Crepes, and the Capitol Peak/ Mt. Si Double

Last weekend I ran the Skagit Ultra, a small fatass event run in 5 mile loops on country roads around Mt. Vernon in tulip season, so small (one year there were only 5 finishers) that nearly every participant can be simultaneously first and last place in their division. Ran first half with MM friend Reed, and every time we passed the Scandinavian pancake house, the smell made me want to snatch the doggy bags from the departing tourists, or at least call in a to-go order.  At 50k he decides to drop and go for beer, so he donates his leftover pancakes to me. The butter/ sugar one was so gd good, rolled in a handy baton I could run with. Didn’t quite make my sub-12 100k goal that day (12:07), but hey, I was the first (and only) finisher in my division and got a brilliant new race food idea.

We had a lot of crepes in Paris/ Switz earlier this month.

I don’t know why crepes are so yummy. I googled some recipes and discovered why. BUTTER. I loved whenever there were pancakes at races, the bacon ones at Dizzy Daze 12h or huckleberry ones at Wishbone; you can snatch and go, so soft, warm, and goes down so easy. But for carrying, crepes seem more practical as a running food not only because you can roll them cigar thin and get a crapload of calories in a handy baton, and it doesn’t get dry/ crumbly even after 12 hours. It is a blank canvas. If you are sick of peanut butter, you can put something sweet or savory in it, or nothing at all.

After the GI distress of my last 2 50s where I used a lot of protein shakes, I decide to try my hand at drunk crepe making Friday night.

One batch buttermilk, one batch plain. I must admit I ate half of them before they ever made it to the rolling process. Filled some with scrambled eggs, others with nutella, or jalapeno cream cheese, some with bacon bits. Rolled some in glad wrap, others in foil.

Saturday I have to get up ridiculously early (3 am) to get to Capitol Peak state park in Olympia for a 55 km trail run. I saw a bunch of my MM colleagues, huddled in the cold/ dark, about to start the 50 Miler, several of whom were signed up for the double (Mt. Si the following day), and 2 of them were at Skagit last weekend. Addicts, all of us. We may as well be in a slum house with needles hanging out of our arms, no different.

I decide to wait until the regular start so I will not fall in the dark, and so only the fast 50 Milers will pass me on the single track rather than everyone, if I’d done the early start. What is the point of running in the dark when you miss the views anyway?

Though I love trails, I tired of so many DNFs and had been avoiding them for months. But I know I have to get back into it for WR50 and the Birkebeinerlopet this summer. Easy or hard way, guess which way I chose….

It was so peaceful, ran (or walked) alone nearly the whole day, nearly 9 hours.

There was a lot of logging going on,

but luckily we did get to do part of the famous “Gruunt”, a rocky climb to the peak. 4500 ft total.

2 hour drive home, then shower. More chafage than I expected. Will have to be more careful tomorrow….

Sunday I only had to get up at 3:30 for the Mt. Si 50M. I had planned to do the regular start (11 h limit) but was feeling a little trashed from Capitol Peak so decided to do the early start just in case. Saw Monte, LL, and tc who had all done 50M at Capitol Peak the day before. Slow start, I thought based on my lead legs, but it was mainly gravel roads, so I could turn my mind off.

Just before the top in North Bend, about 6 hours in, it started to rain. Then it started to hail. Then it started to downpour. Not good for the chafage. But at least it was downhill from here. At mile 40 I realized I would not make sub-10 today so slowed down. However, this did not decrease the pain one bit, just prolonged it. Was ready to be done, so sped up. Still got passed by a lot of relay runners. They all looked like they were in high school. 10:15, no falls, no puking. If only I didn’t have a bizillion delinquent charts to do. Sigh.