Today was to be a quick training run up in Capitol Forest. Kris and I would run a short loop while John surveyed the damaged bridge by Trail 50. Of course there was snow on the trail and it was raining hard at the start, but we decided to take it easy and power hike the ups. Soon, the snow deepened and the power hike turned into a slog up the steep switch backs. I felt like we were climbing Mt. Rainier as I broke trail in the deep slushy snow, one laborous step after another. I began thinking about my spin class the previous night. Rachael, our instructor, threw in a 15 min. "Time Trial" in the middle of our workout. During the workout, she talked about the importance of maintaining consistant effort and that this was about mental toughness. So as I climbed the switch backs, I developed a steady cadence and concentrated on maintaining steady effort. When we reached the top, I was pooped! We decided to run back down on the roads. A 4 wheeler had made it up there so there were some tracks in the deep snow to run down on. The tracks were just a little bit too narrow, I had a hard time keeping my balance, so most of the time, I ran down the middle, which was semi compact. About 2/3 the way down, the road finally cleared of snow and we ended up with a good 2.5 hour workout. Hopefully the Fat Ass course will melt a bit before next weekend's race.

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This last saturday, Kris and I did trail work with the Friends Of Capitol Forest.(the others were all mountain bikers) The goal was to clear the down trees on a bad section of the Fat Ass course and try to figure out what to do with a couple of bridge washouts. The weather was a mess on the drive up, but at Falls Creek, it was dry and balmy. The organizer, Dave Snyder, set up teams to work on different sections, and gave me about 9 people to work our section. I lead the car caravan out of Falls Creek to the Trail 50 intersection, and it began to snow heavily! About a third of the way there, I slid into the ditch, I sent everyone ahead as I put chains on and waited for a tow out. Lenny dragged me out of the ditch with his 4WD and by the time I reached the first washed out bridge, Kris had already come up with a bypass plan and everyone was working on clearing a new path around the creek. I went ahead with my chainsaw to work on the down trees in a slide area another 1/4 mile down the trail. Henry was already there with his saw stuck in a log. We spent the next couple of hours cleaning up the down trees and rebuilding the trail in this winter wonderland. I had to leave, but the crew moved to the next washout and created a nice boulder walk through the falls. Thanks to all the work of FOCF, the trails are now ready for the Fat Ass. Those mountain bikers rule!

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Ran the upper loop of the Capitol Peak fat ass today. Of course it snowed, but not bad and it didn't start sticking until I got to my parking spot. Just past the intersection of Greenline and C line, there is a large slide across the road, 4 wheelers can drive thru, but not my volvo! Starting up Green line, there is a lot of trees down, edge of the clear cut caused the problem, once in the clear cut, smooth sailing, but between there and trail 50, there is alot of water rutting on the trail. We'll need to build some more water dams. Past the intersection of trail 50, Green line is clear to the top, and the ridge heading down is good also. It looks like the FOCF did major damage to the salmon berries, there is now an 8 ft swath down to the triangle. Met a couple of mountain bikers there, they couldn't find the entrance to Green line going up so I pointed them in the right direction. The trail is in good shape from there down to Wedekind. The worst is Mima Porter between Wedekind and trail 50. One creek crossing is totally washed out and is much bigger, needs a bridge. Just a bit further down the trail, there is a big mud slide with a bunch of trees across the trail. Then at the next creek, the bridge is torn from it's foundation and is hanging on to one side by a corner. I ran the road back down to Green line. It was great running on about an inch of snow, nice and cushy. Looks like we'll need to coordinate with DNR on a couple of bridges and have some chain sawing to do!

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Due to a variety of injuries, I haven't actually run on a trail outside the city limits since August! Finally made it up to Capitol forest for some trail work and fat ass recon. John, Kris, and I showed up at the "Y" for the monthly Friends of Capitol Forest work party. I tried out the new trail mower machine, this beast is like an overgrown rototiller with a three foot wide muncher bar on the front. It is diesel powered and totally destroys anything in its path! Can't wait to haul it up to the ridge on greenline and destroy some salmon berry bushes. After an hour and half, I was pooped, wrestling that monster through undulating patches of salal next to the new "Y" parking lot. It started snowing and we were itching to head up to the mountain to check out the last section of the upcoming fat ass. The plan was for John to drop Kris and I off on C line by the greenline crossing, and we would head up the road, catch trail 50 then head down Mima Porter to Fall Creek. John was to park a Fall Creek and hike up Mima Porter till he met us. It was snowing pretty good and the road was totally covered as Kris and I climbed the first couple of miles. Once we hit the trail and started heading down, it was great run in a winter wonderland! The trail was in good shape for the fat ass, the mountain bikers had fixed the deep ruts. We met John near the bottom and back tracked a little so John could see the trail work. The event of the day happened further down the trail where John showed us a fresh cougar track. As we crouched down to examine the print and the deer print next to it, suddenly Kris yelled "bike!" in our periferal vision there was a yellow blur almost upon us and John jumped and let out a yell which made me jump also! Of course it wasn't a cougar, but a mountain biker, but he gave all of us a good scare! It was great being back up on the mountain, I'm starting to get over the injury hump.

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After a successful season riddled with injuries, I had to take a month off after Waldo to recover from a shin splint and then, just as I was planning to start up with training again, I caught a bad cold! Finally, the second weekend in October, I'm running again. A couple of 6 mile runs around the lake was enough to prove how out of shape and slow I am. The immediate plan is to ramp up some road mileage to see if I can be ready to run the Seattle Marathon and qualify for Boston. I'm going to work on some strength training and play some tennis to work on my lack of bounce and lateral movement. The ultimate goal is to get back in shape to attack Orcas Island 50K in Feb.

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After DNFing Waldo last year, I've been really looking forward to attacking this beast of a run again. Unfortunately, I spent half my summer injured and I wasn't sure till the White River 50miler if I was in good enough shape. Rode down with Kris who finished last year and we had a spaghetti diner at the Willamette Ski Lodge and listened to Chris Thornley's pre race instructions then I sacked out in my tent right by the start/finish. Woke up at 2am feeling ready, got to the start line for the 3am early start with 30 others. I hiked up the first section with Todd Temple, he's faster than me but had also been injured so we both took it easy. On the downhill, we slowly pulled away from the rest, blew through the Gold lake aid station and started climbing. I let Todd go, but by the time I got to Fuji Mtn. aid station, I was in 4th place. It was 5:45 in the morning and there at 6,500 ft aid station was John Pearch in a grass skirt! I wish I had a camera there. The climb to the top was comfortable and the sunrise view at the top was fantastic. On the way to Mt Ray aid station, I passed Pete "Hippo" and left the aid station in 3rd place out of the early starters. Even though I'm a solid mid packer, I suddenly felt like I was racing and with Hippo in tow took off with renewed vigor. About halfway to the Twins aid station at around 23miles, some hiker moved the trail markings right after Todd passed through the junction and sent me and Hippo the wrong way. I was happily cruising down the trail for another 30 min. when the terrain didn't seem right. We stopped at a junction with more flagging heading downhill when the normal start, first place runner went blowing by down the trail, so off we went. We then hit another junction and ended up on the Gold Lk trail at a stream crossing I recognized. Holy Crap! we were way far away from the Twins. Fortunatly, I felt great and had plenty of time to finish and get that dam hat, so off we went back tracking. We arrived at the Twins aid station about 1.5 hrs late. I ran an extra 6 miles and went from 64th place overall to 90th(out of 100). I felt good but had lost my spunk. I decided to rest at Carlton Lk aid station, where I dropped last year, and get my head back in the game. At Carlton Lk, I got a blister taped up, had a shot of beer from Clem's keg, (I heard I was the only runner that had one), fueled up and took off into the great unknown. I ran mostly by myself for the next 3 hours, walking the ups and cruising the downs, saving energy for the Maiden Peak climb. At the Maiden Peak aid station, I met Hippo again and Kent Holder. I hiked up Maiden just like I did Suntop at White River, steady and energetic. I actually passed those two on the way up, I never pass runners on a hike! I felt great at the top of Maiden and the view was fantastic. I headed down to the Maiden Lk aid station knowing I had the finish and a hat in the bag. However, on the last 7 mile section, I developed a shin splint on my right leg and couldn't run more than a few steps at a time. So I walked around the lakes, enjoying the views, but got concerned about the darkness. Didn't want to finish with a headlamp, so I jogged in and was greeted by Kris and John at the finish and got my Hat! I felt great but hated finishing so late, most runners had gone home, it was dark and cold, and I had to jump into my sleeping bag to stave off hypothermia. Though I was disappointed about the detour, the race was so well done, the aid stations were incredible, and I felt comfortable the whole distance. I feel if I pay attention, I can easily do it under 16 hours next year.

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Had a successful White River 50, did terrible first half, but recovered and ran a great second half, proving my motto "It doesn't always get worse!". We started friday nite with a Pasta feed at the Snorting Elk at Crystal Mountain, with RD Scott McCoubrey standing there with a crutch, high on pain pills, doing a great job describing the race. The morning weather was great for the start, sunny and cool. I started near the back, my plan was to start out slow. I ran along the single track trail in a pack at a very comfortable pace except for the woman behind me who was so excited, she kept running up alongside me even though there was no room on the trail. The first climb is steep and as usual, everyone started passing me on the hike up. With 5 more miles to Corral Pass, I was feeling down, must only be 10 runners behind me. This section was an out and back, It was great to see all the runners coming back, James let out a holler and was cruising comfortably, but on the way back, I didn't see very many runners :( However, I did figure out I wasn't eating my gels, so I fueled up and started picking up the pace. The last leg of the first loop was a 4.5mile downhill. I now felt great and started passing runners until I tripped over a rock, knocking myself over the steep bank until my left leg got stuck inside the end of a rotton stump. I hurt alittle all over, but the real pain was my left calf cramping. I crawled back up to the trail and noticed I lost one of my handheld bottles. A couple of runners came by and helped me look for my bottle, but it was long gone. I ran well down to the start/finish aid station where John thankfully ran to his car to get me another hand held(I did worry about cooties), which was critical for the next climb. I started the climb to Sun Top full of energy and started passing more runners. Just before the summit, Glen was there taking pictures and this time I was really running! I felt good on the 5mile downhill on the gravel road and continued to pass more runners. At the last aid station, I thought I might be able to finish under 11 hours. But the last 6 miles was gnarly and rooty and it took me 15 minutes longer to reach the finish line. I was very happy with my run even though it took so long. The best part, I ran the second loop almost an hour faster than the first loop and no one passed me until the last 100 yards. Now I feel ready for Waldo!

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