Sunday, April 05, 2009

Yakima River Canyon Marathon 2009


The Puyallup Girls: Cat, Abi, Jessica, Jenny, Me, Monica, Angela (Where's Linda? And Lesa?)

Whupped. That best describes me at the finish of the marathon. I felt pretty good for ten miles, a little tired for the next six and plain old whupped for the last ten. I felt the 100K every step of those last miles. The road through the canyon is severely cambered in many areas and when it tilted right it hurt my ankle injury, when it tilted left my entire left ITB felt it. But more than that was just a general fatigue.

On the other hand, this is a gorgeous marathon, running through the canyon of the Yakima River, the water flowing beside or below us the entire race. The road is carved out of the dry and beautiful hills, rock walls loom to the left, and drop off to the river on the right. And the weather was incredible! Starting out clear and sunny and 28 degrees, finishing near 60 in the afternoon. I actually got a sunburn!

Jessica and I ran together for 23 miles before I talked her into going ahead. She had a goal of beating last year's time by an hour, and at 23 miles she only had a half hour to do it. She didn't quite make it, but we agreed not to blame my slow shuffle, but instead blame the lady who took FOREVER in the porta-potty. We waited till mile 12 for a porta-potty with no line, only to have the lady that walked in just as we arrived at the aid station spend what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time in there (and to be fair, I'm sure she needed it - it was just frustrating to wait). There is a pretty long hill at mile 14 in the marathon, and we used the post-to-post method to climb it. The next big one comes at mile 22 and is one mile long. We used the same method to get up it, then I told Jessica to go, and go she did. From the crest of that hill to the finish is almost all downhill and I could see her way off in the distance running hard. I can't remember what her time was, but she was close!


Jessica flying to the finish!


My unhealed no-toenail-toe leaked.

My final time was something like 5:54. I was happy to come in under six hours - something I haven't done since the Marine Corp Marathon last October. I just looked back at my list - I guess my times got slower because I ran the triple, then a marathon on a couple inches of snow, then a double. All the others since then were 50Ks or the 100K. I shouldn't have been surprised to have slower times. The other statistic of note is that yesterday was my 31st marathon, plus 10 ultras for a total of 41. That's exciting!











Finishing.

























Happy post-marathoners Michelle & Steve

14 comments:

Lisa B said...

Nice job, Michelle! It was a gorgeous day for a run. Heal those toes!

bagelsong said...

Congrats on your "recovery" marathon - ha ha! You are always so good at keeping us up-to-date on your progress and success. Also, thank you for the great description of the race course. It's hard to describe the beauty to someone who has never been there.

Joe said...

At last!!! We get a toe picture...well, sort of!!

This is a neat race, glad you persevered through it. Those road cambers are really something, aren't they?? Finding the elusive "flat spot" is tough.

Whuuped...yeah, but you'll recover.

Congrats!!

Wes said...

I can't believe you showed us your leaky toe. Ewwwww! I'm sure you did feel it! LOL... You are nuts nuts nuts (but in a good way) :-)

Unknown said...

Looks like a happy bunch on marathoners. Some day I will make it to Yakima. I had a bit of fomo this weekend.

Jenny, Maniac #401 said...

Still a gross pic but I love it!
Jenny

Sunshine said...

I like that last picture!
Healing for toes...

Congratulations! I have been through that canyon.. by car.
Sympathy for the cambered road: that kills my knees.

Enjoy the success.

justrun said...

Nice run! It looked like a great time!

You really make me believe I can do it again, so thanks for that! :)

Thomas said...

One could argue that feeling "whupped" for the final miles is what marathons are all about. Of course, those people generally don't run them as recovery from a 100k.

Has Eric forgiven you yet for laughing at his "unusual" injury?

Bret said...

Nice job on another race. You got it done and that's what counts. I was wimpy and didnt do the Rumble. Yeah we need Starbucks aid stations!!!

Anonymous said...

Nice work. Sounds like the weather was great, too! Hope that toe heals. Ouch!!

Jack said...

Great job, especially considering it was a "recovery run" from a 100K. I hope your toe is better soon!

Ms Eva said...

Great job on another race! It looked like a great time with friends and post-race chaos! :D

Scott McMurtrey said...

leaky toes are the worst!