The flagship event of the BRS is back- Davis Challenge
Olympia version!
Ocean moved it to his new home base in Olympia at my request
at the last minute, and Omaha and his GF Lisa accommodated me. After my DNF at
Antelope Canyon 50 last weekend, I had this idea I would run the Mountain
Marathon in Capitol Forest day before. I’ve run there before- amazing in
summer, troughs of mud in winter. I awoke at 4 AM and realized the pounding rain
I heard outside was not my Relax Melodies app. Texted Ocean, “thinking of
bailing the race. Ok if I still come to Olympia?”. The response, “Yup… maybe
bring [Billy] for short recon adventure… time on bike”. All of the sudden my
lethargy dissipated. Instead of 8 hours of slogging through mud and pretending
to be cool, first bike of the year SCORE!!
After a quiet morning of charts, I got my gear into the
Beast and headed down to Olympia. Listened to a couple of fascinating podcasts
from the SYSK guys Josh and Chuck, about optical illusions and the quinoa
revolution. In-ter-es-ting. Time flew by, Olympia is not as far as I thought.
On arrival there was sideways sleet but 10 minutes later it
stopped. We rode through downtown Olympia to the Olympia Woodland trail,
which
connected with the Chehalis Western trail which we’d done before (another post
I never finished). He said let’s turn back and it was smart- it got windy,
cold, and wet, and I was completely numb with my Raynaud’s cadaver hands/ feet.
Ocean had a Cioppino ready, the broth from a seafood store
in Mukilteo and fresh scallops with gimormous shrimp. We had grilled/ fresh
bread from a local bakery (the Bread Peddler) on his new grill to dip,
followed
by home-churned popcorn in the Whirleypop.
Watched Manchester by the Sea and
contemplated why some people can move on and others cannot.
Next day had amazing breakfast at the Bread Peddler
before
Omaha and Lisa came to start the Army PT challenge. Ocean’s rules- we go by the
old criteria for the age 17-21 year old. I of course peek at the age 42-46 new
criteria, easier in every way except situps. To pass I have to get 60% in the 2 minute pushups (12), 2 minute
situps (32) and 2 mile run (23:42) vs. the old criteria which would be 18 PU, 27 SU, and 19:00 (or so). I had not done a situp in at least a year, and was
dismayed to see my weight at an all-time high since I had started running 12
years prior. Then we weighed our rucks to get 35 lbs. I figured I need to lose ~25 lbs if I want to be fit enough to do RAMROD, I imagined carrying a 25 lb ruck everywhere I went.
We went to a local track to do the 2 miler and I couldn’t
believe how long those loops were. Then as we put our rucks on, the sideways
rain came back.
Ocean estimated a 6 mile march, which meant it was about 8.5
miles. The views of the east side of the bay were amazing. The hill back to the
Thurston County courthouse was either the cherry on top or cruel and unusual
punishment depending on your point of view. On arrival (soooo good to get the
ruck off), a text from Omaha. They had stopped for coffee and had just ordered
a pizza at Old School Pizzeria. The real finish line! This is a NY style pizza
place with cool local beers and décor from the 70’s-80s, weird to realize you’re
older than Hulk Hogan in his hey day.
Ocean awarded us military pace counting
beads and vowed, he will do an Army PT test every year until the day he dies.
It keeps you honest and makes you want to be a better person.
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