Turn over a new leaf and run...a 100 miler

Deer Grove 32.4 Mile Fat Ass

2010-11-14T12:16:00.004-06:00

On 11/20, we will be having our CHUGs Deer Grove 32.4 Mile Fat Ass event starting at 8 am. Runners will be running up to 6 loops of 5.4 miles each and logging their lap times on a spreadsheet after each completion. The course route is on the Yellow loop and the runners will be running in the clockwise direction. I will be supporting the runners and trying to broadcast during the event.

Here is a list of runners participating

CHUGs Deer Grove 32.4 Mile Fat Ass

State Your Intentions 24-Hour

2010-11-12T12:33:00.002-06:00

You can follow my progress and that of other CHUGs on Saturday, 11/13/2010 at the State Your Intentions 24-hour run (see below). We are running in support of our local food shelters in which we each will donate food or money based on the number of miles we each run. My intent is to run 71 miles.

Live Coverage (More like periodic reports):
SYI24 - CHUGs @ James 'Pate' Phillip State Park

Gearing up for San Diego

2010-10-17T17:51:00.005-05:00

After a great weekend with dinner Friday night with friends James and Christie, the CHUG social at Pinstripes on Saturday night, hosting the GnP at the Brelly B&B, a nice trail run this morning with brunch following, and a nice phone discussion with the SURF president regarding our upcoming trip, race chatter, and some web development opportunities, it's time to gear up for our week vacation in San Diego.

I've never been to San Diego, so I'm very excited to get out there and check the area out, but I need to start getting my head wrapped around the fact that Kelly and I are going to be running 50 miles, her first, on Saturday that will surely be an awesome experience that we'll get to share together. I think it's hard to only because I'm still flying high after my 100 mile finish at Rio Del Lago last month and feel like this one isn't MY race, but rather, a run to share with and support my sweetay as we enjoy each others company out on the trails all day long. I think reality will set in come Thursday or Friday, but in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy San Diego as much as I can.

Fun times at the 2010 Chicago Marathon

2010-10-11T13:06:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a fun day. After volunteering as a course marshal and holding the 3K marker near State and Monroe, I headed to the corner of Roosevelt and Michigan to watch the top 10 to 20 runners come in. It was pretty exciting to watch such a close race between first and second place at the turn when Sammy Wanjiru (KEN) passed Tsegaya Kebede (ETH) and sprinted up and over the Roosevelt bridge to go on and win the 2010 Chicago Marathon. After about 20 minutes of watching the elite runners, I ran over to the half marathon point at Adams and Canal to wait for Kelly and brother-in-law, Dom to come through. This is when I met up with Kelly's sisters Cindy and Tina and Dom's mother Jan.

Once Kelly and Dom came through the half-way point I ran with them until we reached where Tina and Jan, which was only a couple blocks. Once they passed through, we went near Mile 17, then to Mile 20 which then Cindy and I ran with both Kelly and Dom for the next 5.5 miles. It was awesome to witness first-hand Dom fight through the last 6 miles of the marathon battling cramping and the heat; after all, 20 miles was the farthest he had run up til this point. For Kelly, this was just another training run in preparation of her first 50 miler in two weeks that we're running together. It was also a run that she committed to Dom in helping finish. Well, they both finished in just over 6 hours and now Dom is a proud marathoner and already looking forward at trying his luck with ultramarathons. I think we've created a monster.

Here is a video of Kelly and Dominic:

Volunteering at the Chicago Marathon

2010-10-09T09:50:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow, Sunday, 10-10-10, is the big day for some 45,000 marathoners and close to 1.5 million spectators in Chicago. This is brother-in-law's, Dominic, first marathon and Kelly will be running it with him. Dominic is more than ready to tackle this thing (Btw, his next goal is a 32.4 mile run on November 20th. That's right folks, his first ultra next month, but first things first). Good luck!

For the third year in a row, I have joined Team "Ian" in helping volunteer as a course marshal for the marathon. The first year, I was at Columbus and Grand (Mile 1), last year, I was at the 4k mark near LaSalle and Monroe, and this year I'll be at the 3k mark near State and Monroe. I look forward to having a front row seat to the action while making sure spectators stay off the streets and don't try crossing them potentially injuring themselves or any runners. Volunteering is a lot of fun, especially at this race because everyone is so excited and since we're within the first few miles of the race, all the runners are all fresh and excited.

GOOD LUCK RUNNERS!!!

Here is a map of the course with my volunteer location.

New Shoes Wear Test

2010-10-07T10:21:00.000-05:00

In my previous post I mentioned about transitioning to a more minimalist running shoe and last night I received my shipment of these shoes. I ended up ordering a bunch of shoes from Running Warehouse so I can test them out on my treadmill. Running Warehouse is great for this because they ship in 2-days and there are free returns, so it's really stress free and I don't have to leave the comfort of my own house to try shoes out. The shoes I ended up having shipped were a half size smaller (size 11) of my Brooks Cascadias, Brooks Green Silence (size 10.5 and 11), and a pair of New Balance MT101's in a size 10.5.

I took each shoe and ran at least one mile to wear test them. For the Brooks Cascadias in a half size smaller, the fit was good and I think this will be a good shoe size to have to prevent slippage and friction buildup. The Brooks Green Silence shoe is comfortable to wear and to run in. I found that this shoe hugs my foot comfortably and I was surprised the amount of cushion I felt when running. The 10.5 would have probably been a good choice if I'm wear a very thin sock, but most of my socks aren't the super thin kind, so I'm opting to go with a size 11 for this shoe. I tested both sizes of the Green Silence with both thin and thicker socks. The New Balance MT101's feel even more minimal than the Green Silence and I was really surprised how much room there is in the toebox. The shoe seems to fit a little wide too. I think the 10.5 is a good fit and looking forward to seeing how they respond on the trails.

Minimalist Shoe Transition

2010-10-03T11:26:00.003-05:00

In an effort to strengthen my feet, prevent blisters, and improve my running form, I'm looking to transition myself to a more minimalist shoe over the winter months. While I won't be wearing the pink ones you see here, I will be looking at a few different options including the New Balance MT101, New Balance Minimus, Brooks Green Silence, and Vibram Five Fingers. I hope this gradual transition will afford me better luck in the future and enable me to be a better runner.

Here are some of the shoes I'm looking at and a review on each. I welcome any advice from those already in minimalist shoes.

NB MT101 - Shoe Review

NB Minimus - Shoe Preview

Brooks Green Silence - Shoe Review

Vibram Five Fingers - 2011 Shoe Preview

Lost Boys 50 Mile Preview

2010-10-02T15:49:00.005-05:00

On October 23rd, Kelly and I are running the Lost Boys 50 Mile trail race near San Diego, CA. I'm excited because it's in a beautiful area of southern California and is Kelly's first 50 mile race in which I also have the pleasure of running with her. Kelly has been training hard, doing her long runs each week with her last one next week at the Chicago Marathon helping her brother-in-law to his first marathon finish. After that, she's in taper mode until race day.

Kelly is a little nervous (who wouldn't be) as it's almost twice the distance she has ever run before all while in the mountains. I know she will do great as I have all the confidence in the world that we'll finish this race together within the 14 hour cutoff. Kelly is strong runner and we have experience running together through the Colorado Rocky mountains during the Transrockies 113-Mile Stage Race last year (report here). Naturally, it's going to be long day, but what a day to spend with my sweetay! I love you sweetay!

Here is the course description and course photos.

The LOST BOYS 50 starts in Pinyon Wash, 75 miles east of San Diego in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, heads west over the mountains and finishes in Green Valley Campground near the Headquarters of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, 40 miles east of San Diego. This is a beautiful but extremely challenging point-to-point run featuring spectacular geography, historical trails, contrasting landscapes and incredible views. The first half courses through desert washes, canyons and mountain valleys including a brief section where runners must climb over some dry rock waterfalls. Ascending out of the desert, the mountainous second half climbs and descends through a lush alpine environment. There are approximately 18 miles of jeep roads, 4 miles of desert washes without roads or trails, and 28 miles of trails with almost 9000' of climb, 6100' of descent and an elevation range of 1200' to 6200'. All but 4 miles of the course is contained within the state parks. Well equipped aid stations will be spaced 4 to 8 miles apart.

Race Website

Leap of Faith in Blister Prevention

2010-10-01T14:34:00.005-05:00

About a week or so after my Rio Del Lago 100 miler when I posted information on my blisters resulting from this race, I kindly received an email from Bob MacGillivray of Drymax regarding the use of the socks I was wearing, which were the Drymax Maximum Protection Trail socks. Apparently, I was using them incorrectly all along in that I should let the technology of the socks work its magic. I shouldn't need to use any tape, lubricants, or powders on my feet to prevent blisters. Can it really be this easy? Well, it's time to take a leap of faith and find out. So, I'm going to put faith in what Bob is saying and which has apparently been proven time after time after time, in that my Drymax socks alone will keep my feet protected and blister free. I mean what's the worse that could happen that I haven't already suffered? I'll keep you posted.

Here is his original email he sent me for those of you who might be experiencing the same types of issues (I'm not attaching the photos from the email he sent to me, you'll have to take my word that they're blister free):

I just wanted to drop you a note after having read your blog post about the blister issues you have been experiencing. What we have learned is that through the tens of thousands of testing miles on our socks that the best results to not have blisters during an ultra while wearing Drymax socks is to not lubricate, not to tape, not use foot powder. This has been tested time after time with tremendous success.

Drymax is a totally different technology than wicking fiber socks. We use our proprietary Drymax fiber on the inside which with superhydrophobic (water hating) along with the PTFE (aka Teflon) fibers on the Maximum Protection socks which both have a neutral molecular charge that act like a squeegee to mechanically lift moisture up to the outer hydrophilic (water loving) outer layer where the moisture is transported and stored. Once lubricants or powders are introduced this makes the Drymax system useless because they impart a charge at the molecular level causing moisture to be stored next to the foot. The addition of the PTFE also mitigates friction since it has the lowest coefficiency of friction of any fiber.

In addition, tape is very hydrophilic (water loving), this will retain the moisture next to the skin for your entire race turning the skin very soft and increasing friction. It is our opinion that one should never try something new for race day. Since 99.9% of all runners do not tape while training making this change the night before the race creates a huge variable that was not part of training. One other issue with taping is that shear points are created where the skin is dry vs where the skin has softened because of the moistured held against the skin by the tape. Drymax socks are meant to be next to your foot not seperated by tape. Taping your feet with Drymax socks creates three layers: 1 a wet tape layer next to the skin, 2 a dry Drymax layer sandwich, 3 a wet polyester outer layer.

I would also add that the skin on your feet should be soft and supple not hard and callused. A callused foot may be more impervious to lower mileage surface blisters but they are more susceptable to very deep subcutaneous tears which occur between deep sensitive fleshy areas and the thick hard callus which could prove to be extremely painful and debilitating.

I've attached a couple of photos for you as well. The first is of Jamie Donaldson's feet immediately after her third blister free victory where she completed the course in 26:16 using no lubricants, powder or tape. The second photo shows the difference a year can make for Andy Jones Wilkins at Western States 100. In 2009 AJW had the worst blisters he had ever experienced on the left, in 2010 he switched to our Max Pro Trail socks and had very minimal issues. He did tape in a small area of each forefoot which ended up being his only problem area.

I hope this sheds some light from our experience on how to best avoid blisters.

My response:

Thanks for the information. I suppose I'll need to take a leap of faith and just try a 100 without any tape, lubricant, or powders. I guess I've been using the sock wrong. To let you know, I don't have a lot of confidence with just the socks only because of my history in races longer than 50 miles. What's the worse that could happen, right? Just end up back to where I am right now. I'm still under the belief that it's all an experiment of one and that not all feet are created equal and that there is one solution for everyone.

Bob's reply:

Hey Brian,

It is a leap of faith for sure. Our very first ever Drymax athlete is Lisa Bliss who is the 2007 Badwater Champion. Her feet were an absolute mess after her BW victory wearing a wicking sock but she took a leap of faith to use Drymax Maximum Protection socks with zero lube, powder or tape and has only had 1 blister since and that was at the 2009 Across The Years when she had one toe crossing over the other. Her most recent race was the 24 Hr National Championships at the NC24 in Cleveland. I've attached a photo of her feet with her Max Pro Socks after 117 miles in 24 hrs. She does put a tiny bit of hydropel on the tips of a couple toes where she has a biomechanical issue and they rub against each other.

About here experience she said, "Thank you Drymax socks! My feet were perfect, Not even a hint of any blisters after 117 miles." Link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=31517842&fbid=1530769301503&id=1002846833&ref=nf

Another ultra runner Chris Roman just ran 344 Miles of the Eerie Canal in 6 days with zero issues. He stated, "Huge shout out to Drymax socks, thanks Bob MacGillivray and team Drymax for supporting the "363". Erie canal crossing was completed blister free. -344 miles in just over 6 days, you guys are amazing :)" He did not lube, tape or powder his feet.

Ashley Nordell, elite ultrarunner who is sponsored by Pearl Izumi just wrote a review about Drymax here, http://www.examiner.com/running-in-bend/running-product-review-drymax-socks she has won multiple 100 mile races blister free since making the switch. Other recent converts who have had blister issues and not any more include Devon Crosby Helms, Nathan Yanko, Gary Robbins among many others. None of whom lube, tape or powder their feet.

Anyway, you can see where I'm going with this. It is definitely a leap of faith but the physics are on our side. This is not to say that everything will be perfect. So many other issues go in to blisters, with hydration, swelling, etc.

Please keep me up to date on how things go for you.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

100 Miler Buckles

2010-10-01T08:21:00.007-05:00

100 mile endurance runs most often times award finishers under the cutoff with belt buckles. Not all 100 mile events do this, but most do (Read here if you'd like to learn about the history of the 100 mile run and why runners are awarded buckles). After having completed my first 100 miler at Rio Del Lago just weeks ago has given me increased confidence levels in my abilities to finish another one. It has also peaked my interest in knowing what buckles are awarded for such epic journeys each of are faced with when toeing the starting line of a 100 miler.

I created a public Facebook page called "100 Miler Buckles" dedicated to these 100 mile buckle awards that symbolize the tremendous effort that goes into to finishing one of these events. Each race awards truly unique belt buckles to its official finishers, often times slightly varied based on where one might place; however, generally for sub-24 hour and sub-30 hour finishes. The idea behind the 100 Miler Buckle site is to bring all of these 100 miler buckles to one place and allow both veteran and aspiring 100 mile finishers to relish upon theirs and others achievements at each of the various races.

CHUG Group Run

2010-09-26T12:27:00.008-05:00

Today, we had our CHUG group run at the Deer Grove Forest Preserve starting at 8 am and were running the 5.4 mile yellow trail. It was perfect running weather and we had a pretty descent turnout and runners were going out and doing various distances anywhere from 1 loop of 5.4 to the upward of 40 miles. In fact, as I write this blog posting, there are several runners still at it and will be for a couple more hours.

Some big races in the near future for several of these guys today. A couple running the Chicago Marathon in 2 weeks, St. Pat's 24-Hour, a good number of them running Javelina Jundred 100 Mile on Oct. 23rd, Kelly and I running the Lost Boys 50 Mile, another running the Marine Corp marathon on Oct. 31. I think Juli might be training for Mother road 100 if she isn't running across some state before then. I might be missing a few races, but, in general, this was a weekend of general high mileage for several runners.

It was great to see old friends and meet new ones. I went out, road my bike with the group for a single loop, snapped some photos, video, and chatted it up with Ian after his loop while waiting for Kelly to finish up with her 2nd loop. Tony, of course, is an animal out there and finished up with loop 3 as people were finishing up with 2; Not a big surprise there. Big props to Machine Juarez who looks like he will be finishing up with around 90 miles this week.

Here are some photos (sorry for some of the blurry shots):

Warning: Post-Race Blister Talk and Graphic Illustrations

2010-09-23T09:09:00.009-05:00

Warning: If you don't like reading a about blisters and the graphic nature of them, then DO NOT READ ON, but if you're intrigued and would like to, feel free.

I can't believe that my 100 miler was almost 2 weeks ago. Again, what an epic experience it was and how it's still so fresh in my mind. Maybe it's because I'm constantly reminded by the big bright and shiny buckle I wear almost everyday :D, or maybe it's the foot recovery process I'm having to go through, which is something I wanted to talk about a bit in this post. I figured I'd cover the process I went through to try and prevent blisters and what I'm doing to recover from them. I hope this can help someone else out there who might suffer some of the problems I go through.

Blister Prevention:

I get plenty of advice from other runners about blisters on what to try, how I should check this website or read this book. They tell me that they never get a blister and what certain tricks work for them and it'll work for me. While I appreciate everyone's input and open to trying what works for them, it's really an experiment of one. Everyone's foot is different and has a different number of miles on them so their foot might be a little more seasoned than mine. I can't help to think that genetics plays a bit into all of this as well. Anyway, so what works for one person, may not necessarily work for another.

Trust me, I'm actively trying to find what works for me and it takes time. I'm not road running, so the surface changes, therefore, I may be going through stream crossings, on a desert trail, up and down mountains, running on rocky or soft and fine dirt trail. You get the idea that surfaces are different and a solution may need to change based on the terrain in which one runs. So, what have I tried individually or in conjunction with another solution in the past? 1. taping, 2. lambs wool, 3. toe spacers, 4. vaseline/bag balm/bodyglide, 5. powders, 6. socks (toe socks, double layer, drymax, etc), 7. blister bandaids

The good news is that it's getting better. I used to get blisters when running short distances, but now it seems that I have workable solutions to prevent blisters up to 50 miles; however, beyond the 50 miler, is where I'm still working it out. Considering I don't run tons of these, it's taking some time to figure out, but I'll get it.

For LT100 and RDL100 I went through a rigorous taping process and followed instructions from Jon Vonhof's website FixingYourFeet.com. I have his book, both in hard copy and electronic version for the kindle app on my iPhone. A definite necessity for any runner.

As for taping, I think I do a pretty good, if I say so myself. I did the same for Leadville 100 and after 50 miles, I didn't get any blisters following this method, so I tried to continue the streak for RDL100.

Okay, this is what I did in a nutshell.

Supplies needed:
- Roll of 1" roll of Kinesio tape
- Roll of 2" Elastikon tape
- Roll of 1/2" Micropore tape
- Bottle of liquid New Skin
- Alcohol swabs
- Tincture of Benzoin (ToB)
- Blush brush
- Foot powder
- Scissors
- Towel (lay a towel down under your feet when applying the ToB)

Time to complete: 20-30 minutes

1. Prior to doing anything, you want to make sure you are dealing with a clean surface, so use alcohol pads to clean any oils that may be on your foot.

2. Prior to taping, I applied a layer of New Skin to the ball of my foot and toes to give an extra layer of toughness (make sure others are not in the room as it stinks up the place). Let it dry.

3. I then applied ToB to the toes and bottom of the foot so that the tape would adhere to the skin for the 30 hours of running I was about to do. I used a blush brush to apply it. It gets tacky and you can tell when it's sticky when your fingers start sticking together ;).

NOTE: You may want to put these supplies in separate zip-lock baggies when you're done so they don't get all over your other gear. Also, have some foot powder handy as it removes the stickiness of the ToB from areas you didn't intend to apply ToB to.

4. I then used Kinesio tape around each toe, sealed the tips so it looked like web toes. I then cut the excess at the tip of the toes so it is nice and smooth.

NOTE: To speed the process, you may want to pre-cut the appropriate lengths of the tape (x2 for each toe) and lay it out before hand instead of just using the entire roll of tape around your toes.

5. For the bottoms of my feet I used Elastikon tape. Before taping, make sure the foot is fully extended when taping so there is room for the foot to stretch while running; otherwise, it may end up being too tight later. I cut this tape into two different sections so that I had some mobility in the bend of my foot. For the ball of the foot, I went from just under the crevice of the toes to the mid foot and left room for the Micropore tape overlap to seal down the edges. For the heel, I went up and over the back of the heel about 1"-2".

6. I then finished up by using Micropore tape to seal the edges of the Elastikon tape to prevent rolling (All these products can be purchased from ZombieRunner).

7. I apply a quick layer of ToB on top of the Micropore tape to help seal it to my skin

8. Use foot powder to remove any stickiness from your foot after the tape job is complete.

Okay, so that's how I tape. It's pretty thorough and time intensive. If you're doing a long race, it may be worth it to you to do it this way too. My advice would be to tape the night before the race so you have plenty of time and aren't rushed like you might be in the morning. Just make sure you wear the socks you're planning on wearing for your race to bed that night so that you protect the tape. The last thing you want is to go to bed with your taped feet unprotected and wake up with your taping all screwed up.

RDL100 Blister Prevention Results:

Okay, it didn't work as I expected for me at this race. if you looked at my foot pictures from my RDL100 race report (also pictured below this post), you'd see that my toes were pretty badly blistered, some entirely engulfed my toes. The blisters wrapped around to the bottoms of my toes and into the crevices between my toes and the ball of the foot. You didn't see this since I failed to get a picture of the bottom of my feet. What you also missed were some pretty good sized blister on both the balls and heels of my feet under where I taped, which begs the question of how does one deal with a hot spot under taped feet? If you know, please comment.

Why didn't the taping work? Not sure, but isn't that the million dollar question? I do have some ideas, but I don't think it was necessarily the taping alone. It could have been a number of things combined.

1. Shoes - I'm going to take a look at my shoe choice and the size of shoe I run in. I have a shoe that offers a larger toebox and I go a 1/2 to full size larger that allows for swelling of the feet during longer distance running. Maybe starting with a smaller shoe, then moving to a larger shoe would help with this. I think I'm going to get refitted at some point. May try the NB MT101 and the NB Minimus shoes when they come out.

2. Terrain - I remember when I did Miwok 100K a couple years ago, I had the same sort of blister issues in the same spots. Perhaps it's the type of mountainous foothills I'm running, perhaps it's the mostly soft fine dirt on the trails that get into my shoes dirtying up my feet and causing friction to occur.

3. Socks - I wear DryMax max protection trail socks, but perhaps I'm not changing them enough. Since it was a hot day, maybe I needed to change them more often. I only changed them once at mile 40, but by that time, I was already getting hot spots.

4. Foot condition - Maybe my feet are conditioned enough for the event. I'm a shorter mileage runner during training (30-50 miles/week), so maybe I need to toughen up my feet during training more, or do more barefoot to toughen the bottoms more.

5. A combination of all of the above.

Question for anyone?
I've been given a recipe for a potion (a creme of a mixture of products that I would lather on and let it do its work) and am currently looking for a Vitamin D creme. Not the A&D creme, but just Vitamin D. Anyone know where I can find it? I'm looking for a link to the product because I can't seem to find it anywhere. The one site I did find it, they were no longer carrying it.

Post-race Blister Recovery:

In my case, it's more than just blister recovery. It's more like foot recovery. After RDL100, my feet were so swollen and blistered and so painful to walk on. They looked like a corpse's foot. All that was missing was the tag from a select toe as you might see in the movies. Yeah, those were my feet. Pretty disgusting! They were so swollen that I had a hard time fitting them into my open-toed Crocs slides. That's pretty bad. The fact that they were pretty blistered, I was pretty embarrassed to have them make an appearance in public, so I ended up getting some very stretchy and loose-fitting socks along with some stick-free bandages to absorb the puss oozing from the blisters. I had to take a 4-hour flight with these feet, so I needed to do whatever was the most comfortable.

Steps to my Recovery Process:

Immediately following the race, carefully remove the shoes and assess the situation once I returned to the hotel room. "Oh boy, this is bad", was my reaction.

Considering that I had taped my feet and that I had blisters under the tape, I needed to be very careful removing the tape. All my toe tape came off without a problem with the ball of my foot tape being somewhat tricky, yet doable, but the heel tape was the most difficult to remove. I had used scissors to assist in the removal of all tape. There was tape on the heel that didn't want to come off right away, so I cut around that part and left the sticky tape on. Removing most the tape made the foot more comfortable.

I took a hot bath and let my feet soak for awhile and cleaned them up the best I could. Epsom salt didn't enter the picture until I returned back home, but if I had some available at the moment, I would have thrown some in. The stuff works great.

Re-assessed the foot and blister situation now that my feet were cleaned. Elevating the legs is important. If you've got compression socks, by the way, wear them for recovery. Reality set in that I had tons of blisters and I was wondering where to even start. For me, it made sense to start what was easiest to reach, which were the blisters I could see. Fortunately, I didn't have much in the way of blood blisters, so I could just lance away. The only problem, is that I got tired of doing this repeatedly for so long, so I'd take breaks and come back to it. I'm not one to leave blisters alone and let them drain naturally. I would rather lance them speed recovery. When I'd stop, I'd elevate the foot. At this point, I'm just trying to get to a point where I'm comfortable enough to get on a flight and home.

I didn't worry too much about the blisters on the bottoms of my feet. I'd worry about those when I got home. Again, I'm just focusing on the blisters surrounding the toes. It was evident that I was going to be losing a few toenails, no doubt! We'll wait til we get home to deal with that.

On a side note, my wife thought it'd be a nice idea and funny to get me a wheelchair at the airport since my feet were so sore and I walked at a snails pace. Actually, not a bad idea. Let me tell you that if you're in a wheelchair, you might just be treated a little bit nicer by airport personnel. Also worth noting that showing off belt buckles and drinking x-large smoothies help with pain management.

The next couple days after the race, my feet were still heavily swollen and I had to continuously lance blisters around the toes. I soaked my feet in an Epsom salt baths for about 10 minutes, which really helped relieve some of the pain and swelling. If you're at all concerned with soaking the blistered feet that may be somewhat of an open wound, don't be, the salt content is diluted enough to not be an issue. Just follow the recommended amounts to add to warm water.

To help with all this, I stayed home from work the day after we got home, which really helped. I didn't get my butt out of bed all day and kept my legs elevated at all times. If you can do this, I recommend it. By mid week, I was able to remove the last remaining tape from my heel and start tackling the bottoms of the feet and larger toes where nails needed to be removed. I'd only work on maybe one or two toes at a time. It was all I could handle. If there were any areas of fresh skin resulting from blister removal, I'd cover those areas using a Q-tip with anti-bacteria ointment, such as Neosporin.

NOTE: If after you remove tape and you still have the adhesive on the skin, use a cotton ball and vegetable oil to remove the sticky adhesive remains. After just a few swabs, the stickiness comes right up. Works great!

Keep in mind that it's important to air out your blisters at night when you go to bed. If you're like me, you've got to work all day and wear socks, but you need time to air out your feet when you get home. Also, I'm elevating my legs at this point still and keeping the covers off of my feet so not to aggravate the blistered areas.

My goal with all this is to eventually get to a point where I can remove any problematic toenails and completely drain all blisters. On the bottoms of my feet, the goal was to drain the blisters that I had built up. The touchy and cringe-worthy part of this is when we're dealing with the bottom of the foot. I find it really difficult to drain blisters and it takes time; however, with time, once drained, the skin is dead, dries up, and just sits loosely on the bottom of the foot. It itches like crazy too. The dead skin will start to tear as it dries and this is when I start to remove it with scissors so the fresh "baby-like" skin can begin to toughen up. I only remove small amounts at a time so not to put my foot in shock. It's easier to walk if you just do little bits at a time. I know this sounds like a painful process, but the sooner I do this, the sooner I can get back to recovery.

As I write this post, I have six or seven toenails removed from their toe beds, most all of the dead blister skin surrounding the toes is completely removed and healing, the balls and heels of my feet have most the skin removed and the "baby-like" skin is exposed so it can start to toughen. My foot swelling is completely gone and I'm able to fit in a normal shoe; however, I choose to remain in some Crocs (ones I can wear to work) to aid in recovery. My legs feel completely recovered and I feel like I could run if it weren't for the soft skin on my feet.

My hopes are that the skin on my feet toughen up as quickly as possible. I will try to walk barefoot as much as possible to aid with this process. Wish me luck for a speedy recovery, after all, I have a 50 mile race one month from today.

Here is a picture of my feet as I write this post

Persistence pays off - 100 Miles at Rio Del Lago

2010-09-21T18:22:00.006-05:00

FINALLY, a 100 miler in the books! This has been a goal of mine for awhile now and after 4 previous attempts at the distance and finishing short of the finish line for one reason or another, it has finally come to be. Rio Del Lago 100 Mile will go into the books as my 1st of many 100 mile finishes. ;)

A little history, my first attempt was at the MO100 in June 2008 where I stopped after 52 miles due to blister issues. My second attempt was supposed to be at the 2008 JJ100, but was injured for it, so it was postponed to the 2009 event where I dropped after about 77 miles due to blisters and drowsiness. My third attempt was at the RR100 earlier this year where I dropped at 80 miles due to blisters and feeling like crap after sitting in the warming tent for too long. My fourth attempt was just 3 week prior at LT100 where I timed out at the 50 mile turnaround. Redemption was to be had as I didn't have one thing physically wrong with me after Leadville, so on the flight home, discussions were had and we eventually came up with the idea of either signing up for RDL100 or AT100. It was decided a bit later in the week that Rio was the best choice, so we registered the week we returned home from Leadville.

I was going into this race with the idea that there was absolutely no way I was NOT going to finish (Of course, I go into every race with this little mindset). I was tired of cutting races way too short for one reason or another and this needed to be the day to get it done. Between Leadville and Rio I ran an easy 8 miler once on the Sunday before the race. I wanted to be well rested leading into the 100 miler and I think I was physically. Mentally, I was chomping at the bit for race day.

The Brelly and GnP fly out on the Friday before the race, check into our hotel, head to registration, medical check-in, and stay for the pre-race briefing. During the briefing, Norm Klein talks a little about the history of the race, shows us course markings, recognizes a few individuals from past races, and talks about how each one of us will cross that finish line. He mentions that him and Helen are stepping back as RD's of this race and introduce us to the new RDs. The new RDs tell us that there has been some vandalism on the course in the way of course markings disappearing, but they're working on remarking areas where this is a problem. We're also told that there are tons of other course markings from other races on the course, but to only follow the very reflective orange and silver flags or white arrows that looked like what they showed us. Okay, I hope I don't get lost, which was a fear I had come tomorrow as I'm not at all familiar with this area. After the briefing, we head back to the hotel and arranged to get dinner with Geof's uncle Steve at the local Olive Garden (You know, when in Rome!). After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where final preparations were made then lights out.

Race morning, we arrive at the school gym and it's packed with runners and buzzing with the pre-race jitters. I checked-in, had some blueberry muffin, filled my hydration pack, had some pictures taken, and my final good lucks from my sweetay, Geof, Paige, and Geof's uncle Steve. We all head outside to start, line up in back, and wait for the countdown from 10 until all 94 runners are off and running. Once we get going, I turn on my tunes and try to get into a rhythm. The race starts by taking us out on some rolling road, then single track, all of which is very runnable. At this stage of the race, one has to force themselves to take walk breaks during the gently rolling uphills in order to save themselves for later. Yeah, I did this for maybe a mile or so then walked only when the hills really warranted it, which is probably dumb, and that probably cost me later in the race. During the first 10k or so, I don't think I realized how many people I was passing as I was in a groove listening to music, but apparently quite a few as I ended up running in tow with a couple of runners and ended up in the top 20 by the first crew stop/aid station at Rattlesnake Bar at about mile 12, which I was currently on a 22 hour pace. My goal was 28.5 hours. I caught my crew by surprise since they just arrived and I wasn't supposed to arrive at the aid station for another 20 minutes or so. I tend to go out too fast at the start, but I told my crew that it just felt right and I was having a great morning and was going to see what happens. They topped my hydration pack, told me they'd see me in about 9 miles at the Auburn Dam Overlook, and I was outta there.

The next 9 miles took us on mostly luscious single track running along the water with fantastic views of white rock and trees. I would have enjoyed this section more if my mp3 player didn't act up for most of about 8 miles. The player was pausing, then playing in fast forward, then pausing, then skipping (repeat for 8 miles). Ughh, SO frustrating! It was better than silence though, so I just dealt with it. I did run most of this section as well until we go to the base of Cardiac Hill en route to the Maidu aid station. There was a nice impromptu aid station at the base here where I took in some Gatorade and chips. I was pretty tired approaching this point and needed to fuel for the climb up. I had no idea what it was going to be like, but by this time, the sun was out in full force and starting to get pretty warm. I'm not a strong climber and found myself stopping for several breaks as I ascended Cardiac. After reaching the top of Cardiac, there was a couple of miles to the Maidu aid station along a stream channel, then continued on a couple more miles to the Auburn Dam Overlook at just under 23 miles where my crew awaited for me still at about a 22 hour pace. It's always awesome to see my crew and they help me so much getting everything I needed for the next section. I swapped out my headphones at this point and that seemed to thankfully work. My crew informed me that they'll see me at the Cool aid station in about 7 miles.

I head out and make my way to the famous No Hands Bridge. This section is a net downhill so I run much of it, but when it levels out I taking a walking break and waste too much time doing this. So many people are passing me and I don't like it, but when I get to No Hands Bridge aid station, I see Geof and Steve, but no Kelly.

They help me and get me outta there for the next climb up K2, which is about 1000' climb in a mile. No switchbacks, just straight up with several false summits. I knew from the description that the best way to tackle it was to not expect the top until you actually reached it, so I never assumed. Being the weak climber that I am, I again took several breaks on the way up. Once I finally reached the top, there was a stretch of rolling horse trails across a prairie that lead us to the Cool aid station at about 30 miles where I came in at about a 25 hour pace. My crew was fantastic, all trying to get me in and out of the aid station as quickly as possible, but it took me about 15 minutes to get outta there. I was kinda in a rough patch, sun up, hot, hungry, and needed to sit! I had a grilled cheese and freeze pop to go. Told my crew that I'd want to change my socks when I returned. A volunteer had told me that I surpassed my time limit at the aid station and had to go. Okay, okay, I'm outta here.

This next section was the Olmstead loop and would return us back to the Cool aid station in about 7 miles. I didn't care too much for this section as it was an exposed section to the blistering sun. Paige caught up to me after a couple miles and she helped me get through this loop by hanging with me. Paige is such a fast walker and I couldn't keep up, but when we ran I was able to hang a bit longer. We mixed in running and walking on this section. I think it was just too flat for me, as I prefer the rolling hills to mix it up a bit. When we approached Knickerbocker aid station, I didn't know that we just had 1.5 miles up the road to get back to the Cool aid station. This pumped me up because I thought we had another 3 miles back to Cool. The aid station had plenty of ice, so I loaded some ice into my hat and Paige was laughing at me because I had a big chunk that made me look like a cone head. It definitely wasn't a fashion show out there. Whatever I could do to cool myself down and get through the afternoon heat. Paige and I rolled into Cool aid station together, but Paige headed out before me. I needed to do a sock change and tend to some hot spots that were forming. My crew thought to themselves that I was trying to bail. I was just roughing it, but had no intention of quitting...ever! Who can blame them though, I've quit 3 previous times due to blisters leading up to this race. I ask Kelly if my cousin Rhonda and her partner Dana were on their way and she mentioned that they should be at Auburn Dam Overlook at about 44 miles. I was excited to see them. After a 17 minute aid station stop and still on a 25 hour pace, I headed out ready for the descent to No Hands Bridge.

I felt better and was able to run a bit more now along the prairie. Instead of going down the 1000' K2, the course took us around it back to No Hands Bridge at a more gradual descent. It was a fun run, but my feet were bothering me again. Once I reached No Hands Bridge, I wanted to sit and check out my feet again. This took me an additional 15 minutes to in and out of that aid station. Kelly and Geof were concerned with my intentions, but they never voiced it until the race was over.

The net uphill section to Auburn Dam Overlook aid station was actually pretty good. I think there was more shade coverage and I found myself running more and more. I found myself passing a couple of runners, which felt good. I'm glad that I wasn't the only one suffering out here. I was back on rolling single track and I loved that more than the open prairie. I came into the Auburn Dam aid station and it was such a welcomed sight to see everyone. Rhonda and Dana were there, we chatted a little, took some pictures, but I was sad that I didn't get to see them longer. I had to weigh in here and I lost 3 lbs since the start of the race, which is acceptable by race standards. Kelly walked me out of the aid station and saw me off.

I was now retracing my steps back to Cavitt School at mile 67, but that's not for another 23 miles, and right now, it's one aid station at a time and the next aid station was Maidu in about 1.5 miles. I ran this entire section along the stream channel and caught up to Paige and her pacer Gretchen. Paige just finished puking before I arrived and she was not feeling the greatest. We all took off together and I followed shortly behind and as we made our way down Cardiac, my now blistered feet were having trouble handling the steep descent so I could barrel down it like I had hoped. Paige and Gretchen were getting a bit of a lead on me until they came to an unmarked junction of the trail. I stopped and waited with Paige while Gretchen ran ahead to figure out which direction we need to go. Once we reached the base of Cardiac, Paige and Gretchen ran ahead. It took me about a mile to get my legs again and it was total bliss. I loved the section I was running. I felt like at times, I was running faster than any other part of the race, it just felt so good. I passed several people on this section to Rattlesnake Bar aid station where my crew was going to meet me. My short term goal was to really try and catch up to Paige and Gretchen. It kept me focused and dialed in. I was; however, feeling a bit drowsy, so I popped my first No-Doz caffeine pill and it worked great. I woke up and was able to continue moving on a good clip. When I reached Rattlesnake Bar, Paige and Gretchen were on their way out, so I knew I made some ground and that felt great, but it would be the last time I saw Paige until 40 miles later. Again, Kelly and Geof helped me get everything I needed. It was hard to get out of aid stations and Kelly and Geof were again, quietly thinking about my unwillingness to get outta there. It took me 11 minutes to get in and out of Rattlesnake at mile 55 and I was now on a little under a 28.5 hour pace heading out. Still on goal time, but anything can happen in 45 miles. Kelly tells me that she'll see me next Twin Rocks aid station mile 63.

It has been pretty dark for about an hour or so and now visibility is limited. It doesn't help that there is course vandalism on the course markings, which apparently, has been a problem all day long. There aren't too many course markings between Rattlesnake and the school. Come to find out that the course flags the RD's mentioned were reflective, weren't actually all that reflective and the part that was reflective was only on one side, which was facing the runners on the outward bound miles that were run during the daylight. I can't count the number of times I had to stop at a junction and walk down one trail to carefully look for a flag that may or may not be there. It was frustrating, but thankfully, I ran this section during the daytime hours, but the trail looks completely different at night. I just knew that I should stay by the water that I was unable to see at this point. Basically, I think I got lucky to stay on course the entire time, but it did make me nervous while running and approaching intersections because for much of the way, I was running alone. I finally get to Twin Rocks aid station and Kelly is telling me to press on and to hurry in and out. I can definitely sense the urgency in her voice and I make this stop only 3 minutes. She tells me that she'll see me in 4 miles at Cavitt school. I continue on and continue to struggle with the course markings. I finally come to the road that takes us back to the school, but it looks completely unfamiliar as I don't think I even paid attention on the way out on this road at the beginning of the race. All the while, I'm looking behind me for runner lamps hoping to get an inkling of whether I'm on course or not. I finally see a runner approaching from behind and I let him take the lead and I follow him to the school. Then, it occurred to me that I didn't know the route for the next 33 miles. I think I ended up asking another runner and they mentioned the cone by the levee that was horribly marked. I don't remember any of this from the pre-race briefing and am pretty upset with the minimal course discussions at the pre-race briefing. I finally recognize the turn into the school area and reach the gymnasium at about 12:15 am, which I was still on a 28.5 hour pace. Kelly doesn't let me stay, and from what I learned, a bunch of people looked like they were out of commission in the gym. I didn't notice or pay any attention to that. I guess I didn't have much time to. I was out of there in 2 minutes, but I had to get weighed in first, which I weighed in at the same weight as when I started.

Crazy ultrarunner look

As I made my way out, I caught up to some runners heading out as well. Luckily, I was able to find my way across the levees without much issue. I was in cruise control and surprisingly running a lot and loved it. The blisters on my feet were pretty bad, but manageable and running was bad yet. I had a running form that worked for me and I was able to scoot and skid-addle pretty good. I approached some road section of the course, which really helped my case, not because it was road, but because it wasn't rocky and was flat and made for a comfortable shuffle. I was just surprised how much road there was on this course. It just seemed endless and there were so many turns. Aid stations seemed to take forever to get to. I don't think the distances were accurate as marked. Anyway, it was one foot in front of the other at this point and I just was looking for the next aid station. Kelly was going to be meeting me at Negro Bar at mile 73. I was really looking forward to seeing her there. Apparently, mentally, the miles during this point were a blur as I don't really remember much. It was one of those dead of the night times. When I saw Kelly at Negro Bar, I was on a 29.75 hour pace and she really urged me to pick it up and that she would be waiting to pace me in 4 miles at Hazel Bluff at mile 77. I couldn't wait. I was so happy that Kelly was finally going to have the opportunity to pace me at a 100 mile event. All previous times were failed attempts and this time, it was going to happen. I don't know what happened next, but I must of picked up the pace a bit as I came into Hazel Bluff and Kelly was nowhere to be found. It wasn't until about 3 minutes that she approached the aid station. Once I see Kelly, we're outta there in about 1 minute moving on to the next aid station at about a 29.5 hour pace.

I update Kelly on my status and tell her that I've been mostly running lately and that feels best given my blistered situation. My goal was to get back to this aid station at mile 90 before the cutoff since as part of the rules of this race, if we're to pass the 90 mile cutoff, then any finish thereafter would be official. 8:35 am was that cutoff and right now, it was 3:30 am, which left us 5 hours to get 13 miles. That was too big of a goal. Next aid station, here we come, we're shuffling and walking. Kelly is complimenting me on how well I look and moving, which of course, are just things I want to hear to keep me moving. We pass through Willow Creek aid station at mile 81 and continue on, which we eventually see Paige and Geof at about .75 miles from the turnaround aid station of Mountain Lion Knoll at just under 84 miles. We're starting to see other people now as well, which helps with the alertness and motivation to keep moving. We finally reach the turnaround near 5:30 am, I drink some soup and then we take off and start heading back. We're starting to see twilight in the horizon now, and some early risers for their Sunday morning run and it's kind of weird considering I was up at this hour yesterday. Kelly and I were running pretty quietly at this hour and just trying to get this thing done. We pass through the Willow Creek aid station at mile 86 without much going on there and continue on to the Hazel Bluff aid station where we need to get in before the 8:35 am cutoff. On our way there, we know we'll make the cutoff and I feel awesome about that. We made it to the aid station at 7:30 am, which is about a 29.25 hour pace and at this point, we just need to keep moving to the finish and it will get done, but by this time, I knew it was in the bag and I was happy with just finishing; however, Kelly told me that I'd be happier to finish in under 30 hours. we took 10 minutes at this aid station since I had an issue with chafing and while applying some Vaseline to the trouble area, the pain was so excruciating that I threw up several times. Kelly gave me some Pepto Bismol to make me feel better. Once I collected myself, we were up and out and then there were less than 10 miles to go.

By this time, I couldn't really run or walk on any sizable rock on the ground due to the blisters on my feet, so my eyes were constantly scanning the surface. If rocks were present, I'd find a way to maneuver around them with caution. If we were going up or down a hill, I'd find myself gingerly going up or down them as to not pull at my blistered skin. Again, the best surface at this point in the run was a flat road surface, which fortunately, got quite a bit of towards the end. As we were counting off the single digits left in the race, it was daylight and cyclists and runners were out n' about with their training rides and runs. Kelly was my talker when people asked what triathlon we were doing or how far the race was. So many people were congratulatory along the way and it felt awesome to know that I was going to finish this thing...FINALLY! It was starting to get warmer as the morning progressed and unfortunately, Kelly had the silly idea of not filling my hydration pack completely because it would add more weight than I should probably carry, so when I ran out of water, I had to drink off hers until we reached the next aid station. When we reach the next aid station and I give them my number, they had thought I'd dropped. Not sure what happened there, but definitely not dropping. I get my hydration pack filled with ice water for the remaining 3 miles to the finish line and we figure out that I have 1.5 hours to do 3 miles and at my current pace and condition, no problem. We just cover the miles and chug away never changing in what we've been doing for the past 20 miles.

We finally reach the levees and it's a welcome sight. When we reach the 2nd of the two levees, I have Kelly text GnP to let them know I'm less than a mile away so they can get a picture of Kelly and I crossing the finish line. As we approach the school parking lot, we don't see the finish sign as we saw earlier so for a second I thought they moved it. It's kind of an anti-climactic finish in that besides the timing folks and Geof and his uncle Steve, Kelly, and of course, me, there isn't anyone outside to cheer on the finishers. Oh well, I guess we're the only ones that truly care anyways. Nonetheless, after 4 previous attempts, I finally earned my 1st buckle in an official time of 29:23:29! Will I run another 100 miler? You bet, but first I must rest and recover and relish the victory of this one first.

Final Thoughts:
Wow, that was harder than I thought it would be. The last 20 miles was virgin territory for me, but had it dead set in my head that I would finish this race. I stayed on top of my Gu's, salt tablets, and hydration all day and night and was able to get through the heat of the day and the dead of the night to pull out a finish despite badly blistered feet. My pacing was not the greatest and that's something I need to work on for next time. I also need to work on getting out the aid stations quicker.

My crew and support at this race was awesome. Kelly watched out for me, cared for me, and got me everything I could possibly need during, and after the race. She also paced me for the last 23 miles and significantly helped me complete this race. I'd also like to thank Geof, Steve, and Gretchen for all contributing and chipping in to help Kelly crew me. You guys were awesome. I'd like to thank Paige for helping me get through my rough section during the heat of the day on Olmstead loop. I'd like to thank Rhonda and Dana for making the long trip for the short visit to cheer me on. I'd also like to thank everyone who, on Facebook, was responding to Kelly's live updates to my progress. She relayed many of your comments to me during the race and that helped keep me motivated.

A huge congratulations to Paige for getting it done, for a 3rd time!

Here were my splits:
Mile 11.93 - 8:09-8:12am (3 min) - 22 hr pace
Mile 22.74 - 10:35-10:42am (7 min) - 22 hr pace
Mile 26.68 - 11:50am (1 min) - 23.5 hr pace
Mile 29.84 - 12:50pm-1:05pm (15 min) - 25 hr pace
Mile 36.9 - 3:02pm-3:19pm (17 min) - 25 hr pace
Mile 40.5 - 4:05-4:20pm (15 min) - 25 hr pace
Mile 44 - 5:35-5:46pm (11 min) - 28 hr pace
Mile 55 - 8:29-8:40pm (11 min) - 28 hr pace
Mile 64 - 11:05-11:08pm (3 min) - 28 hr pace
Mile 67 - 12:18am out (2 min) - 28 hr pace
Mile 73 - 2:05-2:11am (6 min) - 29.75 hr pace
Mile 77 - 3:30am (1 min) - 29.5 hr pace
Mile 90 - 7:30am (10 min) - 29.25 hr pace
Mile 94.4 - 9:08am (1 min) - 29.25 hr pace

Total Aid Station Stops = 1 hr 48 min (too much time)

Here are pictures of my foot blisters I acquired during the run if you're interested. I didn't get pictures of the blisters on the balls and heel of my foot, which is probably for the best.

Leadville Trail 100 Race Report

2010-08-23T19:35:00.009-05:00

The short: I dropped at Winfield (50 miles) as I had some issues with altitude and nutrition.

I've been to Leadville 3 times in the past 3 years, no, not for the LT100, but rather for the Leadville Marathon the first 2 yrs then the Trans Rockies Run last year. For the marathons, I came out a week before and 2 days before respectively, and for Trans Rockies, a little over 1 week before our stage to run up and over hope pass, so I sort of knew how my body would react to the altitude coming into this race. This year, we flew out on the Thursday before the race and I knew that it wasn't enough time coming into it and hoped for the best. What to do when I don't have enough vacation days to come out a week or two ahead of time. I cross my fingers and make the best of it.

The GnP, the Brelly, and Deanna all flew to Leadville on Thursday morning. Kelly and Deanna were my crew and pacers for this event. We were all super excited to get there. This was a huge race and the vibe was getting my nerves on edge. Excitement was in the air and when we headed down to the pre-race and crew briefings, it all seemed so real. I was nervous to run a 100 miles through these beautiful mountains. It's one thing to toe a 100 miler without seeing what you're going to be running, but in a mountain race, you see it. You can see the mountains where you're running with the turnaround some 50 miles away. Woah!

Strategy going in:

1. No drop bags, crews only, get in/out of aid stations as quickly as possible (<2 min)
2. Eat on the go
3. Get to Twin Lakes #2 before dark
4. Finish in 28:30 (or under the 30 hr cutoff)
5. Have fun and enjoy the race

Concerns going in:

1. Altitude, but I figured I'd do okay.
2. Feet, I'm cursed with blister issues, but have improved over the years. I taped the bottoms and toes to help prevent friction from causing them on the massive ascents/descents.

After getting all my race belongings in organized, taping my feet, eating, it was time to relax and hit the sack early for a 2 am wake-up for a 4am start. Remarkably, I felt well rested when I woke up. Once we got ready, the group of us headed down to the race start. The town was buzzing with lots of people with nervous energy. The temperatures were perfectly in the low 40's. There wasn't that chill in the air like I remember from other times. This was going to be a great day! The countdown from 10 seconds and the gun goes off.

The stretch to MQ1 was a groove setter. It allowed me to settle my nerves, relax, and get into a rythym. It was pretty uneventful as we transitioned from roads to single track about midway through. When I came through the aid station, my crew was up and ready to take care of all my needs and get me out as quickly as possible. In and out I went. As I was walking out, I ate my ziplock bag of calories and had difficulty getting my iPod to play any louder than a whisper, which sucked because I had 10 miles to go until I could swap out for another iPod. Once I hit single track, I was on the climb up Sugarloaf. The switchbacks took and dumped us onto Hagerman Rd, which then proceeded to take us even further up to Sugarloaf via switchbacks. Hagerman Rd was pretty runnable if you'r gutsy, so I hiked it to the top. During my hike, Paige was right there and passed me as I took a pit stop, Sherpa John passed me, exchanged a few words, Geof was suprisingly only one switchback up and yelled down saying hello. The sun was up and the day was bright. As I continued the hike, Sherpa John passes again. I chuckle as he must have made a pit stop. I finally catch up to Paige and before we know it we're on the Powerlines section going down. I do better on the downhills and this section was fun. This section pours out to road for the next mile or so into FH1.

When I arrive to FH1, my awesome crew informs me to give them my stuff and to continue running up and around the timing mat and that they'll have my stuff ready for when I get back, which they did. I didn't stop, which was exactly what I wanted. On my way out, I high-five Paige who is right there behind me coming in. The next several miles are on uneventful road circling around to take us to Treeline. I rather be running on the rolling hills than a flat road for several miles. It's hard and I find myself power-walking and running small sections at a time to get me outta here. A couple miles up the road, Sherpa John comes passing again. I laugh, "dude, you're everywhere". Apparently, he's having some bathroom issues.

I finally get to Treeline where Kelly and Deanna are waiting to see me. I notice that Geof is there as well. He jokingly tells me he's done, but then says that he's not going to get his sub-25 hr goal, so he wants to run with his schmoopie, Paige, and that ends my run with her because as soon as those two hooked up, they were long gone. At this point, it was getting a bit warmer, but still just a beautiful day. Kelly makes note that Mike Siltman and I could be twins as we have almost matching clothing on right down to the same colors, blue jacket tied around our waist and matching shoes. I won't see my crew until TL1, so we say good-bye until then. It's at this time I start eating my food from FH1 and continue on to HM.

Before I know it, I'm approaching HM aid station, notice a white board with messages at the top. I thought that was a cool idea and noticed that SJ wrote "Get the lead out" for Mike Siltman. Come to find out, I was pretty well ahead of the cutoffs, but based on my pace chart, it said that I was on a 30-hr pace, which was inaccurate because this aid station was relocated and my pace chart didn't reflect the distance change. I was talking with Mike about this and he straightened me out indicating that it was only 7.5 miles to TL1. Well, it felt like the longest 7.5 miles, but I think I was struggling mentally at this point in the race. The climbs on the shoulder of Mt. Elbert were brutal for me, but when we started the descent, I snapped out of it and had the most fun. I finally roll into TL1 at 12:58 pm. Sherpa John was kind enough to notify my crew how far back I was at what seemed to be each of the aid stations, so they were ready when I got there. I do a sock/shoe change here as I'm starting to feel a hot spot, and also use the restroom as I'm starting to get some stomach cramps. I spend a bit too much time at TL1 and leave the aid station at about 1:20'ish. I made it to Hopeless aid station a bit after 4pm.

On the ascent, I puked several times about a mile up, passed up by many others along the trail up, many asked if I was okay, told by one to take a gel, did that, made me feel somewhat better. I couldn't find it in me to eat any solid food. Was confronted by another runner on the way down who didn't want to continue. Too steep for him and didn't like the altitude. I had thoughts of turning around myself as I sat there talking with this guy for a few minutes. Decided to continue on, slowly, very slowly, up to the hopeless AS. I thought the cutoff was 4pm for that AS (later found out it was 4:30pm). I didn't see many others behind me, but there were a couple who called it quits on the way up. Ugh, hated the feeling.

Once I got to Hopeless, I sat for a bit, ate soup, mashed potatoes, drank some powerade, topped off fluids. I decided to have my vitals checked by the medical team there. Maybe I was trying to find an excuse to quit, don't know. My vitals checked out normal. By this time, it was 4:30pm and with 1.5 hours to the cutoff at Winfield, I had little hope of making the cutoff. I really didn't want to make the 3/4 mile trip up hope pass on the small single track, but I also didn't want to just head back to TL2 with my tail between my legs, so I decided to continue on even though deep deep down, there was no way I was going to make it with all the people in front of me coming back up the backside of Hope Pass. I was disappointed that I had 2 pacers who weren't going to be able to run on this course and share my frustrations with me ;). On my way up to the top of Hope Pass, I saw Travis Lisles coming down with his pacer. He looked great and it was nice to see him doing so well. I battled getting to the Winfield with all the runners AND there pacers coming back at me, on the up and down. Many had lots of encouragement and others knew my efforts were done for the day. I knew it, so I was okay with it. I was glad to see so many familiar faces make it through the turnaround and make it on their way back up. I was concerned that I didn't see Geof and Paige on their way back up and figured they had dropped and sad, but was already thinking about all the beers were were going to consume that evening.

I finally made it down to the Winfield road and as I ran the road to Winfield had my bracelet cut on the road. Deanna, one of my pacers, came out to run the rest of the way with me. We see Geof and Paige running with there pacers. I was SO happy to see that and glad that they were on their way back, but was concerned for them making the cutoff at TL2. I figured it would take them about 5 hrs to get there, which would time them out there. Apparently, Paige turned back and Geof, as difficult as it was separating from his girl, continued on and made to TL2 in 3:25 (amazing). They left Winfield at 6pm.

Deanna mentioned that the aid station was being broken down already (Hey, thanks for waiting). A bunch of cars were on their way out, some pretty fast, kicking up dust, LOTS of dust. Some rolling down windows congratulating me (very nice). Saw Sherpa John on his way out as well saying some nice words. Shortly thereafter, Kelly (wife, crew, pacer) came up with the car to pick me up since most everything was gone from the Winfield AS (really? REALLY?? what if my crew wasn't there. I know Paige had to get a ride from one of the rescue officials when she came back down the back part of HP). Eff that, I wanted to finish at the Winfield AS, so I continued on until I crossed one of the only things left at the aid station, the timing mat, which was disconnected and just waiting for someone to come pick it up. After finishing and getting into the car, Diana Finkel came up to talk with us and just checking to see if we needed anything. I think she was caught by surprise, when I asked "Hey, are you Diana Finkel who won HR? congratulations!!!" She chuckled. She was nice and seemed very caring.

I'm hopping back up on the saddle of the horse I fell off of and doing the Rio Del Lago 100 Mile in 2 weeks on 9/11-12 in Sacramento, CA where I hope to finally earn that 100 miler buckle I've been waiting for.

Javelina Jundred 100 is this Saturday

2009-10-26T14:43:00.004-05:00

This weekend is the Javelina Jundred 100 mile endurance run. This is my 2nd attempt at a 100 mile race (I dropped at Mohican 100 last year at mile 52 with bad blisters). If I can get past any blister issues, I think I will do alright. I'll be happy if I just finish under the 30-hour cutoff.

We can be tracked here:
http://www.javelinajundred.com/webcast/live_results.html

In addition to me, other CHUGs running this race are:
Geof Dunmore
Jerret Halter
David Hill
Gary Guidi

Our Crew/Pacers/Volunteers also attending the event are:
Kelly Roe
Paige Troelstrup
Ian Stevens

GORE-TEX TransRockies Run 2009 Race Report

2009-09-01T12:22:00.026-05:00

GORE-TEX TransRockies Run 2009 Race Report
Buena Vista to Beaver Creek
August 23-28, 2009 (113.5 Miles/20,788 ft. gain)
Total Run Time: 29:56:34; Overall Division Place: 36 out of 47 (Open Mixed)
Official Website|Final Results

Our typical daily schedule:
Breakfast: 6 - 7:30 am
Running: 8/8:30 am - 5 pm
Dinner: 6 pm
Awards: 7 pm
Course Briefing: 7:30 pm
Daily Pictures/Video: 7:45 pm
Pack Bags for next day: 8 - 9 pm
Sleep: 9 pm

Stage 1 - August 23, 2009
Buena Vista to Railroad Bridge
20.4 miles/2,721 ft. gain
Finish Time: 5:13:58; Division Place: 45; Overall Stage Place: 103
Stage Profile|Stage Results|Pre-Stage Video|TRR Race Report

Day 1 of our 6-day stage race started at 10 am. I felt this was a bit late as it was already getting warm with the sun in full force and temperatures getting into the mid-80's by early afternoon. Nonetheless, there was a lot of excitement in the air from all the runners rearing to go.

The gun went off and we were off and it wasn't long before I noticed that Kelly and I were getting passed by most everyone the first half mile. Kelly and I have different running styles, so it didn’t surprise me when Kelly told me to slow down when I sped up to prevent us from getting passed at the beginning. She had told me that she needed to warm up for the first few miles and that it was going to be a long race. Wise words, indeed!

As we start way up our first set of hills we come to the realization that we're not in Chicago anymore. In fact, it doesn't even really seem like Colorado, more like Arizona, in fact. We're running in what seems like the high desert with many ups/downs. We haven't really trained for the mountain climbs and only came out the week before to acclimate, so the altitude may have been affecting us too because we were getting fatigued pretty good after our initial climbs. I still wanted to push forward, but Kelly wanted to hold back.

I should have listened better and not have pushed us so hard in the beginning because I paid for it later. The first half of Day 1 Kelly had been suffering and I had been feeling great, but as the day wore on and the hotter it got, the worse I felt. We had a role reversal and now Kelly was pulling me along the second half and the several miles on flat paved and straight road to the finish seemed like it took forever.

Stage 2 - August 24, 2009
Vicksburg to Twin Lakes
10.0 miles/3,098 ft. gain
Finish Time: 3:22:08; Division Place: 39; Overall Stage Place: 103
Stage Profile|Stage Results|Pre-Stage Video|Finish Line Video|TRR Race Report

Today brought us a tough climb up Hope Pass from Vicksburg trail head and down to Twin Lakes. We were told that we'd be climbing grades of 45% and they were right and reaching an elevation of over 12,600 ft. This stage, although, slow to reach the peak with the slowest mile taking over 50 minutes, proved to have some of the most stunning views. This climb was our first difficult climb of the week and we just kept putting one foot in front of the other to make it to the top.

Once we reached the summit, we snapped a couple of photos, then started our way down, which I thought was an exciting time. The first part was fairly narrow and technical single track to tree line where the first checkpoint was at. Kelly was stuck behind a slower guy and was unable to pass, so I had to wait for her before entering the checkpoint. Once we teamed up again, we were running downhill much of the way with another team (Nic and Jen from Idaho).

Here is a video of Andy Jones Wilkins heading down from Hope Pass (same direction we took down) at the Leadville 100 on the Saturday before. I thought it'd be cool to give you some perspective on this downhill from the top.

The section below tree line was a nice steep soft bed of dirt, pine needles, and roots. I ended up running ahead. It was so much fun to just let loose and run fast down the single track. When I think I'd reached a point where I should wait for Kelly, I'd stop to let her catch up, but then would barrel down again. There was no chance at getting lost on this trail, but it felt easier on my legs to just let loose opposed to putting on the breaks to run down slower. At the base of the mountain, we ran the remaining flat section together into Twin Lakes.

After finishing, we were shuttled into Leadville where camp was set up. I was talking up this Pizza joint to Kelly, so we walked to the restaurant, but they were closed until 3 p.m. This was 1-hour too long, so we walked down Harrison to find something else to eat. We found a diner and a couple that we met on the shuttle in from the finish (Martin and Chrissy from Boston) offered to let us sit with them to eat since service seemed a bit slow. We enjoyed our meal and discussion and would later end up seeing them on the trail quite often on future stages.

Stage 3 - August 25, 2009
Leadville to Nova Guides
24.3 miles/2,930 ft. gain
Finish Time: 5:46:35; Division Place: 37; Overall Stage Place: 92
Stage Profile|Stage Results|Behind the Scenes Video|TRR Race Report

We were told by other runners that day 3 was notoriously the difficult day of the stage race, that if we could make it through today, that we'd be okay the rest of the week. I'm not sure why, but regardless, this was a great day for us and we did awesome. We just kept moving forward at all times. On the climbs, we briskly hiked them, then when the downhills and flats came, we ran well on them.

By this time, it was apparent that of the people who generally ran our pace, we were stronger downhill runners than they. They may have gotten up the hills in a faster time, but we'd generally catch up on the downhills. This stage offered some awesome scenery as well with an array of different terrain to run on including road, fire trail, and single track. It also included 3 stream crossings, which I managed to keep my feet dry on all three.

I was feeling great the entire stage and about midway through I guess I was climbing uphill faster than Kelly would have liked me too as she was having a rough time as her quads were fried and she couldn't muster enough to keep up. She started hyperventilating when I got too far ahead so one of our friends from lunch yesterday, who happen to pass Kelly at the time, started running up the trail a bit to inform me that Kelly was having some issues, so I ran back down the hill to help. It was nothing serious, but we agreed that we'd remain in closer proximity of one another during our run from that point forward. The remaining miles, including the crossing of the Continental Divide, of this stage seemed to pass by easily and we finished strong.

Stage 4 - August 26, 2009
Nova Guides to Red Cliff
14.2 miles/3,009 ft. gain
Finish Time: 3:56:29; Division Place: 38; Overall Stage Place 92
Stage Profile|Stage Results|Pre-Stage Video|TRR Race Report

Today involved a tall climb starting a mile 2, which seemed to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r with grades at times of greater than 45%. In fact, on our way up, a 4x4 taking supplies to our first checkpoint broke down (I think the jeep's drive shaft broke). As a result, this ended up being our first (un)official aid station. Good thing because Kelly was almost out of water by this point and we had another 1.5 miles to the summit before hitting the official checkpoint. At steep grades, this was going to take us a bit to get to so it was important that we have enough fluids.

As we approached the top, again, the views were awesome any which way we looked. It was pretty cool to be able and see our campsite at the base of the mountain and realize the accomplishment of climbing to where we were currently from there. The downhills were fairly technical on the fire road down to the most eventful part of the entire stage, running in the stream as part of the trail. The water was freezing and after a short while of running in it, my feet felt numb as if I was running on nubs. We finished by running on road to the town of Red Cliff.

Upon finishing, we soaked our legs in the nearby stream, which was colder than any ice bath I've ever taken, after which, we ate lunch at the restaurant next to the finish line. Unfortunately, the restaurant wasn't ready for the crowd of runners and it took almost 2-hours to get our lunch. All was good as we didn't really have anywhere we needed to be.

Stage 5 - August 27, 2009
Red Cliff to Vail
23.4 miles/4,407 ft. gain
Finish Time: 5:55:30; Division Place: 34; Overall Stage Place: 84
Stage Profile|Stage Results|Pre-Stage Video|TRR Race Report

We shuttled from Nova Guides to Red Cliff on this cold morning and waited in the warm restaurant we ate at yesterday until just minutes before the start. Kelly reminded me that we should take it easy since she had fried quads, which means that I shouldn't run too far ahead. Of course, the truth of the matter is that I learned that if I'm either too far ahead or running right next to her that she tends to slow down, but if I'm just a little bit ahead, she keeps a little faster pace. Sort of what we call an invisible tether to keep us moving forward productively. With these head games, I try to keep Kelly moving productively by intentionally setting a certain amount of distance between us.

We started the morning by taking it easy on the instant climb. We noticed many teams initially passing us, but then later succumbing to the mountain climbs and slowing down enough for us to catch them. We were doing quite well this stage with the uphill climbs. I was especially feeling great where I was actually running some of the less grade switchbacks heading up Vail mountain. It was pretty cool to be hiking up a mountain and seeing all the ski slopes.

After we reached checkpoint two where they were having a "So you think you can dance" theme for the video this evening, which we didn't participate in, but did watch others dance, we had about a 10 mile downhill to the finish. Kelly's quads were still trashed by this time, so we needed to take it easy for awhile, but after several miles, something came over Kelly and she started running faster downhill. Maybe it was the fact that we saw so many other teams waiting for us to pass, but I'm not sure. Regardless, it was nice to run fast with her and pass all the teams we did.

In the last tenth of a mile on one of the final single track sections leading down to the town of Vail, I was moving too fast that I lost control and face-planted off the trail into the grassy section. Thankfully, I wasn't injured, just a few scratches on my arms and legs, but when Kelly came up behind me, she asked if I was okay and helped me up, we continued on since we had one more 'Open Mixed' team to pass before the finish. Unfortunately, we were able to pass them before they finished, but the competition on the final few miles was so much fun. Following the finish was an ice bath in the stream and lunch at a local restaurant.

Stage 6 - August 28, 2009
Vail to Beaver Creek
21.2 miles/4,623 ft. gain
Finish Time: 5:41:48; Division Place: 34; Overall Stage Place 89
Stage Profile|Stage Results|Finish Line Video|TRR Race Report

With a total of 92 miles under our belt at over 16,000 ft of climbing, it was quite unbelievable how well we felt at the start of this race. We were shuttled from our camp to downtown Vail to start our trek through town and immediately to switchbacks heading up mountain. We maintained pace up the switchbacks and were passed by a few teams. No worries as history showed, we'd get them on the downhills, which we did. The grades weren't any harder than prior days, but again, after more miles under our belt they seemed to take a little more effort to climb.

Once we started going downhill we know we had another set of climbs towards the end of the race, but we'd focus on that when the time comes. Just before checkpoint #2 we had a good downhill streak going and we didn't want it to end. We filled up our bottles and continued on. The next section was a steep grade on single track in the pine section, then in the midst of shoulder-high grass through a valley to the base of the mountain. Let me just tell you that I LOVED these sections. It was so much fun to run FAST down. There were so many other teams daintily heading down the trail, which they all had to move aside as I went barreling down them, again, only going so far while waiting for Kelly to catch up. We passed many teams many of which we hadn't seen all day, so I know we were making some good progress. We were headed down the last few miles in a train with two other teams that made it even more fun.

Once we hit checkpoint #3, we had another big climb from Avon up a side of a mountain before heading down Beaver Creek. This climb was deceptively brutal. We were heading uphill, then level out a bit, then had to additionally climb up some steep switchbacks before descending down some switchbacks into Beaver Creek; however, on the descent we had been told there were black bears in the area and they were in the trees where the switchbacks led us into. At this point, our friends Martin and Chrissy stop dead in their tracks as a 2-3 yr. old black bear comes walking across the open field. They weren't sure what to do so they just stood still and waited it out. In the meantime, other teams are coming into view above us and it seems that everyone decided to walk down the middle of the hill avoiding all switchbacks in efforts to make it safely down to the finish. Kelly and I continued down the switch backs as we were notified by a woman living in one of the houses on the hill that the two other bears were further up the hill. As we approached the final switchback, we were told by those in front of us that there were two bears at the end of the road and to just take the final steep hill to get to the finish. What an eventful finish. Anyway, this is what we did and the grassy section was pretty steep and slippery and difficult to stay upright as we went down it. Once we reached the bottom of this hill, we ran in across the bridge and through the finish chute.

What a wonderful overall experience that Kelly and I had with each other on this epic journey covering 113.5 miles with 20,788 ft. of elevation gain in 6-days. There's no other person that I would have wanted to run this event with. I'm so proud of her and her abilities to complete this race as it was a personal best in so many areas (distance, elevation gains, altitude, etc.)

You can read Kelly's Report Here

Our photo slide show:

Other Blog Reports:
Caitlin Smith
Dean Karnazes
Devon Crosby-Helms
Leor Pantilat
Martin Bures and Chrissy Durden
Message from Mzungo
Running in the Springs
Smack from the Back

TransRockies live tracking

2009-08-22T11:02:00.003-05:00

Kelly and I are en route from my sister's house in Monument, Co where we spent the week to Denver airport where we will take the shuttle to Buena Vista, so this will be short as I'm writing this from my phone.

The race starts tomorrow and we will be attempting to use my SPOT GPS tracker for our family and friends to keep track of us until next Saturday when we cross the finish line of this 113 mile journey.

track us live

Visit Kelly's blog post for more info on each stage and additional information about the race.

CHUG Marengo Ridge Trip

2009-08-10T09:35:00.005-05:00

This past weekend was the CHUGs ("Chicago Ultrarunners") first camping/night running trip together and it was held the at Marengo Ridge ("the ridge") state park in Marengo, IL. Props go out to Sarah Jurgaitis and Ben Willis for planning this awesome event for us as they did an outstanding job. They really took the idea from conception to completion. They even mapped the route to the park with signs on telephone poles directing the way, as well as, marking the 4+ mile single/double track trails with glowsticks and aluminum foil arrows so no one got lost during the run. All this for $2 a head and pot luck food/beverage item to the group.

Kelly and I (and our dogs, Britton and Mia) arrived in the 3 o'clock hour and were the 1st ones there besides Sarah and Ben, who already had their tent set up, but weren't physically present as they were running some last minute errands. The lot they chose for us was huge, so there was plenty of space to pick from to pitch our tent. We also brought a gazebo style tent with bug netting that we also set up. Once we finished with our setup, others started trickling in. All-in-all we had 13 runners join in on the fun.

By the time we finished setting up our tents, we were drenched in sweat as the temperatures were well into the 90's and the humidity was about 75%; however, as the evening progressed, the temperatures decreased into the mid 70's and the humidity increased to about 95%. This made for a fun soakfest for everyone. After eating dinner, which was included hamburgers, corn-on-the-cob, fruit, chips, and beer, we started to gear up and head out once it got dark.

Kelly and I took Britton and Mia for a run with the group on this first loop. We each have a waist belt and leash system designed for running with dogs, so it enabled us to be hands free. It was the first time I used it and it worked great. The only problem was that Britton was pulling me to hard as she was anxious to get going. She has no concept of pace as she just wants to sprint, so I really didn't have to try and run that hard to get moving. I tugged at the leash a few times to slow her down before she finally got the idea that we were going on a longer run.

On this first loop, my focus was on the dogs to make sure that they weren't being over-exerted or overheating. We stopped several times to rehydrate them and by the 2 mile mark, Britton let me take the lead as she ran behind me the rest of the way. The dogs were happy campers and loved being out with nature running on the double and single track trails, as were Kelly and I. I stayed behind and let Kelly go out on loop 2 sans dog. Me and the dogs went into the car with the air conditioning on full blast to cool down. I let the dogs stay in the car for about 15 minutes, while I cooled down for about 5 minutes before socializing with others who remained behind.

When Kelly got back, I was really hesitant to run a 2nd loop. I think camping set in and I was having fun drinking some beer. Anyway, push came to shove and I was gearing up for my 2nd loop. This loop was really enjoyable as I was able to just run and not focus on making sure the dogs were okay. When we arrived back at camp, I decided to end my running and focus on the beer drinking. Tony and Geof headed back out on their last loop and got back to camp at about 2:30 am. We were still at it, but people started bailing and going to sleep at about 2:45-3:00 am.

The dogs had never slept outdoors before, so this was going to be interesting. I think they were tired because they didn't make a peep until the sun was up and heard Debbie's dog barking at some of the early risers. Once the dogs were barking, we were up. So, a nice 4'ish hours of sleep and we were up packing up our tents and getting our car loaded up before heading to breakfast at Cafe 20.

Once we figured out the table configuration to fit our party, conversation flowed naturally and food was ordered. I was really looking forward to the cheesy potato casserole that Kelly and I had the last time we ate there, but were the last to receive our meals and were informed that they ran out :-(. Anyway, it didn't deter from the excellent time we had with everyone. It's good to be a CHUG!

I can't wait for the next camping/night running trip at Kettle Moraine state park in September.

Other blog posts:
Geof Dunmore
Paige Troelstrup

Enhanced Pace Calculator Widget and Skin Generator

2009-08-06T14:34:00.004-05:00

For those of you who have visited my pace calculator posting, I'm informing you that I have updated it to include some default features. I've also updated the skin generator to support the default values as well. Those enhancements are listed below:

DefaultDistanceType=short (short/long)
DefaultDistance=0 (Decimal value to represent distance (in miles) to display)
DefaultDays=0 (Integer value to represent days to display)
DefaultHours=0 (Integer value to represent hours to display)
DefaultMinutes=0 (Integer value to represent minutes to display)
DefaultSeconds=0 (Integer value to represent seconds to display)

Visit the original Pace Calculator post

Here is an example of the pace calculator that has a default settings applied, which are 50 miles for 10 hrs and 30 minutes.

If you end up using my pace calculator on your website, please let me know. It's nice to hear when it's actually being used somewhere. Thanks

Spirit of the Marathon on Hulu.com

2009-08-04T09:15:00.003-05:00

If you have not seen the "Spirit of the Marathon", a documentary movie about marathon runners of all levels, from the first-timer to the elite level, you can do so by visiting the following link and watch it online, for FREE. The marathon in the documentary is the 2005 Chicago Marathon.

Click here to learn more information about the movie

Spirit of the Marathon Movie on Hulu.com

Sunburn Six in the Stix Fat Ass Report

2009-08-03T10:20:00.012-05:00

There aren't many ultramarathons in the Chicago metropolitan area. We only have the Chicago Lakefront 50K in the Spring and the 50/50 in the Fall. They are both well respected and great races, but these are the only ones we have. I feel that this needs to change.

For the past couple years, I thought that we should have more ultramarathons here in Chicago. We have so many ultra runners in the area that it just makes sense to establish some additional ultra events. As a start, I thought that it might be interesting to organize a fat ass (no fee, no frills, self-supported, group run) timed event on trail and I had just the spot for such an event. I posted the idea to my fellow CHUGs and received an overwhelming number of positive responses where I next posted some optional dates to consider and the majority choosing August 1st.

Once the date was set, it was time to get moving on a website, so I created a blog website and with Chris Migotsky's permission used his Buffalo Trace 7-Day Fat Ass website as an example to get me started. I had fun setting up the website and wanted to treat this to a higher standard and so I included virtual tours, online registration, race day webcasting, twitter updates, photo uploads, faqs, online carpool arrangements, and more.

Once the website was built, traffic to the site increased and runners decided to sign-up online. I submitted the event to ultrarunning.com where it was posted to their Midwest Calendar and in their magazine. It wasn't until this time that I needed to enter in a maximum capacity for the event, so I gave it a little thought and set it to 50 runners to keep it small as I didn't really know what to expect from this first event and if the park rangers would be on our case. We pretty quickly ramped up the number of participants and by mid July we had hit our cap of 50 runners, then we had a few drops/adds and on the day of the event had 49 signed up where 35 of those showed.

One of the higher tech features I wanted to include in this year's fat ass event was a webcast. I always enjoyed watching the webcasts at other events, especially ones with the video, not just the live action happening via the online results. I know Burning River 100 mile event has a live video webcast at there event, which I watched last year, but it wasn't until I was following Adrian Belitu at Badwater this year did I get the idea to have a webcast of our own as the Badwater website used a live streaming website that was free, so I decided to check it out and test how it worked. Anyways, after some successful tests, I decided to make it a go come August 1st.

Another higher tech feature I wanted to incorporate was Twitter. Again, I saw how the Badwater website embedded the twitter feeds into their existing web page and liked the idea, so I incorporated the same idea into the Sunburn Six website. I used the twitter updates as daily thoughts and tips/reminders for the runners.

Leading up to the event I have to admit that I was hoping for a scorcher. With an event name having "Sunburn" in it, and on August 1st, one would expect to be running in some hot weather. Most all the days leading up to the event had been in fact, sunny and hot. Well, a couple days before the event, it looked like we weren't going to get much sun after all. Instead, there was a higher percentage of rain to occur, overcasts, and cooler temperatures in the forecast.

The night before the event, Kelly and I loaded the car with the communal supplies for the event (ice coolers, water cooler, water bucket with sponges, and extra toilet paper). It's nice to have all that packed the night before so in the morning, it's get-in-and-go. The morning of, we had a nice short drive to the park. We commented on how unseasonably pleasant the weather was this morning, with temperatures maybe in the low 70's, but sunny and partly cloudy.

Upon our arrival at about 6:45 am there were a handful of runners already getting ready and more arrived all the way up to the start time of 7:30 am. Once I met all the initial runners, I started setting up in the pavilion, getting the computer set up and the runner tracking log posted. That went pretty quick and I was able to chit-chat with several others prior to the start. We had a quick set of announcements before the run then started at 7:35 am. I gave the "Let's Go!" and most everyone was off on their 2.28 mile loop.

The pack headed out with Matt Condron and Craig Redfearn leading the way. I delayed my run to return to the pavilion and provide some instructions to Tony Cesario's son, Nick, who graciously volunteered to help out with the webcast. I needed to show him how to use my computer to make sure the webcast remained live. I think Nick enjoyed having that responsibility and I believe it was a success because it did stay on the entire time. I don't think we dropped a connection at all, which is always nice. I wish the camera was closer to the trail, but given the chance of rain, I wasn't going to risk having my computer out in the rain, so we kept it in the pavilion, but viewing the trail from afar.

Once the main pack finished the first loop, I headed out to start my run and took small breaks between each lap and not pushing it too hard. Throughout the day I had the privilege of running alongside and talking with Dennis Duria, Adrian Belitu, Craig Redfearn, Matt Condron, Jim Simmons, Tony Cesario, Geof Dunmore, Paige Troelstrup, Jim Harman, and of course Kelly Roe, but had many repeated hellos and head nods to other runners.

On one of the loops I went the opposite direction than the rest of the runners and came up on Geof and Paige giving some schmoopie smacks in the middle of the trail. How cute! Once I interrupted that little scene, Paige and I continued the other direction chattin' away about VT100 and her job/school plans. It was on this lap that Connie Karras conjured up a Lima Bean ditty for Paige to repeat. Priceless!

It was fun experiencing the run with fellow CHUGs, as well as, some of the new people I have never met before. I hope everyone enjoyed this event and would consider doing it again and maybe some other events that the CHUGs put on in the years to come.

I'd like to congratulate Matthew Condron for his excellent performance of running 43.82 miles in the 6-hours. He was our leader the entire day.

I'd also like to congratulate Kelly Roe and Sarah Jurgaitis for both completing their first ultramarathon right here at this event with Kelly running 27.08 miles and Sarah running 34.2 miles.

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone for making this event possible. Without you, there would be no event. I'd also like to thank those additional people that helped keep track of runners laps, update the online results periodically, and helped me clean up after the run.

Please visit the website for official results and photos. I have also created a web page that link to other runner reports.

Photo Slide Show by Kelly Roe (more photos on event website:

Peak Training Completed, Blister Free, and Lost Weight!

2009-08-03T09:27:00.006-05:00

This past week marked the peak of Kelly and my training for the 6-day, 113 mile TransRockies Run that we have coming up on August 23rd. We capped out this week with 72+ miles, which is a weekly mileage PR for Kelly and for me, well, I haven't done this kind of mileage since training for the Leadville Marathon back in June, 2007, so it's been awhile. At that time, I remember it being difficult to get those miles in, but now, didn't think it was as hard as I thought it was going to be.

I was pleasantly surprised how well the four runs I had went this week after being lazy to get going with my first 4 mile run that I was supposed to do on Monday and a 8 mile run on Tuesday. I combined the Monday and Tuesday runs for a 12 mile on Tuesday night after work and it was a pretty good pace based on my current training lately.

The weekend runs were designed to be run long and slow since time-on-feet is key when running these longer distances. I took the day off on Friday to get what was supposed to be my 18 mile run, but ended up running a few extra. During this run, I was thinking about the next day's run at the Sunburn Six event where I wanted to get 25-30 miles, which would put me in the 80+ miles for the week. After my run, I took an ice bath, which worked wonders because the next morning, I felt refreshed as if I hadn't run the number of miles I did.

Saturday morning, we were up early, had the car packed from the night before, and headed on over to the Sunburn Six in the Stix 6-Hour Fat Ass that I organized. I wanted to get 25-30 miles, but as the morning progressed, I enjoyed taking it easy, running and walking with many others at the Sunburn Six. I didn't get the 25+ miles I wanted to get, but I was okay with that. I certainly didn't want to overdue it. I ended the day with 20.52 miles, which is 9 laps around the 2.28 mile loop we ran.

Kelly and I slept in (sort of) on Sunday and had a relaxing morning, but we needed to get out and finish up with the week's peak mileage, so we headed back out to the Sunburn Six trail and wrapped up 16 miles. We had a time constraint, so we headed back home, then I had a work-related dinner meeting, but when I returned home, finished up with a 2.6 mile treadmill run at 10:30pm.

The peak mileage week is in the books and what is also amazing is that I didn't get blisters during this past week's run. With all the miles that I put in, I would suspect that I might get a blister or two, but my Drymax socks pulled through and kept me free of them.

In addition to being blister free, my weight has dropped considerably. I'm down 12 lbs as of a few weeks ago and it's obviously noticeable because people asked me if I did lose weight. I notice a difference as my pants are fitting a little looser and I don't feel like I'm about to explode out of my skin. The great thing about this is that I haven't changed anything except for my increased mileage.

Training Miles:
Tuesday - 12 Miles (2 hours)
Friday - 21 Miles (5 hours)
Saturday - 20.52 Miles (4.5 hours)
Sunday - 18.6 Miles (3.5 hours)

Total Miles - 72+ Miles (15 hours)

Sunburn Six in the Stix 6-Hour Fat Ass

2009-07-28T10:32:00.002-05:00

This Saturday at 7:30 a.m. marks the start of the inaugural Sunburn Six in the Stix 6-Hour event that is of a "Fat Ass" in nature meaning that it's not an "official" race with race fees, registration, waivers, aid stations, etc. Essentially, it's a group run of 50 strong that plan on running for 6 hours around a 2.28 mile gently rolling crushed limestone trail. The event has been capped out on the number of participants it allows and I'm pumped about it.

This fat ass event might not be like your typical fat ass you might expect to see. We will be doing our best to supply in-progress online results, twitter updates, live streaming video, and photo uploads during the day. Features that I find fun and exciting for an event. Runners will be on the honor system and responsible for tracking their laps, but we may have some help of some lap counters during the event. Thank you ahead of time for those that might be helping with that. As the event is underway, I will be updating the results online. I will do what I can when I can.

I've been updating the website regularly over the past couple weeks, so if you have not been to the website lately, please do so before Saturday approaches us. As of now, it looks like it's going to be a nice day with temperatures cooler than usual for this time of year.

I'd be interested to learn from those who participated and from those who might want to participate next year as to whether we should keep this as a fat ass format or attempt to make this an official race. Keep in mind that we can change the date to another date to accommodate other race schedules too. For instance, I'd prefer not to bump the event up next to the Howl at the Moon 8 Hr, which is the following weekend. Maybe something earlier. I'm just saying.

If you would like to follow our event, please visit the website. We'll be out on the Sunburn Six (S6) trail from 7:30 - 1:30 pm Chicago time. I look forward to seeing everyone who is attending out on the trail.

Drymax to the Rescue

2009-07-28T09:32:00.005-05:00

Since I started running in 2005, it's been an uphill battle between me and blistered feet. I was one to get blisters from running a 5K and when I increased my mileage training for and running ultras, I would just get more severe blisters.

I have tried many different preventative treatments such as tape, lubricants, shoes, and the list goes on. After the dropping from the Mohican 100 Mile race due to severe blistering, I have been using lambs wool and toe spacers with the Wright Socks I have been wearing, but after receiving my first pair of Drymax sports socks for Christmas, then getting my multi-sock shipment from Drymax I have been able to eliminate the lambs wool component from my footwear altogether. I still use the foam toe spacers just because, genetically, a couple of my toes rub together regardless. The Drymax sports socks have really been able to keep my foot dry and reduce the friction so I have not been getting the blisters I used to. I highly recommend anyone with blister issues to give Drymax socks a shot. What have you got to lose?

For photos of what my feet USED to look like, click on the links below (Only view if you're not grossed out by viewing blisters; otherwise, just take my word for it).

My blistered feet from 2008 Miwok 100K

My blistered feet from 2008 Mohican 100 Mile

My blistered feet from 2008 BLS F/X 24-Hour

You can read more about Drymax on the Drymax Sports blog

Official Artist of Chicago Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

2009-07-23T16:43:00.012-05:00

Nell is a very talented artist and wife of a fellow teammate, Ken Posmer, on my Madison-to-Chicago 200 mile relay team this year. Nell was given the opportunity to be the official artist for the Chicago Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. In addition, she received permission from Sara and Ryan Hall to do a painting of Ryan Hall which she is working on now. I heard it's going to be a beautiful piece and can't wait to see it myself. I love the paintings she did and appreciate this opportunity to share one of her pieces with you.

The "official" Chicago Rock 'n' Roll artwork:

One of the other options for the event:

The following write-up was provided to me by her husband Ken Posmer.

In a city with so much art and so many runners, it makes perfect sense that our first Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago Official Artist will also be participating in the race.

The Artist Nilmini Samaratunge-Posmer, also known as Nell, is from Kandy, Sri Lanka. She came to the United States in 1997 and with the help of her closest friends learned the language, worked multiple jobs to get through college and found painting as a source of comfort and peace in difficult times.

With only slight guidance from her mother at an early age, Nilmini is a self-taught artist. In her final semester at Northeastern Illinois University, Nilmini took one course with the renowned professor and artist Adam Belt. There it became apparent that Nilminis’ works were something special.

Whether painting an abstract, still life, or portrait, her paintings come to life. The observer becomes one with the painting because of the spirit that radiates from the piece itself. Nilmini has the gift of creating a painting starting in 2D space that she transforms into a 3D universe. In essence her paintings live and breathe rather than hang on a wall.

How does she do it?

Athletes are sometimes measured by their hand-eye coordination. Nilmini’s hand-eye coordination, as applied to her painting, goes much deeper. You might say she has a hand-eye-feeling or spirit coordination.

Unlike other artists, Nilmini does not do any sketching prior to painting. She is one with her brush. Nilmini’s explanation of her gift is that her hand simply traces what her eye sees. But her gift goes deeper because, not only does she see the piece but she feels it and is able to capture that feeling through her brush stroke techniques and her use of color, perspective, and lighting.

Nell the runner

In the Spring of 2005, Nell met her current husband who happened to be a runner, and on Thanksgiving day Nell participated with him in a local Turkey Trot. On a very cold day with no training, Nell completed the 5K in a respectable time of 28 minutes. It was easy to see that Nell had some running ability, but what she liked more than the competition was the social aspect of running and the overall excitement of the race.

She first mixed her talents of art and running at the Quad Cities Marathon Relay. Not only did she anchor her team to a 2nd place finish, but she also designed the shirts for the team. In January of 2007, Nell was ready to take the next step with running and signed up for her 1st half marathon, P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Half Marathon. Nell ran a 1:50:54, which placed her in the top 5 % of the women!

After having her first child in 2008 her racing has had a shorter training cycle. However, for Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago, Nell is determined to not only paint a masterpiece that reflects running, music and all that the city has to offer, but to also get in a full training cycle to help her reach her goal finish time of 1:45. Make sure you stop by to meet Nell, view her artwork and wish her luck as she races you to the finish as the first official artist in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Series to run as a participant!

What are your thoughts? Leave your comments and if you're interested in obtaining Nell's services, let her know.

Javelina Jundred CHUG Fest

2009-07-17T20:15:00.007-05:00

Last year after I DNF'ed at Mohican 100 Mile, I wanted to redeem myself by attempting another 100 miler, so I decided to try again at the Javelina Jundred 100 Miler in Fountain Hills, AZ but I got injured a couple weeks before race day at the Chicago Lakefront 50 Mile, so Kelly and I just went out to volunteer instead. We had a blast helping out with the race even though I would have much rather run it. Many runners wore costumes, many did not, it wasn't a requirement, but many had fun with it. Well, this year, I'm returning, but not alone.

Along with my pacer/crew extraordinaire, Kelly Roe, we have some additional fellow Chicago Ultrarunners also joining in on the fun, which I'm very excited about. There's nothing like running in a race with other people you know and considering this race is out of state, it's easy to get lonely out on the course. I look forward to the support we'll all provide for one another as we take on this desert journey. So, let's meet the players.

Me - I'm going for my first 100 mile completion and I'm intending on wearing my Captain Six-Pack costume, but of course, if it gets too hot or bothersome, I will change out of it.

Kelly Roe - What can I say, the best crew/pacer I can imagine having. She's got my back and does a wonderful job making sure that I have everything I need. She is intending on wearing her Refreshinator costume, which matches my costume.

Geof Dunmore - This guy is all smiles, all the time, it's infectious and he's a super nice guy and very humble and supportive person. Did I mention that he's pretty fast too. He did great at KM100 just last month for his first 100 miler. I think he'll do very well at JJ100 this year.

Paige Troelstrup - Or as we like to call her, Crash. She has such a fun persona who enjoys laughing...a lot and of course, she's a hoot to hang around with. As I write this, she is probably hittin' the sack to get rest for her first 100 miler tomorrow at the Vermont 100. Oh yeah, and her bf is Geof and she will be crewing and pacing him at JJ100 (as he is doing at VT100 with her this weekend -- Good luck Crash!).

David Hill - Or who may be better known as the Chicago Dog Runner. That's right, he makes a living running with peoples dogs. How great is that? He's running this event as his first 100 miler to raise money for a local rescue shelter.

Jim O'Brien - Or as we like to call Atacama Jim. This guy was the only 100 mile finisher of our Beer Run 100 Mile Fat Ass event last month, which btw, was his first 100 miler and he finished it in 23:51 with an approximate 10 minute breaks at each of the 20 crew stops along the way. He's a stand up guy who likes to know how other people are doing at mile 95. A real class act. I'm REAL curious to see how Jim fairs at this event as his first "official" 100 miler.

Jerret Halter - Another 100 mile virgin who runs on nothing but the bike paths of the Chicago Lakefront has decided to join in on the Jalloween craziness. With only a single 50 mile race under his belt, Jerret decided it was time to raise the bar and go all out. This will be a true test of his, as all of ours, abilities.

There you have it, the JJ100 CHUG team as it sits right now. Anyone else want to go?

July Update

2009-07-16T13:44:00.015-05:00

It's been awhile since I last posted an update, so I figured I'd give an update on what I've been up to.

I ran the Bastille Day 5K here in Chicago on July 9th in 23:35. Not a bad time considering I haven't run a 5k race since this time last year and no speed training over the past year. This race also marked the anniversary of my 4th year running. After doing a little math on my race statistics over my running lifetime, I found that I have raced 535 miles over the last 55 events ranging from a 5K to 100 Miles, which is an average of almost 17 miles per event over the course of the 4 years; however, looking a bit further from the past 1.5 years, since the beginning of 2008, my total event mileage has been 431 miles averaging almost 31 miles per event of the 23 events completed since then. This doesn't mean much other than I've stepped it up a bit from a few years ago.

I've have become a Brooks ID ("Inspires Daily") member. I love Brooks products and am happy to promote their products for them as their products do me well, especially the shoes. I love the Brooks Glycerin for road shoes and the Brooks Cascadia for trail shoes. I wear the Infiniti Notch shorts and like the compression liner to reduce chafing.

I've just been accepted as a member of the DrymaxSports team. I'm very happy with this. What can I say about their socks other than I just recently started wearing them socks and been having great success with them. I don't blister up nearly as much as I used to. It's unbelievable how dry these socks keep the feet even in wet conditions. I look forward to testing out different types of Drymax socks in different conditions to see how my feet hold up in the worst of conditions.

The 6-hour fun run for August 1st ("Sunburn Six in the Stix") I'm organizing capped out at 50 runners just last week, so I had to disable the sign-up form so the run didn't get too out of control. I'm just happy about the excitement everyone is for this fun run. We have people from 5 (IL, IN, WI, GA, NC) states participating.

On the CHUG ("Chicago Ultrarunners") scene, it's pretty active as many things are going on (we currently have approx. 125 members now):
1. Performance t-shirts are being designed and ordered, as well as other products, which currently are hats and coffee mugs. We're getting our CHUG club shirts from Atayne with our new custom logo.
2. Social gatherings amongst members. We've had several and are planning many more through September already.
3. Group runs are being planned including a couple camping/night runs at Marengo Ridge and Kettle Moraine state parks
4. Pushing for a group of CHUG members to join me at my Javelina Jundred 100-miler on Halloween. Other than myself and Kelly, I've got commitments from Geof Dunmore (run), Paige Troelstrup (crew/pace Geof) and Chicago's dog runner David Hill (run). I have my fingers crossed that Jim O'Brien (run) will also join in on the fun. It will be nice to have some additional support out there on my second 100 miler attempt.

I'm training (for the most part) with Kelly for the TransRockies 6-day 113-Mile stage race in Colorado. My training could be better as I've seemed to lose motivation to do the mid-week runs and only focus on the 3 weekend long runs. This weekend our mileage consists of a 14, 16, and 18 miler. We're in the process of finalizing our travel arrangements, insurance, etc. for the 2-week trip we're taking out there next month.

I'm assisting with the organization of an inaugural ultra event in Kenosha, WI for MargaretAnn's Place, a nonprofit that helps grieving children and their family members. We are in the early stages of the event, but we're shooting for a mid November event date. Stay tuned for more information.

Beer Run 100 Mile Fun Run Report

2009-06-23T12:11:00.015-05:00

A little different format for this report since it's a run that no one is really familiar with. In this case, I basically answer some questions that some might have regarding this fun run event, but before I do the question/answer format, I just want to say that our CHUG runners rock! We have only known each other for a little while, but it seems like we have known each other for a long time. Our personalities just click and when that happens, it's just an awesome fun time to hang out, so I want to thank each and every person that made this event such a fun adventure. I truly appreciated it.

What's this ultra beer run I hear about?
You may have heard about pub crawls, or even organized runs from bar to bar, but have you ever heard of a 100 mile beer run? Well, now you have. The Chicago Ultrarunning group (CHUGs) organized a Chicago to Milwaukee 100 Mile Beer Run that started at Goose Island Brewery in downtown Chicago and ended at the Water Street Brewery in downtown Milwaukee.

How did this idea get started?
Adrian Belitu and Jim O'Brien conceived the idea as a celebration to Adrian's birthday on June 19 and a way for Adrian to heat train for Badwater. Jim is helping to crew Adrian at Badwater, so he wanted to do this run too. The idea was released to the general CHUG forum to see if anyone was interested. It's safe to say that it was an immediate hit and was pretty well organized within a week.

Why did you wear costumes?
Sometimes I ask the same question, but really, why not? It wasn't mandatory, but most did to have fun with it; however, it was completely optional. The fact is that we ran with costumes for the first 20 miles, then ran with our regular running clothes until the last 5 miles, which then we changed back to our costumes. No one likes sitting around in wet costumes for 24 hours.

How was the course designed?
It was convenient that the Madison-to-Chicago 200 Mile Relay event was the week before this beer run so much of the route from Milwaukee to Chicago could be reversed for the most part. I took responsibility for creating the route, so I back tracked from Goose Island Brewery using MapMyRun.com and re-traced much of the MC200 route bypassing the transitional areas of the MC200. Once I could no longer use the MC200 route, I started finding a route that would take us closer to Lake Michigan and follow the bike paths near the city and into downtown Milwaukee. Another important part of designing the route was to add our crew "tailgate" stops every 5 or so miles so that runners could re-supply with aid. We created simple detailed runner directions to follow so they would not get lost in the 100 mile journey.

Why did you start at night?
The beer run was to start at 8pm on Friday night (we ended up running at 8:45pm), but people were arriving at Goose Island Brewery at about 7pm to have a drink, get a bite to eat, and see us off. Btw, a huge thanks to Torey for baking the birthday cake for Adrian, Goef, and Kelly's birthdays. Also, thanks to everyone who came out to see us off (Ian, Vishal, Adrian, Simone, and Chris).

We started at night because it was more fitting to drink a beer after work, run through the night and next day and end at a bar when the bars were open the next day. Yes, we all worked all day on Friday, then started on this 100 mile journey through the next night with little sleep.

Was this a relay?
No, this was not a relay. It was a "run when you want" type run, but the focus was to have everyone run together with no runner left behind, so if we had slower paced runners, then we'd slow down a bit, but in reality, Jim O'Brien and Tony Cesario planned on running the entire 100 miles, so we were cruising along at roughly a 12:00 - 13:00 min/mile pace the entire way. No one ran faster than this. An easy enough pace for any trained runner. We did finish the entire distance in just under 24 hours with a time of 23:51!

Did you get any sleep?
Not really, well, some got more than others, but as for myself. I snoozed for maybe 15 minutes in the 42 hours that I was awake.

Who participated in this year's beer run?
The following runners below are listed in the order of their mileage:
1. Jim O'Brien (Run DMC) - 100 miles
2. Tony Cesario - 70 miles
3. Torey Jones (German Beer Girl) - 45 miles
4. Paige Troelstrup (Beer Cadet) - 35 miles
5. Debbie Smith-Andersen (Tutu) - 32 miles
6. Brian Gaines (Captain 6-pack) - 25 miles
7. Gary Guidi (Pimp Master G) - 24 miles
8. Kelly Roe (Refreshinator) - 20 miles
9. Geof Dunmore - 19 miles

*Adrian Belitu unfortanately had an Achilles injury that flared up at Hawthorne Half Day the previous week so he sat this one out to heal for Badwater next month.

How can I learn more about this event?
Check the website for more details from the Chicago Ultrarunners. We also have a Facebook group you can join as well.

Are there photos from the event?
Of course, many of them actually. They can be viewed on the photo page of the Beer Run's official website.

Are there results from this event?
If you know me, I like to provide real-time results on-the-go, so yes, there are final results of each of our splits between each crew "tailgate" stop as well as a runner breakdown to the segments each person ran. That spreadsheet can be found here.

Are there any improvements that were discussed to make the next one better?
As awesome of a time we all had with the bonding we did, the join effort of crewing everyone along the way, the smoothness of all supported crew stops, no hiccups during the entire fun run, we did discuss some improvements that would benefit future fun runs. They're listed below:

1. We discussed maybe having this event more than once per year
2. We discussed maybe even running this route from Milwaukee to Chicago
3. We discussed spacing out the crew "tailgate" stops to give crew more sleeping potential
4. We discussed potentially obtaining sponsors
5. We discussed potential travel arrangement enhancements

Here are some of the photos that are also on the Beer Run website.
Adrian's Photos:

Brian and Kelly's Photos:

Crash's Photos:

Torey's Photos:

Gary's Photos:

Sharing of Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out the photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www2.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=597231245775434517/l=2005562014/g=88801031/redirectURL=share/otsi=SALBBL/AlbumID=1283678014/a=88801031_89474638/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=24%20photos/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Geof's Photos:

Sharing of Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out the photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www2.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=710231245816289490/l=2017916014/g=88801031/redirectURL=share/otsi=SALBBL/AlbumID=1265800014/a=88801031_119413751/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=78%20photos/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

2009 Ice Age Trail 50 Mile Race Report

2009-05-11T17:29:00.015-05:00

Race Website

Race Results

Pre-race grub

A bunch of us from the Chicago Ultrarunners group arranged to have dinner at Sperino's restaurant in Elkhorn, WI the night before. There were eight of us from the group that attended along with some of parents considering it was Mother's Day weekend. Geoff, Torey, and Vishal all had their parents attend. Discussions were good and it was nice for the entire group to get together for a gathering such as this. Thanks Torey for organizing it. I enjoyed listening to David Hill talk about how he runs with dogs for a living (check out www.chicagodogrunner.com). I also enjoyed talking with Torey and her parents as they were in town for Torey's college graduation and to watch her run her first 50 miler. I unfortunately was unable to talk with everyone given how we were spread out. After dinner, we snapped a few photos before parting our separate ways.

Dinner at Sperino's

Photo ops and well-wishes

The next morning, we awoke to raintaps on the hotel room window. Greeeat! It was 4:15 AM and hopefully it would stop before the race started in a couple hours. Fast forward to 5:30 AM, we arrived at the start/finish area and I went to pick up my race packet. Made last minute preparations in the car before heading out to meet others. It was still raining, but not that hard; It seemed that it was going to let up, but it didn't until an hour or so into the race. It was cold just standing around waiting for the race to start. After some pre-race photos, I made my way to the starting area for pre-race announcements, the national anthem, and some brief chats with Mary Gorski in the start corral. The horn blows and we're off into the cold rainy trails.

Dominic, Geoff, Kelly, Me, and Torey

Warm up

I find myself running with Dennis Duria, Torey Jones, and Geoff Dunmore at the start of the race for the next several miles. Conversations are good and seems like an easy "too fast of a" pace at this stage of the race. I know that it's fast for me; I voice this, but of course, I don't listen to myself. Geoff waits until the Tamarack AS (3.9 mi) to move ahead a faster pace. Torey, Dennis, and I continue together until we finish the Nordic loop together in 1:36, which was about 20 minutes faster than I was supposed to arrive. Kelly just made it to the S/F at this time, so I was lucky. She called out to me, I dropped my handheld and picked up my hydration pack and moved on. A quick in/out, nobody's hurt AS stop, just how I need to do it.

Zone running

I think that Torey and Dennis made a bit longer pit stop than I because I didn't see them as I continued on, which at this point, I really started to focus more and keep a steady pace going. The next couple AS come up (Bluff and Duffin Rds) and I skip them as planned. I don't want to waste too much at aid stations just because they're there. Get in and out as fast as possible, especially considering my goal time of 10:45 is aggressive for me. The run en route to Hwy 12 was pretty awesome. I loved the pine forest section that it took us through. The scents were awesome! I was still running aggressively at this point and not executing the plan I set for myself. I approached Hwy 12 30 minutes ahead of schedule and on about a 9hr 45min finish time pace. By this time, the lead runner, Zach Gingrich, just past me the other direction (his Mile 26). It was nice to see Ian Stevens, who was volunteering and recording all the runner's times at this particular AS. This was also the AS that Kelly met me. Again, in/out and move on.

Me coming into Hwy 12 aid station (Mile 17.4)

The drain

The next section is the hardest terrain to navigate since it's rooted, rocky, and hilly single track with runners going both directions. The last time I ran this section was with Tom Riley at the KM100 race in 2007 when I paced him in the dark from Rice Lake to the finish. Btw, it looks completely different at night. This section was really the first place in the course to see where you really placed in the pack. Just as I enter into this section, Wynn Davis passes by in 2nd place and the guy behind me says "Makes ya feel slow, huh?". Yep, it surely does. I was getting tired and this section was draining me; however, it was nice to finally see familiar faces and get a number of encouragements from many of the front runners. This lifted my spirit and really kept me moving forward.

I finally reached Rice Lake, which is the turnaround, and took a slightly longer break at the AS than planned. It's always a mental boost to reach a point in which you can turn around and go back, even if there is still 29 miles left in the race. I head back to Hwy 12 and I know I'm losing pace as this section is kicking my ass, but manage to muster up enough energy to maintain a 10 hour pace. I reach the Hwy 12 AS (marathon distance) in 5:12, which means that my first half of the race was just under 5 hours. Looking back, this should have probably been about 5:30. I hung around the AS for about 3 minutes before moving on. At this point, I was spent, but had many more miles to go. Kelly replaces my hydration pack for a couple of handhelds, then it's time to go.

Me coming back from Rice Lake into Hwy 12 again (Mile 26.2)

The bonk

As I head back across the prairie and into the pine forest section, my pace is slowing and I'm mentally tiring. I'm just starting to take walk breaks at this point, but really just trying to stay strong and hold on; still moving forward. I notice some runners starting to pass me now and that's not a good sign. I'd rather be the passer, but nonetheless, to each their own and I was doing way better than I thought I would be this far into the race. As I approached the Young Rd AS (Mile 33), I was bonking. I had a couple of runners ask if I was alright, so I must of looked a mess. My lower back was hurting and when I approached the AS, I asked if they had some Ibuprofen, which they did not. One of the runners let me have one of her 800 mg pills and that kicked the pain. An uplifting moment for me was when I reached confusion corner; Oxymoronic, I know, but it was the start of the next section and just few more miles before I saw Kelly at Horseman's Park AS at Mile 37.

Just a few weeks ago I ran this section with Dominic Guinta on a training run, so most of it looked familiar. During our run we stashed our handhelds, but could not find them on the return and now knew they would be gone, but figured I'd look for them during the run anyways. It was just a little game I played to focus my mind off of my tiring body. After the many ups and downs on this section, I finally reached the Horseman's Park AS where Kelly was waiting for me. Kelly informed me that I was about 6 minutes ahead of my goal time. I knew it would be a struggle to make my goal time given my deteriorating pace. I head out to not waste anymore time.

The pacer

I might sound worse than I really am, so maybe I'm just complaining. I mean I have no injuries, my feet are fine with only a single insignificant blister, my legs are tired, but operable. What the heck is going on. I'm just tired and can't seem to muster up more than a 1/2 mile run at any one time without a walk break. I'm becoming more winded and seem to be overheating more, so I'm dousing my bandanna with cold water from my hydration pack and wiping my head.

I make it to Hwy Z aid station at Mile 40 and Dennis Duria comes in right behind me. I haven't seen Dennis in a few hours. I know Dennis is out today to just finish, so I take advantage and ask if he'd be willing to run with me in to the finish. Without a hesitation, he agrees to. As as we leave Torey and Adrian Belitu coming into the AS (They were running together and Adrian was helping Torey to her first 50 Mile finish). I welcomed Dennis' company and he helped me continue longer running streaks with fewer walking breaks. We reach Horseman's Park AS again, Kelly is there and she tells me that I'm 12 minutes slower than my goal time, but still under my secondary 11 hour goal. I see Beth Onines and she is yelling at me to get moving.

Dennis and I coming back from Hwy Z into Horseman's Park aid station (Mile 43.5)

The finish

Dennis and I almost have a 10k left in the race. I just want to be done and we're just chugging along in a shuffle-like form. I'm not going to get the 11 hours as my pace is not allowing for that, but that's okay, I'm perfectly happy with my time "around" 11 hours. I wasn't going to bust my ass trying to beat 11 hours when I was perfectly happy with a time a few minutes later. I already knew that the goal I had set forth was a bit aggressive anyways, so all is good. As I approached the final turn before the finish chute, Timo, the KM100 co-RD, was out there taking photos and congratulated the runners coming in. That was a nice touch. As I come in, I see Kelly and there is a large cheering section for all the runners coming in. I come in happy and spent with a time of 11:10:16. Now that's living!

Me finishing 50 Miles in 11:10:16

Post-race

After the race, I appreciated the congratulations I received from many new friends. I thanked Kelly for once again, being the awesome crew and support person that she is. It was nice seeing Sarah Jurgaitis and Ben Willis at the finish (They didn't run the race, but came up to be part of it), as well as, some of the other runners that finished before me. Some post-race photos were taken, then we ate dinner, watched the the awards ceremony and witnessed the last person to come in just before the 12-hour cutoff in 11:59:59. What an awesome day!

Me and Kelly

Me and Dennis

Me and Torey

Me and Dominic

This is the life!!!!

Pace Chart

Course Map

Other Race Reports (Will update with others as I find them):
Geoff Dunmore
Torey Jones
Dennis Duria
Chelsey Clammer
Matthew Patten
SteveQ
Lapham Peak Trail Runners

Seven Bridges 10 Mile - Congratulate Kelly to a new PR!

2009-05-03T13:17:00.010-05:00

Congratulations to Kelly for pushing herself to a PR today at the Seven Bridges 10 Miler. Her previous PR was set several years ago where she improved upon her 1998 time by only a couple of seconds, which was in the mid 1:35:xx. Today, she smashed that record by nearly 2 1/2 minutes with a finish time of 1:33:23! Way to put down the hammer Kelly! I'm proud of you.

Here are some photos from today's race.

Bye now, see you in a couple...

Wooooah! Too fast, or not fast enough?

This is great, I'll beat my 1:40 goal, no problem!

Determination!

Am I going to PR?

YES!!!!! 1:33:23!, okay, don't hurl

To see all the pictures, check out the slide show below:

The course:

Nike Onward Running Video

2009-04-29T21:57:00.008-05:00

This pretty cool animated running video came across my Inbox from the Ultra list and I thought I'd share it with you.

This video can be found on the following website with full credits listed.

Palos Hills Chicago Ultrarunners Group Run

2009-04-26T14:08:00.003-05:00

We had a fantastic time today at Palos Hills running on the Sag Valley yellow trail. We made some wrong turns, but was all good. It gave me a chance to triple dip into the stream crossings. We had a pretty good showing overall. It rained, then stopped, then rained again, then stopped. Mother Nature couldn't quite make up her mind. Some of us cut out early while others continued on the 2nd loop. Here are some photos from the run this morning.

Find more videos like this on Chicago Ultrarunners

Find more videos like this on Chicago Ultrarunners

Leroy Oakes Trail Run

2009-04-25T18:26:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures from my short trail run yesterday at the Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles, IL.

1. LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve
2. Dean St. (approx. 1 mile west of Randall Road, one light north of Rt. 64/Main St., in St. Charles
3. Not sure of exact distance, but there are multiple trails winding through the preserve...I stuck to the single track and got 4.2 miles out of it (out-and-back), but you can easily get 8 without repeating a stretch I think.
4. Loops and out-and-backs, not marked well, but it's very easy to just keep to the perimeter so you get the most mileage (and it's hard to get lost!)
5. Single track, paved, grassland, woodchip, and lots of mud and a stream crossing if you feel so inclined!
6. The perimeter is pretty hilly, but quick, short hills and totally runnable, the interior is more or less flat
7. http://www.chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/spring2002/IWleroyoakes.html

Read Crash's blog entry about this park

Pace Calculator

2009-04-22T13:20:00.030-05:00

I created the following pace calculator utility below for fellow ultramarathoners to help calculate pace for distances between the marathon and any distance you choose to be the maximum mileage (see parameter settings below). If you find errors, have suggestions for improvements, or would just like to give props, please feel free to post a comment. You have my permission to embed this pace calculator in your own personal web page or link directly to mine, however, please leave credits to me and my website at the bottom of the calculator. Thank you!

The following URL represents the widget on the right in the sidebar of my blog:

http://www.newleafultra.com/pace-calculator-widget.asp?ShowHeader=No&
Width=263&ShortDistanceLabel=Go%20Short&LongDistanceLabel=Go%20Long&
ShowResetText=No"

Url with Defaults specified:
http://www.newleafultra.com/pace-calculator-widget.asp?ShowHeader=Yes&HeaderBGColor=738328&HeaderText=Pace%20Calculator&HeaderFontColor=FFFFFF&Width=500&BorderBGColor=CDCBB5&FontColor=738328&PaceFontColor=FF0000&MaxUltraMiles=300&ShortDistanceLabel=Shorter%20Distances&LongDistanceLabel=Longer%20Distances&CommonDistanceLabel=Distance&ShowResetText=Yes

Parameters Definitions
NOTE: Replace any space in a string with a %20. This will allow for the parameters to be properly formatted.

The values specified below are the default values

Width=500 (Integer value to represent width in pixels)
ShowHeader=Yes (Yes/No)
HeaderText=Pace%20Calculator (String)
HeaderFontColor=FFFFFF (Hex Color without #)
HeaderBGColor=738328 (Hex Color without #)
ShortDistanceLabel=Shorter%20Distances (Text aside shorter distance radio button)
LongDistanceLabel=Longer%20Distances (Text aside longer distance radio button)
CommonDistanceLabel=Common%20Distance (Text aside distance types combo box)
BorderBGColor=CDCBB5 (Hex Color without #)
FontColor=738328 (Hex Color without #)
PaceFontColor=FF0000 (Hex Color without #)
MaxUltraMiles=300 (Integer value to represent maximum ultra mileage)
ShowResetText=Yes (Yes/No)
DefaultDistanceType=short (short/long)
DefaultDistance=0 (Decimal value to represent distance (in miles) to display)
DefaultDays=0 (Integer value to represent days to display)
DefaultHours=0 (Integer value to represent hours to display)
DefaultMinutes=0 (Integer value to represent minutes to display)
DefaultSeconds=0 (Integer value to represent seconds to display)

Build your own pace calculator with my skin builder tool

The web address to reference this source file is on my server. If you reference the file on my server, please be aware that changes could occur that would be out of your control.

The pace calculator below is the default style.

The pace calculator below has default settings applied, which are 50 miles for 10 hrs and 30 minutes.

My neighbors are "trashy"

2009-04-21T20:18:00.007-05:00

Today was the second day that I participated in Earth Week contest on the iRunFar.com website sponsored by Atayne. I took a day off from running and stayed local to focus on collecting trash right around home. I focused on two problematic areas; 1. Across the street near a pond and 2.) Behind my house in the wooded area.

It looks much better by the pond as garbage was getting caught in the tall prairie grass. Behind my house I picked up quite a bit around the perimeter, as well as, a couple hundred feet into the wooded area where there was less, but still plastic bags and beer cans/bottles. I also found some burnt wood from my neighbors, a few doors down, fire pit tossed out in the wooded area behind their place. I also found a number of beer bottles/cans. I also found grass clippings that my association's lawn care service dumped there.

There so much more trash that has collected near the park a block away as the wind tends to blow all the trash back in there. I'll probably focus on that area Friday when I have more time.

Here is a my 25 lbs of trash that I collected in 1.5 hours while I was out there. Get'r done!

Awareness

2009-04-20T20:33:00.007-05:00

Tonight I went out on my first trash run in honor of my commitment to the "I will run for trash" contest sponsored by Atayne during Earth Week and boy let me tell you, I didn't get very far.

As a matter of fact, I only got down the street about 1 mile before my entire 13 gallon garbage bag was filled up and this was only focusing on one side of the street and picking up trash either on the street, in the grass just off the curb. I know I didn't get everything in site, but I did need to keep moving forward. I thought I'd be able to get to my 1.5 mile turnaround at least, but nope, after 40 minutes, I only reached the 1 mile marker...sad! Truly sad!

As you can tell, I didn't get much of a "run" in per sei, more of a slow walk. Slow enough that a snail could keep up. I had walkers pass me by and comment on how nasty is was out here. The walkers continued 5 more blocks and turned around. I turned around slightly after the 1 mile marker and headed back as I only wanted to be out for about one hour. As I was walking my way back home, the walkers caught back up with me and we walked back a few blocks together.

I shared with them the Atayne "I will run for trash" commitment and how Atayne makes performance sportswear out of recycled trash. They thought it was a great idea and really appreciated the fact that I was out there. Funny enough, I think they felt guilty that I was out there doing this alone that they started picking up trash until we parted ways. It's amazing what leading by example does for one's soul. It's great! Please join in on the trashy fun!

Our communities are filthy people, it really doesn't take much to fill up a 13-gallon garbage bag that happen to weigh about 12 lbs. I proved that tonight. It just takes opening our eyes and doing something about it.

Chicagoland Fat Ass #2

2009-04-20T15:14:00.005-05:00

You know the saying, when it rains, it pours. That's kind of how our Chicago Ultrarunners group involvement is like these days. The group has just started and everyone is so eager to get the ball rolling in every direction. Expect some exciting things to happen from the Chicago Ultrarunners.

Now, one of those spurs of popularity, at least in my eyes, are additional ultra events here in the Chicagoland area. This is coming from me, not the Chicago Ultrarunners as a whole; however, I'm giving everyone a little heads up that another Fat Ass event may be in the future. The timeframe for it has not yet been discussed. I've been talking with with Crash about the possibility of it occurring at her new favorite trail out in the west burbs. This system has stream crossings, so we'll definitely be determining whether or not we can work this into a 50K.

Heck, with all this ambition, maybe we'll have a Chicagoland Fat Ass Ultra Trail Series ("ChiFATS"). More on that later, but we haven't gotten the Sunburn Six in the Stix 6-Hour off the ground yet, so first things first. Maybe I'm just excited at the progress we're making here in Chicago and some of the potential we have.

Any thoughts?

I Will Run for Trash

2009-04-20T10:19:00.006-05:00

I was catching up with Bryon Powell's iRunFar.com website this morning and found that an "I will run for trash" contest is underway sponsored by Atayne, a company focused on improving our environment by making tech-shirts from recycled trash.

This contest got me thinking of how I might be able to help out. You see, my birthday is on Earth Day, or rather, Earth Day is on my birthday. Either way you look at it, this coincidence should have more meaning that it has had in the past. This year, well this week (and hopefully it continues), I will commit to running for trash to help improve our environment. Thanks Atayne for lighting a fire under my butt!

So, what does this mean then? Well, on my training runs near my own neighborhood, as well as, when I run at some local trails, I will look for trash, pick it up, and then properly dispose of it. I hope I don't find much, but have my doubts.

I welcome you to join me and others in this contest. Not that this should be the motivating factor, but if you do, you will have the chance to win a $50 gift certificate from Atayne. The drawing will take place on Friday, April 24, 2009 at 8 p.m. (EDT).

Read more about Atayne's mission

One with Performance:

Design products that help wearers perform at their best
Make a healthy profit
Drive positive change in the industry

One with People:

Provide employees with a world-class work environment
Partner with like-minded business partners
Avoid harmful chemicals and materials
Provide support to the local and global community

One with Planet:

Operate under a model that reduces energy, water, harmful chemicals, emissions, and waste (industrial and consumer)
Eliminate the use of virgin, synthetic materials
Support efforts to combat climate change and promote environmental preservation

For more information about the contest, please visit the iRunFar.com website

Nike Believe in the Run

2009-04-20T09:20:00.010-05:00

My friend and fellow runner Janeth Salazar-Ohst and her friend Wendy created a video for the "Nike Believe in the Run" contest, which ends April 28th. Janeth is an awesome runner, has run in the Olympic trials, won the Milwauke Lakefront Marathon, please provide your support by watching this well-constructed and creative video.

Don't forget to vote for it if you like it!

BELIEVE IN THE RUN

Sponsored by Visit NIKE USA

Direct Link to the video

Sunburn Six in the Stix 6-Hour Fat Ass

2009-04-18T08:35:00.004-05:00

This is a 6-hour timed fun run on August 1, 2009 that I'm excited received a good response from our local Chicago ultra runners. We don't have a timed event here in the Chicagoland area and I feel that offering such a format of a fun run would be a great addition for our ultra running community. Read more about the run at the official website for it.

If you're interested, come join me on this day. There is no registration fee, so it's free, no waiver to sign, it's self-supportive so bring your own supplies. Just 6 hours of camaraderie with fellow runners.

McNaughton Park 50 Mile - DNF

2009-04-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

This won't be long, promise, but I just wanted to mention that, well, this year was not my year to complete the McNaughton Park 50 Miler. I did get through a respectable 20 miles, but had to stop. DNF's happen, I'm disappointed, but there's always another race to run. Yeah, I'm out of my girlfriend's $90, who happen to be kind enough and register me for this race as a birthday gift (Thank you sweetie), but the $90 did buy me a couple of hamburgers and hot dog at the awesome Start/Finish aid station along with some decent scenery, front row and center, of watching other runners pass through each loop and some even finish. I enjoyed watching friends, both old and new, come in after each 10 mile loop.

It was nice seeing Ed Kirk and Michael Matteson, both who I first met last year at MO100. They were battling it through the 150 mile race.

It was nice to finally meet face-to-face and help him at times during his eventual 2nd place finish of the 150 miler, Mark Tanaka, who, a couple years ago, we had our first discussions over email about pacing opportunities at KM100.

It was nice to see Travis Liles tear the trails up and look strong during the first 50 miles of his eventual 4th place finish of his first 100 mile finish after last year's drop at 50. His positive, can-do attitude paid off today. Way to go bud.

It was nice to finally meet Julie Berg, who I've heard a bit about, but never had seen her at any races. We'll see you at Javelina this year too Jules.

It was nice to see Matthew Condron after a race finally ;-). Matthew finished 2nd in the 50 miler. Nice bang up job. By the time I always finished he's already left, home, showered, and taken a couple hour nap. Matt, btw, is leading the Illinois Trail Ultra Grand Slam right now. Nice job!

It was nice to see some new faces from the Chicago ultrarunners group. Those like Tony Cesario, Adrian Belitu, Torey Jones pacing for Adrian, and Paige "Crash" Troelstrup. Adrian placed 2nd in the 100 miler. Nice job dude!

It was nice to see 61-yo Jorge Amaro walking the 50 miler. I have to give credit to his tenacity and his wife's patience. Way to stick it out.

It was nice to see April's edition of Ultrarunning magazine profile holder, Mary Gorski pass through with all smiles each time.

It was nice to see Sherpa John staying strong during the 150 miler. Way to hang tough bud.

It was nice to Juli Aistars heading on over to volunteer during the night shift after her Illinois Marathon finish earlier that morning.

It was nice to see Ian Stevens as he came down to volunteer, cheer, and maybe pace Nikki Segar, who was doing the 150 miler.

It was nice seeing Ryan Dexter, the punisher, keep focus and determination during his 1st place finish in the 150 miler. His pace over 150 miles was faster than my first 20 miles...sad! Great job Ryan!

I'm probably forgetting some other name drops here, so sorry if you're reading this and you're name isn't listed, maybe next time, but I enjoyed seeing you too :-).

As you can see, $90 bought me a lot in addition to the 20 miles of muddy trails, all on a awesome day to spend out at the park with sunny skies in 60+ degree temps with my sweetie and #1 support crew, Kelly Roe.

Now, how did I DNF?

Well, I was running with Travis Liles and Julie Berg (and a few others were around too) at around mile 7. There was a downhill, then a quick super slick/muddy uphill which I attacked pretty aggressively so I wouldn't have issues getting up it. As I crested the hill and started downhill I transitioned from some leaves to the mud and when I did that, my legs gave out from under me and I landed sideways hitting a tree trunk about maybe a foot in diameter with my chest which took the wind out of me. It took me a bit of time to respond to those around me. I feared that moment because back in December, I had a bruised rib on my right side from innocently foolin' around with Kelly in Mexico, yeaaah...; Oh, this incident was on my left side. As I continued running, the soreness was always in my mind and I couldn't get my mind of it for the next 13 miles. I was hoping that the pain would go away, but it didn't. I figured dropping would prevent any further injury from occurring and thought I'd live to run another race (IAT50).

So that's my McNaughton experience in a nutshell, a DNF, but matters, I've got some great ultrarunning friends wherever I go and it's well worth the trip. See ya guys at the next race!

Race Website

Race Results

Chicago Tribune RedEye Article Published

2009-04-03T08:12:00.013-05:00

I was approached by a reporter from the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper to discuss my experiences with ultramarathons and how I got started running them. The following links below are to the newspaper article.

RedEye Downloadable Print (Just Article)

RedEye Downloadable Print (Full Paper Version)

RedEye Online Version

My interview questions and responses before hitting the paper

My photo in the RedEye

Chicago Tribune "Red Eye" Newspaper Interview (Pre-Edits)

2009-03-28T21:55:00.012-05:00

A Chicago Tribune "Red Eye" reporter called me earlier this week and asked if she could get a local take on ultramarathons. Here were my interview question responses before they're edited for the newspaper.

1. What got you started on running, and how long have you been doing it?

I've always been active during my childhood and played sports in high school and college, but it wasn't until June of 2005 that I started running "for fun". The company I work for is an advocate for good health and sponsors employees in a couple shorter distance races per year. As a result, there is a fairly significant number of runners I work with that peer pressured me into running the NIKETOWN Bastille Day 5K. It escalated from this race and I've had the runner's bug almost four years now.

2. What prompted you to do your first ultramarathon? What/where was it?

To start, a marathon is 26.2 Miles and an ultramarathon is any distance beyond the marathon, typically 50 Km, 50 Miles, 100 Km, and 100 Mile events. Those are the most common, but there are other distances as well. There are also timed events, such as the 8-Hour, 12-Hour, 24-Hour and some multi-day events as well.

It was an accumulation of successful marathon training in 2006 and the inspiration from the book titled "Ultramarathon Man, Confessions of an All-Night Runner", written by fellow ultramarathoner, Dean Karnazes. Before reading this book, I have to admit that I never knew such a sport existed; however, before finishing it, I knew I wanted to try one. There was just a certain mystique about the ultramarathon distance that intrigued me and I wanted in. I wanted to learn what I was capable of, what I could learn about myself, and what it felt like going beyond a marathon, so I signed up, needless to say, nervously, for the Chicago Lakefront 50/50 50 Km event held strategically three weeks after the Chicago Marathon. I finished my first 50 Km race in 5:15:45 three weeks after my first marathon.

3. What was the experience of that first ultramarathon like? Has the experience changed (ie. does it get any easier) the more you do?

Ultramarathon events are generally pretty laid back and my first ultramarathon at the Chicago Lakefront 50/50 was no different. I was very nervous running the event leading up to it, but once I got into the groove, I was relaxed and focused and just went with it. I know this might sound odd, but I actually thought the race was easier than the Chicago Marathon, but I'm chalking it up to the low expectations I had on myself going into it; after all, my only goal was to finish and that I did.

I've completed 13 ultra marathons averaging 45 miles each and my experiences are constantly changing. Each race is unique with its own challenges and this is what I need to understand when training. It goes beyond pacing yourself as there is a much larger mental aspect involved. I'm still very new to this sport and each time I run one of these events, I learn something new.

I don't think it gets any easier for me the more ultra marathons I run, it just makes me realize how little I do know how my body responds to different situations.

4. How do you train for an ultramarathon? Is the training any different from a regular marathon?

For me, it's really important to sustain a certain level of endurance that will allow me to enjoy running multiple ultramarathons per year. A common misconception people have is that I must be running all the time and this just isn't true. I often don't run much during the winter. I just can't seem to dig up the motivation to do so, so I'll start my official training in early Spring and run until maybe November.

While I like running far during races, I comfortably train between 40 and 50 miles per week with my high mileage weeks being in the low 70's. This works for me so I can have balance in my life. Also, every ultramarathon I run is not a target race, I might use a marathon or 50 Km race as a training run for a 50 Miler or 100K, and maybe a 100K as a training run for a 100 miler a several weeks before my target event. It's all relative, but I think the concept applies to marathons on a shorter scale.

I don't claim to be an expert, but I don't think there is any single way to train for an ultramarathon. There are just too many variables in the equation, such as distance, terrain, altitude, to name a few. Each race is truly unique and because I'm running multiple races per year in different parts of the country with different terrains, I must adapt my training at all times.

5. What's the secret to surviving an ultramarathon? Is it as miserable and excruciating as it sounds?

The secret to surviving an ultramarathon is a rather simple concept. It's to keep moving forward even though your body is telling you to stop, but sometimes, your mind doesn't play so nice. Having a fair amount of mental toughness to battle through those tough times helps too as does proper nutrition and fueling during the race.

It wouldn't be a far stretch from the truth that at times it is as miserable and excruciating as it sounds, but one can feel this way during a marathon too. What I found is that if I keep moving on, that whatever I'm feeling at the moment, I'll get out of. For a marathoner, this might be at the proverbial wall at Mile 20; whereas during a 50+ miler, I may hit two or more walls. It's all relative, but I found that the mind and body will bounce back.

6. Please list the ultramarathons you've done, including dates and your times.

See my race history

7. What are the pitfalls of running an ultramarathon?

Injury is common if the body isn't properly trained. I've had tendinitis and a stress fracture of my foot in the past two years likely due to running too much too soon and not abiding by the 10% rule, which is to not increase weekly mileage by more than 10% from the previous week.

Training can take a significant toll on someone's schedule because often times, a runner might be doing two long runs on the weekend as opposed to the typical one long run commonly found in marathon training programs.

There are generally associated travel expenses with the race fees since many of the events are not that close in proximity to Chicago. There are a few ultramarathons within a two-hours of Chicago, so overnight travels might not be required.

Events can take an entire weekend to complete, so time away from home during these times is required.

8. What has been the most challenging ultramarathon you've run, and why?

I'd have to say that my most challenging ultramarathon was at the Badgerland Striders F/X 24-Hour timed event last Labor Day weekend in Greendale, Wisconsin. This was my first 24-hour event. The rules for a timed event is to run as far as can you during that time. Originally, the event was to be held on the local high school's 400m rubberized track, but due to last minute construction, the venue was changed to 1/6th mile triangular loops in the school's asphalt parking lot.

I've heard that running circles on a track all day long is hard enough, but when the laps became much smaller as a result, I heard even other ultramarathoners complain about how crazy it sounded and many even dropped from the event. I wanted to know what it was like to run for 24 hours straight.

Surprisingly enough, most of it went well for the first 16 hours, but I developed severe blisters on the balls and heels of both my feet. I could have stopped then and gone home to sleep in my own bed for the rest of the night; it did enter my mind, but I stuck it out to finish what I set forth. With only a couple of 20-minute catnaps, I walked the remaining 8 hours on my blistered feet tired beyond belief to complete the race in 414 laps, or 72 miles. Good enough for 2nd place. I was pretty proud.

9. Please list your full name, age, and occupation.

Brian Gaines, 36, Sr. Applications Developer

I had a photo shoot with a Chicago Tribune Red Eye photographer the morning of the Shamrock Shuffle. Kelly took a couple of pictures of my photo shoot (see below):

Arizona Vacation - Trail Running Photos and Video

2009-02-17T13:03:00.008-06:00

Kelly and I went on a vacation to Arizona from 2/11 to 2/17 and ran on the following trails below while we were out there. We had a blast and plan on running a different set of trails the next time we return. Enjoy our pictures and video of the different trail systems.

White Tank Mountain

Information
Photos

Estrella Mountain

Information
Photos

Cave Creek Regional Park

Information
Photos

Superstition Mountain

Information
Photos

2008 Chicago Lakefront 50 Mile Race Report

2008-11-03T21:38:00.011-06:00

Kelly and I arrived at the race just before 6 a.m. so I could check in and get my tech shirt and bib. The number they gave me was #4. I laughed. These low numbers are typically reserved for elite runners, but in this case, they had to of picked them randomly. Maybe they confused me with the other "Brian Gaines" from central Illinois who IS super fast. He's almost my age, so I can see where they might get mixed up.

Mary Gorski finds me in the small gathering and shows me that she's got bib #3 and asks if I was special enough to have (babe) in between my first and last name like she did. I checked and told her that I wasn't as special as she was to be given a special name. There really weren't that many runners there yet, but wondered if some were out for the early start. We did run into fellow ChiADeads John and Dennis and chat with them for bit beforehand. We also saw Fernando Gallegos who I ran with a little in the spring at the Chicago Lakefront 50k and at the Rock Cut Hobo 50k. This was his first 50 miler as was fellow ChiA John's.

I noted to Kelly that there were no port-a-john bathrooms located anywhere. The RD made an announcement after a bit that the bathrooms were going to arrive at 5. The only problem that it was a bit after 6 am. The bathrooms never did show before our race started. I had to go, but would have to wait until I reached a bathroom on the course somewhere.

After chatting a bit with others, 6:30 am rolls around and the race begins in a typical malodramatic way. It's still dark at this hour, but there are plenty of street lights along the course to see the path ahead. For the first 6 miles, I have the pleasure of running with David Dziagwa who was an early starter in the 50k race. This was his first ultramarathon and just wanted to come out and finish the distance without having to worry about a time goal. We were talking quite a bit, which caused me to lose focus on my pace. I found my pace faster than I wanted it to be at this early point of the race, so I needed to slow down if I wanted to have any chance of meeting my 10 hour goal. I told him this and he was happy to slow down for me. We missed Dave's 50k turnaround mark and he went to the 50 mile turnaround with me.

The first loop was pretty easy, in fact, the 2nd loop was pretty easy too. All was going way to well for me. My pace was too fast for the first 2 loops. After the 2nd loop, I stopped for almost 10 minutes to get rocks out of my shoes and loosen up the shoelaces as it felt like my feet were swelling a bit. Also, my foot was aching a bit at this point and didn't know what to make of it.

I continue on the 3rd loop and the headwinds by this time going northbound on the lakefront were very strong and persisted for the rest of the day. It was a real struggle to move with any speed northward and it wasn't until the turnaround where I was able to make up some ground. The Oreo cookies that Mary Gorski advised me to eat did the trick. I consumed them and I was running the last 10k segments with blazing speed (well, it's all relative). For me that meant with a pace in the 9 min/mile area. I don't know what came over me. I felt great mentally with the wind at my back.

I bettered my time from last year by just a bit with a finishing time of 10:05. After finishing, my foot started hurting more. I went to see the podiatrist about it and he told me that I had tendinitis and to stay off of it for the next couple weeks and no racing. Well, there goes my Javelina Jundred 100 miler race I was planning for on November 11 (Kelly and I instead volunteer at this race and was a blast, but wished I could have run it).

Photos:
Kswistun

Video of me running at about Mile 45

2008 Farmdale 33 Mile Race Report

2008-10-22T22:09:00.014-05:00

RACE WEBSITE

Unlike last year when Kelly and I drove down to the Farmdale race at 3 am, we went down the night before and camped right near the start/finish area. We were expecting to see more people camping, but it was only Kelly and me, Michael Matteson, and another runner who had fire going across the way from us. It was nice being able to sit back by the fire and relax knowing that all I needed to do is wake up and go. It was kind of chilly, but the fire made it very comfortable. Temperatures got down into the 40's and Kelly and I were a little concerned that our 35 degree rated sleeping bags from Mountain Hardware may not of been warm enough. I'm proud to say that I slept great in the tent and was very comfortable. We turned in about 10:30 pm or so and woke up at about 6:30 am.

After getting ready on race morning I make my way over towards the starting area and hear for pictures to be taken of all the Illinois Trail Ultra Grand Slammers. There's 20 of us left and we were all in the photo, except for Michael Matteson. He must of still been getting ready in his tent ;-). I had a great time running all the races in the slam (Clinton Lake 30 mile, McNaughton Park Trail (50/100/150), Rock Cut Hobo 50k, and Farmdale 33 mile), so a special thanks to Chris Migotsky for initiating it and to all the other RD's for allowing it to happen. Thanks to all the runners who I've gotten to know this year because of the slam.

We read on the Farmdale race's website that the course mileage was going to be reduced due to flooding, but then I asked the RD on Friday night at packet pick-up if that was still the case, he said that he was able to mark the course to still get the 33 miles in and it would still be 3 loops. We thought it was going to be 4 of the 8 miler's loops, but it wasn't. At the end of the race, we were told by Chris Migotsky that he was told that each loop was actually about 11.2 miles, so a total mileage of 33.6 miles would have been run, which helps with my time pace-wise ;-). In any case, on with the start of the race.

Kelly and I wish each other luck before running our separate races (Kelly was running the 8 mile race). Last year, my time was 7:23, so my goal coming into this race was to get somewhere between 6.5 and 7 hours. Having a bit more experience, I thought that this would be attainable. Last year, I started out too fast finishing the first 11 mile loop in 1:52. I wasn't going to make the same mistake this year, so I slowed down substantially to try to level out my pacing.

Off we go and I started slow with what I thought was a 12 mpm pace and locked in behind some other runners as we entered onto single track. The 8 mile and ultra race occupied much of the same course with a few spots where 8 milers went one way while the ultra runners went another to tack on additional mileage. There were several more stream crossings than I expected to see this year, but given all the rain this area has received recently, gave rise to those areas. Last year, I only remember one significant stream crossing (the 1st one), while all others I could easily just hop over, weren't there, or I didn't notice. This year, there were about 4 or 5 on each loop that I had to actually attempt to jump or maneuver on rocks. There was no safe way around the first stream, so I just barreled through that one. That's quite a few stream crossings with 3 loops, so it's safe to say that might feet stayed pretty damp the entire race.

Conversations were high in the back of the pack where I was at on the first loop, but quite notable was a woman behind me yelling out each and every rock and root to those behind her? The ones she was yelling out were not a big deal. I think it's okay to share with others some definite hazards that just appear out of the blue, but this is a trail race and I feel that it is common knowledge that the trails are going to be rooted and rocks are going to be there, so just let the runners experience them for themselves and quit trying to "baby" them along the way. I thought I was going to have to listen to this for some time, but come to find out, she was an 8 miler and just shy of 4 miles, I parted ways and thankfully didn't need to listen to this chatter any longer.

Volunteers were great; however the hydration at the aid stations ran low towards the end of my 3rd loop. The last aid station, which we hit twice, was re-stocked before coming around to it the last time. There were a few people who introduced themselves to me because they knew me through my blog. Thank you everyone for reading my reports, looking at pictures, etc. It means a lot that you actually read this stuff. I'm glad I don't write this stuff just for the sake of writing.

I finished the race in 6:58, which was a couple of minutes faster than my goal time, so I'm happy with that. I still think I'm faster than that, but my training has really sucked and it doesn't pay to train only on race days. Post-race there was an awesome spread of food like last year. Hot soups, sandwiches, chips, desserts, you name it was all out for the taking after this day's long run. Ya can't beat the post-race food at this event. Nice job guys!

Hey get this, NO BLISTERS!!!! And ya thought you were going to get away without hearing how my feet were. Maybe some day, but not this time around. Last year, I recall getting about 13 blisters. Not this year. My feet were wet the entire race and no blisters. Amazing! Those toe spacers and lambs wool really do work people, so if you've got blister problems give my way a shot. Where do I get this stuff you ask? Walgreens. 6 reusable foam toe spacers for a little less than $5 and a package of reusable lambs wool for about the same price. I wrap the lambs wool with a self-adhering thin sports bandage, which you can toss after the run. This keeps the lambs wool in place and makes it easy to put the sock on. Can't beat it yet. Better than lubes which have to be re-applied on occasion. Of course, different applications for different terrains, so I don't believe there is a single perfect solution for all conditions.

Check out other race reports from:
Dennis Duria
GTI Journey
Chris Migotsky #1
Chris Migotsky #2
James Webb

Up Next:
11/1 - Chicago Lakefront 50 Mile
11/15 & 11/16 - Javelina Jundred 100 Mile Trail Run

12/2 - 12/9 - Mexican vacation in Puerta Vallarta

Pizza party and Boot camp

2008-10-22T08:43:00.004-05:00

Last night, Kelly and I went to her Illinois Runs marathon training group's post-marathon pizza party where race stories and new endeavors were shared. We found out that several people are doing the PF Cheng marathon in Phoenix in 2009. They were trying to recruit others to join them. Kelly did this marathon this past year and was able to provide some insight to those going in 2009.

Beth Onines, director of I-Runs, showed up to the party and I spoke to her a bit about her Milwaukee Marathon experience running with her son and the Chicago Urbanathalon put on by Men's Health magazine. Sounds interesting, but I don't think I'll be doing that race. Sounds more like something Kelly would like to do.

On a different note, but related to fitness, I'm really proud of Kelly for registering and committing to Monday and Wednesday bootcamp workouts starting at 5 am. Her first workout was on Monday and she is still getting acclimated to the stresses involved. She's not walking the stairs so well, but she's going to be strong as an ox after this program. Keep it up Kelly, great job!!

2008 Farmdale Race Course Altered

2008-10-14T17:32:00.002-05:00

From the Farmdale Trail Run website

There is a section of the course called Muddy Meadow and Equine that remain unpassable due to recent flooding at the park. This part of the park was under nearly 12 feet of water a few weeks ago. We had hoped it would be dried out enough to clear debris and groom it for the race. Unfortunately, we have gotten more rain and the trail continues to be unusable. At this point, the race distance will be just over 7.5 miles and just under 32 for the ultra distance. This is regrettable, but better than attempting to go through it.

2008 Chicago Marathon Volunteer/Run Report

2008-10-12T19:31:00.009-05:00

Today, Kelly and I volunteered at the Chicago Marathon at the intersection of Grand and Columbus, which is the first left-hand turn just before the mile 1 marker. We were course marshals and while Kelly worked the outside of the road to get optimal photo and video footage, I worked the inside corner where all 45,000 registered runners take the mad dash onto Grand Avenue.

Wow!!!! The wheelchairs came through first, then the elite (damn, they're fast and they make it look so easy), then EVERYONE else.

There were times when I feared for my safety and for those spectators who like to get too close to the action. I was wearing an orange vest and stood at the edge of the sidewalk and made myself heard by all the runners that were running inches from the sidewalk, yelling out to them Good luck, pace yourself, have fun, and watch the curb all while waiving my hands to let the runners see where that curb was. I would guess that less than 10 runners were pushed to the sidewalk and ran behind me.

I was giving high fives much of the time and most all the runners on the inside welcomed it. After about 45 minutes of high fives, my hands felt a bit numb. I figured I gave out at least 500 high fives. It was pretty awesome to be on the other side and be part of the grand event offering the support to the runners. We all support each other don't we? I didn't lose my voice, so that's a plus.

Vertigo, yeah, I had a bit of that. My eyes were performing some rapid focus changes as runners were passing by me and when I would look up and across the road I would feel a bit dizzy. No permanent damage, but was interesting.

Soon after the last runner came through, Ian (Thanks Ian for allowing us to help out) stopped by collected our vests and we both took a ride with Ian as he made his rounds following the last runner. We were dropped off at State and Jackson where we proceeded to get a little breakfast, then head on over to the finish to watch the overall winner Evans Cheriuyot of Kenya in a time of 2:06:25. THAT'S A PACE OF 4:49 PER MILE FOLKS!!! Holy crap! Amazing!

Shortly thereafter, we proceeded to take the CTA to Halsted exit to meet up with co-worker Jim Wood who was running his first marathon. As we were waiting for Jim to arrive, we saw some other runners we knew. We saw my dog's vet doctor, a couple of people from our work, and a few people from Kelly's running group.

We met up with him at about the 20.5 mile mark and he was doing great. Kelly and I were self supported with our hydration, so our focus was just getting Jim through to the finish. We were getting water and Gatorade for him, some ice, making sure that he went through the many misting stations and trying to stay positive at all times.

We could tell that EVERYONE was tiring and affected by the heat today. Definitely not as bad as last year, but come on, it's in the 80's in OCTOBER here. Not ideal running temperatures. I took it as heat training for JJ100 next month :-). We had fun and Jim was in great spirits the entire time. In fact, he sped up in the last mile eager to finish. Kelly and I finally broke off just before he headed over the Roosevelt bridge and congratulated him as he went to finish in 4:42.

A special congratulations to:

Tina Ahrens (4:02:50)
Tom Dieter (4:17:24)
Matt Gill (3:15:33) - Boston Qualified!!!
Dennis Haile (4:32:18)
Joe Kolbaba (4:14:51)
Dawn Mampreian (3:39:25) - Boston Qualified!!!
Arnez Nisperos (3:57:26)
Mimi Noonan (4:01:21)
Jim Wood (4:42:48)

Thanks Matt Condron for spotting me at Mile 24'ish. Small world!. It's was nice to FINALLY meet you. See ya at Farmdale next weekend. Good luck!! You'll take the ITUGS crown for sure.

Pictures and maybe some video will follow...stay tuned!

2008 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon Race Report

2008-10-07T08:43:00.009-05:00

This was my first year running the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon. There was a group of us that decided to run this race as a change of pace from the typical Fall marathon here in Chicago. After last year’s heat-a-thon, we decided to change the venue to something a bit smaller. Well, quite a bit smaller compared to the 45,000 runners at Chicago. We’ve heard many good things about the lakefront marathon from fellow ChiADead Janeth Salazar-Ohst, who won it in 2000, so we decided to sign up earlier in the year.

Kelly and I headed up to Milwaukee the day before the race to pick-up our race packets from the expo. The expo was small, about the size of a high school gym. I saw Joe Pulizzano, the race director of the MC200 relay race I’m participating in for 2009, so I thought it would be a good chance to say hello and ask if there were any changes from this past year’s race that we could expect for 2009. I was informed that there weren’t any changes at this point and that the race is going to be on the same course with the same transitions as far as they know right now. Other than getting that bit of information, Kelly and I did a quick walk-through, then left to check into our hotel at the Ramada.

We arrive at our hotel at around 4:45 pm, check-in, and then decide to go out to eat. We want to find an Italian restaurant, the desk clerk suggests a place, but when we get there, we hear that there’s over an hour wait due to all the reservations they have (the place is pretty empty at this hour, but okay). Anyways, she tells us we can eat at the bar, which has no seats available. Nice try. We opt not to stay and instead walk around a bit hoping to find another Italian joint somewhere close, but without luck. We do come across a Rock Bottom, so we decide to eat there. I have an oversized Chicken Fried Chicken dish and Kelly and I share a very tasty and hot pretzels/dip as an appetizer. Once we get back to the hotel after dinner, we start to prepare for the race a bit; reading the necessary race information, getting our clothes together, pinning the bibs on, etc. By the time we get done it’s about 9 pm, so we watch some TV to ease Kelly’s mind off the race. She’s really nervous about the race and doesn’t know why. It’s pretty cute to see. My approach to this race was that I was making it a training run and had no preconception as to how my performance was going to be. Just go with the flow. I didn’t even bring my watch to the race, as I didn’t care too much about splits.

On race morning, we wake up at 5 am, get ready and head on over and park at the finish area. Since it’s a point-to-point race starting at Grafton High School, we’re shuttled from the finish to the start in yellow school buses. I kind of felt like a kid again and I never seemed to feel so cramped back then. I hear our bus driver asking one of the runners in the first seat where she’s going. Apparently, she wasn’t given much information. It was a bit humorous, but we did get to the high school safe and sound. Upon arriving at the school, we were able to wait inside to keep warm. We take advantage of the indoor facilities, and then stretch a bit. We head outside with about 20 minutes to go and warm up a bit in the parking lot.

It’s finally time to line up so we do so at the 4 ½ hour corral.

Last minute announcements are provided and we’re given the green light to go.

The course is broken out into a couple of noticeable segments. Countryside occupies the first half of the course, while neighborhoods and lakefront runs occupy the second half. Kelly and I ended up running the entire race together and it was great to run with her. The first half of the race just seem to be effortless and we just sailed through it. We were both feeling great. I originally contemplated running ahead at about the ½ marathon point, but then shortly thereafter decided that I would run the entire race with her to help her reach her time goal since all year long she helps me reach my goals at the ultra races I do, which I told her this. I just felt that it would be selfish of me to run ahead given that this was her main event.

Ugh! How things changed. My abilities and wishes to help Kelly backfired and I was upset with myself for it. Kelly, the most awesome and supportive person there is, ended up helping me ONCE again. The time I wanted to help HER, things turned. I ended up having stomach issues between miles 14 and 16. It’s blurry at this point, but I was having problems where it was preventing me from running very fast. This went on for the rest of the race and it sucked. I ended up stopping a couple of times at a port-a-john. At Mile 16, I told Kelly to go on ahead and I’ll try to catch up to her, but Kelly being Kelly told me that she’d rather have this experience with me than to obtain a time that wasn’t going to be a PR for her. Wow! Well, I told her to at least keep walking and she did and it was almost an entire mile before I was able to finally catch up to her.

I felt better, but at this point, my feet were just hurting. I believe that my lack of good training and running on pavement (excluding the BLS F/X 24 hour run a month ago) pavement are the culprit coupled with the fact that I’m so used to walking during ultras and never string along 26 miles of straight running. How this could change with proper training, it wasn’t the case this time around. I did run the Rock Cut Hobo 50k race last weekend, but I’m not using that as an excuse because I felt fine leading into race day.

A few miles later at around 20 or so, I started to get the stomach issues again, but opted to try and ignore them so we could finish in sub-5 hours, a goal that Kelly threw out there with 3.2 miles and 39 minutes to go. Those last few miles were a struggle for me. With my feet hurting and my stomach aching I just wanted to be done with the race. Kelly was out in front of me prodding me along. There was a moment at Mile 25 that she almost fell flat on her face as she tripped over a curb. You can read more about it in her race report though. She thankfully saved herself from falling and was able to continue on. The last mile was on a bike path and through the park by the harbor. Once I was able to see the finish line I was so happy to be done running this race. I heard spectators as they watched for their runners to finish see the gun clock strike 4:59 and comment on it. I guess beating 5 hours is a big deal. Anyway, we did and finished holding hands in our chip time of 4:58.

After the race, we had a couple of pictures taken of us, then we proceeded to the nice spread of post-race food we partook in, had a cup of beer, then went to go eat pizza at Lou Malnati’s in Buffalo Grove, IL on our way home. Once we got there, we took our usual post-race naps. I woke up once between 5 pm and 6 am the next morning getting almost 12 hours of sleep. Nice! All-n-all it was an enjoyable experience sharing this marathon experience with Kelly even though the performance wasn’t the greatest. There are some things that are just more important than the time and effort put into a race and that’s the time and effort being put into each other; however, if one can share both, then all the better.

Kelly's Report is here

Links:
Race Website
Race Profile Map

Results:
Overall Race Results
Brian and Kelly

Photos:
Link to Photos

2008 Rock Cut Hobo 50K Race Report

2008-09-30T21:04:00.009-05:00

The Hobo 50k is in Rockford, IL put on by Larry Swanson and is the 3rd of a 4-race series comprising the Illinois Trail Ultra Grand Slam (ITUGS). On race morning, I overheard that about 90 or so runners registered for the race, but after looking at the results, only 70 finished. I'm thinking that there were several who didn't show.

Having never run in Rockford before, but having been to Rock Cut State Park, I was curious as to what these trails had to offer. I can honestly say that Rock Cut had a nice variety of trails to run (or mountain bike) on. I especially enjoyed the single track section of the trail more so than other sections; however, there was a taste of all trail sorts (double-wide grassy trail, single track, rocky somewhat rooted trail), a touch of pavement, and even a fairly decent shallow stream crossing. A bit of fun for everyone.

Leading up to race day, I wasn't mentally or even really physically prepared to run this race. I hadn't run since the Badgerland Striders F/X 24 hour on Labor day weekend. That's about 1 month folks. Not a great training regimen I would recommend to anyone. Having that much time off can really take a toll and get your mind off running. I didn't run because I wanted to give my badly blistered foot post BLS F/X time to heal, and yes, I could have run after 2-3 weeks, but I didn't want to risk damaging fresh feet.

I only really ran Hobo because I wanted to fulfill my slam requirements and well, quite frankly, need to get my butt moving anyhow. My feet have healed enough and I have a freakin' 100 miler in less than 7 weeks. Okay, enough of my excuses and on with the race.

It's always nice to see familiar faces at the races. The ultra community is fairly small and there aren't that many ultramarathons in the Illinois area, so it's common to see the same people at these things. Crew and pacer extraordinaire Kelly and I met up with fellow ChiA Dennis Duria to give him his newly designed ChiADeads running shirt, which we both wore at the race. Props go out to Dennis for obtaining a 50k trail PR by more than 15 minutes with a time of 5:44. We hung out with Dennis pre-race and I ended up running with Dennis for the first loop.

Had time to catch up with Chris Migotsky, CL RD, who had a solid and almost even split run. I had a chance to talk a bit more with Michael Matteson of Carbondale, whom I met at Mohican 100 in June and who is using this race as a tune-up for the inaugural Grindstone 100 this Friday in Virginia. Caught up running with Fernando Gallego, whom I met at the Chicago Lakefront 50k earlier this year, introduced myself to Scott Jacaway, who fellow ChiADead Ian Stevens crewed for at Badwater last year. It's a pretty tightly knitted community as you can see and it's easy to get wound up in it all. Even post-race, Dave Cameron of Palatine introduced himself as we've had some email correspondences, but had never before put a name to a face. Awesome!

So, yeah, the race, well, the plan was to go out and just have fun, right Kelly? That's what she told me. To just have lots of fun with it and treat it as a really good training run. No pressure, no nothing, just enjoy the day. Okay, check! Well, before you could say slow down, I got caught up in the moment and ended up running too fast with Dennis, who happens to be in tip-top shape despite eating tons of apple danishes over the last few weeks. We were running 10 minute miles and running all the ups/downs/flats for the most part. Life was good, running was going great. What I forgot was that this was a 50k, not a 25k.

Funny and true, we were running up a hill early in the race and passing Chris Migotsky and I said to him, "Don't even ask me why we're running up this". He replies "That's okay, to each their own". He knew, as well as I, that this was a mistake. Ha! I knew it would come back to haunt me; I wasn't fit enough to do that sort of thing. Sure enough Chris passes me at about Mile 16 and I never see him until I reach the finish line several hours later.

After finishing the first loop (15.5 miles) in 2:45, I was still feeling fine, no problems, I was somewhat tired, but still good to go. Well, I eventually started to deplete from my energy reserves. Going out to fast perhaps? yeah, maybe, it did cross my mind. More and more runners started to pass me; How depressing. I was probably running 12 minute miles at this point.

As I approached 20 miles or, I first felt like my right thigh was cramping up, but it quickly went away, but seconds later, pulled my groin muscle, or at least my groin started hurting. There's no specific time when I felt it pulled, but I just started feeling pain and it did hurt more when I was going up hills. As I write this now, it's not serious, but at the time it occurred, I didn't know what to suspect, so I opted to slow down and walk a lot more to not aggravate matters more. Should I have stopped? Maybe, probably. I know I wanted to and I was certainly taking a risk by moving forward, but I thought that if I go easy, that it might improve or work itself out. I'll tell ya, it was a long 10 miles to the finish, but I did it. Finished!. I ended up finishing the 2nd loop a full hour slower than my 1st one in 3:45. My finish time was 6:30:35. Not the best, but I'm still proud of it considering my (lack of) training and aches I had to deal with.

Great performances by both Christine Crawford and Ellen Erhardt in the woman's division with course records by both, but it's Christine Crawford who comes out on top with a time of 4:19:35. Overall winner was Ed Edinger of Capron, IL with a time of 4:13:44. Now, that's just way too fast for me.

Race Results

Race Video (Start):

Race Video (Finish):

Other Race Reports:
Dennis Duria
Chris Migotsky
Jason Zimmerman
GTI
Cathie Nagle
Norm Yarger

BLS F/X 24 Hour Race Report

2008-09-01T09:36:00.021-05:00

I was told that there are surprises every year with this race and this year was no exception. With what was supposed to be an event held at the Greendale High School 400m rubberized track turned out to be a 1/6 mile triangle route zoned out on the asphalt parking lot behind the high school. I found out about this change at about 6pm the night before when I checked my email and noticed a message from the race director. Heaven forbid if I didn't check my email before the race; I would have probably arrived at the high school and went home too like others being unaware of the change. It's safe to say that there were quite a few pissed off runners. As for myself, I wasn't happy with the change either for I would have much rather preferred running on the track versus a hot asphalt parking lot. Having never done a 24 hour event like this before I knew it was going to be difficult regardless, so bring it on.

My goals were:
1. Get past 14.5 hours on my feet without blistering up,
2. 85-90 Miles,
3. 100 Miles;

however, mostly, I just wanted to use this event as training for the Javelina Jundred 100 mile trail run on November 15th this year because it will touch upon many of the key components of a 100 miler. Distance, time, abilities, nutrition, sleep deprivation, determination, will power, crew training, the list goes on, so it was an important to complete this event to get better prepared for my next big race.

After gathering all the necessary gear, chit-chatting back-and-forth with others via emails the night before the race regarding this situation, I finally got to bed at 10pm. I woke up at 4:15am to get ready for my 2 hour ride to the high school. Kelly picked me up at 5 am and we headed north to Wisconsin. Kelly told me that I should get some sleep and so I took her up on her offer. I woke up with about 1 mile left to the high school. We arrived at 7am for an 8am start and noticed that we were the first ones to arrive other than the RD, chip timers, and some volunteers to help set up the start/finish area. I briefly chatted with the RD and asked where we could set up camp. Kelly and I started to set up our tent under a nice big tree that helped with shade during the heat of the day. It was in a small area in the grass near the treeline that offered shade on 1/3 of the course in the afternoon hours.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

After getting the tent and gear set up, I check in at registration to get my race bib, t-shirt, water bottle, and lap-to-mileage chart. Just few minutes before 8 am, we're notified that we'll officially start at 8:06 am. In minutes just before the start, RD is asking for a majority vote on the number of hours between directional switches; which we all agree to two hours. Now that that has been resolved, the gun goes off, which happens to just be the RD say "Go", and off we are in a sprint. Well, not really, but I was in the lead for the first 30 strides or so at a 12 min/mile pace. It actually felt pretty weird and uncomfortable to be ahead of everyone; something I'm not used to.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

In the beginning of the race I was trying to settle into a comfortable pace. It took a few laps before I was able to self-regulate, but got the hang of 2 minutes laps around this 1/6th mile route, which equates to 12 minute miles. This was a comfortable pace to do while not going out too fast, but banking enough time for any breaks that I may need to take. The first 4 hours were pretty uneventful pace-wise as I was pretty consistently dead on at 2 minutes per lap. I had music going and was in cruise control. My first four-hour lap splits were (30, 60, 90, and 117). There were a few other 24 hour runners that were cruising along ahead of me at a pretty good clip (Kathleen Rytman, Richard and Jimmy Prucesky -- father/son combo). Of course, it was impressive watching Christine Crawford do her thing in the 12 hour event lapping me every 1.5 laps. She kept this up for a long time. Dang, I wish I was that fast.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

As the day progressed, the temperatures increased and so did my walk breaks that were interspersed with my running. Kelly told me that temperatures reached to 89 degrees, which meant that the blacktop was hotter. Kelly made sure that I had ice in my bandana for my neck to help lower my body temperature, making sure that I was taking my S-caps and Gu's at the appropriate times; also, ensuring that I had enough to drink at all times. For lunch, I had a small sub sandwich that was offered at the aid station, but mostly stuck to a liquid diet for most of the day.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

A nice treat was a sprinkler shower system that the RD rigged up with a ladder. It was nice to periodically go through that to cool down. In the hotter hours of the day, I rotated my shoes every few hours to allow for them too cool down between wears. I didn't get blisters until late in the afternoon; however, I tried to prevent that by taking care of any hot spots I might of had during my sock changes. My prevention method was the use of lambs wool and toe spacers. Perhaps another method could have worked better, but that's all part of the learning experience.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

My afternoon laps involved a bit more walking on primarily the inclined sections of the route depending on the direction we were going. My pace did slow down a bit, as the results show, largely due to the interspersed walking and shoe/sock changes. I may have had a low moment in there somewhere, but wasn't readily apparent mentally. As the evening hours rolled in and the sun started to set, I started to feel revitalized; sort of a second wind. I remember it happening about 7:30 pm or so; I really unleashed and started running really strong, then taking my walk breaks up the inclines and still getting a lap completed before or at 2 minutes. This kept on for maybe 3 hours until Connie Karras arrived to help Kelly support and crew me.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

Now, Connie was going to run the 24 hour event until she was sickened by the news that the venue was changed last minute in the night before to now be on the asphalt parking lot behind the high school instead of the 400m rubberized track. As a result of miscellaneous reasons, she opted not to do the race, but wished me luck.

The following day, she was in contact with Kelly during the day via phone asking about my progress. Kelly informed me sometime in the afternoon that Connie wanted to come up in the evening to help her crew and support me if that was okay with me. My first reaction knowing that it's quite the distance to drive to the race was, "Really? Wow! That's big of her; Didn't I feel special now?". Well, I was certainly more than happy to have her help if she was willing to drive all that way from her home in NW Indiana. I'm sure that Kelly didn't mind the company either. It's a long time out there and some company to talk with is always good. So, that's what she did and she got to the race at about 10:30 pm.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

When Connie arrived, I was starting to walk...a lot! I had just treated my blisters for the second time, but by this time, my feet just plain hurt and were really sensitive to the pounding of the pavement. Over the course of the night, I was walking 10 to 15 (1/6th of a mile) laps per hour. Not the greatest pace, but I was moving.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

My feet started to blister up again sometime during the evening and hurt. I should have stopped to take care of the blisters, but I didn't and kept on walking. Well, I lived and learned; next time I'll pay more attention to something like that. As I was walking, I remember hearing all the bug noises. Yep, it was the dead of the night. Very quiet and even though I had Kelly, Connie, and some other runners (walkers), I was still feeling pretty alone out there. Maybe because I was sleep walking ;-). No, but I did manage to get in a couple of 20-minute nap breaks while sitting in a chair, so that helped a bit.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

As the morning sun rose on Sunday morning, so did my energy. There's something about that sun that is so invigorating. It did something to my mental spirit; physically, I was still a mess, but seeing the sun meant that I was almost done with the race. Just a couple more hours and I'll be able to rest. As the sun did come up, so did some people who slept the night away in there tent or home. Some runners from the previous day/night came back out to get a few more miles in.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

Well, it was that time. The clock read 23:57 and some number of seconds left. I was crossing the finish line along side a father/son combo who happened to be crossing the finish line running; well, they continued on for one more lap, so I decided to follow and "RUN" the last lap. It hurt, but I didn't think I'd be able to finish the lap walking. I finished the lap with a few seconds on the clock. The RD told me to continue and he'd measure the distance to where I'd stop, which we agreed he'd add 27 ft. to my distance :-).

Aaaaahhhhh! I'm finally done! 2nd place overall with 70.75 miles + a few bathroom trip (larger) laps + 27 ft, so that will bring me probably 71 miles and some change. I haven't seen the final results yet and I'm not sure when they will be posted if at all. I think I'm supposed to get some sort of award for 1st male, but we'll see.

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

Race website

Daaaaang, that was a long time and I was sooo happy that I was able to stop moving. We all chatted a bit at the finish and snapped some photos, but not for too long; we had some post-race breakfast to partake in. I forget the restaurant already, but part of our entry fee included a free breakfast. I started to feel really tired at breakfast and really needed to leave before face-planting in my pancakes. We left and before I knew it, was home in my driveway. Two hours flew by so fast as I was fast asleep on the way home.

Congratulations to the overall 24-hour event winner, Kathleen Rytman, who ran 97 miles. Thank you to all the volunteers who spent so many boring hours helping us do what we needed to do. Congratulations to all the other 12 & 24 hour runners who I was able to run alongside and who accomplished their goals. Thank you Kelly for helping me accomplish my goals and crewing and supporting me all day and night long. It means the world to me. Thank you Connie for being such a good spirited person with a positive outlook. I appreciate your willingness to help others and "pay it forward". Your generosity it greatly appreciated and I learned so much. Lastly, thank you to all the ChiADeads who sent there well-wishes to me during the race. Kelly passed them along to me and they were motivating factors in my completing this event. You all made this event truly memorable.

The Aftermath:

From Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run

My feet were swollen and blistered like crazy. It hurt to go from sitting to walking into my house from the car. I stayed home Labor day and opted out of going to spectate the Oak Brook Half Marathon that Kelly and other ChiADeads were running in. I did go to work on Tuesday, but shouldn't have. I feet swelled up and I was walking so darn slow. I needed to have them elevated. Good thing my commute doesn't involve much walking. On Tuesday, I worked from home, so I was able to elevate my legs and they felt better. By Thursday/Friday, I was walking pretty normal. I did some foot cleanup and now I just need to let the fresh skin callus up, so I can run again without easily getting blisters.

Other Blogs About the Race:
Live updates from Kelly Roe

Connie Karras writes about my experience

My Photos taken by Kelly Roe

My blistered foot pictures (if you so dare)

Dave O'Brien Photos of both 12 & 24 Hour events

Support Crew Blogs:
Kelly Roe
Connie Karras

Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run - Crew News from the Parking Lot

2008-08-30T09:20:00.030-05:00

(Posted by Kelly)

This post will be updated periodically throughout the day. I will give updates of Brian's progress as he runs the Badgerland F/X 24 Hour Run today.

Pre-Race

We left Bartlett at 5:00am to get to Greendale, WI, which is near Milwaukee. The course is at the local high school. It was originally supposed to be held on the 400m track, but due to some construction in progress on the football field there, the course now was in the large blacktop parking lot behind the school. It is a triangular 1/6 mile loop. Focusing on the positive points of this change, we were able to set up our tent in a shaded area that is still close to the course, and my car is parked right here, too. After arriving at about 6:45am for the 8:00am start, we set up the tent and Brian took care of last minute preparations.

Ready, Set, GO!

The race actually started at about 8:06, with 8 people (1 woman, 7 men) raring to go at the start line when the RD shouted GO! to begin the race.

I have been trying to keep Brian going no faster than 2min/lap (12:00mpm pace). He is doing pretty well at that. Periodically I will be checking on how many laps he has completed. The race is chip-timed, but there is also a volunteer manually counting laps.

Race Stats and Notes (will get updated periodically):
9:07am - 1hr1min - 32 laps - 5.47mi - 11:17mpm

10:00am - 2hrs - 60 laps - 10.25mi - 11:42mpm

11:10am - 3hrs4min
Brian stopped to change his shoes. He says he's feeling pretty good, a little tired. He says that the course isn't too bad (I'll ask him about that later on ;-)).

12:00pm - 4hrs - 117 laps - 20mi - 12:00mpm
Now we're at the heat of the day, 84 degrees and sunny, clear blue skies. Brian has his ice-filled bandana wrapped around his neck and he is incorporating walk breaks more regularly, not pushing too hard. At 9am, some 12-hour runners started (including Christine Crawford), and then a couple more showed up at noon. I think there's about 18-20 people out there right now.

1:00pm - 5hrs - 134 laps - 22.9mi - 13:06mpm
During the past hour, Brian has slowed his pace with the walking breaks, and also spent time changing shoes. The pavement has to make it feel warmer than 84 degrees.

3:00pm - 7hrs - 178 laps - 30.42mi - 13:48mpm
Dang, it is pretty hot out here, my car says 88 degrees. I took a little nap, maybe 1/2 hour, in the tent. The sun started to really heat up the tent, so I decided to get up and will wait until a little later to take a less sweaty nap.

Brian looks good and he is in good spirits. He seems to be doing pretty well with fluid and energy intake. He keeps chugging along!

5:00pm - 9hrs - 220 laps - 37.6mi - 14:22mpm
6:00pm - 10hrs - 226 laps - 38.62mi - 15:32mpm
Between 5 and 6pm, Brian took a break to treat a couple of blisters, including a nasty one on his left little toe. When he got back on course, the shoes that he just switched into were really hitting that toe the wrong way, so he decided to change back into the shoes he was wearing. After a couple more laps, Brian was feeling a little light-headed, so he came to lie down in the tent for a little while. He ate some PB&J, changed his shirt and hat, and he felt better. It's now 6:20pm and he is running well. Luckily a lot more of the course is shaded, which brings some welcome relief.

7:00pm - 11hrs - 252 laps - 43.07mi - 15:19mpm
Brian's goal for the 6:00-7:00pm hour was to run the most of the laps. He looked really strong and seemed to get out of the funk he was in. Now the sun is setting which brings much more favorable running conditions.

11:00pm - 15hrs - 314 laps - 51.95mi - 16:10mpm
Brian had a really good couple of hours from 7:00-9:00pm, and then he took some time to treat more blisters. His right little toe is one big crazy blood blister, and on the other foot it was the ball of his foot he had to take care of. It's pretty amazing to me that he's able to get back on his feet and keep going. He is aiming for 80-85 miles. Connie Karras is here now to help crew (got here at 10:30pm) -- she is a welcome presence!

12:00am - 16hrs - 331 laps - 56.57mi
1:00am - 17rs - 341 laps - 58.28mi
2:00am - 18hrs - 356 laps - 60.84mi
3:00am - 19hrs - 369 laps - 63.06mi
4:00am - 20hrs - 377 laps - 64.43mi
5:00am - 21hrs - 382 laps - 65.28mi
6:00am - 22hrs - 391 laps - 66.82mi
7:00am - 23hrs - 402 laps - 68.7mi
8:00am - 24hrs - 414 laps - 70.75mi (2nd overall - 8 participants)

It will be posting more pictures soon (need some sleep first :-)). It was a tough night as blister problems prevented Brian from running very much in the later hours. He did take a 20min nap in the 3-4am hour. Connie and I were able to walk with him to keep him company for most of the night. Brian ended strong by running the last lap. He was very happy to be finished. There was a lot of learning to be had for both Brian and me (thanks for all of the advice, Connie!) to plan and prepare for future races.

After getting packed up, we met up with the other participants for breakfast before heading home. Now it's time to sleep!

Photos:

Chicago's Bastille Day 5k Race Report

2008-07-13T08:14:00.010-05:00

RACE WEBSITE

This year, the Bastille Day 5k race on July 10 marked the 3rd anniversary of when I started running. How time flies. Well, I just got back from Colorado on Tuesday night from running the Leadville Marathon, so I didn’t have any expectations at this race; however, I was recovering quickly from the marathon; something I’m able to do rather quickly these days. Nonetheless, I was just going to go out and run how I felt. No watches, no water, no headphones, just me, my disposable timing chip, and the pavement for 3.1 miles.

As a result of running ultra marathons, it’s been a while since I ran a race with so many other runners. There were 2,675 finishers to be exact. There’s a small group of us that work together running this race, some of who are also fellow ChiADeads (Kelly Roe, Janeth Salazar-Ohst, and Paul Clement). It’s nice that our employer pays our entry fee into this race as part of their fitness program, but this attracts the fair-weather runner crowd who won’t step outside if it’s raining. As a result of the big storms passing through, what was originally going to be 26 fellow employees running this race, ended up being a little over a handful.

With the exception of Janeth, who lined up at the front of the starting corral, several of us (Kelly, Paul, and co-workers Jim Wood, Dave Metzger, and Kim Heitzman) lined up a hundred feet or so behind the front-runners. The seconds counted down, the gun fired, and we were off, but it took about 37 seconds to cross the start line. Once we did I headed out to just run how I felt. Again, no watch, so I was only going on how I felt. I didn’t care if I ran this race slower than molasses. The thought was to have fun with it and just get those legs moving again.

As I start off, I’m slowed down behind a few sets of runners who lined up in twos and threes aside each other, so I have to weave around them. This is pretty typical, but I have to maneuver through the crowds for about the first half mile. In hindsight, maybe I just lined up too far back. When I passed the Mile 1 clock, it read 0:08:25 (Real time would be 0:07:48). When I reached Mile 2, the clock read some arbitrary time. Something like 4:12:53, I forget exactly, but this was obviously a time more conducive of a marathon time versus a 5k race, so I ignored it. When I reached the Mile 3 clock, it read 0:24:00 (Real time would be 0:23:23 = 7:48/mile). That makes my first 3 miles virtually even splits. The last .1 mile to the finish line, the clock read 0:24:46 (Real time would be 0:24:09). This indicates that I sped up the last .1 mile at a 7:40 pace even though it didn’t feel like it. My overall average pace was 7:47.

Based on the fact that I was running without a watch and running virtually even splits and that I haven’t been doing any speed training, I’m pretty excited about my results.

Final Results: 24:09 (7:47/mile)

Other ChiADead Results
Congratulations to Janeth, who placed 1st in her age group F40-44, 6 female overall, and 88 overall with a time of 19:09 (6:11/mile).

Kelly finished with a time of 28:24 (9:10/mile)
Paul finished with a time of 25:55 (8:22/mile)

RACE RESULTS

Leadville Trail Marathon Race Report

2008-07-09T08:27:00.008-05:00

RACE WEBSITE

RACE RESULTS

My 2007 Race Report

I flew into Denver on Tuesday, July 1st then drove to my sister-and-family’s house in Colorado Springs. Later that evening, I ran at the Garden of the Gods.

On Thursday, I drove up to Leadville, checked into the Leadville Hostel and shortly after, ran around Ball Mountain for a training run. As can be seen in my video, I was quite winded, but my run went well.

SPOT Tracking

Fast forward to Saturday morning and with little acclimatization, temperatures were in the low 50’s at the start of the race. It was warmer than last year as temperatures were in the lower 40’s. As we lined up in the starting corral, the RD mentioned that some of the pink ribbons/flags were taken by vandals this year, but that he went out the day before and earlier this morning to make sure that the course was properly and sufficiently marked. Thankfully, I already knew the course, so I wasn’t concerned. The traditional shotgun goes off and we’re off.

I run most of the uphill on street and dirt road until we reach the rocky path leading to the top of Iron Mountain. It’s at this point that I start power-walking for the next hour. This hike brings back memories from last year as being time-intensive. Nothing changed. I kept thinking to myself "when was I going to reach the top of the hill". It just seemed endless. I was getting a bit light-headed on this climb and when I reached the aid station I wasn’t feeling the greatest. This concerned me; I sat down for a moment when I reached the first aid station. I then got up and needed to get out of there, so I took off on the short descent before having to ascend again.

I was more familiar with this next section around Ball Mountain as I just ran it on Thursday. For those that don’t know, the mountains have had more snow this year than last, so when I approached the northeast side of the mountain, there was a bed of snow that I avoided on Thursday that I ran through during the race. It wasn’t much, but did manage to slip a bit crossing over it trying to step in other people’s foot prints. By the time I loop Ball Mountain and reach the aid station, I’m feeling a pit in my stomach and not feeling quite right. I meet John Jaros from Aurora, IL (just 30 minutes from where I live) at this next aid station. It’s funny how small this running community can be at times.

I start to feel a bit better on my way to the base of Mosquito Pass and skip the aid station to keep going. As I make my way about 100 yards or so past the aid station, the lead runner is running back to the start. I do a double-take because I think that it’s a female. I start thinking, could it be guy with longer hair? Nope, a female was in fact winning this race at the moment, which is not a common occurrence. As minutes passed, so did more and more runners. This was the section when runners were returning from Mosquito Pass, which is 13,185 ft. It took me quite a bit longer to get to the top this year.

It was easy to notice this because I only stopped to gasp for more air about a dozen or so more times than last year. As I was hiking at snail’s pace up to Mosquito Pass, I was getting light-headed and feeling nauseous. There were several times when I felt liking getting sick on the side of the trail, but managed to avoid it. Another runner, seeing that I was struggling, asked me if she had something that I might be able to use to help feel better. I told her thanks, but thought that I’d be okay. At one time during my stall I looked to see how many runners were behind me and when I did I saw that the 4 or 5 runners behind me were all stopped. It actually made me chuckle.

I finally reached the top in 1 hr 40 minutes and took a break before making my descent. I noticed that it wasn’t as cold as last year at the top of Mosquito Pass, but cold enough to put my sleeves on. I then headed back down to Resurrection pass in 40 minutes. On my descent, I started to feel a little less light-headed, which was good, but I still had a pit in my stomach, so something still didn’t feel quite right. I did manage to move up a few ranks by passing some of those who passed me on the ascent. My downhill game was much better than my uphill game this year. I found that I was able to run very easily on all downhill portions of the course. As easy as it may sound, it’s not always the case when you’re running in the mountains.

When I reached Ball Mountain again, I had to go the opposite direction than before. As I approached and passed a runner, Matt Cullen, he asked me if I was from Chicago, which I said that I was. He then proceeded to ask me if I have been posting information on my blog about the Leadville Marathon, which I said I have been. He then told me that it was the only information he could find about the course that would get him prepared for it. Naturally, I had felt that I have served a purpose in my blogging efforts and was really happy that it actually helped someone. Sometimes I wonder if people actually read the stuff that I write or look at the photos and videos that I upload. I’m glad that they do. Matt and I end up leap-frogging each other until we complete our revolution around Ball Mountain. He wasn’t able to run the downhills and I wasn’t able to do well on the uphills, so we would catch up to each other for awhile.

As I left the next aid station, it was close to 4 miles to the finish line and I ran the entire distance and move up a few more ranks by passing some additional runners who passed me on the hike up Mosquito Pass. At this point I was just trying to beat my last year’s time, which was 7:17; however, I was about a mile shy of hitting this. I ended up finishing in 7:24 this year. When I finished, elite ultramarathoner, Anton Krupicka, who "owns" the Leadville trails, put the finisher’s medal around my neck. I introduced myself and we chatted for a brief moment.

After the race, I hung around for about 10 minutes before heading back to the hostel to clean up before the awards ceremony. I asked the RD who won the race and with a smile on her face, she told me that a female named Keri Nelson did. Wow, I thought it might be, but wanted to confirm it. It’s rare that a woman wins overall running events, but this year it was and I’m glad that I was able to participate in a race where this happened. Her winning time was 3:58. At the awards ceremony she received a standing ovation from everyone.

As much as I like the Leadville Marathon for its beauty and awesome challenges, I won’t be back next year for it; however, I will be stepping it up and heading back with Kelly the following month for bigger challenges. What will it be? One clue is that Kelly is stepping it up and will be a part of it too, but I’ll post more about it in the weeks to come, so stay tuned.

Leadville Marathon & SPOT Tracking

2008-07-04T20:47:00.004-05:00

I will be wearing my SPOT sattelite messenger on my belt during the race. There shouldn't be a problem with tree coverage at this race, so the unit should work just fine. The marathon starts at 8 A.M. Mountain Time. I hope to be finished between 1:30 P.M. and 2:30 P.M. My goal is somewhere around 6 hours. I hope this isn't unrealistic; I'm really shooting in the dark though here because I only really acclimated less than one week and I don't have a stress fracture. Last year, I finished in 7:17 with a stress fracture. We'll see what this year brings.

TRACK ME (via SPOT)

Here is a map of the course

Here is the profile of the course

Leadville 5K & 4th of July Parade

2008-07-04T20:32:00.003-05:00

Today, I went downtown to watch the 5k and the 4th of July parade. It was a pretty hoppin' place to be in the morning hours. There were a few people from the Leadville Hostel running the race; John Ramsay (5th), Mike Allen (8th), and Matt Mahoney (15th).

Leadville 5K photos

4th of July parade

Ball Mountain Trail Run

2008-07-03T23:20:00.005-05:00

Shortly after I checked into the Leadville Hostel, I drove up to Ball Mountain and ran around it to get an altitude training run in on part of the course trail.

Here is video (23 minutes) with narration of my trail run. After checking the course map, this trail is from miles 3.8 to 7.1 on the way out and from miles 19.1 to 22.4 on the way back from Mosquito Pass. Ignore my mileage in the narration.

Click here to read my last year's race report. It contains video of my hike up to Mosquito Pass.

Photos of drive from Colorado Springs to Leadville, CO

2008-07-03T22:25:00.005-05:00

I drove up to Leadville, CO from Colorado Springs via US-24. Here are my photos from the drive up.

Garden of the Gods Training Run

2008-07-02T08:44:00.007-05:00

I'm in Colorado right now visiting with my sister and family for a couple of days before I head up to Leadville for the marathon on Saturday morning. They're living in Colorado Springs for the time being about 5 minutes from the Air Force Academy, which is pretty close also to the Garden of the Gods.

I went out for my first trail run last night since Mohican 100 and I can say that I was huffin' and puffin' at this altitude. It was a nice run; although I had no plan for which trails I was going to run. I was just running. I did get a chance to try out Lambs Wool that I heard about while at the pre-race meeting at MO100. It works pretty well in that it didn't irritate my sensitive spots that I have already. I also tried toe spacers, which also seemed to work pretty good. Am I onto something? Hmmm.

Well, if you look at the map above in more detail (just click on it), it turns out that I started from the "Main Parking Area"

then followed the Palmer Trail to the West, then South, hooking up with Cabin Canyon Trail, then Siamese Twins Trail, then back up Palmer Trail.

View Larger Map

I had SPOT real-time tracking me and here are those results as well.

Here is a video of my trail run

Mohican Trail 100 Race Report

2008-06-22T20:00:00.024-05:00

For those of you who are in a hurry to get somewhere else, I'll give you the short and skinny on my performance this weekend. I decided to end my first 100 mile race early at 52.2 Miles due to blistering issues on my feet that resorted to me just walking at this point. Save myself for another day. Read more if you want to learn more details about my race.

Course Map

I guess the best way to start this report is to recall why I chose to do the Mohican Trail 100 Miler. Well, instead of repeating what I already wrote, you can read more about that here.

Once I publically announced that I was doing this race, I received many questions and/or comments, but mostly comments from those that don't run ultramarathons. If you have done a 50 or 100 miler, then you know what I'm talking about.

========================================

Most commonly, I received...

"100 MILES", Are you crazy?

"100 MILES", << person shakes head in disbelief and thinks I'm an idiot >>

"100 MILES", that's just too far

but, commonly followed by...

Wow, why would you ever want to do that? I don't even like to drive 100 miles.

Now, do you run this all at once?

How long will it take you? ...Really? << person shakes head in disbelief thinking I'm an idiot >>

I didn't even know there were races out there like this.

Better you than me

========================================

As you can see, before the race even happens, it is easy to build up self doubt after hearing all the initial comments like the ones above. The best thing I can do is maintain positive thoughts and know that I can finish 100 miles. I take everyones comments in stride, trust my training, and believe in my abilities. Now, I just need to put it into action.

The night before the race

Fast forwarding to race weekend, Kelly and I drove up Friday and checked into our hotel in Ashland, OH, then went to the pre-race festivities on Friday night at the Mohican Wilderness, which included a pasta buffet and pre-race meeting. This is when I started to feel some butterflies in my stomach. I kept it in check and didn't want to get too nervous.

After dinner, I placed my drop bags (personal aid stations) in the appropriate locations so they would get transported to where I needed them during the race (Rock Point, Covered Bridge, and Pine Grist Mill).

After getting our picture taken by fellow Chicago runner, Kent Green, we headed back to our hotel since it was getting late already. Others just camped right next to the starting line as can be seen in the photo below.

Campgrounds for the runners

The Hotel Debacle

By the time we got back to our hotel, it was about 11:00 P.M. I wanted to take a shower so my feet had time to harden up after the shower. I go to turn on the shower and the water does not turn on. Oh great! a broken shower. Just what I need. We call to the front desk and after 15 minutes the clerk shows up and says that he can't fix it, but can "upgrade" us to a suite. How could this guy claim that he's "upgrading" us at 11:15 P.M. at night when I'm waking up at 2:30 A.M.? Ummm, I don't think so. He takes us to the suite, which is a bit warm. The clerk turns on the air and tells us that it should cool down in about 15 minutes. That's fine. I finally take a shower, but that 15 minutes never comes. I end up sleeping on the sagging sleeper sofa nearest the air conditioner for a semi-cool few hours of sleep. Long story short, not the best way to begin a 100 mile weekend.

The morning of...

2:30 A.M. rolls around and the alarms go off. I've prepared everything beforehand and it does not take us long to get ready in the morning. We leave at 3:15 A.M. and head for the race starting area, wich is about 30 minutes from the hotel. We arrive and find that we're one of the first ones up and ready to go. Kelly gets a photo of me eating some pre-race breakfast and looking all nervous.

Organization: Notice how organized we are in the back of Kelly's car ;-). We've got a Kelty Binto Bar with 9 shoe-sized plastic bins (not pictured) with all sorts of supplies, larger plastic bins for food storage, a cooler with cold beverages, and color coded Binto bags having different types of clothing for whatever the day might bring. In another post, as Sherpa John Lacroix has in the past, I might show how one might organize their gear in a Kelty Binto Bar for an ultramarathon.

Over the next 30 minutes, runners start to trickle in, I'm feeling pre-race jitters at this point. I'm talking with Kent Green (fellow Chicago runner) and finally meet Kentucky runner, Ed Kirk. Both Kent and Ed decided to do this race last minute.

The race starts at 5:00 A.M. sharp, but as 4:55 A.M. rolls around people are still talking in the pavilion and not lined up at the starting area. I line up somewhere in the middle excited for this race to get underway.

Yeah, the ultramarathons are little bit more laid back when compared to a 5k race and people are all ready to go 20 minutes beforehand. Not the case here, besides, what's the hurry, we'll be out there ALL DAY. Definitely, a different breed of runners than your typical 5k'ers.

Race Starts

Photo courtesy of Lee Brazel

It's 5:00 A.M. and the race starts. It's dark, but I have my headlamp turned on. We're running up the trail and passing tents until the main gravel road. I find myself getting into a comfortable slow 11:30 min/mile pace. This is probably too fast, but seems pretty effortless at the time, so I just stick with it. I'm not striking up any conversations at this time as I'm focused on conserving as much energy as I can. At the beginning of the race it seems like there's tons of typical chatter primarily about how training is going, the races they just completed, future races, whether they did this race last year, etc. I just sit back and listen to everyone else and let time pass by.

Landoll's Castle (4.9 Miles)

The focus while on the run was just to get to the next aid station and not think about having 95, 90, 85, etc. miles to go. It's too overwhelming otherwise. I approached the first aid station, Landoll's Castle in what seemed to come up pretty fast (about 58 minutes). It may not seem fast to you, but that's a sub 20-hour pace and my goal finish time was sub 27-hours (16:12 min/mile). Again, I just went with what felt like a natural pace. I filled up my bottle of water and continued on.

Handler Location 2 (~7 Miles)

As I approached handler location 2 at about Mile 7, I unexpectedly saw Kelly. Based on our race plan, Kelly was supposed to be getting some rest at this point of the race so she was well rested to take care of me and pace me later in the race. She informs me that they won't let her in at Rock Point until 52 miles. We missed the boat when planning this one, but it wasn't the end of the world. Instead she would just see me at Fire Tower, which is 18.6 miles into the race. Kelly told me that I was going a bit fast, gave me a new bottle, and I continued on.

Rock Point (10 Miles)

As I approach Rock Point I felt that I had a blister or hot spot already forming on the bottom of my foot, so I took some time to take off my socks, clean up my feet, re-lubricate with Vaseline, and change into another pair of socks. As I'm prepping my foot a Canadian runner notices my Miwok 100k shirt I was wearing and asks if I did that race this year. He says that he did it too, but had to drop at Bolinas Ridge. In any case, wished each other luck in this race and I continued on. As I continued on I saw Ed Kirk on the trail and passed him and another group of runners on the downhill towards the first stream crossing.

When I got to the first stream crossing, I was debating whether to use the plastic bags technique, but the crossing was just small enough to probably avoid getting the feet wet, so I was gingerly stepping on stones across the stream, but when my bottle popped out of the holster and started floating down the stream all bets were off, I just plunged into the water to capture my bottle before it sailed away. Just my luck ;-). Okay, so now I have my bottle back where it needs to be and continue on to the South Point. On this section, I caught up with a train of runners on single track that were moving at a pretty comfortable pace for me so I joined along for the ride and listened to some of the conversations being had.

South Point (14.3 Miles)

Photo courtesy of Jason McCabe

I refilled my bottles and continued on and after a short bit another stream crossing came about. It was small enough to just jump over, so I was thankful for that. As we opened up to a wider section, I ran ahead and continued on at what seemed like a pretty good pace. There were some pretty significant hills to climb in this section that seemed to go on forever and straight up opposed to a bunch of switchbacks. I was cruising along at this point and was feeling pretty good coming into the Fire Tower aid station.

Fire Tower (18.6 Miles)

When I came into Fire Tower, Kelly had asked me if I've been taking my gels and S!Caps. I responded by saying yes, religiously every 45 minutes for the gels and 2 per hour for the S!Caps. I asked Kelly how far I had run and the distance to the next aid station. I told her I was feeling great and still at a sub-20 hour pace.

Photo courtesy of Jason McCabe

Timing sheet - Bib #39

Kelly wished me well and told that she'll see me in a few hours at Pine Run Grist Mill aid station area 15 miles away. I thanked her and continued on to Covered Bridge.

As I headed out of Fire Tower I was in a groove and still feeling well. I was alert and had no signs of crash and burning mentally. We call that "no bonking" and I was very happy about that. There was a 50 miler who was close on my tracks using me as a pacer to get him through. We all help each other out here and I'll use people in front of me to help pace me too. It seems to help the back runner from having to think too much. In any case, the runner behind me asked if I do these hundreds often. I respond with "nope, it's my first one". He was taken back a bit since I was doing pretty well at this point. We were nearing the Covered Bridge aid station and I wouldn't see him again as the 50 milers take a different loop than the 100 milers starting at Covered Bridge.

Covered Bridge (21.1 Miles)

As I came into Covered Bridge, or what some people call Grand Central station, I was greeted and immediately asked if I needed my drop bag. There were chairs set up for runners to sit. I liked the set up; I said yes, but after sitting down and thinking about what I needed, I didn't really need anything afterall. I just wanted to continue on.

The aid station volunteer refilled both my bottles and brought them back to me right away. I only took a couple pieces of watermelon, asked how many runners passed through this aid station so far. I was told that I was runner #77 for both 50 and 100 milers. Wow, pretty good, considering that there are close to 200 entrants between both races.

Looking back, I probably should have changed socks here, but I didn't. I think my feet felt fine at this point or perhaps I was just blocking it out. I took off, thanked the volunteers for their great efforts and headed towards the orange loop to Hickory Ridge aid station.

To me, this next section was the most difficult so far. It was primarily all uphill with a bunch of switchbacks and seemed to go on forever. No, I wasn't bonking here as you might think. It was just a really hard section for me physically.

Hickory Ridge (26.3 Miles)

When I reached Hickory Ridge, I was tired, but still with it. I had some ice put into my bandana as it was pretty hot out there at this time of the day. I refilled my bottles. By this time, my blisters were starting to affect me and I knew that I was going to have problems shortly. I overhead one of the other runners asking about our pace and I think that Colleen mentioned that we were on a 24 hour pace.

Colleen took a couple of pictures of me and other first-time 100 milers coming into the aid station. I'm not sure if I'll make the final cut of whatever she's planning for first-time 100 milers. It's probably just about the finishers as it should be.

I headed out and this next section was mostly downhill and involved many switchbacks. I wasn't running as fast on this section as the blisters were getting to me, but they didn't get worse until I neared 30 miles. I tried to hang onto a group of runners as long as I could to get to the next aid station at Pine Run Grist Mill, which is almost 7 miles away. It was the longest section between aid stations and it did feel like a long time.

As I came off the trail and into the open, Kelly was there waiting for me. She directed me where the aid station was and told me it was about 1 mile. It wasn't that far away, but the fact that we did this funky loop out-and-back thing, it made for a mile to get to it. I told Kelly what I wanted ahead of time and that I wanted her to set up shop for me.

Pine Run Grist Mill (33.1 Miles)

I was happy to get to the aid station. It was heavily populated with spectators and I received some warm welcomes into the aid station. I hung around for about 10 minutes at the aid station and refueled. I headed back out and did the reverse loop out-and-back thing and made it back and happy to see Kelly there waiting for me all organized.

I was told that SPOT wasn't working since 4:45 A.M., so we changed the position of SPOT to be on my belt and not inside the waiste pack. I sat down and we worked in parallel. I was in disarray and as I was figuring out what I needed, Kelly was asking me what I needed and getting those things out of the bins for me. I know I needed to change socks, shirt, reapply lube, drink some cold water. My feet hurt at this point and needed to attend to some blisters and hot spots. I was getting upset because I saw a bunch of people passing by while I was sitting down for so long and could make good progress on my foot problems (perhaps be out of view next time). I was crabby, but Kelly managed me well and assured me that I needed to take care of my feet so I could continue. I sat for 40 minutes, which was way too long though. I ended up leaving and Kelly figured I was on a 28-hour pace. Shit!

Yes, you can sense the crabbiness in this photo

but, I still leave with a smile

As I head out on this trail, it is fairly flat, but is very close to the Mohican River and gets pretty technical in a few spots; One loss of balance will send you into the river. I pass Ed Kirk in this section, which he tells me he's having some stomach issues due to drinking too much at the last aid station and needs to walk it off. I run most of this section, but only at a slow trot. I finally approach Covered Bridge and since it's the first time on the orange loop, we go through the Mohican River, which is at a depth to the knees. It's about a 50-foot crossing and I manage to get through it without falling.

Covered Bridge (38.3 Miles)

As I enter the aid station, I get my bottles refilled, sit down and treat the hotspots and blisters that I treated just a few miles back. I change socks and after a short bit, I head out on the purple loop.

My Foot photo courtesy of Lee Brazel

I pass a guy who calls out my name. It is Mike Matteson, who reads my blog and I chat with him for a bit. I also see and briefly chat with a guy (forgot the name) that I met at Miwok last month. He tells me that it took him about 1 hour to do this 4 mile section and there was some climbing. Great, with my feet, I'll surely take longer.

Photo courtesy of echoguy

Well, he was right, this next section was very technical. It had me stepping in between large rocks, climbing over fallen tree trunks, maneuvering small streams, and climbing up a steep wall while grasping onto the roots of a tree to get up the trail. It was so beautiful in this area, which was the waterfall section. I happened to get my head soaked from the waterfall to help cool me down.

I've got to climb up that?

Photo courtesy of echoguy

Covered Bridge (42.3 Miles)

By the time I was back at Covered Bridge, I was on a 25 hour pace , but my feet told me that they could change that. I was experiencing some blistering problems and I was going to tend to my feet, but then someone convinced me to let the school of podiatry team fix me up. I was leary about this because I've always taken care of my own feet. Somehow, I agreed to this, but wish I did not looking back. Nothing against the podiatry team, but I didn't expect this session was going to take a half-hour.

In the meantime, I see Ed Kirk as he is making his way to Bridle Staging Area next. Ed sees Kelly at the next aid station and forewarns her of my situation (Thanks Ed). I meet Michael Keller as he's just finishing up from Pine Grist Mill and having to do the purple loop next. He's thinking about dropping here due to foot pains in the arch of his foot. He does go out and do the purple loop, but then drops when he returns.

I finally get all the blisters popped and bandaged up, get ice into my bandana, bottles filled and head out to Bridle Staging Area. By this time, I'm on a 28-hour pace again and it's not getting much better. While my feet were fixed up, they were still hurting and sensitive from the blister repairs. I run this section at a snails pace and quite honestly is much of a blur getting to the next aid station. I'm just putting one foot in front of the other on this section and that's about it.

Bridle Staging Area (45 Miles)

I finally reached the aid station where Kelly was patiently waiting for me and I was S-L-O-W moving. My feet were bothering me, I was tired, but still with it. Kelly tells me that Ed informed her of my situation back at Covered Bridge with the podiatry team. That was nice of him to do. Kelly had thought I was in some sort of trouble because she saw a couple of my SPOT tracking positions pretty close together.

Rolling into the aid station, this pretty much says it all

I was just under a 27.5 hour pace and needed to keep moving in order to make my goal time.

I refill my bottles and ice. Kelly tells me that she wants to walk with for a bit, so she does for a bit and snaps the shots below.

As you can see, I'm still having fun

Kelly only walks a short way with me before turning back. After about 5 or 10 minutes I hear a storm rolling in, which I didn't know was expected. It was really quite creepy; I was completely covered under a canopy of big trees, so I could only hear what was going on. It's hard to describe, but the wind was very strong and I could hear it hit each tree as it went past me. It was kind of like dominoes falling and the trees were the dominoes being hit by wind. It then started to rain shortly thereafter, but I wasn't feeling any of it for a while since I was covered pretty good. I then started to hear thunder, then see lightning flashes.

Oh great, I'm thinking, and I'm on the section with 3 stream crossings over the next 7 miles, just my luck. I'm wondering how safe it is to be out here and how much worse it is going to get. In about 30 minutes or so, the rain started to come down like cats and dogs, but I was only feeling a little bit of it at this time. I did finally come out of some of the thicker tree coverage and started to get rained on more.

Oddly enough, I only remember going through 1 stream crossing during this section. Maybe it was the fact that my attention was on the storm instead of the trails. In any case, as I approached the 1 stream crossing, I remember seeing a couple of younger guys looking for areas downstream to keep the feet dry. The crossing was about 20 feet wide. They didn't have any luck, nor did I, but I didn't spend much time thinking about it. My feet were already drenched from the storm. I was talking with the two other runners and they said that they were both dropping at the next aid station due to blistering issues. At this point, I was not considering dropping, but my blisters were acting up as well. They told me the only reason they continued on from Bridle Staging was that they would earn a 50+ mile finishers medal. I told them to think twice about dropping when they got to Rock Point and continued trotting ahead.

Not too far down the trail, I had a couple of heel blisters form and caused me to instantly stop running. I resorted to walking and found a fallen tree trunk to sit and pop my blister so I could continue on. I noticed that the Mole skin that the podiatry team adhered to my foot was loose and not doing its job as it lost its adhesiveness due to being wet. When I continued, it didn't take long for blisters on the balls of my feet to form and force me to start walking continuously. I had about 3 or 4 miles to Rock Point, but at the time, I don't think I knew how far I had gone. It just seemed to take forever getting to the next aid station. It wasn't until the last mile that I was considering my options and finally coming to a decision to end my race at Rock Point aid station.

Some the following thoughts were rolling through my head:

- I'm at a 29 hour pace now; can I do the 2nd 50 miles in the same pace? Probably not
- Wow, do I really have to do these 50 miles again? Yes, definitely
- Does this thunder and lightning storm warrant me moving on in my condition? Probably not
- Do I want to prevent myself from doing the Leadville Marathon in 2 weeks by continuing? No
- Can my feet handle the rain and multiple stream crossings after being somewhat mangled already? Probably not
- Do I call it quits for the day and let my feet heal up so I can have fun at Leadville? Yes

Approaching 52 miles

When I saw Kelly as I was coming down the final stretch of trail before making the left-hand turn onto the street towards Rock Point, I signaled to her that I was calling it quits.

Rock Point (52.2 Miles)

Calling it quits after 52.2 miles feeling like the Mohican trails had defeated me, but then I started thinking that I really only defeated myself. It was my own foot problems that prevented me from moving forward, nothing else. Yes, I certainly need to figure this out, but it's not that simple. It's one of the things that make ultramarathons so difficult. We never truly know how our bodies are going to react over long distances.

An example of this is the McNaughton 50 miler 2 months ago when I had 3 blisters while going through 6 stream crossings. This race was after 3 back-to-back ultramarathons in the 3 prior weeks. I do take many of the standard precautions for foot troubles (larger shoes, toe nails trimmed, foot powders, tape, lubrications, etc.), but it's tricky. Each race is unique and part of the challenge is to not only to complete the distance, but to finish it and remain healthy.

I'll finish up here by saying that I truly enjoyed my experience in the Mohican Wilderness. It's absolutely beautiful in this area. I see a lot of Kettle Moraine and McNaughton course in the Mohican Wilderness. This was a tough course for sure. As for me, I have unfinished business, so I'll likely be back, but not sure when. What's my next 100? I'm not sure right now, but we'll let you know.

Splits
AS (miles to) - time between AS (miles travelled to current location)

A. Landoll's Castle (4.99 miles) - 58 minutes (4.99)
B. Rock Point (10 miles) - 55 minutes (5.01 miles)
C. South Point (14.3 miles) - 59 minutes (4.3 miles)
D. Fire Tower (18.6 miles) - 44 minutes (4.3 miles)
E. Covered Bridge (21.1 miles) - 33 minutes (2.5 miles)
F. Hickory Ridge (26.3 miles) - 1 hr 19 minutes (5.2)
G. Pine Run Grist Mill (33.1 miles) - 1 hr 38 minutes (6.8 miles)
E. Covered Bridge (38.3 miles) - 1 hr 35 minutes (5.2 miles)
E. Covered Bridge (42.3 miles) - 1 hr 21 minutes (4 miles)
H. Bridle Staging Area (45 miles) - 1 hr 34 minutes (2.7 miles)
B. Rock Point (52.2 miles) - 2 hrs 31 minutes (7.2 miles)

DNF'ed at Rock Point

Thanks for the support!!!

I'd like to thank all of you who provided well wishes to me before, during, and/or after the race. Your support means the world to me and getting through these tough races without it makes it much more difficult. It's awesome to know that I have such great support from all of you.

I'd like to especially thank Kelly for taking care of me during the race. She worked so hard and stayed up for so long to make sure that I had what I needed throughout the day. I'm very lucky.

"SPOT" GPS Technology

I'm sorry that SPOT tracking didn't work as well as I had hoped it would. Since this was the first time I was using the device, I wasn't sure what would and wouldn't work. I originally had SPOT in my mesh waist pack that does have access to the sky. Maybe having it located in the pouch wasn't a good idea. Although I was running in 95% of tree coverage, my Garmin watch was working okay, so why not SPOT? At mile 34'ish, Kelly tells me that there aren't any signals since 4:45 am. We move the device and clip to the belt and reinforce with tape; some readings are then established. Sorry for all the "SPOT"ty trackings, this was a test run. It will be better next time. It's so cool. Here is the real-time tracking that it did do:

Links

RACE WEBSITE

PHOTO ALBUM

Other Race Photos:
Lee Brazel
Echoguy

Other Race Reports:
Rob Powell
Kim (Part 1, Part 2)
Michael Keller
Ed Kirk
Wyatt
Jason McCabe

Real Time GPS Tracking at Mohican Trail 100

2008-06-19T13:49:00.007-05:00

I will be utilizing SPOT GPS technology for my race at the Mohican Trail 100 Mile run. The race starts on Saturday 6/21 at 5 A.M. Eastern Time. That's 4 A.M. Chicago time, 3 A.M. Colorado time, and 2 A.M. California time. I would like to finish within 27 hours, which is 8 A.M. on Sunday, 6/22. The race has a 30-hour cutoff time. I'm offering several ways to interact with friends and family.

If you'd like to pass messages on to me during my 1st 100 miler, please leave a blog comment or better yet, email me at 8473858889@teleflip.com and it will send your e-mail to my phone as a text message. It's also free...Kelly will relay these messages to me during the race.

SPOT Tracking:

Click the link below to open a new browser window of an online SPOT application that utilizes Google Maps to locate my position. Looking at this map by itself will not give you much information on my progress at the race unless you compare it side-by-side with the course map (see below).

NOTE: Apparently, the shared SPOT tracking page only displays the last 24 hours worth of tracking when in real-time tracking mode, which I'll be utilizing. These updates occur every 10 minutes. Guess what? My race is probably going to extend beyond the 24 hours, so I'll need to remember to click the "OK" button on my SPOT device at 5 am to continue the tracking. Wish me luck with that.

You may see some tracking before the race starts and that's fine. It's my whereabouts at any given time. Just note that race tracking with start at 5 A.M. Eastern time.

CLICK TO TRACK ME

Course Map :

Click the map below to view a larger map in a new browser window. Once you do this, you can view it side-by-side with the GPS tracking map.

Pace Chart:

Here is my pace chart for the 100 mile race. It will be updated and uploaded by Kelly during the race if she has a decent internet connection. Because she won't be permitted to some aid stations on the course per the rules, she will be dependent on me getting her certain split times, so if it's not updated as quickly as you'd like to see it, blame me and my slowness of running this race. I know Kelly will try her best to update you all with my results.

VIEW MY PACE CHART

Photos:

Kelly may or may not upload photos during the race. It's when she has time and connectivity. We will both try to take photos during the race and she will upload them during or after the race to the album displayed below.

"SPOT"

2008-06-14T09:17:00.005-05:00

Well, I purchased a new toy that can also save my life and allow others to track me better at my races. It's called "SPOT" (http://www.findmespot.com). I'm excited to get this little guy early this week. My new friend Brian Harvey that I met while at Miwok had one and used it at that race to let his wife track him during the race. What a great idea. I remember him telling me that he got a call from his wife telling him that he was off course. Imagine that, a spectator telling you that you missed a turn. Funny, but true.

At any rate, I remember seeing someone post about this on the Ultra list a while back and had this thing tucked back into my little brain of mine for some time. And being the spontaneous person that I am, I bought it.

Check out the website to learn all about it. It's not exactly cheap at $169 for the unit and $150 for the annual service fee for basic + real-time tracking, but while I go on my insane runs in the deep wilderness of central Illinois and other places in the country and keep my friends abreast as to my whereabouts on long runs and races, it's priceless! Here are some product videos.

MC200 ChiADeads Relay Team - Live Results and Photos

2008-06-05T10:19:00.008-05:00

I will be uploading live results for our ChiADeads relay team at the MC200. Our wave start time kicks off on Friday morning at 7 AM.

We finished at 3:11:01 PM on Saturday and the RD said we unofficially were in 3rd place in our category of Mixed Open.

Click here to view results in a full window.

Photos - Pre-Race

Photos - Rotation 1

Photos - Rotation 2

Photos - Rotation 3

Photos - Rotation 4

Photos - Post-Race

guess what? I gotta fever...and the only prescription is "MO" miles

2008-05-14T19:34:00.008-05:00

I've had a pretty good set of ultras so far this year. After four back-to-back ultra runs (27 mile training run, CL30, Chicago Lakefront 50K, and McNaughton 50 Mile), then two weeks later doing the Miwok 100K, I've evaluated each of them and figured that I was ready to step it up and get some "MO" miles.

I originally was going to wait until next year to do my first 100 Mile race, but I get to talkin', get to thinkin', one thing leads to another, and before I know it, I get myself into these little mind games. Do I do it or not, do I do it or not? I keep asking myself this question over and over as I'm sure many do who are attempting their first 100 Mile endurance run.

I mean, what does it take to make that sort of decision, that sort of commitment to finishing 100 frickin' miles. Am I ready for it? Who ever knows that their first time anyways? It's kind of like jumping in a cold pool at the park. It aint going to get any warmer by dipping your toes into it. YA GOTTA JUST DO IT! Well, enough toying with the idea and just do it already, so that's what I did, I registered for the Mohican Trail 100 Mile Run on June 21-22, 2008. My goal of course is just to finish under the 30 hour cutoff time, but if I can get a sub-27 hours (maybe better?) I think that'll be a good time goal for me to shoot for.

Since the last half of the race is on my brother's birthday, I'm going to dedicate the last "41" (his age) miles to him. Happy Birthday Paul!

http://www.mohican100.org/