I felt more anxious about running this race than normal. Having an injured heal and no training left alot of unknowns to consider, but I got the fever so I jogged down to the start from my house at 6:30am. Met James and Matt, both in good spirits and Kris showed up to cheer us on after running the Mac yesterday on a sprained ankle. I planned to run with Matt, but I missed him at the start. The weather was cool but comfortable and I ran a 7:35 for the first mile, then spent the next two miles slowing down to 8:00 per mile. Matt started with a 8:20 mile, but caught up to me around mile 7 - it was great running with Matt, I kept him from going too fast and he kept me from going too slow. We ran steady though the rolling hills, staying within 10 seconds of a 8 mile/min pace. Everything was fine until the hill at Woodard Bay at mile 15, I couldn't keep up with Matt and let him go. I felt a bout of diarreah coming so I started to really look forward to the porta-potti at mile 18. Of course when I got there, the guy in front of me jumped in first so I had to wait 1.5 min. for him to get out! seemed like an eternity. With that done I took off feeling great, and started picking off people. My friend Bruce Olson showed up on his motorcycle and escorted me the rest of the way. It was great to have someone to talk to again. Unfortunately, around mile 20, my heal pain flared up again. I felt great, but had to slow down and start a running limp. My hopes for qualifying for Boston went down the drain, but my goal for the day was just to finish anyway. I ate another gu at mile 24 and ran comfortably to the finish. My time, though slow was a marathon pr for me since my surgery, by about 2 min.! One of these days I'll get back to my sub 3:30 times. James had a great race, winning his age group and 7th overall in 2:53 I think, Matt finished in 3:37 slowed by leg pains. What a great day! I felt like I could run another 10 miles. It was great to see the Oly trail runners at the finish. I hope I can heal up in time for Lake Youngs.

Continue Reading →

Since hurting my heal two weeks ago, I haven't run till last thursday. An easy run with our trail running group in Priest Point Park went well with no soreness afterward. So I ran my normal 6 mile around the lake route again with no pain. So today, I ran a little over 7 miles on the marathon course with only minor soreness. I think I'm at about 75%. Either I'm 3/4 healed or will last only 20 miles, hard to say. At least I feel good enough to run the marathon at an 8 min/mile pace until I finish or something goes wrong...

Continue Reading →

For some odd reason, while I've been sitting around waiting for my achilles injury to heal. I got it in my head that I need to run our local Capitol City Marathon! I was going down to Oregon to run MacDonald Forest 50K, but now I'd just rather stay put and suffer through the local marathon. I figure I have about a 20% chance of having an enjoyable race. I have run 16 miles of the course, but it was the first time I've run over 8 miles on pavement this year. Now I'm sitting around not running and the race is in 2 weeks. Oh well, maybe my heel will not heal in time...

Continue Reading →

Just had a great time volunteering for the Capitol Peak 50, thought I'd share my experience. I had the best job, driving a van around supporting the aid stations. My day started out at 4:45 am directing traffic for parking, then, just before the start, I took the drop bags to aid station #2, when I returned, ran up the trail a couple of hundred yards to post a directional sign and scare some deer, then ran up the trail again with Craig Dickson and posted a string of poem signs further up the trail. Next I led Glen Tachiyama up to Capitol peak to show him were to take pictures, dropped off a couple "Runners on the road" signs on the way up. I checked in with the aid station at the peak to make sure all the signs were in the right place, then Glen and I hiked up the road to the back side of the peak where I posted another string of poem signs on the grunt(see Photo) and where I think I tweaked my Achilles on my right foot:( Our timing was great, the first runner came though after we were all set. I then drove down to the Wedekind aid station to find out that aid workers for A7 already picked up their stuff and were gone, and Steve Cullen was all loaded up and ready to go to A8. So I left a drop bag for A8with Steve, and drove down to A7 to leave the rest of the drop bags. I hung out for awhile waiting for the first runner through, then I headed back to Wedekind where I found out that Steve was lost and the volunteers only had one bottle of water with them. So I grabbed some supplies and headed down there. Fortunately, Steve found the spot, and they were all set up when I got there. I spent some time at Wedekind, helping out at the aid station, which was great since I actually rarely see any runners in my travels. I hung out until a few minutes after Clem, the sweep, went through, then went down to A7 to pick everything up. By the time Clem showed up, we had everything packed up in the van and everyone could go. After stopping briefly at Wedekind, I headed to A8, packed it up, and sent the volunteers home early, then waited about an hour for Clem. He decided to stop since the last runner had already past Wedekind, so I gave him a ride back to Wedekind. Then we packed up the gear and headed back to the Start. After some food and beer, and watching the last runners finish. I helped pack up the rest of the gear and we were all out of there before dark! It was a great experience, thanks to John's planning, most everything went off with out a hitch, and most importantly, I think the runners had a great experience. I managed to injure myself more than if I had run the race, so I guess this means at least a week off for me!

Continue Reading →

With the SunRiver Marathon coming up late June, I thought I should start training on the roads. So last Sunday, James Varner and I ran the middle half of the Capitol City Marathon course. James is planning on running the marathon which is the day after MacDonald Forest. He ran the last half of the course the day before with Dave Mora. (That is Dave Mora who won the Goodwill Games marathon!) I wasn't planning on running hard, so we took off and I settled into my normal 8 min/mile pace that doesn't speed up or slow down no matter how hard I try. The middle of the course has alot of hills or as the brochure would say, scenic and rolling. James just cruised along as I struggled on the hard surface, but we kept a steady pace until we ran into Matt at about mile 14, he was out training for the marathon also. We chatted for a bit, but when we started back up to run, I was stiff as a board! Took alittle bit to warm up but we finished strong and I think we both felt we had a good work out, James figured we went about 16 miles. I was really sore afterwards and had a twing of a strain on my hamstring, but after running today, Tuesday, I feel fine. Seems that I need to hit the roads for some long runs to get my body use to the pavement.

Continue Reading →

I was really looking forward to running my third Peterson Ridge Rumble since it was the first ultra I ran three years ago. However, our family plans included a few days in Sunriver during spring break then I had to drive my in-laws back early Sunday :( So close, but so far away! But, Clem LaCava posted on the NW list that he wanted to run the Saturday before the rumble at Smith Rock Park, so we arranged to meet up Sat morning at 9:00 in Terrabonne for a 2hr run. Local Curt Ringstad joined us and we car pooled in his truck to save on the $3 parking fee. The run started out in a lite rain (isn't it always supposed to be sunny in Central Oregon?), but the weather improved as we ran. Since Curt and Clem were old hands at running at Smith Rock, they discussed several options and decided to run the opposite direction they usually would do, so we hung a left at the rocks and did a clockwise loop. The run was fantastic, the scenery was incredible and it was great listening to Clem and Curt catching up on what was going on in the local ultra scene and discussing Western States strategies and Curt's constant stops to point out blooming desert flowers and points of interest and history. The highlight for me was standing on the top of the ridge next to the famous Monkey Face rock, directly across from climbers half way up the climb. It seemed like they were only about 50 ft away! You could sit there and talk to them if you wanted. I can't believe after visiting Bend 2-3 times a year for the last 12 years, I never visited Smith Rock Park, now I will!

Continue Reading →

Today, RD John Pearch and I spent the morning in the pouring rain,doing trail work on the Lost Valley section of the upcomming Capitol Peak 50 miler. This is a very pretty section of trail that can easily lose it's appeal if overgrown. Some of you may remember the 2005 race when we all had to fight through a thick section of salmon berry bushes, getting scratched all over. But today, with brushwacker in hand, we destroyed those pesky bushes and created a freeway through the Lost Valley. I felt great joy and satisfaction buzzing through with a weed wacker, sending pieces of salmon berry bushes flying! I strongly recommend trail work to take out your frustrations or revenge for scratches and trips. I believe John will announce a couple of trail work/training run days in the near future for the Capitol Peak 50 miler. I strongly recommend volunteering, it's worth it!

Continue Reading →