Bre Mirynech.

Back in the fall of 2021, a girl I follow on instagram shared a story with some beautiful photos, stating that the Gorge Waterfalls 50k lottery was coming up. I had heard of the Gorge Waterfalls event before but didn’t know much, so I clicked the link in her story to learn more. Immediately seeing the stunning photos of waterfalls, and the (somewhat) proximity to Vancouver, I thought to myself “well why not just throw your name in, you never win things anyways”. So, without too much more thought, I entered myself into the lottery. 

On my birthday weekend, after coming back to cell service from a solo long run, I opened my phone to an email saying I had been selected from the lottery. I was so excited, and continued to read through the email containing more details. One thing stood out to me that I missed when entering my name into the lottery- the race day was just 6 weeks after Black Canyon. My immediate thought? Well, this will be interesting!

For those of you who didn’t read my Black Canyon race recap,the TL;DR is this: DNF’d 100km at Zion Ultras in 2022 with an injury, spent the entire summer on recovery and building back up, then got my comeback at Black Canyon 100k this past February. So yes, 6 weeks after running my first 100km race, I was going to do a 50km. I knew it was possible, and in some ways it felt like a great idea because the training would already be done and I would just have to focus on recovery and getting some movement in the weeks between, but I was pretty curious about how my body would hold up, as running 100km would be new territory for me. Well, as always, the only way to find out was to try! 

With Black Canyon done, I spent about 2 weeks recovering and easing back into running, brought some structured training back for weeks 3 and 4, and for weeks 5 and then race week I went right back into taper mode. The 6 weeks flew by, and before I knew it, my friend Torie and I were driving in the Bongo (Torie’s van) to Cascade Locks, Oregon. I had only been to Oregon once on my 2019 road trip, so I was excited to camp, cheer on Torie who was running the 30k, race myself, and check out a new area. Somewhere on the drive it started to rain, and well it didn’t really stop for the rest of the weekend. The theme of the weekend was definitely wet!

Once we got to Cascade Locks, we stopped in at the brewery to do our bib pick up and see the town. Gorges Beer Co was a great spot, and we actually ended up going back there over the weekend to escape the weather and play some cards. Once we had our bibs, we made our way back down the highway to find the campground. We were lucky and got a semi-last minute camping spot. The campground itself was fine, however it was unfortunately located right next to the train tracks. It was home for the weekend though, and it did us just fine. That night, we got ourselves set up, ate dinner, prepped for the day ahead and went to bed. 

The next morning it was Torie’s race! The weather gods seemed to be on her side as it wasn’t raining, and it was nice and cool outside which was perfect for running. The start line was just a drop off, so I dropped Torie off and wished her luck, and then slowly made my way to find the station I would be able to meet her at and cheer her on. I stopped on my way to check out a beautiful, roadside waterfall. This area of Oregon is so pretty with all of the beautiful waterfalls (I guess that’s why they named the race event Gorge Waterfalls). Eventually I was set up and waiting for Torie, and in classic fashion she came into the station running downhill with a big smile on her face. She seemed to be having a great time. She stopped quickly just to refill a bottle and then was on her way again. From here, I drove to the finish line as that’s where I would be able to see her next. Once at the finish line, it started to rain and the temps were staying very cool. I bundled up and waited for Torie, and soon enough she was charging into the finish line, still with a huge smile on her face. She really pushed herself hard out there, and it paid off as she placed 18th female out of 164! A huge finish and accomplishment. We went inside to grab her some food, a well earned beer, and then headed back to the campsite for a warm shower.  

On Saturday we had a free day between mine and Torie’s races. We decided to head an hour into Portland and explore a bit of the city. It was sunnier when we got there, so we walked around through a market, checked out the cherry blossoms along the river, did some shopping at REI, and eventually found our way to another brewery where we consumed an absolute mountain of tots. It was a mellow day, but it was nice to escape the rain and wander around. Eventually we headed back to the campsite so I could do a little shakeout run and get ready for my race the following morning. After all my gear was organized and ready to go, we had a relaxing night playing some skip-bo in the van while it continued to rain outside. The forecast wasn’t looking great for the morning, but I remained optimistic that mother nature would surprise us in a good way.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of rain on the roof, and you could feel that the air was chilly. I had my holos oats for breakfast, and went through an internal debate about whether I should stick with my plan of running in shorts or switch to pants, as the temps had really dropped. I decided to tough it out in shorts and hoped it would warm up enough that I’d be fine. Not long after, Torie was dropping me off at the start line and I was jumping around trying to stay warm until it was my wave’s turn to start. Although it was cold, the rain had seemed to stop and I was grateful for the dry start. Before I knew it, it was go time. Right off the start the race climbs roughly 450m over 3km. I went out maybe a little too hard (for me), but I had a goal of setting a personal best for 50km in this race and I knew that in order to do that I would need to push. So, I kept pushing up the climb and at the top the reward was a nearly equal descent of 400m or so over the next few km’s. I flew down the hill, again maybe a little too hard, but it was so fun and it just felt so good to open up. My strength and joy is running downhill. After a bit, we had a brief switch from the trail to the road, and Torie surprised me by parking the van on the side of the road to give me a cheer. It made me smile and kept some pep in my step for the next section. 

The rest of the course was fairly rambly, with a few more climbs but nothing nearly as much as the initial one. There were waterfalls everywhere, and it was so beautiful to run past them, and even behind one of them! I really enjoyed these scenic sections. Along with being beautiful, the course was MUDDY. After a few days of basically straight rain and people running this course all weekend, the trail was destroyed and messy. It didn’t take long to accept that my feet would be wet for the remainder of the race. I leap frogged with some runners for a while, trading places on the ups and downs, and eventually came into the aid station at 24km where Torie was waiting for me. She filled my bottles quickly, I grabbed a snack, and continued on my way. I was feeling good and the weather was holding off so I was happy! I climbed back out of the aid station and continued on. By now, the runners had spaced out a little more, so I went  for quite a long stretch mostly by myself, encountering the occasional runner. It started to rain again and it was still pretty cold, which I decided to use to motivate me to keep moving quickly and keep pushing towards my goal. The course does an out and back at some point, and I started to see the top runners who were already on their way back. We all cheered each other on (one of my favourite parts about trail running community), and seeing them I knew I must be close to the next aid station. Soon enough, I came out of the trail to see the station and Torie was waiting for me in the rain. This was the 33km mark and from here I would go out and back roughly 12km. The volunteers were all dressed in suits, had fancy music playing, and were serving all of the beverages in champagne glasses. It was fun and funny to see this happening in the horrible weather; a little ray of sunshine if you will. I was feeling tired, but I was on track to hit my goal and that kept me feeling excited as I left the aid station. It didn’t take long for that change though.

Somewhere on this out and back section as I made my way out, the rain switched to snow. My internal dialogue was something along the lines of “are you f$*king kidding me!?”. I was soaked to the bone, shoes complete puddles, and now it was snowing!? That’s the theme of ultra’s though, you never know what you’re going to get. I hit the turn around point, thanked the volunteers for being out here in these conditions, and turned around and headed back downhill. I was ready to be done, and I knew I was getting close. I came back into the same aid station a while later, and I don’t even remember what I said to Torie. Probably sweared a bunch and was a combination of mad and laughing in disbelief. She offered to take my vest since the last section was only 5 or 6km to the finish, and I was happy to take the soaking wet thing off of me. I ran out of there quickly, and focused on the fact that I was in the home stretch. Eventually I came off the trail, and switched back to the road for the last few km. This let me know I was really getting close. Eventually I hit 50km on my watch, and there it was- my new PB. I was stoked! I clocked in at 6:49, beating my previous 50km PB by 20 minutes, with 1000m more elevation on this one too. I still wasn’t at the finish line, but the feeling of accomplishing that goal carried me through the rest of the way. I ran into Cascade Locks and towards that finish line with a big smile. I was so happy to achieve my goal, and was also equally happy to be done. I laughed (and nearly cried haha) telling Torie about that last half at the end. I think all the adrenaline and exhaustion came pouring out at that moment.

We went inside to grab some food, they were out of beer much to my disappointment , and then we headed back to the van to make our way home. We were camping just outside of Seattle that night to get part of the drive done. I was covered in mud and really looking forward to getting to the campsite to shower. Once we got there however, we found out the showers required money and we had no US cash on us. So, I had to go with a very thorough baby wipe shower instead. Not ideal after running an incredibly muddy 50km, but it had to do. The next day we packed up and headed back home to Vancouver. We were both tired and looking forward to being home and for me, especially being clean. 

Overall, despite the conditions, I had a great time and experience at Gorge Waterfalls. The course was beautiful, the volunteers were awesome, and it was the complete opposite experience of racing in the dry and hot desert race 6 weeks earlier. I was so happy with how my body performed, and this event really showed me what I was capable of. I left this event feeling confident, strong, and excited for what’s to come. It’s wild to look back and see my progress on my running journey. I remember a version of myself who was so shy starting long distances (major imposter syndrome), but now here we are in 2023 with 3 ultra distance runs done for the year, including a 100km and 50km race  6 weeks apart, and setting a new best time. They say don’t go chasing waterfalls, but hey, it worked out pretty well for me and I’d do it all over again.