The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally has descended upon the Black Hills. There are literally bikes everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of them in an area that typically holds far, far fewer people than that. It's interesting, to say the least. This year, I decided to take advantage of the semi-controlled chaos and took a job at the Buffalo Chip campground parking cars for the concerts. So far, it's been pretty slow, but with Toby Keith and Aerosmith on tap this week, things will get exponentially more exciting.
In any case, this past week was also my peak training week leading up to Lean Horse and it turned out quite well:
Monday - Rest. Played basketball at lunchtime.
Tuesday - 8.9 mile progression run. The first mile was about 8:40 and they got faster from there. The eighth was 6:35 and I felt every second of that one. It was one of those workouts that leaves you feeling a little wobbly at the end, in a good way.
Wednesday - 5 miles. Basketball again.
Thursday - 9 miles with 6 strides.
Friday - Rest.
Saturday - 31.1 miles in 5 hours even. I used the 20:4 run/walk ratio again and it worked very well this time. My running pace toward the end was actually slightly faster than at the beginning. About 1.5 hours in, I got into a groove and cruised from there.
Sunday - 23.7 miles in just under 4 hours. I knew going in that this run wasn't going to feel as good as Saturday's and it didn't. My legs were tired and my running pace was slower, but not horribly so. It was actually more of a chore mentally than physically. It was much warmer and windier than the day before, I never got into that magical groove and I was basically just in a pissy mood for most of the run. But, that was the point of this one....I know I'm going to go through periods like that during Lean Horse. Running ultras isn't all peaches and cream, after all.
Total - 77.7 miles
Lean Horse is just three weeks away now, so it's time to start tapering. This weekend's long runs will probably both be in the 3 hour range and then next weekend's will be more like 1.5 hours. I know now that I can cover 54.8 miles in 9 hours (granted, with an 18 hour break in the middle). The question is, how fast can I cover 50 miles in one stretch? Really, my main goal for Lean Horse is just to finish, but I would like to finish in less than 8.5 hours. We shall see....
Monday, August 3, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Fun in the summer sun
You know you're in South Dakota when a few of the coolest runs of the summer and a two of the hottest come in the same week. The first three runs, all done early in the morning, were between 49 and 51 degrees, just about perfect. Then, I closed the week out with two long runs in the mid-80s. Not perfect, but good training for Lean Horse (I'm guessing it won't be 50 degrees all day long on August 22nd, but stranger things have happened).
Monday - Rest from running, played basketball at lunchtime.
Tuesday - 8.6 miles. This was intended to be an easy run, but I felt really good from the start so I decided to do a progression run. After running the first mile in 8:47, my mile splits got gradually faster for every mile, clocking a 6:53 for the 8th mile. The last 0.6 was a cooldown run back to the house.
Wednesday - 6 miles, basketball again.
Thursday - 9.7 miles.
Friday - 5 miles with 6 strides and more basketball. The highlight of the day was draining 5 straight three pointers in the last basketball game. It's never happened for me before, probably won't again, but it was fun while it lasted.
Saturday - 18.7 miles. Shannon ran the Spearfish Canyon Half Marathon in the morning (she ran a 2:19, her fastest half out of three this year). As soon as she got done, I grabbed the Garmin and set off on my own run while she cooled down and then took the kids to Wal-Mart for the weekly grocery shopping adventure. As warm as it was by the time I started running, it was still preferable to facing the Wal-Mart masses. I used a 20 min. run/4 min. walk strategy again and it went really well. After 3 hours, I met the family back at the city park and sat my butt down in frigid Spearfish Creek for awhile. Once my feet went numb, it felt pretty damn good.
Sunday - 18.4 miles. Another 3 hour run using the 20:4 run:walk strategy. Hoping for cooler weather, I got up early and started running a full three hours earlier than I had on Saturday. It was a little cooler for the first half hour or so, but the sun was in full force and the temperature shot up 20 degrees in less than an hour and before I knew it it was the same temp as Saturday (mid-80s). As expected, this run didn't go quite as smoothly as the previous run, but that's kind of the entire point....to teach my legs how to keep chugging along even though they're tired. It was encouraging that toward the end of the run, even though my running pace wasn't fast at all, I was able to maintain a steady run pace and didn't suffer from any major fatigue....I finished tired, but feeling like I could have gone further if I had to (but I didn't really want to).
Total - 66.4 miles
I've got less than a month until Lean Horse. The next two weeks will be my big push, with 4 hour/5 hour back to back long runs planned for the next two weekends before I start tapering. This whole training cycle has been kind of disjointed thanks to the fact that I can't resist other racing temptations (i.e., a half marathon PR at Deadwood, running the Missoula Marathon for an attempted PR), but if I can make it through the next two weeks, I should be reasonably prepared for Lean Horse (or so I say now....ask me on August 23rd).
Monday - Rest from running, played basketball at lunchtime.
Tuesday - 8.6 miles. This was intended to be an easy run, but I felt really good from the start so I decided to do a progression run. After running the first mile in 8:47, my mile splits got gradually faster for every mile, clocking a 6:53 for the 8th mile. The last 0.6 was a cooldown run back to the house.
Wednesday - 6 miles, basketball again.
Thursday - 9.7 miles.
Friday - 5 miles with 6 strides and more basketball. The highlight of the day was draining 5 straight three pointers in the last basketball game. It's never happened for me before, probably won't again, but it was fun while it lasted.
Saturday - 18.7 miles. Shannon ran the Spearfish Canyon Half Marathon in the morning (she ran a 2:19, her fastest half out of three this year). As soon as she got done, I grabbed the Garmin and set off on my own run while she cooled down and then took the kids to Wal-Mart for the weekly grocery shopping adventure. As warm as it was by the time I started running, it was still preferable to facing the Wal-Mart masses. I used a 20 min. run/4 min. walk strategy again and it went really well. After 3 hours, I met the family back at the city park and sat my butt down in frigid Spearfish Creek for awhile. Once my feet went numb, it felt pretty damn good.
Sunday - 18.4 miles. Another 3 hour run using the 20:4 run:walk strategy. Hoping for cooler weather, I got up early and started running a full three hours earlier than I had on Saturday. It was a little cooler for the first half hour or so, but the sun was in full force and the temperature shot up 20 degrees in less than an hour and before I knew it it was the same temp as Saturday (mid-80s). As expected, this run didn't go quite as smoothly as the previous run, but that's kind of the entire point....to teach my legs how to keep chugging along even though they're tired. It was encouraging that toward the end of the run, even though my running pace wasn't fast at all, I was able to maintain a steady run pace and didn't suffer from any major fatigue....I finished tired, but feeling like I could have gone further if I had to (but I didn't really want to).
Total - 66.4 miles
I've got less than a month until Lean Horse. The next two weeks will be my big push, with 4 hour/5 hour back to back long runs planned for the next two weekends before I start tapering. This whole training cycle has been kind of disjointed thanks to the fact that I can't resist other racing temptations (i.e., a half marathon PR at Deadwood, running the Missoula Marathon for an attempted PR), but if I can make it through the next two weeks, I should be reasonably prepared for Lean Horse (or so I say now....ask me on August 23rd).
Monday, July 20, 2009
Quick Update
Okay, so it took me over a week to post my Missoula report on here. Sorry. I was busy doing absolutely nothing. After the race, we hung out in Montana for a week. I ate a lot of food, drank a lot of Montana brewed beer and did a little running too. I'm back in South Dakota now and trying to get caught up with everything that lapsed over the past week (including this blog). So, my Missoula report is below. Here's the running I did for the rest of last week:
Monday - Rest. Actually could have run if I'd really wanted to. I didn't feel sore at all after Missoula.
Tuesday - Rest again. Again, contemplated running, but went camping instead.
Wednesday - 5 miles. Felt alright. Not sore, but legs felt a little heavy.
Thursday - 6 miles. On the Blodgett Creek trail oustide of Hamilton, MT. The trail follows the creek through a deep canyon carved through the Bitterroots. It also goes through the Blodgett Fire area, which scorched the Bitterroots in 2000.
Friday - 8 miles. On the Mill Creek trail, one canyon north of Blodgett. This trail also goes through a fire area (the result of the same fire). After a couple of miles, I crossed into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area, one of the largest tracts of wilderness in the country. I also ran past a cool series of waterfalls and, just before I turned around, found a big pile of bear crap o the trail.
Saturday - Rest (if you can call driving 11 hours with a 4 and 5 year old in the back seat "rest").
Sunday - 11 miles. Ugh....it's WAY more humid in South Dakota than in Montana. I felt pretty good, other than the 5 pounds of sweat weight I was carrying in my shirt by the time I got done.
Total - 30 miles
In other running news, I missed out on the third race in the Black Hills Trail Series while I was in Montana. The Mystic Mountain Trail Run was on July 12th, the same day as the Missoula Marathon. I knew when the trail series started that I would miss this race and that my place in the standings would likely take a hit because of it. But, as it turns out, I actually maintained 2nd place in the Men's Under 40 division. My two point cushion over the 3rd place guy is now only one point and I lost ground on the 1st place guy, but I'll take that over dropping a position or two any day. There are now three races left in the series and barring any unforeseen circumstances I'll be at all of them, so hopefully I can maintain 2nd place (or dare I hope better?) for the rest of the way.
Now, back to ultra training. Lean Horse is only one month away!!
Monday - Rest. Actually could have run if I'd really wanted to. I didn't feel sore at all after Missoula.
Tuesday - Rest again. Again, contemplated running, but went camping instead.
Wednesday - 5 miles. Felt alright. Not sore, but legs felt a little heavy.
Thursday - 6 miles. On the Blodgett Creek trail oustide of Hamilton, MT. The trail follows the creek through a deep canyon carved through the Bitterroots. It also goes through the Blodgett Fire area, which scorched the Bitterroots in 2000.
Friday - 8 miles. On the Mill Creek trail, one canyon north of Blodgett. This trail also goes through a fire area (the result of the same fire). After a couple of miles, I crossed into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area, one of the largest tracts of wilderness in the country. I also ran past a cool series of waterfalls and, just before I turned around, found a big pile of bear crap o the trail.
Saturday - Rest (if you can call driving 11 hours with a 4 and 5 year old in the back seat "rest").
Sunday - 11 miles. Ugh....it's WAY more humid in South Dakota than in Montana. I felt pretty good, other than the 5 pounds of sweat weight I was carrying in my shirt by the time I got done.
Total - 30 miles
In other running news, I missed out on the third race in the Black Hills Trail Series while I was in Montana. The Mystic Mountain Trail Run was on July 12th, the same day as the Missoula Marathon. I knew when the trail series started that I would miss this race and that my place in the standings would likely take a hit because of it. But, as it turns out, I actually maintained 2nd place in the Men's Under 40 division. My two point cushion over the 3rd place guy is now only one point and I lost ground on the 1st place guy, but I'll take that over dropping a position or two any day. There are now three races left in the series and barring any unforeseen circumstances I'll be at all of them, so hopefully I can maintain 2nd place (or dare I hope better?) for the rest of the way.
Now, back to ultra training. Lean Horse is only one month away!!
Missoula Marathon: Chapter 3
It’s no secret that Missoula, MT is my favorite place in the world. So, when I found out three years ago that the local running club was planning on putting on a marathon, something that a relatively active community desperately lacked, I jumped right on board. This year marked the third running of the Missoula Marathon and my third time running it. It’s a streak that I don’t plan on breaking anytime soon. If nothing else, it gives me an excuse to go back to Missoula at least once a year. And, as many of you know from last year, I’ve had some success at Missoula.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect from Missoula this year, though. Last year, I tried very hard to keep my goals to myself and then secretly unleashed a Boston qualifying run. This year, I wasn’t being so coy. Now that Boston is out of the way, my running goals have changed and I’ve switched focus from running a fast marathon to just finishing an ultra marathon (the Lean Horse Half Hundred, to be exact). Consequently, my training has changed. Since Boston, I’ve only done two speedwork sessions plus a handful of local 5Ks and 10Ks. Other than that, the majority of my miles have been of the long, slow variety with the goal of teaching my body how to run a long ways rather than run fast. That included running the Bighorn Trail 50K on June 20th and running 18.4 miles and 23.66 miles on back to back days just two weeks before Missoula. But, still, in the timeframe between Boston and Missoula I managed a half marathon PR (1:28:17) at Deadwood-Mickelson and ran the local 4th of July 10K in 40:42, the exact same time I ran there last year just a week before Missoula. So, even though my speedwork was lacking overall, I still had a glimmer of hope that I might be able to squeeze out something close to my 3:09:41 run at Missoula last year. My general plans were to go for a PR if the weather was decent (like in 08) or just get in a nice, easy, long training run for Lean Horse if the weather was blazing hot (like in 07).
This year’s Missoula Marathon trip overall differed significantly from the previous two in that I didn’t go it alone this time. The first two years, I had traveled to Missoula myself and only stayed for a long weekend before heading back to South Dakota. But, this year, we decided to make a family vacation out of it and spend the week after the marathon in Hamilton, MT, where my in-laws live about 40 miles south of Missoula. In addition to me running the full, my cousin John was running his first full, my son Caiden was finishing the kid’s marathon and my wife Shannon was running the full with two of her sisters, Lauren and Kelly.
We left South Dakota on Friday evening, made it three miles before having to wait 35 minutes for road construction and then finally got going at a reasonable pace (i.e. 80 mph), eventually reaching Billings where we spent the night. After visiting friends in Billings on Saturday morning, it was off to Missoula to hit up the expo and make the annual pilgrimage to the Big Sky Brewing Company (for the record, I went there myself…..the kids went and played at the Missoula Carousel). Saturday night, I met up with John and longboat’n (Neil) and four of his high school cross country runners (who were running as a relay team) for dinner at Carino’s. Carino’s has become somewhat of a superstition for me. I’ve eaten my pre-race meal there before 5 of my 12 marathons and never had GI issues during any of those races. I’ve also run 2 PRs and one very near PR (40 seconds short) off of Carino’s.
Getting two kids to sleep in a hotel room when they are all wired up from seeing their aunts and uncles is somewhat of a chore, but eventually we were successful and I managed to sleep reasonably well until my alarm went off at 3 AM. I got up, clumsily downed some coffee, Gatorade and a couple of bagels and then climbed back into bed until it was time to head to the bus loading zone, which was only 2 blocks from our hotel. As I stepped out of the hotel, I though “damn, it’s kinda warm out here”. It certainly didn’t feel like 50s as were predicted, more like 60s.
Upon arriving at the busses, I immediately ran into John and we boarded the first bus to Frenchtown. Although this would be John’s first full marathon (he ran the Missoula half the past two years), he had aspirations of a BQ time (3:10:59). From the sounds of his training paces, he seemed to have the speed to do it, I just wondered if his lack of marathon experience would catch up with him in the late stages. Since we were planning on running roughly the same pace, we figured we would probably run together at least for a little while. The ride to Frenchtown actually went fairly quickly and when we stepped off the bus it was noticeably colder, definitely in the low 50s and the announcer at the start line actually commented that the temperature had just dropped 10 degrees in the last half hour or so. Awesome.
After hitting up the portajohns, John and I found some big rocks to sit on and I started scoping out the starting area for Barkeep (Steve), whom I had drank a significant amount of beer with in Boston. Before long, I located him and the three of us chatted for a bit before it was time to line up for the start. The start of this race always makes me laugh. Rather than firing of a starting pistol, they haul the ROTC cannon out to Frenchtown. This is the same cannon they fire off every time the UM Grizzly football team scores a touchdown, which always makes me want to yell “TOUCHDOWN GRIZ!!!” when I hear it go off. It also always scares the ever-loving crap out of at least ¾ of the runners who apparently didn’t realize that a cannon was about to go off. So, with a blast from the cannon and a gasp from the field of runners, we were off.
It seems like every time I write one of these reports, I break it down in a different way. This time, I’m going for geographical sections of the course. Having run the damn thing 3 times now, I’m starting to become fairly familiar with it:
Mullan Road
The marathon starts in the small town of Frenchtown, west of Missoula and follows back roads eastward back to Missoula. The first 9+ miles are all on Mullan Rd. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but I could really do without this first stretch of this course. It’s just not very scenic. The road is out in the middle of the valley with no trees or really anything else, besides the Smurfit-Stone cardboard plant (which we literally run right under), to look at. And, the fact that you can see Mt. Sentinel and Mt. Jumbo, which lie on Missoula’s eastern edge not far from the finish, from a long ways away makes the whole thing seem very daunting. By the time the 9 miles are up, I’m ready to be on any other road besides this one. Thankfully, the course gets more scenic after we do turn off of Mullan.
In any case, back to the race; I started out feeling pretty good and was laying down a solid pace for the first few miles. John was behind me a ways, but not too far (but also not within talking distance). I kept on trying to find someone to pace off of, but everyone I tucked in behind ended up making me go slower than I was hoping to, so I would pull ahead and try to find someone else. Eventually, I just found myself running alone. There was a stretch where I stopped feeling so good and my stomach felt kind of off and I was thinking that it was way too early to start feeling like this. But, I soldiered on and eventually John pulled up alongside me and we started idly chatting, which actually helped me get back into a groove and we started laying down some solid splits all the way to the turn onto Kona Ranch Road.
1 – 7:02
2 – 6:58
3 – 7:01
4 – 7:05
5 – 7:10
6 – 7:11
7 – 7:12
8 – 7:13
9 –7:06
Kona Ranch/Big Flat Roads
Kona Ranch immediately takes you across the Clark Fork River and into the pine trees along the mountainside on the western edge of the Missoula Valley. After a short jaunt on Kona Ranch, the course turns onto Big Flat Road, which is a deceptive name for a road that contains the only significant hill on the entire course. Just past halfway, Big Flat ceases being flat and heads up for a half mile or so before flattening out some with some rollers thrown in and then descending back down another river crossing (the Bitterroot this time). At the bottom of the hill, the full and half marathon courses merge just before crossing the Maclay Flat bridge and entering the western residential area of Missoula.
Every single time I’ve run this marathon this is the stretch where I start to feel the pace taking it’s toll. In 07, it also started getting pretty warm along this stretch, which resulted in me slowing significantly in the final miles. In 08, the pace stopped coming so easily, but I managed to bear down and minimize the pace drift. This time, John and I hit the halfway point together and on pace for a 3:07 finish. Right after we crested the hill, I started pulling away from John and we wouldn’t see each other again until the finish. I slowed on the hill, as expected, but managed to run the next couple of miles at a decent pace. As I was running along the top of the hill, I was feeling pretty damn good and was looking forward to the next few miles. A mile later, I wasn’t feeling so hot and after the course descended down to Maclay Flat, the pace drift began.
10 – 7:08
11 – 7:24
12 – 7:03
13 – 7:12
14 – 7:52
15 – 7:20
West Missoula
After crossing the Bitterroot, the course winds through the western edge of Missoula. Not much to discuss about this section. It’s basically flat, following city streets eastward toward downtown.
I hooked up with another runner along this stretch and chatted for a bit. He was also running his first marathon. He didn’t realize what his Boston qualifying pace was, but when I told him we were close to it, he suddenly seemed interested. However, by this time I was running closer to 7:40 miles so told him if he wanted to go for it, he’d better go on ahead if he could. He could and he did and I never saw him again. The further we went the more my pace slowed even though I felt like I was putting forth the same effort as I had been earlier. I knew by this point that a PR was out of the question. Either my lack of speedwork was catching up to me or I lacked the motivation because the BQ was no longer a primary goal for me. Whatever it was, my pace was slowing markedly and I really had no motivation to push myself to try and stop it from happening. At this point, the race went from a PR effort to a nice, easy long run to help prepare for Lean Horse.
16 – 7:16
17 – 7:44
18 – 7:40
19 – 7:52
20 – 8:14
Missoula
After a few long stretches of road, the course follows a bike path under Reserve St. and into the main part of Missoula. After this, the course starts turning fairly frequently in order to tack on enough miles to reach 26.2. This section of the course is more shaded than the rest and I actually don’t my the frequent turns because it helps break the course down rather than just running down a long, endless stretch of road. This was where I had my worst moments last year, convinced that I wasn’t going to hold on and qualify. Somehow, I worked through that last year.
This year, I knew the PR was out of the question by this point and it was just a matter of moving forward. I started walking through the aid stations to make sure I downed enough liquid and to give my legs a little break (my calves were getting mighty tight and threatening to cramp up). My pace was drifting really bad, but I didn’t really care. Well, not until I hit mile 25 and realized that if I kicked it into gear I could break 3:20. This was a totally arbitrary goal with no meaning whatsoever, but suddenly it became very important. As I pushed the pace, it did not feel very good at all and at first I thought my legs were going to totally revolt on me, but they didn’t and I chugged forward, figuring that the faster I ran this last mile, the sooner it would be over with. Right around the 26 mile mark, a guy caught up to me and frantically asked me what time I had. I glanced at my Garmin and told him “3:17:14” and asked what time he needed. He said he needed a 3:20 to BQ and asked me to get him there. I said “Okay, let’s go” and sped up around the last turn onto Higgins Ave. We hit the south end of the bridge, with the finish line across the Clark Fork River on the other side, at 3:18:XX and I knew he had it in the bag. He wasn’t so convinced and charged ahead of me. I tried to follow but he was really motivated by that point and outkicked me to the finish. In the end, he got his BQ with time to spare, and I got my arbitrary sub-3:20 with a 3:19:44 finish. Missoula Marathon number three in the books.
21 – 8:14
22 – 8:47
23 and 24– 17:24
25 – 9:08
26.2 – 9:24 (7:43 pace)
Chip Time – 3:19:44
Overall Place – 49th out of 582
AG Place – 8th out of 40
Immediately after finishing I shook the guy’s hand (never got his name) and congratulated him. He thanked me for pacing him (which actually only lasted for one block or so). I met up with my family, got some pictures taken and then congratulated John when he rolled in about 10 minutes behind me. He had suffered from calf cramps during the final miles and although he didn’t get a BQ, he was, and should be, happy with a 3:29 in his first marathon. After that, it was back to the motel to shower and then down to the Iron Horse for the annual post-race lunch/Moose Drool. There, along with the family, I met up again with Neil and Steve and told the obligatory war stories (I’ll let them tell their own versions of it).
Am I disappointed with how things turned out? Not really. I had a sneaking suspicion going into this that it would be asking a lot for my body to bust out a PR given the training I’ve been doing. Marathon PRs and ultra training don’t necessarily mesh well together and I knew that. In the end, it was another great experience and this event just keeps on getting bigger and better, which is great to see. I will say that the competition this year was much stiffer than last year. Case in point, last year there were 3 sub-3 finishers. This year, everyone in the top 10 went sub-3. The winner this year ran a 2:33, ten minutes faster than the old course record he had set in 2007. Last year, I won the 30-34 AG with a 3:09 and the 2nd place guy was 15 minutes behind me. This year, I would have had to run a 2:56 to get THIRD in the same AG. The women’s course record went from the 3:15 set last year to a 2:57 this year. So, while it’s good to see the Missoula Marathon getting some recognition, it does make it harder to take home any hardware.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect from Missoula this year, though. Last year, I tried very hard to keep my goals to myself and then secretly unleashed a Boston qualifying run. This year, I wasn’t being so coy. Now that Boston is out of the way, my running goals have changed and I’ve switched focus from running a fast marathon to just finishing an ultra marathon (the Lean Horse Half Hundred, to be exact). Consequently, my training has changed. Since Boston, I’ve only done two speedwork sessions plus a handful of local 5Ks and 10Ks. Other than that, the majority of my miles have been of the long, slow variety with the goal of teaching my body how to run a long ways rather than run fast. That included running the Bighorn Trail 50K on June 20th and running 18.4 miles and 23.66 miles on back to back days just two weeks before Missoula. But, still, in the timeframe between Boston and Missoula I managed a half marathon PR (1:28:17) at Deadwood-Mickelson and ran the local 4th of July 10K in 40:42, the exact same time I ran there last year just a week before Missoula. So, even though my speedwork was lacking overall, I still had a glimmer of hope that I might be able to squeeze out something close to my 3:09:41 run at Missoula last year. My general plans were to go for a PR if the weather was decent (like in 08) or just get in a nice, easy, long training run for Lean Horse if the weather was blazing hot (like in 07).
This year’s Missoula Marathon trip overall differed significantly from the previous two in that I didn’t go it alone this time. The first two years, I had traveled to Missoula myself and only stayed for a long weekend before heading back to South Dakota. But, this year, we decided to make a family vacation out of it and spend the week after the marathon in Hamilton, MT, where my in-laws live about 40 miles south of Missoula. In addition to me running the full, my cousin John was running his first full, my son Caiden was finishing the kid’s marathon and my wife Shannon was running the full with two of her sisters, Lauren and Kelly.
We left South Dakota on Friday evening, made it three miles before having to wait 35 minutes for road construction and then finally got going at a reasonable pace (i.e. 80 mph), eventually reaching Billings where we spent the night. After visiting friends in Billings on Saturday morning, it was off to Missoula to hit up the expo and make the annual pilgrimage to the Big Sky Brewing Company (for the record, I went there myself…..the kids went and played at the Missoula Carousel). Saturday night, I met up with John and longboat’n (Neil) and four of his high school cross country runners (who were running as a relay team) for dinner at Carino’s. Carino’s has become somewhat of a superstition for me. I’ve eaten my pre-race meal there before 5 of my 12 marathons and never had GI issues during any of those races. I’ve also run 2 PRs and one very near PR (40 seconds short) off of Carino’s.
Getting two kids to sleep in a hotel room when they are all wired up from seeing their aunts and uncles is somewhat of a chore, but eventually we were successful and I managed to sleep reasonably well until my alarm went off at 3 AM. I got up, clumsily downed some coffee, Gatorade and a couple of bagels and then climbed back into bed until it was time to head to the bus loading zone, which was only 2 blocks from our hotel. As I stepped out of the hotel, I though “damn, it’s kinda warm out here”. It certainly didn’t feel like 50s as were predicted, more like 60s.
Upon arriving at the busses, I immediately ran into John and we boarded the first bus to Frenchtown. Although this would be John’s first full marathon (he ran the Missoula half the past two years), he had aspirations of a BQ time (3:10:59). From the sounds of his training paces, he seemed to have the speed to do it, I just wondered if his lack of marathon experience would catch up with him in the late stages. Since we were planning on running roughly the same pace, we figured we would probably run together at least for a little while. The ride to Frenchtown actually went fairly quickly and when we stepped off the bus it was noticeably colder, definitely in the low 50s and the announcer at the start line actually commented that the temperature had just dropped 10 degrees in the last half hour or so. Awesome.
After hitting up the portajohns, John and I found some big rocks to sit on and I started scoping out the starting area for Barkeep (Steve), whom I had drank a significant amount of beer with in Boston. Before long, I located him and the three of us chatted for a bit before it was time to line up for the start. The start of this race always makes me laugh. Rather than firing of a starting pistol, they haul the ROTC cannon out to Frenchtown. This is the same cannon they fire off every time the UM Grizzly football team scores a touchdown, which always makes me want to yell “TOUCHDOWN GRIZ!!!” when I hear it go off. It also always scares the ever-loving crap out of at least ¾ of the runners who apparently didn’t realize that a cannon was about to go off. So, with a blast from the cannon and a gasp from the field of runners, we were off.
It seems like every time I write one of these reports, I break it down in a different way. This time, I’m going for geographical sections of the course. Having run the damn thing 3 times now, I’m starting to become fairly familiar with it:
Mullan Road
The marathon starts in the small town of Frenchtown, west of Missoula and follows back roads eastward back to Missoula. The first 9+ miles are all on Mullan Rd. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but I could really do without this first stretch of this course. It’s just not very scenic. The road is out in the middle of the valley with no trees or really anything else, besides the Smurfit-Stone cardboard plant (which we literally run right under), to look at. And, the fact that you can see Mt. Sentinel and Mt. Jumbo, which lie on Missoula’s eastern edge not far from the finish, from a long ways away makes the whole thing seem very daunting. By the time the 9 miles are up, I’m ready to be on any other road besides this one. Thankfully, the course gets more scenic after we do turn off of Mullan.
In any case, back to the race; I started out feeling pretty good and was laying down a solid pace for the first few miles. John was behind me a ways, but not too far (but also not within talking distance). I kept on trying to find someone to pace off of, but everyone I tucked in behind ended up making me go slower than I was hoping to, so I would pull ahead and try to find someone else. Eventually, I just found myself running alone. There was a stretch where I stopped feeling so good and my stomach felt kind of off and I was thinking that it was way too early to start feeling like this. But, I soldiered on and eventually John pulled up alongside me and we started idly chatting, which actually helped me get back into a groove and we started laying down some solid splits all the way to the turn onto Kona Ranch Road.
1 – 7:02
2 – 6:58
3 – 7:01
4 – 7:05
5 – 7:10
6 – 7:11
7 – 7:12
8 – 7:13
9 –7:06
Kona Ranch/Big Flat Roads
Kona Ranch immediately takes you across the Clark Fork River and into the pine trees along the mountainside on the western edge of the Missoula Valley. After a short jaunt on Kona Ranch, the course turns onto Big Flat Road, which is a deceptive name for a road that contains the only significant hill on the entire course. Just past halfway, Big Flat ceases being flat and heads up for a half mile or so before flattening out some with some rollers thrown in and then descending back down another river crossing (the Bitterroot this time). At the bottom of the hill, the full and half marathon courses merge just before crossing the Maclay Flat bridge and entering the western residential area of Missoula.
Every single time I’ve run this marathon this is the stretch where I start to feel the pace taking it’s toll. In 07, it also started getting pretty warm along this stretch, which resulted in me slowing significantly in the final miles. In 08, the pace stopped coming so easily, but I managed to bear down and minimize the pace drift. This time, John and I hit the halfway point together and on pace for a 3:07 finish. Right after we crested the hill, I started pulling away from John and we wouldn’t see each other again until the finish. I slowed on the hill, as expected, but managed to run the next couple of miles at a decent pace. As I was running along the top of the hill, I was feeling pretty damn good and was looking forward to the next few miles. A mile later, I wasn’t feeling so hot and after the course descended down to Maclay Flat, the pace drift began.
10 – 7:08
11 – 7:24
12 – 7:03
13 – 7:12
14 – 7:52
15 – 7:20
West Missoula
After crossing the Bitterroot, the course winds through the western edge of Missoula. Not much to discuss about this section. It’s basically flat, following city streets eastward toward downtown.
I hooked up with another runner along this stretch and chatted for a bit. He was also running his first marathon. He didn’t realize what his Boston qualifying pace was, but when I told him we were close to it, he suddenly seemed interested. However, by this time I was running closer to 7:40 miles so told him if he wanted to go for it, he’d better go on ahead if he could. He could and he did and I never saw him again. The further we went the more my pace slowed even though I felt like I was putting forth the same effort as I had been earlier. I knew by this point that a PR was out of the question. Either my lack of speedwork was catching up to me or I lacked the motivation because the BQ was no longer a primary goal for me. Whatever it was, my pace was slowing markedly and I really had no motivation to push myself to try and stop it from happening. At this point, the race went from a PR effort to a nice, easy long run to help prepare for Lean Horse.
16 – 7:16
17 – 7:44
18 – 7:40
19 – 7:52
20 – 8:14
Missoula
After a few long stretches of road, the course follows a bike path under Reserve St. and into the main part of Missoula. After this, the course starts turning fairly frequently in order to tack on enough miles to reach 26.2. This section of the course is more shaded than the rest and I actually don’t my the frequent turns because it helps break the course down rather than just running down a long, endless stretch of road. This was where I had my worst moments last year, convinced that I wasn’t going to hold on and qualify. Somehow, I worked through that last year.
This year, I knew the PR was out of the question by this point and it was just a matter of moving forward. I started walking through the aid stations to make sure I downed enough liquid and to give my legs a little break (my calves were getting mighty tight and threatening to cramp up). My pace was drifting really bad, but I didn’t really care. Well, not until I hit mile 25 and realized that if I kicked it into gear I could break 3:20. This was a totally arbitrary goal with no meaning whatsoever, but suddenly it became very important. As I pushed the pace, it did not feel very good at all and at first I thought my legs were going to totally revolt on me, but they didn’t and I chugged forward, figuring that the faster I ran this last mile, the sooner it would be over with. Right around the 26 mile mark, a guy caught up to me and frantically asked me what time I had. I glanced at my Garmin and told him “3:17:14” and asked what time he needed. He said he needed a 3:20 to BQ and asked me to get him there. I said “Okay, let’s go” and sped up around the last turn onto Higgins Ave. We hit the south end of the bridge, with the finish line across the Clark Fork River on the other side, at 3:18:XX and I knew he had it in the bag. He wasn’t so convinced and charged ahead of me. I tried to follow but he was really motivated by that point and outkicked me to the finish. In the end, he got his BQ with time to spare, and I got my arbitrary sub-3:20 with a 3:19:44 finish. Missoula Marathon number three in the books.
21 – 8:14
22 – 8:47
23 and 24– 17:24
25 – 9:08
26.2 – 9:24 (7:43 pace)
Chip Time – 3:19:44
Overall Place – 49th out of 582
AG Place – 8th out of 40
Immediately after finishing I shook the guy’s hand (never got his name) and congratulated him. He thanked me for pacing him (which actually only lasted for one block or so). I met up with my family, got some pictures taken and then congratulated John when he rolled in about 10 minutes behind me. He had suffered from calf cramps during the final miles and although he didn’t get a BQ, he was, and should be, happy with a 3:29 in his first marathon. After that, it was back to the motel to shower and then down to the Iron Horse for the annual post-race lunch/Moose Drool. There, along with the family, I met up again with Neil and Steve and told the obligatory war stories (I’ll let them tell their own versions of it).
Am I disappointed with how things turned out? Not really. I had a sneaking suspicion going into this that it would be asking a lot for my body to bust out a PR given the training I’ve been doing. Marathon PRs and ultra training don’t necessarily mesh well together and I knew that. In the end, it was another great experience and this event just keeps on getting bigger and better, which is great to see. I will say that the competition this year was much stiffer than last year. Case in point, last year there were 3 sub-3 finishers. This year, everyone in the top 10 went sub-3. The winner this year ran a 2:33, ten minutes faster than the old course record he had set in 2007. Last year, I won the 30-34 AG with a 3:09 and the 2nd place guy was 15 minutes behind me. This year, I would have had to run a 2:56 to get THIRD in the same AG. The women’s course record went from the 3:15 set last year to a 2:57 this year. So, while it’s good to see the Missoula Marathon getting some recognition, it does make it harder to take home any hardware.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Deja Vu
After running 23.66 miles last Sunday (which followed an 18.4 mile run on Saturday), I figured it was about time to start tapering for the Missoula Marathon, which is quickly sneaking up on me. Missoula similarly snuck up on me last year, but my last two weeks of preparation resulted in a BQ there, so I decided to look back at my running log from last year and emulate those final two weeks. I'm not doing the exact same workouts, but pretty close.
Monday - Rest. Played basketball at lunchtime.
Tuesday - 8.66 miles.
Wednesday - 8.2 miles, including 6x800m intervals. Only my second real speed workout since Boston and it went better than the first. I averaged 3:04 per interval. A "true" Yasso 800 workout would have been 8 to 10 intervals, but in the spirit of tapering I kept the number lower. For those that are unfamiliar, famous runner and coach Bart Yasso (who, coincidentally, I drank a couple of beers with at the Sheraton lobby bar in Boston the night after the marathon) came up with the concept of this workout, hence the name Yasso 800s. The idea is that you warm up, then run 8 to 10x800m intervals at a pace that's hard but that you can maintain for all of the intervals. In between each one, you jog rest for the same amount of time it took you to run the 800. He believes that this workout is a good predictor for how fast you can run a marathon. For example, if you averaged 3 minutes for the intervals, that would predict that you could run a 3 hour marathon. Hopefully, he's right (even though I didn't do the full workout). Oh, and I played basketball at lunchtime again. My legs felt surprisingly good considering the speedwork I'd done in the morning.
Thursday - 6 miles. Ran this one in Spearfish while our car was at Wal-Mart getting new tires mounted. When I got done, the car still wasn't ready, so I got to walk around Wal-Mart all sweaty and stinky. In other words, I fit right in (except for the fact that I have all my teeth and I didn't have 10 screaming kids with me).
Friday - 5.2 miles. The blasted humidity in the morning is really bugging me. It's generally pretty cool (50s, maybe barely cracking 60), but with the humidity in the 80s or 90s, I still come home with a totally drenched shirt.
Saturday - 8.2 miles total including 2 miles of warmup and the Roundup 10K. My arbitrary goal for this race was to run it faster than I ran it last year (40:42). I ended up running it in 40:42. Seriously. I don't think I could do that again if I tried. It rained right before the race and then the sun burned off all the clouds, so when the race started it was bright, sunny and right at 100% humidity. So, given the conditions, that's actually not a bad time for me, especially considering my recent lack of speedwork. I finished 6th overall and 1st in my age group.
Sunday - 14.1 miles. My last "long" run before Missoula. I actually felt pretty good after Saturday's 10K.
Total - 50.36 miles
So, next up is the third annual Missoula Marathon. Last year I was secretive about my goals for this race and then busted out a PR and Boston qualifier of 3:09:41. I'm not purposefully being secretive this year, I just really don't know for certain right now. Based on the fact that I once again ran a 40:42 at Roundup the week before Missoula, I guess I'm probably in shape to run a 3:09:41 at Missoula. Truth be told, I'd like to run faster than that, like in the 3:05-3:06 range (hell, I'd like to run sub-3, but that's just not realistic right now). Basically, if the weather conditions are favorable, I'll go for the PR and see what happens. If not, I'll treat it like a training run and just take it easy. Honestly, I won't know which option I'm choosing for absolute certain until I get to the start line in Frenchtown on Sunday morning. So you all will just have to wait. Don't let the suspense kill ya....
Monday - Rest. Played basketball at lunchtime.
Tuesday - 8.66 miles.
Wednesday - 8.2 miles, including 6x800m intervals. Only my second real speed workout since Boston and it went better than the first. I averaged 3:04 per interval. A "true" Yasso 800 workout would have been 8 to 10 intervals, but in the spirit of tapering I kept the number lower. For those that are unfamiliar, famous runner and coach Bart Yasso (who, coincidentally, I drank a couple of beers with at the Sheraton lobby bar in Boston the night after the marathon) came up with the concept of this workout, hence the name Yasso 800s. The idea is that you warm up, then run 8 to 10x800m intervals at a pace that's hard but that you can maintain for all of the intervals. In between each one, you jog rest for the same amount of time it took you to run the 800. He believes that this workout is a good predictor for how fast you can run a marathon. For example, if you averaged 3 minutes for the intervals, that would predict that you could run a 3 hour marathon. Hopefully, he's right (even though I didn't do the full workout). Oh, and I played basketball at lunchtime again. My legs felt surprisingly good considering the speedwork I'd done in the morning.
Thursday - 6 miles. Ran this one in Spearfish while our car was at Wal-Mart getting new tires mounted. When I got done, the car still wasn't ready, so I got to walk around Wal-Mart all sweaty and stinky. In other words, I fit right in (except for the fact that I have all my teeth and I didn't have 10 screaming kids with me).
Friday - 5.2 miles. The blasted humidity in the morning is really bugging me. It's generally pretty cool (50s, maybe barely cracking 60), but with the humidity in the 80s or 90s, I still come home with a totally drenched shirt.
Saturday - 8.2 miles total including 2 miles of warmup and the Roundup 10K. My arbitrary goal for this race was to run it faster than I ran it last year (40:42). I ended up running it in 40:42. Seriously. I don't think I could do that again if I tried. It rained right before the race and then the sun burned off all the clouds, so when the race started it was bright, sunny and right at 100% humidity. So, given the conditions, that's actually not a bad time for me, especially considering my recent lack of speedwork. I finished 6th overall and 1st in my age group.
Sunday - 14.1 miles. My last "long" run before Missoula. I actually felt pretty good after Saturday's 10K.
Total - 50.36 miles
So, next up is the third annual Missoula Marathon. Last year I was secretive about my goals for this race and then busted out a PR and Boston qualifier of 3:09:41. I'm not purposefully being secretive this year, I just really don't know for certain right now. Based on the fact that I once again ran a 40:42 at Roundup the week before Missoula, I guess I'm probably in shape to run a 3:09:41 at Missoula. Truth be told, I'd like to run faster than that, like in the 3:05-3:06 range (hell, I'd like to run sub-3, but that's just not realistic right now). Basically, if the weather conditions are favorable, I'll go for the PR and see what happens. If not, I'll treat it like a training run and just take it easy. Honestly, I won't know which option I'm choosing for absolute certain until I get to the start line in Frenchtown on Sunday morning. So you all will just have to wait. Don't let the suspense kill ya....
Monday, June 29, 2009
Back over 70
My main concern with running the Bighorn Trail 50K last weekend was how it would affect the following week of training. The whole point of a training run is that you can still bounce back and resume training where you left off and not have to take an easy week to recover. This was especially important to me this time since I've got the Missoula Marathon coming up on July 12th and wanted to get in one good mileage week before doing a mini-taper for that.
Although my legs felt pretty good the day of the 50K (even afterwards), Sunday morning was a different story. I was definitely feeling the effects of 31 miles of trail running, specifically in my quads, thanks to the monster downhill. Monday didn't feel much better. No pain, just really stiff and sore. I had planned on taking those two days off anyhow, so no worries there. I was worried about how Tuesday and the rest of the week would go, but it turns out everything worked out just fine:
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 6 miles. Very slow.
Wednesday - 9 miles. Slightly faster.
Thursday - 9 miles. Exact same pace as Wednesday.
Friday - 5 miles. A little faster.
Saturday - 18.2 miles. On the Eagle Cliff trails, which are primarily used by cross country skiers in the winter. I discovered that in the summer they are primarily used by cattle. Between smelling fresh cow pies, getting lost on the not-so-well marked trail system and just not feeling all that great, it was a rough day. I had originally planned to be out for up to 4 hours, but when I finally made it back to my truck to replenish my bottles after just over 3 hours, I had had enough.
Sunday - 23.66 miles. Wasn't sure how this was going to go after Saturday's tough run, but my legs felt really good. I once again used a 20 minute to 4 minute walk to run ratio, which worked out well. I also ran a couple of loops rather than a long out and back, which gave me the opportunity to replenish my water bottles. This proved to be a good thing since the temp was in the lower 80s by the time I got done. The last couple of miles were a little more of a struggle...I think my electrolytes were getting low and I didn't have any Gatorade or salt tabs on hand to combat that, but otherwise it went very well.
Total - 70.86 miles
So, I crested the 70 mile mark (just barely) for the first time since sometime before Boston. Just in time to taper, too. Missoula is only 13 days away and I've got my hometown 10K to run on the 4th. I still have no idea what to expect in Missoula....I'll just have to see what Mother Nature and my legs give me on that day.
Although my legs felt pretty good the day of the 50K (even afterwards), Sunday morning was a different story. I was definitely feeling the effects of 31 miles of trail running, specifically in my quads, thanks to the monster downhill. Monday didn't feel much better. No pain, just really stiff and sore. I had planned on taking those two days off anyhow, so no worries there. I was worried about how Tuesday and the rest of the week would go, but it turns out everything worked out just fine:
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 6 miles. Very slow.
Wednesday - 9 miles. Slightly faster.
Thursday - 9 miles. Exact same pace as Wednesday.
Friday - 5 miles. A little faster.
Saturday - 18.2 miles. On the Eagle Cliff trails, which are primarily used by cross country skiers in the winter. I discovered that in the summer they are primarily used by cattle. Between smelling fresh cow pies, getting lost on the not-so-well marked trail system and just not feeling all that great, it was a rough day. I had originally planned to be out for up to 4 hours, but when I finally made it back to my truck to replenish my bottles after just over 3 hours, I had had enough.
Sunday - 23.66 miles. Wasn't sure how this was going to go after Saturday's tough run, but my legs felt really good. I once again used a 20 minute to 4 minute walk to run ratio, which worked out well. I also ran a couple of loops rather than a long out and back, which gave me the opportunity to replenish my water bottles. This proved to be a good thing since the temp was in the lower 80s by the time I got done. The last couple of miles were a little more of a struggle...I think my electrolytes were getting low and I didn't have any Gatorade or salt tabs on hand to combat that, but otherwise it went very well.
Total - 70.86 miles
So, I crested the 70 mile mark (just barely) for the first time since sometime before Boston. Just in time to taper, too. Missoula is only 13 days away and I've got my hometown 10K to run on the 4th. I still have no idea what to expect in Missoula....I'll just have to see what Mother Nature and my legs give me on that day.
Monday, June 22, 2009
I knew that once Boston was over, I wanted to set my sights on running my first 50 miler. I ran the Lean Horse 50K in Hot Springs, SD, at the southern edge of the Black Hills, back in August of 2007. I knew after that that a 50 miler was probably in my future and Lean Horse seemed like as good a place as any to do it. But, the whole Boston thing (both qualifying for and then training for) got in the way in 2008. I knew that after April 20, 2009, I would be free and clear to obsess about something, anything, else. The 2009 Lean Horse Half Hundred became my primary post-Boston goal. As I was considering how to prepare myself for such an adventure, the idea of running a 50K as a tune-up came to mind. The most logical choice for that was the Big Horn Trail 50K, in the Big Horn Mountains near Sheridan, WY, on June 20th. I spent a good part of the winter trying to decide if I really wanted to commit to Big Horn or not. After waffling back and forth several times, I finally decided to do it, went to the online registration site and…..it had filled up the day before. Idiot! Thinking I might still be able to sneak in, I filled out a paper registration and mailed it that day, feigning innocence about the race being closed. Over the next 5 months or so, my credit card was never charged nor did my name show up on the confirmed entrants list on the race website, so I accepted the fact that I had waited too long to make up my damn mind and that Big Horn would have to wait for another year.
Fast forward to the afternoon of Wednesday, June 16th. I’m sitting at my desk, busy as a beaver (or something like that) and I get a phone call on my cell. I glance at the caller ID and see the Wyoming area code (yes, THE area code…..around here there’s just one for each state). I don’t really know anyone with a Wyoming number, but I answer it out of curiosity. It’s a lady with the Big Horn Trail races, wondering if I would like to be kept on the waiting list. Waiting list? There’s a waiting list? My mind spinning, I say “yes” and she says they’ll call me back when they figure out who’s out and who’s in. Immediately, a million thoughts assault my brain. Where will I stay? When will I go? What does the course look like? Am I trained for this??? As I’m furiously prowling the internet (which qualifies as limited personal use of government equipment, in case you’re wondering) for race and lodging information, my phone rings again and again flashes a “307” number. I answer and it’s a different lady who now says they have a spot for me if I want it. I don’t know, do I? Before the angel on one shoulder can come up with a good reason not to do it, the devil on the other shoulder says “yes” and suddenly my weekend plans have changed just slightly.
Back to the question of “Am I trained for this?” Well, it depends, I guess. I was probably just as ready as I was for my first 50K, but not as ready as I might’ve been if I had known about this, say, more than 3 days before the race. Like I said, I had originally penciled this race into my training schedule and have been slowly working my way into ultra training ever since Boston. I say “slowly” because my post-Boston recovery took a little longer than I expected and because I also tapered for and ran a half marathon PR at Deadwood-Mickelson two weeks ago. So, just as my weekly mileage was getting back up near 60 and I was starting to develop my back to back weekend long runs, I tapered for and recovered from Deadwood-Mickelson and then last week started building the mileage, and long runs, back up. Since Boston, I’ve only really run three runs that I would consider long mileage wise: a 17 miler (on trails), a 23 miler and just this past Sunday, a 22.8 miler (which was preceded by a 13 miler the day before). But, I’ve done a few other runs that were long time-wise (2.5 hours+) but where I didn’t get as much distance because they were on fairly rugged trails. As the name “Big Horn Trail Run” implies, most of it is run on trails, so my training seemed somewhat appropriate. If I were to train specifically for a 50K, I probably wouldn’t run 22+ miles six days before the race, but in the spirit of using Big Horn as a training run, I wasn’t too worried about that. I did fret about how much I should run in the last couple of days between finding out I was going to run and actually running. I ended up taking Thursday off completely, thanks in large part to the fact that the race personnel had called me just after I’d gotten done playing basketball for an hour at lunchtime, the result of which was that I had knot in my left calf and what felt like a sprained little toe (pinky toe?) on my right foot (if only they had called BEFORE lunch). I did go out for a very easy 5 on Friday morning, which is basically my regular pre-marathon routine.
As for the logistics, I found that it was actually very easy to find a hotel room in Sheridan. I went cheap and booked a room at the Motel 6. The race itself is headquartered in Sheridan and that’s where we had to go to check in, but it actually finishes about 20 miles northwest in the tiny town of Dayton. The start line for the 50K is 40 miles (driving distance) further west in the Big Horn Mountains. This meant I would have to drive from Sheridan to Dayton in the morning and then catch one of the busses to the start. The morning drive would be a minor inconvenience, but considering that lodging and dining options were severely limited in Dayton, it seemed like the best plan.
Sheridan itself is about 200 miles from my location in South Dakota, which equates to a little under 3 hours of driving at South Dakota/Wyoming interstate speeds. I left Belle Fourche just after lunch on Friday and made it to Sheridan in plenty of time to check in and drop off my drop bag. I half expected to get there and have them look at me like I was stupid and say “you’re not signed up.” But, everything was in order. I hit up Dominoes (bread bowl pasta) for dinner and Wal Mart for some last minute supplies and breakfast items and then it was back to my luxurious accommodations to watch some TV and veg out for the rest of the evening.
The Big Horn Trail Run is actually quite a big event in terms of the amount of stuff going on at once. They have 100 mile, 50 mile, 50K and 30K races. The 100 milers start on Friday and everyone else starts on Saturday, with the start times of the Saturday races staggered by 2 hours. There are three separate start lines (50K and 30K share one) but all four races finish at the same location (Scott Park in Dayton). The whole schedule is rather masterfully laid out so that the majority of the runners finish within a specific time window on Saturday, allowing spectators to see runners from the various distances finish. The 50K started at 8:00, but I had to be in Dayton by 6:00 to catch the bus to the start line. Let me tell ya, it takes a school bus a lllllloooonnnnngggg time to drive 40 miles on mountain roads. It was on that bus ride up the mountain that it started to dawn on my just what was in store. We went a long ways up. Of course, we wouldn’t run back down the highway, but we would have to get back off of these mountains in some way, shape or form.
Like I said, the 30K and 50K share a start line. In order to get the necessary mileage (or kilometerage, I guess) the 50K starts off with a 20K loop that heads west away from Dayton for awhile before looping around and joining the 50/100 mile course and then going back east past the start line and along the 30K course to Dayton. The elevation at the start is 7,650 feet. I live at just over 3,000 feet, so I knew this would probably be a factor. The course tops out at 8,100 feet during that 20K loop. Of course, since it’s a trail run in the mountains there are some hills to contend with, but overall the 50K (and, more so, the 30K) are downhill, with the finish line in Scott Park sitting at 4,150 feet. For the mathematically impaired, that’s 3,950 feet of elevation loss from the high point to the low point. Can’t you just feel your quads burning?
I killed some time chatting with some other runners from the Black Hills area (there were a lot of us) and before I knew it, it was time to start. Some lady yelled for us to line up behind her because she was the start line. Okay. With a descending 10 count, we were off.
Dry Fork to Dry Fork
The first 20K loop took us from the Dry Fork aid station, up a big damn hill, back down the big damn hill to the Cow Camp aid station and then along a four wheel drive road back up to Dry Fork. Immediately after the start we were all walking/power hiking. The better part of the first two miles was spent doing this. Finally, we topped out and one could reasonably run, although there were some more ascents that called for more power walking along the ridgeline. I noticed a fairly annoying headache along this stretch and contributed it to the fact that I hadn’t had any coffee that morning and my caffeine addicted body was pissed about it. Luckily, I had an espresso Hammer Gel in my pack, so I took that and it seemed to help. After 3 or 4 miles, we started our descent, which featured mostly single track trail with some cross country running (fortunately, the course was well flagged in these sections). This was the first part of the course where I really started having fun….running down single track through dense timber and open meadows. I finally started to feel like I was actually running a race instead of power hiking one. I hit the Cow Camp station feeling good, got my bottles topped off with Heed and water and was off. I made it about a quarter of a mile down the road before I realized I had neglected to check in and out of Cow Camp. Oops. Well, I sure as hell wasn’t going to turn back and do it so I soldiered on. The stretch from Cow Camp to Dry Fork is a net uphill since we had actually lost more elevation coming down that first hill than we had gained going up. This section was mostly rolling. At one point, we crested a hill and could see Dry Fork a couple miles away and a lot of feet up. Damn. The last stretch leading to Dry Fork was another killer uphill. More power hiking. Upon shuffling into Dry Fork, I made very sure to check in and told the guy taking numbers that I didn’t think I had checked in at Cow Camp. He didn’t seem all that concerned, but at least I had done my civic duty and admitted my idiocy. In the aid station, I once again topped off my bottles. Along the way, I had been fueling exclusively with Heed, Hammer Gel and Endurolytes up to that point. A lady at the station offered me salted potatoes, which sounded pretty good, so I accepted. She proceeded to load up a dish full of potatoes, potato chips and pretzels. I thanked her, checked out of the station and was off again.
Dry Fork to Upper Sheep Creek
Upon leaving Dry Fork for the second time, we again got to go up, but this time on a different route. The course followed a gravel road for a good mile plus, all of which was uphill. This at least gave me a chance to scarf down my food as I hiked. I was kind of concerned with the amount of walking that was going on, though. While I didn’t necessarily have a hard and fast time goal in mind, I was kinda sorta hoping to break 6 hours. It had taken me 2.5 hours to cover the first 20K loop, which does not bode well for a sub-6 finish, especially when you spend the first 2K or so of the final 30K walking. Eventually, the course abandoned the road and we were back on mostly downhill single track. Once again, I was able to get into a solid running groove. This was by far the loneliest section of the course. From Dry Fork to Upper Sheep Creek I neither passed anyone nor had anyone pass me. In fact, for a majority of the time I couldn’t even see anyone in either direction. Approximately 5 miles of lonely running later, I wandered into the Upper Sheep Creek station. More Heed, more water and a handful of trail mix and I was out.
Upper Sheep Creek to Lower Sheep Creek
Immediately after leaving Upper Sheep Creek, I started catching up with the tail end of the 30K pack, who had started from Dry Fork two hours after the 50K runners. Also immediately after Upper Sheep Creek was a section of trail referred to as “The Haul”. I was running along, crossed the creek and looked up and saw the trail going basically straight up a really steep, really long hill. Good Lord, where’s the ski lift?? Well, nothing to do but get started, so up I went, passing multitudes of 30Kers in the process. Finally, I topped out, walked a little longer to get my heart rate down and then resumed running. Of course, what goes up must go down and the trail going down the other side was nearly as steep as the uphill side. This doesn’t necessarily make for fast or comfortable running. In fact, it was quite uncomfortable and not fast at all. I was trying my hardest to reduce the abuse my quads were taking, but it was tough on steep, rocky, single track trail. And, the downhill portion was much, much longer than the uphill had been. We were beginning our descent back to Dayton in earnest now. Another 5 miles later and I arrive at Lower Sheep Creek. Most of that five miles had been steep downhill, but my legs still felt pretty good. I really don’t remember much about this aid station. I think it was just top off the bottles and go.
Lower Sheep Creek to Tongue River
After Lower Sheep Creek, we entered the Tongue River canyon. This was an awesome section of trail. The canyon is very steep and very narrow and the Tongue River is fairly bloated with spring runoff this time of year, making for some awesome scenery. The trail was still going downhill, but much more gradually and it was very runnable. Approximately 25 miles into the day and I’m starting to feel really good. That is, until my left leg revolted. I was cruising along the trail, running at a fairly decent clip and suddenly it was like someone had stabbed me in the thigh. It was a muscle I’ve never had a cramp in before. Not my quad, not my hamstring, but some other muscle on the inside of my thigh between the two. I don’t know what it’s called for real, so I just think of it as my quadstring. Whatever the hell it’s called, it didn’t feel good at all. I tried to walking for a bit, but that didn’t help at all…I could barely even walk with it knotted up. Finally, I sat my butt down on a big rock and started rubbing it out. After a bit, I resumed walking and it felt better so I decided to try running again, cautiously. It didn’t seize back up and before I knew it, I was cruising along again pain free. The next aid station was only a couple miles away and marked the end of the trail running for the day. The Tongue River station is also the 26.2 mile point of the 50K course. I had largely been ignoring both the mileage and time on my Garmin ever since the end of the first 20K loop, but I did glance at my time here and saw that I was just under 5 hours and had just under 5 miles left to go. Providing my quadstrings didn’t have any more nasty surprises in store that seemed very doable. At the Tongue River station, I again just topped off my bottles and went. As I held my water bottle out to the dude with the big jug and said “water please” he just looked at me like I was dumb and then asked “you want water?” I looked at him like he was dumb and said “yeah”. Then I looked at my bottle and realized the lid was still on. He couldn’t very well take it off since it took both of his hands to prop up the huge jug he was dispensing water with. I guess we established who was dumb at that point in the day.
Tongue River to Home Stretch
After Tongue River we were off the trail and onto a gravel road that would take us all the way back into Dayton. I’d heard about this road as being the worst stretch of the course because it’s hot and boring. It actually didn’t turn out being as bad as I’d feared. For one, the road starts out in the canyon for the first couple of miles, so it’s still shaded. For another, this is where I finally got a chance to stretch my legs and RUN. As I was cruising along, I glanced at the avg. lap pace on my Garmin and I was suddenly laying down 8:30 mile pace after more than a marathon of rugged running. WTF!!?? Oh well, nothing to do but go with it, I guess. There’s no saving it for later, after all. Just as I was about to catch up with a guy I know who was running the 30K, it happened again. My quadstring, this time in my right leg, cramped hardcore. I walked/hobbled for a bit before finding an electrical junction box to sit on and rub it out. More walking, then shuffling and then running again and I was back up to speed. I caught up with the guy again and charged ahead. It was only another couple of miles to the Home Stretch station, where I didn’t even bother to top off my bottles. I hadn’t had a chance to drink much since Tongue River and we only had a couple of miles left. I just checked in and was gone.
Home Stretch to the Finish
After leaving Home Stretch I noticed a guy in an Alaska biking jersey ahead who I knew was in the 50K. I had been passing tons of 30K runners and a few 100 milers, but hadn’t passed any 50K runners for a long time. I was still cruising at 8:30ish pace, so breezed past the Alaska guy. I knew there was one more 50Ker up ahead not too far because he and I had traded positions a few times already and he had last pulled ahead at Lower Sheep Creek. As I was wondering how far ahead he might be, I realized that the guy running about 20 yards ahead of me was the guy I was looking for. I cruised past him too and had about a mile to go. Then I felt it again. First it had been my left quadstring, then my right, now my left was getting pissed off again. NO!!! I just passed two 50Kers, I’m not gonna lose those positions again! I did some brisk walking to try and calm it down, which actually helped this time. I didn’t dare walk too long though, so I resumed running and the quadstring obliged. Before I knew it, I was being ushered around the final few turns by some volunteers and was back in Scott Park. The final stretch took us around the park’s bike path. Here I was, 30.9 miles into a 50K and feeling AWESOME. I kicked it in to some cheers from the assembled crowd and was done.
Final Time: 5:46:52
Overall Place: 10th out of 140
Sex Place: 7th (the top two overall in the 50K were women, both of whom broke the women’s course record)
AG Place: 5th out of 23 (the top ten was stacked with dudes in their 30s)
The friendly finish line volunteers immediately gave me my reward for running 50 kilometers. No medals at this race, but instead we got a nice long sleeve Saucony running shirt with the race logo and “50K Finisher” on the breast (we also got a short sleeve running shirt in our race packet). I immediately walked down the bank to the Tongue River and stepped right in, shoes and all. The water was insanely, heart stopping cold. It felt awesome. After soaking my sore ankles and calves ( I was too chicken to go all out and get the quadstrings submersed) I sloshed my way back to my truck, changed my shirt, ditched my wet shoes and socks and grabbed some sandals before heading back to the park for the post race picnic. I hung out there for awhile, ate a burger and a lot of watermelon, and watched for people I knew coming across the finish line. I looked on jealously as they gave out AG awards. The “trophies” were these really cool big river rocks with the race logo etched into them. If only I had been in any AG besides the one I am in…. The only negative thing about the whole day was the drop bag situation. I had left one at Dry Fork with dry shoes and socks because I had been told it would be wet and muddy. Turns out, it wasn’t that bad and I didn’t even need the drop bag. But, I did end up having to hang out at the park until past 7:00 waiting for the drop bags to be delivered (I finished just before 2:00).
So, wow, I don’t even know how to sum this whole thing up, but I’ll try anyhow (this novel has gotta end somewhere, after all). This is an incredible race and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a more beautiful course anywhere. When I was brave enough to take my eyes off the three feet of trail in front of my feet, I was awestruck. Besides the drop bag thing, the organization was top notch. And, it didn’t hurt that I just had an awesome day on the trails. Never have I felt that good that late into a race. I never really felt all that bad the entire day. I kept expecting the blowup to come, but it never did. I’ve only run one other 50K and I ran that one almost exactly one hour faster than this one, but this course was much more of a “true” ultra course; this one was magnitudes of difficulty higher and I cruised through it. The whole point of this slightly unexpected adventure was to get myself ready to run a 50 miler in August. This is by far the longest I’ve ever been on my feet in one stretch and I still felt relatively fine at the end of it. So, in that regard, it was about as successful as can be. Yesterday’s experience did exactly what it was supposed to; give me confidence that I can indeed run 50 miles. I think I like this ultra thing. I think I like it a lot.
I'll close with this. Words can't do this course justice. So, instead, here's a link to a photojournal put together by a lady who ran the 50 miler last year and took 60+ photos along the way. Awesome stuff.
http://www.bcochranphotography.com/bighornrun/
After Tongue River we were off the trail and onto a gravel road that would take us all the way back into Dayton. I’d heard about this road as being the worst stretch of the course because it’s hot and boring. It actually didn’t turn out being as bad as I’d feared. For one, the road starts out in the canyon for the first couple of miles, so it’s still shaded. For another, this is where I finally got a chance to stretch my legs and RUN. As I was cruising along, I glanced at the avg. lap pace on my Garmin and I was suddenly laying down 8:30 mile pace after more than a marathon of rugged running. WTF!!?? Oh well, nothing to do but go with it, I guess. There’s no saving it for later, after all. Just as I was about to catch up with a guy I know who was running the 30K, it happened again. My quadstring, this time in my right leg, cramped hardcore. I walked/hobbled for a bit before finding an electrical junction box to sit on and rub it out. More walking, then shuffling and then running again and I was back up to speed. I caught up with the guy again and charged ahead. It was only another couple of miles to the Home Stretch station, where I didn’t even bother to top off my bottles. I hadn’t had a chance to drink much since Tongue River and we only had a couple of miles left. I just checked in and was gone.
Home Stretch to the Finish
After leaving Home Stretch I noticed a guy in an Alaska biking jersey ahead who I knew was in the 50K. I had been passing tons of 30K runners and a few 100 milers, but hadn’t passed any 50K runners for a long time. I was still cruising at 8:30ish pace, so breezed past the Alaska guy. I knew there was one more 50Ker up ahead not too far because he and I had traded positions a few times already and he had last pulled ahead at Lower Sheep Creek. As I was wondering how far ahead he might be, I realized that the guy running about 20 yards ahead of me was the guy I was looking for. I cruised past him too and had about a mile to go. Then I felt it again. First it had been my left quadstring, then my right, now my left was getting pissed off again. NO!!! I just passed two 50Kers, I’m not gonna lose those positions again! I did some brisk walking to try and calm it down, which actually helped this time. I didn’t dare walk too long though, so I resumed running and the quadstring obliged. Before I knew it, I was being ushered around the final few turns by some volunteers and was back in Scott Park. The final stretch took us around the park’s bike path. Here I was, 30.9 miles into a 50K and feeling AWESOME. I kicked it in to some cheers from the assembled crowd and was done.
Final Time: 5:46:52
Overall Place: 10th out of 140
Sex Place: 7th (the top two overall in the 50K were women, both of whom broke the women’s course record)
AG Place: 5th out of 23 (the top ten was stacked with dudes in their 30s)
The friendly finish line volunteers immediately gave me my reward for running 50 kilometers. No medals at this race, but instead we got a nice long sleeve Saucony running shirt with the race logo and “50K Finisher” on the breast (we also got a short sleeve running shirt in our race packet). I immediately walked down the bank to the Tongue River and stepped right in, shoes and all. The water was insanely, heart stopping cold. It felt awesome. After soaking my sore ankles and calves ( I was too chicken to go all out and get the quadstrings submersed) I sloshed my way back to my truck, changed my shirt, ditched my wet shoes and socks and grabbed some sandals before heading back to the park for the post race picnic. I hung out there for awhile, ate a burger and a lot of watermelon, and watched for people I knew coming across the finish line. I looked on jealously as they gave out AG awards. The “trophies” were these really cool big river rocks with the race logo etched into them. If only I had been in any AG besides the one I am in…. The only negative thing about the whole day was the drop bag situation. I had left one at Dry Fork with dry shoes and socks because I had been told it would be wet and muddy. Turns out, it wasn’t that bad and I didn’t even need the drop bag. But, I did end up having to hang out at the park until past 7:00 waiting for the drop bags to be delivered (I finished just before 2:00).
So, wow, I don’t even know how to sum this whole thing up, but I’ll try anyhow (this novel has gotta end somewhere, after all). This is an incredible race and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a more beautiful course anywhere. When I was brave enough to take my eyes off the three feet of trail in front of my feet, I was awestruck. Besides the drop bag thing, the organization was top notch. And, it didn’t hurt that I just had an awesome day on the trails. Never have I felt that good that late into a race. I never really felt all that bad the entire day. I kept expecting the blowup to come, but it never did. I’ve only run one other 50K and I ran that one almost exactly one hour faster than this one, but this course was much more of a “true” ultra course; this one was magnitudes of difficulty higher and I cruised through it. The whole point of this slightly unexpected adventure was to get myself ready to run a 50 miler in August. This is by far the longest I’ve ever been on my feet in one stretch and I still felt relatively fine at the end of it. So, in that regard, it was about as successful as can be. Yesterday’s experience did exactly what it was supposed to; give me confidence that I can indeed run 50 miles. I think I like this ultra thing. I think I like it a lot.
I'll close with this. Words can't do this course justice. So, instead, here's a link to a photojournal put together by a lady who ran the 50 miler last year and took 60+ photos along the way. Awesome stuff.
http://www.bcochranphotography.com/bighornrun/
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