Answering the Mountains' Call

After another week of good running I headed out to the Cape Perpetua Fat Ass and ran the 50K there. My plan going into the run was to take it easy and run with some friends. As we all started up the first climb I caught up with a guy from Corvallis who was doing the 30K. We ended up running together the whole day until I had to head off and do one more loop while he cruised to the finish. Anyhow, we ended up going quite a bit faster than I was planning but that was fun and the pace was still comfortable. The course took us up a big 10 mile climb then down 10 miles with a few rollers along the way. Then up 5 more miles and down 5. Coming down the 10 mile descent we really got cruising so when I took off for the last 10 miles I felt silly slowing down so I kept up a good pace. Fortunately the only rough patch was starting down the last hill when my legs felt a little stiff. I haven't put a hard effort at this distance for quite some time so that wasn't much of a surprise. I felt strong finishing the run and hadn't checked my watch all day but figured that I had put up a pretty good time. Turns out I ran a 4:10 on a course with some good climbing. Looking at the map, I figured that the course was maybe 30 miles, not your traditional 50K, but that run sure gave me some confidence. The next day I managed a sub-1 hour effort of one of my favorite routes up McCulloch Peak which was the first time I had gone that fast. After a couple great days though, I could feel that the body took on a little more than it could take in stride and the next few days found me more focused on recovery more than running. Today the legs felt like they were back and I managed a sub-2 hour double McCulloch using a fairly direct route from Oak Creek then dropping into Soap Creek and climbing out of there. All in all I'm feeling happy with my recent efforts, and also am having a lot of fun just heading out and running every day.