Will's 12 hour Trail Race - Redmond Watershed Preserve

Well, it's been an active week for me. I recovered from my 1st adventure race on Wednesday and rested up the rest of the week for this 12 hour race on Saturday. We had a hot spell come over us and it ended up breaking a 50 year heat record for the day as it blasted into the 90's. That may not sound too hot, but considering it had been raining and in the 50's & 60's the past few weeks it came as quite a shock to us living up here.

I really didn't know how far I was going to be able to go today. I had completed my first ultra marathon last fall. That was a 50k (31 miles). I was hoping to get further than that. 40 miles was the goal I had in the back of my mind.

The course consisted of a 5.375 mile loop (455 feet of elevation gain/loss) through the Redmond Watershed Preserve for the 1st 10 hours, then for the last 2 hours we all joined up on a small .72 mile loop (80 feet of elevation gain/loss) I ended up logging 46.25 miles and 4150 ft of elevation change.

Jenni & her parents came to cheer me on for the last 2 hours. I think I had the largest & most supportive cheering section.

Jenni made cute little signs to cheer me on.



This is my niece's school project joining me on the run.
I didn't get the full scoop on him except that we was
supposed to get his picture taken doing different things.
This is him running with me.

We started the day with about 80 people but I think only about 20+ made it through all 12 hours. With the hot temperature it seemed people started dropping off once it got uncomfortably hot. I ended up drinking over 2 gallons of water & gatorade throughout the day.

I ended up getting just 2 small blisters. One I lanced and slapped duct tape on about 8 hours into the race the other I didn't even notice until today (Sunday). I just finished drilling holes into two of my toenails to relieve some pressure so I don't think I will lose them.

All in all I had a great day and felt pretty good throughout the entire day. It got a little tough around mile 20 and again at mile 35, but with my cheering section for the last two hours I was able to stay strong for hours 10-12 and pull down another 9 miles. Jenni even pushed me a bit harder for the last 30 minutes due to a simple math error. She mentioned unless I completed 3 more laps instead of 2 I would only end up with 44.825, just shy of 45 miles, so I had to turn it into high gear and in the last 25 minutes completed 10 minute miles (2.5 miles). Which is quite the push considering I averaged 15:30 minute miles the 1st 11 1/2 hours.

I'm not sure how I stacked up against the competetion, but I'm pretty satisfied with my race. They will post results here sometime in the near future.

Here's a video if you want to see the play by play:



Update 5/23/08:
Just got my results from my 12 hour race. Overall I took 22nd out of the 73 the showed up (there were 81 registred). That put me in the top 1/3. I was not beat by anybody that did not stay for all 12 hours. 33 people stayed for all 12 hours, 40 dropped through out the day, 8 did not show up to race. Out of the 54 Men, I took 21st place putting me in the top half. I took 5th place out of 13 in the Male Open Class (under 40) & I took 2nd place out of 4 in the under 30 age group only losing out to Sam Thompson (who is profesional and sponsered by The North Face).