30.08.2010
Here’s a short video I got of the marathon last week before my camera died at mile 20.
AK's writings on running, biking, and other stuff I like to do
22.08.2010
I finally did my first official marathon…in a somewhat ‘unofficial’ race. Unofficial in the sense that there was no entry fee, no timing chips, and only 4 entrants. Only 2 of which started at the same time! But it was indeed a race, and it was my first official Marathon race and it was a blast. I now have a marathon PR of 5:45!! (shouldn’t be too hard to get that down I suppose, that is a TOUGH marathon course)
My friend Craig Lloyd organized this race, and initially more people were going to come, but it only ended up being 4 of us in the end. The rules of the race were this: Start your clocks at the trailhead fence at Henry’s fork, tag Kings Peak, and stop your watch at the fence when you get back. Fastest time back to the fence gets to keep the Cowbell.
It just so happens that from the fence, to the peak and back is exactly 26.2 miles. But it also just so happens, that it is only 26.2 miles exactly if you take a specific route through the gunsight pass cutoff. Craig and I took this route, but on the way back we cut off about .8 miles by going straight down off gunsight pass and avoiding a big long switch back…so my actual mileage to the peak and back was 25.4.
Here were my race goals in order of priority:
- Appropriately pace myself to enjoy the entire day.
- Properly fuel myself to finish feeling strong like I did at Leadville last week
- Win the race
- Finish the course between 5:00-5:15
Pre-race
the night before, Craig and I did a super easy 5.5 mile run up to a lake, which was fun. We hung out after, had a nice big dinner of pasta and cheese bread, and chatted around the fire on a gorgeous, clear mountain evening. We were going to start at 6:00 am, but we didn’t get to bed until midnight because of waiting for Craig’s parents who got lost, so we opted to sleep in until 6:30. Scott, who had arrived at 2 am apparently, gave us a nice wakeup call at 5:40 since he of course had no way of getting the ‘sleep in’ memo. We still went back to sleep til 6:30, then had some oatmeal in our tent and got up to get going.
Scott left just before 7 am to get a bit of a head start, and Craig and I took off at about 7:20.
Craign ringing the bell to start
The night before, Craig and I organized our packs and fueling, and I packed approximately 2300 calories total between 3 EFS liquid shots (1200 calories), 3-4 servings of 1st endurance optygen and ultragen, and 1 clif shot. I ended up using between 1800-1900 calories total throughout the race, which was between 300-350 per hour average. I took them in really consistently throughout and it worked perfectly for me.
Start to Elkhorn Crossing – 5.45 miles – 58:19 – 1000 Feet net ascent
The first 5 miles are pretty mellow and steady. But there is almost no part of the trail that isn’t rocky or root covered. I was feeling fresh, and the pace was easy. My heart rate was quickly at about 149-150, and I just kept it there. I was content to keep a very relaxed, conversational pace. Oddly though, the conversation part wasn’t much there. It was like Craig and I used up all our conversation the night before on our run and around the fire, and now there was just nothing left to say. But really I think Craig was just kind of solemn and quiet because almost from the first step he just wasn’t feeling it for some reason. He mentioned a side ache within the first mile. I asked if he thought our pace was too fast, and he thought it was fine. But I let him take the lead for the next couple miles because I hoped he could get into a rhythm.
We had made a plan the night before, that we would try to stick together and push each other up to the peak, and even possibly back down to gunsight, and then open it up and see where the last 10 miles took us. I was really hoping he didn’t fall off pace before gunsight, because I had no clue about the course, and I knew there were going to be some navigational issues at the top section when there was no trail.
Fortunately, craig held the steady pace, and we motored on.
Elkhorn to Gunsight supposed water stop – 4.3 Miles – 56:50 – 1250 Feet net ascent
Looking up toward the peaks we're heading to
Craig cruising through the beautiful valley
During this section we caught Scott who had started 30 minutes before us. He was looking strong, and held with us for a while. But toward the end, Craig seemed to be fading just a bit as it got steeper. I just focused on keeping my heart rate between 148-150 – and I was able to easily run almost all the inclines while keeping it there, so I did. But toward gunsight it was opening up a gap on Craig. I really didn’t want to be opening a gap at that point, but I also wanted to keep my steady pace, and I really wasn’t pushing my heart rate at all. In fact, I have raced all day at LOTOJA with my HR in the 160′s, so 150 is a conservative all day pace for me. But I was content with it.
I stopped at the bottom of the final push up gunsight because Craig yelled from behind that there should be water there. He caught up and we searched a couple minutes for water, to no avail. The flow wasn’t good enough. So we kept going.
Me heading up toward dollar lake
Almost to gunsight pass, about 2 hours into the day
Gunsight to the final ascent – 2.5 miles – 55:12 – 1100+ feet net ascent
Just over gunsight pass there was a snow field where we wasted a couple more minutes searching for water. I packed snow in my hand held bottle because I was unsure if there was going to be another location to get water. This was pretty concerning to me, so I felt that having snow was safer than nothing. The night before, Craig was totally confident there would be flowing water at Gunsight (don’t worry craig, I forgive you;), so I had decided to only fill my hydration pack with 40 oz. instead of 70 oz. Mistake! I should have kept the 70 oz. and I could have avoided multiple stops. But I thought it would be nice to have a little less weight. In an unsupported mountain run of 5+ hours, it’s definitely a good idea to go over-prepared rather than under.
Anyway, we got snow in our bottles, but a few minutes were lost, and we were on our way again.
It was clear at this point that Craig was really not feeling it, because at my comfortable pace I kept creeping ahead of him. He told me the way to go around gunsight, but I still made a mistake and went too high. The problem was there was a MASSIVELY HUGE cairn marking the way to go, and it was way above me. Craig warned me to stay low, and I thought I was, but it was a huge marker. Anyway, I came around a ridge and looked around to see multiple peaks, a huge rock talus field, and I had ZERO clue which way to go.
I looked back to find Craig, and he was nowhere in sight. I kept moving forward, not even knowing which peak I should be aiming for. moments later, I looked down and Craig was hundreds of yards below me moving through the valley. I yelled for him, which I realize now was pointless. Obviously he knew where he was going, and I just needed to get back to him. He saw me and waved the direction. I cut down the hill toward him and within a few minutes was back up to him with not too much effort.
I’m glad I was back with him, because he could show me the way to go. If he wouldn’t have been up there with me I’m certain I would have spent a bunch of time lost on the wrong route in a super slow talus field.
The next bit of fortune was we hit a small river crossing! Nice…fresh water. We both found a clear hole and filled up our water bottles. That was a very welcome water source, and gave me confidence that I would have plenty of water for the round trip now. If that water would not have been there, I would have gone through some serious dehydration that day for sure.
Final climb to the peak – 3/4 mile – 24:20 – 775 feet net ascent (included 2 minute stop talking to faceless ghost)
Craig on the summit, really windy up there
As we left the saddle before the ridge to the peak, we saw Eric (facelessghost) picking his way down the boulders toward us. That was a huge surprise! What the heck was he doing up here?? Oh yeah, there was a race going on. He just didn’t bother to tell anyone he was going to participate! OK, turns out he did email Craig at the last minute, but we didn’t get the message. And somehow, he managed to get onto the trailhead in the morning at 6:30 WITHOUT seeing us, even though our campsite was within 100 yards of the trail head and RIGHT on the road. Weird. Kind of a bummer too, because it would have been cool to know that he was in the race, and have another person to be pushed by. Although, he is out of Craig and My league I think.
We talked for a couple minutes and we parted ways. Apparently he had spent some time lost trying to find his way too, and still hit the summit in under 3 hours. Craig and I knew we were both out of the running to win now, since we weren’t even on pace to hit the summit in 3 hours, and we’re not as fast as him to begin with. Oh well, it was cool to meet you briefly Eric, look forward to hearing how the day went for you.
Summit back to above Gunsight pass = 2.5 miles – 54:32
We passed Scott pretty close coming down from the summit
I made it to the summit in a still conservative pace, keeping my HR at or below 150 the whole time. And I put a gap of 5 minutes on Craig. At the top I took some video, and then fumbled in the wind for a couple minutes trying to untangle my headphones. I realized I had them, after all, thinking I hadn’t brought them, and I decided it would be nice to have some tunes on the way down if I was going to be alone for a while anyway.
Passed Craig a few minutes later, and then saw Scott coming up shortly thereafter. I was surprised to see Scott so close, and really happy for him. Nice job Scott! You pushed a great pace up to that summit!
Craig caught me half way down the descent, and I was glad to see him in better spirits. We pushed together back to the water hole on Anderson pass. I filled up a bit faster this time and kept going, opening up a small gap. It was really tough running down this section. It’s a tundra field and there are TONS of rocks. And they are all super sharp. It’s just not fast going down at all and it beats up your feet pretty good.
But we were moving steady enough, and around through the cutoff back to gunsight I ran past 2 runners coming up. I recognized Andy Dorais, who Nan and I knew from her days at BYU, and so I stopped to chat with him. He was running with Kyle Perry, a pro runner for New balance who won the NCAA steeplchase in 2009. It was cool to catch up with Andy. And during my stop, Craig caught back up and we all chatted a bit. As you can see, we were really intensely focused on our time in this race…er…something.
It was funny because Kyle commented that was the farthest he had ever run. It was about 11 miles in. And I thought…wow…he’s got a tough day ahead of him. We bid farewell and were off again.
Gunsight to Elkhorn crossing down – 4.43 miles – 42:32 – 9:36/mile
At this point, Craig needed to search for some more water, but I had plenty in my hydration pack so I pressed on. I just kept my pace locked in at about 150 HR and pushed down the mountain. It was pretty steady running, but still not super fast. I really thought I could crank out a bunch of 7:30 miles down this part, but it was just too rocky and hard on the feet. There were sections where my pace got into the 6′s, but then others where it was back up to 10 and 11 min. per mile just because of the terrain.
Elkhorn crossing to Finish – 5.46 miles – 53:50 – 9:52/mile
And the same thing again on this section. I felt fine. My legs and most especially my feet were getting tired at this point. The feet had taken a beating on all the rocks. But I still thought I could go faster down this section. But it wasn’t the case. Mentally I was totally content keeping my pace at 150 HR. And the trail is just too darn rocky to really get a smooth rhythm going.
But nevertheless, I still did this section 5 minutes faster down than up. I’m pretty sure that every other person in the race and otherwise did this section slower coming down than up. It’s just a long haul through a rocky trail. And it is also really rolly. It’s not just down hill here, it actually has a bunch of short uphill sections.
But overall I still had plenty of energy and was still well fueled. And my legs still felt totally fine. The only thing hurting were my feet, and my left hip a little bit. So it was not a problem running all the uphills, and I ran every step of the last 10 miles. In fact, I still felt just as powerful on the uphills as I did in the morning, didn’t mind them at all.
Finish Totals: 5:45:42 – 25.41 Miles – Avg HR: 143 – 4637 Feet Ascent – 4637 Feet Descent
Craig and I afterward in our matching colors, not intentional. Still unsure who got the cowbell at this point
So I finished, and felt great. I didn’t feel like I was pushing a very hard effort the last 10 miles, and kept half expecting Craig to catch up to me. I wouldn’t have minded if he did, because I would have enjoyed the company and would have loved it if I had somebody to push me harder through that last section. As it was I was content at my 150 heart rate and just enjoying the cruise down to the finish.
Not at any point during that race did I not enjoy myself. Although my feet were pretty tired toward the end, I still found myself really enjoying being out there, and cruising through the mountains. We had phenomenal sunny weather, and it was just gorgeous out there.y sa
Craig came in 12 minutes later, and I was glad to see him pretty close behind, I figured he wouldn’t be far.
We enjoyed relaxing in the river after, and drinking lots of cold fluid. We packed up our camp and hung out.
I spoke to two other runners who I passed on the trail coming down. They said they had seen Eric running down earlier, and he looked hashed. That surprised Craig and I, and made us wonder if he had beaten us after all. The other two runners said I looked totally fresh compared to Eric. And I did feel really fresh…I ran past them almost like they were standing still at that point.
So with the unknown of Eric’s time, Craig had to keep the cowbell until further review of who the actual winner was.
Later that night I got a text from Craig saying that Eric finished in 6:01. WHAT?!? Total surprise to me…with how fast he was at the peak, we were sure he would have slaughtered us. He really must have blown up or something though, because he was slower going down than he was going up. But it turns out he did add 2 miles going down because he went around the valley below gunsight instead of taking the cutoff.
I made it to the peak in 3:14, and my descent time was 2:31. I think Eric said he was at the peak in like 2:55, which puts his descent at 3:06. Even with the 2 extra miles, its clear that he must have hit a wall or something.
SWEET!! A WIN FOR ME! Oh, and you better believe I feel totally accomplished since I beat 3 OTHER PEOPLE!! No but seriously though, beating Craig is definitely an accomplishment, because he is a very solid mountain runner, with a bunch of solid races this year. And, beating the faceless ghost is totally awesome!! I am 100% certain that I could not beat him if something drastic hadn’t happened to him at the end, because his pace in his previous races blow mine away. He beat Craig in the sapper joe 50K by almost an hour, and it wasn’t like craig was sitting around, he took 4th that day. So I will just have to bask in the momentary glory of having beaten him on the ‘Quest for Kings’ while I can! Thanks for letting me win Eric! And so apparently I get the cowbell for the year. Can’t wait for the rematch already!
Goal Review
So how did I do on my goals in this race?? Let’s see…
- Appropriately pace myself to enjoy the entire day. – NAILED IT!! Don’t think I could have possibly paced myself any more even than I did. And I thoroughly enjoyed the entire race because of it.
- Properly fuel myself to finish feeling strong like I did at Leadville last week – PERFECT! Thanks again to 1st Endurance and Vespa, I felt energized the entire race.
- Win the race – HECK YEAH!! Can’t believe I actually beat faceless ghost, but ‘thems the breaks’ I guess. Too bad he ran 2 extra miles!
- Finish the course between 5:00-5:15 – Didn’t pull that one off – don’t really care that much though, as that was my lowest priority goal. And I’m certain even with the same pace I ran and just not wasting time on the course I could have done it in 5:30. Next year I can probably go sub 5 if I keep improving my fitness. That’s a TOUGH course though, not to be underestimated at all, even though the ascent vs. mileage numbers don’t appear very daunting compared to other courses like north fork.
Conclusion
MOUNTAIN RUNNING IS FUN!!!
(most pictures courtesy of craig)
17.08.2010
What a fun race!! I had a phenomenally great day out there. Not in terms of race placement, but in terms of pure enjoyment of the day.
Out of all the races I’ve ever done of any type, that one was the most enjoyable race I’ve ever experienced. I am being quite literal when I say that enjoyed every moment of that thing. Even hitting the dirt coming down columbine oddly enough added to the beauty of the day for me (only because it didn’t really hurt, and I didn’t break anything, if I had it would have certainly hampered the experience, as it was it just made it a cooler memory!)
I really can’t think of any race that I can say that about other than this one. Every other race I can recall at this point has had its euphoric endorphin highs and its mental and physical low points and times of suffering. Here’s a little video…didn’t compress very well so its not that great of quality, but oh well.
This race was 10 hours of pure high.
Not at any point in the entire 10 hour ride did I feel tired or a lack of energy. The only part even coming close to feeling tired was only a brief moment after riding to within 100 yards of the top of the climb up Powerline at mile 80. The entire day consisted of riding through a totally gorgeous landscape between 10 and 12,600 feet with a grin on my face absolutely enjoying myself. When I finished the race at 104 miles I honestly wished it were longer and I was kind of bummed it was over. I wished there were even more uphills at the end because it was so much easier to pass tons of people on the uphill parts.
This was all so much the opposite of what I expected that it made it that much cooler.
It was really encouraging to me to experience what it feels like to be full of energy throughout an all day endurance event. I had never experienced it before and it was incredibly cool. It changed my perspective a bit on racing and all-day riding or running. It caused me to care even less than I already did about goal time, and more about having similar experiences to that. Spending an entire day in the mountains with a grin enjoying the moments is SOOO much nicer than spending half a day in joy and the other half in severe pain. Although, on the flip side, I guess I wouldn’t have the same perspective or appreciation of just how good this race felt if I hadn’t experienced first hand the extreme lows I did in my last 50K trail race. So it all has its purpose I guess. But wow…I REALLY loved feeling solid for 10 straight hours.
Here are some of my takeaways from this race:
1. 1st Endurance products ABSOLUTELY ROCK!!! I am their new biggest fan. They taste good, are easy to consume, and provide calories, electrolytes and water all at the same time making it super easy to keep the proper fueling going. I’m going to be sticking with 1st endurance products from here on out until proven otherwise. (And no, they don’t give me free stuff and they certainly don’t pay people at my low level of influence to say stuff like that.)
2. Fueling properly is key – and for me, 3-400 calories per hour minimum is what I will be doing from here on out on long races. (And getting 8 hours of sleep the night before certainly couldn’t have hurt)
3. It would seem that other than the lower back muscles, trail running and mt. biking muscles are quite interchangeable. I have virtually been doing no bike training this year compared to running training. And yet I just raced 104 miles on a mountain bike with literally zero soreness in my quads, calves, hamstrings, or glutes. The only muscle soreness was in my lower back, which is already mostly gone 2 days later. I’m pretty happy about finding that out for myself, because I was concerned that my legs would just blow up after 50-60 miles since I hadn’t done any bike rides longer than 30 miles in over a year.
Here are some stats from the race and some play by play:
The results showed 1328 Starters and 1022 Finishers.
I finished in place 311 overall.
Here is my placing through each of the aid station splits that were recorded:
Pipeline Outbound – 28.3 Miles: – 2:24:29 – 597th place
Twin Lakes Outbound – 40 Miles: – 3:21:01 – 575th place
Top of Columbine – 50 Miles: – 5:15:21 – 426th place (passed 149 people on the climb)
Twin Lakes Inbound – 60 Miles:- 5:58:27 – 448th place (Crashed coming down Columbine and got passed by 22 people while I tightened my handle bars)
Pipeline Inbound – 73.1 Miles: – 7:10:19 – 428th place
Finish – 104 miles: -9:57:06 – 311th overall (2 more significant climbs, passed 117 people in final 30 miles, probably 60 of those were on powerline)
Clearly I should have started out way closer to the front so I didn’t get stuck behind so many people. I wasn’t riding at the same pace as anyone around me the whole day unless I was stuck behind them on a single track. And I didn’t start putting forth much of an effort until about mile 85, when I decided I might as well ride harder to the finish since it was clear at that point that my legs were good to go and my energy would be great until the end.
And here’s some of the detailed play by play:
The night before the race I ate 2 HUGE helpings of spaghetti, salad, rolls, cake, and lemonade. And I met a really nice dude Sean Kute who I found out was doing the 100 miler this weekend and the 100 mile run next weekend as his first 100 mile run! Go sean! Good luck in the hundred this coming weekend. I really enjoyed eating dinner with him and chatting for a couple hours.
In the morning before the start I ate a nice breakfast of oatmeal, Orange juice and pastries at the hotel. Then 30 minutes before the race I ate 1 vespa pouch and 2 FRS energy chews that were in the race packet. HUGE thanks to my bud Eric by the way, for hooking me up with an entrance to this race, a sweet bike to ride, and even a hotel with breakfast! What a stud!!!
My plan was to take a vespa every 2.5 hours, and to take in 350-400 calories per hour of 1st endurance products, which include in them about 1500 mg of electrolytes per serving. I was set up to fill my water bottle with 1st endurance optigen, and ultragen, and switch off. I also used the 1st endurance EFS liquid shots which are awesome.
I started out about 500 people back from the start in a huge horde of cyclists. TONS of energy in the crowd, and really cool to be out there with so many people psyched to be out for a day of riding through the mountains. It was cool to be there and be a part of such a fun event. The horn went off, and we were going…but after 1/2 mile down the road, I was FREEZING! I made the mistake of removing my jacket at the start, because it wasn’t that cold. But I had to stop and put it back on. That was when about 800 people passed me in the 45 seconds it took to put my jacket on. That was kind of lame of me, because all the way through to about mile 65 of this race there are tons of sections where getting behind slower paced people REALLY slows you down because there is no way to pass for a long time. Oh well.
Did I mention it was friggin’ COLD! It was about 4-5 miles of down hill in really cold early morning high mountain temps and my hands were really numb and I was shivering. But it passed soon enough as soon as we started the first climb.
Tons of people were pushing their bikes and the first climb was really slow. I worked past people as best I could. I was probably around 1000 people back from the lead at this point. By the time I got to the pipeline aid station I had passed 3 or 400 people and was in 597th place. I stopped for 3-4 minutes to get my drop bag and re-fill my bottles. It was about mile 30 and I was feeling totally fresh and just getting warmed up.
At mile 40 was the Twin lakes aid station, and because of the huge crowds everywhere I missed the drop bag zone. Fortunately I had enough in my camelback to stop and fill my water bottle at a small volunteer station a few miles later. At about mile 42, I saw Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Levi Leipheimer coming toward me. They were now at about mile 58. And they were flying! And they already had a sizeable gap on the 3rd-5th place riders. Some minutes later though, more riders came through. Dave Wiens was in 5th at that point. Levi crushed the course record and Lance’s time from last year and did it in 6:16 which is incredibly fast. Dave Wiens ended up 4th in about 6:33, his fastest time on the course. The conditions were much better this year though. It was perfect weather, whereas last year it was snowing at the beginning, and pretty much rotten weather all day. (I was shooting photos last year, very glad I got good weather this year for the ride).
Columbine Climb
I was now climbing the 10 mile climb up to Columbine, which is a 3000 foot ascent up to 12,550 feet. It’s pretty gradual, but sustained. I ended up passing 149 people going up this climb. And yet, my heart rate was only around 140 for the entire climb. I was keeping it SUPER conservative because I knew I still had a lot of riding ahead and multiple 1000 foot climbs at the end of the race. Usually when I am racing I push between 155-165 on my heart rate, and I can sustain that for a long time. But I was being more conservative here, because I didn’t know how my legs would hold up and I REALLY did not want to experience a bonk or anything like that today. So it was pretty encouraging to be passing by tons of people while staying in a very comfortable easy pace.
Toward the top of the climb it got steeper and narrower and most people started walking. I was able to ride around them until about the last 1/2 to 1 mile from the top when it got too narrow, and there were tons of riders coming down. Even though I could have comfortably ridden up those sections, I had to walk a bunch because there was just no way to pass without someone getting hurt. Oh well, I just got more recovery time in I guess.
I made it to the top in 5:14 and left the aid station at 5:17, then bombed the down hill. Which was really, really fun of course.
Until I ate dirt coming around a corner too fast! That kind of shook me up, but not bad. I just scraped up my right elbow and knee, but it really didn’t hurt bad at all and I was able to jump back on and keep going. But then I had to stop to tighten my handle bars which got shaken loose I guess. That took me a few minutes of fishing through my bag for the tool. So I was passed by 22 people between the top of columbine and the next aid station.
When I made it back to twin lakes I found my drop bag. Got a new water bottle because I lost my other one in the crash when my cage broke. I grabbed some watermelon and kept going.
I was doing fantastic on my fueling up to this point, and I maintained that the whole day. And that was the number 1 key to my enjoyment of the day I believe. The number 2 contributor was my pace, but an even pace, with no fuel, certainly would have not worked out.
At about mile 68 there is a short 100 yard climb that I saw about 30 people walking up and nobody was riding. It was super steep, but short. I rode up the whole thing and passed everyone walking it. And it pretty easy…running up super steep mountains is definitely paying off.
Powerline Climb
By the time I got to the powerline climb at about mile 80, I was still feeling completely fresh and ready to rock and roll. In fact, I felt like I was just perfectly warmed up and ready to crush the ascent. As I pulled up and saw the huge climb looming in front of me, I could see about 80 racers strung out all the way to the top pushing their bikes, and both sides of the climb were lined with spectators. I didn’t see one other person riding it. That is the coolest part of the course to be a spectator. And it was really cool riding through that section with so many people cheering, because they were really motivating me to try to ride to the top. They were all saying I was the first person they had seen riding in a long time.
I rode past everybody walking the climb. And at one hard section in the middle one of the fans pushed me from behind for like 30-40 feet which WAS AWESOME!! I LOVED THAT! THANK YOU WHOEVER YOU WERE! I really wanted to make it all the way to the top riding, but I couldn’t quite hold on to it once I got about 100 yards away. I got going too slow and fell off and so I pushed for about 80 yards, and then jumped back on and finished off the last 20-30 yards riding. I wish I could have ridden it all, but I felt pretty good about having gone up as much as I did. And between this climb and the next one I passed another 117 people before the finish line.
On the final descent, I was still feeling totally fresh, but I lost my water bottle due to my broken cage on the rocky decent. I had put it in my pocket thinking that was safer, but it fell out, and I didn’t want to stop for it on the fast descent.
Thankfully, another totally awesome dude who I was passing at the bottom had an extra bottle. THANK YOU RANDOM DUDE! I wish I knew who you were, that was totally cool of you. That water was really nice to have the last 30 minutes of pushing hard to the finish. I tried to help pull him along the flat for a while, but he quickly dropped off the back and couldn’t hold the pace. And at this point I saw that I could probably ride it in under 10 hours so I figured I may as well push hard and finish strong to the end, since I hadn’t really pushed hard all day other than the climb up power line.
I passed another 15 or 20 people on the flat and slightly up hill portion to the finish, and when I finished, I felt still fresh and ready to go.
I fueled up at the finish aid station on soup and sandwiches and was surprised at all the carnage around me. So many people were in so much pain, and relief to be done. I found myself getting cups of water and food for one dude from Utah because he could barely get up. And I could relate to him OH SO WELL from previous race experiences.
But this time, I felt zero pain, virtually no tiredness. In fact I was really itching to go for a run because I only got 11 puny running miles in that week and I was kind of bummed about that. So I was glad I still felt fresh, because I wanted to get some more running miles in for the week to prepare for the Kings peak marathon this next weekend. But my desire to get some dinner and then get home to Nan prevailed…10 hours of working out was sufficient for the day and I really didn’t need to be spending more time away from home.
I was on an endorphin high the rest of the night (just ask Eric or Nan, Eric kept telling me I was going to come down at some point and crash). It was interesting. I just felt so great.
Then when I got to bed that night I was definitely crashed and slept well.
Conclusion
One of my favorite parts of this ride was encouraging and chatting with other riders along the way and helping pull them along. It was fun to be in a position to help, rather than being lost in the misery of my own pain. I was also really grateful for the helpful things others did for me along the way.
Loved the day, can’t say enough good about it. Really looking forward to the kings peak marathon this weekend where I plan to implement the same fueling strategy and see how good I can feel on a mountain marathon, that I have actually been training for. I feel recovered already from this race and I’m getting excited for this weekend.
28.07.2010
No, I wasn’t racing in it. The word ‘elite’ there should have clearly tipped you off to that. That would by my wife, Nan.
This was a really fun event to watch though and take pictures of because the 5K course was 3 out and backs so we got to see all the runners pass 6 times and into the finish. I got a bunch of good shots of a lot of the various runners. If you happen to see your picture here and want the original/bigger digital copy just email me at my full name @ gmail.com and I’ll send it to you.
Congrats to Nan for a huge 5K road PR. Here are the times for the women (6 total..haha). And that sounds like light competition, but it was anything but light as you will notice from the times and pace:
| PLACE | FIRST NAME | LAST NAME | BIB | AGE | DIV | TIME | PACE |
| 1 | BENITA | WILLIS | 261 | 31 | F3039 | 16:21.3 | 5:17 |
| 2 | FIONA | DOCHERTY | 6 | 34 | F3039 | 16:29.2 | 5:20 |
| 3 | NAN | KENNARD | 287 | 28 | F2029 | 16:41.3 | 5:23 |
| 4 | NUTA | OLARU | 21 | 39 | F3039 | 17:16.3 | 5:35 |
| 5 | MICHELE | SUSZEK | 18 | 28 | F2029 | 17:54.6 | 5:47 |
| 6 | DAWN | SCHWARCK | 234 | 25 | F2029 | 19:27.1 | 6:17 |
So I am of course totally proud of and impressed by Nan. Her consistent hard work is showing really strong results. For perspective, Benita Willis was the 2004 World Cross country champion and is the Australian record holder for 5k, 10k, and marathon.
I didn’t pay as much attention to the winning times of the men, since I was obviously focused more on the women’s race. But they were extremely fast also. Below are a bunch of the best shots from the evening that I got.
There seemed to be a general consensus that the race was short a little from 5K, but that perhaps the slowdown from the 6 hair pin turns evened that out a bit. Nan’s GPS read 3.07 miles which isn’t short by much. GZ’s watch said 3.01. In any case it was a great, fast race for Nan.
I met some other nice runners out there, Nick, George, Justin, and a number of others. My kids had fun playing in the mud and climbing retaining walls, and it was just a great way to spend a Wednesday evening in general.
Womens Elite start - a whopping 6 entrants!
All 6 women went out together, that didn't last for long
1 woman has fallen off so far - almost to the 1st mile point which was about 5:20
down to 4 women 1/4 mile later
Now Down to 2 women at the lead coming into the finishing mile, Nan holding strong onto a small gap
Benita Willis takes 1st in 16:22
Fiona Docherty is 2nd in 16:30
And Nan finishes strong in 3rd at 16:42 - huge 5K PR for her.
Nuta Olaru comes in next at 17:17 - Nan and her have been swapping back and forth the last few races this year
OK, OK, I guess I’ll post the guys race photos too. But you know…ladies first after all. (Even though they started them a minute behind the guys which was kind of odd, but whatever).
Here are the top male results (elite masters, then regular elite):
| LACE | FIRST NAME | LAST NAME | BIB | AGE | SEX | DIV | TIME | PACE |
| 1 | JAMES | JOHNSON | 8 | 41 | M | M4049 | 16:19.4 | 5:16 |
| 2 | TIM | GELDEAN | 7 | 41 | M | M4049 | 16:45.5 | 5:25 |
| 3 | GEORGE | ZACK | 20 | 40 | M | M4049 | 17:25.5 | 5:38 |
| 4 | PETER | HEGELBACH | 24 | 45 | M | M4049 | 17:58.8 | 5:48 |
| PLACE | FIRST NAME | LAST NAME | BIB | AGE | DIV | TIME | PACE |
| 1 | ANDREW | LETHERBY | 1 | 36 | M3039 | 14:36.2 | 4:43 |
| 2 | JAMES | BOITT | 3 | 30 | M3039 | 14:45.2 | 4:46 |
| 3 | JOHN | SUPSIC | 17 | 31 | M3039 | 14:55.1 | 4:49 |
| 4 | GREG | REINDL | 14 | 26 | M2029 | 15:04.0 | 4:52 |
| 5 | ADAM | RICH | 15 | 29 | M2029 | 15:13.4 | 4:55 |
| 6 | JAPHETH | NG OJOY | 11 | 22 | M2029 | 15:22.4 | 4:58 |
| 7 | JUSTIN | RICKS | 16 | 30 | M3039 | 15:23.2 | 4:58 |
| 8 | JUSTIN | GINDLESPERGER | 25 | 31 | M3039 | 15:24.4 | 4:59 |
| 9 | EWEN | NORTH | 12 | 32 | M3039 | 15:33.6 | 5:02 |
| 10 | JASON | DELANEY | 5 | 30 | M3039 | 15:36.5 | 5:03 |
| 11 | MATTHEW | KEMPTON | 9 | 25 | M2029 | 15:43.2 | 5:05 |
| 12 | ROBERT W | THAYER | 19 | 26 | M2029 | 15:46.9 | 5:06 |
| 13 | OFER | BARNLY | 2 | 28 | M2029 | 15:52.9 | 5:08 |
| 14 | JUSTIN | MOCK | 10 | 28 | M2029 | 16:16.2 | 5:15 |
| 15 | ANDY | RINNE | 23 | 35 | M3039 | 16:20.6 | 5:17 |
| 16 | NICK | CLARK | 4 | 36 | M3039 | 17:08.6 | 5:32 |
| 17 | NATE | LOW | 178 | 24 | M2029 | 17:18.0 | 5:35 |
Mens Race start
Andrew Letherby comes into the 1st mile leading with 2 others
2 miles in its down to just 1 more at the front with Andrew Letherby
That's a cool shot I thought
Now he's all alone going into the finishing stretch
Nick Clark finishing strong, made sure he wasn't passed by any chicks, not too shabby. (although time-wise he got chicked a couple times but who's counting? and I'm pretty certain none of those chicks ran longs peak yesterday)
George Zack making sure he only got passed by 1 chick! (hey, you have to hand it to him for being here, he ran with a donkey for 29 miles on sunday and took 4th))
The cool down afterwards – a little more laid back running at this point:
Nick Clark and George Zack
my kids captivated by the swamp and climbing of retaining walls
Nan, Not sure, Andrew Letherby, and Benita Willis cooling down
And here are some other reports of the race:
RunColo report, with video
17.07.2010
It was a beauty of a day in the Colorado Mountains today near Pine….well…3 hours of it was exceptionally beautiful…the other couple hours I can’t testify of specifically because my mind was not appreciating it at the time. More on that below…but here’s my race report:
Started at the front this time
I regretted starting at the back of the pack in my first 50K, so I flip-flopped and started right in the front this time. I’m glad I did. I warmed up really slow for about 3/4 mile before the race also which felt good.
My goal going into this race was to do it in 5 hours. It was an arbitrary goal based on a training run with Cody in Logan a couple weeks ago where I felt good for 17.5 miles at 9:20/mile pace. That run had as much total climbing as this race, so I figured, why not shoot for a 9:30/mile pace at this race and see what happens? (I can give you several reasons why not in hindsight, but I’m glad I shot high in the end).
20 Miles of purely joyful single track in mostly shade
That pretty much sums up the first 20 miles of the race. I was LOVING being out there, and thoroughly enjoying the trail and the mountains. Made a few acquaintances with people on the trail, which was nice, but mostly ran alone the entire time.
I settled in by myself just behind the lead group of about 10-12 runners. Most of those were doing the 50 Mile course and so not in my race. Apparently the 50 miler had deeper competition, since a bunch of them were going out very strong. I wanted to do my own comfortable pace and within a mile and half they were mostly out of sight. But I was ahead of and out of sight of the remainder of the runners.
Once I got to the top of the first climb I decided to take advantage of my weight and open it up on the down hill. After a while I caught the lead 50 mile woman who was running a really strong pace. I didn’t pass her, and I actually eased up a bit and let her go a little ahead…I really didn’t want to go out too fast and zap all my energy.
I passed right through the first aid station, didn’t need anything. I was carrying a 20 and 10 oz. handheld bottle, which ended up working perfect for me. We just got a 10 oz nathan bottle with a strap, and I liked using that because it has a nozzle which just squirts water out when you squeeze the bottle without having to open the top. I highly recommend that type of bottle cap, so much easier to use.
At the 2nd aid station at mile 9.9, the female 50 miler was leaving as I got there and I took 20 seconds just to fill my 10 oz and headed out. I was carrying a clif shot and 10 power gel gummy things, which was plenty for the time being.
Here are my splits:
Aid 1 – 4.53 Miles – 42:44 – 9:25/mi – 1100 feet up
Aid 2 – 9.83 miles into race – 5.30 Mile from last aid – 42:48 – 8:04/mi – 300 feet up – 1000 Feet down
My pace at this point was in the 8:40/mile range, which I knew was faster than I was shooting for. I’m not completely sure how to judge my overall pace in mountain runs, and I felt like I needed to take advantage of gaining time while I felt good…maybe the wrong feeling to follow, I’m not sure actually in hindsight. I’m still trying to determine that.
20 seconds in Aid 2
Aid 3 – 5.63 Miles – 58:35 – 10:24/mi – 1000 feet up in 2.5 miles – then 300 feet down over 3 miles
I took it pretty easy going up this uphill, I was steady though. I ran the whole thing, then I opened up my speed going down a bit, not as fast as the first big down hill though. I caught up to Steve who was in the 50K about mile 13 and we chatted, then I proceeded forth. Neither of us knew how many other 50K runners were ahead of us, but we were pretty sure it wasn’t many (found out later from Steve that it was none, so apparently I took the lead of the race at this point. Wish I would have known that, I would have probably eased up a bit. Although, I really wasn’t racing to win, I was just shooting for an overall time goal at this point.)
I was in Aid 3 for 1:31 refilling both bottles and eating some watermelon.
Aid 4 – 19.54 miles into the race – 4.08 Miles from last aid – 37:19 – 9:09/mi – 700 foot descent for 3.25 and then up 100 to the aid station
I was in Aid 4 for 3 minutes, I had to jog back to my drop bag and deposit my shirt so it wouldn’t be dangling behind my pants. My overall average at this point was up to about 9:11/mile. I figured I still had a shot of averaging 9:30/mile overall, this would get me at the finish in about 4:55 if I could pull that off. I had one more 1000 ft climb, some down hill, then a 3-400 foot climb, and downhill to the finish. The first two 10 mile sections were pretty similar, and I figured that was pretty good figuring.
Then within a half mile after aid 4 all my figuring started to be rapidly thrown out as invalid.
Half mile up the trail I realized that I left my Vespa pouch on the water jug at the aid station. Since that was a critical element of my race nutrition plan, I was somewhat dismayed and annoyed at myself for this. This started a trigger of mental events that led me pretty much to mental worthlessness. It was a strange and difficult experience.
This next section of the course annihilated me. But I’m pretty sure I helped the course out a lot with a bunch of self-annihilation.
The mind is a funny thing I found out, and mine happens to be pretty stubborn and annoying at times like these. Here is what was going on with my mind at this point:
- Mind: That sucks that you forgot that VESPA pouch…stupid.
- Me: I’ll just run back and get it…no…that’s lame, would add a mile and cost me tons of energy.
- Mind: You really screwed up not taking that vespa.
- Me: It will be fine, I’ve got plenty of gel, salt and water.
- Mind: Nope, its totally going to screw up your race.
- Me: huh….we’ll see I guess
- Mind: You’re tired. You only got 4.5 hours of sleep last night and 5 the night before…you can’t expect to keep running fast on so little sleep. You may as well quit now…you’re way too tired.
- Me: Yeah….I do feel pretty tired all of a sudden (strange how I felt fantastic half a mile ago).
- Mind: This is getting hot, and tiring. Why are we still running, this isn’t fun anymore? Let’s just stop.
- At about Mile 22 I succumbed to this one, stopped and stretched for 2 minutes, got passed by a dude.
- Mind: This really sucks…and we still have 9 more miles of this…I really wish we could just quit at this point:
OK you get the picture. It was a battle with my mind, , and my mind’s demands grew stronger and stronger and would not let up, and I lost that battle unfortunately. I suffered pretty bad between these aid stations, and walked up the hill a lot, and lost huge time on my average. And that was also a very handy little tool in my minds arsenal to dig at me with and discourage me with.
Aid 5 – I don’t know…Not good. stopped to stretch in the middle there somewhere. Suffered through the 1100 foot climb. Walked a lot.
At this aid station they had Ice, which was REALLY nice. I was really sick of warm water at that point. It felt good. But it also felt kind of weird and messed with me a bit. The ice and cold in my system was kind of a shock.
Suffer Fest 2010!
If someone would have notified me that Suffer Fest 2010 was starting today at precisely 10:15 AM, I’m pretty sure I would have stayed home and sat that one out. (Glad they didn’t tell me that, because overall I loved the race…but did not enjoy the suffer fest portion.)
At mile 25 I was running down hill slowly and any slight uphill rise I was now walking. My mind was out of it. I didn’t want to be out there anymore…I had definitely lost all competitive drive. I just wanted to be done running, and went through my options of quitting. Fortunately there weren’t any quitting options, because I would have taken them. I’m glad I didn’t.
But I did feel perfectly justified at this point when I found a shady grove of trees off the side of the road and proceeded to crawl in and lay down on the ground. My main justification to myself was that Killian Jornet was passed by Geoff Roes in the Western States 100 as he was laying in the river for who knows how long, and he still pulled off a 3rd place finish. Perhaps a quick rest was just what I needed! (it certainly was all the excuse I needed at that point)
Ahhhh. Done. Not running anymore. Running sucks. Why was I still trying to run? Haven’t I run far enough for one day? Running is not fun for me right now…I’ve had enough fun for one day. So I’ll just lay here and that will be nicer.
It was nicer for the moment. I was glad to not be running any more. I was stretching, and relaxing. But soon, my logic (and pride) kicked into gear and told me that I really didn’t want to throw away a perfectly fine race out of complete mental weakness and that I would not be happy with myself for caving in to my mind completely.
A couple people (one guy, one gal, in the 50K) passed me unawares as I was laying there vegging. I got up and got moving again after being in there for almost 4 minutes. I did feel a little better. But I walked for a couple minutes, and the backs of my hammies were kind of tight when I walked, so it was actually more comfortable to run again and I did. It wasn’t fun though, I assure you of that. It was mentally painful. It wasn’t really physically painful, mostly mental. It was really strange.
Why??? What’s up with that? Why couldn’t I just kick my mind into gear and keep loving the run? I was still in beautiful country, single track, gorgeous day. But I couldn’t convince myself it was fun anymore for the life of me. Weird. So I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other as best I could.
Finally after summiting the climb and running a LONG plateau, I hit the last aid station and it was virtually 3 miles of down hill from there. I was able to pick up my pace to 7:30′s and was FINALLY recovering energy and feeling pretty decent again. Still not fantastic, but much better. It was nice to be moving somewhat quickly again.
Finished! Nice, very glad to stop running.
It was fun running in the last half mile to the finish with all my kids! I couldn’t keep up with Abe though…I tried…but by that point I was ready to stop and was content with my 8 min mile pace on the flat trail to the finish.
Total time: 5:39:15 – 10:52/mile average – 4800 feet ascent – 4800 feet descent.
Turns out I was 10th overall and 1st in my age group of 30-39. I was pretty pleased with that result after the major breakdown I had.
I didn’t hit my goal of sub 5 hours, but I did hit my goal of being in the top 10, so that’s cool I guess.
In thinking back now, I realize that I could have won that thing possibly. OK, ok, 10th place is a far cry from first, but it is certainly possible that if I could have staved off the bonk somehow I could have won. I was in the lead at Mile 20 and feeling good before my mistake and the ensuing mental drama. I ended up losing by about 22 minutes to the first guy who came in at 5:17. So take out the 6 minute nap stop, the 3 minute stretch stop, and remove the bonk and I think I really could have done it closer to 5 hours. Which is kind of cool to think of. I could see how running with the attempt to actually win a race would add another element of fun into the mix. But I wasn’t attempting to win this race at any point today, I was jut focused on hitting a time goal, which happened to be faster than the eventual winning time.
Even though running completely sucked for about 5-6 miles today…I’m over that. I’m grateful for the the 20 miles of pure running bliss and the opportunity to put my body and mind to the test and see what I’m made of. Definitely some room for improvement, which is great. I’m happy that I shot for a high goal, even though I missed it, because I think I’m better for it. It was a cool experience to attempt it. And you miss all the shots you don’t take right?
As far as the North Fork 50 race, I give it two big thumbs up! A fantastic trail system and location for a race, a very runnable and very smooth, fun course, and well put on. Great food and atmosphere afterward etc. Great La Sportiva race shirts. I’m guessing I’ll be back next year to try to beat my time by an hour. I’m pretty sure I could run that course in under 4:45 with another year of experience. It would be fun to do it (or maybe it would hurt even worse the last 10 miles…either way it would be less time in the pain cave I suppose).
Here are some shots running into the finish with the kids. It was REALLY nice to see them at that point.
Ali catching up
The kids loving the finish sprint
Me loving being so close to the finish
This guy absolutely smashed the 50 Miler in about 7 1/2 hours...he looked spent from the fast pace on a hot afternoon.
05.06.2010
Golden Gate Dirty Thirty 50K Race report
That race was incredibly cool and fun! Pretty much blew the Bolder Boulder out of the water in fun and coolness…sorry Bolder Boulder, you’re cool, just not ‘that’ cool.
Here’s the short version of the race report: This race lived up entirely to my prediction of “31 miles of pure gorgeous weather mountain running beat down”. Everything was absolutely perfect about the race and the day…so much fun. I finished and felt great and I still feel surprisingly great and energetic and not very stiff.
And here’s the long version of the report:
The night before
My buddy Jentry arrived with Nicole and his friend Matt, and then Adam arrived at about 10pm from AZ, he was also signed up to run with us. We stocked up on a bunch of pasta and veggies and then just got our stuff together for the race. My plan for the race was to just go out easy for the first 10 miles and try to stay with Jentry and Adam. I tend to want to push it sometimes and I thought it would be best to really not push it at all at first considering I’ve never run longer than 21 miles before. We got to bed about 11 and had to get up about 4 in order to head up to the race.
The Morning
We loaded up on Oatmeal and headed out to the race. I drank a vespa on the way. My plan was to drink a Vespa every 2 hours, and eat salt caps every hour minimum. Then for food I was going to just eat at all the aid stations and make sure I had 2 gels with me to eat in between stations. We got there about 25 minutes early, got all geared up and headed to the start line to sign in and give them our drop bags.
We were all complete newbies to the Ultra racing scene and so we felt like everyone there was a complete ultra rock-star all decked out in their gators and mountain gear.
I was originally just going to wear my waist strap with two 10 oz bottles for water. But when I saw half the people there with 40-100 oz of water they were going to carry, my judgment got the better of me, and I ran to my drop bag and grabbed a hand held 20 oz. nathan water bottle. VERY GLAD I DID THAT! I would have been seriously suffering out there with only 20 oz. of water between aid stations, because the critical stations in the middle and end of the race were about an hour and a half apart with huge mountain climbs in between. I finished off 40 ounces within 5 to 10 minutes of each aid station as it was.
The race is on
About 5 minutes after 6 they started the race. We were in the VERY back of the pack to start. After the start I kind of regretted that because we were stuck walking in the single file line on a lot of the initial single track…but really that only lasted the first mile or so and it probably didn’t make any significant difference. In fact it was probably good to force myself to go out really slow.
But my plan to stay with Jentry for 10 miles failed miserably after about 1.5 miles. It turned out our comfortable paces were too different. I didn’t go out too hard at all, I was walking a lot of the uphills right from the beginning, but I still ended up ahead of Jentry and Adam after about two miles. It was clear that we were going to need to do our own things, so I just proceeded forth and got into my own groove.
I clicked my lap button on my garmin at each aid station so I could see how long I was stopped and be able to see the progression of the race in the stats afterward. Otherwise, I only used my garmin to see my running time so I could gauge when I should eat and take s-caps and vespa.
Section 1 – 1 hour – 4.75 miles – 2000 Feet ascent – 1324 Feet descent – 12:48/mile avg
This first lap was super easy, cool, shady, and just plain fun. It was such amazing weather up there on the trails at 7-8000 feet. Words can’t describe how perfect the weather was. And the trail just meandered up this valley crossing the stream on bridges about 11 times. Simple gorgeous way to start the day. I was so thrilled to be out there just soaking up the cool mountain air and cruising up the pristine single track.
First Aid station – 18 seconds, just stopped to top off my water bottle and eat an orange and I was on my way
Section 2 – 1:18:47 – 6.8 Miles – 2283 Feet ascent - 1754 Feet descent – 11:35/mile avg
This section was equally as fun as the first. I was surprised to notice afterward that this section is where we actually reached the highest point on the course, because I don’t remember it being a very challenging climb. I’m so accustomed to running the hills in Boulder that are much steeper, so these hills felt really moderate. I’m glad I was training on the steeper terrain, because mentally it really helped a lot I think. The view from the top of that peak was amazing though.
I had fallen into a pace with a dude named Mike Enger who was really nice and great to run with. He had just done a 50K the previous weekend in Gunnison that runs in Hartman Rocks. I was impressed he was out there on this steep 50K a week later. We ran with each other for a few miles here and then I went off ahead of him at some point…because I kept running pretty solidly up most of the hills since it was pretty moderate. At this point the pace was still so leisurely I was taking photos with my phone and some video…I video documented a lot of the run, we’ll see how that comes out. Much more at the beginning, not much at the end. Here’s a shot of Mike.
Nicole and Matt were taking pictures of us and there to provide support at the entrance to aid station 2.
(Adam coming into Aid station 2)
(Jentry approaching Aid station 2)
Aid station 2 – 2:30 – I stayed here a little longer this time because I wanted to eat peanut butter and jam, bananas, and more oranges. Then I was off after filling up my bottles.
Section 3 – 1:08:26 – 5.23 Miles – 1524 Feet ascent - 2064 Feet descent – 13:04/mile avg
This was by far the most fun part of the race for me. The coolness was just building up between each aid station and this one took the cake. It had plenty of climbing, but was more of a descent, and the descent was fast down a lot of smooth rolling single track. My tunes were blasting, I was feeling fantastic, and I was passing by a people pretty consistently. And most of all I had multiple miles of absolute runners high around mile 15 and 16. Just an extremely euphoric joyous feeling as I was flying through the mountains and feeling amazing.
I absolutely loved it. When I came up to aid station 3 I was still on running cloud 9 and probably just grinning from ear to ear. Nobody passed me in this section and I put a lot of distance on the people I was leap frogging with (payment for that to come soon…)
(Jentry running into aid 3, Nicole ran that section with him)
Aid station 3: 2:21 – At this station I had my drop bag, and so I ate more pb and J, bananas, a bunch of accelarade and then I grabbed my final Vespa out of my drop bag and dropped off my shirt which I had tucked into my belt at about mile 5.
Section 4 – 1:39:22- 6.61 Miles – 2532 Feet ascent - 2551 Feet descent – 15:01/mile avg
My pace dropped a couple minutes per mile here. I still felt great at the beginning of this section but it immediately started up a 2 mile climb right out of the aid station.
I passed a guy Chris from Louisville pretty quick who has years of Ultra experience and seemed to be struggling. We had leap frogged a bit and we chatted for a while, then I kept charging up the hill. But Chris commented that he would probably see me at the end, and I told him not to be so sure because I was in new territory from never having gone that far, so I had no idea how long I would stay ahead of him feeling great.
Sure enough, by the time we got to the top of the climb I was getting pretty tired and he and a lady from Boulder passed me as I stopped to dump the pebbles from my shoes. I never saw them again until the turnaround at the top of windy peak on the next climb and we finished within 5-10 minutes of each other it turned out.
So at about mile 20 or so, I started noticing my legs getting pretty tired. And I had the classic thoughts of 10 miles of pain to finish the race. But I pushed those out and focused on the next steps and reminded myself how amazing it was out there, and it helped a lot. I ran out of water with a mile to go to the aid station here. Fortunately it was downhill so it wasn’t as bad as a 15 minute climb with no water.
Aid station 4: 4:45 – I hung out here for a while just eating, drinking and not being in too big of a hurry to move on…felt the need to recover a bit here at mile 24. 7 miles to go with a big climb coming up and then down hill to the finish/start area.
Section 5 – 1:41:17- 7:16 Miles – 2079 Feet ascent - 2770 Feet descent – 14:08/mile avg
This section was mentally tough to start, which is probably why I hung out at the aid station longer eating up. At this point, starting to run again was slow and the bounce and smoothness in the step was not really there that much any more.
It was a mile or so down hill, then the final big climb started. At this point I was just getting through the down hill, and then the uphill was more enjoyable…it was a great excuse to walk! Also, it was a pretty steady steep climb and it was absolutely gorgeous. With every switch back going up new panoramic valley views opened up. It was beautiful and enjoyable to power hike up the mountain, I was able to just get lost in it and really enjoyed it despite being tired. My overall energy level and legs were feeling great actually…tired, but plenty of strength. Nobody passed me at all through to the very top of the climb.
The summit was a 3/4 mile out and back so we had to get our race number marked at the top. On my way up I saw all the people just ahead of me in the race and we exchanged greetings.
When I started down the hill I felt pretty slow. It was a 1200 Foot descent over 2 miles, and it hurt more than the uphill. The steep descents at this point required a lot of strength and were a lot more jarring. A couple people passed me on this section. I didn’t really care since I wasn’t concerned at all about racing others…but I was interested in getting back to the finish in under 7 hours at this point. So I pushed it as much as I could muster, but I didn’t like going too hard going down hill here. This course had 1 more little trick up its sleeve before the finish though, another steep 400 foot climb and then a fast 400 foot descent. I hiked the uphill, but at the top there were several more moderate rollers of 50 to 100 yards in length. I started passing a few people again here because I decided I was done walking any more uphill. I powered through the final two or three little climbs and felt really good and had plenty of strength. I seem to like pushing a lot harder on uphills than downhills. But then I was feeling good from powering up those hills so I passed a couple more people on the descent.
FINISHED!
At the finish, my wife and kids were there to greet me which was really cool. Nan timed it perfectly and arrived just minutes before I got there, which was pretty cool. I was pushing hard to make it in under 7 hours at the end and I just made it by 2 or 3 minutes! (by my watch, I haven’t seen the official results yet).
My kids were all running after me to the finish, which I only noticed later in the pictures…here are a bunch of pictures at the finish area of the race. It was such a fun run, but it was SO nice to be done after 7 hours. I’m really happy about accomplishing my goal of running 30 miles finally.
(Abe laughing at me totally crashed out on the lawn)
(Ali putting flowers on the corpse)
(Adam finishing VERY strong on the home stretch)
(Jentry finishing, looking a bit tired, awesome finish for his first ultra also!)
(Mustering the energy to gallop his steed across the line…then his calf cramped up!)
(I’m still trying to figure out the meaning of that pose)
(My wife is amazing! I was so glad she came up to the finish with the kids)
(Breanne and Abe climbing up and down a steep hill side by the finish, totally proud to declare themselves mountain climbers)
(Soaking off in the creek afterward was incredibly refreshing)
(And now its official, we’ve run an ultra. Coincidentally all of us are 30 years old right now and we all just did our first 30 mile run in our 30th year…except Breanne, but she’s a mountain climber now.)
This is what my garmin said at the end of the race. I think I stopped it for a minute waiting for Adam near the beginning, otherwise I left it running including aid station stops and when I stopped to stretch and dump rocks out of my shoes one time.
30.61 Miles – Time: 6:57:15 – 13:33 per mile avg – Total Ascent: 10,571 FT Total Descent: 10,590 FT
Conclusion:
I really like trail running and trail racing. It’s super fun.
This was a fantastic location for an event. The trails and scenery were amazing. I’m looking forward to many more cool runs like this in the future.
I’m extremely pleased with how well my body handled the run today. I had no pains in my legs or feet…just fatigue. If you would have told me last October I would be able to do a 31 mile run through the mountains without injuring my legs badly, I wouldn’t have believed you. I feel blessed to have finally learned how to be able to run long distances without hurting myself. It has opened up so many cool possibilities for great adventures for me.
My transition into a distance runner seems to be finally panning out after about 6 months of various minor injuries along the way and my various body parts seem to have finally adapted to my new running form. Everything seems to be working together at the same time now, which is really nice.
Also I’m pretty happy with my inov-8roclite shoes. I had zero foot problems. No blisters, no discomfort, they worked Awesome! I am so glad I got them for this race because I literally stubbed my toes at least 30 times today….and NOT ONE of those times caused me any problem or pain! If I would have been wearing the FF treks to race it I would have probably broken a toe or two and not even been able to finish. I love the FF’s, but for gnarly trails, its really nice to have more protection. The roclites work fantastic for me since they are so neutral and flat with a big comfortable toe box.
31.05.2010
Races are fun! I really enjoyed the anticipation leading up to the race yesterday and then the subsequent morning of, and feeling like I’m on vacation, etc. Good times.
I didn’t train at all for a road 10K, I think I did 1 half of a interval about a month ago with Nan when I was in between trails and that’s about it. So I had no idea what to expect out of this race…but I felt like I was in good shape even though I’ve only been running 15-20 miles a week the last month.
My plan was to go out in just under 6:30 pace and hold that the whole race and my goal was just to do the race in sub 40 minutes. But I also didn’t want to kill myself on this race or go all out because I’ve got my first 30 mile trail race this weekend and I’m a lot more interested in feeling ready for that. I decided to wear my nathan water bottle waist strap for this race with just one 10 oz. bottle in it. I’m so accustomed to wearing it, that I would almost feel weird without it…but also, I really like having water when I want it, and it is about 1 bazillion times easier to drink from a bottle than a little paper cup they hand you as you’re flying by. It was a great decision, I loved having it during the race.
Nan and I warmed up for 2 miles before the race which was perfect for me. Then we waited about 7 minutes and we were off with the huge crowd. Everyone was going out at 5:45 pace or faster as I was in the very front in the first wave. That was not in my game plan so I just took it easy and let everyone go, as I held back to a 6 min/mile the first 1/2 mile. After that it starts up hill and I settled in right under 6:30 pace.
Mile 1: 6:15
The 2nd mile is uphill and I felt good, just held to my goal of sub 6:30 and it felt smooth and easy
Mile 2: 6:28
The 3rd mile was similar, mostly uphill. I felt great, in fact I wished the hills were steeper because I felt like I would pass more people if they were
Mile 3: 6:29
The fourth mile had a couple steeper sections and I knew this was the last of the main uphill of the course so I pushed harder and passed some people I had been tailing for a couple miles and my pace was stronger on this mile
Mile 4: 6:23
Then it was downhill for a mile, and I probably could have pushed a lot harder here, but I suppose I was content to recover on the downhill and save up for the final 3/4 mile uphill finish that I knew was coming…so I cruised pretty comfortably in mile 5 and a girl who I had been following who looked exactly like my wife from behind caught back up to me
Mile 5: 6:23
Then the race started to feel a little challenging on the final uphill mile. But I felt strong and I wasn’t maxing out so I was pretty sure I could hit my goal. But it wasn’t super easy at that point. I pushed hard and then the final hill into the stadium I knew I had to keep cranking in order to hit my goal of sub 40 because I was cutting it close.
Mile 6: 6:31
I sprinted onto the track and around half way to the finish and was very pleased to see a 39 on the clock.
Final time: 39:51
That was fun, and felt great. It felt good to hit my goal. And I was very pleased to see I could hold a 6:25 pace for 10K pretty comfortably on zero road training. Makes me wonder what kind of pace I could run if I actually ran 40-50 miles a week on the roads. But it doesn’t make me wonder hard enough to actually care to do that, because the mountains call my name way too loudly.
Nan was waiting in the finish area for me with Scott Ensign, and they both had really solid races! Nan killed it in 35:50 taking 2nd for women. I’ll never keep up with her in a road race! And Scott clobbered me also, the website says 38:02 for him. I think he was trying to go under 38 so he JUST missed it! But hey…I would say its close enough, its a great time for a 48 year old dude.
Afterward we hung out for a little while and got some free massages, ate some pretty tasty burritos at the expo and then jogged back to the car. It was a beautiful spring morning for a race, absolutely perfect morning actually. We had a great time. Now its time for me to not run anymore this week and save up all my energy for a 30 mile mountainous beat down of fun this Saturday. I hope the weather next weekend matches this weekend, that would be ideal. It was an amazing weekend for running Boulder this weekend.
06.02.2010
WOW – What a FUN RUN! Seattle today was absolutely AMAZING!.
Check out this shot of the trail on Lake Washington we ran with views of Mt. Rainier:
We started at a lake trail around green lake, where the entire rest of Seattle had congregated to run. It was a great flat warm up trail around the lake. Mid 40′s was the temp.
Then the sun came out from behind the clouds and the weather warmed up to the mid 50′s for the rest of the run and was absolutely gorgeous!! Danny created a really cool tour of Seattle. We were running around lakes, over bridges onto soft dirt trails around some islands, through beautiful dirt paths through parks. Then we came to Lake Washington and ran along the shore for a few miles with Mt. Rainier towering in the distance across the lake. Sun was shining, air was still, cool, and perfect. Being at sea level was great on the oxygen levels. And my body felt fantastic! No ankle issues or any other issues.
Here is a shot running over some bridges to some really cool island trails:
Jenni took this cool shot with my camera as we were running with the view of Rainier on Lake Washington:
Everything felt fantastic until about mile 13. Then little by little the ham strings, groin, then feet, started to tire. We had to go up over a 3-400 ft elevation hill climb to cross from Lake Washington over to the puget sound. Totally beautiful. We descended right into the heart of the city and down to the shoreline where there is a nice trail.
At this point my feet were getting tired. I tended to gravitate toward the grass and dirt vs. staying on the sidewalk because it was nicer on my soles which were feeling pretty beat up by mile 15 or so.
This was another really pretty section of the run at about mile 16 on the boardwalk of the peugot sound:
Here was the total approximate stats for my portion of the run.
21 Miles – 3:16:00 – ~9:30/mile avg – HR: 140 avg
Splits: 10:04, 9:44, 10:04, 8:48, 9:05, 9:02, 9:03, 9:06, 9:26, 8:47, 9:00, 10:02, 9:18, 8:32, 8:41, 9:20, 9:20, 10:47, 10:08, 10:50, 11:18
The last 3 miles were all up hill, and it seemed to just keep on going, and I was out of water about half way up, and my feet were really tired…I was really glad to sit down and eat bananas and oranges and drink cold gatorade when we stopped at mile 21 at Discovery Park.
My nutrition plan was to try out ‘VESPA’, and then slowly intake carbs throughout. I also wanted to take S-caps too, but I left them home on accident. Oops. I think if anything could have been better it would have been to have more water and have some S-caps. My legs really started feeling it around mile 18-19, when I was low on water. I’m not sure I would have wanted to run farther than I did regardless though. It was perfect. If I would have kept pushing through mile 30 I’m sure I would be really feeling sore right now. As it is I’m a little stiff in a couple spots but mostly feeling fine.
Danny did 30 miles and seemed to finish feeling pretty great and smiling…nicely done! He commented on how it was way more enjoyable than either of the marathons he competed in. It was a super fun run indeed.
Here is some graffiti that was cool that we ran past…I was biking at this point, it was about mile 25. I stopped running at mile 21 because I didn’t want to hold Danny up, and my legs were ready to close up shop for the day:
Here are some other random shots:
About 5 miles in.
Danny at Mile 26, looking good.
Discovery Park, Mile 22
21 Miles later…the food and gatorade was tasting very good at this point since I ran out of water in the last few miles.
31.12.2009
Tonight I did a 5K road race barefoot at 11:30 in 20 degree weather…there’s a first time for everything right? Maybe…not.
Total 5K time: 19:39 - total mileage for the day: 5 miles.
My wife Nan, myself, my sisters Emily and Ashley, Emily’s husband Adam and my friend Steve Wilson went out to run. It was a fun way to end the year. Nan and I warmed up taking a 1.5 mile loop around the course and I was wearing a lot of clothes and gloves and my fiveFingers with socks.
Then I stripped off all my clothes except for my really short shorts. It felt great actually, It was annoyingly hot with all the clothes on. It was in the 20′s I think but it felt good. The weather was really calm and the course roads were really clear.
We got to the start line after almost everyone and I was really surprised to notice that I was the only one around in bare feet. I mean come on, where was the competition? There were plenty of bikini sporting ladies and speedo wearing guys, but they all seemed to forget to take their shoes off for the coldest runner competition.
Needless to say, and skipping to the end here, I won the award for the ‘coldest runner’! A plaque! Hurray, it was so worth it. Mmmmm, ok , maybe not so much, the jury is still out actually, we’ll see how the bottoms of my feet feel tomorrow…but here are our amazing plaques and trophies that we need to find a place to throw away or donate now.
Anyway, the race was really enjoyable. I didn’t wear a watch or heart rate monitor or anything which was kind of cool for a change. I just tried to not go out too fast. I ended up falling in about 50 feet behind Dane the 52 marathons in 52 weeks guy who wrote a book about that. I didn’t know it was that guy until I chatted with him after. I couldn’t quite catch him, but he said he had a slight advantage on me because he had done a 50 mile warmup run earlier that day. Advantage?!? I guess you could say that. Or that was his not so subtle way of saying he can totally kick my butt. But probably he was just using it as an excuse to share his running accomplishment, which is pretty amazing in my opinion, that he can run a 19 something 5K after a 50 mile run in the 8 min pace range. I thought that was pretty cool and kind of inspiring. He was dressed in short compression shorts and racing flats I think. I ran behind him the whole time and just tried to keep him in my sights and reel him in but I never could catch him.
But I felt great. My legs felt fantastic, my heart felt great, and my feet felt great until the very end. And I didn’t go out too fast. The whole time I could tell I was getting faster. Until the end which is uphill, and my left ball and toe were starting to get sore. I was definitely not used to running that fast barefoot. And because the ground was cold and I was racing I had a harder time keeping my feet from rubbing weird. I have never attempted to go that fast barefoot before, I’m pretty sure 20 degree weather wasn’t the ideal weather to be testing out new barefoot speeds.
As I finished the 5K I felt great, my time ended up at 19:39 which I was really pleased with. I thought I would be a minute or so slower than that being barefoot, I didn’t know what to expect. And I know I could have gone faster if I had worn my FiveFingers. I couldn’t really push the pace any more at the end because of the couple sore spots I was getting in my feet.
Nan finished a couple minutes ahead, first for women in 17:48 I think. She snapped some pictures of me for the history books since I’ll probably never do that again, but this is the best we could do with my fancy camera and all its settings at night with limited time to set the shutter speed and aperture beforehand, just makes me look like I’m going really fast though right?
Now in the aftermath my feet are pretty tender. They felt fine until the end of the race but it was about an hour after
that they started to feel really tender on the pads and big toes. We’ll see how fast they can recover from that one I guess. They are getting a lot better now. I think I’ll stick with the FiveFingers in that cold of race conditions in the future. The race felt great, but my feet had a pretty painful spell about an hour afterward.
***next morning***
Ouch! Here’s my plan from now on when I run barefoot: listen to my body.
My feet aren’t very happy with me right now, because I didn’t listen to the small hints of pain signals my body was sending me.
The pads around the balls are really sensitive and I have a blister on each of my big toes. When I ran 8 miles and then 10 miles barefoot over 2 days recently, my feet were slightly sensitive after day 2, but I didn’t get blisters and they didn’t hurt to walk on. This time after 3.1 miles they are SUPER sensitive.
Remind me to listen to my body when I run from now on. To me, the pain and potential injury of not listening to my body is not worth getting a faster time. I’d rather stick with proving to myself what I can do without hurting myself.
I’m pretty sure my feet will feel better pretty quickly, but I still don’t think its in my best interest to run faster than my feet are ready for.
It was a fun race though. And now I have more experience and understand my body and current fitness level better.
***Later on at night***
My feet feel pretty good now and my blisters have died down so I’m good to go for a run with jun and scott tomorrow in the ff’s
***Next day***
My Feet felt great, and I went for a 6 mile trail run in the snow with no problem and no sensitivity. I guess the sensitivity was just from a bunch of my skin that I wore off my pushing too hard and my feet recovered within a day. I’m feeling pretty pleased with that.