Saturday, March 29, 2014

Pacific Rim One Day - Megan's Race Report

On March 15-16 Megan and I ran the Pacific Rim 24 hour race together for the second year in a row. We are a little late getting up a race report because we spent spring break in Cabo completely unplugged from the world. But we are back, and blogging as fiercely as ever, which is to say, completely sporadically. :) This is Megan's race report. 


On Saturday March 15-16 I ran Pacific Rim 24 hour race. It took place around Sacajawea lake in Longview, Washington. The course was a one mile loop around the lake. Part of the course had a bridge. I did cartwheels on the bridge almost every lap I did. The race started 9:00 Saturday and ended 9:00 Sunday. There was an aid station after every lap I did. My mom went with me. My number was 50 for my goal of doing a 50k. Mom’s number was 51 so I told her she had to do 51 miles.
Megan, on the bridge, *not* doing cartwheels

When the race started, me and mom did a slow jog for the whole 1 mile loop.Then we walked. I took a break to play on the iPad after 5 laps. Mom ran 2 more without me and then I continued. I did four more laps. At about my ninth lap altogether, I noticed some birds in the lake with a weird design of white on their face. There were signs with the names of birds around the lake so I wanted to see what the strange looking birds were named. Mom and I found out that they were called buffleheads. Mom and I used that as a joke from then on. For the rest of that lap we constantly called each other buffleheads. Also during that time I had a cookie eating contest with a guy named Zach Gingerich. I won 4-2 when they ran out of cookies! At dinner time I had a jelly bean eating contest with him. The jelly beans were served in little cups. Zach won this time, the score was 3-2. The jelly beans were too sugary for me. After that lap I took another break. That break I made friends. Their names were Joey, Nikki, Crockett, and Tass. Nikki was in the race and Joey supported. Crockett and Tass were their dogs. I got to give the dogs treats. Joey said they were all-natural gingersnap treats. Nikki ended up winning for the women with 69 miles.


Mom came back from her 2 lap run without me and then we were off. I ran 3 laps with mom and then we both went to take a break. We played 2 games of Ticket to Ride in the car. I beat mom once and she beat me once. After that I took a break every 3 laps. At the end of the day I had 30 miles! I had decided to get some sleep and do my victory lap in the morning. I went to bed in the minivan we had set up a mattress in.
All snug and warm in the minivan

Mom woke me up at 6:00 and we did 1 lap. At the end the people who were there congratulated me. I did more laps because I wanted to get 32 miles because I would beat all of the people who got a 50k. At the end I had 34 miles! Mom had 51! We both made our goals. My place was 32nd overall and Mom’s was 6th woman. She got an orange plaque. I had lots of fun.

                                                                            -Megan Smith, age 9


Megan hits the 50k mark!!


8 comments:

Jackie said...

WOW!! Congratulations Miss Megan!! And mom too!

Meghan said...

Well done Megan! You paced yourself very well, both in fun and in running and in eating sugar!

John said...

Congratulations Megan. You are a true ultrarunner!!

SteveQ said...

Impressive job, Megan! I walked 20 miles when I was 10 years old and I hurt fort days.

Sparkplug said...

That is so impressive, Megan! Congrats on your ultramarathon and sounds like you had a lot of fun! I hope my daughter has the endurance you do when she is your age!

Rob said...

Wonderful effort and congratulations on meeting your goal! I enjoy reading your race reports as much as you mother's!

Jennie said...

Congratulations on your first ultra, Megan! :)

katie said...

Wow, Megan! I had never even heard of an ultramarathon when I was 9... and not only did you hear about it, you laid the plans to get it done. Many congratulations to you!