Orcas 2012

With the Capitol Peak Fat Ass canceled due to snow, I was feeling a little too well rested and unprepared for Orcas. Rob and I were the only ones making the trip this year with Dave coming along to help out with the race. We had a good trip up, made the 4:00 ferry and arrived at the lodge in daylight. We had a quiet evening and bedded down early in the bunk house with Eric and Jenny and a couple of others. The weather was so nice that I decided to run without a backpack, just a few gels in my pockets and a couple of handhelds. I started a little fast to get warmed up and settled down to a comfortable pace. I felt I did the first 10 miles too slow, but I was only about 6mins. behind Eric at that point. I was real good about staying hydrated and fueled prior to the long grunt up the power line trail, but as I started the hike up, I felt my calves starting to tighten up which was a new problem for me. Just before I crested the top, my lower back muscles spasm-ed nearly stopping me in my tracks. This happened to me last year midway through the Capitol City Marathon with the same results. I tried running down the gently sloping trail and was slowed by pain. Here was one of the fastest portions of the course and I could only move along at half speed! I tried more fluids and electrolytes but to no avail. As runners streamed past me I just chugged along in low gear. I found that by run/walking I could keep moving but I would need to drop. I caught up to early starters George and Karen Wiggins and Karen offered me some perscription pain killers but I had nothing to prove and didn't want to injure myself more. It was such a nice day, I decided to not drop at the water aid station but go ahead and do the hike up to the top of Mt Constitution so I could get some hill work and enjoy the great view up there. I made it to the top of the mountain about an hour later than I normally would, but felt great to be finished on a sunny day on such a scenic spot. The best part was the car that was leaving right then to go back to the lodge, so I got a ride down before I got too cold up there. I mostly felt bad about not getting enough mileage in.

It's been almost a year since my last post. Last year was good. I felt stronger than ever after several weeks of hill training at Rock Candy Mt.

I had a pretty good White River 50miler, fell down running uphill at about mile 17 and lost all my electrolytes. I finally made it out of the flat section at the half way point feeling great, but dehydration set in  during the next climb and it took me awhile to overcome. Ended up finishing just off my PR, but I was hoping to beat it by an half hour at least.

Cascade Crest was fun, then disappointing. I managed to fry my quads on the steep downhill before the tunnel at the half way point. Really hit me hard at mile 80 right after the No Name ridge aid station. I could barely walk on part of the fastest trail on the course. To make matters worse, Kris Ryding paced me from there, so she didn't get much of a run in but was very inspiring to have along. Again no PR as planned, took an hour longer!

I have an ambitious year planned with an early 100 miler at Badger Mt. Really looking forward to the Rainshadow runs in the North Cascades this summer.

Orcas 50K!

Another great time at Orcas. It started out a little slow, Kris and I missed the 4:00 ferry and had to wait 3 hours till the next one. Fortunately I had an audio book "4 Fish" and learned about the extermination of Atlantic salmon and the successful domestication that brought them back, a little genetically altered. Friday night at the lodge was fun seeing everyone show up, getting something to eat, then the Oly crowd headed to our bunkhouse. I scored a lower bunk with drawers so I was very happy. By 10:30 lights were out and we all konked out. Kris, Heidi, and I woke everyone up at 5:30 in the morning. Kris and Heidi were doing a super early start since they had to leave early afternoon and they wouldn't just run the 25K. I got up early to cut bagels and muffins for the breakfast I host every year. Breakfast went great, John and Alex (won the ultra series last year but now injured) helped alot. We were all bad at making coffee. At the start of the 50K, I ran into Glen but didn't catch up to him till about 3 miles in. We ran the first loop together until the downhill when Bushwaker showed up and I took off. I felt great after the first loop, and had a good climb up the powerline, Bushwaker passed me right away, good training for Hard Rock! I topped the powerline and had a great downhill chasing Joesph down to the lake. But I hadn't been drinking enough and I was about out of water for the loop around the lake. I stumbled through this bad patch, mad at my poor planning. I started to recover after the water stop and climbed the 3 miles to the top of Constitution with Joesph. It was great to see Glen near the top taking pictures and even better seeing the aid station at the top. I chugged down some fluids, ate some food, grabbed a cookie and headed down. My dehydration showed on the downhill. I just couldn't get the wheels turning. But I felt good so as it started to level out, I ran better. When I got down to the last lake loop, it looked like I might be able to finish under 7hrs.
I was running strong, but at the back end of the lake, we were sent on a new trail so the finish was farther away than I thought. I didn't care, I was happy I was running strong at the end especially after not training much before the race. I finished in 7:07, sixth in my age group, a half hour slower than last year. I guess the course was a little harder and longer than last year and I was a little bit slower. As usual, great food, music, beer, and bonfire after the race.
It was a great start for what I hope is a fun ultra season!

Mega Wet Fat Ass

We had a very successful Capitol Peak Mega Fat Ass. Last week I marked the upper part of the course, on race day I was going to sweep with Kris. The morning started with me watching the start, then heading up to Falls Creek to set up the turnaround aid station with Glen Rodgers. We then headed up to the peak where Glen would be stationed. I ran down the course to Falls Creek to meet Kris. It was a great warm-up run and I got to see most of the long course runners heading up the hill before I got to the 17 mile turnaround. It was unseasonably warm and dry and everyone was in good spirits. I didn't have to wait long for Kris sweeping behind the last long course runner, who promptly dropped! The last runners left about 10 min prior so I knew we would catch them before the top. We headed up at a steady pace and it began to rain. I ran into Seth in first place bombing down past the trail 50 intersection, he only had a couple of minutes on Yassine though. It would prove not to be enough. By the time we reached the top, we had caught the last runner, the temperature dropped 10 degrees, the wind was blowing and we were in full rain gear. The last guy was 61 years old and just plodding along. As Kris and I followed him, we started to get cold, and he started to have problems. Half way up the steep grunt, we decided I should run ahead and get the search and rescue to drive up to the peak and pick him up. I ran up and over the peak and down to the search and rescue and rode with them back up to the top to pick up the runner. Then I ran back down to the aid station with Kris and grabbed my insulated vest to stay warm. The last runners were now a 1/2 hour ahead of us, but we make up 15 mins on them by the time we reached Fall Creek. Boy it was wet, I've never seen it that wet up there and the trails were raging creeks. It was slow going picking up the flagging and all the water and mud. We never caught up to the last runners and finished just as it got dark. We were both totally soaked and tired but it was a good experience and I got 30miles in!

Capitol Peak 50 miler

There are so many to thank for this weekend's Capitol Peak 50 miler. First of all, thanks to John for despite many obsticles, put on a fantastic race on a great course with great weather and thanks for letting me run it this year. After hurting my hamstring 2 weeks ago at Peterson Ridge 60K, thanks to Ted from Integrated Sports Therapy for getting me back on the trail with no pain. Thanks to Kris and James for most excellent trail marking, aid stations and everything else. Thanks to tall Dave and Jim for chopping that tree across the road like busy beavers. Thanks to Wayne for not being 20mins late picking me up for the start. Thanks for Racheal for hopefully accepting my apology. Thanks to tall Dave and Wayne for starting slow and running steady with me. Thanks to Clem for giving me tips about the Swan Crest trail. Thanks to Kent Holder for showing us how it's done when you're over 70. Thanks to Bill and Jenifer for running the Mt. Molly aid station all day. Thanks to Dave and Terry for standing in the middle of no where and pointing us up the grunt. Thanks to Ulrike for sweeping though I never saw you. Thanks to Laura for helping Kris sweep. Thanks to Heidi for finishing strong. Thanks to Rob for finishing 6th in his first ultra. And finally, thanks to Wayne for finishing his first 50 miler!

Hammer On!

This is going to be a very interesting year. It all started out with a notification that I was selected to be a Hammer Nutrition sponsored athlete for 2010! I thought it was worth applying for since I had quite a few podium finishes in my age group, but I think they were most impressed with the number of referrals from my website. I get some free stuff to hand out and deep discounts so it will be alot of fun. The other exciting news is I'm going to do the Swan Crest 100 in Montana at the end of July, should be an incredible course as a point to point along the Swan Crest range. Hopefully I will also be able to do the Waldo 100K again and get an age group award.
I had mixed results at our first event this year, the Capitol Peak Mega Fat Ass. I normally only do the 25K, but this year I went for the 50K distance. Unfortunately, I came down with some stomach flu and turned around early a couple of miles short of the summit. I still got in about a 24 mile run, but I really wanted to run the whole thing. At least I got back in under 5 hours and got to watch most people finish. Next is Orcas 50K, fun time but hard course.

The long CleElum 50K

Note to self, don't drive to a race on I-5 on a late friday afternoon! The longness of my weekend started with sitting by the tacoma dome for a half hour waiting for traffic to clear so I could make to HWY 18. Kris missed the delay by taking the Puallyup shortcut, what was I thinking? Wayne, Kris, and I all car camped together at the start/finish. John was there helping out James organizing the aid stations and making a late night trip into town to pick up more supplies. Of course James waited until about 10:30pm to head out and mark the whole course! I slept great and woke up early to help get the registration table organized since James was still out marking the course. James showed up just in time to give the pre-race talk and get us started. The course starts with a two mile uphill on a gravel road which was marginally runnable. I managed to keep up with Kris, and Wayne even caught up to us, all that Rock Candy Mt training was paying off! Once on single track trail, it kept going up and I couldn't keep up with Kris anymore so off she went. My goal was to finish 1st in my age group so I started looking for old farts to pass. I was feeling good and it was great to see John making p-nut butter sandwiches at the first aid station. After 10 miles of constant up, it was great to be on the ridges, but the trail always seemed to have more ups then downs. I decided to take it easy, not knowing if there would be any relief further down the trail. I managed to pass what I figured was the last old guy and ended up running alone for a couple of hours. The weather was great at the start, but now there were rain showers and wind blowing on the exposed ridges, so I threw on my jacket and enjoyed the peekaboo views. I finally caught up to a couple of runners as we ascended the big switchbacks up the exposed grassy hillside. A couple of miles later, we made it to the aid station. It seemed that the distance between aid stations was always more than expected and the trail continued to have more up than down! Finally there was a good downhill section and I took off, leave the other runners in the dust. One of the aid station workers told me that Kris was about 8 min ahead, but I didn't think I would catch her since she is always faster on the downhills. But the down was short lived and I was back to an upward slog when I ran into Kris, who was just standing there, frustrated about where the next aid station was. We ran together to the last aid station, but shortly after leaving, Kris decided to slow down since she was doing hundred in the hood next week and only needed to finish. I told her only six more miles, should only take an hour and a half. But the trail was still going up and it took forever to reach the water drop with 2 miles to go, before the final downhill and Kris went blowing by me cussing and swearing about it taking too long to finish. I just kept plodding along at an easy pace and got passed for the first time by the woman I passed back at the windy pass aid station. I figured I would finish around 7:30, but that time went and passed and I still wasn't close to the finish. So ten minutes later, I finally saw the line. Kris beat me by over 3 minutes, but I was happy, I won my age group and James gave me a couple pairs of socks as a prize! The best part was waiting for Wayne to show up. He was concerned about finishing this hard race and we had even talked about taking the early start, but in the morning, he toed the line with the rest of us. We were getting nervous as the cutoff time was approaching when here comes Wayne, hauling down the trail with 5 min. to spare! It was a great accomplishment for him, just starting trailrunning a year ago. This course was exceptionally agrivating because it always seemed to go up and come to find out, it was probably 34 miles so it was long and it felt long. I hung out afterwards to help break down the finish and since I had room in my van, hauled some tables to Easton for storage. I ended up very tired and the next day felt that even though I had a good race, I was just burned out on the whole process and decided this was my last race for the season. I would miss hundred in the hood, but I had a good season, finishing in the top three of my age group in every race but one. It's now time to regroup, rest, then start training for next year!