Oyster Dome

July 16: An early wake up to bike the 2 miles to the start/finish area of the race we volunteered for by 6:30 to help set up. This was a pretty small, laid-back event. There weren't many volunteers, so I was glad we decided to help out, though they still would have gotten by alright without us - only about 50 participants between the 25k (1 loop) and 50k (2 loop) events (half as many as last year, when it wasn't the same weekend as Ragnar).

Pre Race Briefing

And they're off!

Rudy and I stuck around the start/finish/50k aid station area with the race director family - and we all felt useful, but I don't think ever overwhelmed, so that was nice. There was a lot of chatting and hearing about the course from the runners - always inspiring! The fun thing with this event are the oysters at the first aid station (Samish Overlook that we visited earlier in the week) - raw or grilled (only raw was offered last year) - it was not mandatory to eat an oyster, but everyone I asked about it partook!

Fresh oysters!

We even got to enjoy grilled oysters at the finish

Similar to Minnesota, many of the runners knew each other, stuck around a while after finishing, and were super friendly. The winners came in a little earlier than expected (good weather conditions this year), and I thought it was pretty awesome the overall winner for the 50k was a local female AND she ran the second loop ~1 minute faster than the first! One local we talked to, Scott, was very excited about our trip and even offered up his little home on 5 acres as a place we could park. The weather was great for running, staying in the 50s and overcast until after noon, helping the whole 25k field finish, with only a few 50k drops. We actually had everything pretty well cleaned and packed up before the official cut off time. We hung around a while longer socializing (and finishing beers), plus I got some good description and advise for Wasatch from the race director. We biked back down to the van and had to make the decision if we wanted to head south, or explore the Bellingham area a bit more. We decided to stick around and took up the friendly runner, Scott, on his offer to let us camp out at his place! We drove over to Alger (just a few miles) and a short visit before another early bed time after a long day.

July 17: I started out the day with a breve, which was awesome! Scott isn't a big coffee drinker, but has an espresso machine and enjoys a breve every morning. We made a little breakfast with farm fresh eggs from a few miles down the road, and toast with chokecherry jam we brought from home. Scott was looking forward to taking care of a few things around home and recovering from his 25k Oyster Dome excursion while Rudy and I went to check out the course on bike. The Blanchard Mountain Trails are mostly smooth and well maintained, but once again, lots of climbing! There were quite a few technical spots I had to walk through, and the legs were still a little tired, so I was struggling at really 'enjoying' myself for a lot of the ride, but overall it was good! We opted to check out the Oyster Dome overlook, which was a hike-only trail. We figured hiking with the bikes would be OK. About halfway to the overlook, we decided it was a little too steep, rooty, and rocky to be carrying the bikes, so stashed them in the woods and made the rest of the trek less encumbered. There was a little haze, but the skies were relatively clear, so we had a nice view from the overlook.

We returned to the bikes and made our way, mostly down hill back. We did have to go by a short string of horseback riders on a steep side slope - a little scary and interesting, but we took our time and no people or horses were hurt! After finishing the ride and having a little snack, I decided I had the energy to run the 3.7 miles back to Scott's - a nice little shake-out jog! The rest of the evening was hanging out by a little fire, discussing races, training, nutrition, and other things trail/ultra runners geek out about, and making a quick supper of rice noodles and veggie stir fry. Another full day and early bed time!