Orcas Island 50km Race Report 2010 - Flying as Close to the Sun as Possible

photo by glenn tachiyama

sean attempting to pre-fatigue my abdominal with smack talk on the ferry to orcas island

i consider the pacific northwest my other home town, after portsmouth, new hamphire of course.  i moved here to work for microsoft in 1999.  i moved to salt lake city in december, but there is no other town that has my heart like seattle.  great friends, great trails, great races.

i have a wonderful group of local seattle athletes that i coach.  my clients miriam and her husband darryl came out to crew me.  which at a 50km just means they pulled my bottles out of my drop bag and handed them to me hopefully as i run by.  they both professed to loving the spectacle of it all and i see more ultrarunning events in their future.  thank you both soo much for being there!!  

so two years ago i race the orcas island 50km. that year we were forced to run a snow coarse that was about 1,000ft less vertical gain than the course we ran saturday.  the snow coarse had about 6,500ft of gain and suunto said this course was over 50km and about 7,600ft of elevation gain.

thanks alvin crain for this sweet map

as you can read here and here my friend and montrail teammate sean meissner decided that since we were racing against each other twice this year he would publically challenge me.  i think we are landing on the 6 month porn mustash as the penalty for defeat.. although with a 23min lead going into pocatello 50 miler i'm leaning toward the tramp stamp real tatoo of my name on sean's lower back.

we're off! photo by glenn tachiyama

ok so the race.  this course is rugged beautiful single track.  mostly runnable and oh so fun.  as the gun went off yassine pulled ahead and the adrenaline of not having raced for over a year and a half pushed me to the front.  at which point sean, who is tucked in right behind me says " "you better savor this moment hart, because it's the last time you will be in front of me this whole race!".

in the first 30 minutes yassine slowly pulled away and my place in the lead pack faded.  from leading it, to barely being able to hold on.  i was seeing numbers on my heart rate monitor i haven't seen in years.  2:26 marathoner dan olmstead would pull ahead on the climbs, me and b.c. would pass on the descents.  that didn't last too long however, at some point before the mile 11 aid station they all ran away from me.  i was worried i had gone out too hard.  there was a short out and back at the aid station that allowed me to see just how much time they put on me... 2mins - not bad.

on my way out i saw sean for the first time.  he looked concerned.  i did some more math and figured i had 5mins on him.  montrail runner ellie greenwood was less than a minute on his heals looking super strong and positive as always. 

from there we climbed up a game path that is a knee pushing grunt.  i caught the eventual 2nd place runner from british columbia.  this dood was running downhills with reckless abandon, and seemingly no concern for his well being.  i guess it's something in the water up there because gary robbins puts it down too (see 2010 HURT race report).

b.c. dood then decided to crush the powerline climb.  bye bye.  i was moving very well and watching my heart rate.  i just couldn't keep up.  ultra awesome photog glenn tachiyama was at the view point to take some shots as we approached the high point of the course on top of mount constitution.

la sportiva's own ellen parker ran a great 5hr 26min for 2nd place 50km

me right before the wheels came off. photo by glenn tachiyama

miriam and darryl were at the top with all my bottles laid out to chose from. again, thanks guys! the descent from mt constitution was great, however my bottle choice was not.  heed and nuun don't mix.  there was just one 600ft climb up and over then down to the lake, around the lake to the finish.  right as i started the climb i bonked hard!  i saw my buddy bill huggins who had taken a wrong turn.  he said "come on hart, use me as a rabbit!".  next time i looked up he must have been 100 meters down the trail.  it was then i realized i was walking.  i believe the best description of this is "wheels coming off".  i had neglected to eat enough on the constitution climb and the bottle of calories i had was conspiring to make me throw up (again, heed and nuun don't mix).  i ate 3 gels in 1 minute and had to shuffle along as i waited for the simple sugar to kick in.  as i descended to the lake for the last 4 miles or so it did, and i was back on track.  i even hammered the last 2 miles at near breaking point, flying as close to the sun as i could.  i wanted a real test, and i got one.  turns out the 2:20ish marathoners got off course.  that sucks sooo bad, but as we all know it happens at trail races.  i was really happy to run 4hr 47min for 3rd place overall. 

1st thing i consumed was two oreos. i'm getting a bad rap for being obnoxiously healthy and everyone is now going out of there way to get me to eat junk! photo by bryon powell

sean's quick recap post is here and he said, "Yes, Matt kicked my butt. 4:47 to 5:10. And no, I didn't take a wrong turn. Matt rocked it. I got rocked. I'm sporting the loser's vest in my new profile pic."  so now going into the pocatello 50 miler i have a 23 minute cushion in our "grudge match".  thank you orcas volunteers and james for an awesome race and even better post race party.  i am an old man and haven't stayed up that late laughing in a long long time. full 50km results here.. and a 'grudge match' video bryon powell from iRunFar.com put together - too funny.

sean did kinda make this look good. photo by bryan powell

my gear

• shoes: montrail hardrocks
  
  
• fuel: clif shots and heed
  
• hydration:  lemon lime nuun

Twitter

i've been tweeting to my facebook for some time now. basically updating my status from the iPhone. in the last few weeks i've volunteered at a couple races and tweeted updates to my facebook status via the iPhone. the problem with doing that is only my facebook friends can see the updates and know what's going on. i'm now going to use twitter so when i post a race update everyone can follow along, facebook friend or not.

the other obvious reason is to update twitter and thus anyone who cares with race status of my own.. when i get back to racing.

a link to my twitter will live on the right hand column.
http://twitter.com/thematthart (just matt hart was taken)

Devil's Backbone 50 Mile Race Report

runnin' with the devil

matt 1
devil 0

friday the lovely taft family, their pop up and i headed to the gallatin national park in the northern montana rockies outside of bozeman. we were there for the devil's backbone 50 miler. eric and his wife kim were running the 50 miler as a relay at 25 miles each. eric had turned me on to this race, and after reading the first few sentences of course description from the website.. i had to run it. "This is a graduate level run (yes, like Hardrock). It is almost unsupported and unmarked. This CANNOT be your first 50 miler. This course is much, much harder than you expect." -perfect.

this race delivered. we ran an altered snow course that the race director said was harder than the actual course because we spent more time running at higher elevation, there was 8 more arduous snow miles to run and more elevation gain by about 500 feet (pushing our total to around 12,000ft of gain!).

tom haze the race director and his wife had everyone over to their house for pre-race dinner the night before. after tom called me out as being one of the "fast guys" that zack the 2:20 marathoner would be chasing. i figured it would be the other way around. there was another 2:30 marathoner lurking in the croud as well and i'm sure being excluded gave him some fire in his belly. tom then gave me the stage to talk about nuun. which miraculously most in montana had never heard of it. we then had a drawing where we gave away two 8 pack boxes of nuun. during dinner i chatted with zack a bit who seemed like a great guy. he's apparently best friends with and runs with mike wolfe (50 mile national champion) a lot.. a deadly combo.

tom giving directions
kim taft excited to start! (sweet visor!)
at 6am the next morning we were off. the first river crossing was one minute into the run and tom had warned us about it. i followed a guy in first who b-lined for a log crossing. before i knew it, he was literally crawling across the log as the other runners simply splashed through the shin high water and ran away. wups. i tried to walk the log after he cleared it and it was covered in ice.. ice, in july.

and we're off!
as we climbed up to the ridge i thought i saw zack. it turned out to be a 25 mile runner and zack was in fact waay to far away for me to see. rather than push it, i ran very conservative. mostly below my anaerobic threshold with a couple of pushes over it. we passed the 2.2 mile patrol station and then hit the ridge. i was close to 2nd, but i could not believe how far ahead of us zack was. he was so far up on the ridge i second guessed whether it could even be him or not. but it had to be, there was no one else out there running like that.

once on the ridge we had the most amazing views of the surrounding terrain. i was in heaven... although i had work to do. within about 1hr 30 min i had caught zack, who slowed considerably. we started down some scree/loose rock and i moved into 1st place of the 50 miler with one 25 miler out ahead. the trail bobbed up and down between 9,600 and 10,300 feet in elevation - and honestly i tried not to look at the elevation on my watch. not being a real high altitude guy i just didn't want to know... i could feel it. on our way to the 12.5 mile turn around of this first section we crossed multiple 8+ foot snow drifts on the totally exposed ridge. as the day wore on the sun warmed the snow it became soft and you had to be very careful about poking through.. which i'm sure everyone did multiple times.

25 mile guy, me and zack ran right past the turn around. the terrain started to look suspect so i stopped and was yelling to 25mile guy when zack caught up. he said that 4th place had turned around and yelled something. sure enough, we had in fact ran past the turn around arrow for a bit of extra mileage. as we retraced our steps along the backbone. we now had a new perspective on the terrain and it felt like a whole new piece of trail.

i was in first in short order with zack yoyo'ing behind me. he ran a couple hills past me as i hiked to conserve since we weren't even half way done yet. i'd then pass him back and create a bit of a gap on the downhills.. then here he'd come up behind me breathing so hard i thought he might inhale me. i started to think with the effort he was putting in to stay with me, he wasn't going to last 50 miles.

i hit the 25 mile aid station first with zack just behind. eric was there to help me refilled my my nathan 020 and my nathan thermal quickdraw handheld. thanks eric! tom the rd said to us "you know there is another 2:30 marathoner out there. have either of you seen him?" zack responded "he should be just a few minutes back." news to me, but i figured now that the marathon was over i had the advantage.

i dropped two orange ginger nuun tabs in my bottle and left the aid station. with all the exposure of this race i had just one thing to remember to do in the one aid station - reapply my kinesys sunscreen. of course i forgot and am paying for it now. zack left a minute later as we started our 10 mile out and back climb to the weather station. i stopped to ask some hikers if they had seen it, just to be sure i wasn't off course and zack caught right up. we spotted it probably 3,000ft up a distant ridge and headed off. the closer i got, the further back zack dropped, until he was gone. the climb was super steep (like all fours steep) but i started to feel really strong. crushing the climb, hitting the out and back and glisading down a steep snow field i was in my groove. "this feels like an adventure race" i thought. i saw 2nd and 3rd. they told me zack had dropped. by my math i now had at least an hour on these guys.

back onto the ridge i did a bit of wondering and running back and forth to make sure i was going the right way. the last thing i wanted was to start out the wrong ridge at this point. i ran into liz who confirmed i was on track. with that confidence i then picked up the pace a bit and for whatever reason i felt like i was now running at sea level, not 10,000+ feet. i guess i got warmed up. it seemed to take forever to get to the rock with montrail ribbon on it that was the turn around for this last 15 mile section. i stayed motivated with some mental games. at the turn i looked at my watch so i could gage if the chase pack was gaining on me. by the time i saw them on my way back it was about 55 minutes later.. so double that and i reckoned i had about a 1hr 50min lead. with just a couple more hard climbs i had by then completly run out of water. i stuffed my thermal quickdraw with snow hoping it would mix with the left over nuun and melt into more water. unfortunetaly the thermal bottle did it's job too well. no water for the last 1.5hr+. ugh.

as i ran down i was just waiting for that dehydrated feeling to take over and ruin me. but i held out and cruised it in trying to run the downhill with "quick feet" (remember that ultrarunning campers!?). i finished in 9hrs 49mins in 1st place.

this was probably the hardest 50 miles i've run. the combination of exposure, altitude, terrain, pace and the stress of not being sure if i was going the right direction combined to make it a good hard day out. thanks to tom and his crew for a great race!

kim taft ran a strong 6hrs for her tough 25 miles. eric who i saw on the out and back ran real well too and finished right after the 2nd place 50 mile guy. i'm pretty sure they were the only relay team to run the whole course. congrats tafts! and thanks theo for being such a great baby!

theo, kim and eric taft after their 50 mile relay

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my gear:
my shoes: montrail streakswith teko ecopoly socks (no blisters)
electrolytes: nuun (mmm orange ginger)
backpack: Nathan HPL #020(best running backpack on the market)
bottles: thermal quickdraw
fuel: clif shots (mmmm vanilla)
sunglasses: rudy project ekynox sx
jacket: the mountain hardwear ghost anorak (it's just 4oz!!)
shorts: mountain hardwear dipsea short (minimal = beautiful)
my post race:
recover-ease and amazing grass wheat grass baby!

Big Horn 50 Mile Race Report, June 2008

for two years in a row i signed up for the big horn 100 miler and injured myself in preparation for the race. last year i showed up and won the 50km instead (the freshman race). this year i showed up and won the 50 miler (the jv race).

i love these mountains and this terrain. but what keeps me coming back is the race. michelle and her race crew do a great job and there is an ultra community feel to the races. the races are staggered so the 30km, 50km, 50 mile and 100 mile races all finish in the same afternoon in scott park. burgers, music and lots of worked runners all hanging out in the sun comparing war stories - perfect.

doing this race at all was sort of a last second thing. there was a hip injury i had to let heal, then the guide job, etc. i didn't have high hopes going in and since i won i've subsiquently been called a "sandbagger". but the 3 weeks prior were not promising. i had run and been dropped by all my friends - roch horton and karl meltzer in salt lake city, rod bien and sean meissner in bend. so my gauge on my fitness was... it's not good, and won't be good enough to win a 50 miler. i just figured it would be fun and a great training run if nothing else. in hind sight it was the travel, training and altitude that had me tired and with a proper taper it all came together.

ok the race...
6am start out of dry fork at about 8,000ft. as we ran down to cow camp (aid station 1) i headed out first. after a few minutes there were two other guys with me; seattle billygoat bill huggins and a guy i had battle with last year in the 50km race cameron hanes (if you see an underarmor billboard with a guy running it's cam).

after 45min or so bill stopped to "make a deposit". as we ran the over 3,000ft vertical downhill in 18 miles i was able to shake cam too. the first drop bags were at footbridge aid station mile 18. i was in and out grabbing two new bottles of lemon lime nuun and 6 new clif shots.

as i started my ascent i thought to myself "anyone can run down here as fast as i did, the real race starts on this climb". i probably had just 5-7 minutes on cam, and bill was 1 minute behind him. the climb out felt pretty good. my goal was to run everything, which i did sans the 4-5 stupid steep sections. my diesel engine was working hard but comfy as i headed back up to dry fork and mile 34 drop bags. i had quite a few opportunities to look back over pretty long stretches of trail and never saw another 50 mile runner. in fact, mile 18 footbridge was the last time i saw another 50 mile competitor. this seems great, but in reality i had to play some mental games with myself to keep moving fast. that was my struggle for this 50 mile race.

running up to dry fork at mile 34 i had some twinges of calf cramping, not uncommon for the first hot race of the season. kevin was there to help me and i had him do a double tab of lemon lime nuun in my nathan thermal quickdraws. with just 16 miles left and no one in sight behind me i knew the race was mine to lose.

i climbed pretty well up into the tongue river canyon and had my quads tenderized by the beautiful singletrack 3,000+ foot descent. hitting the dreaded last 5 miles of dirt/paved road i just focused on quick turn over and held onto sub 8/min miles which i thought was good (at least it felt fast). i was pretty excited to get the win and it was awesome to have ty and angle there to congratulate me - thanks guys!

first place female and me recieving our rock awards
the montrail streaks were the perfect shoe for the terrain
final results

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!

3 Days of Syllamo Day 1 - 50km

updated!
i was lucky enough to be in the ozark mountains for steve kirk's multi day ultra, the 3 days of syllamo which started on march 14th, 2008. ty draney had invited me to join him as a two person team for a 3 day ultra in mountain view, arkansas.

Day 1 - 50km (measured 32.8 miles)
Day 2 - 50 Miles (about 58 miles for ty and i)
Day 3 - 12km (measured 13.8 miles)

at check-in they informed ty and i we were the only registered team. with no point in winning the team division we figured we would run together as long as it made sense and see what happened. we both hoped that we would be able to run hard together and win the races. it was not to be.


Day 1 – 50km (32.8 miles actually) with 8,000+ feet of elevation gain (i'd say more like 6,000)

here is the rub. we were running 3 days, but anyone could show up and just run 1 day. meaning they didn't have to save anything for the 50 mile "killer" the following day.

as we started out it was ty and I running behind ponytail, a local guy we found out was 2nd at the long running syllamo 50km and camo, last year’s winner from kansas (named for his camo shorts). Just behind us was ashley nordell’s ironman husband josh nordell. i felt very relaxed and contrasted it to the starting pace at the orcas island 50km i had run just a month earlier, which seemed almost frantic by comparison. this was good, since we still had a 50 mile and 20km race.

camo dropped off pace pretty quickly and after about two hours josh let us get a few minutes up on him. following ponytail john muir was great because he knew the trail and we were certain not to get lost. i'd say the trail was sufficiently marked, but not overly marked. after a couple hours i asked ty “when do you want to put it down and hammer?�. with the course being a nice loop we discussed maybe the half way aid station. well on one of the next climbs ty decided to go. john was very pleasant and stepped to the side of the trail as we ran past him up hill.

the course was awesome 99.9% singletrack. the weather was probably in the 60’s for most of the race and there was no sun.. yet. so we “put it down�. putting time on the whole race. i was running the finishing scenarios. it would be a glorious scene as ty and I would cross the finishline together. i thought holding hands would be weird so i'd stick my nathan bottle out and he'd hold that – team nuun victorious.

we had run about 25 miles i'd say when the sun came out to shine on us. this made me smile, and made my lemon lime nuun taste that much better. it felt like a glorious 70 degrees and i was in heaven as we ran the amazing trails of the ozarks. we were about 3hrs into the race and ty started to slow down a bit. his stomach had stopped digesting what he was consuming. we slowed our roll as he dry heaved. we would walk a bit, he'd try to throw up, then we'd try to run, he'd try to throw up, we'd walk again. this went on for a while until he finally emptied the contents of his stomach on the trail. buckets of water and gels spewed out on the ozark trail. i comforted him the best i could, asked if he needed anything and tried to get him running again. he of course apologized perfusely. i said “don’t worry about it, we’ll still winning�. that didn’t last much longer as 3rd place john muir soon caught and passed us. i coaxed ty along trying to run slow, but he disappeared around the corner so I stopped.

now the logic going through both our heads is this. staying a team means nothing since there is no other teams racing. if we can’t win together, then i figured one of us should go for it.
“ty what do you think? are you going to come out of this and be able to run again? or are you done? i'll wait if you can pull out of this.� these were tormenting questions for sure, but with john looking good they had to answered immedietally. i thought, "if ty can pull out of this it would be cool to chase 1st place with him. if he can't i need to go now or i will run out of trail to catch the guy." after some agonizing internal debate on both of our parts we were caught by josh nordell. ugh.

ty could feel my angst and finally said "just go!". i sped away intent on catching john. which i did after a few minutes. i sped past thanking him for letting me by and picked up the pace. he hung tough and closed on me a few times. i held him off and hit the road a bit confused as to where i was or which direction to go. before hitting the field to the finishline i checked over my shoulder and didn't see him. i ran a wide route following the flower markings on the field to make sure no one would claim i cut the course. people near the finish started to cheering as i ran towards the finishline thinking my race was over. then it seemed like they were cheering really excited. like something was happening. i checked over my shoulder and ten feet behind me in a full sprint was john muir! without thought i ran as though i was running from the cops and made it across the finish about 2 seconds before john. what a terrible way to finsih 50km. i had no idea how he closed all that distance so i asked "did you cut the course?". it really seemed like the only way he could have come from nowhere. i mean i checked a couple times.. on straight sections too. then a little bit beside myself with his move at the end i said "you tried to skunk me at the end!" john claimed "i wouldn't have done that".

my time was 4:22:59 (results) and i don't think it's a stretch to say that had i raced from start to finish, i could have run sub-4hrs. and thus started the "redemption list" for the 3 days of syllamo... it gets longer, trust me. coming soon ~ the day 2 - 50 mile race report.

nuun ultragoddess ashley nordell won day 1 for the woman in 4:59:45. she's fast! congrats ashley.

** disclaimer: after the race i hung out with john. he seemed like a great guy.

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my gear:
shoes: montrail odyssey with teko ecopoly socks (no blisters)
electrolytes: nuun lemon lime
fuel: clif shots and clif bloks
general health between the 3 races: i could not have done it without my amazing grass!

Orcas Island 50km Ultra

jen segger - "seegs"

what an awesome place, what an awesome race...
(all photos by glenn tachiyama ~ results)

saturday my friend ellen parker and i headed out to orcas island for james varner's orcas island 50km. from what i know of james he likes good tough courses and this one did not dissapoint. even though he had to alter the course because of the snow up high.. it meassured out at 31.7 miles (i probably ran more than 32 miles) and 6,660 feet of gain and some very tough patches of hands on knees (or ground), head down, crazy steep uphills. see the map here.

as an early season 50km we were all there running this as a "training race". in my previous 7 days before friday i had put in 91 miles. so i figured running on tired"ish" legs would be a great barometer for my training and general fitness... but without a real taper i knew it wouldn't be my finest work. i also knew with the talented field showing up would be perfect for pushing my pace. the idea of fast guys making me move faster was very exciting.

it's pretty crazy how the rumor mill gets going at these races. by race start i was told multiple times that brian morrison, justin angle, scott jurek, brandon sybrowsky and scott mccoubrey were all lining up to race. i had only seen a few of said top runners and this ended up only being partially true. unfortunetaly justin and scott never made it out. the woman's race seemed to be stacked too. my adv race teammate jen segger had come down from bc to race. nuun ultrarunners devon crosby-helms and kendra borgmann were also in attendance. i was excited to see how the woman's race would shake out. i had seen devon running on the burke earlier in the week and she had said it was a training run but mentioned "i still want to win it" with a smile - nice.

my plans to test out the top end were almost derailed the night before the race. i forgot my quinoa, salmon, asparagus dinner in the fridge.. in seattle. ellen was kind enough to share her dinner. only problem was it wasn't obvious that there was lots of cheese melted into the sauce. let's just say i'm lactose intolerant and that caused "stomach issues" through the night. that and the fact that we were sleeping in the back of flat bed truck meant ellen and i probably only got about 3 hours total of very broken uncomfortable sleep. i try not to let these things worry me however, they are bound to happen... no sense stressing out about it. plus this was to be a hard "training run" anyway right (notice how i added hard?)

over 200 runners lined up for the 25km and 50km race start. at 8:30am we started running across the open field of moran state park. the course was two times around an awesome 25km that looped both mountain and cascade lakes. my plan was to run with the front runners of the 25km for the first loop as long as that felt ok. the beginning felt kind of frantic, but it was cool to have seegs running in the front pack with me.

during the first real climb i became inpatient behind the first two runners and passed them on the super steep, mossy rock climb. now in front i put on a little space from the pack until i hit the downhill. on the downhill the flagging lead me into the woods to an overgrown trail. as i searched a few runners with more local knowlegde charged downhill. this wasn't good.. back onto the mega-steep dirt road i set off to catch the first guy, which i was able to do in 1/2 mile or so.

back down by the lake seeg's friend norm was there cheering us on. norm was an awesome help for both jen and my effort at the race. thanks for the help norm, much appreciated!

the first and only aid station was at 6.7 miles on mountain lake. i had run from here on my 30th birthday (years ago) with my friend jenny so i knew the trails around the lake were flat. not good for me. let's just say i don't have the leg speed of a real runner so flats aren't my thing. i drank my new bottle, pleasantly suprised it was lemon lime nuun and tried to focus on quick turn over. by the time i got to the next climb i had two guys biting at my heals. the climb couldn't have come at a better time! as we passed each other on the switchbacks i gave the guy a "whoot! nice running!" and started to pick it up. the secret loop was a super steep climb to the high point and was the highlight of the course. at the top we were greated with amazing views of the islands of the puget sound and soft moss covered rock to run down. with the sun out the views were "stop you in your tracks" good. i slowed a bit to make sure i took it in.

i came through the first lap of 25km in 2:15 and hadn't seen anyone in a while so i figured i was in good shape. i was feeling great but had started to lull myself into running easy. however by the road i heard that i was just 2 minutes up on 2nd place. rob and big's favorite saying "do work son" rang in my head as i, well, put in work to try and put this one out of reach.

it seemed to pay off and by the aid station at mile 22 i now had 9 minutes on 2nd. but of course then came the very flat section around the lake where i knew the entire race would put in time on me! i managed to hold them off and once again the secret loop view was amazing. the last big climb i started to feel a bit bonky. at the time it seemd like a pain to eat a clif shot so i didn't bother and really started to bonk as i approached the finishline. i managed the last few miles and came in first in 4:42. my teammate jen segger ended up winning the woman's race shortly after! nuun ultrarunners devon crosby-helms took 2nd and kendra borgmann came in 3rd looking and feeling sick. my friend ellen won the woman's 25km race! awesome day. james and alison sure put on a great event. thank you guys!

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my gear:
my hot shoes: montrail highlanders with teko ecopoly socks (no blisters)
electrolytes: nuun
fuel: clif shots
jersey: retro montrail jersey - courtesy of ty draney!

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photos of nuun athletes from glenn tachiyama (all photos):

jen segger (1st female) - on first climb, by waterfall
devon crosby-helms (2nd female) - on first climb
kendra borgmann (3rd female) - downhill

matt hart (1st) - on first climb, by waterfall, 2nd lap, up stairs
brian morrison (3rd) - on first climb, downhill (great shot!)

ellen parker (1st female 25km) - on first climb

Capitol Forest Mega Fat Ass 35 Miler

the early part of the week i had a lot of trouble getting my quality sessions done. i was tired. so i didn't press it and just did what i could. i knew i'd have to recover to tackle the capitol forest mega fat ass ultra.

so today justin angle, bill huggins and i headed down to olympia for this "fat ass run". a "fat ass" run is best described as a "less serious" race. the crazy ultrarunners use them through the winter to stay fit and not feel like we have to be "on". i've seen them described as "no fees, no awards, no aid, no wimps". however this fat ass is dangerously close to becoming a real race. there was aid (although i never stopped to use it) and there was a $3 fee (a donation to the friends of capitol forest who maintain the area) and there were wimps! out of 130 runners, just 15 of us finished the whole course! with all that this certainly felt like a real race!

although rainy and muddy and a bit cold (it was haling at times) the run was awesome. there were two options, you could run one figure 8 for 17.7 miles or two of them for the full monty of 34.4 miles. this of course meant there was a group of runners charging off the start. i hung with justin for a bit behind the lead group. then he decided to bridge the gap and i said "goodbye" in my mind. i finished the first figure 8 with bill in 2:35 and only lost my shoe twice in the mud. i was in third place for 34 milers at that point and just 5 min behind justin in 1st. i was feeling pretty good, better and stronger than i thought i would.

as i started out on the second figure 8 i saw 2nd place quickly, but he blasted off like a scared deer after laying eyes on me. i stayed with my game plan of above 150bpm and below my anaerobic threshold (AeT) of 155. this ended up working pretty well as i caught and passed him about 30 min later. he was suffering pretty bad. i offered some gel then realized i didn't have any left. but we were close to the aid station at that point so he was fine. i was now just 2 min behind justin in 1st, although i had no idea at the time. the second half of the figure 8 was snowy, which made it tough and slow going. but really fun to run a bit harder than normal for a bit longer than normal and see what happens.

i had some pretty bad hip and groin pain on my right side. of course "you blew the mesh!" thoughts were going through my head. i'm going to make an appointment with the dr this week.

justin won in 5:17, i took 2nd at 5:23... results here.

my gear:
shoes: montrail odyssey
socks: teko ecopoly
pants: mountain hardware transition tights (awesome bomber winter running tights.. and sexy too)
jacket: my pick for ultrarunners gear of the year - patagonia 9 trails jacket

vermont 50 race report

the long and short of it.. i got smoked in vermont yesterday. i ran a 7:41 for 7th place.

the course: 50 miles of dirt road and super smooth single track with 9,000 feet of totally runnable elevation gain. with the 50 mile mtn bike race starting earlier and over 400 runners (most ever) it was quite an energetic and exciting morning.. not to mention the longest bathroom line i've ever waited in pre-race.

sunday morning i woke up at 4:45am feeling better than the two previous days. i was still a bit congested but overall i was ok, not great, but ok. i headed over to the start from our campground and ran into matt estes (eventual race winner who probably set a new course record), who had just signed up the day before. if you don't know this dude.. he's super fast, doesn't race a lot but when he does he puts a hurt on course records. met him at hurt 100 in january when he beat karl meltzer and broke his course record.

the first mile had us running out of ascutney mtn resort down the road. a pack of us quickly pulled out front probably running sub 7s. i looked around and noticed a couple montrail jersey on guys i didn't know. i hung on to the back of this front group that included estes, they all knew each other and were kind of chatting. one of them introduced and it was leigh schmitt (i think), and todd walker was there as well. my heart rate was higher than i would have liked it. in a few miles the road pitched up and i quickly realized i was not going to be racing these guys. it was the last i saw of them, and it happened fast! the road started going up hill, and they were gone. i had nothing in my legs to chase, i was empty.

the terrain changed to some really nice single track and fun running. i tried to calm my mind about the 5 or 6 runners ahead of me already. i tried to push my pace, but didn't feel good all day. i came into aid station #3, mile 12.5, my sister was there with my bottles ready to go. my nephew was cheering for me and my mom said "you are 7 minutes back from the leaders... and i love you". this was awesome.. and gave me a huge boost.

right after that high left me my hernias started to hurt. i get some pretty bad hip pain when i run long and on this day i was getting sharp shooting pain in my right hip/glute early on. i let it scare me, and it got in my head. as i ran through the mile 26 aid station i was running scenarios of dropping. the main one that sounded reasonable was my hernias, my pain and how i didn't want to put myself in the recovery hole for a race and a day that was just not going right.

luckily however i was able to banish those thoughts. i reminded myself that i'm not quiting unless i'm truly going to do some sort of permanent damage or simply can't put one foot in front of the other. but what turned my attitude was a combination of things; my nephew jackson didn't come to watch his uncle matt quit a race because it wasn't going his way, my mother and sister had done so much for me already to quit now wouldn't be fair, and finally the knowledge that i would learn some valuable lessons through this struggle. it didn't hurt that i was on a sub 8hr pace, which in my opinion was still a respectable time for such a a tough course.

this course is amazingly beautiful! i was able to get lost in the fall new england foliage and just enjoy it. the race was really well done as well. the only complaint i have was the bikers. there was a 50 mile mtn bike race going on as well that started before our race. so i quickly caught up to mtn bikers and ran next to them for the entire day - this sucked. i would pass on all the uphills, they would pass on the downhills. also i think since they were back of the packers they didn't know how to, or that you are supposed to, communicate as you pass. i was scared out of my shorts a few times by bikers just blasting by me on the trail without any warning, almost taking me out... it was nerve racking. also if you advertise that you have gel at the aid stations... don't put the gel in little dixie cups! who does that? racers need to grab gels (in gel packets) and go. at the high point of the course there were 40-50 mtn bikers resting. i had to maneuver through them to the heed cooler as i was out of fuel. there, i waited in line to fill my bottle. i waited in line! that was a very frustrating time of the race for me. i only write this in hopes the race directors can figure out a way to improve it.

ok so i ran in at 7:41 down the grassy slopes of ascutney mtn resort with my family cheering for me as i crossed the finish line! that alone made this race special, because they have never been able to make it to a race before.. i'm just sad i couldn't have raced a bit better - next time.

october 12th i get surgery on both of my hernias. this involves putting a mesh screen over my abdominal to prevent my intestine from ever poking through again. sounds terrible... however the prospect of racing without this or any other pain or injury is so exciting to me i can't wait!

for now i recover on cape cod with the family.. mm fudge.

2007 Grand Teton 100 Mile Ultramarathon Race Report

this was hands down one of the most amazing athletic experiences, and one i will cherish. i'll say it again, lisa, jay batchen and zach barnett put on a very special event in the teton mountains.

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short version: in my first 100 miler with 20,000 feet of gain i ran a 20:53, for 2nd place. andy jones-wilkens won the race in 19:35 and we both crushed the previous course record of 24:17. matthew noell and ty draney were my amazing crew.

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long version: if you read my previous post about this race then you know i was struggling a little bit with the mental side of things. sometimes a persons biggest suppressor to success can be their own ego looking for an excuse for possible failure.

the night before the race i slept a total of about 3 hours. in adventure racing we are usually up all night working on the maps and rarely sleep much before the race. so i try to not worry about it, i'd slept pretty well in the week prior. i actually woke up before the three alarm clocks set for 4:15am. i felt bad waking the boys, but it was 'go time'. i went over my gear with a groggy matthew noell while i ate my my pre-race meal of oatmeal and banana. the coffee, no matter how bad (i'm somewhat of a seattle coffee snob) always tastes so good after my self imposed week off prior to big races.

the course is 100 miles and 20,000 feet of elevation gain. it's four laps of a 25 mile clover leaf loop with three sections; a "fred's mountain" - big 2,000ft dirt road climb up to 10,000 feet and the top of the ski resort; b "mill creek trail" - the southern section of the course including some awesome single track, massive down and subsequent uphill, 3.3 miles of steep pavement, and c "rick's basin" - the final 5.3 miles, smooth fast singletrack with a couple of moderate climbs. more course descriptoin here. 6am start: it was still dark. i went back and forth with ty about whether or not to take a headlamp. in the end i did not. i can't even recall the countdown, if there was a gun or not. i was lined up front when i heard "1 minute to start". olga gave me some good advise and next thing i knew we started running uphill. it was dirt road all the way up section a. i had run/hiked this section on thursday. it was steep. andy pulled out in front and was leading. i was content just keeping him in sight. we were all running too fast for a 100 miler anyway. something ty said to me the night before was replaying in my head "go slow. if you think you are going too slow, slow down". i had so many friends, who are also top ultrarunners give me the same advice... "don't go out too hard". i heard it so often in fact that if i blew up in the early stages from going too hard i would have to hide in a hole for a month after this race.. embarrassed (it almost happened too).

andy, and mass guy darren worts and i traded positions just 10-40 feet back. tom got to the top of fred's first, then andy and me just 3 feet behind him. the downhill is where we really spread out. andy just disappeared. i can run downhill pretty well i think. when he disappeared i didn't care, i wasn't going to blow up my quads on the first lap. at the bottom we were a minute behind each other, andy, then me (tom somehow got lost for a bit). we were now 5.6 miles into 100 miler.

i felt really good. in the excitement i was running harder than i should have. i stayed a few minutes behind andy. the course was awesome, with great views and super smooth singletrack. i watch my heartrate and convinced myself if i kept it under 160 i'd be fine. the first 25 miles and 5,000 feet i ran in 4:15 and andy ran a 4:08. just three more laps right..? nothing.

the second lap was my worst. honestly this was very unexpected. i mean, i can run 50 miles pretty easily at this point. so i assumed laps one and two would be super easy, then lap three would suck and lap four i'd have ty to take me home no matter how much it hurt. as i started up big climb to 10,000 feet for a second time i was feeling awful. my mind started to wonder why. "was that first lap too hard?". "it's the elevation, damn seattle for being at sea level!". "maybe i can't run at the front of a 100 miler after all."

i suffered the most on my second climb to 10,000ft

the doubts that flooded my mind were quickly washed away by the fun of running downhill. once through the aid station again i was feeling much better. after another loop of b i sat dwn to apply some sunblock. lisa gave my legs a massage which was great.. i mean how many races can you attend and get a massage from the race director (i bet some you would rather not =).

i was so spoiled!

at some point i started getting that oh too familiar heal blister on my right foot. rod bien and sean meissner had stressed to me to slow down and take care of my issues. that was sound advice as i would have just run with this blister for a while. now i was obsessed with fixing it. the picture below shows the mad scramble to fix it. no one knew how the blister pads went on bc i've never used them. so i rubbed some hydropel on the heal and left again.

my awesome crew working on me.

i knew this was a temporary fix and it wasn't working that well. the blister was still growing. olga raced down from the top of fred's to meet me. she did some kind of magic trick. that blister never came back the rest of the race... thanks olga!

before my section c on the second lap i was offered a quick massage. i looked at ty and said, "is this stupid?". "no" was his response. i didn't need a massage per se, but it never hurts. so as i laid there we discussed the plan while i drank a balanced. i had been in and out so fast it was a good chance to catch up with my crew, who were by all accounts the greatest crew in the history of the world. matthew had mentioned to me in seattle that he might want to pace me some of the course, maybe the hike up to fred's. because i was assuming this third trip up to fred's would hurt the worst i asked him if he'd join me, but let him think about it as i ran section c to finish the second lap.

my third lap i started to catch fire a bit. matthew was ready to run when i returned and we headed up the dirt road to the top of fred's for a third time. we chatted and breathed heavy. matthew was awesome and kept my spirits high with complements about how i was running and how impressed he was. we made it up this time i think in 53 minutes. 3 minutes faster than my sufferfest on the second loop.

at the bottom i dropped off matthew and picked up the ipod. wow, i was feeling great and the tunes were really making me happy. i was high on this lap, flat out, laughing and smiling and singing out loud! section b lead to my crew at the opening of teton canyon and then the dreaded road. but i was feeling so good i didn't care. at the top of the road where the course turns back onto the trail my crew told me i'd just picked up 15 minutes on andy, and was now just 34 minutes back. whoa, sweet. i didn't react really. i didn't want to ruin the feeling i had. matthew said, "did you hear us?!". i replied "yes but i am feeling good and i can't worry about andy" as i ran off into the woods. i tried not to let that new information make me run too fast.

after section b i came through still rocking. ty had decided to run an extra 5 miles with me and joined me for this section as well as the last loop - this was great! (the video shows this).

ty is an amazing pacer. from start to finish he had me running well. he monitored my walk breaks and made me run tons of sections i might not have have. i was able to talk a little bit at first and we discussed many things including our mutual admiration for ultrarunner roch horton. we climbed fred's for my last time in 56 or something, i was happy with that. we hit section b knowing that an under 22 hour time was possible. i kept reminding the guys to keep and eye on third. i've been surprised before late in a 24hr mtn bike race and i wanted to make sure that wasn't going to happen.. paranoia was setting in.

we strapped the petzl headlamps on, tikka plus on my head and the myo xp around my waist, and headed out for the last 20 miles! this is when ty really put me to work. he was talking and the best i could do was groan in response if i wanted to keep up with him. i still feel bad that i couldn't chat with him more. my general feeling is that as we started out i was having trouble keeping up to what he wanted. then as we decended section b i felt like i was running before he would look back and expect me to. my confidence started to increase and i was feeling good.

as we got back on trail ty and i discussed breaking 22 hours. it seemed doable. as we got closer i was really "on the rivet". pushing myself to make it in under 22 hours. at some point i started to do the math. as we approached the climb i thought if i can get up here in 19:45 i can make the run down in 15 minutes... leaving me an hour to break 21 hours! i pushed up that hill, ty stopped for water and i knew i was moving well because it took him a while to catch up. we got to the top of the climb in 15 minutes. i was going to do this, but i had to work for it. we ran down ty let me know he was stopping for a bathroom break. he was going to run ahead tell matthew what i need and he'd catch me later.

as i approached the downhill i knew i was at 20 hours even. in the light i could see matthew standing without a bottle. so i decided to just keep running. i ran into the aid station doing nothing but dropping my water bottle.. i was on a mission now. i caused a stir, i could here someone say "there he goes!". matthew and ty were like.. "huh?". i had to get under 21 hours and i didn't care if that meant i ran alone or without water. someone said "hope you can catch him ty, he's moving". ty caught me and said by the time he looked up my headlamp was already gone. ty was excited at my desire to run hard and he pulled me along that last section. i got tingles when he was yelling at me near the last few miles. he gave me a few time updates that seemed a bit off, later found out was on purpose to make run faster... it worked. we must have been pushing 6-7 min/miles at the end.

after the smoke cleared i ran a 20:53, estatic to be finished with my first 100 miler... now i am an ultrarunner.

nuun and leader board

my plaque and 100 mile belt buckle!

the podium

my gear:
shoes: montrail continental divides
socks: teko ecopoly
packs/bottles: nathan hpl #020 and one nathan quickdraw plus
fuel: clif shot (3 per hour) & clif bloks
electrolytes: nuun
recovery: recover-ease