Date: May 11, 2024.
Objective: 50k and 8,700ft gain in 10hrs.
Run Tiger Claw!
Strava link.
This 50k has a whole heck of a lot of vert! The course is fairly unique in that it has three different ascents that link to one common descent. It's up to the runner to decide which order you want to do the different loops in. My initial plan was to do the Yellow ascent first, the White ascent next and save Pink for last (see the website if you want the details). It turned out to be a pretty warm day and while I was chatting with other runners waiting to start I decided to do Pink second since it is longer than White.
The Yellow ascent is a nice sustained climb that takes you to the top of West Tiger Mountain. An awesome view of The Mountain, aka Tahoma, aka Mount Rainer greeted us at the top.
After a ripping fast descent, it was time to tackle Pink. It is longer of all three and was fairly shaded with a little extra up-and-down for good measure. It was a tough climb up to the aid station in the blazing sun above the trees.
My legs were talking to me on the next descent. Hu, maybe I better back off the pace a tad...
I thought saving White for last was a good move. I figured I'd get the two longest climbs out of the way first and do the shortest but steepest climb last. Thinking about it after the fact, it might have been better to get it out of the way with relativly fresh legs. I saw the Fam at the lower aid station but I did not have any time to spare.
It was pretty warm by now. My legs really started to cramp and I was moving slow. There were about 4 other runners with me on this section. I wont speak for them, but I was hammered. I made it up to the aid station and I officially felt like death. I knew I was going to have to dig deep to finish this bad boy, so fueled up, got a good soaking from the aid station crew and headed down the last descent.
I had two choices, try to move "fast" and risk cramping, tripping and eating it. Or, understand that I probably had enough time that I could slow up a bit and still finish. The descent is pretty dang steep so I played it safe. After pushing through the lower aid station, there was about a mile of no shade and there was no point in prolonging the suffering. My normal strategy is to save some gas for the push to the finish, but I was feeling crushed. I kept my stoke high and my pace up as much as I could but those last few miles seemed to drag. I finally hit the last stretch of pavement to the finish shuffled my way over the finish line. Just my luck that this would end up being the warmest day of the year so far, but that's literally why salt pills exist.
