Cascade Marathon: I lived

 It appears I'm at least 2 months behind on this shit - is it even relevant anymore?  I have no idea.  But in the land of 2024, escpecially racing - anything goes, so this is the whole, I came, I saw, I sort of conquered race report for Cascade!

It's brief - and follows a theme.  This was genuinely the year of "Eff it" decisions.  I wanted no structure, a break from long multisport, and that quickly transitioned to a "that sounds dumb, I'm in" mindset.  Not many people would equate four tris, a duathlon, two marathons and a 24 hour race to date as "off" but hey, its me.  You get it.

This adventure was brought on by the quest of the "2024 red flag candidate of the year" runner dude to break 3 hours for the marathon, and I was along for the ride.  I signed up a month in advance (foreshadowing - this would not be the dumbest thing I've done this year), threw together a few long runs, and booked a flight into Seattle arriving Friday, for a Saturday marathon and flying home Sunday night.  What could possibly go wrong??

The course was lauded as gorgeous, a net 1500 ft descend (you read that right) and the weather a balmy 70 degrees.  I flew out without incident (my first plane ride since 2019 - WHAT) and we hit up the hotel and Mexican for dinner (idiot).  

Race morning dawned at 4am, but really 7am, so it was all good.  I put almost zero planning into this race, drank a maragartia the night before with my tacos (idiot) and danced around the room like a moron singing and loading up my gels.  Some people have a fuck ton of patience for me, and even if they are giant walking red flags, I'm grateful for them :-P

We drove to the start, where my running partner made quick work of warming up and doing other serious runner type things, while I took selfies and entered a giveaway for $1,000 or a new porta potty (true story) and befriended a guy wearing a snoopy bathroobe from florida. (Hi Will!)

I ate my bagel, banana and applesauce and headed to the start...it was already muggy as shit but who cared - the PNW is so damned goreous and I was loving every second of it.  Without much fanfare - we were off! 

I had little in the way of goals for this race - I havent trained with any speed in mind since Texas in 2023, so a 3:45 seemed more than alright to me.  With that being said, I was encouraged to start out at BQ marathon pace, which was 7:55-8:00 minute miles.  This was actually - no problem.  The first 5 miles were a gentle downgrade out and upgrade back - the only bummer was it was all on a rail trail with rocks (and - that was the whole course.  Ooops).  I smiled, enjoyed the scenery, and made quick friends with a dude from Texas named Josh who was running with the 3:30 pacer and singing and calling out all encouraging things.  YASSS, I found my running buddy!  We chatted and ran alongside each other, and at mile 6 - entered the tunnel!

Coolest part about this race - 2.5 miles was in a tunnel.  You needed a headlamp for it, and it was PITCH black.  As I started this segment, I was dumbfounded by how dark it was - then realized...I was still wearing my sunglasses.  Fail.  LOL.  After I laughed at my own expense (I'm good at that) I smiled like a little kid running through the tunnel and yelled out TUNNEL! before exiting into the sunshine at mile 9.

The mid portion of the race was pretty uneventful, I ran with Josh and his friend Ashely, who we kept trying to find a date for, yelling out every mile and in general being super goofy. I was AMAZED how fast the miles ticked by and was having the best time.  Despite this, I kept it right between 7:50-8:00 without any problem until mile 17 and I foolishly had a PR in mind when....the ish hit the fan.

Literally.  Theres a reason you dont eat Tacos the night before a race, and here we were.  I will spare the details, but there were bushes and some swear words involved, and the last 8-9 miles were a little...interesting.  My stomach cramped and the GU's were no longer helpful (I think this is actually a thing I need to look at after Candlelight - different nutrition) and so that pipe dream of a 3:28 was in fact, a two hour dream.  Easy come easy go. Despite my mad body, I still fell in love with the scenery of the course - the mountains were amazing, and the whole idea of being able to just do what I love for the weekend was something that I'll never forget to enjoy.  I crossed the finish in 3:36, good enough for a 2025 and 2026 BQ (at the time of the race LOL), and a dumbass grin on my face. All in all, it was a great race - the terrain was not my fave (mild trail, no consistent footing ever, but still, downhill soooo cant complain!)

Post race, I caught up with Mister Red Flag, who got his sub 3 (handily, I might add) and Josh and crew, who gave me a huge hug and invited me to Texas anytime I wanted. More race besties for life.

A race for a PR?  Nope.  Would I change it?  Also, nope.  The rest of the weekend was spent eating our way through Pike place, the space needle, and every other thing Seattle could offer and more.  Amazing.

So what's next?  Tricky question, my friends.  Since this race in September, I did a formula one du, where I learned that actually riding your bike more than a dozen times in a year is helpful, as well as knowing how to mount it (whoops).... and then figured I'd round out the year by hobby jogging a 5k this weekend at Grocery run, where I was apparently cool enough to get a free entry by coming in second last year.

But the truth is, what I figure doesn't usually happen, especially in 2024 - and I wouldn't have it any other way.  

So post Grocery, Ill be doing a 7 day taper (does it count as taper if you don't train?)  then heading to Harris burg PA for November 9-10.  What's in Harrisburg?  Two of my best friends, a dumpster fire, and a marathon.  Like an idiot (again, a theme)I signed up two days ago.  I've done exactly two long runs since September 7th.  What could possibly go wrong?  Stay tuned....