Event: Tillamook Burn 50 Miler, Daybreak Racing
Date: May, 2025
Location: Tillamook, Oregon

The mountains are calling, and I must go. Must is a funny word – in this instance, it operates far more objectively than the reality of the quote allows for. Oftentimes, when the mountains call, we really want to go, but can’t, for whatever reason; very rarely do they call when we don’t want to go, but we answer that call anyway. One instance of this is the Tillamook Burn 50 miler put on by Daybreak Racing, a race on perfect trails in the heart of a classic PNW forest dominated by Sitka spruce and western red cedar, and underlaid with ferns. Normally a bucket list race, this day in 2025 found our mediocre milers sick, ruthlessly infected by one of nature’s germ goblins – a child. Not wanting to run with a cough and fever for 50 miles, but unwilling to shirk from the allure of the race and the mountain’s call, we showed up and carried on.  The spirits of the Burn and Mother Nature were favorable, as cool temps and clouds allowed the mediocre milers to run the first 26.6 miles in a cool 6 hours. Moving well through the course, they reflected on the intentionality of human living. Surely, moving slowly but steadily through a race course, with no hope of winning, but every hope of finishing, is experiencing life in an intentional way. As the miles got tougher, the grit and determination that is just as present in the last-place finisher as it is in the first-place finisher allowed our heroes to cross the finish line. Immediately, sights of the infamous Tillamook Burn bonfire and s’mores station boosted their morale, and they realized what everyone inherently, on some level knows: when the mountains call, you must, if you can, go. – @Mediocremiles_ (PC: IG @JamesHolk)