Roch Solid! Crewing & Pacing at the 2009 Cascade Crest 100 Miler

roch horton before running 100 miles
there are a couple hundred milers in washington state. with the plain 100 having just one aid station and no course marking is a different kind of beast. therefore charlie chrisman's cascade crest 100 miler is THE 100 for washington ultrunners. in 2007 justin angle and i paced patagonia ultrarunner jamie gifford to a win. this blog has some good video of bill huggins, darcy africa, nuun ultrarunner bruce grant and of course jamie gifford finishing in easton, wa that year.

this time around i had the honor of crewing and pacing my friend and mentor roch horton. roch runs for patagonia and vasque and is a legend. he's finished hardrock 100 nine times - nuff said.

i won't go into the blow by blow - instead i'll just list some thoughts and observations. oh and the videos are coming soon...

• phil shaw ran his gutz out. it was fun to watch him get the course record of 20:33:43
  
• scott wolfe did an awesome job taking roch the final 30 miles to the finishline
• wow - jamie gifford ran his 10th cascade crest 100 (he's got a couple of wins in there too)
  
• charlie chrisman is a great race director
• it was very cool to see jim kerby (he's a bad ass)
  
• jonathan bernard can run a 100 miles in a good mood the entire race
• i heard laura houston's no name aid station was the best on earth, and roch said they had "real good coffee" in the middle of nowhere
  
• proud of rod bien for running such a smart race
• i am torn between UTMB and CCC100 next year
• every nw runner i saw at olallie ate one of scott mccoubrey's pirogis
• roch horton is fuckin tough

roch horton and rod bien before the race
roch's bag of race necessities and his laminated pace chart

race director charlie chrisman
2nd place rod bien and his team of justin angle and walter edwards
adventure racer miles ohlrich finishes his first 100 miler in 6th place!
2nd place rod bien showing me his rewards
monica ochs made my day a whole lot more enjoyable

a shot of roch's bag with quotes - i like: "sex is speed, endurance is love"

top 20
jonathan bernard and pacer western states fast guy phil kochik