overcast day with a little drizzle.

We parked at Buck Creek campground. The course started out by crossing Hwy 410 to the north side and running west on a trail along 410 for about 5 miles. Then the trail turned north and started heading uphill. It was all under the cover of trees. Near the top of the climb, we passed the location of the Ranger Creek aid station. There is a trail junction here (go left) and a lean-to and hitching post for horses. Beyond Ranger Creek, there was a bit more uphill climbing and then we emerged from the forest on hillsides where I could imagine harvesting blueberries in the fall. I could also imagine gazing upon majestic views of the Cascade Mountains if the weather was a bit nicer. We ran to Corral Pass and turned around. Forty-five years ago, my parents hauled their horses to Corral Pass to take horse pack trips from there on the very trail I was running! The road to Corral Pass is closed now so it wouldn't be possible to do that any more.

After turning around at Corral Pass, we ran back to Ranger Creek and stayed left at the junction to head back down to Hwy 410 on a different trail. It felt like I ran downhill FOREVER. I couldn't believe I had run uphill that far. Eventually, I made it down and crossed 410 and found my car parked at Buck Creek Campground.

So, why didn't I run the race?! Husband has been working out of town all summer. I have been having a hard time these last couple of weeks fitting in training runs while being a single mom and working. I felt like I had tapped out all of my child care options on training runs and had no one to watch my littles while I was at the race. I was feeling very anxious. When I decided not to run the race, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I have no doubt that I will do this race one day. It just didn't happen this year.