This was going to be an interesting race. I was feeling good but the weather was going to be hot. I did ok with hot weather at the Grey Rock 50K so I thought I still had a good chance to get a good time. I was especially happy that my new trail shoes showed up at the running store 20min before I was leaving town, they had been back-ordered for 3 weeks and I was afraid I would have to run in my beat up road shoes. Got up to Buck creek and set up my tent by the start line then up to Crystal Mountain for the spagetti feed. Met Kris up there and we ran into Glen and heard his great story of finishing Western States just under the time limit. After a great nights sleep, woke up in time to watch the Eric and TJ take off with the early starters. I decided to where my pack for the first half of the race so I could carry all my fuel, then ditch it when it got hot. I ran the first leg too fast again, even with a minor fall, it was good to see John there to cheer us on and I was feeling great. Charged up the climb and did the stairs without anyone passing me which has never happened before. A quick potty break and I met up with Kris and and actually beat her to Corral Pass. At the aid station, there was John cheering us on and after grabbing some eats, Kris and I left together. On the way back, we saw Heidi and Harvey both doing well. When we got to Ranger creek, I knew Kris would crush me on the downhill, but I actualy stayed with her half the way down until I started not to feel good. I got to Buck creek almost on 10hr time and by far the fastest I'd done that first loop. I tried to fuel up as best I could, but couldn't get up to speed on the 2 mile flat before the climb to Fawn ridge. Things got worse during the climb, I was hiking slow and couldn't run the runable sections. It was warm, but I had screwed up my fueling and was low on energy. To top it off, I couldn't choke down a gel so it wouldn't be till I stumbled into the Fawn ridge aid station before I could fix my situtation. I spent some time recovering at the aid station and getting refueled and by the time I made it to Sun Top I was feeling better, but still spent too much time there before heading down the 6.5 mile road section. The downhill went great! I just took off at a steady fast pace and stayed consistant all the way to the bottom, passing about 10 runners. At skookum flats aid station, I had to sit in a chair for a couple of minutes though, with John reminding me that the finish line was that a way! So I headed off down the trail, feeling ok, plodding along until about the last three miles I ran out of energy and had difficulty running for any length of time. I think almost all the runners I passed on the downhill went by me in this last section. It was hot and depressing and I was mad about screwing up my finish time. I eventually made it to the finish at 10:46, not a bad time for the conditions but I knew I should have done much better. Kris struggled also but still beat me by at least 20 min. Heidi came in an hour later, very tired, and Harvey kept us all anxious by finishing 2 min. before the cutoff, the last official finisher! I was very happy with my performance on the first loop and the road downhill. I think I needed to eat more atfter the ranger creek aid station to not fall behind before I reached buck creek. Well I should be able to go under 10 hours next year!

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"The toughest 50K in Washington" With a boast like that, I couldn't wait to check this race out in Yakima. After a successful Rock n Roll marathon, Harvey signed up and we car pooled over with his 2 year old daughter and brother-in-law Gil as the babysitter. After checking into our hotel in Yakima, Harvey had the good idea to drive out to the trail head so we could time it correctly in the morning. Lucky we went out there since it ended up taking about an hour to get up to the campground. The next morning, we arrived right on time, it was a small mostly local crowd doing either the 50k, 25k or 12k. King Arthur showed up on his harley after waking up at 2am and charging over the pass. The RD gave his pre race talk emphasing that it would get hot out there and to take lots of water. He also warned us about lighting strikes and forest fires. At the start, we went up the first 2 mile climb, I took it comfortably and in no time was cruising down the 5 mile downhill to the middle aid station. Then came the 7 mile up to the turnaround aid station. I spead up to pass the guy in my age group ahead of me. It was starting to warm up and I could feel alittle elevation (5-6,000ft) but the climb wasn't that bad. I got to the aid station, did the mile out n back and checked my watch. 3:10! this was going much better than I thought. Instead of trying to beat 7 hrs, I was closer to a 6 hr finish! On the way back, I heard a helicopter and a couple miles down the ridge was a new forest fire. It looked like it was far enough away not to effect our race, but I caught myself interrupting my downhill run stopping to look at the fire from time to time. It was getting hot so when I left the middle aid station, I decided that instead of going all out to finish under 6 hours, I would take it easy on the last 5 mile climb since I had my age group in the bag. So I walked most of the climb, got passed by a couple of runners, then I even took it easy on the last 2 mile downhill because it was rocky and I didn't want to fall. I finished in 6:10 and felt pretty good about how I managed the race. I stayed well hydrated and felt good most of the time. I even got a little medal for winning my age group. But all that went out the door when I locked Harvey's keys in his van. It ended up taking Harvey 31/2 hours to catch a ride into town, get hold of AAA, and ride with the locksmith back out to the campground. In the meantime, I helped the volunters break down the finish line. It was a great event, but a long day...

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Lake Youngs is an urban 3 lap trail race around Lake Youngs with not much elevation gain so it's all runnable. Each lap is just under 10 miles so the course is about 29 miles. Last year, I ran it pretty hard with Matt with a time of 4:19. This year, due to my hamstring and heel injury, my goal was to not get hurt and finish under 4:30. This is a low key race, and King Aurthur, the RD, was running it also, so at the start he just said "Let's Go!" and off we went. The weather was great, cloudy a chance of clearing, and I started off with a comfortable pace. Steve Stoyls caught me, and we ran together until about mile 6 when I had to make a dodge into the bushes for a bathroom break. I ended up running the first lap a couple of minutes faster than last year without really working at all. I guess I'm in better shape, the hills on the backside of the loop didn't seem bad at all. I did slow down the second lap, I didn't want to push it, but when I got to mile 17 in the hill section, my hamstring started to tighten up and I slowed more and started to wonder if I should do the third lap. As I got closer to the finish, I thought how great it would be to stop now, with a good 19 mile training run in, and not hurt myself some more. But it was important that I get a long run in and I knew I could hobble around the loop one more time. I ended up charging into the aid station, handing Tony C. my bottle for a refill, and charging back out on the course. I knew if I stopped, I would sit down and not leave. I suddenly felt better and chuckled that this was another example of my motto, "It doesn't always get worse!". Then suddenly, I had another impending diarrhea attack. I was in a bad spot with no access to woods for another mile and a half, so I toughed it out and made a dash for the bushes at the first opportunity. I had to sit there for a long time, probably 5 minutes and when I finally got back out on the trail, I noticed the thirteen year old kid was ahead of me by a couple of hundred yards. I ran the rest of the loop at a comfortable pace, no problems on the hills and I caught the kid on the last hill just before the finish. This was his first ultra and he ran each lap without a water bottle! I let him finish in front of me so he could hear the praises from the crowd first hand, plus it was kinda neat getting punked by a kid! I finished in 4:27 and change with factoring in the potty breaks, was about the same that I ran it last year but with much less effort. It was a good day and I'm glad I decided at the last minute to make the trip.

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Since my surgery, I've been running capitol city marathon for the last 5 years with finish times from 3:36 to 3:46. Before surgery, I usually ran 3:20's. So again this year the plan was to run a sub 3:30. Previously, I've either had an injury or ran Mac Forest the weekend before so I couldn't go full speed. This year I planned to skip Mac Forest so I would be rested for the marathon, but ended up injuring myself anyway. When I got laid off from work, I decided to take that opportunity to lift some weights. So of course, I started out 3 times a week and promptly strained my hamstring! So I started the marathon with a nagging injury but I thought I would give it a try anyway. At the start I got together with Rachael and Terry(in pink-he lost a bet!). Kris was there for moral support and she would check on us out on the course. Also running was Ulrike-paced by Dave, Heidi, Ted, and Israel. After the first mile, Rachael decided to drop back while Terry and I pushed on at a 8+- minute/mile pace. The first 16 miles has some rolling hills so I wrote my goal time for mile 16 on my hand to check my pace then. After about 10 miles, I surged ahead of Terry (to get away from his pinkness)and when I reached mile 16, I was right on the mark! But, same as last year, in the next two miles, the hammy tightened up and my 3:30 finish was out the door. Terry went by me like a shot as I settled down to a slower pace to get home without hurting anything. I ended up finishing at 3:40 which actually gave me a second place age group award! It was a great day and everyone finished, Ulrike with second overall, Dave had alot of fun pacing and providing strategy, Heidi won an age group award, and Terry finished under 3:30!

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I've done alot of running and hiking, but never have learned to use an ice axe until today. With a possible climb of Rainier in the future, my wife's father's very experienced climbing buddy Fred Griesman invited me to tag along on a climb up the snow chutes of Mt Eleanore. 

We arrived at the lower trailhead at 8:30 in the morning, the road to the main trailhead was impassible due to snow. I was surprised that there was only one other car there, must be because of mother's day, but the weather was sunny and warm. It took us about a half hour to hike up to the main trailhead and after another 20 minutes, we were in snow for the rest of the way. Fred loaned me some really good plastic climbing boots,snow gaitors, and an ice axe. So I was ready for anything! we soon took the turn to the chutes and started plodding up the steep snowy slope. I felt like I was climbing Mt Everest, planting my ice axe, taking two steps, plant the ice axe, take two steps. We worked our way, to the left, taking the most direct route up. It was alittle steeper and at the top, the chute narrowed to a short techincal rock move that took a little time to figure out. The climbers below us thought better of it and took a different route. Another short climbing session and we were on the top! After a good look around and lunch, we put on our rain pants for the glissade descent. What a hoot, sliding on your ass down a steep slope. I had some control problems in the beginning but once I got the hang of it, it was way fun. I'm now more comfortable with an ice axe and looking forward to some more mountain climbing!

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I was excited for this year's Chuckanut since I missed last year's at the last minute due to my dog having a seizure. Now the dog is fine and Kris and I are cruizing up the freeway to Fairhaven runners to pick up our race stuff. We met Anna and Dugan Bates there (Anna tried to poison me at Cascade Crest)and went out to the Boundry Bay tavern for some great pre-race food. There we were joined with our hotel room mates, James and Warren from Winthrop. The Bates kept up their poisoning tradition with Dugan sending over a bedtime beer for me. I slept well and woke to sunny skies. I started the first flat 6 miles too fast as usual, but after 15 min, slowed down and recovered then sped back up and started passing people. On the first climb, all the people I passed went by me,I'm so slow on the ups! After the second aid station there is a long road uphill where even more passed me and Glen caught up to me. I managed to stay with him to the ridge and actually was spot on the time I was shooting for. But mother ultra raised her ugly head and my stomach started going south. I was real disappointed since the ridge trail is the funnest part of the race. I stayed with Glen till chin scraper but Kris went charging past, drats, chicked again! I hurried down the downhill as best I could, not knowing which end was going to cut loose first and hoping I would make it to the last aid station bathroom in time. After a satisfying 10 min. break at the last aid station, the last flat 6 miles were slow with more stomach pains so when I finally crossed the line, I headed straight for the bathroom. Sounds worse then it was, I actually had a good time and the weather was great.

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What another great event! It started friday morning with a shopping trip to Costco to pick up supplies for the pre-race continetal breakfast, then pick up Kris for a ride up. We drove in the rain until Mt.Vernon when the clouds parted and cleared by the time we got to the ferry. On the ferry we ran into Clem and Ken Ward from Corvalis. It was great catching up with Clem and Ken showed me how to work my new camera. Glen was there also, hadn't seen him since Cascade Crest. It was still daylight when we reached Moran State Park. Several runners had already signed up and when I brought in the race shirts, pandimonium! James scrounged up recycled shirts, zip tops, sweatshirts, and hoodies and printed them up. They were fantastic and it was first come, first serve to choose the one you wanted. It was just like a 50% off sale at Walmart. Everyone just dove in and shirts went flying. I of course got the best one. We spent a relaxing evening waiting for the late ferry with the rest of the oly folks, on it. By the time they showed up, it was about 10:00 and time to go to bed.
In the morning, Kris and I chopped bagels, muffins, bananas, and melons for the breakfast. It all went well,there was plenty of food and enough time to get ready for the start. For some reason, Dave decided to run the 50K instead of the 25K, so after the start, he ran with me for a couple of miles to keep from going out too fast, then as we approached the first climb, he took off. I felt good on the first climb, and after reaching the summit, I blasted the downhill passing alot of runners. Just before reaching the 10 mile aid station, I caught up with Wendy. I knew I was going too fast, I shouldn't be anywhere near her. Just before the aid station, Dave passed me on the out'n back. I think we were both surprised to see each other. Wendy and Dave would end up beating me by more than 45 minutes. I had a hard time getting back up to speed before hitting the infamous powerline trail. As usual on a hard climb, I got passed by all the runners I blitzed on the downhill on the first loop. I ended up running with Randy, an Orcas local, and Glen till we got to the aid station at the top of Mt Constitution at mile 22. It was great to see John, Clem, and James up there. I grabbed a cup of coke, and left just as Kris reached the summit. I started down the steep switch backs with Glen and Randy, but
started to fade and lost touch with them as I slowed to eat a gel. I wish I would have eaten that peanut butter sandwich at the top. I started to feel better as the trail flattened out and was about 2 miles out with less than 20min to go. For a moment, I thought I could finish under 7 hours, but decided to walk the little ups and cruise into the Lodge.
James pulled off a great post race party with tons of black bean chili, 2 kegs of beer and great live music. We all had a great time and after cleaning up in the morning, even caught our ferry on time. It was another great event, but I sure felt it with sore quads for 3 days after.

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