2^nd Annual Issaquah Alps Trail Quad

Thanks everyone for coming out and enjoying the trails this Thanksgiving Day weekend. We got all types of weather!

 

Jess Mullen and I did all four runs entirely together. We had other people join us, but the one constant was that we started and finished each day together, just like we had planned. After completing 3 ½ of the days last year, Jess vowed to come back and run all four. I knew she was one of the few people who wanted to endure the long weekend with me. She helped me mark the trail and came up with the alternate Tiger route.

We arose early Thursday and started in the dark at 6:30 am to mark the loop. We had other runners present, Jenn Hughes and Arthur Martineau with us, and Hideko, Ray, and Tracy behind. Jenn and Arthur had to take off after one loop as Jess and I continued for the second loop. The weather was forecasted 90% rain in the morning but that never materialized. In fact, everyone was overheating. The trail was completely dry. I saw Jules and Mihaela Mann and Vivian Doorn also on the trail. There were others, but we did not run into them. Jess and I had a good day. It looked like everyone else was having fun, too. Our pace was more brisk than I expected it to be and I worried that we blew our wad on that first run. But later as I drank and ate throughout the rest of the day, my body just continued to feel better and better. Had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with my family and Ken watching the Seahawks beat the 49ers.

Day 2’s forecast was even worse than Thursday, but this time, the rain did materialize. We started at 7 am and ran the flat 6 miles out and back on the John Wayne Trail in dry conditions. We marked the turn around and it was plenty light by then. Saw Tracy Brown, Trevor Griffith, Hideko, and Ray on the way back. We grabbed our packs for the up, over, and back run of Rattlesnake Ridge. Pretty much all weekend, I led the ups and Jess led the downs. The wind was blowing on the way up to the ridge and on the ridge. This felt good then because we were climbing. It lessened on the other side but was replaced by constant rain, at times a downpour. We became chilled rapidly and the only way to stay warm was to move at a strong and consistent pace. Neither of us could use our fingers, so eating and drinking got behind. With 3 miles to go, we had to clamor over a tree. I kinda pulled my vastus medialis, which didn’t bother me with downhill running, but made it very difficult to change clothes afterward. We made it back in the same split as on the way out totally soaked. Jess did take a tumble, but like a trooper, got right up and kept moving. We were very careful after that not to fall because moving slower would have been disastrous for us. We said our goodbyes before we got to our cars so that we would not have to get out in the rain again. It had been a long time since either of us had gotten so wet and cold.  I was shivering so bad that my thigh kept cramping. It took me 15 minutes to change and 40 minutes to warm up.  I decided to drive down the road and get some hot chocolate for me and hot coffee for Tracy. I wanted to make sure she made it back okay as she was running alone. Trevor arrived 30 minutes before Tracy. She finished so strong, I didn’t think it was her. She said the coffee was the best she had ever tasted. I had kept it warm with an extra cup and wrapping it in my beanie. I made sure everyone got back fine by emailing them. We had seen Arthur on the Snoqualmie end as well as Kathleen and Shawn Leonard on what I think was also Shawn’s birthday run. I had dropped off 5 gallons of water on the Snoqualmie run and it barely got used. Oh well. I was expecting more runners, but the weather clearly had a big factor in the turn out.

Day 3, Saturday was supposed to be Tiger, the hardest day of the weekend. But with plummeting temperatures and snow levels dropping, I decided it would be safer to shorten the route as well as lessen the elevation gain. Jess kindly came up with the route for me. It turned out to be just under 26 miles, so we ran to the upper parking lot and back to get 26.5 miles. Wendy Wheeler Jacobs was in town for 2 weeks and I invited her to join us. She now lives in Redmond, OR. Trevor Griffith ran with us too. The first half of the run was so awesome with powdery snow at the higher elevations.  Plus, we got all of the climbing out of the way in the first half. The second half was wet and steep down. We got chilled quickly. On the first loop at the Paw Print bathroom stop, I let myself fall backwards and created a snow angel next to the trail. When I stood up, my whole back was covered in snow and Wendy said I looked like a snowman. Probably should have waited until the second loop to do that because it left me a little cold. The second loop was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Jess and I thought it would be harder, but we were warmed up and the climbs passed quickly. Wendy had to get going so was not there for the second loop. Mitch Burbick and Alex Hughes caught us as we were finishing the last 4 miles. They smoked the run in 5:30 compared to our 6:43. When we got back to our cars, I couldn’t open my doors. They were frozen shut. I had to open the back of my husband’s Pathfinder, practically pulling my arms out of their socket to get the back to open. Then I had to crawl over the back seats to open the passenger doors by punching my shoulder into it. I turned on the car and tried in vain to get changed. I did not cramp this time, but I couldn’t get my shoes off for 10 minutes since the laces were frozen. Finally, I was warm and drove to the Snoqualmie end of the Rattlesnake to pick up the 5 gallons of water, partly frozen. The parking lot was icy. By the end of day 3, my knees were pretty sore. I wondered how I was going to make it through the last day. I spent the rest of the afternoon coming up with an alternate route for Cougar because of the colder temps and possible black ice. I didn’t want people to drive up that steep hill to get to Sky Country. Finally, I was able to shower and get to bed after a big dinner.

Sunday was dry and cold. Starting temperature was 24. We met at Red Town and warmed ourselves up Cave Hole. Then the route was the same as last year until the end. Instead of going up Quarry after Marshall Hill, we ran the mostly flat Red Town trail back to our cars. Final distance was between 27 and 27.5. I had to mark the trail with white spray chalk because my yellow can was in my other car and the doors were frozen shut (you can tell that I don’t have a garage). Tracy, Hideko, and Ray all started before us. Jess and I started at 7:30 and ran with Wendy, who came back for more, Trevor, George Orozco, Daniel (Jess’ friend), and Kay Allen with her dog. Marking the trail slowed me down a lot because I had to use ferns if the trail had snow on it. Most of the time, there was snow on the sides but not on the trail, and I could mark the turns without losing so much time. But I had to mark a decent amount with ferns and had to run hard to get ahead as much as possible so that people did not have to stop to figure out which way to go. Eventually, this wore me out and everyone caught me. I finished the loop last and had to exchange things fast so Jess would not get too cold. Jenn Hughes and her dog Nellie joined us. George had to go to work. Wendy stayed, and Trevor ran ahead. I was low on energy after sprinting the last part of the first loop to catch everyone, so the start of the second loop, I was in a calorie deficit. I was dragging pretty good. Once I got caught up in eating and drinking, I was able to pick up the pace and the last 7 miles were fun. Wendy went a slightly different route to save her knees from the steep descent down Wilderness Peak Trail. She hooked up with Tracy at that point. We caught Hideko and Ray with about 3 miles to go. Just as we were about finished we caught Tracy and Wendy at the cars. Jess and I had the same idea and both went for the log on the ground at the gate, perfect for sitting finally. Because of the cold temps, I didn’t sweat much and was able to just put dry, warm clothes on over my running clothes. We split up at the end of the weekend, all satisfied with what we had accomplished.

Congratulations everyone and thanks for coming out! See you next year!

Here are the results. Don’t worry if my results don’t exactly match yours-you know what you ran.

 

Thursday 11/27 Squak Mt	Name	Time	Miles
7500 ft -28 miles (2 loops)	Trevor Griffith	6:37
	Ali Livengood	1:00	5
	Vivan Doorn	3:37	14
	Tracy Brown	7:32
	Hideko Opperman	7:53
	Ray Seliber	7:53
	Jess Mullen	6:32
	Van Phan	6:32
	Lisa Agron	3:06	14
	Arthur Martineau	2:55	13
	Jenn Hughes	2:55	13
	Jules Mann	8:40
	Mihaela Mann	3:30	11
Friday 11/28 Rattlesnake	Name	Time	Miles
6000 ft-26.2 miles
	Trevor Griffith	6:45
	Tracy Brown	7:36
	Hideko Opperman	7:55
	Ray Seliber	7:55
	Jess Mullen	6:00
	Arthur Martineau	2:08	13
	Van Phan	6:00
	Shawn Leonard	5:30	21
	Kathleen Leonard	5:30	21
Saturday 11/29 Tiger Mt	Name	Time	Miles
6000 ft-26.5 (2 loops)	Trevor Griffith	6:48
	Jules Mann	2:57	14.5
	Hideko Opperman	8:10
	Ray Seliber	8:10
	Jess Mullen	6:43
	Wendy Wheeler Jacobs	3:11	13
	Lisa Agron	3:26	13.5
	Alex Hughes	5:30
	Mitchell Burbick	5:30
	Deb McInally	2:39	12
	Deb's friend	2:39	12
	Glenn Rogers	3:09
	Van Phan	6:43
Sunday 11/30 Cougar Mt	Name	Time	Miles
6000 ft -27.5 (2 loops)	Ali Livengood	4:08	13.5
	Tracy Brown	7:31
	Hideko Opperman	7:40
	Ray Seliber	7:40
	Jess Mullen	6:26
	Van Phan	6:26
	Daniel Keller	3:09
	Mitchell Burbick	5:50
	Kay Downes Allen	3:06
	Wendy Wheeler Jacobs	6:26	23
	Jenn Hughes	3:10	13.5
	George Orozco	3:05	13.5
	Trevor Griffith	6:19