Capitol Peak MegaFatAss 50k

21 January 2017

Capitol Peak MegaFatAss 50k

Wow. I have ridden my mountain bike on these trails in Capitol Forest for years but until today I have never run on them. They were great! It didn't hurt at all that we had fantastic conditions as in not too cold, no rain and the trails were incredibly dry for this time of year. That said, the organizers did alter the course today as there was a lot of snow on Capitol Peak. For that reason we never climbed to the top and the course was very runable. 100% runable to be honest. The Capitol Peak MegaFatAss is an iconic NW trail run. These trails are like Tiger Mountain for people that live further south.

Lucky for me Dave Swoish showed up. Turns out we were very compatible today and had the same goals so we ran 99% of this together. I love company. Especially when it's good.

Driving in Seattle sucks. But when it's at 6:00 AM on a weekend you get where you are going lickity split. Google Maps told me the trip would take 1:30 and I got here in about 1:15? Let's just say that after I got my number I headed back to the car and shut my eyes.

This was my first long run of the year so I took along all the gear. Even my trekking poles. It made me smile when I realized I was the ONLY PERSON WITH POLES. And a lot of the fast runners didn't even bother with a pack. Oh well, I have not worn my pack on months so it was good to get used to it again.

I got out of the car with perhaps 10 minutes to spare. I did some leg swings, a couple of squats and walked over to the start. One advantage of showing up ridiculously early is you can park in a very convenient location. There wasn't much fanfare, just a short announcement by the race director.

And then we were off.

We ran. And ran. And RAN. After about 10 miles with zero walking Dave turns to me and says, "I guess this is a running race..." No kidding. Without Capitol Peak in the mix this course was - assuming you were fit enough - entirely runable. Rats. Today was going to be my longest run in ages (maybe six months?) and I'm not a great runner in the first place. I usually look forward to the hiking breaks.

With all this running I didn't have the chance to take too many pictures. But I did get some video of Dave.

And of the top of the course.

And of us reaching the finish.

Okay, I did get a few pictures. Since this was a Fat Ass event there was minimal support but there was one water only aid station about half way through the 25k loop. Here I am at said aid station pointing to two things I did NOT need all day. My trekking poles.

And of Dave and I enjoying some butternut squash soup at the finish.

The race was so runable I had to make up sections to walk on our second lap just to give myself a break. Truthfully, I was pretty tired by then which helped. Every time I would transition to hiking Dave would say something like, "Oh yeah, that's a hill."

This course was fun! And FAST. And soft. And scenic. And very well marked. Too bad weather like what we had this year is an anomaly. There were roughly 200 people signed up, about 80 for the 50k and about 120 for the 25k. Way to go Oly Trail Runners.

I saw several friends. Arthur Martineau, Van Phan, good times. Oh, and a certain elite couple were also in attendance today. Yep, they won.

I can already tell that two themes will persist in my posts throughout 2017, how awesome my new shoe sponsor is and how well the products from my nutrition sponsor work. :)

Today I wore my Topo Athletic MT-2 shoes on trails for the first time and they excelled. ALL my Topo shoes are incredibly comfortable but they do so many other things well too.

They hold my foot back so my toes don't slam into the front on descents.
The laces never com untied! The double knots you see below are completely unnecessary and are just from habit.
The tongue never moves around, I LOVE that.

Just one day before this run I got some Hammer Nutrition Fully Charged so I figured why not try it out...? It's received such good reviews and with so many races coming up on my calendar I only had so much time to experiment with things. It was awesome! My "race bottle" has thus evolved.

Each 24 oz. bottle that I carry now contains the following.

2 scoops of Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem
2 Hammer Nutrition Endurolytes
half a scoop of Hammer Nutrition Fully Charged

I love liquid food. It's easier on my stomach and when I can get my calories and stay hydrated at the same time it's one less thing to think about. As long as I keep sipping, I'm good to go. And with Endurolytes I get all my electrolytes and with Fully Charged I get my race day boost too. Done and done.

Here are all my pictures and video.

Results