Miscellaneous (did I spell it correctly?) thoughts on running, being out of a job, and post surgical stuff

Well, I haven't posted anything in awhile mainly because I haven't done any racing or serious adventure runs since my failure at Salt Flats.  So if you're interested, here's what's been going on in my life.  If you're not interested, go somewhere else.
Yeah, so I DNF'd at Salt Flats way back at the end of April.  I had just lost my job plus I had run the Zion 100 the week before and my head and legs just weren't into it.  It was a good decision.
So I lost my job on April 24.  I had already scheduled a inguinal hernia repair surgery for May 1 and I was concerned that I would have to cancel since my health insurance would be gone by April 30.  Smith Optics was very gracious and offered to continue and pay for my health insurance for three months.  They didn't have to do this.  Needless to say, that was pretty nice of them.

I've never had a major surgery before.  Even though this was to be an outpatient one, it's still major.  I was a major basket case before the surgery.  This was a complete unknown for me.  It was really interesting to kind of detach myself and objectively look at how I was reacting to the impending operation.  At my pre-surgical appointment the nurse took my bp and asked if I had high blood pressure.  Nope, it was white coat syndrome.  The day of surgery, the nurse took my pulse and asked if I ran, I said yes and asked what my pulse was.  She told me it was 75.  I laughed and told her my resting pulse was normally 45-50, so it was way high.  Anyway, I was a nervous wreck until they put the IV line in me, then for some reason I really relaxed.  They hadn't even given me any drugs yet.
So, in the ensuing couple of hours, I was gutted like a fish and repaired.  I now am the proud owner of a couple of serious scars.

The first couple of days post surgery were rough.  I was in some pain that I had never felt before.  Running 100 miles is painful, but not like this.  I hurt.  I found out Lortab is a wonder drug.

 I took them religiously.  But I also found out there are side effects to taking Lortab.  Those weren't pleasant.  Still, I was bound and determined to get up and get active as soon as I could.  So the next day, my lovely wife went for a walk with me.  I managed to make it to the corner (50 yards) and back.  That exhausted me.  This was a whole different world to me.  Still, by day 3 post surgery, I walked a bit over a mile and the week following surgery I walked close to 30 miles.  I started running again at two weeks (the doc said I could).  It was slow, and I was pretty cautious about it.  I could just see me falling on to some rocks and ripping everything open.  By 3 weeks, I was running more, and by 6 weeks, the doc said I could do pretty much whatever I wanted.  I'm now back up to more mileage than I was doing before I ran Zion.  The moral of the story?  I really think it helps your recovery to be in some serious shape before surgery and to get active as soon as possible.  I'm convinced that I recovered much quicker than someone who doesn't run or exercise would have.
Meanwhile, on the job hunting front.  In the first few weeks, I had a flurry of interviews.  Nothing panned out and so far I'm guessing that I've sent out about 75-100 resumes for positions.
So since I seem to have a pretty good network of friends and acquaintances here in the Salt Lake City area, if anyone you know of is looking for a Manufacturing or Quality, or Process, or Safety Engineer or something similar, let me know.  I'm actively looking.

Don't call us, we'll call you

 I don't plan on moving away, we like it here too much.
Other than the whole looking-for-a-job thing, I'm actually enjoying the time off.  I get to run when I want, I'm getting stuff done around the house (much to my wife's delight), and I actually cook dinner sometimes (also much to my wife's delight).

Honey, dinner's ready, come and get it

Summer is on and I still have some adventures planned through the fall.  I'm running Wasatch again, I'll be helping out at Speedgoat since I was smart enough to not sign up this year :-)  I'm running El Vaquero Loco 50K.  I'm signed up for The Bear and I may sign up for the Ogden Valley 50 mile.  I'm also contemplating pulling the trigger and entering the Chimera 100 down in the OC.  My wife and I are going down to the Grand Canyon the first weekend in October.  I'm planning on running either a R2R2R or something else with about 40 miles of trail, so if anyone wants to join in, feel free.

On the race directing front, All of my fall races are open for entry, the Antelope Island 50K/100K, the Mountain View Trail Half Marathon, and a new race, the Frary Peak Hill Climb.  Hit the race website for details (www.buffalorun.org).  I'm trying to put together a spring 12.5/25 mile race, but that may not come to fruition due to Forest Service intransigence in giving me a permit.  Still working on that one.
I'm also working on improving and building out the race website.  I'll be offering various Buffalo Run items for sale and providing links to other companies that sell outdoor gear and other stuff for us runners.  We'll see how that goes.
Meanwhile, keep up your own running.  Get out there and hit the trails.

Running on Salt

Well, this one should be short.
Have you ever pushed yourself to the limit of what you think you can do physically?
Most people have no idea what they are capable of.  They haven't pushed themselves to their limit.  Limits obviously differ for everyone.  Our limits are different at different times.  Training, mindset, perseverance, all play a role in how far we can go.  As far as running goes, for some people their limit is a 5K, they can't fathom running a 10K, let alone a marathon.  For a lot of runners, the marathon is the ultimate goal.
I used to work with an Engineer that ran in the US Olympic Marathon Trials.  He was fast, very fast.  His speed made my "speed" seem positively pedestrian, and it is.
After he found out I ran my first 100 mile race, the guy was in awe of me doing something like that.  He was floored.  His comment was "I can't imagine running one step beyond 26.2".
Well, I found out today what my limit was for today.  Last week I wrote about my experience running the Zion 100.  To recap, I had an absolute blast.  Probably the most fun I've ever had running 100 miles.  I ran within myself, didn't push, and felt great the entire time.
The week after I ran Zion, I did no running at all.  I got a massage, ate, and sat on my butt.  Recovery time.
By Wednesday, I felt good to go.  No residual soreness, the legs felt ready to have a go at another 100 mile race.  Two in two weeks, back to backs, one right after the other.  I knew of a couple others that had recently done the same thing.  They were my age, if they could do it, by golly, so could I.  I had announced to a lot of people my intention.  Maybe I shouldn't have.  Oh well.
But Thursday I had a bombshell dropped on me.  I lost my job.  Yep, unemployed.  It's not the first time this has happened, but it's still a shock to the system.  BTW, anyone looking for a good Manufacturing or Process Engineer?  I'm your guy.  Lean, Safety, Product Compliance, Quality, I can do it all.
Needless to say, Thursday night was not a good night for sleep.  Not only that, but all of the sudden, my head wasn't in the game.  I seriously thought about just bagging the race and staying home.  But all I would have done is fret and worry.  Instead, I finally got up early and headed out to Wendover, UT for the race.  I figured that a good long run would allow me to think, sort things out, maybe even come to some conclusions on what to do next with my life.
Race day was gorgeous.  Not a cloud in the sky, temps around 40 at the start warming up to the low 70's.  Perfect (for me) running weather.
I toed the line at at 7am, we (all 46 of us) took off across the salt flats.  Keep in mind, the first 13 miles of the race were on six feet of salt.  Flat as your tabletop surface, hard, interesting.  You could look around at the nearby mountains without worrying about taking a header on a rock.
I chatted with a few friends during this time, but after awhile, the field spread out and I was by myself.  Time to think.  And I did, but not too hard.  I was here to have another good time running 100 miles.  And I did......for awhile......for about six hours.
My running was easy, much easier than last year when I ran the same race.  Roughly a 10 minute pace for the first 22 miles and the third aid station.  Yeah, that's a lot of non-stop running if you're planning on completing a 100.  No climbing up hills, just flat running.
Things went great for those first 22 miles.  Indeed, they went great for the first 30 miles.  I was running easy, trying to keep my pace down.
Didn't matter, my running came to a grinding halt at about 30 miles.  I ended up walking a mile to the next aid station.  My legs hurt.  I felt like I had already run about 70 miles on them and I still had 70 miles to go.  My  toes hurt.  I bruised them at Zion, and they weren't healed.  Toenails were hitting the underside of the shoe uppers and it hurt.  I had to curl them to keep them from doing that.
Up to this point, I had been having fun.  I was well hydrated, well fed (think grilled cheese with bacon at one aid station).  My mood was good, it was a great day.
When I got to the aid station at 31 miles, I sat down to think and evaluate my options.  I was looking at a very, very remote 20 miles coming up.  If I dropped at the aid station out there, I wasn't getting back until the next day.
My legs and toes were telling me I had reached my limit for today.  That was it, there was no more.  Could I have walked?  Sure, but it wouldn't have been fun, and I do this stuff because it's fun, not because I have to.
So I made the fairly easy decision to drop.  I was still in a good mood, I still felt good except that my legs and toes were very sore and tired.  I actually enjoyed sitting in the sun while waiting for a ride back to the start.
After I got back, I drove into town and pigged out at McDonald's.  Yeah, I like to do that sometimes.  The food is always consistently mediocre, but that's fine. 
So, what's your limit?  Has it changed over the years?
Sorry there's no race pictures.  I didn't take any this year.  If you want to see what the course looks like, check out my last year's race report here.  It hasn't changed any from last year.
However, here's a picture of my two grandchildren because they're so stinkin cute.

Zion 100, jello shots, and thoughts of Boston

Introduction -
So the bombing in Boston happened last Monday, a few days before I was to run the Zion 100.  I've run Boston, back in 2004.  What was that experience like?  Well, it was my second worst marathon time ever.  I knew within a couple miles that the race would not go well for me.  At that point I decided to just enjoy the day and soak up all the hype, fun, spectators, etc.  After all, I was running the Boston Marathon.  My family came along and we did a mini vacation, toured the city, ate at fancy restaurants.  One of my friends had always told me that she would come watch if I ever ran Boston.  Her and her husband flew in to do just that.  It was a fun trip.  It was a fun race, the huge noise, half a million spectators lining the route, turning that last corner and seeing the finish line.  In the exact same spot as it was last Monday.  I crossed the finish line at Boston at about the same time as the bombs went off.  I have runner friends that ran Boston last Monday.  One of them was only 200 yards away from the bomb when it went off.  He was on the phone with his wife. It's only a race, it's not life or death.  Well, last Monday it was life or death.
My training for Zion hadn't been where I wanted it.  In January I ran outside three whole times.  The rest of the time the treadmill was my friend.  Those that know me know that when it comes to running in inclement weather, I am a weather weenie.....big time.
My mileage was behind last year's. I didn't have very many long runs in.  In fact, Moab Red Hot, a couple of 20 milers, a 24 miler, and one 30 mile run were it in the long run department.  Compounding my perceived lack of training was my hernia diagnosis.  Probably brought on by lifting a couple of tons of water at the Buffalo Run.  Well, crap, there goes my training.  Except that the doctor said I could run, running would not make it worse.  But no weight lifting, no Pilates, too much strain on the abdomen.  So, I just kept running, trying to get my mileage up, trying to get in some quality running time.  Quietly panicking at the thought of running 100 miles grossly undertrained.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had told all my friends that I was going to attempt back to back 100's.  Zion 100 one week, Salt Flats 100 a week later.  Yep, I got called all sorts of crazy (nothing new there).  For some odd reason I thought doing back to back's would be a good thing to do.  I kinda still do think it's a good idea.  Ask me next week what I think about that.  Then, one of my pacers comes up lame.  Now I'm down to one pacer.  Not that I need a pacer, but they are kind of handy to have around.

Prerace -
Fast forward to last Thursday afternoon.  I picked up Britta and Breein, also known as Team Bean Burrito, my crew and pacer and we headed south for Zion.  Got down there, checked in, ate dinner, and hit the hay.  And like usual, I slept like crap the night before a race.  One of these days I need to learn to take drugs before I go to bed.  Britta and Breein were staying at a friend's house and had taken my car.  I was staying at the high quality Days Inn of Hurricane, UT.  They picked me up at 5am and we headed for the start at the town park in the thriving metropolis of Virgin, UT.

Mmmmm, donuts!

With my lack of mileage, I decided I had to approach the race in a totally different manner than I normally do.  Instead of going out with a goal of hitting certain times and all, my goal for the race was to finish, regardless of time.  Secondarily, I wanted to enjoy the experience.  After all, I was running near Zion National Park.  Can we say awesome scenery?  I told Britta and Breein that under no circumstances was I to be allowed to quit, unless there were severe injuries or illnesses.

My fueling strategy also was a bit different.  After my epic failure at Wasatch last year (OD'd on caffeine, coupled with a lack of hydration and calories), I thought I would try something else.  Massive calorie intake at every aid station I had a drop bag.  Real food, not using nearly as much gels.
My mental strategy was to go out and have fun, not worry about times, just enjoy the race, the people I would meet, the friends I would see.  It's just a race, it's not life or death.  With Boston on everyone's mind, I wondered what I could do.  I decided to rummage around and find my Boston bib and wear it at Zion.  Will it help anyone? No.  Will anyone in Boston know?  Probably not.  Will it help the victims?  Doubt it.  What it did do was serve as a reminder to me what running is all about, at least for me.  For me, it's fun pure and simple.  Fun with friends, fun by myself, fun when it isn't quite so fun, and that in the grand scheme of life, it's just one part.

Race time -
So, the race started at 6am.  Beforehand, Matt had asked if several runners could carry a bunch of batons, passing it on to other runners as the race progressed.  Each baton represented either someone who had died, or was severely injured in the bombings.  I carried one.

I met Kelly and Harrison at the start.  Harrison was doing the 100K, and Kelly was headed out to do the 100 mile like me.

HUMR time with Kelly, Harrison and I

I always get a bit nervous at the start of a race.  Jitters, anxiety, whatever.
Matt said go, and we took off.  The first part of the race was about two miles down the side of the highway, then turn down a gravel road.  Not exactly trail running, but that's ok.  At about three miles, we hit some sweet single track.  Right along the Virgin river.  I mean right at the edge.  I mean if you took a wrong step, you were going to fall between 20' and 50' off the cliff into the water.  It was cool.  We did this for about six miles until the first aid station.  The sun was up above the cliffs and mesas now, the day was cool, almost cold, and I felt great.  Easy, easy running.  I hoped I wasn't going out too fast.
After the first aid station, we made our way along some jeep trails to the base of Gooseberry Mesa.  Now came the first big climb of the day, 1200' in about a mile.  No big deal, we do that all the time around here.  And it really wasn't a big deal.  I enjoyed the climb even though it was steep and technical.
At the top of the climb was Goosebump aid station (19.1 miles).  We would go through this one three times through mile 58.  Here, I started my massive calorie intake plan.  I had several doses of Ultragen in my drop bag.  Each dose is 320 calories plus water.  I think I started eating rice and bean burritos here.  More on that later.  Anyway, probably 500-600 calories went down the hatch.  I had also been doing gels during the miles in between as well.  I was still throwing down a pretty good time (at least for me) and was a bit worried that I was going too fast and that I would really suffer later.  After Goosebump, we wandered the mountain bike trails on the top of the mesa.  Some of this was right along the edge, think 500'-1000' drop offs, think stunning views, think stop if you want to look around so you don't run off the edge.  Britta and Breein didn't meet me at Goosebump the first time.  They barely made it for my second time through (31 miles).  Something about getting lost, almost getting my car stuck in sand, I don't know.  I think they just took too long for breakfast.

Team Bean Burrito Crew Chief and Head Pacer hitting the PBR's

Now I had a bunch of dirt road miles to the Grafton Mesa aid station.  Most of this was slightly downhill, so I enjoyed the easy running.  Got into Grafton and did my massive calorie intake thing again.  A couple more burritos, another dose of Ultragen, grabbed some of the pureed fruit I had to take the place of gels, and out I went.  The next section was primarily downhill, but we did have a short climb up to Eagle Crag aid.  It was here I discovered the wonderful rejuvenating powers of pickle juice.  The aid station had pickles out.  That sounded good.  I ate a couple, they were good.  The thought of the juice sounded good.  I drank it.  It tasted good.  About 10 minutes later, my stomach........felt........much.......better, and it hadn't felt bad at all.  My little sausage fingers went away.  I felt fantastic, on top of the world.
I took off for Grafton Mesa.  Here we encountered our third big climb of the day.  Here is where the wheels came slightly off.  I knew at some point I would have a low spot.  The climb up to Grafton Mesa was it.  After the climb, I walked the two miles into the aid station.  I knew that it was a dire need for calories, so I hit the rice and bean burritos and Ultragen again.  Sat for a bit eating and conversing, then took off.  Within a few minutes I was again running, uphill, towards Goosebump.
I made it to Goosebump (mile 58) at dusk.  Britta had run in with me the past few miles and they both jumped into action when I sat down.  More rice and bean burritos, pickle juice, Ultragen.  They had my feet up, shoes and socks off.  This having a crew thing is awesome.

Life is great

After leaving Goosebump for the last time, I headed off the mesa and across the canyon.  Then a trek up Dalton Wash Road to the Guacamole Trail.  This is another mountain bike trail that twists and turns, takes you right to the edge of the mesa and brings you back.  I ran this at night....while tired.  Yeah, you could shine your headlamp to your left and see nothing but darkness, you knew that the cliff was right there.  A little bit dicey to say the least.  But Matt had the trail very well marked with little LED lights and I didn't have any problems.  Anyway, after nine miles of wandering around on that chunk of the course, I went back down Dalton Wash road and met Britta and Breein waiting in my car.  Britta was to begin pacing me from here to the finish.  They did manage to get a few hours of sleep while waiting for me.
Oh, the night time weather?  Cool, slight breeze.  I only got really cold when I was sitting at an aid station.  Incentive to keep moving.

Breein downing a Maverick hot dog in rememberance of my downing two hot dogs during Salt Flats last year.  Good thing she didn't spill mustard on my car seat.

At this point I think it was around 4am.  I still felt pretty good.  Tired, a bit sore, but not bad for 81 miles.

Britta and I took off for the Walsh aid station.  Interesting place to say the least.

Jello shots anyone?

Party time at Walsh

No, I'm not sick.  Just taking a few minute snooze

After leaving Walsh aid (84 miles) we headed for the last big climb, and the biggest one.  Flying Monkey trail.  This thing is dangerous.  Narrow, extremely technical, if you fall, you will get hurt, maybe pretty bad.  Now couple that with being tired and it being dark.  Still, I made it to the top with Britta pushing me (literally) and we headed for the last aid station, Smith Mesa.  Yay, less than a dozen miles left.

By now the sun was up, it was cold and very breezy.  Got to Smith Mesa and pretty much blew through it to do the out-and-back section.  Coming back through, I spent very little time.  I was smelling the barn.  I also knew that the remaining nine miles were pretty much all downhill....and I like downhill.  With Britta pushing me, I started running as much as I could and ended up running the vast majority off the last nine miles.  I managed to pass about 8-10 runners on the way as well.  Best of all?  I was still a happy camper.  Yep, my attitude was still good, I still felt good.  This was fun stuff.

Britta and I coming down the last few yards to the finish

Post race - 

So yeah, I managed to finish my 18th 100-mile race.  Not a stellar time by any means, 28:38 was the time.  Decidedly middle of the pack.  But I was happy with it.  Despite my perceived lack of training, I felt great the entire time.

Random pic of Savannah, my granddaughter because she's so stinking cute

Aftermath and analysis - 

Why did I feel so good?  Why am I barely sore two days after?  In hindsight I have to think that it's the cross training I've done.  Pilates twice a week, weight lifting twice a week.  The core strength and leg strength were there and that enabled me to be able to run as much of the distance as I did.  I also think that changing my fueling strategy had something to do with it.  My guess is that I downed significantly more calories during this race than I have in the past.  Real food, not just gels.  Lots of water.  I bet I went through 3-4 gallons of water during the race.

My time of 28:38 certainly wasn't speedy, but my splits were where they usually are.  My first half I did in about 12 hours.  The second half took my 16 hours.  I do know that once Britta started pacing, we made up some time.

Here it is Monday evening and I'm barely sore.  I was walking up and down stairs at work today with no issues whatsoever.  Karen even mentioned that she thought I looked better than I ever have after a 100.

Big thanks goes out to Breein and Britta of Team Bean Burrito for crewing and pacing.  They were great, they knew what to do and didn't let me quit.

Oh, the Team Bean Burrito?  Yeah, I had an affinity for rice and bean burritos during this race.  Well, everyone knows what the after effects are of eating bean burritos.  I kinda felt sorry for Britta, but not too much:-)

Moab Red Hot, Time to Run on Some Dirt

Well, I suppose I should write a race recap from Moab, so here it is.
I raced, I ran, I came in 131st out of 299 runners that finished.  Probably about 350 started.  My time was 6:19:43, not my fastest, not my slowest here.  Ok, I'm done.  Oh, I was 8th in my age group (50-59) out of 22.  I felt pretty good the entire day.
Ok, here's more.
This is the third time I've made the trek to Moab in Feb. to run the Moab Red Hot 55K.  This is a super early season race that draws a lot of people, mostly from the Salt Lake area, but also a large contingent comes over from Colorado and quite a few from Idaho as well.  I think all of us want to get away from the snow for a few days and run on some dirt.
This year did not disappoint in the dirt department.
Karen and I took off Friday afternoon from the smoggy skies of the Salt Lake area and as we went further and further south, the air got clearer and clearer.  It was wonderful.  Not only that, but there was less and less snow, also wonderful since we've had a foot or more on the ground at our house since before Christmas.  I remarked as we were driving that I should do some dirt angels once we got down there.
The weather looked to be pretty much ideal, low around 25 on race day and warming up to around 50 with clear skies and no wind.
We got down to Moab while it was still light and in time to check in at Eddie McStiff's.  While my plan was to get in and check in, I always see friends and have to stop and chat.  I always get introduced by friends as "the RD for the Buffalo Run" to people I don't know.  We had a hotel room at the Best Western across the street from McStiff's, awesome.  We also had a Groupon deal for the hotel and got a king room for $55/night, double awesome.  Then we found out that a bunch of the HUMR crowd was at Jake's Place for dinner.  That's right next door to the hotel.  Triple play.  It was going to be a good weekend.
After dinner with the crew, we went back to the hotel and hit the hay.  Sleep was kind of hard to come by, the mattress wasn't that comfortable and we were both kind of cold all night.  Plus I could hear someone snoring in the room next door.  Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes.
We got up around 6am and headed upstairs for the free breakfast.  There were already a bunch of other runners up there, imagine that.
Karen and I made it to the start at about 7:30 and met up with the rest of the Ogden crowd.  The temp was a bit on the cool side, around 25, but there wasn't a wind blowing and I had on my wool coat.  Glad Karen was there to cart it back to the car for me.  I had thought about wearing stretchy pants, but opted for just running shorts, a couple of long sleeve t's, gloves, and a beanie.  A little cool just standing there but once we got started it was fine.
Chris started us just a couple of minutes past 8am and about 400 of us started up the hill.  For those that don't know the course, it starts out going uphill, then drops down into a drainage.  The course itself follows several different jeep trails over the sand, slickrock, washes, etc. just north of Moab.  At about mile 2, I met up with Andrea Martinez.  She's a friend from the Salt Lake area and we hung out together for the vast majority of the race.  We were running about the same pace, she's actually faster, so it made me work a bit to keep up.  it was fun to chat the miles away and before we knew it we were at the first aid station ( mile 6).  I looked at my Garmin and we were maintaining around a 9 minute pace.  I thought this was way fast for me, but I felt good and it wasn't too much work.  By about mile 9 we were up on the top of the mesa and could look down about 800 feet to the starting line and the cars below.  Yeah, the trail takes you right to the edge of the cliff.  Lots of other runners, had stopped as well to enjoy the view, take pictures, and ooh and ahh.  The view was spectacular, the La Sal mountains off to the SE, crystal clear air, sunshine, in a word gorgeous.
meanwhile we kept on clicking off the miles.  We saw a few other HUMR's along the way. At about mile 8 we caught up to Shawn.  She was having a bit of a rough time but doing well.  At about mile 17 we passed Debbie's husband's truck.  Lane was there along with Pam cheering on everyone.  We rounded a corner and came up on both Aric and Jared.  Both were having a bit of a rough patch as well.  Jared later caught up and ran the rest of the race with us.  We ran with Cory for a few miles.  The course was in great shape, pretty much dry.  A few muddy spots and a couple of icy spots as well.  There was a bit of snow in the shadows, and sometimes negotiating these areas got a bit dicey, but it's all part of the game.  Before we knew it we had hit the last aid station and knew we had about four miles to go.  At this point, the course was on a dirt road with a slight downhill to it.  We started pushing a bit just to see if we still could.  Jared and Andrea eventually pulled ahead of me a bit and ended up finishing a couple of minutes before me.  It's always fun to come down that last stretch knowing the finish line is just around the corner.  I crossed the finish line in 6:19:23.  I was kind of hoping for a sub 6 hour time, but knew I probably didn't have the training in needed for that.  Still, I was happy with my time.
I felt great the entire time.  My ankles got sore, but that's from all of the slickrock, and off camber running you do in this race.  The legs held up fine, very little soreness the next day
The best part of the weekend was the post race HUMR party.  There must have been around 30 people in the condo eating drinking and having a good time.
The next day Karen and I decided to go to Arches National Park.  I had never been there and she hadn't been since she was a kid.  We saw plenty of other Moab runners out there since that's the place to go the next day.  We made the hike out to delicate arch, probably the most photographed arch there.  It's much bigger than I thought it would be.  When we got back to the car, Karen noticed a large puddle of oil underneath the car.  Not a good sign as it was transmission fluid.  We got in and hoped  we would make it back to town, let alone back to home.  We stopped in town and bought a couple of quarts of transmission fluid thinking that we could get home on that.  After I poured it in, I looked under the car and watched it drain out on the ground.  Now I knew that we probably wouldn't be able to make it home.  Thank goodness we found a parts store that was also a U-Haul rental place.  We ended up renting a truck and trailer to tow the car home with.  Yeah, not a good way to end the weekend, but at least we didn't need to stay an extra night and wonder how we were going to get home with a busted car.
Ended up that some sort of plastic tube going out of the transmission had basically disintegrated.  I got that replaced, had the tranny flushed and serviced and wasn't out too much money.  It could have been a whole lot worse.  So, the car is good for another 100K miles :-)
All in all, not a bad weekend.  It was good to get away from the snow, run on some real dirt and see lots of friends.

Kind of political post time

Normally I would post something about my running adventures, but I really haven’t had any lately.  I’ve spent most of January indoors on the treadmill.  Yeah, I’m a cold weather weenie at heart.  Instead I thought I post a little something for people to think about.  Maybe get a little dialog going.

Meanwhile, here are my running numbers for the month. 

Miles ran – 173, not as many as last year (200), but given the weather, not too bad.

Ahhh, the lovely inversion we had a couple of weeks ago is now gone, but another one is building.  Hopefully this one won’t be as bad.

One of the things I’ve noticed with this inversion is the great hue and cry throughout the local area for Governor Herbert to “do something about this smog”.   So my question is, what the hell is the Governor going to do?  Let’s see, he could ask everyone to ride mass transit.  Yeah, that’ll work.  He could ban cars from downtown SLC.  Yeah, that’ll work just about as well. 

Arguably, cars are the largest single point source of pollution here in the Salt Lake Valley (57%).  I did a little research and wasn’t able to come up with hard figures for everything, but here goes.  The combined population of Utah, Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber counties is 2.13 million (2012 est.).  I couldn’t find out how many cars are registered by county in the state, so I’m estimating that there is one vehicle per person here.  That makes 2.13 million vehicles trolling the highways and byways most every day.  Most of these cars emit much less pollution than cars of even 5-10 years ago.  Still, 2.13 million clean running vehicles still will emit a lot of dirty air, especially when concentrated in an area 15 miles wide by 75 miles long.

So, disregarding the relevant politics of this fair state, what are some options for reducing the number of vehicles on the roads by an amount significant enough to make the air clearer.  By the way, I have no idea how many cars that would be, but for the sake of argument, let’s say one third.  So reduce the number of cars on the roads by 700,000 on a daily basis.

How do we get all of these people out of their cars.  I know, let’s have the Governor tell everyone to not drive and take mass transit.  Nope, that ain’t gonna happen.

What I have found and learned over the years is that people will respond in a big way to money incentives.  Either negative (hits you in the wallet), or positive (puts money in your wallet).  Look at what happened when the price of gas hit $4.50 a couple years ago.  Ridership on Frontrunner and buses went way up.  When gas prices came back down, ridership went down.  If the economic incentive is great enough, people will put up with the inconvenience of riding mass transit.

I can only use myself as an example, but a previous employer of mine purchased premium UTA passes for every employee then sold them to the employees for a whopping $100/year.  These passes were good on Frontrunner, express buses, local buses, TRAX, anything UTA had on wheels.  Now it costs me a lot more than $100/year to drive my car back and forth to work.  I track it and on average, my car costs me $155.00 a month in gas alone.  Couple that with car insurance (maybe $60/month, I’m a safe driver), plus oil changes, repairs etc. at about $100/month, and you have over $300/ to operate my car.  Now I really can’t include costs other than gas, because I would still own a car regardless.  So, gas costs are my driving factor to decide whether I switch to mass transit.

Now I did buy one of those passes, and I used it pretty religiously.  I discoverd that I could walk to the bus stop .3 miles from my house, catch the bus, it would take me to the train station, I would climb on the train for the 15 minute ride from Ogden to Clearfield, get off, then take the bus from the train station that went through the Freeport Center.  Actually, it was pretty convenient as far as mass transit goes.  However, it would take me about 45 minutes to get to work every day.  If I decided to run to the train station, then to work, then reverse, we’re talking about 90 minutes each way (added bonus, I got a 13 mile run in by doing that).  Contrast that with the 20 minute commute in my car.

Once the company quit buying the passes, I quit riding the train unless I wanted to get a 13 mile run in.  Why?  Because a regular monthly pass would cost me $189.  So, would I pay $189/month for the privilege of at least doubling my commute time?  Nope, not worth it to me, and I would imagine that most people feel the same way.  Besides, I can’t do errands on the way home when I ride the train or bus.  Additionally, traffic on the freeway at 6:30am through the Ogden area isn’t bad at all.  Moves right along at the speed limit.

So, what are some economic incentives that might get a significant number of people to use mass transit.

Motor fuel tax – Currently the state collects $0.245 for every gallon sold in the state.  This tax pays not only for mass transit, but upkeep on the roads as well.  This tax generated $252.5 million in 2012, or about $88/person, young or old.  Let’s jack it up to $1/gallon.  Would that get you out of your car?  What about people in very remote parts of the state that need to drive long distances to even get to a store?  What about poor people that can barely afford gas for their cars now?  Jacking the motor fuel tax up that high would generate an additional $750 million a year that could be allocated for mass transit, purchasing more buses, building more train tracks, etc.  Guess what, it wouldn’t generate that much because a certain percentage of the population would migrate to mass transit as a way to avoid that.  But that’s what we want.  Then there’s the politics in this state.  Do you think someone living in say, Boulder, Utah wants to see their gas tax go up just so us idiots in SLC won’t drive as much?  Yeah, didn’t think so.

Sales tax – Currently Utah (0.8%), Salt Lake (0.8%), Davis (0.5%), and Weber (0.75%) collect a sales tax that is directly used for public transportation.  I have no idea how much this generates, but I can make a somewhat educated guess.  The state sales tax (4.7%)  generated $1.601 billion in 2012.  That works out to $556 for every man, woman, and child in the state.  My math (weird though it may be) says that’s $118.30 per percentage point per person.  So, doing the math says that the good people of Utah and Salt Lake counties paid $94.64/person for mass transit, Davis county residents paid a paltry $59.50 per person, and Weber county folks paid $88.73 each.  Keep in mind this is per person.  So Mom and Dad paid up for their brood of six or seven kids ($94.64 x 8 = $757.12, that’s some more serious coin).  All told, my math shows that the 2.13 million people living along the Wasatch Front generated roughly $188.9 million in 2012 to be used for mass transit purposes.  Sounds like a crapload of money.

So, in order to be fair, let’s increase the mass transit sales tax only in these counties.  What should we jack it up to?  Let’s say a straight 1.5%.  That would generate around $378 million annually for mass transit.  Hopefully.

So, with all that extra money, what will it get us?  Well, a new CNG powered bus (don’t want a diesel one, they really throw out the stink) costs roughly $330 thousand.  It costs roughly $125/hour to operate.  Figure 16 hours a day, seven days a week (yeah, we want people out of their cars then too) and you have a cool $730 thousand a year to operate….per bus.  So, an extra $189 million would get us an extra 258 buses on the road.  And that doesn’t include the cost of the buses.  We’ll let the feds pay for those.  Oh wait, now our federal taxes will go up.  Not so many now.  I don’t know how many buses UTA operates, but I’m sure it’s well over 258 buses, so we won’t even double the number of buses on the road, let alone increase the number and frequency of routes.  Now the number would probably be higher, since fares will offset some of this operating costs.   But we haven’t even talked about fares yet.

You can do the math, but the point is, would increasing the sales tax by roughly 0.8% to get more buses and trains out there get you out of your car?  No?  What about increasing it to 2%?  3%?  Probably wouldn’t get me out of my car but then I don’t have kids at home anymore and I can afford the extra and still drive my car.  At what point would it hurt someone like me enough to get me out of my car one third of the time?  I don’t know, but it would certainly be more than the good citizens of this state are willing to put up with.  Let alone the having the legislature even entertain the idea.  Why increasing the sales tax that much would hurt all sorts of people.  Poor people, car salespeople, retail people.  Think of all the coffee that wouldn’t get sold at Maverick or 7-11 every morning.  Rest assured, we would buy less of everything, but at least we’d be riding mass transit.

Next blog post, I’ll talk about some more options and the pros and cons of those.  Actually, the next post should probably be my Moab Red Hot race report.  Especially since I have most of it written.

The year in review, it's about time

Well, 2012 was a pretty good year running wise.  I’m still disappointed with my failure at Wasatch, but oh well, life goes on and there’s always this year.

I managed to run more miles this year than I ever have.  2515 miles total.  I also ran a messload of races.

The years started with my running the Kahtoola Snowshoe25K.  My time wasn’t spectacular but I did it more as a lark than anything.  Since my lovely wife had started running the previous fall, I entered her in her first race, the Kahtoola Snowshoe 5K.  She was all sorts of worried but I told her to just walk the thing and have a good time.  She had been running up to around 8 miles so 3 miles was no big deal.  Turns out she came in second place for the women and told me if she had pushed she could have taken first.  Not bad for a first race of any sort.

The first Saturday in February had me running the StridersWinter Training Series 5K.  I like to run this race to remind me of how much short races like that really really suck.  Still, I managed to run my fastest 5K time in probably 15 years on a difficult course.  I came in 75^th out of 485 runners and managed a 23:33 time.  Maybe I can go faster this year.  A couple of weeks later I ran the Moab Red Hot 55K and managed to cut about 30 minutes off the previous year’s  time.  March brought a temporary hold to the running since it’s hard to do that and get ready for the Buffalo Run at the same time.  April found a bunch of the Happy Utah Mountain Runners making the drive to the Grand Canyon for a little rim-to-rim-to-rim action.  The big surprise this time was the snow that fell Friday night.  It was very cool to see the Grand Canyon in a different way.  April also saw me run the Salt Flats 100 out by Wendover.  Interesting run to say the least.  My time wasn't what I had hoped, but that's the way it goes sometimes.  In May I ran the Timp Trail Marathon for the third time.  My fastest time yet.  In June I ran the Logan Peak Trail Run.  I think I've done this four times now and it's easily one of my favorite races of the year.  Gorgeous scenery, tough course.  Ran my fastest time ever here as well.  July?  Well, the annual self abuse of Speedgoat happened.  Good Lord that course is tough.  I get really depressed when it takes me over nine hours to run a 50K.  Sigh!  August saw a bunch of HUMR's heading up to Oregon to run the Waldo 100K.  This was my sixth year running this race.  I love it and I'll keep going back.  The course was altered some due to a forest fire, so comparing times to past years wasn't possible, but I had a great day out there.  September brought my annual trip thru the Wasatch.  This year I didn't make it and ended up dropping at Upper Big Water.  Still, I did make 62 miles of the course.  There's always next year.  In September I also paced a friend to his first 100 mile finish at The Bear.  I think I might run that one this year.

Yeah, so that was my racing season.  Quite a few.  Had a good time at most of them.  So what about the rest of my running?  Well, since I am an Engineer, here's the stats and graphs.

Miles - 2434

Vertical - Not nearly enough, but still a lot, around 300,000' I think.

This last graph kind of tells the story of the year.  More miles in a year than I ever have.  Even though I slacked off the last couple of months.  Maybe in 2013 I can get close to 3000 miles?

Random post time

Haven't posted anything in awhile so I thought I would for those that have a burning desire to know what's going on in my running (and other stuff) world.
November was a total bust running-wise.  I think I ran a whopping 112 miles for the month.  With Karen out from back surgery, I've been doing all of the chores around the house.  Feeding all the critters we have, plus things like laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc. has put a damper on the running as of late.  But that wasnt totally unplanned or unwanted.  It gave me a chance to take a little breather from the running.
Since Karen was off of work until the first part of Jan. I kicked her out of the house for a month and shipped her to SoCal to see her family.  Doing this accomplished a couple of things, first, she wouldn't be tempted to do things around the house that she shouldn't be doing, and second, it gave her some extended time with her family.  Something that a lot of us don't get a chance at with work and such.  So she's been having a good time spending all of our money.
Other news, we have another grandchild.  Savannah Grace Weber was born on Dec. 2 weighing in at 6lb 12 oz and 18 inches long.  Mom and baby are doing wonderful and we get to see them at Christmas!!
So what's up with the running?  Well, I've been starting to put together my 2013 race and other event calendar.  So far, I'm planning on running several 100's plus some other races, so it looks to be a somewhat intense running year.  Right now the only two 100's I'm signed up for are Zion and Salt Flats.  I've put in for the Wasatch lottery as well.  Other 100's under consideration are Bryce, the Bear, and Badger Mountain.  We'll see how the training goes through December.  Some of the adventure runs I'd like to knock off the list are a run through Bryce Canyon National Park, a circumnavigation of the Tetons, and another run in the Grand Canyon.  The GC is already on the calendar for the fall.
One little local adventure "run" happened a couple of weeks ago.  A few of us climbed the front side of Lewis Peak.  We gained something like 3500' in about 2.7 miles.  Portions were at a grade of 2000'/mile, so it was a pretty good scramble. 

Bj, Jon, and Ryan scrambling up a steeper section

Ben Lomond Peak from the top of Lewis Peak

The last pitch before the summit

So, here's the week of  December 2nd progress.

Sunday - Didn't do squat except stuff around the house that needed to get done.

Monday - Got up early and headed for the aquatic center to get a run in on the track.  Tough to do when I have farm chores to do at 5am.  Managed to get a run in a lunch time as well, although it was on the treadmill.  Miles - 8.0

Tuesday - Got up early again and headed for the aquatic center.  This time I swam about 800 yards.  Went back at lunch to get a run in on the dreadmill again.  This evening I went to Pilates, so triple workout day.  If that doesn't get me into shape, nothing will.  Miles - 8.0

Wednesday - Found out that my quads were a bit tired and sore from yesterday's Pilates session.  My teacher will be pleased to hear that.  Got up and hit the aquatic center for a run.  Even though the legs were a bit tired and sore, I managed to get in about four miles at a pretty good pace.  Since I don't time it I can only guess at my pace, but it seemed to be down around 8:00-8:30.

Thursday - Swam another 1000 yards in the morning, then ran 4 miles at lunch.  Miles - 4.0

Friday - Took the day off.  Didn't do squat.

Saturday - ran from 22nd street.  Had big plans to go about 7 miles.  Didn't where warm enough clothes and turned around at inspiration point.  Managed to get in about 3.6.  Miles - 3.6

Breaking news, I'm now signed up for the Bryce 100.  Still crossing my fingers on Wasatch.