Grand Mesa 100

After having such a great race at the Black Hills 50 I went into this race with a ton of confidence. I think that confidence may have blinded me from a lessons learned long ago:

respect the distance

&

take care of your feet

With that said, I do think that there was something not quite right with me on this day. I had been feeling a little sluggish for the week or so leading up the race. I was chalking it up as the common lethargy felt during a taper, but the stomach issues I had early on now make me think something else was contributing to my not feeling 100%.

Waiting to start

The race starts with the Crag's Crest loop. This is the high point of the course and the entire mesa for both elevation and scenery. You can see everything around for miles and running it just after sunrise, the golden hour, made it very special. It is classic Colorado with forests and lakes on the lower section leading up to a pure exposed rock ridge line with scree fields below. I stopped to take a picture, but like all my pictures from the day they can't do the experience of being there justice.

Top  of Crag's Crest

After passing back through the start/finish area we headed up to Mesa Top. This is where I got a taste of what really makes this course so hard. Many of these trails are rarely used and we basically end up crossing fields by just following the course markings ahead. You need to watch every foot step because there is no level ground, but since there is no level ground to lead you keeping your eyes up to see the next marking is just as important. This was a short section of this and it was early so it was kind of fun to navigate, but later in the day it became annoying and at night it was just a slog. With that out of the way some of the nicest trail on the course was the gradual downhill to Flowing Park. This section was fairly well maintained so easy to follow. It wound through groves of trees opening to fields on the right and the edge of the mesa to the left.

From Indian Point

Next up was the Flowing Park loop which was the first long section without crew access and only limited aid about half way through. I loaded up with water and fuel and headed out. At this point I was trailing the two leaders and with my stomach issues didn't hold much hope of catching them so I settled in with some of the 50 mile racers. This section was similar to the last, but less well traveled so a little rougher. At one point on the of the 50 milers started coming back to me, not that I was catching up to him, he was running towards me. There were some cattle ahead and he said that they were chasing him. I could see them looking at us and they didn't look happy. We stuck together and made a wide berth through the field to the left and sure enough the cattle kept turning to face us. We eventually made our way past them and found the trail again several hundred yards ahead. Indian Point was at the far point of this loop and was probably the second best sight of the day with a view of the entire valley to the North of the mesa.

Coming in to Carson Lake Aid Station

After getting back to Flowing Park Aid station we left all the 50 milers to head down to Carson Lake. This is where my spirits plunged for the first time. This was also another section where there were significant lengths of just trying to navigate to the next marker. I'm sure it was beautiful countryside, but I was tired and grumpy and wanted to get this over with. I finally made it to Carson Lake where I took a good long break to prepare for the crux of the race that was to come next.
Grand Mesa is all right around 10,000' of elevation, but the Kanah Creek Aid station was at the base of the mesa 9 miles away and 4,000' below and I'd be going down at the hottest part of the day. At least this is the kind of thing that I really enjoy. It was however not your typical descent. Nine miles downhill should never take me more than 90 minutes, but split times from previous years were all closer to 2 hours. Sure enough after a long, rocky, and over grown descent with several stream crossings I logged a time of 2 hours. I was told here that the leader, Patrick O'Neil, was about an hour ahead, but that the second place runner and current course record holder, Jeremy Bradford, had just left. That got me excited. I'm very competitive and love to race and I thought that I was done racing for the day, but now I had something to shoot for. I did spend some time in the aid station drinking some ice water, filling my pack, and getting my Kool Tie moistened. I left that aid station ready for the best power hike of my life. Since we had just come down 4,000' and the race was supposed to be ON Grand Mesa it meant that this section took us right back up, but it was a different trail and this one was only 5.5 miles to the top which meant it was going to be steep, but again I like that kind of thing. I was a little surprised when during the first 2 miles of this section there were enough flat sections that I did quite a bit of running. That just meant the rest was going to be that much steeper. I passed a creek at about 2.5 miles in and I noticed a couple of water bottle sitting next to the bridge, when I looked towards the creek I saw Jeremy in the middle of the creek with his head completely submerged. I thought about stopping, but I was on a mission at this point and didn't want to lose my rhythm so I pressed on. It did start to get steeper after that point and I noticed a real change in my body when I hit 8,000'. This is when I realized just how much the high altitude of this race was affecting me. That slowed me a little, but didn't change my resolve. I wasn't going to break any records for the course overall, but I wanted to give it my all on this climb. I was so happy to make it to the top and I think that I even surprised Kasey. I had been so down when I last saw her and warned her that this section may take 6 hours or more. It turned out to be little over 4 hours.

At the top of the 4,000' climb. Happy as can be!

At this point I realized that my feet were trashed. I had gone through some water before the descent and with a couple of stream crossing and all the rocks on the descent I had built some pretty nasty blisters. So, I decided it was time to switch shoes. I put on my super cushy Altra Olympus and floated down the road to the Land's End aid station.

Coming into Lands End Aid Station

After Land's End it was a seven mile stretch down a dirt road to Anderson Lakes. I started out running, but my stomach started turning again and was reduced to a walk for most of this stretch. The shoe switch was good, but the damage had been done and my feet were still hurting. I was waiting for Jeremy to catch me on this stretch, but I think that he was having as many problems as me at this point so I was all alone. I made it to Anderson Lakes ready to quit, but determined not to. This is where I discovered the magic of potato soup. I had gagged on gel along the last stretch so I knew I needed to find a new fuel source if I was going to be able to keep going. They offered the potato soup and I figured I'd try it.

Coming in to Anderson Lakes Aid Station

I left that aid station wondering how difficult it was going to be to just keep going as it began to get dark, then after crossing another field and cursing it out I came to the rocky descent to Mesa Lakes and something just came to life in me. It wasn't my best descent by any stretch of the imagination, but I did feel more alive and when I hit the nicely groomed trails that wrapped around the lakes I started to really run again. My legs were tired and my feet were sore, but I was moving and that felt good. I made it around to the road that led up to the next aid station feeling great, but then the road turned up just enough and my energy was sapped. It was a long grind, but I finally made it and I now had a pacer. Kasey and I were a little worried that Rob hadn't made it to Anderson Lakes and we had no cell signal to even try to reach him. Kasey rushed back to camp while I was out and she had found him there and got him to Aspen Grove just in time to meet me. That was good because this next section turned out to be more difficult than I had expected it to be and it was now fully dark.

Happy to get some more potato soup and a pacer

It was a very technical and rocky ascent out of the aid station and then across another field. Now that it was dark the reflectors marking the course were our only guide. Most of the time it was just a matter of looking ahead at the line of reflectors in the distance, but when we would reach the last one we would have to scan around the field to see where the course turned. Rob guided me through this section and the next two for a total of about 16 miles, probably a little more in reality because we did take the long way back to Carson Lake. Each time we made it to an aid station I'd grab a seat and ask for potato soup. The soup would bring me back to life after each section wore me down. I got into a rhythm of just following Rob, then eating soup. I didn't have a clue as to what time it was all night long.

Loving my soup and Coke!

When we made it back to Flowing Park I only had 12.5 miles to go so Kasey and Rob decided it was time for them to switch roles. Kasey would guide me the rest of the way. This was probably a good thing because this next section was 9 miles before we would see another aid station and that was longer than I could go without soup and my feet were really starting to get painful now so the complaining really ramped up. I did my best to not complain too much to Rob since he had stepped up at the last minute to help me out here and I didn't want to subject anyone to my complaining, but at least I knew that Kasey could take it from me. I had to take one short break along this 9 mile section. It was my first rest break outside of an aid station. It is hard to put into words what this part of the race felt like. It was painful, but I was also on auto pilot and moving felt so natural. I recognized sections of this from the previous morning, but couldn't remember how far it was from the aid station. When I thought I couldn't take it any more we heard some cars in the distance and knew we had to be close. We had been told that this aid station would only have water due to a shortage of volunteers, but to my surprise they had food and cooked me some more miracle potato soup. While at this aid station the sun began to rise and I realized how long I had been out there.

Happy to have made it 9 more miles, but worried about the next 3.3

I couldn't believe that I hadn't been passed by anybody with all the walking I was doing, but I guess the course took its toll on everybody. Jeremy who was behind me had dropped out and the next person behind him was John Paul Ogden whom I had seen at my second time at Anderson Lakes as he was heading out for the loop I had just finished. With the sun now up and only 3.3 miles to the finish I put in a hard charge of power hiking to get this over with. I crossed the finish line just before 7am and was handed my finishers medal, my 100 mile belt buckle, and my second place plaque. In the end only 8 of the 18 starters would eventually finish.

Happy to be done!

In the end I am happy to have had this experience. Most people choose not to take something like this on, and they are probably smart, but this is something that I have wanted to try for a long time now. When I was going through cancer treatment I wasn't sure that I'd ever be able to. It took awhile to recover from my surgery to remove the last of my cancer, but once I realized that I was back to normal I knew this was something I need to do while I was able.

The other reasons that I do this is in hopes of inspiring others to make the most of the lives that they have and hopefully to get a few donations to Lazarex so that others with cancer will have access to clinical trials and may have a chance to live their lives as well. If you feel so inclined please donate by clicking the link on the top right of this page or share my story with others that may be able to donate.

Black Hills Endurance 50

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of running my first 50 mile race in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Prior to the race I had my doubts about being able to call this a pleasure as running a new distance is always a difficult thing to do. How do I pace it? Do I have the musculoskeletal endurance to keep going the whole way? Can I maintain my fueling strategy that long? The race was hard and the distance took its toll on my legs, but I was able to execute as well as I could have expected and was able to hold on for a 2nd place overall finish in 8:47:10.

One of Kasey's views on her way to meet me.

The morning started out like all other races, with my body and mind full of nerves. The air was cool, but ready to warm up as soon as the sun rose. The race was point to point and a bus shuttle was provided from the finish area to the start south of Sturgis, deep in the Black Hills. Luckily I had my wife, Kasey, there to support me all day so she drove me up before the bus. That turned out to be a good idea because there were limited bathrooms available for the obligatory pre race bowel evacuation. We realized how much of a tradition this is when the busses arrived and the people streamed off straight to the bathrooms in a nice orderly line. Eventually the line subsided and the race director called us to the start line. 

Starting on the road.

After a few basic instructions, we were sent on our way. We had a short stint on the road to let the field thin out before hitting the single track that took us around the lake and straight up our first climb into the forest. I wanted to start slow, but I could see the thick forest that we'd be running in to and knew the course would be narrow so I didn't want to get caught too far back in the pack. I settled into the second spot behind a young kid that looked like his last race was a high school cross-country race. I would later learn this was a 17 year old David Hedges from Chicago. After a few minutes I checked my heart rate and it was at least 15 beats per minute faster than I wanted to see in the early miles of my race, but I was on a steep climb and my breathing and legs both felt good so I went with it knowing that I needed to re-check myself once the terrain leveled out. When we finally hit the top and started down the other side of the hill I checked my heart rate and it was still high. I have run hard efforts downhill in training many times and knew that this high of a heart rate never happens so I knew that this must be a race day anomaly and threw out the plan to use heart rate as a measure of pace and decided to just run by feel. A few miles in David took the wrong fork at a confusing intersection. I questioned him on his choice and then a runner right behind us confirmed that he believed the other fork was the correct one. In that shuffle I somehow ended up in the front of the pack. I really didn't want to be in the lead this early, but went with it. After a few minutes David asked to pass and I was happy to oblige. I followed him to the first aid station where I was able to see that there was still a pack of at least 4 other runners right behind us. This gave me some confidence that I wasn't going out way to hard for a 50 mile race.

Coming in to the first aid station

After that aid station I decided to let David go, he was still running strong and I felt that I was pushing my limits trying to keep him in sight. As I reached a flat spot after the climb out of the aid station I settled into a comfortable pace with a couple of other guys. I met Jim Ellis and found out that he lives in Littleton, just a few miles south of me. He, Greg Loos, a local to South Dakota, and I chatted for a few miles. Later on coming up a slight climb I was surprised to see David wandering around, he had lost the course and was looking for markers. I was pretty sure that I was on the right trail so I told him to go straight ahead and a few feet up we saw a marker to confirm we were on the right track. I was feeling good and the terrain was smooth so I settled in behind him. I stayed with him for awhile dropping the rest behind me, but eventually decided that I was pushing too hard to match his pace so I let him go again.

Finishing a bottle to get a refill at aid #2

Now I was alone and just thinking about holding on. I still felt good, but how long would that last and how close was the pack behind me? All I could do at this point was stick to my plan and run my own race, which is the way it should be. I was alternating between taking a bottle with 2 scoops of UCAN and taking a Clif Organic Energy Food for my fuel. All the while sucking on water from my Nathan VaporAir pack and trying to remember to take a SaltStick cap every 20 minutes. That plan kept working hour after hour. According to my Garmin I passed the half way point in about 4 hours, which was right on pace for my 'A' goal of 8 hours.
Somewhere after the aid station at mile 33 I began to feels some chinks in my armor. I had forgotten to refill my supply of SaltStick caps so I ran out not far into this leg. This is where I first noticed it starting to get hot and I was feeling some fatigue setting in. I was now into new territory having only once run further and that was many years ago on a flat course. More importantly it was the longest time I have ever run in a single stint. I kept looking for the next aid station hoping it would be around the next corner. I finally made it to that aid station which did not have crew access so I didn't have Kasey to cheer me on, but at least I got a fresh supply of water and some ice in my hat. The wonderful aid station volunteers sent me on my way and I was just looking forward to seeing Kasey again at the last aid station.

Coming in to aid at mile 33

On the last big descent that would take us out of the forest I was really having problems with my quads and was nearly walking the downhills. I made it to the bottom as the scenery changed from trees all around to wide open fields with the sun shining down. I was able to jog on this flat section and got a big surge of energy when I saw that final aid station. I think that my mind was pretty clouded at that point thinking that the final five miles would be like a victory lap. Shortly after the aid station we hit the hill known as "Bitch Pitch" a short, but very steep climb. I was fine with the climb as it allowed me to power hike which is less stress on my sore quads. The problems returned with the downs on the other side. I kept pushing my body as much as I could knowing that I was still in second place and didn't know how far back any other runners were. The heat did start to get to me and I ended up walking quite a bit on the bike path in the final mile to the finish. As soon as I saw Kasey waiting for me at the finish I began to run again making one final push to look good for the waiting crowds. I was so happy to be done and just lied down on the grass to take it all in.

So happy to be done!

Nutrition Testing

My first 50 mile race is coming up this Saturday ( June 27, 2015 ). The 50 mile event at the Black Hills 100.  I am confident, but nervous.  In order to try to remove some of the many variables involved in a long trail race I went to see Dina Griffin at eNRG Performance to get some tests done. These tests will be used to help me decide what to do about my nutrition during my long races.
The first reason I sought them out was their Metabolic Efficiency test. This measures the body's ability to burn fat at various levels of exertion. If you can train your body to burn more fat and less carbohydrates then you don't need to depend as much on replenishing carbs during the run and even the leanest athletes have enough fat stores to support the longest events.

What I looked like during the Metabolic Efficiency Test

I have been playing around with some Low Carb High/Healthy Fat diets over the past couple of years in hopes of achieving a high fat burning ratio. I wanted to both test my current ability to burn fat and get some customized and professional advise on how to best improve that ability. I purchased a 2 test package and did the first test in early March when I was just starting to train. That test showed that I was reasonably good at burning fat, but had some room for improvement. Most of the test I was hovering in the 50-60% of fat vs carb ratio before hitting the crossover point (50/50 fat/carb) at just past 8:00 minute miles. During today's test I increased pace all the way up to 7:09 min./mile and my ratio never dropped below 60% fat. There are a lot more numbers involved in the full report, but the short story is that after some minor tweaks to my diet and a lot of low intensity training I have a lot less to worry about in the calories part of my race plan.

On the other hand the other test that I did today is a sodium sweat rate test. This measures the amount of sodium in a given volume of sweat. The amount of sodium that each person sweats is different and thought to be genetic so it can not be trained. Fortunately sodium is easier to replace than carbohydrates as long as you know how much to replace. I had previously measured the volume of sweat that I lose on a typical run by weighing myself before and after a run. Put the two together and you know how much sodium needs to be replaced. The volume of sweat will change with the weather so I will want to do some more testing to get a general idea of the range of volume I may lose in different weather conditions, but based on the data we have I'll need to add a lot of sodium to my race plan. On a relatively warm day I will need to replace up to 1600mg of sodium per hour. I haven't been doing anything near that on my training runs up to now. I've been able to get away with that because the runs are relatively short when compared to my races where the losses will add up with each hour that passes.

Overall I feel pretty ready for this first test of 50 miles. I have a fuel plan and know that my body can survive for awhile if I begin to have trouble getting calories in. I am still working on the exact plan for hydration and electrolytes, but now that I know what my body will need I can formulate that plan appropriately and have confidence in it. My training has gone well, now I just need to execute.

A new adventure

It has been awhile since I've posted, but a new adventure on the horizon provides a good reason to revive the blog. I have decided to test my body's endurance with a 100 mile race in the mountains of Colorado. I've chosen the Grand Mesa 100 on July 25 as my test.

A view from the course.

To catch people up, I had surgery in 2012 to remove some tumors that had been kept in check for a couple of years through the miracle of a clinical trial drug. I had a bit of a rough time recovering from that. To most people I probably looked fine, but I am used to being able to run and bike to my heart's content and it was hard for me to get back to that point after the surgery. I did start doing some events the past couple of years, but it wasn't until sometime this past year that I really felt like I was back to 100%. This past January Lazarex & Team for Life invited me to speak at their pre-race lunch for the Star Wars Half Marathon.  While there I ran both the 10K on Saturday and the Half Marathon on Sunday. I don't keep great records of my PRs, but if these weren't both PRs they had to have been darn close. That really gave me the confidence that I was back and ready to train for some more serious races. So, here we are a little over 1 month away. I've done some good training, but I still waver back and forth on how I feel about this. Sometimes I'm over confident and thinking that this should be a cake walk and other times wondering how I'm going to survive being out on the course for 20 or more hours. I have made a commitment and I'll keep forging ahead doing everything that I can to prepare for what is bound to be my biggest test yet.

A sight from my training.

In order to give this some added meaning in hopes of spurring me on during those inevitable times during the race I am raising money for Lazarex. I'm hoping to reach 100 donors, one for every mile of the race. If you feel so inclined please donate, but no matter what please share my story so that others know how important it is to support clinical trials. At the very least they advance science, but often they help people that have no other options. Unfortunately each trial is only available in a small number of locations and often patients that need them are forced to travel regularly in order to participate. Lazarex helps people find those trials where ever they may be and then pays for them to make the trips needed to participate. 
You can donate to Lazarex on my behalf on my donation page

2013 Devil Mountain Ultra 50k

One Hell of a Run!

I thought that tagline was just playing on the race name which is based on the location, but I found that it really describes the race all too perfectly. I will admit that the weather played a part in the difficulty of this years race. The weather was cool and clear for most of the race which was great, but it started below freezing and it had rained significantly the day before. The rain made the course very muddy on some sections and the freezing temps made that mud semi solid under the foot. Also, many parts of the course are in cattle ranges so the trails had been trampled by cow hooves leaving very uneven footing. Later in the day and at some of the lower elevations the mud had melted which made the course in those sections slippery and puddle ridden. All that is fine, but how did I do. Here's a hint.

Finishing with a smile, or is that a grimace?

The race started with a slight detour from the originally planned course due to mud. I had jogged what was supposed to be the first part of the course the evening prior and was very glad for that detour, the ground was very uneven with patches of grass and rocks and some large stretches of mud along the way. Instead they took us straight out to the road then down that for about a mile where we met up with a much more established, smooth, and dry trail to rejoin the original course. My legs were feeling a little flat at the start as I let a group of about four runners pull away into the lead. I wasn't expecting a top finish, but I also wasn't sure how much competition would be at this relatively small race, especially with so many other races the same weekend. I was glad to have the pressure off so I could run my own race with this being my first big race in quite a few years.
Shortly after hitting the first significant climb some runners came up behind me. I tried not to let them push me too much, but I think that I naturally pushed a little harder anytime somebody was behind me. That first climb went by quicker than I expected as I cruised down the gentle descent to the first aid station. I dropped my warm shirt at the first aid station and rolled on through. At the bottom of the descent I came across another guy stopped to take his shoes and socks off for the shallow river crossing. I don't mind getting my feet wet so I ran on through. It felt good at first, but then I realized how cold the water was. Luckily my SmartWool socks dried fast so it wasn't any problem. That crossing was the start of the biggest climb of the race, the one that I had been thinking about since first looking at the elevation profile. Approximately 3000 feet of climbing in about 6 miles.  It was not an even climb though. There were a couple of stretches of flat and the rest alternated between steep and very steep. I again blew through the aid station at the end of the first flat section and powered my way up the next very steep section with at least two other runners right behind me. They got by me on some open stretches, but I kept them near me for longer than I expected. I don't consider myself a good climber so I am alright with letting a few people by on these long climbs. Eventually the climb started to get to me and I was all alone hoping I was near the top. The climb appeared to top out at one point, but then kept going up along a ridge. I kind of knew about this section from looking at the map, but I was expecting it to be more run able than it was for me. A couple of others didn't seem to have a problem as they passed me. I was low on energy and my legs were trashed. I finally did reach the top as the trail started to descend, but I still couldn't move very fast. The cow trodden frozen mud made the ground very uneven and with my weary legs I found it very difficult to run at any speed. I had really hoped to make up some time and maybe even pass some runners on this downhill and the fact that I couldn't coupled with what was probably low blood sugar had me really down on myself. I consciously worked on having positive thoughts while I started to down SHOT BLOKS as fast as I could stomach them. By the time I made it to the third aid station I was starting to feel a little better. I also still had plenty of food and water so again I acknowledged the volunteers and kept right on running. Shortly after that aid station I came to a place where, as I found out the hard way, the mud had melted. My feet came right out from under me and I found myself on the ground. I found no injuries as I picked myself up and started moving again cursing into vast expanse of wilderness around me. I think that fall gave me a kick of adrenaline because things started to really pick up after that. I was on the third significant climb and didn't really notice it. I wasn't as steep as the others so that really helped too. I even passed a runner on this section and was coming down to the fourth and final aid station before I knew it. Kasey was waiting for me there and I started shedding all my warm clothing for her to take. I had a volunteer fill my water bottle and I was off again. Kasey had hiked in from the road about two and a half miles up the course so she was following me telling me where the other runners were. Nobody too close in front of me and the leader had come through long ago so no pressure to catch anyone and no podium place to chase, but I was feeling good and the trail was run able with a slight downhill so I really started to move. I made it to the road where Kasey had parked and I dropped my coat, that I had forgotten to give her, on the car. Another runner got out of a car that had just come down the road and he jumped on the trail in front of me. It turns out he had run at least a mile up that road after missing the trail on the other side. I followed him along the stream as two other runners came up behind me think this might be a race for the last few miles. Then I made my big mistake. I followed the runner in front of me under a tape marking the course. I thought it was just routing us around a downed tree, there had been many others on the course some we went over, but others we went around. After following him for a couple of minutes I realized that the two runners behind me were no longer there. I started looking for course flagging and didn't see any. I tried to yell up to him, but he was pulling away and just kept running. I turned around at what turned out to be almost 4 tenths of a mile off course. I made my way back to that tape that I had run under and after looking around realized that it was there to take us across the stream that we had been running along. I crossed the stream and followed the flags along the other embankment. I was mad at myself for making that mistake of following another runner instead of paying attention to the course and to follow a runner that had already been lost once before made it worse. Anger at myself soon turned against the race director as the trail along the embankment tapered out and the flagging took us straight up the incline with no trail at all. I made my way hand over hand scrambling to the top where they took us with occasional flags through an open forest across trail less, uneven ground. When I came to the barbed wire fence that had a log pressing one of the wires down to make room to duck under the top wire, I had had enough. I just kept moving hoping to get this over with and praying that this wasn't a sick joke by some local to get the racers lost. Eventually I got to some trails that resembled the start and knew I was getting close. That last section had really crushed my spirits and I was really getting tired, but trudged my way to the finish line. I finished in 6 hours 7 minutes and 46 seconds.

This is what it looked like

Nutrition:

Breakfast -

• Spoonful of Justin's Almond Butter (8g Carb, 65mg Sodium)
• 1 5-hour Energy

Race-

• 1 bottle Generation UCAN (28g Carb, 280mg Sodium)
• ~20oz. Water
• 1.5 sleeves of Clif SHOT BLOKS (72g Carb, 150mg Sodium)

I think that because it was cool weather that I had enough water. I wasn't very thirsty even after finishing. I was trying to finish the UCAN before starting the SHOT BLOKS, but because I wasn't drinking much I wasn't getting enough calories which hurt me at the top of the biggest climb of the day. I think that I had enough calories, they just weren't evenly spread across the run.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the day. I didn't get nearly as many training miles in as I would have liked, but enough long runs to survive. Calorie timing could use some work, but I was able to recover once I realized what was going on. I was not prepared for the off trail sections of the course, but looking back and hearing stories from past years it was better than the alternative which would have been boring road miles at the end of the race. I've got a lot of plans, all very tentative, for races in the next 12 months, but I think that I'd like to try the 50 mile course next year.

To Disneyland and beyond

Full Image

Wow, what a weekend! I ran the Disneyland Half Marathon on Sunday and then got an epic bike ride in on Monday. Lets start from the beginning.
I was raising money Lazarex Cancer Foundation who is helping me with my travel expenses for the clinical trial I need to be on in Houston. The event was the aforementioned half marathon. I had a huge outpouring of support from friends and family and raised a total of $3467 which made me the top fundraiser for this event. For that I send out a huge thank you to everyone that donated.
Kasey and I arrived in California on Saturday morning and were picked up by the Lazarex endurance coordinator Jenny Walls. We were able to stuff my bike into the back seat of a compact car and still carry 4 people back to the hotel. After a settling in I was off to the fundraiser lunch where two other patients and I all told our stories to the rest of the fundraisers in order to give the charity a real face. I stumbled through my talk, but everybody seemed to appreciate it so that was good.
Sunday morning came early with a 6am race start. We caught a shuttle from the hotel to the park, then walked for what seemed like a mile to find the starting area. The crowds were massive with 15,000 people running. I didn't request a wave based on a time goal so I was in corral E lined up with the 2:45 pace group, which would have been pretty slow for me. I got in near the front of the corral so with the time gap between corrals I had some room to run from the gun. Then in about a half mile I hit the runners in the corral ahead of me and it was a wall of people. I didn't have a specific time goal so I wasn't worried, bu I did want to get a good run in so I had fun running on the side of the street and on the curb to weave my way through the people. Running through the park was a lot of fun. I was surprised at how many people were stopping, during the race, to stand in line for pictures with characters. After leaving the park the road started to open up so I could run without much weaving, but there were tons of people the whole way. I had to make 2 pit stops along the way during the first half. I started to get a side stich around mile 9, but had worked it out and was feeling completely revived by mile 10. My longest training runs were a couple of 8.5 milers so all of this was now beyond that, but I had faith that my past experience and training would hold me through the distance. And did it ever. After mile 10 I started to feel really good and started to pick up the pace. The road was clear enough that I didn't have to weave, but was passing people the whole way. I sprinted across the finish line and stopped my watch at just under 1:51 with a huge smile on my face thinking of all my supporters. I was glowing the rest of the day as I celebrated with the rest of the Lazarex team and even into the evening as Kasey and I visited Disneyland to get a few rides in and watch the fireworks.
Monday morning Kasey had to leave early for a 6am flight to make it to work that afternoon. I was staying for a bike ride with Alex Eusebio, an old running friend that has recently gotten into cycling while living in the area. I assembled my bike and rode up the street to get breakfast at Starbucks and wait for Alex to make the drive down to pick me up. When he arrived we headed to Santa Monica to start our ride. We headed a few miles up the PCH before turning up Topanga canyon then following Old Topanga to Mulholland Hwy.  We took a short detour to find some water and started planning how to make our way back. An admirer of Alex's bike suggested we head up Piuma Rd. so we did. That was probably the longest sustained climb of the day and seemed a lot like Lookout Mtn. from home. The decent from Piuma was a little gnarly. The sign at the top said 10% grade next 3 miles. It was very steep and very winding. I'm still a little skiddish on steep sharp corners after my fall last year so I was riding the brakes hard all the way through that. We got in close to 4000 feet of climbing and 48 miles for the day. I felt really good the whole time and the views were awesome.
The whole weekend was awesome and I'm still on a bit of a high. I can't wait to let my body recover and start training for the Marine Corps Marathon.

Feeling as well as I have in a long time

Just a quick update here. My July trip to M.D. Anderson has come and gone. The good news is the the CT scan shows my tumors are still completely stable. No significant growth in nearly 2 years now. The other news is that while there is still some fluid around my lungs it appears to be stable as well. The important thing is that I can barely tell that it is there even while doing some pretty serious bike rides.
Speaking of bike rides, which is what I'd rather be talking about, I've been doing quite a few. I've now done two 60 mile rides. The first one on primarily flat roads, but this past Sunday I rode up to Idaho Springs from home. It is about 30 miles up into the mountains following mostly side roads paralleling I-70. Idaho Springs is a popular starting point for climbing Mt. Evans and I wanted to scope out the route even though I probably won't use it for my ride because it'll add unneeded miles and climbing. It is a fun route with a very steep descent on the way out where I hit my highest speed ever of 53mph. I stopped for lunch and ate way too much so I my stomach was a little sore when starting back, but I made it just fine. Next weekend is the bike race from Idaho Springs to the summit. I've got a friend riding in the race so I think that I'll try to make it up to Echo Lake via Squaw Pass which will completely avoid the course, but get me to the approximate half way point of the race and past half way to my goal of reaching the top from home.

More cycling than running

Summer is in full swing and I'm getting more fit each week. Unfortunately I haven't been doing as much running as I'd like, but what I have done has felt pretty good. Since my last post I visited both sets of my doctors and they confirmed that the fluid around my lungs was still there, but we did decide to double my diuretic dosage and that helped within days. I did a run less than two weeks after the Bolder Boulder that was nearly the same distance and nearly as fast, but with much less effort and absolutely no breathing pain. I've done a couple of other runs since then with similar results, but most of my workouts have been on the bike. Most recently I headed up Squaw Pass as a first attempt to see how much work it will be for me to summit Mt. Evans on my bike from home this year. Something I've always wanted to do. I found that just getting to Squaw Pass, essentially the base of Mt. Evans, is not just a stroll in the park. I've been along that route before, but not in a long time. I was happy with how well I was able to climb the back side of Lookout Mountain, but forgot just how far it was to get all the way to Evergreen. Even starting the climb up Squaw Pass Road felt good, but a few miles up I started to get fatigued. I was hoping to make a loop of this, but when I got to the turn off that I wanted to take it turned out to be a dirt road so I decided not to take it. I kept going hoping to get to Echo Lake, but I hadn't scoped that out before the ride so I didn't know how far it would be and I didn't have a cell signal to get maps on my phone. I had been planning on putting in 50 miles so when I reached 25 miles on my trip computer I decided to stop to re-evaluate. I took a big gulp of water and realized I was almost out. That is when I decided it was time to turn around. The trip down was a little bumpy at first, but the road smoothed out after a bit. I stopped at a gas station to refuel for the rest of the ride home and made it home without incident. Looking at the maps later I found that there were quite a few miles left before Echo Lake so I wasn't going to make it there on the fluid that I had brought with me. So, in conclusion I'm going to need  more endurance and more fluid to make it to Echo Lake and I need to make it there before I begin to think about making a summit attempt. I'll keep working on my endurance, but also hope to pay attention to my running for my upcoming half marathon.

Bolder Boulder 2011

Today I finished my 10th Bolder Boulder. Supposedly the best 10K road race in the US. I haven't run them all, but I find it hard to believe there is a better one. It is also the largest Memorial day celebration that I know of. All 5 service flags followed by the US flag parachute into Folsom Field shortly after the pros finish their running of the same course that 50,000 citizens just ran. 

I have not been running much recently due to my pleural effusion so this was not my fastest race by far, but I was happy with it anyways. I ran a pretty consistent race and my breathing didn't hurt too badly and that is encouraging news for me. Maybe my effusion is going away and I'll be able to continue training normally. We'll find out for sure on Wednesday. I head to M.D. Anderson in Houston tomorrow evening and have a chest X-ray on Wednesday morning before seeing my doctor so I can continue my treatment. I also have an appointment with my pulmonologist next week where we'll discuss options assuming the fluid hasn't decreased. 

Back to the race. 50,000 people in Boulder is a lot to handle so RTD offers bus service which I took. There is a stop less than a mile from our house. I caught the first bus to Boulder at 5:25am. I wanted as much time as possible at the start to prepare. I had port-a-potties to use, multiple times of course, and a FedEx mobile locker to load with my warm up clothes and anything I didn't want to carry with my to the finish. Again with 50,000 people all of this can take some time. Luckily I was in a later wave than usual so I had a few extra minutes to get everything done. I made it to my wave with a few minutes to spare, perfect timing. The weather was looking good. Overcast and probably about 50F. There were a few sprinkles a little earlier that could have turned bad, but blew over. 

The course was changed this year. We used to have a gentle downhill for the first mile, but the new profile shows a gentle uphill replacing that before going through the neighborhoods which have a few hills that get your heart rate up. I think this made for slower times for most, but it made for a more consistent start. Being in a slow wave was good for me. I was able to maintain a comfortable pace and not have the wave get away from me. I was actually making my way to the front of the wave, but we caught the back of the wave in front of us quickly and after that it is a free for all. I still felt like I was making some forward progress in the crowd for quite awhile. Breathing was heavy and slightly labored, but not painful. My lack of training meant I just had to keep it under control and I'd be fine. I've been doing lots of biking so my legs were pretty good. The only problem I had in the race was shortly after taking in a few sips of water on the way up the largest hill to the high point of the race. Then on the way down where I usually run away from the crowd I got a stomach cramp and was getting passed left and right. There was nothing I could do to shake it or move any faster. Eventually I stopped to walk for a bit. After about a minute of walking I was able to breath out the cramp and start running again. The final couple of KM were pretty good. My final time was recorded as 54:09 and I wouldn't know any different because I forgot my watch at home. I guess I'm out of practice. 

I got to see lots of old running friends after the race. We hung out in the stands watching the festivities and good times were had by all. 

A good bike ride

I had a good bike ride after work today. Since my exercise has been less than ideal lately this was a notable event. My pleural effusion has made running very difficult and even a little painful to breath. My last long run even had some lasting effects on my daily life for about a week. Cycling seems to be less aggravating to me lungs. This is likely due to the fluid not being sloshed around internally as much. 
After work I took my road bike up and over Lookout Mountain. There is some difficulty when breathing heavy, but it is tolerable and my legs felt pretty good so I was able to push as hard as I could breathe. I'm signed up for and planning on running the Bolder Boulder 10K next Monday so this added exercise is an attempt to keep my fitness up without having to run and potentially cause more lung irritation.
Next Tuesday I head to Houston again for a chest X-ray and medication refill then the following week I see my pulmonologist in Denver again. We'll have to decide the best course of action to take so that I can begin seriously training for the upcoming Disneyland Half Marathon.

Wish me luck!

2011 Disneyland Half Marathon

Today I committed to run the 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon and raise money for Lazarex Cancer Foundation. If you aren't familiar with why this is so important to me please take a minute to read my cancer story in the link on the right side of this page.

OK, now that everybody is up to date there is some more specific information that you should know. Lazarex has been helping me with my travel expenses to and from Houston for nearly a year now. Without their help my financial life would be in big trouble. Recently they told me about their Team For Life fundraising program. It allows people to get into popular Marathons and Half Marathons after they fill up by raising money for their organization. They wanted to make me one of their VIPs, that is a Very Important Patient. This allows them to put a face on the fundraising efforts of the runners. I told them that I was a runner and would like to participate myself. I chose the Disneyland Half for a couple of reasons. The first is that I want to get back to southern California to visit a friend and his new baby girl and maybe go for a bike ride with him. The second is that I haven't been running much so I'm not ready to commit to a full marathon.

This brings me to another reason this is important to me. I haven't been running much because one of the side effects of my current treatment is that I have a pleural effusion. This is an accumulation of fluid in the space between the lungs and the chest wall. The fluid restricts the full inflation of the lungs giving me less than 100% breath capacity. Luckily I have pretty large and efficient lungs from all my past training so this doesn't impede my daily life, but I do feel it when I try to run far or fast. I have been using diuretics to help keep this down. I've also had the fluid drained twice so far. For awhile it looked like it was staying away, but it is back now. Since this doesn't affect my daily life there isn't much motivation for me to take care of this, but having a running goal means I have added incentive to work with my doctors to get this completely under control in one way or another.

Now that you know the whole story please consider donating to a cause that is directly helping me out by following the donate link on the right. It would mean a lot to me and other cancer patients like me. You can also follow this page as I write about my attempts to regain my former glory as an avid athlete.

5430 Long Course Triathlon

Yesterday (Aug. 12) was my "A" race for the season which was the 5430 Long Course(Half-Iron Distance) triathlon. I'd like to report that is was a qualified success. I raced my heart out leaving pretty much everything on the course. My only regret was that I didn't have as fast of a run as I would have liked. This was only my third triathlon, and the swim was my best yet. I felt comfortable fighting through the crowds and settling into a good pace and ended up only a couple of minutes away from my top goal time. We started directly into the sun which made sighting nearly impossible, so I ended up just trying to follow the mass of the pack. Following a single swimmer can be dangerous since they may be going the wrong direction, but I assumed that the crowd of people making up the pack would be pretty safe and I didn't have much other choice. I did end up going pretty wide later in the race when I could spot the bouys. I think that I was getting a little tired and although I tried to breath on both sides I think that I was breathing mostly on the left making my right arm tired so I started veering to the right. At least I was in open water and by that point I was passing people from 1 and 2 waves ahead. The bike started fast, or at least my HR was high. Way too high, but my legs felt good so I didn't slow down much, but after about 15 or 20 miles I had settled down a bit and my HR had come down into the range I expected it to be. I wasn't sure how well I was going to fuel on the bike, but I think that I did pretty well. I still need to do a little work with that, but I finished right where I wanted to for that event with pretty even splits for each of the two laps. I'm still not 100% confident with triathlon bike racing. There is a no drafting policy that is pretty elaborate and when there are people from multiple waves all coming together it can begin to look like a pack at times. I'm really worried about not getting caught drafting so I end up having to decide if I should speed up to get by everybody or slow down to wait for the group to dissipate. I usually end up trying to pass, but once I get by and try to settle into my proper pace I end up with others in the group coming up behind me and passing me back forcing me to fall back out of their drafting zone. I didn't get called for anything so I must have done something right, but it would be nice to figure out a lower stress way of dealing with that. Taking bottles at aid stations was completely new to me, but I handled it well even taking two bottles at a single aid station on my first attempt. I probably should have back off just a bit on the bike so that I could take in a few extra calories and save my legs a little for the run. Starting the run I knew it was going to be tough. My legs were a little sore coming off the bike, but I settled into a pace and vowed not to look at my watch until later in the race. I knew the pace wasn't going to be fast especially with some hills in the early miles and I didn't want that to get me down. I wasn't getting passed by a large number of people so I knew that I couldn't be that slow. In fact I was actually passing a few people, but they were mostly in earlier waves so not my direct competition. My biggest obstacle on the run was fueling. I have lots of experience with fueling during running races, but after coming off the bike and starting so much later in the day than running races, I was going to need to take in much more than in just a running race. I had decided to carry two 16oz water bottles with hand straps. One had Gatorade Endurance(which was also on the course) and the other had water. I pretty much just took turns between the bottles, keeping the weight roughly equal. Drinking whenever I felt I could stomach anything as opposed to waiting for any signs of thirst. I was also occasionally taking Clif Shot Bloks for added calories and later in the race as I started to feel the onset of cramping I dug into my bag of Endurolytes for electrolyte goodness. The course was mostly on dirt roads with barely and inch of shade on the entire course. Like the bike course this was two laps. I think that I achieved my goal of not looking at my watch until I was nearing the end of the first lap. I was hoping for 45 minutes, but it was closer to 50 minutes. Not entirely unexpected given the way I felt at the time. I was actually a little pleased that it wasn't worse. I now knew that my goal of sub-5 hours for the day was within reach if I could just hold it together for one more lap. The reason I chose the larger handheld bottles as opposed to my usual Fuel Belt bottles is that I figured these would be easier to fill with the larger mouth and I knew that I would be needing to fill them. The thing that I didn't take into consideration is that the aid on the course is meant for single sips so I needed to grab multiple glasses each time to fill them. I made it work though and didn't have to slow down too much. I did have a couple of low points where I thought the wheels were going to come off, but I forced more fluid and calories down and was able to come back each time. The second lap was tougher and took my probably 55 minutes or so, but that was enough for a finishing time of 4:51.
Lessons learned:

• I need more long rides on flat terrain and in the areo bars. I started cramping in my hips late in the ride and I assume it is because many of my long rides were in the mountains.
• I need to practice fueling better in the bike. Getting a water bottle for my aero bars will help as will getting a food box for my top tube, but learning how to take in more calories than I need for just biking is going to come with experience.
• I need to stop ignoring my run training. I have been training fairly heavy on the swim and the bike since those are both new sports for me. As a result my running fitness has fallen a bit. I still feel strong on the run, but think that if I can balance my training a little more I can really increase my speed on the run.
• I need to learn to hold back a little on the bike. The other reason for a slow run split is not leaving enough in the legs to use the speed that I do have. I have to learn to relax just enough that I don't lose too much time on the bike, but still have fresh legs for a long run.

Here are all my splits from the official results:
Swim: 32:48
T1: 2:17
Bike: 2:31:01
T2: 1:31
Run: 1:43:47
Final: 4:51:26

Powered by ScribeFire.

I'm back

After a long hiatus from blogging I'm going to try to take another stab at it. I just found a new Firefox  extension called ScribeFire that should make it easier for me to post. If this is the case you can expect to see more posts in the weeks to come. If not, then I'll probably disappear from the blogosphere again.

So, to catch everybody up...

I ended my 2005 season with a sprained ankle in the middle of the Aspen Golden Leaf 1/2 marathon. I wound up with another 2nd place overall finish in the TRM TS, 1st in my age-group again. The ankle sprain didn't affect these standings at all, but forced me to back off my training. I think that I was without running for about 2 weeks and nothing serious for at least a month. I'd twisted my ankle a number of times before this and it would hardly slow me down, I'm convinced that this one was so bad because my body was weakened by too much racing. Because of that I didn't compete in the TS in 2006. I don't remember doing much in 2006. I had a decent race at Pikes Peak Marathon. Didn't get my goal ascent time, but I didn't completely bonk like my first attempt so I was able to race down which was a blast. I love downhill running!

Last fall I bought a road bike at VeloSwap and this year I'm going to concentrate on triathlons. I'd like to do an iron distance event, but may not be able to schedule one. This winter had a lot of snow cover which kept me off the trails. Now that the snow is melting I'm finally getting back on the trails and remembering why I love running. I'm going to have to balance my need to train on the roads for a tri with my love for the trails. Maybe someday I'll learn to mountain bike and try and off-road tri like the Xterra series.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon

This was supposed to be my peak race for the first half of the year, but with the win last weekend a good time here would just be icing. Unfortunately, the icing melted and I had a very tough race with a time outside of the range I had hoped for. Luckily melted icing tastes just as good and I still pulled off an age-group win for a full set of point in the Trail Runner Trophy Series.

Since this was a longer trip and I expected to leave it all on the course I called on the assistance of my friend and surrogate wife Holly to accompany me on the trip and help with the driving. I started the weekend by foolishly joining the Rocky Mountain Road Runners at their monthly Trophy Series (no relation to the Trail Runner series) race. It was only 2.4 miles so I figured as long as I took it a little easy it wouldn't kill me for the marathon on Sunday. It was cold and wet, but I kept warm for the most part. I did run a little faster than I had planned, but it felt good. After the race I headed over to pick up Holly and we got on the road in the longest period of rain fall that I have ever seen in Denver. It usually only rains for an hour or two tops, but it had been raining all night and was still coming down at least until we hit Wyoming. It was a 6 hour drive, but the time seemed to fly by. Checked into the KOA, put our tent up, and headed out to look for a good dinner. Unfortunately the only business in Deadwood is Casinos. It was difficult to tell which ones might have a real restaurant as opposed to a bar or buffet which we weren't keen on. As we were wondering the street we ran across Scott Dunlap and his wife Kristy. They had been in town for a few days and pointed us to their favorite place. We checked it out, but they had an hour wait and pointed us to a Chinese place down the street. Not my favorite before a race, but I figured the rice would be good enough for carbo loading. Back at camp I finished my race prep, filled bottles, arranged clothes, etc. and then we settled down for a good nights sleep. I didn't sleep very well for some reason, but woke up feeling pretty good. Holly took me down to the start rather than taking the bus with everybody else. The first thing I noticed when I got there was the huge line for the port-a-potties. We drove down the road about half a mile and found a place for me to run into the woods. At the start I ran into a few Denver runners that I knew, Dave and Gary Black and Jim Chow. That kept the pre-race jitters to a minimum.

The race started out with 1 mile of downhill on a paved road so it was fast and I clocked a 6:30, a little fast, but I didn't struggle to do it so I felt fine with it. At the mile mark we made a hard right, crossed a bridge and were on the trail that we'd be on for the next 24 or so miles. The rest of the first half was a steady climb of about 1,000 feet, while the second half was almost all downhill dropping about 1,500 feet. I made sure to start a little easy and felt good clicking off miles around 7:20 pace. Ran with the lead woman for awhile until we hit a road crossing where a crowd had gathered. I used the crowds energy to surge ahead and started trying to catch the few people I could see ahead of me, including my old friend Scott Dunlap. I picked off a couple, but Scott didn't seem to be getting any closer. Then around mile 11 I started to get a side stitch. I did my best to run through it, but it slowed me down to about 8 minute miles. I never really got scared that everything was over with and I was right, just before the top at the half way mark it went away and although I felt pretty tired from the long climb I was off again. I passed the half in 1:37:30. My goal was to hit it in 1:35 so I wasn't far off. On the way down I didn't feel real fast, but when mile 14 was a 6:44 I knew things were looking up. Then the next two miles were around 6:30. Finally we got to mile 19 where I knew there was going to be a slight climb. I was surprised at how much of a toll that took on me. I think that those 6:30s had taken something out of my legs and they weren't ready for the climb. Then after that torture we headed back down to a short section that seemed to leave the trail for a short bit as it dropped rather steeply. My legs didn't like that at all. I'm usually fine on downhills, even steep one, but my legs were on their last legs (Does that make sense?). After that the my race was all downhill. The course was all downhill from here too, but that's not what I'm talking about. My body, primarily my legs, but also my body as a whole began to shut down. I tried to take in some more fluids and fuel, but then the side stitches came back and much worse this time. That was probably the last I had to drink or eat on the course. Things got a little fuzzy here, but I just remember plodding out the miles hoping to hold on to a decent time and hold off anybody that might be in my age group. We were already passing half marathoners which made the journey much less lonesome. Finally we got to a road crossing where the volunteers told us there was only half a mile to go. I looked back and saw a guy that I remembered from the start. He looked like he could have been sponsored, but maybe it was just a bike jersey. Anyways, for some reason I thought that he might have been in my age group and I wasn't going to get passed this late in the race if I could help it so I picked it up. He was still able to catch up to me, but kept him behind me. When we hit the street I thought that I had dropped him, but then on the last straight away to the finish he came from nowhere and pulled ahead of me. I turned to him and apologized then turned on the after burners and blazed into the finish and nearly collapsed. I still have no idea where anything in the last half mile came from, I think that I had just mentally given up before that and seeing him gave me a short term goal to shoot for. I finished in 3:15 and felt disappointed in not breaking 3:10, but I was pretty sure that I had given it all that I had. After a few minutes of trying to re-hydrate while getting nauseous I went to check the times being posted. I scrolled down the list looking at the ages and there was nobody in their 20's so my face lit up as I gave Holly the signal that I had won my age group.

The trip back seemed to take a whole lot longer and of course hurt a little more, but I don't seem to have any major injuries so I'm looking forward to letting the body take a break before building up for future races and a long successful season.

Wyoming Marathon

Well, you can probably tell by the fact that I'm posting sooner that Wyoming went better than CPTR, but if timing was really an indication of how well it went then this should have been posted on Sunday afternoon. I'm proud to say that on Sunday I captured my first marathon win. This is also my first overall win in any established race.

The trip started out fairly typical expect for the fact that I traveled to this one on my own. The drive up to Wyoming on Saturday afternoon was shorter than I remember, I think it took me about two and a half hours and that was with all the holiday traffic and speed traps on I-25. I drove right to where the race would start the next morning which happened to be the rest stop at the highest point on I-80 (close to 8,700 ft.). There I realized that the course was on dirt roads rather than trails so I drove the first part of the course to see what it was like. I made it to about mile 7 when I came across I-80 again so I called that good and headed back to the start to get a gentle jog in to loosen my legs from the drive and see what the starting/finishing hill felt like. It was fairly steep for a road, but not too bad. I then proceeded to look for a place to camp. There was a Forest Service campground about a mile or so up the road the other way from the start so I tried that, but since it was a holiday weekend the place was packed. There was supposed to be another one further down, but I figured it would be packed as well so I headed up to Laramie where I knew there was a KOA. Kasey and I stayed there last year for the Pilot Hill race. Plenty of tent sites there. Now I needed dinner. We ate at a place called the library before Pilot Hill and I ended up with an upset stomach, not to mention the place was dead, so I didn't want to go back there. There were a couple of sit-down chain restaurants on the other side of town, but I was looking for something fairly quick and easy. I ended up at the Wendy's in the truck stop right next to the KOA. I had already loaded up on pasta so I just needed something to top me off. A burger and some chilli did the trick.

Race morning I was up at 4am for a 6am start. Tore down camp and put away a bag of PowerBites for breakfast. Got to the start plenty early and stayed warm in the building for the rest area. I put on plenty of sun screen since I got burned on a hike last weekend, but it turned out that we wouldn't be seeing any bit of sun that day. When the gun went off a few half-marathoners were off like a flash and I settled in to a pace with Tania Pacev. She beat me at CPTR because I had gone out too fast and died and I wasn't going to let that happen again. The first 5 miles were pretty much all downhill and she kept saying that we were going too fast. We also had Christian Hendrickson with us, whom I didn't recognize at first, but soon realized that he was the last person to pass me at CPTR and was also the person to knock me out of 3rd place for our age-group in that race. Christian and I pulled away from Tania somewhere near the bottom or maybe it was as we started the first climb. At the half marathon turn around we were still together watching those guys coming back, but neither of us had counted how many were ahead of us and how many had turned around so we didn't know what place we were, but we were both saying that we didn't care. Once we hit the frontage road for I-80 we could see that there was only one guy about 2 minutes ahead of us. I would later find out that this was Dave medicus. After awhile of running on the pavement my stomach kicked in like usual and although there was no real cover I eventually had to pull over and do my thing. Christian told me that he would be stopping shortly as well. When I got back on the road nobody had passed me and Christian was in my sights, it was at this point that my competitive nature took over any reason that I might have had going into the race. I picked up the pace to try and regain contact. Christian found a port-a-potty about 1/2 a mile up and pulled off there. I had already almost caught him and although I was enjoying his pace and his company I decided to move my sights to that elusive lead runner that we had seen. At the last turn I had clocked him at just over 2 minutes ahead, but going into the next section I quickly lost him. They were some long miles waiting for our turn around where I knew I would see him again. Finally I got there and he was on his way back already. We waved to each other as we passed and I made a note of the place and time then looked for the turn around. Of course it was at the top of a hill. I made it back to our passing point after exactly 2 minutes. Still not gaining on him, but I knew where he was. Getting closer to the frontage road again I saw him and estimated the gap to be about 1 minute, then about 30 seconds at the change to pavement. Then he stopped to re-fuel from his crew which seemed to be taking forever. I approached and saw him looking at me. I expected him to take off if not before me at least with me, but he didn't go. I tried to get a good look at him to size up his state and it didn't look good, but I wasn't going to lose my slow down to get a better look. I almost thought he was going to drop out there, but once on the frontage road again I peeked back and saw that he was still there. This was probably about mile 17 so there was still plenty of time for me to run out of gas. I now had time to think about the miles ahead. I was in the lead and wasn't sure what to do with it. I thought that I saw a tornado ahead of me, but then realized the dark line I saw didn't stop at the skyline, but was a continuous black strip down the center of my vision. I backed off just a bit and started taking in more calories and fluids. I knew that the final 5 miles up hill were going to be difficult and I was wondering if I had gone too hard too early. Was Tania right, had we gone too fast on the downhill? All I could do was keep moving and keep tabs on my body. Constantly checking my form and asking myself if I needed calories or fluids. Once off the frontage road I never saw anybody behind again, but the roads were far too curvy to know what that really meant for my lead so I just kept plugging along. When I finally got to the point where I had warmed-up to the day before I knew I was close enough to call the race mine. I pulled out my phone and tried to call my wife, Kasey. Even if we were seperated physically I wanted her to be with me in some way when I crossed the finish line. Unfortunately she didn't have a signal at that time so I left a very huffy puffy and nearly sobbing message that she had no hope of understanding. As soon as the finish line was in sight my legs started cramping. Boy was I glad this waited until I saw the line. After crossing the line I waited for Dave who came in about 2:30 behind me and Christian about 3:45 behind me. I then went to get some warm clothes on because I just realized how cold and windy it was up there. Tania was the next one across the line and I saw her on her way back to her car.

This is race has a motto: "Where the race director promises you nothing, and he delivers." That meant no awards ceremony since there were no awards. Very little food at the finish as well so I was glad to have brough some stuff myself. Once my legs had calmed down enough to sit in the car I headed out and was all the way back home by 1pm. Very little fanfare, but still well worth it for me.

Collegiate Peaks Trail Race - 2 weeks late

Another race that ended in pain. Doesn't make me want to rush right home and tell the world about it. I was originally planning on waiting just a few days to mellow out from the race, but that somehow extended a full 2 weeks. It's not that the past 2 weeks have been that bad, but I just never found the motivation to write anything.

This one was another early Saturday morrning race like SDU so we had to go up the night before. I rode with John Rice, a fellow DTR runner and we got a cheap hotel room since the weather was calling for some frigid overnight lows. We decided to stop for pizza on the way down, that was mistake number one. The pizza was great, but the cheese did a number on my stomach even more than usual. Race morning we were up before dawn. The race registration was inside the community center in Buena Vista. That was a welcome change from most other races given the cool air outside. By the time the race started at 6:30 am it was warm enough to start in shorts and short sleeves. I think that in the back of my mind I had high hopes for this race and I started further up in the pack that I probably should have. The first part of the course is pretty flat and the leaders started fairly fast, at least compared to SDU where I lead without really trying. Bernie Boetcher was up front with a couple of other guys and I knew enough to not try and stay with him. I felt pretty safe running with Erik Solof, the defending 50 Mile champion here. I knew Erik from a couple of years ago when he ran with DTR. I did feel that the pace was a little faster than I would have chosen on my own. I pulled away from Erik when we turned on to the trail and started the first climb. I think that he walked a bit since he had to conserve energy for the second lap. The rest of the race is a little fuzzy for me now that I've let it slip away for two weeks. I do remember that the course seemed tougher than I had expected. The times show that it is faster than SDU so I expected this to be a cake walk. The course did some rolling that I just wasn't expecting and the long climbs seemed longer than they should have been. I was running fairly well through about 15-20 miles, but then I think that I just bonked and even though the last part was all downhill and mostly on railroad grade and dirt road I had to walk some of it. I think that I finished in around 3:45, but the results aren't up yet and I forgot to stop my watch at the finish so that isn't even accurate. According to the results board at the race I finished less then a minute out of third in my age group and only a few minutes out of second. I'm pretty sure that if I had run a smarter first half and had something other than pizza the night before I could have beaten both of those guys and finished with a smile on my face. Oh well, another lesson learned the hard way. Let just hope that I've learned for good this time.

Spring Desert Ultra - 25 miles

While the event name has the word ultra in it the course is a 25 mile loop that can be run a second time in the opposite direction to make 50 miles. I only did one loop to keep the distance, time, and exposure to heat a little more sane. This is the third year, and third course, for this event held just west of Fruita, CO off from I-70. I made the trip Friday afternoon, carpooling with Jan Ingbrigtsen. We got some dinner in Grand Junction and picked up our packets at the race hotel and then continued west to find a place to camp. We stopped at the start line, but there were signs forbidding any overnight camping so we continued about 8 miles further west to some BLM land that was designated for camping. It was sparsely occupied mostly by ATVers spending the weekend in the hills. With the race starting at 6:30 am we decided to wake up at 4:30 to make sure we had time for breakfast, to take down camp, and make it to the start before the parking lot filled. If you don't get there early enough you could be parking up to a 1/2 mile away. I got a little sunburn last weekend so this time I put on some sunscreen and then got in line for the port-a-potty, another thing I forgot last weekend. The weather was just warm enough that I decided to not wear any extra clothing for the start so it was down to shorts and a short sleeved shirt at 6:15 in the morning. The RD announced that like last year there was a crisp $100 dollar bill waiting for the first male and female make to the top of the first hill about 1.3 miles into the course. The race started slow last year so I decided that I'd start out front and see if that bill could be mine. When the gun went off I found myself quickly off the front. Tania Pacev, a fellow Denver Trail Runner was up front with my for about a minute, but then dropped back. I checked my pace and felt that I wasn't pushing it yet so I stuck with it. I could hear some people behind me, but that were at least 10 feet back. I didn't actually look until I made the turn to the hill and the next person was probably 30 feet back. At this point I wasn't going to let anybody take this from me so I pushed harder than I should have up this first steep, but short hill. I made it to the guy holding my bill and happily grabbed it out of his hand. My race could have been over here, but I kept moving. This may have been the top of the fist hill, but the climbing wasn't over, after a short flat section the trail keeps climbing. Two guys caught up to me shortly after I hit single track, but they stayed behind me. I remembered this as a fairly short hill so I didn't try to move behind them like I should have. Unfortunately it kept climbing for probably 10 minutes or so and I led the whole way up. At the top we got caught be a couple of other guys and one of them went by pulling everybody else. I quickly fell into 4th and had Buzz Burrell right behind me. At this point I didn't feel too bad and decided that I didn't have much to lose by trying to keep up so I pushed a little, to keep the leaders close and after awhile Buzz wanted a piece of the action and blew by me to run with the leaders. I kept them in contact until the first aid station at around 6 miles. There was another long climb after that aid station and that is where I really started to lose touch with the front runners. I had a decent lead on the rest of the pack, but I knew that going out as hard as I did was starting to come back to bite me and it was just a matter of time before they caught me. A group of three caught me a few minutes before the second aid station and passed me when I stopped there. Two others caught me shortly before the third aid station at about the half way mark. We all stopped shortly there, I went out with one of the guys and the other fell behind us. The guy I left that station with was running the 50 so not direct competition to me. I started to get a second wind and wanted to push and catch the group of three that had passed me earlier. That never happened and my pushing turned to agony as we entered a section of the course that wasn't part of last year's course. There was a steep and very technical downhill that made me really feel my quads. The 4th aid station wasn't until mile 19 and the long stretch took its toll mentally. After the 4th and final aid station we started up a service road that was quite steep and most people including me walked up until the pitch let up a little. One of the group of three had dropped back and I caught him at the aid station, but he was also running the 50 and had pushed himself too hard so I quickly left him. What was concerning me was the guy I had dropped at the last aid station was starting to catch up. I gathered what strength I had and pushed up as hard as I could. Once at the top I felt OK, but that didn't last and even on some flat sections I had to walk just to keep moving. He finally caught me shortly after starting the downhill back to the frontage road that we started on. That was probably the longest and hardest downhill I've ever done. Finally I made it to the road and trudged the final mile just looking forward to being done. Results were never posted at the finish and the awards weren't until 8:30 pm, way too late for me to get back to Denver so I still don't know for sure how I placed. I'm pretty sure that I was 6th overall since one of the front runners got lost and came in after me, but I have no idea if anybody ahead of me was 29 or younger.