CHUCKANUT 50K IS A JOKE

But she's soooo cute and "committed"....

She is cute:

http://www.californiaoldgoats.com/images/LeonaDivide4-18-09/21-LeonaDivide-Apr18-09.jpg

On behalf of a great running city that for some reason, straight across the board, has worst race directors in the country, I apologize. It is embarrassing.

At least they're on top of things with results. Oh wait, never mind.

Do you know for certain that the turn they missed was not marked? I went off course while on record pace at Zane Grey 50 miler, but it was my fault. I saw the flag when I came back.

Also, congratulations to the Missoula crew. Nice work!

Industree wrote:

I can't stand the "oh, it's an unfortunate part of trail racing... being led off course and missing turns."

No, it's not. Get your sh!t together, race directors. Too many of us pay big bucks to travel and race to be led off course by your attempts to save money on staffing and marshalling the course.

As the sport grows, it is no longer excusable, especially at such a premier event. How many races do the likes of Max King and Michael Wardian have to lose due to getting lost before the elite runners stop participating?

Unacceptable and shameful, Krissy.

So you are saying your name is either Max King or Sage Canaday when you say you paid big money and were led off course. Couldn't be Sage cause on twitter he even mentioned it was a rookie mistake. Doubt you are Max cause he has more class than you are showing.

So why are you so upset? What is your beef with one of the best ultra races out there? Were you just some spectator who wasn't racing? Wrong turns happen in road races as well as trail races. I've seen college cross country races go the wrong way. I've seen major road marathons take wrong turns. It happens once in a while. I'm sure Krissy is upset it happened and will work to make sure it doesn't happen in the future.

Instead of crying like a little baby here why don't you let us know where the wrong turn happened and why it happened and what can be done so it doesn't happen again. Don't be a typical little let's run message board bitch.

The turn was marked, they didn't see it. Sage figured it out fairly early, turned around and rejoined the race. Max bombed down the hill for awhile before he figured it out. I saw it just fine. It's a sharp turn, but it certainly was marked.

The event hires a timing company to do results, like most events do. BuDu racing. Results are up and online and were posted at the finish line in a timely manner. Plus, I believe the event had online race day coverage via twitter, web, etc. I had texts waiting for me when I finished based off of info from somewhere.

Is that you, Max? Pretty classless if it is.

Obviously the OP is not Max King. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a moron.

Chuckanut Web Page

Chuckanut Mountain 50 Km - Detailed Course Description

There are changes to the 2012 race course!!! Please note the differences in italic/bold.

We do our best to mark the course plainly, but in this area trail markings have been removed in less than one day. This description and the map should allow you to stay on course even if many of the markings are gone. Please carry and use it! Familiarity with the course is highly recommended prior to race day.

Sounds like a well marked course to me. (Bring a map, and a compass, and a gps, and possibly a sherpa. Good Luck getting back!

Raptured wrote:

Obviously the OP is not Max King. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a moron.

My subtle point being, if you weren't affected directly by getting lost, why hell are you on here bashing an event?

I didn't think this was Max. I didn't talk to him after the race, but he seemed to be handling it with class. I've never met him, However, you never know how people will act anonymously on a Message Board. I apologize.

The race is friggin' called the "CHUCKANUT" what did you expect?

Go smoke another bowl and go for another 4 hour, nine plus minute per mile "run."

Wow! Sounds like a few people aren't getting enough endorphins from their running. Sign your real name to your comments if you're going to trash someone or something. No person or event is perfect and a little realistic perspective in one's life goes a long way toward managing life's disappointments. ~700 top athletes and average runners registered for the 20th anniversary of this event and KM's 10th anniversary as RD. Fortunately, this race has far more supporters than detractors.

You get more endorphins from running at threshold pace, guy.

It would have been so much better if the reaction would have hints of improvement something like: "It was very unfortunate the leaders went off course, and though it is ultimately the responsibility of every runner, we will have a targeted effort to improve our course marking in similar situations in the future". What's the harm in saying you got room for improvement? Maybe I missed a statement to that effect. These aren't noobs going off course, its always the leaders.

Max looked pretty angry at the post-race festivities, I don't think he liked it very much when Jurek took a jab at him.

I'm not an ultra guy but I run the course a lot (well parts of it)on my long runs. Can someone describe where they went off. I'm guessing they missed the turn from Cleator back to Fragrance Lake road?

I guess you all look pretty stupid protecting your "friends", here is Max King's post -

http://blog.montrail.com/2012/03/chuckanut-50k/

Max King is a World Champion. He knows how to run trails and knows courses. The RD was too lazy to make the necessary sacrifices to check the damn course before the runners got to key intersections.

Thank you.

For those of you not acquainted with the course, I actually found out where this turn was and boy would it be easy to miss. You are on a main forest road and need to take a sharp left on a pretty small trail. If this was not marked it is inexcusable. Probably the worst part is you have about a 6-8 percent decline for about 3 miles after this turn if you miss it. That means once you realize your misfortune, you are climbing up whatever you just went down. The race director should do whatever it takes to make this right to King. The biggest problem was that the race went from a limit of a couple hundred to 1000 this year. I'm sure all the preparations for the 5-8 hour finishers took a lot of time away from the basics like adequately marking the course. For the sake of the quality of the race and the Chuckanut mountain itself, I hope they bring the limit back to 500 or less. This is a very brutal course - maybe not by ultra standards but from the perspective of of a 10k guy who does his long runs there - at least half the people in this race have absolutely no business being there. 50k hikes are for the Boy Scouts.

I ran the race, I placed in the top 10, the turn WAS marked. It was marked when we went up Cleator road on the way out, and it was still marked on our way back. It was marked with a large orange spray chalk arrow hooking around towards the turn, and there was flagging tape on the trees on the left side of the road. This said, when the top guys were coming down, there were folks from the slower waves heading up the road, and if one wasn't familiar with the course, it would be easy to keep cruising toward where the stream of folks coming up hill was coming from even though you needed to hang a left and cruise down a different direction. I feel bad for Max, I went off course with about 6 guys while leading the Vegas half a few years ago, I know the frustration, it is a bad way to end your day....