Cle Elum Ridge 50k(31miles)

Current Mile total: 1202.25 miles

Today's run was exactly what I needed. It was a good long run. The second longest I've ever run but most definitely most most technically difficult course. Cle Elum takes its runners up 18 miles of ascent until it finally crests and begin its descent for the next 13. I had been dreading the course since I first laid eyes on the profile map but it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought. There were moments when the grade was terribly steep but for the most part it was just a gradual rise over 18 miles and when you got to mile 18, its was almost all downhill from there. Toward the end of the course it does start to get rolling with short climbs scattered here and there. And then the last mile is all down hill again.

I say its what I needed because in that last couple miles I knew I could easily run for hours more if I had to. And it felt great. I was of course tired. But tired in the mind, not the legs. I wanted to finish the race because I knew it was about done, that's what I had planned on running and I really didn't want to run more. But I could feel it in my legs that they had plenty left. And if I had to do it, I could have gone on. It was what I needed to know three weeks out from my big run. I discovered I was ready to tackle something much bigger.