If the miles behind me could be put into words before you, you would feel my efforts, my struggles, my desires. Most of all you would see my joy. Watch me from afar run the trails and hills and miles upon miles and you will see ...

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Born to Run video

I got an email from Sara Eagle of Random House publishers with a link to a Youtube video made by Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run:


I'm amazed at the mileage I've put in over the last couple of weeks without any real problems (knock on wood). I did 24 miles yesterday and 32 today and feel good. I've tried to straighten my back more (like he does in the video) when I'm running and getting my feet to land flatter and under my hips more. I've been able to run faster just by doing this. Most of my long runs have been around 7:50 - 8:00 per mile but I averaged yesterday's 24 at 7:24 and today's was 7:22. Go figure. Ran the first two hours today without music to start getting into Belgium-mode where they don't let you have ipods during the World events.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Big Week

Last week was my second biggest mileage week ever.  Unlike last August when I did 95 miles over only three runs - 41, 35, and 19 - I spread it out a bit more and did shorter ones.  I never usually post my weeks but thought this one was cool as it was more well-rounded than others in the past, and I felt great!

Mon - run 4:05, 31 mi
Tues - run :30, 4 mi barefoot on beach
Wed - bike to work :35, 18km
            bike home :35, 18km
Thurs - run to work 1:22, 10.5 mi
              run home 1:17, 10.5 mi
Fri - run :35, 4 mi barefoot on beach
         bike to work :35, 18km
Sat - run home from work 1:17, 10.5 mi
         run to work 1:17, 10.5 mi (tough one)
Sun - bike home :35, 18km

Total:  running - 10:15, 81mi
             biking - 2:20, 72km

I feel surprisingly well after a "big" mileage week (for me).  This one coming up is hoping to hit 95 - 100 miles if all goes well.  Then three weeks of taper and all should be well (in theory).

Friday, May 22, 2009

Born to Run

I'm reading Christopher McDougall's book, Born to Run.

It's about the Tarahumara tribe in Mexico who run in sandals for sometimes days at a time - for fun.  It's a great read and this is my favourite quote so far:

"You can't muscle through a five-hour run; you have to relax into it, like easing your body into a hot bath, until it no longer resists the shock and begins to enjoy it."

We've all been there before, haven't we?!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Yaaaaayy, they're here!!

Today I picked up from my Washington mailbox my new Vibram Fivefingers.  I got them off ebay so I was hoping the size was right.  They measure a little different than normal shoes.  You have to stand against a wall and stand on a ruler measuring the distance from the wall to the end of your longest toe.  It wasn't my first choice of colour but for $50 U.S. with free shipping ($80 + tax up there) I couldn't really be too picky.  

I wore them around the house for a couple hours then walked to school to get the kids.  Some of the other kids there laughed at them thinking they looked pretty weird but I knew they were actually jealous.  They'll be wearing them in a few weeks, you watch.  Anyways, I thought they might be a bit tight in the toes but they seem good.  I even ran a little bit and they felt okay.  The plan is to walk in them for a while then try some light trail or grass running.  





Coincidence

Fellow World 100km team mate, Jen Dick, sent me some photos with a bit of a story: 

The parents of one of her friends in England (Jen lives there as well) had gone to Greece last September for a holiday.  They happened to be in a little town called Sparta on the 30th and noticed a running race was going on.   They hung out near the finish line watching the participants complete the event.  Her friend's Dad managed to take some photos of some of the finishers and showed them to Jen when they returned home because they knew she is an ultrarunner and thought she'd be interested in looking at them.  Here's what he took:





He just took these random photos of me and showed them to someone from England who happened to know me.  Weird, eh?  




Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Miwok 100k

This race is renowned for it's beautiful views of San Francisco and the ocean from it's highest points. We, on this day, however, saw none of it. The weather called for a 30% chance of rain and cloudy conditions. It got a little worse than that.

I flew down to Oakland the day before the race and was met by John Brooks, fellow Canada Ultraman finisher. I actually crewed for John at the Ultraman two years ago. In return, although not necessary, he would pick me up, let me stay at his house, and crew for me along the race course. One of the first things John said to me was if I had any poison oak soap. Never even knowing there was such a thing I said no. I guess there's a bit of the stuff out on the course but it doesn't react with you until a couple days afterwards so after the race you shower with this stuff. I did just that and still have no effects, thankfully, because it doesn't sound like much fun if you get a lot on you.
We went to his place and met his terrific wife, Maureen, kids Cody, Austin, and Wyatt then went to get some stuff for dinner. They were commenting on the rainy weather being more like February than May and that they never got this much rain around this time of year. Figures.
I went to bed at the decent hour of 9pm for the early wake-up of 3am. The downside to getting free room and board in Oakland was that it's about an hour drive to the start line in San Fran. The weather was looking better first thing in the morning as I could see the lights all the way across the bay but that's the only view of the Golden Gate I got until after the race.
I borrowed from John an old long-sleeved cotton shirt for the start of the race because beint the optimistic me, I only planned on wearing a short-sleeved tech shirt and shorts, rain or not. I spoke with some people (okay, three people) after they had done this race last year and the consensus was that you could definitely do this course in just road running shoes, it's that non-technical. Cool says I. I was in my basically brand new Adidas Supernova Glides with 57 miles on them and they looked as clean as they did coming out of the box. I looked around and saw others in road shoes so I didn't feel at the time that I'd made the wrong choice.
We started at 5:40 barely in the light on the beach. The surf sounded cool, we just couldn't see it. I had heard that you had to go hard for a couple hundred yards to a single track section so as to not get stuck behind some slower runners. The single track led up a nice section of hill to a paved road that wound up forever and with no wind I started to overheat in the cotton shirt. Off it came and I wrapped it around my waist. John said to just chuck it when I was done with it but I couldn't throw someone else's stuff away after I borrowed it.
I was feeling good and didn't stop to refill my two water bottles at the 6.2 mile aid station. I have to honestly say even when I re-read the course description now I can't remember exactly going along the trails that are stated there. I remember the aid stations and some of the trails, but I never really knew where I was all day. I'm just going to hit the highlights and try to give the reader an idea of some sections.
At the Muir Beach aid station, 16 miles, I saw John for the first time and he refilled everything and made sure I was doing alright. I think he even said I was only ten minutes behind the leaders but I doubted that. I remember coming out of a forested section at about three hours and noticing that it was raining. It didn't stop after that until an hour to the finish. Thirty minutes after that on Coastal Trail I missed a right turn and did a harsh trip down a 'steeper than the steepest section of the course' for about ten minutes until I realised that I hadn't seen any flagging tape for a while. With it being so windy and foggy I didn't really look up all that often for fear of going head over heels. There was a guy a minute or so behind me and I was wondering where he was. I stopped a couple times but he didn't materialise out of the fog. I decided to walk back up this monster and if I ran into this guy then I was on the right track. I didn't run into that guy. Crap. I eventually go to the top and saw my mistake. I knew now that any chance of doing well was probably over but as this race was meant mostly to be an experience done at an easier pace it only bothered me for a short while. I tried to control my speed but I was working up a good sweat even in the rain and wind. On this ridge there was only a narrow goat path cut in to the side of the hill to follow and with the horizontal wind and rain and fog it was tough to see anything or anybody.
I got to Pan Toll at mile 21 and told John of the screw up. He was great helping me with stuff I can't thank him enough. The next section was a lot of forest with more of a technical feel to it so that made it go by quicker and before I knew it I was a the Bolinas Ridge station, mile 28. I almost didn't refill my bottles all the way up until someone told me it's quite a lot of rolling then a steep downhill to the next one so I grabbed more water. It's a good thing I did because I was getting slower and slower and drinking the same amount so the time between aid was increasing. This rolling section had a ton of big puddles along the way by I could mostly go around them and avoid total soakers. It was before the steep downhill that the leaders started passing me coming back from the next aid station (we turned around at the bottom and basically reverse the whole course minus a little bit). When I could see the next station at the bottom of the hill a girl in a red jacket passed and I thought that could have been Nicola Gildersleeve who will be in Belgium next month at the World 100k. She's from North Van and I've never met her, only seen pictures from races but it was hard to tell what everyone looked like all bundled up and wet. At the bottom (Randall Station) I found out we were more than halfway, 35 miles. I grabbed my first solid food, PB & J and a piece of banana. Didn't go so well on the steep uphill.
I caught up to the red-jacketed girl and it turned out to be Nicola. We chatted for a bit until she needed a nature break and I kept going. The next time I saw her was at the finish but it was a sad reunion as she retired at Pan Toll due to hip problems. She'll be up there in Belgium for sure. It was before Bolinas Ridge again that I started feeling the effects of only wearing a t-shirt. I envied the people coming past me in coats and gloves and pants. I thought at the station if John was there again I'd grab my Wet Skins jacket. It would be bulky and heavy but better than nothing. When I got there he wasn't. A woman asked what I needed and I said a coat. She offered the one off her back but I said I couldn't take that from her because she had to stand out in those conditions but at least I was moving. She then said she had a rain poncho so I jumped on that. It was brand new out of the tiny package but that monster unfolded into a queen-sized piece of material! It went to my mid-thighs but as soon as I took off I knew it was the best thing in the world. I honestly think that poncho saved my life. Knowing that the exposed ridge section was coming again and the wind would blow right through me I needed something.
Not to be disappointed the wind and rain was brutal going back the other way until we got into the forest again. I made a mental promise to be a bit more prepared for the next race. If there had been sections of high elevation I would have had more but the highest this race got was around 1600'. I took two advil around the 5:30 mark and when 7:30 came around was going to have two more to ease some knee pain but when I went to get it from my water bottle holder's pouch, they were was basically the consistency of tooth paste. Maybe that was a sign I didn't need to take it. That or I should have put them in something to protect them from the rain.
At Pan Toll again someone mentioned how good my poncho looked and if I'd had the time or energy I would have explained how good this XXXL piece of kit was working. Although at one point on the ridge it blew up over my head making me stop and sort it out. John wasn't here either having to shuttle some runners to the finish area. There was only an 80% finish rate this year, the second lowest ever.
It was around this point with 13 miles left to got that my mental state started to go. I was doing a fair amount of walking on the hills and only going moderately faster on the downs. I was determined to keep going but at the same time I didn't want to wreck myself for two weeks, or longer with an injury, and miss out on the training for Belgium. That was another goal for this race - don't fall and twist or hurt something! Another annoyance: My shorts were so wet they were clinging to the insides of my thighs and, 1) impeding my legs going forward while running, and, 2) chafing like you wouldn't believe. I felt like I had a mini-skirt on and I kept hiking it up so I could move forward. Thankfully it stopped raining soon after and my shorts eventually dried out enough to stop rubbing.
At the Hwy 1 station, 54.7 miles, John was there and thankfully we exchanged outerwear, me getting his yellow running jacket that actually fit. A first for me - I had to make an emergency pit stop at this point. Never in a trail race have I had to squat in the woods but there I was, paper towel in hand, that's right, paper towel, ten feet into the bush. It seemed to rejeuvenate me and I could sense the finish.
The final aid station was at 58 miles and they said there that it was two miles up then all downhill to the end. Those two miles were really, really, really tough. Steep suckers and I could barely walk up. After that, though, I started on the down and once I could hear the finish line it was gravy. I could actually see the ocean as well because the fog had lifted slightly. So nice to finish and sit down. My legs felt pretty good all the next day and even with my road shoes I had not a single blister or hot spot. Are my feet actually getting used to this?!?!
A tough day had by all but great to be done and with most of my goals accomplished:

Finished
No new or aggravation of old injuries
Use this race as one of the qualifications to getting into Tour de Mt. Blanc next year

I wanted to finish between 9 and 10 hours and had I not gone off course I might have. Maybe next year.

I have to thank John and his family for putting me up for the weekend and Jim Stewart for getting me down to San Francisco. Also the CarboPro powder, 1200, and Thermolytes are still doing the trick.


Me at the finish looking cooler with John's jacket on


Nicola and Peter at the finish


Tia Boddington and me at the finish


Wow there really IS a bridge around here!!