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Chuckanut Mountain Trail 50K 1999 Report: Ron Adams

Chuckanut Mountain Trail 50 Km
Bellingham, Washington, USA
Saturday March 27th, 1999

RD Doug McKeever must have been praying for good weather, because
the man upstairs delivered sunshine and perfect running temperatures
Overnight snowfalls were evident on the surrounding hills, but as the
race unfolded any snow on the race course had melted by the time the
runners arrived.

The race starts with a 10K jaunt down the Interurban Trail (a rails
to trails conversion of the old Interurban Line) before heading up
Chuckanut Mountain itself for 30K of almost continual climbing or
descent, finishing with a return along the Interurban trail.

The Interurban trail has an interesting optical illusion.  The grades
are very gentle (as one would expect on an old rail line) ... except
of course where the trail descends in and out of rainforest valleys,
but the optical illusion comes from the fact that there is a gentle
uphill ... in both directions !!  You barely notice it in the first 10K,
but it is very noticeable in the last 10K.  I asked Co-RD Richard West
"Just how did you do that ??"  His only reply was a sly grin.

The first 10K does make for a nice refreshing warm-up.  Co-RD Doug
McKeever seemed to be everywhere ... I swear that I saw him marshalling
every intersection.  Once you reach Larrabee State Park, the course heads
steeply uphill to Fragrance Lake, a very pretty lake nestled in a mountain
valley which you circumnavigate by a gentle single-track trail.  Every
time I have been up there there is always some-one there fishing.  I have
felt like asking them whatever would possess someone to get up at that
hour of the day to go fishing ... but then it occurred to me that they
were probably wondering why anyone would get up so early to go running ;-^)
After a short fast descent from the lake, there is a long tedious uphill
to the top of the Chuckanut Crest and a major aid station manned by
Ultra Listers Max Welker and Scott McQueeney.  I made a point of saying
hi to Scott, since he had asked everyone on the list to say hi as they
were going by. :-) Doug McKeever was also there working the aid station
Did I mention that he seemed to be everywhere at once ?  This aid station
is definitely the place to fill your bottles, because it is at least 2
hours before the next aid.  It was also at this point that I saw Houston
dead runner Dennis Halpin.  My only comment was "Are we in Texas yet ?"
Hey Dennis, do they grow hills like this in Texas ?

The next 3 miles are along the ridge trail at the top of Chuckanut Crest.
The geographic features here are quite spectacular.  The ridge itself
is shaped somewhat like a knife edge with the trail running along the
sharp end of the blade.  On the right (just inches from the runners) are
vertical cliffs with drops of 100 - 200 feet.  On the left, the drop
is much more gentle with a steepness similar to the steeper drops on
the California Loop at States.  This is a lovely soft runnable trail
meandering among the old growth trees over a green carpet of small
evergreen needles brought down by the recent high winds in the NorthWest.

After dropping down from the ridge, there is a long very muddy stretch
on the backside of the mountain.  It was in this stretch that veteran
ultrarunner Ron Nicholl caught up to me.  I complimented him on his
recent race report in Ultrarunning magazine and told him that the
report couldn't have been better if I had written it myself.  We both
had a good laugh about this. (Ultrarunning had published my race report
with the byline going to Ron.  Actually, Ultrarunning can be a little
sloppy in this regard.  This is not the first time that my reports have
been published showing someone else as the author.  Apparently,
Ultrarunning does this regularly)

After the muddy stretch, I got my second wind.  There is a quick downhill
to the base of the biggest hill on the course "Little Chinscraper"
which I really enjoy climbing.  In spite of how steep the hill is in
places, there are quite a few runnable parts and at the top of Little
Chinscraper the runner is rewarded with an open area with a spectacular
view over Whatcom county.  This is the high point of the race both in
elevation and emotional accomplishment.  What ensues is a steep drop
which in about 3 miles takes the runner from the highest elevation in
the race down almost to sea level.  This descent was designed to turn
any runner's quads into jelly, just in time for the final uphill 10K
along the formerly level Interurban trail ;-)

Reaching the bottom of the hill, the runners had to dodge a herd of
llamas (I kid you not) before reaching the final aid station with
just 10K to go.  At this point, I began to reach an appreciation of
the true meaning of the term "dead runner"  However, dead as I was,
heading out onto the Interurban trail, I got it into my head that I
would like to try and break 6 hours.  Well, my legs were dead and
they hurt, but my breathing was OK and my overall fatigue level wasn't
bad, so I decided to try and pick up the pace.  And guess what ?
My legs still hurt ... but not any worse than before, so I might as
well give it a go.  It was quite interesting running back, not knowing
how far there was to go, or if I would make my time objective, but I
kept recognizing landmarks from earlier in the day, and realizing
that I was gradually drawing closer to the finish.  The only really
strong winds all day were in the last 200 yards to the finish.  I
think Co-RD Richard West probably ordered them in advance to make
the runners appreciate the achievement of finishing :-)

I've gotta give credit to RD's Doug McKeever and Richard West for
putting on a really excellent race.  The course was really well
marked on race day (some of those turns are tricky) and the course
was in really good shape.  The RD's must have even been out with
chain saws clearing some of the deadfalls that were present on the
training run 2 weeks ago.  The only turn that I missed on race day
was about 300 yards from the finish, and then when I back tracked
there was an arrow on the ground as plain as day.  (I think blindness
must set in about 49.9K into a 50K run)

BTW - Oh yeah, I did in fact get in just under 6 hours, so that
final push was worth it.

Regards


Ron Adams
on the banks of the Capilano River
North Vancouver, B.C.