Dave Mackey

And the winner is...

2012-01-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

2011 Father-Daughter Valentine's Day dance.. lovely selector of winning ballot

Todd Shipman! Todd .. congratulations on your sweat soaked paper entry being randomly chosen by a cute 3 year old girl (upcoming birthday Jan 29) from the bottom of a beat up pair of Bondi B's!
Not sure what shoe you will receive but it will likely be a pair of Mafates or Bondi B's.. sorry I can't get a pair of Evo's but I don't even have any yet and neither does the speedgoat.
To claim your prize.. email me at dave dot j dot mackey at gmail dot com and we can get your vital stats and get them shipped to you.
Thanks for your great entries and comments, even over at irunfar.com. I will try to have more contests this year.
Here are a few race memories from 2011, just so I can finally bring closure to the year and get fired up for 2012...

UROC.. start feeling good (UROC photos byJoel Wolpert, thewolpertinger.com)

UROC Chased by Scott Gall.. feeling groovy

Remember that cartoon character named "Skeletor"?

Umm.. DNF'ing at UROC

Inside Trail's Rodeo Beach 30K

Feeling GREAT at Waldo (longrunpictures.com michael lebowitz)

2011.. not bad.. 2012 will be better (free Hokas in the fine print)

2012-01-14T21:41:00.000-08:00

Here are a few links to recent news.. the biggest of course was Ultrarunning Magazine Ultrarunner of the Year. I was thrilled to have taken that one, but we all know it more or less was a dice roll between four or five guys to choose it. As a friend reminded me, and to which I agree, if Mike Wardian had chosen not to run the North Face 50 in December (18th place), he would have won UROY. That's how it goes though.. have to pick and choose the races through the season as you can't peak all year. I am aware that I have had few (or none) over-the-top wins which redefine the sport, which some elites can lay claim to on their resumes. I guess I am not that kind of runner, as I roll on the higher plateau and touch the lower 13ers, leaving the 14er's to others. But I guess I may have tagged more summits than most. Hats off to Mike Wardian, Mike Wolfe, Nick Clark, Dakota, Geoff, and all the guys with whom I raced this year.. you guys are each inspirations to my running.

Some press..
If you leave a comment on the my irunfar interview AND here on this blog post (since no one else has just yet), I will put your name in a pot and mail you a free pair of Hoka One Ones! (not sure which Hoka yet but you will be happy)
http://www.irunfar.com/2012/01/dave-mackey-pre-bandera-100k-2012.html#respond

Ultrarunner Podcast.. About Ultarrunner of the Year, shoes, juggling all the balls of life, etc.
http://ultrarunnerpodcast.com/archives/1232

Nice footage of the NEW Stinson EVO Coming this February to a store near you..

Bandera 100K.. I haven't even said a word about Bandera 100K. This past week I was so slammed I will have to write something up.. Hats off to Tim Olsen .. that young eco-whippersnapper who beat me, but didn't beat my course record! (Sorry I am so competitive it bugs even me sometimes). He ran a fine race, and his performance reminds me of my race last year, in which like Tim this year, I'd come fit off a fine North Face 50 race one month prior to roll into Bandera Texas. He was the fittest long-hair of the crew that day and took it. Way to go, Tim! I was happy with 2nd, but the heat took it out of me on the second lap, as I was behind in my fluids and couldn't rebound. I was prepared for the forecast of 65 degrees but these were some 80 degree sunny sections for which I didn't hydrate. Live and learn.. I had a very fun weekend, got to spend time with family raced against some good friends like Tim, Nick C, Yassine, Schlarb, Joe U, Dave James. Spend some quality time with Charles Corfield, Meghan and Craig, Pam Smith... the list goes on.. I had a blast out there. Run Bandera; you will be happy you did.

Upcoming news.. I may have a cool new sponsor coming on board... so stay tuned..
This past year I was SO happy with Clif, and Hoka, and the bottles of Udo's... some things may change a bit, but based on a solid 2011 I ain't reinventing the wheel anytime soon. My relationship with Udo's has been more formalized, I my contract with Hokas is solid long term and I will be eating Clif bars til the day I run my last step on dirty earth. THANK YOU all for helping me run my best!! I know I would not be racing these days without these companies help.

Otherwise I will be working between Boulder area and back here in the Bay Area for the next year in family practice for the most part, with some dabbling in the other areas of medicine. Looking forward to a steep learning curve and squeezing in my sleepless running life outside of it. My race schedule will look something like this all depending on what I can negotiate with my school schedule.

Bandera 100K, Bandera, TX 2nd Place Montrail Cup race
Jed Smith Ultra, Sacramento, CA OR Chucknut 50K
Leona Divide 50, Lancaster, CA Montrail Cup Race OR Lake Sonoma 50, CA (or maybe Miwok.. love that race)
Western States 100, CA June
Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc OR Run the Rockies, Colorado August
Steamboat 100 miler and/or Ultra Race of Champions
North Face 50 San Fran, CA December

Back at you soon with the Hoka shoe lottery results in one week!

Help Rocky Mountain Outward Bound!

2011-12-25T18:06:00.000-08:00

Rocky Mountain Outward Bound needs help!

https://sites.google.com/site/marblebasecamp2010/make-donations

http://www.rmobs.org/

Some of the fondest and impactful experiences of my life have occured on Outward Bound courses. I was exposed to outdoor education in undergrad, when my roomate signed up for a three credit elective called Outward Bound, and told me I could get credit for going rock climbing. And that first course was the first taste of an entirely new field and view of life. I'd gone from geology, to zoology, to biology majors, and found that I could in fact get a degree from the University of New Hampshire in outdoor education. From there I worked in several educational settings, but leading OB courses in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona for five years has changed me positively like no other experience I can imagine. The remote mountains and deserts I visited were incredible, but what my students learned was vastly deeper than what I could see, as they saw it only once.

Now Colorado Outward Bound, as it used to be known then, needs help. If you can relate to the outdoors, have taken an OB course, or know a student who has been impacted, please consider donating a small amount to the Rocky Mountain Outward Bound School (the names have changed over the years but RMOBS, COBS, and Marble Base Camp are basically interchangable names for what is Rocky Mountain Outward Bound). The national headquarters of OB has struggled for years, as have all the supported branches of OB, and now RMOBS needs to raise funds in these last few days of December to stay afloat.

Please consider helping in a small way before the end of the year.. see below..

HOW TO DONATE: As the Friends of Marble Foundation is still in the process of securing non-profit status, we have established a “holding account” at The Denver Foundation so that donors can receive a tax deduction for their donation. To donate, simply... Donate directly to the FOM fund at The Denver Foundation by mailing a check to The Denver Foundation, 55 Madison Street, Denver, CO 80206. Be sure to “earmark” your donation to the Marble Base Camp Fund. To donate through the Denver Foundation online using a credit card, go to the donate now page on their website, scroll down to the middle of the page and select "Marble Base Camp Fund" from the drop down list.Credit cards are convenient, though 2 to 3 % of your donation goes to card company processing fees. Using either payment method, The Denver Foundation will acknowledge your donation and provide tax documentation. Before the end of 2011, the Friends of Marble Board will “bundle” these donations and make a gift to the Rocky Mountain Outward Bound School Board.IMPORTANT: So that the Friends of Marble Board can track total donations, please send an email to Marlene at llama@rof.net when you’ve made a donation. Please tell us when you donated and how much you gave.WHEN TO DONATE: While donations will always be accepted and appreciated, it is URGENT that we help RMOBS meet its $500,000 fundraising goal by December 31, 2011. Therefore, PLEASE consider making your contribution before year’s end.INTERESTED IN TALKING WITH A Friends Of Marble BOARD MEMBER? If you would like to discuss this situation or have questions about making a donation, please feel free to contact any of the board members listed here. Send an them an email and provide your contact information so we can reach you. Also, let us know when it is best to call you (evening, daytime, etc.). Please remember....ALL donations “count” and help us achieve our goal of preserving the Marble base camp. Give what you can and then celebrate our collective effort to re-establish Outward Bound in Colorado AND save Marble.

2012's coming up quick

2011-12-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

Yosemite in October: Yes, it's uphill all the way back from the Sequoia groves. This is 75lbs of child.

The Brood; Ava, Ellen, Dave, Connor

Been having an awesome late fall in California. It feels like we are finally, after two years here, starting to adjust and settle in. Having two little ones and being in school leaves time for little else, but I have somehow been able to squeeze in training and enough races to have had one of my best years. Go figure. Busiest person is the one getting it done, but it isn't without it's price.
I didn' run JFK or TNF 50, which I am pleased about in hindsight. I went out for a three hour run to check the TNF race action and pace Jason Schlarb and felt the adrenaline and itchiness to be out there, but knowing I would not have been ready to mix it up. I didn't take time off from training n October and November: I ran easy hour runs in October and wound things up as November progressed. I think this will pay off, as I feel recharged and ready to go. School has been nutty anyway so the mellow running was a good thing.
Next order of business is Bandera 100k, which will largely be a tune up to get the race year off to a good start. I will not have run more than 3 hours prior, which is fine, but I will be feeling it hour 6 for sure. Since this is a Montrail Cup race I am guessing I will run the series again, which means I will probably be at WS 100. I keep banging my head against that Sierra head wall and one day it will fall over.. or on top of me.
Didn't get into Hard Rock, so I gots either Leadville, UTMB, or the new Steamboat race in September. UROC, Lake Sonoma, TNF 50.. something else here and there not sure what just yet
I will be in clinicals all year so my rotation schedule is still not set.. what is for sure though is that we will be in Colorado for most of it with a few months back here in the Bay Area for more book type stuff. If I can get a few evening or morning runs in I will make he season happen.
All in all it should be a great year!

Sickness, chemicals, 2012+

2011-10-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

In the past two months I have been sick an unprecedented number of three times, once with bronchitis for three weeks, which I took for a fluke that my daughter had brought home from preschool. I reckoned it was a fall-time illness brought on by school stress and end of season racing fatigue, and subsequently tried to get over it and race on.

I raced UROC, which I bombed, then started to feel better for two weeks, jumping into Firetrails 50, thinking I was over the hump and on the upswing into a stellar fall season of fall classics. Post FT, a common cold set in, which once again I counted as a fluke, so I got over the cold during my October week off from school. This past week I’d run a nice Sunday three hour run with Geoff, Topher, Galen, and friends, but I felt unusually fatigued during and after this mellow effort. Years ago a student of mine from Lichtenstein said, “Jamais deux sans trois, never two without three.” True to Liechtensteinian philosophy, another cold set in solidly this past week.

Post FT 50, I had been running about every day, not long but an hour to hour and half, anticipating speed work being the basis of my training until JFK 50 on Nov 19, then tailing off that to the North Face 50 two weeks later. I’d counted on calling it a 2011 at TNF, then pick up with Bandera 100K in January. As of now, I am reading the writing on the wall that my 14 solid months of straight cycles through races and training have taken their toll, and the cumulative wearing effect has kicked in. Maybe the combination of the running, combined with school and family obligations is the cause. I am on somewhat foreign terrain with so much of life happening combined with races every 6 weeks, that I may have reached my plateau this summer and am now headed towards the edge. That said, I am pretty solidly committed to taking the rest of the year off from racing. I will run most every day for the next month with some days off, but just easy to keep metabolism up and to keep my head straight on my shoulders. I am in no way burned out on running (“mental fatigue”?) but physically I may be more tired than I realize.

Another variable that may have shot my immune system this fall is fleas. Yes, fleas. We have a solid trail and house mutt named Tanker, who I am guessing brought them home from a walk, as Novato is notorious for flea infestations. Our apartment then became infested in September, and we had to treat the place twice with permethrin-based sprays, which is known to cause immune-system depression . When I’d sprayed the apartment, I don’t think I vacated soon enough and inhaled the vapors for two hours. We were at a tough place in choosing to spray, given we have little kids and hate unnecessary toxin exposure. But moving was the alternative, so I sprayed and aired the place out while we slept elsewhere for a couple days, and I may have paid the price. Hopefully I didn’t cut my lifespan by a few years too, as many American's suffer the ill-health brunt of chemically-induced and chronic disease in our everyone-for-themselves country. I made my own choice though and mostly regret it.

All this said, 2012 is coming up quick! And I want to run some different stuff next year, including longer “gold standard” ultra-races of that distance through 2013, and then take on something even longer the next year than will involve many nights out and long days, for which I have a tentative plan. I am super-excited for the next couple years of running and practicing as a PA, which I think will be as successful as my prior fifteen years of trail, adventure, and ultrarunning. To top it off, we will be back in Colorado next year, to which my family and I look eagerly.

Hoka One One seeking ambassador athletes

2011-10-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Attention Hoka One One footwear enthusiasts! Hoka One One is presently seeking athletes and brand ambassadors — from road and trail runners to triathletes in all corners of North America. Please send us a resume of sorts and/or a brief summary of your running (and/or triathlon) passions, recent endeavors, race results and future goals. Send to PKSimich at indra.com .
Deadline is Nov 15th. Oh and if you have not already, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Time to Fly!

Dick Collins Fire Trails 50 2011

2011-10-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

Firetrails Fun

(10/21.. JUST reset my comments settings...it was set only to accept non-elite thoughts, so that's why Rose kept getting bounced out of his snarky commenting. And now even anonymous trolls like Cloud can cut me up a bit)

Two weeks ago was the Ultra Race of Champions, an up and coming event with a bright future, which left me somewhat unsatisfied. My running lately is a game of race, recovery a week or so, squeeze in 3-4 weeks of moderate but quality training when possible, taper a week, race, take a week more or less off, then repeat. My experience at UROC had broken the cycle for the first time in 12 solid months, and I didn’t like it. It wasn’t that I was down on myself for DNFing; rather racing the cycle had been broken, disrupting my groovy year of racing. Injuries, train wrecks, personal disasters.. none of these had prevented me from this series of four to six weeks cycles of racing, until UROC. I had somehow fit put it all together to have a solid year (with one exception I guess). I didn't feel derailed by UROC; incomplete is a better word to describe my experience. So I’d had a couple light two weeks of running sincw, and local Firetrails 50 was coming up, so why not show up and have some fun, and try to get back in cycle again? One year ago, I'd started my unplanned 12 month race cycle at the 2010 FT 50, and in the name of completion, but not closure (as the cycle continues) I wanted to return.

The past two years at FT 50, 5 or 8 fast guys would set a typical quick pace off the start. Looking at the start list pre-race, no Chikara Omine, no Leigh Schmidt, no Gary Gellin, no Victor Ballesteros. All these top Bay Area guys had gone out fast in the past. But no one was registered who looked like they’d push things. I’d also thought maybe FT 50 would become a top national caliber 50 at some point, but that trend seemed to be reversing at Firetrails. (Come on guys! Fly out here and bust it up a bit at FT 50!). The lack of speed was actually fine with me this year; I was uncertain if I was even recovered 80% from my 30 mile DNF at UROC, and didn’t want to dig into the well too deep. Shallow it may be, I race to have fun, but I race to win most every time.

The race started mellow enough in the dark, with enough light to avoid a head torch, and chatted with perennial FTers Jonathan Gunderson and Jean Pommier, then quickly pulled away on the first hill for a self paced 47 mile run thereafter. I felt phenomenal this first half of FT, which heads out 26 miles to Lone Pine aid station to the north near Kensington behind the metropolis and suburbia of Oakland. You wouldn’t even know that you are surrounded by millions in the megalopolis which is the Bay Area. Then you reverse and return basically the same way. Yes, an out and back, but a fine one on ½ singletrack, ½ dirt roads, all tacky dirt with good push off from recent rains. I didn’t bother with bringing splits with me, as I didn’t feel like going for my old record of 6:19, and if it were going to happen, it would just happen that day. This year, it didn’t happen.. well, it half happened.

The long descent to the turnaround at Lone Pine means you pass the runners coming up from the start of the Golden Hills marathon which starts at Lone Pine. Leading the pack was Bay Area legend Leor Pantilat, closely on his heals was Boulder mountain runner and Pikes Peak marathon champion Galen Burrell. Galen is a close climbing and running buddy of mine who transplanted out to San Fran and now lives in Mill Valley, and will have a new little girl this coming spring. He won the the Rodgers Hill climb up Mt Tam a few years ago and almost broke the old record. He oozes talent, and raced with me in the Tour de Flatirons in Boulder. Galen is a class act, and so is Leor, and to see these guys duke it out made my day. Leor and Galen actually have similar fast mountain and climbing backgrounds, but Leor had the course record, and my chips were laid 50/50 for either of these monsters to take the W and a new CR..

So while those guys battled, I hit the turnaround 3 minutes faster than my course record time from last year, but the last few 500’ climbs before dropping down 1200 feet to Lone Pine felt harder than last year. My stomach was a bit queasy too, which is rare. Coming back up the climb, I felt like the octane wasn’t getting out the tank fast enough, and knew there weren’t any guys close this year as I’d seen them on the turnaround. That said, I more or less checked out on pushing the pace to make sure I didn’t go into a deficit and crash. The rest of the run then became a very pleasant trip of 20 miles back to the Lake Chabot start finish BBQ festivities, with the thought of food, family, and friends. I had one of the more pleasurable second halves of racing in a long time. It’s funny how the years of ultras and consistency has brought me to a point where a whole day of vertical trail running doesn’t make much of a dent. In fact it does the opposite, counter-intuitively making for more enjoyable productivity and time for the other things in life which are important.

Passing all the marathoners and outcoming 50 milers wasn’t too much of a problem on the narrow singletrack near Skyline aid station, which is roughly 15 miles heading out and 35 miles returning home. Everyone was fine stepping aside as I passed and I yielded to most incoming runners, feeling in no particular rush. About 4 miles to go, due to rains 2 days prior, the last aid station was moved, adding about 500 vertical, which was not a big deal and maybe made for slower times, but not by much.

The finish saw my kids and wife swarming me to give me lollipops and attention, the best finish a dad could want. 6:34 was a decent time and I met my goal of winning the race three times. I and everyone else knows that this is a pretty shallow accomplishment, as Firetrails 50 is a low key event that Carl Anderson and a bunch of other guys like Dave Scott could have won 10 times if they so chose, but Carl and Anne Trason directed FT for such a long time that supporting the running community to them was more important. Me though, I am the parasite that keeps coming back for more.

Galen and I

In the marathon, turns out Galen and Leor did indeed have a battle royale, with Galen having a top day and Leor having a very rare off day. Amazingly, Galen wasn’t even watching the clock, but broke Leor’s course record by THREE seconds, on a slightly harder course. Galen and I go way back, so our Firetrails wins made the day all the better.

Next up; I am registered for JFK 50 and TNF 50.. In 2003 I ran JFK in 5:55, having raced a 24 hour adventure race the weekend prior; I can better this time now, and it looks to be a doozy for the men's field. Quite a scary field actually. Wardian, Woods, Riddle.. all much faster than I.. on paper at least.

TNF 50 will on the other hand, be a walk in the park. Yeah. Right.

Ultra Race of Champions.. late race report 1.5 weeks later

2011-10-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

From early on in the year, UROC was high on the priority race list. I am game for anything new and exciting, and love racing against the best at any distance under 100 miles (with a few 100 mile exceptions here and there). Gill and Francesca, with Geoff Roes as go-fer, wanted to try something cutting edge and sexy in the unsexy sport of ultrarunning. And they got off to a great start in this first year event!

I’d come into the race having been sick the prior two weeks with bronchitis. Okay so I hate to make excuses.. but the reality was I was 50/50 on the morning of the race. Last time I made a split second decision to run at the last minute based on sketchy pre-race circumstances, I set a course record.. For the prior week, my heart rate was in the 60-70 bpm at any given time during the day, even if I usually spend the majority of my days on my butt. I ran 5 days in two weeks before the race, with only one run being an hour. My muscles felt great, but the upper respiratory system was taxed, and I was unsure what the overall effect was on my running ability. I’d had enough rest since Waldo, so normally I would be keyed up and ready to rumble. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I went for it. My gut said “don’t run”, my wife said “don’t run”, my 3 year old daughter said “run”. Me, I said “run”. Listen to your wife, Mackey.

I arrived Charlottesville late afternoon Friday, getting a ride from up and coming runner and Chicago lawyer Matt Flaherty , who’d won a North Face race the weekend before. We got to the race brief Fri eve just in time to attend the panel discussion and Q and A with AJW as MC. Loads of fun it was, with Scott McCoubrey waxing poetic about ultra teams in the past 20 years and a table panel of running elites 100 feet long.

Race morning; as said, I was on the fence but the kicker was the fact that I wanted to help this race succeed, and my attendance would help the event kick off to a fine first year. The race started with a solid crew of guys, but unfortunately only four or five fast ladies in attendance, a big surprise given that the prize money was there. I felt fantastic for the first 30 miles of the race, and all signs were full steam ahead. Roes, Wardian, Scott Gall, Dave James, Matt Flaherty, Ian Sharman, and tons of other guys went out fast. I was comfortable with the pace, my legs and stomach felt smooth, and on the first long paved downhill coming off the Wintergreen ski are access road, my legs weren’t trashed in the least. Scott Gall and I were pushing the pace up front on the long ridge road out to some nice singletrack lollipop around a little lake, having some good chats. Scott and I have raced each other at 10k snowshoe races in Colorado over the past ten years, and we both raced for the nAtlas snowshoe race team , with him winning handily most every time over me. Ultras are my turf though and I eventually pulled ahead over the nice misty Bald Mt section. But this would not be that last I’d see of Scott, or everyone else for that matter.

I thought I was making time on the runners behind me as we ran a bunch more on the Blue Ridge Park way, when I came into mile 30 aid station and started to suddenly feel as if the light switch to my legs turned off. I had only had this happen in one other race, and it was disconcerting to realize that blood flow was completely and suddenly shunted from my extremities. I knew what protective mechanism my body was pulling on me; it was protecting the core from illness, and I didn’t like it! At that point, Mike Wardian came in yelling “Wardian! Gels, Water!!” behind me, just as I filled my bottle and started out on the single track four mile out and back. I thought this was amusing and shows the passion with which Mike runs. I tried to dig deep and chase him, but after 1.5 miles, I had response. What was odd was that I knew I had gas in the tank! But the fuel line had been protectively cut already.

Over the next ½ mile things just started to get worse. About another mile later, I turned around and started to walk back. Mike passed me again on his out and back about ¼ of a mile before the aid station ,and even then started to yell again, “Wardian, water, gels!!” I laughed again and kept walking. I checked into the aid station, felt fine walking around and chatting, then spent a fun afternoon with the Trailrunner magazine crew in their car stealing their food and beer, and catching up with other runners at the other aid stations as we spectated. I felt fine with my decision and didn’t kick myself over it, as it was out of my control, and made the most of spectating what turned out to be a dramatic finish. (Roes over Wardian, only due to Mike’s wrong turn I reckon. And congrats to dark horse Regan Petrie on the ladie’s side!)

As far as DNF’ing, I probably could have walked the remainder of the race if need be to save a life. But I wanted to race hard another day, and may even do so in the next two weeks if I feel recovered (I feel fine overall now.) I also wanted to function well during the next week and not detract from life outside of running, which is more important than running these days, so even if I could have finished, I am happy with my decision to drop. I hate DNFs, but the only DNF I have ever hated was Zane Grey 50 in 2003, when I’d lost only 12 minutes half way through but felt overly competitive, bitter about it, and wussed out in not trying to regain the lead. That was a poor spineless choice. I went back in the next two years to Zane Grey to run well and redeem myself. I hope I can do the same at UROC next year, which is a fine first year race with more potential and drive at the race-director helm (Bad to the Bone events)than any other ultra I know of. I’ve walked into the finish at ultras and know the satisfaction in the effort to cross the finish line only for the sake of completion. Finishing at all costs may work for some, but it doesn't always work for me. a time for everything though. To each their own in their DNFs; everyone has their reasons and that should be respected.

A somewhat haggard and incoherent Post Race interview with Scott Gall's Running Village

Next event for me.. It is so local and I am feeling groovy, so FireTrails 50 is this weekend October 8th! Going for my third consecutive win. Not sure I can take down my course record, but may give it a shot if the planets align.

Waldo 100k Race report

2011-08-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

The one meadow crossing at Waldo, and it was quite lovely.

Michael Lebowitz photo

For several years I’d been eyeballing what used to be called the Where’s Waldo 100k as a top trail race to experience in the Northwest. I’d only tromped one Northwestern race in 2002 and should have been up there sooner than now. I suspected that Craig Thornley would put on a good show, and the fact that Waldo used to be the USATF 100K trail championships indicated this would be a high quality experience. Oddly enough, only a handful of top elite runners have made their mark up there, whereas White River 50 and Chuckanut, the other top NW ultras, had seen the gamut of elite runners. In coming years I am sure there will be many others making the trip. If you are on the fence, I would recommend Waldo 100k any day.

Scott and Clare and I camped out in the parking lots of the Willamette pass ski area in Scott’s sweet camper van (remember the band Camper Van Beethoven and that song matchstick men? I do.) We awoke at 2:45 with the 3 am starters walking walking by to start their race early, then crashed for one more hour or so to wake for the 5 am start. I was concerned that the 5000’ start base elevation of the ski area, and the race low point, would affect my race, but I found comfortable uphill running until about 6500 feet during the race, then felt a bit slower above that. The first climb is on the only dirt road of the race, about ½ mile of that, then onto 62 miles of pure singletrack for the rest of the course (besides one very short section); you just can’t find races like this anywhere anymore, and oddly enough I actually got tired of singletrack later in the race! I’ll take that kind of boredom any day.

The first 1200 ‘ climb I felt very comfortable uphill running and was happy that I had put in a lot of vertical training in the prior month back in Marin. My trespassing onto the 1800’ electromagnetic tower hill for hill repeats in Novato had paid off, and I felt that the first hundred feet of the race that I would be tough to beat that day. Given how crappy I felt at my last ultra, an unknown Sierra trail run that rhymes with “blistered face”, I was happy to feel good. As I started down the first of many sweet descents on classic long switch backs where you can get sub 6 minute mile leg speed, I glanced back and didn’t see any headlights bobbing through the trees, but knowing that Ian Sharman and Yassine Dibboun were racing, I thought they’d be close. I knew that these guys had ultras raced a bunch lately and guessed they weren’t focusing on Waldo.

My intended splits were taken from the stellar Craig Thornley Waldo website, with a pacing plan exactly what Erik Skaggs ran in 2009. I came into the first Fuji mt aid station at 59:30, just two minutes below Skaggs' split. Through the big trees to the top of Mt Fuji I kept passing the 3 am early starters until I topped out and had a quick view of famed Waldo. Waldo is named for one of the many large lakes around the course, but you never actually see Waldo until the top of Fuji peak if you think to look for it; I didn’t see it for long, but for doing so the organizers gave a lovely Patagonia down jacket in my wife’s size anyway for be the first to be able to view Waldo.

Tagging the summit at 7100 or so feet, and turned around for the semi technical but fast descent. I passed the guys who were headed up in 3 minutes, so I reckoned I had about 7 minutes on them, but Ian later said I had 10. Anyway, back to Fuji aid station, came through at 1:44:35, still just slightly faster than Erik.

Throughout the rest of the race, I was about 1-4 minutes on Skaggs’ splits, and while racing I recalled reading about his race from two years ago, when he developed rhabdomyolysis. I hadn’t reread his post-race interviews since then, but should have, as I wasn’t sure how much NSAIDS he had ingested at the time. I decided to only take 1 x 220 mg of Naprosyn early in the race, and one more later, which is conservative for my racing style; I know many medical professionals and some racers think NSAIDS do nothing to help one’s racing, but I think otherwise as long as the runner is very conservative, hydrated, and fueled.

Since I felt consistent the whole race with only a small lull at near Charlton lake aid station, I decided to not push the pace beyond reason; I had zero desire to experience the hospital stay that Erik endured. I did wonder though if his pace would slow later on in the race due to the overall effects on his body which led to his development of rhabdo. That said, I tried to pay close attention to any subtle body cues or red flags, and played it safe. Still, it was a hard effort to run the same pace as the old course record, almost as intense as any race I’d run.

After Fuji, the rest of the race was a nice push through the varied trees which reminded me of running in Colorado forests around 10000 feet, which are comprised of dry lodgepole pine forests, leading up to large green moist Englemann spruce around 11000+ ft. I don’t know if these were same trees, but it sure felt like fine Colorado running to me, only without all the dirt roads that always link the good singletrack.

Many stretches were on snow patches a hundred or so feet long, but this didn’t take a significant toll on the overall time.. maybe a minute overall, as my running on snow was mostly untracked and firm, with only a few exceptions. One difficult crux of the race was the second climb up the backside of Twin Peaks, which is an ancient volcano made of loose dun colored soil, and much like running the volcanoes around Mexico city (a highly recommended adventure if you get the chance) , only in dense trees. This climb was on a 7 mile segment which seemed to stretch forever, I only had one hand bottle which I drained early after every aid station, and the course flagging was sparse. I thought I was of course and almost turned around on several occasions, as I was feeling dry and unsure.

The next crux was probably the hardest point in the race for everyone; the ascent and descent of fabled 7800 + Maiden peak at mile 55, so close to the finish but still a long way to get there. The Maiden climb is about 2800 feet feet, and for some reason never seems to end. I think I was 1-2 minutes off Erik’s time at this point, and was hoping I would be able to make it up on the backside of the peak on he descent past Maiden lake aid station. I knew I was dehydrated and had been drinking an extra 20 ounces of water at each aid station, then taing my bottle with me, but it was getting around 85 degrees and I was dry anyway.

As I cramped off Maiden peak, I knew I had some real work to do to stick to the plan, so I tried to attack the few hills on the remaining 8 miles after Maiden lake. Luckily this 8 miles is mostly fast and runnable if there is gas in the tank, and I did have a bit of octane left, as I had been pushing the Clif bar fuel hard the whole race. It paid off with 6 to 7 minutes mile pace on the smooth Pacific Crest trail, past a few beautiful small lakes behind the Willamette pass peak. Not knowing the mileage to the finish, except for one set of race photographers who said I had 3 or 4 miles left, I just kept pushing running scard that I would miss the course record. Eventually Lake Odell came into sight and I guessed I had 2 miles to go, which put me just under time to reach my goal. Out into the hot sun from the trees back to the ski area base, I finished just under CR in 7:06:51, as well as master’s CR.

True to the Northwest, a sasquatch-like finishing pose.

Michael Lebowitz photo

The rest of the afternoon was spent as usual hanging out with like-minded trail runners who happen to abuse themselves beyond belief, watching other racers come in, enjoying the fine post race BBQ, free massage, and out-of-doors shower.

Thanks for the ride up with Clare Abrams and Scott LaFarge, and Steve and Deborah Itano drove waaay out of their way to drop me back in Novato. Thanks guys! My wife Ellen also sweetly gave me a 48 hour hall pass for the race; not an easy thing to do with two busy toddlers in the house! And Craig, Curt, Alan, and Meaghan organized the finest singletrack course (almost 100%) I have ever run.

Overall splits.

59:30 Gold Lake

1:44:35 Fuji aid

2:08:24 Fuji Aid 2

2:49:57 Mt Ray

3:47:59 Twin Peaks 1

4:27:16 Charleton Lake

5:09:20 Road 4290

6:22:20 Twin Peaks 2

7:04:32 Maiden Peak (located ~2000' below the summit actually)

8:09:25 Maiden Lake

Finish, Willamette Ski Area, 9:06:51

Gear-wise, per usual I raced in the Hoka One One Bondi B.. give credit where credit's due, this shoe has had a huge hand (foot) in my season so far.. Thanks Nico, Jay, Karl and the Hoka gang! Clif products have boosted my fuel levels all year, and I have to say there is something going on in that Udos stuff that aids recovery.. I will need recovery as UROC is in 4 weeks. Okay back to your reading irunfar coverage of UTMB.

No UTMB :( .. but Waldo calls instead :)

2011-08-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

Until now, I had been registered for the "CCC" (Courmayeur Champex Chamonix) 100K trail race, which is run prior to the 100 mile Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in the heart of the Alps in two weeks. The CCC is considered the junior varsity version of the UTMB, and if I had gone over I'd planned on switching over to the varsity UTMB team in order to get my full meal deal of experience in the Alps. As it is, I can't go over this year to run either race; I just can't get the time off as it is the fist week of the fall semester. If the race were one week earlier I would have been carbo loading on escargot and stinky cheese with the finest American contingent of ultrarunners sent over the big pond. They will be running one of the hottest contested international events in years, beyond anything that has been run on US soil thus far. I will be following closely online rooting for the Yanks to bring it home.
Lately, this evolution in long mountain running has been truly cool to experience. The North Face 50 last December saw a decent set of Euros come over. WS 100, although very limited in accessibility to elites or anyone, was as international as anything yet put on. Hardrock, even more limited than WS, did an okay job of representation of internationals. Unfortunately, the US side of ultrarunning is only getting increasingly limiting, as the supply of races is not meeting demand.
I would love to be ten years younger to be able to fully embrace this change; as it is I am trying my best to maintain the highest level of running given the cards I am dealt, and still can usually show a full house to those assembled at the poker table. Still got a bunch of tricks up my sleeve to come. That said, the next long mountain running game is the Waldo 100K in Oregon. It is high time to get up north to check this one out, and the only other Northwestern race I have run so far in the White River 50 years ago. This race has been on my list for five years now, and should be a decent turnout with a few other fast guys showing up.
The UROC is five weeks later out on the East coast; I will surely be there for a whooping in the hills of Virginia.
Training-wise, recently I found that I thought was a 1500 foot ridge just to the West of our place in Novato is actually 1800', which means I have been training 20% more vertical than what I thought! This is kind of like finding that old $20 in your jeans pocket, a real find which adds value to your day. This explains why I had been feeling a bit more beat up that usual this summer, and now I'm sure I was overtraining as I did several days of multiple laps on this hill in the heat. This is fine with me, as the long-term benefits may pay off.
UTMB.. maybe next summer!

Table Rock 25K..on the greatest trails Marin has to offer!

2011-07-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

You may ask. Where the heck is this Table Rock?

Marin is much like the " Boulder" of California, without towering flatirons, world-class rock canyons like Eldorado State Park, and knobs of skinny teens pulling plastic in the multiple competing rock-climbing gyms within two blocks of each other. No, Marin is famous for much else, like the home of James Hetfield (Metallica), the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, and grassy, mild hills and green canyons sloping down to the sea at famed Muir, Rodeo, Bolinas, and Stinson Beaches. It is directly above, about 500 vertical, the latter lovely beach of Stinson where Table Rock resides. As you come screaming down the wooden and rocky steps off the 1600 foot descent of the Headlands in the Table Rock 25K, you may not even know that you were treading the rock itself, as it is tucked in the thick Northern woods, with a small sign indicating its huge presence.

I had an excellent time racing this La Sportiva Cup race. If it weren't for the Cup, which I am not participating in, this would have been a low-key, locals-only race. The only other PCTR race I ran was in 2009 in santa Cruz, which was a very simple affair, with vague markings and maps, and I got off course only to realize it as I drove away after the finish. This year, the gun went off in the fog, and as the leaders blazed a hypoxic start, I settled into 7th place as we started the 200' climb up the Dipsea trail and turned off onto the real 1400' climb of Steep Ravine trail. I started to reel in runners right away, and could only knew ID a couple of the runners near me, like Justin Morejohn and Jason Bryant. One other runner just ahead of me was wearing the Brand New Hoka One One Stinson B model, a very appropriate shoe to match this race, and a shoe that even I hadn't received yet ('til today.. the runner who raced in them reported top notch performance and he'd just bought them the day before).
I gradually picked some runners off as we climbed the famed actual steep ladder of the ravine, and came out to Pan Toll just ahead of three other runners and in 4th place overall. I love this climb; always wet, dark , ducking heads under large fallen redwoods, and hypoxia. I thought I may have gone out too hard, but still felt real strong and as we started the mellow grade down towards Heather cut off trail, I felt instantly like I could run the hard pace all day. But that said, I knew the only way to win this race was if the top three came back to me.
The first real junction was a maze of flagging, an I took a wrong turn down the Dipsea trail. Luckily for me, Jason and Justin were just behind me and yelled down into the trees at me to come back up. I came back up to find myself in 7th place, and blazed down into the fog of Heather Cut-Off towards Muir Beach.
I passed made up the three lost positions pretty quickly, and hit the flat Redwood trail loveliness halfway point and saw La Sportiva Cup leader Ryan Woods just ahead. Back up the Deer Park Rd/Dipsea trail to Pan Toll, I kept seeing Ryan just ahead, but just couldn't accelerate to get closer to him. Past Pan Toll aid stations again, the singletrack gently contoured up into pea-soup fog and wind, which is pervasive at the 1600 foot level for much of the year. Finally as we turned down the Matt Davis trail final descent, I saw Matt, but I also hoped to see the two leaders just ahead of him. I quickly passed Matt as we started down the best trail in Marin..IMO.. ripped around the slick wood step and rock corners, over the Table Rock, and into Stinson town to a mellow finish only 100 meters from the beach. I worked hard for that 3rd place, and was happy to have it.
The first two guys I had never met, but was duly impressed by their performances. Jared Scott ( who lives on the Grand Canyon rim at 7000 ft) and Matt Byrne ( who lives in the polar-opposite Scranton, PA) put on a mountain runners' clinic. Awesome! Google these guys to see some stellar resumes. I found out from Jared post-race that he holds the new Grand Canyon one-way record (3:07), while I hold the GC round trip record (7 hours). Trail Runner mag's Ashley Arnold finished tops by 9 minutes over her sister, Cynthia. Many top runners flew out for this series run.

Bryon Powell's write up here. http://www.irunfar.com/2011/07/scott-and-arnold-win-table-rock-makes-mountain-cup-moves.html

WS wrap-up

2011-07-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

I'd written a report last week on my wife's macbook pro, only to delete it due to not knowing the keyboard shortcuts on a mac. Here's a brief recap and Galen Burrell's photography, with Hoka One One founder Nicolas Mermoud joining me for a section of the Foresthill streets.

http://gallery.me.com/burrellg#100373

Lessons learned..

*Altitude.. WS isn’t considered a high altitude race, but 6000 feet felt like 14000 feet this year! Compared to 2009 when I lived in Colorado, I was sucking pond water this year as we climbed out of Squaw Valley. In 2009 it was easy to crest the top of Squaw at 8500 feet in first place; this year I was in about 15^th with significantly more effort.

*Recovery: My spring season was too packed with victories :) to perform top notch at WS. Live and learn, gotta push the envelope, living life on the edge, etc, all that. That said, I can’t wait to race again later this summer!

*Hoka One One: I am so happy I sported the Bondi B the whole race. The Bondi B rocked the snow, as I came out of the snow in first to promptly lose about 15 minutes on a misflagged turn to Talbot Creek campground (ten more yellow flags led me across a waist high stream crossing leading into the Granite Chief wilderness...I wonder if other racers took this turn?) Anyway, the Bondi’s gripped the snow, cushioned the descents, and performed just as well as hey did at AR 50 and Miwok.

*Crew: My crew was stellar, as were the aid stations and volunteers. But I found it completely unnecessary to have crew until Michigan Bluff (mile 55) and would have been fine until Foresthill or the river going solo using only aid station resources. As known I thought I would struggle with GI issues but this didn’t materialize this year. I learned that simple is best for my racing and the transfer from fueling in sub 100 k races works fine to my rare 100 mile race. Of course I can say this given the cool temps this year and may be “eating” my words in the future.

*Props to Montrail for putting on the 2011 Montrail Cup (and 2010, 2009, 2008..) Of course I am happy about this because I won the series and some money which I sorely needed. I know some may not like to hear it but if it weren’t for my sponsors I would not have raced this year; I simply would have had to get a part-time job on top of school to support my family.

When I won the 2004 Cup I received a crystal vase presented at the Mountain Masochist 50, which still holds the flowers I bring home daily to my wife (or weekly.. maybe). I am guessing Montrail president Topher Gaylord has a iridium razor he just hasn't got around to mailing just yet.

*Have an excellent summer!

WS Brief

2011-06-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Overall, even though what I experienced Saturday was truly inspiring and phenomenal in many ways, I felt had a mediocre race at Western this year. Got 8^th in the race, but won the Montrail Cup series. I felt rather blase for most of the day with no real low-points, but nI ever felt like I could accelerate at any given time either. I continue to underestimate the recovery that needs to occur on a deep level from these things called ultras..I guess being 41 will do that to you!

Some highlights though..

(I can't believe I didn't mention my crew when I wrote this post last night; my good college pal Devin, SFSU coach Tom Lyons and son Dean, old Boulder pal Galen Burrell (also paced me in 04), and pacers Mark Richtman (paced me in 09) and Atlas snowshoe race teammate Peter Fain. Thanks fellas! Ellen and Ava came to the finish past bedtime to cheer, a pleasure to see through tired eyes.

The other highlights:

*Seeing a BIG black bear book across the trail and dive down steep hill near Dusty Corners.

*This article about RD Greg Soderlund in the Sacramento Bee newspaper. Greg is such a grounded guy, humble, detailed, and he used to be a PA but would never tell you so.

*Witnessing the sprint finish of Kami Semick vs. Nikki Kimball for 2^nd and 3rd on the track. Apparently they had their own run-in on the trail with a different bear than mine (seriously).

*Running 15 miles of the race on top of the Sierra snowpack, picking out yellow flags to follow and wishing the whole race was like that.

*Being passed by AJW at Hwy 49, then retaking him in the last few miles. My crew guy Tom Lyons told me I'd better beat him or I’d have no ride home.

*Volunteering few a few hours for the race. Seeing loads of people I only see once a year and meeting tons of others.

*Not a highlight; taking my daughter to the ER the day before the race, wondering if I would make the start the next day! (Just a hard fall off the bunkbed. She is fine but got a little egg behind her ear; kids’ resiliency amazes me.)

I will try to write something up by next weekend if I can fit it in.

Help me solve my GI issues at WS

2011-06-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

Friend or Foe?

I almost never reach out to the masses for running advice. I basically go it alone in my training strategy and this has worked quite well for the most part in all racing and training. In this case though, I am trying to solve a thorny problem that oddly solely occurs on the Squaw to Auburn course.

My problem is located in the lower left of the above diagram, where the stomach joins the duodenum and small intestine. I am trying to find ways to not have my pyloric sphincter bind into a knot and shut down all subsequent digestion by the time I hit Michigan Bluff. All digestive absorption happens distal to the stomach in the small intestine, with very little real events in the stomach (except mixing) and in the large intestine (except some water absortion and mucus production). My nutrient absorption during races has normally been excellent, with a "cast iron stomach" I rarely to never have nausea, vomiting, and lack of fueling. But once I touch that dirt in the Sierra summer all bets are off. Even last year when pacing Geoff, after 25 miles I found the same thing happening, peeling off at Brown's Bar and then picking him up later at Robie Point. And it was "only"90 degrees last year. This has only occurred on the WS course, and never in any other, or even longer, adventure or running event.

So help me if you will with any and all tips. I am looking for the silver bullet the slay the GI vampire that lurks within. Do you know what this bullet consists of? I have asked advice of a few WS legends such as Craig Thornley and AJW, and they offered some excellent tips, historical perspective, and references to prior posts. But these guys for the most part get through WS on chicken broth, stew, turkey and avocado and cheese sandwiches for the first half, then switch to gels and conventional fueling later in the race. This wouldn't work for me, as I tried this kind of stuff (but much less of it) in 2004, leaving my stomach turned sideways on Cal Street while Jurek put an hour on me. I have a ton of respect for these guys and their ways, especially as they actually spend time on the course fine tuning and becoming intimate with it, but their fueling strategies are more traditional than mine.

Here are my options as I see them;

Metoclopramide: My ultrarunning science friend Charles told me her tried this pharmacological GI motility agent once, which left him asleep by the side of the trail. Not sure I want to go there.

Ginger: I tried capsules in 2009, but I may have tried them too late in the game as they didn't seem to work. But I was kind of sick that year anyway. I may supplement these early and see what happens. I know nothing about ginger extract though, except it is mostly alcohol mixing with liquid ginger.

Simplicity: Gels, Clif Bloks bananas, PBJ, water. I have only had success here in shorter races. I lean towards this simple tried but true way and not gumming the works.

Eating less: Risky. If there is less in the tank I may bonk and not catch up in fueling later.

Pacing smarter: Getting to Michigan Bluff doesn't win the race; getting to the track first does.

Feel free to post ideas. I need them! For such an experienced runner as I am, in this realm I feel as green as Karl Meltzer running a road 5K. Solving this GI thang is no reinvention of the wheel for many ultrarunners, but I am a neophyte at this distance and have the utmost respect for the years that are out there.

Novato life before Western States

2011-06-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

The Novato skyline looking West

I think my lack of a mileage log has caught up with me. Since running Miwok 100k 3+ weeks ago I just have felt like the gas hasn’t been in the tank to run very much or very hard since then. I am not supposed to run much anyway as Miwok and AR 50 were so close to each other, but I should get better at tracking my training, just to know why the heck I feel so crappy. This hasn’t been for naught though as I can focus more on life's other callings, but I am tired of being tired all the time.

What I do know I need to change immediately is my diet. Ellen and the kids and I eat extremely well overall, but cookies and 1-2 beers at the end of the day is not just working (for me, not the kids). I think the special treats in the evening are negatively affecting my sleep patterns and not enabling recovery. Basically every morning I wake up and don’t feel in the least bit rested, wanting three more hours in the sack to catch up. My basic fueling is vegetarian with omnivore tendency, and with a bit more discipline will yield better recovery and energy.

I ran well in the spring because I was focused on studies, family, and no alcoholic beverages, which was fine and I didn’t even notice for weeks at a time that I hadn’t ingested any alcohol, which is mostly a waste of money that I don’t have anyway. This was a good formula and I seemed to race well on moderate running mileage. I will go back to these basics, but will not give up all of the cookies.. just half of them. I am fine with fewer miles the next few weeks before States, as I am not going to get any fitter and can more or less only recover anyway. I find when I put more energy into school and family I race best, so I am trying to get back to these basics.

Otherwise we now live in Novato, CA, on the northern side of Marin, about 200 meters from Hwy 101 and close to Hwy 37, which takes me to Vallejo over to top of the Bay. I have a 25 minute reverse commute from door to door, and stellar trails just out the back door on a long 1500 foot elevation ridge that creates a kind of quasi-cirque that surrounds Novato. Look at the Novato skyline and you can pick out some cell phone towers at the top of the Skyline, which his the middle of the “cirque”; these towers are easily reached by a steep rolling series of climbs by dirt road and single track out the door of our dodgy apartment on Ignacio Boulevard. Up Ignacio two miles away is College of Marin, a beauty of a college campus trailhead of about 20 miles of moderately difficult and beautiful trail link ups onto some private land (never crossed this private land though..wouldn’t dare :) high above to the aforementioned ridge. The kids, dog, Ellen and I had an excellent evening hike down low near the college today to a small pond on the Waterfall trail, which was perfect for a family jaunt with a one-year old strapped to my back and a three-year old leading the charge.

The other skyline feature of Novato is Mt Burdell, a mini-massif of dirt roads and single track to about 1500 feet, with an awesome five-mile long narrow switchback descent on the backside to Mt Olompali State Park, which used to be the largest Miwok Indian encampment long ago, as well and where the Grateful Dead used to jam. This trail combo can be a sweet out and back, offer excellent leg turnover with vertical as needed. All in all, Mt Burdell is super nice for running and views. And Novato is a nice town, a bit less pretentious than much of Marin, yet just as attractive, with a cool farmer’s market that rivals Boulder’s.

So WS is coming up and I have re-evaluated my plan for this race. The past two times I have raced it I ran at the front until Michigan Bluff and ended with mixed results, suffering the effects of the heat for doing so. This year I am taking a new tack and am going to “chill” and try to enjoy the experience without killing myself and not being able to function at school the week after. According to the point system, all I need to do is finish to win the Montrail Cup, which is more important than trying to win the race this year and risk blowing up (not that I could win it anyway). I look forward to being 30 minutes back of the leaders coming into Foresthill, and then see what may materialize after that in terms of a podium spot. Unlike others, who run away to escape north over the Arctic circle to evade the pressure of WS title defense, I am going to chill like the ice cube I am. May I not melt before mile 30.

Miwok 100K race report

2011-05-13T09:58:00.001-07:00

I posted Miwok race report over at Bryon Powell's unrivaled ultrarunning and trail site, irunfar.com . Thanks for posting it Bryon. I didnt get to write proper final edit of the report, so the flow isn't that good in my opinion. I also didnt say anything about the women's race, which was just as exciting as the men's. Pam Smith pulled ahead of Meghan Arboghast and Krissy Moehl to take the win.. here is Pam's race report..

What may best sum it all up is Jim Vernon's excellent work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-2e8Wf4pSg

Geoff Roes writes here about some race this summer. I think along the lines of Geoff in terms of pacing and conserving energy, as well as thinking one race at a time. Next up for me is an unknown point-to-point race snowshoe race in the Sierras. Got a 2004 2nd, a 2009 DNF so far.. .may I hope that third time's a charm.

Miwok 100k, Montrail Cup, etc

2011-04-22T09:49:00.001-07:00

Next up for me in two weeks is the Miwok 100K, one of my faves and right in my soon-to-be backyard, as we are moving back to the Bay Area next week. I love this race!! Ever have races that you keep going back to where you feel like things just click ?
62.4 miles (note that this is over 100K) is a long frickin' way. It's like driving from Boulder to Colorado Springs on I-25, and the thought of having to run this makes me nauseous. A few years ago I would pop in the car at the drop of a hat to train on Pikes Peak. But to run on thatdrive? Ughh..
The only difference between I-25 and Miwok are the surface underfoot and about 10K vertical feet of climb and descent, as well as all the attendant race-day circumstances, friends, banners, glory, bbq, etc. But the biggest real difference is simply running through the woods and fields of the Headlands, the best place to get lost and forget about how far you have to go, much like the Colorado mountains. Under these circumstances and in these places, you can finish these incredible distances with MORE energy than when you started. I have competed in so many races, including 5 day adventure races, where the next day I've felt more alive, refreshed, invigorated than before the gun went off. I am not sure why this happens given the huge distances traveled over gnarly terrain with minimal resources. Is it massive releases of anti-oxidants? Is it excessive fresh sea-level air? Thin mountain air?
Then there are the few races when I feel like a Mack truck just ran me over the day after. Primal Quest 2006 in the seven-day summer desert heat of Utah and Western States in 2009 come to mind; coming into WS immunocompromised didn't help, and PQ '06 was simply hard-core suffer-fest of atronomical proportions (like running 1000 miles of WS.. without water.)
Any way I look at it, long trail running gives back much more back than it takes...most of the time.

So I will run Miwok... if this goes well then I will be primed to finish the Montrail Cup series of four required races, which has $5000 for the first place series win. I didn't start the season aiming to run this series, and didn't even want to run Miwok. As for Bandera 100k I planned to race only because it was an excellent early season race that Geoff, Tony, and others planned on racing and I wanted a piece of the action. Winning Bandera gave me Montrail Cup points, but the anticipated elite competition didn't happen. For AR 50 I wanted redemption to better my time from two years ago and I was in Cali anyway, so those Cup points more or less materialized naturally. Now school starts and I can only race locally, which lends Miwok 100k and WS to align well... may as well finish the series.

Next year, I am need to run some new races. It is my clinical year of school, so who knows where I will be or what level of training will happen. I have run so much in California and need a change of pace. It's where I've lived so it makes sense to race in CA, but I also live in Colorado half time, miss racing the high stuff. Never ran Leadville, HR, been years since I ran at San Juan Solstice and Collegiate Peaks, but have run Pikes recently and the Greenland (CO) trail races.

I said I was going to post my splits for the American River 50, but they unintentionally were deleted from my watch database. I am bummed about this I know runners try to find the elites' splits from prior years to pace themselves, and I like to look back and compare my times to current performances. All I can offer is though is this link, which has some interesting stuff.
http://www.capitalroadrace.com/results/11_AR50_OVL.HTM

The data regarding the second half of the race shows who ran smart the first half. For example, the women's winner, Ellie Greenwood, ran the second half (3:16:38) faster than many of the guys who finished in front of her. So in a longer race it is possible that she would have passed these guys. Perhaps not though, because the guys would have likely paced differently in a longer race.
I hope most racers can learn from these splits and apply them in future years. As proved time and time again, we all go out too fast in ultras.

American River 50 race report

2011-04-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, I had run a disappointing AR 50, in my mind at least. Even though I was second that year, I’d had high aspirations for a sub 5:40 time. It turns out this was the year the course was measured short and recalibrated to the current accurate 50 mile distance, so given this, 5:40 wasn’t reasonable. Last season I wasn’t running much two thirds of the year, so AR 50 wasn’t even in the cards. This year, now that I’d had at least some training and some races in the late fall and January’s Bandera 100K, I decided it would be a fine opportunity to better my effort from two years prior.

The dark 6 am start and subsequent 50 miles went exactly as I had anticipated, with some mild rabbiting to 26.2 and the ole wily tortoise (me) catching in the end. My goal was to run comfortably through the marathon and then ramp things up from there. I had splits based roughly on prior years wins, which would get me to 26.2 in 2:46. I knew that Jason Loutthit had some fast 5 K times and some recent ultra experience, but guessed he’d go out fast. I also thought Ian Sharman would follow suit with Jason, given his road experience and leg speed.

The first couple miles was a pack of guys in the dark, including the above two speedsters, plus Nick Clark and Scott Jaime and one other guy. I stuck with about a 6:20 pace right from the start, while Jason, Ian, Nick, and the other guy were out of sight after mile two. The first 20 miles or so are sweet paved bike path (as good as paved can get I guess), with maybe 10% of just-off-the-hardtop-edge running on dirt, which is still “legal” as it parallels the path. This “dirt finding” doesn’t help too much in the end, but gives a mental running surface break. As always, most of my thoughts were on running point to point tangents, eating and drinking and popping occasional pills, and wondering if I should stop to take a dump. I focused on my own game, but happened to match paces with Scott Jaime and Nick Clark, who I ran near for most of first 20 miles.

After five miles of fighting it the inconvenience of stopping, I pit stopped for 30 seconds at a portopotty, and instantly felt faster. It is sooo worth making these stops, as I easily go 15-20 seconds per mile faster. It’s not like I lose pounds of baggage, but it just feels good maybe because less blood flow goes to the GI tract. Anyway. it pays off to dump off!

I felt fine and comfy through the marathon, besides a couple upper GI cramps around mile 23. This was likely because I was eating and drinking a lot, even though the temps were cool and would stay so. I have found that in 50 mile to 100K races, if I fuel heavily early it can carry me through the second half of races without having to play too much catch up in the later stages. But by doing so, I actually choose to create potential GI problems early in the race, but I would rather stuff my stomach earlier rather than later, when it would be far too late to intake gels, water, electrolytes, etc. I can’t even remember the last time I bonked using this strategy, except for Western States in 09, when everything shut down due to heat and a flu bug.

So all told I ate two Clif Shots before the start, and then two per hour, or a few more, through the race. I also preventatively ate Advil (thanks Craig Thornley and Megan Arbogast) before the start and one per hour after that..about 1200 mg total. (I completely disagree the research that says NSAIDS don’t help ultrarunning; works for me as long as I keep overall amounts moderate. Potential toxicity and GI ulcers are real hazards so watch yourself!) I also ate four saltines and a handful of cheezits to supplement the Clif Shots and two ClifBlok packs. I also ate maybe a dozen S-Caps, and drank half water/Gu2O mix from the aid stations. No fats and protein this time around.

I think the biggest difference in this race was my footwear. The Hoka One One Bondi B were designed perfectly for this tough course; I came off the pavement at mile 28 and still had fresh enough legs to hang in the second half. The shoe is designed for road running but handles well on most any dirt surface, as long as it isn’t slick clay (where nothing really performs anyway).

Anyway, back to the race..I came through the marathon banner in 2:48, about 30 seconds after Ian. Jason had come through in 2:56, and maybe gained 2 more minute before mile 28 at Beals Point aid station, giving him a ten minute lead. So out of Beals point, the race goes quickly to lovely dirt singletrack for 90% of the remainder of the race. I loved running this last section!! It had rained tons in the spring, so the soil was damp enough to be slightly tacky underfoot with little loose sand, providing good push off and traction. It was cool and in the 50s and 60s, with lots of shady sections. There were tons of mud puddles, but not too many too big that I couldn’t dance around the edges or jump to avoid getting wet. There were a couple reroutes around felled trees, but nothing too annoying to slow things too much. The undulating singletrack of this part of the AR 50 is fun and rocky in sections, with plenty of contours to pick up the leg speed for long sections and cruise at 6:30 pace. I felt light years different from two years ago, when I wore running flats and trashed myself, then had nothing in the tank going onto this dirt. I felt there were very few occasions, except for the epic three mile hill at the end, when I couldn’t have accelerated if Jason, Ian, or Nick had come out of nowhere. I was going for the win and nothing more, and had way more fun in the last half than the first.

After Beals Pt mile 28, I passed Ian about a mile out, while he was off investigating the bushy scrubbery. For eight miles after I had varying reports of how close Jason was. Greg Soderlund said Jason had three minutes on me at one aid station, then a mile later a jogger stated he was only one minute ahead. I was surprised to find at Buzzards Cove that he had a four minute lead on me, as I thought I was cruising pretty good. Finally, at mile 38 I passed Jason on a gentle hill. He was still moving well, yet didn’t accelerate as I passed, so I thought there could be a chance of him catching me if he rebounded. I also had no idea where Ian or Nick were lurking, and didn’t write them off in the least. I therefore resigned myself to “running scared” the remaining 12 miles of the race.

I actually like running with the fear factor in ultras. It keeps me on my toes and really tests the ability to self motivate, whereas when you are racing with others they tend to push you from without and pace off others, which actually can detract from a better overall finish time. I only walked two sections of the rest of the race; one short steep single track section, and about 100 meters of the beginning of the three mile dirt road finish.

I finally started to “feel the ultra love/pain” about half way up the last hill, and started dogging it a bit. I still ran this last three miles in just under 26 minutes, which is just over eight minute miles (if the mileage is correct), so I wasn’t crashing too hard. I came into the finish in just over 5:55 and was super-happy to have won this west coast ultra classic. Five minutes later Jason came busting around the corner to just break six hours by five seconds, with Nick and Ian within 30 seconds of that. I surely didn’t envy being in that epic battle for second place!

I will post my splits when I can find my race watch..

Back to AR 50!

2011-04-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Man, I have just come out of one of my rocks from the past few months, but am finally back out with my turtle head poked out and ready to climb out and run a couple of races. I had a block of exams the past 5 weeks which took most of my energy, and am glad they ae over. It will be an awesome month with AR 50 this weekend and Miwok exactly four weeks later, and I am psyched for the time proximity of these running classics. I havent raced since January 8th, so 3 months out is a long time to not get a good thrashing at the hands/feet of the trails.
I am happy to run AR 50 again. Two years ago I didnt train on pavement and had a bad race in running a 6:12. This year may be different as I have better footwear and 80% of my miles have been paved the past 6 weeks. Should be able to better this time easily.
Even though my training has been relatively low the past three months, I have focused on quality half marathon workouts that leave me tired enough to sit alot and focus on school and sleep well, yet not enough realistically to be considered real ultra training. The longest I have run is 2 hours at one time, yet I have been consistent and healthy, which makes up for the paucity of miles. I feel going into two hard races being slightly undertrained is unconventional, yet I know I have the recovery reserves in the tank to handle it and come out no worse for wear. I am supposed to run WS 100 in June, which is still uncertain, as I will need to train a few long runs in late May and first week of JUne; PA school and my family rank higher on the list so we will see. I have eked out good races before, but I aint no spring chicken and the clock ticks. WS historically isn't my bag, but given the the 160% of average Sierra snowpack underfoot, I reckon this summer is due for a heavy snowfall on the head as well come race morning! I'd be one happy runner that day, as my Scotch/Canadian/Russian/Swedish cold blood boils over 80 degrees F.
See you in Sacramento Saturday AM. Likely candidates to be beating the American River Trail with me past Folson prison and beyond include Nick Clark, Scott Jaime, Ryan Burch, Erik Skaden, Jason Louthit, and Ian Sharman. Tell me if there is anyone else I missed. I heard Tony K is hurt and Chikara Omine as well; I'd looked forward to racing these guys. Surprisingly, I still havent raced Tony after all these years. Maybe WS..

Bondi B article

2011-03-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

Had to post this.. happy running, everyone!

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Products/Running_Footwear_by_type/Structured_trainers/Hoke_One_One_Bondi_B_1960.html

Mini-update

2011-03-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note on what I have been up to.
Overall for the most part I have just been locked indoors here on Mare Island in Vallejo studying and taking exams to restart school for the summer. ( I will do s story on Mare Island sometime.. the history here in incredible). It has been somewhat of a self-imposed exhile, with the need to buckle down and focus on studies so I can finish PA school and get out in the working world again and support my family. I feel like a monk in his hermits enclave.. but there are plenty of other med school, pharmacy, and physician assistant students here at Touto University, all of whom are going to classes. I on the other hand on temporarily on a separate track to restart school, so I do my own thing for the most part. Only two more weeks of exams though!
The running has been sporadic and somewhat low volume, but when I do get out I try to make it count and tire myself out enough to be able to sit alot otherwise and get a get a decent night's sleep. When I don't run it is a pretty miserable existence, I get grumpy, my wife isn't happy, no one likes me.. you know how it goes. Same goes for trying to eat well.. eating lots of veggies and quality food, and topping it all off at the end of the day with a few cookies, makes for solid energy throughout the day.
Next Races! American River 50. Super excited for this one.. the one other time I ran it, I didnt have a good race. Should be a different game with my Bondi B's this year. I guess my lack of training won't help my case, but we'll see. Not the first time I've gone in undertrained; many other elites who toe the line are overtrained or don't train and pace smart (me included).
Miwok 100k is on the docket and WS 100. I will ahve to see how school goes in order to race both these. School is way more important to me right now. Ultra Race of Champions in Sept and UTMB/CCC are likely in the fall too.
For now, Mare Island, Touro University in Vallejo is home, but back to Boulder for a brief bit in April.

Minimalist running and the Bondi B

2011-02-22T13:14:00.000-08:00

Pick your's up at the Boulder Running company!
(if you are lucky enough to live here...)

Worn alot of shoe brands over the years, from Nike ACG, GoLite, Montrail, New Balance, Salomon, Pearl.. and they are all excellent shoes for the most part. But the Bondi B has to be one of the most inovative products to come out in years.

It is very interesting to compare the whole minimalist footwear movement and think about where trail running footwear has been and where it's going. For most of the 2000's (the "Bush years"..ugh), I found trail running footwear to be in the doldrums. It seemed that many a trail running footwear company's M.O. was 12-16 ounce behemoths that sold because they looked decent when tried on the retails floor with a pair of jeans. That was what sold, so it was what they made. True there were some inovative products but for me most trail shoes were too heavy for race performance. I actually prefered to race in light weight road shoes in many cases. Then the minimalist movement happened and folks could realize that you can have fun out there and not wear a pound on each foot.

I do think there is a place for 6 ounce shoes, but not for the vast majority of runners. Enter the Bondi B. Now you can run with the whole minimal shoe, but for a meager 2 ounces more you get the benefit of CUSHIONING! The Bondi B is an 8.5 ounce shoe which offers the benefit of light and fast (up OR down), but you don't trash your legs, reinjure that ole nagging knee, PF (plantar fasciitis), irritate the IT attachment, etc.

I was at the outdoor retailer shoe working the booth, and the president of Five Fingers stopped by to try on the Bondi B. Thoroughly impressed with Hoka One One, he applaudedthe ingenuity of the Bondi B. This was coming from a guy who had a hand in revolutionizing the sport of running. I also met the original designer of the Five Fingers shoe.. nice guy as well, with an obvious creative spirit about him which would inspire something like a barefoot shoe.

Alright I am sponsored by Hoka One One, but thus far the Bondi B and Mafate have changed my perspective on running, training, and racing. I think this year will be pivotal for the company, as even more top trail running results will come from Hoka in ultra and sub-ultra races. Also sports like triathlon and Xterra will see the benefit of such a shoe, as one comes off the 2 mile swim and 130 mile bike, the best thing they can have on their feet would be a light weight cushioned Bondi B.

We'll see what happens! The footwear scene is trendy and change is constant, but I expect there will be quite a few shoe companies copy-catting the Hokas very soon, and this is a trend here to stay.

Green love on valentines day

2011-02-14T14:49:00.000-08:00

Not much to say here.. I just took a lunch break run and decided I'd go for a PR on the Gregory Canyon to Ranger trail. My mileage has been moderate lately, as I have been trying to get into the "quality" training mode versus high miles(which I never do anyway). Since I raced 5 weeks ago at the Bandera 100k, I have been swamped with school and work, so I havent taken any long runs. That works fine for me, as I want to be fully recovered going into the spring. I decided that American River 50 fits nicely into my spring schedule, so that will my the next race. I doubt I will have much time to be properly trained for it, but there is little I can do about that.

Jeff Valliere and I had a discussion recently on regarding which route was quicker getting to the top of Green Mt; Amphitheater/Greenman vs Gregory/Ranger. I think Gregory Ranger is faster, as it is more runnable than Amphitheater/Greenman, and roughly the same distance. Jeff said that Jason Schlarb had recently run about a 33 minute time, which I thought may be a moderate effort on his part, as I remembered running faster than this at some point years ago quite easily (I may be wrong though.. getting old here) Most people who read this probably haven't run either route, but you should when you do come out to run in the Republic.

Today turned out to be not the day to go for PRs, as it had snowed and then went through a freeze/thaw cycle a couple times, which means slicker conditions. I'd put about 8 hex-head screws in my Hoka One One Bondi B , and over a few runs lately I found this to be the perfect number for any icy conditions around here. However, to run uphill times fast you really need dry trails.

My splits were the following.
Start Gregory 0
1st Gregory Canyon Bridge 5:31
Top of Gregory (at signpost where the dirt road comes down from the right, just after the creek); 14:48
It was pretty good footing in Gregory up to this point , but above this I lost alot of time, as each step slipped back an inch or two ~~ %20 loss of efficiency.
Splits above Gregory..
19:54 Junction of Greenman trail going to the left off Ranger trail
34:05 4 way junction
37:55 Top off summit rock

So anyway.. something to write about.. think I will have a crack at sub 33 when it dries out a bit.

Oh and by the way, Jeff Valliere had a cameo in Aron Ralston's recent 3 hour show with Tom Brokaw. I don't have the link to Jeff''s 15 minutes of fame, but it is quite substantial, and they filmed Jeff and Aron running up Gregory Canyon. Good on ya, Jeff!

Okay time to go kiss your sweetie.

Energy Justice Benefit

2011-02-02T19:44:00.000-08:00

I have a plug I would like to make for an worthy benefit fundraiser here in Boulder on Friday Feb 18th. (The plug request actually came from the girlfriends of two of my rivals, which is a unique situation in which to be put...just kidding Jenny) Scott Jurek and Tony Krupicka are appearing with the author of Born to Run, Chris McDougall, to raise funds for the CEES Energy Justice program. I haven't read Born to Run, but it is supposed to be a good read and the pre-cursor to the barefoot running thing.

Attend if you can.

Here's the beta..
http://www.worldenergyjustice.org/?p=1087

Details: CEES Energy Justice works to build awareness surrounding the problems of energy access that nearly a third of the world’s population faces. Last Summer, CEES’s energy justice teams took the initial step toward addressing some of these concerns through completing a needs assessment in Ayaviri, Peru. Students conducting the assessment surveyed 200 homes regarding their cooking practices and what community member felt were the gravest problems their community faced. This assessment will be used to facilitate a plan the best brings sustainable energy technology to the Ayavirians.

The Ayaviri project is just one way CEES is working to build awareness surrounding energy access issues. CEES brings together people from all over the world in order to meet collectively and discuss each person’s role in fighting for energy justice during its energy justice Conference. Additionally, the CEES team is creating a documentary in order to educate the general population about the problems associated with having no access to energy.

In order to support energy justice awareness and CEES energy justice projects, we will be holding a fundraiser that all runners and outdoorsmen (and women!) alike are sure to enjoy!

On Friday, February 18, 2011 at 7:00pm, renowned figures in the distance running community Christopher McDougall, Anton Krupicka, and Scott Jurek will host a panel discussion and presentation on distance running. Chris McDougall is famous for his best selling book Born to Run which featured Scott Jurek. Anton Krupicka and Scott Jurek are both popular, champion ultramarathon runners. In addition to the speakers’ presentations, top of the line running gear will be raffled off!

Tentative Race Plans 2011, Sponsors

2011-01-27T12:26:00.000-08:00

New sponsor.. as many people already know, I am officially running for Hoka One One footwear. Yeah they look funny, they are super light, (8.5 ounces for the Bondi B shoe, which I just got ahold of in my size), fast, and make your recovery easy, whether during a run or if you want to be able to train hard the next day. Has two of the Hardrock Course records by Diana Finkel and Karl Meltzer. (Due to some shipping issues I didnt race in them at Bandera.)

I also am running for Clif Bar, who I used to race for a few years ago and I am happy to be back on board. Best grassroots fuel company around.

I was with Protech sunscreen for five years, but I am so sad that they are discontinuing their line. If you wonder why my skin looks good for an old guy, Geoff, now you know. They are liquidating their products so if you would like to buy a few tubes of their stuff at half price, I can tell you how to order.. just post in the comments section if you are interested and I will post ordering info.

Still looking for an apparel sponsor...

Races 2011..
So I went ahead and accepted the Western States entry from my Bandera 100K win. I reckoned that it was better to have the opportunity if I do decide to finally race it. I have a boatload of schoolwork this spring and summer, so it may even come down to the week before the race if I do indeed decide to show up. If I do show, it sure won't be coming out of any sauna and heat training; I've had poor results from that in the past and it hasnt gotten me over the hump in heat training. Ginger on the other hand is an herb with which I will experiment in my training. I also may check the forecast the week before and if the high is over 90 degrees then I may change my mind. Call it fickle..

I am also confirmed for Miwok 100k as of now. I love that race. It seems that at least couple guys are gunning for my course record 7:51, so I want to defend, or at least work an aid station his year.

I am also switching over from the CCC (the "juniors'" race) to the full-blown UTMB 100. Go big or go home I reckon. I better get my weight down from 165 to 155 by then to even come close to the 120 lb scrappers.

Other races I am considering substituting include.. WTC, Chuckanut, Nueces 50 mile. This will be a very heavy spring of racing to make up for what will likely be a tepid 2011 fall race season. The North Face 50 may happen but I think I will be too busy and tired then anyway. I have to study hard this year so race plans will likely change.

There are also some super cool snowshoe races this winter in Colorado, like the Screaming Snowman at Eldora. If you want some real winter fun, come up and run this 10k.. you won't regret it. Also, the Beaver Creek snowshoe series is awesome too. The great thing about snowshoe racing is that it is hard as heck, especially in the Colorado powder, but when you are done, every workout you do the week after feels like a cake walk.

Snowshoe fanatics feel free to plug your favorite snowshoe race, if you are into that kind of thing.

UROY follow-up

2011-01-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

In hindsight my post regarding UROY wasn’t very substantial, but an off the cuff bit of a post on my part. My comments regarding the process could have been easily clarified in an email format and research instead of blogging. In regards to the process, what I have subsequently learned from Ultrarunner magazine is the below.

Anonymity in UROY/Performance of the Year voters: this was done in response to huge of amounts of lobbying to the known voters as some point in the past. Given this fact, I find it understandable that the voters are anonymous, as ultrarunners are extremely dedicated and loyal to their sport and have strong opinions. It takes tenacity, grit, and passion to run over 26.2 miles, and even more tenacity to run over 100 miles. I suggest there be a format by which the UR public can at least put comments forth that will be read by UROY/PROY voters prior to their votes being cast. Maybe a comment form, not a discussion forum, would help this.

I singled out Max King based on misinformation. I was told a running partner that he only did two ultras in 2010, which was incorrect. I should have done my homework and found that he actually was 1^st at the Flagline 50k, 1^st at the Hagg Lake 50K, 2^nd at Way Too Cool, 3^rd at the American River 50. 2^nd and 3^rd at WTC and AR 50 are surely notable, and possibly the wins at Hagg Lake and Flagline. He deserved the votes he got. (He also rocked the subultra scene, on the US Mountain Running Team and at Mountain Running Worlds. and won the Xterra Trail Running Championship.)

Ultrarunner residency. It turns out that indeed if a runner is from overseas and lives in the US then they are okay for UROY/Performance voting. Kind of a gray area here that should be addressed; could Anna Frost and Miguel Heras been in the voting if they’d lived in North America for a month?

Posting of Bandera 100k results. Turns out UR was just behind in website posting due to the deluge of UROY stuff.

TNF 50 Endurance Challenge. I still think this run unjustifiably doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.

Anyway, I had a great time at Outdoor Retailer, got schooled on Karl’s Luge course with a bunch of fun people, and my $#1 hurts.

Heading to Outdoor Retailer, Ultrarunner of the Year thing

2011-01-19T13:33:00.001-08:00

Not much of a post here.. Just letting you know that I will be at the best outdoor gear and social hang out in Salt Lake, Outdoor Retailer, something to rival even the weekly meetings at the Mormon Temple in downtown Salt Lake City. I will be working at the Hoka One One booth for the three days there, but also plan on going on a run with the Montrail guys Thursday evening, luging (pronounced, 'loo-jing') with Meltzer on Friday night, and catching up with lots of friends while getting paid.

The Ultra Runner of the Year results came out. Not too much to add to the winners; Geoff and Tracey are spot on. Congrats you two. For my part, I didn't expect to get many votes as I didn't start racing ultras until Firetrails 50 this past fall. However, there were some guys ahead of me who barely raced ultras, like Max King, who got some votes. I guess if you are sponsored by Montrail and that alone will score you some props, or maybe the mystery panel of UROY voters will vote for runners from their region instead of voting for national-caliber results?

I really don't care too much, but makes me wonder how their whole process works. I also noticed that Brit Ellie Greenwood made the voting, but isn't this a North American kind of tabulation? (or at least US and Canada.. Mexico doesn't seem to have many runners or events these days) Then how come Miguel Heras from Spain didn't get a vote for his NF 50 finals win?

Speaking of which, why the heck don't UROY voters give any props to the North Face 50 Endurance Challenge ? Having run tons of 50's, this was BY FAR the most competitive on US soil ever, as far as I know. The fact that UROY voters ignore this race entirely shows a flawed system. Here are my guesses why it gets no love: 1) Too late in the year to get recognition; 2) The tradionalist UROY voters don't like NF prize money that they think could sully the sport, 3) The North Face is the sponsor, and maybe there are unstated battles between shoe (or apparel) sponsors; 4) A European and a Kiwi won the finals event, and their performances don't count. I truly wonder how many of the UROY voters attended TNF event.. guess I will never know because their ID's are a mystery.

Whatever though... Ultrarunning voting has never loved that race and at this rate never will. (Interestingly, the UR website did post the results, so the problem is the UROY voters and not necessarily the mag.)

Interestingly , I won the Bandera 100K over a week ago, and the gang at Ultrarunning seem to be ignoring the result, as it didn't pop up on their website as a result worthy of posting. They got Josh Cox up there for his awesome run, the Hellgate, and HURT, but not my solid course record at Bandera 100K. I don't toot my horn muc , but I really can't figure this one out. Hmmm.. Opinions? Maybe it's me..

Anyway, maybe I'll see you at OR! Cheers..

Bandera 100K race report

2011-01-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

Podium: RD Joe Prusaitis, Dave James, me in my Hoka One Ones, Jason Bryant. Photo off Dave J's camera

I had been uncertain what races to run in 2011, and had thought Bandera 100K would fit nicely into an extended winter of racing. The fact that it was lately named a US Track and Field trail championship, as there would be good competition, likely excellent trails, and maybe a bit of prize money all contributed to the decision to head down. In the weeks before the race Geoff Roes had said he’d be racing Bandera..another added bonus to run against the best. 5 weeks out from December’s TNF 50 is a bit closely spaced for, but thought this was enough time to be mostly recovered.

Geoff and I traveled flew down to San Antonio to share costs and company, the drove into the cowboy town of Bandera. Before the pre race dinner we ran for 30 minutes in the outskirts of rural Bandera to get the jet sluggishness out, then hit the low-key pasta and packet pick up. Camping out made for a fun change of pace, sleeping under the stars and waking right at the race start.

Course-wise, the first section and last section of the two 50K loops are mostly loose rocks and technical, while the middle 3/5 of the race is mostly fast and pleasantly runnable, with intermittent technical sections and mild climbs. I’d biked across Texas years ago on a solo US bike tour, and remembered some areas like this, but I didn’t remember the many small scrubby hills unique to hill country. These hills are loose and rocky, with some kind of cactusy saw grass that regularly scratched the thighs. I actually love this stuff, as it is a pleasure to divert the mind from the 62 + mile distance. That’s the key to surviving ultras for me: live in the moment by enjoying the terrain, nature, and the adventure of competition.

Geoff and I had talked about a hopeful a low-key first 50K, but at the start line were Chikara Omine and Dave James, both of whom like to go out fast. When the gun went off at 7:30, Dave and Chikara and two other guys went out on silly 10K road pace, while Geoff and I hung back, not that we were planning on running together but rather we pace similarly. About 2 miles into the hills we passed Chikara, who was limping from a sprained ankle. Turns out he would drop shortly after. Another unknown guy who went out with the rabbits must have taken a wrong turn as he just disappeared in the first couple miles… hope he was found!

Overall, this first 5.5 mile section was fun as it was time to suss out the legs and body and see how things were flowing, and the running was non-painful. By the first aid station, Nachos, I felt good but knew the pace was too fast to be sustainable and wanted to reel it in a bit, and Geoff mentioned he felt the same way. We both knew Dave was going too fast for his abilities and would pay on the second lap, and I knew it was too fast to keep an even 50K split for anyone out there. But knowing that Geoff was incredibly strong these days, I thought I should stay with Geoff and it felt right anyway.

The first 25 miles of the race was somewhat uneventful overall, but what was different for me this race versus other race though was the variety of foods I ate. I didn’t keep count in the whole race but easily ate 10 Clif shots/other gel types, 1.5 whole PBJ, Pringles, cheesits, two oreos, about 2.5 bananas, pretzels, about a half liter of Coke-type product, about 25 oz of water between each aid station mixed with little Heed drink. I did get a stomach cramp for about 5 minutes from the 2 oreos, probably from the lipids. I also took 7-8 S Caps, 2 E caps, and 10 x 200 mg Ibuprofen. This is an amazing variety of junk food that would even cramp up an elephant, but for some reason my instincts were correct and my stomach and fuel levels were mostly stable throughout. I also drank a ton of water between miles 42 to 45, and was able to rehydrate the last third of the race.

Anyway, things were still fast towards mile 27 when Dave James seemed to be letting up on his eager pace, and to my surprise Geoff told me he was feeling nauseous. When you are racing Geoff Roes and he says he feels crappy, if that doesn’t put a fire under your ass, nothing will. I was feeling pretty good at that point, and when Geoff slowed his pace, then stopped to pick up a gel he fumbled, I decided to pass him and Dave and keep our same pace.

Out of the Last Chance aid station (where I took a microsip of an aid station volunteer’s beer, just for the heck of it) I felt great going up the Cairns climb, and then the Boyles Bump climb, which are decent 400 foot climbs with technical footing. On the 50K midway back at the start/finish, I noted 3:43 on my watch, knowing it was way too fast to run a negative split and knew I would be paying a price for it soon. See my splits and you can tell how foolish we three were running.

On the way back out, I saw Geoff coming down off Boyles with Dave J right behind and knew I had about a seven minute lead. The rest of the 2^nd loop was the game of wondering if Geoff was going to rebound and didn’t want to let up the pace, while I was sure that Dave James wouldn’t catch me and thought he may have dropped out. I went through about three lulls in the pace until the finish of the loop, and for two of these lulls I found that the aid station soda sugar was the key to pep me up, instead of the long chain carbohydrates in gels. I had originally planned on fueling the race with primarily Clif shot gels, and maybe a 2-3 bananas and a quarter of a PBJ. For some reason Coke and the other food was the key this time around.

I did end up seeing Geoff again, not on the trails but at the last two aid stations, as it turned out he had dropped out just after I saw him at the start of the second loop. Geoff is such a cool guy that he even supports his competitors when he drops out. He came out to the easily accessible Cross Roads and Last Chance aid stations and ran a bit with me. I spent a 30 seconds too long at Last Chance as I just felt plain tired at that point. But I actually gained energy in the last 4.5 miles and ended up finishing feeling quite strong, like I could go another lap if need be. But somehow the finish line corral lured me in and I ended it at a 100K in 8:17 and a course record by an hour.

Dave James came in second about 20 minutes back, so he held together a reasonable second loop. Third was Jason Bryant from NC. For the women’s race I really had no clue what was going on, but the winner was local Liza Howard, followed by Pam Smith, and Megan Arboghast.

It was pleasant bonus to win my fourth USATF national title and run on some excellent Texas trails in a new area. Joe Prusaitis did a bang up job in hosting, and I would recommend this race to anyone considering. Also, Bandera 100K being part of the Montrail cup, I won a slot into Western States, which I am intrigued to accept. But at this point though I don’t want to pay $370 I won’t use.

Splits. Here you can see how NOT to run a race; the times differences between splits from aid station to aid station and between the first and second half of the race (51 minute difference) is astounding. I need to trust those pacing instincts and reel it in!

Overall I think this course is a tad longer than the measured 100K.

0 Lodge start

43:23 Nachos 5.6 (Miles)

36:39 Chapas 11 M

37:26 Cross Roads 17 M

40:18 Cross Roads 22 M

28:53 Last Chance 26

36:21 Lodge turnaround 50K/31 miles= 3:43:03

46:11 Nachos 36.6 M

44:47 Chapas 42 M

45:13 Cross Roads 1 48 M

46:59 Cross Roads 2 53 M

41:07 Last Chance 57 M

49:44 Lodge finish 100K/62.14 M 8:17:08 (2^nd half split 4:34:05.. 51:02 difference in laps)

Last thing.. I am looking for a new apparel sponsor if anyone is game!

TNF Endurance Challenge 50 Follow-Up, Photos

2010-12-12T06:08:00.000-08:00

Beware the future.. here comes 20 year old Dakota Jones.

Here are some pics I pirated from a few sources, most notably Rick Gaston, and from Andy Skurka and Justin Mock. There isnt too much original on this post that you can't find elsewhere on Running Times, irunfar, or facebook.

With Jonathan Wyatt, the best ever to run mountains (in my opinion), 2x Olympian, many timesWorld Mt Running Champ, etc. I gather that next year will be more competitive than this year's TNF Champs, as he will be running it.

Steep Ravine ladder. Previous to this year, the race descended this, which is harder than going up at race pace. Headlands 50K uses this ladder on it's course too. (Headlands 50K is back this year in August with Tim and Diana Fitzpatrick as RDs)

Young Michael Owen; fast collegiate runner.

Lizzy Hawker (2nd Place)

Uli.. this guy will be hungry next year.

Vive la France et Nouveau Zealand!

Chris Lundstrom.. 3rd last year, hungry next year

Erik Skaggs.. thought this guy was going to hunt us down later in the race.

Brit Jez Bragg; glad he made the trip

New Marin denizen, schoolteacher, father Leigh Schmidt

Joelle Vaught.. she and I and Travis Macy raced adventure races together, most recently in Mexico. She is an awesome teammate, great on her feet, good at biking and paddling, and a pleasure to spend multiple days with while racing.

Unidentified, unknown overly-happy runner listening to Justin Bieber.. Nice sideways bib number, pal.

Podium glamour shot; Heras, Roes, me

Andy Skurka. He was the 2007 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. Andy just finished an epic 6000 mile trek around Alaska, solo, unsupported. Amazing. I saw him in the food tent after the race, and he was chatting with some folks who had no idea how accomplished Andy is, and I tried to enlighten them that Andy does things well beyond (and above, in many ways) the scope of ultrarunning. I don't think they got it though. With a few more speed workouts next year Andy will fare better than 20th place.

I ran yesterday with Tony, Geoff, and Bob Africa. In the Chataqua parking lot, a young couple from New Jersey came up and said, "Hey are you Tony? Man, I love your blog!" They took a photo, then I told them that they were also in the company of Geoff Roes, to which they said, "Man I read you blog too! I read all your blogs!"
It was funny because it is so easy to recognize some characters in the sport of ultrarunning, particularly Karnazes and Tony, due to their unique visages; oiled and waxed vs hairy and grungy. Geoff (2009 and soon-to-be 2010 Ultrarunner of the Year) is less noticable because he keeps a lower profile and has the less distinct looks, but in many races is better than Tony, and is light-years faster than Karnazes. Tony mentioned was that at TNF 50 he'd heard that Geoff was talking with Dean, when two cute girls came up and asked for a photo with ..Dean, of course. Guess who the girls asked to actually click the photo of them with Dean.. Geoff! Funny how it all works..
(Note that I don't mean to rail on Dean at all as I respect him a ton and he has won some ultras. I have mentioned him recently just because given his many achievements he is a tangible, known yardstick by which to measure. Vive la Dean.)

North Face 50 Race Report

2010-12-05T21:10:00.000-08:00

Got some time on the flight to back to Denver so here’s the North Face race report. I will post some photos in a couple days. Check out Jim Vernon's excellent footage here from theendurables.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTMcv5rIzl4&feature=player_embedded#

Building up to the NF 50 Champs, I’d had just enough time to dedicate to training. There was ample inspiration calling from the mountain trails above Boulder, with a cast of newer and older Boulder running denizens to match the trails. I’d been training mostly solo, as usual, but got out about twice per week with Geoff Roes, when he came down from Nederland, and with a few others. In the weeks before the the NF 50, all the buzz ended up being justified, as this turned out to be the toughest ultra race of my trail running career.

On the way out, Dakota Jones happened to be on my Thursday flight, so we shared a car to head directly out of the airport over to Marin and previewed the 5 mile loop with Bryon Powell. Friday, I previewed the new Boot Jack section, then the Sun Trail, then some of Redwood Creek/Santos Meadow area to dial in my footwear. I also walked around Muir Beach for a half hour and tried just to soak in the unnamable, yet present, vibe of Marin, something I rarely do in the rush before racing. In the end I am sure this helped my overall result.

In many ways, this race played out just like a road bike race, and even the winner himself bred directly from elite cycling lineage. The race starts with ¾ mile of flat pavement, then begins the 4 mile loop, then onto the Miwok trail. The loop peloton was a large pack of 30 guys, most being pretty quiet overall, and nothing too exciting going on except casual banter. Last year there was also a large group all the way to Muir Beach, and then things dispersed from there. Like last year, this pack would dwindle, as was most were not running at a sustainable pace. For me, my thoughts in these first miles are questions of, Am I eating enough? Are my quads staying loose? Is this pace really sustainable for 50 miles? Do my feet feel good in these new shoes? All to the affirmative, I was happy with the race’s first miles.

On the loop's 500 'drop I decided to go to the front to have a safer headlamp descent in the dark and not get caught in the pedals and handlebars (feet and arms) of the nervous peloton and take a tumble. Last year I forgot my light in the car, which relegated me to sucking off other’s lights, which is dangerous and easily could have ended my race early with an ankle roll. At the loop end, the somewhat short (500’ vert)Miwok trail grind up the grade was still a pack of 20 guys, and as the hill climbed it was a good time to suss out the competition. Roes, Skaggs, 2 French (Malarde et Lorblanchet) and 1 Spanish (Miguel Heras), Uli, Dakota, Lundstrom, Leigh Schmidt, and many others were still in this pack, with no signs of struggle. I knew there were many other red flags (potential podium contenders) still lurking who have outstanding race resumes, but didn’t know who was who. This didn’t really matter much, as I mostly run my own race regardless of how others are running, unless there is a small strategic move at a critical point in the race.

I came into Tennesse Valley (TV) at the front of the pack again. My crew of running legends Mark Richtman and Galen Burrell were somehow found in the aid station maelstrom, I traded my one bottle for another oen plus 1 banana and gels, and I was off. The run down TV to the climb to Muir was uneventful, and the pack headed over to Muir was now about 15. This is a fun single track section on the coastal trail to Muir Beach, and as the daylight arrived I was psyched to see the ocean and trail below near Pirate’s Cove. I have such good memories of racing the Miwok 100K and Headlands 50K on this section, from years when I felt awesome to times I had completely cramped up and subsequently dropped out. I’ve found the steep wooden steps off the first drop to Pirates as the true quadriceps litmus test, as I can cramp easily in some races. I came off these steps feeling only slight cramping, and from this knew I would have a relatively solid 52 mile race.

Into Muir Beach aid, onto the pavement and the pleasantly flat Redwood trail, we then started the Heather cutoff up to Boot Jack Aid station. Last year I had started to fade on this 1400 foot climb, but this year felt very comfortable, and somewhat itchy to push the pace; there was a small group of 3 guys who I didn’t recognize, and then a pack of 7 of us, only 30 seconds back; 3 Euros, Lundstrom, Roes, Dakota, and me. Just behind was Skaggs and a couple others, but notably absent was Uli Steidl, which turned out to be having one of his few off years. As we got to Pan Toll, I decided once again to lead down the purely lovely 0.4 mile Alpine trail descent, which was added this year to link up the new Boot Jack aid station. The fun of running this section twice, as well as more Matt Davis trail, in the race justifies an additional of 2 miles to the normally 50 mile race.

In and out of the Boot Jack aid in seconds, I kept on and now only 6 of us remained to the contouring run all the way to McKenna Gulch aid, about 5 miles away. I led the pack to McKenna, not on design but just because I got out of Boot Jack first. This section is unprotected, higher and exposed, and the refreshing wind and light rain made for stellar singletrack contouring in and out of tree groves, with occasional log jumps and technical footing. Geoff was right behind me, with young Dakota, Heras, and one of the French guys, and one other guys I didn’t know. Geoff said there was a gap at the last aid station to the next guys back, but I still wasn’t counting out Uli erupting from nowhere.

After McKenna, I was happy to step back and let Geoff or someone else pull (a biking term: meaning lead the pack) into the wind and rain on the return across the coastal trail before the drop down Matt Davis to Stinson. Before the race Geoff and I had talked about this scenario, because we knew the guy in front would have to be the first to encounter runners coming the other way, which isn’t always pleasant as they are usually caught off guard. Anyway, no one stepped up so I jumped in and “pulled” again. On this section, we could check out the competition going back and there were some gaps appearing, and it looked like the women were having a good duel of it too.

The downhill to Stinson on Matt Davis is another highlight of this race. It was slick on the wet rocks and roots and the 1400’ disappeared quickly. Lundstrom had peeled off the back, we three Yanks and 2 Euros remained. Into Stinson aid station and onto the Dipsea, I hit my one and only low point. (I think my superlight 7 oz shoes were not the best of choices for the day; better traction and cushion would possibly have paid off, especially on the click mud to come on Coyote ridge.) Dakota and Geoff seemed to feel good on the climb back to Boot Jack and built a 30 second gap; Heras and I ran close but then he peeled back, not to be seen again until his blitzkrieg over the last 10 miles of the race. Coming into Boot Jack 2 I started to feel better and rocketed the downhill to catch Geoff and Dakota before the 700 ft climb back up to the Sun Trail. I caught them right at the beautiful log bridge at Lost Trail over Fern Creek, but my climbing muscles were shot so they gapped me again on the 700 ft climb. I wondered if I was going to pull out of this funk, so took a few more ibuprofen and gels than usual and stumbled onto the Sun Trail traverse over to Dipsea tral. This was my chance to rally the troops underneath me, and had a good descent to Muir Woods aid station. Mark was there and told me they had 90 seconds on me and Heras was 2 minutes back. Darn! I felt decent at this point, but knew I needed something different so I took the extra seconds to scan the aid station spread, finally eyeing delicious looking orange slices. I took a handful and in a few minutes of eating them felt light years better (potassium perhaps??).

The Redwood Trail flats felt awesome through the woods to Muir Beach; so good I face planted into the slick mud nearing Santos Meadow. Into Muir I could see Geoff and Dakota just starting their climb, with a small gap between them that showed maybe Dakota lagging a bit. I asked the aid station for oranges, but for some reason they said they didn’t have them out yet, and unfortunately I couldn’t wait for them. Given Heras’ proximity and Dakotas looks, I decided to really hurt myself on the 1000’vert over Coyote. According to Galen, who was running this section, I was catching Dakota in the first few hundred vert, and maybe making a bit of time on Geoff. Suddenly Heras comes out of nowhere and superhumanly blows by me. His traction was clearly better than mine on the slick mud and he’d found some turbo somewhere. Gone, I wrote him down for a W or 2^nd to Geoff.

I passed Dakota just before the drop to TV, hit the handoff from Mark and Galen and started the hammerfest last hill on the Marincello trail. This is an easy climbing grade to run fast when rested, but this was mile 48 and I was numb, but decided to not walk a step and sacrifice a podium finish. I still had fears of Uli, Skaggs, or Lundstrom coming out of nowhere, and wanted to pay the piper then rather than later when my foes might rear their heads.

There is a view to the top of Alta trail, and I’d seen Geoff way off and a guy in white (Heras) just ahead of him. I imagined if I had a good run of it at that point I could catch Geoff if he had a bad finish. Off the last Alta aid station (mile 50) Geoff was a couple minutes up so I used my downhill skills to my advantage to see what would happen. It wasn’t to be though, as the Rodeo Valley trail flattened out, looking back I saw no one. It was actually pleasurable run to the finish on the pavement to have some leg turnover as I couldnt feel my legs really, and came into the crowded finish in a respectable 3^rd podium finish.

Overall, now that I am almost home, I know this will be a race to remember. There could have been a couple more elite runners (American and from abroad) present to safely call this a "50 mile world championships", but this was as close as it may ever come to being so. Given the unprecedented attendance I am pleased with my performance, and hope I can race it again next year.

Highlands Ranch Backcountry Wilderness Half Marathon

2010-11-14T20:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1585217844408
Clip from the Boulder Running Company, Greenwood Village
On a whim last week I decided to race the Highlands Ranch "Backcountry Wilderness"Half Marathon. I wanted to race something before the North Face 50, and I reckoned a half would be the perfect distance to get the legs tuned up a bit before starting a slow taper for TNF in 3 weeks. I am definitely one to choose quality over quantity what with the number of miles in my legs over the years.
I had no expectation as to the course and didnt , check out course map online and was actually looking forward to surprises along the way to keep it adventurous. I also knew nothing about the race series except that my pal Mark Bockmann at Racerite would be taking over the timing from my other pals, Darrin and Jill Eismann at Racingunderground.
The title of the race is a mild oxymoron, but nevertheless I came away pleasantly surprised at the high quality trails and race series they have down there, wedged between Denver and the Springs surrounded by thousands of homes. The course was a combo double and single track, and about 2 miles concrete path, with a sneaky 1800 total climb over the course. The race started out at a quick sub six minute pace, and my goal was to stick in about 6th through 10th place and then just wait and see how things unfolded and how my body reponded to speed. I felt comfortable on the inital mile and was in 7th place, and as the rollers hit one guy in green, Danny Mooch, pulled ahead. I picked guys off and Danny pulled about 30 seconds ahead, knowing that if he kept extending the lead I wouldn't even bother and battle it out for second. His lead stayed at thirty seconds until we got through some sweet single/double track around mile 6 that let my imagination play games to forget the pain and pictured being on my mountain bike on the nice, man-made dirt rollers every 10-100 feet apart. As things got more rolly and technical, I started reeling in Danny before the short turnaround section. I never lulled in my pace as Danny flagged a bit and I was able to out a couple minutes on him before the finish. (Turns out he had made the unfortunate mistake of running Green mt with Tony K the day before)
Overall, loved the race (not just because of winning) and found new respect for the suburban trails hidden just south of Denver. The HRRA puts on a fine tight, race, well-marked and race schwag, and good homey vibe. I was pleased with my performance given a lack of summer racing and training. I am hoping that I am near some sort of "peak" given this fact. Good to catch up with Scott Jaime, JT (Brownie), Kevin Dieghan (met him at the Italian SkyGames in 2000, and Scott Swaney (my old adventure race teammate).

Basic Boulder Mountain Marathon, fatigue, and the North Face 50

2010-11-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

Emily Baer, me, Peter Bakwin, and Galen Burrell..BBMM 2003.. a snow year. Note the mud on my leg due to wiping out a dozen times in my tennis sneakers

BBMM 2003.. me on the top of SoBO Peak (Buzz Burrell photos)

The BBMM in 2003.. Big Gulps are excellent fuel

The past few weeks have been full of peaks and valleys in training, what with our (my family and I) temporary return to Boulder and the fine running and running partners it has to offer. There is a planetary alignment right now with the men's mountain ultra running elites making Boulder their home. Geoff Roes, Tony K, Scott Jurek, and Joe Grant have moved here relatively recently, and I am happy to get out with them regularly to keep the vibe going. Just north of Boulder the youthful Dakota Jones and ex-pat Nick Clark are also residing. Visitors come into town all the time to train, as Krissy Moehl was just here and Frenchy Nico Mermoud is here this week. These are just a couple of the guys who live here, and there are dozens of others I could mention including 20 women. Two weeks ago , the annual Basic Boulder Mountain Marathon was hosted, and what coul have been a bloodbath of competition, as it sometimes was the case 10 years ago, turned out to be a nice social run, with Tony pushing the pace at the top of each peak. As mentioned, the BBMM used to be somewhat of a "race" in the "2000's", with various individuals attempting to oust each other and take the coveted BBMM title. I "won" it once or twice and even was able to claim a podium performance bonus from a sponsor for it. Galen Burrell, Travis Macy, Dan Brillon, Geoff Williamson, Emily Baer, Buzz Burrell, Kurt Blumberg, Christian Griffith, George Zack, Jeff Valliere, Adam Chase, Bill Wright, Kraig Koski, Darcy and Bob Africa, Steph Ehret and Peter Bakwin.. (and others.. the list goes on) all these folks would gun for the W to varying degrees. All the while, the OSMP mountain rangers would post sentries along the course and try to take names, record on video, try to intimidate, etc and dissuade from our efforts to go out and have a good time being competitive in the lovely Boulder Mountain Parks. As we all know, competitive races aren't allowed in Boulder Mountains; the one sanctioned race was the Cardiac Arete in October of 2003, which I and other runners thought was a fantastic success in mixing competition and giving back to the the OSMP by volunteerism; the conservative OSMP Board of trustees would heartily disagree (of course) and base this race on grounds for no more competitions.

Which brings us back to the BBMM last week..
This BBMM, even though stacked with talent, was so fun and low key, with some little pushes on the uphills and one screaming downhill by individuals just to test selves on various sections but not to defeat the others. It was a run to remember. (Man, am I getting melancholy? Signs of aging..) The "hosts"of the run (located at an address not to be specified but between 807 and 809 10th st), put on a nice gathering of folks afterwards, which allowed an awesome time to catch up with the mountain running denizens and legends.
So now, the weather has finally turned crappy today (I just got back to Boulder two weeks ago but heard it's been indian summer) which is fine because I am dog-tired of running hills and only ran 30 minutes today. I have been experimenting in footwear and somehow trashed my legs yesterday on a 3 hour run, so that is probably why I am sore . I am a believer in the day in/day out running style of few days off, and it has caught up with me the past few weeks. Maybe I am not recovered from my last race, or it could be that on Sunday I had the best 2 hour tempo run of my life in my Newtons and I am not recovered yet. Anyway, I am locked into running the North Face 50 Endurance Challenge in December, which will be the "most competitive 50 miler"ever... I am not kidding, no race has even come close to this one. Last year my NF 50 performance sucked %@# for various excuses I could mention but won't, so this year things are going to be different for me and I think I will have a good race Dec 4th. This may not matter because there are 10 other guys who can also have killer days and what happens won't be in my control. The one thing I do have going for me is that I have history of excellent runs in the Bay Area and Marin has become a second home to me, especially since we currently live there for grad school. We'll see though.. man I am excited about it!

Firetrails 50 Race Report

2010-10-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Just after the turnaround.. mile 28 or so. Jean Pommier photo.

Since I had such a great time running at Firetrails I decided to write a report up. A bit late but hope you get your read on.

Last year I ran Firetrails with no expectations as to finishing well, as I'd raced a 50K two weeks before and knew I wasnt recovered. I still ran a fast time though in 6:30, but dragged ass on the last few miles around Lake Chabot reservoir and missed the CR. This year, I hadnt been training nearly as much, and basically crammed all the training for the race into the previous 2 months, but luckily some of it in Colorado. It was a fun experiment this year to see how quickly I could recover with only about 75 miles per week over those 2 months, with only two long runs of 5 hours and 4.5 hours one month before. I like the "low mileage" though as it keeps things fresh and fun.

I have had such an insane semester at school with unprecedented levels of stress and non-running focus, I didn't think I would have a good day. Turned out that stress was a key factor in success this year, which is unusual. Ellen and the kids weren't here this year, which was also bummer. I even sat in car, 10 minutes before the start thinking about school, and basically flipped a coin as to whether to start running. Luckily, I won the toss, so I ran.
The race started out pretty chill. Just like last year, guys go out way too fast at a pace that would put them under 6 hours at the finish. This happens at every ultra though and it always amazes me how ultrarunners, at least the male ultrarunners, are the worst at pacing themselves. For the first few miles, I sat back at what I thought was about 6:30 finishing time and just focused on easy effort over the first 5 miles. As the daylight came up, I saw that Chikara Omine, who was a rabbit last year, was just ahead of me and I was impressed at his patience.

My only real goal this year was to run the entire course, which I did, and on the hills after the first aid station, I caught up with Chikara, Leigh Schmidt, and Gary Gellin. Gary said we were five minutes faster than last year's time, which I didnt believe at the time. We all chatted a bit, and as the first real downhill started Leigh and I ran together and talked a good part of the way until Skyline aid station. I thought I would see how I felt after the turnaround on the climb up (1800') at the half way point to determine my efforts back to the finish.

After Skyline I left Leigh and kept feeling better and better. This was one of those races where it just kind of "happens"and I never felt like I was killing myself to keep going. It was hot in the sun, so I made sure I drank plenty of fluid the whole race, especially early when it was cool. I knew the heat (well, "hot" for me is about 75 degrees) would take a toll and luckily this awesome course is in the treed shade for the most part.

On the way down to the turnaround the Golden Hills Marathners were coming up, and it seemed that I passed Leor Pantilat earlier than last year. I didn't even keep splits last year and this year, and didn't really care to, but I guessed that Gary was correct that we were fast this year. At the turnaround I grabbed a bottle from John Medinger that Vicki Richtman had left for me, and put my nose to the grindstone to run the whole way back up the hill. At the top, I still felt good, but prophylactically I gobbled 4 ibuprofens at the aid station and stuffed a handful of electrolytes in my pocket. I'd been taking E's along the way, and the whole race I only carried oen bottle, a couple gels, and the E's in my pocket.

The rest of the race was a blur more or less, but I had an awesome time just keeping pace, passing people coming toward me in the 50 and passing marathoners going my way. The 50 mile runners coming towards me would step aside on the single track, and I had no problem giving way to them as well.

80 percent of marathoners stepped which is real nice to let me pass, but many of them had headphones on and didnt hear me saying "on your left" two or three times until I was right behind them. A bit annoying, but if this were a close race I'd have been a bit more tweaked. I am on the fence about whether headphone should be allowed in singletrack races like Firetrails.

The rest of the run was real fun and I had my eye on my time coming into the last two aid stations knowing I had to run sub 7 minute miles to finish close to 6:20 overall. After one big climb, the last 7 miles are pretty flat and fun. Last year I cratered here and had to steal a gel from Wim Van Damme to finish. This year was way easier to cruise around the reservoir, and even with an extra gel in my pocket. I tried to push a bit more to go under 6:20, and in hindsight could have cut another two minutes off my time if I'd had to over the last few miles of the race. I was thrilled to finish in 6:19:39, just under legendary Carl Anderson's 17 year old 6:26.

Surprisingly, Chikara came in only 4 minutes after me! I had no idea he was even that close, as I had no clue how close anyone was except on the halfway turnaround. Chikara said he was making time on me on the flats, but I'd pull away on the hills, so no net loss of time. He was also under Carl's old CR of 6:26 as well.

Ultra trail races, especially singletrack, are so fun. I've missed running them the past two years. The BBQ was excellent, good folks all around, tons of volunteers giving their day to others (which I need to do ALOT more of). Anne and Carl do an awesome job at Firetrails. The race entry is steep for a fifty miler, but the BBQ rocks. Over the years Firetrails has not been a National race, but I think this will change in the near future. My CR will go down in the next year or two I bet.

Post race thoughts: I need to volunteer more at races. Thanks to Tamalpa Runners of Marin for having me on board their team, paying my USATF fees, and for the singlet, hat, and shorts. Ran in my old Pearl Izumi Peak XC, that are almost years old; I still love em. Ate about 6-7 gels, 3 Clif Bloks, 3 bananas and other fruit, 10 E's, 4 Ibu, aid station drink and water. Leor Pantilat won the Golden Hills Marathon in CR time as well; that guy keeps getting faster and faster. Mark Richtman turned in another elite time as well in third place.

Life..

2010-05-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

Ava and 2 month old Connor having a ball this weekend

I don't post that often as I have pretty much decided to take this year off from racing. I have been thoroughly engrossed with PA school and my little family for the time being. To everything turn turn turn and all that.. and I plan on racing next year a bit or maybe at the end of the year. I start my clinical rotations this coming January, which will be intense and time consuming, but I may be able to train properly if the planets align. This year off from racing has given me a new perspective on the sport and why I run ultras. I guess I've realized much of why I race has simply to do with being a competitor and trying to be the best runner I can be out there. I'll be the first to acknowledge that the ego is what drives some (if not all?) runners to try to win or set course records. But I also know it is simply the pure joy being outside in beautiful places, giving an all out effort and pushing limits, and having a healthy goal outside of regular life things. The people in the sport are really special too; I miss that scene!

So I can't wait to race again and check some races out.. As it is now though I run about 5-6 days a week on the local American Canyon trails or on Mare Island-Vallejo, where my school (Touro University) is located. Half a dozen of my classmates and I run together at lunch, just long enough to get the muscles recharged between 5 hour blocks of class or to destress after exams and study sessions. The Mare Island 5K (www.mareislandrun.com/Site/Welcome.html) is in November, so at the very least I need to be in shape to defend my PA student title against the med school (Osteopath.. D.O.) students. (I think they were pissed that an ultrarunner won it last year.. oops, sorry guys!)

Man, sitting here at home watching the checking in on the coverage of the fabled Miwok 100k.. Looks like Tony finished with a blazing time of 8:02:53. This time is easily the fastest rookie time, and if Tony comes back he will run around 7:30 one day; it takes a few tries at that race, or at least it did for me. Tony is way more talented and committed (and far younger!) than I am, so he will redefine that course record (unless of course Roes does it first) I am sure.

Looking forward to connecting with some ultra-folk in the near future. For now though, life is good for Ellen and I with Connor and little Ava...and Tanker the dog.

Ava loves nice single track above American Canyon, and chuck-it too.

Santa Cruz 50K-ish

2009-09-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Boulder Peaks Mountain Time Trials

2009-06-12T20:15:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Pearl Izumi-Smith

2009-05-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

I am running for team Pearl Izumi-Smith! Now I get to race even more in fast and light Peak XC trail shoes I ran several races in the Peak XCs over the last year, most notably the Miwok 100k and the Moab Red Hot 50k, and set CR's in both. I also ran this past summer's super-snowy Pike's Peak Marathon in the Peak XC's and was 2nd.

Here's the link to the team site: http://www.teampearlizumi-smith.com/

-Miwok was this past weekend and my pick of Todd Braje didn't pan out, but my second pick of Eric Grossman did. Scott Jaime was third for the guys. Congrats to Anita Ortiz for almost taking the W from Kami Semick. Three of the top 6 from Colorado..

-The local Greenland Trail Races here in Colorado today. For locals here whp know who's know, the 25K race was stacked and must have played out fast. Justin Ricks took the new Course record win, Peter Vail 2nd , then Jason Saitta, and Daryn Parker in 4th. These are all top Colorado talent and these are very fast times at 7000 feet.

Boulderite Bronwyn Morrisey won the women's 50k option. Nice Bronwyn!

http://www.greenland50k.com/Results.html

PA school

2009-04-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

(This photo has nothing to do with this post, but I love this shot (courtesy of le Buzz himself) from the Flatiron scramble series this past fall. We all had La Sportiva's, which are the BEST shoes for running the Flatirons series. Ava though had onher comfy wool knicker-socks and couldn't have been cuter!)

A couple weeks I got a call from the program director one of the physician assistant programs I'd interviewed at this past winter. 1.5 years ago, I'd picked up where I'd left off during college with medicine and biology and hammered out the remaining pre-requisite sciences to apply to PA schools..and I got the call I'd wanted for so long!
For those who know me, professionally it's been a long haul to decide what I want to be when I grow up. I was an EMT and WFR for several years, rode on an ambulance, and used wilderness medicine often in the experiential education courses I led. I taught at a bunch of different schools from public and private to Outward Bound courses, and, besides maintaining CPR certification, left the emergency medicine side of me behind in the 1990's. The past 7 years have been, for the most part besides medical and classroom experience, written off as a loss in terms of professional development; I worked as a footwear testing coordinator for Salomon, then worked in residential real estate (which was at best mildly satisfying). But for running and adventure racing and general adventuringI have had a blast and I did have excellent support from several companies, notably GoLite (http://www.golite.com/), so there was a financial incentive to put the hours in everyday to training and race focus.

Anyway.. studying medicine and its applications to public health is where I am headed and am happy as my dog rolling on his back in the dirt. They had 1400 applicants for 40 spots; lucky me.

Now we are heading into massive school loans and transition, it will be a long hard road (and I still will race trail and ultras on some of the country's best dirt), but we'll get through it all. It may be harder on Ellen than me. Through the last seven years Ellen has been a SAINT through my job turns in the road and now I am dragging her and Ava further West..thank you Ellen and Ava! School itself will be even more challenging than getting into school, but I am ready and focused. Now those loan apps..

From the Touro Website, the program mission and curriculum. Touro University (www.tu.edu) is on Mare Island in San Pablo Bay in Vallejo, CA. The Marin trails are only 20 minutes away!

"The Joint MSPAS/MPH Curriculum is an integrated, graduate-level curriculum that consists of instruction and clinical experiences in both the medical and public health disciplines. The program is 32 months in length (8 academic sessions) in which the first four sessions are didactic (pre-clinical). The clinical year spans 54 weeks (sessions five – seven) and students return to campus for their eighth and final, post-rotation academic session. Session 8 coursework consists of mostly public health courses and one physician assistant summative course. Graduates of the program receive a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies and a Master of Public Health. As a physician assistant, graduates are eligible for licensure to practice in all 50 states and Washington, DC. The Master of Public Health degree prepares the graduate by developing public health knowledge and principles including disease prevention, health promotion, epidemiology, biostatistics, health care administration, and research study and design. The combined curriculum prepares graduates to better understand the link between an individual's health and their environment. It is with this foundation that the program’s mission is founded upon.

Year 1 Session I August – December Basic Science Foundations/Principles of Pharmacology Anatomy w/Lab Microbiology/Laboratory Medicine Biostatistics Behavioral and Social Aspects of Public Health

Session II: January – April Clinical Medicine I Clinical Applications I w/Lab Pharmacology I Health Education and Promotion Medical Ethics Epidemiology

Session III: May – August Clinical Applications II Pharmacology II Clinical Medicine II Behavioral Medicine Program Evaluation & Needs Assessment Health Disparities & Community Organizing

Year 2 Session IV: August - December Pediatrics/Geriatrics Emergency Medicine Pharmacology III Clinical Medicine III Clinical Applications III Surgical and Clinical Skills w/Lab Research Methods

Session V-VII: January – January Public Health Field Experience Family Practice (12 weeks) Internal Medicine OB/GYN Emergency Medicine Surgery Pediatrics Elective (With the exception of Family Practice, each of the rotations are six-weeks in length for a total of 54 weeks)

Year 3 Session VIII: January – April MSPAS Summative Course MPH Capstone Health Services Administration Environmental Health

Internal Medicine?? What's that?

American River 50

2009-04-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

Here is the very quick and dirty from me.
What a rough day out there.
1) It helps to train on the black stuff if you want to perform on the black stuff.
2) Not good to race in 7 oz Mizunos on black stuff if you got them 1 week before the race.
3) Ibuprofen. I should have carried some as it completely rejuvenated my trashed quads at mile 40.
4) They added 2+ miles to the course this year, maybe with more and with more technical/rocky single track than last year according those who have run it in the past, hence the slower overall times.
5) Max King ran strong considering he was 30-something place at the World XC race ...last weekend!
6) The NorCal ultra running scene is excellent and I would recommend running out there when you get the chance. I'll be running more out there for sure as my little brood is moving out there this summer!
I'll try to post something more this week..results are at..
http://www.run100s.com/results/ar50_2009.html

Peru

2009-03-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

Bill Jacox (you out there Bill?) wrote this about 10 years ago when we went climbing in Peru in between leading Outward Bound trips out of Leadville..

We had an awesome trip , ran the Inca trail (as I posted last spring), and climbed a couple mountains in the Cordillera Blanca. We also spent a couple weeks in Cusco and took Spanish classes and experinced what we could of live in the old Incan capital.
So, this is the truncated version of his story; after it sits in your email inbox for 10 years yahoo accounts will clip your messages short; serves me right for not cleaing my inbox out for 10 years!

Bill's writing below...(apologies for the formatting)

Tired, sore, beaten, and bruised, i sit pressed against the side of the rattle-trap mini-mini-micro van. i am one of four crammed into the back seat, both knees pressing hard against the seat in front where Dave sits. my left foot up on the wheel-well and my left elbow out the window. i grip the window pane with the still numb fingers tips of my right hand in an effort to keep from crushing the freshly scrubbed peruvian woman on my right. my right hand keeps pulling in reflexively on the window pane as if on a door ajar. i must keep reminding myself that the looseness i feel is not a partially opendoor but that the entire vehicle risks "opening" and, thus, spilling me onto the dusty road. as we pass within inches of cactus, burros, telephone poles, embankments, and buildings, i wonder what it would feel like to shatter my elbow in such a manner. occasionally i remember where i am and reflexively jerk my elbow inside, almost punching the unlucky lady next to the big, dirty, and smelly gringo climber. occasionally, i see the van's shadow and wonder what has fallen from my packunnoticed. i feel my tired body, chapped lips, sunburned nose and tongue (you don't believe me?). i look ahead at dave's red and> white blistered neck and reflect on the last five days.......

we got to a later start than we had intended out of huaraz on tuesday (we were both waiting for the internet place to open to check for expected messages which neither of us received). we chose one of the many minivans (combis) headed to our destination of caraz and hopped inside. along the way we picked up other passengers and at one point heard our driver coax an undecided passenger into our van by telling him there was "more love" in our van. convinced, he hopped in and off we went.

at caraz we had to switch to a different van headed to cashapampa. unbeknownst to us at the time was the driver's need to fill the van fully before actually starting up the road. consequently, we drove around and around one particular block easily 15times looking for other prospective riders. we eventually headed out and soon found ourselves on a very bad and dusty road. i tried to plug a large hole in the floor with my day pack but we arrived in cashapampa decadeslater completely covered in dust. enroute we stopped to pick up a guy with a bag of live chickens (which he put on the floor next to my feet)and a very loud boom box (which he insisted on playing the rest of the time). we eventually began to hike at 3:00 p.m.under very heavy packs. why didn't we hire mules to carry our gear up to the glacier? no comment...

as we hiked up the trail gaining thousands of feet as the sweat poured unabated, i had two voices going through my head (when i wasn't singing ani difranco lyrics to myself): my friend helen saying that guys don't know how to take care of themselves (no lunch, no mules), and friend dr. ed telling me that dave and i are an orthopaedic surgeon's dream. as darkness fell, we made camp, made dinner, and hit the sack. at this point, my small, two-person tent seemed plenty big> > for two.....> >> > we got up and headed out expecting a long, full day> > of hiking up to the> > toe of the glacier. we gain another 3,000 ft.> and> > stop and chat with> > two other yankees coming down after being weathered> > away from a summit> > attempt. we finally arrive at our next camp and> > find part of the> > austrian team, one sick austrian and their peruvian> > cook who had just> > killed, plucked, and boiled a chicken for dinner> > that night. no> > comment.... apparently, the other two austrians had> > been at the col> > camp at 19,000 feet two nights already and were> > expected back that> > night. we had another good night's sleep (the> last> > for me) and dreamt> > of climbing mountains.> >> > we arose early thursday morning and headed up the> > moraine. we reached> > the glacier and pulled out all the gear necessary> > for glacial travel> > and set ourselves up. we met the two austrians> > heading down after> > having spent three nights at 19,000 ft. they> hung> > out in bad weather> > for two days and gave alpamayo a go the day before.> > it sounded like a> > long epic and they didn't even reach the summit.> > they said they had to> > leave pleny of gear behind on their late descent.> > dave and i look at> > each other briefly. we are both thinking the> same> > thing (what is> > another word for pirate's treasure?). we> continue> > on up the glacier in> > variable weather and finally arrive at the col in> > whiteout conditions.> > we are both pretty spent (dehydrated, exhausted, and> > suffering from the> > altitude) and it is all we can do to set up the tent> > and start melting> > snow for water and dinner. later that night it> > clears and we are able> > to catch a good view of our route on alpamayo under> > moonlight. we> > decide to go for it the next morning. we are> all> > alone at 19,000 ft.> >> > NOTE: at altitutdes over 18,500 ft. (the "death> > zone") the human body> > cannot regenerate itself. technically, what> that> > means is that your> > body starts to slowly die. practically, what> that> > means is that you> > are pretty miserable: no appetite, no sleep,> slow> > brain function, fast> > pulse rate, nausea, headache, constant dry throat> > from forcing in and> > out dry rarified air....sound fun? but, boy, is> it> > beautiful up there!> >> > we wake up, melt some snow, prepare our frozen> > things and start walking> > toward the mountain. it takes us one and a half> > hours of soft snow> > glacier travel to reach the bergschrund (don't worry> > if you don't know> > what "col" and "bergschrund" mean. it doesn't> > matter.) and decide to> > just stay roped up and simul-climb the beginning of> > the route and> > change that plan as conditions dictate. so we> > frontpoint for two solid> > hours up 2,000 ft. of 45 and 50 degree snow and ice> > to the ridge. we> > placed no gear and never stopped (as if there was> > any place to stop)> > until we reached the summit ridge. it took us 2> > hours to climb the> > ferrari route on the sw face of alpamayo and we> > reached the summit> > ridge at 9:30 a.m. we sat for a spell and then> > continued on the> > knife-edge ridge to the true summit. with such> > exposure on both sides> > we had to straddle the ridge and "shimmy-slide" part> > of the way.> > nothing quite like straddling the "most beautiful> > mountain in the> > world" at 5,947 meters at just before 10:00 a.m. on> > friday morning.> > what were you doing then? as the clouds started> to> > roll in we knew we> > had the bigger part of the job ahead of us: getting> > down.> >> > we start our descent with one rope between us and> > take our time (we> > still have plenty of daylight). we use natural> > features where we can> > and make natural features with our ice tools where> > there is nothing> > else. we do not want to leave any of our gear> > behind (it is expensive> > to replace) and we don't want to use any of the> > recovered> === message truncated ===

Dave's writing.. So in esseance we got off the mountain with multiple rappels with various "creative" techniques that saved us a few bucks, but in hindsight was somewhat unsafe and stoopid. ..actuallyu it wasn't even in hindsight.. at the times I think we knew we were being stupid but didn't want to lose the $5 ice screws!

At the times, I was sponsored by Montrail for ultrarunning and I had some nice climbing boots (the Couloir, it is called) they gave me for the trip; I still have them and use them every other year when I go ice climbing. My feet swelled so much on this trip that my toes got hammered on the descent and destroyed by feet. It was so worth it though!

Inca Trail 1999

2009-03-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

I found this story I wrote way back in 1999 when my co-instructor from Outward Bound, Bill Jacox, and I went down to Peru to run the Inca Trail Race and to climb Alpamayo. We had an excellent run and an even better climb ( I may have the Alpamayo story somewhere, whcih I will try to dig up.)

I believe that these days a runner needs to be accompanied by a local outfit or guide service in order to run the Inca Trail from Kilometer 82 to Machu Picchu. I know there are some gringos who lead running trips down there though.

Here 's the story of the run.

Full of eager, excited runners, all ready to tackle what would turn out to be among their most memorable and exotic runs. We took a bumpy ride over dirt roads to kilometer 82 of the railway line which follows the Urubamba River Valley. After pre-race pictures with some of the race sponsors's banners, Cusquena Beer, Smartwool, and Odwalla, we jounced over the Urubamba River on a rickety footbridge onto the first 8kilometers of rolling dirt and rock trail. The start was located at just under 8000ft in elevation, an altitude to which Bill and I were well acclimatized, having been in the ancient Incn city of Cusco (11000 ft) for over a week. Living in Colorado helps too. There were some runners who live at elevations under 5000ft who did very well, though.There were 20 people running the race; an Austrian, 13 Front Range Coloradans, Bill and I, and 3 Peruvians, including a national steeplechase champion named Marco, and a national Inca Trail legend named Edgar Rodriguez who holds the record for racing the trail in 3 hours and 50 minutes. This was an enthusiastic, outgoing bunch of ultrarunners with respectable resumes of races they´d completed in Colorado and around the world. Some of them were perennial Leadville 100 runners. The Austrian fella, Carl, was completing the Inca Trail run as his 96th marathon or ultrarun, and afterward was heading off to Huaraz, Peru for a multi-day 190 kilometer race. They all held with a passion for the ultrarunning that is more a lifestyle than actually asport. For any person who had only run the Boston or Grandma's Marathon, this was not a good race to start ultrarunning.Edgar, Bill and I ran for the first 2 kilometers together, taking some action photos, skipping over rocks and roots, chatting, etc. Edgar said in Spanish that we were going out too fast, and that we should relax a bit, but I felt good and felt I knew what I was doing so I went ahead a bit. There were a few minor snafus in the run, some things that are only are learned by experience in peruvian culture. Things that are planned with Peruvians only happen when they are meant to happen rather than when one may want them to happen. Unknown to me, Edgar was the trail marker, therefore the pace-setter. The first 10 kilometers of the run through beautiful campesino(a Peruvian country person) farms and several drainages that empty in the sizable Rio Urubamba. It is a steep walled valley on one side covered with lush vegetation, and our side had many side trails that led to the farms and rural homes along the trail. I had almost gotten myself through the rolling, mazey first 10k until I took one wrong turn over a pile of cow pies on a trail that led to a farm. Through the bushes, retracing a few game trails, over some barbed wire, under some logs. Yikes! I bushwacked along another game and cow trail for 5 minutes until I got back to the main trail. I was a bit perplexed from there, so I stopped and decided to wait for the rest of the front of the pack Bill turned a corner near some bushes, running along in his longstrided way, power hiking up the short, steep section to where I was waiting, followed a few minutes later by Edgar. We called out to Edgar,40 feet behind "Que camino?!" No response. I really think he may have been trying to help us slow down to conserve our energy for the next 42 kilometers. Bill decided to keep going the way which we thought the trail went and I decided to wait for a response from Edgar. After thoughtfully marking the trail so the next runners would know where to go, he gestured vaguely in the direction that Bill went. Back in run mode finally!I caught up to Bill in a few minutes, talked shop for a few minutes and then kept going. The trail was pretty well defined it seemed from there. At about kilo 14 the trail did a sharp left and headed up the switch backs. Here is also where I thought that I´d find an aid station and having drank the last of my H2O out of the hydration system I carried on my waist, I yearned to down a quart or two. The aid stations, 3 total in the run, were to be attended by some Cusquenos(people from Cusco, a few hours away) who had hiked out days ahead of time. This was a lesson in how "time" is perceived in Peru and much of Latin America; things happen at a different pace here, and reliable workers can be hard to find. Bananas, water, energy drink, bars(not the alcoholic kind of bar), shelter and radios were to be at each feed station. This is where is the first ascent to the 1st of 3 passes starts, a 6000 ft climb over the top of Dead Woman Pass (Hmmm..Interesting name). The climb started on loose dirt and rocks, and after a half hour of huffing, power-hiking, and feeling "a bit dry", I was caught up to by a running Edgar, and he offered a few words of encouragement. "Mas Rapido!" he said. I thought, "Great. Yeah. I'll..uh..be right along. Go ahead without me." Was this the same Edgar who seemed to be taking his sweet time only 1/2 hour ago? Amazingly, the rest of the way up, he was just ahead of me as the trail turned to the stone steps that the Inca Trail is known for. We entered the clouds and a semi-tropical lush forest. Astonished European, Peruvian, and North American hikers, as well as porters carrying giant loads stopped to let us pass. "Are you guys running some kind of race?" they asked. "You guys are loco!" Given that most people take four days rather than four to 12 hours, I guess these kind of runners were loco.Now in mountain running, the reality is for most of us that on the steep ascents, it is not at all "running". It is surviving. And the only consolation for most is that what goes up must come down. And even then the stark reality still exists that knees are joints that can cry out real loudly when compressed. There are only 3 runners I have ever seen run ascents like that, Edgar being one of them, and myself not one of them. The guy is built like most Peruvians in size, about 5 ft 5 or 6 in , only he has powerfully built legs under him. A couple of those porters decided to race me up the hill and actually kept up for awhile...with a monstrous load of tourist trekkers' gear on their backs! Some of the racers were passed by loaded porters on the descents too!Still ascending to the saddle of the pass, the clouds thickened. There were silhouettes on a flat looking area maybe a mile ahead. "Goats, burros, Peruvian yetis, but those aren't people, are they?" I thought, knowing the legacy of false summits that comes with going up mountains. A bottle neck of hikers on the trail appeared before the silhouettes. The trail was steepest here , and Edgar was still in sight as he topped out. Finally the pass, situated near the silhouettes was a tent was set up with water, Odwalla bars, coca tea, Edgar and the small aid crew. After a few minutes of recharging, I said my thanks to the crew and Edgar and started down the steep descent, with a very full, watered and Odwallaed belly. The steps were works of art. Evenly spaced Incan carved, placed meticulously centuries before. I love going down hill, and some times letting gravity take over with some speed is best for the knees and legs. 3000 or so feet down, and at the base of the next pass I pit stopped in some grass, took care of business, and Edgar cruised by. I managed to catch him up before the next aid station, and after that never saw any other runners for until Machu Picchu hours later. The rest of the run was dotted with ruins here and there. Walls of precisely carved granite that must have taken years to build were the foundation for these ruins. With all the tectonic activity in the Andes, these walls and ruins have stood the test of time. Huaraz, where I am now, has been destoyed several times by earthquakes, and Incan walls from before the conquistadors are one of the only constants. Alluviones, walls of mud, rock, ice and snow, that crash out of the mountains from collapsed glacial lakes, happen every few decades. The Andes are a geologically dynamic range only rivalled by the Himalayas. A local Peruvian guide and his charges of American trekkers steered me the right way when I took a wrong turn into a particularly large ruin. Usually in the US if you get lost in a mountain race it's because you either spaced out while racing, the race director screwed up marking the course, or you got stuck in the trees. Only in Peru will you get sidetracked in archaeological wonders. The last aid station actually was a mobile aid station. Juan, the man in charge of the feed station was completely flabbergasted when I ran up behind him before the 3rd pass. He hustled along, his pack full runners' aid, asking questions about where I'd come from. He never believed that anyone would be there cso fast. I was one of the lucky ones though who found him. Turns out that other runners who arrived at the 3rd pass aid station never even saw him nor an aid station. I guess Juan found other things to do that day. From there, the water, or lack thereof, left my body. It is really hard to stay hydrated, if not impossible, on these long runs. It was a long haul into Machu Picchu. The trail went through a gorgeous ruin in the clouds, and after getting pointed in the right direction again by some hikers, I started the long, long descent down from 12500 ft to 8000ft. The sun started to shine in the hot and steamy lower elevation. I preferred the damp mist that fell up high at that point. A mud puddle started looking like a delicious thing to drink. I stooped over to sip, and then saw the tracks and a bit of the remains from a burro's standing in the same spot. I stood up to plod through the last 8 K. Finally, up over a rise and through the ancient gates of Machu Picchu!

(For some reason the last bit of this story got clipped but I recall getting to Machu Picchu and there was no finish line there! The organizers had misjudged how quickly we would finish the run and arrived wayyyy late. I had no money to buy a drink from the gift shop and wondered if I had misunderstood that the finish was in Aquas Calientes, a few kilometers downhill from Macchu Picchu. I ended up hiking all the way down to AC and then back up to MP, to find that the finish line had indeed finally arrived to MP! I was so wasted by then.)

Mini Documentary / Mackumentary

2009-03-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

Since Western States is my objective this year, I thought it's be cool to document something building up to the race. Here is the link to the mini-version of what I am working on with Bill Hanson, local Boulder film guy.
Since I am looking for a new sponsor, feel free to contact me as we are tying in a sponsor to this project, which may become something something bigger and longer. I am notorious for being low-key about my sports but for some reason I am more motivated to being "out there" this year.
http://virb.com/2373471696717503/videos/2353145

"Training" this week thus far

2009-03-26T10:20:00.001-07:00

March 26Today - Dumping snow- Easy 1.5 hours with dogs in 1.5 ft feet snow
Goal: recovery/taper. Miles, about 5 -6

March 25 Yesterday; AM: 45 minutes easy pace on Vail Gore Creek Path with Tanker. Goal: get energy flowing for evening mile repeats and drive home.
PM 6 x 1 mile repeats at 5:30-6:15 pace, 5 minutes easy jog in between. From Marshall rd, South Boulder creek path to 55th back to Marshall RD ia Gravel pits/Buffalo Ranch. 1:05 total; about 10 miles

March 24 In Vail: (free 2 nights lodging and skiing)
AM: Tele skied in 2 ft dump in back bowls. Bad for leg speed but good for soul and skied with Ellen. Good for leg strength though if done in moderation.
PM: 1 hour easy. Goal recovery

March 23. AM 1.5 hours easy. Goal; recovery from 2 hoyr road run day before. Feel a bit sore and will lose right big toenail due to road run.

Tanker

2009-03-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the dog I refer to, Tanker. He rocks, especially in winter.

Eldora skating

2009-03-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple photos from last weekend when we were at Eldora skate skiing with Ava in the towable Chariot bike/jogger/ski-thing. She is warmer and happier than she looks in the photos. Ellen is also warm and happy.

I woke up super early yesterday morning, like at 2 am, and started thinking about PA school and whether I will be be accepted. I am on the wait lists of 2 programs in the Bay Area, and pretty high up on the list of one of those programs, Touro University. I really want to get in, and Ellen, my wife, REALLY wants me to be accepted too. Ellen has been a saint in tolerating my career changes and the 1.5 years of the latest science pre-req classes that have dominated my life. I am committed to this professional path though and love studying again (unlike my undergrad at UNH 1000 years ago) and am psyched for grad school to start.
Anyway, I was thinking about school when I wass awake and at 4 am decided this was a waste of time to be sitting in bed and jumped up and in 10 minutes wss in the cara heading up to Eldora to skate ski. 30 minutes later I had my headlamp on and did a long loop through the nordic trails in Buckeye basin, then skated and herringboned right up the Jolly Jug trail past the top of Cannonball lift to the top of the Eldora ridge. There is a nice groomed wide ski trail and is relatively flat that crosses the top of the mountain for a mile or so to top of Corona and to the West ridge section of the ski mountian. It was freshly groomed from the night snowcat guys made for excellent skating in the dawn light and from a fingernail moon. A great workout at 10k feet! It isnt running training but close enough and skate skiiing only last a couple months near Boulder so you gotta do it when you can...or when you are laying in bed at 2 am.
After 30 minutes of ridge skating I passed a couple snowcats who were headed out to the Corona top of the lift and the cabin. This made for a great ski run back the 1000feet to the bottom of the mountain in 3 minutes, which is super fun in skate skis! Then back to the car for a quick banana and drink then another hour of skating. All told about 2 hours of skating, then back down to Boulder to be home at 8am.
I like skate skiing as cross training not only because it is a blast but also because it builds aerobic fitness, upper body strength, and most importantly core strength. In running the core muscle groups are used more than runners tend to believe, and those who do core strengthening on a regular basis help their running immensely, be it for a 100m sprinter or dirtbag ultrarunner like me.

Bear Peak RT <1 hour RT

2009-03-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

This winter I'd been up Bear Peak two or three times per week, and almost daily in December with Kevin and Nico, and I'd been thinking that this would be entirely possible to hit Bear Peak and back to a trailhead in less than one hour. I'd tempo run it in 42 minutes from trail head to summit recently without too much effort, so I reckoned that I could get under 40 minutes pretty easily on the ascent. If that were the case I would need a sub 20 minute descent back to the TH, which also was reasonable.

I had a stomach bug last week from Ava, so I pulled an unplanned taper for a few days. After one harder run earlier this week I took another mellow 2 days to get my legs back under me and on Weds am felt great. For a week, Bill Hanson and I have been working on this mini-mackumentary about my upcoming Western States run, so we shot about 15 minutes of me jogging in the morning as my warmup. I didnt plan on running Bear peak that day, but felt so refreshed that morning I decided to time trial the peak in the afternoon with no real expectation of trying the sub 1 hour RT.

After a few hours at the library working on my microbiology class, I took a lunchbreak and headed over to the Cragmoor trailhead, jogged for 5 minutes, took a leak in the trees, then hit the start at the signpost and headed up! I decided to see how I felt at the summit before I committed to racing the downhill for the sub 1 hour RT.
The Cragmoor TH is the start and finish of Bill Wright's Fall Flatirons scramble of the Slab, so I'd been used to time trialing this trail before and knew how to pace up to the Slab (which is located where the Shanahan trail dips down to hit the Fern Canyon trail). I knew I couldn't go out too fast as the real "race" starts up at the Nebel Horn Saddle, much like the Pikes Peak ascent doesn't really start until A frame 3 miles below the summit.
I hit the top of the stairs where the trail joins the Shanahan trail in 2:41 and liked my conservative paced thus far. It was cool out but plenty warm, so after ditching my shirt under the Shanahan power lines to be picked up on the return, I kept on. At the Mesa Trail I was at 9:43, almost a minute slower than when we run the Slab race in the fall. I hit the Slab in 13:00(or so..I forgot this split)I thought I should start to pick up the pace as I felt very comfortable so as the trail dropped quickly down 60 feet into the ditch by the north side of the Slab and I used this drop to pick up momentum on the uphill on the other side. I hit the Fern Canyon trail post at 15:07, and reached the top of the first rockclimb/top of first steep steps (where Jeff and Allison almost got clobbered by ice this winter) in 18:41. The ascent to the Nebel Horn saddle felt good like I wasn't curshing myself, and I passed a few hikers coming down and a couple who were sitting in the trail eating. Of course they displayed amazement at running this trail, by saying "wow" and "nice work", but this is Boulder of course where we basically do this before breakfast every day.
I reached the saddle at 24:26 and decided to ramp it up from there to about %95 effort level to the summit. I power hiked a good part of the way on the lower steep slopes above the saddle as this is the steepest part of the whole climb and it felt more efficient than running, and this section only lasts about 250 feet. The angle eased off a bit and I was able to run/power hike alternately til the trail pops out on the ridge and I ran most of it from there.
Coming out to the summit cone I knew I was well within sub 40 minute range. The last ridge scramble I have so wired that I basically run along the top of the ridge to the summit. I was wearing Pearl Izumi shoes that Bob Africa gacve me, so there isnt any sticky rubber but it is enough traction to run well on the rough summit ridge sandstone. I stepped on top of the summit rock with my feet actually on the summit in 37;43, turned right around and ran the ridge back to the trail.
The descent was a blur (as it always is!) but I didnt race it too hard to blow my legs out and risk a fall. Nebel horn saddle I reacehd in 45:17. On the way past the steep steps/first rock climb, of all people of course but here comes Scott Elliott chugging up the hill with Tara Breed just behind. I said a quick Hey and kept cruising. I used the momentum down to the ditch by the Slab to power up the other side and down to hit the Mesa Trail again in 52:31. I knew sub 1 hour was in the bag at this point so I tempo'ed it down Shanahan and hit the finish post in 57:39.
That evening I still felt good so before going to my 6 pm micro class in Westminster, I did a few mile repeats at 6 minute pace to get the speed back in the legs. Weds was the best workout day I'd had in a few months! (And I paid the price as I am sore 2 days later!)
All in all I know may guys out there can go faster. I think Jeff Valliere has run close to 35 minutes on the ascent and Scott Elliot when he is fit can go faster. I think I can knock 2 minutes off this RT time with some focus by taking another minute off the ascent and one on the descent, and also doing it with a couple guys to push the pace may drop the overall time by another minute. No plans to pursue this at this point though as it is ultrarunning season for me with Western States as the overall goal.