Running with the Marathon Man and my new job as map maker

Yesterday morning I went for a short run with local running legend Jerry Dunn. Jerry became somewhat well known in the running community when he ran 200 marathons in the year 2000. That's some friggin dedication there. I think I once watched "The Goonies" once a day for 30 straight days. For details on his exploits, check out his website at http://www.marathonman.org .

Jerry is also the director of two local races: the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon, which I hope to run for the first time next June, and the Lean Horse Ultramarathon, where I will be running the 50K in 9 short days. When I registered for Lean Horse, Jerry noticed that I lived close by and offered to go on a run sometime. The running community here in Belle is very small, especially when you're talking marathoners who get up at the buttcrack of dawn to run. I have run with someone else (not including races of course) exactly ONE time in the six years that I've been running and that was when I went to San Francisco for work and met up with a friend, and marathoner, who lives out there. So, I took Jerry up on his offer and we ran a few miles together around Spearfish yesterday before I went to work.

During our run we of course talked about Lean Horse and I mentioned at some point that I had made my own map of the 50K course so that I could see the elevation profile for just that race (rather than try to decipher it from the 100 mile elevation profile on the race website). Jerry thought that was a good idea and asked if he could use it for the website. I said sure and emailed him the link later that day. He apparently liked the map because he called me yesterday evening and asked if I would make maps for the 50 and 100 mile courses also. I'm a geek who likes doing that kind of stuff, so I agreed and just sent them off to Jerry this morning. So, coming soon to the Lean Horse website (http://www.leanhorse.com) you'll be able to see some of my extremely amateur map making abilities on display. Hopefully no one gets lost because of me....

Jerry also told me that there'll be somewhat of an ultrarunning celebrity running the Lean Horse 100 Miler this year. For those of you out there who follow the Badwater Ultramarathon, you'll probably recognize the name Akos Konya. For those not in the know, Badwater is a 135 mile race that starts in Death Valley and ends at the Mt. Whitney portal. The course goes from 200 feet below sea level to approximately 11,000 feet above sea level. And they do it at the end of July when temperatures in Death Valley typically top out around 130 degrees. Akos has taken second at Badwater the past two years and this year he actually broke the course record. Unfortunately for him, some guy from Brazil broke the course record by more. Anyhow, Akos is obviously fast and tough and the Lean Horse course (that rhymes) is much more kind than Badwater, so it appears likely that the course record will be broken this year.

The week in review: Godsmack, head colds and some running

Wow, I've been slacking off here.... So, to fill the void, I'll write a little bit about my last week or so of training/life. As if anyone cares about the intricacies of my running schedule, but this is my blog damn it, so just sit there and read!! Sorry...

Last week went pretty well training-wise, which is good because it was the last week of any real training before Lean Horse, which is now only 11 days away. Here's a breakdown of my workouts:

Sunday - "Rest"....that's in quotation marks because I spent the entire day on my feet cleaning the house, so it wasn't really restful at all and when I finally sat down sometime in the evening after dinner I realized that I was wiped.

Monday - 8 miles easy. Whether I intended to do them at an easy pace or not, an easy pace was all I was gonna get after the previous day of cleaning and the 18 miler the day before that.

Tuesday - 10 miles with the last 5 @ Marathon Pace (around 7:38 min/mile). Felt much better than the 8 on Monday and it felt particularly good the last 5 miles to stretch my legs a little.

Tuesday Night - Ever hear of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally? Well, imagine a few hundred thousand bikers all in one place at one time. Now, throw in a Godsmack concert (with Fuel and Ted Nugent as the opening acts). Now, add me and a few (or 6....or maybe 10) beers. Good times....

Wednesday - Okay, add up all the stuff from Tuesday night. What do you get? You get me sleep deprived and hungover. What don't you get? Me running.

Thursday - 5 miles @ recovery pace. Back in the saddle and recovered from Godsmack, but now I have a head cold.

Friday - 14 miles easy. Day 1 of my back to back long runs. Felt okay overall, but my legs didn't feel too good going uphill.

Saturday - 20 miles easy. Day 2 of the back to back. After one block I was pretty sure that this was going to be one of the most miserable experiences of my life. My legs were achey and I just didn't feel like I was going to be able to find any rhythm whatsoever. It doesn't help that my long run route is a net uphill on the way out. By the time I reached the 10 mile point I was pretty damn tired and hot (the wind had been at my back). But, once I turned around and started heading back I fell into a good groove and was greeted with a nice head wind to cool me off. The second 10 miles went much better than the first 10 and I actually finished feeling stronger than I had at the end of my 18 miler the week before. Hopefully a good sign.

So, there it is. I'm now in taper mode for Lean Horse, which means that I'm running less and obsessing more. When I checked yesterday, I was one of 21 runners registered for the 50K and still the only one from South Dakota. Home field advantage?? I'll take any help I can get...

Just how crazy am I??

Well, it's official...I've fallen off the deep end. I'm a few cards short of a deck. I jumped off the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. I mailed in my registration for the Lean Horse 50K this week and got my confirmation email today. Right now I'm sure of two things: 1) I'm sick in the head and 2) I have no idea what I'm doing (training wise, that is). There's not much I can do about number 1 besides find comfort in the fact that there are people out there even crazier than me. There are at least 100 people signed up for the Lean Horse 50 mile and 100 mile races, so compared to them I'm relatively sane. As for number 2, I took a 16 week long 50K training plan I found online and crammed it into 6 weeks. Probably not ideal, but I justify it by the fact that I'm already in marathon shape and my goal for the 50K is just to finish.

So far, I'm one of only 19 runners registered for the 50K and the only one from South Dakota, which struck me as odd. There are people coming to this race all the way from the east coast to Hawaii, but I'm the only one within driving distance. I have met a few ultrarunners over the past few years at marathons, which they use as a leisurely training run. They are a close-knit (and relatively small) group; it seems that every ultrarunner knows every other ultrarunner. They seem to travel in packs, moving from ultra to ultra and earning belt buckle after belt buckle (the typical prize for completing a 100-miler, I'll get a Black Hills gold keychain if I finish the 50K). I suppose you would bond pretty quickly with someone you ran with for 17-30 hours straight.

This brings up a point of concern for me. I think it's likely that after running this 50K my running future will veer off onto one of two possible paths. Either I'll finish and be content that I gave an ultra a shot or I will be instantly hooked and immediately start planning on my first 50 miler. I'm not really sure which outcome I'm hoping for, but I'm inclined to believe it will be the second. For me, running has become what heroin is to a druggie; I'm always looking for a bigger hit and better high. Running my first (or second, or third, or fourth....) marathon certainly didn't satisfy my addiction, so why should I believe that running my first 50K will have a different result?

What in the sam hell have I gotten myself into?

Show me the money!!!

Finally, after over two months of waiting, I received a letter from the Fargo Marathon today! Victory is mine at last! Well, second place actually, but whatever. For the first time in my relatively short running career, I've won prize money. Second place Clydesdale was good for $75, which just happens to be the registration fee for the Lean Horse 50K, which I'm sending off tomorrow. Good timing. Of course, I don't run for the money. Good thing too, because if I did, I'd be living in a cardboard box with a handmade sign and running in shoes with my toes sticking out. The principle of this whole thing got me riled up and my persistence finally paid off. Now if I could just get the Big Sky Brewing Company to return my calls about being my primary sponsor....

Spearfish Canyon Half-marathon Report: A New PR!!

This report will be much shorter than my last couple marathon reports. I promise. After all, a half-marathon is, well, half a marathon so the report should be half as long too, right? We shall see…

The half-marathon is sort of a lost distance for me. I made the jump from racing a 10-miler, at the time the furthest I had ever run, to trying my first full marathon. I figured that running just 3.1 more miles wasn’t enough of a step up. Now that I’ve caught the marathon bug, it’s proven impossible for me to choose a half over a full when both are offered as part of one event. Because of this, I’ve only run one half-marathon: the Spearfish Canyon Half last year. The only other race offered at this event is a 5K. In my mind, 5K is simply metric for 3.1 miles of pain and misery. The half-marathon is much more suited to my abilities (endurance vs. speed). Plus, there are plenty of local opportunities to run 5Ks throughout the year, but Spearfish Canyon is the only option I have for a half-marathon, or at least the only local half that is not held in conjunction with a full.

I ran last year’s Spearfish Canyon Half as a tune-up race for the Montana Marathon in September. The tune-up went much better than the goal race and I finished in 1:33:51 (good for 2nd in my AG), a full 4 minutes faster than my goal time. This year, I was running Spearfish Canyon as a training run wedged in between the Missoula Marathon, which I ran two weeks ago, and the Lean Horse 50K, my first attempt at an ultra, which is coming up on August 25th. My goal going into this year’s race was pretty simple: run faster than last year. Realistically, I thought I’d be able to manage 7:00 miles which would result in a time just under 1:32. The course itself would be my biggest ally in achieving this goal…

Spearfish Canyon runs north-south through the northern Black Hills. A National Forest Scenic Byway parallels Spearfish Creek through the length of the canyon. Here comes another film reference: if you’ve seen “Dances with Wolves”, you’ve seen a little bit of Spearfish Canyon as some of the winter scenes were filmed there. The race starts just north of the town of Savoy (it’s really just a hotel and a restaurant) and follows the canyon to city of Spearfish, finishing at the city park. It’s downhill for the first 11 miles before emerging from the canyon before leveling off and going uphill slightly to the park.

I reported to the Spearfish city park with my wife and our two kids bright and early on Saturday morning. My wife was running the 5K while pushing the jogging stroller. After paying our dues and getting our shirts and bibs, I loaded up on the first bus heading up the canyon to the start line. After what seemed like a 30 mile drive (school buses don’t handle the curves of the canyon well) we finally arrived in Savoy. I jogged up the canyon a bit to get warmed up and to find a nice, quiet place to water some foliage as the four porta-potties at the start line were obviously insufficient for handling a large group of well-hydrated runners.

The race was supposed to start at 7:30, but the race director decided to be nice and let everyone who was waiting in line for the porta-potties get their turn. So, we didn’t toe the line until about 7:45. I couldn’t help but notice that the crowd looked much bigger than last year but I still found myself in the second row at the start as everyone seemed hesitant to move too far forward. Finally, the gun fired and we were off.

I knew that I would probably run the first mile fast as adrenaline and gravity teamed up and I was right. But I felt comfortable so I just kept on chugging. By mile three I had a kid (as in teenager) running along with me so I kept the pace up to try and shake him. He held on for a long time but I finally dropped him at around mile 9. By that time, I thought I was pretty secure in my position, approximately 11th or 12th but then, out of nowhere, a dude in orange shorts blew by me. The pace was taking its toll by this time. I did manage to catch and pass orange short dude once, but he quickly retaliated and ran away. In the process, we passed two other guys, so at least I ended up with a net gain in position. As I said earlier, my goal was to run 7:00 miles. As it turns out, my first 7:00 mile came at mile 10. By the time we left the canyon at mile 11, my quads were feeling the abuse and it actually felt good when we started running up a very gradual uphill. Orange shorts guy was still within striking distance, but I just didn’t have the juice to catch him as he wasn’t fading at all. With approximately a little more than a tenth of a mile left, I glanced at my watch and saw a 1:29:11. Thinking that if I turned it up the rest of the way, I might be able to break 1:30, I crammed it into overdrove (there was much grinding of gears) and sprinted toward the finish. Alas, there was either too far left or too little gas left in the tank and I finished in 1:30:12. Okay, pop quiz: How can you set a 3.5 minute PR and still be a little disappointed? When you come up 13 seconds short of breaking 1:30:00, that’s how. Actually, I’m fine with the results….I have something to shoot for next year. Here’re the splits:

1 – 6:43
2 – 6:53
3 – 6:44
4 – 6:46
5 – 6:56
6 – 6:52
7 – 6:48
8 – 6:56
9 – 6:47
10 – 7:01
11 – 7:00
12 – 7:05
13.1 – 7:36
Total – 1:30:12
Overall place - ??, probably around 10th -12th
Age Group place – 3rd, orange short dude was 2nd, the overall winner (1:09:xx) was 1st

That’s all, folks! Thanks for reading!

42 days and counting....

Today is the opening day of the Seahawks training camp!! The opening day of football season is 42 days away and the first preseason game is just 9 days away! My wife never understands why I watch preseason games because they don't count, but it's football. You could put a bunch of monkeys in uniforms and have them run around with a football and I'd watch it. If there is one thing that I can obsess about as much as running, it's football, whether it's the Seahawks or my beloved Montana Grizzlies. This is why I love fall so much....perfect running weather and football season.

Only two days until the Spearfish Canyon Half-marathon. This race has kind of been under the radar for me. I ran it last year as my first, and so far only, half. I wasn't sure if I was going to do it again this year because it's just two weeks after Missoula, but my legs have felt surprisingly good so I'm going to give it a shot. It's hard to pass up a half-marathon that's only 10 miles from home. Plus, the course is awesome. They bus us 13 miles up Spearfish Canyon and then we run back down to the Spearfish city park. It's downhill for all but the last 1.5 miles and it's some of the best scenery around. If you've seen Dances with Wolves, you've seen a little of Spearfish Canyon as some of the winter scenes were shot there. I ran a 1:33:51 there last year and may try for a 1:32 this time. I'm just not sure how my legs are going to handle running downhill quickly for that long.

Missoula Official Results Are Posted

The official results from the Missoula Marathon are posted online. I fared better than I had thought considering how rough the last 8 miles were....apparently I wasn't the only one affected by the heat. My official time was 3:32:24 (3 seconds faster than my watch time) and I placed 45/434 overall and 9/29 in the 25-29 age group. Any illusions I had of getting a top three in my AG turned out to be totally unrealistic as the top 3 all ran 3:04 or faster. But, if I were just one year older, I would have gotten third in the 30-34 AG. Maybe next year...

In other news, it appears that I may have won my two month long battle with the directors of the Fargo Marathon. Fargo offered a Clydesdale division (for guys over 190 lbs, if you're not in the know) and I finished 2nd this year (a full ten minutes behind the winner). Prior to the race, the director had told me via email that awards would be given to the top three Clydesdales. The week after the race, I was told again over the phone that awards would be three deep and that mine would be sent out the following week. Well, I never received anything, so after a few weeks I emailed and called them repeatedly and finally was told that they only gave an award to the top Clydesdale. WTF!!?? They didn't offer an explanation as to why, but did say that they were "considering going three deep". So, I let another few weeks go by and contacted the race director via email again, this time with a lengthy recap of the entire situation (without using one single cuss word). This time I was told that I would get my award. But, I haven't actually received it yet (it's only been a couple of days), so I won't count this as a victory yet. I don't even know what I've won and I really don't give a damn; it was the whole principle of the thing that was buggin the shit out of me.

The cold front has arrived!!! As I type this it is (finally) raining and appears as if we might actually get a break from the 105+ temps we've had for the last four or five days. A couple of days ago, the high in Death Valley was 113 and the high in South Dakota was 108. Not cool....literally.