Sunmart 50 Miler

Great weather at the start, if you are a polar bear on vacation. It was 30 degrees at the start and I hate cold weather. A simple game plan for the race was sub 10 hours if nothing acts up and sub 11 if I have any issues.

I had a perfect first 9 miles before my first issue showed up. My old friend Mr. Busted Calf Muscle. I tried to find some duct tape at the next two aid stations but they could not find any. It took me 6 miles before I could find any of the gray stuff and the guy at the aid station took more than 3 minutes to get the roll started. I not going to go into details about the amount of pain and suffering and about the extra damage I did by trying to change my gait to help my lower leg.

Some side notes of interest. I've seen Andy Jones Wilkins (15th overall) run twice at Rocky Raccoon 100 and it's was different to see him wearing Montrail as a sponsor instead of Vasque. The 50 Miler winner Greg Crowther passed me up on the second loop and when he did it felt like a car going by. That Seattle Running Club owns Sunmart. A couple of months ago in an issue of Trail Running Mag there was an article about Kami Semick (9th overall and 2nd Female) and a photo of her running with her daughter on a back pack. I made a comment to my fellow runners that she may have the best set of legs in the sport. The photo does not do them justice, they are a work of art. Niki Swearingen a 20 year old who is in our running club (Seven Hills) rolled out a 9:11 and 63rd overall. She is the youngest female to complete the 50 miler in the 17 year history of Sunmart. I got to run most of the final 2 laps with Nancy Warren a talented CA runner who has done WS100 a few times and 2 Badwaters including this year when she was placed with the 10:00 starter which is the elites. She was suffering from food poisoning and I gave her 2 peptos which didn't help but it did make the time go by faster when you run with others who are suffering just as much.

Oh, I forgot to mention I finished in 10:23:38 in 122 place.

Congratulations on the finish! Sorry about your leg - hope it doesn't continue to cause problems for you ... but a great finish time in spite of it! A side note - I remember seeing that Kami Semick photo in trail runner mag, and being in awe (was it an article or a North Face ad?) Thanks for posting your report.

You're right, it was a North Face ad.

Here's some more info about some of the other runners that were there. David Goggins 24th, who was 5th at Badwater along with Akos Konya 6th, who was 2nd at Badwater and only 17 minutes behind Scott Jurek. Hal Koerner 5th, was coming off a big win this year at Angels Crest 100. On the women's side I noticed 4 of the 6 members of the World 100k team ran after reading the December issue of Ultrarunning. They were Anne Riddle-Lundblad winner, Kami Semick 9th, Tania Pacev 16th and Connie Gardner dnf. Missing were Nikki Kimball who won this event last year and Jule Udchachon. I know most of us don't travel great distances to run 50 milers but this race is well worth the trip. I'm just one of those lucky people who live 30 minutes and train year round.

That's very interesting to hear about the other runners who were there. Sounds like a popular race for the "who's-who" of trail running.