I ran the first race in the four-race Cougar Mountain Race Series put on by Seattle Running Club. It was a lot of fun! I’ve done very little running on Cougar so part of the reason I signed up was to learn some new trails there.
I did Lost Lake 50k last week and my running during the week was pretty bad. I was a little worried about recovery, but what the heck. I wasn’t sure what to aim for as a goal, but there was another guy in the race with the last name Bond so mostly I just wanted to beat him.
Morning of was grey and cool — good running weather. This race was the shortest in the series, 10.8 miles (my strava came in at 10.2 for what it’s worth) My plan was to take it easy for the first 4–5 miles, then pick it up. There was a big downhill at mile 5 and then a big uphill at mile 6 so I knew I could move relatively faster than lots of the other folks on those, then I just had to hold on and try to move fast for the last few miles. I carried 200 calories of Tailwind in a handheld and didn’t stop at any aid stations.
After getting there way too early in the morning and standing around for the while, we were off. The first two miles were super flat, then we had a few small hills. I pushed myself on some of these but always fully recovered when back on the flat. The Cougar trails were good — enough roots and rocks to keep things interesting and mostly single track instead of boring logging roads or wide hiking trails.
The trail was very crowded at first, but everyone running the 5 mile race split off at mile 4 or so and it got emptier after that.
The downhill at mile 5 after passing Wilderness Peak was as advertised and I had a blast — I definitely need to come back and run this more. Reminded me a lot of K-3 on Tiger. I did get stuck for awhile behind a woman with headphones in who absolutely refused to let me pass, which was frustrating. The hill was a decent hike back up, a little measly by the standards of what I’ve done but that just meant I had to go faster.
In the last few miles, I was really breathing hard. A race like this is such a bigger test of the CV system than a 50k or something, it was a little unfamiliar. Fun though! I was definitely working hard those last few miles, and I was secretly very glad that the last mile was flat and downhill.
I was chasing a guy from about mile 6 on — he was a little faster on the flats but I was faster up and down hill. Finally late in mile 8 I caught him and passed him along with two other runners. I had another guy in my sights in the last half mile or so, I was gaining on him but he had too much of a lead to reel in before the finish line. Passing folks is always fun though.
My watch time stopped right at 1:42, which I’m pretty okay with, and as far as I could tell I beat the other Bond (I didn’t see him around at the finish line, at least). Pretty low key finish line, so I grabbed some watermelon and took off. Fun race on some cool trails, and I’m looking forward to the next one!
Race website: http://www.seattlerunningclub.org/Events/Cougar/cougarmtn1.html
Strava activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/576007415
