Run 542

Before I get anyone's hopes up with that title, I want to say upfront that I did not attempt the 8.5 miles and 1,500 feet of elevation gain today as I have been saying I would for the last week. So this post will not be a re-cap of my experiences up there, as I initially thought it would be.

I chose not to run, and here's why.

For anyone not familiar, Run 542 is part of the larger event known as Festival 542 that is taking place this weekend along the Mt. Baker Highway (state route 542). The focus of the event is a 24.5 mile bike ride that starts in Glacier, WA, and ends at Artist Point; roughly 4,000 feet from the ride's beginning. The run starts near the beginning of the bike ride and winds its way up to Artist Point on a series of trails in the Mount Baker Ski Area and the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

Here's a map of the run. The steepness of some of its ascents really cannot be expressed accurately in words.

When I was first given the opportunity to participate in the run one week before it was scheduled to happen, I was hesitant but still extremely excited. Though my trail-running experience was almost nonexistent, I still felt, based on my previous backpacking experience, I could do the run in a reasonable amount of time. The friends and co-workers to whom I told the idea seemed surprised at my decision to do the run but also generally supportive.

Plus, I had never been up the Mt. Baker Highway. I felt the trip was one I needed to make to be a real Washingtonian, and I could not imagine a better way to do it than the run.

As the event drew closer, however, self doubt began to grow within me. I knew of a trail near Fairhaven in Bellingham, the Pine and Cedar Lake trail, that would just about simulate the conditions of the Mt. Baker run. The P and C trail is 1.6 miles and goes nearly straight up in the beginning, reaching an elevation gain of 1,300 feet. I thought that if I could do this trail a few times comfortably, I could just make the Mt. Baker run.

Though I had traversed this trail in the past with a friend, it seemed steeper than I remembered when I attempted it again last Wednesday. By about halfway, I had to turn back. My leg muscles were aching, and I was getting a little dizzy. I drove back home that night feeling disappointed in myself and more than a little sore.

As the weekend drew ever closer, I began to seriously think about why I felt the need to do this. I realized that from the beginning, I was never really doing this for me. I think because of all the people I told about it, I felt I would be letting them down if I decided not to go through with it; even as the reality of the Mt. Baker run being eight times what I could not do on Wednesday set in.

I finally made the concrete decision Saturday morning to not attempt the Mt. Baker run. I did, however, return to the P and C trail and completed one circuit. I was able to make it up and down again, about 3.4 miles, in roughly one hour and 15 minutes. Achieving this made me feel less bad about not going through with the Mt. Baker run. I averaged about 2 miles per hour, which is pretty good for me.

I returned to the P and C trail because, despite my self-disappointment, jogging the trail on Wednesday was genuinely fun. Trail running, I confirmed this morning, is definitely something of which I want to do more. Therein lies another reason I did not attempt Run 542: I did not want to start my experience in trail-running with a trip that would have most likely all but destroyed me. I did not want to have that sort of negative association with this budding hobby of mine.

Put simply, I just did not think I was ready for Run 542. There's always next year. Until then, I plan to keep running.