Nuun Ultrarunner Mid-Season Update!

well, here we are in the thick of it all. i figured it was as good a time as any to send an update on how our amazing crew of nuun ultrarunners are doing.

Karl Meltzer: The year started out in January with lots of snow, and even more snow! I have been training on slick conditions since the beginning of December. February was the first race at the Moab "Red Hot" 50k on Presidents weekend. I finished this "training race" in 7th. My first race as a master I finished 2nd....ouch! Next up was the Coyote Two Moon 100 in mid March. I won the race in 19:24, second place finished more than 4 hours back, I was tapered and ready for this one, and ran a great time. Next adventure was the Crossing of Zion National Park in Mid April. Jared Campbell and I crossed the canyon in 10 hours. 13000' of vertical and incredible scenery made this run extra special. We did some video that can be found on u-tube, just search Karl Meltzer. Next up the Jemez Mts 50 mile. This race was just a filler, and the first time I have run in New Mexico. Nate McDowell marks a stellar course and the terrain is technical and hilly with 12,000' of climb. I finished second behind youngen Kyle Skaggs. It was a good run, not even phased afterward was the goal, and I wasn't phased afterwards.

Western States TRack Meet, we know the deal there. I've been running around non stop preparing for the AT, the Speedgoat 50k and the drive across the country in the whereskarl.com RV. Backcountry.com is the title sponsor for this huge adventure and more info can be found at karlmeltzer.com. Matt Hart and I will be starting the AT in Maine on August 5th. LIve tracking of my progress can be found at whereskarl.com. Matt will run all of Maine with me....all 281 miles. From there I have a number of different crew friends and support all the way to Springer Mt. Georgia, 2174 miles away.

Devon Crosby-Helms: This season has been, from the start, geared towards training for my first 100 miler, Western States. I did several races throughout the early season to get my racing practice in including Pigtails 50k (which I shared 1st place female with Alison Hanks) and Orcas Island which I came in 2nd female. After I had built a solid training foundation, I set my sights on some key races to really prepare me for my 100 mile effort. I raced Chuckanut 50k in March, had a really stellar day and came in first female (race report here). I subsequently stepped up the distance and traveled down to SoCal for the Leona Divide 50miler. Good weather and pacing, as well as a great hydration (at every aid station I was telling the curious volunteers how great Nuun is) and fueling plan combined to help me finish 5th place overall, first female and only 2 minutes slower than the course record! My experience can be read about here. Western States was later cancelled, but I wanted to put my training to good use and satisfy my 100mile curiosity so I signed up for Vermont 100, one of the Grand Slam events. On July 19, I lined up for my first 100 mile and it turned out far better than I could have ever imagined. It was the hardest thing, by far, I have ever done. Through ups and downs, in a brutal year for conditions which included extreme heat and humidity, as well as terrible thunderstorms, I managed to finish on the same day I started in a great time of 18:31, good enough for 8th overall and first female! What an experience! I look forward to the rest of the season which includes pacing duties for two 100 milers, several training marathons and the WC100k in Tuscania, Italy in November!

Ty Draney: The season started with "3 Days of Syllamo" my first foray in a race back East. I entered the team competition withMr. Nuun himself, Matt Hart. Apparently no other teams wanted a piece of us so we ended up running as individuals.The relative heat (for me) and faulty route finding cost us the overall title but we ended up 3rd (Matt) and 4thoverall. (http://www.3daysofsyllamo.org/)

Nuun helped me tremendously in preparation and during the Bighorn 100. Spring is a busy time with work but I was able to pull of my best spring training ever with 2-hour trail runs each morning followed with running with my track kids in the afternoon. I drank 2-3 bottles of NUUN each day. Bighorn 100 went very well. The snow pushed us down to a slightly different course but the good weather and even better competition helped push me to a 100-mile best of 19:54:07(www.bighorntrailrun.com). Most of the race I ran with my Black Diamond Flash pack with 2 tubes of lemon-lime NUUN. I almost finished them both. (sidenote: I scored a little of the Gogi-Berry green tea "U" postrace-awesome!) For a complete race report check outhttp://www.elvaqueroloco.blogspot.com/Good luck with the rest of your races this season--let'erbuck with NUUN!

Bruce Grant: The season had a challenging start due to the fact that I was sick for six weeks, but the irresistible lure of the trails got me out to hit a number of races by March and April, trying to build a solid base before my main season goal, the Hardrock 100 miler. I managed some great results at a couple of key races, finishing 6th overall and an age group 2nd at Zane Grey, self-billed as "the toughest 50-miler in America." I went through an entire tube of nuun during that race, ensuring that my cool northern body was able to handle the heat of this arid, rocky course in Arizona. Two weeks prior to Hardrock, I peaked with a 3rd place overall and 1st in my age group at the Scorched Sole 50k in Kelowna, BC.

Hardrock itself was an incredible experience, there is nothing like the mountainous environment of Colorado and the camaraderie of our fellow ultrarunners there. I felt really good through the entire race, balancing my hydration and electrolytes by drinking nothing but 34 bottles of nuun for the entire 35 hour run! I kept rotating flavours to keep it interesting. I had a solid 14th place finish there - maybe I could have been a bit faster, but it is hard not to break and take in the magnificent panoramas from the mountaintops after climbing them for three or fours at a time. You definitely have to stop and smell the flowers on a course like this!Up next for me in mid-August will be my first 6-day stage run, the MOOSE in Ontario, followed up with the Plain 100 mile in September.

Ashley Nordell: My original focus 100 for this year was going to be Leadville in August, but after battling some injuries from mid March through the end of May, I decided to swap 100s with my husband and do Angeles Crest this coming September instead. Its been a bit of a roller coaster season of running, but I am now injury free and looking forward to the rest of the year.I began the year with the Calico 50k (2nd woman, 4:58?) in January. Then in March, my husband and I traveled to Arkansas for Three Days of Syllamo (1st woman) with fellow nuun runners Matt and Ty. It was a blast and I plan to return next year for more fun memories. After Arkansas I had a lot of problems with injuries that kept me out of some planned races. It was a frustrating couple months of trying to get some training in with biking, hiking, and even hitting the gym a little. In early June, I ran the Holcomb Valley 33 miler (1st woman, 5:33) in Big Bear, CA. It felt rough after not much training, but still great being back on the trails. In July I had the opportunity to pace and crew for Jorge Pacheco as he ran an incredible race to win Badwater in the second fastest time ever. I ran with him from Lone Pine up to the Portal and it was one of the most inspirational events to witness and be a part of-I am still in awe of his performance and perseverance.

This Saturday I am running a 50 miler in Duluth, MN while I am out here visiting family. I think I will need double the nuun to survive the humid air we don't ever get in Southern California. In August I am crewing for my husband at Leadville. We plan to spend two weeks prior to the race (the joy of being teachers) getting acclimated and hitting the trails of Colorado. Then, in September, it is Angeles Crest 100 for me. After that, Santa Barbara 9 Trails in November, and maybe one more race (not sure what yet) to finish out the year. Scott Dunlap: I’ve run 10 ultras/marathons this season so far, most of it training for the Western States that would not be. I recently placed 2nd at the Angel Island 50k (Ginger flavor Nuun) and had a good run at the Diablo 50m (12th) where I enjoyed “Berry Cola” flavor, a mix of Tri-Berry and Kona Cola that I concocted to keep my electrolytes coming in during the 90+ degree heat. I had an unexpected marathon PR of 2:47 at the Eugene Marathon (3rd in age group), much in thanks to the Kona Cola Nuun. Next up is the Where’s Waldo 100k in Willamette Pass, OR, which is the USATF 100k championships.

Kendra Ralstin:
Hello fellow nuun sponsored athletes,
Enduring the painful experience of testing our physical and mental boundaries, and more importantly being rewarded by that very experience, is what binds us together (and makes our saner friends and relatives look at us like we’re nuts). That and dropping a tablet of fizzy fruity refreshment into our water bottles and quaffing it down with a satisfied hiss, “ahhhh,” which may or may not resemble the exhalation of a thirsty French wanderer who comes upon a stash of sparkling cold champagne hidden in the clover off the side of the road.

Although lately my consumption has been limited to the electrolyte bubbly of nuun and not the mood altering kind (further research needed to substantiate this claim), I’ve become more and more reliant on nuun’s mild flavor—which is the main characteristic, in fact, that makes it possible for me to swallow it even when confronted with the ever growing sensation of nausea I have been unfortunate enough to be the ever increasingly frequent victim of. The latest example of this was in The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile race which I ran in Bellingham last May. Despite feeling very sick during (and after – oy vay!), I did place third (in the money, happily) behind Nikki Kimball (is there any other spot?) and Susannah Beck. I made some progress on Beck in the second half of the race but succumbed to the shortcomings of a less than robust training schedule in the past few months and settled for a respectably distant third, as I said. Word to the wise: if you want to make your 40th year and first year as a masters runner the highlight of your running career thus far, don’t marry, move, buy a house and look for your dream career (settling for nothing less in any of the aforementioned categories) all within the space of a few months.

To work on a little bit of speed, I also entered a 7.5 and 10.5 mile trail race which are part of the Seattle Running Company’s series happening every summer out at Cougar Mountain. Scott McCoubrey always does an excellent job of making everyone feel excited and happy to be there. My 6th place woman finish at the 7.5 miler as compared to first place woman at the 10 miler pretty much demonstrates the complete surrender of my muscle twitchiness to the kingdom of the slow (but steady!).

I hope everyone is having a beautiful summer and that yours is not going as heartbreakingly quickly as mine. Seeing which flowers have stopped blooming and which are just starting always makes for a melancholy awareness of how fleeting those endless summers become the older you get. “Thus runs life away.” (-Shakespeare).

For more ruminations and run-on sentences (loosely) related to my running , you can visit my blog at http://borgrunner.blogspot.com/ .

And thank you to Matt Hart, for inviting me onto this great team of folks.
Sincerely,
Kendra Ralstin

Olga Varlamova opted for the list.. and it's quite a list!Results:
Hagg lake 50k, Feb 23 - 5:45
Old Pueblo 50M, March 1 - 11:09 8th female
Chuckanut 50k, March 15 - 6:35
Rumble, April 13 - 6:45
Miwok 100k, May 3 - 12:32
Jemez 50M, May 17 - 12:51 5th female
Forest Park 50k, May 25 - 5:50 8th female
Bighorn100, June 20 - 26:50 3rd female, 1st AG
Hardrock100 - July 11-12 (pace Mike 33:51)

Fleet Feet Bend Bandit Races

fleet feet bend loves nuun

my boyz at fleet feet bend put on a free trail race each month called the trail bandit series. i was lucky enough to be in town today for the 10 mile kiwa butte crawl on sunday.

ps: i might be moving to bend after my summer adventure!

meissner in full bandit attire

montrail streaks (everybody's wearin' em)

U... A Thing of Beauty

if you are reading this.. yes "u" are a beautiful thing as well. but this u (pronounced "you") is from the good people at nuun active hyrdation (and i must say nice work on the label brandon!). it's a vitamin water in an easy to carry and easy to use tablet. it's the perfect anytime flavored drink without the fake sugars and nastiness of most everything out there. it's got about 1/2 the electrolytes of regular nuun and a light vitamin profile. goji berry green tea is my favorite flavor so far.


although it's sensible for the every day active person or the "yoga lifestyle", i'll be working u into my race regiment for sure! it just makes sense for me. i'm not a big sweater, so the less electrolytes is fine, and why not ingest some vitamins?! i've done a few runs so far with it, both runs in slc with meltzer i had u in the bottle ~ worked beautifully and tasted fantastic.

Sarah Logan's 2008 Iron Horse Endurance Run Race Report

one of the true joys of being the nuun ultrarunning ambassador is working with athletes that i admire... and ocassionally finding a gem! we might just be looking at a future ultra star ~ she's out to a very good start!

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Sarah Logan's
Iron Horse Endurance Run Race Report

The Iron Horse Endurance Run:

March 1, 2008 was the Iron Horse 50 mile, 100 km, and 100 mile run in Orange Park, FL. The course was flat and fast and the Florida sun was strong. We started at 6 am in the dark, under the Spanish moss covered trees, in Orange Park and ventured out for our first 25-mile loop as a pack. I was planning to race the 100 km, so I paced accordingly. There was a 25-mile loop I was to complete twice, and then had another 10 km loop to do twice. I felt strong through out the whole race, which was a first for me in these~! But it was also the first time I had been able to train adequately and sleep enough after having taken my time off med school. Also I started eating steak a month before the race, thanks to my auntie, so I think that had something to do with it. I was worried about not having hills, because coming from VT, and being part billy goat, I thought I would fatigue early if the terrain was all flat. Luckily, it was OK ...

But my favorite part of the whole race and experience was by far the people. The racers were all so friendly, and supportive. It was just like running with a big family out there, and all the volunteers at the aid stations were just awesome. The race director and his wife were driving along the course honking and cheering everyone through the wee hours of the night. I was feeling strong and fast until about mile 44…when all of a sudden it felt like I had been shot in the knee on my left leg. It turned out I had pulled my Iliotibial band pretty badly, and it just came out of nowhere. I knew that if I started up running again on my knee, I would not be able to stop …so I hobbled it in to the 50 mile finish and called it a day. The volunteers and race director were yelling and smiling saying “

“You won!”, “First place!”, and “Girl power!”…I thought, despite the knee, this is awesome! I have not run one of these races before where a female has won! And a female also won the 100 mile race too! Yea Ladies~! There was a great BBQ and a fire at the finish line, and I ended up getting my PR for the 50 mile by almost an hour. I finished in 7:47:00. So despite the annoying IT band, it was an Awesome experience and I would go back and do it again in a second just for the people!

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congrats sarah!

Tri247 Interview With nuun's Tim Moxey

here is an interview with tim moxey, the owner/inventor of nuun. he also runs blue seventy wetsuits (formerly ironman wetsuits). he let's the cat out of the bag about the new nuun drink - "u". i'm very excited about this product. it's a low calorie vitamin drink in our tablet form. think of it as a vitamin water with less electrolytes for casual drinking and a healthy lifestyle, not during race hydration.

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here are a couple of good reads from the ny times.

• Finding May Solve Riddle of Fatigue in Muscles
• A Long-Running Mystery, the Common Cramp

Three Things

1. the lottery for hardrock is tomorrow feb 3nd - wish me luck! i'll need it with another abismal 17% chance of getting in.
   
   
2. montrail just launched the updated website... go check out the streak! i'm supposed to get some of these 9.5oz trail deamonds in the mail any day now! oh boy.
   
   
3. nuun is coming out with a new flavor in april called Orange+Ginger* (*just a hint)

nuun Ultrarunners!

i'd like to announce nuun's top tier ultrarunners for 2008!

Lisa Smith-Batchen
Lisa's best running comes in the heat, the hotter the better so nuun has been an amazing product for her to use and to share with her coaching students! This year was to be the year that Lisa ran the Trans Con to go for the women's record. The run has been put on hold but is in the process of being worked out for the future. That being said 2008 Lisa will run her 9th Bad water 135 in July, ( attempting to be the 1st women to run the race 10 times) the Furnace Creek 508 mile bike race in Oct. These 2 races make up what is called the Death Valley Cup and to date only 2 other women have been successful at accomplishing this. She will also do Ironman AZ. in Nov.Having 2 very small children her focus is to be the best parent and the best partner she can be in this life. :) 2008 will bring more training camps, coaching and races. Her best is yet to come. Lisa's favorite nuun flavors are Tri-Berry and Lemon Lime.
Check out Lisa's Dreamchaser Events.


Karl Meltzer
Karl is simply put "one of the best ultrarunners in the world". In 2006 he won six 100 mile ultramarathons (not a typo) and set four course records. For his efforts that year he won Ultrarunner of the Year award from Ultrarunning Mag, USATF, and RRCA, as well as the Everest Award. This year he was 2nd in the ULtrarunnner of the Year voting. In his career Karl has won 47 Ultras in 89 starts,with 22 of those being 100 mile trail races. No one on earth has won more 100 mile trail races than Karl Meltzer. This year he's going to focus on the Western States 100 Miler and breaking the Appalachian Trail Speed Record of 47 days, 13 hrs 31 mins. His Favorite nuun flavor is citrus.
Check out his blog at KarlMeltzer.com.


Brian Morrison (photo credit to Glenn Tachiyama)
Brian began running in 2000 to get in shape to climb Mt. Rainier. Shortly thereafter, Brian discovered trail running and running became more than just a means of cross training for climbing. In 2002, he ran the Chuckanut 50k, and he's been hooked ever since. To date Brian's run 30+ ultras from 50k to 100 miles and has been a consistent top finisher. And yes, he is THAT guy that couldn't muster up just 300 more meters to win Western States. He can laugh about it now, and he's hoping in 2008 that the third time's a charm. Brian's favorite nuun flavor is Kona Cola.


Kendra Borgmann (photo credit to Glenn Tachiyama)
Kendra increased her love-to-run habit to ultra-marathons a few years ago. She has run 18 ultras, winning over half of them. Last year her 50 mile Le Grizz finish of 6:40 was the fastest American women's time at the 50 mile distance in the USA. Her 2008 plans include races at the 50K and 50 mile distances, including the USATF trail championships, as well as to enter her first 100 miler in the later part of the year. Kendra recently quit her job as a private investigator in Seattle to move back to her hometown of Missoula, Montana. Kendra's favorite nuun flavor is Tri Berry.


Bruce Grant
After twelve years of racing Ironman triathlons, Bruce finally came to see the light and the dirt of trailrunning in 1999. Driven by the desire to continually test his limits, he holds the fastest Canadian completion time for the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning, has top-10 finishes in several 100-mile runs, and races about 1000 miles every year. He helps promote the sport to others by being the Director of the BC Ultra Trailrunning Series, a series of seven races showcasing the great terrain found throughout the province of British Columbia.Bruce's goals in 2008 include an early-season frolic at Coyote TwoMoons 100 mile, a return to Hardrock to run the clockwise route, the STORMY 100 in Squamish, the San Diego 100, and he is really excited about the prospect of a long, multi-day event in Africa in the fall. In between, Bruce will be taking in local 10k to 50k races in BC and NW Washington in order to get some speed work. Bruce's favourite NUUN flavour is Citrus Fruit - the nice tang is always refreshing and encourages continual hydrating, even when he is over 30 hours into an event. He has also found the addition of a Lemon-Lime NUUN is the only way to make an American light beer drinkable, while also providing the much-needed electrolytes of a proper post-run recovery.


Olga Varlamova
Olga never ran in high school or in college, and her first ever race was a 5k on mother's day in 2001. 2 years later she ran my first 50k in Central Park, NYC, in 4:47 and came 3rd - she's not sure how my love was born, due to ability to not feel any pain and keep the (slow) pace the whole way equal, or due to placing not far behind Ellen McCurtin. Her debuted 100 was at Umstead 100M a year later and she won in 18:46. As she moved to West Coast in the Fall of 2004.
Shep placed top at WS100 in 2005 and won SD100 (same year, in then course record). In 2007 she won the Cool Night Trail 12 hr run and was 2nd at Bear 100. Basically, she may not be blessed with much speed, but she absolutely loves trail ultrarunning, whether racing, volunteering or crewing/pacing. Olga is also a co-RD for the PCT50 and she is developing an Oregon 100 Miler.


Ashley Nordell (photo credit to Michelle Barton)
Ashley began running ultras at the age of 23, not long after telling her college coach that “3,000 METERS was too long to race.” She placed third woman in her first 50k and after a short thought of “I will NEVER do this again,” quickly forgot her promise and ran her first 100 miler (Western States) a year later. Despite a torturous last 30 miles with bags of ice duct taped to her knees, Ashley managed to finish her first hundred miler and has not quit a race yet. Since then she has finished (and many times won) more than a dozen ultras, including a win at Angeles Crest 100 in 2006 and second place woman (14 minutes off the women’s record) in 2007. This year Ashley has a variety of ultra-marathon races lined up, including a return to Arkansas for Three Days of Syllamo and the Leadville 100. She currently lives in Mount Baldy, California, where she runs at elevation with her husband, the bears, and an occasional mountain lion. Ashley works as a fourth grade teacher down the mountain in Upland, CA. Her favorite flavor of nuun is Tri-Berry.


Devon Crosby-Helms (photo credit to Scott Dunlap)
In her debut season on the ultrarunning scene Devon won the Jed Smith 50k (with the fastest 50k time for an American woman in 10 years), Quicksilver 50k(age group course record), Tahoe Rim Trail 50(course record by 21 minutes), Napa Valley Marathon and Ron Herzog 50k. She placed second in her 100k debut in the National Championships and was a part of Team USA in the Netherlands for the World Cup 100k, placing 15th overall, 2nd in her age group and 2nd on Team USA, helping the women's team to 4th place. This season Devon will focus on her 100 mile debut at Western States and the 100k World Championship in Italy. Devon's favorite nuun flavor is Tri-Berry.


Scott Dunlap
Scott was a short-course trail runner before jumping into ultras (he won the 2004 Trail Runner Magazine Trophy Series for Marathon-and-Under, the largest trail running series in the world, clocking 14 top 5 finishes in one year). Since then he has run 10-15 ultras per year, winning a few, finishing all, and capturing everything on his award-winning blog, A Trail Runner’s Blog - voted Best Health and Fitness Blog by Forbes Magazine. This season Scott will focus on his first Western States 100, and competing in the regional USATF Ultra Grand Prix. Scott's Favorite Nuun Flavor is Kona Cola.


Ty Draney
Ty Draney started running in 7th grade, after setting the school record for the mile in his basketball high tops he went on to run in high school and junior college. He started running Ultras while living on the Oregon Coast and has been trying to kick the ultra-endorphin-induced high ever since. He has completed over 30 ultras including the Bighorn, Hardrock, Leadville, and Bear 100’s in one summer in under 100 hours. This year his focus will be on trying out stage racing, getting in some serious wilderness runs around the country and improving on two second place finishes at the Bighorn 100.

i'm looking forward to working with these amazing athletes this season!

Has nuun Made You Famous?

brandon over nuun, a montrail ultrarunning team sponsor, put together this sweet page of nuun user photos. this photo my dart-nuun adv racing teammate ryan fleming took and it made the cut. this is "the next day" at the 2006 raid the north in kamloops, bc canada. we're about 17 hours into the race at this point (that is me with my head down). we're running up the ski resort slopes for the last checkpoint... good times! send your cool nuun photos to brandon@nuun.com and get famous fast! i just sent this one of sean meissner i took after 2007 big horn 50 miler!

our new nuun shirts!

our new nuun shirts for interbike.. pretty cool!

Smith-Batchen takes on the Badwater Double.. again!

keep an eye on montrail and nuun sponsored athlete lisa smith-batchen's blog as she tackles another badwater double! for those not familiar with badwater it's a 135 mile ultramarathon through death valley in july! lisa is running the race (135 miles), summiting mt whitney.. then running back! 295 miles at once, through death valley. she will be drinking tons of nuun to get her through this grueling event.