I'm back in Juneau now and feeling really solid about my running moving toward the "serious" racing season. Went out for an easy 24 mile run today in which I might have felt better than I ever have after 24 miles of running. It was one of those days that I would die for on a race day. Felt like I could run forever with almost no effort.
In a couple weeks I'll be heading out to New York to race the North Face 50 miler at Bear Mountain and then it'll be 7 weeks of final Western States preparation here in Juneau. I might not be entirely ready for the heat at Western States by being here in Juneau leading up to it, but there are few runners, if any, who will be running on as challenging and scenic terrain in their weeks leading up to Western States as I will.
I've got big plans for my training here in Juneau this spring and summer. I did a lot of off trail runs up onto the mountain ridges around here last year, but my craving for this year is to make last summer seem like the tip of the iceberg. I'm almost getting to the point of obsession with this. We still have quite a lot of snow in the mountains here, but more and more I'm feeling like a caged animal just waiting for the snow to melt a little bit more before I begin my almost daily assault of the high terrain in these parts. It might sound a little crazy but I'm so excited for the training that I'll be doing to get ready for Western States and UTMB that I almost feel like the races themselves are just a side effect of all the mountain ridge bliss that I'll be experiencing the next 4 months.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
1 For 6
I was finally able to get my California Jinx out of my system. I've never lost an Ultra marathon anywhere other than California but in California I had lost all 5 that I had run before yesterday. Hopefully this is the start of at least two California wins in a row.
The American River 50 went pretty well yesterday. It felt a bit too much like a road race for my liking, but I had a lot of fun with it nonetheless. I felt good most of the day, but I never felt really confident for any long periods of time. I kept wanting to find the kind of groove that I got into last November at Mountain Masochist but I couldn't ever quite get there for more than a few minutes at a time. I felt better as the tougher terrain came up in the last 20 miles, but unfortunately for my liking the tougher terrain was still pretty smooth and flat. I was physically pretty tired at this point, and at times felt like I was stuck in mud and could hardly move, but mentally it felt really nice to be on trails and climbing up and down a little bit.
When it was said and done I was able to pull away for the win (I took the lead for good with about 18 miles to go and never saw another runner after that) and squeak across the finish line in just under 5:50. I was very pleased with my race from a competitive standpoint, but I do still feel a little like my body is in early season form and will hopefully feel stronger and stronger as the season moves forward. Or perhaps it was the 30 miles of pavement that made my body feel a bit "off".
The American River 50 went pretty well yesterday. It felt a bit too much like a road race for my liking, but I had a lot of fun with it nonetheless. I felt good most of the day, but I never felt really confident for any long periods of time. I kept wanting to find the kind of groove that I got into last November at Mountain Masochist but I couldn't ever quite get there for more than a few minutes at a time. I felt better as the tougher terrain came up in the last 20 miles, but unfortunately for my liking the tougher terrain was still pretty smooth and flat. I was physically pretty tired at this point, and at times felt like I was stuck in mud and could hardly move, but mentally it felt really nice to be on trails and climbing up and down a little bit.
When it was said and done I was able to pull away for the win (I took the lead for good with about 18 miles to go and never saw another runner after that) and squeak across the finish line in just under 5:50. I was very pleased with my race from a competitive standpoint, but I do still feel a little like my body is in early season form and will hopefully feel stronger and stronger as the season moves forward. Or perhaps it was the 30 miles of pavement that made my body feel a bit "off".
Monday, April 5, 2010
Laying Low In The Desert
I've been keeping a low profile down in the wilderness of Southern Utah for the past few weeks. Lots of running in the desert down around Zion, Capitol Reef, and Moab. These desert trails are a lot different than the trails I'm used to running on in Juneau. Very dry and hard as compared to the mud and roots I'm used to, but really fun and challenging.
For about a week after Way Too Cool I kept feeling pretty frustrated about my misfortune in that race but finally I came to accept it and take a lot of confidence with me from the fact that I ever even had myself in position to win that race. That wasn't really a position I ever expected to be in. Not to take anything away from Leor or Max. They both beat me in that race, as route finding is every bit as much a part of trail racing as the physical strength component. It felt good though to draw from the confidence of having been strong enough and fast enough to be in the position I was in 27 miles into that race. That experience combined with the great training I've had in the few weeks since then has me feeling very strong and confident going into The American River 50 this coming weekend and then on into the rest of the season. I've still got a ways to go to be right where I want to be for Western States but I feel like my path to that point couldn't have been any better than it's been in the past few months.
For about a week after Way Too Cool I kept feeling pretty frustrated about my misfortune in that race but finally I came to accept it and take a lot of confidence with me from the fact that I ever even had myself in position to win that race. That wasn't really a position I ever expected to be in. Not to take anything away from Leor or Max. They both beat me in that race, as route finding is every bit as much a part of trail racing as the physical strength component. It felt good though to draw from the confidence of having been strong enough and fast enough to be in the position I was in 27 miles into that race. That experience combined with the great training I've had in the few weeks since then has me feeling very strong and confident going into The American River 50 this coming weekend and then on into the rest of the season. I've still got a ways to go to be right where I want to be for Western States but I feel like my path to that point couldn't have been any better than it's been in the past few months.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Oops - Way Too Cool Race Report
Going into Way Too Cool I would have been really stoked to know that I would finish in 3rd place behind Leor Pantilat and Max King. I think they both have more speed at that distance than I do and with how little focus I was putting on this one as anything more than an ambitious training race I really wouldn't have imagined beating either one of them unless something went wrong for them. As it turned out I was the one that had "something go wrong."
Things went pretty much as expected for the first 27 miles. I started out running with Max, just a bit behind Leor for the first few miles and then I eased back when I realized we were running sub 6 minute pace. And then for almost 3 hours I was stuck in the middle by myself. I was never really close enough to see Leor and Max, and never once did I see another runner behind me after the first few miles. I was simply out for a long run at that point, lost in my own experience. I wasn't feeling very fast or strong most of this time but I was enjoying myself nonetheless. I was getting reports all day from spectators that I was somewhere between 2-5 minutes behind the leaders. I knew I would likely be stronger as the race wore on because I generally excel on large climbs (which there are more of in the later parts of this course) and because I likely have the most endurance of the three of us. On this day though I felt really weak on the climbs and since I wasn't feeling very fast all day I was kind of resolved to just staying in cruise control mode and hope for a third place finish.
And then surprisingly as I pulled into the aid station at mile 26.8 I saw Max and Leor just leaving the aid station. I blew through the aid without stopping (as I did at every aid station all day - 50k's sure are a lot easier logistically than 50 and 100 milers) and less than a few hundred yards past the aid station I passed Max and then almost right away I passed Leor. This whole scenario caught me off guard. I never expected to catch them and then when I did I was beyond them so quick that I felt myself a few times needing to remind myself that it actually happened.
Shortly after passing them I came to a long straight away and looked back behind me and couldn't see either one of them. My lead was probably 30-60 seconds no more than a few minutes after passing them. By this point I knew I had the race in the bag as long as I took care of myself. Then suddenly I came to a junction which had flagging going in both directions, 2.5 miles from the finish. There was a lot more flagging going to the right and for some reason I was really impatient and just took off downhill to the right. It felt right for a minute or two but then I was really starting to question myself. Eventually I ran into someone down at the bottom of this long downhill who told me that I had made the wrong turn. This stretch I was running down was in fact a stretch of trail that I had already run at about mile 8 of the race, thus the flagging going in both directions.
That's more or less the end of my story of this one. I turned around, ran back up the hill, and ran frustratingly to the finish in 3rd place.
I still find myself thinking about what "should have been", but I also can find a lot of self deprecating humor in it. It's a good lesson in acceptance. I need to accept that I made this impatient mistake, and I more or less have accepted this. I had a hard time thinking about much of anything else the night after the race, but by today I really haven't thought about it much at all until writing about it now. I also need to accept that I have a lot more 50k "speed" than I thought I did. I'm not sure if this means you'll see me at too many more 50k's in the future, but I do need to spend a little more time coming to accept and believe that I had myself in position to finish ahead of the entire field in one of the most competitive 50k trail runs in the country... cause right now it almost doesn't feel like I was ever in the position to be able to win the race. It almost feels like the entire experience of catching up to them, blowing by them, and then getting lost never even happened. Like I just ran in third place all day and finished in third place. It would be a lot easier if that really were the case.
Things went pretty much as expected for the first 27 miles. I started out running with Max, just a bit behind Leor for the first few miles and then I eased back when I realized we were running sub 6 minute pace. And then for almost 3 hours I was stuck in the middle by myself. I was never really close enough to see Leor and Max, and never once did I see another runner behind me after the first few miles. I was simply out for a long run at that point, lost in my own experience. I wasn't feeling very fast or strong most of this time but I was enjoying myself nonetheless. I was getting reports all day from spectators that I was somewhere between 2-5 minutes behind the leaders. I knew I would likely be stronger as the race wore on because I generally excel on large climbs (which there are more of in the later parts of this course) and because I likely have the most endurance of the three of us. On this day though I felt really weak on the climbs and since I wasn't feeling very fast all day I was kind of resolved to just staying in cruise control mode and hope for a third place finish.
And then surprisingly as I pulled into the aid station at mile 26.8 I saw Max and Leor just leaving the aid station. I blew through the aid without stopping (as I did at every aid station all day - 50k's sure are a lot easier logistically than 50 and 100 milers) and less than a few hundred yards past the aid station I passed Max and then almost right away I passed Leor. This whole scenario caught me off guard. I never expected to catch them and then when I did I was beyond them so quick that I felt myself a few times needing to remind myself that it actually happened.
Shortly after passing them I came to a long straight away and looked back behind me and couldn't see either one of them. My lead was probably 30-60 seconds no more than a few minutes after passing them. By this point I knew I had the race in the bag as long as I took care of myself. Then suddenly I came to a junction which had flagging going in both directions, 2.5 miles from the finish. There was a lot more flagging going to the right and for some reason I was really impatient and just took off downhill to the right. It felt right for a minute or two but then I was really starting to question myself. Eventually I ran into someone down at the bottom of this long downhill who told me that I had made the wrong turn. This stretch I was running down was in fact a stretch of trail that I had already run at about mile 8 of the race, thus the flagging going in both directions.
That's more or less the end of my story of this one. I turned around, ran back up the hill, and ran frustratingly to the finish in 3rd place.
I still find myself thinking about what "should have been", but I also can find a lot of self deprecating humor in it. It's a good lesson in acceptance. I need to accept that I made this impatient mistake, and I more or less have accepted this. I had a hard time thinking about much of anything else the night after the race, but by today I really haven't thought about it much at all until writing about it now. I also need to accept that I have a lot more 50k "speed" than I thought I did. I'm not sure if this means you'll see me at too many more 50k's in the future, but I do need to spend a little more time coming to accept and believe that I had myself in position to finish ahead of the entire field in one of the most competitive 50k trail runs in the country... cause right now it almost doesn't feel like I was ever in the position to be able to win the race. It almost feels like the entire experience of catching up to them, blowing by them, and then getting lost never even happened. Like I just ran in third place all day and finished in third place. It would be a lot easier if that really were the case.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Driving and Cooling
I'm somewhere in Oregon, heading south for Way Too Cool this weekend. My life has pretty much revolved around the interior of a small car since Sunday morning. All I've done in that time is drive, sleep, eat and get out for a couple short runs along the way. I'm still not sure if it was a good idea to drive all the way down here from Alaska to run Way Too Cool and American River. Right now it doesn't feel like it, but after a month long vacation between the two races it'll probably feel a lot nicer than it would have been to fly down separately for each race.
I haven't really spent much time thinking about my race this weekend. I think I'm in pretty good shape right now, but I haven't run a 50k in over 4 years. There will certainly be some guys toeing the line on Saturday who have a lot more speed than I do but I think there are a few hills on this course that I might be able to use to my advantage. However it plays out it should be a nice day out running in the sun on some new (to me) trails. I think I have less attachment to a desire to win this race than any race I've run in a long time. That said, I'll be running as hard as I can on Saturday morning, and I expect that will put me somewhere in the vicinity of the front runners.
I haven't really spent much time thinking about my race this weekend. I think I'm in pretty good shape right now, but I haven't run a 50k in over 4 years. There will certainly be some guys toeing the line on Saturday who have a lot more speed than I do but I think there are a few hills on this course that I might be able to use to my advantage. However it plays out it should be a nice day out running in the sun on some new (to me) trails. I think I have less attachment to a desire to win this race than any race I've run in a long time. That said, I'll be running as hard as I can on Saturday morning, and I expect that will put me somewhere in the vicinity of the front runners.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Bender
My girlfriend was gone away on a meditation retreat for the weekend so I decided to indulge in a bit of a retreat of my own. This wasn't nearly as sinful as it sounds. We have had one of the nicest weeks of weather I ever remember here in the winter. Nothing but sun for 6 days and there was a bit of an inversion so the higher up you went the warmer it got. From the time when I got out of work on Friday at noon until sunset last night I was out in the mountains for almost every daylight hour. All told in three days I put in 17 hours of mountain snowshoe running with somewhere around 25,000 feet of climbing over about 45 or 50 miles. To cap it off I went out after work today for a 100 minute run in which I climbed well over 3,000 ft. I don't know if I've ever had so much fun running for this many consecutive days. It's supposed to rain tomorrow. I think I'm ready for the break.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Destinations
I've been feeding my running soul lately with some nice destination runs: runs that are a result and an expression of that which I have done in my training and my life to be at that point. For most of the past 6 weeks I have been doing runs which have been building me up and moving me toward destinations but now I see and feel an arrival beginning to take place. That is to say that I'm beginning to feel myself once again running for the sake and enjoyment of the run rather than to get myself to a physical place of being able to run for as long as I want to. There is a big difference between the two. You can't have the one without the other, but it sure feels good once you get yourself to a point where you can do destination runs several times a week.
Many days I still head out on the trail simply for the sake of getting my body into better and better physical shape, but these aren't really the runs that keep me hungry and motivated. Rather it's the long slow journeys into the mountains which sometimes last for a couple hours and sometimes last for a couple days. Last weekend I got out for an 8 hour run that took me to areas around Juneau that I've never seen before. When we finally dropped back down to the coast we were treated to an evening run, at low tide, along 7 or 8 miles of beach. A perfect way to end an incredible day out in the forest and on ridge lines. Then on Monday I "discovered" a new (to me) trail that accesses one of the most incredible alpine areas that I have ever seen anywhere in my life, and it was only 2o minutes from the trailhead to be above tree line. In 45 minutes I was up in majestic snow covered alpine that felt like it should have taken days to access. I found this area so appealing that I went back there today for my third destination run in 7 days. And now I have another one planned tomorrow which will take me to some more places I've never travelled before.
I didn't expect to be getting this much time up in the mountains again until late spring but we have had such little snow fall this winter that the ridge running is about as nice right now as ever. I'm almost bummed that I'll be leaving here in just over two weeks to drive down south for my next two races. A 5 week vacation to the lower 48 should be pretty sweet though. More about that trip soon.
Many days I still head out on the trail simply for the sake of getting my body into better and better physical shape, but these aren't really the runs that keep me hungry and motivated. Rather it's the long slow journeys into the mountains which sometimes last for a couple hours and sometimes last for a couple days. Last weekend I got out for an 8 hour run that took me to areas around Juneau that I've never seen before. When we finally dropped back down to the coast we were treated to an evening run, at low tide, along 7 or 8 miles of beach. A perfect way to end an incredible day out in the forest and on ridge lines. Then on Monday I "discovered" a new (to me) trail that accesses one of the most incredible alpine areas that I have ever seen anywhere in my life, and it was only 2o minutes from the trailhead to be above tree line. In 45 minutes I was up in majestic snow covered alpine that felt like it should have taken days to access. I found this area so appealing that I went back there today for my third destination run in 7 days. And now I have another one planned tomorrow which will take me to some more places I've never travelled before.
I didn't expect to be getting this much time up in the mountains again until late spring but we have had such little snow fall this winter that the ridge running is about as nice right now as ever. I'm almost bummed that I'll be leaving here in just over two weeks to drive down south for my next two races. A 5 week vacation to the lower 48 should be pretty sweet though. More about that trip soon.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Blah, Blah, Blah
Been away from this blog for a bit. Just been running. Getting back into the right space in my mind to feel stoked about my runs each day. For the most part the running's been good. I was sick for over a week so that set me back a bit but I'm feeling healthy now and typically feeling pretty strong. We've had much less snow this year than any of the past winters I've spent in Juneau so I'm pretty excited about the hope that I might be able to start running up on mountain ridges most everyday as soon as sometime in April. Even now I've been getting up into the mountains (on snowshoes) at least once a week.
I was supposed to be heading up to Anchorage to run a 50k this weekend but that's not going to happen now. Mostly I was interested in going because my friend Dan was going to go run his first Ultra. I thought it would be fun to go up and share that experience with him, especially since this race (Little Su) was also my first ultra ever when I ran it 4 years ago. It would have been a nice feeling to come full circle back to that race. As it played out though Dan has a bit of an injury and with the sickness I had last week it just started to seem really silly to spend $500 on airfare to go run a 50k which I wasn't viewing as much more than an ambitious training run.
So that leaves my next race just over 4 weeks away: Way Too Cool 50k. It'll be interesting to see if I can run such a fast, short race effectively. Right now I have no speed. When I go on runs lately it takes me about 90 minutes to feel warmed up. That's not going to work so well in a race that will only take a little more than twice as long as that.
After Way Too Cool I'll be running American River 50 in April and hopefully after that I'll be able to get onto all the trails here in Juneau and really dial up my training for Western States and beyond. I've also got a few local running pursuits that I'm really interested in this summer: scouting a route for a future 100 mile race and guiding tourists on trail runs. And hopefully in the next several weeks I might get a little more interested in posting something of potential value here on this blog. I tend to be more interested in this blog when I'm more interested in my running and over the past week I've become a lot more interested in my running so maybe sometime soon I'll actually write something about it. Or maybe not.
I was supposed to be heading up to Anchorage to run a 50k this weekend but that's not going to happen now. Mostly I was interested in going because my friend Dan was going to go run his first Ultra. I thought it would be fun to go up and share that experience with him, especially since this race (Little Su) was also my first ultra ever when I ran it 4 years ago. It would have been a nice feeling to come full circle back to that race. As it played out though Dan has a bit of an injury and with the sickness I had last week it just started to seem really silly to spend $500 on airfare to go run a 50k which I wasn't viewing as much more than an ambitious training run.
So that leaves my next race just over 4 weeks away: Way Too Cool 50k. It'll be interesting to see if I can run such a fast, short race effectively. Right now I have no speed. When I go on runs lately it takes me about 90 minutes to feel warmed up. That's not going to work so well in a race that will only take a little more than twice as long as that.
After Way Too Cool I'll be running American River 50 in April and hopefully after that I'll be able to get onto all the trails here in Juneau and really dial up my training for Western States and beyond. I've also got a few local running pursuits that I'm really interested in this summer: scouting a route for a future 100 mile race and guiding tourists on trail runs. And hopefully in the next several weeks I might get a little more interested in posting something of potential value here on this blog. I tend to be more interested in this blog when I'm more interested in my running and over the past week I've become a lot more interested in my running so maybe sometime soon I'll actually write something about it. Or maybe not.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
In 'Em To Win 'Em
On Sunday evening I got together with a bunch of friends here in Juneau to celebrate my UROY award. It was a nice gathering of about 50 people. I honestly didn't even know that I knew 50 people in Juneau. I felt a bit awkward to be the subject of such a large gathering, but it was fun to see so many of my friends, from different circles of the local community, together in one place. The type of gathering that I may have been terribly uncomfortable at if I wasn't the bridge between everyone there, such that I knew everyone there.
The question that I was asked the most that evening was, "so what races and running plans do you have for this year"? My easy answer to this question for the past month has been that I just want to have more fun running in the mountains than ever before and to focus on races that I've never run before. Now though I've begun to move toward a few more specific racing plans for this year.
I've known for a couple months now that I would be running Western States, but I have now begun to fill in some of the gaps both before and after June 26th. The biggest news in regards to this is that I'm going to go to Europe in August and run the Mt. Blanc race! Just found out today that I got accepted in the lottery. These races will most certainly be my two "focus races" of the year. I am not going to settle for just showing up and running either one of these without my most focused effort. I will be running to win both of them. I know this may sound a bit bold being that these may be the two most competitive 100 mile races in the world, but I know that I have a chance to win any 100 mile race that I line up for. Doesn't mean that my chances are even all that great in either one of these, but knowing that I do have a chance is really all I need to make that my intention in these races. I'm sure other goals/intentions for both of these races will present themselves as the time draws closer to race day, but for now I'm in them to win them!
Check out my sidebar if you're interested in seeing which other races I'm eyeing for 2010.
The question that I was asked the most that evening was, "so what races and running plans do you have for this year"? My easy answer to this question for the past month has been that I just want to have more fun running in the mountains than ever before and to focus on races that I've never run before. Now though I've begun to move toward a few more specific racing plans for this year.
I've known for a couple months now that I would be running Western States, but I have now begun to fill in some of the gaps both before and after June 26th. The biggest news in regards to this is that I'm going to go to Europe in August and run the Mt. Blanc race! Just found out today that I got accepted in the lottery. These races will most certainly be my two "focus races" of the year. I am not going to settle for just showing up and running either one of these without my most focused effort. I will be running to win both of them. I know this may sound a bit bold being that these may be the two most competitive 100 mile races in the world, but I know that I have a chance to win any 100 mile race that I line up for. Doesn't mean that my chances are even all that great in either one of these, but knowing that I do have a chance is really all I need to make that my intention in these races. I'm sure other goals/intentions for both of these races will present themselves as the time draws closer to race day, but for now I'm in them to win them!
Check out my sidebar if you're interested in seeing which other races I'm eyeing for 2010.
Monday, January 11, 2010
UROY
Thanks all for the words of congratulations. It feels good to be "officially" recognized for my performances this year. Although it also feels a little unfair. It felt like I had too much fun running this year to have been capable of having (at least by one publication's standard) the best year of any male ultra runner in North America. I guess therein lies the key to my success.
For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about check out this link.
For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about check out this link.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Out Of Shape?
I took about three weeks after the North Face race to give my body the most rest it's had in about 15 months. I'm now back running most everyday and I'm really surprised how much of my fitness still remains. I was actually kind of hoping that I would feel more out of shape. I'm not going to race again until sometime in March and being out of shape right now would give my mind something to focus on for the next several weeks before I feel like I really need to specialize a bit for my next race. I guess for now I just need to take advantage of the season and get out on my cross country skis and snowshoes. Maybe sometime in February I'll start to think about some training specific to my next event. Or maybe I should just stick with my approach that I used for the second half of '09 and just run for fun and assume that it will apply to my racing. Problem is that my next race might be a 50k which kind of scares the hell out of me with how little fast running I've done in the past year.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Montrail
I'm super stoked to be heading into another year as a member of Team Montrail. As I've said numerous times throughout this year, the Mountain Masochist is the best shoe I have ever worn. I've pretty much stopped wearing anything else. I think it's been more than two months since I ran a step in any other shoe. The good news is that the Mountain Masochist will be back in '10 exactly the same as '09. That means another year of very happy feet for me. I'm also excited to try out some of the new models that will be available in 2010 and beyond. Keep an eye on the Montrail website for news about that. Montrail has also created a new and improved team blog that you can check out here. Also keep an eye on the blog for an announcement about a couple exciting new additions to team Montrail in 2010. Expect that news sometime in the next week.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Looking Ahead
I've been laying really low with my running since The North Face race at the beginning of the month. Only been getting out running about 2 or 3 days a week. The break has been nice but I find myself beginning to get the bug to get back out on longer runs and to get back out more often.
This has also got me thinking more about my running plans for 2010. All I know right now is that I want to spend even more time in the mountains next year than I ever have before, that I only want to run races that I have never run before, and that I will be running Western States on June 26th. Other than those three things everything else is up in the air. I'm really excited to find out where these things take me.
This has also got me thinking more about my running plans for 2010. All I know right now is that I want to spend even more time in the mountains next year than I ever have before, that I only want to run races that I have never run before, and that I will be running Western States on June 26th. Other than those three things everything else is up in the air. I'm really excited to find out where these things take me.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Thinking Back
2009 has been a very dynamic year for me. My life feels like it has changed more than in any other year of the 32 previous years I have lived. My running has also changed more this year than ever before. There were a lot of stressful times for me this year. There were times when I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I felt this not only in my personal life but also in my running. In a year with so much running success it's been pretty crazy to have as much uncertainty, anxiety, and doubts as I have had. There has been a lot of up and a lot of down for me this year. Overall though the up has far outweighed the down and through it all I was able to run 6 shockingly successful races, perhaps the 6 best races I have ever run. Maybe my running was fueled by so much drama and stress. Or maybe when I find more stability in my life in 2010 (yeah, like that's actually going to happen) I'll have even a better year of racing.
At any rate, I thought it would be fun to do a poll of my best race of '09. I had 6 really good ones but I'm curious to see what readers of this blog think was my best. Check out the sidebar for the poll.
At any rate, I thought it would be fun to do a poll of my best race of '09. I had 6 really good ones but I'm curious to see what readers of this blog think was my best. Check out the sidebar for the poll.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Sweet Defeat
Some thoughts about yesterday's race:
I finished 2nd in a time of 6:40:53, about 8 minutes faster than the previous course record. Uli Steidl won the race in a time of 6:33 and change!
Uli ran away with the race coming out of the aid station at mile 39. To that point he and I had run within a few hundred feet of each other the entire way. From about mile 14 on we were separated from the rest of the field. In that 25 mile span from mile 14 to mile 39 we were never more than 10 feet apart. We took turns in the lead and most of the time I felt like we were connected such that we couldn't separate if we wanted to. It felt like we were literally dragging each other down the trail with a 5 foot rope holding us together. We both took the same amount of time at aid stations and we both seemed to be running with the same strengths, that is to say fast on the uphills, fast on the flats, and fast on the downhills. I had assumed that Uli was not that fast on more technical trail, being that most of his racing in the past few years has been on roads. That was definitely the wrong assumption. We ran the technical downhill after PanToll (mile 30) about as fast as one could possible imagine and I couldn't even hear him behind me. He just seemed to hover along a few inches off the ground. For most of the run we hardly talked at all but I felt like we were communicating so much just from sharing the same experience so closely. I felt so focused on moving forward in conjunction with Uli that there almost seemed to be no space in my mind for words. Because of this the times we did speak seemed really significant and almost shocking at times. Simple one sentence statements seemed like profound thesis at the time, because they tended to speak also of the previous 30 minutes of silence. Each word seemed to convey a thousand thoughts. I don't think I have ever felt as tuned in to another runner during a race.
Eventually my body broke down. I made up my mind at around mile 20 that I was going to stay with Uli as long as I could. I wasn't going to fade back slowly to improve my chances of staying strong and thus remain more likely to maintain 2nd place. I was running to win and the only way I was going to be able to do that was staying right there with him. I was not going to let him out of my sight unless I had no physical ability left to keep him there. For several miles (around mile 28-35) I even felt a confidence that I might be able to be the one to pull away from him on one of the difficult climbs in the last 10 miles of the race.
It wasn't meant to be for me though. When my strength began to waver on the climb up out of Muir Beach (mile 39) he was gone out of sight almost immediately. It felt weird to be right there with him for so long and then suddenly he was long gone. I kind of liked the quickness of it all though. I was able to just let him go in my mind and begin to instantly focus on getting my situation corrected. My legs were cramping and I was short on calories. I walked uphill and rubbed my cramping quads, drank lots of fluid, and ate as many calories as I could stomach. Gradually life came back to my physical body and I was able to finish strong.
It would have been nice to win, but it was an absolute honor to share that experience with Uli and I am completely humbled by the race he ran. For 39 miles I was able to push my body to a limit just slightly below collapse. Uli was able to convince his body to stay at that limit for the full 50 miles. I know that my name has been thrown around by some people for Ultrarunning performance of the year (either for HURT, Wasatch, or Mountain Masochist), but Uli's run yesterday was without question a more impressive performance than what I did in any of these races. It was the most impressive running performance I have ever seen in person, replacing what Dave Mackey did at Miwok '08.
It might sound strange but this may have been my most satisfying race of '09. My body failed me before the finish, but my mind dealt with this failure in such a healthy and satisfying way. I had a deeply satisfying and connected experience running with Uli all day. And probably most satisfying of all was that I got to share this race with some of the most important people in my life. I had 8 people that I love dearly there with me at the finish. People that came from all over the continent and made my experience more complete than it ever could have been otherwise.
I finished 2nd in a time of 6:40:53, about 8 minutes faster than the previous course record. Uli Steidl won the race in a time of 6:33 and change!
Uli ran away with the race coming out of the aid station at mile 39. To that point he and I had run within a few hundred feet of each other the entire way. From about mile 14 on we were separated from the rest of the field. In that 25 mile span from mile 14 to mile 39 we were never more than 10 feet apart. We took turns in the lead and most of the time I felt like we were connected such that we couldn't separate if we wanted to. It felt like we were literally dragging each other down the trail with a 5 foot rope holding us together. We both took the same amount of time at aid stations and we both seemed to be running with the same strengths, that is to say fast on the uphills, fast on the flats, and fast on the downhills. I had assumed that Uli was not that fast on more technical trail, being that most of his racing in the past few years has been on roads. That was definitely the wrong assumption. We ran the technical downhill after PanToll (mile 30) about as fast as one could possible imagine and I couldn't even hear him behind me. He just seemed to hover along a few inches off the ground. For most of the run we hardly talked at all but I felt like we were communicating so much just from sharing the same experience so closely. I felt so focused on moving forward in conjunction with Uli that there almost seemed to be no space in my mind for words. Because of this the times we did speak seemed really significant and almost shocking at times. Simple one sentence statements seemed like profound thesis at the time, because they tended to speak also of the previous 30 minutes of silence. Each word seemed to convey a thousand thoughts. I don't think I have ever felt as tuned in to another runner during a race.
Eventually my body broke down. I made up my mind at around mile 20 that I was going to stay with Uli as long as I could. I wasn't going to fade back slowly to improve my chances of staying strong and thus remain more likely to maintain 2nd place. I was running to win and the only way I was going to be able to do that was staying right there with him. I was not going to let him out of my sight unless I had no physical ability left to keep him there. For several miles (around mile 28-35) I even felt a confidence that I might be able to be the one to pull away from him on one of the difficult climbs in the last 10 miles of the race.
It wasn't meant to be for me though. When my strength began to waver on the climb up out of Muir Beach (mile 39) he was gone out of sight almost immediately. It felt weird to be right there with him for so long and then suddenly he was long gone. I kind of liked the quickness of it all though. I was able to just let him go in my mind and begin to instantly focus on getting my situation corrected. My legs were cramping and I was short on calories. I walked uphill and rubbed my cramping quads, drank lots of fluid, and ate as many calories as I could stomach. Gradually life came back to my physical body and I was able to finish strong.
It would have been nice to win, but it was an absolute honor to share that experience with Uli and I am completely humbled by the race he ran. For 39 miles I was able to push my body to a limit just slightly below collapse. Uli was able to convince his body to stay at that limit for the full 50 miles. I know that my name has been thrown around by some people for Ultrarunning performance of the year (either for HURT, Wasatch, or Mountain Masochist), but Uli's run yesterday was without question a more impressive performance than what I did in any of these races. It was the most impressive running performance I have ever seen in person, replacing what Dave Mackey did at Miwok '08.
It might sound strange but this may have been my most satisfying race of '09. My body failed me before the finish, but my mind dealt with this failure in such a healthy and satisfying way. I had a deeply satisfying and connected experience running with Uli all day. And probably most satisfying of all was that I got to share this race with some of the most important people in my life. I had 8 people that I love dearly there with me at the finish. People that came from all over the continent and made my experience more complete than it ever could have been otherwise.
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