Santa Cruz 50K-ish

102 degrees in the East Bay (brazenracing.com photo)

After a few months of transition in the move to Nor Cal this summer, I have found a bit of time to slot in a couple of races. After Western States, I needed some time to decompress and let that 100 mile bug drift away for awhile. I sincerely wasn't that bummed about my result there. I put a ton of focus on running well at Western, maybe more than any other race. I am happy that I have reached the point in my racing where I am able to control most variables of my racing, yet I realize that sometimes there is nothing you can do about unforeseen or uncontrollable variables in ultrarunning or adventure racing (it's not like I am adventure racing now anyway). Getting a summer cold before Western was one of these variables that just happens. Oh well.. give it your best and move on. I feel like I left everything I had out there on the WS course but was too drained to follow through after the first 55 miles. Maybe next year...but if I never run 100 miles that is fine with me. I am not as obsessed about the distance as most 100 miler runners are and can easily let it go if it comes to that.
So anyway, the first race back was the Bear Creek Canyon Half Trail Marathon, back in the beginning of September. This was after the first week of school, and with luck, two other of my classmates at Touro and I found ourselves with the gift of a light weekend of studies. I took this opportunity to contact Sam at Brazen Racing to run his half marathon in the hills just east of the Bay Area, near Pinole.
This race was chill; not competitive in the least, but super hot in the physical sense. I didn't think this race would be competitive, but competive or not I just wanted to run a good effort somewhere as I hadn't done any serious races in a couple months. (I forgot though that the day I drove out of Colorado, I ran the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon as a tempo run..)
The Bear Creek Half was 90 degrees on the course at the start and 102 at one time according to Sam, the RD of Brazen Events. I went out a pretty low key, comfortable pace, and in 30 minutes knew it would be a day running solo. The next while I had a nice time cruising through the hills of the East Bay, checking out new terrain and views and giving a good effort. The course was one big loop, the second best layout of a course after a point to point. New stuff to see all the time in a new place, not too far from where I'd be living for 30 months. The temperatures fooled me though, as my unstated goal of a 7 minute mile pace with about 3600 vertical went out the window as mile 9 approached and the heat started to take it's toll. I finished in a respectable 1:40 and change for the day, and got a gift cert for a free pair of shoes from the local Fleet Feet stores, which I promptly gave to my wife, Ellen, like any good runner boy would do (thanks for giving me the hall pass, Elle!) Sam the RD put on a good race with many of excellent organizational details that make for an excellent event.

Three weeks later, fast forward to yesterday, I partook in the Santa Cruz 50 trail race. At this point I think I'll jump to the "lessons learned" section of the monologue;

1) Re-read the race description at least twice.

2) Take with a grain of salt what other racers tell you when it comes to course directions; everyone's hypoxic out there.

3) Listen to the pre-race briefing!

4) Sometimes the RD is even wrong!

That said, take what wrote about how I have learned to "control variables" and toss it out the window!
So, I cruised to Santa Cruz later Saturday evening, after getting Ava to bed, and crashed out in a Santa Cruz hotel to get a dcent night rest. I woke up early to do my usual two-hours-before-racing-warm-up jog, ate bananas, some coffee and water, then T Footfeathers showed up on his crotch rocket Ducati at my hotel (freezing cold too; his fingers were literally white-knuckeled), we loaded into my old Subaru and headed to the start.
After not paying attention to the RD give his speech (see 1st mistake) and thinking I knew the course and foolishly assuming, like most races, that there would be course marshalls at critical junctures of the race I started off. The lead pack of four quickly turned into Tim, two other races who were running the 29k version of the races, and me. I felt in the groove and was running well, keeping pace comfortably with the 29K runners, and for some reason it seemed like everyone was pacing off me. I have a bad habit of trying to run every tangent (straight-lining to every corner up ahead), so in a pack running situation it may seem to others like I am trying to cut them off. This isnt the case though, as I try to run my own race pace, but I must run the tangents because to do otherwise is really foolish and I'd end up racing further than I need to race. Makes sense, eh? So if you see me cutting you off in a race don't take it personally. Cool? Cool.
So anyway, since I need to get to bed, I am going to cut to the abbreviated version of the race. At the 8k or so point in the we come to a turn that is flagged in two directions. I thought this was the side loop we were supposed to add to the out and back (kind of like a intestinal hernation, only on a trail race) and thought we should take a right tuen onto the side 7 k loop The one 29 k dude said Yes that is correct and the other 29k guy did the same, so off we went. Off we go, we run the very nice 7 K single track herniation, and back to the main out and back section. Uhhh.Oops. Here are dozens of runner sat this intersection running the main out and back, and we three knew we'd fubar-ed the run. We keep going as a threesome to the end of the out and back aid station, took some aid and headed back. It's complicated to describe this course layout and what we had run, but on the way back to the start/finish turn around, I reckoned I needed to keep racing and clarify with the RD as what to do next to rectify my error.
At the turn around, I asked the RD, Wendell, if I could run the steep 1K section near the base of the loop to correct my running error and make up the distance I had missed. "Yes, that will work." Cool..game on, lets keep racing. So I turn around, turn it up a notch, still feeling good, run all the way, about 10k, back to the far aid station in about 43 minutes, come back, re-run what I thought was the steepest section at the base of the loop, and bust it back to the finish in 3:38. Awesome, I thought! I ran a fast 50k and felt like I could do it again right then and there! Got my simple award mug and drink coaster prize, talked with the RD and a few folks at the spartan finishing scene, jogged a mile cool down, Tim and I hooked back up, and back to the Subaru.
As Tim and I rehashed the race day, I told him about my snafu in the course, how I'd neatly corrected my error mid-race, feeling all proud of myself. Luckily for me he told me that I was supposed to go all the way back to the aid station for a third time to correct my mistake. Darn!
With that I turned the car around, went back to the start, told Wendell how we had screwed up our miscommunication in mid-race, gave my mug back (kept the coaster though), and got back in the car.
Whatever, I say.. besides not setting a course record, I had a good time, loved the course terrain, redwoods and the four waist deep river crossings (I could do definitely without four out and backs though), and gave good effort and feel fit. The upside is that this fall now I feel obligated to find another ultra to make up for it!

Western States quick and dirty

Pre-race, post-crime mug shot taken by Western States 100 Police Chief, Greg Soderlund. (I stole an extra packet of Green Foods dried wheat grass from the race expo tent, and was busted by Scottie J, who was working undercover.)

Quick and dirty:
I just flew home last night after a whirl-wind 6 day trip, part of which included running 78 miles of the WS 100 race. I spent Sunday evening through Tuesday finding a place to live in Vallejo or Benicia, and I am toasted. Sorry for the lack of correspondence.

In a nutshell, hats off to Hal Koerner and Anita Ortz for running smart races. I am especially impressed with Anita's race. For us entering our 40's, she is yet another piece of evidence that your running does not have to "go downhill". Here is Colorado there are ample numbers of master's elites winning races in running and biking. That said, given time to train next spring 2010, I will be back to run Western States.

Physically, I am worse for wear with a head and throat cold, but I have fine spirits about the entire experience. Much was out of my control as far as my condition starting the race, so what's the use in dwelling over it. I could have had it way worse; Scott was running with plantar fasciitis. Hats off to him for giving it a go.

Thanks to Mark Richtman for his remarkably patient pacing on Cal Street. He was a pleasure to hang with on that section as I stumbled ever step. Dan Brillon was a excellent travel companion and teammate; sorry you didn't get to pace the last 20. Devin, Tom, Christina, Dean and Otis were fine crew, and Vicki Richtman too. Peter Franks made the trip from Phoenix just to see the race and solo crew Dusty Corners and Duncan canyon. Thanks you guys!!

I will post a full report on the Team Pearl Izumi-Smith site this week. I promise.

Rickey Gates takes Mount Washington Hill Climb

International mountain running superstar won the Mt Washington Hill Climb today in a time of 59:58. Congrats Rickey!

Overall results are here http://www.newenglandregisters.com/results.aspx

Rickey is one of my running heros. His ability to perform at the international mountain running level is astounding. He races back to back days and weekends all summer, taking the time to enjoy bike touring, a bit of wine, and occasional videography.

Other top 10 runners for the women include Lisa Goldsmith for the women and my UNH college buddy Tara Breed was right up there too. Congrats ladies. Many Coloradans like Goerge Zack and John Tribbia ran as well.

The past three weeks I have been organizing, with Jeff Valliere and George Zack, a small series of time trials up the local 8000 + foot peaks. First it was Green Mt, then Bear Peak, and the South Boulder peak. Above is the pre-run gathering, with a pretty darn good turnout! Buzz B and I were reminiscing about the old days when we used to hammer So Bo Peak with a pretty regular gang of dudes (and an occasional lady runner); those days are now known as the Boulder Trail Runner's Tuesday Tempo.

I won't go into too many details as I am getting crunched for time these days and nights as we get ready to move and I finish my last class. Green Mt was the starter with about 12 folks showing their faces (and remarkably muscular thighs, as you can see from the So Bo TT photo above). Rickey Gates crushed it and ran an FKT (Fastest Known Time) of roughly 28:38. I ran 31:28.

Below is Jeff Valliere's write up about Bear Peak. I made the silly mistake of fighting sleep deprivation by downing a Diet Mt Dew right before the run, thinking carbonated caffeine is the way to get all ready to run hard; I am re-evaluating that position as my stomach knotted up hard and I suffered for it.

JV's words:

"We had another great turnout for the Bear Peak TT, the second installment of the TT series Dave and I conjured up a few weeks ago.Since Dave kicked my butt on Green last week, I insisted that he take pole position after offering it to me. It felt like a somewhat controlled start and I was tempted at first to make conversation, but soon I was breathing hard enough that it was not an option. TT and conversation just do not mix. We made the Cragmoor/Shanahan junction ahead of PR pace and I was able to stay on Dave's heels to the doggy pond junction, but he slowly started to pull away. I could have dug a bit more and stuck with him, but that would have meant impending doom, as I was trying not to completely blow it too soon and save some energy for the upper sections.I was surprised to keep Dave in sight for the most part, I was sure that he would be steadily putting time into me. As we ascended Fern Canyon, I could see that I was slowly gaining and was quite surprised by this. I was nearly a minute ahead of PR by the saddle and was confident I could keep up the effort to the top and set a PR. I reeled Dave in about half way from the saddle to the summit and was reluctant to pass as I feared that I might be biting off more than I could chew. I could tell Dave was not having his best day, otherwise I doubt I would be passing him.This uppermost section was mostly a hands on the knees powerhike, but I was able to muster something vaguely resembling a run in a few spots.I passed the summit post 6 seconds slower than PR and then made my way to the true summit. Dave was about 15 or so seconds back and I was surprised that I held him off (I later found out he had a bad cramp which explained my stroke of luck ;).Scott Elliott finished next (stopping at the post), followed by Stefan Gabriel, Tara Breed, Bill Wright, Charlie Nuttleman, Homie Prater, Christian Griffith and Heather Swallow (I think in that order). Please correct me if I left anyone out or screwed up the order.My splits were:Cragmoor connector/Shanahan 2:25Dog Pond Jct. 4:00Mesa Trail 8:54Slab (where trail crests) 13:03Saddle 24:34? (could be off by a few seconds, I was preoccupied with the prospect of catching Dave)Post near summit 37:31 (previous PR is 37:25)True summit 38:13Dave was about 15 seconds back, Scott was 39:?? at the post. After that others times are fuzzy. "

Here's my post from the So Bo Peak TT last week:

"For the last run in the 8000 foot peak series, South Boulder Peak, we had an excellent turnout with about 20 hearty souls attending under perfect running conditions. Dave Mackey (44:46) managed to hold off Jeff Valliere (46:..) to take the men's title (Jeff 2nd overall in the series), while Heather Swallow took the women's race and series (1:03), with Tara Breed 2nd overall. If you like, send your times and our trained statisticans will compile the final standings, graphs and charts. That was a fun time and maybe these series can be a regular event. It is motivating to do runs like this. Feel free to post as you like for similar trainings, hill repeats, speed work. "

Overall, I can't believe I ran 44:46 on So Bo peak. For this I am thrilled with my fitness and how I ran smart by pacign off JV. I have been time trialing So Bo for years and couldn't break 46 minutes, and many fast mt guys have run 45 and change, but this 44 minutes is out of the blue. This is somewhat worrying b/c WS 100 is in <>

The other reason I may have PR'ed on So Bo Peak is that I have been trainig extensively with Charle's Corfield "Rocket Fuel" mix. This is a simple suspension of amylopectin (waxy maize) and maltodextrin. In the past I have been erratic in my fueling training, just winging it on race days, but this spring is different as I run with the RF every day and feel it treats my tummy right.

The other difference in my training is that I now weigh less than 160 lbs. which I havent been at since I graduated from college. The lack of rock climbing and upper body has finally trimmed me up. I was 164 when I toed the line at WS 5 years ago; 5 lbs is a big difference of roughly 2 percent. I can see how I could shave 4 percent off my SoBo peak time now that I carry less to get up there. It'd be nice to hit the WS scales in Squaw Valley at a nice 158, so I better stop hitting the raw cookie dough at night I reckon.

Anyway, this little series was motivating, for myself and from other runners have said and written, it was motivating for them as well.

Jonny Copp

Sadly, Jonny Copp was found dead in China, probably due to an avalanche. He was such an excellent all-around person who exuded positive energy every time I interacted with him. He contributed to his community, to his friends, and to climbing in countless ways. Jonny wasn't a close friend of mine, but we knew each other for many years and always had a nice chat when we crossed paths.

Searchers are looking for his climbing mates, Micah Dash and Wade Johnson. Please consider donating to this search effort at this link to the Adventure Film site.

http://www.adventurefilm.org/index.aspx

Local article;
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jun/08/jonny-copp-micah-dash-climbers-missing-china/

See you around Jonny!

Western State(s) Course

How many "States" does the WS race cover? One, I thought..

This past weekend I flew out to California for 48 + hours to spend a bit of time training on the WS course, but also to spend a day looking for a place for the brood to live for the next few years.

I flew in around 11 am Saturday, and proceeded to grab a rental car. (don't use Payless Cars: they're like the sore tooth you just can't not keep touching. Ouch. I should have learned my lesson last time I was out there.) Headed right up through the city, stopped in the Mission to grab a tuna sandwich to go, almost was run over on 19th st, then across the Golden Gate bridge. I had a about 30 minutes to kill I reckoned, so I did what I'd always dreamed of; I stopped on the other side of the bridge in the packed tourist lot, changed stealthily into my running clothes in the rental, and ran back across the GG bridge. Dodging many tourists of many nationalities, I made it across in the thick fog, turned around at the tolls and came back. I'm glad I finally did it! It took about 30 minutes RT and felt somewhat like a christening in the fog coming to our new home.

Popped back in the car and headed up to San Rafael, saw one potential rental, then on to Novato, where I saw about 6 places, then on to American Canyon and Vallejo to see some more and drive through campus. We are still deciding what town to live in, as Vallejo is where school is, but Marin rules all trail-creation (besides Colorado, of course), so the Marin towns of Novato and San Rafael are in the housing lead for us.

Being very sleep deprived in the afternoon, I kept going East on I-80 ("the 80" they call it out there for some reason; how cute) past Auburn and parked at the famed Hwy 49 crossing on the State trail. Having made plans with Mark Richtman to pick me up in Auburn, I ran the final 7 miles of the Western State course to meet him at Robie Pt.. It was very nice that the run was flagged already for the race 1 month ahead of time. Anywhere else, especially in Boulder, those flags would have been pulled down faster than you can say OSMP. I had a good tempo run on those 7 miles mostly in the dark and refamiliarized myself with the course. I sure don't plan on running that section, or any section for that matter, in the dark during the race.

Mark Richtman, my pacer, who is a a fantastic runner and great guy, met me at Robie Pt and followed me up the mile hill to the Auburn track, where I proceeded to run a 45 second lap...well, 2/3 lap.. of the track in the dark. He shuttled me down to my car, then we drove up to Driver's flat, which is 3 miles walk above the Rucky chucky rapids (mile 82 of the WS course), where we bivied for the night in the grass.

Next AM, we hooked up with Erik Skaden and Mark Lantz and shuttled a car up to Michigan Bluff (after coffee in Foresthill (mile 62), and started running. It was nice and cool at first in the morning, and these awesome tour guides showed me the course that I hadn't seen in 5 years. We had a fun time getting to Foresthill, and could feel the temps rising as we got there in about 1 hour (7 miles).

Topping off our bottles at the car we'd left there, we headed down the hill into what I see as the crux of the course; Cal Street. 5 years ago, I had hard time after Foresthill, given the heat I wasn't ready for and the wrong diet of high protein and fat. I lost an hour to Jurek on that section and don't want to make that mistke this year. My race fuel is completely different this year, and I hope I can heat-train these coming weeks.

So, we had an excellent time running the 16 miles down to the river. It is so cruiser on that section, with enough hills to make it interesting and break up the muscle groups a bit when your downhill muscles get tired of the repetitiveness.

After a 15 minute soak in the river, we walked up. Richtman had disappeared, ahead of us we thought, but after 15 minutes of walking up driver's flat, make comes by in a tourist SUV car going up. Sandbagger!

Anyway, a fun weekend and I think the first place I found in San Rafael will work well for us. I don't care where we live as long as there are trails!

Bolder Boulder

Overall, I have been trying to get life lined up to be fit for Western States, trying to find a new place (and town) to live in California, taking care of Ava, finishing the last class for school, etc. (Ava in the pool is a way cuter opening than my ugly mug shot.)

Of note:

I ran the Bolder Boulder yesterday. I came in with little expectation of a fast time as my training in May has been all about volume with little speedwork. For the last month, I have been running about 1.5 hours on easy days, and between 2-4 hours on longer days, usually on 2 runs per day. I took it somewhat easy after American River 50 for 2 weeks, ran the Earthday 5 k in Boulder 2 weeks later with a time of 16:47. This 2 weeks was keys to laddering into the bulk of my WS training mileage in May.

Like most runners, I use races as stepping stones for the harder A races, so to run the Red Hot 50k, then American River, and then do longer mileage recently has set me up to peak at WS in June. I topped off my higher volume monthwith 4 hours of running on this past Saturday (1 hour early am, 2+ hours in the peaks with Jeff Valliere midday, then about 45 minutes plus some biking with Ava and the kiddie Chariot). I ran easy on Sunday for 1:40 on flat stuff with Bryan Dayton for very short taper to the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day.

Back to the BB, I had low expectations as leg speed hadn't been a priority in training, so I picked a rough, easily attainable time of 36 minutes as a goal, as I suspected the BB would be a tempo workout rather than a race for me. 36 minutes would mean I wouldn't get beat up too badly and still have a quality training week this week.

As it turned out, I got to the start on time and planned on entering the start gate from the front where the race goes off, but they had it blocked off this year so I had to follow the other A wave runners, including Matt Reed the ex-pat Olympic triathlon athlete and George Zack, through the AB, AC, etc etc waves to make it to the A section. After this mad shuffle and after stealing one of GZ's safety pins for my bib, through all the nervous energy that pervades the A wave, like a nervous teenager, the gun finally went off prematurely by 30 seconds, but we were off..

Being stuck in the middle of the A waves pack actually worked in my favor this time, unlike past years when I usually could pick hair off the guy in the gorilla suit behind the front row. Most every A waver goes off too fast, except for the %5 who are smart. Having made this mistake in the past and not having an ambitious goal this year I settled into the first K at whatever the guys near me were running. This led to a slow 5:46 first mile. This first mile had several eager beaver A wavers try to squeeze past each other, leading to two bike race style wipe outs in front of me. Luckily I didnt get clipped and pulled free of the nervous ninnies and settled in. I didnt record my splits after that as my watch battery died the night before, so I didn't wear a watch anyway, and this turned out to be a blessing.

I ran easy and comfortable after that, and like always, I was only passed by about 10 runners after the first mile, and I end up passing about 50 of them by the end. By chance,the first citizen's woman was near me last year and the same again this year (and in retrospect this has happened to me several other years at the BB as well.)I really don't care if I get beat by a woman at this race as I try to run my own race no matter who's around me. But last year the woman made a comment in the local paper about how she gets satisfaction from kicking guys butts at the end, so since I found the women's leader near me this year I thought I wouldn't let this happen. Plus last year I was in the local terrible newspaper; a photo of me running next to the women;s winner made it look like I was trying to race her. Another reason to race ahead or far behind, so I chose to finish ahead this year

So, after a mildly uncomfortable race pace, I found myself able to kick the last hill in good style given the recent high training mileage, and crossed the line in 34:13. A respectable time at this race, and 30 seconds faster than last year.