UTMB DNF - What Went Wrong

My block of training after Western States leading up to UTMB was not great by any means. I got some really long, really fun runs in, but through much of this time my body wasn't recovering as smoothly from long runs as usual and this was forcing me to take more days off than usual. Three weeks before uTMB though I started to feel a lot better for a nice 10 or 12 day stretch in which I got in 3 nice long runs (about 30 miles each and about 25k ascent between the three of them) and seemed to recover right away from each one of them. This gave me a nice bit of confidence going into the race. I felt that my body was feeling better than it had all summer, and I felt that my mind and my body were as ready for this race as any race since UTMB a year ago. I was however a little bit uncertain about the fact that by the time the race would start I had not run a step in 6 days. When I arrived in Geneva on Monday my luggage was not with me. I didn't get my stuff until late Wednesday night, therefore I had nothing with me except the clothes I had worn on my flight, and thus didn't do any running in the days leading up to the race. I was a little concerned about this, but I also looked at the forced rest as perhaps a good thing since my body was having a slow time recovering all summer.

And so I started the race in what I would call a cautiously confident state of mind. The weather was pretty nasty (cold and rainy) at the start but I wasn't too concerned about this. I was carrying (by requirement) enough stuff with me to run through a hurricane. I can't imagine any conditions in which I would ever wear all the gear they make us carry in this race. I have never run a step in my life in waterproof pants, and I can't imagine a scenario in which I ever would.

At any rate, off we were and I was feeling pretty good. It was amazing how similar the first three hours of this race were to the first three last year. The weather was about the same. I was running in about the same part of the pack on the way down to Les Houches, and somewhere near town Mike Wolfe and I seperated a little bit ahead of the rest of the American runners and began the climb over to St. Gervais behind a lead group of 5 or 6 European runners, led by Kilian. On the way down to St. Gervais several runners (including Nico of course) went blowing by us and then Mike and I gradually reeled them all back in on the gradual ascent on the way to Les Contamines. By the time we arrived in Les Contamines (30k) we had caught up with the 4 person lead pack and the 6 of us ran into the aid station within a few feet of each other. Things had progressed so similar as last year to this point that I was kind of caught off guard when we weren't told that the race was being stopped. Instead we made exchanges with our crews and were off up the trail toward the first serious high alpine of the race.

I wouldn't say I was feeling great heading out of Les Contamines, probably pretty average for 20 miles into a 100 mile race. But the rain had stopped, the stars were coming out, and I felt like the 6 of us were likely settling into a lead group that would end up doing battle for several hours of time through the mountains. Mike looked strong, Kilian and Miguel I knew would be strong for a long time down the trail. I didn't know the other two runners but I just kind of had a hunch that we would all be sharing this adventure for a huge portion of the race. I also knew that Sebastien was just a couple minutes back and would probably join us for the fun.

And then we hit the first steep climbing about 20 minutes past Les Contamines and almost instantly my body felt weak and challenged. I was cramping a bit. Cramping in my legs, but also cramping in my arms and my hips and my abdomen muscles. Cramps in places I have never cramped before. This also caught me off guard as we were only just over 3 hours into the race. I've never cramped that early in a race before. And so I had no choice but to slow way down on that climb. Initially I was fine with this. I was pretty sure I just needed to drink a lot, eat a lot, take in some salt, keep moving as best I could, and things would come around for me. I made it to the top of the climb in pretty bad shape and then when I started running down it felt even worse. The muscles all over my body felt like I had already run most of the race. By the time I got down to Les Chapieux (50k) I physically felt like I should be almost to the finish, when in reality I had not even run 1/3 of the race yet. From here things just progressed further in this direction. Each mile I ran seemed to effect my body as though I had run 10. My quads were pretty much destroyed by the time I began the descent down off of Col De La Seigne.

My mind stayed strong and I shifted quickly from try to compete mode to try to finish mode. I slowed way down and tried to regroup. Ultimately it was way too late though. By the time I finally dropped in Courmayeur (78k) my body was just too thrashed to continue. I was to the point in which I was walking the steep descents backward because my quads couldn't take the impact anymore. I was doing damage to my body with every step I took and thus the decision to stop was almost not even a decision that I needed to make with my mind, my body had made it for me.

With this experience behind me it's still a bit diffucult for me to know what went wrong. There were a lot of top level runners (American and Foreign alike) who had days very similar to mine. The common thing I kept hearing from almost everyone who dropped out of this race (which was more than half of the starters) was that they eventually just hit a point where their bodies felt like they had already run 100 miles. For several folks this occured even earlier in the race than it did for me! For me though I don't know how much my troubles were isolated to this race and this specific day. The weather was a bit tough, and it's a challenging course for sure, although not enough more challenging than a few other hundreds I've done (Wasatch, HURT, and Bear) that I should have felt as beaten up physically after 4 hours as I usually do only after 17+. For me I think my diffucult race was more of a larger picture thing. My body has not felt "normal" for the better part of 3 months now. Typically I feel below average (physically) about 20% of the times I go out for a run. The other 80% is usually average or above. In the past three months though this ratio has pretty much been flipped around. I've been able to fool myself into thinking everything was OK by taking way more days off than I usually do, but this race made it obvious to me that it's not a few days off that I need, but rather a few weeks or months. Just as we hit low stretches in our running in the shorter term, I think I have hit a low stretch in the longer term. After more than 24 months of pretty steady growth and strengthing in my body, I have hit a point in which my muscles need to reset a bit before they can go forward. Basically I feel myself at the same point I was in May of 2009. At that time I took about a month off and came back to running not even sure if or when I would race again. By the end of September that year I had run (and won) 3 hundred mile races. I bounced back that time even stronger than I had been before that.

I had a very strong craving to do well in this race, but I didn't have the fitness right now to do so. I'm OK with this. I'm glad that I finally put my body up against something so challenging that I have no choice but to read the writing on the wall of such an inability of my body to perform when pushed to do so. Where this all will take me in the next several months I have no idea. That's the thing about reseting and then moving on. You have no idea what moving on looks like until you do the resetting. I'm actually really excited for the next several months, and to see where this all takes me. It's hard to totally clear the mind, reset, and just go with what feels right down the road, but this will be what I hope to accomplish over the next several weeks/months.

UTMB Delayed... Again!

For those following along online in The States (or anywhere in the world for that matter), we got news a bit ago that the race start has been postponed by 5 hours. We will now be starting at 23:30 France time, which is 5:30pm EST in the US. There's a pretty strong and fairly fast moving storm expected to roll through here right around the time that the race was supposed to start. I guess their hope now is that the worst of it will have passed by the time we start 5 hours later. Going to be a lot of tired folks with this race starting about the time most people are used to falling asleep for the night.

I for one love the later start for a few reasons. First of all the storm is going to bring in some very cool weather. We might be running in some rain/snow in the first third of the race, but by sunrise it's supposed to be mostly cleared up and significantly cooler than it's been. Cool weather = better stomach performance which more often than not = better overall performance. I also like that we will get to see a lot more of the route in daylight. Instead of running in darkness for 10+ hours we will do it for about 6 or 7. I love running in the dark, but these mountains here are so amazingly dramatic I want to see as much of them as possible. And the third reason I like the later race start is just that it's something different. In the United States there is such a format to most of our ultras. They're almost all one of 4 exact distances and they almost all start between 5:00 and 8:00am. I love that this is simply a run around a mountain (it happens to be right around 100 miles, but only by chance, not by design) and that we are starting at 11:30 at night. It just gives the whole thing even more of a unique and exciting feel.

And beyond all of this there is nothing like having 2,500 runners primed and ready to do a run that they've been preparing for for most of the year and then telling them they need to wait even 5 more hours. You can just feel the tension in the air here now. It's easy to react negatively to news like this, and part of me is frustrated with the situation, but the decision has been made and now it's time to just wait a little longer and try to get some more rest. As soon as we line up, take the start, and run out of Chamonix the whole 5 hour delay is going to mean nothing in comparison to the adventure that lies ahead. Personally I have a feeling that this is going to be one of the most satisfying runs of my life so I don't really care so much when we start... just as long as we get to actually finish this time around.

One Year Later

I've been ready to run UTMB again for a full year after last year's postponed race. This has pretty much been my focus race since the day after this race one year ago. Keeping my finger's crossed now that the weather cooperates enough to let this one go off without any stoppages. The forecast currently looks a lot like the weather last year!

My week here in Chamonix started out a bit sour. I arrived several hours late into Geneva on Monday and my luggage (with all my race gear) arrived 2.5 days late! Until late in the day yesterday I didn't know if I was even going to receive my stuff before the race. Certainly I'll be going into this one very fresh as I didn't have anything with me to be able to go out for any running. The only clothing I had were the clothes I wore on the flight. I'm probably a little bit over rested but I'll take that any day vs. being over trained.

For those following along online it should be a pretty good one to follow. When the race leaders pass through La Fouly (110k) they will be giving all of the top runners a small gps device that will show the leaders progress with less than a few minutes delay.

Nothing left for me now except to sleep, eat, and run in the mountains all night and most of the day Saturday. Doesn't get much better than that.

Consistency

It's no secret that consistent practice of any physical activity can and typically does lead to improved performance at that activity. If only it were really that simple though. In the case of something like running there is only so much running that our bodies can handle before it's too much. This amount varies from person to person, but in the case of most experienced ultrarunners I think there is more of a tendancy to run too often than not enough. I do think consistency is crucial to maximize one's potential, but in the case of something as physically degrading (if overdone) as ultrarunning I think long term sustained consistency is much more important than short term consistency. This is to say that I think it's a lot more important to be consistent over the course of months and even years than it is to be consistent over the course of days or weeks.

Why is long term consistency so important in this sport? Running 50 or 100 miles is not a matter of precision and fine tuning. It is a matter of deep rooted mental and physical strength and endurance which is developed through a series of micro adaptations that we make over the course of years. No matter how hard you train in the 2 or 3 months leading up to your first 50 or 100 mile race you are going to get worked over really hard in that race. Of course there are random exceptions, but everyone I know has been physically hammered by their first ultra. On the flip side of this I see folks (myself included) who have trained and raced consistently for a few years (or in some cases for decades) who have been able to make these gradual adaptations such that they can race every few weeks and only the occasional "race gone bad" has the extreme physical effect that those first few ultras seem to have on everyone. I remember shortly after I ran my first 50 miler someone told me that if I kept doing them fairly regularly that my body would "learn" to do this without even being sore the next day. At the time I thought there was no chance of this. Now, 5 years and about 35 races later, I rarely have very much soreness after a 50 mile race.

Anyhow, if you've read this far you might now be thinking, "okay, good point about long term consistency, but this doesn't make short term consistency unimportant." To some degree I think it does though, because in my experience the most likely way to be consistent over the long term is to not over do short term consistency which in almost all cases seems to lead to eventual injury, fatigue, or burnout that limits long term consistency. This is to say that rather than focusing too much on trying to run a certain amount everyday, or a certain amount of time/mileage each week I think most ultrarunners could benefit a lot from just adopting a lifestyle of going out and running when their bodies and minds (and logistics of day to day life) allow for it and not so much when they don't. Running every single day for a year or running 100 miles a week for a year (if you are one of the rare few to pull this off without getting injured or burnt out) isn't going to make you nearly as capable of an ultrarunner as running a consistent and challenging amount of mileage/hours per year for several years. A few weeks without much running, or even a month, will do virtually nothing to set us back once we have built up all these micro adaptations that this kind of long term consistency leads to. But we can only get to this point if we can stay generally healthy for a long period of time.

How do we best do this? By not focusing too much on short term consistency and just taking individual days as they come and letting our bodies dictate when and how much we run. Of course this is just my opinion about all of this. And of course there are many folks who defy this theory, but I would argue that most ultrarunners would actually run more (and faster) over the course of the long haul if they focused less on trying to run a certain amount each day or week and just ran each day and each week what felt right, taking into account the physical, the mental, and the logistics of day to day life as it comes at us. When your body and mind feels good and you have the time in your day to go out and run like crazy then go out and run like crazy. But when you're not feeling good or you just don't have the time to squeeze in a run without it being too much of an extraction on the rest of your life, then just do what you need to do to take care of your body and/or your life and don't stress about not running enough that day or that week. By not running on these days you'll actually be making yourself a better runner over the long haul.

Colorado, UTMB, and 2012 Camps

My summer in Juneau has come to and end and I'm back in Colorado getting settled in here before leaving in a few days to head over to France for UTMB. I had an amazing summer running in Juneau, but didn't really feel physically very good for a lot of it. Everything has really begun to click in the past 10 days though and I have felt better in this time than I have for any 10 day stretch in several months. This has me more excited than ever for UTMB. Going to get in one last long run tomorrow and then head off to New York to visit my family for a few days and then on to France.

I've mentioned a few times how successful my running camps were this summer. They were without question two of the most satisfying weeks of my life. And now I have moved forward with 3 sessions planned for the summer of 2012. The entry forms for those camps are now available on the camp website so sign up soon if you want to guarantee a space for next summer. Based on the response I've gotten I suspect these camps will fill up pretty quickly again for 2012. I will update the "Latest News" section of the camp website as applications start to roll in, but if you want to be sure to have a space in the session of your choice please send your entry/deposit as soon as possible. Also be sure to fully read over the camp website before you sign up. Most things will be the same as 2011, but there are a few changes that have been updated on the camp website. The most notable of these is that the May 28th session will be specifically intended for the more advanced/performance oriented runner. Please fully read the website before choosing to sign up for this session. And feel free to contact me via email if you have any questions about this.

First Summer of Camp is in the Books

Finished up the second session of my running camp this week. I still can't believe how amazing the experience has been of putting on these camps. Both sessions turned out to be amazing. Two of the most satisfying weeks of my life. Thanks so much to everyone who participated. They were such a success that I already have 3 sessions planned for next summer! The dates are up on the camp website and the entry will open beginning on August 15th. Click here for more info.

Beyond this I've just been doing my best to get ready for UTMB and packing up to head back to Colorado for the fall/winter. It sure has been a short summer. I've done a ton of cool stuff here in Alaska since early May, but I feel like this summer could go on for years and I wouldn't run out of run stuff to do. This said, I'm looking forward to getting settled back in to Colorado and enjoying the Rocky Mountain Autumn which can be one of the most wonderful places in the world to spend the next several months.

Running Stupid Interview

Here's a link to an online interview I did last week on "Running Stupid": http://runningstupid.libsyn.com/running-stupid-lxxxv-geoff-roes-interview-

It's quite long but there's some stuff in there that should be pretty informative for runners new to running ultras... and maybe even a few things that would be interesting to anyone.

Crow Pass Race Recap

Crow Pass ended up going as well for me as I possibly could have expected. After my rough day at Western States last month I wasn't really expecting much of anything from this race. I have been focused more on UTMB than anything this whole season and I was really only running Crow Pass once again because there were 8 friends of mine from Juneau who decided to run and I didn't want to miss out on the fun.

And then the race started. And almost instantly I went from being quite ambivalent about the whole thing to really excited about it. I didn't feel great, but I felt good. The competition was as solid this year as it's been in a few years. For the past couple years it's been just Eric Strabel and I, but this year Matias Saari was racing again for the first time in a few years and made it really obvious right from the start that he wasn't going to let Eric and I run away with this one as we had done the previous couple years. In fact Matias ended up setting the pace for most of the first 15 or 16 miles of the race (after Eric had done so on most of the first 2 or 3 miles going up to the pass).

Me? I just kind of hungout right on the heels of whoever was running in front. I ran in front a bit, but probably no more than 2 total miles before I took the lead for good with about 7 miles to go. I would have been more than willing to run in front and do some of the pace setting, but Matias really seemed to want to be in front, especially on the downhills which he was running really strong.

The climb up to the pass was much more relaxed than the last couple years, and once we got over the top still no one really tried to push things very much. I for one was very excited about this. I felt very confident about my chances if the race come down to a contest of who could outlast the others without anyone making a really strong push to separate themselves from the others. And this is exactly how it played out. Eric never seemed to be able to quite keep up with Matias and I on the flatter stretches and I just hungout behind Matias, feeling very relaxed, until finally at about mile 16 Matias pulled to the side of the trail and let me by (I found out later that he was dealing with some cramping issues).

I just kept pushing a hard pace and kept moving one step closer to the finish. I figured Eric was probably not far behind but I also felt pretty confident that my pace was going to be enough to hold him off. I didn't have a lot more left in the tank had I needed it, but I was able to keep a quick enough pace that I just didn't need it. I ended up finishing almost 2 minutes ahead of Eric for my 4th Crow Pass victory and 3rd in a row. I didn't quite get in under 3 hours, but I think the slower time was mostly due to the fact that we just didn't push very hard at all until after the river. I think had any of the three of us been running specifically for a fast time rather than to try to win the race I could have run several minutes faster in the first half of the race, and still likely finish the second half just as fast.

In all this was likely the most I have ever enjoyed this race. I'm not sure why I enjoyed it so much. Maybe it was because I didn't really expect to, or maybe because I felt so smooth and steady throughout the day. Whatever the reason though I sure am glad I decided to run it again this year. Don't know yet if I'll run it again next year, but with the race director talking about adding in some decent prize money it'll be even that much harder to say no.

It was also really amazing to share the race and the day with so many close friends from Juneau. The group of 8 of us who raced were quite the eclectic bunch with 2 in their twenties; 2 in their thirties; 1 in his forties; 1 in his fifties; 1 in his sixties; and 1 who will turn 73 this fall! Three of us won our age groups (would have been 4 but they don't even recognize a 70 and over age group because I think Glenn Frick may have been the first person over 70 to ever complete the race - and it's not like he squeezed in under the 6 hour time limit: he finished in 4:30!) Our 60 year old participant (Guy Thibodeau) came in just under 4 hours, something that I doubt there are more than a handful of 60+ runners in the world that could do, and Guy didn't even have a very good day. If a lot of these Juneau runners decide to go back to Crow Pass again next year that will be another thing that will make it very hard for me to say no.

Click here for a story about the race including results.

Juneau Taking Southcentral AK By Storm?

Heading up to Anchorage for another run at Crow Pass this weekend. Should be a fun one. We've got a crew of 8 of us heading up from Juneau. This will be a fun one to finish up and hang around watching all my friends from here come through the finish. I'm expecting the Juneau contingent to turn some heads up there. We could win a few of the various age groups in this one. If not it certainly won't be for lack of killer mountain training that all 8 of us have gotten in here in the past few months.

Julien Chorier Keeps The Ball Rolling

European runners are hitting the US ultrarunning scene hard nowadays. It seemed to kind of start with Kilian's strong showing at Western States last year, and since then European runners have won several of the top races in this country. If you also look at European natives living in North America you can then include folks like Ian Sharman, Nick Clark, and Ellie Greenwood in this conversation. Good thing Dave Mackey isn't Euro or it might seem like Americans never win big ultras anymore.

I for one think this is an awesome development in the sport. The European runners who I've had the pleasure to race against have all been fun, talented, and humble folks. To this point they have had more recent success in "our" races than we've had in "theirs", but I think this will only motivate and encourage runners all over the world to push even harder to compete at a top level in races throughout the world. The number of top level American runners heading over to UTMB this year is very impressive, and I would guess this number will only grow in the coming years. The success that European runners have had in our big races in the past year has been a huge part of this interest in American runners heading over to more and more of the world's big races. Who knows, maybe we'll even start to win some of the big ones across the pond, and that will make things even that much more exciting.

The Four Steps To My WS DNF

I spent some time (and certainly I wasn't the only one) on my flight back to Alaska today thinking about why things may have gone as poorly for me this past weekend as they did. Of course I have no way of knowing for certain so this is all just a guessing game. But here are my guesses:

I think the most prominent factor is that I simply had a bad day. This isn't the first time I've had a race that started out feeling bad and just got worse as I pushed along. It was in fact the 4th in the 40 or so races I've run in the past 5 years. We all have days when we just don't have it. The reason we try to sleep a lot, eat well, and rest before a race is that we try to minimize this chance of having one of these days on race day. And minimize we can, but eliminate we can not. Anyone who runs enough races will have a bad day on race day sooner or later.

The next most likely factor is that the head/chest cold that I had the week before the race was still lingering enough to slow me down. I thought I had kicked it a full week before the race but then on Monday of race week it came back pretty hard for one day. The rest of the week I felt better and better each day, but certainly I was still congested on Saturday. I've done 5 or 6 races in the past few years in which I was just getting over a cold in the days leading up to the race. A few times I've been able to get through this without it having too much of an effect (NF Endurance Challenge 2009 and Run Rabbit Run 2010) and a few other times (Miwok 2009 and Bandera this year) it's had a definite negative effect on my performance. I do think this illness had an effect on me this past weekend, but it certainly wasn't the entire problem, and probably wouldn't have been insurmountable had it been the only problem.

In reading this it might sound like I get sick all the time, but I feel like I get sick about the same as most people (usually 2 or 3 colds a year), I just happen to race about once every 4 or 5 weeks so pretty much anytime I get a cold it is still lingering a little bit by the time I do my next race.

I think another reason why it might seem like I get sick all the time to folks who follow my racing is because I'm entirely open and honest to people who ask me how I'm feeling about a race. If I say I've been sick that means I've been sick. If I say I've been feeling really good that means I've been feeling really good. If I've been feeling like crap and someone asks me how I'm feeling I will tell them that I've been feeling like crap. If I'm feeling like crap during a race and another runner asks me how I'm feeling I will tell them that I'm feeling like crap. I'm not interested in playing mind games and trying to hide what I'm feeling. If this openness sometimes works to the advantage of other runners by boosting their confidence (as I think it probably did for Dave during Bandera when I told him how bad I was feeling) than so be it. To me competition is about the collective experience much more than it is about trying to win at all costs. If I tell someone I'm feeling horrible and they gain some energy/confidence from that knowledge then I think that's awesome for them. If I'm able to turn things around and feel better later on then we get a snowball effect going on and can push collectively well beyond what anyone of us could of as individuals. A desire to win is one of the reasons I love to compete with other runners, but it is certainly not the main reason. Winning is instead just really sweet "icing on the cake" of the competitive experience. Anyhow, I'm off on a long tangent here. The point is I was recovering from a cold this week and that certainly didn't help much with my performance ability on Saturday.

The third factor that may have been involved in this race is that I was perhaps overtrained/undertapered. My training/taper was in fact not much different with this race than it has been for most of the races I've done in the past few years. I ran a total of 19 miles in the 5 days before this race. I ran a total of 96 miles in the two weeks before the race. If anything these numbers are a bit lower than my typical lead up to a big race. In terms of the longer picture I have run almost exactly the same total mileage, time, and elevation to date this year as I did to this point last year. I have also raced almost exactly the same mileage as last year (260 to date this year and 230 to this point last year). I am however open to the possibility that I have been overtraining a bit and that I need a bit of a break (and I plan to monitor this very closely in the next few weeks). I have had a lot of runs in the past month in which I have felt kind of crappy like I did this past weekend. This isn't unusual though. I often feel kind of weak during my lead up to big races and then when I cut back the mileage for a couple weeks before the race I come around nicely by race day. I didn't do much (in terms of rest) while my body was not feeling very good for the past 4 or 5 weeks because I figured that it would just come around nicely with my taper before the race (as it's usually done in the past).

The thing that was different this time around though, and the reason why I might have overtrained a little bit, is that typically when I don't feel well I unconsciously take time off because it's not that enjoyable to run several days in a row not feeling well. This past several weeks though I've been enjoying my running (even when not feeling well) so much that I've just been running through a lot of physically mediocre days and not even really noticing how I'm feeling physically.

The 4th, and final factor that may have played a role in all of this is that my body may not have had enough time to adjust to the style of running that I do here in Juneau after spending 8 months in Colorado. I have no doubt that my body responds very well to the type of running (extremely steep and slow going) I do here, but it may be that I need another few weeks before I will have fully readjusted to this.

In all likelihood I think what hit me on Saturday was a combination of all of these things. Any one (or maybe two of them) would have been possible to overcome, but the combination of all 4 of these things was just too much. The good thing is that two of these things are already gone (the bad day and the cold); another one will automatically be addressed with the rest which I need to recover from the 56 miles I ran Saturday (and some careful monitoring of my body once I do start running again); and the last one will simply work itself out with time as I readjust more and more to running these incredible trails here in Juneau. In other words I fully plan/expect to be in the best shape of my life in 2 months for UTMB, and despite things not going so well this weekend I feel like I'm in perfect position to move in that direction with a ton of momentum and determination.

Blah, And Then Even Worse

Things started out feeling "off" for me at Western States this year, and from there it just kept going downhill. My legs felt weak right off the start and my heart rate and rate of breathing were elevated way above normal. My stomach felt a little off as well.

Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun running through the snow that covered most of the course from about mile 3 to mile 13, but once we got back on dry ground my legs felt like I had already run 50 or 60 miles - not a good place to be at mile 13. I tried easing back a bit, but felt even a bit worse when I ran slower. No one was pushing a very aggresive pace at this point so I was able to stay somewhat near the leaders despite how weak I was feeling. I tried my best for a few hours to stay close enough to still be in position to take a shot at the leaders later in the race if I could turn things around, but finally at about mile 35 I decided to ease way off and let go of any hope of racing for the win and just try to figure out a way to finish. Well, after 20 more miles (probably half of which was walking) it was obvious that finishing in the state I was in was going to be a stubborn death march that I just wasn't willing or interested in taking part in. I eventually pulled the plug at mile 56. Even with only 35 miles of hard running my legs feel as fatigued and sore today as they usually do after running a full 100.

I am of course a bit upset to have had such a tough race, but I had several hours out on the trail yesterday to come to terms with this one and begin to focus on the things I could take away from this that will make me a stronger runner in the future. I got to run with some great folks and then see most of them finish in Auburn several hours later. It was far from how I envisioned my day going, but it was still a great thing to be a part of.

Huge congratulations to Kilian and Ellie. They both had amazing races. Kilian showed amazing persistence and just kept plugging along at a decent clip all day. Mike, Nick, and Jez made him really work for his win and each ran amazing races themselves. Ellie's performance is still too unbelievable for me to put into words, but I'll try anyway. Ellie was 15 minutes behind with only 10 miles to go in the race! And she ended up winning by over 20 minutes! This after she was more than 30 minutes behind the women's leader when she left Michigan Bluff at mile 56. When the dust had settled she was across the finish line with the second fastest women's time in the history of the race. I couldn't help but think about how similar her race was to my race last year, but in reality what she did yesterday made what I did last year seem like no big deal in comparison. The amount of time that she made up on the leaders in the second half of the race was more than double what I did last year. Good stuff.

My Next Run

Good luck to everyone running Western States on Saturday. Thanks to everyone who is helping out with the race. Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes. Should be a fun one. Doesn't look like it's going to be too awfully hot, maybe even a few degrees cooler than last year. Should only be around 90 in the hot areas of the course. Either way though this is about 20 degrees warmer than any weather I've been in all year. It's going to feel really damn hot for sure. Did about 5 or 6 miles in Truckee a bit ago. It was about 70 or 75 and this felt really hot. For me it won't even be the heat as much as the dryness. I've been working through a head/chest cold for the past week and the dry air (combined with the altitude) really puts some extra stress on the lungs. Should be good and ready to roll by Saturday though.

Now that Western States will be my next run I'm starting to build some focus and excitement about Saturday. It's going to be really exciting to run a 100 mile race with such depth of world class runners (and then another one again in August). All of the 100 milers I've done previous to this one had significantly fewer truly top level runners. Even Western States last year was nowhere near as deep at the top as this year. It'll be fun to see how it all shakes out. Hope you all enjoy your weekend as much as I'm hoping to.

Slogging To The Top

Here's a link to a video that Joel Wolpert put together that is now featured on The Running Times website. Joel does a great job of not making things too complicated in the making of his films. His film making style actually reminds me a lot of my running style. The finished product comes as close to showing who I am as a runner than anything I've seen or read previously.

Where I'm At

Somehow Western States has crept up to only 6 days from now! When did that happen? Seriously, the amount of time I've spent thinking about this race so far this year compared to last year has been almost nothing. Not sure if this is a good thing, a bad thing, or simply just a different year/different thing.

It's been over two years now since I last trained with any serious structure (except for the structure that is a lack of structure), but this Spring has really evolved to a new level for me in this regard. In the past couple years as big races approached I did find myself focusing a little bit on peak training periods, high mileage runs, and specific tapers. Maybe I'll return to more of that again in the future, but so far I just haven't really done any of this in preparation for next week's race. Instead, I've just been running day to day more than I ever have. Even now, with the race at the end of this week I find myself thinking more about what run I'm going to do tomorrow than the run this coming weekend. This might sound like a careless and crazy approach to such a highly contested race, but I've had more fun than ever "training" for this race, and the more the line seems to blur between training and racing the more I seem to enjoy all of it, and the better my races seem to get from a performance standpoint.

At some point thus the question becomes: why race at all then? I'm still not to the point of seriously asking myself this question. I still get a lot of satisfaction from competing with others at something we've all put so much time and effort into. 29 days out of 30 I prefer to just be out running through the mountains at a mellow pace, exploring the terrain around me, but about once a month it's really fun to line up and push myself physically and mentally in conjunction with and in competition with dozens (sometimes hundreds) of other like minded folks. I imagine that I will eventually get to the point of not craving this kind of running anymore, or at least much less often than the once a month that I do now. For now though, come race day, I'm as focused and ready as anyone to scratch and claw to compete at my highest potential on that given day. I'm just not willing to compromise my enjoyment and nourishment from my running on the other 29 days of the month. I did that for a couple years in the past and there's just no comparison in terms of the nourishment that I get out of it. Training with a specific focus and purpose of trying to be as fast as possible on a given day at some point in the future feels so shallow and silly to me when compared to simply going out and doing the run that feels the most logical, enjoyable, and appealing on each given day.

So for now I'm thinking mostly about the Juneau ridge run that I'm probably going to do tomorrow morning, but come Saturday morning all of my focus will be turned to running from Squaw Valley to Auburn as fast as possible. And with the field showing up this year it's going to have to be really damn fast to have a chance of being anywhere near the front of the pack.