lonerunman's Trailrunning, Races, and Adventures

LaSportiva Mountain Running Team 2012

2011-12-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

I am very pleased to say that I have been welcomed back for my third year as a member of the LaSportiva Mountain Running Team for the 2012 season! I am very grateful for the opportunity to keep working with such a great group of inspiring, fast, and adventurous people, and to represent a company with such excellent products and strong values about people, production, and the environment we love to get out in.

Thanks for having me back, and I am looking forward to bringing that screaming loud Italian yellow out to the trails again in the coming year!

Check out the Mountain Running Team site at http://mountainrunning.com/

Deception Pass 50k - the last and best of the season

2011-12-20T04:30:00.002-08:00

Running the coastal trail along Deception Pass, half a mile to the finish.

I had been looking forward to racing again after taking sometime off after running Hardrock in Julyand the TransRockies Run stage race in August. The switch in focus was good for me, andI was charged with enthusiasm to get back running and training hard again.Races start to get a bit sparse on the calendar during the winter months, but afew flattering words and some bribery involving malted beverages of the highest quality scoredme an entry into Rainshadow Running’sDeception Pass 50k. With a goal in mind, I took to the trails and jammed upthe mileage on my feet, throwing a number of bike commute rides in to seal thedeal (and because it’s fun when the weather in Vancouver is dry). Heck, I evendid the first 60-mile training week I have done in months! And damn, it feltgood!

While I would hesitate to go so far as to say that myrunning this year has sucked , because I have had the opportunity to run insome awesome places with amazing people – I have definitely been frustratedwith how things have gone. Sickness, snow, monsoons, hailstorms, injury, lackof oxygen, waitlists, and a training regime that makes my butt look fat, haveall contributed to some humdrum race results that have been way more work thanpleasure to achieve. I was motivated and had been pretty solid over the pastmonth or two, but I was still feeling a little trepidation about how a 50kwould go, considering the struggle most other races this year have been. Manytimes at a race I will give my wife a projected finish time and hit that fairlyaccurately, but this time I didn’t even venture a guess besides “please go andget coffee or go shopping but don’t get back too late so I don’t gethypothermic standing around in the cold when I’m done.” (Thanks, honey, forgetting back in plenty of time and hanging around!)

I know I have a habit of getting a tad long-winded in mytales, so the point of all this is that I am so excited with how well the racewent that I had to say right now that I totally nailed it and had my best andmost enjoyable effort of the entire year. Wow, it is soooo nice to end theseason on such a high note! Ok, with that off my chest, onto the long-windedstuff:

Trying to stay warm before the start

The race started at a snappy pace, and I drifted towards thefront pack while holding back a bit, trying not to go out too hard. There werealso 25k runners mixed in, and it was hard to tell who was running what. Still,I picked a level of effort that I felt slightly restrained at, in the hopesthat it was crisp enough to keep me towards the top third of the field, butconservative enough to hold through the remaining 5 – 7 hours. People werepassing me, but I didn’t want to chase at this early stage. I ended up behind acouple of gals, and though I was barely holding them on the hills, I felt likeI had to restrain myself on the flats and downhills, which was fine with mesince I knew it would keep me reigned in.

Once I knew I was sufficiently warmed up and flowing about10k in, I did pull past the girls and ran my own pace. From here, I wassurprised to see that I was slowly reeling in runners ahead of me, one by one.Though almost feeling like I had headed out at a 10k race pace, I felt I wasmaintaining the speed all the way along, while others were perhaps paying fortheir faster starts. I figured I was running in about 15 - 20^th positionor so, but slowly creeping forward.

Following Shawna Tompkins and Monica Ochs over The Bridge

The trails themselves were quite inspiring to run on, andthe beauty of the area was amazing. The day was grey and overcast, but stilllovely - it would be absolutely phenomenal on a warm sunny day. I have neverbeen to these trails before (you would hardly even know so much single trackwas even there!) and was loving the narrow, rolling forested trails that wouldbreak out into ocean vistas or exposed shoreline from time to time. There werea number of lollipop loops that we had to run to cover ground and make updistance, and I give huge kudos to RD James Varner and his volunteers formarking these out in such an incredibly clear manner. I’d also give a nod andthanks to my fellow racers who were all very polite and accommodating as we ranpast each other in the narrow sections.

I was running well. The trails were beautiful. I was a happyguy. All I had to do was not blow up towards the end. I kept running strong,and kept passing people, not believing how well it was all going. This wasproving to the kind of run that is absolutely sublime: effortless speed, greattrail surface, and a beautiful environment.

A beautiful place to run! photo: Glenn Tachiyama

The second half of the race spins off to do two 11k loops inanother section of the park. I left the aid station and headed into my firstloop, pleased with my time of 2:20 into the race so far, feeling comfortablebut hoping in the back of my mind that I could hold it for the distance. So far,so good. I was running the uphill grades consistently, and only walked a coupleof times on some short, steep sections. It struck me part way through the loopthat I had neither seen anyone in front of me for quite some time, nor anyonebehind me. I was running alone through the forest – racing in the hopes ofeither catching someone in front or staying away from someone behind. I wasexpecting the latter, since that had been the pattern of my races this year.

I completed the loop in just under an hour, and finally sawsome more runners as I approached a short out-and back to the aid station.After all the time running alone, I was surprised to see that I was not farbehind four other people. I filled a bottle with nuunand grabbed a gel, then turned back to catch some of the runners ahead ofme. On the way out, I noticed that there was a long way to the next runnerbehind; either I had run away from them, or they had faded out from their pacein the first half of the race.

I guess I was running well, because it wasn’t long before Icaught up to the next runner in front, with another person in sight not too faralong as well. I knew I would have to surge past them and keep going to make itstick, so with a bit of a sustained effort, I pushed the pace to go by and thenbuild in a bit of a gap. Now, without seeing anyone in front any more, themotivation to keep up my pace was the pressure from behind me; I was determinedto not get caught.

Summiting the Goose Rock climb photo: Glenn Tachiyama

Towards the end of the second loop, I was pleased to seethat my time was about the same as the first lap, although I could feel a bitof a twinge starting in my quads. I had to hold my pace and not have my legscrap out on me now - there was only about 4km to go! I paused briefly at theaid station again for some more nuun and another hit of EFS LiquidShot gel, and then took off along the road. On a straight stretch, I couldsee the next person in front of me off in the distance. I could see them, butwould I be able to catch them? The carrot was out there!

Alas, the sustained pace through the race was catching up tome, and my legs were getting weaker and more sore as I hammered as best I couldthrough the final kilometers. After the road, I lost sight of the runner in thetrail section, and was just going as hard as I could. I got hyped up a bit whenI saw a glimpse of someone through the trees, but it was a 25k runner I hadcaught up to. I also really had no idea of how much further the course went, sohoped that my final effort wasn’t started too early. I recognised some of thetrail we had headed out on, but wasn’t sure just how we would loop back to thefinish.

I rounded a corner along the shoreline, and there was Martha taking pictures, so I knew Iwas reasonably close to the finish. After pausing to give her a quick kiss, Icharged on and soon popped out on the parking lot that lead to the finish line.

I crossed the line in 4:55 – the first sub-5-hour 50k I haverun in a few years and good for 6^th overall (and first 40+, for whatthat’s worth). I was absolutely elated. The trails were beautiful, I felt goodand ran well, and the race organisation was impeccable.

Many thanks are due to James Varner and his sweetie CandiceBurt for all their hard work organising and putting on this event and findingsuch a lovely place for us to run in. Check out more of Rainshadow Running’sother races, they are all great runs on fantastic trails.

Gear:

LaSportiva Crosslite 2.0 shoes

DeFeet Trail 19 socks

Nutrition:

nuun electrolyte drink (5 bottles)

First Endurance EFS Liquid Shot gel (5 oz)

GU gel (4 oz)

Western States - in with the masses

2011-11-20T13:05:00.001-08:00


Feeling the heat - Michigan Bluff, 2003

Let this be a reminder to myself.

This is me at Michigan Bluff the second time I ran Western States in 2003. The fact that the photo is in black and white does not take away from the actual colour of my face at the time - pale, drawn, and vacant. I was capital-D De-hy-dated and messed up. Badly. I have never been in a deeper hole. I vowed to never look like this again. Ever.

I consider myself a decent 100-mile runner, having achieved some pretty solid results and milestones over the past ten years of racing 100's: a sub-19 at Lost Soul, a 3rd place at Bighorn, the Grand Slam, and 5 loops of Hardrock. However, Western States has been an absolute nemesis for me. I have run it three times, and on every occurrence, it has scoffed at me and rubbed my face in the fine dust of California Street.

2001 was my first ever 100-mile race, when I was full of wide-eyed wonder and everything was mostly pretty good. I still got kind of smacked down that year and dragged my butt through the night towards a 26:07 finish.

2003 was the devastating meltdown described above, but I bounced back to finish pretty strongly in 25:30, even dropping my pacer on the way from Highway 49 to No-Hands Bridge (sorry, Art!).

2006 was my most recent effort there, and was the first event of the Grand Slam that year. I was in great shape and primed - and overconfident in my abilities. I was on track for the 22-hour finish I knew I could do, but the exceptional heat that year beat me down into a writhing bag of pain. I couldn't run a step from Auburn Lake Trail aid station to the end, only being able to manage a stride length of about 6 inches. On the way up the hill from Robie Point, my pacer Wade asked me to describe how my legs felt. I told him my quads had been beaten with a ball-peen hammer and that someone had taken a wood planer to the soles of my feet. I lost six toenails before I ran the Vermont 100 three weeks later.


2006 - the Good: flying into Miller's Defeat

2006 - the Bad: "running" toward the High School

I was done with Western States. After three less-than-successful efforts there, it had beaten me and I moved on to other things - with better results, I might add. However, it has always rankled me to never have done well. I don't necessarily mean that I have never earned a silver buckle, although I know that deep down I am quite capable of it, but just that I haven't been able to crack the code that will lead to a satisfying personal success there, one where I can be content that I have done my best.

Maybe it took a while to get over the failures, relatively speaking, at that race, but after watching the race unfold on the Net last year and seeing friends do so well there, the hype started making itself known inside me and a slow burn started. Long story short, I just clicked "Submit" on my entry into next year's Western States. Yes, I became entrant number 1737. For those not keeping track, that would be 1737 entrants in the lottery for about 350-ish race slots. Slim odds indeed. But if you don't enter, your chances are zero, so my odds are already looking up. Will I be devastated if I don't get in? Hardly, there are so many other interesting races I am keen to run that I would not be at a loss for something else to do. But it would be kind of cool to get back to Squaw Valley to seek some kind of closure to that particular course. And this time, I won't get De-hy-drated.

Shoe Lust

2011-07-29T17:05:00.001-07:00

OK, I admit it - I'm a bit of a gear junkie. I try and live the whole eco-recyclo-greeno-sustaino-feel-good-o-y thing as much as I can, but I have a couple of boxes of gear in good condition that has fallen into disuse because something cooler/better/lighter/faster has come along. But I won't just get something because it is new - it has to be cleverly designed, with a distinct purpose behind it. Or if it is made with titanium (what can I say - it's a genetic holdover from my triathlon days).

And so, behold!

LaSportiva's new Vertical K shoe:

oooooh - 195 grams! Bejeepers, that's light.

aaaaaah - MorphoDynamic midsole. Comfy feet.

ohhhhhh - FrixionXF outsole. Grip-on-the-rocks.

It looks to me like the designers at LaSportiva have taken the best features from some of their other models, and put them all in one uber-light shoe. Their lineup has a couple of lighter-weight shoes in the 9 - 10 oz range with the X-Country, Crosslite and Skylite (and the #2 models of the latter couple), but the MorphoDynamic midsole only appeared this year on a couple of models, Electron and Quantum, that were relatively heavier around 13oz. However, the MorphoDynamic technology is amazingly comfortable. My teammate and fellow Canuck, Derrick, has written up a great review of his Quantums here. And I'll make no bones about the fact that I prefer the stickier FrixionXF outsole over the FrixionAT rubber, it works much better in the wet, rainy, slimy, muddy trails of the rainforest I call home.

So, the Vertical K's bring on the lightest weight of any LaSportiva shoe and compete in the space of a lot of minimalist designs, they have the comfy MorphoDynamic midsole to protect from rocks, and they get the sticky XF outsole.

Clever.

Lighter.

Faster.

Cooler.

Must.

Get.

Some!!!

It's kind of hard to think I'd get so excited over a shoe, but there you go.

Ultrarunners - we're normal!!

2011-04-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog, so may as well start up again with something droll.

I just had this email:

See below. Looking for weird physical, emotional or personality traits that end up helping with sports

I'm working on a story for that I'm hoping you might be able to help me with. Here goes:

Athletic blessings in disguise: This story is about the characteristics we complain about that actually end up helping us out in our sports. I'm looking for a few other examples from professional female athletes—can be any sport—on one thing about them (can be a personality trait, a physical trait or an emotional trait) that they would normally complain about, but actually puts them ahead or makes them stronger in their sport.

So, from this I am to assume that being an ultrarunner is not, by itself, a "weird physical, emotional or personality trait".

I suppose this is a good thing, and you know as well as I do who to thank: Dean Karnazes. Way to go Dean, your books and TV appearances have made the rest of us appear normal.

Anyways, this isn't a bash on Dean (see the ULTRA list to get your fill of that ongoing, multi-season soap opera), he's a nice guy who I shared some miles with at Leadville one year. However, the wording and concept behind the TV show's requirements made me think that we ultrarunners are not such odd ducks after all.

That is, until more folks hear about someone like Geoff Roes and think it is normal for ultrarunners to effortlessly squeeze off a 3:41 for 50k. Then when they look at, say, the pedestrian 5:57 I ran at Diez Vista last weekend, they'll think I'm just another lard-butted chump and won't even be asking me to tell them about my experience running 330km in Italy so they can quickly interrupt me to say Yeah, they ran a 10k once, but now they have knee problems otherwise they'd be doing marathons and isn't it cool that the Canucks are in the playoffs wow did you see that guy in the Elvis costume last game he was hilarious.

So like I said, I suppose this is a good thing.... I think I'll like being normal and not being viewed as having a weird physical, emotional or personality trait. Bummer about your knee, though, that's a shame, and no I'm not watching the game, I don't care about hockey and I'm going out for a run.

In which case I just turned weird again .... I can't win.

A wrap-up of awesome gear … just in time to wrap up for Christmas!

2010-12-15T11:16:00.000-08:00

I feel very fortunate and grateful to be a member of the LaSportiva Mountain Running Team. Aside from being in the company of some of the best mountain runners in the sport, I was provided with a selection of gear from LaSportiva and some fantastic associate sponsors. Personally, I raced over 700 miles this year in distances ranging from 25km to 330km at a time, plus all the training to get me through it. So, I had a solid opportunity to put the rubber to the road – er, the dirt – and see how well this stuff actually worked. There were definitely some standout products that performed exceptionally well, while some items I thought were just OK. Here is my take on some of the gear that I had the opportunity to use this season that has met my performance expectations enough to become standard gear for every race. Note that these comments are based on my personal experience with the products, and are thus very subjective. Your mileage may quite literally vary….

note: if this looks familiar, it is cross-posted to the LaSportiva Mountain Running blog as well :-)
…………………………………………………………..
My A-List: stuff I rely on
LaSportiva Raptors
I recently ran the 330km Tor des Geants race in my Raptors and had no blisters or foot pain. Nada. Nothing. What else needs to be said? End of review.
OK, seriously, my Raptors have become my go-to shoe for all trail conditions. The FriXionXF outsole is a sticky rubber compound and I find it really works well on the wet, rocky trails we have here in the Pacific Northwest where I live. Additionally, the tread pattern is aggressive enough to dig into sloppy muck and not slip when climbing, pushing off, or running downhill, and also provides great lateral traction when traversing off-camber slopes or making hard turns. The uppers wrap your foot comfortably without binding or creating pressure points, and provide excellent security and stability in irregular footing and rocky trails. For the terrain I run on, they work really well. Scrambling down a debris chute composed of large boulders, my feet stuck to the rock so well I felt like some kind of superhero crawling down a wall!
Shoe durability is very good: the uppers show no tearing or wear after several hundred miles, although the tread nubs are definitely worn and have lost their edge as is expected.
I have a bit of a love-hate thing going with the toe bumper, in that it is beefy enough to provide solid protection when accidentally kicking rocks/roots/etc, but seems to sit high enough that I have caught it on same rocks/roots/etc with my trailing foot after striding off. So, it has definitely prevented a broken toe, but also may have induced a number of close calls in levitation after catching a foot (though the latter was also due to overly aggressive downhill running when fatigued, so hard to establish a direct cause).
Raptors are getting towards the upper average as far as weight, but did come in 6g lighter than the advertised 328g when I weighed them on my scale at home. I find them a reasonable weight in light of the aggressive tread, stability and comfort they provide.
I will be stocking up on Raptors for next season, although admittedly I’m holding out a bit in eager anticipation of the new MorphoDynamic technology LaSportiva is introducing next year….

LaSportiva Crosslites
I love my Raptors, but have to admit to committing a fair bit of shoe adultery with these sleek, sexy things. Svelte, lightweight uppers hug my feet, while the poking claws of the tread dig into the nastiest mud, slop, and snow too. Crosslites felt so comfortable from the first time I put them on, and the relative lightweight and low midsole profile keep you in touch with your footing. You just feel faster wearing these shoes, and I find them to be perfect for those sprint races up to 50 miles.
The sole of the Crosslites is made of FriXionAT rubber, which is a bit harder compound than the Raptor’s softer FriXionXF. The harder compound is more durable, but at the cost of a bit of traction on wet rocks. Still, the spike-like nature of the tread usually compensates for this if your footing is careful (wet rocks are never a good place to foot plant anyways!)
One minor annoyance I have with the Crosslites is the scree guard over top of the laces: though it is functional to keep stuff out of your shoe and a handy place to tuck laces in so they don’t come undone, it makes tightening the laces quite a challenge. I just cut the scree guard off to access the lacing better. Note that the very cool new Crossover GTX shoe, based on the Crosslite chassis, has laces on the outside of the scree guard. There is apparently a revised Crosslite 2.0 model coming out soon, so it may also feature this update.

DeFeet Trail19 socks
When I first looked at these socks, my initial thought was “that totally makes sense”. The Trail19’s have a construction I have not seen before: the forefoot is a wool/synthetic blend that provides a bit of padding, but the heel area is thin synthetic only, reinforced in the high-friction Achilles area. Personally, I find that socks with wool blends do really well for my feet, and the Trail19’s fit that bill. The merino wool content is in the forefoot area, providing cushioning and reducing hot spots in the place you need it most. I find the material’s thickness optimal to provide comfort yet not so padded as to take away your sense of touch with the shoe and ground. As for the thin heel area, you don’t need thick, padded weaves here anyways, and the thin synthetic lining provides more durability in this high-wear area. Despite running in the socks all season, there are no thin spots that have work through – a problem I have often seen with other wool-blend socks.
I used the Trail19’s with my Raptors when running the Tor des Geants – remember, I had no blisters in 330km with this combination.
Love’em!

Julbo Contest sunglasses w/Zebra lens
The styling on these shades definitely gives me some cred with the peeps on the street, but it is the Zebra photochromatic lenses that makes these sunglasses fantastic for running. The lenses are a comfortable yellow-brown tint that is easy on the eyes, and they actively darken or lighten in response to direct sunlight or lack of it. I have worn them all day from pre-dawn light through the bright sun of mid-day through to dusk, in stark deserts and thick forests – the lenses quickly adapt to each condition without you even being aware they are changing, and never leaving your eyes straining because it is too bright or too dark. Add in an effective anti-fog coating and a broad curved lens that provides distortion-free and unrestricted peripheral vision and you have a winner. Did I mention that they are stylin’?
On a slight downside, I find the Contest’s 70mm-wide lens to be a bit big on my narrow face – maybe a model with Zebra lenses like the Run or Dirt would fit me a bit better.

First Endurance Ultragen recovery drink
The problem with most recovery drinks I have tried in the past is that they are too sweet, too gritty, too thick or all three. The last thing you need after a long run when your stomach might be a bit upset anyways is to have to choke down some rancid recovery beverage.
However, both Ultragen flavours I have used – cappuccino and orange creamsicle – are really tasty, pleasant to drink, and smooth like water. Instead of having to force a bottle down over the course of an hour, I’ll gulp my Ultragen within minutes of finishing a hard workout. The cappuccino, like it’s namesake, it kind of addictive.
Tasty? Yes.
But does it work? Absolutely.
I respectfully but sceptically listened to the fantastic claims about Ultragen that I had heard from some good friends and great trail runners, but had to check it out for myself to see if it was up to snuff. Count me as converted and hear my fantastic claims! (with scepticism, of course ) Ultragen honestly has made a huge difference to my recovery and ability to quickly bounce back for consecutive day-after-day running. Instead of feeling depleted and sore the next day, I am energetic and ready to hit the trail again – a noted difference from other recovery drinks I have used in the past.
Ultragen also proved its worth as a food source and on–the-go recovery for my Tor des Geants race, where I was going non-stop for 111 hours. It was easy to get down, easy to digest, and provided a great balance of nutrients to help keep my going through it all. I used eight double-strength bottles through the race as part of my overall nutrition plan.

Petzl MyoRXP headlight
The Myo RXP was another bit of gear that exceeded my expectations. It has a super bright LED bulb that can be used in spot or flood modes, effectively lighting up distant course markers or the “chili dip” at the far edge of a Coyote 2 Moon aid station table. Besides fantastic light output, what makes this headlight unique is that the main switch has three programmable settings you can set from ten different output levels, of which six are regulated to provide consistent light output through the entire battery life (don’t you hate it when your light output drops by 50% after an hour or two?). Battery life is quite long, but naturally depends on your chosen brightness. I have found the MyoRXP to be good for two full nights before swapping batteries by primarily using a level 4 output (25 lumens) that I find sufficient for most night running trail conditions. There’s also a separate switch to use a short-term “burst” mode of 160 lumens that really lights up the area when you need to hunt for a turn, search for marker flags or even, say, accidentally zap the retinas of your pacer (sorry, Wade!). The battery pack is held close to your head, which prevents any annoying bouncing. A note on the programmable feature: it’s generally a set-once kind of thing, but don’t lose the instructions.

Greenlayer Sports clothing

Your humble author in his Headsweats hat and Greenlayer Team jersey - Haut Pass, Alta Via 2 trail in Italy

Run clothing should keep you comfortable, right? The only time you only really notice your shirt is if something isn’t working: you’re sweaty and wet, cold, chafing, etc. Greenlayer fabric works well to actually wick sweat away from your skin, instead of just spreading moisture around and making you cold. The weave is smooth against your skin, with flat-woven seams to prevent irritation. The fabric is lightweight and comfortable in all conditions, from cool to very hot. The cut and styling is loose but not too baggy. The shirts are made of recycled polyester to reduce the amount of crap on our favourite planet. What else is there to say? Good stuff.

Headsweats running hat and visor
OK, it’s hard to get too excited about a hat, but Headsweats does make theirs out of some nice, wicking material that really works to effectively pull sweat from your forehead and head – full points for that. It drives me crazy getting salty sweat mixed with sunscreen in my eyes or dropping on my sunglass lenses – this doesn’t happen any more.

…………………………………………………….
My B-List: stuff that’s pretty good

Ultimate Directions Wasp hydration pack
The Wasp is a nicely-designed, form-fitting hydration pack with enough storage and carrying capacity for unsupported day-long endeavours. There are lots of pockets in the front for food, gloves, GPS and other essential doo-dads. I found the fit to be quite large on my skinny runner chicken chest and it was hard to have it snug up enough to stop bouncing on steep descents, although I modified the strap anchor points to make it a bit tighter. The main nylon material in the body could be lighter weight to save a number of ounces, but the mesh in front and lining the back breath well. I use the Wasp in conjunction with handheld bottles on long, unsupported runs; I’m just not a fan of using hydration packs alone because it’s hard to tell how much you are drinking.

LaSportiva Wildcat shoes
The Wildcats tip the scales a bit lighter than Raptors, but I prefer the stability and overall fit of Raptors, which are made on a slightly different last. Wildcats have a lined mesh on the upper which is great for foot ventilation, a big plus (they were perfect for the hot conditions at the San Diego 100 miler). They have the same aggressive Impact Brake system X-Axis tread as Raptors, but composed of the FriXion AT rubber like Crosslites: great traction and durability, but slightly less sticky on wet rocks. I prefer the fit of Raptors, so use those.

First Endurance EFS Liquid Shot Gel
I use gels almost exclusively for my race fuel, and the EFS Liquid Shot gel worked pretty well for me. I like the fact that there is an amino acid content in the recipe, which helps with endurance over the long term and a bit of alertness in the night hours. I did find EFS Vanilla to be pretty sweet compared to other gels; I prefer unflavoured types that are milder.

…………………………………………………………..
I hope my comments help explain some of the great gear I have had the opportunity to use. Christmas is coming, and it is time to let Santa know what trail running equipment you would like to see under the tree!
Thanks so much to LaSportiva and the Mountain Running Team’s Associate Sponsors – First Endurance, Julbo, Green Layer, Petzl, DeFeet, Headsweats and Ultimate Direction – for supplying all the gear.

one more race for the year: TNF 50 mile

2010-12-01T15:43:00.000-08:00

I'm the kind of guy who generally doesn't like a lot of hoo-haw or circuses at the races I go to, but I jumped at the opportunity to head down to The North Face Endurance Championships 50-miler this coming weekend. I am glad I did, because the tens of thousands of $USD (that's about a gazillion in $ULTrarunning) are attracting most of the top athletes in our sport and it is looking like it will be a heck of a race for both the men's and women's fields. I haven't seen this much hype over a race since.... just since August for UTMB, and then June for Western States before that....OK, so there's been a lot of good competitions this year.*

*just as an aside, wow, what a huge change in our sport since the days not very long ago when it was "what one or two guys might make Scott Jurek break into a sweat at WS this year before he drops them at Green Gate". But that's a whole different topic for a blog post.

It has been a lot of fun reading the various pre-race posts from Bryon over at iRunFar, Karl Meltzer's picks, and personal notes from said picks Anton Krupicka (unfortunately injured and out), Geoff Roes, and Dakota Jones. These dudes are fast, and it is always interesting to hear their perspectives on preparations, anticipation, etc. Their writing reveals that they are just like the rest of us - just faster!

For my part, "fast" won't be part of the equation this Saturday, and to be perfectly honest, I have been sitting on the fence over the past couple of weeks wondering if I should even go or not. My post-TdG training was going well with some daily high-intensity speedwork and climbing efforts, but then I got sick just over two weeks ago with some stomach/gut bug that laid me out for about ten days, a lot of which was spent doing this:

and that was just the top half.

Anyhew, once I had the energy to get running again, I slowly ramped up out on some real trails again, and then had a great three-day jam last weekend mixing a day of snowshoeing, a day of flats, and a day of hills. All in all, pretty good

However....

Ever since TdG, I have had some lingering pain issues in my butt and hips. The butt pain, something in the top of my glutes, was bad enough immediately after the race that couldn't sleep lying on my back. Since then, after doing my runs, I also get some aching pain in and around my hips joints. I'm pretty sure it is some residual soft tissue stuff instigated by the 79000' of downhill pounding I did during TdG. I know I should get some therapeutic massage work done, but just haven't got around to it. You know how it is, it bugs you at the time, but then you forget about it when it goes away, then say "oh yeah!" when it happens again. And months pass....

So, the point is: I'm going to the race this weekend kind of injured. Why? Because I am excited and looking forward to:

run in a place I have not been to before, and people say is quite beautiful
seeing some friends from the south who I haven't seen for a while
seeing my teammates Ty and Devon from nuun and Nathan from LaSportiva.
hanging with the local Vancouver runners who will be there (Ryne, Jackie, Tamsin, Ellie..yeah, Ellie lives in Banff but she used to be in Vancouver)
what's not to like about running 50 miles? In California? In December? Cool!

Such things are way more important to me than a pain in the butt. These are some of the reasons I run.

After all, you know I'm not in it for the money at this one! :-)

Snowshoe running up at Mt Seymour

2010-11-27T16:15:00.001-08:00

Seymour snowshoe - 26nov10 from lonerunman on Vimeo.

Vancouver had a recent cold spell that brought a pretty good dump of snow on the local mountains. The temperatures warmed up on Friday, so that most of the snow in the city melted and the lower trails were just a gross slop of muck and slush. And it was raining. Instead of suffering and freezing my butt off in crappy conditions like that, I headed for the hills to get out onto the snow, breaking out the snowshoes for the first time this year.

The ski area at Mt. Seymour was a total white-out of fog and falling snow, and the drive up was pretty treacherous with a few cars skidding sideways in front of me (hint: so-called "M+S" tires don't do crap in the snow so stay the hell away from the white stuff if that's what you are using, OK?). However, I got parked fine, donned my snowshoes and headed off into the whiteness.

It was a ton of fun to be out on the snow again, and the trail seemed to go by quickly. About half way up, most other tracks had dropped off except for two sets. Not much farther along, the two people who made the tracks were on their way back. Now I was in deep, untracked snow, setting the trail myself - no running here!

I crested the main bluff, and couldn't see much of anything up there except the odd scrub tree - ground and sky melded together into an indistinguishable mass of whiteness. At one point I heard a distinct "whump" in the snow, and decided to stop where I was, instead of risking potential avalanche conditions heading up the final steep slope with Pump Peak overhanging it.

The run back down was just a great playtime, sliding down the steep slopes in great leaps, then getting some better footing on the more tracked area lower down. All in all, a great outing.

I put together a quick video of some of the footage from the trail.

And believe it or not, these photos are taken at the same spot:

Tor des Geants race photos are online!

2010-10-11T19:34:00.002-07:00

I finally organised my race pictures and added descriptions and comments to them.

If you are interested, you can check them out at my Flickr site

Back in the saddle

2010-10-06T12:04:00.000-07:00

It has been two and a half weeks since I finished my Tor des Geants race, during which time I have done absolutely nothing physical (except tearing down a fence in our backyard, but that was all upper body :-) I was pretty bagged after the run, as expected, but more concerning to me were me knees. They were really quite sore after pounding down that last 750 metre/2500' downhill on the last 5km from Rifugio Bertone to the finish, and the aching lasted for about two weeks afterwards until it mostly cleared up. I have not had knee pain the past, but I wasn't too worried about this since it was a similar ache in both knees, so not indicative of any nasty trauma. I think I just beat them up a lot! Rest proved to be the best medicine, and frankly, sitting on the couch sipping coffee or reading was way more appealing than going for a run.

Getting ice packs for my knees at the Tor des Geants finish - there were no cold streams to stand in nearby, but there was cold beer at the finish area, so this seemed like the simplest solution

But time heals, the sun has been shining more often than not, and I was starting to get the itch to get moving again. It is September, and that means it is the absolute worst of the worst commuting traffic to and from work. Thus, I am generally keen on riding my bike the 30km to work instead: it beats the crappy traffic, is fun, gives me a great workout, and is satisfyingly (and admittedly smugly) eco-friendly. But, after a summer focusing on running only, it is a bit of a challenge getting back into the routine again, and I find that I have to start in good weather to get in my groove before the constant west coast winter rain starts and the daylight hours diminish. Motivated by the many factors I mention above, I got my poop together, found my flat kit, pumped my tires, and headed out the garage yesterday on my trusty commuter steed into the early morning daylight.

I was a bit strained in the legs, using muscle groups for cycling that haven't been active in a while, but the general fatigue from the race seemed to have dissipated and I was able to cruise along pretty well. I had a noted lack of strength for aggressive hill climbing, but did have a pretty solid aerobic endurance base to pull from and was happy with the constant cadence I managed. The sun was shining, the cool fall air was in my face, I felt good to be moving again, and no cars tried to kill me - all in all, a pretty good return to physical activity. The non-impact movement of cycling also had no ill effects on my knees, so they were happy with it all as well.

It will be sunny again tomorrow, so I'll be back on the road again. It is eight weeks until the next race (the TNF San Francisco 50-miler in December) so it will be good to build on the "training effects" of TdG to prepare for the next one.

p.s. TdG race report: yah yah, I'm working on it.

Tor des Geants pre-race thoughts

2010-09-24T09:45:00.002-07:00

The day before the race, I wrote up some thoughts I was mulling over and posted them over at the LaSportiva Mountain Running blog. They kind of describe how I found myself in Courmayeur, Italy, about to embark on the Tor des Geants and the biggest challenge I have ever undertaken.

I found what was at the end of my pathway - did you?

(Yeah, I know it is funny to point to pre-race thoughts when it is all over anyways.....post-race thoughts coming up shortly.....)


TdG start area: Euro-Bruce, Jen Segger, Daniel Probst, Julia Boettger, Beat Jegerlehner

pre Tor des Geants scouting run and more pics

2010-09-10T13:23:00.001-07:00

Well, the excitement is starting to build in town as more and more racers dribble into town. The highlight of the day was the spontaneous of meeting of all the North Americans in the main church square beside the race banner. We were all aware that others were in town, but didn't set up a meet time. Anyways, there we were, and it was wonderful to meet all the old friends again and see the new ones. Maybe between the twelve or so of us we'll be able to translate the race meeting tomorrow that is held in Italian.

But anyways, here's a short video I shot at the Col de Malatra, which I subsequently found out was the high point of the Alta Via 1 trail at 2925 metres high (10000' ish). Yes, the high point of the second half of the race comes with 17 km left to go. And 1800m / 6000' of descent from there. But at least I know now what to expect.

As I say a couple of times, the section was SPECTACULAR, I was just in awe of my surroundings every step of the way. The weather is trending better in the next several days, so the skies should be clear and sunny to let the views through.

Tor des Geants scouting run from lonerunman on Vimeo.

Monta Bianco in the background - wow, I can't believe where I am!!

Refugio Bonatti - pretty nice digs for hikers

Pretty obvious route marking for AV1, and my Crosslites were pretty happy to be on their home turf in Italy :-)

The trail up the scree slope to the Col

There's not much chance of wet feet unless it rains

Jen Segger's gear explosion!

Daniel Probst, Beat Jegerlehner, and me.

Cafe for lunch beneath the mountains.

Yummy. Nothing like espresso and cafe latte on the sidewalk in Italy

Typical side street in Courmayeur. I love the architecture here.

Playing tourist in Chamonix & Courmayeur

2010-09-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

OK, so my flight to Europe didn't start very well with delays on the first leg that caused a cascade of misses and a subsequent reroute from Vancouver. But I made it, and importantly, so did my bag of race gear. It was time to kick back a bit and get the lay of the land, acclimatise a bit, and brush off my highschool French. I spent two days in Chamonix France, and today came through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Courmayeur Italy, on the other side of the great white mountain. (gee, that almost makes it sound Canadian!)

Here is a quick photo journey of some of the highlights so far:


First night's dinner on my hotel balcony in Chamonix - local Savoie cheese, sausage and wine

It rained each morning with low clouds, so the mountains didn't appear often if at all.

Krissy Moehl's signed UTMB-winning shoe in the Rapatel sports store

Typically clouded view for me of Mont Blanc. This is about all I have seen of it so far.

A brewpub in Chamonix, run by four Canadians. What a find! The beer was great.

Mer des Glaces glacier, the biggest in Europe. Took a cog railway up here to Montnevers, then hiked back down.

Baguette jambon et fromage avec double expresso - French lunch a-go-go!

Cavern drilled into the glacier itself - wayyyyy cool! (in both senses :-) You can see last year's cavern to the left, collapsed and moved down the slope. Apparently this glacier moves 1cm per day - is that a glacial pace?

One of the most amazing things I have seen. It was surreal to touch the ice and wonder how old it was.

Deny this - here was the glacier's height in 1990. There were signs all along the path down with the ever-diminishing height, but it was most notable from this point.

Hiking down, the path went by a summer luge track.....

...and I had just enough time to squeeze in a run before catching my bus to Courmayeur. Wheeeee!

Courmayeur and the start/finish of the Tor des Geants is set up already! The weather was better here, and that is Monte Bianco in the background. The scenery here is going to be absolutely phenomenal!

Cournayeur is a small town. so it I was there about an hour before coming across Daniel Probst. We had a dinner of ridiculously huge calzone and pizza. The picture was taken by the people at the table next to us, a couple from Annapolis Nova Scotia - yay Canada!

Great advice from a master

2010-09-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

I'm in the final throes of packing up and getting set for the Tor des Geants, and remembered some great words of wisdom I read a little while ago. Gordy Ainsleigh, the guy who first ran the Western States 100 miler, commented on Anton Krupicka's recent post about his Leadville 100 race experience.

Gordy's comment:

Two suggestions, Tony: (1) When you get to staggering and you can’t keep your eyes open, always sleep til you wake up on your own, and always have your pacers carry a couple space blankets for that eventuality. (2)When you get to a rough spot in you race physiology, don’t push through it. Slow down enough that it’s no longer a rough spot. You can only run as fast as you can run. If you run faster than that, you’ll only end up running much slower later.

Sounds like excellent advice for a guy about to undertake 330km of mountain running over something like three-to-six days. I'm going to remember it.

West Coast trailrunning eye candy

2010-09-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Summer is my absolute favourite time of year for hitting the local dirt - too often literally, but I digress - mainly due to the fact that it is dry and sunny, brilliantly green, warm, and the snow level has receded enough to be able to get into the awesome high country ("high" here being above 4000'). And so, after seeing other amazing pics of lovely places like Banff, Colorado, and California, here for your viewing pleasure are some of the places Martha and I have played over the past few weeks. We have had some fantastic weather here in BC, and we took the opportunity to hit the local hills as I crammed in my final preparation for the Tor des Geants in September. Thanks to the 40-Something Dirt Divas for company on a lot of the runs!

Hanes Valley

forest nypmhs frolic in the dappled sunlight

looks like good HURT training ground

going up...

...seriously up

looking north to Crown Mtn and beyond

ripping it down the mountain bike ramps of our famous North Shore

Deep Cove (sea level) to Mount Seymour (4754 feet)

Pump Peak #1 - thinking of Bob Withers here

view north from Mt Seymour - Mount Garbaldi on the left

From mountain peak to cooling down and cleaning off the Raptors in the ocean. Only in Vancouver!

Manning Park - Heather Trail

this is an incredible place to run!!

you just want to keep on going, don't you? More! More!

I love that my wife likes to run too :-)

or maybe she likes the flowers as well - lupines galore!

it's hard to keep your eyes on the trail sometimes when the scenery is so fantastic

going for that new Facebook profile photo ;-)

Manning Park - Mount Frosty

I use the term "trail" loosely here

Stands of larch trees - fantastic!

The long trail down to Lightning Lake

...and at the end of it all....


Post-run recovery time. Of course, I have already downed my bottle of Ultragen before contemplating the Wheat Ale!

Volunteering at the STORMY Ultras - Aug 10

2010-08-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

Something I had on my race calendar for the past few years has been the STORMY 100-mile run. Not to run the race, but to run the Edith Lake aid station. The past few years, I was doing it alone...all night! But this year, my lovely first wife Martha joined me to help out and keep me company. It was a wonderful change sharing it with her, and more than a bit easier to stay awake as a result!

Our adventures up there included:

saturating rain
mosquitoes
a runner who was too fast for us to be completely set up in time (we had water set up, but he stealthily sped through when we were back at the car getting more stuff)
lost runners
falling trees
mosquitoes
eating more green olives than the racers did
Bruce's Famous Turkey-Avocado Wraps (tm)
an exciting mid-race break to Howe Sound Brewing for lunch and some Three Beavers and King Hefe
bears. I know they were out there. Watching us. Waiting. Sniffing. Really.
me being able to take off in the morning and run a couple of relay legs as part of a team of race volunteers (hey, we placed 11/26, not bad for a throw-together team! Thanks Jess, Bill, Kim and Mischell)
driving home Sunday afternoon, having a quick 2-hr nap, then heading out for my Mom's 70th birthday party.
the fun and satisfaction of helping our friend and RD Wendy Montgomery, as well as all the racers out.

I wrote up a much more detailed account which can be seen over at the LaSportiva mountainrunning blog site - please head there to read more!

Yummy.....

p.s. green olives are awesome. I had these for the first time at an aid station at about mile 60 at the Massanutten 100, and thought I'd found nirvana. You know you want some. Next year we'll bring the gin as well if you still need convincing.

Media coverage of San Diego 100

2010-06-24T15:53:00.002-07:00

The race report is coming, but I was pleased to see that I made it into the online version of Ultrarunning Magazine's recent race review - cool! We'll see about the print version:

http://www.ultrarunning.com/ultra/features/news/medina-and-larkindale-win.shtml

Maybe next time I will be in the headline instead of the picture ;-) yeah right!

Briefly, the race went really well. I rocked it for 80 miles before really fading out later on - I just hadn't done enough distance training. Time was 23:02 for 12th place overall, so I hit the sub-24 goal I had going in....and flirted with top-10 until I slowed down. Overall I ran better than I expected, which is always enjoyable and pleasing.

SD100 is a beautiful course, and I just loved running it. More to come .....

Tenderfoot Boogie 50mile - 15May10

2010-05-21T14:18:00.003-07:00

Last weekend was the inaugural Tenderfoot Boogie 50-mile (and 50k/25k) race, a point-to-point route going from Squamish to Whistler. RD Gottfried Grosser did a great job assembling bits of trail into one contiguous route where nothing really exists, although much of it is on the current and to-be-established sections of the new Sea-to-Sky Trail. Any first-time event is a bit of a crapshoot as far as how it will come off, but Gottfried puts on a good event at the Frosty Mountain 50k so I hoped today would be no different.

I always look for a 50-mile or 100k race around May, as it is the perfect time to load this kind of distance in preparation for a summer 100-mile event. With the cost of travel, race entry fees and border hassles playing a part in attending other venues, it was great to have Tenderfoot appear on the calendar – a local event within easy driving distance.

Of course, “easy driving distance” still meant a 3AM wake-up alarm in order to get the 5AM start….. but the early glimmer of sunlight on the horizon and stars overhead indicated that we were in for a fantastic day as far as weather was concerned. Martha and I threw our gear in the car, put full coffee cups into their holders, and headed off up the highway.

My season so far has been “pretty good” with some decent races at Chuckanut and Diez Vista (yah, yah, I’ll write those up sometime soonish…), but a blowout at Sunflower a couple of weeks earlier. I was feeling cautiously optimistic heading into a 50-miler, but really haven’t been doing the long distance that could confidently put me in the top of the field. Looking at the sign-up list, I knew I was in the upper range, but faced some tough competition from speedster Jacek Doniec, Tracy Garneau, Mike Palichuk (coming off a recent sub-3:00 Vancouver Marathon), and Tim Wiens (sub-7 at Mt. Si 50m a month ago). I figured Jacek and Tracy would be gone off the front; I might be near to Mike only if he cracked; but that Tim and I would probably be pretty close. Of course, I would need a pretty solid effort to back up my expectations. My “pretty good” early season has indicated a relative lack of speed, but a fairly strong and steady endurance – maybe not a great combination for the 50k “sprint” distance, but better for longer events like the day’s 50-miler. My plan was to let those four go ahead at the start to not get sucked into a pace too fast for me, and to run my own race and hopefully pick off any stragglers.

As expected, the five of us took off in a bunch at the start, and I held with the others for the first few kilometres, enjoying the conversation as we tried to follow the trail. The navigation challenges that would characterise the day started early, with the trail being marked with translucent red ribbon that was very difficult to see in the early dawn light. I was glad that I had done a training run on the first 25k of the course to know where it went, but was already worried about the remainder that I had not seen.

Kerry Ward, Bruce Grant and Mike Palichuk at 1 km
Photo: Kerry Ward

Not too far into things, I let the other four runners go ahead of me as planned, taking some timely bathroom breaks to force the separation. I was generally feeling alright, but didn’t have my groove on yet. It was either slow coming, which is not unusual, or was going to elude me entirely. I hoped it was the former. I ran with a consistent effort, wanting to pace myself, but also with intent. The distance clicked off pretty quickly over the first 20km, a fairly level section of the course along roads, river dyke, and gradual uphill single-track. The trend of the race would be uphill all the way, since we started well down-river and down-hill from the finish in Whistler. I was surprised to catch Tim as he popped out of the woods, and we ran together into the first major aid station at 25km.

Tim really took off from me at that point, pulling away on a long road section until he was out of sight. I was really surprised to see Tracy just after the aid station, in a jacket walking her dog and yakking on her cell phone – I don’t know what was up, but she was out of the race. That was too bad, she was on track to do really well. As Tim disappeared into the distance, my groove was definitely taking its time coming on, but I felt steady and focussed on getting fluids and calories into me. The quest for marker ribbons began in earnest now, as I was on an unfamiliar part of the course and trails I had never seen before. After a long segment on the gravel road, the route – finally – pitched upward on a rocky track that took us way up above the river we had been following. Apparently the trail was a historic track from 1910 used when the railway was built, and the only off-road section through a very narrow part of the valley. As it got to its summit, the views over the river were fantastic, and the surrounding snow-covered peaks glistened in the early-morning sunlight.

Unfortunately, this track spat us out onto the busy highway. I automatically headed north towards Whistler, but there were no ribbons. The road was heading downhill, and I stopped after a kilometre or so, still not seeing any course markers. Before going too far down, I turned to retrace my steps to make sure I had not missed something where the trail ended. After 100 metres or so, I stepped over the highway barrier at the side of the road, and noticed show prints in the dirt there. OK, so some other runners had gone this way too. I turned around again and headed along the highway northbound once more. And on and on it went, cars and trucks zipping by at 100km/h for a number of interminable kilometres. Finally, I could see a red marker ribbon ahead, and a chalk arrow (wow!) pointing off the road into a bunch of trees.

It wasn’t really a trail, but it wasn’t the highway either. There were lots of ribbons indicating the path through this semi-bushwhack, although there were vestiges of an old trail there in places. Unfortunately, this was all just a bend in the river and we had to climb back onto the highway again. Zzzoooom!! Shhhwwwooosh! Plod plod plod plod. I cursed the highway, but knew that there was nowhere else the route could go.

After a few more km’s of gradually uphill road and approaching the limit of my patience, we flipped off the highway to an aid station and the entrance to an old gravel road. Hey, at least it wasn’t pavement. This was about halfway in the race, and I was there in just under four hours. Fanciful finish times started bouncing around in my head, but there was still a long way to go, as well as the bulk of the race’s elevation gains including, apparently, some snow. The snowline was ~2000’ higher than where I was, so something was going to turn up sometime soon.

I filled my two bottles with nuun, said Hi to my friend Gail who was there crewing for her hubby George, and asked her to pass on my good wishes to George and my wife Martha running behind me. Not too far in, and after stopping to assess a poorly-flagged fork in the road, I caught up to the first of the 50km racers who had started up the trail an hour after the 50-milers did. Actually, it ended up being a string of runners I passed and chatted briefly to – until there appeared three runners coming back along the road towards me. They said they hit the highway again, and there were no ribbons there. Well crap, I hadn’t seen any ribbons for the past kilometre or two, but wasn’t surprised. I knew we had to hit the road again to get up to Brandywine Falls. There was a side road off to the left a little while back, but no markers I could see; the trend of marking had so far been to not flag anything that kept to the main trail, so I said screw it and kept going to the highway. As indicated, there were no ribbons or chalk arrows there, but quite a number of northbound shoe prints in the dirt shoulder. I headed on up the highway, followed by a couple of the 50k runners behind me. I could see no one ahead of me along the road.

The highway kept going and going, with no ribbons or chalk anywhere. I stopped and looked around each time a side road entered the highway, but there was nothing I could see. After about 4km’s, with an irritation exacerbated by fast vehicles, black asphalt, and bright sun beating down while reflected off a cliff beside me, and still no marker ribbons, I was feeling that I was off course and had blown something. I was of ill-humour. I have a pretty good navigational sense and rarely miss course markers, but I was losing confidence I was on the right track although I couldn’t figure out where I might have gone wrong. But then, heading past in his truck honking and waving at me, was RD Gottfried. I turned, expecting him to pull over to tell me I was off course, but he kept on going. What the- ?? That must mean I’m on track. Then why haven’t I seen any ribbons anywhere? Amazingly, after another kilometre, out of the blue appeared a metre-long red ribbon attached to a highway sign, fluttering in the breeze. OK, so I am on course, but we could have used 30cm of that ribbon further back somewhere.

Brandywine Falls approached, and I was interested to see that there was a highway crew there with cones and a flagperson to guide us across the busy highway. There were also two ambulances I could see. I stopped at the park gate and looked for the next ribbon, eased a bit when one of the first-aid people pointed across the park road. Ah. South-east, of course. It was nice to be off the pavement again and into some trail and trees. As the trail wound down, it crossed the railway. The railway had a sign saying “McGuire 1 Mile”: McGuire was our next aid station, and race notes indicated it was 2.5 km from Brandywine, so I downed the little that was left in my bottles. I was hot, thirsty, and getting a bit light on the fluids.

This was part of the new Sea-to-Sky Trail, freshly gravelled (unfortunately, they appear not to know about water bars to prevent instant erosion) with some steep climbs, exposed sections under power lines, and bits that were slow as I navigated around massive puddles or blowdown trees. I did note a fantastic view of the volcanic spire of Black Tusk in one of the clearings. Ribbons were again scarce, and more than a few times, my confidence was only there due to seeing other shoe prints in the dirt. The trail eventually turned away from the main Sea-to-Sky trail it was following, and onto an older, narrow trail that was one of the highlights of the route for me. It was so rocky with tricky footing, it reminded me of the Bruce Trail in Ontario or the Massanutten course in Virginia. I was slowing through here for reasons beyond the tricky footing, as I was drying out. I knew I had to get some fluids in me soon, so where the heck was that aid station?

Well, despite the “1-mile” sign on the railway, and though race documents indicated it was 2.5km to McGuire, my GPS track shows it was 5km. Combined with the slow terrain, and I had been running with no fluids for an hour in the increasing heat of the day. Now I was behind, and needed to catch up.

I rolled into the aid station to refill and refuel, and was surprised when people there said I was in second place. Hunh? I hadn’t seen Mike or Tim for several hours, and definitely had not passed them. They must have gone off course somewhere. With 28km to go in the race, the pressure was on now to maintain my placing through to the end, with a couple of potentially faster runners not far behind me. Good motivation to hoof it! I charged out of the aid station, determined to do what I could to hold my place.

…and onto a great section of trail that skirted the Brandywine River, dancing through the woods before crossing the raging torrent on a suspension bridge. After crossing the bridge, I looked around for ribbons, and not seeing any, ran straight and into the campsite there, which seemed odd. Before I got too far along, though, some campers yelled at me that the course was “over there” behind me and along the riverbank again. Oh – there are the ribbons, a few metres up from the small trail junction after the bridge….after the turn should have been made. Hay-soos!

I have to say that this section was my favourite in the whole race. It was a lot of sweet, winding single-track through the forest along an old trail, and was just lovely to run along. We popped onto the gravelled Sea-to-Sky trail again for a while, but left that after a bit to hit some more single-track again. All this time, I was trying to hammer back more nuun and some calories to make up my deficit, and finally managed to stop for a honey-coloured pee. Not good, but at least it was enough to have to let out. Keep drinking, man!

Eventually the fun trail spat me out on a road. Again, there were no ribbons to mark which way to go. I stopped and looked – nada, but to my right was some big municipal works yard or something, so we must go left. Along the street, across a bridge, and ah-ha! Ribbons that led down the bridge embankment. To a gravel road. And no ribbons. What the- ?? Frick! Walk along a bit – wait, there’s a small ribbon tied around a 3” rock up a gravel embankment….oh, and there’s some ribbons at that small trailhead in the woods. Cheese whiz, man. Run through some nice trail for a couple hundred metres, and plop out into a gravel parking lot with the highway through the trees just in front. And where to go from here? No ribbons. Again. I started along the gravel road off to my right, but paused and looked back the other way just to double check. Wait, that looks like a crew person reading a map, so I ran back towards her. She looked up and pointed me sort of back and towards the highway, but I still couldn’t see any course markers. I stopped and dragged my heel in the gravel to make an arrow pointing this direction where the trail came out.

I got to the end of the parking lot, and there was a ribbon tied to a lightpost, and another on the other side of the highway. OK, I can see where we’re headed now. Up the road a bit, and ribbons led off to the left, and to a small aid station where a kind lady was sitting in the sun, reading. I filled my bottles and grabbed some fig newtons and banana, then headed into the forest again, and uphill along some switchbacks.

I was kind of fired up here, and charged up the hill until I saw someone not too far ahead. I kept on hiking the steep grind with good purpose, and caught up to the guy, Ward. We chatted for a while, and he lamented that he was DQ’d because he went off course along the railway to McGuire instead of the trail, but felt way better now and was loving the day because there was no pressure on him now. I enjoyed chatting to him, he was really enthusiastic and positive. He also said that this was a loooooong hill that got into the snow, so though I left him behind, I knew I had another 1000’ before the snowline and backed off my pace a bit to settle into a more sustainable stride, still aware of my overall placing and not wanting to give too much time up to the guys behind me. Eventually the climb did hit the snow, which got gradually deeper until all the dirt was gone and all footing was on top, and occasionally through, the snow. It was slow going, with the snow wet and slippery as it melted, but still mostly firm enough to walk on. There were lots of alder trees pulled down with the snow, laying across the trail that made for some careful stepping over or around to get by them, they really disrupted any flow you might be able to get in the snow.

After 7km of uphill, a cairn of rocks marked the top of the ascent, and it tipped downward. For a while, at least. Then it headed back up again, steeper this time, although there was marginally less snow since this part was either more exposed to the sun or underneath trees. Three cyclists were coming down the other way, and they said I was almost at the top. Good, I was getting pretty tired, and the grind was wearing my legs down. I pitched over the crest, and finally headed downhill for good. With 6km to go, I was still in second place, and no one in sight behind me although that didn’t mean I could dilly-dally. I was quite fatigued though, and unable to push the pace as hard as I would have liked. Still, I passed the last aid station with 5k to go and ran into the forest along the cool mountain bike trail “A River Runs Through It”. The ups and down, twist and turns, and bike rails to go over reminded me of my training route on Burnaby Mountain, so I enjoyed this part a lot as well. But still, the finish seemed to come so slowly. I knew there were 2km of paved trail that led to the finish line once I got off the dirt. Keep going, those guys are close behind.

I finally hit the paved Valley Trail, and tried to pick up the pace for the final couple of k’s. It was hard, and I was wrung-out at this point, feeling the gradual rises in the trail that slowed me to a walk. Motivation came from the unseen runners behind, and I tried to keep running as much as I could. And then, there it was, the clearing of the park the finish was in, and around the corner, the finish banner. I crossed the line in 9:22, and still in second place overall, behind Jacek who finished in an excellent 8:09. I was wise to have kept running, as Mike came charging to the line a mere four minutes behind, and then Tim cam into view seven minutes after Mike. Wow, the three of us were pretty close after all that.

After finishing, the post-race chit-chat with Mike, Tim and Jacek revealed that we all had some serious route-finding challenges out there, and most of us at some point spent some time off-course, lost, or trying to find the right way. Mike and Tim were as confused at how I got in front of them as I was, it was hard to figure out who may have been off or exactly what happened. We all agreed that on the whole, things were pretty poorly marked, so most people were probably off somewhere. As confident as I was that I was on–course after seeing Gottfried on the highway before Brandywine Falls, I had some niggling doubts after talking to the three other guys.

I waited for Martha to come in, she seemed to be taking longer than expected and I was worried she had a bad day. I ran back along the trail to see if I could meet her, and there she was, looking happy and strong. She had kindly run with George for most of the day, helping him find the course. George is colour-blind to red, so the red marker ribbons – where there were any and as hard as they were to see for normal eyes – were absolutely invisible to him. However, at his insistence, she left George at the last aid station to run to a very strong finish, and felt great. She should – Martha ended up being the first overall female finisher in the 50-mile race, and new course record holder! How cool is that?

George had a tough day, getting badly dehydrated and seriously low on sodium in the unexpectedly long section before Brandywine Falls. Some of the later aid stations were out of water by the time he came through and had nothing but Ultima drink left, which he wasn’t partial to drinking. But, in an amazing show of resilience and mental fortitude, he persevered to finish the race despite his challenges. I am really proud of him for doing so, it can be so easy to quit when things get tough. Way to go George!

Postscript:

As I said, I had some niggling doubts about how I managed to get ahead of Mike and Tim without ever seeing them. The next day, I pulled up my GPS track and compared it to the race map, and realised that it was me who had missed a turn after the Chance Aid Station, and cut about 1 – 1.5 km off the route. This put me in the wrong and despite any similar errors Mike or Tim may or may not have made, I was uncomfortable knowing I came out ahead due to an error and could not ethically let myself take advantage of this situation. I wrote to RD Gottfried and asked him to add 15 minutes to my time, enough to ensure that I was placed in fourth overall behind Mike and Tim (he added 19 minutes). I left the option to DQ me open to him, but to be fair, most of the field would also have to be DQ’d since most people went wrong somewhere due to the vague markings. So, congratulations to Mike and Tim for their overall placing, and Mike for being first in the M 40-49 age group!

Interestingly, except for Tracy dropping out, the finish this way was exactly as I had predicted to myself before the race.

Next year, instead of racing, I think I will volunteer to mark the course myself, there are definitely some improvements to be made there. On the whole though, this was a first-year event, and Gottfried did a good job putting together such a long event over such a logistically challenging route – thanks, Gottfried!

Equipment:
LaSportiva Wildcat shoes
Julbo Contest sunglasses
a whole tube of nuun, variety flavours
Nathan Elite handheld bottles

Not again - witnessing another car/bike accident

2010-05-19T09:53:00.001-07:00

I was on my commute run home yesterday, and heading through the nastiest section around Joyce/Boundary that always has my spidey-senses tingling. This section is always a problem, and I don't mind generalising and saying that the people who live and drive in this area are the most ignorant IDIOTS I have seen on a road. I'm not only talking about drivers, but pedestrians coming and going from the Skytrain station at Joyce. Either way, they have blinders on and drive/walk wherever they please without looking for oncoming traffic, bikes, or runners (although I'm used to the last one - who ever looks out for runners?) I have had too many close calls in this area; fortunately traffic is generally slow, so while risk is high, the potential severity of injuries is relatively low.

Such was the case yesterday, when I was running along the bike path alongside Vanness, approaching Boundary. I saw the light turn green in my direction, and a bike approaching on the road on the opposite side. I caught my breath as a car turned left in front of the oncoming bike, then choked as a second car followed it, causing the cyclist to slow down to prevent a crash. But holy fricken crap - a THIRD car also turned left in front of the cyclist. It was one of those things that happens so fast, but sort of in slow motion as you watch it unfold and your mind processes what it is seeing while simultaneously calculating the inevitability of what is going to occur. The cyclist quite skillfully veered to his right to avoid T-boning the car, but the SUV driver, obviously in absolute oblivion to anything around him, kept on going and hit the cyclist broadside, knocking him down.

I approached the cyclist, who was quite shaken but on his feet shortly after getting struck and knocked down. As I alluded to above, this accident was at relatively slow speed, so the superficial injuries appeared minor. Both rider and driver went over to the side of the road and exchanged info, while I took pictures of the area with my phone's camera. (for the bike geeks, the very nice Cervelo he was riding also superficially appeared to have come out relatively unscathed - of course, that was my second concern after dealing with the cyclist himself :-)

While I absolutely hate seeing something like this happen in general, I am also glad that I, personally, was on the scene to witness what happened in order to explain the incident to the insurance company and/or investigators in order to get an accurate outcome to the case.

Unfortunately, this was the third accident I have directly witnessed. One was another driver/cyclist incident in front of the Emergency ward of the hospital I work at, and the last was a really bad one where a driver nailed a pedestrian head-on and rag-dolled her over the car hood and windshield. Some things you can't get out of your mind (shudder).

I commute by bike or foot regularly in this particular area, and am always on guard. The cyclist in this case was a very experienced road rider, which only goes to show that no matter how smart and skilled you are as a rider, you have no defense against a vehicle being driven by some ignorant POS who has no sense of responsibility when driving.

This photo was my viewpoint of the scene of the crime. I guess I'm not exactly independent and objective in my perspective, but really, if you were in the black car turning left, how could you possibly not see an oncoming cyclist wearing red and orange (same as the dude on the far sidewalk) who was already across 2 of the 3 northbound lanes on the far side? Assclown...this kind of stuff just makes me angry.

Freewheeling -or- what kind of training do you like?

2010-05-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, my friend Wendy took a group of us fellow runners out on a beautiful day to run some new-to-us-but-not-to-her trails in her backyard in Squamish. Wendy is the RD for the cool STORMY Trail Races, and I have been over the course route a number of times. It's got some great trails, but I knew that there were more and more trails in the Squamish are that I had not explored, so it was with great enthusiasm that we took up Wendy's offer to guide us around.

The trails were amazing! Primarily used for mountain biking (must take my bike there some day...), the trails are single-track of various ages, from old well-used ones to brand, spanking new ones, funded from Federal government Economic Action Plan money. Nice to see some taxpayer $$'s going into human-powered pursuits instead of roads or auto companies...but I digress. The route took us through some regrowing clearcuts, some older forest stands, over creeks, across bike tricks, and around rocks. Along the way, we heard birds, saw bear poo, and got great views of the surrounding snow-covered peaks from time to time. The pace was casual to match the different conditions of the various runners - Janet had just run Miwok, and Martha and I did a trail marathon the week prior - but it was laden with chit-chat, laughter, trail gossip (shhh), wondering where we were, and picking where to go next. All in all, it ended up being one of the funnest four-hour runs I have done for a while - thanks, Wendy.

Along the way, I pondered on why I had not run some of these trails before; why I had typically stuck to the well-known STORMY race route in my previous outings up to Squamish. I often wonder why I don't escape well-known routes very often, and had an interesting related discussion the previous week with some other running friends. I was talking to Gail, and she likes exploring new things, seeing a trail branch, and taking the unknown route to see where it goes. Her hubby George tends to stick to the same routes all the time, and isn't big on exploring like Gail is. I realised that I identified closer with George's approach, running known trails, although like last weekend, it sure can be fun doing something new.

I think the difference is that I tend to go out on a training run with a specific purpose and agenda, be it time or terrain. I know route X will take me 3 hours, or that route Y will give me 3000' of climbing. It is fun doing this, and there is a sense of purpose, but it gets a bit repetitive. How do you find new trails, then? You have to explore, or have a guide who has already done the exploring for you.

Sometimes those trail branches are duds, dead-ending in brush or at a cliff edge, or looping back on itself. Those situations are always disappointing, and disruptive to the flow of a run. However, sometimes the new stuff can be incredible, and a great addition to your quiver of running routes.

As for last weekend with Wendy, it opened my eyes to the greater possibilities for the area, so I'll definitely go back. I'll hit the trails we ran on, but I will also be more willing to branch out a bit as my familiarity with the area grows.

Sunflower 26m trail race - May 10

2010-05-10T10:00:00.006-07:00

Just a link to my Sunflower race report over on the LaSportiva Mountain Running blog....
http://mountainrun.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/sunflower-trail-run/

Season opener this weekend - Chuckanut 50k

2010-03-18T15:46:00.007-07:00

This Saturday will be my first race of the season, the Chuckanut 50k down in Bellingham. This year will mark my 9th effort at that race, it an event I love getting down to. I have been relatively consistent in my results there, typically finishing in a 5:15ish sort of time, with outliers at 5:35 (ouch) and 4:42 (yowza!). I love running this race because it is the first time in the year when all the local PacNW runners congregate and I get to see friends from Washington, and even BC too, who I haven't seen since last season. Everyone shows up for this one, and it is a great time. It is a fun course and has always been well-organised, with current RD credit going to Krissy Moehl and my LaSportiva teammate Ellen Parker. Weather can rane from nasty Pacific winter conditions with wind, a deluge of rain, and maybe some snow, or it can be warm and spectacular out; it looks like we'll get the latter this weekend, which is a real bonus.

As far as the actual running aspect goes, Chuckanut is not my kind of course. It starts and finishes with 10k of packed gravel railbed, so tends to favour those athletes with some early-season wheels underneath them - and that ain't me at the moment. My training has been consistent this season, but I am taking a different approach this year with a lot of core strengthening and cardio work which has paid great dividends in hill climbing, my typical weak spot. However, what I have been missing so far is speedwork and leg turnover, so with 20% of the race run on flats, I'll be lacking the skill that most benefits that part of the course. The middle hill section should go well, but overall it likely won't be a stellar finishing time for me. But who cares - I'm not worried about that! What I am really looking forward to is seeing friends and enjoying another beautiful day in the woods!

This year's race will also be a tribute to our dear friend Dave Terry. Despite the opportunity to catch up with many friends, I will definitely miss seeing Dave on the course, he was always a regular at Chuckanut.
Dave Terry climbing up Little Giant Basin Road, Hardrock 2007

LaSportiva Mountain Cup Series

2010-03-03T09:13:00.005-08:00

For those of my friends in the south or those who can travel to the venues, the calendar for the 2010 edition of the LaSportiva Mountain Cup Series has been finalised. Hey, with $25000 in prize money on top of all the fun you'll have, what's not to love? This race series features a variety of events, locations and distances, including many that showcase mountain running in the European tradition, which is typically challenging terrain with a lot of vertical over a relatively short distance. Or was that "nasty, brutish, and short"?

Get details and sign up at www.mountainrunning.com

Race Schedule

4/3/10 Mt. Penn Mudfest 15 km
Reading, PA

5/22/10 Jemez Mountain Half Marathon 13.1 mi
Los Alamos, NM

5/28/10 Rock2Rock Run 10 km
Asheville, NC

6/5/10 RothRock Challenge 30km
State College, PA

07/18/10 Barr Trail Mountain Race 12 mi
Manitou Springs, CO

08/07/10 Squaw Valley Mountain Run 3.6 mi
Squaw Valley, CA

08/07/10 Jupiter Peak Steeplechase 16 mi
Park City, UT

08/08/10 La Sportiva Eldora Trail Race 11 km
Nederland, CO

8/7/10 Mt. Ashland Hill Climb 13.3 mi
Ashland. OR

8/21/10 Up and Over 10 km
Taos, NM

La Sportiva Names 2010 Running Team Roster And Associate Sponsors

2010-02-02T10:15:00.004-08:00

I am very proud to be a member of the 2010 LaSportiva Mountain Running Team, joining with 29 other fantastic runners from around North America. The full team listing can be viewed on the Mountain Running site.

Besides running in some really well-designed shoes like the Wildcat and the Crosslite, we'll be wearing eco-conscious uniforms from Greenlayer Sports Apparel and using gear from Petzl, Ultimate Directions, Julbo, Headsweats, and DeFeet. First Endurance will be fuelling the fire as we take on trails and races around the continent and the world.

LaSportiva has been building the vitality of the trail running sport and encouraging grassroots participation not only through the team sponsorship, but with support to many regional races and events including the STORMY ultras in Squamish, BC. I am looking forward to working with the Team to spread the good word about the sport we love and to welcome more athletes to our community.

Never Say Never Again...

2010-01-29T16:20:00.004-08:00

You may be forgiven for picturing Sean Connery saying this in his Scottish brogue, but aside from the fact that my Dad came from Scotland, there is no association implied. But Connery was the best Bond for what that's worth.

To be honest, it was not so much a case last July of "never" as it was me saying "I think I have had enough for a while, so no Hardrock for me in 2010". The 2009 event did not go so well for me personally, it was one of those races that couldn't be over soon enough and it was all I could do to push through and finish the thing. I loved the run up to Governor Basin, but Did! Not! Have! Fun! for the next 17 hours it took me to go 35 miles from there until the end.

One of my tenets of ultrarunning is that nothing you say about entering a race again counts in the first week after you have finished one. Either the sparkling patina of "the best thing I have ever done" or, conversely, the bleak, shattered desparation of "I'm never doing that again" just don't have the same intensity after you give it a bit of time and your mind and body forget the relevant highs and lows.

And so it is that I found myself stuffing my 2010 Hardrock entry into the mailbox again last week. Am I excited? You bet - Hardrock is one of the most magnificent courses I have had the privilege to run, and it is a wonderful opportunity to connect with friends there. I have not forgotten the challenges I had running last year, but rather than push me away from the race, I have learned from what did not go well and will be better prepared this year.

My wife, bless her, understands me more than I do myself, so quietly nodded with a bemused "I thought you would" smirk when I indicated I was thinking of entering again. She sure is awesome to support me my Sisyphean ambitions. Of course, if I get in, this would be my fourth year running, which implies that should I complete the race, I would automatically apply again next year to get my fifth finish and the privilege that that comes with, i.e. automatic entry should I choose to go back. (Thanks, sweets!)

I was going to head back sometime anyways, due to my personal ambition to nail a top-10 finish there. OK - there, I said it. I am in the ballpark with a 14th and 17th place, and I was running about 10th up to Governor Basin last year (I know, I know - go hard early and pay later, but I won't get into the details here of how good I felt and the control I was in up to that point). Roch Horton was running right with me at Governor and he maintained his pace to finish 9th - that totally inspires me to go for a comparable result; Roch and I have run pretty close together in a number of events, so though I think he is an awesome athlete and better than me, I feel I might have a chance of a similar finish if I run as smart as he did. The other contributing factor to going back this year is that I really was intent on heading back to the Moose Ultra stage race again this summer, but it looks like the race is not on - a most unfortunate loss on the race calendar. Without that priority, my holiday time has freed up a bit to let me get down to Silverton again.

I'll be another eager mouse-clicker on February 5 when the lottery takes place, and would love to get down there again. However, if the odds catch me out, there is always Plan B....and that would still bring me a significant Quantum of Solace.

HURT 100 - Canada kicks ass!

2010-01-18T10:32:00.003-08:00

Holy crap -who would have thought that a couple of athletes from Canada, a.k.a. The Great White North, could run so well in the heat and humidity of Hawaii in January? Emerging from the rain, snow and cold of North Vancouver and Vernon, Gary Robbins and Tracy Garneau each set new course records on their way to respective wins at one of the toughest 100 mile runs around: the HURT100 in Honolulu.

Tracy won last year too, but took a phenomenal 3 1/2 hours off her previous time last weekend, and placed third overall in the race. If you haven't heard of this humble Canadian yet, run a quick Google on her to see that she has been quietly placing at the top of almost every event she has entered over the past couple of years: from 50k's in Kelowna, to the Sky Run 100k stage run in South Africa, to the Brazilian Jungle Marathon, to The North Face Endurance Challenge Championships. Tracy has it all covered, yet appears to be getting faster all the time.

Gary has been training like a demon all winter, and made it all click to overcome Ultrarunning Magazine's Runner of the Year Geoff Roes' previous CR by 16 minutes. Wow. For those few who may not have heard of Geoff, he absolutely blasted many significant course records over the past year, so for Gary to running a notch above Geoff's time (trail conditions notwithstanding) - and absolutely recognising Geoff's talent - indicates that he is definitely onto something. Time to meet more of the big dogs and go head-to-head, Gary!! Still a relative newcomer on the ultrarunning scene, Gary is poised for some great things - watch out for him at some of the majors this season and don't bet against him.

In addition, the indefatiguable Monica Sholz from Jerseyville, Ontario, and previous HURT winner, put in another day at the 100-mile office to place second on the women's race. I also have to add a shout out to another local Vancouverite, Matt Sessions, who overcame the demons that can lay on the Hawaiian trails to complete the 100-mile distance.

Congratulations to all the Canucks who took to the Mauka trails this past weekend!

Race entries: what the- is happening ??

2010-01-13T09:45:00.002-08:00

OK, so things are starting to feel a little “Ironman” in the world of ultrarunning this year. Sorry for the triathlon analogy, but bear with me; those current and ex-triathletes will know what I mean…

So it is the beginning of January, and time to start planning the upcoming season, right?

WRONG! Apparently I should have been planning last August!

Massanutten 100 (race date May 15) entries were closed on Dec 7, and there are 122 people on the wait list after the lottery entry.
Orcas Island 50k (race date Mar 6) was full on Jan 3. Pretty good for a low-key local event that is only in its third year!
Pocatello 50m (race date May 29) was filled on Jan 5. Again, it’s just the second year for this event.
I was up early last Saturday to enter Chuckanut 50k (race date Mar 20) when entries opened at 8AM. It was filled about four hours later.
…and while I’m ranting, it is not filled, but I was going to add my name to the list of the Zane Grey 50m entrants again this year – what an awesome course! – but looking at the registration, the entry fee is $115!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Screw that, I’ll go run a 100-miler for not much more. No more Zane Grey for me. But then again, I’d probably have to turn it into an unsupported 100-miler since it is in the middle of nowhere and there’s no race transport to the start or from the finish area – not easy for a solo traveller like I would be. May as well run back to the start where my car would be!

So what I am getting at here is that a lot of races are becoming extremely popular, to the point where you have to set yourself an alarm reminder to enter the damn thing, nevermind all the training and/or travel…. and then it might still be a lottery entry. You have to think of what you want to do very early, like many months prior to the event, usually before you can formulate a real race plan for the season.

The other thing is that some of those entry fees are getting way up there: $115 for a 50-mile!!! That’s just crazy-talk! Then there are some events like Badwater ($895 entry fee) and Western States ($295) that kind of cover both spectrums. IMHO, Badwater takes the cake on huge entry fees, in addition to Byzantine entry requirements, with the least to offer back. That’s one expensive t-shirt and, if all goes well, a belt buckle. Bring your own aid.

I used to race Ironman triathlons pretty religiously, but saw them – or Canada anyways – transform from you being able to enter in March for $165CDN back in 1989, into frantic lineups to enter the day after the race and a $495+USD entry. On the other hand, amongst other appealing factors, ultras caught my eye as pretty reasonable for what you get out of it with many events priced under 50 beans, with a whole lot more value and integrity added. (and less Speedos, to boot!)

A lot of this has to do with the increasing popularity of the trailrunning sport, and I know that I am guilty in contributing to get many others to either get off the road and run on the trails, or bumping their distances up to the ultra level. This is all a Very Good Thing, and I love to see people embracing our sport or expanding their boundaries. And so, with more athletes and increasing race attendance, demand gets pushed up.

I know there is also the argument that a “proper” schedule would anticipate training cycles, levels and phases of effort, and goal races. A dedicated athlete intent on optimising performance should plan his/her schedule to the day. Read any issue of Triathlete magazine for more info on that stuff. But I race ultras because I love them, and I have a passion and excitement for the opportunities race directors present to us. I get excited to hear about the XX race that I haven’t done before with a gazillion feet of climb, gnarly trails, and 25 miles between aid stations – it is in April and hey, I can swing the time off to get there, so I’m going! I plan a season in broad strokes, but it is very open to whim and opportunity; I’m not as structured as some.

So yes, I got snuffed out of a few races I wanted to do because I was slow on the draw, but that’s OK because now I know better for next year, and there’s so many other races out there that are interesting or challenging to take on instead. However, I lament those easy, lazy times when you could find a race you wanted to do and enter it pretty much whenever you were able; gone are the days of discovering an event on next month and being able to drop into it. The challenge, as I alluded to above, is that we have to start thinking of our race schedules many months in advance.

p.s. I’m ready for some things, and my Hardrock application is sitting on my desk, to be submitted by Feb 5…didn't think I was going to do it this year, but it sure is tempting...

Changing seasons...

2009-11-24T13:32:00.001-08:00

It is that time of year again:

the darkness has set in – like it's dark at 4:30 here in Vancouver
the rains have arrived with a vengeance to make up for the relatively dry summer,
the "big" races have happened, it's time to throttle back and think about next year

But it doesn't mean that running has stopped; it just means a refocus to adjust to a changing environment and mindset. And to accept that no matter how much pussy-footing you do, your feet are going to get wet!

It was a delight when my friends George and Gail sent out the invitations for the third now-annual PoCo Night Run a week or two ago. This is a route they put together along dykes and river trails starting just outside their doorstep in the otherwise suburban environment of Port Coquitlam. Of course, seeing as it was dark at 4:30, bringing lights were mandatory. The idea was for a few friends to get together and get out for a relatively long 30km run, then return for a pot-luck and some autumnal revelry.

It was a delightful run under unusually clear skies, and while people generally ran their own pace, it ended up with the main group all connecting up and finishing the last 15km or so together. We were all out for fun and a good run, and it proved to be a great forum to catch up with friends I hadn't seen for a little while. We returned to a warm house with the food already prepared and set to go by the few who were on the sick list (obviously swine flu if all the papers are right) and some early starters or short loopers. Wine was uncorked and beer caps popped, and the troubles of the world were all solved once again.

Due to the general cool and wet conditions these days, it just isn't practical to get out for those good old 8 hour runs of the summer. The "long" weekend runs turn into a couple of hours, with a need to head back before hypothermia really sets in beyond already numb fingers and toes. No amount of breathable fabrics or thermal layering will prevent cold from setting in while the rain falls and you are running through another navigable body of water that used to be a trail. In addition, the snowline is creeping ever lower, so slush is another possibility.

But it takes all of 48 seconds out of the car or house before you forget the rain and cold, and you are just running in the forest again, seeing things you couldn't see when the ferns were a metre high a month or two ago, or that there is a creek gushing now where those rocks are in the summer. The puddles become part of the trail and you splash through them like a kid in a rain storm. Actually, you ARE that kid in the rainstorm - the muddier and wetter the better, if I time it right, I can splash water from under my shoe all the way up to your chest, gotcha! There are thrushes in the trees, back for the winter and whistling serenely. Flashes of bushtits and kinglets through the undergrowth, peeping from every direction. Mist rising from this little valley, the view of a distant sunny peak from the top of that next climb. It is what you make it.

Not every adventure has to be 36 hours in duration; beauty and friendship are where you find them and what you make them, regardless of the season or the distance.

KAEM - quick summary

2009-11-18T14:01:00.010-08:00

Before I headed off for KAEM, I quizzed a coworker who used to live in South Africa about the country to get some tips. She was asking how the race went, and I thought the quick summary I gave her was also a pretty decent overall snapshot of the trip to post here. So, while a full race report is in the works, here's a very brief snippet of the experience:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Bruce,
> I thought of you a couple of times wondering how you enjoyed your time
> in Africa. Did you find the temperatures extreme or did you manage to
> lope through? How did the race go and what did you end up doing on
> your one day in scary Johannesburg?
> Aren't the Augrabie Falls something else?
> I would love to hear about your trip and what you thought of that desolate area.

Thanks for thinking of me!
It was an interesting time down there, certainly enjoyable, but I can't say I would rush back. What a long trip to get there - 36 hours each way! Joberg was definitely not a highlight, just a big dirty city with that constant overhanging threat to personal security. I think I was most struck by that aspect: the locals who thought we were mad to walk a 1/2km from the hotel to a restaurant or take a taxi, and the fact that the SA athletes had to assess their odds of getting mugged on training runs, to the point of one guy who would always do his training carrying a pistol. That's all pretty scary talk, although we never had any negative experiences. As for Johannesberg, we did try to get to the Apartheid Museum and Gold Reef City, but they were closed at the time (Monday). We did go to a Casino for lunch that had a really good bird and snake zoo - although the Casino was an over the top Vegas imitation (quite the contrast to the extreme poverty close by).

The heat wasn't bad, it sounded like we got lucky with some cooler weather according to what the locals said. It did get over 50C in the direct sun for a few of the days, but I didn't have any particular problems with the dry heat. It rained before the race, which caused a massive hatch of blackflies that invaded our eyes, ears, noses and mouths and occasionally bit us as well (I'm glad I brought a headnet!) However, they only lasted a couple of days so we didn't go too crazy. The countryside was quite beautiful, though not spectacular - I was reminded of places I have been in Utah/Arizona. The Falls were definitely pretty awesome, they must be incredible when the water level is higher. We were surprisingly close to civilisation as our course bounced towards or away from the Orange River, along which were quite a number of vineyards or farms/ranches, though we were out in the barren desert most of the time.

The race itself went well for me, after a slow and painful start. The first two days I had a tough time in the sand, and also developed a very sore back from the pack I was carrying. However, by day three I had smoothed out my running style and rearranged my pack to alleviate the pain, and was running well after that and had a couple of very strong days. Overall I placed 15th of 73 starting athletes, which I was quite content with.

The camp life was fun, we spent a lot of time at camp and under the tents. We had to carry everything we needed for the week, and were only supplied with large group tents and water. Generally we were under the tents to stay out of the fierce sun, but it was also a very social place to hang out, eat, and chat or joke with the other runners. It was good getting to know so many people over the course of the week.

Everyone asks about wildlife, and I did manage to see a number of larger beasts: there was a baboon in our camp at Augrabies Falls (he even went inside some people's cabanas to steal food!); springbok; a herd of zebras running across some hills; and on the last day, there was a two-metre long black spitting cobra that slithered across the road in front of me as I was running. I saw some ostrich on our bus ride as well.
(photo is the tail end of the cobra heading into the grass! )

So, in summary, it was a fantastic trip and I am really glad I went. I think the overall highlight for me was meeting the other athletes and the friendships and camaraderie that we experienced, above the race itself and the countryside.

Thanks for all your tips and advice before I went, it was much appreciated. :-)

You can take a look at some of my photos of the race and trip at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lonerunman/sets/72157622655321298/

cheers,
Bruce

KAEM - Preparations

2009-10-17T14:45:00.012-07:00

The Training

I had it in my mind that I was going to bust my butt to get and stay in top shape through the year in order to excel at KAEM. However, life disrupted those plans and it didn't exactly follow the plans I had. To start with, I was pretty burned out mentally and physically after a big summer last year running Hardrock and the Moose. Adding to that fatigue – or perhaps causing it – I was going through a job change from the place I had been for the past five years to an environment I did not end up being that comfortable in. I struggled in the workplace, and that affected my training. I ended up leaving the new place and, quite fortunately, ended up back in my old job again. I felt much better after that, but then I got sick (working in a hospital - coincidence? ;-). The flu/virus thing exhausted me, and kept recurring. Every couple of weeks when I would feel better, I would go out for a blast of training, then immediately would get whacked with illness again. This cycle blew my plans to prepare and start the season with the Coyote 2 Moon 100-miler in March, and set my overall training cycle back by a couple of months.

I had mixed race results in the early season, with an OK performance followed by one where I cratered, followed again by something great. I blew up at the Silver State 50 mile like I haven't done for years, but turned around two weeks later to take the overall win at the Scorched Sole 50-mile (my first ultra win, by the way!) My next goal was Hardrock, and though I had visualised running to a top-ten placing a few months ago, knew that I would probably struggle somewhere along the way.

Indeed, that was the way Hardrock turned out for me. The first two-thirds of the race held great promise, and I exceeded my performance expectations to run into the Governor's Basin aid station at 65 miles in a top-ten spot at the time. Yeah, I know all about going too hard and blowing early in a race, but this was different; I felt great up to that point and did not feel that I was pushing my pace nor straining. Anyways, to make a pathetic story short, my legs blew and I hobbled the remaining 35 miles to a still-respectable-but-hardly-optimal finish. I just wasn't trained to go 100 miles yet.

I kept up the training after Hardrock, and culminated in a good 120-mile week by pacing my friend Janet at Cascade Crest one weekend, and running in Bishop for the Evolution 100k loop and some shorter runs six days later. The week after that I took my full KAEM racing pack loaded with 20 pounds of food and gear on a long 45km run in Manning Park. All these runs went well, and I was feeling pretty solid in fitness and my ability to run with a pack. I was missing some specific training I wanted like running in beach sand and more work with the pack, but I was comfortable with my general fitness.

Let's Get Physical

How am I feeling going into the race? Pretty darned good, I wish I had been doing the kind of training I have done in the past month back in April!! There have overall been some good signs for me, and a couple of potentially bad things.

On the good side, cramming the long miles in over the past while has ended up with me losing about 3 or 4 pounds to reach what I think of as my ideal race weight. This is good, in that I have less weight to carry along and less body mass to heat up in the desert. I feel leaner, and that is a positive mental boost. I was going well in my long runs, and able to absorb the weight of the pack with no issues, mostly.

On the bad side, I have two worries. The first is regarding my back: on my long run with my pack, I was literally in the last 100 metres of the 45km trail when something "popped" in the middle of my back on one side in the main muscle band along your spine. It wasn't an acute pain, but felt kind of like a blister had popped and then was just a dull ache. There was no blister on the skin, but the next day I had a 7-cm long strip that was swollen up along the muscle. Again, there was no acute pain but just a dull ache. It has slowly faded since, but there is still some lingering aching, so I hope it doesn't come back when I run with a full load again.

My second potential bad thing is that I have grown a cluster of plantar warts right in the middle of one heel pad. I haven't had plantar warts for many years, and I have to wonder why now, and why so darned huge? Sorry for the graphic description, but these things have grown pretty big over the past three weeks (shoulda burned them off a long time ago!) and it is painful to walk in bare feet on a hard surface. Again, I am hoping that these don't cause problems in the race.

Other than that, I feel great!

The Gear, Food and Pack

Like most self-sufficient stage runs, KAEM requires that the runner carry everything he/she needs to survive the week except water and shelter. There are the obvious things like food and clothes that one will need, and the race also mandates that everyone carry some mandatory survival and safety gear. There is also a minimum calorie count that you have to have for every day.

Thanks to Nathan Human Performance systems, I will be running with a Nathan HPL063 pack, a 30 litre bag that has a design foundation based on David Horton's record 66-day run of the Pacific Crest Trail. While the 063 isn't the lightest pack out there at 920 grams, it is designed for running and comfort, with a lot of easily accessible pockets and water bottle holders. It holds all my stuff nicely, and hasn't caused any blisters, chafing or other pains so far.

Jammed into it all is my food and gear that I will be carrying. I have tried to be as minimalist as possible, using some techniques learned from ultralight backpacking, and have done reasonably well keeping my overall gear weight low, at about 8.5 pounds including the pack. This is critical to get down as far as possible, because you have to carry this weight through the entire race, in contrast to food that you consume over time. I may be able to trim another pound or so if I swap my down sleeping bag for an emergency reflective bivy sack, but it depends on how cold it will be at night. (Good sleep is important for daily recovery and being able to keep running well).

Food has been my biggest challenge, primarily the calories I need to take in while I run. I typically race on gels alone, and don't take in solid food during a 100-miler. Gels are heavy, so I won't use them in KAEM. What else to do then, to ensure I get readily available but lightweight calories? I have opted for making gel on a daily basis, mixing Sustained Energy carbohydrate powder into a thick paste. This way, I carry powder, and mix it with water just when needed. I did this during the Moose, and though a bit fiddly, it worked well. The only downside is that I still have about 2 kg/4.5 pounds of powder to carry.

Breakfast will be some instant coffee, paired with a homemade energy bar composed of dates, hemp seeds, hemp protein, chia seeds, and macadamia nuts (400 calories per bar, and quite tasty). Recovery drink and lunch will be Vega meal replacement mix, again a powder. This is a complete carb/fat/protein mix that I always use after my long runs, and it works well. I may opt to switch the bars and Vega for breakfast/lunch, just for variety or what I feel like.

Dinner is a typical backpacker's dehydrated add-hot-water-to-the-bag deal, with a variety of menu items.

Finally, I may pack some treats in the form of instant mashed potatoes or Lousiana hot-sauce-flavoured pretzel bits. I'm thinking the pretzels sound pretty good, how about you? ;-)

Rehydration and electrolytes will all come from nuun. The stuff works, and works well. My only complaint is that it is a bit heavy, relatively speaking, but: it will be hot, I will need electrolytes, and nuun works. End of argument.

Clothing: daily race wear will be my white nuun Patagonia silkweight shirt, Zensah compression shorts with Patagonia Ultra shorts over top, my END Stumptown 10 shoes, and a white OR SunRunner hat with cape. I have three pair of socks to change through, cleaning them and my compression shorts each day if possible. Evening wear is a Patagonia Capilene 4 long sleeve shirt, CW-X compression long tights, and dollar-store flip-flops with red racing stripes. I have a Sugoi Helium jacket as well for wind and cool or damp weather.

Overall pack weight came out to bang on 20 pounds when I left home, but I will be making some weight-reducing adjustments once I get to Africa: a choice on sleeping bag vs. bivy sack, and emptying the dinner meals from their foil pouches into zip-lock bags except one that I will reuse. Hopefully this will drop a pound or more for me, it all makes a significant difference. By comparison, some competitors get down to 8 kilos (~17.5 pounds) so I'm not too far off.

Kalaharie Augrabies Extreme Marathon (KAEM) – The Background

2009-10-17T14:45:00.005-07:00

I am sitting in the airport lounge in Sao Paulo, Brasil as I write this, and I'm really not sure what time it is any more. The joys of international travel and circuitous routings take me to Johannesburg from Vancouver via Toronto (8 hr layover), Sao Paolo (7 hour layover), to JNB; returning I go via Frankfurt (6 hour layover), Seattle (4 hour layover), and home at last.

But it is worth it – I am heading to the Kalaharie Desert in South Africa to run a stage race that I have been looking at for several years. I first came across KAEM when looking at a European race calendar that lists stage runs and ultra races; the French calendar has a more global perspective than the usual race lists we have in North America. We are pretty enthusiastic for 100-milers in our continent, but our fellow athletes in other parts of the world have a very different perspective on ultra running. 100 miles is typically pretty long for them, but on the other hand, they don't bat an eye at running for several days in a row carrying their own gear over rough terrain. While Western States is a bit of a rite of passage for we New World types, Marathon des Sables (MdS) is de rigueur for our counterparts in Europe. Neither approach is better, they are just different, and we can certainly learn from each other.

MdS is one of those destination races that for better or worse has a lot of hype around it. I get the impression that there is a bit of a circus aspect to it, and frankly, wayyyyy to many people participating in it for my tastes. I am a grass-roots, small-scale kind of guy, so while the challenge of MdS appealed, the hoopla and massive participation were detractors (and the price – ouch!). There must be alternatives out there. So KAEM jumped out at me when I was perusing the race calendar: it is modelled after MdS, has been said by past participants who have done both that it may be harder, is put on by a couple who seem to do it for the love of the sport, is cheaper, has a fraction of the participants, and doesn't have helicopters flying over the runners taking video for a DVD. And no guys running in rhino costumes!! It looked pretty good to me.

After completing a number of 100-milers, I was seeking to push my boundaries and find a new challenge, and stage racing seemed to fit the bill. KAEM looked pretty good and I was anticipating it being my first stage run attempt, but then news of the Moose Ultra reached me. The Moose is a 6-day, 300km race on the Bruce Trail in Ontario, so it was close to home. It also had a slightly different take on the typical stage race, where the organisers provided breakfast and dinner, so you only had to carry gear and race food; most stage races like MdS and KAEM make you carry all your food for the entire duration, and only supply water and a tent. The Moose was a must-do for me then, being close to home with no language issues, and also making an easier introduction to stage running for me by supplying food. KAEM would have to wait.

As it turned out, the RD's of the Moose, Richard and Barrileigh Price, were friends with Nadia and Estienne, the RD's of KAEM. To promote each other's events, they offered their respective runners a draw prize of a free entry into the other race. In contrast to my typical lottery efforts, lucky me – I won the entry for KAEM!! I was ecstatic with the prize, and couldn't be more enthusiastic to participate in the race that I had been eyeing for years. I am most grateful to Nadia and Estienne for providing the entry – thank you so much.

The incredible Part Two of the race entry story is that my parents no longer fly, but had a pile of frequent flier points they could no longer use. They offered me the opportunity to book my flight to South Africa using their points, so I am very fortunate to be doing this 36-hour each-way journey in Business Class. Thank you, Mom and Dad for enabling me to get to the race and back in such comfort!

The rest was up to me. I was determined not to squander the wonderful gifts I had been given, and to make the most of such a long time away from my wonderful wife, who was unable to join me because of her work. I had to go and run my best, and enjoy every minute of this race.

Evolution Valley 100k run – Bishop, CA

2009-09-23T21:49:00.010-07:00

I had first heard of the Evolution 100k trail several years ago, through my friends Howard and JB. The idea of the ongoing event – not a race - was to run the designated loop at your leisure, and post results to JB's web site. Pictures of the place looked absolutely stunning, and my desire to take on this challenge was piqued when my buddy H'ard did it a few years ago and I heard his stories of the route's grandeur.

The Evo 100 loop is in the backyard of Bishop, California, which is the hometown of several excellent runners who used these trails for training. The Sierra Mountains of the Eastern Slope provide beauty, excellent trails, and altitude, so it is no wonder you see guys like Phill Kiddoo and Jeff Kozak at the top of many race results.

Phill hosted us for this year's Bishop Ball Buster weekend, which had the Evo100 as a key feature of three days of planned runs. Of the numerous B3 participants, only five of us would take on the Big Loop; the others taking on the 26-mile "Skyline Marathon" route instead.

Phill, H'ard, Eric, Jimmy and I were up at the crack of some single-digit number, and at the trailhead discovered some ice on the surface of puddles in the light of our headlamps. However, the immediate uphill start towards Piute Pass warmed us up pretty quickly. The glow of the rising sun gradually revealed the majesty of the surrounding hills, and illuminated our trail ahead just as we reached 12000' Piute Pass. The landscape spread before us on the other side of the pass was nothing less than absolutely stunning – one of the most beautiful areas I have had the privilege to run.

The trail tipped downward for a long time after this, passing from the high alpine down into the dry coniferous forests in the valley below. It was fascinating to see the different kinds of trees down there; though we have a lot of trees up here in BC, the species were much different there. Our pace was consistent, though unhurried. We had a few breaks here and there to refill our water bottles from the frequent streams that crossed the trail. We had a bit of a running joke between the varied water-collection techniques, with Phill taking his water directly from the stream, me using a SteriPen to zap any bugs, and "Team Giardia" who wrestled with a pump filter that got progressively plugged and slower over the course of the day.

Eventually we came to a trail junction that put us onto the John Muir Trail/PCT. This in turn was a long uphill grind from the valley up to beautiful Evolution Lake, then on through the following alpine moonscape to Muir Pass. Evolution Lake was amazing to see, and it was difficult to not stumble on the trail, what with all the looking around trying to take in the scenery! We were fortunate that there had been some recent rains in the area, so that the otherwise thick dust from heavily-travelled trail was kept to a minimum. We did pass a few hikers, who were amazed that we were doing in one Day what they were planning on travelling in four to ten days. It all depends what you enjoy, and we're all out there taking it in.

Phill is a very strong runner, and somewhat more acclimatised to the altitude than the other four of us, who hailed from sea level. He took off on the trail up to Muir Pass, and we straggled along after him. I had a tough time at this point, being a bit low on energy and really grinded my way up the rocky trail to the top of Muir Pass. As I approached the summit, I could see Phill standing on a small hill....though as I got closer I realised he was on the top of the intricately-constructed stone Muir Hut. This beehive of a structure is quite amazing to have in the middle of nowhere; I can't imagine the effort it took to build it.

We were all a bit bagged here, and took a few minutes in the hut out of the wind to recharge. Jimmy actually had a quick catnap since, the early start of the day and the altitude were making him sleepy on the trail. The break was good for me too, as I knocked back another gel and a bar to pump up my energy reserves again.

The trail tilted downhill on another long valley trail again, and I definitely felt stronger as we got into a more oxygenated zone...or maybe it was the gels. It was a great slope to be running down, mostly a nice, runnable grade down, with a pretty clear trail surface that allowed for some looking around to take in the wonderful scenery around us. Part of the way down, the sun dropped behind the nearby peaks, and the valley started getting cast in shadow. We reached our final trail junction that took us off the main JMT and began the climb up towards Bishop Pass, our final vertical challenge of the route. We regrouped, recharged a bit more, and then headed up the climb.

I felt pretty good heading up here, and was able to power along quite well. We all picked our own paces up this long, long ascent, with Phill racing off ahead of us muttering something about "there are five of us and only four beers in the car". The sunlight gradually diminished as we rose higher, but I cleared the trees just as the glow was fading from the western sky behind the mountains across the valley. It was serenely beautiful.

I fished in my pack for my flashlight, and in the process realised that I had lost my headlight somewhere on the trail. I have never had issues with a broken light or depleted batteries, but always have a backup light and hoped that this would not be the first time I would require one. We passed a group of campers who were set up on a rocky prominence overlooking the valley; in a way, I was jealous of them having such a fantastic spot to camp out with a view like they had, but our mission was different today.

I caught up to Eric, and we slowed our pace until Jimmy also caught up to us; Phill was long gone, and H'ard was trailing a bit behind coming up the hill. After marching on for a while, I realised that Eric and Jimmy had dropped off pace and were a ways back down the climb – it ended up that Jimmy's light failed and they both had to run with one light between them, which made for slow going. Not realising their plight, I kept taking advantage of my good energy and powered up whist was turning into an unending ascent. In the dark, and never having been here before, I had no idea how long the climb went, and what dark hill or peak we actually passed over. Of course, it was way higher than I kept thinking along the way, but that's part of the fun of running somewhere new in the dark. As I got to what must have been the top, the full moon started peeking over the mountains, and illuminating the area around me in slices. With this ambient light, I could finally see what had to be the pass.

Sure enough, I tipped over the top, and then was met with the rockiest part of the entire trail. I found it challenging to get over this stuff with my sub-optimal lighting, and had a heck of a time following the trail on a rock fall section that was all large boulders. I did get off course here, and had to rely on my GPS to relocate the trail fifty metres up the hill. Once I got back on track, things were pretty clear, and the trail got progressively clear of rocks.

The trail ran along Long Lake, which was now illuminated wonderfully in the glow of the moonlight. Despite my increasing fatigue and desire to be finished, I really enjoyed this part of the trail; the perspective of running at night in the lunar glow is something most people don't get to appreciate. The trail left the lake and tipped down sharply, and I knew I was on the final descent to the parking lot. I came upon South Lake and knew I was almost there, but there was one last short but steep climb towards the parking lot.

Phill came out of the van to welcome me in, congratulating me on Becoming Evolved. It was great to be done, but what an awesome trail that was. I jumped in the van to warm up, change and grab a cold beer, and to wait for the other guys to come in as well. Eventually Jimmy and Eric popped out of the woods and proclaimed their tales of just one light between them, and shortly afterwards Howard came in too. H'ard got the credit for Revolving, now completing the loop in both directions.

I have to say thanks to all the guys for company, and especially Phill for hosting us and showing us his backyard trails. I'd like to get back to down to revolve sometime myself!