Orcas Island 100
OK, fine! I'll finally finish this race report. I ran the Orcas Island 100 at the end of February. In the months since, I've been through a big snowstorm in Reno, been to Yucca Valley, and DC twice. Most importantly, I'm not sore or injured. I struggled through a two-mile run the day before, day after, and two days after the race, and got back up to 70 miles for the weeks since. I'd call the race a success. I signed up for it because I wanted an early season race with a lot of climbing. Orcas provided. There aren't many races in winter due to weather, but Orcas, on one of the San Juan islands in Washington, manages (if sometimes barely). The race is four times around the same 25-mile loop, each with four aid stations and four big climbs, for a total of 26,500 feet of climbing. The course is shaped like a neck pillow with a lobster claw attached to it. If that doesn't make any sense to you, that's how it felt running it. The trail is almost always under tre...