On and Off Trail

Yay, I finally got in as a two time loser for Western States...in 2010. So I still have to re-qualify in 2009 and I decided not to do Coyote 2 Moon as I simply cannot afford the entry fee and take vacation time off work. So Tahoe, Leadville, Cascade, and the Hood are all still viable options. I would like to tackle Tahoe again and see if I improve on my 34 hour finish from 2007.

Triple Century is still a go. I bought another 24 pack of PBR. Getting ready to close out 2008 with a bang.

Blame Canada! M'Alice en route to a 36:47 finish, 9/82 in his division!

So I'm looking at possible 100 milers to do next year and I stumbled on the Coyote 2 Moons 100 in Ojai, CA. Here's the quick and dirty stats: 26,000 feet gain and descent, 40 hour cutoff. This could be doable and you get 40 hours to run this! It has possiblities, but I better make my mind up soon...the deadline is November 15th and there are only 59 entries left.

Monday: 100 situps/100 pushups
Tuesday: long intervals with the Den, 8:45/mi pace. Decent effort, made a young guy drop after he was trying to match me on the first 5 laps, but he was done on the 6th. He should've stayed in the slower group. 125 situps
Wednesday: 100 pushups
Thursday: 60 minute night trail run, 125 situps
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Morning, Buntzen Lake/Lakeview Trail run, 2:20. Afternoon, VH3, 1:20
Sunday: 100 situps, 100 pushups

Well, I didn't get an e-mail from the RD of Western States 100 confirming I was one of 54 Two Time Losers that were picked from the TTL list to run in the 2009 version. My TTL status will now be rolled over to 2010 or 2011. So I can at least plan what my summer and fall 100 milers are going to be. Yes, you read right, I will be attempting TWO 100 milers in 2009.

Better start saving up and hope the Canadian $ recovers in time.....

Last Saturday, i ran the Golden Hills trail marathon, my 2nd marathon in 6 days. Since I had already PR'd in Portland, I was running this for fun and get a chance to check out some California trails. The race starts at Lone Oak Rd in Tilden Park in Berkeley and is in conjunction with the Firetrails 50 miler. It ends at Lake Chabot Marina and there was a shuttle bus at the finish line to take entrants to Lone Oak as parking is limited, this shuttle leaves at 7:15am. Sharp. I decided to save on a taxi and would run from my motel to the Marina (mapquest said 3 miles) This was a huge mistake as I accidentally ran the other way (east) and got to Pleasanton which was 7 miles from Castro Valley! I really should've picked up on the obvious clues like increasing house numbers, the fact that I was running solid for 40 minutes and was still in the residential part of town. I ran another 3 miles looking for a BART station, took the Bart to Berkeley, took a taxi to the start and got there at 10:05am (race started at 9am). I don't actually have a bib on me as I was not mailed one, but I'm not banditing per se as I did register and pay for this race. I dropped off my warmup gear at the start which would be shuttled to the finish line. I briefly considered volunteering for the ultra to get some hours for Western, but the aid personnel said I could still run as the cutoff was at 7pm which gave me 9 hours to finish. It took me 6:45 although the results say 7:45 cause the clock doesn't stop for anybody least of those who ran the wrong way. Stll, I passed 5 marathoners on the course who had the hour "headstart" so that was pretty nice and my story provided a lot of hilarity for all the aid station vollies. So it all worked out. Next time, I'm gonna get a cab.

Well, after a successful and soggy Sunday in Portland where I finally ran under 4:00 with a 3:57:40, that's a 16 minute PR from 2005! It's off to Oakland tomorrow where I will be running my second marathon in less than a week. It's not much time to recover, but I didn't get to be where I am worrying about the long term effects on multiple races with little rest time. I wonder if this makes me a maniac....

Tomorrow I make my way down to Portland via Amtrak for the marathon. I'm looking for redemption and a PB. Let's do it.

Just re-confirmed my status as a two-time loser for Western States 100 miler 2009. I'll be very lucky to get in next year due to this year's cancellation and the automatic re-entry of this year's start list. Well, if I don't get in, there's always 2010 or 2011.

So, it's off to Goldendale, WA for Pacific North West Interhash at Brooks Memorial State Park. Being from BC, I'm guessing I'm the Pacific part. Should be decent trails in Washington, and with a quick stop to REI will get all my last minute camping essentials.

Hopefully my marathon training won't be too derailed by this weekend. And I got on a team for Haney 2 Harrison 100k http://www.bcathletics.org/H2H/! Woo-hoo! I asked for and hopefully I will get Leg 8, it's the shortest, flattest, fastest leg there is. No pressure!

Quite a bit of roadkill along the highway, this little number happened to be outside the portapottie on one of the legs...so that's what that smell was....
After tagging Snatch, we got in the car to crew for him, I needed to get away from the damn bugs. So off we drove downhill, ever mindful of all the dust we were kicking out. Snatch had his best leg here, but of course he did, it's cooler and he's going downhill! It was dark when he tagged off Erik who blazed on the road. We met up with Van# 2 and picked up Guiness. We drove nonstop to where Creampuff was supposed to start his leg (21), got Bridget's tent and after assembling it, got in a 3 hour nap. All too soon, it was time for CP's leg to start, so we disassembled in an orderly fashion and wait for Amazon to tag him in. CP had a great run down a road section, the clouds parted and he was seeing stars and constellations and meteor showers and things normally associated with a Grateful Dead concert. Waited with Bridget at Leg 22 who confided to us that she was feeling nervous about the night run and also that she hadn't use the portapotty yet. Advised her that if her stomach is feeling like that and she hasn't use the toilet all day, then it was a pretty good sign that it wasn't nerves, it was something more pressing. She took the hint and afterwards felt way better. Bridget tagged CP and it was off to my Leg 24. By the time Bridget tagged me it was around 4:30am. I was cold standing around the handoff area so I kept my KK jacket on underneath my reflective vest. This was in addition to the longsleeve and gloves and toque. Overkill, I know. Tagged Bridget and I was off. Had my lamp pulled down to my waist so the light was closer to my feet. I had to dodge a few cars still pulling into the checkpoint, then be very careful on the cattle guard, a turned ankle would not be fun. It's cold initially but I started to warm up very quickly, around the 2 mile mark, CP gets me a drink and I take off the jacket and just run with the longsleeve. I ask that they give some more aid at the 4 mile mark. They agree or so I thought. I'm picking up speed and catch two runners on this section, I'm nearing the 4 mile mark just over the next hill and I actually see the1 mile to go mark and THEY'RE NOT HERE! My leg is 4.9 miles so knowing them they felt it was more important that the runner be there to be tagged rather than me being crewed but not having anyone to tag when I got there because they were too busy to find parking. Just don't let it happen again, 'kay? So now there's no one to aid me I use my righteous indignation to catch three more runners, and another one at the transition area. Tagged Snatch who starts to go. It's official, every member of Beaver's Gone Wild got to run in the dark! Dawn's just starting to break. Time for a cold beverage and a nap. Only 6 hours to go before my last leg. Yay!

Today was the start of theTuesday night clinic at the Runners Den. I got there pretty late, damn Port Moody rush hour traffic, but as it's the first night, it's usually delayed with all the new sign-ins.

It was intervals today and I slotted myself in the 8:00 min/mile group based on the fact that I ran a 47:07 at the Nike Human Race 10k last Sunday. It was my 3rd run of that day and I held off on my kick until the last kilometre which just happened to end up a slight hill. Over 5000 people ran this event.

The workout was (90 seconds hard, 60 sec easy, 60 sec hard, 30 sec easy, 30 sec hard, 60 sec easy) x 7 at 6 minute/mi pace. The first 4 were tough but manageable. After the 5th, my left shin was seizing up and I wanted to drop out, but somebody else beat me to it. The weird part was he came from the 8:30 group who were only doing 5 reps and when he saw that they had finished, he jumped ship back to that group even though he was kicked out from the 8:30's because he was sandbagging. Wimp.

The 6th and 7th reps felt better as it had cooled down and I was able to suck it up for the finish.

I was glad I didn't bail. However, I think I found my pace group for the foreseeable future.

Great.

Just picked up my race package for Nike's Human Race, got my chip, and my shirt with ironed on bib number. Start time's at 7pm, then it's off to the races. Should be crazy running in downtown Vancouver. Apparently there's some sort of bus my local running store has got organized. I'm an alternate, so it's not actually confirmed I'll get a spot. Worst case, I'll skytrain to the start, then we'll see what happens. I don't know if this will be as big as the Vancouver Sun Run and I don't know if this is Nike's core audience. But we'll see.

Well, here I am waiting on Matt again and I can't believe I'm getting altitude sickness at 9494 feet. Geez, I need to suck it up, because I'll be hitting 10,300 feet at the 6.5 mile mark of my 8.5 mile leg. It's past 6:15pm and I've already told Creampuff that I'll probably be 90 minutes on this leg. The trail is dirt road and dusty, more runnable trail except for that 4.5 mile section climbing up 1200 feet. Finally, Matt comes into view and we tag off at 6:30pm .I have my big floppy hat on and a bandana to keep out the dust. Both become pointless very early on. I start with a strong jog but not less than 2 min later I have to stop and adjust the damn bandana! In that time, I got chicked by a 40ish east indian woman and struggle to catch her. She takes the descents fairly easy and I'm trying to keep up. About the 18 minute mark we hit a brief flat stretch, I was keeping her in sight and then I looked past and saw the hill. Dammit. Those were a lot of switchbacks. Now it was just a grind battling the elevation and the terrain. Dirt road may be runnable but when it's climbing for 4 miles it was a little tedious. Too often I felt I was sliding uphill as the dirt made it hard to get a solid footing for me to push off for the next step. The runner ahead of me had similar problems and was looking for the best line to run up. I found tracks made by some heavy duty construction equipment and ran on the side of the road. It helped a lot as I played leapfrog with her. I would get aid from Van1, she'd pass me. She was getting aid from her Van, I'd pass her. This went on for 3 miles. Most of the time, we were just powerwalking the hill as it was just the same pace as running. Near the top we were getting passed by a bunch of ubermountain runners. Finally we hit the crest and I've been passed 4 more times with a few more gaining. One of the crew of the guy who just passed me jokingly offers me a gel cause I musta looked bad. Well, I do like them downhills....because I starting picking up the pace. Not because of the gel, but the advil/e-cap combo I just swigged down with the last of my water. I catch east indian woman, the guy with the helpful crew and two more runners. There was a brief 3 minute section where I was the only guy on the trail and this was a little worrisome because I didn't know where the course went! I was following the dust cloud ahead of me but then the trail went left and I wasn't sure if I should go left. I look behind me and everybody I just passed are barreling straight toward me. That answers that question. I put the hammer down and see the orange pylons ahead. I tag off Snatch who continues down the trail. Take a few brief minutes to cool down (mindful of the mosquitos) and check out the awesome views at Deadman.I turn around and congratulate all those chasing me for the last two miles. Sure enough, I did run my leg in 90 minutes and good thing too, cause we had only 50 minutes before the exchange closed and we would've been disqualified! Two down, two more to go. time for a little sleep before my leg as we are now down to nine runners as Matt dropped out after two legs as he had a wedding to go to the next day. Up next, a little night running. Perfect.

I've never been to Colorado, but when the call came out for hashers for the Wild West Relay from Ft Collins to Steamboat Springs on the Beavers Gone Wild team, I answered! I also enlisted another Vancouver Hasher, Creampuff (he's the one in the red dress) because I didn't want to be the only guy from sea level suffering.
As it turns out, the co-captains are from Portland: Amazon.cum and Nice Snatch and their buddy, Rainer Queer from New York who picked us up from the airport after an ill advised day of trying to acclimate to the elevation and heat by climbing Beerstat three hours before!

So there would only be 5 visiting hashers and 5 locals: (it was supposed to be 7 locals, but 2 got deployed at the last minute!) Bridget, Matt, Clint, Eric and Thea. I 've done relays before, but only at 100km, this was a whole different event. Considering I was tapering for Stormy 100 mile, I saw an opportunity to get elevation and heat training in. And damn if I didn't pick the right day to do heat training. Friday temperatures were forecast to be a record high of 105 degrees F! Now given that there were only 10 relay runners and Matt had to drop out after his second leg, some of us had to run 4 times. It was me, Creampuff, Snatch, Matt and Bridget (bro & sis) in Van 1 taking the first 5 legs and everybody else in Van 2 taking the next 5 legs. Since I'm not psychic, I don't know how everybody was feeling on their individual legs, so this is the story of how all four legs went.

Despite bloody blisters, stomach issues and a course that unintentionally lived up to its name, at 29:33,I became the last official finisher of Stormy 100 miler in Squamish yesbterday. I was able to finish largely due to two crews, my provider of hot n spicy pot noodles and fellow Club Fat Ass and Hasher, Rob and Lucinda blister care nurse extraordinarre! Without the assistance of these two, I would not have finished and more likely dropped out at 17-18 hours.

Talk about dropouts - there were 10 of them in a field of 30. Those that could make it through the bad patches finished, it was just that simple.

I learned so much from Tahoe and was able to apply it to Stormy. However I did spend a lot of time sitting down at Aid stations, but I was wolfing down the noodles so it was worth it. I might opt for the kimchi flavor next time.

Funniest moment - Entering Powerhouse for the first time, whipped out the cell, called Rob and put in a pot noodle order that was ready when I came in. Nice!

Dumbest call - Having a beer at Mile 50, which may have led to some sleepy moments at Alice Lake night section.

I'll have a detailed report on CFA soon. Coincidentally the finish time for Stormy was the same time as our Wild West relay team in Colorado. Cool, I can cover half as much distance in the same amount of time as a team of 10 runners.

I'm hungry again.