Sean and Sascha's Adventures

Runnin' kicks

2011-03-19T00:43:00.000-07:00

I don’t make a particular habit of talking too much about my running gear on this blog, as I figure most runners already know what works best for them, so don’t really need recommendations from me. Well, I’ve recently been asked quite a bit what I think about Montrail’s new line-up of shoes, what I like, what I think needs improvement, and most of all, what I’m wearing on my feet.

Vitesse - the original Montrail, and basically, the original trail runner in the US.

First, I’ll give you a (hopefully) brief history of my Montrails. Like many trail runners in the late-90s/early-2000s looking to buy a “real” trail shoe, my first purchase was a Vitesse. I don’t have stats on this, but I’m quite certain this is Montrail’s all-time best seller, and possibly even the all-time best seller of all trail running shoes. My Vitesse arrived mail order, were too small, so I sent them back, and never owned another pair. In 2002, I tried the Melee. I figured if it could help propel Scott to victory at Western States, it had to be a great shoe. I loved that it was light and very flexible, however, I didn’t love that it chewed up my ankles. Krissy noticed this fact at Cle Elum 50 km and recommended I contact Montrail customer service about swapping. I was super impressed with Montrail’s customer service, as they sent me a pair of Diablos even before I sent them back my bloody-around-the-ankles Melee. I also started working at FootZone in Bend about this time and was finally able to try the rugged favorite of many, the Leona Divide (a shoe which I'm quite sure Ian logged more miles in than almost all other Leona-wearers combined).

My last pair of Leona Divides - I've been milking 'em for a few years, only using them in the winter as they're retro-fitted with screws ala-Bronco Billy style.

I tried hard to like the Diablo, as it was a favorite of Nate’s, and Bronco really talked highly of his, but I just didn’t love it. However, I immediately fell in love with the Leona! It fit my foot so well, it was relatively light for its era, I could literally take a brand new pair out of the box and run a 50k in them without issue, and the part that I thought was the coolest was the rugged, sawtooth traction was absolutely the best (in fact it still ranks as my favorite snow tread, and combined with the goretex upper of the Hurricane Ridge, was a sweet winter running shoe).

Others came and went over the years: Wasatch (very rugged, never tried it), Diez Vista (Diabloesque, but I never tried it), Masai (was a great shoe - light, fast, and highly breathable, but some durability issues), Susitna (goretex version of Masai, the goretex was more like a softshell which worked really well; great for snowshoeing), Kinabulu (Brandon-inspired, was made for desert running on slickrock and sandstone), Continental Divide (Leona’s overly-stiff successor), Hardrock (I never tried any of the 3 or 4 versionas of this beefy shoe, but it was a huge hit with some of the bigger runners, as well as with hikers), Highline (basically a neutral, cushy Hardrock; I remember Krissy being quoted as saying they were like running on pillows), Mountain Mist (goretex verison of the Highline), Nitrus (fast-looking, great for multiple surfaces, had outsole nub issues), Odyssey (weak attempt at a Masai replacement, although Hart, Grossman, and Chris really liked it; I still use an old pair for mowing the lawn), Wildwood (urban trail runner for both trails and roads, I never tried them), Highlander (narrow fit with big lugs, good in the mud), Streak (Montrail’s first big change to a lighter, lower, more flexible shoe; also, the first Montrail I got to wear-test).

Quite possibly the most recognizable trail running shoe outsole pattern in history. Photo courtesy Glenn Tachiyama

Currently in the line, but not new: Masochist (modified Streak w/slight medial post and narrower toe box, Montrail's best seller the past few years; also holds the c.r. at WS; goretex version available), Rockridge (neutral shoe w/great lateral stability and good lugs for snow and mud; I was fortunate to be able to do lots of wear-testing for this), Sabino Trail (beefiest current shoe; goretex version available).

Newest Montrails: Badrock (Fluidpost version of the Rockridge), Fairhaven (great fitting, fairly plush, road/trail hybrid, it's currently my go-to road shoe for lunch runs; another shoe I got to wear-test), Rogue Racer (I was very fortunate to wear-test this very extensively and see my input included in the production model). The Rogue is basically a racing flat, and thus, by far the biggest change from a traditional Montrail. And this is a good thing. A very good thing. It's light (official specs say 8.8 oz, but my food scale says 7.7 oz), definitely low-profile, extremely breathable (i.e., it drains well), highly flexible, great little grippy nubs, has a flexible rubber rock plate, and, well, it just looks cool. Plus, it's fast!

Future Montrails: okay, I really can't say anything specific here, but I can say the Rogue was just a start in the new wave of lighter and faster Montrails.

So, this all brings me back to my current Montrail kicks. By far, most of my miles are in the Rogue Racer. When I first started testing them over a year ago, I figured they would be good for up to 20-25 miles maximum. Well, last weekend I wore a pair for all 3 days of the 3 Days of Syllamo stage race (50k, 50mi, 20k). I was a bit concerned by the ruggedness of the trails and sheer distance, but I'm excited to report that my legs and feet were very happy with my choice. I had absolutely zero issues. Sure, my legs are now tired, but I expected that after the race. So now I know I would wear them for most trail races up to 100k (and they would be great for varied-terrain races such as American River and JFK), however, I'm still unsure if they would be my 100-miler shoe. Of course, if you know me and how good of a 100 miler I am, that obviously isn't an issue.

My current favorite Rogue Racer, complete with knee and shin blood around the collar thanks to Syllamo!

As I mentioned above, the Fairhaven is my current go-to shoe for my daily lunch runs. It's cushy on the roads and has great nubby traction for a little snow and mud that's currently on my trails. The Rockridge is what I consider my 4x4 shoe - the one I can wear for any conditions. If I'm not comfortable with the Rogue for a trail run, the Rockridge is the one I use. It's great for Smith Rock State Park's ruggedness and big vert, is comfortable, runs great on the flats as well as big elevation changes, has good lugs for mud and snow, and it is the one pair of shoes I took with me to Chile for 12 days last October (which included the mountainous Ultramaraton de los Andes 80 km race, plus lots and lots of hiking).

So, there you have it. Montrails. Lots of Montrails. Old and new. What running models did I miss (I'm excluding Montrail's many hiking, mountaineering, climbing, casual, and sandals they've made over the years)? What's your favorite?

One final note: If this post got you excited about Montrails and your favorite local running store doesn't carry them, you can now order a pair directly from Montrail's fancy new website (the website even helps you determine which pair should best suit your needs).

Team Montrail 2011

2011-02-02T00:35:00.000-08:00

I am extremely humbled to be a Montrailian for the 9th straight year. Not only do we have an extremely stacked team talent-wise, we really have a bunch of really cool and fun to be around guys and girls who just love to run! Press release below:

Montrail Announces 2011 Trail Running Team

Richmond, CA (February 1, 2011) – Montrail, the leader in trail-inspired running and recovery footwear, is thrilled to announce its 2011 trail running team. Comprised of top trail and ultra runners from around North America, the 2011 edition of Team Montrail will have the difficult task of improving upon its successes in 2010.

"At Montrail, we look to align the brand with athletes who are pushing the limits, achieving success and helping to shape the future of trail and ultrarunning,” said Montrail Athlete Manager Jesse Malman. “For 2011, we’ve compiled a group of individuals who are at the top of their sport, and committed to helping the sport to grow in popularity and in participation.”

In 2010, Montrail athletes had several notable wins and achievements, including: Ultrarunning Magazine’s 2010 Ultrarunner of the Year (Geoff Roes), 2010 Female Ultrarunning Performance of the Year (Ellie Greenwood) and 2010 Male Ultrarunning Performance of the Year (Geoff Roes). Max King had a stellar year winning the Xterra Trail Running World Championship, USATF Trail Half Marathon and Trail Marathon Championship, while Annette Bednosky topped the podium at the USATF 100 Mile Trail Championship. With several other first place finishes, course records and major speed records in 2010, Team Montrail has set a high bar for 2011.

This year, top runners Geoff Roes, Max King, Dakota Jones, Ellie Greenwood and Joelle Vaught will be back along with the majority of the 2010 team, as well as four new additions:

Megan Lund: This Aspen, Colorado native is a 2-time Olympic marathon trials qualifier and 2-time USA Mountain Running team member. She’s the winner of the 2010 Sierre Zinal Mountain Race in Switzerland. Megan looks to run many high-profile mountain races in Europe this summer, along with the Pikes Peak Ascent and USATF Trail Half Marathon Championship.

Amy Sproston: Amy lives in Portland, Oregon and is a 2-time Massanutten 100 winner, winner of the 2010 JFK 50 and the 2010 Pine to Palm 100. Her focus for the first half of 2011 will be Western States 100.

Ryan Burch: Ryan is a native of Colorado and is a force in the mountains. 2010 highlights include wins at the Antelope Island 50, Leadville Marathon and Grand Mesa 100. This year, look for Ryan to compete near the front at Western States 100 and Leadville 100.

Andy Henshaw: Andy lives in Steilacoom, Washington and at the young age of 25 is just beginning to find his groove. In 2011, he’ll focus on the 50 mile and 100k distances and will look to qualify for the USA 100k Team.

“This talented team of runners is also a group of active and influential members of the running community,” continued Jesse. “They are a strong group of race directors, coaches, trainers, and running addicts...we couldn't be more excited about the year ahead for Team Montrail."

With great excitement and anticipation, here’s your 2011 Montrail Trail Running Team:
Annette Bednosky – Jefferson, NC
Ryan Burch – Ft. Collins, CO
Luis Escobar – Santa Maria, CA
Ellie Greenwood – Banff, AB
Matt Hart – Salt Lake City, UT
Andy Henshaw – Steilacoom, WA
David Horton – Lynchburg, VA
Dakota Jones – Ft. Collins, CO
Max King – Bend, OR
Megan Lund – Basalt, CO
Ryne Melcher – Vancouver, BC
Sean Meissner – Sisters, OR
Luanne Park – Redding, CA
Jill Perry – Manlius, NY
Geoff Roes – Nederland, CO
Gary Robbins – North Vancouver, BC
Erik Skaden – Sacramento, CA
Amy Sproston – Portland, OR
Joelle Vaught – Boise, ID

Follow along throughout the year on the Team Montrail blog to keep current on race schedules and outcomes.

About Montrail:
Montrail is a premium outdoor brand known for its high performance trail-specific and recovery footwear. Serving as the trail running authority since 1993, Montrail is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear Company based in Richmond, Calif. Montrail distributes its products through specialty outdoor, running and sporting goods retailers throughout the United States and over 30 countries worldwide. Montrail is committed to delivering innovative performance footwear with outstanding runability for the New Breed of Runner. To learn more about Montrail, please visit: www.montrail.com.

Erin Brosterhous
Mountain Hardwear and Montrail Public Relations
US mail: PO Box 775772
Shipping: 729 Oak Street
Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
970.871.1308 (office)
970.846.1684 (cell)
Personal email: erinbroster@gmail.com
http://www.mountainhardwear.com/
http://www.montrail.com/

168 hours of Whole Foods

2010-12-12T22:54:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Dec. 4:

So for many years now I take an annual running sabbatical about this time of year. It's a nice time of year to do it - at the end of a long season of running and racing, my body is tired and needs a break, the days are short and cold, and it's the holiday season so that means I'll be eating lots of holiday snacky foods.

Well, this year I'm doing something different. I'm still taking the sabbatical, which entails one week of no physical activity, then maybe if my body feels like it I'll start hiking and snowshoeing a bit the second week. Usually at the end of week 2 I'm ready to start jogging a bit again, but occasionally I'll take 3 or 4 weeks off, and one year it was even 6 weeks off (that was the year I mapped out the original long course of the Rumble). It's really nice to give my body a much needed complete rest for however long it takes.

Shellburg Falls Trail Run, enroute to the Civil War!

So in addition to my running sabbatical, which started at 9:50 a.m. this morning when I finished the Shellburg Falls 7 mile trail race, I'm also going to eat and drink a 100% whole foods diet for exactly one week. That started tonight at 6:29 p.m. at the conclusion of a nice Mexican restaurant meal, complete with a blue margarita (the last thing was actually a cinnamon candy they put with the check).

Post-Civil War / pre-whole foods blue margaritas.

Hart kinda planted the idea in my head in March with his Whole Foods for a Day Challenge blog post. I didn't take him up on the challenge then, or ever, but have occasionally thought about it. Then in late October, after getting home from Chile, I decided I was going for the challenge. But a day is just way too short; I can do anything for a day - that's easy. So I decided to not make any drastic diet changes while I was still training and racing, but instead wait until my season was over.

Well, it's over and the 168 hours of whole foods has begun. I'm going to update this blog daily for a week, with plans to put exactly everything I eat and drink each day, plus how I'm feeling. Despite what Newman-O's Nordell thinks, I actually do eat a fairly good diet. I just want it to be healthier for a week and see what happens. Oh, and I'm only telling one person about this so I don't get any unsolicited advice from anyone. I'm doing it my way, and I'm doing it for me.

So, my diet so far for the last 3:50 has been 24 oz of water. Let the next 164:10 begin.

Sunday, Dec. 5:
I know I made the correct decision in not doing this whole foods diet for just 24 hours, as I didn't really even think about it. Of course I didn't eat much, either, but not because of the type of food, but just because I had a lazy day.

Number one on my agenda today was to go grocery shopping. I spent $67.75 on nothing but whole foods. It looks like I bought a lot, so I'm hoping this will last me the week. Here's a list of what I bought: 2.4# round roast, 2 chicken breasts, 4 broccoli crowns, 8 bananas, 4 avocados, 4 cucumbers, 4 green peppers, 1.75# of green beans, 2 green onions, 5 mushrooms, 1 red pepper, 4 bunches of radishes, 1 yellow onion, 3 grapefruits, 1# sunflower seeds, 1 white onion, 1 jalapeno pepper, 1.5# almonds, spinach, 4# granny smith apples, 5# carrots, 3 containers grape tomatoes, 6 sprouted bagels.

These are all of the goodies I bought for the week.

I have other food at home already that I'll also be using, including almond butter, potatoes, pepper (but the sea salt I have unfortunately doesn't make the whole foods cut), eggs, garlic, olive oil. I forgot to get jam, and as I eat ab&j pretty much every day for lunch at work, I'll be getting some whole foods approved jam tomorrow.

My menu today consisted of: banana, grapefruit, a few little carrots and celery, avocado, sprouted bagel with almond butter, tiny orange, 2 big bowls of beef stew, a couple cups of hot lemon water, and about 60 oz. of water. Not a lot, but I wasn't very active today, so I wasn't very hungry. No cravings for anything.

Monday, Dec. 6:
I was curious as to what my first "real" day on the diet would bring (real = work day). There always seems to be a candy jar full of chocolates, and people often bring in tasty baked goodies, so I wanted to see how my self-control was. In anticipation of said non-whole foods, I packed lots and lots of food for work.

Breakfast, lunch, and snacks (all at work) - 1 banana, lots of carrots, lots of celery, 1 broccoli crown, lots of grape tomatoes, 1 bunch of radishes, 1 apple, 1 orange, 100 oz. water. I usually drink a gallon+ of water every day at work, but I noticed I didn't need or want to drink as much today, yet was peeing more than usual. I attribute this to the natural water found in all the food I was eating.

Dinner - big bowl of beef stew, avocado, a few carrots and green pepper slices, hot lemon water.

I didn't have any cravings at work, maybe because I was shoveling food in my mouth almost the whole day, but I did have a slight and short-lived sugar craving after dinner. It went away, though, when I started slicing and dicing tomorrow's work food.

Tuesday, Dec. 7:
If I thought like I was eating all day at work yesterday, that was nothing compared to today. Good thing it was slow so I could eat all of the tasty goodness I took with me.

Breakfast - sprouted bagel with almond butter, banana

Lunch, snacks - apple, handful of almonds, (sometime in the a.m. the boss gave us all a baggie full of chex mix; everyone else tore right into theirs, but mine went in a drawer), green beans, green pepper, grape tomatoes, cucumber, huge salad (3.3 liters worth of huge consisting of spinach, onion, radishes, green pepper, green beans, grape tomatoes, broccoli, sunflower seeds, olive oil, pepper), grapefruit. All of the individual veggies were in addition to the veggies that were also in the mega salad (many duplicates).

Dinner - spinach, garlic, onion, and pepper all lightly cooked in olive oil, with 3 eggs over-easy over the spinach mixture. This was really good!

Dessert - apple

Water - 1 gallon today. In addition to the increased pee breaks, I've also been pretty gassy the past couple days. I thought it was processed foods that were supposed to do this to people, not whole foods.

It sure does take a lot longer to prepare all of this food than I'm used to. My cutting boards, knives, and tupperware are all definitely working overtime. I had a little bit of a craving for something more substantial not long after dinner, but it didn't last long. I was planning on chicken and rice for dinner, but since I changed my mind on that, today ended up being a vegetarian day (and if not for the 3 eggs, it would have been a vegan day).

I just thought another picture needed to be added in the middle of this post. Sascha and Lucie taking the scenic route down Black Butte.

Wednesday, Dec. 8:
Okay, I'm definitely o.d.ing on veggies here. After once again eating a gigantic salad at work, I decided I haven't been eating enough fruit and animal protein. That changed tonight with a big chicken breast and super tasty sweet potato. I decided that tomorrow I won't be taking another 3.3 liters worth of salad to work; instead more fruit, sprouted bagels, and almond butter, in addition to just some veggies to snack on.

Breakfast - sprouted bagel with almond butter, banana.

Lunch, snacks - handful of almonds, handful of sunflower seeds, fat salad (consisting of spinach, onion, radishes, green pepper, green beans, grape tomatoes, broccoli, sunflower seeds, olive oil, pepper), apple. Once again my boss brought goodies to work, this time in the form of fudge. I'm seeing a trend here. Despite uncharacteristically not eating any of the treats, nobody at work has noticed and thus, haven't quizzed me about my eating habits this week (they have, however, stared in amazement as I chow down on the huge salads).

Dinner - chicken breast, sweet potato with cinnamon (super tasty!), strawberries.

Unlike the last 2 nights, I didn't have any cravings tonight after dinner, which I believe is due to the more substantial animal protein dinner I had (the chicken breast was pretty big). After dinner I felt pretty bloated. I contribute that partially to my dinner, but more to all of the water I ate via the veggies in addition to the 150 oz of water I drank.

Less than 3 days to go and everything is good. It might be a little tougher tomorrow night as I'm going out to dinner at Jackson's Corner for Darla's birthday. I've never really noticed if this "healthy" restarant has much in the way of whole foods. Guess I'll find out soon enough (they do, however, have super good cookies and cinnamon rolls!).

Thursday, Dec. 9:
Since I'm working 4-10s at work right now, today was the last day of work this week, so although that will help take away some of the temptations (today 2 girls brought in rice krisy treats for an office taste test), I won't have the eating structure the next couple of days that I do on work days.

Breakfast - sprouted bagel with almond butter, banana.

Lunch, snacks - apple, sprouted bagel with almond butter, orange, handful of almonds, avocado with sunflower sprinkled on top.

Dinner - Jackson's Corner for Darla's birthday and it was great. Andrea made sure everything I ordered was within my guidelines. Thai salad (modified dressing from the usual), cucumbers, beef. This was sooooooo good (although I think it could have used some salt) and filling. Andrea was nice enough to bring 6 fancy cupcakes for Darla, and Darla graciously shared with the crew for dessert. Yes, I was a little bummed to have not been enjoying the chocolate/peanut butter chip cupcake, but I didn't have any huge cravings for it.

Today was a good day. My lunch and snacks at work were a nice change from the overdose of veggies the past few days, and the beef in the Thai salad really hit the spot. I drank about 140 oz of water, so about normal for me. Also, I wasn't nearly as gassy as the past few days, which I think is a mixture of my body adapting to more veggies than it's used to, plus just not eating as many veggies today. I had a mild headache at work for about an hour. At first I thought it was probably a no-sugar headache, but that didn't make a lot of sense to me because if that was going to happen, it would have on Sunday or Monday (this was my first headache in a loooooooooong time). Andrea thought it was probably from lower calories than I'm used to (probably even lack-of calories). That theory sounds more plausible.

Friday, Dec. 10:
Day off from work, so I slept in then went for a long walk around town with Sascha, which including stopping at the grocery store so I could buy ingredients to make Chocolate Revel Bars for the CORK Christmas Party tomorrow night. I noticed I was feeling a little weak and had a stuffy nose. Blah. As is typical on days off, my eating was sporadic.

Breakfast, lunch, snacks - banana, grapefruit, apple, cucumber, radishes, grape tomatoes, green beans, green pepper, broccoli (thankfully I was able to eat some veggies again today)

Dinner - 2 big bowls of big fat tasty stew again with round roast, white onion, green onion, green pepper, red pepper, garlic, potatoes, carrots, radishes, fresh ground pepper. While tasty, it was definitely a little bland. Usually I would put a can of El Pato Mexican tomato sauce in stew to add spice.

The second of 2 beef stews I made this week. Both were really good and hearty, but slightly bland.

Dessert - banana

The most difficult part of today was baking the Chocolate Revel bars. Not so much because I craved a bar (I didn't), but moreso because when cooking or baking I usually snack on the ingredients. I had to conscientiously tell myself a few times that I couldn't have those chocolate chips, or lick the beaters when I was done mixing it. I made it through the experience unscathed.

I only drank about 60-70 oz of water today. Less than 24 hours to go - easy schmeasy. On a side note, Andrea and I started watching the entire Lost series tonight. After 6 hours we had made it through 8 episodes.

Saturday, Dec. 11:
This last day really was pretty easy. When I woke up I felt light, so decided to weigh myself. I was down 3 lbs for the week. I definitely attribute it to the diet, especially since there was no running. After another couple Lost episodes, we took the dogs for a nice walk around Suttle Lake in super heavy, wet snow where I finished feeling like a popsicle. I'm not going to lie - a nice cup of hot cocoa in front of the big fire would have really hit the spot, but that wasn't an option. Instead I went home and finished off the stew.

Breakfast - 5-grain hot cereal with almond butter

Lunch - stew

The 168 hours ended in fine style at the Lava City Roller Dolls roller derby match. Anticipating the moment, I took a few chocolate revel bars in with me, and few minutes before the time was up, I bought a PBR (that fit nicely in the PBR beer koozy I had just won). 6:29 came and the first thing in my mouth was a drink of PBR followed closely by a revel bar. They both tasted good (okay, the revel bars tasted really good), but I didn't get a noticable sugar buzz or anything like that. After roller derby I went to a Christmas party and feasted on more non-whole food, including ham, pizza, and Pepsi, as well as Darla's delicious salad that I'm pretty sure was whole foods compliant. Anyway, again there was no noticable sugar buzz, and nothing tasted over-the-top awesome, nor did I feel sick from it.

First the PBR...

....then the chocolate revel bar.

So, what did I learn? Well, I didn't have any big epiphanies, nor do I feel like I'm now going to save the world or anything like that. It definitely takes a bit more time to prepare whole foods, especially all of the veggies I took to work vs. the few veggies I usually take along with a Clif bar. Making fat salads also takes longer to make than an almond butter and jam sandwich, plus the huge salads also take a lot longer to eat than the ab&j. But aside from the veggie o.d. earlier in the week, I enjoyed the whole foods week.

I definitely don't think I'll ever go 100% whole foods. For me that's just not realistic, as I really enjoy things like nuun, cookies, cinnamon rolls, and cheese fries. I don't want to give up those treats. But I do believe I will now be generally more conscientious about the food I buy and eat. I could see myself going to 80-90% whole foods; I think that is reasonable. I'm also glad I did this for a week as opposed to a day, as I really do think a day doesn't prove anything, nor would it allow me to get into any sort of routine. I'll definitely do this diet again, and I think 2 weeks would be an even better experiment (just not this time of year with all of the Christmas treats coming my way).

Post-whole foods breakfast at Chow. That's a breakfast sandwich filled with eggs, bratwurst, avocado and tomato with 2 pancakes used as the bread! I washed it down with a bloody mary.

CHI! CHI! CHI! LE! LE! LE!

2010-10-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

That's the chant I've been hearing the last 14 hours as I watch the Chilean miners get pulled up to safety, one by one. It's really very emotional to watch each one come up. I can't imagine the excitement the entire country of Chile must be feeling now...but tomorrow, I'll be amongst them. I'm currently sitting in the Salt Lake City airport on my way to Santiago to run the Ultramaraton de los Andes. I've been anxiously awaiting this trip ever since winning the Canadian Death Race last year, as this trip is my prize. I never imagined I would be traveling to Chile at such an historic time. Very exciting indeed!

So, as my last blog post was over 5 months ago now, I've definitely been quite the slacker. I decided this year that I was going to run fewer ultras and fewer weekly miles, concentrating more on the shorter mountain stuff for races and a bit more speed during the week.

Fewer mileage definitely doesn't equate to less playing, as I've been playing a whole heckuva lot, running and racing up and down the west coast and out to the Colorado rockies multiple times. I've basically had a dream summer. I'll try to list my adventure highlights since then just by memory.

May:
-Silver State 50k, roadtrip with Ashley, Bronco, and Yassine
-Pocatello 50 mi-turned-50k; absolutely epic snowy/windy/rainy/sleety/white-out adventure; roadtrip with Amy
June:
-Desert RATS 148 mi stage race; incredible event, fun hanging out with Fatboy and Rob. I even got the W.
-Western States paced and crewed Jill.
July:
-Leadville Trail Marathon, plus 2 14ers (Torreys and Grays) the day before w/Hart and another 14er (Elbert) the day after w/Hart and Jenny.
-Badwater, paced and crewed Jamie, where she got another W and CR, plus 3rd overall..
-Steens Mountain Running Camp, high school xc camp, attended as a coach w/8 Sisters Outlaws harriers.
-Cascade Lakes Relay, part of the super fun Team FootZone/Rebound/Mountain Hardwear; overall W and CR.
August:
-Mt. Ashland Hill Climb; this 1/2 marathon w/5,600' vertical has been on my list for quite a few years. Cool race.
-Pikes Peak Marathon; another classic race that's been on my list for a long time. It's hard.
-Hood to Coast Relay; part of another super fun team, Willamette Dental; division W and 9th overall. I love relays!
September:
-Sunrise to Summit; I really suck at this race that goes straight up Mt. Bachelor, but I did it so I could meet one of my goals this year - complete all 4 of the Oregon MUT Series races. If Erik Skaggs wasn't so fast, I would have won the series.
-Middle Sister summit w/Chris and Lori (approx. 22 mi.). It was fun passing the mountaineering group on the glacier with their helmets, ice axes, boots, crampons, etc, in our shorts, running shoes, and small hydration packs. I think they hated us.
-Spokane trip to meet up with 5 cousins to surprise Grandma; fun, fun, fun weekend!
-XTerra 1/2 Marathon; fun race, but I had a tough day, including a really hard crash with 3/4 mile to go. Ouch.
-Flagline 50k was a week later, and I really wanted to support Super Dave in his ultra-r.d.ing debut, but I DNS'd because I still hurt from my XTerra crash.
-Run Wild Adventures wedding; Gary and Shandi tied the knot and invited me to their special day.
October:
-Dirty 2nd Half, another great Super Dave production.
-Three Fingered Jack 23ish mile loop w/William and Trevor. I'm not sure Trevor ever wants to run with the 2 of us again!

There were also many other adventures in the central Oregon mountains, i.e. Black Crater, Black Butte, Obsidian, Belknap Crater, Green Lakes, Tam McArthur, Tumalo Falls Watershed area, etc. Definitely an epic summer!

Sascha has been joining the fun on as much as she can handle, which unfortunately for me isn't as much as she used to do. It's a bit hard for me to watch her get older, but she seems content to be more of a hiker, walker, and sniffer now, but definitely still a sand bagger, as a trail-crossing squirrel brings back her younger reflexes in a heartbeat.

Now here I am, almost in Chile, awaiting yet another adventure. I'll be in Santiago this weekend (staying at the swanky W Hotel, courtesty TNF), running the race and checking out the big city. On Monday I fly to Calama in northern Chile, then bus to San Pedro de Atacama, where I get to play in the Atacama desert for the week (original thoughts of trekking in Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chile changed after learning this is rainy season there). From what I've read, the Atacama is the driest desert in the world, so rain shouldn't be an issue. I'm planning on staying in a hostel, renting a bike, climbing some volcanoes, and doing whatever other fun opportunity comes my way. There are a few peaks in the 6,000 meter range (19,685'), so it would be sweet to get up that high!

Anyway, that's kinda what I've been up to the past 5 months. I have also had the pleasure of wear-testing a few of the Spring 2011 Montrail line-up. Being sample size is pretty sweet, especially when Montrail takes the feedback from wear testers seriously and makes the necessary improvements before final production. Exciting stuff is ahead!

I have about 1/2 dozen blogs started that are hanging out in my drafts folder, some running related, some not (an op-ed or 2 in there!). Who knows, maybe you'll get to read what I really think about something sometime; this is election season...

Addiction

2010-05-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Sean, and I'm addicted to flotrack.org, Haile Gebrselassie videos, Chris Solinsky videos, and pretty much any and all other videos that show fast runners running really fast.

When I finally bought a computer in November, I thought that I'd be blogging at least twice a week. No more computer cramming sessions at the library where I could just barely get my internet to-do list crossed off, let alone blog. One post was going to be committed to running (shocker), and one post a bit more controversial - throwing some issues out there to see what you think and why. I could just chill out while surfing and blogging away in the comfort of my home.

And then I found running videos. I dare you to watch the Chris Solinsky video and not get excited. Seriously. In fact while writing this post I'm replaying that video for the 10th time or so, going back and forth between writing and watching.

So in addition to my running and racing, of which there has been plenty of both, I've been spending many evenings, sometimes very late into the evenings, with my newest form of crack. And thus, the blogging has suffered. I am determined, however, to at least try to get caught back up.

Since Hagg, I've...

Had a sweet weekend of 2 trail races, Buck Mtn. Mudslinger 6.5 miler (organized by the very cool Gary and Shandi at Run Wild Adventures) and Tumor Shooter 7 miler, with the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival squeezed in between the races. Although the festival ended up being really crowded so my friends and I ate seafood, drank wine and beer, and played games in a really cool condo on the beach instead. The races were both super fun. Buck Mtn. lived up to its Mudslinger name, while the Tumor Shooter helped raise some money to shoot Johanna's tumor. A good group of runners ran this double, one of whom I whooped in a bet and will pay up soon.

The first weekend of March I ran the Napa Valley Marathon with high hopes of sub-2:37 for a sub-6 pace. I never got into a good groove, feeling like I was pushing too hard for the pace I was running, then ultimately blew up the last 3 miles, finishing in 2:50.

Then after 7 races over the previous 6 weekends, I decided to take a break from racing and help out at the local 5k/10k, Grin and Bear It run. Despite whacking a deer on the way to the race, I really enjoyed marking the course and just helping out in general. Volunteering is awesome!

The following weekend was the Santiam Canyon Scramble, another Run Wild Adventures production. This was a classic scramble and true to form, I got whooped! I just don't do well at runs that include bushwhacking off trail, hiking up super steep climbs, arms-flailing descents, and where shin guards wouldn't have been weird. I was so beat up after this and I had a complete blast! As a bonus, I got to autograph a pair of Montrail Streaks for the very enthusiastic Ryan Krol.

Autographing my first pair of shoes!

What better way to finish the first quarter of the year than by running a marathon? Well, I couldn't answer that question, so I ran, and ended up winning, the Yakima River Canyon Marathon in 2:45:14, complete with a nice 2 min. negative split on the tougher second half (getting a little Napa redemption in the process). My good friend Annie won the women's race. The post-race party Annie, Steve, Chris, and I created was one of the best ones I've ever gone to, complete with wine tasting, pool, beer, darts, wing-eating contest, karaoke, bowling, talk of a beer mile (next time)...truly epic!

Winning the Yakima River Canyon Marathon. I never saw all of that writing surrounding me during the race.

Helping Super Dave with the Horse Butte 10 miler was another fun volunteering opportunity. It really is fun to help out at races then cheerlead for everyone as they're closing in on the finish.

Of course my biggest adventure of the year so far was the Peterson Ridge Rumble. Once again it was awesome! There were about 350 registered runners, 290 finishers, 1 lost kid (who was found!), 1 broken bone, 10 people and 2 dogs at my house, fantastic timers (Run Wild Adventures), and some of the best post-race food ever. I decided to do away with the burgers and hotdogs, instead splurging a bit and hiring Long Board Louies for a burrito bar. This was one of the single most popular decisions I've ever made regarding the Rumble, and as such, Louies is already booked for next year. And as always, Nancy P's provided the to-die-for Peanut Butter Fudge Bars, Brownies, and Wonder Bars! Thanks so much to all who Rumbled!

Jerry Duncan and Nancy MacInnis sportin' some stylish retro Rumble socks!

Post-Rumble I always like to treat myself to something fun, so finally after years of wanting to run the Race to Robie Creek 1/2 marathon in Boise, I did it. It's mostly a dirt/gravel road, gaining about 2,000' in the first 8.4 miles, then bombing down the final 4.7 miles while losing 2,500'. It was the first warm day of the year for me, plus having the race start at noon and running in a canyon where the heat was trapped, made for a little extra suffering foe me. I averaged a heart rate of 185 (maxed at 197) and was happy to just nab a top-10 finish (out of 2,500). This is a classic, fun event.

After being beat-up from Robie for a week, I didn't really have much time to fine-tune for my next race 2 weeks later: Bloomsday in Spokane. Bloomsday is a great event. There are 50,000 runners and probably that many spectators and volunteers, too. I grew up running Bloomsday every year from 1983-1995, with a p.r. of 42:40 in 1994. It's a 12 km and I had a goal of 41:00, which is 5:30 pace. From the gun I went out like it was a 1/2 marathon instead of 12 km, as my first mile was 5:43. That's pretty much the pace I stayed at then the entire race. I think the key to running well at short races is to go out aggressively, as there just isn't much distance to make up lost time. I finished in 43:17, a 5:48 pace, and surprisingly good enough for 86th (I was hoping for top-100, but thought it would take my original goal of 41 for that). Although not quite the time I hoped for, or even a p.r., I really enjoyed Bloomsdaying for the first time in 15 years.

Next up I have a fun little race this weekend, the Larison Rock Hill Climb 4.5 mile in Oakridge. The next weekend is Silver State 50 km in Reno, then Pocatello 50 mile on Memorial Day Weekend. All of this, plus a few solid 120-130 mile weeks and sauna sessions, will hopefully get me ready for my first "A" race of the year, Desert RATS Stage Race. It's 150 miles, 5 stages on Kokopelli's Trail from Fruita, CO to Moab, UT.

And that, my friends, is what's up in Sean-land.

Now I gotta go back and watch some more fast videos.

The Rumble is FULL!!

2010-03-03T21:57:00.001-08:00

Yeah baby, the 8th Annual Peterson Ridge Rumble just filled up a couple hours ago, a full 5 1/2 weeks before race day! As any fellow race director knows, this is awesome!

If you want to run and you're in, thank you for registering early. If you want to run and you're not in, well...I've already accepted 330 runners and there's a 300-person limit. So, basically what I'm saying here is that there isn't a waitlist.

If enough runners drop in the next few weeks, I may open registration again for a bit, but don't count on it.

A few other options for Rumble Day:
-Volunteer at the Rumble!
-Race for the Roses 1/2 Marathon, 10k, 5k in Portland
-Mt. Si 50k / 50 mi Ultra and Relay in Snoqualmie, WA
-Whidbey Island Marathon in Oak Harbor, WA

A little course condition update:
It looks like for the first time since 2007 that the 60k will, in fact, be 60k! I ran the full Grunt loop a week and a half ago to check snow/ice conditions and it was pretty darn good. Only a little bit of the slippery stuff, which I'm pretty confident will be gone by race day. So, if you're signed up for the 60k, be prepared to go the full distance this year (or maybe even a km or two extra!).

Hagg Lake 25 km

2010-02-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

After running the Hagg Lake 50k for 6 out of the last 7 years and volunteering the 7th, I figured I pretty much have that 2-lap race down. Sure I still want to go back and run sub-4, but not yet. This year I decided to run the 25k, i.e., the j.v. race. Although I'm running fewer ultras this year, the 25k was a great way for me to still get my racing social-fix while seeing how fast I could run one lap around the lake.

I carpooled to Hagg with Bend fast-guys Andy Martin and fellow Montrailian Max King. Both very fast, competitive, and undefeated in the few ultras they've run, I was hoping they would beat each other up for the W. We stayed at the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove on Saturday night and enjoyed our beverages of choice (me - hard cider, Max - whiskey, Andy - water) while watching a women's curling match between Canada and some Denmark hotties. Wild night.

The next morning, as all the varsity runners took off at 8 for the 50k, I had fun cheering for many of my friends on their way back through the starting area after their 3 mile out and back. I also did a pretty good warm-up as I wanted to be prepared to go hard from the start. At 9, I joined 250 others on my first Hagg one-lapper. I was excited, and I was also slow. My warm-up was long, but not quick enough, and the lead group of 4 easily dropped me immediately. Dang! But I was happy to be sportin' my pink Orcas Island 50k vest for the out and back in support of 25k'er Mandy Giblin.

Once I got back down to lake level, I picked up my tempo with hopes of catching at least 2 of the 4 ahead of me. I like having someone behind me in faster races as it helps keep me honest with my pace, and Jeremy McWilliams provided that role for me until a bit past the first a.s. We hit a.s. 1 at 10k right about 42:00, a bit behind pace for my sub-1:45 goal. As the day was sunny but comfortably cool, I opted to run sans bottle and I loved it, but I did stop really quick to actually take a gel and drink a whole cup of water instead of just trying to run through and choke on a few drops.

That's me navigating a creek crossing that eliminated a road section from previous years - a very cool improvement!

I felt good so decided to increase my effort, catching back up to, and then passing, Jeremy. Soon after I caught one of the 4 guys from the lead pack, Aaron Ladd. Upon seeing me, Aaron noticably picked up his pace, which was great as it gave me someone to run with again. A couple miles later, I decided to throw in a little surge and passed him. This section also started getting warmer and muddier. I was pushing hard and having a blast!

I hit a.s. 2, 11.2 miles, in 1:16. Again I quickly stopped to suck down a gel and drink 2 cups of nuun. Fellow Christmas Campers and all-around cool people Steve, Liz, and Kamm were working there and they got me in and out quick while hooting and hollering for me, and letting me know 3rd place Richard Bolt was almost 2 min. ahead. I know Richard is fast and so taking back 30 sec./mile for the last 4.3 miles was going to be tough, so what else could I do but just go for it!

I was cruising along pretty well, dodging past 50k'ers, speeding up on the fast sections, slowing down considerably on the goopy muddy sections, of which there were a lot in the last section, and really trying to open it up on the short paved stretches. With 2 miles to go I noticed I was quickly gaining on a red shirt, and convinced it was Richard, I pushed hard to catch him. Well, turns out a 50k'er was also wearing a red shirt and black shorts.

I passed the one mile to go sign in 1:38:54. Could I finish with a 6-flat to reach my sub-1:45 goal? I didn't think, I just ran hard...for a couple minutes until the best/worst sticky, goopy mud of the day became the trail for a 1/2 mile (Ness even lost a shoe in it and decided to finish sans shoes!). I knew I wasn't going to glide across this, so I slowed down, shortened my stride, and just got through it without pulling my groin or going down. I finished in 1:46:10 for 4th place. I was happy with my effort and time. As for my place, well, in 7 Haggs, I have now finished 4th four times; just call me Mr. One-Off-the-Podium.

Soaking the legs and cleaning up. It sure doesn't look like February in western Oregon!

As for the 50k, Max crushed it in 3:26:54, breaking the course record by almost 17 minutes. (One of my goals for Hagg was to average the same pace as Max; I figured since I was going half the distance, I had a decent shot. Nope, it wasn't to be as I averaged 6:51 to Max's 6:40. This could explain why he has an assortment of Team USA singlets while I have my Sisters Outlaws singlet.) Andy also beat the old 50k c.r., finishing in 3:41:53 for 2nd. Ruben Galbraith ran solid for 3rd and almost reeled in Andy with his 3:42:00 finish, his 3rd straight podium at Hagg. Pam Smith continued her fast running as part of her WS build-up, winning the girl's race in 4:18:34, comfortably ahead of Shari White in 4:34:18. Abi Stephens finished a strong 3rd in 4:37:01. Winning the fat-guy division was William Swint, surprising everyone with a speedy 4:04:11 (are you sure you didn't run the j.v. race, William?).

Thanks to Todd, Kelly, and Fuzz for putting on a great race in there rookie year as r.d.'s. I'm impressed. And I really like the finisher's socks! Great idea - you must have gotten the idea from a really cool race.

Matt: 1, Sean: 0

2010-02-07T22:07:00.001-08:00

The quick and dirty: Matt kicked my butt yesterday at the Orcas Island 50 km!

Yes, I wanted to kick his butt, however, Matt had a great run. It was his first ultra in a year and a half, and so I am super, duper, pooper, stoked for him to have run well.

Matt: 4:47

Me: 5:10

23 minutes is a lot to give up in a 50 km. No excuses. Matt won. I lost. I have a bit of a hole to dig out of on May 29th.

I'm sporting the loser's vest at the post-race party (yes, that's a nuuntini in the cup!).

Congratulations, buddy. Enjoy your few months of glory.

Matt 'n Me

2010-02-03T23:55:00.000-08:00

Matt and I first met at Where's Waldo 100 km in Aug., 2006, where he was pacing Krissy to the overall victory, and I played along the way trying to win the Wet Waldo award (I didn't). It was a short, brief meeting.

Matt and Me finishing Stage 2 of TransRockies 2008 (photo by iRunFar).

In 2007, Matt and I both had the same idea for a solo June road trip - drive to WY to run Bighorn (Matt in the 50 km, me in the 50 mi), play in the Tetons for a few days, then head to Tahoe to pace at WS. We decided to join forces, and somewhere between Spokane and the Tetons, a friendship was born.

Since then, we have had many epic adventures together: Tetons, Colonel's Summer Boot Camp, Colonel's Winter Boot Camp, Olympic Natl. Park, WS, Bighorn, and, of course, the most epic of running adventures ever, TransRockies.

TransRockies is the only race Matt and I have ever competed in together. But we were teammates, so we were (quite literally) pushing and pulling each other along there.

Me and Matt all cozy at Camp Hale (photo by iRunFar).

We have never raced head-to-head. This year, that's going to change. We're signed up for two of the same races.

This weekend we'll get our first grudge match at the Orcas Island 50 km. Matt is a former winner at Orcas. I've never run it. From past reports, it sounds like it's more of a Hart-friendly race. Plus, he has the course knowledge.

Epic duel / grudge match / battle royale #2 comes on May 29 at the Pocatello 50 m. I was third there last year. Matt has never run it. This course has very long ups and downs; most of the ups are runnable, which generally favors me.

So my dear friend Matt, here we have it: You and Me, man-o/man-o, Orcas and Pocatello, battle royale, survival of the fittest (fattest), death to the weak, winners rule/losers drool, etc, etc.

Whaddaya say, Matt...let's see who really has the biggest muscles! (photo by iRunFar)

I propose a friendly wager of sorts, my friend. No, that's not right. I propose a bet! Winner is the one with the lowest combined time of these two races.

The winnings? Let's leave it up to our blog readers to come up with something. And it can't be something lame like money; besides the fact that neither of us has very much of that, money is just so impersonal. The loser of this bet needs to hurt. Embarrassment is a plus.

So dear readers (hopefully of both of our blogs, if Hart takes the bait), we leave it up to you; please comment with who you think will win, and what the bet should be.

Added Feb. 5 - Hart's response.

January...Whoosh!

2010-01-31T21:43:00.000-08:00

Well, yes, I've been a blogging slacker this month. I have a few written posts started, and a few more in my head. I realized today that none of those are going to get finished. So I'll just write a little summary of my month, hopefully keeping each little adventure down to a paragraph.

Sascha was content to hang out at the car during the BadAss.

For the fourth year in a row, the new year started off with the BadAss near the Badlands Rec. Area east of Bend. Overall participation was down a bit this year with about 60 total, but with 14 finishers, the 50k had its most ever finishers. Thanks so much to everyone who came out and played in the desert with Bronco and me, and congratulations to Ashley and Max for setting new course records.

Chillin' out in the Badlands post-run, BadAss style!

The second weekend took me to Bandera, TX, for the Bandera 100k/50k, as the Montrail respresentative. I had such a blast meeting a whole bunch of new people and answering lots of questions about Montrail, Mountain Hardwear, and just running in general. (I gotta get myself a job where that is part of the routine!) The race was cold (10 degrees at the start), but sunny most of the day. Although my 50k wasn't quite the race I hoped for (4:42, hoping for 4:15-4:20), I truly enjoyed the rockiness and ruggedness of the course. I got to help crew quite a few 100 k'ers once I finished, and I even paced Pam Smith the last 6 miles of the 100 km. A very competitive race, the top-4 women 100 k'ers crushed the course record, as did the top-2 guys; plus the top 2 men and women each earned a spot in Western States this year through the Montrail Ultra Cup! The day ended with a fun group at a local eatery with good food, margs, and hours of story swapping that only trail runners can understand! Thanks to Joe for hosting a great event.

Minutes after Pam (left) finished 3rd in 10:36 and Jill (center) tied for 1st in 10:33. Very close race!

The Cascade 1/2 Marathon on Jan. 17 took me to Turner, OR, to try to lower my p.r. of 1:15:57, set at the same race unexpectedly last year. Although outfitted in my trusty Outlaws singlet, I absent-mindedly wore my blue shorts (blue=mellow=slow) as opposed to my red shorts (red=fast), and as a result, I didn't p.r. I was happy with my effort, though, on this blustery day, battling the elements solo for much of the race, finishing in 1:16:11. Next time, definitely red. After the 1/2, William was nice enough to take Sascha and me on a hike of the Shellburg Falls area, giving me a little lay-out of the land for the Santiam Canyon Scramble. It's a very cool area that I look forward to exploring more on my trips to the west side of the mountains.

Those slow blue shorts!

SOFA (Southern Oregon FatAss) was Jan. 24, and four of my main training buddies (Chris, Darla, Ashley, and Josh) were headed down to the Rogue to run that, while I decided to stay local and get in a solo hilly 20 at Smith in preparation for Orcas Island. Well, they couldn't bare the thought of leaving me, so they decided to join me at Smith, as well as Peter and Kami. We had a beautiful day running in a couple inches of fresh snow under sun and blue sky and views that extended to Mt. Adams in WA. I even got a little sunburned! The next day Sascha and I played in the snow for a nice 6 mile snowshoe at Three Creeks Snowpark. Although crummy weather, it's always so much fun for me to watch Sascha excel in her element!

The Smith 20 mile crew atop Grey Butte.

Five weekends this month means five mini-adventures. Thus, this weekend kicked off with the 5th annual MadAss in Madras, OR. The MUTs, Stan and Maura, really know how to host a kick-ass fatass! There were about 45 runners, 10 of which ran 50 k'ish, and the other 35 ran various shorter distances. I opted for the 16.5 mile option, through a beautiful canyon to Lake Simtustus. The post-run potluck was, as always, a scrumptious treat, complete with two kegs of Maura's homebrew, one of which was Chocolate-Coffee Stout - now that's some good drinking!

Today's beautifully sunny day started with a little run out to Josh and Ashley's super cool new house; I'm voting for them to keep the orange and yellow walls! Then it was time to hit the snowshoeing trails at Three Creek Snowpark again.! This week, Amy and Callie joined Sascha and me for the 6 mile loop. Great conversation, cool snow angels, and good workout on the trail, then quite possibly the best-ever pie awaited us at the car - raspberry rhubarb from Sisters Bakery. Supposedly it was for Callie's birthday, but really, I didn't need an excuse to devour a couple slices!

And thus, January came to a happy end...

Save Oregon HS XC Team Championships

2010-01-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

If you are a registered voter in Oregon, I strongly urge you to read and sign this petition. Basically, the OSAA (Oregon School Activities Association), which is the prep sports governing body in Oregon, is contemplating dropping the team scoring aspect of the State Cross Country Championships. This would effectively make State an individual meet.

Sisters Outlaws XC celebrates their girls 2nd place trophy and boys 4th place trophy at the 2007 State Meet.

When I first heard this, I thought it was a complete internet hoax that we've all grown used to seeing. But I dug around on the OSAA website and found the minutes from their Jan. 11 meeting. Specifically, read page 1, "The committe is investigating:", the second bullet point.

Anyone who has ever run cross country, watched a meet, had a kid on a team, or coached a team, knows that, first and foremost, cross country is very much a team sport. To take the team scoring out of State is just plain ludicrous.

Sisters Outlaws celebrate 17 straight hours of running at Portland to Coast.

The family-like atmosphere of most xc teams is something really special that I've never experienced with any other sport. When harriers are running for the greater good, in this case, their team, they're more likely to really dig deep down from within to give their best. And the friendships and bonds created truly are deep and often times, are life-long.

Please go here to read and sign the petition.

For Meghan

2010-01-16T22:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, since someone finally noted that Christmas has long-since passed, I figure it's time to put up a post. I was actually hoping to do my Bandera write-up today, but I ended up playing in the BLM Grasslands north of Grey Butte with some buddies at their annual Rabbit Camp.

Now it's almost bed time, and I'm going to bed early tonight because I'm getting up extra early tomorrow to drive to the bustling town of Turner to run the Cascade 1/2 Marathon. I ran it last year and surprised myself with a 1:15:57 p.r. This year I feel faster and have better leg speed than I did last January, thanks in large part to Max's Tuesday night workouts. So naturally, I'm going for another p.r. Low-1:15s would be cool, but 1:14:xx doesn't sound too bad, either.

This picture of last year's race made it into this month's Runner's World. I'm the cool guy in the middle with the red shorts and black Outlaws singlet.

As has become normal in Salem-area races, I'm looking forward to seeing Luvin's outfit, courtesy of losing yet another bet to William. As always, it will be fun to run with Ness. And I'm expecting nothing less than a p.r. from Rooster!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

Sascha and I would like to wish all of sascharuns' readers a very Merry Christmas! May you all enjoy the peace and happiness that makes this wonderful season so special!

To all dogs out there, from Sascha "bark, bark, woof, bark, woof, woof, hooowwwwl, pant, howl, woofity, woof, woof, BARK!"

End of 2009 and Looking ahead to 2010

2009-12-17T01:10:00.000-08:00

I've put off writing about my race at The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler in the Headlands. For most of my ultra history, I tend to pick a big race at the end of the year to really focus on and peak for. The past couple years, I've done it at JFK in '07 (plus Hellgate that year, too), and CIM in '08, all with good results. This year, I planned to kick butt in the Headlands. In short, I was in very good shape, I had big expectations, some good speed in my legs, and I was very rested, fresh, and anxious to race...and I cracked!

Basically I ran very easy with Caitlin and Joelle to Pan Toll at mile 18. My plan was to refuel there then really start racing. But when I went to get my drop bag, it wasn't there. A couple volunteers, Meghan, and I looked around for a few minutes...nothing. So instead of just sucking it up, grabbing some Accel gel at the aid station, and rolling with it like a veteran ultrarunner of 108 ultras would do, I decided to pout, be cranky, and continue running with just my one remaining gel. Oops.

The rest of the race was spent alternating between feeling great for about 15 minutes out of each a.s. after chugging a couple cups of Coke, followed by big bonks...a 32 mile long roller coaster ride. It was also a very lonely final 20 miles. After AJW flew by me on the descent out of Pan Toll 2 at mile 30 ("my breaks aren't working" he hollered as he flew by), I didn't see a single 50 miler the rest of the race (I did, however see some 50 k'ers). I eventually jogged across the finish line in 8:25:26, a lot slower than I had hoped. I have good days and I have bad days. That's the way it goes.

Precisely 1 second after I finished, my yearly running sabbatical commenced. When I take a break from running, I really take a break from running. As in, no running. I've been running ultras for 8 1/2 years and I didn't take a break after only one of those seasons. As a result, I was very sluggish early the next year. I really do look forward to this break. Up to a point, it lets me evaluate my year and put together a tentative schedule for the coming year, but more importantly, it just lets me clear my mind and body of running and racing. It's a much needed rest!

In thinking ahead about my 2010 running and racing ideas, I'm going to ease off from ultras a bit. A big ultramarathoning goal of mine was to finish 100 ultras, which I did at Run to the Sun in March. Now with 108 finishes (115 starts), I'm anxious to get back to some shorter stuff. When I lived in the Tetons and Steamboat, I ran a lot of mountain races and I loved it! I'm going to do more of those next year. A few classics I'm definitely planning on are Race to Robie Creek, Mt. Ashland Hill Climb or Steens Rim Run 10 km, and Pikes Peak Marathon.

I also want to set more p.r.s in road races - 10 km, currently 33:44, would like low-33; 1/2 marathon, currently 1:15:57, would like low-1:14; and marathon, currently 2:39:06, would like 2:35, sub-6 pace (possibly Eugene). Suggestions on races??

Although I'm cutting back on my ultras, I'm not cutting them out. In January, I get to play in the Texas hills at the Bandera 50 km, and in February, I'm headed to the San Juan Islands for a weekend of ultrarunning camp at the Orcas Island 50 km. I'm signed up for the Desert RATS stage race in June. This is a 6-day stage race covering the 148 mile Kokopelli Trail from Grand Junction, CO to Moab, UT. In October, I get to go to Chile for the Ultramaraton de los Andes 80 km. That's gonna be awesome!

Of course, I'll be r.d.'ing the 8th annual Peterson Ridge Rumble 30k/60k on April 11. Because I live in such a cool town with such a cool trail committee, the course will once again be slightly different, replacing some old double track with sweet, new singletrack.

I'm hoping to run a couple of the cool runs that the new race organization, Run Wild, is holding in the woods outside of Salem. If I break out the snowshoes a few times in the next month, I may even run a snowshoe race (another type of race I loved doing in CO and WY). In the summer, I'm planning to run a few races in the Oregon MUT Series, too.

If I'm really lucky, I'll get to pace my good friends Jamie and Kilian again, as they each have some pretty lofty goals set for themselves in 2010.

I'm also excited that Sisters Little Ultra Team has doubled in size. Fatboy and I will be joined by new Sisters residents, and my very good friends, Ashley and Josh.

Sascha. She's the one I'm really looking forward to hitting the trails with in 2010!

Math

2009-12-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

On both my drive down to and home from the Headlands over the weekend, I heard a lot on the radio about Tiger Woods. Tiger, blah, golf club, blah, SUV, blah, fire hydrant, blah, mistresses, blah, upset wife, blah, Nike, blah, $130 million, bl...what? One hundred and thirty million what? Dollars? As in $130,000,000!? Being a math / numbers guy, that very quickly caught my attention. Apparently, that's how much money Tiger made last year - $20 million in golf winnings and $110 million in endorsements.

Since I'm geeky and I enjoy doing math in my head when I'm bored, I kinda enjoyed all of the free time for some simple math.

I started by cutting out zeroes. Let's cut out 3 zeroes, down to $130,000. For most normal people, that's an extremely healthy salary. It's also one-tenth of one percent of Tiger's salary. One-tenth of one percent!

Let's break it down further. $130,000,000, 365 days per year...quick math says he made $356,164 per DAY, each and every day last year.

Hourly rate, you say? A cool $14,840, each and every hour of each and every day. Sleeping, awake, golfing, eating, watching football, having affairs, whatever. Makes your attorney's hourly rate not seem so bad, afterall!

Yep, I even did his per-minute rate: $247. Hm, this has taken me about 10 minutes to write. Tiger made $2473 in that same time.

Pretty disgusting.

Late Season Running

2009-12-02T00:30:00.000-08:00

My running buddy and me after a frosty morning run.

About this time of year, my running starts to wind down. I figure I've put in lots and lots and lots of miles, so my body looks forward to some much needed rest. Looking back at my running and racing year, as usual, I ran A LOT this year all the way through September, especially April through September. I don't log my mileage, as I tend to get too competitive with myself, but I always have a rough idea and I figure that by the end of September, I easily had over 3,000 miles in the legs for the year.

Through June, I had run 9 ultras, 2 marathons, 4 short races (short = anything shorter than a marathon), and lots of cool, long adventure runs (R2R2R being the coolest and longest); in other words, lots of miles. In July, I only ran one 10k; in August I started 2 ultras, finishing one, and raced Hood to Coast (super fun race!); on the first weekend of September, I ran an ultra. Now here it is, three months later, and I haven't run an ultra since. Although that's pretty much a lifetime for me, I did it on purpose and I've enjoyed it.

After a week of playing in the Tetons in Sept., including running the Grand Teton 50 miler, I decided my body was tired so it was time to slash my mileage, bump up the intensity, and race some shorter stuff. No ultras for at least a few months!

Volunteering with the Sisters Cross Country team has definitely helped me work on the intensity part of my plan, as has Max King's Tuesday night speed workouts. I've only been averaging 80ish mpw, as opposed to 100-120 from April through September. And I've been enjoying racing lots of short races! Since late-September, I've raced: xc 5k, road 5k, xc 8k, road 1/2 marathon, road 3 1/2 mi, and 2 road marathons (Tahoe and Columbia Gorge). It's been a blast! I'm still getting my racing fix, recovery is super quick, and these short races are great speedwork. Plus, I even got a new max heart rate p.r. at a 5k!

Anyway, about a month ago, I decided my legs were feeling fresh and spunky enough again to run an ultra, so I signed up for The North Face 50 miler. It's this weekend in the Marin Headlands. Right after I signed up, just because I'm me, I ran one 95 mile week (forcing myself to not hit 100) that included a 4 hour, 25 miler with 6,600' of vertical at Smith Rock. That run and the 2 marathons are my 3 long runs since the beginning of September. I'm hopeful that those runs plus all of my shorter, faster stuff (including plenty of Pilot Butte repeats) works for me. It's a strategy I've never tried before for a 50 miler. I'm excited to see how it works out, but most of all, I'm just excited to get out there and race 50 miles again!

And then, it will be time for a real break.

Running Fun in the Willamette Valley

2009-11-29T16:09:00.000-08:00

The shorter, crisper days we're experiencing now in Central Oregon are a fun time of year. The high trails are now all settled in for the winter with a few feet of snow, forcing Sascha and me back down on the tamer slopes of Peterson Ridge. The whole Peterson Ridge trail complex is sweet! In the last 18 months, the Sisters Trail Committee has built about 30 miles of new trails around Sisters, mostly part of the Peterson Ridge trails. So Sascha and I have been enjoying some play time a little closer to home the past few weeks.

I spent the weekend of Nov. 21-22 in the Willamette Valley playing, running, and hanging out with friends. After a stupidly slow drive to Eugene on Friday night through a snow storm, I got to Tate and Mike's house, where a good meal and conversation awaited. The next morning I was going to run the EWEB Run to Stay Warm 1/2 marathon. I love road halves!

The morning was much different than overnight - it was clear and sunny, and a bit on the chilly side. Perfect for a 1/2 marathon. My 1/2 p.r. is 1:15:57 and I was really hoping to beat that. So after a good 3-mile warm up, I put on my trusty fast shoes, Nike Lunaracers. I had worn those shoes in only 2 other races - my 10k p.r. and my 1/2 marathon p.r - so I knew they were fast!

Eugene didn't bring out it's big guns for this 1/2, but after finding myself in 12th place at the first mile, I knew there was some good competition. After a 17:43 three-mile split, I decided to change gears and ran the miles 4 and 5 in the mid 5:30s, easily passing some guys who had clearly gone out too fast. I even got a few shout-outs about my attire for the day, my trusty Oultaws singlet. By mile 6 (34:51), I was firmly in 6th place, cruising along and keeping my heartrate in the mid-170s. It was a beautiful day to be running.

I was trying to keep a kid with an Oregon singlet ahead of me in my sights. I made it my goal to slowly reel him in over the next 3-4 miles, running steady 5:45s and inching my h.r. up to 180. I think I startled him a bit around 9 1/2 when crossing the Willamette, he heard something behind him, looked back, and saw me 20 meters back. He threw in a little surge, which I didn't counter.

Across the river, we turned back toward the finish line and into a noticable and chilly headwind. Mile 10 came in 57:40, giving me 18:16 for the final 5k to p.r. Quick math told me 5:50 pace would get me there, but the headwind told me it wouldn't be easy. I easily passed Oregon kid, surging as I went by, then also quickly caught up to single-compression sock guy (he was wearing one compression sock and one regular sock). He matched my surge for a couple minutes before falling back. Now I was in 4th, on the hunt for a podium finish.

The closer I got to the finish, the harder I ran as my h.r. was now in the low-180s, but my pace had slowed to 5:54, 5:50, and 5:51 for miles 11-13. Just before 13, I ran into 3rd place and glanced at my watch to see 1:15:16 at mile 13. 40 seconds for .1 miles, no problem. I sprinted to the finish in 3rd place with a time of 1:16:19. Huh?! The last ".1" took me 1:03. Hm, perhaps it was a bit long...but, that's the way it goes. I was happy with my effort and place. I figure any time I can crack the podium in a Eugene race, I'm doing something right.

After a good lunch with Tonya and Scott, I was off to Salem for a fun night with Ryan and Michele. When I got to their house, nobody was home, so I decided to hang out in their backyard hottub until they got home - very nice. We all enjoyed A fun night of Wii Fit and the movie Bruno, while eating a variety of good, fatty snacks. I always love going to their house - they really are two of my closest friends.

On Sunday I drove up to Portland to watch Parker run in the Nike Border Clash. Border Clash is a cross country race between the top-40 Washington prep harriers against the top-40 Oregon prep harriers. Parker ran a great race, finishing in 18th overall, 4th for Team Oregon, beating all of the Oregon state champs from the different classifications. He was excited, and it was fun to see him finish his high school harrier career on a high note.

The weekend finished with a run on the Wildwood in Portland with my good buddy Ryan (Portland Ryan, not to be confused with Salem Ryan). I always enjoy running with Ryan. We've had some pretty fun battles in races, and some great adventures - we even skied to and snowshoed up South Sister in February for his bachelor party in 2005. So it was fun to kick up some mud on the Wildwood with him for a bit.

And, of course, a trip home from the Valley isn't complete without a stop at Rosie's Cafe in Mill City for a smoothie and to-die-for cinnamon roll. Outlaws head coach Charlie and his son were there doing the same, and we were both glad that Parker had saved us a cinnamon roll.

XC Running

2009-11-17T19:34:00.000-08:00

After running, and loving, the Lithia Loop Trail Marathon last year, I was excited to run it again this year. It was going to be the USATF National Trail Marathon Championships, so I knew it would bring some great competition and no doubt, some faster times. However, something really cool happened 9 days before the race that made me not run it - the Sky-Em League Championship Cross Country Meet.

See, I thought only 3 individual guys from the Sisters Outlaws were going to qualify for State. I was wrong! The boys team not only qualified, they narrowly missed victory by only 5 points. The #4-6 runners all ran big p.r.'s to seal the team's berth to State. The girls teams also finished second, thus, sending 14 Outlaws harriers to the State meet. Since state was the same day as Lithia, my choice really wasn't a choice at all - there was no way I was going to miss out on State!

The day of the State meet started off early for us Outlaws. With fresh snow on the pass, we left the school in the very uncrowded bus at 6:15 for the 2.5+ hour drive to Lane Comm. College in Eugene. Although maybe not the most fun course to run, it sure is very spectator friendly.

The girls were racing first. All seven of them (Emi, Hayley, Katie, Jordan, Tia, Fabi, and Taylor) ran strong. We really didn't think a trophy was in the cards (top-4), but thought that with a solid day, top-10 was within reach. The girls stepped up and finished a strong 8th.

Next it was time for the boys. Undefeated on the season coming into the meet, Parker put a lot of pressure on himself. The other coaches and I tried to mellow him out on the bus ride. When the gun went off, Parker, Taylor, and Seth S. went out strong, while Jeff, Easton, Seth F., and Mason went with the main pack. Parker ran very strong in the lead pack of 3 for 2 1/2 miles, leading the whole way, at which point the other 2 guys made a move on him and he couldn't respond. They had bided their time well and had the kicks to show it. Parker pushed hard to the finish and made all the Outlaws proud with his 3rd place. Of course, he has since run that race in his head at least 100 times, and will at least that many more...he definitely learned a good lesson that day.

Taylor and Seth both steadily moved up within the lead pack throughout the race, finishing 8th and 12th, respectively. Taylor is going to be a solid team leader next year. Thanks to Mason's mid-race surge, he, Jeff, Easton, and Seth F. all moved up big-time throughout the race. And as per usual, once Jeff and Easton hit the track with 300 meters to go, they flew by guys! Thanks to Easton's, Seth F's, and Mason's p.r.'s, and Jeff's big finish, the boys podiumed in a very solid 3rd place and earned a trophy.

That night, we rented a big house on the beach in Waldport, had a great seafood dinner, played a bunch of silly games, looked at all of the pictures Zander and Chris took, watched movies, played in the sand, and just generally celebrated a great cross country season by being together. A sweet way to end a fun year!

This past Saturday, just a week after State, there was a USATF cross country race in Sandy that I thought would be fun to run and get a few Outlaws to go with me. I was only able to get Taylor and Parker to go, but we had a great time!

Taylor ran the Junior Olympic portion of the meet, finishing 5th in his 5k race in 17:39. He outkicked two guys on the track, beating one by .3 seconds! I got Parker to run the Open 8 k race with me...um, or at in the same race with me. He was excited to just run a race for fun with no pressure on him, and it showed. In a small, but very strong, field of 30, Parker ran his first 8 km xc race in 27:18 for 5th place. He smoked lots of 20 & 30 year old dudes - it was sweet! I overheard more than a few guys after the race comment about Parker. As for me, I was reminded that, although I love xc, I really suck at it. Although I never got passed the entire race, and ended up passing 10 harriers, I still couldn't even pull of a sub-30, finishing in 30:02 for 14th place.

I thought about cross country running and what makes a good cross country runner a bit on the drive home. I concluded there are 3, maybe 4, general runner classifications: power, strength, speed, and endurance. I got the endurance down. And crazy as it sounds, I think I even have a little speed (relative to the other categories). Power is pretty much reserved for sprinters and that's definitely not me. But I think it's really strength that makes a good xc runner. I am not a strength runner. To be a good xc runner, you have to be able to muscle up short, steep climbs, and be able to accelerate fast around corners. I'm just not good at that kind of stuff. I enjoy getting in a good groove, then slowly increasing my effort and pace throughout a race...no big bursts for me. And thus, I think that's why I've always sucked as a harrier. But I'll always love it!

Columbia Gorge Marathon and Pilot Butte 5k

2009-11-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

The weekend of Oct. 24-25 was one of those really cool weekends that don't come around often, but when they do, I cherish them greatly.

On Saturday, I ran the 2nd annual Pilot Butte Giants Gallop 5k in Bend. I love running PBRs (Pilot Butte Repeats), and I love this little race. The first .7 miles are flatish, then 1 mile up gaining 500', .8 miles down losing 500', and .6 miles flatish to the finish on the track. There was a small group of us, but we had a great time. I wore my heartrate monitor, hoping I would set a new max-h.r. p.r. I wasn't disappointed.

I took the lead from the start, ran strong up the road, tried to just cruise down the trail with thoughts of Sunday's marathon, then while making a sharp left at the bottom, my feet slid from under me and I went down. A bit embarrassed and with bloody knees, I quickly got up and tried to shake myself out and kick to the finish. I could feel and hear Paul quickly gaining on me. On the track with 200 to go I went all out. Paul was right behind me, my h.r. monitor was beeping like crazy, and the finish couldn't come quick enough. Finally I crossed the line, barely squeaking out the W by a foot. I didn't break my c.r. from last year of 19:18, but I was happy with the win, my time of 19:33, and new heartrate p.r. of 201 (I was most excited about the 201)! Unfortunately for the marathon the next day, my quads were pretty sore, so I slowly ran a mile cool down around the track.

That evening I made the drive to The Dalles to stay with my college buddy / cross country teammate, Chad Sperry, who is the race director for the Columbia Gorge Marathon. Chad and his wife were in Hood River doing race stuff and their kids were all at grandparent's houses, so it was just Dixie the dog and me hanging out. After 15 minutes of fiddling with the remote, I figured out how to operate the t.v. and I was happy to watch Perfect Storm while stretching my sore quads. Lori got home and we chatted for a while, then Chad came in and I caught up with him for a few minutes before bed.

A good night of sleep found me excited to get up and run this cool course. As per usual Sean-style, I arrived an hour early, jogged a 3 mile warm-up, and got to the start with 10 minutes to go. There I saw my good buddy Ryan, recovering from a painful crash on the Wildwood a few weeks ago that left his ribs on the sore side. I also got to catch up with fellow Shadle Park Highlander Stan (cheerleading today), his wife Esther (running the marathon), Win, Joel, Kurt, Kelly, and a few others. Then soon enough, Chad said "go," so we went!

Joel took it out a bit harder than I wanted to go, so I enjoyed the two mile climb up to the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail with Ryan and Win. Joel continued to pull away from us on the very scenic trail, which took us through the twin tunnels a couple miles west of Mosier. Ryan recalled how cool, and scary, it was to be time trialing on his bike through those tunnels in the Mount Hood Cycling Classic, another race that Chad directs.

Getting off of the paved bike path / old highway, we passed Stan, who generously gave me a small baggie of S-caps (I had forgotten mine and although it wasn't hot, I wanted a few just in case). After a nice downhill to Mosier, we quickly caught Joel and ran through an aid station where I was able to grab a Gu. Then with Joel right there, my competitive instincts took over and I instinctually took the lead. I knew we had a nice, long, grinder climb for the next 6 1/2 miles, so I took that opportunity to put a gap on Joel, Ryan, and Win.

At 12.5 miles, the course turns onto a gravel road and we run on that for 1.5 miles This was a nice break for the legs from the pavement before the steep, 4-mile descent back into Mosier. There was an a.s. right at the turn onto the gravel, where I called out I wanted a Gu. The volunteer not only got me the Gu, but he even opened it for me - first class service! That was just the little boost I needed to get me over the gravel to the fast downhill. On the way down to Mosier, a helicopter did more than a couple fly-overs; I'm still not sure if they were covering the race or what, but I waived.

Back in Mosier, around mile 18, I decided it was finally time to re-fill my bottle. Hm, only 20 oz. so far in 18 miles, but the weather was perfectly cool, I hydrated up on nuun before the race, and I felt great, so all was good. A steep 1.5 mile climb got me back up to the old highway and out of traffic again (although traffic really wasn't an issue at all anywhere on the course), and I knew I had a mostly downhill final 6.5 miles.

Passing the 1/2 marathoners in this stretch was great for the confidence. Obviously they were moving slower than me, but passing people, especially towards the end of a marathon, helps keep the fire burning. At mile 21, I grabbed my third, and last, Gu of the day. Then before long I was out of the park, passing mile 23, and getting rah-rah'd by Stan again. Smiling and feeling really good, I leaned into the downhill and let my legs run a couple 5:45s - life was good. After winding through Hood River, while crossing a pedestrian bridge with about a mile to go, I went down...aagghh! A guy was walking across going the other way and he didn't really know what to do. I got up quickly, shook myself out while jogging for about 30 seconds, then got back into my rhythm. I happily looped around the marina and very soon finished the inaugual Columbia Gorge Marathon in 2:45:29. Although about 1/2 mile short (about 3 min.), I was stoked to go sub-2:50 on this hilly course (2,000' of vertical), and I was excited to get the win. In 4 marathons this year, I have 3 victories (Redding and Tahoe) and one 3rd place (Hilo). A good marathoning year for me.

After getting a big congrats from Chad and Lori, I anxiously watched the foot bridge to see who would be finishing next - Ryan or Joel? Well, it turns out there was a good little battle for second, and Joel got it in 2:53, with Ryan less than a minute back. Joel lives in Bend, and if Ryan still did, it would have been a central Oregon podium sweep. But, he doesn't. So, it wasn't.

After feasting on some super-tasty veggie soup, bread, and chips, I was axious to see how Laura was going to finish. At 4:21 she crossed the finish line, I gave her a big hug, and in between a few happy tears, she said "Sean, you told me this wasn't a p.r. course." She had just p.r.ed by 26 minutes!!

This was such a great race! I loved the course, the hills, the scenery (leaves, waterfalls, river, farms), the volunteers, the aid stations, the other runners, the weather (high-40s, no wind - crazy for in the Gorge, overcast), the post-race food, the cool finisher's medal, the low-key atmosphere, the organization. Seriously, a great race.

On my drive home past all the fruit orchards south of Hood River, I stopped at an orchard that just so happen to be having a hard cider tasting that weekend from Blue Mountain Cider Company out of Milton-Freewater from eastern Oregon.. I LOVE hard cider. After tasting 6 or 7, maybe 8, I picked out my 3 favorites to buy - a sweet cider, a dry cider, and raspberry cider. Mmmm...tasty way to finish a great weekend of running!

Marathon Elitists...

2009-10-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

...note I didn't title this "Marathon Elites". Big difference.

Read the following article and see if you agree with me:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/sports/23marathon.html?_r=1

Columbia Gorge Marathon

2009-10-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

There's a sweet new marathon happening in the Columbia Gorge near Hood River, OR, this Sunday, October 25th called, well, the Columbia Gorge Marathon. Don't confuse this with the old Gorge Marathon from a few years back. This is a totally and completely new and different event.

A good buddy of mine from the cross country team at University of Idaho, Chad Sperry, is the race director for the marathon. He has a lot of event planning experience under his belt. As the owner of Breakaway Promotions, he is the race director for these really cool cycling races: Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Mt. Hood Cycling Classic, and Tour of Utah. This year, Breakaway even hosted the Road Cycling National Championships. He is a top-notch organizer/planner/promoter, and he has a good thing slated for this weekend. A very good thing.

Chad was kind enough to bike the course with me last week (it was my second time riding in less than a week!). It is a beautiful, scenic, rural, quiet, and hilly course. With almost 2,000' vertical in this lollipop loop - on the closed-to-traffic Old Columbia Highway and a loop through the rural countryside around Mosier - it's definitely not a p.r. course, but I promise it's a great one!

If you're not quite feeling up to the full marathon, there is also a 1/2 marathon, which is an out-and-back on the Old Columbia Highway. Also, there is a 2-person 1/2 marathon relay, where each team member runs 6.55 miles. Both the full and 1/2 courses also go through the famous Mosier Twin Tunnels.

In making sure this is a quality event, aid stations are located every 2-3 miles and will have water, Gu2O, and Gu. Very few small marathons actually stock their aid stations with Gu, so I'm impressed by that. Also, the aid stations will be staffed by high school cross country and track runners, so there's sure to be lots of cheerleading for runners.

I'm really excited to run in this inaugural event. Come out and join me.

Tahoe!...part 1

2009-10-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

September turned out to be a month of spending a week in each of my two favorite running spots. I played in the Tetons the first week of September, and then enjoyed another week of fun in Tahoe the last week of the month! My Tahoe trip was just supposed to be a weekend trip to run the Lake Tahoe Marathon, but it turned into one of the best running weeks of my life!

This being my 9th year of running an event at the Lake Tahoe Marathon, I have come to really enjoy my yearly vacation there in late September. It's always so beautiful - and this year, even more so! The temps were in the mid-80s from Thursday - Monday; perfect for laying on the beach and jetskiing in Incline Village with Thomas and family, but perhaps a bit warm for the marathon.

After 5 years of running the Tahoe Triple and 3 years of running the Tahoe 72 (make that 2, since last year was a dnf), I decided to run the signature event this year, just the regular marathon. I had wanted to run it for quite a few years, but those other races kept getting in my way. So this was my year for the single and I really wanted a sub-2:50, hopefully close to 2:45 if things went well.

Things went hot. After a 2 minute detour at 1.5 miles into the race, I found myself in the lead. I ran with Tripler Lynyrd Skynrod for a couple miles, then opened up a bit of a gap until mile 9. That's when Lynyrd's surge had brought him back up to me, but he was breathing hard. I just cruised along with him through mile 11, then in the 12th mile, there's a good uphill. I knew it and that's where I planned to put a little hurt on Lynyrd. By the top of the hill, only my friend Prudence was with me. She had volunteered to come out on her bike and ride with me from 10 until the end. Thomas was waiting for us at the top of the hill in his car and told me that no one was in sight.

As I cruised along the next few flat miles, getting ready for the crux of the course from miles 15-20, I noticed that my time was a bit slower than I hoped. I hit mile 15 and began the long 2-mile climb up past DL Bliss State Park. It's definitely a heckuva climb. At the top still in the lead, but now way off my sub-2:50 goal, I decided to stop worrying about my time and just go for the W. I was pretty tired so it took me a few minutes to get into a rythm for the 2-mile descent down to Vikingsholm parking area. My quads were hurting, so I wasn't able to fly, but got to the bottom and looked forward to the final climb up to Inspiration Point. With some welcome encouragement from Prudence and Thomas, and an increasingly bloating stomach, I crested the hill and found out I had a 4 1/2 minute lead with 10k to go. Unless some catastrophe happened, I now knew I was going to win. Whether that was good or not, I don't know.

The first mile down is steep and this didn't sit well for my aforementioned bloated stomach. Precisely at the 21 mile mark, a lot of vomit exited my mouth. I don't think I really felt better, but my tummy was a bit smaller. A minuted later I came to an aid station of high school girls who were all screaming my name! Bryon had run back from the finish, waited there for me, and got the girls to make-believe they were my fans. That was cool.

With Bryon joining the entourage, I felt a bit like a celebrity with body guards all around me. I tried to enjoy my the company of my 3 friends, but my tummy just wasn't right. A few more pukes later and we were on the bike path for the final 3 rolling miles. Those 3 miles seemed to take forever, but eventually we ran through Camp Richardson and into the home stretch to Pope Beach.

I was excited to win the 2009 Lake Tahoe Marathon. At 2:58:02, definitely not my finest marathoning hour, but I was happy. I became the first person to win the Tahoe Triple, Tahoe 72, and Lake Tahoe Marathon. I thought that was pretty cool. And to make it an ultrarunner and past Triple Champion sweep, my friend Gretchen Brugman won the girl's race!

Thanks to Les for organizing a fun-filled weekend of events. And a huge thanks to Prudence, Thomas, and Bryon for helping me along my route. I appreciate each of you very much.

Kilian's Quest

2009-09-29T08:42:00.001-07:00

If you haven't been following this, you're missing out. I'm on the pacer team...and it's incredible!
http://www.salomonrunning.com/sp/kilian-quest-videos.aspx?ep=07

Tetons, Dufur, Seattle, and Tahoe...busy September!

2009-09-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

I had started a post a couple weeks ago about my sweet week of running and playing in the Tetons early this month. Well, ever since I learned of Dave's passing, I haven't been too motivated to finish that post. So I'll just summarize it:

I suffered through the Grand Teton 50 miler, was supposed to crew Ashley her last 25 of the 100 but was too pooped after my race so I found another pacer and then was able to crew for Ashley, Ellen, Ty, and others in the 100. Plus I got to enjoy some really good bacon from Jason at the aid station at the top of the paved road! I had a great time hanging out with some of my very best friends. Sunday night's bonfire with Ashley, Bryon, Ellen, Jamie, David, Morrison, and Lane was a perfect way to end the weekend. Thanks.

After the Grand Teton Races, I got to play for a few more days in the Tetons. Bryon and I ran up Signal Mountain, then my brother and his friend joined us and we all enjoyed Signal Mountain Lodge nachos and blackberry margaritas while watching the beautiful sunset across Jackson Lake and over the Tetons. That is one of my all-time favorite ways to end a day in the Tetons! The next day Bryon joined me for most of the way on an adventure run up the Middle and South Tetons...spectacular Teton day! And finally on my last day, I planned on my all-time favorite 25 mile loop - up Static Peak, across the Death Shelf, and down Death Canyon. But when I got up to Static Peak, I was uncharacteristically satisfied with just hanging out on the summit to enjoy the warmth and beauty of my surroundings. After a 30 minute hang out, I ran back out the way I came, and I was very happy.

A great weekend in the big town of Dufur, OR, for the wedding of my good friends Jon and Alicia followed shortly after the Tetons. The festivities took place at the coolest little historic hotel, The Balch Hotel, right in the middle of downtown Dufur. I really enjoyed haning out with lots of great college friends - Jon, Ryan, Scott, Troy, and professors Nick and Ed.

The next weekend was a fun one in Seattle. The highlight was going to a Seattle Sounders soccer game that my friend Ellen generously donated tickets for. I think I vaguely remember watching the old school Sounders play a game in Spokane in the late 70s or early 80s. That night we went to one of the coolest restaurants I've ever gone to, Yanni's Greek Restaurant. If you've never been to an authentic Greek restaurant, put it on your to-do list. The menu was a bit overwhelming, but our waiter helped us pick out some great food to share that went well with our wine. Sometime during dinner the belly dancing began. It was so cool! The woman did her cool dancing, then went around and gave each group a silly hat to wear, then got most of the customers up to teach us a few belly dancing moves. My belly did good! It was just a great, entertaining evening at the Greek place. Again, highly recommended! The next day I played tourist for a while at Pike's Place Market and along the Pier, then Ellen took the dogs and me for a run through Discovery Park. It's a beautiful little park that's super busy on nice weekends. Sascha ended a bit gimped up after her 4.5 miles, so she's on a bit of no running for a while. Then the most exciting part of the weekend was when I got to break up a dog fight between Beno (Ellen's dog) and Sascha. I'll just say that Ellen is a great nurse and even convinced me to go to the ER. Although the bite (on my hand) was deep enough for stitches, the doctor said they don't like to stitch dog bites because of possilbe infections. Like most ER stories, we were there quite a while into the wee hours of the night.

The next morning is when I heard of Dave's passing. It caught me waaaay off guard. It was a really hard one for me to take and I have definitely been sad about the whole situation this past week. While running up Black Crater on Wednesday, I thought a lot about Dave...mainly just how great of a guy he was. And I'm sad I'll never get to share a run, or conversation, or meal with him again. He was a great one.

Still thinking about Dave, driving home from Black Crater down McKenzie Pass, I came upon a cyclist crashed in the road. I was the second on scene, probably 2 minutes after it happened. It happened to be Dave Clark from Bend, Summit High School cross country coach and math teacher, and all around great athlete. He was messed up pretty bad and didn't have a clue as to what happened. The guys in the other vehicle saw a deer broad-side Dave...craziest thing they had ever scene! After trying to keep Dave as comfortable as possible, medics finally showed up and he was whisked away first in an ambulance to the Sisters airport, then via Life Flight helicopter to the hospital in Bend. He ended up with a shattered clavicle, broken ribs, a punctured lung, lots of painful road rash, and one heck of a story to tell his cross country team.

Now I sit at a library at Zephyr Cove at Lake Tahoe. This is my 9th year in a row being here for one of the Lake Tahoe Marathon events. 2001-05 I ran the Tahoe Triple, 2006-07 I ran the Tahoe 72, and last year I dnf'd at mile 45 of the 72. This year I decided to run just the one-day regular marathon. Yeah, after so many years of the Triple and 72, it kinda feels like the j.v. race to me, but I'm really excited to see what kind of time I can throw down on this tough course. My fastest for it on day 3 of the Triple was 3:11. Last year I ran 2:55 at the Crater Lake Marathon, which is a much tougher course than Tahoe. So I'm hoping to thrown down sub-2:50, hopefully closer to 2:45. Yeah, it will be tough, as that's not much slower than my p.r. marathon (2:39) on a much easier course at sea level. But as a friend just told me yesterday, "...you should run your heart out for Dave Terry." So that, Dave, is what I plan to do on Sunday.

Hood to Coast

2009-09-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

After helping out the Sisters High School Cross Country team for 2 years at the Portland to Coast high school challenge, I've really wanted to be on a Hood to Coast relay team. I finally got that chance this year. This past weekend I was scheduled to run on a team, but first, I wanted to test my hip flexors post-Waldo to make sure I could run relatively fast. So last Tuesday I ran Max's coached workout, which was 8 x 800 on the grass at Drake Park. After averaging in the low-2:40s, I knew I was good to go for Hood to Coast.

Hood to Coast was an absolute blast! I was on the END team, made up of eight Portland-area fast guys and girls, 2 fast girls from Spokane, one guy from the Bay area, and me. They had won the Mixed Open division last year and were planning to do so again this year. I felt fortunate that they let this ultra guy on their team.

Meeting up with the van 1 runners in Portland was just like meeting up with running friends I already knew. There was no awkwardness and we all meshed together pretty fast. On the drive up to Mt. Hood for our 6:45 p.m. start (the last wave), I enjoyed chatting with my new teammates and getting to know them a bit. Laura is in residency at OHSU, is training for Ironman Kona, and can sleep anytime, anywhere; Tony is training to run a sub-2:30 marathon this fall; Jon runs for Bowerman Athletic Club, and therefore, is fast; Janet kicks butt in races in Spokane and throughout the northwest; and Sarah was just getting back into racing after a five year break to have 2 kids. I knew I was in fast company.

It was fun walking around outside Timberline Lodge, mingling with other teams, chatting with friends, and just being part of the whole HTC experience. Soon enough, it was 6:45 and Laura was off. As she flew down the hill, we drove past her, whooping and yelling, then got down to the exchange. I was the #2 runner, so I got in a decent warm up, then was off. My first leg was 5.67 miles with 1,500' of downhill. It was fast. My first mile was pretty slow (5:54), but then I got into it. Over the course of the next 4.67 miles, I ran at least one sub-5 (4:59), and I'm pretty sure I p.r.ed my two-mile time (10:12). I was able to average 5:09 the rest of the way down, finishing in 30:02, for a total average of 5:17. I was happy knowing that I ran fast, but also not giving everything as I still had 11.5 miles to go.

Jon killed on his 4ish mile leg, averaging 4:44...I can't even comprehend that. Sarah, Tony, and Janet all ran strong and we finished our first rotation happy. Although we were trailing our 2 main competitors (Popeyes and Olives Oils, and Tarahumara), we were confident.

A quick shower and rest at Laura's house while van 2 tore up the streets, then we were back at it at Portland's Hawthorne bridge at 1:30 a.m. Smiley Laura flew off into the night as Jon drove us to the exchange. Jogging around for my warm-up, my quads were a bit sore, but not too bad. I got the hand off and tried to run hard for 5.5 miles. It was right on Hwy. 30, so kinda boring, but as we were now catching up to teams, there was a lot of people to catch. I started counting, but lost count after 20. I finished in 32:02, averaging 5:49. Although about a minute slower than I hoped, for racing at 2 a.m., I was okay with it. Going through this middle of the night rotation was a bit tiring, but we made it fun by cheering for the runner as we passed in the van.

Handing off to van 2 around 4:30 was great because then we could get up to the next exchange and get some rest. That sounded great, but in reality, the traffic was horrible getting to the exchange. I was driving as everyone else slept, which was fine since it was my turn to drive anyway. It was light when we parked and I was awake again. I saw fellow ultrarunners Neil, fresh off from Waldo, and Darin, so it was fun talking to them.

About 8 a.m., Laura was off to the races again. This time we knew we were slightly ahead of the Popeyes and Olive Oils, and slightly behind Tarahumara. One of Popeye's fast guys passed Laura and their 2nd runner was off about minute ahead of me. I excitedly took the hand off from Laura and was able to catch and pass the Olive Oil pretty easily. When I went by her, I was confident that was the last we would see of that team. On the rollers of my last 5.77 mile leg, I was a bit disappointed to run 34:02 and average only 5:54, but was happy overall because I knew I had put away the Popeyes and had taken almost 2 minutes back from the Tarahumara lead. Jon then caught and put away the Tarahumaras.

Tony's last leg was the coolest of the whole race and I was defintely jealous of it. He got to run up to the summit and down the other side of the coast range. It was 3.5 miles up and 2.5 miles down and was just so cool. Although it only topped out at just under 1,300' in elevation, it just seemed so cool. Janet then rocked her last leg to the tune of 5:50s and van 1's running was over. So we headed to the coast via Astoria, stopped at Fred Meyer for some fried chicken to settle a not-too-happy tummy (well, at least I had the chicken), and made our way to the beach at Seaside.

We anxiously awaited anchor runner Peter and the rest of van 2. When we saw Peter cross the finish line without seeing the Popeyes or Tarahumaras ahead of him, we were stoked. We had finished the 197 miles of Hood to Coast in 19:38:34, for an average pace of 5:59 per mile (!!), placing 1st in our Mixed Open Division, 1st out of all of the mixed teams (mixed = co-ed), and 7th overall out of 1,000 teams. The 6 teams that beat us were all-guy teams. Sweet!

I am definitely pumped up about relays again and am very much looking forward to running my next one. Thank you very much to my eleven teammates: Laura, Jon, Sarah, Tony, Janet, Kristen, Allie, Dan, Larry, Erin, and Peter. You guys and girls rock! I highly recommend relays to every runner. You'll get no sleep (or hardly any), get in a great block of running, make good friends with your teammates, and have a blast!

Summer Running in the Mountains

2009-09-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we were fortunate to have a week of cooler temperatures. Normally I don't care for coolness in the summer, but this did give Sascha the opportunity to join me on a couple of 20 milers! The first one was in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area, up to Camp Lake then Chambers Lakes, in the saddle between the South and Middle Sisters. This is a sweet run. It's very runnable, beautiful, and plenty of water for Sascha's drinking and wading pleasure. The only bad part about that day was the holier-than-though ranger who stopped me about 1/2 mile from the end to check my permit. He wasn't amused that Sascha was my party leader (even though she was in the lead), so he made me fill out another one. Hm, seems like a waste of paper to me.

That run was on a Monday, and Sascha was pretty tired for the next 2 days. Thursday came and when I got home from work, she was bouncing around, all excited and ready to go again. Which was great, because then on Friday, we met up with my friends Ashley and Josh for a 20-miler to Jefferson Park in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area. This is supposed to be a beautiful run. However, we were freezing for most of the run as we ran in a light rain, and got soaked from the wet brush on the side of the trail. And once we got to Jeff. Park, Mt. Jefferson was completely socked-in. The meadows and flowers were pretty, but we were a bit disappointed to have missed the up-close view of Jeff, itself. The weather was perfect for Sascha, as she didn't overheat and got super muddy. She loved it. I loved running two 20-milers with my favorite running partner in one week in the summer.

A week later and it was time for Where's Waldo 100 km. Only 3 weeks out from the Death Race, I knew it might be tough for me, but I love Waldo so much and after a 2-year break from it, I wanted to be back in the game. I went into knowing that my hip flexors were a bit tender and I wasn't going to do anything to screw them up.

The first 7 miles were definitely slower than I had planned, but I was okay with that. I started loosening up a bit on the climb up Fuji, but could feel my hip flexors. Coming down, they were talking to me. By Mt. Ray aid at mile 20, I knew something had to be done, but I wasn't ready to stop yet. So I tried running hard the next 6.6 miles to the Twins aid to see if that would loosen things up. It really didn't and in fact, it was getting more difficult to pick up my legs as my hip flexors were pretty darn sore by then. I should have dropped there, but I knew there was a 1.5 mile hike out. So I decided to just jog it in 5 more miles to Charlton Lake, where I knew it would be easier to get a ride back to the start/finish. I got to Charlton, said I was out, got a wonderfully painful deep massage on my hip flexors, drank a beer, helped crew some friends, chatted to lots of people...just had an all around great time there! I eventually got a ride back to the finish and was able to watch Erik smash the course record, and see everyone else finish. I have no regrets about dropping and was able to really enjoy the whole Waldo weekend.

Sunday after the race, Chris, Darla, Maeve, Sascha, and I took the scenice route home via the Aufderheide Highway. This beautiful stretch of road between Oakridge and Cougar Reservoir is extremely popular amongst cyclists and is a true gem. We got in a nice little hike and just enjoyed the lolly-gagging getting home. Sascha and I stopped on McKenzie Pass for another little hike around Dee Wright Observatory. Fun weekend with lots of great friends.

Canadian Death Race in Pictures

2009-08-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

Thank to you to the Grand Cache Mountaineer and Bryon for capturing a bit of my Death Race adventure in pictures.

The mud begins...

No way around (this must have been

just before I went down).

Bryon, it's so good to see you! (going down Mt. Hamel in leg 4)

My legs got dirty (down Mt. Hamel, leg 4)

Pretty snazzy how I clip my empty handheld to a
caribiner on my pack! (headed down Mt. Hamel, leg 4)

Although I only wore it for 40 minutes,
it felt so good to take off the headlamp (finish line)

Sometime when you finish, you're thirsty...

...sometimes you need a hug (thanks, Bryon!)...

...and sometimes, you look like Hell!

Canadian Death Race...125 km's of gnarliness!

2009-08-03T19:39:00.001-07:00

It's a long one...

Ever since first hearing about the Canadian Death Race in 2004, I've wanted to run it. I mean seriously, who doesn't want to run a race with the word "death" in it's title?? However, being way up right smack dab in the middle of nowhere, it's a long trip to get there (and home). To find out where Grand Cache, AB is, get out your map of Nowhere, and look right in the middle. You'll find it.

Anyway, back in late-February / early-March, I decided this would be my year to make the 1,100 mile trip north to the beautiful Canadian Rockies. However, I decided about one day after the race filled. Bummer. So I was put on the wait list, with not much hope of getting in. Fast forward to July 2. I got an e-mail saying that if I still wanted in, there were a few openings for some wait list people. Although this was less than a week after my suffer fest at Western States, I replied with a "Heck yeah I want in!". So I e-mailed my info and got my name on the starting list (but too late for the official race program).

Although I didn't specifically train for the Death Race and it's 17,000' of climbing and descending, I knew my Western States training, Where's Waldo training, and pacing Jamie at Badwater would all help get me ready for the Death Race (doesn't the name just sound cool?).

On Wednesday, July 29th, I started my long journey north. The drive up was relatively easy, as I split it into 3 days. The first night I stayed with my parents in Spokane and enjoyed a nice soak in their hot tub. On day 2, I drove to Banff to stay with my friends Leslie and Keith, who were in the middle of hosting an epic 5-day running adventure in the incredible mountains near their home. I decided to meet the group that day for their last 9 km. I had hoped to get in a good 9 km of uphill with about 3,000' vertical by myself, then join the group for their run down. However, I got to the trailhead too late and only got about 2 km from the car before I ran into them (since my whole adventure was in Canada, distances will generally be referred to in kilometers; you're all runners, so that shouldn't be an issue). After meeting some extremely cool new Canadian friends, catching up with two awesome American friends, and soaking in Leslie and Keith's hot tub with a nice Honey Lager, I had a great night of sleep. Day 3 (July 31st) started off with a very heartfelt Happy Birthday singing to me from Iris, Meghan, and Keith. They're so cool - thanks guys, that really meant a lot! The drive that day was going to be, as Leslie told me, the most beautiful drive in the world. She was right. Driving through Jasper National Park is incredible. The mountains were outrageous and the glaciers and ice fields were just simply miraculous. I couldn't believe how huge the glaciers were. I was glad to take my time driving through Jasper and enjoying it all.

I finally got to Grand Cache on Friday afternoon, met up with fellow Marathon Maniac and 2008 Death Racer Terry Sentinella and his wife Delores (out of the 230 solo entrants, Terry was the only one I knew - definitely something I wasn't accustomed to), checked into our hotel, then picked up my race packet. Picking up my packet was hilarious. Two girls checked me in, one about my age, the other late-50s. They noticed I was by myself, asked if anyone had come with me, then immediately became very concerned for me. They asked if I had run the Death Race before, if I knew what I was doing, if I had any experience in this kind of race, etc. They even offered me the chance to be on some teams that were still looking for someone last-minute. I just smiled and said I would be okay. The look on their faces, though, was simply classic. I could tell they were seriously scared for me.

After a fairly sleepless night, I easily woke up at 6 for the late 8 a.m. start. They start later so more people have to run at night. I ate my normal pb&j, drank a bottle of nuun, put on my trusty Montrail Streaks, and walked the kilometer down to the start. There wasn't a hint of coldness in the air, so I elected to go light and just carry two bottles and gels for the first two sections. (Since it is mostly a five-person relay race, the Death Race is broken up into five sections; 19 km, 27 km, 19 km, 38 km, and 24 km.)

The first section was pretty quick, easy, and painless. I ran the first kilometer or so with Dean, asking him how his dad was doing. We watched as many of the relay runners and solos sped off down the road. Although we were both first time Death Racers, we knew better. After 5 km on the road, we hit the dirt and precisely at 6 km, we hit the mud. Everyone was trying their hardest to delicately prance around it. Everyone but me. I went straight through the first mud pit and immediately found myself down on my side covered in mud. I didn't care about the mud, but did care about injuring myself, so I was a bit more careful after that. I ran a good portion of leg one with Sam from The North Face relay team Go Nads! (not Thompson; this Sam lives in Canada and works for TNF). It was his first ever trail race - cool! Toward the end of this leg I had to pee, so did my thing on the run, much to the amazement of a couple of Canadian runners. I cruised to the end of 19 km in 1:33, 12th overall, 2nd solo (9 min. behind legendary Jack Cook, winner of the CDR in 06 (c.r.), 07, and 08). I filled my bottles, cleaned up a little, and was off down the trail.

Leg two is the most technical section of the course and has two very big climbs and descents. It started off in perfect Sean-style, a nice, runnable uphill on a dirt road. My love for running up hills like that showed, because within 10 min. of leaving the aid station, I was in 4th overall (still 2nd solo). Eventually I turned off the road and onto a goat trail up Flood Mountain. While very steep, it was still early in the race, so easy to climb. However, it was still pretty early into this stage and with the emergency aid station (e-a.s.) being about 9 km away (at 36 km), I was a bit alarmed at how fast I was drinking my nuun and water (note: there were only 4 main aid stations, one at each of the relay exchange points, and 3 emergency aid stations in the long legs 2, 4, and 5). I slowed my drinking down a bit, but figured I would rather be dehyrated with empty bottles than dehydrated with full bottles. The trail from the summit of Flood Mountain to the summit of Grande Mountain is the roughest piece of trail in the Death Race. The descent down Flood was insane! Think extremely steep (I fell on my butt a few times and slid 10-20 feet), lots and lots of rooty, boggy, hobbity trails (think Hobbit section at McDonald Forest, but a lot longer and a lot harder) - just all around hard. About 8 km before the e-a.s., I crossed a creek and filled up my bottles. Aaahhh, that's refreshing, but I sucked those down fast and again ran out of water. I crossed another creek, filled up again, then 5 minutes later was at the e-a.s. Funny note here: At the e-a.s., while I filled one bottle with plain water, I asked a volunteer to put my baggy of Carbopro into my other bottle. So that's what she did - she literally put the baggy into the bottle, still ziplocked, and filled it with water. I rephrased my request, she felt silly, and the other volunteers got a laugh out of it. I love ultras! Then it was up, up, up Grande Mountain, mostly on dirt road, but only about half runnable. Getting up wasn't too hard, but again, the down was super stinkin' steep and very rocky. Like going down Flood, I thought I was moving sooooo slow, but also like Flood, I didn't get passed on the descent - so it wasn't just me being a wimp. It really is steeeeeep! In fact, I even passed a relay runner, Martin from Go Nads!, on this descent. Mercifully the down eventually became runnable and I finally cruised into the end of leg 2 back in Grand Cache at 46 km at 5:03, 5th overall and 2nd solo (13 min. behind Jack). Normally when running solo in a race where there are also teams, I don't care what place I'm in overall, but since I ran pretty much just with teams in this race, I thought it was fun to see how I compared to them. This was easily the hottest part of the day, probably in the mid-90s. So I made sure I got soaked in water, drank lots, grabbed my Nathan #020 pack from Delores, and took off down the trail.

At only 19 km, leg 3 was once again an easy one. The biggest thing to happen in this section was a bit surprising. Around 50 km, 5:30 into the race, I noticed someone very fast-looking ahead of me was walking very slow. Hm, not good. It was Jack Cook and I could tell he wasn't in the fun zone. I slowed to ask if he needed anything - a gel, electrolytes, anything. He just said he was going through a bit of a bad patch. I don't know if he realized I was a solo runner or not, but that didn't matter to me. Since I was now leading the solo race and I didn't know how long his bad patch was going to last, I picked up the pace for the next 10-15 minutes. I happily cruised into the end of leg 3 at 65 km in 6:55, 6th overall and 1st solo. By this time, the weather had cooled a bit, clouds had rolled in, lightening and thunder had started, and the humidity was knowticeably rising. And it was time to climb back up in the mountains!

Climbing Mt. Hamel was quite an experience. Looking at past splits of top finishers, I knew I was in for 2+ hours of climbing (6 miles, about 3,500') and about 3 1/2 hours before I hit the e-a.s. in this leg. So I carried 3 liters of water in my pack and a 20 oz. bottle. I got into a good hiking groove with Shea from Foy Factor and he definitely preferred me to set the pace. I was okay with that because it gave me company for the long climb. There was one short downhill, but I didn't care for that because then we had to re-climb that lost vertical. But it was pretty much up, up, up for 2.5 hours! As I kept going up, the temps dropped, and there was a nice breeze at the summit. Upon summiting, I ate a real small bit of solid food and immediately my stomach revolted - no pukey, but a horrible cramp. So I had to run the very steep and rocky downhill through the Boulder Garden hunched over for the next 25 minutes - not a good way to put time on the competition. Shea took off as I slowly plodded down. After lots of water and an s-cap, the cramp finally went away and I was able to happily cruise down. About this time I ran into someone coming up the hill. I knew I was going the right way and was about to mention this to the runner, but then I recognized it as Bryon! After 10 hard hours on the trail, it was so nice to see a great friend. We chatted briefly, but he was headed up Hamel and I had a race to run going down, but it was nice knowing my buddy had made the 8ish hour drive north just to cheer me on. Thanks, Bryon! I got to the e-a.s., dropped my pack, filled a bottle, and ran the 5 km Ambler Loop like I was on fire - it felt so good to run light again! I passed 4 of the relay people who had passed me while I was Mr. Hunchback, so that helped fuel my fire. When I got out of the Ambler Loop and back to my pack at the e-a.s., the volunteers told me that no other solo runners had entered the loop yet...nice! I knew that meant I had at least a 30 min. lead with 33 km to go, and I felt good, so someone was going to have to run pretty darn fast in order to catch me. I grabbed my pack and lights and cruised the next 11 km to the end of leg 4 - a nice downhill for 7 km then parellel to the highway. I finished up leg 4 at 103 km in 12:05, 9th overall and 1st solo. I quickly dropped my heavy light (kept my small one), most of my food, and my extra bottle with Delores to go as light as possible the last 24 km. I entered the Raft Ride Home section confidently.

The weird thing about this story so far is that is lacks puking! Well, that almost changed about 4 km into the last section. I was cruising along on some more hobbity trails and decided to down my first Powergel of the day. Immediately my stomach wanted to puke it up. However, with well over 2 hours to go, I really didn't want to open the flood gates. So I slowed to a walk to settle it down, took 4 big gulps of water, and continued walking for a minute or so. Whew, I dodged a bullet. I continued cruising along the hobbit trail to the e-a.s., meaning 15 km to go, including a river crossing. Still slightly naseous, I grabbed a little bag of chips at the e-a.s. and went down to my private jet boat ride across the Smoky River. In order to cross the river, I presented the ferryman (Dr. Death) with my very special gold coin. Unlike Western States, we actually timed out for the boat ride. The too-quick ride was the only time all race I sat down, and it felt kinda good. I thanked the skipper and first mate, got out of the boat, timed back in, then up, up, up a pretty darn steep road. This was a good time to try to eat some of the chips; mmm, Cheetohs! From there in, I was getting pretty tired and could tell I was hammered. This was really the only section all day where I was losing momentum. I did pass one relay guy, so that helped slightly, but getting passed by 3 other teams didn't help (although they were all so nice to me with lots of "Go Death Racer" and "Good on Ya" rah-rahs). Running on a fairly heavily wooded and rooty trail, I contemplated getting my light out. When a relay guy passed me with his light on, that made my decision easy. It was 10:20 p.m. Northern races in the summer are sweet! With about 5 km to go, I got out of the woods and onto a dirt road. I turned off my light and began hammering up the hill. About 1 km later, my body threw some dry heaves my way. They were kinda violent, but I was pretty dehydrated by then, so didn't have anything to puke. By then, I didn't really care if I puked, but with nothing in my stomach, I again held off the puke monster. One more relay guy flew by me in the final 15 minutes, then I just kicked my butt in, not wanting to get passed again. I finally crossed the finish line in 15:04:04, good for 1st solo and 11th overall. I was ecstatic and I was wasted. Lucky for me Bryon and Delores were there for me. It was crazy to me how many people were at the finish area; at least 100, and they were all cheering for me. Some of them were relay runners, some were crew, but a lot were just ordinary residents of Grand Cache.

That night of sleep was very light and painful. I twitched almost all night and woke up feeling like a semi had run me over. After a nice fat breakfast with Terry (11th solo in 17:39), Delores, and Bryon, complete with lots of greasy bacon and lots of cheese on my homefries, it was time to hit the road south. Since it was Sunday, and I couldn't stick around for the award ceremony on Monday, I stopped by the race office to let them know that Terry would be picking up my winnings. I also chatted with Dean for a little bit about his race (2nd solo, 16:12). He said he didn't have a good race and his body was just tired from all of his racing lately. While talking to one of the TNF marketing guys, he asked me if I knew what I had won. I said I had heard I won $1000, which was super sweet. He said "the cash or..." (oo, I like "or's") ...an all expense paid trip to any of the other The North Face Endurance Challenge Races around the world!! I was shocked and speechless. Apparently the Death Race is part of the Endurance Challenge that also includes races in San Francisco; near the Great Wall, China; Mont Blanc, France; and near Santiago, Chile. Whoah - that's a heck of a list to choose from!

I then turned the little Honda south and hit the road for the 20 hour drive home. Bryon and I stopped for milkshakes and cheese fries in Jasper, then it was drive, drive, drive to the border. I got to the border at 12:10 a.m. No biggie...unless you're trying to cross at a border in the middle of nowhere. Apparently some of the border crossings close at midnight and don't re-open until 8 a.m. The closing in general kinda sucks, but then the late opening time made it suck even more. So I slept in the Honda that night and finished the rest of the drive home the next day.

Big, huge thank yous to Delores, Terry, Bryon, Iris, Keith, Leslie, Meghan, TNF's Go Nads! team, all of the racers who cheered for me, all of the racers who ran with me, all of the Death Race workers and volunteers, the entire community of Grand Cache, The North Face for such a sweet prize, Montrail, nuun, and Nathan for my racing gear, and everyone else who encouraged me along the way. While the Death Race wasn't the perfect race, or even my best race, it was definitely my best ever long race (long = over 100 km) and things just seemed to click for me. Hopefully I still have a bit in the tank for Where's Waldo 100 km on August 22.

If you're on Facebook, you can check out some of Bryon's cool pictures.

Canadian Death Race

2009-08-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

Super short version: I ran the 10th annual Canadian Death Race in Grand Cache, AB, on Satureday and I won!
15:04:04
125 kilometers, 17,000' vertical (climb and descent), very rugged and technical.

This is a hard race. Out of about 200 starters, only 78 finished.

Stay tuned for more to come in the next couple of days. For now, I'm going to bed! Oh, and just wait until I tell you what I won...you'll all be jealous!

Badwater Babe!

2009-07-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

I just got home from an incredibly amazing experience. I was fortunate to be part of Team D's Nutz at the Badwater 135, and help crew and pace Jamie Donaldson to her second consecutive victory there.

David, Rob, Connie, and Eric showed me the ropes fast and we had a great crew for Jamie. Despite 27 hours, 20 minutes, and 18 seconds together (second fastest women's time, only to herself from last year) with really no sleep, we didn't have a single crew "incident". Pretty cool people to meet and hang out with.

The real star obviously was Jamie. Her patience, perserverance, hard work, grit, course knowledge, extremely up-beat attitude, no whining, zero pukeage, and just all around coolness factor, made Jamie the chick at Badwater.

I am humbled to have been a part of her experience. Thank you, Jamie.

Lotsa Puking, But I Got My Bronze Buckle

2009-07-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

Western States was once again the huge event that it always is. In 2005, I was really nervous during all of the pre-race stuff, but not this year. I really enjoyed everything I did in Squaw in the days leading up to the race. I was very relaxed, evidenced by my heart rate of 48 at the pre-race medical check on Friday morning. I knew I was fit, and I was definitely confident in my ability to perform well.

Well, I didn't perform up to my expectations. I did finish, 24:44:13, which I am very happy about. I never really considered dropping. But I just had a long day out there.

I felt great through the high country, wearing my heart rate monitor up until Dusty Corners at mile 38 to help keep my effort intact. I really enjoyed the high country miles running at different times with Stan, Lewis, Krissy, Scott, Brian M, Brian R, Simon, and others.

I went down pretty hard about a mile before Robinson Flat and that really sucked the wind out of me. But when I got to Robinson, I couldn't help but get re-energized. The crowd there was absolutely epic! I felt like a rock star - hearing my name shouted out from all directions, high fives everywhere, and definitely got a lump in my throat a few times. I left there on top of the world and was able to get a decent groove going again.

Getting to Miller's Defeat aid station at mile 34, run by the SWEAT Running Club out of Redding, CA, I thanked them for putting on a great marathon in January. To my complete surprise, one of them then complimented me for putting on a great Peterson Ridge Rumble in April. That was the nicest thing anyone said to me all day and I was stoked.

I continued on down, down, down the hill to Last Chance at mile 43. Shortly after that, on the decent down to Swinging Bridge, I started getting really hot. Uh, that's not good. The climb up the Thumb hurt, as did the next long decent down El Dorado Canyon (it hurt because of the heat, not my legs). Down at the El Dorado a.s., mile 53, I was really, really hot, and the a.s. workers could see that. They offered up the creek to cool me down and I accepted with hesitation. It felt awesome to stand in the cool creek for 10 minutes to cool my core. I left feeling like my race might just turn around.

I was wrong. About 20 minutes later, I was dry again and hurting. I eventually got to Michigan, got lots of help cooling off again from Peter, Darla, Chris, and everybody's favorite Russian, Ogla. Since I like Volcano Canyon, I left Michigan looking forward to the next 10 km. I didn't do what I hoped in there and made it to Foresthill in not very high spirits. I knew Thomas was joining me for the next 18 miles, but I was to miserable to really want to run with anybody.

Thomas did a great job getting me down to the river. By the time he was with me, I had been puking lots, and that didn't change. At Peachstone, I was able to eat 1/2 a grilled cheese sandwich, 2 cups of soup, and a cup of Coke. Good, solid calories that I wanted to keep down. So we walked out of the a.s., then slowly jogged. When I did puke again, at least it was everything I had just put down, so that was a plus. Then at Ford's Bar, we did something I wasn't planning on until13 miles later - we broke out the headlamps.

Crossing the river was nice and felt good. As the temperature was still hot, as was I, I should have fully submerged myself. However, I was too afraid of getting hypothermia on the hike up to Green Gate, so I didn't take full advantage of the river. Bad decision, as I got pretty hot again on the climb. Being hot again at the top, Bryon literally took the shirt off his back, got it wet, then draped it over my head to help cool me down. What a guy.

Darla and I then set out for the final 20, with thoughts of a sub-24 still in my mind. But it wasn't to be. As the night drew on, I kept puking and puking and puking. And just to make sure, I puked some more. Despite the heat, at ALT, I got a little chilly and got my jacket from my drop bag. The puking was draining all of my energy. I actually ended up wearing the jacket twice for short sections.

A little after Brown's Bar at mile 90, I finally let out the mother puke - I actually had to stop for this one (all of the rest I continued to walk, run, jog, whatever). A lot came out and a few minutes later, I actually felt pretty good again. So the last 9ish miles I was able to pick up my pace ever-so-slightly. It felt great to be running, er, jogging again. Going into Hwy 49 at mile 93.5, I just wanted to get out of there and finish. Crewboy Chris said that in the almost 4 hours he was there watching, I was by far the fastest in and out of that a.s.

Leaving Hwy 49 at 4 a.m., Darla was so cute and said that I could still get a sub-24. Little did she know about the climb out of the a.s., or the final climb up Robie. I told her that the top guys do it in 1:20, so don't worry about the time. We eventually made it across No Hands and up the climb to Robie. And just as I was bummed to turn on my headlamp with Thomas, I was equally bummed to turn off my headlamp with Darla on the way up to Robie. I didn't want to see the sun rise again while still out on the trail.

Anyway, we hit the pavement and soon enough the track for the final 300 meters. I finished happy and exhausted in 24:44:13 for 76th place. There were 399 starters and 238 finishers. That's a fairly hefty 40% drop rate. Ouch.

Chris and Darla saw that the temperature in Auburn on Saturday was 111, and at 8 p.m., it was still 100 at Green Gate. So estimates are that the highs in the canyons were probably in the 110-115 degree range. Hot.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Thomas and Darla for not letting me sleep at aid stations, and to Chris for being my main crew boy. You all were a very big reason for my finish. Also, thank you to Joe for letting me crash at his house, and not on I-5, on Sunday night.

Another 100? "Definitely not" on Sunday and Monday, "probably not" on Tuesday, and "maybe" on Wednesday. Ultrarunners are kinda stupid, or at least forgetful very quickly.

My Western States Teammates

2009-06-18T02:00:00.000-07:00

This year at Western States, I'll be toeing the line in Squaw Valley with a whole lot of teammates. Let's take a look:

My Montrail Teammates:
Erik Skaden, Eric Grossman, Francesca Conte, Bev Anderson-Abbs, Luis Escobar, Gary Robbins, Russell Gill. That's a pretty good looking team; arguably Montrail's best WS line-up in a few years. I say there's definitely some potential in there for some high placing, both in the girl's and boy's race!

My Oregon Teammates:
Gayman Arbogast, Willie Bogue, Stacey Bunton, Rob Cain, E. David Granum, Liz Kellogg, Hal Koerner, Jerry Letendre, Dan Olmstead, Neil Olsen, Tom Pelsor, Brad Putnam, Billyrubin Riley, Seagull Junker Riley, John Robinson, Linda Samet, Jenn Shelton, Derek Snelling, Larry Stephens, Chickenhawk Taylor, Lord Balls Thornley, Monkeyboy Wolfe, and Kelly Woodke.
Although there are a few on this team that I don't know, this is definitely the team that I know the best. Oregon seriously has the very best ultra community EVER! Show up at any ultra in Oregon, whether it's part of the Oregon Trail Series or not, and you will immediately make new friends. It's pretty cool. Many of the WS Team Oregon runners have been known to show up to WS in matching Team Oregon singlets, while their crews wear Team Oregon t-shirts. It's pretty sweet running through Robinson and Michigan Bluff seeing all of that Beaver state pride. In addition to being super-cool people, there is some big-time talent on this list, too. You know who they are.

My Marathon Maniac Teammates:
Gilles Barbeau, Rob Cowan, and Robert Towne.
Gilles has been on an ultra-tear this year with 18 ultras already. Since seeing Rob at Jed Smith, Rob has run two 100s, so he's definitely got the strength to run strong. Robert used to live in Central Oregon, where I would see him at all of the local races, and now lives in Spokane, where I still see him occasionally when I visit the fam. He's always got a great smile and additude in all of his races. Look for him to finish near the top of the 50-59 age group.

My nuun Teammates:
Scott Dunlap and Brian Morrison.
Scott will be looking to rock his first WS - as long as he can keep his hands off his camera! And Brian, well, Brian obviously needs no introduction. I'm whole-heartedly rooting for Brian to kick some butt!

My Synchro-Blog Teammates:
Scott Dunlap, Jizzle Wizzle Jones-Wilkins, and Lord Balls Thornley. As Jizzle Wizzle's first pacer, Goat Powell is also a big part of this team. This team is loaded with some proven, multi-time top-10ers, the ultra and trail blogging king, and a two-time WS age group winner.

My Central Oregon Teammates:
Oh, wait, it's just me this year. A bit disappointing after last year's conglomeration, but I'll do my best for the solo representation.

So yes, I have lots of teammates that I'll be sharing the trail with. I will proudly be running for each of these teams, and I look forward too seeing many of you before, during, and / or after the race.

Run strong, take chances, be happy, have fun, don't step in puke...I'll see you all in Auburn!

This is the final installment of Lord Balls Western States Synchro-Blog project. It has been my pleasure to join in the fun. Read what the others have to say for this final go around:
Goat wants to hear your predictions.
Scott has a crew that's looking for an adventure.
AJW is in love with Tommy Nielson.
LB discusses the merits of a pacer.

Getting Dirty...

2009-06-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

So my final little pre-WS speed work race, the Dirty 1/2, was Sunday. I was definitely pleased with my race. Although I had mega miles in my legs from my recent road trip, I went to the Dirty 1/2 to run a course p.r. Last year I ran 1:24:11, so I just wanted to get a 1:23. I wasn't disappointed.

The first 5 1/2 miles are uphill and I usually take my time getting into it in this race. However, this year I made it a point to get after it quicker and go out harder, so not to be left behind the guys I usually run with in Bend-area races. I hit the first flat mile in 6:11 feeling nice and relaxed. Then when the uphill started, Mike Olson passed me like last year, but this year I went with him. We got into a good groove, catching up to Michael Dennis and youngster Parker Bennett (16 yrs) from the Sister High School XC team just after mile 3. The 4 of us had a good little train going until a.s. 2 at 5.5 miles. Parker and I surged, Michael fell back a bit, and Mike had to walk through the a.s. to drink some water to get rid of a cramp.

Back on the single track heading downhill, Parker and I picked up the pace, running comfortably hard (although as my heartrate monitor later told me, perhaps a bit harder than comfortably). I noticed Mike and Michael were running together again, slowly reeling us in. Mike eventually went around at mile 8, putting in a bit of a surge. He tried to get me to go with him, but I didn't want to bring it too hard quite yet.

Mike, Parker, and I reached mile 9 in 56:20 and I yelled to Mike that it was going to hurt if he was going to get his sub-1:20. We pushed on through 10 in 62:15, where Mike cramped bad and really fell of the pace. Parker and I really slowed up the hill in the 11th mile, at 6:45, the slowest of the day for us. Parker was happily surprised, however, to hear 1:09:00 at mile 11, as it was still was faster than he had ever run for the Dirty 1/2.

With about just under 2 miles to go, I told Parker to go for it. He had run a 4:09 1500 meters at the state track meet 3 weeks earlier, so he obviously has more leg speed than me. He was relectant, though, saying he didn't want to beat me after pacing off of me for most of the race. I told him I was the coach and that's what the coach wanted him to do. So he eventually passed and I tried to hang with him, but to no avail.

Parker flew up the hill in the 13th mile, while I was holding on just to maintain my pace. At the final downhill past the outhouse, I noticed Parker closing in fast on local stud Damon Kluck. Damon hung on for 5th in 1:21:53, Parker ran an incredible 1:21:54 for 6th (did I mention he's only a junior!? and when he was a 7th grader, he ran 1:33:28 at the Dirty!), and I happily cruised in for 7th in 1:22:13. Although I really slowed down the last 5k, I'm happy with my time and definitely my place. Anytime I can crack the top-10 at the Dirty, it's a good day.

To see how much I was actually pushing myself, I wore my heart rate monitor. Well, I definitely pushed myself. I averaged 184, and got a max of 192! Hm, when I went through the Lactate / VO2 Max test (i.e., pain test) at COCC a few years ago, my max was only 190. Sweet!

Yesterday I was definitely a bit on the sore side, mainly my quads, and today I'm feeling pretty good again, just a bit tired. I was very stoked to have recovered from my recent big miles enough to have run a Dirty 1/2 p.r. This tells me I'm fit. I'll add in another rest day this week (2 total), probably a short tempo-ish run on Thursday, and I think I will have a pretty darn good taper going in to Western States.

Great Times on the Road...

2009-06-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well, although it ended a few days earlier than I was anticipating, my amazing road trip came to an end last night. I picked up Sascha from Nancy and Al's house, she and I hung out while I unpacked the car, and we were asleep pretty late. As great as the trip was, it was awesome to get back to Sascha. We missed each other.

Here's my trip, by the numbers:
13 - days gone
3100 - miles driven
38 - average miles per gallon for the Honda
12 - days ran
300 - miles ran
25 - average daily running mileage
62,000 - approximate amount of vertical feet climbed and descended
2 - races ran
5 - National Parks / Conservation Areas visited (Bryce, Grand Canyon, Red Rock Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite). I got good use out of my Golden Eagle Pass.
11 - nights in sleeping bag
2 - glorious nights in a bed
3 - showers (2 were even on back-to-back days)
0 - pounds lost

Here's a short daily summary:
May 23 - 52 mi, Pocatello 50 miler, 13,680' vert., 9:59, 3rd place, awesome race - definite National Championship caliber
May 24 - 9 mi, Bryce Canyon Natl. Park with Bryon, hilly. We didn't see another person in the canyon - crazy for Memorial Day weekend. Cool thunderstorm on the drive there.
May 25 - 5 mi, Grand Canyon Rim with Bryon, flat. Pretty evening run and got to scout out a bit of what was coming.
May 26 - 45 mi, Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim with Bryon, 11,000' vert., 11:44. Down South Kaibab, up North Kaibab, down North Kaibab, up Bright Angel. The epic of all epic runs. Beautiful day in the canyon with a great friend. A definite must-run for any self-respecting trail and / or ultra runner.
May 27 - 5 mi, Red Rock Canyon Turtlehead Peak, 2,500' vert. Great evening run-turned-scramble. I was definitely outrunning the dark at the end of this one.
May 28 - 10 mi, Nopah Range Wilderness & Resting Spring Range Wilderness (CA / NV border near Vegas), very hilly, a bit of scrambling, hot.
May 28 - Drove the Badwater course. Death Valley Natl. Park is amazingly beautiful! If Badwater was in November, I'd love to run it. However, I'd definitely consider crewing for it. Those 3 climbs are awesome!
May 28 - 15 mi, Whitney Portal Road, 4,500' vert. Last 6.5 mi. of Badwater course, plus up the Whitney trail a mile to 9,000', then back down. That road is steep! (this days was my only double of the trip)
May 29 - 15 mi, Half Dome in Yosemite Natl. Park, 5,000' vert. I started the run / hike up in a storm, but by the time I got through the mass of people, the storm had passed. About a mile from the cable ladder on Half Dome, I passed 2 guys who told me I had it all to myself. I scrambled up to the cable, climbed up to the first rung, then stopped. I was happy to turn around there. No need to scare the piss out of myself climbing solo on the very-exposed cable ladder. It was very cool, though, to be the only person even just on Half Dome's shoulder, a mere 400 vertical feet from the top.
May 30 - 35 mi, Shadow of the Giants 50k, 5,000' vert., in Fish Camp, CA, just outside of Yosemite. This was a last minute decision to run. Ran purely based on heart rate - never above 160, never below 150. Victor B. caught up to me with 7 to go and we ran in together - great getting to know him a bit. Fun to see Liz, her 2 ultra-virgin friends, Gerad, Clark, Victor, and the SF gang. Then a nice, relaxing evening with Meghan and Bryon at a Bluegrass festival. A sweet way to end a fun day.
May 31 - 15 mi, Cool - Hwy 49 - Auburn - Cool, rolly with a few good hills. Some equestrians alerted me to a rattlesnake. Today started 4 days on the WS course.
June 1 - 33 mi, Dusty Corners - Robinson - Swinging Bridge - Dusty Corners, 5,000' vert. I met Bob from Foresthill out training for the Tevis Cup (he proudly showed me his buckle), and I saw a bear 1/2 way between Miller's Defeat and Dusty - very cool! Good run.
June 2 - 32 mi, Michigan Bluff - Swinging Bridge - Foresthill - Michigan Bluff, 7,000' vert. Great day in the canyons. My quads were definitely sore after this day. Not that I'll run these times on race day with miles on my legs, but here are the splits: Thumb 29:17, Michigan Bluff 39:45, MB - FH 1:00.
June 3 - 29 mi, Rucky Chucky, up Driver Flat road to the highway to Foresthill, then down to the River. 3,500' vert. I'm glad I did this run - it reminded me that there are actually quite a few ups on the way down. Cal 1 @ :30, Cal 2 @ 1:15, Cal 3 @ 1:41, Rucky Chucky @ 2:23. I wasn't trying to blaze down by any means, rather just a good, solid effort; but it's amazing to me that the top guys run about that time during the race for those 16 miles.

All in all, an incredible road / training camp / time with friends / alone time. I definitely feel fit right now. The hardest part for the next 3 weeks will to be to try to keep myself under control. No more long runs. Shorter stuff, faster stuff, maybe even an 8k this weekend, and definitely the Dirty 1/2 the next weekend. I'll probably take Sascha to see if we can run / hike up one of my central Oregon favorites - Black Crater.

To all of you out there training for Western States, enjoy the next 3 weeks. I just noticed the bib numbers have been assigned. I'm 320.

Road Trip!

2009-05-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, I left little Sisters, OR for road trip. So far, it's turning out to be pretty darn epic.

It started in Pocatello, ID, for the first-ever running of the Pocatello 50 miler. Epic, incredible, awesome course! 51.8 miles, 13,680' of climbing and descending, very rugged, super-fun glissade. I figured going sub-10 would be a good day on the trails. I was right. I pushed hard the last 5 miles to slide in at 9:59:28. I recommended to rd's Jared and Ryan that they bid for the USATF 50 mile National Trail Championship...it's that kind of course.

After Pocy, Powell and I headed south to Bryce Canyon NP for a sweet 9ish miler in the canyon. Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and we saw exactly zero people in the canyon. Crazy, kinda sad, kinda awesome.

Next stop, Grand Canyon. We got there on Monday afternoon, ran a short 5er on the Rim Trail before heading to bed eagerly anticipating Tuesday's run. Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim. Down South Kaibab, up North Kaibab, down North Kaibab, up Bright Angel. 45 miles + 11,000' vertical + 11:44 + a cool friend to run with = completely epic. This should be a definite must-run on any self-respecting trail and/or ultrarunner's list. WOW!

Next up - headed north through Death Valley, possibly Yosemite and Tahoe, but really on to the WS course for a little course-specific training. Anyone gonna be on that trail this Sunday, Monday, Tuesday? Give me a call, as I would love to run with somebody and arrange some car shuttles. (541) 549-1298

Running lots + eating lots + sleeping hard = a very happy Sean!!

Steve Larsen

2009-05-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Steve Larsen

Husband, father of five, brother, son, super-nice guy, realtor, professional road cyclist, professional mountain biker, professional triathlete, runner extraordinaire, fittest person I've ever known...gone at age 39.

Last night at FootZone's speed workout, Steve was just beginning his workout. At about the 500 meter point of the first 800, he collapsed.

Originally thought to be a heart attack, brother Mike said an autopsy showed that was ruled out. Mike says Steve's death may have been viral or related to allergies. He told me earlier today that Steve had been having trouble with his breathing for a few weeks, and unable to finish some of his recent workouts.

This very tragic news rocked me and the rest of the central Oregon community this morning. I dealt with it almost all day long at work as various friends of Steve came into the shop just to hang out and talk about him. There aren't too many athletes in central Oregon who haven't been handily whooped by Steve at a race.

A sad day, indeed. My thought and prayers are definitely with Steve's entire family...

Trail Running Presentation and Sweetest Video

2009-05-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Hart and I are doing a presentation for Montrail at the Seattle Mountain Hardwear Store on, what else, trail and ultrarunning! Whenever we get together, there's always lots of sarcasm and hazing, so if you're in the Seattle-area, join the fun. Tonight, 6 p.m., be there. It's sure to be a good time.

The sweetest video EVER!

Retirement

2009-05-08T02:00:00.000-07:00

A good buddy of mine is retiring today from one field and journeying on to another. He's not sure exactly what the other is yet, but he's sure to have one heck of a journey. I look forward to spending some trail time with you in the near future. Enjoy the ride, my friend.

The Western States Finish Line

2009-05-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

So as you'll notice, I've been quite the blogging slacker the past month+. It's not that I haven't done anything lately, it's just that my mind has been preoccupied with other stuff. There are definitely more than a few unwritten blogs lingering in my head: my Hawaiian adventure, a Rumble re-cap, Sascha's 11th birthday, Spokane River 50k (some days, it's better to not race), over-training while trying to recover, a marathon dns, resting and feeling peppy again, hills, hills, and more hills, crappy snowy weather...etc.

But this blog isn't about any of those topics, although most of those topics do eventually tie-in to what this blog is about. This is about the aid station I'm most looking forward to visiting at Western States. That aid station would be the Finish Line Aid Station.

It sounds simple enough. All I have to do is finish Western States, then I'll see that aid station. Ah, therein lies the issue...finishing. As many of Sascharuns blog readers know, I don't have a very good record in 100s. I've started 6 and finished only 2. Yeah, that sucks.

In 2003, I walked most of the final 50 miles of the Bighorn 100 on badly blistered feet to earn my first finish in 29:06:58 (which was also my first start; maybe I should have stopped there). That's the only ultra I've run that I remember my time to the second; apparently it made a big impact on me. My second 100 start was the Eagle, in Keremeous, BC in 2004. I made it to 1/2 way in 110 degree temps. feeling really hot, but okay. I soaked under a cold hose for almost 10 minutes, ate some food, then ran out on the dirt road. I shouldn't have run so fast with a full belly in the heat. Within a mile my stomach was empty. A few miles later, I was very humbled and I was done. Attempt #3 was WS in 2005. It wasn't pretty (Green Gate to Hwy. 40, 13.7 miles, took me 5 hours), but I finished and earned a silver buckle.

Once again I was ahead of 100s: Sean - 2, 100s - 1.

Then the triple play hit me hard. At the San Diego 100 in 2006, I felt great at 50, started slowing around 60, then when it got dark and Josh joined me, I was pretty miserable. I was cold, so I couldn't go fast, and I couldn't go fast enough to generate any heat. As I was sitting on the trail, huddled with Josh for warmth, Roch Horton flew by me and offered up a fleece pullover, which I eagerly put on. Josh eventually got me up, I staggered to the mile 88 aid station, and immediately got in a car and fell asleep (as Josh froze outside...). Four hours later I woke up, got out of the car to jog it in, and my legs buckled under me. I was done.

Tahoe Rim Trail 100 in 2007 was sure to be a good race for me. Tahoe is one of my very favorite places to run and race. I went down with a great group of friends, we rented a house for a few days, and we were racing on a beautiful trail. Sweet! The first 60 went pretty well, then my stomach started really cramping on the Red House loop. I remember talking to Mark Gilligan (rocking it a week after a super-tough century bike ride!) as I was entering the loop and he was going out, and I was doubled over at my waist, my tummy hurt so bad. I made it out of the loop, put on my warm clothes, and headed towards Mt. Rose with a cup of hot soup in each hand. I slowly meandered down the trail, saw a bear, jogged a bit here and there, then when I got to the final little climb before the Mt. Rose aid station, I might as well have been climbing Everest. Going up that hill was so hard; I would slowly walk about 20 feet, stagger to the ground to rest for a few minutes, get up and repeat the cycle. When I finally made it to the a.s., the volunteers led me to the scale, but I passed by and grabbed a cot before I passed out. Luckily Thomas and Valerie were there for me as I was shaking uncontrollably under many blankets and puking my guts out. Mile 76, I was done.

I was supposed to run Western States in 2008, but when that got cancelled, I was lucky enough to get one of the spots TRT r.d. David Cotter opened up for WS refugees and give it another shot. This year was going to be different. I drove down solo, stayed with Thomas and Valerie in Incline Village, and had a different strategy than 2007. At 50, the temperature was about 105 and although I was hot, I was rockin' and rollin'. I felt fantastic. I still felt fantastic through Red House and at Mt. Rose. Like 2007, Thomas and Valerie were there to help. I was excited to be there in plenty of daylight! I got my lights, grabbed a jacket, hat, and gloves, and was stoked knowing I was going to finally finish another 100 in about 5 hours as I cruised out with Nikki and her pacer Howard. As I was leaving, Jenn offered to pace me in, but she wasn't quite ready. So she changed and caught up to me a mile later. Jenn's cool...she's fun and spunky, so I knew I would enjoy running with her. We cruised along nicely to mile 80, at 81 I had to stop for a little puke, and by 82 I was a hurtin' boy. As I was sitting on the trail, shaking uncontrollably and puking, I was wishing Jenn was big, like Josh, as she just wasn't providing any heat for me. She eventually coaxed me to the mile 85 a.s., where I immediately grabbed a cot and some blankets. Then Jenn played nurse and brought me pretty much every item of food and drink the aid station had, just so I could try to get something in my belly. Absolutely everything that went out came back out within seconds. So I napped for a few hours, tryed more food and fluids and got the same result. Mile 85, 100 mile attempt #6 was over.

So naturally I've questioned my ability during and especially right after each of these 100s. Why the heck do I attempt 100s?? Even my two finishes weren't anything noteworthy (other than I did finish them). I'm usually a decent marathoner-to-100ker, so why must I put myself through the agony of 100 milers, only to be batting .333? Why are 100 mile trail races the pinnacle of our sport in the US? I guess for me, it's to really see what I can do and how I can do it. There are so many unknowns in 100 milers. When to push? When to take it easy? When to eat food? When to eat gels? When to drink? What to drink? How much to drink? Electrolytes? Why do some people just seem to excel at 100s (Scott, Karl, Jeff, AJW, Ann, Nikki), while others, who have great results at shorter distances, seem to never quite put together solid 100s (Kami, William E.)?

Anyway, getting back to my original point...the aid station at Western States I'm most looking forward to is the Finish Line. I'm going to be stoked as I'm rounding the track for my final 250 meters, getting goose bumps on my neck, and looking not just at the actual finish line, but a bit beyond for that aid station. I can hardly wait for some eggs.

Read what aid station my fellow geeky Western States Synchrobloggers are most looking forward to seeing:
Bryon Powell
Scott Dunlap
Andy Jones-Wilkins
Craig Thornley

This Weekend's Races

2009-04-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

The 7th Annual Peterson Ridge Rumble 30k/60k is this Sunday, April 5, in Sisters, OR. This is my baby. I founded it in 2003 as a 17 mile run on the Peterson Ridge trails near Sisters. That first year, there were 30 people and 6 dogs. In 2004, I added an ultra distance (35 miles at the time). Now there are two distances, 60ish km and 30ish km, 300+ people and 40 dogs. I love that kind of evolution!

Also this weekend is the American River 50 miler. As usual, there will be lots of people running it - slow, fast, and everywhere in between, just lots of runners! I'm going to make a prediction and say both the female and male champions will be from Bend. But only one of those will then toe the line in Squaw.

Are you ready to Rumble?!

Mandatory Buckles?

2009-04-02T02:00:00.000-07:00

As most people who read this blog are well aware, the tangible award for finishing Western States is one heckuva nifty belt buckle. In fact, it's so nifty that most (if not all) of each runner's entry fee goes to paying for said buckle. The rest of the stuff runners receive (schwag, aid station food, a sweet course, superb organization, tasty finish line breakfast, hot showers, etc) is paid for through numerous sponsor donations.

The cost to run Western States is $295 ($195 this year for 2008 runners who rolled over). That definitely seems high to me, but I understand the buckles aren't cheap (nor is anything else we receive). So I have a solution to help lower individual runners' entry fee: make the finisher's buckle an optional item. Yep, optional. I can already hear the old-timers out there gasping.

I ran WS in 2005, finished in under 24 (barely!), and proudly accepted my silver buckle from Tim Twietmeyer. I remember taking my buckle to Leavitt's Western Wear, the cool little western store in downtown Sisters, so I could find just the perfect belt to go with my buckle. I was so proud to show the cowboys in the store my buckle and even prouder when I told them the whole story behind 100 milers, Gordy, horses, buckles, etc. They were impressed, and I got my fancy brown leather belt to hold my pretty silver buckle. In fact, I'm wearing it right now. I like it so much that I wear it probably once a week. I occasionally take the WS buckle off my belt so I can wear my Hagg Lake Hall of Mud buckle. Sometimes I even put my Silver State buckle on it. There are a few others that get thrown into the rotation. But far and away, my WS buckle is the one I wear on my belt most often.

On June 28, I look forward to walking across the grass at Placer High Stadium again to be recognized for finishing WS. However, I would be just as happy to not receive a buckle. I have one. I don't really need another. Well, unless, of course, that buckle said "Champion" on it...I'll have to wait for Karl's odds to see what those chances are, though.

What I propose is for WS to have an option on the entry form that says if you want a buckle, you pay $X. If you don't want a buckle, you pay $X - $100. That's basically what all of the roll overs from last year did. Since we didn't get a buckle last year, we got a $100 break for 2009. For the lucky few who got into this year's race who weren't roll overs, they paid the full $295. So it basically sounds to me like the runner's cost for their buckle is $100, while the rest of the stuff is $195. I think that's reasonable.

Anyway, I propose the following: At the time of registration, if you want a buckle, you pay $295. If you don't, you pay $195. If you dnf, you don't get a buckle, regardless of what price you paid. If you finish, you get a buckle if you paid $295; you don't get one if you paid $195. Yeah, I'm sure there would be a few runners who didn't pay for a buckle, then would want one upon finishing. If the organizer's want to sell buckles at the award's ceremony to those finishers, I'm sure they could bump up the price to $150 for those runners who didn't plan accordingly. Or not. Organizers could just say no.

With registration for WS taking place in Octobert of the previous year, and the lottery in December, that gives race organizers plenty of time to plan for the correct number of buckles. I don't know how they figure out how many runners are going to earn silver vs. bronze every year, but they do a pretty good job of it, so I'm sure they could use the same percentages for just the smaller number of runners who pay for the buckles.

I think this is a great way to reward finishers who really want buckles, and also to reward those of us who already have way too much stuff and really don't need anymore (and we get to save some cash). I realize I could pay the full price, finish, and then just not accept my buckle. Sorry, that won't happen. I'll find some use for it. I wonder what Tim uses his 25 silvers for?

Read what new ideas my fellow geeky Western States Synchrobloggers would like to implement to improve Western States, check out their blogs:

Hawaii Bound!

2009-03-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

Only 8 1/2 hours until Gina and I hit the sky for hula-land. On Saturday, I'm really looking forward to this. Then St. Patrick's Day, this. Then this the following Friday. And finally, top the fun off with this. I'm still not quite sure how I talked Gina in to agreeing to let me run 4 races, and her 3. But it's gonna be fun!

Of course, there will be plenty of beach time, water time, hiking time, site-seeing time, and probably my favorite, drinking-fruity-drinks-with-cute-little-umbrellas time.

Then when I get back, I'm hoping a little global warming will have hit Sisters and melted the snow off the Rumble course.

Aloha, mahalo, etc!

Richard's Surprise Appearance at Hagg

2009-03-06T17:36:00.000-08:00

Ever since Richard talked me in to giving him my bib number so he could run Hagg Lake 50k, I've been a bit lackadaisical on the old blog. To be sure, I happily gave him my number. It was his first ultra and he was stoked for it. I'll let Richard give you his little race report:

"After Sean wore his beautiful Harshburger-original floral skirt the last 2 years at Hagg, I knew he needed to up his game a bit this year. I knew he wasn't up for it. I explained that to Sean, told him how I could definitely be the boost he needed this year at Hagg, then pleaded my case to get his bib. He agreed.

So I showed up at the start ready to go with my signature look: tight red and white striped shorts, an over-sized white tank, an over-sized red tank over the white tank, and my sweet 'fro. Over course, the only shoes I own are white leather jazzercise shoes, so I borrowed a pair of Sean's old-school Montrail Highlanders...great kicks for Hagg's mud. I also thought his nuun visor looked pretty cool, so I threw that on.

Although I had never been to an ultra, I have followed Sean's blog pretty religiously over the past year, so I recognized many of the usual Oregon Trail Series suspects at the start. There was 2008 Series Champ William, Bushwacker, Al and Nancy, Mel, Ben, Tom, Bien, Luvin', Nessski, rd's Stacey and Ronda, John, Krissy, Devon, and the list goes on. Quite a crew for the kick-off to the 2009 Series.

Soon enough, off we went...up the hill, past the drunk skunk, down the hill, and again, past the drunk skunk. On the way down the hill, I threw in a few signature Sweatin' to the Oldies moves for the benefit of those still going up. I think the runners appreciated it.

Unintentionally, and sadly, I fell into a no-man's-land groove for most of the race. I would get through the trail and mud sections (although really not very muddy), then I would race the pavement sections pretty hard to try to catch up to someone...anyone. But to no avail. After running in Sean's normal 4th place for about 10 miles, I moved up into 3rd. And that's where I stayed for the next 16 miles, hopeful of proving to Sean that a rookie can, in fact, podium at Hagg.

Throughout the race, as I passed 50k early starters on my first lap, and 25kers on my second lap, I occasionally stopped for a bit of Sweatin' to the Oldies with a few of my adoring fans. Who knew there were so many closet-Richard Simmons ultrarunner fans? It was awesome, and I finally felt in my element. But each time, eventually I had to get going so I could finish this 50k thing.

My energy level felt pretty good throughout the race, as I fueled on CarboPro, nuun, and gels. Although I still felt pretty good at the last aid station, I opted for Sean's typical 1/2 Coke / 1/2 water for the last section. Coke sure is good in an ultra! Leaving the a.s., I knew I was right on the cusp of breaking 4 hours.

I was running along pretty well, then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, young buck Brendan Trimboli came up on me fast! I asked if he wanted by, and he said not yet. I think he was checking out my designer shorts - they're cool. Then just before the last long road section, he whizzed by me going up a hill and I encouraged him to go strong on the road to get a sub-4. I tried to give chase, but my sails were deflated as he sprinted down the road. Brendan went on to a fine 3:59 and a podium 3rd place finish. I finished in 4:01:19 in Sean's typical 4th place.

Mighty fine day at the not-so-muddy Hagg Lake. And since I ran it with Sean's bib, he got his 99th official ultra finish! Click here for full Hagg Lake results."

Attaboy, Richard, on a mighty fine run in your oh-so-stylish jazzercise outfit. Perhaps you want to take over for Run to the Sun, too?

As you have maybe noticed the past few months from my countdown timer, I'm going to hang out with some Hot Hula Girls in a week. I have been running lots and lots and lots of hills the past couple of months prepping for Run to the Sun up Haleakala on Maui. In February, I ran 38 PBRs (1 mile hill with 500'). I've done my long hills running up to Upper Three Creeks Snowpark outside of Sisters. It's 11 miles and 2,500' vertical from my house. I usually do 2 repeats on the steeper section of that road, for about 17 miles total of uphill running. I've been hitting the track weekly for the past month, too. Mostly mile intervals, with a few 800s for fun. Just in the short time I've been back on the track, I've lowered my average 4 x mile workout from 5:49 a month ago to 5:35 a few days ago. Many of my runs have also, of course, included Sascha. As it's still a bit on the chilly side in central Oregon, she's still pretty good for up to 20ish miles...as long as there's enough stinky stuff for her to roll in so she doesn't get bored.

I'm excited for some fun in the sun, up a mountain, on the beach, in the warmth!

Western States Memories

2009-02-19T02:00:00.000-08:00

For this, the second addition of the Western States Synchroblog, I'm going to share with you the thing I love most about Western States: memories. I've only been there three times - 2004 pacing Ashley Idema (now Nordell), 2005 running, 2007 pacing Rod Bien - but I've definitely made many fond memories in those years. And thus, I will share some of my favorites with you.

#1: Without a doubt, pacing Ashley is my very favorite WS memory. Shortly after we left Foresthill, Ashley told me about some knee pain she had been having for quite a while. Going down Cal Street, it only got worse. So at Cal 1, I decided to put some ice on it...but how? I got a ziplock bag from the volunteers, filled it with ice, and duct taped it to her knee. Down we went to Cal 2, with Ashley's knee feeling a bit better. A quick ice and tape change and we were out of there. On the way to Cal 3, her other knee started bothering her, too. So, we left Cal 3 with a bag of ice duct taped to each knee. Sweet! The refilling of ice and re-duct taping continued all night at each aid station. When we reached Hwy 49, Ashley's parents were there to cheer. We hadn't seen them since Foresthill, so they had no idea about Ashley's knee situation. Her mom gave me the look-of-death...it was awesome! What had I done to her little 24-year old girl?? Naturally, Ashley was getting pretty tired of the whole situation by now, too. I specifically remember when the sun was light enough again to see without headlamps. Going down to No Hands, I casually glanced at my watch to check the time, Ashley saw me and scowled "Stop looking at your watch! I don't care what time it is!!" Not only did Ashley finish her first 100, she even managed to earn one of those cool top-3 age group jackets. And she eventually forgave me for torturing her through the final 38 miles. Thanks for letting me tag along, Ash.

The next 9 memories are really in no particular order...

#2: Watching Scott and Dave duke it out in 2004. Seeing them come into and leave Michigan Bluff within a minute of each other was nothing short of epic. They had been hammering each other through the heat for 8 1/2 hours and they both left with The Eye of the Tiger. Scott would go on to break the course record while Dave would go on to run the fastest non-winning and rookie time in WS history.

#3: Upon finishing with Ashley in 2004, I saw my buddy Jeff Riley hanging out on the grass in the infield. He looked completely wasted, but also super stoked. I could tell he had pulled off a good one. So I guessed sub-21. He smiled a bit, then began telling me about his excellent 20:08! Thankfully he was sitting down when he said that because I was so excited that I tackled him. I knew Jeff was going to have an awesome race.

#4: Me "running" from Green Gate to Hwy 49 in 2005, a distance of 13.7 miles, in 5:09. Luckily I had my buddy Ian, a D3 Cross Country All American, pacing me because I knew I would be flying in that section. Seriously, I thought I was running.

#5: Getting passed in the last 10 miles of 2005 by Chip, Rooster, and Olga. Yeah, I was puking my guts out and having a horrible day, but I could tell the three of them were having epic days. It was cool to watch each of them go prancing by me en route to p.r.'s.

#6: Less than 20 minutes after my own 2005 finish, I was already in my sleeping bag on the infield and almost passed out. Within minutes off lying down, I heard shouts for Ed and I managed to open my eyes long enough to watch Ed Willson give everything he had to pull out an incredible 23:58:23.

#7: While waiting with the other 23:something finishers to receive my silver buckle, I heard the name Jon Sinclair, turned around, and immediately recognized him as he, too, waited for his silver buckle. For those not familiar, Jon was a world-class road distance runner in the 80s and 90s. He was a big fixture at my hometown race, Bloomsday, winning it in '83 (my first-ever running race) and again in '86, becoming Bloomsday's first male two-time champ. Anyway, Jon was basically my running hero while growing up. So, I just had to introduce myself. I did so by asking him what was harder: winning Bloomsday or finishing WS in sub-24. He was definitely caught a little off-guard by the question. After I introduced and explained myself, he didn't hesitate in answering sub-24 at Western States.

#8: Listening to Jon Ticer's story in 2005 about how he went down hard while running down to the river. His finger whacked something pretty hard and consequently, dislocated itself. Unfazed, Jon told Kevin Myers, his pacer, to jam it back into place for him. Kevin was able to put the finger back where it belonged, Jon got a little tape at the next aid station, and he went on to rock a stellar 18:03:17 for 6th place.

#9: Hal cruising in to Dusty Corners in 2007. He had his tunes on and was just rockin', but yet looked so silky smooth. He didn't have crew there, so I asked if he needed help. He just non-chalantly said "naw", refilled his bottles, grabbed some food, put his tunes back on, and cruised on out. He didn't seem to have a worry on his mind and he made it all seem so effortless. At that point, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that Hal was going to win.

#10: Leaving Green Gate with Rod in 2007. Less than 100 meters after I had started my pacing duties, Rod said "hang on a minute, I gotta puke". Being a puker myself, I knew he didn't need any sympathy here, but rather just a minute to puke. So I gave him his minute, he puked, and off we went in search of a top-10 finish; not a word was spoken about said puke.

I definitely have many other fond Western States memories, but these are some of my favorites. What is yours?

To find out what my fellow geeky Western States Synchrobloggers love about Western States, check out their blogs:
Bryon Powell, read what Goat likes most about Western States.
Scott Dunlap, read why the king of running blogs thinks too much information about Western States makes it the ultimate conquest.
Andy Jones-Wilkins, read what Jizzle Wizzle loves about running Western States.
Craig Thornley, read what LB thinks of the Western States Family.

Happy Valentine's Day...

2009-02-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

...to my two favorite Valentines!

And here they are kissing each other...should I be jealous?

The Fastest Ultra in the West

2009-02-11T20:26:00.000-08:00

SLUT runners were out in full-force; apparently I didn't get the uniform memo, though.

That's the tag line for the Jed Smith Ultra Classic, held in Gibson Ranch Park just outside of Sacramento. It definitely is fast, and with only 480' of vertical in the 50 miler, it is also flat. The course consists of a 3.31 mile loop that we 50 milers ran a little over 15 times. It's about 1/2 paved and 1/2 trail. I used to be of the opinion that these loop courses are obsurdly boring and that I would never run one. Well, I had my sights set on meeting the qualifying standard to be considered for the US 100km World Cup Team. To do that, I needed to run a sub-5:40 (that's 6:48 pace). To do that, I needed a flat and fast course. Jed met my criteria and happened to be the only localish race this Winter/Spring that fit in with my schedule. So I decided to make the 8-hour trek south with Fatboy, returning to run his second Jed (he won his other time there), and Chris was nice enough to join the fun to be crew-boy.

Fatboy tried to not get eaten by the uber-aggressive pre-race geese.

After my recent results at shorter races (marathon and less), I knew I had the leg speed. It's kinda crazy, but a 6:48 pace just didn't intimidate me. However, I hadn't run any really long runs (40+ milers) since July, so I knew going in that my limiting factor was possibly going to be my endurance. I just tried to tell myself that I definitely wasn't overtrained, so maybe the shorter, faster stuff I had been doing would get me to the start feeling rested and hold me over for 50 miles.

The long, gradual, paved hill...as opposed to the short, steep, dirt hill.

Todd Braje was there and he also had plans of qualifying for the team. I was hoping we would be able to run together for at least a couple of laps, but it wasn't to be. I tend to be a fairly conservative starter, while Todd went for it from the gun. After 5:30:50, Todd crossed the finish line completely worked. I wish I could have seen it. Congratulations, Todd - incredible performance. Enjoy Belgium.

As for my race, I eased into it, covering the first lap in a relaxed 22:40ish (I needed to average between 22:00 and 23:00 per lap), then slowly speeding up to low-22s for lap 2, and 21:50s for laps 3-6. I reached 20.5 miles in 2:15, very comfortable and very much in control. I reached half way in 2:46 and the marathon in 2:53. Cruising right on pace. Although I slowed a bit the next few miles, I took a gel (mainly fueling with Carbo Pro drink for calories), started feeling better, and even p.r.ed my 50k split in 3:32.

The uber-technical trail section; hey the arrow's pointing the wrong way.

At the beginning of lap 10, Chris told me I was doing awesome and he was getting reports from over the course that I looked great all around. Hm, perhaps the kiss of death? Somewhere in my 10th lap, things went bad. My lack of long runs was definitely catching up to me. I slowed waaaaaay down to 28:58. Lap 11, 28:59. Ouch. Lap 12 was when I hit the bottom. I was running a bit with Fatboy when I suddenly felt violently ill. Knowing I was about to puke, I decided to walk for a bit so my stomach could settle down. I actually really wanted to just sit down at an aid station and quit. It would have been so much easier. However, I knew I needed to get through the crappy parts because they're going to be even crappier at Western States and I was hoping that this would somehow make me a tiny bit more mentally strong. I was able to put down a gel and after a few minutes of walking, I started slowly jogging again. I finished that lap in a dismal 30:20.

Not necessarily feeling better, but just not about to puke, I was able to jog lap 13 in 29:00, putting me at 5:26 with 6.6 miles to go (if Todd had only run 4 minutes faster, I could have seen him finish). Obviously I had been far from my sub-5:40 goal for some time now. However, there were a couple other times I could still go after. #1, sub-6:34, my 50 mile p.r. from JFK in 2007; #2, sub-6:30, because, well, it's just one of those round numbers you want to beat; #3, sub-6:22, Fatboy's 50 mile p.r. (which would be sweet to do with Fatboy there running the race); #4, sub-Kanning (17-year old stud Michael had begun reeling me in the last few laps in his attempt at the under-18 national 50 mile record).

I was a little tired when finished, but man I look cool with my

Rudy Racing Red lenses and bright green Fleet Feet hat.

So with a few goals still to shoot for, I switched to my customary 2/3 Coke / 1/3 water for the last hour of the race. I seriously felt faster, but still only managed a 27 minute lap 14. That put me at 5:53. I grabbed my last bottle from Chris and went for it. 3.31 miles to go. Passing by the remote aid station, I took my only aid station water all day - mainly to say thanks to the volunteers. And I finally passed the awesome cheerleader guy on the trail for the 30th, and last, time. I gave him a high-5 and big thank you as I ran past. As I hit the pavement for the final mile, I knew I was going to p.r., go sub-6:30, and go sub-Kanning. However, I was still unsure about getting Fatboy's 6:22 p.r. I saw Fatboy right around that time (he was going the other way) and he shouted to me that I should just walk it in. I knew then that I had his p.r., too.

I was happy to finally reach the finish after 6 hours, 19 minutes, and 45 seconds. 7:36/mi. for 50 miles (although I doubt I ever actually ran any mile in 7:36...averages are weird like that). Four minutes later, Michael came thundering across the finish in an incredible 6:23:55. He's 17 years old...can you believe that!?!? Although he was 7 minutes off the national record, he was stoked to have p.r.ed by 26 minutes. Did I mention his age?? 17!! He told me he doesn't turn 18 until November, so he has lots of time to still get that record.

So I finished in an inconspicuous second place...somewhere between the fastest 50 mile time in the US in at least a few years, and the uber-17 year old. I was happy with that. It was cool to race against the current 50-mile stud and one of the future stars of this crazy little sport of ours. And obviously I found out that I can't fake a fast 50 miler off of marathon and 50k training.

Crewboy Chris and Fatboy headed out for the bell lap.

Not to be left out, Fatboy regrouped a bit, talked Chris into running the last 2 laps with him, and met his sub-8 hour goal with a mighty fine 7:56:45. If this race was using cross country scoring, with only the top 2 runners from each team counting, then SLUT (Sisters Little Ultra Team) easily won (don't you love the fictitious race-within-a-race that I make up?).

There was also a 50k going on at Jed that day and Chikara Omine blitzed the course in a super-fast 3:08. That's 6:04 pace, which is the pace I averaged at CIM. But he went 7.8 km farther. Yes folks, that's fast.

Complete results.

2008 Review, 2009 Preview

2009-02-02T16:04:00.000-08:00

Yeah, this is about a month late, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

So, in 2008, I started 32 races and finished 30. In those 30 that I finished, I raced approximately 735 miles in 101 hours, 21 minutes, and 23 seconds. Being a math-guy, I even figured out my average pace was 8:16/mile. Considering the wide variety of races I did - long, short, fast, slow, hilly, flat, pr's, blow-ups, etc - I'm pretty happy with that pace.

I had some solid races last year: Vancouver Lake 1/2, Hagg, Miwok, Silver State, Dirty 1/2, Beamer 10k, Smith Rock 15k, McKenzie River, Lithia Loop, and Turkey Trot.

I had some bad races last year: BadAss, Way Too Cool, Horse Butte, Boston, TRT (dnf), and Tahoe 72 (dnf).

I had some great races last year: Wheatfield 1/2 (short course, but still great), Crater Lake, TransRockies (well, at least it was a great experience!), Bigfoot, Spokane Marathon, McDonald Forest 15k, and CIM.

Out of all of the highs and lows, my worst races were my two dnf's, TRT and Tahoe, and two of my best races came after each of the dnf's, Crater Lake and Spokane. The race right after a dnf has always been a good one for me.

Interestingly, most of my worst races were earlier in the year, the solid efforts were mostly in the middle, then my best races were in the last 1/3 of the year. And out of my best races, 3 were road marathons (Crater, Spokane, CIM), 4 were distance p.r.'s (Wheatfield, Bigfoot, Spokane, CIM), and even McDonald Forest was a huge break-through for me by going sub-60.

What's crazy about all of this is that I've considered myself an ultrarunner for the past 7 1/2 years. Heck, I even have 97 ultra finishes in that time to prove it. But ever since TransRockies, I've noticed that my leg speed has greatly improved and with that, my p.r.'s have dropped significantly in shorter races (marathons and shorter). Since TR, I've p.r.ed in the 10k, 1/2 marathon, and marathon twice. It's almost like TR helped push me through some invisible pain-barrier that I had been up against for some time. Of course, I have Hart to thank for helping me through that. I still have nightmares about him beating me up on the Hope Pass stage (and I even had a gusher-of-a-nose bleed to prove it).

Anyway, I've also come to realize that I do enjoy the roads. Don't get me wrong...running in the mountains with Sascha all day is the absolute best! But, roads are fun because I can get into a good groove and just run fast without worrying about where my feet are going to land. Actually, my absolute favorite kind of courses are the ones with variety. JFK comes to mind here. It's basically like a triathlon; it starts with about 15 miles on the brutally rocky AT, then a flat and fast marathon on the soft dirt of the towpath, and finishes with 8.5 hilly road miles. That kind of variety in a race is so much fun for me.

Whoah, a little off-track there.

So, I've decided that I'm going to put a few more road miles in this season. Yes, I'm still very much looking forward to getting super-muddy at Hagg, chugging up and down the relentless hills of the Mac, redeeming myself at WS, and hopefully even Death Racing. However, I also added in the flat-and-(hopefully) fast Jed Smith 50 mile, Run to the Sun (not flat, but 100% paved), another marathon p.r. attempt in Eugene, and possibly the Tahoe Marathon. I'm hoping the speed and efficiency I get from the roads will help with my trail speed, too.

We'll see on June 27.

Redding Marathon

2009-01-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

Casually pondering the decision to run the Redding Marathon for a few weeks, but committing only the morning before the race, I made the easy drive down on Saturday afternoon after work for a couple of reasons: to get out of central Oregon's 25 degrees and freezing fog, and to test my current fitness. Sure, I just ran a 1/2 marathon p.r. last weekend, but that's a short race. I wanted to see where I'm at for longer stuff, and if I had a good race only a week after the 1/2, then I know I'm fit.

Cruising down to mile 15

(photo by Greg Barnette / Record Searchlight).

The website's description of the race is very inticing. It is very thorough, has great pictures, and explained really well the variety of terrain. There were paved roads, steep downs, flat gravel trails, rolly dirt roads, flat bike paths, and rolly bike paths. I love a course with good variety, and the Redding Marathon has lots of variety.

I knew Hal had won the marathon the last 2 years in 2:45 and 2:35, and Ian got second last year in 2:49. Although the course was a bit harder this year (according to many vets), and a bit long (anywhere from 1/4 mile to 1/3 mile, depending on who's Garmin you believe), Hal's and Ian's times helped me set a good, solid goal of 2:45-2:49. I felt if I could comfortably run somewhere in that range without ever going all out, then I'm fit. Also, since Hal and Ian weren't going this year, nor was 2005 champ Neil Olsen from Central Point, OR, I knew I had to represent Oregon well.

At the gun, the pack took off flying down the first mile and a half to the dam. I held myself back and still ran a 5:56 first mile - my fastest opening mile ever in a marathon. I was probably in 12th place. As the road flattened crossing the dam, I passed a few people, but on the other side, the trail turned down hard again, and people started flying again. Except me...I held back, although I still passed 3 in 18:15. When the trail flattened just past 4, I was in 15th place and again started reeling in people. I didn't speed up, they just slowed down. I passed mile 5 in 30:55, and by 7 (43:45), I was in 7th place and feeling good. I even whooped it up with an early starter through a really cool tunnel.

Around 9 (56:31), I passed 2 more guys and could see a string of 3 down the trail in the distance. This continued to give me motivation and as I flew by the first one around 10, I asked who ahead were marathoners and relay runners. He said the 2 right ahead were marathoners, and another guy was way up, but he was a relay runner. Approaching mile 11, the first relay exchange, I could hear a big crowd cheering crazy. That motivated me to fly by the next marathoner, JC Callans, right at mile 11 (1:08:52). I chatted with JC for a few seconds about him starting out so fast. He wasn't wearing a watch, so he didn't know any better.

The next guy up the trail kept looking back and would surge whenever I kinda got close. I could tell he was running a little scared. I caught up to him just before 12 and just to verify my place, I asked him what place he was in. He said first. Well, technically, I was a couple strides ahead at that point, so I said, "no, I'm in first". He conceded the point.

Miles 11 to 16 were pretty fun because they were the biggest up hills of the race, with sustained ups and downs and some great rollers. I passed 13.1 in 1:22:25, slightly ahead of my planned pace, but feeling great. Mile 14 was a nice uphill grinder then 15 was a fast downhill, which I cruised past in 1:34:44.

I was now on the Sacramento River Trail paved bike path for the rest of the race and in direct sunlight, starting to get a bit warm. But shortly, the trail weaved in and out of shade, providing welcome coolness and some unwelcome icy parts. I continued running comfortably, going by 17 in 1:47:03 and 19 in 1:59:36. Around 20, the course gets pretty windy and goes up a couple of short, but steep, hills. These kinda hurt and definitely slowed me a bit, as my 22 mile split in 2:18:51 shows. My super-secret big goal of sub-2:45 now seemed out of reach.

I did get a little boost at 22 by passing the first relay runner, now putting me in the overall lead. I ran past 24 in 2:31:26 and although I probably could have killed myself to go sub-2:45, that wasn't the goal for the day, so I just continued on at my steady pace. As I approached the spectacular Sundial Bridge (which I lamely did not check-out after the race), I started to get excited. I just had to cross it and finish...but wait! They threw a cruel trick our way and made us do about a kilometer an out and back before crossing the bridge. I wasn't psyched about this. Anyway, I eventually ran past 26 in 2:44:30 and pushed hard to the finish to go sub-2:46. I was super happy to finish in 2:45:42 for the win. It was a beautiful day, with spectacular views, on a great course, with excellent volunteers. And the weather was perfect; mid-40s to mid-60s during the run and mid-70s for the post-race in the park. It was so nice to hang out in shorts, short sleeves, and flip flops. Thanks SWEAT Running Club!

As the course currently is, although it's net-downhill, it's definitely not a fast course, but it is a course that keeps you honest by rewarding you later on if you don't kill yourself the first 4 miles. That's what makes it fun. I would love to run it in the reverse direction, finishing with a killer 4 mile climb. That would be awesome!

Full results.

Suggestion to the Western States Board of Trustees

2009-01-15T02:00:00.000-08:00

To everyone who runs Western States, or has even tried to get in to Western States, we all know this is a statistically difficult process. The WS lottery isn't quite as difficult as winning the Power Ball lottery, but at a 16% chance of getting in via the lottery in 2008, it is pretty difficult. The WS board knows this.

Other ways to get to the starting line in Squaw Valley (which, if held in Sisters, would be called Wychus Valley, as the creek formerly known as Squaw Creek is now Wychus Creek) are finishing top-10 female or male the year before, finishing top-3 female or male at one of six Montrail Ultracup qualifying races (White River 50m, Mt. Masochist 50m, JFK 50m, Way Too Cool 50k, American River 50m, and Miwok 100k), and special consideration.

Top-10 getting automatic entry next year - totally cool. Up to 36 other top runners getting in via the 6 qualifiers - also cool, as it makes an always competitive race even more competitive. This is good.

As for the special consideration option, I'm definitely all for this. I think it's a great way for other runners "whose contributions to the organization of the event have been unusual and substantial" to receive a starting bib. The board says "No special consideration will be given to athletes that would greatly enhance the competitive aspect of the race. Competitive athletes that feel they would greatly enhance the competitive aspect of the race have the opportunity to gain entry into WS via the Montrail Ultra Cup Series".

Okay, so last year, Scott Jurek really wanted in Western States. You know Scott, the guy who has started WS 7 times, won WS each of said 7 times, and holds the course record. Yes, that Scott. Well, last spring he came up 4 seconds short of qualifying at Way Too Cool and 4:15 short of qualifying at Miwok. Yep, that sucks. And as the WS special consideration qualifying rules are written, Scott shouldn't have received an entry into last year's race. And although he petitioned to the board to be allowed in the game, he didn't get in.

That sucks.

I mean really...the guy was basically the poster child for Western States from 1999 - 2005. Not only did he win by a convincing 44 minutes average margin each of those 7 years, but he was (and is) a great ambassador for Western States. Scott's closest margin of victory came in his last appearance...only 21 minutes seperated him from AJW. Scott's toughest victory arguably came against Dave Mackey in 2004, when Dave and Scott were basically neck-and-neck from Squaw to Foresthill. Scott put the hammer down on Cal Street and went on to the break the course record. Obviously Dave played a big role in helping Scott break the record, and Scott readily acknowledges this - he even thanked Dave at the award's ceremony.

Anyway, Scott likes to race against the best. After a couple years hiatus from Western States, he knew the best field ever assembled was going to be in Squaw in June, 2008, and he wanted to be toeing the line with that field. He was willing to put up his unblemished record against the best so he could race against the best.

Cool. Very cool.

But for some reason, the Board didn't think granting Scott special consideration was a good idea. As I don't know the real reason why, I can only guess on this, so I won't. But I will say it was lame.

Hey Western States Board of Trustees: when Scott Jurek wants in Western States, let him in! He has obviously done a lot to promote the race in many, many, many ways. It just makes sense to let him in. Same goes for Ann. If she ever decides to run WS again, let her in.

As most WS followers know, Scott was granted entry into this year's race. So, obviously the Board figured out the error of their ways...too bad it took a year. Since the race didn't happen last year, Scott not being in it obviously didn't do anything to the outcome. But nobody knew the race was going to be cancelled until race week. The point being, he shouldn't have had to wait a year. And hopefully he won't again.

I'm looking forward to toeing the line with Scott in Squaw Valley on June 27.

*This post is the first in a series of five Western States 100 synchroblogs leading up to the 2009 race. For this first one, the following four bloggers have agreed to write a post making a plea or request directly to the Western States Board of Directors. See what they have to say to the board:
* AJW writes a letter to the WS board suggesting ten course changes.
* Bryon Powell pleas for transparency and accountability.
* Craig Thornley urges the board to reconsider mandatory volunteerism.
* Scott Dunlap asks John Trent what the Western States Board of Trustees is and what they do.

Another p.r.!

2009-01-12T17:39:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I ran the very flat and fast Cascade 1/2 Marathon in the bustling metropolis of Turner, OR. Okay, not so bustling, but on Cascade 1/2 Marathon day, it is definitely taken over by runners - about 600 people gather to run either the 1/2, 10k, or 2 mile. I mean, it is Oregon's only 1/2 marathon in January (seriously, that's what the website says).

Anyway, this was my 5th road race since the Bigfoot 10k in Bend in late-September. Out of those 5 road races, I p.r.ed in 4 of them. One was intentional; the other 3 weren't. This was one of the other 3.

After CIM five weeks ago, I didn't run for a week, the next week was 40ish, then Christmas Camp and its 102 miles, another 100 mile week (only because the BadAss was in this week), then last week was 70ish. I guess I did a tiny bit of speed work, but only the few times I ran on a treadmill. Anyway, I guess that, plus my residual fitness from CIM (which I was sure I had lost by now), plus a couple 100 mile weeks, got me back into shape.

I had a nice, long, 4-mile warmup (in anticipation of a 3 mile cool down, to get 20 for the day), so I felt in control when I cruised by the first mile in 5:43 - a little surprised, but good. I stayed very steady all day, eventually hitting 5 in 29:06, and the turn around (6.55 miles) in 37:58. Going out we had a tail-to-side wind. So, that meant going back, it was a head-to-side wind. Kinda sucky conditions, but I felt great, so kept up my tempo.

I was definitely working harder going back into the wind, but I ran the exact same pace. Usually I like to negative split, but I was happy with how I was doing. I hit 10 miles right around 58-flat. At that point, I knew I had a fighting chance to go sub-1:16. So I pushed hard for a mile, eased off for a mile, then planned to go hard the last mile directly into the wind. I was pretty beat when I reached 12.1 in 1:10:15 and knew a solo 5:45 last mile was going to be tough.

Suddenly, two dudes caught me from out of nowhere, and normally I would hate that at this point in a race, but today I was stoked. I tucked in right behind them and they pulled me along the next 3/4 of a mile. The last 1/4, they sprinted each other and I didn't have anything to give chase. So I pushed on solo, happily finishing in 1:15:57, good for 9th place, and my new 1/2 marathon p.r. That gave me a 5:48 pace, and 2nd 1/2 of 37:59. Pretty much perfectly even splits. I was happy!

Good lookin', p.r.in' couple!

Other notable runs in Turner:
Gina 2:01:02 p.r.
William 1:20:55 p.r. (I think)
Luvin 1:18:23 p.r. (I think) - and he ran in the coolest shirt ever! I won't go into too much detail, but if you like Ligers, then you would LOVE his shirt! Plus, Mike even won his age group!
Ian Nurse 1:11:07, race winner. He just moved to Portland from Boston. In addition to being super fast, he's also super nice. Watch out for him in upcoming northwest races - he's good.

Full results.

BadAss

2009-01-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the third installment of what we here in Central Oregon affectionately refer to as the BadAss. BadAss? Yep...see, it's the Badlands fatass. The Badlands is a cool recreation area managed by the BLM about 25 miles east of Bend. It's high desert running at its finest. Well, maybe not finest, but it is really cool.

In Nov., 2006, Bronco and I brainstormed about holding a fatass in Central Oregon. Although we both love Smith Rock State Park and all of its cool trails and climbing, it's kinda tough to make a route that's not too confusing. So we decided on the Badlands. There's a great 9-mile loop that includes a good climb us a cinder butte (aka, Petar Peak), nice downhill running, then a long, runnable, grinder of a climb up Smith Canyon. The loop distance makes it nice to offer many distance options, as well as going by the parking area every 9 miles for aid. The distance options include the Numb Ass 9 mi., Half Ass 13 mi., Tight Ass 22 mi., and the Bad Ass 50k.

This year started off a bit chilly. While getting stuff set up, I heard someone say their car's thermometer showed 6 degrees. While chilly, I didn't believe it was that cold. Shortly after, I heard a few others say the same. Okay, I guess it really was 6. However, the mostly clear, sunny weather, and no wind, helped the temperature rise to probably the high-30s/low-40s by the finish. We were also treated to beautiful views of the Central Oregon Cascades.

Bronco and I were excited to greet 50ish people and 15 dogs. It's awesome that our little ass-of-a-run has drawn such a great crew. Most people carpooled out with friends and opted to be Numb Asses and Half Asses - both solid choices for this time of year when all of our asses are at their fullest. About ten Tight Asses enjoyed chasing two of Bend's fastest, Andy and Max. Finally, another 1/2 dozen Bad Asses showed their badness by running the full 50k with 3,600' vertical. Yep, they are definitely bad.

As has become a BadAss tradition, Dan and Kathy once again graciously hosted their popular hot cocoa and soup kitchen. Many other runners also brought goodies to share on the community aid station table. And of course, a Central Oregon ultra wouldn't be complete without finish line PBR.

Thank you to everyone who came out and participated. Bronco and I really appreciate it.

BadAss Results:
Sean Meissner, 35 4:23 - C.R.
Jeff Browning, 37 4:34
Chris Askew, 37 4:50
Darla Askew, 36 4:51 - C.R.
Chip Collins, 45 5:07
Kevin Johnston, 39 6:00

Snow

2008-12-27T01:07:00.000-08:00

Well, after taking the week off from running after CIM to get phat, I eased back into the next week with some easy running. With all of the snow we have in Sisters, Sascha was wishing for longer days, but she took what she got. We just ran 4 or 5 days of about an hour, just kinda jogging and playing...enjoying the winter and not worrying about distance.

Then last Sunday, I decided we needed a bigger challenge. So I got Bronco, Nessski, and Askew to join me on a Black Crater adventure. We would park at the gate on the McKenzie Highway, xc ski 3.5 miles up the road to the BC trailhead, snowshoe 4 miles up BC, then snowshoe the 4 miles back down to the trailhead, and ski 3.5 miles back to the car. Nessski and I have wanted to do this for a few years, and now we were finally planning to do it. But then the weather forecast kept Nessski in Portland. Then the actual weather kept the rest of us from the adventure. Dang.

The contingency plan had Bronco, Sascha, and me running in the Badlands with Max. Max is strong. And fast. And tough. We ended up having a great 3ish hour run in the not-quite-as-deep snow in the Badlands. Max and Bronco were nice to wait for me. And Sascha kicked some royal butt, keeping right up until only a mile or so to go. It was a fun day out east, and it gave Bronco and me a chance to check out the BadAss course (Saturday, Jan. 3 - come join the fun!). It's looking good!

The rest of this week I have run exactly zero miles. ZERO. Hm. Christmas Camp started on Christmas Day and I'm supposed to run 100 miles in the week from Christmas through New Year's Eve. Two days into it, I'm already way behind in the mileage category. But I am above average the strength part - 50 daily pushups and 50 daily situps (full situps, no crunchers here). Looks like I've got some miles to put in the next 5 days. I was planning to run a good amount while in Spokane for Christmas, but seriously, there are 3 feet of snow in my parent's back yard. The amount of snow here is insane. A record for the month of December, even. Sascha loves playing in it with my sister's dog and parent's dogs!

In addition to wondering how I'm going to get in my Camp mileage, I'm also considering what my 100th ultra will be. I'm currently at 96, so 100 is coming right up. Hagg is a good possibility, and it's always a blast going there. Central Oregon always sends a big crew and we party it up at the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove after playing in the mud all day. So #100 there could be pretty cool. Another possibility is Run to the Sun. Gina and I are going to Hawaii in March and I'm going to run that. How cool would it be to finish #100 on top of a really big volcano? In Hawaii? Any other possible suggestions??

Sascha and I hope ya'll had a Merry Christmas.

P.R.ing at CIM!

2008-12-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

I had pretty high expectations for myself heading into the California International Marathon (CIM). Having missed my sub-2:40 goal at Boston by a lot, Scott Wolfe suggested I go for it in December at CIM. So after many months of training and racing, I decided to take his advice. And after surprising myself with a 2:42:30 p.r. at the Spokane Marathon in October, I decided to up the ante for myself a bit at CIM. Sub-2:40 was the primary goal, with 2:37 being the ultimate goal. Twenty six point two consecutive 6-minute miles sounded daunting, but I knew I was fit and ready for it.

I travelled down to Sacramento with three buddies also hoping to run fast: Darin, in his sub-3/p.r. quest; Glenn, in his sub-3 quest; and Jeff, in his 2:35/p.r. quest. It was a fun boys road trip with these guys.

On race morning, Darin and I opted for the early bus, while Jeff and Glenn decided to sleep in a bit and take a later bus. We got to the start just after 6 a.m., which was perfect for me with the 7 a.m. start. I like to take my time and not be rushed on race morning, especially when going for a p.r. I jogged a nice 3 mile warm-up, mostly in the dark, and saw a few of the local ultrarunners also warming up (Mark Lantz, Erik Skaden, etc).

I finally took off my sweats, put on my racing shirt, decided against the sleeves but to keep my gloves, hat, and bottle, and made my way to the starting line with about 7 minutes to go. Well, at least I tried to. I weaseled my way up as far as I could when I ran into a wall right next to Tim Tweitmeyer and his 3:35 pace group sign. Sigh...what could I do but just stand there and wait. So I did.

The gun shot and we just stood there. Then we moved very, very slowly and I eventually walked across the starting line 49 seconds after the start. I then jogged slowly for a half mile until I could kinda pseudo-run, weave, and make my way through the masses. I missed the first mile, but passed mile 2 in 13:15, and 3 in barely sub-20. Hm, not to good to average almost 6:40/mile for the first 3 miles when I'm trying to average 6 for the whole race. I continued to not panic and weave through more than a thousand people (probably closer to 2,000) before I was able to get in my groove and really run somewhere around mile 5. I had definitely been running 6-minute effort, but the clock showed 32:something.

I didn't feel great, like I was flying, nor did I feel bad, like I was struggling. I just felt normal...like I was out for a good run. And I continued to fly by the masses. I saw friends Mark, Devon, Casey, David, John, and others. Some asked what I was doing back there (as they knew my goals), while others just told me I looked strong. I felt super comfortable and was glad I had carried my bottle. I noticed the aid stations were handing out fluids in plastic cups...huh!? That's horrible! If you try to squeeze the cups, they break, then when you drop them, the broken parts are very pokey and the cups themselves are super slippery. Not good thinking on your part, CIM aid station organizer person.

I kept running along at a good clip, pretty much right at 6s now. I passed 10 in 1:02 and 13.1 in 1:20:31. Although I knew my chip time was 49 seconds faster than those times, I really wanted to see the time when I finished as 2:3something and I knew I would be close. Going through 20 in 2:02 made me happy, as my last 10 were right at 6-minute pace.

I still felt good as I continued flying by every runner in site (although, admittedly, there weren't nearly as many in site as in the first 1/2). Around 23, I finally decided to take one last gu, ditch my bottle (I had refilled once between 14-15), and then I came up on Tyson Sacco, one of the Fluffy Bunnies I met during TransRockies. I think this was his first marathon, and although he was going to finish in a great time, he wasn't having too much fun at this point. I tried to get him to join me, but there was no answer. So I just kept picking off a few more people.

A little after passing Tyson, I noticed that I was now in the grid of Sacramento. I was at 30th street and I knew I needed to get to 8th. Dang, that sucked (but at least I didn't start noticing at 50th). Each block seemed super long to me and although I tried to wait as long as I could before looking at the street number, it seems I wasn't very patient as I was looking every block or two. Crap.

Of course, this is where I was starting to hurt, too. My solid 5:55s - 6:05s were getting into the 6:15s now. I passed 25 in 2:32...I needed to run sub-8 for the last 1.2. I knew I could do it and although I wasn't running really fast anymore, I was laying it all out there. A half mile to go, I heard one of the Sisters XC mom's, Cindy Glick, cheering for me. That really helped. She was there cheering for her son Casey, who rocked to a 2:51 p.r.!

Finally I turned the last corner and saw 2:39:40...I knew I could get there in less than 20 seconds and I was happy. I even smiled and gave a little fist-in-the-air just before I finished with a gun time of 2:39:55. Chip time 2:39:06. Cool. Very cool.

As I wobbled to get my chip clipped off, I saw Jeff waiting for me and smiling. He was happy because he had run a 2:36 p.r. and he was happy for me. He then gave me the best compliment of the day, saying "After running 2:39, you're fast - you're not an ultrarunner anymore...you're a marathoner". He claimed he was even looking over his shoulder the last few miles, expecting me to catch him. Maybe in Eugene, buddy.

Then the highlight of the day came. Seriously, it got better. I was standing at the finish, shivering under my space blanket, chatting with Jeff, Mark, and Rob when I heard a "great job" from across the baracades. I didn't recognize the voice at all but looked over anyway just in time to see a marathoner dude get a kiss from Deena. Obviously it was Deena's husband, Andrew, and he had just run a great 2:51. I had to, had to, meet her. So I walked up, said "Hi, I'm Sean Meissner, I'm a huge fan, and I'd love to meet you" and I stuck out my snotty glove to shake her hand. Deena very graciously shook my hand, asked how my race was, and gave me a sincere congratulations. Thanks, Deena - that was awesome!

As in Spokane, I once again wore my END Footwear YMMV shoes (it stands for Your Mileage May Vary). And once again, they completely rocked! I just love how light, cushy, and responsive they are. Many cushy shoes aren't responsive, but these are very responsive. The soft upper is so nice and accomodating, too. Watch out for these puppies soon - I think they're a Spring '09 shoe.

So, yes, I'm very happy with my race. Was it perfect? Nope. The next time I want to run fast at CIM, I'll definitely make sure I get to the starting line early enough so I'm actually on the line. I figure that between all of the walking, jogging, and weaving, I easily lost 2 minutes, which was my 2:37. That's the way it goes and it makes my next marathon goal of 2:37 at Eugene seem a bit more manageable.

Thanks again to Jeff, Darin, and Glenn. The road trip was quick, fast, and fun!

Full results.
Pretty pictures of me (bib 3747).

2:39:06...

2008-12-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

is what I ran at CIM today. I'm happy. Very happy.

Now I'm going to eat cheese fries, which will make me very happier.

Report to follow when I get home.

Fall Runnin'

2008-11-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

Fall is easily my favorite time of year to run. The leaves are changing color, the mornings and evenings are cool, midday is still warm, there's a bit of snow in the mountains, the trails are less crowded, Sascha can go further and faster because of the lower temps...it's just very pleasant. After being out of town the previous 9 weekends (!!), I was really looking forward to hanging out in central Oregon and enjoying some nice fall running here in this beautiful area.

First, congratulations to Nessski for kicking butt at only his 2nd 50k (he ran well at his first one, too). At the Autumn Leaves 50k, he smoked a 3:40:14! The little bastard beat my time from there 2 years ago by 4 seconds. Attaboy, Ryan!

Last Sunday, I organized the 3 Butte Butt Buster Fun Run at Fleet Feet. I had wanted to make a big loop and run the 3 main buttes in Bend for quite a while. So I figured it was time to stop thinking about it and just do it. I sent out the invite to the FF e-group and was stoked with the 23 runner turnout. The 65 degree weather definitely helped out. We ran up Overturf, then across town to Pilot, then back across town for the big finale - Awbrey. In all, we ran 13.8 miles, gained 1,609' and descended that much, too. Definitely one of the tougher road 1/2 marathons out there! Here's the cool route: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=258418

Since Sascha didn't join in 3 butte fun, and the day was so beautiful, I thought she would enjoy at least one butte. So when I got home from the 3 Butte Run, I immediately put Sascha in the car and we drove to Black Butte to tackle that bad boy. I wanted a 20+ mile day, so we parked 1 1/2 miles and 500+' vertical below the trailhead and ran the road up to the trail. Since it was such a beautiful day, I really shouldn't have been at all surprised by how many people were on the butte enjoying it one last time before the snow...but, I was. It had been a few years since I was on Black Butte on a busy weekend. But hey, I was there enjoying it, so I couldn't really blame others for doing the same. Just cruising and enjoying the day, with Sascha setting the pace, we ran the 2 mile, 1,600' climb on the trail right at 24 minutes. Anything under 25 is good, so I was happy. Since it was probably the last time we would be on top for a while, we hung out and enjoyed the view (Mt. Adams was even super clear) for 10 minutes. Sascha was a bit lazy descending, so we didn't set any speed records, but we did have a great mid-November afternoon playing together on Black Butte in 65 degree weather. It was a great way to end my 21 mile, 3,700' day.

I had Monday off and really wanted to get in the mountains one last time before the snow hits for good. I decided to go with one of my favorites - Black Crater. Even though we had just run Black Butte the previous day, I knew Sascha wouldn't want to miss this one. And Fatboy and I hadn't run together in a while, so I invited him to join the fun, too. We parked at the gate (which had closed 1 1/2 weeks earlier for the season due to snow, but had since melted off) and ran the 3 1/2 paved miles up to the BC trailhead at a mellow pace with FB leading the conversation. A little stretching at the trailhead (but no wilderness permit to fill-out) and Fatboy and Sascha set off up the trail. I started a few minutes later and as I went by, FB told me he may be a while. I said to not worry because I wasn't going for any record. Sascha joined me and immediately set a very comfortable pace up front. The Black Crater trail is 4 miles long and gains about 2,500 vertical; anything under 50 min. to the top is good. I casually noticed that I hit my first time check about 2 min. faster than 50 min. pace. The next check was another min., 2 more min. for the 3rd, and another minute for the last pitch to the top. Hm, 44 minutes...guess I lied to Fatboy about no record today. Not only was I not trying to get a p.r. (my heartrate was only 120 when I reached the top, 7,257'), but there was enough blowdown to keep me in check from ever opening up. Crap, I'm getting in shape. FB joined us not long after and showed me the cool cross country route he took a few months back getting back down. Maybe next summer... A nice cruiser down the trail and road and we were back at the car. Running with my two best running partners on my favorite trail in central Oregon in my favorite season - not too shabby of a day.

I wanted to get in a track day this week. I planned on Tuesday, but after lots of miles and vert. on Sunday and Monday, after my two mile warm-up to the track, I decided to just keep on running past it. Good call as I felt much looser when I finished my easy run, then I ended up having a good track session on Wednesday. 800-1600-800, jog a lap, 800-1600-800. Other than the 400 jog between sets, I rested no more than 2 minutes between each interval. I averaged 2:41 for my 8s and 5:35 for my 16s. Good, solid workout. I was happy.

I wasn't going to run on Thursday, but when I got home after work, Sascha had other plans. To keep her happy, we went out for an easy 5. As usual, I was glad I did it when we were done. Friday morning was 4 PBRs (Pilot Butte repeats) - one paved mile up and .8 trail miles down, 500' vertical each way. As I've said before, this is my favorite workout in Bend. I can get so much bang for my buck. In about 54 minutes, I can get 7.2 good miles with 2,000' of climbing and descending. I love it! Although the CIM course profile looks nothing like this, I'm convinced the hills make me stronger, which then ultimately makes me faster for longer periods. And I don't get the same repetitive jarring as on the track or a fast road tempo.

Saturday morning was the annual COCC Turkey Trot. This is a super fun, low-key run at the local community college. It's challenging 3 mile route with a fast, downhill 1st mile, gradual uphill 2nd, then big uphill and short downhill last mile. I've run from 17:38 - 18:24. I'm fit this year so I wanted to go sub-17. I was lame and the day before, I told local studs Jeff Caba and Andy Martin about the Trot. They showed up and pushed the 1st mile fast. I went through in 5:10 and was a bit concerned. Mile 2 in 11:04 confirmed I went out to hard. I suffered a bit going up the steep part of the 3rd mile, then recorved a bit on the down, before suffering again on the final short uphill pitch. 17:01...doh! I decided I was happy with the effort, then enjoyed the awesome homemade goodies that are always at this race. I don't know who does all of the baking, but I sure do appreciate it. COCC puts on 5-6 fun, low-key races throughout the year and they're all super cheap ($5-$8), have great prizes and terrific post-race goodies, and almost always draw a few ringers uber-competitive Bend.

One last long run tomorrow 13 days out from CIM. Well, long is relative, as it's only going to be 17. As per coach Thomas, 12 at a moderate pace, then pick it up the last 5, finishing around marathon race pace. A track workout this week and a short one early next week, then I'll be fit to fly. Well, unless I get too fat on Thanksgiving. But that's why it's good I'm running CIM and not Seattle.

Lithia Loop Trail Marathon

2008-11-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, Sascha, Gina, and I headed down to Ashland for a little Lithia Loop Trail Marathon fun. Well, I had the marathon fun, while Gina and Sascha had fun getting the 3rd degree from a cop because Sascha was on the grass in a city park. I guess liberal Ashland isn't so liberal when it comes to dogs.

Reading the race info, looking at the course profile, and getting the details from Erik at packet pick-up, I knew it was going to be a fun, tough, and sometimes even fast, course. It was mostly nice forest service dirt roads with about 4 miles of singletrack thrown in for fun. And the best part...it started with a 7 mile, 3,000' climb! It sounded like the perfect Sean-course. (Refueling at Windburn and sporting my stylish Sisters Poker Run sleeves!)

Although I was really using Lithia as a good trainer for CIM next month, I still wanted to go hard. However, to make sure I didn't fully race, I went into the race on tired legs with a 100 mile week.

I did a nice 3 mile warm-up to make sure I was ready to start climbing immediately. When Hal said "go", I found myself running amongst some fast folks - Josh, Jeff, JC, Susannah, and a few others. I lagged behind a bit for the first couple miles to get fully warmed up, then I got into my climbing gear and enjoyed the uphill. I briefly chatted with everyone when I went by and then only Jeff was ahead of me (Jeff was also using Lithia as a CIM trainer). He wasn't really going that much faster than the rest of us, but he was just slowly pulling away.

Shortly after passing Josh, he caught back up to me and we pretty much ran together for the next 5-6 miles. I like Josh and it was great to catch-up with running and other life things with him. Along with Susannah, Josh was using Lithia a tune-up for The North Face 50 mile Championship in the Headlands next month. $10,000 is on the line for the top boy and girl. Josh and Susannah are both definitely putting themselves in a good position to compete for some cash.

(Close to the finish sporting a little grimace and my stylish new Sisters Outlaws XC Singlet)

At mile 7, the top of the big climb, were Erik and Kyle waiting to fill my bottle, give me a Gu, and send me off with an attaboy. It was cool seeing the two young studs out helping (they had run a slightly shorter version of the course a week earlier in 2:40!) The next 13 miles were on top of a ridge where I was able to just get in a groove and cruise. After a couple slight uphill miles, the next 11 were slight downhill and I was easily hitting 6:00-6:15 for all of those splits (there may have even been a couple sub-6s). It was fun to be running comfortably hard so that I wasn't killing myself. Other aid station volunteers I remember seeing on this stretch were Eric, Chris, Ian, Tim, John, and Rob...thank you to all of you and all of the volunteers for helping and cheering. I really appreciate it!

Around 1/2 way, I asked Eric at the West Fork A.S. how far up Jeff was. About 2 1/2 minutes. That grew bit, then shrunk back to 2 1/2 by mile 20. I thought I might have a shot, especially with my 5:20 - 21st mile. Shortly after, the nice bomber dirt road downhill turned into a trail that went up for a little bit. I remember Erik had told me the night before that it was only bad for a few minutes. Although it seemed like a long time, he was probably right and soon I was going down again. But we stayed on singletrack that was getting pretty windy, and I sure was getting tired now. Dang, I knew I was not only losing time to Jeff, but that uber-downhiller Josh was gaining on me. I tried to just lean forward and let gravity take me down.

Eventually I recognized the reservoir where we started and I knew there was only about 1 1/2 miles of nice paved downhill to the finish. So I pushed a bit harder and soon saw Gina cheering and taking pictures. Another slight bend in the road and there was the finish line. 2:53:09, 2nd place. I was pretty darn happy with my performance. Jeff ended up whooping me by 5 1/2 minutes, flying into the finish in 2:47:31. A little over a minute after me, Josh finished in 3rd place, 2:54:33. Susannah had the best finish I saw, running hard across the line in 3:00:29, 1st girl and 4th overall.

If you're looking for an excuse to road trip to Ashland next November, I highly recommend using the Lithia Loop Trail Marathon as that excuse. You'll come home with sore quads, a great t-shirt, great memories of a great event, and a full belly from an excellent post-race spread. Thanks Rogue Valley Runners!

Full results here.

RVR report here.

*Breaking news: RVR bid to make the Lithia Loop Trail Marathon the USATF Trail Marathon National Championship for next year. Sweet!

Funny Stuff

2008-10-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

My good buddy sent this to me. Now, I don't care what your political affiliation is, but this is superduperpuper funny: http://www.cnnbcvideo.com/index.html?nid=239Q7JeFFSGFCMY1axAe0zYxNjMxMjM-&referred_by=12104736-n2ZwO9x

After many requests to update my blog so Punkin' Butt wasn't the first thing you see, I decided to replace that picture with this one:

Punky Brewster & Richard Simmons at an 80's Halloween Party!

Races and Adventures

2008-10-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

Sascha and I have been busy the last couple weeks with lots of runs, races, and adventures. On Oct. 18, the first annual Pilot Butte Giants Gallop 5k was held. I absolutely love doing PBRs (Pilot Butte Repeats) as a workout. I run the one mile road up gaining 500', and run the .8 mile trail down losing 500'. I try to do this workout once a week, with four repeats. So when I heard about this race, which was a fund raiser for Pilot Butte Middle School, I definitely wanted to run it. We started on the track, ran to, up, and down the butte, then finished back on the track. It was fun racing so I could get a new p.r. going both up (7:26) and down (4:15). Although definitely not a stacked field, I did win 19:18 (course record, baby!) and was challenged the whole way by a speedy masters runner from Bend. And I got to help the Giants raise $3500! (Click here to see PBMS's most famous alumni!)

That night was Poker Run Eve, meaning I had some Poker Runners at my house for a slumber party. Since it was a party, alcohol was definitely consumed. Apparently a bit too much for some...but I thought the Jose Black was pretty good. Well, until somebody decided to plug my nose while drinking it. But that person has apologized and will remain anonymous. A word of advice to those who do sometimes overindulge: pound a bottle of nuun before bed and another 2-3 bottles within an hour of waking up. It works.

Fatboy hosted the annual Sisters Poker Run on Sunday, Oct. 19. I think there were about 35 runners this year, most opting for the 34-turned-into-37/38-miler, while some missed out on the best part of the course and ran 21. Some jerkos vandalized the course, which made the adventure even longer for a few. I spent parts of the day running with Sascha, Darla, Chris, Maeve, Michael, Nate, Tyler, Dave, and Krissy. Since it was a poker run, we obviously enjoyed a few more shots and poker girls at the aid stations. As for the run, I was playing pretty well through the first 4 aid stations, sporting 2 pair. I got hopeful for a possible full house, but ended with my 2 pair, which put me in 9th place. Hey, that's my best showing at the Poker Run. I'm getting good! (That's me enjoying a shot of Jose Black and getting a little kiss from the lovely showgirl!)

Immediately after the Poker Run, Gina, Sascha, and I headed to my favorite place on the Oregon Coast for some fun on the beach - Pacific City. A pretty, late-night walk on the beach was in order before going to bed so we could get a full day of fun in the sand on Monday. After checking out the tide pools in the morning, the big dunes were calling. Sascha and I absolutely love hiking up and running back down the big dune in Pacific City. It's super-fun and as an added bonus, it's a great workout. We did this a couple times before continuing on our walk up the beach toward Tierra del Mar. After a couple hours of frolicking on the beach, rolling in stinky stuff, eating dead stuff, and a couple more assaults on the dune, it was time for some chowder, salt water taffy, then the drive home through a snow storm (which I slept through). Quite a nice day at the beach. (This is one of my favorite pictures of Sascha and me.)

Thursday was the Sky-Em District Championship Cross Country Meet in Eugene. I rode the very full bus over with the Sisters team. Before we left, they presented me with a team sweatshirt, t-shirt, and long sleeve tech shirt. I love these kids! Once on the bus, it was my turn to give them something: nuun graciously donated a tube of nuun, water bottle, stickers, and tatoos to all 50 kids on the team. Thanks, nuun - the kids loved it! They all hydrated up on the drive over the mountains, while many also put their tatoos on for the races. The heavily-favored boys team dominated the 7-team meet, with their 7th runner placing 13th! They're headed to State as the #2 ranked 4A team in Oregon. The girls were in a tough, tight race. They battled their way to 3rd, with top 2 teams advancing. However, Sisters' top-2 girls advanced as individuals, so that was cool. This Saturday is the State Cross Country Championships at LCC in Eugene. Stop by if you have a chance. There's nothing quite like watching kids giving it their all.

Sunday, Oct. 26, was my 7th running of the McDonald Forest 15k in Corvallis. I absolutely love this race. In fact, it's my favorite sub-marathon race (and I've run a lot of races)! It's hilly (1,500' vertical), it's challenging, it's fast, it keeps you honest, it draws good competition, it beats you if you go out too hard, and it's a cross country fund raiser (I'm a sucker for this). Typically I finish in the 1:01-1:03 vicinity, with a best of 1:00:55 from 2004. After the marathon 2 weeks ago, Ness said I needed to go sub-60 at Mac this year. Great idea - so that was my goal. I usually start out pretty conservatively then pass lots of people going up the hill from 3-6. While it's obviously fun to pass, I knew I could do better. So I did a nice, long warm-up so I was prepared to start fast. Hitting 5:26 for the first mile sure was fast, but I felt controlled and good. I cruised through 2 in 11:27 and 3 in 17:36 before starting the climbs and pretty much settling in to 5th. I hit 4 in 23:53, then the real climbing started. I seriously felt like I was going faster, but my time at mile 6 showed different, 39:55. Oo, a 16:02 2-mile split. I knew I could get the sub-60 if I kept the pedal down. Mile 7 was 45:57, then 8 was at 50:29. Okay, a little quick math here says I ran the 8th mile in 4:32. Nope, not possible. Yes, it is a screaming downhill, losing 500', but I don't run 4:32 miles. Mile 9 at 57:30 confirmed this, as I know I was running faster than 7:01 pace. But I'm pretty sure the two together really were 2 miles. I was pretty excited knowing I had 2 1/2 minutes to run .3 downhill miles. I pushed hard through the end, finishing with a smile in 58:50, blowing away my time goal. I was pleased that I was able to go out hard and maintain a strong, steady effort throughout the race. Yet another positive racing note in the last 5 weeks.

Sascha and I haven't done a cool adventure in the mountains for a while. So today, we decided to head to the mountains and play on Mt. Washington. Never having been up it, we didn't have any expectations as far as how high we could go. With some sore quads thanks to the Mac, and the steepness of the climber's trail, we definitely did a fair amount of hiking. But that was okay. It was a beautiful fall day - sunny, warm, some foliage, and I was hanging out in the mountains with my favorite training buddy...it doesn't get much better.

The next few weeks will be about getting ready for CIM. Two senior guys on the Sisters XC team even asked if they could go with me and run. Awesome!

2:42:30

2008-10-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

That's my new marathon p.r.! I just ran it today in the Spokane Marathon. Gina and I drove up from Sisters yesterday to visit my fam, so of course I had to fit in a race. Conveniently, the Spokane Marathon was this weekend. I had wanted to run it for a few years, but it never quite fit my schedule.

With 1,700' of climbing and equal descent, it's a tough course, and it's also very pretty. With no specific marathon training any time recently, I entered it wanting to run around 2:50, kind of a training race in my CIM preparation. (The kid with me is 19, running his first marathon, we're at mile 8; he ended up over an hour behind me; I felt bad for him, but like all of us, he'll learn!)

After a 7:02 first mile in 27 degree weather, I was cold so decided to speed up earlier than I originally planned, mainly to warm up. I just kept getting faster and faster all day. Here are some random splits that I remember: 3 - 19:38, 7 - 45:20, 10 - 63:50, 13 - 1:22:11, 20 - 2:05:00, 22 - 2:17:27, 26.2 - 2:42:30. There were 2 or 3 sub-6s somewhere in there, I think in the high-teens and low-20s. I was feeling good.

Anyway, when I finally realized I wasn't going to slow down, but just keep getting faster (somewhere around 20), I did some math-on-the-fly and realized I could actually get a p.r. So that became my goal and I went for it pretty hard to the finish, with my last 10k in 37:30 - which included the infamous "Doomsday Hill" from Bloomsday. The hill did nothing for me, speed-wise, anyway. It was fun flying by the hordes of 1/2 marathoners that had just joined the marathon course.

Finishing strong...and I even look like a runner!

I ran focused and with a purpose the last 30 minutes, and even got a slight case of tunnel vision in the last mile. That was kinda fun! I eventually wound my way back to Riverfront Park, weaved through oodles of people out playing, and found the slightly chaotic finish line. I say slightly chaotic because there were lots of 1/2ers finishing right around me and I came up to the finish so fast, I don't think they were really expecting me so they tried to point me into the 1/2 chute. I just went to the right one and then they figured it out.

I was stoked and tired when I finished. After 30 seconds, my mom found me and I had to lean on her while we walked to a seat. It felt so good just to sit there in the sun, warm and happy. I had just averaged 6:12 per mile for 26.2 of them and I had won. It was good. (Local celebrity!)

After winning uber-tough Crater Lake Marathon 2 months ago, then today's p.r. and win on another challenging course, it makes me realize that apparently I like the tough road marathons. And that running lots of miles in the mountains, with hardly any specific speed work, helps get me fit for said road marathons. Perhaps I'm on to something.

Now I have a little dilemma. I had originally planned on training hard the next 8 weeks with a specific goal of sub-2:40 at CIM. Now, after today's race, that seems kinda sand-baggish to me. Perhaps 2:37? That would make for a nice, round 6-flat pace. But that sounds pretty fast and intimidating. Opinions, suggestions, ideas??

One short note on the shoes I wore: Exactly 9 days before the marathon, Paul Curran sent me a new pair of tester shoes from END Footwear. END is a new, green, running shoe company out of Portland. Their goal is to make the greenest shoes possible, and very light shoes in the process. The model I'm testing is the YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), which weigh in at a svelte 8 oz, so they're light. I put about 60 miles on them in the week before Spokane, and I liked them so much that I decided to wear them for the race. Well, I loved them in the marathon, too! They're light, flexible, cushy, very light meshy upper that hugs my foot nicely, and best of all, they're fast! Zero blisters, and now, a day later, my legs really aren't beat up. I'm lovin' em. (Goat has done at least one write-up on END Footwear, too.) Watch for END in specialty stores in the near future -they're a good company and one that I feel good about endorsing. And, with my 2:42, that currently makes me the END Footwear Marathon World Record Holder! Pretty cool.

Tahoe 2, Sean 0, Draw 1

2008-09-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

That's my record this year at Tahoe. I dnf'd the TRT 100 in July, just dnf'd the Tahoe 72 on Sunday, and the draw is WS.

I went to the 72 with pretty high hopes; definitely a sub-10, but really thinking more along the lines of sub-9:30. So I went out fast. As it turned out, too fast, but really, after averaging 5:26 at the Bigfoot 10k a week earlier, low-7s/mi seemed superduperpuper easy for the first 20 miles (which I went through, at Spooner Summit, in 2:28). I easily ran through 50k in 3:49, and hit the 1/2 way point, 36 miles, in 4:23. Hm, I thought, if I keep this up, I'll easily be the first person to run sub-9 (Rae Clark holds the record of 9:06).

I had slowed a bit by 40, was shuffling slowly and puking LOTS the next two miles (non of the little spit-up pukes I occasionally do - even Fatboy would have been proud!), and walked very slowly the 43rd and 44th miles. I was freezing, puking my guts out, couldn't keep anything down, and was just having a miserable time. Eventually my crew drove back towards me to see what was taking so long (I had been hitting my 5 miles splits between 35-40, and now it was well over an hour). I saw the car, walked up and got in. I had made up my mind that I was done, and I was. Sure, I probably could have sat in the car for a few hours, warmed up, maybe eventually got some calories in me, and walked/jogged the final 28 miles in 7 hours, but really, that had absolutely zero appeal to me. Going back to the hotel, showering, sleeping, then eating sounded waaaaaaaay better. So that's what we did. And I was (and still am) confident in my decision.

No big brain-teaser about what went wrong here. I ran too damn fast too early and for too long. That's the way it goes. If I could have held that pace, or even slowed just slightly, I had a good shot at the course record. And I believe the only way to know your absolute potential is to go for it from the start. Many times you end up crashing and burning, but occasionally you uncork an incredible performance. Fatboy often reminds me that's how Eric Clifton got all of his course records, many of which still stand after more than 10 years. I'm not in any way comparing myself and times to Eric's, but I do respect his philosophy. He has definitely crashed and burned a lot, but DANG he has some sweet records.

Anyway, so I think I'm changing up my racing plans for the rest of the season. I had wanted to finish my 100th ultra by the end of the year (I'm currently at 95), but I'm scrapping that plan. I think I'll just run one more ultra this year (Sisters Poker Run), and really focus on trying to break that magical 2:40-marathon barrier at CIM. After Boston, quite a few friends actually suggested to me that I try again at CIM this year. I hesitated to commit because of my ultra plans, but always kept it in the back of my mind. I'll still run the fun short fall races that I've come to love (McDonald Forest 15k), but really re-focus back to the roads. If I keep my training strong and consistent, and run the kind of marathon at CIM that I did at Crater Lake, then I definitely believe I'll break 2:40.

I must rewind a minute and congratulate Oswaldo Lopez on his victory in the 72 (no results are posted yet, but he was on pace for right about 10:00 with 16 miles to go), and Peter Lubbers for his hat-trick of Super Tahoe Triple victories! Way to go, guys - you're both studs!! And, of course, I would be a bad person if I didn't thank my uber-crew extraordinaire. In the first time ever crewing, all of my wants and needs were met flawlessly...thank you.

Thirty-three Forty-four

2008-09-25T18:45:00.001-07:00

That's what I ran for the Bigfoot 10k in Bend last Sunday. A p.r. I was very surprised. I had hopes of running around 34:30, about 15 seconds faster than last year. My splits went like this: 5:18, 10:56 (5:38), 16:17 (5:21), 21:42 (5:25), 27:04 (5:26), 32:34 (5:30), 33:44 (1:10). I also p.r.ed for 5 miles, and I got 5th place in a very competitive race. (Thanks for the picture, Ryan.)

On this fast, mostly gradual downhill course, I went out fast, but not hard. The 2nd mile is the most "uphill" of the race (which isn't really that much, but compared to the rest of the course, you kinda notice it). Then I just got into a good, hard groove. I felt great and was definitely surprised that I was maintaining sub-5:30s the rest of the race. I kinda got mentally weak the last 1/2 mile, and my splits show that. I was catching up to uber-masters runner Chuck Coats. Chuck always easilty kicks my butt. So I think when I started getting close to him in the 5th mile, I got a little scared, like I shouldn't be there. So I was weak and didn't go continue my chase. But regardless, I was elated when I finished. Both Chuck and 3rd place Jeff Caba were surprised to see me so soon at the finish and commented that ultrarunners aren't supposed to run in the 33s. That was cool.

I ran in the oh-so-cool new Nike Lunaracer. Oh, baby, that is a sweeeeeeet shoe! Ritz even wore his in Beijing. In case you haven't seen it or heard about it, it's a super-light racing flat with new technology that allows for the shoe to actually be cushy and light weight. There is a memory foam that is oh-so-nice underfoot, and a new upper made out of Nike's new flywire technology. It hugs like a glove, and my women's size 10.5 weigh in at just under 5 oz.! Definitely not your daily trainer, and not for moderate-and-above over-pronators, but if you're a neutral to mild overpronator, and you want a superduperpuper lightweight flat for your fast days, give the Lunaracer a try. It's fun.

My quads did take a bit of a beating from Bigfoot, so I've been taking it super easy this week in preparation for the big lap around Tahoe this weekend. Sascha and I went for a flat 9-miler on Tuesday night, then today I had a nice (painful) massage, and tonight we just jogged up Black Crater. While going up Black Crater, I thought about just how much I love running uphill. It's awesome! That's why I organized the Pine Mountain Hill Climb a couple weeks ago. I got to thinking that I really need to have a race on Black Butte, too. So my mind started working...oo, a series, perhaps. A mountain series. The Meissner Mountain Series...nah, kinda blah. Meissner's Mountain Madness...a bit corny. Meissner Mountain Menagerie...him, better. Oo, oo, I know, I know...Meissner Mountain Menage a Trois! Yeah, baby! Of course, that means I need a 3rd mountain to add to the menage. Perhaps Grey Butte? Grizzly Mountain? Lookout Mountain? I'm not sure yet, but I'm definitely excited about the Meissner Mountain Menage a Trois! Or does it sound better as Meissner Menage a Trois Mountain Series? I kinda like the 3 m's in a row, alliteration thing in the first title, but maybe the second title makes more sense. I don't know...what do you think? About the whole idea? Are you as enthusiastic about it as I am? I'm definitely thinking 2009 would be the first year of the series. Are you tough enough to run all three??

I'm off to Tahoe in the morning. Seventy-two miles of paved pleasure!

The past couple of weeks

2008-09-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well, in the time that it took me to write my short novel about TransRockies, Sascha and I actually did some other cool stuff. After taking 3 days off to recover from TR, and with Sascha going bonkers, we decided to hit the mountains for a couple hours of playing. I absolutely love this time of year in the mountains! Cool, crisp mornings, warm days, pleasant evenings, and as a bonus this year due to super-late snow melt, lots of really pretty wildflowers are still out! Sascha kind of reminds me of Garfield, running and frolicking through big wildflower-filled meadows. It's cool to watch her play...and catch the occasional mouse and eat it.

The next day was the big cross country season kick-off race for all of the local high school teams. Mud 'n Blood is a super-fun 5k race, basically a scramble more than anything. There is a creek crossing, log jumpings, scramble up a steep hill, single track, and one more creek crossing at the finish. It's a blast! There is first an open division, then the kids get to race, with each grade being a different race, rather than just having varsity and j.v. races. In each race, the girls get a 3 1/2 minute head start, making for some great finishes between the sexes. Only 5 days post-TR, I surprised myself with a course p.r. of 19:01, good for 2nd in the men's division, 6th overall in the open race. I was also happy that my time would have put me on the Sisters Boys Varsity that day (it's the little joys in life... :).

Then on Friday (the next day), Fatboy and I decided to climb the Middle Sister. Neither of us had done it before, although Sascha and I had two attempts that were aborted not too far from the summit (she has a good way of telling me when she's at her limit). FB and I started at Pole Creek TH, ran most of the way to Chambers Lake, then just kinda bee-lined it, part cross country, part climber's trail, to the summit. There were some pretty steep scree slopes where it was easier to climb on all fours. We made it to the top in about 3 1/2 hours and were surprised to see 5 other people already up there! We chatted with them, watched some cool rocks crash off the side of the mountain and into the glacier, and enjoyed some snacks (mmm, Babyruth, mmmmmm...). About 10 minutes later, a group of 12 started summitting. So yes, on a random Friday in September - after Labor Day - there were 19 people on the freakin' summit of the Middle Sister. Really none of us could believe it. So FB and I took that as our cue to head down. We took a longer, not as steep route, back down to the lakes, which let us do a bit of glissading and running a bit more cross country through some open fields of wildflowers. Sascha would have loved this section! FB and I eventually made our way down the trail and back to the car. The total roundtrip took us about 6 1/2 hours, which included stopping time for whatever, and we estimated that we got 23ish miles in for the day. Climbing the Middle Sister is definitely a fun adventure!

Since there's really no rest for the weary (or fit-feeling after spending a week running at 10,000'), the McKenzie River 50k was just a day after the Middle. I was looking forward to running this beautiful trail, and with my past week and a half, I didn't burden myself with any real time expectations. I started amongst a sea of RVR Green, and also very conservatively. I easily just cruised through the first 8 miles, enjoying the company of ultra virgin Will and one other guy from Eugene. Then as usually happens in ultras, I gradually increased my pace and effort, catching up to my friend Steve from the Bay Area. With a loud, obnoxious, and very cool Hawaiian shirt, he was dressed Fatboy-style. Steve and I spent most of the run together, talking about how non-technical Rod told him the trail was (Rod is a liar), how much he likes CarboPro, and how he's getting back in shape for a big run at Quadipsea this year. Our little duo eventually turned into a quad, as we caught up to Todd and John caught us all. With all of that testosterone flying around, the pace naturally increased and I forgot to take a gel. Oops. So I had a little bonk from 23-26, where those guys easily distanced themselves from me. Oh well, I never got too out of it, so I didn't lose too much time and was able to pick up the pace again after 2 quick gels. I would never catch those 3 guys again, but I did notice I was oh-so-close to the golden 4-hour barrier. So I tried to go harder a few times, but my legs reminded of TR from only a week ago and the Middle from yesterday. However, with 3 miles to go, I did notice that I was now slightly ahead of my 4:04 time from last year. My new goal became finishing faster than that. So I zigged and I zagged my way along the cushy trail under the lush forest canopy next to the rushing McKenzie to the finish in 4:01, 7th place. I was happy. With no expectations coming in, I felt I ran a good race, enjoyed the comraderie of others, and didn't go down at all, despite the sharp and pointy lava rock (I went down 5 times last year). It was a good day.

Much of the next week was spent prepping for the Pine Mountain Hill Climb, for which I was the race director. I even got to show-off the course to Aaron Schartzbard, who was in town from Virginia for a few days to play in the Central Oregon mountains. You can read all about the race here.

Thinking back on my last few weeks and months, I've had a pretty kick-ass summer! I'm kinda sad for it to end, but, as I have for the past 7 years, I'm really looking forward to heading to Tahoe at the end of the month for a little pavement pounding fun!

TransRockies Report

2008-09-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

TransRockies was easily the best running experience of my life. I've had many, many, many really cool running experiences in all sorts of different places with all sorts of different people. By day 2, somewhere up on Hope Pass, TR had risen to the top.

I was super stoked to be TRing with my buddy and fellow Montrailian Matt since we found out we were in sometime in early Spring. We had both planned on this being an "A" race, and we were going to kick some butt.

Matt picked me up from DIA, we had an uneventful drive to Buena Vista in the nuun van, and the party was on! We checked in, got our gear bags, checked out the town, and found a great camping spot outside the community center, where dinner and breakfast would be. Perfect.

Dinner was fun...seeing all of the uber-fit teams, talking smack to old friends, being nice to new friends, everyone dashing inside when the sky opened up in a sweet, late-afternoon Colorado monsoon. Those are cool.

Day 1 was a 13 miler on gravel roads, with a slight uphill the whole way. I liked it. Matt didn't. At the 7 mile a.s., he got behind me and hung on almost until the finish. With only 1/2 mile to go, I had a slight mentally weak moment, where he began to pull away. I realized this, kicked myself, and we finished in 1:34, 9th on the day. I think we could have run closer to 1:30, but was happy with our first day's effort.

After a nice soak in the Arkansas River, we took a shuttle to the first of 5 camps / tent villages. Camp is where we got to meet some of the coolest people ever. On this first night, we also got to see Goat's 18 gear bags!

Day 2 was only 10 miles, but I knew for me, it was going to be the toughest stage. After running the first 2 flattish miles waaaaaaay too fast (just over 14 minutes), Matt and I began our ascent of Hope Pass. I was already in oxygen debt from the first 2 miles, and the 2.6 mile, almost 3,000' climb didn't help. I was breathing hard and working harder the whole way up. Matt could see I was in difficulty, so he just got behind me and pushed. And pushed. And pushed some more. He pushed me a lot that day. I was really glad he did that! I was happy when we reached the top, you know, in an oxygen-deprived sort of way. Tony was up there cheering, and that gave me a little boost for going down. Now, normally I'm not a great downhiller, but I am okay at it. Today I wasn't even okay. My leg muscles had absolutely zero oxygen in them, so I was basically a weeble-wobble the whole way down. Not much better than going up. And I even got a gusher of a bloody nose on my way down. We finished the day in 1:57:08, 12th on the stage, and me looking like Matt had beat me up.

A whole gaggle of us then enjoyed a lazy afternoon in downtown Leadville, with Tony even stopping in to tell us a bit about his possible future plans. We also heard and talked more about the cheating that happened going up Hope. It seems that Saab / Salomon boys didn't like the switchbacks, so they cut 'em. Apparently a lot of 'em. They ended up crossing the finish line first that day, but I wouldn't call it a win. There was never an official protest filed, so they didn't get the 2-hour penalty that the rule book clearly states they should have. Plus, it just put a bit of a damper over camp for a few days. Bad Saab / Salomon boys...Bad.

Day 3 was the long stage - 24 miles of mostly rolling terrain. Matt and I were hopeful to start catching up here. Despite me getting a bloody nose at like mile 3 (and it staying with me most of the day), we ran fairly solid the first 14 miles. The funniest moment of the whole race happened around mile 9. The Salt Stick boys, one of the teams we duked it out with all week, ran by us up a jeep road. A mile later, they were stopped at a creek crossing (probably 15' wide and 5" deep), clearly searching for a way across. They saw us, started to ask how we were going to get across, but before they were 1/2 way through the question, Matt and I were on the other side, running and laughing. It was pretty funny. However, they did go on to beat us that day. Hm, maybe we should have kept our feet dry.

Somewhere on this day, we hopped on the Colorado Trail for a good section of sweet singletrack. My nose was gushing and legs were tired, my it was some of the best running of the week. So, so, so beautiful. It's too bad the last 3 miles of that day were in a big, flat, wide-open valley, run on a dirt road, where we could see the finish line for a loooooong time. We finished up in 3:40:09, 10th for the day.

This night at Camp Hale was easily the best night of the week (well, maybe expect for party night, but that doesn't count). We were camped out in a big, beautiful valley, completely surrounded by big mountains, with no cell coverage or internet access. Everyone actually had to talk and hang-out together. The campfire that night was pretty much attended by all. Clif Hot Chocolate recovery drink is really good.

Day 4 was a good, tough 14 miler, and as it turned out, Matt and my best stage. I took off running slightly ahead of Matt on the mellower sections of the big climb, but he caught up on the steeper section. As usual, we were bouncing back-and-forth with Wings of Glory and Salt Stick, and we found ourselves on top of the climb between these 2 teams. Wings was up front, and as they had proven throughout the week, they were the best downhill team between the 3 of us, and they flew on down all the way to Red Cliff ahead of us. I really enjoyed this downhill. It wasn't too technical, so was fun to just pound down. Well, until we hit the freezing cold creek we had to run through multiple times, and for really long periods (I think the last time was 1/4 mile stretch). My feet hurt so bad I thought I was going to cry. Much to Matt chagrin (good word, eh?), I had to slow down...I couldn't help it. But then we eventually popped out onto a sweet hard-packed, smooth, gentle downhill, dirt road for the final 2.5 miles. We flew down it, easily at sub-6 pace, using the studly coed LaSportiva / Goretex team as our rabbit. It felt awesome to fly across the finish line in 2:15:48, 8th on the day.

That afternoon in Red Cliff was a nice, lazy, sunny day. I decided to add a little excitement to my life by doing a little shave-down. I figured since we were in cowboy country, I should shave off the chin part of my goatee and leave a sweet handlebar mustache. Oh yeah, I was a looker. The worst part of it, though, was that some people thought it actually looked good on me (or so they said). No! Absolutely not! Mustaches are not cool and they do not look good. Well, unless you're old. Then maybe. But I'm not old, and the handlebar 'stache looked lame. Really lame. And that's the reason I had it - to look lame!

Day 5 was set to be my best day. At 23 miles, it started with 10 miles of climbing on mostly jeep roads, gaining 3,000'. The perfect, runnable, Sean-type, grade. I was pumped for it. I took off pretty much from the gun. I felt great and was 100% committed to run with the Fluffy Bunnies. After a few miles, I looked back to see how Matt was doing. Oops, Matt was in difficulty. So I cut back until he caught up, then reminded him to eat. That didn't do much for him, so finally Matt made the decision to get towed. So I tied our pants together, another pant leg to my pack, then the last pant leg around Matt's waist. We ran as a little choo-choo train for the next hour, most of the way up the mountain. I felt like a sleddog. We eventually hit some good downs, so we unlatched and Matt seemed to be doing better. Finally we topped out on Vail Mountain. It was so beautiful up there! I arrived and left slightly ahead of Matt, which was fine because he then caught me on the down. This was another fun down, but also very, very loooooong. We passed a couple teams who had blown-up that day, and tried to hammer to last few miles. With about 1.5 miles to go, I kinda blew-up. This was a bummer, since it was on such an easy, fast, downhill grade. So we slowed down a bit, almost caught a team, then basically jogged it in, finishing in Vail Village in 3:52:06, 9th on the day.

It was crazy to finish the posh little Vail. After being out in the middle of nowhere, with basically only other stinky, dirty runners for a few days, I think we all felt a bit out of place amongst the masses. But we got over it and enjoyed our cell phones again, and even a trip to get ice cream! The awards ceremony was slightly tainted that night by a team who got lost, adding probably 30-45 minutes to their time, then they ended up in 3rd in their category for the day. They were, oh, uh, not so happy about this and felt their time should be adjusted accordingly. This is a race in the mountains, girls...open your eyes. Their time wasn't adjusted, rightfully so, and so they did a lame mini-protest during the awards by not going up when they were called for 3rd, but instead, waiting until the studly, always smiling, and sometimes showing their butts (at least one of them) Banff / Yellowstone Trail Trash team was called up for their hard-fought 2nd place podium position. So YAY to B/Y TT for not beating up the pissy girls, and BOO to the pissy girls.

Day 6, 21 miles, within 4 minutes of Wings and Salt (both of them ahead of us)...it was going to be an epic day and it was going to hurt. Matt and I talked of letting it all out and trying to hang with the Bunnies for as long as possible. Well, that didn't work. They started quite a bit faster than we did. So, as usual, we ran near our arch-nemesises, Salt and Wings. Today, Matt and I decided to separate a bit more than normal (but staying within our 2 minute allowance). I would go ahead on the climbs, then he would catch and pass me on the downs. This seemed to be a good tactic; too bad it took us 6 days to figure it out. We ran hard. We ran our guts out. So did Wings and Salt. And unfortunately for Matt and me, the other guys ran faster. They beat us on the day, and thus, for the race. We crossed the final finish line in Beaver Creek in 3:25:11, 7th on the day. I was very happy to be done. Goatboy joined us at the finish for a nice little group hug. Matt and I finished in 16:44:36 overall, good for 9th overall and in the Boy's Open Category. We were both definitely hoping for top-5, and hey, if we would have, well, run faster, then we would have been there. But we didn't, and others did. But what we did do was race our guts out against a whole slew of really fast, tough people. It was very impressive to see how tough some of those adventure racers and mountain runners really are.

Congratulations all around to the Salt Stick boys and Wings of Glory boys. You 4 helped make this race truly epic. It was definitely way better to be racing so close to you guys, rather than us all being 1/2 hour apart. It was much more of a race this way. Thank you.

The awards ceremony / party on Saturday night after the final day was really fun. Lots of food was eaten, lots of beverages were consumed (I even had some beer!), nuuntinis were concocted and drank, sombreros were worn, war stories of the week were shared, hook-ups were hooked, tequila was shot, hugs were given out freely, ugly-feet contests were had, and lots of friendships were solidified. It was an unforgettable evening after an unforgettable week.

Thank you so much to all who made this week the bestestest ever running experience of my life...with special thanks to: Bryon, Martin, Erin, Jeannie, Jonathan, Chris, Tyson, Kevin, Duncan, Mark, Max, Erik, Adam, Michelle, Courtney, Leslie, Meghan, and of course, most of all, Matt.

I look forward to it again next year!

TransRockies Run

2008-09-01T18:31:00.000-07:00

Real quick here (I'll write a biggie later): TransRockies was easily my best running adventure to date. Nothing even comes close - and I've done many, many, MANY cool running adventures in my life. Obviously I wish Sascha could have joined in the fun, but some of my new friends reminded me of her.

Thanks for all of the e-mails, voicemails, texts, etc., during the week wishing me well. I really appreciate all of the support.

Matt Hart is the best teammate. Ever.

TransRockies

2008-08-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I could attempt to write some stuff. But Hart and Goat are totally geeked-out with their fancy iPhones, which they're both obviously addicted to, so they've both been blogging almost non-stop about this cool little adventure. So check it all out from their sites.
Hart
Goat
TransRockies website for results, photos, etc

Well, I'll throw a little out there for you. Yesterday was a pretty flat 13 miles. Hart suffered and I kinda enjoyed the course (and a guy proposed to his girlfriend at the finish - it was pretty cool). Today was a 10 miler up and over Hope Pass. Hart enjoyed it (as did I), but I suffered A LOT! I thought of Bien saying that he would rather suffer a little for a long time than a lot for a little time. Amen, brotha. I even got a cool bloody nose (no surprise to anyone who ever runs with me). Basically, Hart got sick of me attempting to run, so he beat me up.

Tomorrow we finally get a long stage, 24 miles. I have confidence we will make up time.

P.S. Max and Erik are really fast! They're in a close race for first, but I'm calling it now: Team Oregon is going to win.

Waldo and TransRockies

2008-08-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

I went to Where's Waldo last weekend to watch, cheerlead, and work at the Gold Lake Aid Station with the CORK crew. I had a blast! Being stationed at the first a.s. of the day meant an early wake-up call, but it also meant we were done first and we got to see all the runners while they were still happy. To make things fun, I even got to wear a pretty pink dress.

By 6:45 a.m., everyone was through there, so Sascha and I were off to Mt. Ray Aid Station, approx. mile 21 of the race. I got there just in time to see Nate go flying through in 1st, with Hal right on his heels. They were cruising. Some of the other fast boys came through, then Meghan flew in with Prudence right on her heels. Everyone was still looking good. And it was starting to get warm.

Next, it was up to Charlton Aid Station. Again, I made it just in time to see Nate come in, take a dip in the lake, and he was off. Sean came in a few minutes back looking great, and Neil was 3rd, 10 min. back. Neil sat down, took off his right shoe and sock, put on a new shoe and sock on just his right foot, then took off. He looked like a kicker, which proved to be foreshadowing for the butt-kicking he did later in the race. Prudence came running in as the first place girl, looking great. Krissy was only 5 minutes behind. Tonya came in a bit later and was a bit concerned about her leg, but Jenn was there waiting to run the last 30 miles with her, and as we all know, Jenn's always a good motivator.

Up at the hot a.s., Rd. 4290, most runners were looking a bit worked. The temerature was around 90, and there was a long, slow climb ahead in the next section. Most people would run out of water here, so I encouraged them to drink up and find the spring at the 1/2 way point. Ian, Bronco, and Brad all came in close to each other, but Brad lingered the longest, slurping down his concentrated broth. Mm, mm, good drinkin'! Prudence cruised through again still in first, still smiling and looking smooth. Only minutes later, Krissy came in, too. With a little tip from Dagan, I knew she was digging Ultragen, so I quickly made up a bottle of tropical punch for her to get her up and over the long Twins section.

Shortly after seeing Meghan go through 4290, and giving her a rah-rah for wearing her Olympic Trials hat (how cool is that?), I had to head off to work. Luckily Chris was on the ball at the finish line and called me with updates. Neil smoked the last section and won in 10:06. Not only is Neil fast and super nice, but he also ran the Waldo 72 miler last year. I was excited to hear that he came back this year and won. In doing so, he cleaned up in the $$$, winning $1000 for overall and $500 for being a fast old man. For the girls, Prudence had no idea how close Krissy was to her until Maiden. Seeing she only had about a 6 min. lead, Prudence put the hammer down from the summit to the finish, and in doing so, earned the title of 2008 National 100k Trail Champ, finishing in 11:12. Pretty sweet!

One interesting Waldo note; Meghan won overall last year and Krissy won overall in 2006. This year, Prudence was 11th overall. Do you think the boys were out for revenge??

Congratulations to all Waldo finishers, with special kudos to Jeff, Brad, Ian, Prudence, Krissy, William, Meghan, KR, BW, Scott, Stacey, Rob/Waldo, Ken, Maura, Tate, Caroline, Olga, John, 5-Finger, Stan, Eb, Tom/Waldo, Steve, and of course Tonya. Tonya, I wish I could have seen you finished. You were the hero of the day!

Tomorrow I finally get to go to Colorado for TransRockies! I used to live in Steamboat Springs and I love running in the CO Rockies. I am sooooooo excited and ready for this epic adventure. A week long running vacation with one of my best buds...I mean really, what could be better? I call it a vacation, but during the daily stages, there will definitely be no vacationing. We will be running hard. We have a challenging goal and it will definitely keep us breathing hard and running fast. But Hart's tough. And we're gonna do it. And it's gonna be a blast!

Ridin', Runnin', and Marathonin'

2008-08-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

So the blogging slacking is finally coming to an end.

After TRT, I took it easy for a week. In that week, I noticed something in my gear room, kinda in the back. Mostly blue with some yellow thrown in, two wheels, a seat, handle bar...hm, I have seen many of those things before, in a past life. Curious, I wandered back to it, dusted it off, and voila, a bicycle appeared! My cool Schwinn Paramount road bike. Sleek titanium frame, flawless Ultegra groupo, hot Spynergy Spox wheels...yessirree, she's a looker. I reminisced back to when I bought her 8 years ago. We did lots of riding together for a few years. Then something happened when I moved to Sisters. We didn't officially break-up, but definitely saw less and less of each other. I had a new passion, called ultrarunning. In fact, until the week after TRT, Paramount and I hadn't seen each other for 4 years!

So I put her in the front of my gear room, dusted her off, pumped up her rubber, found my super-old helmet and some dusty bike clothes. Then we went outside and rode. It was sweet! In the almost 4 weeks since that ride, we've been seeing quite a bit of each other. Like 3-5 times per week. I've been driving half way to work, then biking the rest. That's fun. And my butt is getting back into the groove of riding, too. On Thursday, I felt I should start bridging the gap between bike commuter and cyclist. So we rode 40 miles that day. Yes, it was fun, despite the little hip flexor / groin pain.

So I'm hoping to keep this cycling thing up for quite some time. I had forgotten how fun riding a road bike is. It's making me a stronger runner. My calves aren't quite as puny. Last week, I even thought about maybe signing up for a biathlon (as they were called in the late 80s and early 90s). But regardless of how much riding I do, unlike Hart and Nessski, I'm not shaving my legs.

After that post-TRT easy week, I got back into the groove of training again pretty easily. I've been doing some PBRs (Pilot Butte Repeats), track work (in the cool new Nike Lunaracer), and getting up in the mountains! I'm having a blast running. I feel fit.

Last weekend, I ran a marathon. Well, two actually. But it was supposed to just be one. Crater Lake Marathon was supposed to be the one. This is a seriously hard marathon. With about 2,300' of climbing and 3,500' of descent, looooong hills both up and down, high altitude between 6,000 - 8,000', and a brutal 500' dirt road climb from 22.8 to 24.3, I'm going to put it out there and say it's the toughest road marathon in the country. I would love to hear of a tougher one!

Anyway, so I went to Crater with a goal of running sub-3. Not many people do this, so I knew it would be hard. But this kind of marathon plays to my strength of running well on long, sustained climbs (up to 5 miles). I started easy with Jenn for the first few miles to warm up and to let the pack string out. Then miles 4 and 5 were downhill and both were sub-6. I was warmed up and feeling good!

I started reeling in many ambitious folks who started out a tad fast. At 9.5, I knew I had a lot of climbing ahead of me in the next 5 miles. So I used this to my advantage and went to work picking off more runners. At mile 11, as I was breathing heavy, I passed Todd Ragsdale, one of those RVR boys. Todd has a good history at Crater, winning in 2006 and 2nd last year. He let me know that I was now in 2nd. I had no idea who was ahead or how far up he was. I just kept plugging along.

Miles 13.5 to 15.5 are an out-and-back, so it was here that I saw Chuck Engle crushing me and everyone else. He probably had 5 minutes on me here. Then soon enough, I saw Brendan Lunday and Todd less than a minute behind me. At the turn at 14.5, we then pointed our feet downhill for 8 miles and almost 2000' vertical of descent. I wanted to run these miles hard. My recent big mileage let me average almost 6-flat for most of the way; however, my lack of recent speed training kept me from going faster. Just before the road bottomed out, I heard footsteps. Apparently Todd has been doing some speed workl. He went by hard and he looked strong. I was impressed.

A 1/2 mile later, when the road pointed up again, Todd came back fast, so I attacked hard to try to drop him. I ran hard up the dirt road all the way to the turn around. As much as I was trying to run away from Todd, I was also curious to see how far ahead Chuck was. When I got to the turn and still didn't see him, I was a bit confused. Was he in the bushes? Laying down in the volunteer's vehicle at the turn? Was I leading? Regardless, I still had 2 miles to get back to the finish. So I just leaned forward into the hill and let my legs fly. I finished up with a couple of 5:45s and the first to cross the finish.

I was stoked with my effort that produced a 2:55:47, but puzzled by the win. Apparently, Chuck didn't make the turn around at 24.3. The volunteers said they yelled to him; Chuck said nobody said anything. Regardless, it's too bad and I'm sorry it happened. Yes, I wanted to win, but not by default. Here are a couple of articles regarding the race.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080810/SPORTS/808100323
http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2008/08/10/sports/doc489e998088a5f199497724.txt

Anyway, at only 11 min. of my p.r., and 7 min. off Boston, Crater Lake Marathon was easily my best-ever marathon. I went out smart, warmed up, took advantage of my strengths on the course, and hammered when I need to. I never had a low spot. It was sweet. And, it continues my streak of having a good race after a dnf. Not that I enjoy testing that theory, but it's never let me down.

On the drive home after Crater, I was feeling good and a little peppy. So when I got to Bend, I stopped at packet pick-up for the Haulin' Aspen Trail Marathon to see if I could get in. I could and I did. I knew I wouldn't be able to put out the same effort I did at Crater, nor would I run the time I ran at Haulin' last year, but in addition to being a fun, tough double, I figured it would be great training for TransRockies.

I actually felt pretty good while warming up. At the start, I let the usual pack go by me and was happy to be leading a train through 3 miles. Then the trail started going uphill a bit and the train fell apart. Eventually I was running with just one other person, ultrarunner Drew Breyenton from Corvallis. We worked well together, then he stopped at an a.s. while I kept going on up.

Whenever I tried to go faster up the long climb, my legs said no. So I just grinded my way up, slowing gaining ground on a 1/2 dozen people up the dirt road. Finally I hit mile 14 in 1:57 (6 min. slower than last year), which was the start of the 12 miles of single track mostly downhill. I tried to just let my legs float down the hill, and mostly did, but I just couldn't get good turnover. Obviously I knew why and I was okay with that. So I just ran on down, occasionally passing someone, and getting passed by Drew, on my way to the finish. I thought I had a shot at sub-3:20, but was happy with my 3:22:13. A nice, solid effort on a good course. As soon as I stopped, my legs seized up then starting quivering. It was fun.

I believe I broke the unofficial record the the Crater Lake / Haulin' Aspen double. As far as I can see, Todd had the record from last year: 3:03:03 + 3:15:44 = 6:18:48. My Crater was able to hold off his hard-charging Haulin': 2:55:47 + 3:22:13 = 6:18:00. Come on, Todd. The gauntlet has been thrown. Come get it!

Theories

2008-07-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

So I've definitely been getting lots of theories thrown my way regarding my stomach. Thank you all for taking the time to do this; I REALLY appreciate your help. I'll list as many as I can remember, then address as many as I can.

Heat
Altitude
Starting too fast
pH imbalance with my system
I'm not set-out to run 100s
Run "faster" 100s so I'm not out there as long
Pushing the envelope too hard / redlining
Not fit enough
Electrolyte imbalance

Heat: yeah, it was hot, but I seriously really never felt over-heated. During the last few weeks leading up to the race, the temps around central Oregon were averaging in the 90s and I was running in the afternoon as much as possible. I was hot at 50, but I took my time there too get my stuff together and cool off. As I was leaving the a.s., Mark Gilligan (2nd last year in a smokin' 19:38) handed me the best present ever - an ice cold bottle of water! I intentionally slowed down the next 11 miles so I wouldn't over-heat. Once in the Red House loop, temps cooled, so Nikki and I started pushing just a bit again. It felt good.

Altitude: definitely a possibility. During my 4-day WS training camp weekend, I ran at altitude every day (between 7,000-9,000'). I ran up Black Butte, 6,200', a few times in the weeks leading up to the race. But on race day, I felt good most of the day, but could feel the lack of oxygen. I tried to remedy that by walking whenever my heartrate got too high. I don't wear a h.r. monitor, but after 21 years of running, I know what my threshold is and when I need to back off. So even if it was flat, if my h.r. was too high, I walked until it mellowed out.

Starting too fast: I'm going to say a big no on this one. Why? Well, I was hungry, eating, and my stomach was digesting food all day. If I had been running too fast, I definitely wouldn't have been hungry, I wouldn't have eaten, and if I had eaten, I would have been vomiting food, not bile and acid.

pH imbalance with my system: hm, interesting. Never thought about that. It never even occured to me...until Kami threw it out there. She's pretty sure there's some kind of chemical imbalance going on, since this happens to me way too often. She suggested I contact some kind of medical person who knows about this stuff and have some tests done. Maybe my pH levels are too high, thus, the reason I puke bile and stomach acid, not food. In the mean time, she suggested I take Wheat Grass to help keep my stomach more basic. I mentioned this to Chris, and he said he does it, so it might not hurt. I know Hart does it, too. So, I ventured to Wild Oats last night and purchased Amazing Grass. I've taken 5 servings already and I gotta say, its bark (smell) is definitely worse than its bite (taste). I'm going to stick with it for a while to see what happens. And, I'm going to contact someone who may know a bit more and can run some tests on me (tests probably mean needles, which I absolutely HATE, but I hate more not knowing what's up).

I'm not set-out to run 100s: possibly. Even though I was sure of that at 3 a.m. on Sunday, and have been right after all of my 100s (both finishes and 4 dnf's), the further I get from each race, the less I'm convinced of it.

Run "faster" 100s so I'm not out there as long: I may give this a try. Rocky, Vermont, Javelina, Lean Horse, Heartland, all possibilities. I'm not too stoked about the 8 laps at Umstead.

Pushing the envelope too hard / redlining: I never was redlining. Like I noted earlier, whenever I was reaching my threshold, I would stop running and walk until my h.r. dropped to a reasonable level. I've been running long enough to know when I'm redlining. I wasn't redlining at TRT.

Not fit enough: definitely not. If you followed my blog leading up to this, you read that I trained very hard for this. I went through stages of beating up my body, then resting to let it recover and get stronger. Only two days after the race, my body felt like it had only run a moderate 50k. I think the stiffest I got was from the drive home on Sunday. My legs weren't/aren't trashed at all.

Electrolyte imbalance: that probably has something to do with it. Except the first hour when it was cool, I drank a bottle of nuun, a bottle of water, and took and s-cap every hour. Without fail. Still, my shirt was definitely crusty when I changed at 76. And if you can't tell, my legs were swollen. But I look happy and chipper; and even better, I FELT happy and chipper. (I stole this picture from Matt's write-up.)

Anyway, that' s all I have for now on theories.

Yesterday, Sascha and I decided to head up in the mountains for a 14 mile hug. Huh, you say? Well, a hug is a combination of Hike/rUn/joG. Pretty cool, eh! I made that up myself. Being at Chambers Lake, right at the base of the Middle Sisters, was pretty awesome. Then today I decided to make it 2-for-2 in hitting the wilderness on consecutive days. I ran 3 1/2 miles up the McKenzie Highway to my favorite short trail in central Oregon: Black Crater. Four sweet uphill singletrack miles with about 2,500' vertical, pretty much all runnable. It was awesome! Coming down was easy-schmeasy; my legs weren't sore at all, and I even ran a couple 6:15s once I hit the pavement again.

Crater Lake Marathon is in only 2 weeks. It's gonna be fun!

TRT...

2008-07-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

...second time's not a charm. DNF, mile 85, 17 hours.

I went back this year for two reasons: because WS got cancelled, and to redeem myself from some unfinished business last year.

It started great (don't they all?)! I was chilling out and running relaxed behind Ian, Nikki, Bev, and Jenn, while Jon, Erik, and Mike were a bit up the trail. Yes, I was in very good, and experienced, company.

I actually ended up running most of the 85 miles with Nikki. I don't think we were ever more than 5 minutes apart, and usually we were together. See, this was good for me. I'm going to put it out there and say that Nikki is currently the best female trail 100 mile runner in the world. So I figured I could learn a lot by sticking with her. And I did. I learned to walk way more uphills than normal, and that you don't have to pound the downs. Nikki's a great downhiller, but because she's efficient going down, not because she blasts them. These two points helped me get to 50 miles a full 15 minutes faster than last year, in hotter weather (it was 100 degrees there!), but feeling much, much fresher.

We intentionally slowed down the next 11 miles to Tunnel Creek. As we descended into the Red House loop, the weather cooled a bit and we were in more shade. Nikki and I worked really well together going through the Taste of Hell the second (the first time, too), and came out feeling strong. The sun was cooling even more now, so we ran well for the next 9 miles to Mt. Rose, taking only about 15 minutes longer to get there than in the morning.

I was greeted by Jenn, Thomas, Valerie, and other crews. It was cool to be rocking along with Nikki, feeling great, and being cheered by everyone at Mt. Rose. I left slightly ahead of Nikki, but knew she would catch up. As I left, Jenn asked if I wanted a pacer. Heck yeah! I didn't know who it was going to be, but I just told her to have them catch me. A couple miles later, I heard Jenn's giggly little voice behind me. I was really happy she decided to join me (she had earlier dropped at 50 due to altitude).

We were cruising along for a few miles just ahead of Nikki and Howard (her pacer) when they decided to pass and take the lead for a bit. No worries...Nikki and I both knew this is what we had been doing all day and it had been working well.

Right about 9 p.m., when it was getting dark, near the Diamond Peak water drop, I started to feel a bit off. So I slowed for a bit, then started walking for a while. Jenn commented that if I wanted to stay ahead of Ian, I really should be running the downs. Then came the puke, pretty much in the form of bile and acid...mmm. Okay, no big deal. I had been running great all day, so one puke at mile 81 was pretty good. I felt a little better, drank some water, took a gel and s-cap, and slowly started running again. Five minutes went by and the calories and water came back up. More water and nuun and another gel. Five minutes, same result. This continued for a couple of miles until I was so exhausted that I had to sit down. Soon, another runner came from the other way and said the a.s. was only 8 minutes away. So I dragged my butt off the rock and stumbled down to the Tunnel Creek aid station.

I told Jenn I was going to hang out there as long as I needed to get my stomach straight. I was going to finish this thing! I slowly drank soup and water. Within 30-60 seconds, it came back up. I tried again, same result. Sprite, coke, saltines, food...same result. Each time I tried something in my stomach, it was good for a minute or so, then not-so-much. There was a truck leaving with drops about an hour after I got there. I declined getting on, knowing I could still pull myself together. Well, after five hours of hanging out at the a.s., drinking, eating, puking, repeat...I looked at Jenn and we knew what the decision was. I had nothing in me and we knew there was no way I was going to make it up the two big climbs ahead. A truck was ready to leave, so Jenn helped me up, then was literally my cruch as I barely dragged my completely depleted self to the truck. I had absolutely no energy. Jenn even had to almost lift me into the truck. Yes, I was pathetic.

After a gnarly drive out on a super technical jeep road, the truck-load full of drops made it back to the start/finish area at Spooner Lake just before 4 a.m. It totally sucked to get back there in a truck. Obviously, we all had plans of running there.

One the drive back to Thomas' condo in Incline Village, as I watched the full moon shine brightly and beautifully over Lake Tahoe, I listened to messages and read texts from some awesome friends who were giving me lots of rah-rahs during the day and night. Yes, listening to those made me happy that I have so many good friends who were thinking of me, knowing I was going to rock this 100. Thank you.

I would really like to say a big thank you to Jenn. She really proved to me that she's not just a fast little punk:)! Just the fact that she volunteered to pace me after dropping from the 50 was awesome, but the compassion and maturity she showed me while my body was failing me is something I'll never forget. Jenn, you can pace me anytime, and hopefully you'll let me do the same for you.

The weekend ended with a Dark Knight viewing in Carson City with Team Ashland, then Jenn and I finally opened Tonya's sweet goodie bag, before the long drive home.

Some day I'll figure out this stomach thing.

Huge congrats to first time 100 finishers: Matt Nahorniak, Todd Temple, Scott Leonard, and Gretchen Brugman.

Results.

Hardrock

2008-07-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Skaggs at Hardrock...WOW! 23:23:30.

Enough said.

WS-turned-Training Camp Weekend Recap

2008-07-10T15:24:00.000-07:00

Since WS was cancelled, some friends and I, all of whom were supposed to be at WS either racing, crewing, or pacing, did a sweet little impromptu training camp.

Thursday, June 26: Kami, Prudence, and I ran the Paulina Peak / Newberry Crater 39 mile loop. This was only my second time doing the whole thing, and it is sweet! We had a nice 9 mile uphill warmup to the Crater, then gained a lot of vertical in a short time, and lost the trail on lots of snow, going up to Paulina Peak. The views from the top are awesome! As we continued around the loop, I was an idiot and didn't take care of myself - who really needs to take s-caps or eat much on a 39 miler? So the girls definitely put the hurt on me, but were nice enough to occasionally wait. Of course I puked a few times out there, too. My saving grace was the Pepsi and chips with 9 miles to go. I got a sweet sugar rush and used that to my advantage, running as fast as I could for as long as possible before the inevitable crash came. And come it did, with about 3 miles to go I was once again jogging. But I still finished a long, fun day in the mountains with two super nice, and super fast, girls.

Friday, June 27: Prudence, Susannah, and I ran the 27 mile Ochocos Marathon (perhaps you remember mine and Sascha's adventure there in early May). We had absolutely zero snow to contend with, to go along with 20 great singletrack miles and 7 kinda painful paved miles. The initial climb up Round Mountain was good for all of us, then Prudence cranked the semi-technical singletrack going down. Next came the pounding of the pavement, but at the bottom was a great creek for soaking in before the long climb up Lookout Mtn. Prudence's toes got hammered at Paulina on Thursday, and all of the downhill so far from Round Mtn. weren't helping. So she unfortunately had to turn back on the climb up Lookout and wait by the creek (her toes were bad!). Once on top of Lookout, it was down a few more miles back to the car. Waiting for us there were Tonya, Chris, and Darla, who would be joining us for the weekend in the Strawberry Wilderness Area.

But before we got to the Strawberries, we picked up Prudence, soaked and cleaned off in the creek, then had an adventurous drive on a long and pretty gravel road to Mitchell. Upon arriving in Mitchell, Susannah immediately got a flat tire in her van. Chris stepped up and changed the tire while the rest of us went in the little cafe and ordered dinner. Their bacon cheeseburger is really good, and the fries were super greasy with lots of salt...mmmm! It was late by now, so we decided to camp in the very cool Mitchell City Park with a whole lot of Harley dudes and chicks. Despite the loud music that lasted pretty late, they were cool.

Saturday, June 28: I had planned on a 3:30 wake-up call for Susannah, Prudence, and me (to mimic our WS wake-up), but the late night music shot that idea. We eventually all got up and had a good breakfast at the little cafe, said hi to Henry the black bear (if you ever go to Mitchell, you must do this), then continued on to the Strawberries.

We pulled into the Strawberry Campground around noon, found a nice campsite, set up camp, then pulled out a map to decide where to run. Prudence decided to take the day off to give her feet a break, so she hiked the 1.5 miles up to Strawberry Lake to hangout on the beach with a book for the day. So Tonya, Susannah, Chris, Darla, and I decided on a 13 mile loop up to Strawberry Mountain. Going up was great for a while, until we hit the snow. We hopelessly lost the trail, but decided to keep on plugging. We just basically aimed for the peak, going cross country over lots of snow and up a rocky talus slope until we eventually hooked up with the trail again. On top of Strawberry Mtn (9,053'), we had cool views of the Wallowas in northeastern Oregon, and much of the rest of the Strawberry Wilderness Area. It's beautiful. As we headed down, we decided to take a different route back. One problem - that route was also buried under snow on the upper, north-facing parts. So we used our trail finding skills of looking for the notches cut-out of trees until we found the trail (this was a great learning experience for Darla and Tonya!). Once back on trail, we had a long, sweet, technical ride through an old burn back down to the trailhead. It was fun. We got spit out on a gravel road about 1 1/4 miles below camp. Hm, we could either curse it and jog slowly up, or we could hammer. I chose option 2 and threw the bone out for Susannah and Chris. They both bit. I won't say who topped out first, but I will say it was a cool way to end a fun afternoon on the trails.

Back at camp, we found out that the flies at Strawberry Lake had different plans for Prudence. And her badly blistered feet and toes weren't getting any better. So with a big 40 mile pacing duty for Betsy Nye at Hardrock in two weeks, Prudence reluctantly decided to head back to the big city (Bend) for the rest of the weekend.

The other five of us feasted on a big dinner of spaghetti and lots of other stuff we all had and just threw in. Tonya, however, produced the food-hit of the weekend when she pulled out her Deluxe S'mores stuff - marshmellows, graham crackers, and Reese's peanut butter cups! Oh baby, I was excited!!

Sunday, June 29: Chris and I had both looked at the map to scout out a 20ish miler and we both found the same loop, so it was an easy choice on what to run. Today's group was the same as yesterday's: Susannah, Tonya, Darla, Chris, and me, and we finally got an early start, at 10:10! After a nice initial climb that included 1,000' in a mile, we got on some singletrack that just very rarely gets used. The trail was overgrown and little bushes were even starting to grow on the trail itself. It was cool. After climbing over a ridge, we got into a burn area. We went in and out of the burn a couple times until we dropped into a valley where we were in a big burn again. We immediately lost the trail and spent almost 1/2 hour finding it. Those burned trees do a good job of hiding the trail. We then kept losing the trail every so often as we would hit another big burned area. Eventually, we got out of the burn and into the snow, which, of course, meant more lost trail. Looking up to the sky wasn't good at this point either - a storm was brewing. We consulted the map, figured where we were and where we wanted to go, saw the trail again across a mostly snow-covered valley, and headed cross country for the trail. We weren't back on the trail long before more snow covered it again. With feet already soaked, we decided to just follow a creek that paralled the trail down to where the trail popped out again. We eventually found bare ground for good and began racing the storm down the mountain. With 2 fast downhill miles to go, Chris and I decided to race each other. I took the initial lead and made it difficult for him to go around (nice, wide elbows), but I swear he must have untied my shoe because I soon noticed my lace flopping around. Crap! I stopped to tie as Chris flew around me and on down to the trailhead. The jerk could have at least waited for me.

We all had a nice soak in the creek at the finish, chowed down some wraps, then decided a visit to the John Day DQ was in order. Oh baby, after a weekend of 100 tough miles, a big, fat Peanut Buster Parfait is good eatin'!

On the way home Tonya helped me figure out some of the features on my cell phone. For those of you that don't know, this is my first trip into the world of cell phones. I finally decided to ditch my land-line and go all cell. Yes, it was a big step for me. Anyway, it was fun playing with all of the functions, although I found out there's no games on it (I was really hoping for Tetris).

Thanks to Prudence, Kami, Susannah, Tonya, Darla, and Chris for hanging out with me over the weekend. I won't lie, it wasn't the race I was hoping for, but it sure was fun running lots in some of Oregon's beautiful mountains with you all. Thanks for a super-fun weekend, and for helping me stay in shape for the Tahoe Rim Trail 100!

Quick update

2008-07-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Well, with the cancellation of Western States, some rd's of some of the others 100s out there really stepped up and opened up some more spots. I was fortunate enough to get one of the 30 extra spots in the Tahoe Rim Trail 100! I would like to say a huge thank you to David Cotter for really going the extra mile. I'm excited to get back to Tahoe (my second favorite place to run, Tetons being #1) to redeem myself after last year's debacle. I'll also be rooting for Thomas to get the course record he really wants in the 50 miler.

I haven't been on the track since before Boston, but a 34:48 10k at the Todd Beamer Memorial Independence Day Run in Madras tells me I'm still in shape. I'm excited for Tahoe!

WS 2008: RIP...

2008-06-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

Added June 26, 8:00 p.m. If you're out there reading this, are within a short drive of Sisters or Central Oregon in general, and you want to join the fun, please join us! Call me tonight and I can give you all the info. We'll probably leave around 8 a.m. on Friday morning.
(541) 549-1298

Yep, as ya'll know, it's cancelled. That's the way it goes. When Tom e-mailed me a link last weekend about the new fires near Foresthill, I knew this was a possibility. Then all hell broke loose the last few days, and due to safety reasons, WS 2008 is not going to happen.

Yep, I'm bummed. I feel sooooooo ready...I'm about to pop! I would hate to be the r.d. or on the board right now. I know there will be a few people who won't be so understanding about the decision. And really, there wasn't even a decision to be made. The lightning and fires made the decision for us. I mean really, when the Forest Service says that there is a very high probability of Dusty Corners being engulfed in flames by the weekend, the choice has already been made.

So, now, what to do???? We're all fit, rested, packed, and ready to rip. Hmmm... Drive to Tahoe and run on the TRT with Thomas? No, air quality sucks. Drive to the Tetons for a weekend of sweet running in my favorite mountains? No, too much snow. Drive to the Sawtooths for a weekend of sweet running in those awesome, and little used, mountains? Tempting. Stick around Oregon and put together an impromptu training camp? Ding, ding - we have a winner!

Prudence, Darla, Chris, and I had a powwow at Fleet Feet tonight and came up with a plan.
-Thursday, Prudence, Kami, and I are running 38 miles upto, around, and down from Newberry Crater / Paulina Lake. Bronco and I ran this in 2004 and it is awesome!
-Friday, Prudence, Kami, Chris, Darla, and I will run the sweetest loop in Central Oregon - the 27 mile Ochoco Marathon. Similar to what Sascha and I ran 7 weeks ago, but we will get to do the whole loop this time. This would be a sweet 100 miler: 4 loops, each with about 8,000' of up and down. It would cripple you.
-Saturday and Sunday, Prudence, Darla, Chris, and I will be playing in the Strawberry Mountains Wilderness Area for the weekend. The high point, Strawberry Mountain, is about 9,000', but it looks like it already clear of snow. This will be a sweet place to play for two days!

Sounds like a pretty fun weekend to me.

Bighorn and Western

2008-06-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

First, a HUGE congratulations to my good buddies Bronco and Rooster for ripping it up at the Bighorn 100 miler and continuing Team Oregon's assault on the ultrarunning scene this year.

Bronco duked it out with Justin, Ty, and a couple of Bozemanites (Jesse and Erich). They were all pretty close through 42, and that's when Jeff decided to make his move. Apparently it was the right move, as he ran fast (and scared!) the rest of the way. He cruised through 50 in 9:15, then ran an incredible 9:41 second 50, to claim the victory in 18:56. This completes Jeff's hat trick, as he also won in 2005 and 2006. Justin and Ty also smoked the Bighorns, both finishing strong in 19:26 and 19:54, respectively. No runner had ever broken 20 at Bighorn, and now 3 did this year. Yes, it was a different course due to lots of snow up high, but these guys ran hard and fast. Attaboys all around!

I don't know Rooster's story, other than she won by an hour with a strong 25:10. Rounding out the girl's podium was another of Team Oregon's sweethearts - Olga! Great job Olga with your 26:50 (only about 3 1/2 hours faster than last year - can you believe that!?).

In the always exciting j.v. race (50 miler), another good buddy Matt Hart (my TransRockies teammate) claimed the W. For 2 years now, Hart has signed up for the 100 at Bighorn, and both years he has injured himself while training, but still makes the trip out and runs one of the other distances. Last year he won the freshman race (50 km). After a last-minute Colonel's training camp last week, Hart whipped himself into shape and was able to run in the lead from start to finish, winning in a speedy 8:11. Also running in the j.v. race was ultrarunning's fastest professional bowhunter, Cameron Hanes (another one of Team Oregon's finest). Cam and Matt duked it out last year in the 50 km, with Cam getting 2nd. This year, like Hart, Cam had signed up for the varsity race, but he decided to go for the 50 miler. He snuck in under the 9 hour mark in 8:59, claiming the final podium spot - and 1st place old guy (Crap, he's 40!?). Great race, my friends.

Full Bighorn results.

Tonight at Fleet Feet, we hosted our second Ultradork Night. This was Rod's idea to help get all of us WS-bound Central Oregonians excited for the big race. A week and a half ago, we watched the 1989 Western States video - the year that Ann's legacy started. Tonight, it was Western States 1988 and Brian Purcell's c.r. 16:24. Awesome videos, cheesy commercials, gutsy running, lots of cotton, no trail shoes, and shorty-short shorts!

As I'm well into taper-mode, I'm definitely feeling fit, rested, and very anxious (although I'm still eating lots, so I'm probably getting fat!). Since my 5-week, 625 mile training block, my weekly mileages have been 50, 98, and 52. The 98 had a good trail 1/2 marathon, my last good, hard 30 miler at Smith, plus two days off (that was Hart's unplanned boot camp week). Race week, I usually run Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but I'm seriously leaning toward taking Tuesday off, too, so I can get in 2, back-to-back rest days. I mean really, what good is running tomorrow really going to do for me anyway?

I'm super excited for all of the other Central Oregonians running Western. Karen and Jon Gnass will be starting their Grand Slam summer; Kami will be looking for a podium finish; Prudence will be chomping at Kami's heels; and Jenn will be out there to run fast and have fun (yes, Jenn moved to Ashland a couple weeks ago, but the entrant's list says she's from Bend, so we'll claim her!).

I leave Wednesday after work. I'm excited!

Kickin' it at Kettle!

2008-06-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

My good friends, frequent Sascha watchers, and Bendites Darla Brader and Chris Askew ran their first 100 miler yesterday in Wisconsin, the Kettle Moraine 100. After an incredible spring of hard, smart training, I knew they were fit, fast, and ready to rip it up. But, it is 100 miles, and anything can happen.

They played it smart all day long, not running too hard too soon. As the day wore on and eventually turned to night, our heroes just kept passing people and moving up in the field. We, their anxious fans, were getting updates from the webcast and their crew.

Darla did have a dark moment around the 100 km mark and contemplated dropping. But she decided to go on 7 miles to the next aid station and see if things would turn around. By 69 miles, she was pepping up again.

I went to bed last night and could hardly sleep...I was so excited to hear how they were doing. Then, finally, at about 2:20 a.m., the phone rang. By the time I woke up and realized it was ringing, it had stopped. Crap! Was it Tate calling to give me an update...was it Darla and Chris calling to say they had finished...was it their crew calling to give other news??? I didn't know, but wanted to, and could hardly get back to sleep.

Finally when I woke up I checked the webcast. This is what it showed:

Joel Eckberg 31 M 18:10:07 10:54
Mark Tanaka 41 M 20:39:37 12:24
Rick Gaston 36 M 20:40:38 12:24
Darla Brader 35 F 22:04:50 13:15
Chris Askew 37 M 22:04:50 13:15
(full results)

Yes, they kicked ass! Tied for 4th and Darla was first girl!! I was so excited when I saw it, I had to call them immediately. A quick run-down said what I thought: Darla pulled out of her funk and the two of them just kicked it in to the finish. Then, as is common at 100 mile finishes, within 2 minutes of finishing, they both completely seized up.

Chris and Darla...I am so PROUD! Congratulations! We can hardly wait to hear the blow-by-blow story.