Jim's Running Adventures

Week of January 22

2012-01-28T20:15:00.002-07:00

Sunday - Once again I took the day off. Karen and I went up to Powder Mountain and did some boarding. Great snow. They got about four feet in three days. Miles - 0.0

Monday - Did a couple of workouts today. I hit the gym at lunch and ran four miles at about an eight minute pace on the mill. After work I went to the gym again and ran five miles on the track. Roughly the same pace. Ended up being a tempo kind of day. Miles - 9.0

Tuesday - Had some errands to run so I only managed to get in three miles on the mill. Better than nothing I guess. Miles - 3.0

On a dorkier note. I looked over the weather data from my weather station for 2011 and here's the highlights.
Precipitation - 22.09"
High temp outdoor - 109.4 deg F on June 23 (erroneous, the temp sensor gets afternoon sun in the summer. I need to correct that, probably closer to 102 deg F).
Low temp outdoor - +2.2 deg F on Feb. 2.
High temp indoor - 83.2 deg F
Low temp indoor - 53.3 deg F (must have been on vacation)
High humidity outdoor - 97% on March 7
Low humidity outdoor - 10% on July 3
High dewpoint outdoor - 70.1 deg F on Aug. 1
Low dewpoint outdoor - -10.4 deg F on Feb. 2
Maximum wind gust - 58.8mph on Dec. 1
I wish I had graphs because graphs are way cool, however, I'm having issues with downloading the data to my computer. They don't want to communicate.

Wednesday - Another day on the mill, but at least I did some intervals. 6 x .5 @ 7:00 pace. Miles - 6.0

Thursday - Another day where I couldn't get the miles in that I wanted. Ended up on the mill again at lunch, then errands after work. At least I pushed the pace some. Miles - 4.0

Friday - Hit the gym at lunch again and did a few on the mill. Then at last, some trail time after work. Went north from Rainbow for about 2.5 then turned around. Saw Bj and his new puppy out. Cute. Miles - 9.0 (943' vert)

Saturday - Ran the Kahtoola Bigfoot Snowshoe Festival race today. I did the 25K. Time was 3:29. Yeah, on a flat dry road, that time would probably have been under two hours, but there were snowshoes on my feet, snow on the ground and about 2100' of gain.
Still, it was a gorgeous day, sunny and cold, about 10 at the start and warming up to around 25 when I got done. My lovely wife Karen did her first race ever today. She ran the 5K and did awesome. Came in 2nd place female and 1st in her age group. When she saw who the 1st place female was, she said that she was not too far behind her and if she had known, she could have pushed it and taken first place female. Still, not too bad for a first race. Here's the Garmin plot http://connect.garmin.com/activity/145378238 Miles - 15.5 (2179' vert)

Miles for the week - 46.5
Vert - 3122'

Week of January 15

2012-01-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday - Did nothing running wise. After the fun on Saturday I decided to give the legs a day off. Instead I spent the day working on the barn and playing in my shop. Miles - 0

Monday - Hit the gym at lunch for the first workout. Since school was out, the track was open so instead of a t-mill run, I went for four miles on the track. I kept the pace high enough for it to qualify as a tempo run. I was feeling it in my legs going up the stairs at work this afternoon. We'll see how the afternoon run there goes. Probably slower. Well, the afternoon run was actually pretty good. My legs were feeling the noon run so I was a little concerned that after woork would just be slow and easy. Nope, did another five miles at a tempo pace. Now I'm really feeling the effects. Oh well, that's how you get faster. Miles - 9.0

Tuesday - Wimped out of an after work run on the trails. Too cold for me. Instead I did the track at the gym. Only went five miles, but I did push it. I feel like I'm getting faster than I have been for a few years. Miles - 5.0

Wednesday - Did the gym thing twice. At lunch I did four one-mile repeats at 7:30 pace with a .25 rest in between. After work I came home and ran another 3.5 on the mill while dinner was cooking. Dinner needs to cook longer so I can get more miles in. Miles - 8.0

Thursday - Only had time for the gym today. Did four on the mill at around an 8:30 pace. Miles 4.0

Friday - Sigh, another mill day. Did five on the mill at home at 8:15 pace, the last mile was at 7:45. Spent most of the day at the winter outdoor retailer show. Lots of cool stuff companies are trying to sell. Miles - 5.0

Saturday - Yet another t-mill day. It dumped rain all day long, then turned to snow. Kind of glad I didn't go out in the stuff. Hope I can get out some next week. Miles - 10.0

Miles for the week - 41.0
Vert for the week - 0'

Week of January 8th

2012-01-08T21:03:00.001-07:00

Sunday - Had big plans to go out and do a 20 mile road run today. My thought process was that I needed to get out and get used to running a lot of miles at a steady pace and non-stop, no walking or hiking allowed. With the Salt Flats 100 coming up in April, there's going to be a lot of flat ground to run on. No sense in walking it when I can run it, provided I've trained to do that. Well, anyway, after I got up, I saw that the outside temperature was 9 degrees. Now I'm a wimp when it comes to running in cold weather. I just don't like it. Down to about 30 I'm fine, below that and I get cold. So running outside with the temp. in single digits wasn't going to happen. So, next option? The treadmill. I've done a lot of really long runs on that thing. I even did a 50K one time just to see if I could do it. So I thought 20 miles wouldn't be a problem. I turned on Spike TV to watch the Sunday morning car shows and set the mill at a roughly 8:30 pace and took off. Things went really well until about 15 miles. By then, my ankle was starting to act up and I knew that an additional five was out of the question. No sense in hurting myself just for an additional few miles. So I called it after about 16.5 miles. Did it in about 2:20, so I was happy with that. I had the mill set to a 1% grade as well just to help simulate the road. Karen hopped on the mill when I got done and had big plans to do six miles. She bailed after about five, said something about it being really, really boring. Miles - 16.5 (0' vert)

Monday - Got a note from Scott Mason today. 2012 Wasatch Speedgoat Mountain Racing Team is on. Good to hear. I like being a part of that team. We have some great runners, and others (like me) that do ok. Looks like we have a couple of new sponsors, Stoic Gear being one of them. They're providing us with shirts and shorts.
Now on to the running. After yesterday's issues with the ankle, I was a little concerned about running today. I went for four miles on the t-mill at lunch at just under a nine-minute pace. The ankle didn't bother me. I could feel it, but no big deal. Just need to remember to ice the thing down a couple times a day. Miles - 4.0 (0' vert)

Tuesday - Was going to go out for about eight after work, but didn't. Went to luch with an old high school friend and the meal wasn't sitting well with me. I decided a day off wasn't a bad thing. Miles - 0

Wednesday - Stomach felt much better, I think it was just indigestion. Hit the t-mill at the gym at lunch. Did 10 x .25 repeats at about a 6:30 pace. 0.10 walk in between. After work I hit the trail from 22nd street. Knowing it would be snowy and icy, I wore my Hokas. Now most of you know that Hokas aren't the greatest as far as traction in snow and icy. In fact they pretty much suck. But I put sheetmetal screws into the soles of mine. Just short little 1/2 inch ones. That made all sorts of difference. I didn't really slip or slide at all. And I actually got back to my car before the need for my headlamp. Days are definitely getting longer, spring is just around the corner........and down the block a ways. Miles - 10.6 (778' vert)

Thursday - Went to Rainbow hoping to meet with everyone. Missed them as they started before I got there. I did meet everyone out on the trail though. Eight made it tonight. Nice sunny afternoon and we managed to get back before dark. Miles - 6.3 (1160' vert)

Friday - Took the day off again. Wasn't in the mood and I figured that with a 20 mile run coming up on Saturday, I could afford to take the day. Miles - 0

Saturday - Went out with about 12 friends and did almost 21 miles. Started at 22nd street and went south to the Beus trail, then turned around and went north of 22nd street to the canal road. Gorgeous day, little cool to start but warming up nicely to the mid 40's. Beer and pumpkin bars in the parking lot after. Way fun. Here's the Garmin link. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/141880998 Here's a couple pics as well. Miles - 20.8 (3537' vert)

Ben Lomond Peak in the distance

Some of the motley crew at inspiration point above Ogden

Karen, my lovely wife came out and ran 10 miles

Over the shoulder shot of some of the crew

Totals for the week
Miles - 58.2
Vert - 5475'

Week of January 1, 2012

2012-01-01T19:53:00.001-07:00

Sunday - New Year's Day. A whole mess of us (12) went for a New Year's Day. Most everyone went 12 miles, but Karen and I ended up going about 8.6 miles. Her furthest run ever. She did great. We ended up having a party in the parking lot after the run. Lots of fun on a gorgeous new Year's Day. Miles - 8.6 (1474')

Monday - Went out for a few with some of the guys. Rainbow north, the usual. We went to the canal road and back. Kind of cool and windy at the mouth of the canyon, but once the sun came out it was nice. After that, Kevin and I went out to Stansbury Island to kill some gourds. Yep, we took the guns and some left over Thanksgiving decorations and repeatedly shot them. They were evil gourds and deserved to die. Plus it was a ton of fun. We also shot some terroristic pieces of scrap wood. They won't bother us anymore either. Nothing says fun like spending money throwing high velocity lead downrange. Miles - 7.75 (1568')

Tuesday - Went for a nice easy run with Karen starting at Rainbow. We were hoping to meet up with a couple others, but we got there late and never saw them. Gorgeous day, I ran in shorts. Who knew you could do that in January here in northern Utah. Miles - 5.2 (927')

Wednesday - Lunch, ran 3 x 1 mile at 7:47 or faster. Warmed up with a .5 easy run and ran each mile with a .25 walk or slow jog in between. Did the obligatory pull ups and situps after that. Hit the gym again after work and got a few miles in on the track. Had big plans to push the pace, but ended up only pushing for a mile or so. The rest of the time was fairly easy. Miles 9.1 (0')

Thursday - Met at Rainbow again. This time we had a pretty good group, maybe eight or so? We went out to almost the canal road and back. Most of us pushed it a little. Felt good. The weather was great, mid 40's to start, cooling off a little by the time we got done. On the way back a couple of us went flying down the trail, managed around a 6:30 pace. It was dusk so I was getting a little worried about going down hard. Makes you concentrate on your footing a little more when you're doing something like that. Miles - 7.56 (1407')

Friday - Hit the trail with Karen for a few after work. Started at 22nd street and went south. Cut down Strong's Canyon adn came back on the low trail. Sure cooled off after dark. Miles - 5.7 (1100')

Saturday - Didn't run today. Had to take Kevin to the airport so he could go back to Grand Forks and school. The rest of the day was spent taking dwon Christmas decorations and cleaning house.

Miles for the week - 43.8
Vert - 6476'

2011 Running Recap

2011-12-28T09:03:00.003-07:00

Well, this year in running was a pretty big one for me. While I didn't get the total miles in that I would have liked, I still had a lot of good races and good times.
The first thing that happened was a job change. I left my Engineering position at ATK in January for a position as the Compliance Manager of Smith Optics. So I went from 25 years in the defense and aerospace indutry to a job in the consumer sporting goods industry. Quite a change, but so far I like it. Much more relaxed (I wear shorts to work in the summer) plus there's some perks that you don't get when you work in defense. I didn't have to move, my commute is the same distance, the money is about the same. What's not to like.
2011 started off with an entry into the big dog of 100 milers, Western States. I got picked in the lottery on my second try. There are people that try for five years or more and don't get in. With my entry into Western States, I figured that this might be my only opportunity to try for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning. I immediately signed up for the Leadville and Vermont 100's and threw my hat into the ring for the Wasatch 100 lottery.
Long story short, I managed to finish the four races, and actually feel pretty good. Wasatch left me a little tired, but during none of the races was I ever at any point where I thought I would need to dnf. By the time Leadville rolled around, I was getting a little on edge hoping I wouldn't get injured either during a race or during the time in between.
What else did I do this year besides the slam? Well, the year started off with the Moab Red Hot 55K. I've never run this race, but had heard great things. The race sells out in a matter of days, but I managed to score a spot on the starting line. It was a tough race, 40mph winds the entire day didn't make things any easier either. Still, I managed to finish (6:34) and the post race party is pretty good. Karen went with me and we made a weekend of it.
March rolled around and the 6th annual Antelope Island Buffalo Run. This year I had 780 runners sign up and 705 actually show up. Things went well, but they could have gone much better. Part of it was the addition of a 100 mile distance this year. Still, the experience has led me to impose entry limits for 2012.
Next up was my now annual pilgrimage to the Grand Canyon. I went with the usual misfits I hang with here in Ogden. None of them had done a R2R2R before, so I ended up being the defacto tour guide. We had a great time and we're doing it again next year.
May saw me run the Red Mountain 50K down in St. George. I've never spent any time in St. George, so that was a nice treat. My time would have been much better had some asshole not altered the course markings and sent a bunch of us frontrunners off in the wrong direction. I was on track for a 50K PR and hopefully a sub 5 hour race. I ended up doing an extra four miles and still managed a 5:33. Oh well, those things happen at times.
In June I did my first triathlon. I did the Boise Half Ironman with Sally Shadle, a friend of mine. She stomped my butt by about 20 minutes, but my time still wasn't too bad for a first time. That lake water was so cold (1.2 miles, 53 degrees), and the 56 mile bike had to have been one of the most boring rides I've ever done. The run (13.1 miles) was great though. I managed a sub 2-hour half marathon after doing the swim and bike ride. I had trained most of the winter riding a stationary bike, and getting back into my swimming. I haven't done laps in years and once I got back into the groove, it was nice. I think the cross training helped my running a lot.
June also saw me run Western States. July saw me run Vermont in near 100 mile PR time (23:27) and the Speedgoat 50K. Running Speedgoat was probably a mistake. Two weeks after running Vermont and two weeks before Leadville? Not a good idea. I found out the hard way what a 15 mile bonk feels like. I wanted to quit so many times, and probably should have, but I just couldn't bring myself to. The result? A 10+ hour 50K and a near the back finish.
August? Leadville, I finished and did better than I thought I would. I did miss running Waldo 100K this year, oh well, I'll be back there in 2012.
September? Ah, lovely Wasatch. I love this race. It's kind of like a black hole, once you run it, it kinds of sucks you in year after year. Had a good time there, but not a particularly good finish time.
In November I did a sprint tri at Weber State just as a lark. 5K run, 10K bike, and 300 yard swim. It was good fun. My 5K time kind of sucked, my bike time would have been better had I been able to clip into my pedals, but my swim was ok. It was a nice cold day near Thanksgiving and the run from T2 to the pool was 100 yards while being pretty much naked. My feet froze and the rest of me was pretty cold too. I did manage a top 25% finish though and I'll probably do it again next year just for fun.
So, I haven't done any racing since the tri, although I have been keeping up with the running. Next up in January is the Kahtoola Snowshoe 25K. Should be a good time if we get some snow.
Since Wasatch, I've been keeping up a pretty good running schedule. I did slack off a little in Sept/Oct, have picked up the mileage again in anticipation of 2012. The goals are around 3000 miles for 2012, not quite as much racing, and more adventure runs.
By the numbers -
2011 total mileage - 2138
Miles racing - 502
Average miles per week - 41.00
Average miles per day - 5.86
Number of days running - 206
Average miles per running day - 10.38
Miles biked - 303

Miles swam - 25

Here's a few graphs (hey, I'm an Engineer, I love data and graphs).

Annual Mileage for the past six years

All in all, not too bad a year for a 53 year old grandfather.

Week of December 25th

2011-12-27T11:03:00.003-07:00

Sunday - Ah, Christmas Day. Didn't do any running at all. Instead we just did the usual Christmas Day thing. Slept in, got up, then woke up Kevin, opened presents, ate breakfast, then started fixing dinner. Found out that I'm now a part of the NUTS running club. Secret handshake and all that. Actually, we're just a few friends that do some training together, some races, and some adventure runs. We have a good time. We're trying to come up with a logo or shirt design. Miles - 0

Monday - Went up to Wheeler Canyon and ran the Sardine loop with some friends. Most of the trail was snow covered, but there was quite a bit that was still bare dirt. Unusual at this time of year. The day was nice, a little cold to start. My ankle wanted to act up on the way back down. With all of the divots and such in the snow, my ankle would get tweaked everytime I did the smallest misstep. made for a slower run than normal. I don't think I want to run that trail again until either more snow falls or it all melts. Of course, carrying around the extra weight from all of the eating the day before didn't help either. Miles - 15.3

Tuesday - Met the usual cast of misfits and we went north from Rainbow Garden. Not a bad run. I certainly felt better today than I did yesterday. My running was much easier, the ankle didn't bother me at all and it was just a good time. It did get chilly once the sun went down, but that's to be expected at this time of year. Maybe I can get some decent running in this week. Miles - 7.8

Wednesday - So I had big plans to put in some miles. Instead, I went to the gun range with Kevin and did some father-son bonding over firearms. Nothing like the smell of gunpowder and throwing some lead downrange. I can put in some miles tomorrow. He's not home all that often. Miles - 0

Thursday - Went out from Rainbow Garden with a couple of friends. We ended up doing the usual six miles or so. I felt great. I was able to power up all the climbs, no ankle or achilles issues. It was wonderful. Miles - 6.3

Friday - Took off from work a little early and hit the trail by myself starting at 22nd street. Started out doing an 8.4 mile loop that I do once in awhile, but mixed it up some by coming down Strong's Canyon and back on the lower trail. Felt pretty good once again. Tried to push things a little, especially on the uphills. The weather was unreal. Close to 60 degrees but windy. that ended up making the trails mudy in spots due to the melting snow. Nothing like spring running at the end of December. Miles - 8.5

Saturday - Nice easy few miles with Karen. We went out in the morning from the North Ogden nature Center. Fun to run with my wife. Miles - 3.1

Total miles for the week - 41.0

Week of December 18th

2011-12-20T13:47:00.002-07:00

Sunday - Didn't do squat. Kevin, my brother-in-law, and I all went to the Chino Planes of Fame Air Museum. I hadn't been there in about 25 years so it was fun to see the changes. They have the only flying Japanese Zero that still has the original engine. Many of their planes are in flyable condition and they do fly them. Very cool. Miles - 0

Monday - Once again I sat on my butt for about 11 hours while we drove home from So Cal. I'm getting fat from all this doing nothing . Sigh! Miles - 0

Tuesday - Yep, you guessed it, didn't run again. Had big plans to go to the gym at lunch, but ended up going to Striders and picking up some Christmas presents for Karen. I'll be kind of glad when the holidays are over so I can get into a decent training rythmn. On the other hand, I finally updated my 2012 race and epic run schedule here. Miles - 0

Wednesday - Finally went running after work. Managed to get out of work a little early and hit the trail with ARic. We went from 22nd street south and back. My ankle wasn't too bad. Took a couple miles to get warmed up, but after that I was pretty much good to go. Trail was pretty much snow covered the entire way but footing was good. Saw a couple of hikers and runners, but that was about it. Pretty quiet out there. Miles - 8.4

Thursday - Another good trail run after work. Rainbow north for a few miles then back. The run was actually pretty much pain free in my ankles. Kind of nice. The ari was relatively clear as well. Pretty good run. Miles - 6.1

Friday - Went to the gym at lunch. Since school is out, I managed to get a run on the track rather than the t-mill. Couple miles of warm up, then 6 x .25 with about .1 walk in between. I have no idea what pace I ran those at. I did notice that my lungs seemed a little tight after each one, and I even took a hit off of my inhaler before I ran. Hmmm, wonder what's going on, if anything. Ankles felt pretty good. For my afternoon run i started at 22nd street and just went to Strong's Canyon and came back on the low side. Kind of quiet. No bikes, very few hikers or runners. Miles - 9.5

Saturday - Have big plans to hit the slopes, but Karen wasn't feeling well so we hung out around the house and did some cleaning.

Total miles for the week - 24.0

Week of Dec. 11

2011-12-12T16:57:00.002-07:00

Sunday - Once again, didn't do squat. Instead I took my lovely wife to go see Blue Man Group. A much better use of my time than running, at least today. Miles - 0

Monday - Did the speed work thing again at lunch. Ran 6 x .50 at a 7:30 pace or faster. 0.10 mile rest in between. Treadmill time. Did three sets of pull ups as well. The after work run was again at the aquatic center. One mile warm up then four miles at roughly a tempo pace. Miles - 9.0

Tuesday - Had big plans to go out at lunch and do a few miles. Instead I ended up going to lunch with my wife. Much better deal I think. Then I had big plans to hit the trails after work for about six miles. I made it about .25 miles before a pain in my ankle forced me to turn around. Feels like the remanent of a sprained ankle, except I haven't sprained or rolled an ankle. Hmmm. Anyway, went home and hopped on the treadmill. The pain didn't bother me there so I ended up doing five on the mill. Not ideal but something. Miles - 5.0

Wednesday - Hit the gym and treadmill again at lunch. Four miles at an increasing pace. Last two miles at 8:00 and faster. Did a few pullups and situps as well. The after work run was from Rainbow Garden going north. Did almost 8 miles with Aric and Bj. Lots of fun. We pushed it a little, especially coming back. I did get a little chilled but oh well. I think I've run outside more so far this winter than I did all of last winter. After looking at my mileage for the year, I might yet hit 2200. We'll see. Miles - 11.8

Thursday - Didn't get a chance to run at lunch since I needed to pick up Kevin from the airport. Once I picked him up we went home, I dropped him off and went to run with a couple friends. We met at Rainbow and did out usual six mile out and back. I wasn't feeling the love for this run. I lagged well behind the others on the out portion. My right achilles was bothering me and my left ankle was bothering me. Made for some slow limping running. Going uphill was the issue, downhill and flat was fine. I finally caught up at the turn around and headed back. I did manage to do a better job of keeping up on the way back. It did get a little chilly on the way back. Even with the foot issues, it was still a good run. Miles - 7.8

Friday - Didn't run at all. Instead I spent the day sitting on my butt traveling to So Cal with Karen and Kevin. Miles - 0

Saturday - Karen and I had big plans to go out for a few miles. My ankle was bothering me so much that we turned around did a whopping 1 mile. I would have gone further, but the cooler head of my wife prevailed and I decided to just take a rest. Miles - 1.0

Total miles for the week - 34.6

Trying something new

2011-12-05T15:44:00.001-07:00

I think I'm going to try posting something each week on my training. I see other blogs that do it and maybe it will help to keep me on task as I'm easily distracted (oh look, something shiny!). I've been thinking about doing something like this for awhile now, so here goes.

Week of December 4th

Sunday - Didn't do squat running wise. Instead I spent a good part of the day building a kidding pen in our barn. Karen raises goats and a couple of them are pregnant and will need a quiet place to give birth. We also had the hair-brained idea that it would be a good place to put our buck goats during bad weather as they really don't have a place to get out of it other than their houses. Bad idea, they tried to tear the place up. So they're stuck outside.

Monday - Went to the gym and did some speedwork on the treadmill at lunch time. 12 x .25mile all at a 7:00 pace or faster. 0.10mile walk in between each one. Not as bad as I thought. I hate speed work. I did find a series of speed workouts that I'm going to try. Each one is different. One a week will take me up to the Salt Flats 100 in April. Would have run outside, but it's cold out there and I wimp out in the cold. I've also started to do a little bit of upper body and core work. Started doing situps last week and that was an eye opener. A little sore from that. The other exercise I started today was pull ups. I figure between situps, pullups, and swimming a couple times a week, that should be adequate for upper body work. We'll see. The PM workout was another four miles at the gym on the track. Just took it easy, although I'm always trying to catch other runners. Miles - 8.0

Tuesday - Went running with a few friends on our usual Tuesday evening run. Met at Rainbow Garden, then went north for 3 miles, turned around and came back. Always a good time running one of my favorite local trails. Needed headlamps on the way back. Kind of chilly too. Miles - 5.5

Wednesday - Hit the trail with Aric starting at 22nd street. We went south about 4.2 miles on the BST, taking the high trail at the split, and coming back on the lower trail. Nice sunset. My headlamp crapped out and was super dim. Good thing we've run that trail once or twice. Plus we had a pretty bright moon to run by. New batteries are the order of the day. Temp. was in the 20's but no wind. Miles - 8.4

Thursday - Did a couple of indoor runs. Went to the aquatic center at lunch and ran four on the t-mill. Did that at a fairly easy pace. Went back after work and ran on the indoor track. Five miles. The competitive juices got going when another guy started running after I had completed a mile. He had on his 5-fingers and was sounding like a duck walking, slapping his feet down. Anyway, I caught up to him and passed him, but he must not have liked that much, because he passed me back almost immediately. Then, every time I would gain on him and get within a few feet, he would speed up and put almost a half lap on me. I bumped the pace just a bit and kept it steady. We played this game for about three miles before he slowed and I went blazing past him. He quit shortly after while I kept going. Kind of fun to do something like that, gets the speed up, makes me work harder and it's nice to know that I can still hang with youngsters. Miles - 9.0

Friday - Took off from work a little early so I could get a trail run in while it was still light out. Managed to run my familiar route from Rainbow north three miles, then turn around. Saw Tom Remkes while I was out and we chatted for a few. Weather was fine, little chilly, but really not too bad. Smog was another thing. Pretty hazy with the inversion settling in. Doesn't really seem to bother me much, but I'm sure it's not good for you to breathe that stuff. Oh well, that's what we're stuck with until the middle of next week. Miles - 6.0

Saturday - Took some friends (Aric, Meghan, Emily, Ann) on a run along part of the 50K/100K course. Only one of them had been on it before. Started at the White Rock Bay trailhead, ran to the top of the switchbacks on the Split Rock loop, then dropped over the saddle on to the west side of the island. Typically this is offlimits to the general public, but I had gotten permission from the Park Manager to take a few friends on this trail. Helps to be a volunteer out there. Anyway, had a good time, the weather was a little cool, but in the sun wasn't bad. Still a hazy mess though. We ended up at the ranch after about 3.5 hours. Everyone seemed to enjoy the trip and the chance to see part of the island that most people that visit don't get to see. One highlight was hearing a pack of coyotes just howling away in the distance. We just stopped and listened. Very cool indeed. Miles - 17.2

Total for the week - 54.1 miles

Post Grand Slam Thoughts

2011-09-15T10:08:00.001-06:00

Well, now that my Grand Slam adventure is over, and I’ve hada few days to let it sink in, here’s some random thoughts on the experience.

I had already decided that if I made the Western Stateslottery cut, I would sign up for the slam. So, once I knew for certain, I signed up for the remaining races as soonas I could. Who knows when I would get another chance?

I’ve kind of had it in the back of my head that one day Iwould do the slam, especially if I could afford it and make the cut at Western.

I definitely spent some cash this summer doing this little adventure. Four entry fees that weren’t cheap, a planeticket to Boston, a rental car, hotels, food, gas for my car on the road trips,etc. It added up pretty quick. Couple all of that with the other races I didthis year and this has been a pricey race year. Was it worth it? Some peoplewould say no, the average person can’t afford it, some of the races are wayoverhyped, entry fees are too high, you shouldn’t race that much, etc. Well, I’m happy to say that I’m not anaverage person, I could afford it, and who cares about the hype, whether I racetoo much, etc. I had a great time.

Did I find running four 100's difficult? Well, yes and no. The actual races all went very well. I ran within myself, knew what to do and just got the job done. There was never really any point in any race where I had serious thoughts of dropping or giving up. You always have those fleeting thoughts, but serious ones never really entered my head. Did I have to "dig deep" to finish (or any other of those metaphors). Nope, I just ran or walked until I got to the finish line. I think my biggest concern was the possibility of getting injured, either by taking a good fall and breaking or spraining something, or just an overuse or over training type injury. That kind of had me stressed, especially as Wasatch got closer. But that didn't happen, and I finished injury free. Indeed, I actually feel pretty good just a few days after Wasatch. Goes to show just how amazing and adaptable our bodies really are. You can train to recover quickly.

I was able to go do some races that maybe I would have neverdone without signing up for this adventure. So here’s a little recap of my thoughts on each race.

Western States – The granddaddy of them all. Lots of history, lots of extreme talent showevery year. Lots of hype. I let myself get sucked in and enjoyed theevent. Phenomenal organization andattention paid to every runner. I had agreat time with Aric and Alicia. Went ina little undertrained, but managed a respectable finish. I wouldn’t mind doing WS again, but it getspricier every year, plus you have the lottery to contend with.

Vermont – Another old school ultra. I got to run with horses and that was a realtreat. Vermont is beautiful in thesummer. Running the back roads, toppingout on hills with great views, past the farms. I also had a great race, sub-24 hour and my fastest 100 in manyyears. Larry was great at pacing me forthe last 30 miles. I would go do thisone again.

Leadville – Now the largest 100 mile event in the countrywith 600+ this year. Very scenic, not atremendously difficult course other than the cutoff time of 30 hours and thealtitude. Corporate owned now, whichmakes for a different atmosphere and vibe. Not sure I like it, but it is what it is. Great organization, aid was spot on. Once away from the headquarters, it was morelike the typical ultra. My lovely wifewas able to crew for me for the first time, and Carolyn was another great pacerI had. Fun. I don’t think I would do this one again. Running with that many people doesn’tinterest me a whole lot.

Wasatch – What can I say? It’s my home course and I love it. Always a great event. Intentionally kept low key and low cost. It was also the cheapest 100 I ran. The support is always superb. Oneof the reasons I love this race is that so many of my running friends arerunning it or volunteering and it’s way too much fun to see them, socialize alittle, cheer them on, etc. My pacerswere great, and I felt good for the most part. Run it again? Hell yes.

I’m not sure what I can do next year to top this year. Maybe I should not race so much and do moreadventure type runs. That actuallyappeals to me quite a bit. Still, I do have a few other races that I would love to do, so who knows what 2012 will bring running wise.

So, should you do the slam? I would recommend it if you manage to get into Western States. Doing one or two 100’s a year is anachievement that an extremely small portion of the population can or willdo. Doing four of them in less thanthree months is an achievement that very few ultrarunners will do. Completing the slam certifies you as a trulybadass runner, one not to be messed with at all. At least that’s what my friends tell me. I think they're just stroking my ego ;-)

Grand Slam Adventure Part 4, Wasatch 100

2011-09-15T09:12:00.001-06:00

Wow, the last race of the series. Finally. It’s been a pretty grueling summer running wise, but one I wouldn’ttrade away.
Prerace
After Leadville, I had three weeks to rest up, do a littlerunning, and anticipate running Wasatch for the 5^th time. I wasn’t apprehensive at all, I wasexcited. I know this course, I’ve doneit before several times, I know what to expect at every point. Bring it on.
During the three weeks between Leadville and Wasatch I didvery little running. I took a completeweek off after Leadville, then basically ran every other day until the weekbefore, and took most of that week off. I did manage to take Joel on a preview run of the course from Brightonto the finish, but we cheated and took the Sandy Baker cutoff, thus shorteningour run by about eight miles.
I went to the prerace Thursday, saw lots of friends, metwith my two pacers, then headed home. Mywife and I went to our favorite Italian restaurant for some carboloading, thenhome to bed. This time I slept like ababy, relaxed, no worries, no being all keyed up. It was nice to say the least.
I had huge plans for a sub-30 hour run and had made up apace chart to reflect that. I also toldall sorts of people that I planned on going sub-30. Best laid plans and all that.
Race
The race started at 5am and we were off. I took a nice relaxed pace for those firstfew miles before we started our climb up to Chinscraper. The legs felt pretty good, not tired, myattitude was good. I was excited to beout here and get this last race done.

Looking down from the top of Chinscraper

Little bit of snow left over from last winter

As I went up the climb to chinscraper, I chatted withCharlie Vincent. He did the Slam acouple years ago and we had a good time running the miles away. Once on the ridgeline, I got stuck in a congaline of about 10 runners. There reallywasn’t any good spot to pass, so I just went with it. A few people stopped at Landis spring and Iwas able to get by them and make a little bit of time. At about 11 miles, I saw something I’ve neverseen while running Wasatch. A nice bigsnow cornice left over from last winter. It must have been 3-4 feet thick still. We actually had to cross it. Iwouldn’t be surprised if some of it is still there when the snow flies in amonth or so. On past Grobben’s corner,past the radar towers (passed Joel here), and down the gravel road to theMaintenance Shed aid station. SinceFarmington Canyon road was closed, the race wasn’t allowing crew or spectatorsthere. It seemed really quiet andsubdued with only a handful of cars and people. Nice and quiet. Not only that,but there weren’t any motorcycles or 4-wheelers to raise all sorts ofdust. Very nice. The section between the maintenance shed andthe Bountiful B aid is one of my least favorite sections, a couple of steepclimbs, some almost bushwacking, just not fun. However, I persevered and managed to keep on a sub-30 hour pace. I felt pretty good to this point, but in acouple of miles after Bountiful, my attitude went south. I felt ok, my stomach was fine, it’s justthat my legs were tired, heavy, and so was my brain. Once I left the Sessions aid, Karen called. First, I was surprised that I got cellservice there, second, she got really worried after hearing me complain. At this point, it just wasn’t fun. It continued to not be any fun all the way tothe Swallow Rocks aid. Here I got acouple of popsicles, some potatoes with salt and bolted. The good thing was that I was still on asub-30 pace. A couple miles past SwallowRocks something clicked. It was instant,my attitude changed 180 degrees, I felt better, I took off for Big Mountain ata little quicker pace.

Descending to Alexander Ridge

At Big Mountain (39.4 miles) I met Britta, my first pacer. She brought me a Coke Icee, and that hit thespot. That, coupled with more potatoesand I felt like a new man. We took offfor Alexander Ridge and Lamb’s Canyon. Ihave never run the section between Big Mountain and Lamb’s in under fourhours. We did it in 3.5 hours.

Lamb's Canyon for a few minutes

At Lamb’s I picked up Meghan, my next pacer. Meghan has paced me for the last 47 milesbefore and we always have a good time, so I was looking forward to a few milesof interesting conversation. We took offup Lamb’s Canyon at a dead……walk. It’suphill and just steep enough for me to not run when I’m tired. Still, I managed a pretty good power hike upthe road and up the trail to Bear Ass Pass. My goal was to get there before dark. Our headlamps were on when we got to the top of the pass, but Meghanpointed out that it was technically still light since you could still see theremains of sunset. I’ll buy it. Down Elbow Fork Trail and up Millcreek roadto Upper Big Water we went.

Upper Big Water is always a cold spot. It sits in a bowl and collects cold air. During my first attempt at Wasatch I droppedhere due to the extreme cold and not being prepared. My plan was to eat a couple of bowls of theirspaghetti, put some dry warm clothes on and get out. We were out in 15 minutes. Going up to Dog Lake, and ultimatelyDesolation Lake I started to slow down. I had no climbing legs left. Icould do the downhills and flats just fine, but if it was uphill, I was goingslow. I saw my hopes of a sub-30 finishslipping away and knew that I little chance of getting it back. My uphill legs were gone. I knew I would finish, but my time would beless than spectacular.
The Desolation Lake aid is always an interesting place. Another cold spot at over 9000’, it’s easy tosit by their nice big campfire and warm up. Since I’ve wasted time doing that before, we left after about threeminutes. By now, the moon was out and itwas almost full. At times along theridge above Brighton we would turn off our headlamps and just run by themoonlight. The shadows were bright andit was pretty cool. Running by moonlightat 10,000’ is something that most people will never experience and one of thereasons I do these things. Park Citylights off to the left, Salt Lake City lights behind, Brighton lights off tothe right. Very cool in my book.
By the time we got to Brighton, I was slowing down evenmore. I had been looking forward toBrighton for some time because I knew I could get some scrambled eggs withketchup. Scrambled eggs with ketchup at3am after running 75 miles is some of the best tasting food there is. I just wished they’d have had some Tabascosauce. That would have been awesome (next time in my drop bag!). I decide to take a little break here and westayed here for about 45 minutes. I didmanage a short nap before we took off a little after 4am.

Sunrise over the Wasatch, love it

The climb out of Brighton on race day is one that alwaysgets to me. Usually my asthma is actingup a little and it’s a long slow 2.5 mile climb to Sunset Pass. This time it wasn’t too bad. My lungs were fine and we made the climb tothe pass in a little over an hour. Onceon the other side, it’s a very steep, loose and rocky trail into Ant Knoll’said. Everyone is pretty timid herebecause of the possibility of a nasty fall. I hammered it pretty good. I hadrun this section two weeks earlier and knew what to expect. Not only that, but my quads were still good togo as far as downhill running. I waswearing my Hoka’s to absorb the pounding and away I went. We made Ant Knoll’s by 6am, spent a coupleminutes getting some sausage and took off. The next climb up the Grunt wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be andwe made it to Pole Line Pass aid in a little over an hour. I was so sleepy along this section that Idecided to take a 10 minute nap here. That did wonders for me, but I wish I would have just had some caffeineinstead and saved a little time. Thenext few miles to Rock Springs aid were uneventful except for the elk we saw upabove us on the mountainside. We werehoping they would just leave us alone. All along this section we marveled at the sunrise over the Wasatch. This section is one of the most scenic and Ilove running through here when the sun is coming up. Beautiful. We basically ran through the Rock Springs aid and kept going. Next up was one of the toughest sections ofthe course, the dive, the plunge, the seven hills of Babylon. Very steep and loose rocky downhills followedby short steep uphills. Kind ofdemoralizing after 90 miles. Still, itdidn’t seem as bad as it has in years past. Don’t know why, it just didn’t.

Eventually we made it to the last aid station, PotBottom. From here it was a fairly easyclimb, some long downhill miles followed by a short section of road. Home free!
I did manage to run the last half mile or so to thefinish. The run across the lawn witheveryone cheering is something that always is enjoyable, especially this yearsince I had just completed the Grand Slam. A good portion of the Utah ultrarunning crowd knew I was attempting theSlam and I got all sorts of cheers, good jobs, etc. It was pretty neat.
Crossing the finish line I always thank John, the racedirector for the abuse I’ve put myself through. He just laughs.
Aftermath

One tired, but happy little boy

Once again I had a pretty uneventful 100 miles. No stomach issues at all, no chafing, andshock of all shocks, no blisters on my feet. No blisters has never happened at a 100. I finally managed to complete the section from Brighton to the finish inunder 10 hours. I have never been ableto do that before either. This time I did it in about9:30. Not too bad for tired legs.
Once again I did 1st Endurance EFS Liquid Shot as my main source of fuel for the first 75 miles. After that the stuff just won't go down. I switched to some energy bars that I found at the Outdoor Retailer show back in August. They're called Journey Bars and they aren't sweet. They have flavors like Mequite Bar-b-que, Wasabi ginger, Coconut curry. What I did was nibble on one an hour and that got me 200 calories per hour. Kept me fueled just fine.

So, I had some good sections, some not so good, but nothingterrible and horrible, just the usual ups and downs associated with somethinglike this.

The 12 Grand Slam runners who made it

I think the main reason I couldn’t go under 30 hours thisyear was just the fact that I had run three 100-mile races in thepast 11 weeks. Maybe some tiredlegs? Maybe I'm getting old? I don’t know, just a thought.

The nifty eagle Grand Slam trophy

The awards ceremony was pretty neat. When they were calling up the 12 of us whocompleted the slam, they announced me as the only Utah runner to complete itthis year. That got the loudestcheer. I have to admit, I enjoyed theattention. It’s something when all sortsof people tell you they’ve been followingyour progress all summer. I had allsorts of other runners during the race cheering me on.
I have to say thank you to my awesome pacers, Britta and Meghan. Not only did I have the best looking pacers out there, they were great at keeping me on task, eating, drinking, moving.

My awesome pacers, Meghan (L), and Britta (R)

By the numbers
Time – 32:35
Place – 114^th out of about 240 starters
Calories burned – the same 12,000
Calories taken in – roughly the same 6000 as usual
Time wasted at aid stations – roughly 1.5 hours
Shoes – La Sportiva Raptors for the first 53 miles, then the Hoka Mafate’s for the last 47.

Grand Slam of Ultrarunning Round #3, Leadville 100

2011-09-06T11:09:00.000-06:00

Well, the Leadville 100 is done, I survived just fine. My fears of failure were unfounded.

There was five weeks between the Vermont 100 and theLeadville 100. This allowed me to take aweek off completely, train hard for two weeks, then taper for the remaining twoweeks. My hard training consisted of acouple of 60+ miles weeks, including running the Speedgoat 50K race atSnowbird.
My main concern at Leadville was the altitude. The course itself isn’t particularlydifficult, it’s just that it’s all above 9000’. So my goal for training between Vermont and Leadville was to get up highas much as possible. Thus my running of theSpeedgoat 50K. At Speedgoat, I had all sorts of people calling me crazy fordoing a race that difficult in between two key 100 mile races. Yeah, I have to agree, it was kind ofcrazy. I managed a finish, but itcertainly wasn’t pretty. I bonked prettyhard over the last ten miles.
Prerace

Ken and Marilee doing the prerace pep talk

The Thursday before Leadville, Karen and I drove out toFrisco, CO, where we were staying. Afterchecking into our hotel, we drove over to Leadville to check in for the raceand just look around. The one thing weboth noticed was a headache from the altitude. I got a little worried, but knew it would probably disappear after abit. The Leadville area isbeautiful. The town kind of sits in avalley, but that valley is 10,000’ above sea level. You really feel like you’re on top of theworld. We stayed in Leadville for thepre-race dinner, then headed back to our hotel. After breakfast Friday morning, we drove back over to Leadville,finished the check in process (drop bags), stuck around for the preracebriefing (1200 people in a gym got pretty warm and stuffy), then drove part ofthe course so Karen could get familiar with where the aid stations were. She was going to crew for part of the racewith Carolyn Luckett, my pacer. We metCarolyn that afternoon, discussed all of the logistics, concerns, etc., thenheaded back to our hotel for the evening. I usually get a lousy night’s sleep the night before a race, and thiswas no exception. It didn’t help that wehad some noisy neighbors and I had to bang on the wall to get them to shut up.

Race

Still sleepy at 3:45

2am came awful early, but that’s when we needed to get up inorder to make the 4am start. Why oh whycan’t most 100 mile races start at a decent hour? Say 6am at the earliest? Or be like mine (the Buffalo Run) and startat noon. Sleep in, nice leisurelybreakfast, mosey over to the race start, then wait for the gun to go off. Nope, we have to start at some ungodly hour whenit’s still cold and dark out.

So anyway, the gun goes off at 4am and about 620 of us make our way across the starting line and into the dark. I was glad the first few miles were essentially downhill. It let me warm up without having to really exert myself. Especially since I didn’t know how well I could do at 9000’.

Now, corporate owned, bigger and better?

By the time we made our way the 3-4 miles to Turquoise Lake,the pack had strung out some. As we madeour way along the trail beside the lake, you could look back and see a hugestring of headlamps going back for over a mile. It was actually a pretty cool sight. There was some conga line action along this trail, but by the time Imade it to the May Queen aid station (13.5 miles), crowd conditions werebetter. In fact, after May Queen, therenever really was a point where the runners bunched up. After May Queen, we began the ascent toSugarloaf Pass going up the powerline.

The ascent up powerline to Sugarloaf Pass

This pass was just a hair over 11,000’ and would give me an early ideaof how I would fare at higher elevations. I was glad to find that I was doing just fine. I really didn’t seem to notice the altitudeat all during the race, even going over Hope Pass twice.

After Sugarloaf, we made a long decent into the FishHatchery aid station. In and out. Karen and Carolyn met me there, fueled me upwith a dose of 1^st Endurance Ultragen (320 calories) an kicked meout. Then began a few miles of pavedroad, followed by a gradual climb up to the Half Pipe aid station. Once again, in and out. Next stop, Twin Lakes. Karen and Carolyn met me here and fueled meup again. I spent a few minutes talking,then left for the trek up to Hope Pass.

Hope Pass off in the distance

River Crossing at Twin Lakes

You could see it in the distance and it was a little intimidating. 3400’ of climb up to 12,600’. All over about 4 miles. Not tremendously steep, but not a walk in thepark either. It was along this section that I caught up to Tom Remkes and hadCory Johnson pass me. These two areusually quite a bit in front of me, so I was a little surprised to see them soclose to me after 40+ miles. Nonetheless, theypulled ahead of me and I only saw them again on their way back up HopePass.

Once I got to the treeline, therewas the Hopeless aid station.

Hopeless aid station with Twin Lakes down below

This is agroup that has been doing this aid almost since the beginning. They pack everything in on llamas. And they have quite the setup. It was definitely a cool sight to see abouttwo dozen llamas staked out in the meadow grazing, occasionally looking up to

see what was going on. It was during thelast ¼ mile to the top of the pass that the front runners started comingthrough on their way back. This meantthat they were about ten miles in front of me. That sucks, but oh well, happens all the time to me.

Once I got to the top of Hope Pass, my cellphone let me know that I had several messages. Funny how down lower I didn’t have service, but up on some remote RockyMountain Pass, I did. I spent a coupleminutes sending a couple messages, enjoying the scenery and views, taking a fewpictures, then headed down the other side to the Winfield aid station. Going down the backside of Hope Pass wasdefinitely more technical than the way up. Steeper, rockier, although with less vertical.

I have no idea what the couple was doing in the background. Hypoxic yoga?

I finally made it into Winfield after 11:30of running. I still felt great, just alittle tired. I wasn’t going quite thespeed I had hoped, but I knew that it was a more realistic time. The key thing was, I felt great, no altitudeissues at all.

Heading down the other side into Winfield

I spent about ten minutesat Winfield, then took off for the return journey to the finish line. Everyone complains that the trek back up HopePass is demoralizing, but I didn’t find it that way at all. Steep, tiring, had to dodge out of the way ofrunners still coming down, but I knew that once I hit the top, the hardest partof the race would be over.

Top of Hope Pass, yeah buddy!

One of my new buddies

Once again,at the top of Hope Pass, I had some texts to look at. I answered them, then headed down. I was in a good mood. I felt good, I knew I had seven miles ofdownhill running ahead of me. I spent alittle more time at the Hopeless aid. Took some pictures of the llamas, had my picture taken with one, thenheaded down. This section of trail was ablast. Nice easy running, not tootechnical. You could get some speed upand make up some time. This I did,passing several people on the way down. I finally came out on the flats near the Twin Lakes river crossing andmade my way into the aid station. Karenand Carolyn were there, fueled me up again and I took off, this time withCarolyn to pace me the rest of the way. Going out of Twin Lakes, I knew we had a 1200’ climb to greet us, but Ialso knew that after that was a long rolling descent. We made the climb, then once we hit thedescent, I felt really good and really picked up the pace. I’m not sure I’ve run that fast at that pointin a 100 before. I think I was clockingright around 8 minute miles, and they felt easy. By now it was dark, and we could see therunners in front of us and it became fun to try and pick them off one byone. We must have passed well over 20runners during this section. But once wegot into the Half Pipe aid station, my stomach was starting to bother me. I always felt hungry, not to the point ofwanting to throw up, but close at times. I also was starting to have some lower GI issues and had to visit thewoods a couple times. In hindsight, Ithink it was the continuous use of Ultragen that did that. Needless to say, after Half Pipe, my paceslowed considerably. I was still able torun, just not at the same pace. We stillhad a downhill run to the Fish Hatchery, so I tried to make the most of it andrun as much as possible. One cool sighton the way into Fish Hatchery was a badger that I caught in my headlamp. He had a burrow in the bank alongside theroad. Kind of had a confused look on hisface. We didn’t get too close. The Fish Hatchery had some wonderful potatosoup. That stuff hit the mark and I hada couple of cups. I did sit here forabout 20 minutes just to take a little break. I also had some coffee here to try and keep me awake. I don’t remember what time we came through,but it was in the middle of the night. After Fish Hatchery, I knew that we had a pretty steep climb back uppowerline and over Sugarloaf Pass. Itwas a grind and I hated it. What didn’thelp any was that my lungs were getting weezy. We were thinking it might be HAPE. It also got a little cold up here, probably down in the upper 30’s and a little breezy at times, butnot too bad. We either passed or werepassed by others grinding their way up as well. At the top of the pass, we could see the May Queen aid station in thedistance. I still wasn’t moving toofast, but I trotted when I could. I gotinto May Queen at about 24 hours. Theyhad pancakes! I had couple of those withsyrup and a cup of milk and that hit the spot. Ispent about 15-20 minutes there and when I got set to leave, I couldn’t findCarolyn. Come to find out, she had takenoff thinking I had taken off. I ended updoing the last 13.5 miles sans pacer. Nobig deal, but the trek up the “boulevard” was truly a drunken death march. I was so tired and sleepy, I would walk up theroad with my eyes closed. By now the sunwas up, and it was interesting to look at the stragglers making their way tothe finish line. As I got closer I couldhear the cheers as each runner crossed the finish line. Finally I made it to 6^th street,the last half mile. Karen and Carolynmet me about ¼ mile from the finish and jogged with me for part of that. I found out the story behind my pacer mixup. Anyway, I crossed the finish line in28:20 and got the best hug from the lady that put my finisher medal around myneck. I just stood there and enjoyed itfor a minute.
Aftermath
I was still pretty wheezy at the finish line, so I went overto the medical tent and asked them to evaluate me for HAPE. They did a pulseox and listened to my lungsand pronounced me just fine. My lungswere clear, pulseox was normal given the elevation. In talking with them for a bit, we figured itwas probably my asthma acting up. Nothing that really slowed me down, but noticeable anyway. Guess I should have remembered to bring my inhaler.
Karen and I took off for the hotel to shower and get cleanedup a little. After that we grabbed somebreakfast and drove back over to Leadville for the awards ceremony. We thought about hanging around for the postrace BBQ, but the prospect of a nine hour drive home meant that we hit the roadas soon as I got my buckle.
By the numbers
Time – 28:20:22
Placing – 193rd out of 622 starters, 22^nd in myage group (50-59).
Shoes – I wore my Hoka Mafate’s until the return throughTwin Lakes. After that I wore my LaSportiva Crosslite 2.0’s. My feetsurvived just fine. Just a couple ofblisters of no consequence.
Calories burned – 12,500
Calories eaten – 6,000. Maybe 6,000. I forgot to bringall of my Liquid Shot and had to devise a backup. Thank goodness I had the Ultragen in my dropbags. I also ate more solid food than Iusually do.
Next up, Wasatch 100 on September 9^th. I’m looking forward to this one for a fewreasons. First, it’s the last one of theslam, second, it’s on my turf, third, I have lots of friends either running itor pacing others. Should be a good timeif I feel good. I’m hoping to finally gosub-30 hour this year. Wish me luck.
Some Post Race Thoughts
A couple of weeks ago I happened to check on the ultralist and noticed a thread about corporate ownership of races, particularly Leadville, and what it means for our sport. Ultrarunning has always been a small, little, grassroots sport that typically draws not only the hardcore athlete, but athletes who are generally eglitarian by nature. Many believe that any race should donate all proceeds to some sort of charity, or should be non-profit. As our sport grows (the number of participants has roughly doubled since 2000), it will draw the interest of companies looking to sell us stuff. It will also draw compaines that see races as a profit center to be exploited. Last year the Leadville Race Series was purchased by Lifetime Fitness. Lifetime clearly saw an opportunity to enter the extreme sports genra and make some money. Is this bad? Some people would say yes it is. It takes away from the sport's nature.
Here's my take as I posted to the ultralist.
"As an RD I have to weigh in on this a little bit. If Lifetime Fitness wants to charge that much for a race, let them. Why can't they make money doing this? They are in the business of making money, fitness products are they means to that end. That is the prime reason any business exists, including mine. Whether I, or any other RD, chooses to donate all of the proceeds to charity or to their own pocket, is beside the point. In order to donate or line your own pocket, the bottom line is that you still have to make a profit. Since I am not independently wealthy, my family budget cannot and will not take a loss just so my race is cheaper (they're already pretty inexpensive even by Utah standards). Lifetime is clearly charging what the market will bear. More power to them. If the market won't bear what they are charging, they will be forced by economics to lower their entry fee, it's that simple. As it is always said on this list, if you don't like what's being charged by the organizers (including my events), find another event or start your own. Free enterprise is one of the things that make this country great.
Oh, and I'm running Leadville this Saturday, yeah the entry fee was a little high, but I willingly chose to enter and pay it."
For Leadville, I don't think corporate ownership detracted from the race. Yes, there was the usual corporate shilling going on during the pre-race, etc., but each aid station was still like the typical ultra aid station. With well over 600 runners on the course, did that take away from the experience? This was my main concern, the "crowds". I don't think it did. By the time I got past May Queen, the "crowd" had thinned out and it wasn't an issue. Yes, I was generally always in sight of another runner, but so what? Ah, but the key questions is, would I go back and run it again? Probably not, it was beautiful, the organization was impeccable, but there's other races I want to run, and I do have something of an aversion to crowds. I'd rather run smaller races, but that's just me.

Vermont 100, leg two of the Grand Slam

2011-08-26T15:24:00.000-06:00

Probably about time I wrote this since the sharp memories are fading a little.

The Vermont 100 is the second leg of the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning. This race started back in 1988 and is one of the oldest 100’s in the country. The unique thing about this race is that you get to share the course with horses competing in their own 100 mile event.

Post Western States

I spent the three weeks in between Western and Vermont resting up, doing a little running, but that’s about it. Oh, I did go swim some laps a couple of times. I didn’t run at all after Western until the Thursday after the race. This was intentional. So Thursday I went out for a short few miles and felt pretty good. I took Friday off and then did one of my favorite summer runs on Saturday, up Ben Lomond Peak. I went with a bunch of friends and we couldn’t believe the amount of snow still on the mountain. We crossed several snowfields, saw a good-sized rattlesnake (had to take pictures), and the rest of them made their way to the top. Since it was nothing but a big snow cone for the last 1500’, I elected to not go up. I could see myself falling and sliding all the way down, getting injured and not being able to complete the slam. Instead, while they went up, I did a short out and back at 8500’ just to add a few miles. All in all, a good time. The next week I did three runs of around 8.5 miles with a day off in between. The week before Vermont I shortened the distances further and didn’t run at all from Wednesday on. By the time I got to Vermont, I felt pretty well rested and ready to go. Knowing that this race would be a little easier and faster (hopefully) than Western, I made it my goal to try and go sub 24. If I did, this would be my first sub 24 100 in a several years.

Prerace

So three weeks after running Western States I found myself on a plane to Boston. The plan was to fly there, rent a car and drive to White River, NH to my hotel. The flight was uneventful, the drive was uneventful. I checked into my hotel Thursday evening, checked into the race Friday morning, then went to play tourist for a bit. I did a short little hike around the Quechee gorge and met another slammer (Tammie Massie) out doing the same thing. I went back to the race for the dinner and met up with Larry Adams, the guy who would pace me for the last 30 miles. Had a good dinner, went back to my hotel and went to bed. As usual, not a good night’s sleep, but oh well.

Game on

So I get up at 2:30am on race day. Vermont is one of those races that starts at a horrid time of day, 4am. Why can’t they start at a decent time like 8am? I managed to get out to the race HQ in plenty of time, mill around, then take off at 4am with almost 300 other runners. Ugh!

The initial few miles were primarily downhill, so I was able to take it easy, warm us and get a rhythm going before anything hard came along. These first few miles seemed to fly by. I felt great, my pace was good, I had no issues at all. By around the 10 mile point, we could hear the first of the horses coming down the road behind us. As we were trotting along, theses three horses just seemed to float down the road. I was amazed at these animals. They were gorgeous and in superb shape. You could tell that they wanted to be out there running. They made my horses look rather fat and out of shape. All day long we had the opportunity to watch these awesome animals perform.

Most of the day was pretty uneventful. The weather was pretty decent, it warmed up to around 80-83, with low humidity by northeast standards. The aid stations were plentiful and well stocked. The scenery was what you would expect running through rural Vermont, beautiful. The views from the hills were gorgeous.

Short course description. 76 miles of gravel road, 22 miles of trail, 2 miles of pavement, none of it flat. We were either going up or going down. Very, very rolling.

My only issues during the day were a somewhat upset stomach between 50-60 miles. For some reason I couldn’t get it to go away. Still, I managed to hit the halfway point at 9:30, for one of my fastest 50 mile times, and hit the 100K point at about 12:15, one of my fastest times for that distance as well. The legs felt good. The first time I went through the Camp 10 Bear aid station (47.2 miles), my weight was down about 8-9 pounds (5%). You get pulled from the race if your weight drops more than 7%. This got me a warning to take a break and drink and eat. I took off anyway, but it scared me enough to make sure that I drank plenty and ate plenty for the next 20 miles, knowing that they would weigh me again when I came back through at 70 miles. When I got back to Camp 10 Bear at 70.1 miles, my weight had come back up and I was only down three pounds. No problem now. At Camp 10 Bear I picked up Larry Adams, my pacer for the rest of the night. He lives out here in Utah but was back in NY on business and drove up just to pace me. What a nice guy. Anyway, by now I had started to chafe, and this always slows me down. Still, Larry kept me on track and on a good pace through the night. Night running is always kind of cool during a race, you’re in your own little world, occasionally see other runners or an aid station, but time seems to slow way down. The night was just as uneventful as the day. I was still on pace to break 24 hours as long as I stayed focused on the job at hand. Larry kept me focused and before I knew it, we had passed the last aid station and only had 2.3 miles to go. Home free. For the last mile or so, we could hear the commotion at the finish line. We weren’t getting closer just yet, but going kind of parallel to it. Finally, over the last ridge, down through the woods, and there it was. I finished. My final time was 23:27:31. I had gone under my goal of 24 hours. It’s always a good thing if you can finish a 100 mile race before the sun comes up.

Aftermath

This race went pretty well. I felt much stronger than I did going into Western States, even though I had run a 100 just three weeks prior. I felt really good except for some very minor stomach issues and the chafing for the last 30 miles. I’m convinced that had the chafing not been an issue, I could have finished under 23 hours, it slowed me down that much. My race was uneventful, and that’s how I like it. Afterwards, Larry and I went back to his hotel slept for a few hours, then went back out to the race HQ for the awards ceremony and BBQ. I got my second belt buckle (you don’t get a buckle from Vermont unless you go under 24 hours) of the summer, and felt pretty good about the rest of the races coming up.

I was a little worried about the flight home. Sitting in a cramped, pressurized aluminum pipe for four hours after running 100 miles I thought would be painful, but it wasn’t too bad. I even managed to sleep for a couple hours.

By the numbers

Time – 23:27:31

Placing – 78^th out of 297 starters, 10^th in my age group (50-59). Much better than my performance at Western. There’s some fast old farts out there.

Shoes – I wore my Hoka Mafate’s the entire time. With all of the packed gravel roads, these things saved my feet. I didn’t need any technical trail shoes.

Calories burned – 12,500

Calories eaten – 6,000. I got pretty tired of the 1^st Endurance Liquid Shot after about 60 miles. I still ate the stuff, but started eating more aid station fare, ramen noodles, chicken noodle soup, etc.

Next up, Leadville 100 on August 20^th. This one kind of worries me due to the altitude and the 30 hour time limit.

Western Freakin' States, Baby

2011-07-19T11:30:00.000-06:00

It's about time I got around to posting a report from Western States, especially now that the Vermont 100 is history. Guess I'll have to get that post going as well. Enjoy the read - Jim

Prerace - So way back in December I got lucky (or unlucky) enough to draw out in the Western States Lottery. 1600 people vying for about 275 slots….in June. I decided then that since I got into WS, that this would be perhaps my only opportunity to attempt the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning, four 100-mile races in 11 weeks. Western States, Vermont, Leadville, and Wasatch.
For those not in the ultrarunning know, the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run is the oldest 100 mile race in the country (38 years). It’s kind of the unofficial 100 mile championship since all of the really fast burners show up to race each other. Figure it’s the Boston of 100 mile events.
So, Aric Manning, Alicia Kirkman and myself ventured out to Squaw Valley, CA the Thursday before the race. We had the opportunity of staying in a house with the Pearl Izumi Ultrarunning Team. These guys are fast, I’m not. It was fun to get to know them, hear how they prep for a race, their strategy (mine was to finish in under 30 hours, theirs was to win). When we got to the house, Nick Clark, one of the PI team, told me that I was picked for 4th or 5th place on the Irunfar website in a reader poll.
Needless to say, I was greatly amused. Obviously whoever did those picks clearly does not know how fast I run, or don’t run.
Friday was pretty uneventful other than a short four mile run in the morning and the race check in hoopla. I gave in to the WS hype and spent way too much money on shirts and other paraphernalia that I really don’t need. I bought a couple of shirts for my crew and pacer as well.
I actually got a decent night’s sleep Friday night, roughly five hours worth. Unusual for me prior to a big race like this. I usually toss and turn all night. Must have been the cool mountain air and the sound of the river rushing just outside our window.
Race day - Saturday 5am. Race start at the Squaw Valley Ski Area base. The first 3.5 miles were all uphill, mostly on a service road. We hit snow at about three miles and had pretty much continuous snow for the next 10-12 miles. A lot of the snowpack was anywhere from 5-10 feet deep. It was interesting to follow the course markings. Since there wasn't a "trail" we went from ribbon to ribbon, sometimes able to make a straighter line than the ribbons did. It was kind of easy to miss ribbons too if you weren't paying attention. We finally left the snow for the most part at the next aid station (15 miles).
The next several miles found us cruising a trail along French Meadows Reservoir, a completely new portion of the course since access to the higher country was blocked by snowpack. I wasn’t a big fan of this section, too many rollers, couldn’t get a good rhythm going and I didn't feel quite right. I couldn't put a finger on it, but just not my A game. I finally got into Duncan Canyon and back on the original WS course. Hopefully all would be right with the world now. I was still running on a sub 24 hour pace, but I figured that wouldn’t hold unless I got really lucky.
So Duncan Canyon goes by, Mosquito Ridge, Robinson Flat, Miller’s Defeat, actually most of the day was pretty uneventful, I just cruised along, kept drinking, eating etc. Just enjoying the run. When I got to Last Chance I knew that the infamous canyons section was next. We had a really steep decent to a river, cross the bridge and then went up over 1600’ in the next 1.25 miles. Holy crap that was steep! I arrived at the Devil’s Thumb aid station pretty well worn out. That climb took a lot out of me. But time to continue on. Michigan Bluff at 55 miles was the first place that crew were allowed. Alicia met me there and I changed packs, shoes, socks, sat for a couple minutes, said goodby and took off. The next aid would be Forest Hill at 62 miles. Forest Hill is the biggest, most major aid station on the course. You run through the middle of town, everyone is out watching and cheering, plenty of parking for crew, generally a good vibe going on. Alicia met me here again. I managed to get to Forest Hill in 14:09. A little slower than I wanted but oh well. Still on pace for a sub-24 hour finish. At Forest Hill I picked up my headlamp, a long sleeve t and left. I wasn’t sure how cold it would get at night, but I figured a long sleeve t would be good enough. Dardenelles, Peach Stone, Ford’s Bar. Don’t remember too much about any of those except I was slow. Down to a walk. In every 100 mile race you have a slow patch, for whatever reason your energy is low no matter how much food or drink you’ve had. You just have to push your way through it. The next aid station I remember was the Rucky Chucky river crossing. In normal years you wade across the river. When the water level is high, they put you in an inflatable and row you across. I got there at around 10pm, and the area was lit up and reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. You could hear the rapids upstream but couldn’t see them. I half way expected to hear some people singing “It’s a Pirates Life for Me”. They had plenty of people helping you down the steep path to the water’s edge, put a life jacket on you and loaded you on the boat. When I went across there was some young kid rowing and he had us across is about six strokes. He pulled hard. We made it to the other side, unloaded and started up the dirt road to the Green Gate aid station (80 miles). This is where I met both Alicia and Aric. Aric was going to pace me the rest of the way in. At this point I was still in shuffle mode and had about six miles to go to the Auburn Lake Trails aid station. We had heard that this was the party station, and it was somewhat noisy. I sat down here and immediately got a little chilled. The aid station was in a low spot and so was I. I sat down and one of the medical staff treated me to a wonderful shoulder massage. I downed some chicken noodle soup, some of the most horrid tasting coffee I have ever had (I mean it was really, really BAAAADDDD), and told Aric to wake me in 15 minutes and was promptly out. 14 minutes later I woke up and got up. It must have been what I needed because I basically ran nonstop for the next four hours. I felt pretty good. That coffee must have been rocket fuel. After that the next aid station I remember was the Highway 49 crossing. Lot’s of good vibes there, especially since there was less than ten miles left. No Hands bridge was beautiful. An old railroad bridge over the American River. Very cool. One last climb up to the bluff where Auburn was and I hit the road for the last mile. Now I was getting excited. No sub 24 hour finish, but a finish nonetheless. We turned the corner and could hear the announcer at the high school stadium that was the finish line. Down one last path, and into the stadium and on to the track. Then you hear your name being announced, people cheering and clapping. It was pretty cool. Alicia met me part way around the track and videoed me as I crossed the finish line. It sure felt good to be done.
Aftermath – Immediately after you finish you can have your blood drawn and a urine specimen taken for research. I opted for that and had the blood test results in a few hours. What the result showed is that I was a little dehydrated (to be expected), but not bad, it showed that I fueled and hydrated just fine during the race. My CPK, a measure of muscle cell death, was somewhat high (also to be expected).
Shoes – I wore my La Sportiva Crosslite 2.0’s for the first half. They were very grippy and perfect for the snow. I almost felt like I was cheating. People were slipping and sliding all around me and I just motored on by. I did go down on the snow three times, but nothing serious. I wore a pair of Hoka Mafate’s for the second half of the race. Great on the downhills and rocky sections. Saved my feet.
Fueling – Once again I did a primarily liquid diet. Lots and lots of 1st Endurance EFS Liquid Shot, probably 5000 calories worth, plenty of chicken noodle soup, probably 400 oz. of water with Hammer Fizz tablets thrown in. A little bit of fruit such as melon and cantaloupe. For electrolytes, I relied on the sodium and potassium in the Liquid Shot and the Fizz tablets. Must have been ok, because I took very few Succeed! Tablets and never had any issues. My weight stayed consistently two pounds below my check in weight. This is a good thing. The only downside to this kind of diet was that by the time I was at about mile 70, I was getting pretty sick of vanilla flavored gel. It took some effort to keep downing the stuff every 30 minutes. But it works.
Observations – Overall the race organization is outstanding. They treat you like rock stars at every aid station. You have your own handler every time you come in. Their goal is to get you across the finish line. The scenery was beautiful, but I’ve run other courses that were just as scenic, if not more so. I did have a lot of fun. I got to hang with some elite runners for a couple days. I got to see other runners that I don’t see very often. I met new friends, including some that are doing the Grand Slam as well. I had a couple of friends that made the trip with me and helped me out, then drove home while I slept in the back seat. All in all, very worthwhile. Not sure I’ll get the chance to do it again, but who knows? I would given the chance.
Here’s the stats –
Time – 27:59:27

Place – 222nd out of 310 finishers, roughly 350 starters, 34th age group (50-59) out of 59 finishers. Not a particularly good finish, but a finish nonetheless.

Calories expended were roughly 12,500 and calories taken in were roughly 6,000.

A Grand (Canyon) Weekend

2011-04-20T16:30:00.023-06:00

Sometimes running isn’t about the races or the training but about where you are and who you’re with when you go for a run.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Grand Canyon and do a rim-to-rim-to-rim run again. This would be my fourth time doing a double crossing. I also had the opportunity to go with a group of running friends from the Ogden area. I can’t think of too many other things I would have rather done than do a run in this spectacular place with a bunch of friends. We had a great time. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Prologue

We began planning this adventure last year and all sorts of people said they were going. What I’ve found out is that when the date gets closer, most people end up dropping out and the group ends up being two or three people. This time we had ten total runners that did all or part of the journey. For several, this was their first visit to the Grand Canyon as well as their longest run ever, by a long ways. Since I had done this run a few times, I became the defacto tour guide.
On Friday afternoon, most of us were able to get in a view of the canyon with me pointing out where we were going. There were several “wows”, “what did I get myself into”, “this is kind of scary” comments, but everyone was still up for the run. We agreed to start at 4am so that we would hopefully avoid most of the heat of the day in the inner canyon.

The last supper

Journey

We ended up starting at 4:20am on Saturday morning. The air temperature was about 32 degrees but there wasn’t any breeze. Generally a pleasant morning and we were excited. Since it was dark, no one could see the trail from the rim, let alone the canyon. One of our party went down the trail a ways so she could get pictures of the headlamp train coming down.
After about an hour we came to Indian Gardens. This is about half way to the river and is a campground, water stop, etc. We took a short break to refill on water, eat a little something, take some pictures, marvel at the scenery.

According to this sign, we’re all going to die if we attempt to hike to the river and back in one day

After that we kept going down and down and down. Finally we saw the river and began the short run to the silver bridge. Along the way us guys had to stop and throw rocks into the river trying to hit a large boulder. It’s a guy thing. We trotted across the silver bridge and a few minutes later came to the Phantom Ranch. Here we stopped, filled up on water, ate some, took a break and let everyone catch up. Everyone agreed that this was an awesome place to go for a run.

The motley crew at the Phantom Ranch

We began the run up Bright Angel Canyon as the sun was just hitting the upper walls of the canyon. The run up was pretty uneventful, just going along, marveling at the scenery, enjoying every minute of it. Eventually we got to Cottonwood Campground. Last year I did this run the same weekend and the water was on. This year it wasn’t. A few people were concerned, but I mentioned that the caretaker house was just a mile or two up the trail and the water was always on there. Sure enough, when we got there, the water was on and we were all able to tank up. By now our group was starting to spread out and I went most of the way to the north rim with a fellow R2R2R runner from San Francisco. I got to the north rim by 12:30pm.

At the north rim and feeling good

Felt great and took about a 30 minute break waiting for the others to show. A couple of the faster guys in our group had already headed back down. Eventually I decided to head back down because I wanted to get back to the Phantom Ranch before they closed at 4pm and buy some lemonade. So Jerome (the runner from SF) and I headed down. We had to push fairly hard to make it before closing and we managed to do just that. When I walked into the Ranch, I was the last customer. I put down a $20 and told them I wanted to buy as many lemonades as I could. I ended up with eight and as each runner in our group came in, I handed them one. That was some good stuff. I ended up spending two hours at the Ranch waiting for people to come through. Jerome and I finally took off for the south rim at 6pm with a few of the others following a few minutes later.
As we went up the Bright Angel trail and the skies got darker, the frogs really started to croak. Huge sounds echoing off the canyon walls, but coming from these tiny little frogs about two inches big. The bats started to come out as well and would fly extremely close to us snagging bugs. We made it to Indian Gardens a little after 7pm, took a short break and pressed on. I was still feeling very good other than getting hungry. I was out of food and worried about bonking. I’ve bonked before going up this trail and it’s not fun. Next was making it to the 3-mile resthouse. That took us 45 minutes and based on that I told Jerome that it would take us another 1.5 hours to get to the top. We must have picked up the pace because we made it to the 1.5-mile resthouse just 35 minutes later and 35 minutes after that we were coming out of the canyon. So, after some 17 hours in the depths of the Grand Canyon, I was finally out. I ended up waiting at the trailhead in my car until 12:45am when the last person finally made it up.

Aftermath

As people finished, several swore they would never do that again, it was the hardest or worst thing they had ever done. However, by the next day, most were ready to go again. Some of us spent Sunday just hanging out enjoying the scenery, watching the California Condors and eating, rather than driving home. It was a nice way to relax and relive the experience.
For me, doing this run was a reward for the training that I do as well as a break after directing the Buffalo Run. Doing it with a bunch of friends just made it that much more special.
I was a little worried about how I would do given my seeming lack of running, but I think the biking and swimming I’ve been doing more than made up for it as I felt great the entire day. I wish I had taken one more 1st Endurance flask for the calories. Next time.
I wore my La Sportiva Crosslites and they worked perfectly, but I think they’re ready for retirement as the coolest lawn mowing shoes on the block. I know I’m ready to go again. Maybe try some different trails next time.

Next up on the agenda is the Red Mountain 50K down near St. George. I've never run this one before so it'll be interesting. Looking forward to a nice warm weekend in the desert and away from the cold and rain.

Updated 2011 Race Schedule

2010-12-04T18:08:00.005-07:00

So, big excitement in the air. I got picked in the Western States 100 lottery. A roughly 15% chance and I made it. Goes to show that when you aren't really planning on something happening, then it does. So I immediately signed up for Vermont 100, Leadville 100, and I'm already in the lottery for the Wasatch 100. Let the training begin. I'm thinking now I should get a coach. I would love to go sub-24 at Western, Vermont and Leadville, and sub-30 at Wasatch. That's going to take some serious training and a coach may be the help I need to do that.
So, here's the new updated race/significant run schedule.

1/29-Winter Snowshoe Festival-probably the 25k, but maybe the 50k

2/12-Striders Winter Training Series 5K

2/19-Moab Red Hot 50K

2/26-Striders Winter Training Series 10K

3/12-Striders Winter Training Series 10 mile

3/25-3/26-Antelope Island Buffalo Run-my little gift to the ultrarunning world. I'm expecting around 600 runners in 2011

4/2-Striders Winter Training Series half marathon

4/16-Grand Canyon double crossing

4/23-Red Mountain 50K

5/14-Grandeur Peak "fun" run

5/21-Timp Trail Marathon

5/28-Pocatello 50 mile

6/4-Squaw Peak 50 mile

6/11-Boise Half Ironman

6/25-Western States 100

7/16-Vermont 100

8/6-Zion Traverse-This is about the only weekend I could do this one. I may have to put this run off until 2012.

8/20-Leadville 100

9/9-Wasatch 100

9/18-Rock Cut Hobo Run 50K

10/15-Mountain View Trail Half Marathon

11/5-Antelope Island 100K

Putting together the 2011 race schedule

2010-12-02T20:06:00.006-07:00

So I've been working on the 2011 race and significant run schedule for 2011. There's so many runs out there that I want to do plus the ones I've done in the past that I really like that it gets difficult to pick which ones I want to run.
I started out by signing up for the Western States lottery. I'll find out on Dec. 4th whether I got picked or not. With over 1500 runners vying for about 225 spots, my 15% chance doesn't look particularly good. I decided that if the lottery gods did smile upon me and I was picked, then I would go ahead and sign up for the Grand Slam of ultrarunning. For those that don't know waht that is, it's the four oldest 100 mile races in the country, done in the same year. Actually done in eleven weeks. Western States 100 starts this madness off, followed by the Vermont 100, then back to the mountains of Colorado for the Leadville 100 and to top things off, the Wasatch 100 in my back yard of Utah. Every year a couple dozen people declare their intent, but usually less than ten finish all four races.
I also entered the Wasatch 100 lottery as well. Last year I didn't get picked but I'm hoping my chances are better this time around. That lottery isn't until Feb. I love the Wasatch race. Every time I do it I swear I'm not doing it again, but it keeps drawing me back.
Signing up for Vermont and leadville shouldn't be an issue if I get into Western States.
So what do I do if I don't get into WS? Throw my hands up in despair.....not. Plenty of other great races out there. If I don't get into WS, then I'm planning on signing up for the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in France/Switzerland/Italy. It's a 166km trail race around Mont Blanc, the highest point in Europe. This race allows 2300 runners in and has a lottery as well. Some of my Speedgoat team mates ran it this past August and some are going to sign up for next year. That race would be a definite good time since I've never been to Europe before. I'll have to take Karen on that trip if I get in.
That's the big news on the race schedule. I have plenty of other races that I want to do, so here's the tenative list as of now:

1/29-Winter Snowshoe Festival-probably the 25k, but maybe the 50k

2/12-Striders Winter Training Series 5K

2/19-Moab Red Hot 50K-been wanting to run this one for a few years

2/26-Striders Winter Training Series 10K

3/12-Striders Winter Training Series 10 mile

3/25-3/26-Antelope Island Buffalo Run-my little gift to the ultrarunning world. I'm expecting around 600 runners in 2011

4/2-Striders Winter Training Series half marathon

4/16-Grand Canyon double crossing (47 miles) with friends. A definite good time.

4/23-Red Mountain 50K-never done this race, traded entries with the RD, down by St. George

5/14-Grandeur Peak "fun" run-A little 10 mile run with an ungodly climb (3000'+ in maybe 2 miles)

5/21-Timp Trail Marathon-ran it last year in the snow and rain. Beautiful tough course.

5/28-Pocatello 50 mile-cancelled midway thru this year due to extreme conditions (blizzard)

6/4-Squaw Peak 50 mile-I volunteer at this one every year. Way too much fun hiking in supplies five miles, uphill to 9000', then helping over 200 runners get to the finish

6/11-Boise Half Ironman-yeah, I know, my first tri. Doing it with a friend and it should be pretty interesting

6/25-Western States 100 or Logan Peak-I love Logan Peak, but if I get into WS, then that's where I'm going. Also looking at the Black Hills 100 in SD as a WS substitute

7/16-Vermont 100 if I get into WS. Possibly Devil's Backbone 50 mile in WY if I don't.

7/29-Swancrest 100-Failed at this one this year, too slow. Beautiful course, lots of grizzly bears. Need I say more.

8/20-Leadville 100 if I get into WS, Where's Waldo 100K if I don't. I've run WW five times and love that race.

8/27-UTMB if I get picked and I don't get into WS

9/9-Wasatch 100-Gotta do this one again.

9/?-Rock Cut Hobo Run 50K-I started this race when I lived in IL. I've never been back to run it but it's still going on. Gives us a chance to see our daughter and her family as well.

10/15-Mountain View Trail half Marathon-one of the other events I put on on Antelope Island

11/5-Antelope Island 100K-Another event I put on

I need to find a race or two to take me thru the fall. Suggestions? Maybe Le Grizz in Montana? I'd also love to squeeze in a Zion Traverse in maybe late summer. That's about 45 miles across Zion National Park.

Well, that's it. We'll see how the winter training plays out. So far it's ok, not great. I have started swimming in anticipation of the half ironman. Guess I need to start biking as well.

5th Time's a Charm, Where's Waldo 100K

2010-08-26T20:59:00.013-06:00

I went into this year’s Where’s Waldo 100K with what I hoped was some good training. This is the 5th year I’ve run this race and I’ve had some good runs there and some horrible runs there. Like any ultra event, so much depends on the day, weather, mood, etc. and less on training than shorter races (at least I think so). Don’t get me wrong, training is good and more training is more gooder.
So three weeks ago I DNF’d at the Swancrest 100. Nonetheless, 68 mountain miles has to be a good workout for a 100K. I didn’t do a whole lot of running in between Swancrest and Where’s Waldo. A little bit during the week, one 21+ mile run up past Ben Lomond a couple weeks ago and that was about it. So I came to Oregon pretty well rested.
I think this is the 9th year for Where’s Waldo and I’ve run five of them now. I don’t know if anyone else has run that many, but I’m definitely a veteran here.
Course description-99% single track, 1% dirt road, no pavement except to cross a couple roads, just awesome, sweet single track through the forest. Trail running nirvana. Two peak climbs, one to the top of Fuji Peak early in the race and the other to the top of Maiden Peak late in the race. Both provide spectacular views from the tops that make the entire run worth every minute. The elevation isn’t too bad. The peaks top out at 7500’+ with all of the race between 5000’-7000’. Easy enough for me since I train that high, but people coming from sea level do struggle a bit. Most of the trail is very runnable, just the three climbs that really force you into a walk.
So at 5am the race starts. The first mile is one of the walking climbs. Up a service road at the ski area for roughly a mile. Not a climb I really like, but oh well. I start out in my usual location, mid pack and go. I forgot my headlamp but I knew that I’d be able to leach off other runner’s lights, so no big deal. By the time we hit the trail it was light enough to see and start running. The next several miles to the Gold Lake aid are primarily downhill so the running is sweet. The crowd thins out a little and you can get a good run going.
So I hit Gold Lake at the same time I do every year, 1:22 into the race. After Gold Lake we cross a road and begin the climb up to the Fuji Peak aid. Much of this is runnable but there are some fairly steep parts as well. I get into Fuji the first time at the same time I do every year, about 2:30 in. I pretty much blew through this aid station knowing that I’d see them again in 2.5 miles after the climb up to the top of Fuji. Felt good going up Fuji and spent a minute or two enjoying the view from the top. I’d love to spend more time, but there’s a race to run, back down I go. Got back into the Fuji aid, once again, at the same time I do every year. I need to push harder early on in this race. Spent less than two minutes here and headed out for Mt. Ray. This section is primarily downhill, but there are some parts that are pretty rolling. Got into Mt. Ray, you guessed it, the same time I usually do every year. Still feeling very good.
I knew the stretch to Twins 1 was mostly uphill, but I figured I could run most of it. About a mile or so after I left Mt. Ray, I hooked up with four other runners, and with me leading the pack we pushed pretty hard into Twins. I offered to let someone else lead, but they were all good with me heading things up. I was too because it kept me pushing the pace. I got into Twins 1 a full 10 minutes faster than I ever have and I feel great. I was in and out and dropped the rest of the pack heading for the halfway point at Charlton Lake. I was kind of hoping for under 6.5 hours to the halfway and almost made it. I hit Charlton at 6:38 in the race. Once again, fastest pace ever for this section. Dang, I’m on a roll today. As long as I feel good, I’m keeping this up. So, in and out of Charlton heading for road 4290. Not my favorite section of the race, but it’s not too bad. The way I felt through this section made me think that maybe I was slowing down, but when I looked at my splits, this was also my fastest time through here. The section between 4290 and Twins 2 is my least favorite section. You’re 37 miles in, it’s 7.5 to Twins, most of it uphill, during the heat of the day. Ugh! I was still feeling really good so I set a goal of getting to Twins at a 16 minute pace. Usually I’m at about a 16:30 pace. I rocked this section. Averaged 15:20 and pulled into Twins 2 a full 10 minutes faster than I ever have. I knew the next section to Maiden Peak aid was primarily downhill and I resolved to run absolutely as much of it as I could. I was still feeling really good. A little tired, but not sore, no stomach or hydration issues. I rocked this section as well. Averaging a full minute and a half faster pace than I ever have, I pulled into Maiden Peak almost 390 minutes ahead of my fastest time.
I was kind of looking forward to the climb of Maiden Peak. 2.5 miles with 2000’ gain and it gets steeper the higher you go. Made it to the top without too much problem,then back down to the Maiden Lake aid station. Time here wasn’t my fastest, but not too far off. Left Maiden Lake after just a couple minutes feeling good and ready to rock the alst section. Short uphill section, then 7+ miles of sweet downhill, my favorite section of the course. Managed to do this section faster than any other time as well.
I crossed the finish line in 13:44, my fastest time ever on this course by 24 minutes. I felt like I could have kept going too.
So what went right? Virtually everything. I fueled the entire race with First Endurance EFS Liquidshot. This is the first time I’ve conciously gone with a liquid diet during a race. I kept the fueling steady all day by taking a shot every 30 minutes or so. The stuff works great.
Wore my La Sportiva Raptor’s again. I like these shoes. Plenty of traction, good cush, plenty of room for my toes. I ended up with one minor blister.
Just to show the Engineering geek in me, I’ve posted a spreadsheet analyzing my last four races. The 2006 course was a little different and can’t really be compared.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=thvT3d13z4Ak7IWKgOLNVdQ&hl=en##

Yeah, not real fast times,, but great for me.

Swancrest 100 Family Reunion

2010-08-01T22:13:00.013-06:00

So my friend Aric tells me several months ago about this new 100 mile race in Montana called the Swancrest 100. I checked out their website and saw all the warnings about grizzly bears and decided that I had to be a part of this race, especially the first year. What's not to like about running through the woods wondering if you're going to meet up with a large carnivore.

The other thing about this race is the controversy surrounding whether it should go on or not. A little background. Several months ago the race director approached a conservation group called the Swan View Coalition about helping out at the race, maybe running an aid station in exchange for a donation to their cause. No response except that a few months later Keith Hammer, the head of this nefarious group gives a 60 day notice of intent to sue the forest service over issuance of a permit. Something about a commercial endeavor of this type needing an environmental impact assessment. This guy is a complete tool. Now I definitely want to run this race just because of idiots like him. His thing is that we should walk quietly and contemplatively rather than run with wild abandon scaring all sorts of furry mammals and small children. Ass thinks it’s his forest and others can only enjoy it as he sees fit.
So the training commences, blah, blah, blah, and before I know it Aric and I are driving up to northwest Montana. It's a lot further away than I thought.
The original thought was to just get a room Thursday night and Saturday night but the race director offered us the use of his floor, so we took him up on it. As usual I got about 2-3 hours of sleep before it was time to get up and get ready. Thank goodness this race didn't start until 7am instead of the usual 5am start for most 100's. We drove over to the finish area and caught the shuttle to the start, about 45 minutes away.
As we were waiting around for the race to start, a local couple came up to Aric and I and started talking to us, telling us how exciting this event was, could they bring us anything as they were going to be hiking up to one of the aid stations, could they take our picture. Just super nice people.
So, the race starts and I’m in the lead. Definitely a weird feeling but no one else wanted to jump out in front. I lead for about ¾ mile before the eventual winner took over the front runner duties. After a mile on paved road, we turned on to a forest service road and not too much longer I was in about 8th place, where I really belonged. After about 10 miles we came to the first aid station. Not too bad, don’t remember my time but I felt really good. Then we hit the trail. Talk about overgrown. Shoulder high brush blocked our view of the trail itself, so there was lots of tripping over rocks and roots and not a whole lot of running. A couple hundred yards in we saw our first pile of bear scat. Yep, there really are bears in these here woods. Good thing I had bear spray for seasoning handy. So pushing thru all this brush slowed me down to a walk for the most part. After a couple miles of this, we came to an avalanche debris field. We were warned about this in the prerace briefing but holy cow! The course was marked with ribbons since you couldn’t see the trail at all. Buried under several feet of broken trees, limbs, brush etc. This section ended up being a climb over all this debris from ribbon to ribbon. Really slowed me down. Finally got past all that and began going up the hillside on a decent trail. Switch backed up a couple thousand feet until I crossed a ridge and began actually running along the mountainside. This began the story of the rest of the run, lots of ups and downs where you really couldn’t get a good running rhythm going. Just as you’d get running you’d hit a steep enough uphill to force you into a walk. Then there were all the rocks, just like around here. As we got closer to the Napa Point aid station (19 miles) we encountered a couple groups of people. First was a group out on what looked like an educational outing. They cheered us on. Next was a forest service ranger and a couple others with him. I imagine he was keeping an eye on things given the noise that Keith and his group were making. Then there was the ass Keith Hammer with some of his cronies. Just watching. They did step off the trail so we could pass and I did say hi to him. As I was fueling up at the aid station he came walking out of the woods. I later found out he had been writing down license numbers of cars and videoing the aid station. What an ass.
Ok, now we had a 24 mile section to the next aid station. This was something new for me. I’m used to generally less than 10 miles between aid stations so this required a different strategy. I took four gel flasks, a couple of bars and a full hydration pack (70 oz). We knew that there was water along the trail but I didn’t know where. This section of the race was absolutely stunning. For the most part we were on the ridges above the treeline, so lots of incredible views. I could see several thousand feet into the valleys below, I could see all the way into Glacier National Park, over to the Flathead valley. This was way cool. We were crossing small snow fields and I filled my pack with snow from one of them. About 5-6 miles into this section was an area of cascading water down the rocks. I took a minute to drink, wash my face off and just enjoy the moment. That was some good tasting water. My mistake here was not refilling my pack. I still had lots of snow in it but eventually I drank all the water and was left with just the snow. The next 10 miles or so were kind of dry for me. With no water in my pack, I couldn’t eat gels or anything else since I had no water to wash it down with. Needless to say the energy level went down and I slowed down. Eventually I came across a very small creek and was able to fill up, then eat some gels and get my energy back up. About 3 miles alter I came into the Six Mile aid station. At this aid station you had to make an out and back trek to the top of Six Mile peak. I wasn’t looking forward to this as I was really tired, but out I went. 1 ½ miles later and 1000’ higher I was on top of the peak picking up a playing card to verify that I made it. The view was definitely worth the trek. This kind of rejuvenated me and I was able to hoof it down in pretty good time. I got back into Six Mile, sat for a few, fueled up and bolted out for Quintonkin, six miles away. By now it was starting to get dark and abouf half way I had to turn on the headlamp. Parts of this were very runnable and I took advantage of this to try and make up a little time. I came out on a forest service road that just went up and up for what seemed like forever, ugh! At the end of this road was the Quintonkin aid station (52 miles). By now it’s about 11:30pm, dark and getting a little cool, but not bad. I stood next to the fire and tried to warm up, eat, and drink. Just as I was getting set to leave, in comes Aric, so I waited for him and we took off together. We had debated dropping here as we knew that finishing under the time limit would be next to impossible, but we decided to go forward and see what happened. This was another long section without aid (16+ miles) and the first three miles were all uphill. So up we went. Eventually we were above tree line again, but now at night. It was clear out so the stars were nice and bright and we had about a half moon to see by. Going along the ridges here was fun. Very rocky with some steep drop-offs. I pushed a large rock off one drop-off just hear it go crashing down below. It seemed like it crashed forever, must have been a really long ways down. Along this section there were a couple of places where we stopped for a couple minutes to rest. We were both getting tired and sleepy. At one point I just laid down in the middle of the trail and took a five minute catnap. This section also had eight miles of constant downhill and this started to wear on us. Lots of trees across the trail that we had to duck under or climb over as well. Eventually we arrived at the Broken Leg aid station (68 miles) and called it good. With only 11 ½ hours left to go 32 miles, we knew that we’d time out. Still, I felt pretty good just really tired.
This was definitely a different kind of race. With all the ups and downs, brush, and long distances between aid, I think this race is more difficult than Wasatch.
Post race festivities were great, grilled flank steak, potato salad, Caesar salad, local made huckleberry ice cream and a keg of beer.
Only 20 runners of the 44 who started managed to finish. I will definitely be back next year with a better plan for finishing.
Here's the technical details (at least what I can remember)
Shoes - La Sportiva Raptors I like them. Comfy, no blisters at all, good grip on most everything.
Pack - Nathan HPL #020 70 oz. bladder for those long distances between aid. Plenty of room to carry all the fuel I needed as well. Snug, no bounce at all.
Gel - 1st Endurance EFS Liquidshot. I like this stuff. I think I downed about a quart of the stuff during the race and I should have been downing more. No stomoach upset, nice even fueling as long as I take a shot every half hour or so. Downside, like any gel, you get a little sick of it after awhile, but with other gels I couldn't choke them down. This stuff I still can late in a race.
My best guess is that I downed somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000+ calories during the time I was out there. I needed more.
Thanks to Hammer Nutrition for their great support. Every aid station had a plethora of Hammer products.
Next up is my 5th year at Where's Walso 100K in Oregon. I love this race. After that I don't have anything on the schedule but I'm looking at a couple of races in California in October, a 24 hour and a 100 mile. Hmmm, which one should I do.

2010 Grand Canyon R2R2R

2010-04-20T21:49:00.005-06:00

Ok, this was a granddaddy run. The third time I've done a rim to rim to rim in the Grand Canyon. Took 18 hours. Slower than I had hoped and certainly not my fastest time, but you know, it was still a good time. Went with a couple of fellow ultrarunners, Brian Beckstead and Tara Tulley. Neither had done this run before although Brian has done a couple of single crossings. Started about 4am. Three hours to the river. We just took our time, took pictures etc. Took a break at the Phantom Ranch, then headed out for the north rim. The run up Kaibab canyon is an awesome one. Right next to the creek for about 8 miles. Took a short break at Cottonwood campground, then started out again. The trail turns up into a side canyon at the caretaker house and a couple miles after that is Roaring Springs. This is indeed an awesome sight. Water gushing out of the side of the cliff, and not just a little bit. The trail here really starts to climb up towards the north rim. Steeper and not as runnable. When we were about 3 miles from the top, we encoutered snow, and lots of it. There was 4'-5' of it at the north rim trailhead. Pretty much the last mile was done on snow.

Got to the north rim at about 1:15, so about 8:45 for a time. I left the north rim at 1:30 with the goal of running as much of the downhill to the Phantom Ranch (13.6 miles away) as I could. Took me 4 hours to go those miles. Once you get to the caretaker house the trail becomes a cruiser. Just the right angle for good effortless downhill running. Passed lots of backpackers on the way down, and even a couple of other runners.

Got to the rach about 5:30 and left with Brian at 6pm. The goal was back up to the south rim in 4 hours or less. This is a little more than 9 miles with 4800'+ of gain. We were tired so making it in that time was going to be tough. We got to Indian Garden in 2 hours pretty easily. That's about half way up. Once you leave Indian Garden, the trail gets steeper and we get more tired. Still, we managed to do the last 4.5 miles in 2 hours, arriving at the south rim right at 10pm. Tara got up to the top a couple hours later.

We had a great time. I definitely recommend this run for any ultrarunner. We saw a bunch of R2R2R runners on our trek, including quite a few from the SLC area that I know. Everyone was having a good time.

The weather was perfect for it for me. About 30 at the start and in the low 80's down at the Phantom Ranch. Felt like the low 60's at the north rim. It was defintely cool by the time we got back to the top, probably in the low 40's.

Fun, fun, fun and ready to do it again.

I posted pictures at my Facebook account for those of you who are Facebook friends.

2010 Antelope Island Buffalo Run

2010-04-03T20:51:00.009-06:00

Well, another Buffalo Run is in the books and a good time was had by all, I think. 583 people signed up this year. The second year that my little race is the largest trail running event in the state of Utah. I might crack the top ten nationwide with the size of the 50K entry list. A little over 100 signed up for the 50 mile, about 210 for the 50K and 270+ signed up for the 25K. many of these people were running their first trail run, their first ultra, there first time on the island even though they've lived in Utah all their lives. Many firsts today.

25K Runners Starting Out

As usual, my volunteers were fantastic. Britta is my new volunteer coordinator and she did a fantastic job of organizing about 50-60 volunteers. Everyone was where they were supposed to be and did their jobs to perfection. I had many, many runners tell me of how helpful and friendly the volunteers were. Just what I like to hear. Many of my volunteers have been coming back every year for all five years now and it's nice to have experienced people manning the aid stations. Julie, Larry Sr., Larry Jr., Meghan, Jeremy, all back for their fourth or fifth year. Awesome!
This year there were about 24 people that were out for their fifth Buffalo Run. Not bad considering that five years ago less than 150 showed up for the first Buffalo Run.
Every year I have the runners bring a can of veggies and I supply the bison stew meat. My lovely wife then makes buffalo stew out of it. Every year it turns out great and with the exception of last year, all of it disappears. 40 gallons worth. We had enough left over cans that we were able to take about 100 cans to the Ogden Rescue Mission. They were very happy to get the cans along with much of the leftover aid station fare.
This year's weather once again cooperated. I must be living right in spite of my best efforts. After a small storm Friday on the island (it was really nasty up against the mountains) that dropped a little rain, snow and some wind, the day dawned partly cloudy and temps around 30. With the temps warming up to around 50 by midday, and the trails in fantastic shape, course records were set to fall. And fall they did. Five of the six course records went down on race day. The 50 mile saw last year's men's record drop by another 12 minutes to 6:31. The women's 50 mile course record dropped by 24 minutes. The men's and women's 50K records dropped by around a minute and the men's 25K record also dropped by around a minute. Fast day indeed.

First Time Trail Runners and Local Veterinarians Matt and Sharon Klar Ready for the 25K

On a disappointing note, I got my first message about cheating. Seems someone observed another person turning around at Elephant head rather than doing the back Split Rock loop, saved themselves about 5.5 miles. Another four people were observed not going down to White Rock and instead just heading back out for their second loop of the 50K, thus cutting about two miles off their run. Not sure how I'm going to handle this but I'm not happy. If I find out who it is, I'm tempted to tell them to just not bother signing up for my race again. If you don't feel like running the entire route, then drop down in distance or man-up and DNF. Don't cheat, that just pisses me off, demoralizes those that see you do it, and cheats yourself.
Had many people tell me this was the best year yet, but there were some minor glitches. There is always room for improvement and I'm always aiming for the perfect race. Maybe some day that'll happen.

2010 Goals

2010-01-27T18:49:00.005-07:00

Ok, now that one month of the new year is history, time to set some goals for the rest of the year. I don't like resolutions, kind of dumb to set those since the vast majority of us just blow them off after a couple weeks. Most of the goals I have are running related (duh!), but I have a few others that aren't. So, here goes.
1. Be a better husband, more patient, kind, etc.
2. Be a better parent. Oh wait, the kids are grown and gone. Ok, then I'll....
3. Be a better grandparent. My plan is that every time I see my grandson he will be absolutely spoiled rotten. What ever he wants when he's at our house he can have unless it'll hurt him.
4. Probably should be a better Engineer at work. We'll give that a shot too.
5. Get more stuff done around the house. Sometimes hard to do when the funds are limited.
6. Run 2500+ miles this year. Shouldn't be too hard, I've run close to that the past several years. I'd love to stretch that to 3000. 250 miles a month, hmmm.
7. If I get into Wasatch, go under 30 hours. I know I can do it.
8. PR at the marathon distance. I'm 51 now, lets see if I have another PR in me.
9. Stay injury free. Tough to do sometimes. I've been fortunate over the past several years with only very minor stuff that didn't really slow me down or stop me.
10. Finish painting the inside of my shop. I have that last little bit of ceiling, so hard to get up the ambition.
11. Put in a back yard, including the fence, lawn, sprinklers, maybe a few flowers and shrubberies, etc. You know the usual suburban stuff. Gotta look good for the neighborhood.
12. Pay off some bills. That one will be tough with a kid still in college.
13. Just generally enjoy life. Just be happy. Enjoy my family, friends, work, etc. Now that one's not hard to do at all.

So what are your goals for this year? Running or other stuff. Let me know. I'm curious.

Oh, one other goal is to eat more healthy. Good luck with that one!
Forgot one other one. Run faster this year. Last year kind of sucked in the speed department.

Chimera 100K washout

2009-12-15T19:25:00.013-07:00

I signed up for the first Chimera 100K thinking that it would be a nice little run in sunny Orange County CA. Away from the cold and snow of Utah. Big surprise!
I kept watching the weather the week before and it was always calling for scattered showers Saturday with heavier showers Saturday night. Well, I'd be done by then so no big deal. I can handle a few showers.

I showed up at the start and it was raining, not hard but steady. The wind was there as well. Hmmm, this didn't bode well for the day since the weather was supposed to get worse.

The RD delayed that start by 30 minutes so that it would be light when we went out on the first section. Good thing as the first section was a nine mile loop on a trail. This would have been a great section to run in good weather. Instead it was a muddy mess. When I got back off that loop, I pitched my glasses into my car. They were worse than useless and I could see just fine without them.

The next section began the uphill grind to the top of Santiago Peak. Nothing but uphill 4 x 4 road. I felt really good on this section. All of the uphill training I've done seems to have helped and I was able to motor up the grade, passing all sorts of people. The way the road twisted and turned meant that at one point there could be a slight breeze and a light rain and 100 yards around the corner you could get hit with 30-40 mph winds and driving rain. It was amazing.

As the day wore on, the rain picked up. There were a couple of times when we could hear rocks coming loose on the road cut banks and we'd have to dodge them as they washed down on to the road. Made for a little more excitement.

I ended up running about 15 miles with Kevin Lawlor of Salt Lake City. He's run my race here in Utah and it was nice to have a familiar face to run with.

When we got to the Trabuco aid station, the wind was really strong. To the point that the aid station was eventually destroyed. Thank goodness we made it thru before that happened.

We kept going and at around mile 27 an SUV drove up along side to let us know that the race was being called and to stop at the next aid station. At the next aid station we were told that we could either wait until the station was broken down and go down with the vehicles or run another 8 miles to the gate at the bottom of Silverado Canyon where cars would take us back to the start/finish area. A bunch of us elected to do that and down the mountainside we went. During the run down the canyon the clouds lifted some and we could see where we would have been running had the race gone on. It's a section of trail right along a ridge and looks awesome.
Ended up waiting about 30 minutes for cars to come pick us up then make the hour plus drive back to Bluejay Campground.

Once back at Bluejay all of us could get warm, drink beer, have some hot soup and just enjoy talking about the day. What a day it was! I've never run a race in those kind of conditions. Like one of the runners said as we were waiting, "anyone can run when it's sunny". I had a great time, just awesome. A lot of my having a good time was that I was dressed for the occasion. My winter tights, a couple of long sleeve t's, gloves, a beanie, and a cheap plastic rain poncho kept me very warm the entire day even though I was soaking wet the entire time. I also felt really good. No stomach issues, I was eating enough, staying hydrated, and my attitude was great.

I ended up with a total of 36 miles over about 8 hours. Had I been able to keep going I was definitely on track for a 14 or sub 14 hour finish. I figure that I was in the top 10-15 when the race was called. Who knows, with the weather attrition could have really played a factor in the finishes. Steve is planning on putting on the race again next fall and I'll be there. Hopefully the weather will be a little nicer.

Here are some pictures taken during the race by Jakob Herman, one of the runners. They give just a little idea of what we went thru that day. http://jakob.smugmug.com/gallery/10629054_nethK#739239996_bDj8m

2009 Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run

2009-09-13T20:01:00.016-06:00

Ahhh, the Wasatch 100, the race that sucks you in. One of the toughest 100 milers out there. Almost everyone I know that has run it has sworn to never run it again, but very few follow up on that promise. I'm one of those. In 2005 I ran and failed miserably by dropping at 61 miles due to cold weather. I still don't regret that.

But I had to go back and finish that race, so I signed up for the 2006 version. When I crossed the finish line after over 34 hours on the trail, I swore I'd never run it again. It just take so much out of you just to finish. So I didn't run in 2007 and found that I really missed being there. I was hooked on a race that about does me in every time.

So I ran it in 2008, vowing to improve my time now that I knew what to expect. And I did do better by over 2 hours. Now I'm really hooked and have this idea that I can run it in under 30 hours. So, Wasatch becomes my key race for the year. All training and racing is geared for this one event. I figure that if I can just cut the time I spend sitting on my butt in aid stations down, then 30 hours was in the bag. In 2008 my total aid station time was over 4 hours.

My training to date has been greater than in the past couple of years. Over 1500 miles YTD, but I'm thinking this isn't enough. Oh well, it is what it is.

Race day - This year the race started on Friday. This is a change from past years, so Karen has to just drop me off and get back home to get ready for work.

0-18.8 miles - Start to the maintenance shed. This went well. I feel good, the climb up to chinscraper was made in about the same time as I usually do, the run down to the maintenance shed felt good. I got into the maintenance shed aid station about 10 minutes slower than last year. No big deal. In and out in 4 minutes. The one thing I did do was slam an Ensure Plus. Trouble is, it was warm. That stuff is icky when it's warm. For the nex 4 miles my stomach was protesting.

18.8-24 miles - I usually dread this section. It involves three separate steep climbs, not real long, but not a whole lot of fun. Still, I made it into Bountiful "B" about 15 minutes behind last year's time. I fueled up on fresh fruit, drank plenty and hit the trail again. By now my stomach is back to normal and I feel fine.

24-28.8 miles - This section to Sessions liftoff is pretty easy. Mostly dirt 4 x 4 road with not much elevation change. Along here is where my left knee started acting up. I didn't fall, twist it or anything, it just started hurting on the inside. I took a couple of Ibuprofen and limped along waiting for those to kick in. Once they did, I found that I could run. I got into the Sessions Liftoff aid station 20 minutes down from last year. I was a little concerned, especially about my knee. I was wondering how bad it would get. Would I end up dropping due to injury? I hoped not.

28.8-35.7 miles - At the Sessions aid station I met up with Ernie Floyd. Usually he's much faster than me, so it was nice to tag along with him for the next 7 miles. My knee felt much better and by the time we got the Swallow Rocks aid station I found that I had made up the entire 20 minutes. I didn't feel like I had run any faster, but there it was. I was happy. By now the day was getting really warm, well into the 80's. At least there was a breeze at times.

35.7-39.2 miles - This section into the Big Mountain aid station is pretty easy. Mostly downhill and easy cruising. Still, my knee started acting up again and at some points I was limping along and not running. A couple more vitamin I, hobble for 20 minutes and start running again. When I got into Big Mountain, Larry Mangum was there and gave me an ice cold Ensure. I didn't think this was a good idea, but drank it anyway. It tasted a lot better than the last one. By now the weather was really warm. I later heard that the high for the day on the course was 98 degrees. I believe it.

39.2-47.4 miles - This section into the Alexander Ridge aid station was definitely the hottest part of the course. The middle of the afternoon and very exposed,hardly any shade at all. Usually I love running in the heat, but on this section I did find it a little overbearing. Not only that, but my knee was still giving me issues. I was seriously wondering if I was going to end up dropping. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided that the only way I was going to drop was if I either timed out or the pain became so unbearable that I was reduced to crawling along the trail. I got into Alexander Ridge over a hour behind last year's time. Still not a big deal since my aid station stops were very short. At Alexander Ridge I saw my friend Jill just sitting in a chair trying to cool down. She was having some real issues with the heat, but then so were a lot of people. This was probably the low point for me during the race.

47.4-53.1 miles - The run into the half way point at Lamb's Canyon in mostly downhill and fairly easy running. This section was pretty uneventfull and I managed to not lose any more time. While I was running this section, I called Meghan, my pacer to let her know where I was. She was supposed to meet me at the Upper Big Water aid station and needed to know the approximate time I would be there. Lamb's Canyon is where I started spending more and more time at aid stations last year, so I knew I could make up some time by just getting out of there as quickly as possible. Once I got in, I ate some real food, a grilled cheese sandwich. Good stuff. Meghan called me while I was eating and told me she decided to meet me at Lamb's rather than Upper Big Water and if I'd wait ten minutes she'd be there. She only lives a couple miles from there and I wanted some company, so I waited. I ended up spending about 27 minutes at Lamb's, about the same amount of thime as last year. What a boost to have my pacer show up early. When Meghan showed up, we took off.

53.1-61.7 miles - This section is usually pretty slow since most of it is uphill. Meghan had brought me some Aleve so I thought I'd try that to see if it helped my knee. It really did when it finally kicked in. Along this section is when it usually gets dark for me, and this year was no exception. By the time we got to the top of Bear Bottom Pass, it was completely dark and we could see the lights of Salt Lake City off in the distance. The weather was still warm and promised to be all night, which is fine with me. We dropped into Millcreek Canyon and started making the trek up to the Upper Big Water aid station. Usually Upper Big Water is the coldest part of the course and I was determined to get in and out as fast as possible. So, in and out in 16 minutes, downed some spaghetti, and up the trail we went. Next stop, Desolation Lake.

61.7-66.9 miles - This section is one of the most beautiful parts of the course and unless you're a front runner, you go thru it at night. Nonetheless, since the night was clear, the stars were beautiful. My knee was feeling better, or at least no worse and I was able to run sections of this pretty well. We got into the Desolation Lake aid station about almost two hours later than last year. I figured that a 30 hour finish was out of the question with my knee the way it was but a sub 34 might still be possible. In and out of Deso in 5 minutes.

66.9-70.8 miles - After you leave Desolation Lake, there's a short but steep climb up to Red Lover's Ridge, then a fairly flat to rolling section at 10,000' until you get to Scott's Transmission Tower aid station. I wasn't feeling too bad along this section. It did get a little cool since there's always a wind across the ridge you're running on. But still, not bad. In and out of Scott's in 3 minutes and heading for the downhill into Brighton. A couple of times along this part of the trail Meghan and I just shut off our headlamps and stopped and looked at the stars. A crystal clear night and no city lights made for lots of beautiful stars.

70.8-75.6 - Brighton Ski Area Lodge, the black hole. More people drop out here than any other aid station because it's nice and warm, hot food, etc. Be very scared of this place. When I got there I had to weigh in. I think I was within 2 pounds of my starting weight. I had Meghan get me some scrambled eggs with lots of ketchup, salt and pepper. Wonderful stuff. I ate plenty then we hit the trail again. In and out in about 25 minutes.

75.6-80.3 miles - From here to the end is where my lungs always fall apart. I end up with asthma, and probably a little HAPE every time I run this race. I can run this section in training and nothing happens, just on race day. So needless to say I was a little nervous going out of Brighton and up the trail to Point Supreme, the highest point on the course at 10,500'. Well, this year I was pretty much fine. We made steady prgress up to Point Supreme and I didn't have to stop once to catch my breath. I was a little excited. While we were going up the trail, we heard a rustle off the trail. When we turned our headlamps over, there were four eyes and two very large shapes looking back at us from about 40 feet away. Two moose bedded down in a meadow, one of them a good sized bull. We hoped they would just stay where they were. Once past Point Supreme you have to go down a really knarly downhill for a couple miles. Steep, narrow, deep dust, lots of loose rocks. Not a lot of fun after 75+ miles. Made it into Ant Knolls aid station just before sunrise. Had a pancake and piece of sausage. Good stuff. In and out of Ant Knolls in 9 minutes.

80.3-83.4 miles - The trail out of Ant Knoll's goes up a short but brutal climb called the Grunt. Made it up that just as the sun was hitting the peaks around us. Stunning. Along here is where I noticed the little tickle in the back of my throat that signals a cold coming on. I finally caught Karen's cold, but at least it held off for the rest of the race. Made it into Pole LIne Pass aid station a little over an hour behind last year's time, so I had made up some time, probably on the trek out of Brighton. Grabbed some more food and left Pole Line in 12 minutes. Maybe I still could go under 33 or 34 hours.

83.4-87.4 miles - This was a long section. Mostly uphill to 10,000' again with a couple of steep climbs. The one site that was definitely worth seeing along here was the morning sun hitting Mt. Timpanogos across the valley from where we were. The Rock Springs aid station is really small, they have to trek everything in except the water. Got into here at around 10am, well behind last year's pace. In and out of here in a minute.

87.4-93.1 miles - Not a section I was looking forward to. We were going along a level portion and I could feel myself falling asleep on my feet. I told Meghan that I just wanted a 10 minute nap. She wouldn't let me, something about being on the side of a mountain. Finally we got to a little wider level place and she relented, gave me 12 minutes and I was asleep instantly. After that little nap I was good to go and wide awake. Now came the dive and the plunge. Two very steep, narrow series of switchbacks. Motorcycles have really churned the dirt and rocks up and it's very treacherous. Both of us went down on our butts more than once as we slid down. Then it was time for Irv's torture chamber, a series of seven short ups and downs that are not fun at all. Finally, Pot Bottom, the final aid station, 93 miles, the race is in the bag. Got some more food and out of there in 8 minutes. Now for the final push to the finish.

93.1-100 miles - A fairly short climb (700') on a dirt road and the rest is downhill. Hurray! Once we hit the downhill, I tried to at least do some trotting. Eventually we hit the last section of trail. I broke into a run here. One mile of trail, then on the road and 3/4mile to the finish. No matter how tired I am, I always run this last section on the road and run across the finish line.

Finish - At last I cross, 33:57:07. Not my fastest, not my slowest, but I'm done. I shake the race director's hand, kiss my wife and hug my pacer. I feel good. I looked down at my knee and it was pretty swollen. I hadn't noticed that before. Well, I figure it'll heal in a week or so, so no big deal. Other than the knee, I felt pretty good, the legs weren't really very sore at all, not like they usually are. I love doing these races, but I'm always glad when they're over. Many thanks to Meghan, my friend and pacer. She kept me on task, got me in and out of the aid stations much faster than last year and was good company to have for almost 20 hours.

Will I run Wasatch again? Who knows. Probably. For some deluded reason I still think I can go under 30 hours. There are other 100 mile races that I want to run and Karen has told me that I need to do some of those before I do Wasatch again.

Where's Waldo 100k 2009

2009-08-27T11:08:00.005-06:00

Warning, this is a very long race report and can induce insomnia if not careful.

Well, I ran Where's Waldo 100K for the 4th year in a row. This race is a good excuse to take a few days off from work and go see my sister as she lives near where the race is held. Oh, the race is held at the Willamette Pass Ski Area in central Oregon and is a fund raiser for the volunteer ski patrol there.

For the past 2 years the race has served as the USATF 100K Trail National Championship and 3 years ago it was the USATF 100K Trail Masters Championship. They also offer $1000 for first place and $500 for first place masters. You can double dip. Needless to say, for ultrarunning, this is significant prize money and draws a fast crowd every year. This year was no exception.

I like the race because it's well organized, the aid stations are well stocked and have enthusiastic volunteers working them, and the scenery is central Oregon beautiful. Think fir forests with some huge old growth Douglas Firs, perfect trails for running (soft, shady, pleasant), lots of gorgeous lakes to run past, and views from the top of the peaks that are fantastic.

My goal this year was to break the 14 hour mark. I ran 14:08 last year and figured I could take 8 minutes off that time. But I also didn't plan any sort of taper since that week would serve as my last week of long training prior to tapering for Wasatch in three weeks. So, 70 miles the week before and 100 miles including the race last week.

A couple of the other Wasatch Speegoats were there to run the race with me, but both of them are much faster than I am and much better looking (Monica Ochs and Amy Sproston). At just about every aid station I got comments about my Wasatch Speedgoat shirt and how there seemed to be a bunch of them on the course. Nope, just three of us. Nonetheless, it was nice to see that the team is getting recognition on the trail.

Weather on race day was perfect, 40's at the start, clear, warming up to the upper 60's to low 70's during the day and cooling off nicely towards the evening.

So, here's the report.

First Section, start to Gold Lake, 7.4 miles - the first mile is a grinding uphill that no ones runs. Takes you from 5120' to over 6000'. After that there's a 6.4 mile downhill that's fantastic. I got stuck in a conga line on that section until I managed to blast past the 6 runners in front of me. Pulled into the Gold Lake aid at 1:22 into the race, 2 minutes faster than last year. So far so good. I felt great.

Second Section, Gold lake to Fuji up, 5.0 miles - this is mostly uphill, some steep. Time was 1:08, same as last year.

Third Section, Fuji up to Fuji down, 2.5 miles - This section takes you on an out and back up to the top of Fuji Peak. This is a gain of about 1100' in 1.25 miles. The views at sunrise from the top of tis peak are worth the effort it takes to get there. Unbelievable. Then a bombing run back down to the aid station. Time 0:36, same as last year. So far, 2 minutes up on last year, feeling good and ready for more.

Fourth Section, Fuji Down to Mt. Ray, 5.6 miles - This section is primarily downhill, although it is rolling. A great little section for cruising along and enjoying the race. Time, 1:03, 1 minute faster than last year.

Fifth Section, Mt. Ray to Twins 1, 6.6 miles - This section is mostly uphill, but the ups are gradual enough that you can run them.. This is where I would see if my hill work would pay off, and it did. Time 1:28, 7 minutes faster than last year and still feeling good.

Sixth Section, Twins 1 to Lake Charlton, 4.9 miles - Starts out going up but the last couple of miles are downhill. Charlton lake is also the half way point. Huge hoopla, beach party atmosphere make this a great place. Time, 1:00, 1 minute faster than last year. Now I'm up 11 minutes over last year. Things are looking good.

Seventh Section, Charlton Lake to Road 4290, 5.2 miles - This section is mostly flat, but can be the hottest part of the course due to the exposure. This area was logged off several years ago and the trees growing there are fairly small. Time 1:05, 3 minutes faster than last year and up 14 minutes now. This section felt slower to me but it actually wasn't. Still, as I came into Rd 4290, I was hungry, the energy level was down some. I did have a drop bag and immediately drank the 2 Ensures I had, hmmm, maybe slamming 700 calories down in a couple of minutes isn't a smart thing to do.

Eighth Section, Rd 4290 to Twins 2, 7.5 miles - This is the longest section of the course and one of the most difficult. You climb from about 5300' to just over 7000' and it's relentless. Much of it is runnable if you're fresh, after 40 miles, no one is fresh. I left Rd 4290 and walked for a bit to let my stomach settle. Should have just taken the other bottle and drank it later. This section felt much slower than last year, but my time ended up being just a minute slower. Time, 2:03. Lost one of those gained minutes.

Ninth Section, Twins 2 to Maiden Peak, 5.2 miles - this section starts out going down, but in the last mile or so begins the climb up Maiden Peak. When I left Twins, I was feeling just ok, not great, just ok. I ended up walking downhill parts that I should have been running, stupid me, but I just didn't feel like running. I figure I was going thru a little bonk at this point, not enough calories, or maybe it was too much training, I don't know, it was something. Time 1:24 vs. 1:10 last year. Oh crap, I just lost all of the time I had gained so far, now I was a minute down from last year. Can I make it up?

Tenth Section, Maiden Peak to Maiden Lake, 5.1 miles - Easily the most difficult section of the course, you gain roughly 2000' in just over two miles. The grade starts out actually somewhat runnable but just gets steeper as you get higher. In some places there aren't even switchbacks, just straight up the mountainside, ugh! But once again, the view from the top of Maiden Peak (7818') is phenomenal and worth the effort. Then it's a treacherous steep downhill 2.5 miles into Maiden Lake, not much running here unless you have a death wish or want broken bones. Time, 1:45, dang, lost another 8 minutes. Now I really have to fly on the last section.

Last Section, Maiden Lake to the finish, 7.5 miles - this starts out with an uphill, but quickly turns downhill and ends up being a 7.4 mile downhill run. This is my favorite section of the course because if you can or want to open it up, you can. The trail is perfect for running, downhill with very short ups, great footing, if you fall you won't get hurt and you know the finish is up ahead. I tried pushing this some and actually felt pretty good, but the stomach was trying to go south on me and I'd have to back off the pace a little so I wouldn't hurl. Met up with another runner and we just cruised the last few miles together and crossed the finish at the same time. Time, 1:39 for this section, lost another 12 minutes.

Aftermath - The beer my wife got me after I finished tasted really good, but then a beer after a race usually does. The barbequed hamburger was pretty good too. My time was 25 minutes slower than last year, 14:33 vs 14:08. Oh well, I wasn't unhappy. Could I have done better? Probably, if I had put a little more focus on running where I could rather than walking. On the other hand, I did no taper, so maybe tired legs from a 28 mile run the previous Sunday had a little to do with a slow finish. Still, I had a great time and to me that's the name of the game. I love this sport, where else can you trash yourself and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Gear - I wore my La Sportiva Fireblades, Injinji socks, and Nathan race vest. The shoes and socks worked great, no blisters at all, which is unusual, and the vest worked well. I also carried two bottles like I usually do.

Note: The winning time and new course record was 9:11, that's an hour faster than the old course record, an hour! One minute per mile! Average pace 8:49 for 62.5 mountainous miles. 5 people went under the old course record.

Next up, Wasatch Front 100 in less than three weeks. Time to taper.

2009-07-23T21:27:00.020-06:00

Last year I ran the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 and failed miserably at 61 miles. I wasn’t injured, I was well under the time cutoffs, I just got a bad attitude in my head and quit. That really sucked and it’s bothered me ever since. Thus, I had to go back this year and redeem myself and finish the thing.
My main race this year is Wasatch, so running the TRT was more of some race practice and a really long training run. My mileage to date is higher than last year and I have more long training runs, so I was reasonably confident that I’d be able to finish TRT (never a guarantee in a 100 mile race).
Originally, my wife Karen and I were going to take our horses out a few days early and get in some trail riding on the same trails as the race. The area above Lake Tahoe is beautiful and I wanted to show these trails to her. Alas, her horse isn’t trail ready yet (he’s a 3-year old Mustang) so she decided to stay home and work. Davy Crockett had asked about carpooling this year like we did last year, but he ended up taking his family. I couldn’t find anyone to carpool with and I really thought it was a waste of fuel to drive myself out to Lake Tahoe. Then I hit on an idea, why don’t I go green and take the train? I checked the schedule, leave Salt Lake at 11:30pm Thursday, get into Reno 9:30am Friday. Leave Reno 4:00pm Monday and get back into Salt Lake at 4:00am Tuesday. Perfect. Cost? $116 round trip, less than what I would pay for gas for the car plus I don’t have to drive. Hmmm, now how do I get to Carson City and the race? I know, call my friend Meghan and see if she can pick me up since she’s running the race too. Meghan teaches Earth Science and is a big fan of going green so she was very willing to chauffeur me around for the weekend. It was settled. I might mention that I also have a UTA annual pass for the Frontrunner commuter train so I only had to drive to the Ogden train station (4.5 miles) and back.
Karen dropped me off at the train station Thursday evening,

I rode the Frontrunner down to Salt Lake. Amtrak was already there, I got my ticket and boarded the train. I love to ride on trains, but going overnight on Amtrak is not conducive to sleep. I think I managed about 3-4 hours total. I woke up the next morning as we were going across the Nevada desert.

I had time to get to the dining car for breakfast (ok, nothing to write home about) before the train pulled into Reno on time (rare for Amtrak). Meghan picked me up about 30 minutes later and we headed for Carson City.
The check in is on the State Capitol grounds and I saw a few people I knew and some that I had been wanting to meet. I finally met Monica Ochs, a fellow Wasatch Speedgoat team member. She and her pacer Annie went with Meghan, Dave (Meghan’s friend), and I to lunch. After that, it was relax and get ready for the next day’s race. I actually managed to get a good night’s sleep, roughly 6-7 hours. That’s rare the night before a race.
Meghan picked me up at about 4:00am and we made the drive up to Spooner Lake State Park, the race HQ. About 115 of us were nervously milling around waiting for the race to start. Finally, at 5am, the race was on.
I knew it was going to be a long day and night, so I tried to just hang back a little bit, but I felt myself running the uphills because I felt so good.

By the time the first aid station came into view, the field had spread out some and I was pretty much by myself (that’s how I usually like it). The first aid station (Hobart, 7900’) had an Irish pub theme, complete with a bar, a bottle of Jameson Whiskey, a keg of beer and a dart board. Runners could partake of any or all. Each runner got one dart to throw and scores were kept throughout the race (we went thru this aid station four times). After a quick dart throw, fill my bottles, drop off my sleeves and headlamp, I was off climbing towards Marlette Peak. The sun was just starting to come up and the view of Lake Tahoe when it came into sight was breathtaking. This section of trail is fairly easy, a gradual climb to around 8600’ then a switchback descent into the Tunnel Creek aid station (8100’). 100 mile runners go thru Tunnel Creek a total of six times so we get to know these people a little bit. Here I did the same, filled my bottles, downed two bottles of Ensure (600 calories, and headed out on the Red House loop. This is a 6.3 mile loop that takes runners to the low point on the course (6800’), then back up to Tunnel Creek. There actually is a red house on the loop with an aid station. Most runners don’t like this loop because it can get warm and the last half mile climb to Tunnel Creek is steep, but it’s no worse than what I train on around here, so no big deal. When I got back to Tunnel Creek, we started seeing the 50K and 50 mile runners heading out on the loop. They start an hour after we do. After another quick pit stop, I headed out on the long 18 mile out and back to the Mt. Rose aid station. This section is rolling terrain, but does climb to close to 9000’ at one point. There’s one water stop along the way and that’s it, so this was definitely a two bottle section. As I got closer to Mt. Rose, I started seeing more and more mountain bikers, day hikers and people out on the trail. Most everyone was very nice and would cheer us on and step off the trail to let us runners go by. I got to Mt. Rose and looked at my pace chart and saw that I was still on a 21 hour pace. Holy cow, way too fast I thought, but I still felt really good. By now I’d covered 26.4 miles and had 24 miles to go to complete the first half of the race. Once again, quick pit stop, downed two Ensures, and back out on the trail. I had my cell phone with me and called my wife from here. She let me know that I was in roughly 30th place and where Davy, Monica, and Meghan were. Davy and Monica were a ways ahead and Meghan was about an hour behind.
I headed out on the return of the out and back. By now the trails were getting pretty crowded in spots and I was glad once I got a few miles down and the crowds thinned out. The weather was also getting warm. It felt like it was around 80, but in the sun it felt much warmer. Running in the heat doesn’t bother me so I was fine. I got back to Tunnel Creek, fueled up again and headed out for Hobart. Now I had to climb those switchbacks, but they weren’t too bad. Across some of the higher ridges, there was a nice breeze to help cool us off some along with the gorgeous views to enjoy.
I got back to Hobart still feeling pretty good. My pace had slowed some here, mostly due to the climbing. Had another inch of beer in a cup, shot a dart, refueled and left heading for Snow Valley Peak. This aid was at the highest point on the course, right at 9000’. It’s a gradual climb and actually runnable for the most part. As I was going up, I came across a 50 mile runner that had just sat down by the side of the trail. I asked her if she was ok and she said something about stomach issues. I gave her a couple Tums and she decided to follow me into Snow Valley Peak. The Tums must have done the trick because she left out of the aid station and I never saw her again. Now it was my turn to start feeling kind of off. For the next 10 miles to the start/finish I felt like I was bonking some. Even though it’s downhill for 5.5 miles, I couldn’t get a run going, just no energy. Mentally I was fine, but physically I wasn’t. I decided that once I got into the start/finish, I would take a few minutes and take care of myself. I hit the start/finish in 11:30. Here I ate, sat for a few, emptied the dirt and dust out of my shoes and took a breather. When I finally left, it was right at the 12 hour mark. Ahead of last year’s time, but not where I wanted to be. Oh well. I left and while I couldn’t get a run going uphill to Hobart, I was able to get a fairly fast walk going. Once into Hobart, another inch of beer, another dart, fix the chafing and get going. Last year I got into Tunnel Creek after dark. This year I knew I would get in before dark. Good deal. Once in Tunnel Creek, I grabbed my headlamp, put on a long sleeve T since it was cooling off some, and headed out on the Red House loop for the second time. By the time I got to the red house, it was dark and the light was on. A few minutes here and I was gone back uphill to Tunnel Creek. I had been wondering how Meghan was doing. Every once in awhile, my wife would call me with updates. As it happened, as I got back into Tunnel Creek, there was Meghan with a couple of new friends getting set to head out on their second Red House loop. We chatted for a few minutes and I found out that she was having a great time. She said something about me being afraid while running alone in the dark and I told her I wasn’t and I preferred running alone. I asked if she was afraid to run in the dark and she said she was, I told her that was because she was a girl. Not a well received comment but I thought it was funny.
I headed out on the long 18 mile out and back to Mt. Rose, I got out a couple hundred yards and realized it might get cool and breezy, so I headed back into Tunnel Creek and grabbed my windbreaker. Good move I found out later. I managed to see Davy filling his bottles at a creek. I think I startled him a little when I called his name. He’s one of the few runners to use a green light so I figured it might be him. As I crossed the meadow to the Mt. Rose aid station, the temperature really cooled down. This ended up being the coolest part of the night, but it still wasn’t too bad. I stayed at Mt. Rose for about 20 minutes. I was starting to get a little sleepy (duh, it’s 2 in the morning). I drank some coffee, had some rice and beans, drank my Ensure and headed out again. By now I was walking with no thought of running, but the walk was still pretty strong. I got to the top of the switchbacks that descend into Mt. Rose and was so sleepy that I set my cell phone alarm for 20 minutes and just lay down in the dirt beside the trail. That 20 minutes was all I needed to get going again. As I was going along the trail I was amazed at how warm it was. The temp. had to be close to 60. I don’t like running in cold weather and I’m usually dressed pretty warm when going thru the night. This time I was still in shorts, a long sleeve T, windbreaker and gloves. Even the windbreaker was unzipped and eventually I took it off. After 9 miles, back into Tunnel Creek for the final time. I was wanting the race to be over and the mosquitoes were biting now, so the stop was short. Daylight was coming on as I started back up the switchbacks to Hobart. I got into Hobart I think at around 6am for the last time. I shot my dart, had a beer and asked for some eggs and bacon. That really hit the spot. I left there feeling pretty good. The final climb up to Snow Valley Peak seemed to take forever, but eventually I got there. By now the sun was up and it was going to be warmer than the day before. I ditched the warm clothes and headed out after a short stop. I could “smell the barn” and I wanted to be done. I finally got to the last aid station, only 1.7 miles from the end. I barely stopped. They asked if I wanted anything to eat, nope, I wanted to get done. I filled my bottles and was out. 30 minutes later I came out on the dirt road to the finish and had to run across the finish line. It was nice to be done. 30 hours 46 minutes, 39th place out of 115 starters. That cold bottle of beer at the finish line never tasted so good. I wanted nothing to eat or drink, just the beer.
After a few minutes, I found a chair to sit in and wait for Meghan and her friends. I set my alarm so I could take a little nap, but they really made up some time and crossed the finish about an hour after I did.
Aftermath – One thing that slowed me down some was a bout of asthma that hit me for the last 20 miles or so. I used to think it was altitude related, but I now think it’s all the dust. Even when I was by myself during the night I could see it my headlamp beam. This seems to be an issue with me for any 100 mile race that’s dusty. I wore my La Sportiva Fireblades. Very comfortable and perfect for this type of trail, but I was left with blisters in some weird spots. Oh well. Liquid diet. The only solids I ate the entire race were the eggs and bacon, also, very little soda. Water, sportsdrink, lots of Ensure, Starbucks Frappucino’s, 1st Endurance gel, and a little soup here and there. No stomach upset and I seemed to be well fueled the entire time.
I had a great time. I redeemed myself after last year’s race. Don’t know if I’ll run it again, there’re other races I want to do, but I highly recommend this one. The scenery alone is worth the race, the aid is top notch. I still want to take Karen out there with the horses and do some riding.

2009-06-20T19:15:00.020-06:00

So a couple of years ago my friend Meghan and I did an epic run. The route was on the road around Pineview Reservoir, then up Wheeler Canyon trail to Snowbasin Ski Area. Then up the ski area to the top of Mt. Ogden. From there we caught the Beus Canyon trail down to the trail head in South Ogden. A total of around 30 miles. We had an absolute blast that day and decided to reprise the run today. Alas, the outcome was a little different but we still had a great time.
This morning we met at the Beus Canyon trailhead, left my car there and drove up to the Wheeler Canyon trailhead. The weather forecast was a little iffy, but we were hoping that maybe we could beat out the weather with an early start.

Meghan ready to go

Our goal, over the top (hopefully)

We got started on the road portion around 6:30am. Traffic was fairly light and we finished that portion in a little over 2 hours. As you can see, the day started out fairly nice weatherwise. We kept our fingers crossed hoping it would stay that way.

Looking up Wheeler Canyon

So we got started up Wheeler Canyon around 9am. Wheeler Canyon is a fairly popular canyon for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. This day there weren’t too many of any of those.

The trail up Ice Box Canyon

As you can see, with all of the snow from last winter and the rain this spring, the vegetation was very lush. We felt like we were running back east rather than out in dry Utah.

10 foot deep washout

Snowbasin base area

Clouds rolling in

We kept on going up to the Snowbasin base area and noticed that the clouds were starting to roll in. Not a good sign. It hadn’t started raining so we thought we at least start up the haul road hoping it might get better. Well, after about a mile up the road, it started raining and the wind picked up. The top of the mountain was completely obscured so we figured we just head back down to the car using a different trail. Definitely a good call since now it was raining pretty good. We actually came across a couple of mountain bikers out in the rain.
Since we were now tanking the run over the top of the mountain we decided it was time for a mud fest and didn’t worry about avoiding any puddles or mud. We had a pretty good time with that.

As we went back down the mountainside, the rain quit and it actually warmed up some.

The trek back down Green Pond trail is one that I enjoying making. The scenery is great and it’s just a nice cruising trail.

Eventually we made it back to the car but noticed that we had 29.4 miles on the GPS. Since we wanted to go 30 miles, we went back up the trail for .3, turned around and came back down. We got some odd looks from some other hikers we had passed on the way down. Even though we didn’t make our goal of going over the top, we still had a great time and got the miles that we wanted.

A really long ultra

2009-05-31T20:27:00.012-06:00

Well, I'm back from the end of one of my longest events ever. Raising my daughter. Last weekend she got married and it was a fantastic time. I got to play a lot with my 2 1/2 year old grandson.

He's the greatest thing since sliced bread and I had way too much fun playing with him. Karen and I went back to Illinois and met up with my two sisters, my Mother, My mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, two nieces and a nephew. Everyone had a great time. I got together with friends at the local microbrew and had some decent non-Utah beer. I even bought my son one of his first legal beers, now that he's 21. I even managed to get in a nice long run with a friend in a local state park that I used to run in all the time when we lived back there.

The wedding party

Jessica (our daughter) basically planned the entire wedding herself as we weren't back there to provide any help. She did a fantastic job. The ceremony was kind of a mix of traditional and modern and was humorous. The bride was beautiful, takes after her Mother.

The guy who did the ceremony is Traver's (our son-in-law) cousin and got ordained online just so he could do the ceremony. He had some great remarks.

Dad and Kevin

The wedding was outdoors and the weather cooperated. Something not a guaranteed in Illinois.

Mom and Jessica

Dad and Jessica

Grandma and Brody

Dad and Jessica as we walked up the aisle

The reception was great. The DJ was good and spun some good tunes. I got to dance with my daughter and make a toast to the happy couple. I got the chance to visit with friends and family and catch up on the latest.

Brody busting a move

All in all, a great vacation.

My speedgoat mascot

2009-05-09T21:59:00.004-06:00

Just a short little post. Since I'm a member of the Wasatch Speedgoat Mountain Racing Team, I took some pictures the other day of my personal mascot. His name is Flash and he's a Nigerian Dwarf buck. A very cool goat I might add. We also have a couple other goats.

Finally, a post race post

2009-04-11T21:21:00.008-06:00

Yeah, it's about time I posted something new. I've been super busy with my race, the Antelope Island Buffalo Run. This year the park let me have an unlimited number of entrants and I figured I'd get around 300-350. Nope, not even close. When the dust settled and race day arrive, 490 people had signed up for either the 25K, 50K, or 50 mile. Holy cow! Panic time. So on race day about 450 actually showed up to run.

It's always been my policy to send out the runners on time to the second. This year was the first year I failed. When I did the pre race briefing for the 50 mile, there were still a lot of people walking down the road from their cars. I decided to hold off for five minutes to give them a chance to start with everyone else. I ended up sending out the 50 mile runners at 6:05:00am. Two hours later I sent out the 50K runners at 8:00am on the dot, and the 25K runners left at 9:00am on the dot. There were the usual stragglers, but no one who left a little late complained.

Looking over the enrants for the 50 mile and the 50K, I knew that a couple of course records were going down. I finally had a pretty good field for the men's 50 mile. Erik Storheim was going to have to work for his win this year. For the women's 50K, I knew that record didn't stand a chance as Nikki Kimball had sent in her entry. True to form, both of those records fell. Nikki blew the women's 50K record out of the water by over 30 minutes and Nick Pedatella brought the men's 50 mile course record to well under 7 hours with a 6:43. Hot on his heels was Hiroki Ishakawa (from Japan) with a 6:45. Erik posted a third place finish with a 7:09. Meanwhile, on the 25K race, Genevieve Keogh set a new course record for the women with a 2:06. I hadn't thought that record would fall, but down it went.

Weather, I was a little worried about the weather. The Thursday before the race is when I mark the course. There was two inches of snow on the ground even though the trails were clear. Trail conditions were kind of icky, but I figured that if we didn't get any more precip, they would be fine on race day, and indeed they were. There were a few puddles, but by in large, trail conditions were ideal. The weather on race day was ideal as well. As usual, it was around freezing in the morning, but this year there was no wind at all. A far cry from past years when the wind has always been blowing on race day. Skies were partly cloudy and when the sun came up, the air warmed up and eventually reached the low 60's I think. A picture perfect day for the runners.

With as many runners as there were, I was worried about supplies, crowds on the trails, etc. but except for a few minor supply issues, things went very well. Elephant Head aid station was pretty slammed with over 1300 runner visits, but they held up well. Next year I need to get them a couple more people for the middle part of the day.

We were treated to a minor medical issue. At first it didn't seem minor as one of the runners that had just finished was complaining about shortness of breath and tingly arms. He thought he was having heart problems (he's 69). Within seconds, we had a doctor who had run the race, an ER nurse, another doctor, and an EMT at his side. Davis county paramedics were called and Lifeflight was called in. Needless to say, the helicopter landing got everyone's attention. Once the paramedics got an EKG on the guy, they found that his vitals were fine. They put an IV in him and transported him to the hospital for observation. He was released later that day with nothing more than a case of dehydration. Thank goodness!

The other excitement was a marriage proposal. Charlie Vincent proposed to Eve Davies. Naturally she accepted and now I need to find out the date.

All in all, everyone seemed to really enjoy the day. The runners, the volunteers, even my family that I suckered into helping out seemed to have a good time. We had plenty of buffalo stew for everyone and even had more beer this year, but I was still cleaned out by the end of the day.

As usual, this race wouldn't happen without a couple of groups of people, the runners (obviously), and the volunteers. Again as usual, the state park was more than accomodating and even the rangers seemed to have a good time through the day. Race day is one of my favorites through the year. I love seeing all sorts of running friends, seeing happy faces, seeing new trail runners having a good time, seeing ultra newbies finish their first ultra. But, I'm usually glad it's over so I can take a break and get back to my own training.

Antelope Island Run in the Snow

2009-02-14T20:59:00.023-07:00

Today was a great day for a run. it was snowing fairly hard, the roads were a mess and I had a training run scheduled as part of the Buffalo Run. It seems as though every February training run the weather is a factor and usually not good. Instead of running trails, we usually end up on the roads because ther's too much snow on the ground. Today was no exception, with about 6-8" of untracked snow covering the trails. Not only that, but the roads hadn't been plowed yet. Only one car had traveled down the road and we ended up running in those tracks.
Even though the snow was coming down pretty good, there wasn't much wind, just a very light breeze, and the temperature was about 28.

Regardless of the weather, we do the training runs, so I knew that at least a few intrepid souls would show and I wasn't disappointed. All told there were seven of us that showed up to run. Several elected to go the full 22 miles and the rest of us decided to turn around after seven miles and call it good with 14.

One of the ones who showed was my friend Meghan. We always have a good time running together and today was no exception. We also had another runner with us out training for her first ultra. We were getting quizzed about what to eat, how to train, what's it like etc. It's fun to hear people who haven't done an ultra talk about their worries and then try to reassure them that "yes" they can do it and "yes" they will enjoy it.
14 miles ended up being about the right amount for the three of us, especially me. By the time we had covered about 12 miles, my feet were wet and starting to get cold.....and I don't like cold feet.

It snowed on us during the entire run but had quit by the time we got back to the truck.

As it usually happens, once we finished the weather had changed and the sun came out. Another beautiful finish to a great run.

Kahtoola Bigfoot SnowshoeFestival January 31, 2009

2009-02-09T20:31:00.009-07:00

Ok, let me preface this race report with the fact that I really dislike running in cold weather and I don’t like running on snow and ice either. I define cold as anything less than 30 degrees, and even that’s not much to my liking. So what did I do? Sign up for a 50K snowshoe race out in Midway, UT. I have no brains. I’d like to also mention that I had never been on snowshoes in my life until about 4pm Friday afternoon in my backyard. A couple of trips across the yard with them on and I was good to go…..so I thought.
John Bozung of Squaw Peak 50 mile fame puts this race on and Kahtoola is the main sponsor. They make a series of snowshoes that are really nice. They also had a bunch available to use for those of us without them.
The race took place at Wasatch Mountain State Park on the golf course and up in the surrounding hills. The 50K race I entered involved a 10K loop on the golf course followed by a 5K loop up the mountainside followed by another 10K loop on the golf course, then rinse and repeat. We had wear snowshoes for the first 10K and 5K loops and then we could take them off if we wanted.
We started at 8am as the sun was just coming up. My car told me that the temp. was a very cold 7 degrees. Did I mention that I dislike running in cold weather? I knew that once the sun was up the temps would warm up. I was also wearing black to help absorb some warmth. I also knew that I would be throwing off some serious heat once the race started.
We all took off on the 10K loop in the fog and early morning sun. The golf course has a series of groomed trails for snowshoers, x-country skiers and anyone else who wants to go out, so we had a really nice packed trail 10 feet wide to follow. I managed to go around the 10K loop the first time in about 1:20. A lot slower than my normal 10K time, but I figured that would be the case. After I left the start/finish area I headed over for the 5K single track up the mountainside. The 5K loop has the same vertical as the 10K loop, but in half the distance, so the climbs are much steeper. Couple that with the fact that it was single track and you have a recipe for faceplants. I managed two during this loop by stepping on my snowshoes. It was a tough climb up the hillside followed by a great run back down. I think I did the 5K loop in about 40 minutes, but I’m not sure, also much slower than my normal 5K time (duh).
After a couple minutes at the start/finish I went back out on the 10K loop. I did about half of this with my snowshoes still on my feet then decided that was enough and took them off. I found I could run much easier but not necessarily faster. I ended up completing that loop in about 1:40. It was while on this loop that I decided to drop down to the 25K. My feet were absolutely soaked and frozen and I did have some concern about frostbite. Not only that, but I was rapidly developing a painful blister on my heel from the snowshoe strap. I should have placed it lower on my shoe. Oh well.
So after about 3:55, I finished the 25K. Good enough for 3rd place (I think, results aren’t up yet) out of six runners.
I did have a pretty good time in spite of the cold and snow. John puts on a pretty good race. Very low key. The course was challenging, the scenery beautiful. Lots of good homemade chili and soup at the finish. Would I do it again? I might, but I won’t sign up for the 50K. That’s just too much time outside with cold, wet, frozen feet.

Wet Run on the Island

2009-01-27T20:51:00.014-07:00

I originally wasn't going to do an outside run last Sunday, but a couple of fellow crazy runners wanted to go run on the island, so out I went. The day was icky at best. Cloudy, around 30 degrees, threatening to snow or rain or both, and a little foggy. I wanted to weenie out and run on the treadmill.

But as usually happens, once I got out and running with others, the day ended up being good regardless of the weather. John Maack and Tim Olson were my companions for the run. Both are fellow ultrarunners, Wasatch 100 veterans, etc. Tim was an island virgin. He had grown up and lived all his life in Utah and had never been to the island. He was in for a treat.

Turns out I think there were a grand total of maybe half a dozen people on the entire island, and 3-4 of them were park employees. We had the trails....and buffalo.....and deer to ourselves. The original plan was to run the White Rock and Split Rock trails. Kind of a figure eight and the 25K course for the Buffalo Run.

When we started out, it wasn't raining or snowing and actually not too bad. As we went up the White Rock trail, we could see a few head of buffalo in the distance on the trail. As we got closer they moved. With no wind, it was so quiet and peaceful, all we could hear was our breathing and each other telling tall tales about past runs and races.

Both Tim and John are faster runners than I am and they started to pull away a little. As always, I enjoy any run on the island, but running with someone who's never been out there makes it more fun. The run itself was pretty uneventful, we saw several mule deer, several does along with a lucky buck and several small herds of bison.

I love going out on the Split Rock loop. It's out on the west side of the island and from there it's difficult to see any signs of civilization. It's easy to imagine that you're back in time when the the west was just being explored, yet 20 miles away live half a million people.

We didn't see another soul on the trails until we were about a mile from the trailhead, as we were going in Brian Beckstead was heading out for a run.

All in all, a good time. We came back soaked from the light rain and snow that finally came down. Went to the park office and put on some dry clothes, chatted with the ranger on duty and headed for home. Good times.

Oh, I forgot to mention the two bald eagles we saw as we went back across the causeway. Way cool just sitting on the ice. This eagle was the closest but was still too far away to get a decent picture.

Across the Years 72 Hour Third Day Report

2009-01-06T22:02:00.006-07:00

Day Three – Ahhhh, only 24 hours left. The end is in sight but still a ways off and I have many miles to try and cover.
The third day was much like the second except that part way through the day I noticed that I didn’t seem to be quite as tired or sore. The quads and calves weren’t quite as sore, the chafing actually seemed to have gone away, no more blisters were forming, and my digestive system was working semi normally. I tried running and was actually able to break into a little bit of a shuffle. But not for long. I’ve always heard that the second day is the worst and the third isn’t as bad. I found this to be true.
There was a certain air of celebration since this was New Year’s Eve and the final day of the race. The last group of 24-hour runners had started, the last group of 48-hour runners was finishing up as were all of us 72-hour runers.
The day wore on pretty uneventfully. John Geesler was slowly making his way around the track even with his hurt foot, but seemed to actually pick up the pace a little bit. He did spend quite a bit of time walking laps with 7-year old Gavin Wrublick. Yep, there was a 7-year old boy running in the 72-hour race. He ended up running just over 50 miles in three days. How many of us could have done that at that age? Not only was there a 7-year old running, but a 5-year old ran just over 20 miles, and 11-year old Aaron Doman ran 100 miles over three days. “Hey Aaron, what did you do over Christmas?”, “Oh, I did a little running in Phoenix with my parents.” A 16-year girl, Cat Cuda, set several age group records over the three day event.
I kept turning laps, eating, drinking, etc. I didn’t take a nap during the day but did take a break at around 5pm. I just couldn’t stay on my feet any longer. I tried to take a nap but was too wound up to sleep. As I was just laying in my sleeping bag, my friend Dave came in and sa down to chat a little. He had finished his race that morning and was back to take in the events of New Year’s Eve. He suggested we go do a few laps and since I wasn’t sleeping out we went. He ended up going about 10 laps or about 3 miles with me. This was after doing his own race and covering over 104 miles. He later told me that those few laps about did him in.
As the evening progressed, preparations were being made for the New Year’s Eve celebration. Party favors were put out, hats passed out, and I got lei’d by a women I had never met (the lei was a cheap plastic one). At about 5 minutes to midnight, most everyone gathers on the front lawn to ring in the New Year. Champagne in paper cups is passed out and after midnight everyone walks a lap together. As we were walking the lap, fireworks were set off in the fields surrounding the manor. All in all a great way to spend New Year’s Eve. If I had stayed at home I would have just gone to bed early.
Now I only had nine hours to go. How many more miles could I cover. As I checked the standings, I was trying to calculate whether I could catch the person in front of me and would the person behind me catch up. Some people had met their personal goals and were taking the rest of the night off. I knew I had to keep going if for no other reason than I’m a competitive person and hafve to do as well as I can. But the motivation was fading somewhat.
I kept going around the track until around 4am when I decided to take my last break. I set my alarm for 5:30am and for the first time the alarm actually woke me up. Up to this point I had always woken up before my alarm went off. So, at 5:30am I went back out on the track for the final time. By 8am, I was really tempted to call it quits. I knew I wouldn’t catch the person in front of me and I knew the person behind me wouldn’t catch up, but somehow I couldn’t stop, I had to keep going to the very end. AS the clock wound down to the last few minutes, I tried to pick up my pace. I turned my last lap in just over 4 minutes and decided not to try a last one with only 3 minutes on the clock.
FINALLY! My race was over. After 72 long hours, I was done. Usually when I finish a 24-hour race, I’m kind of at a loss as to what to do next. The same happened here. For the past 72 hours, this track, the people running around it, the volunteers, etc. had all been my life. With that much focus and insularity, to be suddenly be finished kind of leaves a void. Kind of a weird feeling. But I had things to do. I had to pick up all my stuff, load it into my car and get ready for the awards ceremony and lunch. It was fun to finally be able to talk with other runners without the pressure to keep going. We could all relax and enjoy our accomplishments. And there were some amazing accompliments. In the world of multiday running, my finish was decidely middle of the road. I did finish in 18th place out of 50 runners, but there was one person who was 71 years old that finished way ahead of me as did another person who’s 69. The kids I mentioned earlier were amazing. For them to be able to do something like this speaks volumes about what the future holds for them whatever they do.

Below is a graph of the elevation profile for the third day. You can see that the difference is now around 250 feet per lap.
Aftermath – Would I do this race again? I’m usually asked that after I try something new. Most of the time I say never again, then in a few weeks after the pain fades, I remember the good time I had and sign up again. This time I pretty much decided the same day that I would do the 72 hour event again. I’m convinced that I can do better now that I have a little experience. So, look for me to be down in Phoenix again for 2009 New Year’s Eve having a good time with my fellow crazy running friends.

Across the Years 72 Hour Second Day Report

2009-01-05T21:07:00.010-07:00

Day Two – This was by far the most difficult day, both physically and mentally. After going solid for 24 hours, your body is shot, you’re tired, sore, maybe blistered, definitely hungry. Maybe you didn’t get the mileage you were hoping for during the first 24 so now you’re a little down. To top it off, the second group of 24 and 48 hour runners is starting and they’re nice and fresh. You realize that your race is only one third over, you still have 48 hours to go. Ugh! Nonetheless, you press on, hoping to get at least a decent amount of miles under your belt for the day.
Optimistically I was hoping to cover close to 100 miles in the first 24. I didn’t so now what do I do to reach the goal I’ve set. Either I’ve got to pick up the pace or reevaluate the goal. I chose to reevaluate. Doing any sort of running was out of the question, at least I thought so. Walking a nice brisk pace was definitely doable though.
Even though I started out the day in 21st place, in a race like this, things can change very quickly. For example, John Geesler is a perennial winner or second place finisher in the 72 hour race. The guy is a machine and super nice to boot. The first day he threw down 98 miles. The second day he came up injured. I’m not sure what it was but it had to do with his heel. He was reduced to a slow limping walk. A lot of frontrunners would have called it quits. John isn’t like that. He knew that his race was over, but he continued to limp around the track shuffling out the miles. He spent a lot of time talking with other runners, his attitude was one of going out to just have some fun and enjoy the rest of the race.
Another couple of people who were in the front of the pack also had to leave the race early. This meant that I could potentially move up three spots in the standings if I maintained my pace and stayed healthy.
I ended up walking the vast majority of the miles I did on the second day. I just couldn’t bring myself to actually run. I probably could have done some running but just the thought made me tired. I’ve heard from others that the second is always the worst. Your body is breaking down, skin is getting raw, blisters are popping up, you’re constantly hungry, your digestive system isn’t working right. Sounds horrible and to think that I was doing this to myself willingly. What an idiot!
As far as my own body, I could feel a blister forming on a toe. Since I still had many, many hours to go I decided to get it fixed right away. Chris, the nurse on duty (he also ran the 72 hour race) took wonderful care of me. He popped the blister and taped up each toe individually and laid a strip of tape on the sole of each foot. He said that should take care of me for the rest of the race and it did. I only ended up with that one tiny blister. Note to anyone wanting to prevent blisters, spray cheap antiperspirant on your feet and tape them up with 3M’s millipore tape. Works wonders. Also wear some Injinji toe socks.
The day for me went pretty uneventfully. I stopped to take a short nap at around noon and got back out on the track at about 1:30pm, much rested. It was amazing how much better just a short little nap could make you feel.
Meanwhile, my friend Davy Crockett had started the 24 hour race that morning and was cranking out the miles. His speed made me look like I was standing still. But towards the afternoon he began having stomach issues. This slowed him down. Ultimately, he ran over 104 miles for the 24 hour race, good enough for 5th place. My other friend Juli Aistars was running the 72 hour race and was going for the women’s win. She was still running strong.
I hit the 100 mile mark at about 32 hours and change. The really sad part is that I ran the Wasatch Front 100 mile this past summer in about the same amount of time and here I am on a flat almost sea level track, not 9000’ up in the mountains.
Dinner time happened around 5pm again and lasagna was on the menu this time. Several bowls of that really picked me up. By 9pm that night, my race was half over. It was hard to imagine that I still had 36 hours to go and that I had already been out there for 36 hours. The second night was the coldest of the race. I’m guessing the temp got down around the upper 30’s and there was a slight breeze to help make it feel colder. I took another nap at around 10pm and once back on the track at around midnight, I started getting cold. As I shivered, it all of the sudden dawned on me, “Jim, you brought a wool coat, go get it”. So I did and felt much better. I wasn’t going fast enough to generate sweat, so wearing the coat really helped. Once again, hot potato soup was served during the night and this really hit the spot. At around 7am, breakfast was served. Pancakes again. Sure tasted good. I got my coffee mug out again and enjoyed another hot cup while watching the sun rise on the third day of the race. Only a little over 24 hours to go.
My friend Davy Crockett was now finishing up his race after covering a little over 104 miles in 24 hours. I was envious, I wanted to be done too. Oh well, Jim, keep trudging around the track.
Second day stats – 43.496 miles, around 8000 calories burned, not nearly that amount taken in, plenty to eat and drink, one blister, still very minor chafing, my feet hurt, my legs hurt, I hurt. Mental attitude, fantastic, I’m having a good time…….so far. I think I was in 19th place at this point.
Below is an elevation profile of the course. Note that the elevation difference between the high and low points of the course is about one hundred feet.
Stay tuned for the day three report tomorrow.

Across The Years 72 Hour First Day Report

2009-01-04T15:32:00.010-07:00

I decided to post my race report over three days since my race was held over the course of three days. So today’s post will be just the first day. Hopefully I can remember all the stuff that went on.
Preamble – The official name of this race is the “Across The years 24, 48, 72 Hour Run, Walk, Eat, Sleep Footrace”. The race slogan is “Raising the Bar” I would like to suggest some alternative titles. How about “Across The Years 24, 48, 72 Hour Run, Walk, Trudge, Stumble, Weave Back and Forth, Babble Incoherently Footrace”. Or how about “Across The Years 24, 48, 72 Hour Experience in New Levels of Pain and Discomfort Footrace”. Or maybe “Across The Years 24, 48, 72 Hour How to Lose That Beer Belly and Those Pesky Holiday Pounds in 316,366 Easy Steps”. Or this one, “Across The Years 24, 48, 72 hour How to Wear Out Your New Trail Shoes in One Easy Fun Run”.
This race takes place at Nardini Manor, a southern style mansion on the west side of Phoenix. The owners have installed a USATF certified 500 meter track around the perimeter of the property and have hosted this race every year since 2003 I think. This year marked the silver anniversary of the event.

The race format is this. On the first day a group of 24 and 48 hour runners start and all of the 72 hour runners start. Race start is at 9am. On the second day, a second group of 24 and 48 hour runners start, the first group of 24 hour runners finishes and the 72 and 48 hour first group just keep going. On day three, the third group of 24 hour runners start, the second group of 24 hour runners finishes and the 72 and second group of 48 hour runners keeps going. At 9am on January first, everyone is done. Each runner is chip timed as well. The other thing that’s a little different is that you wear your race number on your back. The number has your name on it and everyone can see it if they’re coming up on you or you’re passing them. This works great for encouraging other runners plus you get to know others in the race.
There is only one aid station, but what’s not to like about a fully stocked aid station every 500 meters.
During the race, there are constant website updates, a webcam and viewers have the opportunity to send e-mails to their favorite runners. These e-mails get delivered trackside to each runner.
Why did I decide to go for the 72 hour race? I’ve run the 24 hour race twice (2005-06, 2007-08). I’ve kind of kicked around the idea of trying a multi-day event and figured this one would give me three times the fun of a 24 hour run. It did that and in spades.

Day One – I spent the previous night at the manor in the big tent, as did many other runners. That meant I didn’t have to get up early to check out of a hotel, find someplace to eat and drive out to the race. Kind of nice.
As we lined up at the starting line, I had the chance to see lots of other runners that I know. It was nice to see familiar faces. There were about 53 of us 72-hour runners, 22 24-hour runners, and 7 48-hour runners that started on the 29th. I could tell the weather over the next three days was going to be brutal……not. Temps in the upper 60’s, sunny, lows around 40 at night. It was going to be rough.
I started out kind of slow, averaging around 3:45 per lap. This is slower than I ran during the 24 hour races when I would typically turn around 3:30 or less during the first few hours. My strategy was to go out a little slower but still run the first 50K pretty much non-stop, then go to a run 19 laps walk 1 lap effort. I ended up covering the first marathon in around 4 hours and the first 50K in about 5 ½ hours. Slower than I wanted but I felt ok. I was entering new running territory and I didn’t know what to expect.
The day was pretty uneventful. Dinner was served around 5pm and consisted of chicken cordon bleu. Not too bad for runner fare. Sure beats eating junk food.
I was concerned about getting blisters and chafing but that turned out to be pretty much a non-issue. I started out wearing my LaSportiva Crosslites and a pair of Wrightsocks. I also sprayed my feet with some cheap antiperspirant to help keep my feet from sweating, since wet feet help contribute to blistering. Last year I lost seven toenails due to blisters and if that happened this year, I’d never finish 72 hours. Same with chafing, if that got bad, it was pretty much over.
I did laps all day long, trying to pay attention to hydration and calorie intake. I ran and walked until around 10pm and decided it was time to take a small sleep break. I went into the big heated tent, crawled into my sleeping bag, set the alarm for 11:30pm and was out. I woke before the alarm went off and it was definitely tough getting out of a nice warm bag to go outside into the cold, but I managed and clicked off a bunch more miles before taking another short break at 4:00am. During the middle of the night we were served hot homemade potato soup. Really good at 2am. By 5:30am I was back out on the track turning laps again.
Around 7am breakfast was served, pancakes and syrup. I went for a bunch of oatmeal, for some reason that sounded really good, and it was. I had brought my big coffee mug and had the aid station fill it. Nothing like trudging around a track, watching the sun rise over the mountains and drinking my morning coffee. At 9am, the first day was over, at least for us but the second wave of 24 and 48 hour runners were set to start.
First day stats – 78.603 miles, around 12,500 calories burned, not nearly that amount taken in, plenty to eat and drink, no blisters, very minor chafing, my feet hurt, my legs hurt, I hurt. Mental attitude, fantastic, I’m having a good time…….so far. I think I was in 21st place at this point.
Here is an elevation profile of the course. Note that the elevation difference between the high and low points of the course is about one foot.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s second day report.

Twin Peaks running in sunny (not) Southern California

2008-12-14T17:15:00.006-07:00

Ok, this is the second time I've run this race. The first time the weather was perfect, cool at the start and warming up to around 80.....in February. The race date got moved this year due the fires from fall 2007. The nice thing about this race is that I can bum off my sister-in-law and her family for the weekend since the race is near to their house.

So a couple weeks before the race, we get an e-mail detailing a change in start times. Originally the start time for all runners was 6am. Now, to reduce the numbers going thru any aid station and to "enhance" our running experience, we were divided into several groups, three groups for the 50 mile and two for the 50K. My start time was now 4am. That meant I had to set the alarm for 2am. This really sucks, but I paid the money so I'll run the race.

I checked the weather for the weekend and it was looking iffy, but I was hopeful that any weather would hold off until I was done.

I showed up at the starting line at 3:30 with the other intrepid souls starting at 4am and we were off. I knew the first 8 miles or so were all uphill so I took off at an easy pace right behind Catra and her friend. Within a 1/4 mile I found myself in the lead. Wow, this is really unusual, me in front. In fact it's down right strange. I actually was in the lead or the first 3.5 miles before I finally got overtaken by a couple of kids. In talking with the second one, he said we'd both overtake the front runner eventually. Turns out he was right, I caught him again at about 20 miles. So up and up we go. We had a full moon and it was fun to be able to run without my headlamp on , but I could see a massive cloud wrapped around the top of Santiago Peak, the peak we'd have to summit twice during the day. Not a good sign at all.

We were supposed to have our first aid station at around 6 miles, but there was no one there. I didn't think too much of it since I was doing fine anyway. Running up the road eventually got me into the clouds around the mountains. It was kind of a surreal experience. I was only able to see about 20' in front of me with my headlamp. I would think I was going on a straight section of road and all of the sudden there would be the brush at the side, the road had turned. I would swing my light around to see which way to go. The course was well marked and even with the fog the way was clear. As I was running down the firetrail at about 9.5 miles, I came across a truck. Turns out it was aid station, they got lost.

I made it to the first trail (Horsethief canyon) of the day just as it was starting to get light. I love this particular trail. Lots of fun to run down. I was still running in third and there was no one behind me for quite a distance. I made it down Horsethief Canyon to the second aid station at the bottom of Holy Jim Canyon (14.8 miles). By now I needed water and my drop bag. Guess what? The aid station people had just arrived and weren't even setup yet. Not only that, no drop bags. Needless to say, I was mildly irritated. This shouldn't have happened. Bad planning and timing. I had to wait around to get just a banana, only water and soda, no sports drink. I grabbed the banana and left up Holy Jim trail, 9 miles to the top of Santiago Peak. Eventually I was in the clouds again and now it was starting to rain and the wind picked up. Time to get cold. When I made it to the top of Santiago, I was frozen and now I was starting to think about dropping to the 50K. I don't do well running in cold weather. At the top, the aid station was one person doing the aid out of the back of their car. Limited food, water or soda. I grabbed a sandwich and headed back down the fire road. By now my hands were so cold that I couldn't feel my fingers, even with my gloves on. I was wet, it was windy, about 40 and rainy at the top. I was not having fun at all. Now the interesting part started. I was about a mile down from the peak trotting along and I heard this voice off the side of the road "Hey, can you help me?" I looked and there was this very heavy set man laying on the ground about 30' down the slope. Keep in mind this is a 45 degree slope. He had lost control of his truck and rolled it about 40'-50' down the slope. The only reason he didn't go further was the heavy brush in that location. Luckily he had been wearing his seatbelt and wasn't really hurt. He had been trying to climb back up to the road and couldn't make it. He had hurt his wrist and couldn't use one hand. Anyway, I stopped, asked him if he was ok and scrambled down the slope to help him up. After we got back up to the road, the 3rd place runner came by and said he would let the next aid station know what was going on. I had my cell phone with me but couldn't get signal at all. We started very slowly walking down the road to the next aid station when Chrissy Weis stopped by and gave us ride. By now I was absolutely frozen and knew that going on was not a good thing. No dry clothes and shivering uncontrollably. We transfered to another vehicle going back to the finish area finally made it down. We managed to get in touch with the guy's wife and got him home. He was incredibly lucky that his truck didn't roll any further down the mountainside and get hurt worse.

So, my day ended at about 23 miles and 5 hours. Today as I write this, I spent 4 hours on the golf course with my brother-in-law enjoying typical So Cal Dec. weather, sunny, 60's, clear air, very nice. Too bad today wasn't race day.

One thing that did go well was my uphill running. I really suck at going uphill. One of the things I changed with my training was to be diligent with doing hill repeats. I did find out that the hill repeats worked fantastic. I was able to run up hill far better than I ever have been able to.

Will I go back to run this race next year? In a word, no. There was a lack of attention paid to the little details, getting people to their aid station location, getting drop bags to the aid stations in a timely manner, getting aid stations up and running before the first runners come thru. On the other hand, some things went right. I wore my LaSportiva Crosslites for the first time in a race and they were great. Very comfy, good traction. I also had no blisters. I tried wearing those toe sock thingies and they work great. Usually I will start getting a hot spot or two by 20 miles and this didn't happen. Other than getting really, really cold, I felt pretty good.

So, a somewhat exciting day that didn't go as planned and another DNF in the books. Now I start the taper for Across The Years.

A Perfect Trailrunning Weekend

2008-12-08T20:39:00.010-07:00

So I had the 2nd training run for the Buffalo Run last Saturday. Perfect weather, around 35 at the start, warmed up to the 40's, no breeze. Very nice.

About 20 people showed up, both of the training runs have been well attended this year. Usually 6-8 people will show. We'll see what happens when the snow flies.

Most of us ran the White Rock loop trail then sauntered over to the Lakside trail and ran that. We all kind of scattered to run our own pace but come together at the end to compare adventures. I got a total of around 13.8 miles out of that run. A few people ran more and a few less, but everyone had a good time.

For those that don't know what Antelope Island is, it's the largest island (28,000 acres) in the Great Salt Lake and the entire island is a state park. There's a herd of 500-600 buffalo that roam free along with herds of mule deer, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, as well as coyotes, bobcats, jackrabbits, porcupine, snakes, and lizards. There are around 35 miles of trails accessible to the public, but most of the island is off limits to people to help maintain a pristine nature. As a member of the volunteer trail patrol out there, I've had the opportunity to see most of the island thru my running. Many times I'll be out on the trails when very few people are out and it's easy to imagine 150 years ago when you can't see or hear any signs of civilization.

Sunday I had big plans to go do some hill repeats but weenied out and decided to do a tempo run along one of my favorite trails from the 22nd street trailhead in Ogden south to above Weber Stae University. From the car it was a 6.8 mile out and back jaunt. There's one hill along this route where I do my hill repeats that's about .6 miles and gains about 300'. Total gain to the turnaround is about 800'. Anyway, I had this idea that maybe I could do this route in under an hour so I pushed as hard as I ever have. I didn't make the sub hour run, but had a great time nonetheless. Another perfect trail running weekend in the books.

My first post

2008-11-26T22:24:00.004-07:00

Ok, I've given in to peer pressure from my fellow teammates on the Wasatch Speedgoat Mountain Racing Team and started this blog. I have no idea how often I'll post, probably after a memorable run or race or maybe just to brag on my grandson occasionally.
Just a little about me. I live near Ogden, UT and work as an Engineer in the Aerospace/defense industry. My wife and I are empty nesters now and while we miss the kids, we are enjoying not having to raise them anymore.
I enjoy running. I enjoy being in good enough shape to get out to very remote areas in the surrounding mountains in a short amount of time. I enjoy having the ability to run ultradistances. I enjoy being around my fellow trail runners, some of the nicest people you'll ever meet.
As part of my running hobby, I'm a volunteer with the trail patrol on Antelope Island State Park. It's the largest island in the Great Salt Lake (28,000 acres). I also direct a trail race every year on the island called the Antelope Island Buffalo Run. Ok, enough for the first post, I'm going to bed.