I’m sitting here writing this post while drinking my coffee on Sunday, nursing some sore toes and legs, but fired up from what was a really fun race. Fort Ebey Kettles Trail Run is one of my favorite ways to start the trail running season, and this year was special.

I’ll start with the headline: I got 3rd place with an official time of 4:30:22.8. That’s nearly 35 minutes faster than my finishing time of 5:05:07.9 last year.

Pre-Race (No Sleep, Big Plans)

For whatever reason, I woke up around 2am. Try as I might, I couldn’t get back to sleep. Eventually, around 4:30am, I decided to just get up and get going with the morning.

My plan was to eat, wait an hour, and take 18 mg of Maurten sodium bicarb. I’ve used this many times and I find it to be incredibly effective at reducing the perceived exertion and burn from hard efforts. As you’ll see, it also destroys me.

My plan was to gel every 20 minutes. I designed it so I’d go through a 90 g Precision pack and then follow each of them up with a 40 g Enervit Carbo Gel (Cola) that also has 100 mg of caffeine. The good stuff. I also filled 5 hydroflasks (500 ml) with water and Precision 1000 tabs for electrolytes.

The previous night had rained, but it was pretty clear driving to Fort Ebey. By the time I got there, you could see signs of blue sky through the clouds. The weather was about 41 to 42 degrees.

There were 30 people running the marathon (the half-marathon always draws the largest crowd). It felt smaller than years past (this is my fifth time running), and indeed last year there were 40 runners.

The Start: Too Fast (Again)

Every year I tell myself to keep it easy when starting, and every year I start too fast.

Off the bat, I found myself near the front. A small group of four guys quickly pulled ahead and created a fair amount of distance. You do a little loop around the bluff before heading up a small hill and plunging into the forest. You then have some nice single track that goes downhill. Most years it’s wet and slippery, but this year it was quite firm and nice to run on.

While bounding down the trail, a guy came up behind me. I could tell he wanted to go a bit faster than I was going, so I let him pass. Now I was in 6th place.

I had forgotten to turn on my music before starting, so I took a moment to fish out my phone. In the process, I wasn’t paying attention and made a wrong turn. We’d not even gone a mile, it was at least my 7th time running this loop, and I made a wrong turn. It was a huge deal, but I did have to turn around and run back up the hill. In the process, I saw a guy pass me. So now I was in 7th place.

I got back on track.

I like to think about the course as three parts. You’ve got the first part, which has most of the elevation gain and lots of ups and downs. There’s a middle part that’s flowy and fun to make time on. Then there are the kettles and bluff at the end, which is go time.

Because I went out too fast and was on the first part, my heart rate was higher than I wanted it. I was mid-zone 3 and occasionally pushing up towards zone 4. But I felt my competitive juices flowing, and having gotten passed after a wrong turn, I didn’t want to get passed again.

I do wonder if there’s a physiological thing where if you immediately jump into zone 3 or 4, it takes longer to stabilize and settle into zone 2, even if eventually you start going easier. It seems that way for me. At any rate, while my heart rate stayed in zone 3 for much of the first part, eventually it stabilized into high zone 2.

Lap 1: Heavy Legs, Angry Stomach

After the first part of the trail, I didn’t really see anyone else for most of the first lap.

I usually find myself flowing through the middle part to the end, but on the first lap my legs felt a bit heavy. Because this race is a B race, I didn’t really do much of a taper. That might have contributed to it. Or maybe it was getting so little sleep? Who knows. But I just kept going and pushing, dreaming that maybe I’d catch up to someone ahead of me.

I also was really suffering from GI discomfort. I won’t go into too much detail, but I did have to squat a number of times. The sodium bicarb took a higher toll on me than usual, and I had all kinds of gas pains. I had gotten enchiladas with my parents at a restaurant the night before, and that probably didn’t help.

On the flip side, the weather really was turning out spectacular, and the trails were in better condition than I’ve ever run on them.

Halfway: Quick Reset, New Target

Fort Ebey Kettles Trail Marathon is two loops. When I came in, I saw that there was a runner ahead of me at the aid station. It was the first runner I’d seen in a long time.

I went to my drop bag.

I had eaten 2 Enervit gels (40 g with caffeine) and 2 90 g Precision gels, for a total of 260 g of carbs. Not too shabby. I switched out and grabbed the same amount of gels, and also two fresh hydroflasks with Precision 1000. I also took a long swig from my 5th hydroflask.

All in, I think I stopped for less than two minutes.

When I returned to the trail, the other runner (named Kyle) was just ahead of me.

I felt good. Not fresh, but my legs had no pain and I didn’t feel fatigued.

I ended up talking to Kyle off and on, and I stayed pretty close to him for a few miles. Kyle is definitely a stronger climber than me, but I’d catch him on the downhills (I’m pretty good at those). Eventually we got to a section where there’s a steep, rocky downhill, and I knew I wanted to pass. He sensed it, pulled aside, and I said, “I’ll see you soon.” That didn’t happen.

I was in 6th place.

It was the first time I thought to myself, maybe I can make it into the top 5? I knew it would depend on the other runners, though. I wasn’t running faster than my first loop, so they’d have to slow down for me to catch them.

Lap 2: Moving Up

And that’s how it played out.

I don’t recall all the interactions, but I do know that over the next six or so miles, I ended up passing three more runners. They were all super cool, encouraging me and telling me I looked strong. I did the same.

One really small but meaningful interaction was when I passed into 3rd place: the runner gave me a little fist bump on the shoulder and encouraged me to keep pushing. It’s little things like this that I remember—small gestures that mean so much.

At this point, I had also caught up to the tail end of the half-marathon racers. Also super nice people who would shout encouraging words along the way.

During one climb, a lady said, “You’re in 3rd place! I’ve only seen two dudes,” and while in retrospect I know it’s true, at the time I wasn’t 100% sure. Having her tell me was really encouraging.

Of course, this then led to me being paranoid that someone would surge up behind me. As I hit the kettles and the bluff, I tried to keep the pace up. My body still felt good, but I was starting to feel a little more tired.

The Bluff: Gorgeous and Sadistic

For those who haven’t been to this course, it’s worth saying a little about the bluff.

Before you finish the loop, they have you run past the old fort, then out onto the bluff. From there, you come back around, and then they have you go up a very steep climb. It’s gorgeous, and also a bit sadistic.

As I was about to reach the top, my inner groin muscles started to cramp! I’ve never had cramping before, and boy was this a surprise. I had to stop on the climb, but I couldn’t get it to stop. So I got to the top. I think I actually growled at the top as I tried to get them to release. I decided to try and just run it off, and that seemed to work.

At this point you double back a bit on the trail before turning toward the finish. I was able to see some of the marathoners as I went through.

The Finish: Racing the Clock

When you head toward the finish, it’s about one mile. At this point, I noticed that I was not far off the 4:30 mark. So instead of racing others, I now was racing time. I decided to try and push a bit.

This part is nice, flowing singletrack. A few steeper climbs that require some fast hiking, but mostly running.

Of course, I nearly rolled my right ankle. It was the first time I’d hit a root poorly, but I caught myself.

You pass a water tower and then have a short downhill run towards the road crossing, then it’s the home stretch. I was actually feeling a bit emotional.

It was such a fun feeling to run into the chute at the finish line with people cheering. I pushed hard to hit my timing goal, but fell a little short.

When I got there, the race director told me I got 3rd place. Even though I had thought I was in 3rd, it was still a shock. Last year I got 11th place. How did I get 3rd?

After I had a moment to catch my breath, they did a small awards ceremony. It was cute. She asked for everyone’s attention, handed me the 3rd place trophy/coffee mug, and everyone cheered. I also posed for the cameras. Lol.

Concluding Thoughts

I had a great time. Fort Ebey is my first trail race of the year, and it’s a good benchmark for my fitness. Clearly my training has been paying off.

That said, I also learned a few things that I need to work on.

• I need to become a stronger climber. Doesn’t mean I need to run all the climbs, but the disparity between my downhill speed and uphill speed is real.
• Bicarb cholera is real. I either need to cut back the amount or not use bicarb during races. I’m sure it was a significant contributor to my GI distress.
• I have experimented with 120 g of carbs per hour during training, but I went closer to 100 g yesterday and I thought that was a sweet spot.
• I probably needed to drink a lot more fluid. To keep things light, I just carried two 500 mL hydroflasks. I probably needed another 500 mL given the effort. I think the cramping towards the end was a sign of it.
• With the proper training under my belt and enough carbs, I don’t need to be as scared of going a little harder out the gate—at least at this distance. We’ll see in the upcoming races how it translates to 50M and 100K.
• My speed is pretty good. I was going 8:30 pace on the flowing sections, even towards the end. My legs held up.
• The workout I did at Larabee Park two weeks ago was a key effort. Getting in 4000+ feet of vert made my legs sore, but I think it also made them strong yesterday. I’ll be sure to replicate that two weeks out from future races.
• Racing is fun. I say that as a distinction from just running. I’ve now placed 3rd in a 24 mile race, 3rd (age group) at a 5K, and 1st at a road half-marathon. Obviously I’m still a midpack runner, but getting faster and fitter means I can push harder, and I like it.

Ultimately, while I’ve seen decent results at shorter distances, it’s still a bit of a question for me around my ultra fitness. Next month I’ll run the Badger Mountain 50M (just recently switched from the 55K), and it’ll be interesting to see how well I do with the additional miles. And then in April, it’s Gorge Waterfall 100K.

But it’s a great start to the year. I’m thrilled with the progress.

Let’s roll!