Dancing with the sun

This was supposed to be another week of 80+ miles after last week's cutback, but it just didn't work out that way. Still, after a horrible start on Sunday, the rest of the week went alright and I got in some decent mileage, just not as much as planned. There're three culprits for that: feeling like crap on Sunday, work and a Saturday race:

Sunday - 4.77 miles. This was actually supposed to be a double day, with 8 or so in the morning and another 5 in the afternoon. I skipped the morning run because my wife was running a 10K in Spearfish and then we went to brunch after that. When I took off in the afternoon with the goal of getting the 8 done, I felt like absolute crap. I honestly thought about bagging it less than two blocks from my house, but charged on and suffered through 4.77, having to make two, yes two, porta-john stops in that time. It wasn't pretty...

Monday - 13.05 miles. As bad as Sunday's run went, Monday's was equally as good. Whatever was wrong with me the day before was gone today. Also played basketball at lunch time.

Tuesday - 10.13 miles

Wednesday - 10.25 miles and more basketball at lunchtime.

Thursday - 10.84 miles in the morning, 5.18 in the afternoon. This was a classic South Dakota fall day. It was chilly (mid 30s) during my morning run and then overly warm (high 70s) during my afternoon run. So, I was cold in the morning and sweating my butt off in the afternoon.

Friday - 10.03 miles in the morning followed by a 13.5 hour workday. With fall comes prescribed fire season at the U.S. Forest Service and since I still have my fire quals, I have the option of helping out with burns. Never one to turn down overtime, I jumped in and spent a majority of the day hiking up and down the burn unit lighting fire and eating smoke. Not exactly the best way to prepare for a 10K the next day...

Saturday - 7.65 miles, including the inaugural Sundance Trail 10K. The race was held just northwest of Sundance, WY in the Bearlodge Mtns. and only about a mile from the unit we had burned the day before. I was concerned that there would be a bunch of residual smoke socked in over the race course, but it turned out to be a very nice, clear day. Unfortunately for me, the previous days workout had taken it's toll and I am very inexperienced when it comes to running trail races. Apparently, you shouldn't take off like it's regular ole road race, cuz you'll pay for it later. And pay I did. The middle couple of miles were pretty brutal, but once I got to the high point of the course at about halfway and started back down, I started feeling much better and was able to run a big negative split and finish strong. I finished in 55:04, good for 6th overall and 2nd in my AG. Really, the "I worked hard all day yesterday" excuse is kind of a lame one, because three of the people who finished ahead of me were co-workers who had also burned the day before (but I'm guessing they hadn't run 10 miles before burning....or a total of over 70 miles for the week). One thing I learned for sure is that my hill climbing legs aren't nearly as developed as they were back when I was a full time firefighter and hiked trails like that every day.

Total - 71.88 miles

So, a crappy (literally) run on Sunday and no long run for the week, but I still topped 70 miles, which ain't too shabby I guess. With no races and (hopefully) no weird stomach issues getting in the way this week, I should be back over 80.

As for the weekly soccer/football update, my son played his 4th soccer game on Saturday morning. I missed it because of the trail race, but saw the video highlights and he banged home two more goals and his team was actually competitive this time. No Seahawks game this weekend, which immeasurably reduced my stress level on Sunday, but the other three teams I follow all won: Belle Fourche 54-0 over Lead-Deadwood (Belle is now 4-0), Black Hills St. 48-2 over Mayville St. (BHSU now 3-1), and Montana pulled out a nailbiter, 38-35 over Central Washington (the Griz are now 4-0 also and are the owners of the longest regular season winning streak, 25 straight, in all of Division 1 college football).

This weekend, my wife will be heading down to Hill City to tackle her third half-marathon of the year (the Crazy Horse Half). I'm staying back with the kids and haven't decided yet whether or not we should go to Spearfish to watch the Black Hills St. vs. Dakota St. game or stay home to watch the Montana vs. Weber St. game on the internet. Decisions, decisions...

Cutback

Last week was a scheduled cutback week for me. After back to back weeks of 82 miles and a constant, steady increase in weekly mileage since Missoula, it was time to knock it back a notch and let my legs recover a little. A quick look at my running log reveals that I haven't had a rest day since August 10th. That may or may not be my longest running day streak, but I'd have to check to be sure.

Sunday - 9.4 miles

Monday - 7.1 miles

Tuesday - 7.6 miles

Wednesday - 8.4 miles, basketball in the afternoon

Thursday - 9.2 miles

Friday - 6.9 miles

Saturday - 16.1 miles

Total - 64.7 miles

It was an action-packed weekend, to say the least. Friday was Belle Fourche High's homecoming. The parade was in the afternoon, with my son riding on his preschool's float, and then it was off to the football game, which the Broncs won easily, 33-3, to move to 3-0 on the season (that's a lot of threes).

Saturday started off with me up at 4 AM to get my long run in. I had a good 16 miler, almost all in the dark (guess I'm getting in some good ultra training). After a quick shower and breakfast, it was off to Caiden's soccer game. My wife's sisters were in town to watch him play and my father-in-law also suprised him by showing up at the game, so he wanted very badly to score a goal. His team got obliterated but, finally, in the second half Caid took a kickoff down field and pounded it home to score his team's only goal of the game (they lost 10-1). The relief and excitement after he scored was obvious. After the soccer game, it was off to Spearfish for Black Hills State's homecoming parade and football game. The kids took home their body weight in candy from the parade and the Yellojackets beat down the South Dakota School of Mines 33-13 (yet more threes). After the game we did some bowling, followed by dinner at Applebee's, followed by grocery shopping at the Walmart Supercenter. Then, finally, we went home.

We were up early again on Sunday to head back to Spearfish for the inaugural Yellowjacket 5k/10k. My wife Shannon ran the 10K with hopes of breaking the one hour mark. As she re-entered the football stadium where the race started and finished, it was obvious that it was going to be close. She came around the final turn on the track and the seconds were ticking away, but she managed to cross the finish line in 59:59. Nothing like cutting it as close as possible, huh?

I'm going to be published!

Apparently, not all of my writing is senseless crap (believe it or not). Several months ago, on a whim, I emailed a few of my race reports to Rich Benyo, the editor at Marathon and Beyond, knowing full well that they weren't publishable in their current states. He responded several weeks later telling me as much, but asking if I had any other stories I could submit. I didn't. Until Missoula, that is. After I BQed there, I sat down and over the course of 30-45 minutes, pounded out a brief history of my running life and my quest for Boston. I read through it once to make sure there weren't any glaring grammtical errors or accidental naughty words and emailed it to Rich. Several more weeks passed with no word, leading me to believe that nothing would come of it. Then, out of the blue, I received an email from Rich last week asking for my mailing address so he could send a contract! Holy crap! I'm sending the signed contract back to him today. Not sure yet when it will be published, but I'll keep y'all posted. Now, in addition to reading my stupid rambling for free, you can pay $6.95 for an issue of Marathon and Beyond to do it!! What a deal, huh?

I won't bother with too many details of my running last week, since it was virtually identical to the week before (82.2 miles versus the previous week's 82). The weather is still awesome in the mornings, making it oh so much easier to get those big miles in.

I will take some time here to blatantly brag about my son, Caiden. He is 4 years old and Belle Fourche has a youth soccer league for kids under 6, so we signed him up. Caiden has played a very watered down version of soccer with me in our front yard (watered down is all I know, not being much of a soccer fan and never playing it myself), but he had never actually played "real" soccer. Well, after 3 practices and 2 games, it has become apparent that he is a force to be reckoned with on the soccer field. He was a little unsure and cautious in his first game, but something clicked in game 2 and he became a ball hawk, scoring 2 goals and chasing down the other team's best player several times to stop him from scoring. I'm also proud to report that Caid is definitely the fastest player on the team. Yesterday at practice, after about 10 minutes of scrimmaging a couple of the other kids were obviously tired and asking when they could be done. Caiden was still rarin to go....he would have scrimmaged for hours. As the team huddled up after practice, Caid's coach looked at him and said "You could go all night, couldn't you?". He has a blast at practice and at games...he plays with a huge grin on his face the entire time and when there are breaks in the action, he's jumping in place and clapping his hands, just totally overflowing with excitement and ready for the game to get going again. Glad to see that he inherited the ole competitive spirit!! The day when I stop "letting" him win at stuff may be closer than I thought it would be....

Pounding out the miles

The weather was about as perfect as it gets this week and my mileage reflects that. It was under 50 degrees for every morning run, under 40 degrees for a couple. The result is that I tacked on a couple of extra runs to take advantage of the awesome weather and ended up with a few more miles this week than I had planned. Oh well.

Sunday - 8.5 miles

Monday - 11.2 miles in the morning, 4.1 in the afternoon. I split the afternoon run in two and took each of the dogs for a couple of miles (taking them both at once would be an exercise in stupidity, although entertaining I'm sure for any onlookers). Our black lab, Vedder, could run seemingly forever....two miles is nothing to him. On the other hand, our yellow lab, Molly, is dragging pretty good by the end of two and spends the rest of the day sprawled motionless on the floor.

Tuesday - 8.47 miles

Wednesday - 9.3 miles in the morning, 4 in the afternoon. Registered for the Boston Marathon!

Thursday - 10.77 miles

Friday - 8.44 miles

Saturday - 17.14 miles

Total - 81.97 miles (about 10 more than planned)

Along with the arrival of fall-like weather came the arrival of football season this week. It was oh so close to a perfect football weekend for me, with only the Seahawks blowing it by sucking big time against Buffalo yesterday. Belle Fourche took down 5th ranked Winner on the road 12-0, Black Hills St. upset Southwest St. 21-14, and Montana pulled out a close one on the road against a very good Cal Poly team, 30-28. The Seahawks sucked.

My favorite time of year

As is typical of changing seasons in South Dakota, we saw a drastic change in weather this past week. From a high of 100 degrees on Saturday, to a high of barely over 60 today. Fall is definitely on its way. Between the cooler running temps and the start of football season, I'm just about as happy as George W. Bush at Chuck E. Cheese.

Sunday - 6 miles along part of the Lean Horse Ultra course.

Monday - 8.5 miles

Tuesday - 6.9 miles

Wednesday - 8.6 miles

Thursday - 9.6 miles

Friday - 7.1 miles

Saturday - 16 miles

Total - 62.7 miles

This coming week is a big one all around. Today was my daughter's first day of preschool and she was a very big girl when I dropped her off, not crying one bit. This evening is my son's first soccer practice and his first game is on Saturday morning. It'll be kind of like a Chinese fire drill, but should be entertaining nonetheless. Registration for the Boston Marathon opens tomorrow....sometimes it still awes me that that actually matters to me this year. Belle Fourche High has a cross country meet in Spearfish on Thursday. Conveniently, I work in Spearfish and might be able to sneak over to the golf course and catch some of the race. The Belle football team has their first football game on Friday night, but they are on the road so I guess I'll have to watch the highlights on the news. Saturday is Montana's first football game of the year at Cal Poly, which should be a tough one as both are ranked in the top 15. Then, the day I've been waiting for ever since the infamous blizzard game in Green Bay during last year's playoffs comes on Sunday, when the Seahawks open their season in Buffalo. Sounds like a good excuse to head down to the local sports bar at 11 AM! Oh, and it looks like I'll break 70 miles this week easy....especially if this totally bodacious weather holds!

Lean Horse Ultra: A view from the sidelines

This weekend, I participated in a race in a very different way from how I usually go about it. Rather than lacing up my running shoes and actually running the race, I volunteered to man an aid station at the Lean Horse Ultramarathon. Definitely a different experience from what I’m used to, but it was a rewarding and interesting perspective on what goes on during an ultramarathon.

Lean Horse begins and ends in Hot Springs, SD, in the southern Black Hills. This year was the 4th year of the event and judging by registration numbers, word is starting to get out in the ultra community about this one. For the first three years it included 100 mile, 50 mile and 50 kilometer distances. The 50K distance, which I ran at Lean Horse last year as my first (and so far only) ultra, was dropped this year due to lack of popularity (there were fewer than 30 finishers last year). So, that left the hundred and half-hundred this year. Both races start at the Mueller Civic Center in Hot Springs, follow the bike path through and out of town before turning onto Argyle Rd. and, eventually, the Mickelson Trail. It’s an out and back course, so ends back at the Mueller Center. One of the draws of this race is that it’s considered to be relatively “easy” (as if running 50 or 100 miles is ever truly “easy”). Unlike many ultras, this one doesn’t involve any single-track, rock and stump laden trail with thousands of feet of elevation gain. The first (and last) 16 miles are rolling hills along a gravel road (once you get off the bike path). This is definitely the toughest part of the course. From there, it’s onto the Mickelson Trail, a rails to trails project that features a nice, relatively soft, well groomed running surface and very gentle grades (no more than 3%).

I had considered returning to Lean Horse this year to run the 50 miler. Actually, it was penciled into my racing plans early this year, but after I failed to qualify for Boston in Fort Collins in May, I decided to readjust and focus on the BQ. After I captured the BQ in Missoula in July, I thought briefly of running Lean Horse, but with only 6 weeks between Missoula and Lean Horse, I just didn’t think it would be feasible. I was sure I could cover the distance, it was just a matter of how much misery would be involved. And, honestly, after Missoula (my 3rd marathon in 3 months), I was just ready for a break and some recovery. When I mentioned this to Jerry Dunn, the Lean Horse race director, he asked if I’d be interested in volunteering. Now, here’s a little advice. If a race director asks you this, whatever you do, don’t say “Sure, I’m up for anything.”

I drove down to Hot Springs, about 2 hours south of my home, on Friday afternoon. Upon arriving, I helped out at the expo doing various tasks (including helping to eat the pre-race barbecue). After awhile, I took a drive out to my aid station location so that I would know where it was and wouldn’t have to search for it in the dark the next morning. It was easily located thanks to the cut barbed-wire fence and orange cone. Then it was back to Hot Springs to pick up the motor home that Jerry had arranged for me to use at the station. It was a nice unit, fairly new, although it took me an inordinately long time to figure out how in the hell to turn the interior lights on (of course, I didn’t try until it was dark outside, which only increased the difficulty).

I slept in the RV that night outside the Mueller Center and woke up at the early even for me hour of 3:30 so that I could squeeze in a 6 mile run before heading back out to my aid station location. I didn’t really suspect when my alarm clock went off that morning that I wouldn’t be going back to sleep until 9:00 Sunday night, some 41.5 hours later. Having never actually driven a motor home sized vehicle before I was kind of nervous, but made it out to my location without incident and went about setting up the tables, chairs and awning as I waited for someone else to deliver the food, water and first aid supplies. Those arrived shortly, long before the first runners did. We had what I suspect to be normal ultra fair (I haven’t been in the ultra scene enough to truly know) including peanut butter and jelly, turkey, cheese, boiled potatoes, pretzels, trail mix, chicken noodle soup, oatmeal, Hammer gel, Accelerade, Heed, chocolate chip cookies, saltines, grapes, bananas, and of course water.

Runners started filtering through at about 7:30, or 1.5 hours into the race. The first 50 miler was moving at a good clip (sub-8 miles) and already had a good lead on the rest of the field. The big rush arrived about a half hour later as a mix of 50 and 100 milers started arriving in packs. This would by far be the busiest stretch of the weekend as the field was still fairly close together. At this point, the runners were still excited to be out there and all very enthusiastic about how things were going (this would change later, as you might guess).

Obviously, there were busy periods at the aid station alternating with not so busy times. I spent a lot of time reading or chatting with whoever was there with me (three others came and went throughout the day and night). Before we knew it, the 50 mile leader came back and actually stopped this time instead of sprinting through. He chatted briefly while he ate and topped off his fluids and then was off again like a shot. We learned later that he had crushed the 50 mile course record by nearly 50 minutes, running a 6:07 (that’s 7:20 pace!!).

Some other 50 milers filtered through, although none were anywhere near the leader. Long before we expected, the 100 mile leader and his pacer came down the road. He had set a blazing pace early on with aspirations of breaking the course record (15:24), but had run headlong into a brick wall just 3 miles before my aid station. We offered him a chair, which he gladly accepted, and various food, but nothing was sounding good to him since he’d been vomiting. Finally, he decided to try a saltine, ate about a half of one cracker and threw that up. Then, he took a couple of drinks of chicken broth and threw that up. After at least 20 minutes of sitting, he decided that food wasn’t going to stay down, so he might as well start walking and hope for the best. We offered him good luck and he was off like a herd of turtles. As it turns out, he had built such a huge lead with his fast early pace that he would end up winning and would miss setting the course record by only 17 minutes. That’s pretty incredible considering that, out of all the runners I saw come through the station, he looked to be by far in the worst condition.

Before too long, night fell and more 100 milers began filing through, headlamps bobbing in the distance as they arrived. I could tell by this point that most were hurting, but almost all of them were in good spirits and with only 11 miles left knew that they were going to finish eventually. To the best of my knowledge, only 1 runner dropped from the race in the final 10 miles….all other drops came before they came back through my aid station. My overnight volunteering partner kept suggesting I lie down and try to get some sleep, but I honestly wasn’t even tired until well past midnight and then it got to a point where I thought I’d feel worse if I laid down and just got an hour of sleep as opposed to just gutting it out. So, gut it out I did, minus a few 10 minute cat naps as I sat in one of the lawn chairs waiting for the next runner to wander in.

Around 7:00 Sunday morning the tail end of the pack (the rear of the Lean Horse, as it was) was coming through. I decided to change into my running clothes (I take them everywhere) and go for a short run up the course to try and find the back of the pack. I passed several runners right away, another about 1.5 miles out and found the last three, running together, exactly 3 miles from the station. I told them how far they had to go at that point and turned around and ran back there myself. It wasn’t too long before they arrived and were gone. Jerry just so happened to arrive at that time with the official race vehicle (an old school bus he bought for $900) and we broke down my station, loaded the supplies onto the bus and I was off.

Upon arriving back in Hot Springs, I transferred my gear from the RV to my truck, took a quick shower at the Mueller Center and watched a few of the 27 hour 100 milers finish (much different from a marathon finish….no finishing kicks were to be found). I had thought about sticking around for the awards ceremony, but it wasn’t until 1:00, leaving me with 3 hours to kill. So, instead I decided to just hop in my truck, head home, and maybe get in a nap (didn’t happen).

I guess that witnessing an event like this could lead to one of two possible results. The sane one is that I’d see the pain and suffering involved with covering such a huge distance and vow to never ever run anything longer than a marathon (or maybe a 50K). The insane one is that seeing an event like this from the sidelines, where you can really see the how things shake out rather than just the first person perspective you get when you are participating, would make me want to run a 50 or 100 miler even more. Ultra running is a different breed of running from marathoning. Kind of like how bulldogs and greyhounds are both dogs, the same in many ways but different in many others. For many, marathons are about accomplishing time goals, getting faster and faster until the goal (4 hours, Boston, 3 hours, whatever) is met. Ultras are, unless you are one of the few ultra elite, more about survival, just trying to cover the distance with time goals taking second fiddle. Having met my major marathoning goal (BQ) back in July and having witnessed Lean Horse, I find myself ready to jump into survival mode. So, it’s very possible that I’ll be back at Lean Horse next year, but not in an RV. After all, if I run the 50 miler, I’ll get MUCH more sleep than I ever would volunteering again!

An 11 minute PR and 25 minute CR!

No, I didn't sneak in another race without telling anyone (although I would love to run the race I'm referring to, but the reasons why I can't will become obvious here shortly). Yesterday, my wife Shannon ran the Leading Ladies Half-marathon in Spearfish. As you might be able to ascertain from the race's name, it's an all-women race, which means that it features a lot of pink, purple, flowers, chocolate, and hugging....and a fast and scenic downhill course. This race was Shannon's first half-marathon a year ago and she finished that race in 2:30-something (okay, sue me....I can remember specific mile splits from my own Missoula Marathon or the score of the Seahawks game against Arizona five years ago, but not my wife's exact first half time). She lopped a good 14 minutes off that time at the Deadwood-Mickelson Half-marathon this past June.

Going into this year's Leading Ladies, she professed that there was no way she would be able to PR. This would have ramifications later on. You see, I actually believed her assertion that she would run no faster than 2:16. Being a runner myself and knowing all to well that we often hedge our bets (see my Missoula race report), I should have known better. So, Sunday morning I packed the kids up and we arrived at the finish line at right around the 2:07 mark of the race. Perfect timing, I thought. We waited a few minutes, looking intently for her to come down the last straightaway to the finish. As the time was ticking nearer to when we expected to see her, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. I fished it out and saw "Shannon" on the ID. What the? To be honest, the first stupid thought that went through my brain was "Why in the hell is she running with her cell phone and why is she calling me while she is running?" The truth soon became clear. She had ripped off an 11 minute PR, running a 2:05:12 (there, got that one to the second!) and was looking for us in the finish area. We missed seeing her by a few minutes (idiot!!).

The good news (besides Shannon's awesome run) is that I get a chance to redeem myself in 7 weeks. She is running the Crazy Horse Half in Hill City to complete the "Black Hills Trifecta" (Deadwood, Leading Ladies, Crazy Horse/Mt. Rushmore). I'm going to be sitting at the finish line with the kids at the 1:30 mark, no matter what kind of bull Shannon tries to feed me!