Darindurance

Remembrance Day Run

2011-11-12T23:38:00.000-08:00

I ran to work yesterday, November 11th. I thought, What better way to observe this day, because I couldn't go to the usual ceremony at the Legion, than to do an 11 mile run to honour those that gave so much? Now I know that this doesn't seem like much of a tribute, but it's all I could think of.
The rain was pelting and the temperature biting. I was happy and cheerful the whole way. No amount of rain or cold or injury or suffering I could ever endure in my lifetime would equal one day of what those men and women went through to ensure we live the lives we do.

Whistler 50 mile

2011-11-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

See, what did I tell you about who would win?? The last post I predicted Chris Downie would beat me. I can see into the future and it was there I saw Chris winning the race. I really have to start using this gift in other ways besides predictiing race winners. Okay, I admit I slowed down enough so that at mile 35 he passed me and stayed ahead until the finish. I knew how bad he wanted to win so what was I supposed to do?
Anyways, the real race report (and what really happened):
The support crew, Carrie and the kids, and I drove up to Whistler last Friday, checked into the hotel, picked up the race package from RD Ron Adams, had dinner, went back to the room, and got stuff ready for the race. At 9:30 Carrie realized she forgot to bring her contact solution so not wanting to wear her glasses the whole next day we walked to the store and bought some stuff priced like there was an impending hurricane coming our way. Unfortunately it didn't come with the little contact holders that you put them in whilst in the solution. That would have been the box with the impending Apocalypse pricing I guess. Got back to the room, now 10pm, and I finished with my gear and went to brush my teeth. Finished that, went to have a glass of water, filled said glass with water, noticed all the foamy bubbles in the water, said, "Oh that's nice (thinking it was soap or something), and proceeded to dump the mixture down the drain before Carrie could yell, "NOOOOO!!" Figured it out yet? Yes, I dumped her contact down the drain. Taking apart the pipe under the sink only proved that, even if her contact was retrieved from said pipe, it would not want to be something one would want to insert in one's eye afterwards. Glasses anyone?
Race day came early like most of 'em. 4:30, out the door at 5:15 to the Conference Centre to get the timing chip and check in. Saw a lot of familiar faces: Barb Owen from Badwater and fellow crewmate Tracey, Nicola Gilersleeve, Hassan Lofti-Pour, and Wendy Montgomery, former RD of the Stormy trail race. Good to catch up with those guys.
We walked outside to the start in the cold and the dark, not wanting to look each other in the eyes as we'd be blinded by the headlights. As we were about to start I asked Nicola if she knew which way to go and she said no. I looked to my right and asked the guy beside me if he knew, but he was tuned into his tunes and didn't hear me. Turns out it was Chris Downie (the guy I let win, remember?). Not quite sure why people wear headphones in the dark, especially in bear country where they haven't gone hibernating yet.
We were off at 6am to run the first of four loops in the dark. Loop one was 21km, and the final three were 17kms. Doing the first one in the dark was a bonus because by the time it was light enough to ditch my headlamp it was like a new run with everything looking different. I was behind Chris, Hassan, and Jenn Segger for most of the first lap until the aid station at about 16k when suddenly I was in the lead. I didn't realize this until I caught up to the cyclist leading us around and as he wasn't going much ahead of me, figured Chris and the rest must have stopped at the aid station to access their bags. Luckily for me my superstar crew was there to hand me a new bottle on the fly.
So once it was light I could see how beautiful the course actually was. The snowy mountains, the sunlight streaming through the trees, the freakin' hills from 8km to 16km of the loops. This whole section was all hard-packed snow but the running was fairly easy, other than the rolling hills which, by the fourth lap, felt like mountains. I almost wished I was back in Haney because at least those hills were closer to sea level and I wouldn't have been sucking wind as bad. I told myslef I'd run the steep section of hills the first and second lap and I could walk the bad ones after that. I didn't disappoint myself and did exactly that. I tried eating on those walk breaks but the air was so dry I had no spit to process the food. Lots of little sips from my bottle later I eventually got it down.
I lead from the 10 mile mark to the 35 mile mark and knew my time had come when on the golf cart path, which did basically an out and back, I saw Chris not far behind me. It actually took him longer to catch me than I thought and when he did he put about three minutes into me. We must have been running the same speed the last lap because I neither made up time or lost any. I couldn't have changed gears if I tried - there weren't any left. Not sure if it was the altitude or the cold but my legs felt heavy with no jump to pick up the pace. I felt that way from the halfway mark onwards. I honestly wouldn't even have done a sprint if Chris passed me with 50metres to go. I also didn't really care. It was good to be out running but it didn't have the excitement and rush that other races have had for me. It was good to see the junior crew members on the last two laps and with 4km to go I couldn't persuade them to join me to the finish line. Go figure.
One of the highlights was going through the start/finish onto the third lap and having none other than Steve King, wife Jean at his side, calling the race, bellowing out my accomplishments (all two of them), and treating me like royalty.
At the end Chris and I chatted for a bit and he thanked me for letting him win. Okay, he won fair and square.
I honestly wish H2H was still in existence and maybe next year I'll run a solo journey along the same route just because.
Thanks to Ron Adams who made the race as spectacular as I knew he would with the organization and route.

For the Record

2011-11-04T14:06:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow's Whistler 50 mile is looking to be a cold one starting the day at minus 4 or so. Could warm up to plus 2 so that's awesome. My predictions:

ultimate goal is sub-6:00 which I've never run for this length of a race, a 7:10 per mile or so pace.
secondary goal is sub-6:30 which should be doable.
outside goal is finish before the sun goes down

I think Chris Downie is going in as the favourite. He's been fast for a few years now so I plan to run my own race at my own pace and try for my first goal and not chase him and blow up. It will be nice to have someone to chase, though.

Long Run and the Find of the Year

2011-10-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

My last long run before the Whistler 50 mile was 28 miles last Sunday from 176th st down 0 ave to 248th st, 248th st to Fraser Hwy and the Otter Co-Op for water then reversed the course. 3:30 at about a 7:25 pace which felt very comfortable even with a fair amount of rolling hills. I would like to have done a 35 mile run before Nov. 5th but that's life. Tomorrow will be a flat 3:00 then start an eight day taper. I'm feeling pretty good physically and speed-wise. After a few years of not doing dedicated speed work, it's been going well doing them on the treadmill.
So, The Find: on the second half of the run last Sunday I turned the corner from 248th st onto 0 ave when I looked down and saw, unbelieving, an iphone 4 staring at me. "Hello, what do we have here", I thought to myself. I picked it up and even though it was wet with dew it turned on, probably thanks to the Otterbox case it was in. There was no passlock on it so I could access the phone numbers. I have to admit that on the way home I thought how cool it would be to present this to Carrie and say she could keep it but that obviously wouldn't be the right thing to do. Plus what do you tell the kids and how does that look to them? Damn kids keeping me morally straight.
After hauling it home I called the person's mom's cell phone from the address book. She said it belonged to her 11 year-old son. Eleven! A lesson to all: (do i even need to say it?) Don't buy your kids toys like that until they're more responsible or at least until they can pay for it themselves and they might take better care of it. So this kid's mom picked it up that night and, not that I would have accepted, didn't offer any kind of reward for recovering this $400 or $500 item. I mean, come on, if I had lost something like that I would be ecstatic someone returned it to me. If not money then at least a gift card to Tim Horton's or SOMETHING. I guess Karma is reward enough.
That's the third phone I've found over the years either biking or running. I've recovered four or five driver's licenses, three Visa cards, and an 80gb ipod. Once there was a guy near the border standing on the side of the road as I rode my bike past. I didn't think anything of it, just kept riding. On the return trip two hours later he was still there albeit a bit further down the road. I stopped and asked what was up. He said he lost his Nexus card somewhere in the last couple kilometres from the restaurant he had lunch to where he was now. I rode back to the restaurant and traced his path back to where he was. A few hundred metres from where he was I saw the corner of the card sticking out from under some leaves (it was around this time of year), much to my surprise. The moral of that story: I don't really know if there is one but it never hurts to try and help someone. Which reminds me, from now until Dec. 10th I'm trying to recruit 100 people to give blood to coincide with my 100th donation. If you're interested check this out:

The Best 50k Ever!

2011-10-04T20:56:00.001-07:00

Wow, when was the last time I started an entry with that much positiveness?!? I seriously had the most consistent, solid race that I've had in years. My usual race: set goal a little high, start off quick feeling strong, have some low points during the middle, get passed by a few people towards the end telling myself, "I don't care if anyone passes me, I can't go any faster", and finish the hurt-fest with a slow shuffle feeling crappy about my running and myself. Last weekend's Baker Lake 50k was totally opposite.
Last year I wanted to go sub-4:30 meaning I'd have to hit the half-way at 2:15 at the latest. I also thought about trying to do a negative split on the way back by running quicker. Never been able to do that in the past so don't know why I thought I'd be able to. Anyways, in that race I started out too fast and crapped out even before the halfway, finishing in 4:41 or thereabouts.
This year I still had a sub-4:30 in mind but didn't know if it was going to happen. The plan was to go out fairly easy and try and feel good the whole way. After not doing much trail running I wasn't sure how I'd feel. This is an easier trail race than some I've done but is still challenging in the second half.
I left following three fast skinny guys. I kept up with them for the twelve minutes it took to get to the trailhead and then they were gone. After twenty minutes or so I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see a young girl bombing up behind me. I imagined my next blog report being titled, "I am officially old", because I get killed by girls now. I stepped off the trail and let her go by then kept pace with her, making sure I didn't go too hard, therefore breaking my pre-race plan. She ended up letting me go by when I got too close siting that she needed a pit stop. I didn't see her for another twenty minutes until she blew by me again. I was thinking to myself that she looked kind of young and possibly hadn't run too many of these before. Knowing that I've done the "start out too fast, end in a crash" scenario before, I couldn't even warn her about keeping an even pace she was going so quick.
I was running up inclines when in the past I would have been walking. I did have a bit of a low spot around the 1:45 point so started drinking every five minutes instead of ten. It must have done the trick because before I knew it I was running on the flat section to the last big bridge before the turnaround. It was the fastest I'd ever made it to the halfway point, 2:04. The three frontrunners were about six minutes ahead of me, the quick girl about a minute, and there was a guy about two minutes behind me.
My time at the turnaround was fast as I had two bottles made up and ready to go from my drop bag. I left feeling strong again but knew not to hammer the first flat section on the way back because there were some steeper switchbacks waiting.
At about the 2:45 point I came across one of the three leaders who was in a rough state throwing up on the trail. I stopped to make sure he was alright and didn't need anything and he ensured me he was okay. Turns out it was the guy who'd won the race last year but started today feeling sick. Guess it caught up with him.
At 3:10 I saw Quick Girl ahead on the trail, not running up to her name. It didn't take me too long to pass her and the way she was going I pretty much knew I wouldn't see her again.
I started getting into that frame of mind where I just plug along at a decent but not too fast a pace and walking some of the hills. Just like the Kelowna marathon last year I thought I'd try running hard in the last bit of the race, like the 3:30 mark (I figured I would make the finish around 4:10). Just as I was coming up to that time point the guy who was close to me at the turnaround finally showed himself. I congratulated him on having a good second half and let him go by, but not before I asked how old he was. Thinking the two remaining guys ahead of me were younger than 40, if this guy was too then I was in contention for getting a Baker Bear for being the first old guy (over 40) to cross the line. He told me he was 29 as I let him go by me. Seeing as I had planned to try and pick up my pace at this time anyways, I thought this would be a good time to try my plan with him pacing me. I have to say I've never felt that good at that stage of a trail race. We were cranking up the hills where if I was by myself I would probably be walking. We even ended up chatting a bit on the flat spots. I wanted to show the young guy that it was going to take work to drop this old-timer.
We neared the bridge that was basically a huge log over a fast moving river and we kind of missed it, heading down to the river instead. I shouted that the bridge was over this way and went over it ahead of him. Again, I don't know where this burst of energy came from or what I was trying to prove, but I took off for the next ten minutes, essentially dropping him until we got back to the trailhead. I saw he wasn't that far behind so I kept the pace up all the way down the forest service road and eventually over the dam where I looked again and saw him back in the distance. Funny because usually it's me that trails behind someone and watches them run off down the road, unable to catch up. I felt a little bad because he'd basically pulled me during that low stretch thirty minutes earlier. I guess a race is a race and I finally felt like I had a bit of that killer instinct I haven't had in a couple years.
I finished in 4:16, 11 minutes better than my previous best back in 2007 and my fastest 50k in years. It was also good for first place out of all the old guys, earning me a Baker Bear for first in the Master's category.
This was also the debut 50k race for Carrie and my sister, Karen. Carrie finished in 6:53 and Karen was 6:41. Congrats to them both!! I was so proud.
Coming up could quite possibly be the Whistler 50 mile ultra on Nov. 5. It would be cool to be in the first race that took the H2H's place.

I'm Not Dead!

2011-09-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Cough, cough, hack, sneeze, cough. Just blowing the dust off the blog because it's been a little (okay a long) while since anything has been posted. I know I said I'd post the Badwater pics and I will. Not exactly sure why I've felt unmotivated to write anything recently. Could be because we spent most of the summer camping or doing other things than running or sports of any kind. I have to say it was refreshing. But now I'm back!!

One of the summer highlights would have to be riding with 9 guys from work up to Whister. We left on a Tuesday in early September from Vancouver with the weather being perfect. It got a little warm after Squamish because of the slight tailwind and going up all the hills mid-afternoon. I think I clocked the 120km trip at around 5 hours of ride time. After beers and pizza and then dinner at Mongolie Grill, it was hit-the-sack time at 10:30. 6am came early to get ready for the ride home. As energetic as we might have felt after we arrived at Whistler, we were all feeling slightly sluggish the next morning. It didn't help that when we left at 8am the temperature was 8 degrees. Glad I brought my arm and knee warmers, vest, and light gloves. These were especially beneficial for the first hour or so when we were descending way more than ascending.
We missed the headwinds around Squamish luckily and after that we pretty much cruised all the way back to the skytrain in Vancouver for a total of 4 hours. I had big ambitions after this ride to go from my house to Mt. Baker (250km round trip) a couple weeks after but got laid up with a cold. Still not off the radar as I might try it next week depending on the weather.
As for running (oh, yeah, that's what I really do, isn't it?), Carrie and I ventured to Manning Park last week and did the Frosty Mountain 50k and 27k. I was crazily signed up for the 50 thinking it would be a good long training run leading up to the Baker Lake 50k which would be much less hilly than Frosty. Carrie was the smart one doing the 27k. Little did I realize that because I hadn't been doing a lot of trail work, this was going to be tough. Oh, how we think we know our bodies!!
Short summary: There were two guys way out in front after a couple k and I was following a group of eight. Not worried about getting lost I only saw the guys in front of me. On the long first climb we passed the people heading up to man aid station #1 with water in hand. We got to the sign indicating where the first aid station was to be and carried on. Twenty minutes of steep climbing later I saw some runners coming back towards me. My first thought was that there was a bear or something on the trail. Nope, we had just gone the wrong way. All the way back down what we'd just gone up and saw that at the first aid station we were supposed to go right instead of left. Oh, well. If it wasn't before, it definitely was now, a training run.
The path up to the summit of Frosty was mountainous to say the least. With the cold wind, clouds whipping past, and small flakes falling, it felt like an expedition. I basically kept the heart rate down and just made it a long day of training and slogged to the finish feeling actually not too bad in 6:18. Should have been probably a half hour faster if not for the detour but that's racing.
Next up is the Baker Lake 50k this Saturday. Carrie is attempting her first 50k as is my sister. Tracey and Lucy, crew from Badwater, are also running so it will be a bit of a Death Valley reunion minus the heat. Looking forward to pushing myself a bit before a bit of trail down-time to concentrate on the Whistler 50 mile on November 5th. Might as well.

Comrades Pictures

2011-07-19T16:13:00.001-07:00

Even though Darin hasn't edited the pictures yet, here is the link. He'll have to write some captions too but at least you can see what it was like.
Photos and some videos

Lacking

2011-07-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know it's been a while since I've written anything, loyal fans. I know I still haven't posted photos of Comrades. I have to transfer them from the laptop to a memory stick then transfer them to the computer in order to do all that. I know it should be easy but I'm in the dark ages somewhat with all that stuff and need my IT person (Carrie) to do it for me. In brief:
We did two days of biking on the KVR last weekend which was really cool. Pictures and comments to follow (really).
We're off to Death Valley this weekend to help crew Barb Owen to the finish (if Carrie and I don't pass out from the heat first). I feel lacking in the heat training but Barb assures me it should be cooler this year than most. Average temp is 126F and she says they're forecasting 113-116F. Thank goodness!!
Good luck to Bruce Grant who was second on the waiting list for Hardrock this weekend but just found out that he made it in.
Good luck to all the Canadians doing the World Trail Championships in Ireland this weekend as well.

Sinister Saunas

2011-06-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

With the daunting task of crewing for Barb at Badwater in two and a half weeks looming, I've been once again hitting the sauna in hopes it prepares me somewhat for the environment in Death Valley. I'm pretty sure I'm in way over my head when it comes to the heat but I try and fool myself into thinking by doing 30-45 minutes in a sauna I'll be ready for 30-40 hours in the desert. Better to grasp at straws than at nothing.
It really isn't a comfortable environment to sit it: my head gets really hot, after twenty minutes I'm acting like I've got ADD and can't sit still - tapping my feet, moving my arms, even walking around - until eventually I'm accused of having autistic tendencies because I'm rocking back and forth or side to side and can even be heard moaning for the time to go faster. The goal is to do several days of 45 minute sessions and try to guzzle as much water as I can in that time. In 30 minutes I'm drinking almost a litre and a half. I'm not sure we can even carry that much water in the crew van to last me the race. Barb will have to learn to conserve.
The barefoot season is upon us!! I feel like I'm cheating a bit because, really, anyone can take a barefoot mentality in the summer (it is summer, isn't it?) when the weather is (hopefully soon) nice and the ground is dry and warm. Hopefully by starting now I'll be well-prepared to continue through the year in better condition. I've done a few runs in the racing flats and everything feels good so far. I'm trying to take the running a bit slower this year and stay off the asphalt for a while until things toughen up. There are so many minimalist shoes on the market by so many companies you have to wonder how they can even sell the regular shoes when they claim the minimalist way to be better for you.
As the summer is approaching I've decided not to race at all through July and August, saving myself for, well, I don't really know. Camping is a priority and we have quite a few trips planned. Kinda hard to do 3, 4, or 5 hour runs at that time. I'll keep up with the maintenance and hope an epiphany hits me as to what race I should do. My sister wants me to pace her for the Skagit Marathon in September as an eleventh-hour qualifier for Boston next year. There's also the Baker Lake 50km trail race and the Victoria Marathon in October. I'm again having trouble wrapping my head around paying $100 for a marathon.
Long term I'm thinking of the Sinister 7 in July next year. 148km through the Rockies in Southern Alberta then maybe a trip to Drumheller after.

My Comrades Experience

2011-05-30T04:01:00.000-07:00

I could talk a ton about what it's like to be here but I'll keep it to the race only.
Leaving Sally's mom's place in Hillcrest at 4am got us to the race start around 4:30, one hour from gun time. It turned out it was warmer than I thought it would be, about 13 degrees whereas back in Hillcrest it was about 8. Better to start in Durban than Pietermaritzburg, a few people had told me. After a pre-race picture I left to go to the entrance to the race start area. With 45 minutes to wait I thought I'd bide my time in the bathroom line-up thinking that by the time I got to the front I'd have to go and also there wasn't much else to do anyways. I with I had brought a camera to the start to show what it was like lining up much like the start of the Sun Run where everyone's all packed together. I was waiting by the side fence when I felt a little drop fall on my hat. Surely it wasn't rain with not a cloud in the sky. It could only mean one thing - a good luck crap on the hat from a bird. It turned out to be lucky for me.
With the South African anthem sung, next came the singing of "Shosholoza", a traditional song as explained by Wikipedia:

Although the original author of the song is unknown, Shosholoza is a traditional miner's song, originally sung by groups of men from the Ndebele ethnic group that travelled by steam train from their homes in Zimbabwe to work in South Africa's diamond and gold mines. The Ndebele live predominantly in Zimbabwe(formerly, Rhodesia) near its border with South Africa, and they can also be found in the northern border of South Africa. The song mixes Ndebele and Zulu words and is Zimbabwean in origin even though the two ethnic groups are very similar. Some people argue that the song describes the journey to the mines in South Africa, while others say it describes the return to Zimbabwe. It is also sometimes sung "stimela si phume Rhodesia". According to cultural Researchers Booth and Nauright tell us that Zulu workers later took up the song to generate rhythm during group tasks and to alleviate boredom and stress. The song was sang by working miners in time with the music beat as the were swinging their axes to dig. It was usually sang under hardship in 'call and response' style (one man singing a solo line and the rest of the group responding by copying him). It was also sang by prisoners in call and response style using alto, soprano part divided by row. Former South African President Nelson Mandela describes how he sang Shosholoza as he worked during his imprisonment on Robben Island. He describes it as "a song that compares the apartheid struggle to the motion of an oncoming train" and goes on to explain that "the singing made the work lighter".

In contemporary times, it is used in varied contexts in South Africa to show solidarity in sporting events and other national events to rely the message that the players are not alone and are part of a team.

The song was usually sang to express the hardship of working in the mines. It expresses heart ached over the hard work performed in the mines. The word Shosholoza or "chocholoza!" means go forward or make way for the next man, in Ndebele. It is used as a term of encouragement and hope for the workers as a sign of solidarity. The sound "sho sho" uses onomatopoeia and reminiscent of the sound made by the steam train (stimela). Stimela is the Zulu word for steam train. "Kulezo ntaba!" means (At those far away mountains), "Stimela Siphume eZimbabwe" (the train come from Zimbabwe), "Wen´ uya baleka" (Because you're running away/hurrying). In contemporary times, its meaning it to show support for any struggle

Shosholoza
Shosholoza
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' eZimbabwe
Shosholoza
Shosholoza
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' eZimbabwe
Wen' uyabaleka
Wen' uyabaleka
Ku lezontaba
Stimela siphum' eZimbabwe

A rough translation:

Go forward
Go forward
on those mountains
train from Zimbabwe
Go forward
Go forward
You are running away
You are running away
on those mountains
train from Zimbabwe

That song was sung very loudly by most I could see around me. Pretty emotional. After that all that was left was for the rooster to crow, something a competitor used to belt out before he ran the race. I believe they tape recorded him once and now they play that before every race. The gun fired at exactly 5:30 and 16,000 folks all left on a journey of self-discovery.
Although they call this an "up" year, it's hard to imagine how many hills there actually are. I can't wait to get home and download the profile from the Garmin. The route travels one side of the closed off freeway out of town before turning off onto the old highway at about 8km. Cowies Hill, the first of The Big Five comes at about 17km and although it didn't feel too bad to run steadily up it on the outside of the road (less steep) I should have taken more walk breaks. Like most people you get caught up in running because everyone else is. Up and over that my legs were feeling great and the next challenge was Fields Hill at 25km. This was a longer, steeper, and with a few tight S turns. I walked a couple times up this one just because I thought it would be a good idea not to blow up this early. After that climb it was the usual rolling hills but mostly rolling up than down. 35k in we crested the road to Hillcrest. It here that there was the most people watching and cheering. I was amazed how I got inundated with "Go Canada Go" and "Hey Canada" (all pronounced Ca-Na-Da). It really lifted me up on this long steady grade out of Hillcrest. One aid station was playing a song that the kids like but I always make fun of. It really made me think of them and all sorts of things and I admit I got a bit choked up at that point. The elation and energy would not last long.
The sun was hitting us pretty hard by now and for those of us who have had no heat training to speak of it was starting to take its toll. I thought I was drinking enough but by the time I was halfway up Botha's Hill (#3 of 5) I could feel those dreaded beginnings of cramping in my quads. I started with the electrolyte tabs, something I haven't used all year. I never really know if those are helping or if I should just drink more fluids. I really picked up on the drinking of water as well as my own drink mix. Passing the the halfway mark at 3:25 I knew by how my legs felt and that there were still some ugly hills upcoming that a sub-7 finish probably wasn't in the cards. I started focusing on sub-7:30.
The distance markers for this race count backwards every single kilometre and I passed the time by doing the math on converting the kms to miles and how slow I could run them and still reach my goal. After Botha's Hill comes Inchanga, short but relatively steep climb where my quads and calves really started talking. I began stopping at about every second aid station that had people to rub ice or arnica cream on my legs, anything to get me to the next one. I figure I did this probably a dozen times over the last 40kms.
Through the area known as Camperdown and up to the highest point in the race at 810m was Umlass road. You'd think being the highest point that it would be all downhill after that but not a chance. We did get a nice easy descent for a couple kilometres after that though. To get a 7:30 finish my average pace had to say above 8:15 minutes per mile. At this point I was around 8:00 and figured it'd be no problem, even with the last ugly hill upcoming.
Around the 12km remaining mark came what's known as Little Pollys. Not to be confused with it's bigger, upcoming cousin, Polly Shortts. People sometimes think they're on the big one when the first have to get over the little one. I can't remember much about Little Pollys because by this point I was really messed up, thinking only about how I could nurse my legs a few more kilometres. Once onto Polly Shortts you know you're on it. It starts with a few twists and turns then all you see in front of you is a deadly steady go. You might say I walked a bit of this one.
After Pollys I knew there was lots of downhills but they killed my legs as much as going up. My mental fortitude was tested often as all I wanted to do was walk the ups, downs, and the flats. The only thing that kept me going was that I had come all this way for a silver medal and had the cut-off been 7:00 or 7:15 I would have known I couldn't make it and therefore probably walked most of the last 8km after Pollys.
The km markers ticked down and I knew I could run the last two miles in twenty minutes easy barring and last minute leg seizings. I hoped like hell I could manage just a little longer. Everything was locking up - quads, hams, calves, and even my ankles were causing me to run awkwardly on the outsides of my feet once in a while. I stopped at the top of the last little hill when someone ran by and yelled on his way by, "Don't stop now or you won't get the silver." I knew I had the silver, it was just a way of appeasing my body momentarily for all it had been through.
Finally on one of the last turns I saw Sally and Sean holding out my Canada hat and the sign I made for the fam to carry across with me. A half lap around the outside of the cricket oval and the finish was in sight. Having watched a bunch of people's finishing videos on the computer from last year it was a little emotional seeing it from this side. I thought about how long I'd been thinking of that very moment - for a few years but specifically eighteen months ago when I had signed up for last year's race. I know now that had I come here for the race on such little training due to my stress fracture I would have suffered horribly. Even though it was a "down" year last year it still would have killed me with insufficient training.
My average pace ended up at 8:12 minutes/mile with a finish time of 7:26, 426 overall.
I hung around until the end, chatting with fellow Canadians and watching people come across the line. Sometimes there would be a huge mob of runners finishing at the same time, led in by one of the "buses", as in "The 11 hour bus", or what we call pace bunnies.
Still not sure what caused the ugliness in my legs this time. Lack of heat in the spring? (probably not). Underestimating this race's hills and difficulty? (probably)
I can't say I'd do it again but it would be interesting to see what the down run would be like.
Looking back on the last two years' worth of racing results I'm going to take a hard look at what is important to me and what I want to occupy my time with. Will ultrarunning be a part of that time? Time will tell.

Comrades Pictures

Darin's Comrades Videos

A Little Scared Now

2011-05-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

So I went on the bus tour of the route yesterday. It's not called an Up Year for nothing. There were The Big Five of course - Cowies, Fields, Bothas, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts, but it seemed like when we weren't going up those ones, we were heading up some other type of incline. It never ended. I may have to call off all the bets on the 6:30, 6:45 and possibly the 7:00. The goal is still definitely sub-7 but even a 7:30 to get the silver medal (awarded to the finishers between 6 hours and 7:30) would be an accomplishment. It amazes me that the winners of this thing go under 5:30.
I know it's getting close to winter here but I still figured it'd be pretty warm in this part of the world. The weather I looked at beforehand seemed favourable. At getting here, though, it was drizzly and cool but still warmer than at home. That was Wednesday. Wednesday night and Thursday were pretty much filled with wind storms and rain showers. I went for a :30 run in between downpours and did the legs ever feel heavy!! Mind you I went up a pretty long steep hill which wasn't the best thing. Steep enough that I could feel it in my quads and IT bands the next day. I'll try them out again today for around 20 minutes.
My hosts here in Pietermaritzburg, Sally and Sean Jackson, have been superb in meeting all my whiny and moaning needs. They've been driving me all over the place. We're about and hour out of Durban so in order to be that much closer to the bus tour at 8am in Durban we stayed at Sally's mom's house in Hillcrest, only 30 minutes from Durban. We'll stay there Saturday night as well to give us that extra time to sleep. 3am comes early. Should be a chilly start so am glad I brought a sweatshirt to throw away after the start. Gloves too. Could have used an old pair of sweatpants but hey, if it's chilly for me it'll be freezing for these SA boys. Score one for the Canadian.
More later.

That's About It

2011-05-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Three and a half more days until I leave. What more is there to do? Well there's packing, for one. I'm notorious for leaving things until the last minute and packing all my crap is no exception.
The long runs are a thing of the past. Today was my last one, clocking in at a harrowing time of 1 hour, about 8.75 miles. Tomorrow is 4 x 1 mile on the treadmill maxing out at around 5:45 per mile. Saturday is 3 miles, Sunday 6 miles at "pace", according to my schedule. As my pace to be a sub-6:30 time has to be 7:10 per mile, and I've been averaging sub-7:00 the last couple of weeks, it might just be 6 miles on Sunday running how I feel. Monday is 3 miles, then 10,621 miles of flying. Wednesday is 3 miles, Thursday and Friday off, Saturday 2 miles then Sunday is the big hurt.

The race starts 5:30am SA time Sunday May 29th, which is Saturday night at 8:30pm Vancouver time. That means I will hopefully be finishing around 3am Vancouver time. Set your alarms for 2:30 and track me to the end at the Comrades website. My number is 58807. You can watch the whole thrilling adventure streaming live online. What else would you rather be doing?

Zippidee -do da

2011-05-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

So I don't know what it is but the plan has come together and everything is feeling perfect (knocking on wood). As soon as I was done the really long stuff I was to switch to shorter, faster runs. Not that I had an idea what I would be running these faster runs at, just that they'd be less than the 7:30 per mile I'd been doing in the training runs. I found out today that the Comrades "up" run this year is officially 86.96km, shorter than the "down" runs which are usually around 89km. This is good news as I have a better chance of hitting my time goal of 6:30. If it was 89km I'd had to have run a 6:57 average mile and now it'll be 7:13. Much more manageable and possible (but not guaranteed). To get a 6:15 it would be 6:57 per mile but with the hills I can't see that happening without me blowing up.
Anyways, back to the week that was. The key runs this past week were a fast 10k and a "long" run of 1:30. I slapped on the racing flats for the 10k and set out thinking I'd stay steady at a 6:45 pace. As the minutes went on I kept seeing the average pace on my Garmin dropping but I still didn't feel taxed. I ended up doing the first 3 miles averaging 6:18 per mile and the second 3 miles with a 6:04 pace and felt great. Now I know it's only one tenth of the race and I won't be going that fast, but it was a great mental boost to have some speed after weeks of long slow stuff. The next day was a 1:30 run along the hilliest part of 0ave again and ended up cranking out a 6:49 average over 13 miles. Again, felt awesome. Today was only an 8 mile scheduled run and after ten minutes I was flying again with steady breathing and not feeling bad at all. Two weeks to go before I leave!!

Long Runs Done

2011-05-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks were the longest in terms of mileage in a couple years when I hit 100 miles each week twice. When I did that I almost broke myself, having the shin splints return. This time I topped out at 75 miles each week and felt much better for it.
My regime which I borrowed from www.halhigdon.com and used for almost all my road races (the site has programs from short distances through the marathon and even one specifically for Comrades, which I've been following for a few months now) has emphasized back to back long runs which I've never really done in any of my ultra training. I always found it was too much at once. I understand that the first day is to tire you for the second to simulate the latter stages of a long race and hopefully to get you though it. Whenever I've tried this I find that I'm mentally not into the second day's run and the fatigue seems to be more of a block than I can hurdle. Two weeks ago my long runs consisted of 5 hours at Chuckanut in the trails, then a 4 hour run the next day. Chuckanut started out really well. I planned two, two and a half hour loops of lots of steady climbing, mostly on well-groomed trails. When I went to start my second loop my legs felt like they weren't into it. I managed to run all the hills like the first loop but at a slightly lesser pace. When I was about 4 hours into it I did the math as to how much time I had left and realized I wouldn't be able to run the last bit of the second loop because I needed to get home. Also that section of the loop was pretty steep and technical in spots and I'd be walking a lot of it anyways. Not really beneficial training when getting ready for a road run. I still ended at 5 hours and the Garmin read 32 miles. The next day I started running along 0 ave again through the hilly section, eventually getting to a rolling stretch of about five miles where I'd turn around and run it in reverse. When I was close to an hour and a half I felt a deep ache in my knee and started freaking out that it might be something bad. I decided to turn around at the 90 minute mark and hopefully make it back to the car. As I kept running on the return route something hit me: I remember that I had this same discomfort a few years ago. I stopped, stretched the quad of my left leg really well then started out again. What do you know there was no more discomfort. I remember going to see Active Release Therapy ace Colin McKay one time with the same ailment and he said it was tight quads. Here we go again.
After fifteen minutes I had to stop and stretch again. It wasn't debilitating but it was definitely bugging me. Luckily I had a massage later that day and that seemed to help a bit. I ended this run with 24 miles done.
A few shorter runs over the weekend and I was on to the last week of long runs. This time I decided to do a 5 hour run on Wednesday and a 4 hour run on Friday with Thursday being a rest day with another massage in there, too. The 5 hour run consisted of starting in Maple Ridge at 240st and Dewdney Trunk Road, right along the old H2H course. I intended to head east to the Mission Municipal Hall, refill the bottles, and head back. As I've been staying off the roads as much as possible the last few months, this would be a test of the legs. I've been trying to stay on routes that have a dirt or gravel shoulder to run on to minimize impact. Lots of times the ground is soft and probably makes me run with greater effort because of the absorption of energy when running. However I thought this would only make me stronger and hopefully reduce the chance of getting hurt again. I couldn't remember if the H2H route had much of a shoulder as along this section it's always been dark and I stuck to the road surface. Turns out that about 75% of the stretch I ran along had a decent shoulder.
The run started reminiscent of the actual H2H race: about 4 degrees and raining. The shoulder was quite often full of puddles and muddy but I stuck to the plan and ran through it all to avoid the asphalt. I had everything that day - rain, sun, wind, hail. I don't think it was the best temperature training for S. Africa but I'll deal with that by hitting the sauna from now to when I leave. I even went the first half with no music but treated myself to the tunes on the way back. My ears end up bleeding if I listen to the music for too long. I ended up the run at 5 hours and 40 miles. 7:24 minutes per mile average. I was pretty happy with this because the route was very hilly in stretches and I felt strong on the return trip. The knee was aching for most of the run but it got to a certain point then didn't get any worse so I could ignore it.
Two days later I went out to Aldergrove Lake for the last time (thankfully). I'm getting to know every inch of that loop and the only thing that changes is the amount of horse poop along the path. I felt excited to do the run and the legs felt peppy as well. This is what I was hoping for. I did one loop of the trails then headed out around the neighbourhood roads to switch things up. I came back and ran the same trail route in the opposite direction in the same time as the first loop, only in a new pair of shoes to break them in. I still needed about :40 after this to hit the 4 hour mark so changed into the racing flats I want to use on race day and cranked out some 6:45 minute miles to finish off the run. Everything went really well on that day and I wasn't even dead tired. I'm beat the nights after the run and the next day but the day after that I'm ready to go again. Confidence is high for the run that's only, holy crap, 27 days away. Now time to taper with some shorter, speedier runs and quick hill repeats. Knock on wood I don't break before the race.

Diez, Fatigue, and Flights

2011-04-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

If you look up "Diez Vista" in the dictionary it reads, "Steep, difficult, borne from the depths of hell, exhausting, occasional scenic viewpoints depending on the weather". It may be all these but I still really like doing this event. It's got elevation (8,000' worth), great views of Indian Arm, gnarly and hair-raising descents, great aid stations, fabulous volunteers, and race directors extraordinaire.
I was meaning to post my goals before the race but never got around to it. What I would have said was how it was going to be a training run (yes I know I've said that many times before, but this time, as the others, I meant it). I thought about breaking 4:30 but didn't think it would happen, so I changed the time goal to 5 hours. Even though I was 9 minutes over my goal, partly due to the extra elevation added to skirt some flooded trails (thanks BC Hydro!), I felt overall that it was a successful training run. No falls, bruises, extreme emotionally low periods, and when I finished, my legs felt the least destroyed they've ever felt after an ultra. I'm hoping that that means either I went slow enough to fulfill my goal of not racing, or that I'm in super-awesome shape leading up to Comrades. The fact that I fatigued myself the week before Diez as well cemented in my head the fact I wouldn't be as fast as if I'd tapered. Tuesday before the race was a two and a half hour mountain bike ride with some guys from work, Wednesday was an hour run, Thursday was a 2 hour hard road ride, and Friday was a 2 hour run along the hilly part of 0 ave - 16 miles. The couple days after the run were positive for me because I actually felt like I could have run again but knew it would be better to rest my normal three days afterwards.
An hour and a half on the bike yesterday and a 3 hour trail run today has me back on track, although still a bit tired. A 4 hour run tomorrow should make me forget all that.
Got my flight to SA today. Leaving on May 23rd arriving on the 25th. Coming home on the 2nd of June. Gone to the next level of excitement!!

Dirty Duo report, SFU Running, Long Runs

2011-04-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

Okay I know, too much to post. I've been soooo busy, blah, blah, blah. Just haven't been able to sit down an formulate much lately.
A quick recap of the Dirty Duo 25k:
Equaled my time of last year not having run in a trail for five months.
Slightly longer recap:
The first half hour once we started climbing was all I could do to stop, wait for Scott to catch up, and walk my way to the end. Funny thing is that after the thirty minutes things settled down - legs stopped hating me and started working better. I ran behind Jen Seggar for probably 45 minutes until I slowly (and I mean 'slowly', no offense to her because she was scheduled to run a 100 mile race the following weekend) past her on a long steady climb.
After that it was a matter of dodging mountain bikes (sometimes pushing them to help them up the hills) and following the markings to the finish. The trail was wetter and muddier than last year so you'd figure my time and the winning times would be slower but that was not the case. The winning time was about twenty minutes faster than me which over 25k that blew me away! Carrie and my sister, Karen, also did the 15k race.
Did a run through Simon Fraser University a week ago. In the past while training for Ironman, biking up roadway to the top of Burnaby Mountain was a February staple through wind, rain, and sleet. On this day I did a couple hours through the trails and around the back and ended up running up the roadway for the first time ever. I was surprised it only took 14 minutes when by bike it took me 9 (the short route, anyways). I plan to go back soon and do repeats up that bad boy. Funny how little things remind me of biking up that hill: the scenery, the traffic, the never-ending @#!$ hill!!
Have my long runs up to 4 hours all on trails. I've been out to Aldergrove Lake a few times doing 1 hour loops of 8 miles. It's actually not bad because the terrain is constantly going up or down, nothing too crazy, and it's not technical so I can make good time.
This weekend will be my third running of the Diez Vista 50k. Should have been my fourth but the stress fracture last year decided that one for me. I'm planning to do a two hour run the day before to tire the legs a bit. Seeing as I need to do back to back runs for the next month I should start this week and use it as a training tool. Should I be concerned I am definitely not ready for 7,800ft of climbing? Shucks, it's just another day. Time on the feet is what's important right now.

Barb Owen in the Vancouver Sun

2011-03-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

From Fire and Ice into the Furnace

Velodrome

2011-03-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

Last Friday a group of ten of us from work went to the Burnaby Velodrome for a Learn To Ride On The Track session arranged by another co-worker and track superstar, Andy George. It lasted about two hours but the time went by so fast it seemed like twenty minutes. We started out with about a ten minute talk from Claire, an instructor, on going around the cote d'azur, or "coat" as it was called. It's an eighteen inch slightly canted strip around the inside of the track that basically gets you onto the track so you can pick up speed before going up onto the steeper parts.

Me standing on the "cote" showing for scale how steep the track is in the curve - 47 degrees.

It was definitely a bit of a learning curve riding the fixed gear bike with no brakes and practicing speeding up and slowing down not being able to coast. After a few laps it was down to the centre again for another talk on transitioning to the "sprinter's lane" between the red and black lines and up to the blue line (see picture above). After another break of five minutes and a demonstration from Andy on how to hit the last curve then stand and sprint down to the corner and into the sprinter's lane, we were all doing it.
It was a pretty cool feeling having no wind resistance and just bombing around through the corners but it wasn't easy riding near the top because of the small hills just before each curve after the straightaway.
I would recommend anyone to try this at least once in their life as it gives a deep appreciation to the track riders and the power required to do really well.

Me

Me

Definitely Not Me

Thankfully Not Me

Barb Owen's race report

2011-02-26T14:45:00.000-08:00

Here is the Brazil 135 and Arrowhead 135 report from Barb. I sent it to Pano at Trainharder.com and he graciously published it:

Trainharder.com

Almost as cool as her report, Barb is allowing Carrie and I to crew for her at Badwater in July!! That's bound to be just about as challenging as doing the race. It's also a big help if you crew to getting accepted into the race one year....Hmmm.

What impressed me most is her prep for those two races, something I haven't taken as seriously myself since Ultraman in '06.

Whistler Relay announced!

2011-02-22T07:31:00.001-08:00

The new Whistler 50 Relay and Ultra has been announced:

Whistler Relay

I'm signin' up!!

It's been a long time since...

2011-02-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

...I biked three hours (last Thursday) - some time last year
...I swam 2900m (last Wednesday) - Ironman 2007

...I ran over an hour in length - Gibraltar last November
...I ran an hour and a half - last week
...I ran over two hours - last Sunday (2:02)
...I felt this good running - ?

Of course now that I seem to be feeling pretty good and starting on some pace workouts (6:30 per mile) and hill runs, I can imagine the feeling won't last. I only have the last two years to fall back on to emphasize this. I can't remember the last time I was gearing up for a race without some kind of concern or injury. I suppose it was in early 2008 when Spartathlon was the big one on the radar and I was running well in the spring and everything seemed to be going as planned. Then I learned my lesson by running too many races too soon, a lesson that I won't repeat. Speaking of Spartathlon, Canadian living in America, Glen Redpath, ultrarunner extraordinaire, has contacted me for advice on the race. Seems he's wanting to do it this September which can only mean that my Canadian record is most definitely in jeopardy. He should be in the running to win it so it will be an honour if my record falls to him.
So another reason I'll soon break myself again is that the plan I meant to follow starting in January I am only getting into now. Whenever I put down on paper what I should do, that's when I push myself too far and overdo it. Plus I'm trying to catch up to where the Comrades plan is now, which is a long run of 26 miles. I only hit 16 on the weekend, 12 last week, and 8 the week before. What's the old adage? Only increase your weekly mileage by 10% at at time? At that rate I wouldn't be close to being ready for South Africa. This week is a 20 miler followed by a 22 or 24 the week after. Yikes, was that my bones groaning?!?!

On a more interesting note, Barb Owen from Maple Ridge and extremely talented ultrarunner, has completed two of three races this year entailing 135 mile runs. First off was Brazil 135 through the hotness and humidness. Two weeks later was the Arrowhead 135 in Minnesota. In February. With temperatures cold enough to freeze clothes to your body should you be unfortunate enough to let yourself sweat, Barb trudged through brutal conditions to become the only woman to finish this year and only the second woman in the race's seven-year history to cross the line in the time allowed. Next on Barb's list is the Badwater 135 mile race through Death Valley. She has her application in so hopefully she'll be accepted into that one and try to complete all three in one year. I'm awaiting permission to publish here her account of both events. Stay tuned.

Next on the "man, are there ever a lot of athletes better than me" list, is Greg McHale (that's him on the right). Greg is Denise McHale's (remember Denise? First Canadian woman at the World 100k in Gibraltar and Canadian record holder for the 100k, and recently won the Yukon marathon outright. No wonder she has no time to write entries in her blog!) husband and an adventure racer. He decided to enter and complete the Yukon Arctic Ultra race that started last week and he finished yesterday - 8 days and 6 hours later. Did I mention it was 430 miles? In the Yukon? In February? Yes, that's a bit of an adventure.

I had a revelation while running the other day: I'm considering all my pre-40 years-old racing times to be defunct. Now that I've crossed over into middle-age, all my times are now new. SO, if I run a marathon again before I'm 50, the time to beat is 2:57 that I did last fall in Kelowna. When I'm 50 it starts all over again.

Carrie got me a copy of Chasing Legends for Valentine's Day, so anyone wanting a screening can let me know!

Chasing Legends

2011-02-03T00:03:00.001-08:00

Here is a site describing the movie Carrie and I just got home from, and how you could buy a copy if you wanted to:

Chasing Legends

In a word - awesome. One of the best movies about sport I've ever seen. If you've ever ridden a bike you'll like this movie. Whether you're 8, 18, or 88, you'll like this movie. It'll make you want to get on your bike and ride.

What to say, what to say...

2011-01-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know. But first, two little rants.

The first has really nothing to do with running or riding or sports in general. Merely something that irks me. It has to do with Craigslist and how people conduct themselves in terms of responding to emails from me and coming to look at items I have for sale. I feel some examples would better illustrate this:
I have a tent-like shelter on Craigslist at the moment that I bought but turns out is too big in my backyard (long story). I have it on there for $225 which is a very good price as the size is 12'x 12' and Canadian Tire sells the same type of shelter that is 10' x 10' for $230. The day after I put it on someone emails me to say they have $150 cash, would I take that? Choked I emailed back a simple, "Nope". It's like putting your car on there for $8000 and someone, sight unseen, asking if you'd sell it for $5000. I had another person this past weekend email and say they were 'very interested' and could they come look at it on Saturday or Sunday. I called and talked to them and we agreed Sunday at 11:30 would work. 11:30 came and went as did the rest of the day with no word from them. Now, in this day and age of instant electronic messaging and cell phones, how hard is it to AT LEAST email and lie if necessary to say you can't come and look at it. Just say, "We can't make it today, will have to re-schedule". That took three seconds to type. It's not like I put my whole day on hold but I did hang around until 12:30 to be sure. It's that kind of inconsideration (inconsiderateness? non-consideration? you get the idea) that drives me crazy. I've never done that to someone. My other example is when you email someone and ask if a certain item is still for sale and they don't respond one way or the other. I emailed a guy about a winter bike for me - cheap, winter transportation, $5-600 - and never received a response. The next day I emailed again asking to please just let me know if he still had it. Literally two minutes later I got my answer: "Sold" was the one word answer. Now would that have been so hard to do after my first email? In-con-siderate. No respect.

Rant #2: Riding my bike to work in the dark, getting no respect from drivers.
Okay, I'm lit up like a Christmas tree on my bike when I ride to work at 6 in the morning in the dark. I know drivers can see me because on longer stretches of road, especially with no cars coming the other way, most cars give me a wide berth, pretty much going in the whole opposite lane to get around me. They can see me because I have three red blinky lights on my backpack, one on my helmet, and three on my bike. On the front I have two white lights on my forks, one on my helmet, and a huge, 900 lumens, sun-like light as my main headlight. So when on a stretch of road with no cars oncoming, I have to question a driver's common sense when they don't even give me one extra inch of room almost like they didn't see me. Then there are those idiots who, at any time of day or night, will still pass me on a narrow stretch of road or a curve when there is oncoming traffic. There is no way for them to give me room and are forced to get a little too friendly. I hope more drivers pay attention to the many "Share the Road" signs that have been put up in the Lower Mainland lately.

Whew, I feel better already. So what's been going on the last three weeks? I started my program of walking/running a little after the New Year. I did the first two weeks running every second day in the trails wearing my fivefingers shoes and when I couldn't make it outside I was on the treadmill in racing flats. After these two weeks I noticed similar sensations in my left foot like when I had my stress fracture last year. I switched to my regular trail shoes and that seemed a bit better. I've kept running and it hasn't got any worse, though the feeling is still there. I did my first road run on Monday since Gibraltar on Nov. 7th. A whole 4.25 miles at 7:00/mile pace. I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I wasn't sore yesterday with the quads and IT bands complaining the most. I'm going to try and add ten minutes to every second run up until about an hour then I'll figure out a plan from there if I'm not wrecked again. On the up side my biking is feeling phenomenal. I've been doing nearly hour rides to work then the usual thirty-five minute trips home every day and with the hills I'm feeling pretty strong. Throw in a two hour ride on the days off as well. The goal is to do overnight up and back trips to Whistler and maybe Penticton this summer. Throw in a few Mt. Baker rides and life is good.

Starting the New Year right

2011-01-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

So the New Year started out with a splash at our usual spot at Crescent Beach (5th year running) with six of us going in and out very quickly. I know I said I was starting my running program on the 1st but, what can I say? I didn't. I did, however, do it on the treadmill on the 2nd at work. 10x 1min walk, 1min run. Whew what a workout. Yesterday I strapped on the Fivefingers and went through the trails near the house doing the same workout. I was wanting the trails because of the softer surface but with the cold we've had lately the ground was like asphalt anyways. Still a feel-good workout. Actually yesterday was a mini out of order triathlon: Swim 1600m, run 3 miles, bike to work 18km.
The swim pretty much went how I thought it would: crappy. Three weeks without running - no problem. Three weeks without riding - ha! I wouldn't even notice. Three weeks without swimming and I'm sinking like a rock all over again. I'm hitting it again today to keep the fun rolling.

Two New Records!!

2010-12-31T17:06:00.000-08:00

That's right I've worked so hard lately that I've managed two more personal bests:

1. No running for the last 54 days - not sure what the previous record for me is but for sure it's less than 54 days.

2. The longest I've ever gone without posting an entry on this site - 36 days.

About the blogging: it's not like I haven't thought about writing things, and if the record was for not writing AND thinking about writing then the record would only be a day or two. It's been for a couple reasons: nothing to write about except being hurt or sick and people can only handle so much of that. Also while being hurt or sick I haven't had much motivation for writing. I think Denise McHale has the record for length of times between posts.
As for the lack of running, most would know I had shin issues before, during, and after Gibraltar. The 'after' issues lasted a lot longer than they ever had before. I didn't see a doctor or anything because I know from the past what needs to be done for this: rest. And rest it I have. It took about a month before I couldn't feel any discomfort, then I thought I'd give it another couple weeks to be sure. I think in the past I've rushed my recovery from the shin splints only to have them resurface a few months later. Of course I've still been riding my bike and swimming a fair bit. I was up to 2400m swimming up until three weeks ago when The Sickness came, then all forms of exercise halted.
I started getting this cough which steadily got worse and worse until it was accompanied by a fever and body aches. I hit it with every over the counter concoction I could find but nothing touched it. I was getting no sleep because I was hacking on and off throughout the night. Long part of the story short: I finally got some antibiotics because I have a respiratory infection. I'm on day 5 and feel better but still have a lingering cough. Tomorrow being the start of a new year I'm going out to do start the big comeback. I'm going to do it in my fivefingers shoes to kill two birds with one stone: start running slowly, and start running minimalist again, but slowly. This will be done on the soccer field as well to provide even more protection.
My sister gave me a little program from when she had a stress fracture a while ago and it basically entails running for a minute, walking a minute, a few times a week for a week or two. Then it moves up to the unimaginable two minutes of running x4 for a couple more weeks. You get the idea. Slow is the way to go.
Scott Corsie from Penticton is responsible for me signing up for a couple more races. In his quest to finish the Canadian Death Race he wants to do some races beforehand so we're going to sign up for Dirty Duo and Diez Vista. Not that I'll be in shape for either one doing mostly road work in prep for Comrades but it'll be fun nonetheless.

Lately

2010-11-25T09:52:00.000-08:00

Still no running for me. I'm thinking the shin splints may be a stress fracture due to the time it's taking to get better. Usually it's a couple weeks off and I'm back on the roads. There hasn't been a lot of change in the weeks since the race but I'm pretty sure that's due to doing the race. As the snow comes down I can't really get too excited about not being able to run, I'll stick to the bike and swimming. Plus there's still some shocks left in the bone stimulator that I used on my foot back in the spring so have been applying that to my shin the last few days.
Speaking of the bike, I was out last week in a frigid wind and if I didn't have an errand to do I would have turned and ridden the tailwind back in a heartbeat. I'm back in the pool, up to 10 x 150m. Ultraman here I come!! Went out on the bike again yesterday before the latest snow and froze terribly. I'm convinced I don't have enough clothes in my wardrobe to ward off the elements for more than 45 minutes at a time. I have to bounce from coffee shop to coffee shop to keep the feeling in my fingers.

Link to Gibraltar photos

2010-11-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

Gibraltar '10">

How not to run a 100k

2010-11-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

So probably not the best idea to have shin splints three weeks before the big race and do no running. For some reason in the past any similar ailment would clear up or at least lessen over a couple weeks. In the time since the Around the Lake race on Oct. 16 to race day on Nov. 7th my shin didn't feel a whole lot better. Luckily Mel Bos (part of the women's team) brought her husband, Kevin, who does massage, physio, ART, etc., and he suggested we try taping it up the night before the race. I'd seen it done on the internet and thought it couldn't hurt to try. I also hit the advil heavy the day before which seemed to help.
After a rushed trip to get to Gibraltar late Friday night, then a quick look at the city and The Rock on Saturday, the race came all too soon on Sunday. It was nice for a change with the race start being about 300m from the 'Athlete's Village', a cruise ship brought in just for the runners and support. In the darkness we made our way along the dock to the line. Supposedly we were to run one lap on the street near the cruise ship and then make our way over to another part of town and continue for 19 loops of just over 5k. And I thought 10 loops of 10k in the past was bad! Anyways, somehow the leaders were told to do another lap so already we had run farther than we were supposed to, like 100k wasn't enough. We ended up doing a shorter 12th lap to make up for the extra distance at the beginning.
For some reason, the 19 laps didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe because we ran the first few in the dark so when it got light we had only 17 more to go. No, that's not it. Can't say why but this race, although being my second slowest 100k time ever, seemed to go by quite quickly. The course was horrendous: the first 2.5k along the seedy waterfront of Gibraltar made you want to run with others just as a safety precaution (strength in numbers); the path for the first half of the loop was broken asphalt and a lot of twists an turns AND a hill thrown in there leading up to the water station at the halfway point. I remember thinking how the hill would seem like a mountain in few hours (I never did walk one step on any of those 'climbs'). The second 2.5k of the loop was slightly rolling with a downhill that brought you back to a two-way stretch where you could see runners' positions relative to yours. It also led back to the main aid stations for each country. Once again all the support we had from our gang was stellar. Never at loss to offer food or drink or encouragement. One of the main reasons I keep coming back is because of the great group of people that accompany this race.
The first 30ks were awesome, I was on my pace to hit 7:29 overall. Within minutes of reaching the 30k mark I could feel something was wrong. The legs started getting heavy and it was hard to keep up a decent pace. I tried to keep it up, honestly I did. At 50k I knew any chance for a PR was over and it was all I could to just to keep moving and not either walk or drop out.
The race took its toll on the men on our team save for Thierry. He had a great overall race and finished in 7:40-something. Jack and Rick went out with injuries. Matt started out strong and I remember passing him about halfway. Darren was flying out of the gate and I really thought this would be his day to go sub-7:30 but then I noticed where we passed each other was getting closer and closer meaning he was slowing down. The women all did great with Denise being our superstar finishing in 7:56 for a new Canadian women's record.
When I finished it was probably the most anit-climatic of any 100k race I've done. I was really glad that it was over but didn't get that rush of emotion that I usually do when I'm about to finish. Maybe it's time to either really focus hard on this event or pick another distance and concentrate on that. No more of these years where I try really hard at doing well at many different distances and end up not happy with any of the results.
Some good advice: don't donate blood the day after flying home from Europe and five days after doing a 100k race. I'm still feeling the effects.
Pictures of the trip to follow soon!!

Clip from Gibraltar television

2010-11-16T20:05:00.001-08:00

www.livestream.com/gbctelevision/video?clipId=flv_0a839055-48b3-497a-a921-78f7e552b172

Live coverage from Gibraltar

2010-11-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

Starting on Sunday, November 6th, you can get updates from the race on the IAU website.

Weird

2010-10-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

I thought I had written more over the past week or so but it was only that I thought about writing while I was doing stuff but never got around to doing it. To sum things up I've not been running, just sticking to non-impact activities like the eliptical, swimming and biking. I can't stand the water running so haven't been doing that, no matter how good it is for you when injured. The swimming is coming along, I'm up to 15 x 100m on 10 seconds rest. The eliptical is starting to get boring so it's good the race is next week. I'm back to loving the bike. Had two, two hour rides last week when the sun was out and the feelings flood back in as to how much I love pedaling. Even going to work in the dark has been a blast.
I'm not expecting to reach my goal of 7:30 next weekend but I'm going to try anyways. As this could be my last 100k in the near future I want to make the most of it but it's all up to the body at this point. After a few visits to see Colin McKay at Precision Health the shin feels a bit better, as long as I don't run. Advil will be my friend.

2 minutes slower

2010-10-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

On Saturday was the Around the Lake 30k out at Cultus Lake. The weather was a 100% turnaround from last year - beautiful sunny skies and warm once we got running. Carrie, my sister Karen, and me headed out early and got there way too early. Had to sit in the car and stay warm until closer to the start. My goal again was to run steady and not be too thrashed by the end of it or in the days afterwards. I could tell on the first climb that I didn't have any trail legs in me. I wanted like last year to go fast on the dirt road at the top of the first steep section and it worked out I was able to. My shin was ever-present every step but it wasn't stopping me from going on. Once I finished and cooled down I could feel it getting worse. I was happy only being two minutes faster with no hill training because last year I had been doing a bunch of hill work to be ready for H2H.
I've been paying for the over-mileage of the last week or so with the shin not very happy. The plan now is to lay off the road and stick to the bike and eliptical. It's close enough to the race I should be semi-healed up and able to go the distance.

The Crunch

2010-10-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

As usual it's coming down to Crunchtime: the last few weeks before a race where I fret that I haven't done enough mileage. So, like in the past, I go out a little too much and end up tired, unmotivated, discouraged, broken. A day after the marathon I did a 32 mile road run followed the next day with a 23 mile trail run. Surprisingly I'm not too tired, I'm still raring to go for Gib, I want to do the race, but I may be a bit broken. My left shin is acting up a bit but I think it's close enough to race day that I can baby it for the next couple weeks. Tomorrow is the Around the Lake 30k at Cultus Lake that I'm using primarily as a speedier workout on a soft surface. If the shin gets bad I'll be taking most of next week off to get it to hopefully heal up a bit.

The long and short of the last four weeks

2010-10-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

Firstly I'm changing the way I'm going to be blogging in the past. I've found over the last year that by not posting anything for weeks at a time makes me not want to post anything more and more. It's like the more I need to write the less I feel like writing. So from now on I might just put down a few lines here and there on anything that comes to mind or the results of a certain workout. No more epic stories that take half an hour to read. I may extend it somewhat for a race but other than that I'll try and do more postings more often. Saying that this will be the last long one because it's been almost a month.

Okay, not to bore you with getting overly detailed here. Basically since UTMB things have gone down the crapper and only now are crawling back through the sludge to the land of the living.
I had set out in September to create a training plan to carry me through to Gibraltar on the 8th of November. As has so often happens after I develop a plan and start following it, I come down with some sort of malady, sickness, or injury. This time it was an injury but having nothing to do with running, at least not in the short term like a fracture or shin splints. After work one day I had this pain in my lower back and the following day I could barely move without getting a sharp jolt of pain all across the waistline. I went to the clinic where I was told I had problems with my SI joint and needed to see physio and massage. Two days later I went to physio where I was told that it wasn't my SI joint and that my hips were looking pretty much aligned but the nerves were aggravated in my lower spine. She gave me a few simple exercises to do and after two days it was still killing me. I had a regular massage scheduled but all Holly's efforts couldn't put a dent in the discomfort. Sitting for more than ten minutes totally stiffened up my lower back. I even tried acupuncture (what I do when I'm totally desperate) thinking it would loosen things up.
Finally I got referred to a sports massage guy, Ken Scheel, in Vancouver and luckily he could see me on short notice. He had a look at my spine and hips and knew right away that something was out of line. He'd look at my back, get me on the table, twist me and bend me, stand me up, have another look, get me on the table, twist me and bend me a different way, and on and on for an hour. I don't know how the physio missed the fact that my right hip was twisted up and forward and my lower back muscles were guarding it but luckily Ken knew what he was doing. As soon as he was done and I left the office I felt about 80%. I could sit in the car without pain but there was still some traces of the pain. Two days later I ran for the first time in nine days for one hour. The next day the pain was back a bit so I went back to see Ken. He said things had regressed a bit so it was more of look, table, twist, look. After that I've been feeling almost 100%, just a bit stiff at times. The third time I've seen him was only for a quick look and to say to come back if things get worse. He figures it's been something that's been building for quite a while and it was something simple that finally caused the hip to go out of alignment. Anyways, with some exercises I've been stretching and strengthening the hips to avoid anything like this in the future.
Okay, that aside I was at least glad to be running after the scare that I wouldn't be able to do the Baker Lake 50k or the Kelowna Marathon or Gibraltar. I guess I should be thankful that I was even able to do Baker Lake but I had such a crappy time there that it overshadowed my gratefulness.
I've been doing most of my runs the last few weeks wanting to finish with negative splits. I thought I could do BL in 4:15 with the out being 2:15 and the back 2:00. Whoa, was I mistaken. Firstly I hadn't even been in the trails for weeks and even though the trail is fairly easy as far as trail races go, I knew I was in trouble at the turnaround. I tried to bump up my speed on the way back but it only furthered me quicker down the path towards bonktown. Long story short I finished in the worst time out of the three I've done that race.
Fast forward a week to the Kelowna Marathon with solid week of training and no real tapering (okay two days) with a goal in mind of three hours. Just a quick run not wanting to feel too stressed and one that wouldn't leave me hobbled for days afterwards.
Having done most of my runs on the Mud Bay dyke the last few weeks I was pretty used to flat. One thing I'm hoping is to build up my 'flat terrain' muscles seeing as there'll be no hills in Gibraltar. I figured Kelowna is pancake flat and this would be a good test. The wind picked up shortly before the race then the rain hit us hard for about 45 minutes. After that it was just overcast with a bit of a breeze to help cool us off from the 17 degree weather. To get under three hours I needed a pace of 6:52 per mile and after starting I pegged my GPS at 6:48s just to account for any bathroom and refuelling stops. The pace felt pretty effortless and I let nothing distract me from keeping the pace. Even at the beginning when most people took off at 6:30s I settled into my own groove and sure enough I reeled most of them in. A first for me in a race of this length is how good I felt all the way through. I was feeling so well in fact that I thought I might try to up the pace 30 seconds per mile in the last five kms. As soon as I saw the 37k marker I turned the hat around backwards and hit the split button on my watch. There was a guy about one hundred feet in front of me and another about the same distance in front of him that I'd been watching for over an hour. As soon as I upped the pace I was catching and passing them. The increase in speed felt effortless and it was like I was still doing 6:48s. I finished in 2:57 feeling like I could do more which is what I wanted. Congrats to Carrie who did the half in 2:03 with not a whole lot of training the last month. Also to my sister, Karen, who was trying to qualify for Boston with a 3:50 but missed it by 6 minutes but still ended up with a PR.
Today my legs feel great and I have a four hour run planned tomorrow and Wednesday. This week and next are the last two big weeks of mileage before the taper to Nov. 8th. Feeling the best I have all year.

At Long Last...

2010-09-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from the UTMB but mostly of my touring around:

UTMB '10

Post UTMB - aka The Shortest 100 mile I've Ever Done

2010-08-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

So if Fat Dog was the longest 100 mile I've ever done, then the UTMB was the shortest. I might as well start from the beginning before addressing all the issues.
I arrived in Geneva on Wednesday the 24th meeting Ian and Jenn at the airport. We caught a shuttle bus to the Hotel Chamonix Whymper (which is what a lot of people would be doing in a few days' time) at Chamonix, basically the French Whistler.
The first night I slept my usual Europe sleep: 8pm until 1am, toss and turn, drift in and out for a couple hours til 4am, stare at the ceiling until 7.
Thursday Ian and I went up the Augille du Midi gondola which actually involves taking two separate ones to the top which is at 3800m or about 12,500 ft. It was an amazing, cloudless day and the pictures are fantastic. I'll put them on when I'm home.
The next day, race day, was the opposite of Thursday - lots of rain. We even got a text that morning from the race organizers telling us to be prepared for rain and windy conditions during the race. Jenn's race, the 98km CCC (Courmeyeur-Champax-Chamonix) started at 10am in the town of Courmeyeur which would have been the 78km mark of the UTMB. I picked up my race kit and readied my pack and drop bag. My stomach felt almost a little flu-like and I had a bit of a headache, maybe from too much sun the day before. I wasn't overly excited about the race because of this and the weather didn't help either. At 5pm Ian and I walked over to the start area where there were already a few hundred people there for the start at 6:30. I nudged my way forward until I was part of the mass. For this race the pack you carried needed to contain certain safety items and always not weigh less than 2kg. I watched as race officials went around and randomly inspected and weighed the runners' bags. They played the Italian, Swiss, and French national anthems and the race started.
I thought I was close enough to the front to avoid getting stuck in the bottle neck that I've seen on videos of previous years' starts. I was greatly mistaken as it took, literally, five minutes of walking before I could maintain some semblance of a pace. Now all I could think as we were trucking down the town road towards the eventual trail was that I was going to be stuck behind so many runners trying get onto and run on the narrower trail. I made some bold moves and hurried past as many as I could but when we hit stretches of even gentle uphill the crowd screeched to a halt as the people in front started to walk. It was exactly like rush-hour traffic.
When the skies really opened up on us it was nice to see dozens of runners peeling off to the sides and donning rain coats. It was still pleasantly warm so I didn't bother with the coat quite yet feeling that a little water never hurt anyone. This allowed me to gain a bit more room. After about thirty minutes there was some breathing room and the climbing began.
We were basically going up a ski slope of switchbacks and every once in a while we'd go past a chairlift tower. Thankfully I decided to take the trekking poles on this race because without them I never would have made it as far as I did. I've never been a firm believer in the poles but I'd never want to do another race like this without them. Almost everyone had them and those that didn't were falling off the back pretty quick.
Next came the downhill which was awesome and long and steep. Near the bottom it was getting dark and heading through the forested area it was headlight time. A lot of runners were waiting until the bitter end to turn theirs on and I couldn't believe how dark it got and some still hadn't switched on. When we strode into St. Gervais, the first major aid station at 21km, it was like Mardi Gras. I haven't seen people lining the sides of the route like that since Winchoten, The Netherlands, for the 100km World Championships. Everyone was out and screaming and kids were high-fiving us as we ran by. It felt like the Tour de France. I just grabbed some water and bananas because I was going to fill up my camelbak at the next big station at 31k.
The trail to there was nice and undulating and I was moving up the field. At the top of a section of road I came to the town of Les Contamines, the 31k point. It was here I was intercepted by someone and was told the race was "stopped" due to a
mudslide. I asked if they knew when it would be open but they didn't know and I could get some food and rest. I started to refill my camelbak and a volunteer at the water table said that the race was over. I guess that the previous gentleman translated "over" into "stopped" and it didn't sound as permanent. I spoke with an organizer then who said due to 80km/h winds, no visibility, and extreme mud sections at the higher mountain areas, the race was cancelled and we could catch buses back to Chamonix. I guess last year three people died in another mountain race in similar conditions and the organizers were worried that might happen again. Jenn's race was halted at the 80km mark but if competitors had gone past there already they were allowed to continue, due to the mostly descending end of the course.
I made my way back (keeping a long story a little shorter) to the hotel in around two hours. As I was cleaning up we watched on The North Face website and a Facebook site to see if there was any news on a rumour of the continuation of the race or possibly a new race the next day. The last we saw before heading to bed at 2am was that there was going to be a press conference at 9am in the morning. Jenn knocked on the door around 3:30 having dropped out of her race at 70km because of the cold and wind and horrible conditions.
We got up at 8:30 or so to have Ian check his facebook and see that a friend of his who was doing the race as well was on a bus to Cormeyeur to do a continuation of the UTMB only from Cormeyeur to the finsh, about 90km. Apparently a text had been sent out but I received nothing of the sort indicating any other race going on. I'm not sure if I'd had notice of a race starting at 10am if I would have started but it would have been nice to have a choice. All sorts of things were coming to light throughout the day: I spoke with several people who didn't receive any information about a new race and they knew other people with the same story. By now it was obviously too late to start even if I wanted to. Also, they were only putting 1000-1300 runners into this new race (depending on who you talked to or what you read) so how would everyone have done it anyways? Finally I found out tonight that entrants into another race, the 107km TDS, which was first delayed three hours then finally cancelled due to the conditions, would be allowed entry into this race. Now you're adding approximately another 1000 racers who could theoretically want to run at least some kind of race. In a conspiratory theory kind of way I'm thinking they purposely didn't send out texts to everyone or it was a "lottery text" and runners were chosen at random. Probably not true but I'd like to get to the bottom of it all.
Anyways, what's done is done. Can't really complain too much. At this point I'm thinking I'd like to try and get into this race again next year because it is so damn beautiful and challenging (at least the little bit that I did see). If I had done the race I never would have been able to go on an amazing six hour hike today up to 9000ft over the Col de Terasse. Pictures on that to follow as well.
Tomorrow is another shorter hike then some souvenir shopping before heading out Tuesday.
I have the fall all lined up with races in September and October to quicken my pace for the World 100km Championships in Gibraltar in November. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the Haney to Harrison this year as they fall on the same weekend. Gibraltar, H2H? H2H, Gibraltar? I think you know what choice you'd make.
I have to thank as usual Jim Stewart of Cactus Club Cafe in South Surrey for allowing me to get to the start line of this amazing race. Also, of course Carrie and the kids who let me get out early throughout the summer to do some great training runs.

Again, more pictures to follow in a few days.

Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc Cancelled

2010-08-27T14:04:00.001-07:00

This is from the North Face website:

The Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc has been cancelled 31 miles in due to severe weather. High altitude weather in the mountains is not passable and not safe.

A press conference will be taking place in 1 hour back in Chamonix with the race director. The athletes are returning to Chamonix. Additional information and updates will be provided then, within the next hour or so.

We will update as soon as we have information.

Update from TdMB

2010-08-26T15:59:00.001-07:00

After looking up weather conditions for Chamonix and the surrounding areas, it looked like there might be a bit of rain to start the race. Then, today, we received the following email from the organizing committee:

Attention, weather conditions planned during the race: rain, wind and cold.
Provide the necessary equipment

Comité d'Organisation de The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc

Thank goodness Darin is prepared and packed for any kind of weather! And I don't think he ever was a boy scout!

Pre-Mont Blanc

2010-08-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

Scott Corsie sent me this quote the other day, "Some men storm imaginary Alps all their lives and die in the foothills cursing difficulties which do not exist." Edward W. Hore

I thought this was weirdly appropriate as I'm about to take on probably my biggest trail challenge to date. I definitely am worried about getting through it all because being in the longest race where I haven't been supported by a crew, there are a million things that could go wrong with no way to correct them. On the other hand, I like the way you're not allowed to have pacers and every runner has to carry a certain number of items in a backpack, even the ones with crew. Kind of puts us all on the same level playing field. Of course, the only level field of this whole run is a few hundred metres at the start and then the pros will be gone.
Some 100 milers are won in 14, 15, or 16 hours. This one is usually around 20 or 21. To make the top 100 out of over 2,000 entrants, I would finish in about 30 or 31 hours. I was hoping for the 24 hour barrier to be broken but I can't see me going much less than 30 hours. I'm prepared for 30 hours and if it takes me longer I'll be relying totally on the supplied aid stations for food and energy drinks.
Anyways, not to run on with my fears and worries, the race starts at 9:30am on Friday the 28th, BC time. I should be done hopefully by 3pm Saturday the 29th if all goes well or better. There's around 20 time checkpoints along the way to follow the runners. Here's the website

Ultra Tour de Mont Blanc

Another cool website with videos and more info on the race, along with a Google flyover of the course can be found at:

Trail Running Soul

If there's video of the start I'll be the guy in the white hat, yellow shirt, and red backpack.

Au revoir, mon amis.

Guess who moves up an age group today?

2010-08-14T16:06:00.001-07:00

Happy 40th Birthday Darin!

Stormy 50 Mile Training Run

2010-08-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

For all of you that are going to say, or have said, "Oh, yeah, another 'training run' that he goes out and wins (or tied in this case)", I wasn't thinking 'race' in my head at any point along the way. I didn't really want to be out front for any of it and even contemplated starting 15 or 30 minutes later than everyone else so as not to be tempted to run harder than I should. Really. I have to say I wish I had run this race in the past because, in my opinion, it was one of the best organized races I've done. The aid stations were awesome, the flagging plentiful and exactly where it was needed at those 'doubting myself' times, and the volunteers were very helpful and supporting. I also like the way the relay was run in conjunction with our race because there were always people you could see on the course and the exchange points were packed with encouraging runners waiting to head out. I know I said last year I was going to try and get people I know to run 40 miles or 40km for my 40th birthday but it never really materialized. Carrie and I went to Whistler instead and I incorporated this run as a last long one before UTMB to go along with our 40th birthday weekend. I guess when I turn 50 I'll do a 60km run.
Tim, Dave, Dario, Hozumi, and I all ran the first leg pretty much as a train following Tim's perfect pacing. It was fun to chat along the way and also as a perk they were able to catch me from going off course in the first couple miles because it heads out onto some streets and my eyesight is failing from old age so it was tough to pick up the flagging at times. At the Perth aid station they all stopped to get water but with my camelbak I kept going. Long story short I ran alone save for a couple relay people going past me like I was standing still until I passed the University at around 26 miles when Hozumi caught me. We ran pretty close until Nine Mile Hill when I managed to run/walk that stretch on my own again. Little did I know that Hozumi's powerwalking outclassed my 'running' up the hill and he was right with me and we reached aid station 8 at the same time.
Normally I like to run on my own in my own misery but I have to say it was quite enjoyable having someone along for the ride at this point. We talked about all sorts of stuff to pass the time. At the Powerhouse station for the second time I could feel myself losing some energy and my fun meter was on low as Hozumi and I took off together. I think he actually might have waited there a bit for me as his crew had bottles ready and I had to fill my camelbak. My energy level picked up after some Coke and we were running strong the last few miles save for the longer uphills. I couldn't keep up with him on the steep hills and when I wiped out with about three miles to go I stood, brushed myself off, and hoped he was long gone so I could just do my usual finish line shuffle. At the next turn I saw him waiting for me, probably not a pity wait, but to see why I had stopped, like, due to a wipeout or something. Somehow I knew in the back of my mind that he wasn't one to sprint to the finish and this actually came up in conversation with about a km to go. We laughed and couldn't understand how people would sprint to a finish after running 50 miles total and three hours with someone. It was a classy move on his part that this didn't happen because he could have dropped me anytime in that last eight mile stretch. Together we finished in 7:24 quite comfortably.
The next day my legs felt pretty good. I was telling Hozumi that, due to training for Fat Dog and UTMB, I hadn't done that much straight running for months. Most of my training has involved running but also thrown in has been a lot of climbing up steep stuff. That's why I'm surprised my legs didn't cramp and I could walk the next day which was a good thing, too, as Carrie and I did the Ziptrek tour at Whistler.
Thanks again to Wendy Montgomery and her band of merry volunteers for being part of my birthday celebration and putting on such a terrific event.

Pre-Stormy

2010-08-07T17:40:00.001-07:00

A few people out there have the misconception that I'll be 'racing' the Stormy 50 mile event tomorrow morning. Well, let me be the first to clarify my plan: Just get through it. No racing, just running. I haven't had any speed in my legs pretty much all year.
So Stormy is simply a long run because I was getting a bit bored with going through the same trails and mountains lately and thought I'd do something I've never done before. It's the last long run before UTMB and I don't want to have dead legs for the next week and have to recover. Slow and steady will be tomorrow's plan.
There you go.

4 years - it was a good run

2010-08-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Ultraman Canada was held in and around the Penticton area. I always knew my record of just over twenty-three hours would be broken, just as I knew my run record for the third day would fall eventually (which it did last year). Congratulations to Kevin Cutjar of Penticton who now owns the record in a time of 21:49. Kevin has also won Ultraman Hawaii and someone told me he won Ironman Canada back in the '90s some time. At 44 this guy is in pretty okay shape I would say. The number two finisher for the men, Mike LeRoux, finished in 22:36 so he actually beat my time too!
Now that UMC is a qualifier for UMH, you're going to see better and better talent showing up in Penticton to do this event. And, we just found out that there will be an Ultraman UK in September 2011 which our friend, British endurance superstar Ian Mayhew, signed up for. I see another crewing adventure in my future.
Here is the final write up of this year's race:

Ultraman Canada Day 3 Final Race Report
The 10th Ultraman Canada event hosted the largest field ever and brought a higher caliber of athletes to the
event. This year’s field also included the highest number of female athletes ever in an Ultraman event and was a
hotly contested event. The final standings of Day 2 provided racers and staff with lots of suspense going into
today’s 84.4kmdouble marathon. Those involved were rewarded with tremendous performances from the 35
athletes that lined up at the start. The athletes were rewarded with near perfect weather conditions for the
run.
In the men’s division, the excitement stared when Penticton’s Kevin Cutjar , the leader going into the run, set
off in the front and never looked back. He ran a spectacularly consistent pace throughout the entire course to
post a time of 6:37:41 for a total overall time of 21:49:45. Cutjar broke the previous run course record by over 6
seconds set last year by Benat Zubillaga and demolished the previous course record by 1:10:50, set in 2006 by
Darin Bentley. Cutjar becomes the only person to have won both the Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii
(1995) and Ultraman Canada.
Mike LeRoux , of Australia, maintained his second place overall standing by running a 7:17:31 double marathon
for a 3 day total time of 22:36:54, also beating the previous overall record time and claiming the second fastest
time overall. Rounding out the top three on the men’s side wasMike Coughlin of Sudbury, ON who started the
day in same position. Coughlin posted a negative split on the run completing it in 7:36:41 for an overall total
time of 23:33:03. His time was good enough for the fourth fastest overall time at Ultraman Canada.
The incredibly competitive women’s field started the day with only 13 seconds separating the first and second
place positions. Tracey McQuair of Penticton, BC, was leading Australia’s Alice Clark at the start and blazed
herself to the overall win in the women’s division by posting an 8:37:46 run for an overall time of 26:08:24.
McQuair’s time was quick enough to claim the second fastest run and overall times ever. Kellie Smirnoff, of
Jacksonville Beach, FL posted the second fastest run with an 8:40:18 which moved her into fifth place in the
overall women’s standings and give her the third fastest women’s run time ever. Consuela Lively ofWinter Park,
FL,posted the day’s third fastest women’s time with a 9:07:28 to finish third place overall. Andi Ramer came
back strong from issues on the bike yesterday to post a 9:25:02 run which boosted her into second place overall
with a total time of 28:09:49. Alice Clark who had dominated the bike course for the last two days completed
the course in 11:45:28 for an overall time of 29:16:19 and fourth placing in the women’s race.
Overall, there were 32 official finishers, 18 men and 14 women that wrapped up the three day adventure
through the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys. Seven athletes were unable to complete the event due to
various medical, nutritional issues and time cutoffs.
Ultraman Canada 2011 will take place on July 30-August 1, 2011.

"A higher caliber of athletes"? "Demolished the old record"? Ouch. I've never been demolished before.

Fat Dog 100+

2010-07-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

Had someone had a microphone in front of me for the last leg of the Fat Dog 100 it would have recorded mostly expletives and curses. Ask my pacer, Scott Corsie. After coming so far and being out there so long only to encounter the last bunch of miles up Skyline trail was my breaking point. But not to get ahead of myself. I could bitch and moan about all the little things that I think can be changed but I think race director Heather Macdonald has heard it all and I hope she takes it all in to make it a better event next year. I'm just going to tell the story of how my day (and a half) went.
I was a little nervous about this race even before my stress fracture back in April. I've only run one other 100 mile trail race two years ago and that ended with me walking the last 5 or 6 miles on feet that got pretty chewed up with blisters. Since then I've come up with ways to avoid the same thing, on shorter courses, though. The feet were my biggest concern for the race, not the stress fracture I had months ago. Of course I wondered about my endurance as well but I'd done a few five to six hour runs in the last month with some gnarly climbing so I figured I'd be ready for any bit hills. Turns out I would need every bit of "power-walking" practice I'd done.
The family and I stayed with our friends Scott and Michele in Penticton from Tuesday until race day. Before that we camped in Fintry for three days so my pre-race diet consisted of lots of camping food and my favourite - ice cream.
Scott and Michele treated us like royalty and it was awesome to sleep in a bed before the race instead of a tent. Scott would be accompanying Carrie and the kids around the course to help crew for me and I was grateful that Carrie would have some help to take a bit of the pressure off. Having a crew was the best thing as it made life so much easier when I pulled into a station.
We all woke at 1:30 Friday morning and hurried out the door around 2. We followed the directions to the start line but where it said Lakewood Trail Head there was supposed to be a small parking lot. Turns out you had to go off a gravel road to the left to reach the small parking lot. There was another car there with two girls wondering where to go as well. We said we'd go down and if we didn't come back in a few minutes that they should follow. We went down the bumpy gravel road and eventually came across the lot where a few other cars were. The good thing was there was a men's and women's outhouse. The bad thing was that the men's had no toilet paper and the women's only had half a roll. Seeing as no one was waiting, into the women's I went.
We all started crossing a small bridge which was about two people wide and stopped halfway across. Peter Watson counted down and at 4am shot off a starter's pistol and anyone camping within a mile knew we were starting as well.
I was stuck almost at the back as we all slowly started up some single track switchbacks. It took about twenty minutes and I was able to scoot past a few people then it opened up somewhat and I could move a little faster. Eventually I was with Brian Morrison, a very accomplished trail runner, and Hassan Lofti-Pour, also a great runner and World 100k Championship teammate in England last year. We did a lot of climbing the first portion of the first leg and arrived pretty much at the same time at Cathedral aid station at 12km. After that there were a bunch of switchbacks leading up to the treeline and the alpine. I could see the lead relay runner off in the distance and used him to find the trail more easily. If not for the flagging I don't know how anyone could have followed the 'trail' because often I was running over a field of rocks or small shrubbery from one flag to the next. To the credit of the organisers the route was extremely well marked for the first few legs. Hassan caught up to me and we caught up to the lead relay guy, Peter from Langley, but he was soon off flying on the downhill while I went at my own pedestrian pace to save my quads. It couldn't come soon enough because at that time of day it was pretty chilly up there with a nice wind blowing. It would have been good to have arm warmers and light gloves.
I pulled into the first crewed aid station, Trapper, at 27km (according to the route maps) after 3:30 of running to find the gang there, chair waiting. I fell into it and immediately took off my left shoe and applied a blister pad on a hot spot I felt forming on my instep. A note about my shoes: In the pre-race meeting they mentioned the river crossing at 54km and it was suggested to change shoes after. I figured I'd use my older, crappier shoes until the river then change right after (I figured it'd be about 4-5 hours on my old shoes so no problem, right? Little did I realise the course was longer than advertised and I'd be in those shoes for over eight hours). Carrie was trying to fill my camelbak with me bent over tying my shoes but it wasn't working. I stood and she was filling it and that's when I noticed the little black flies or whatever they were feasting on my legs and arms. I could barely stand still while she re-filled my pack without doing a dance to get rid of the bugs.
Hassan and I left at the same time and we began running up a gravel forestry road. He suddenly remembered he didn't take off his long-sleeved shirt so went back to the aid station to drop it off. I continued on at my slow pace knowing he'd catch up soon enough. I saw a relay runner ahead of my up a trail and set off after him. Higher up I looked down and saw Hassan about to go past the trail leading up to where I was so I called to him. I figure I saved his whole race right then and there and he should give me the North Face jacket he received for winning the race. We went up a bunch more switchbacks (sounding repetitive yet?) to another gravel road and this was where I led us wrong. We went about ten minutes on the road when it started going downhill. I was pretty sure on the maps that this section was another long climb up to the alpine again. We backtracked and couldn't believe we missed the trail.
Up we went until the next alpine section where we came to a beautiful lake and kept running only to realise we'd run out of flagging tape again. We searched another ten minutes until we went back and, again, saw how obvious the Centennial trailhead was.
We were supposed to run into a water station and it just never came. Finally after three and a half hours and no water remaining, we found the small Calcite station. It was supposed to be at 40km, but, really, 3.5 hours to do 13km from the Trapper station?? After we filled up we headed for the river crossing, the 50k mark, and ran down the trail Elias and I had marked months ago. The grass had grown up substantially and I hardly recognised the trail. There were some steep downhills to the river and we set across. We should have gone one at a time because the current was moving fast at waist level and us losing our balance and grabbing the rope was causing the other guy to be thrown around as well. I tell you, if either of us had lost our grip on the rope it would have been damn hard to stop ourselves from being carried downstream. The rocks were very slippery and it would have been tough to stand up and walk the rest of the way without the rope.
On to Bonnevier station where Hassan and I each changed shoes and socks. Over eight hours to do 54k seemed not quite right. Peter, the relay guy from Langley from the first leg, came up to me and asked if he had seen the guy on his team that left after him and was ahead of us. I said no and that he must have taken a wrong turn, something I heard a fair bit during and after the race.
Up we went again along a gravel road and finally out of the sun down some more trails. When we started climbing again it was evident I didn't have the power-walking ability that Hassan had so I said for him to go on. From this point I was walking most uphills. I figured it was the elevation because after this every time we went up to the alpine my legs had no gas and felt pretty weak. At some point along there the "overflagging" became "few and far between flagging" because at one spot I ran back five minutes thinking I'd missed a turn but saw I hadn't. Back forward I went until I finally saw another piece. From here on it was best just to keep going straight and eventually there would be more tape. Once at the top in the meadows again it got pretty hot and it seemed forever until I reached the Heather station (70k). The volleys there were awesome as they filled my bottles and even made me a grilled cheese sandwich. The bugs were atrocious again and I commend the people who were up there for long periods of time. I nibbled on the sandwich for the next few kms and along this high trail were some of the best looking viewpoints.
I finally started going down eventually hitting the water drop at Nicomen Lake. After another nasty uphill I headed down some long switchbacks until finally running into Scott before the aid station. Turns out a relay runner had twisted and probably broken his ankle and Scott (ex-firefighter) headed out to ice and bandage him up. We ran back to the aid station, Cayuse, at 100km.
Scott figured to join me so he changed into his running attire and off we went, headlamps at the ready. There was another aid station at 106km (an hour of running from the Cayuse station), and Nicola Gildersleeve's and Peter Watson's station at 109km, Sumallo Grove. It was pretty much dark here but I could see the impressive spread of food they had there. Had I not been running I'd have camped out there eating everything in sight! Because of the dark and the trail being quite overgrown in places, Scott and I decided it wasn't worth the risk of injury to go headlong down the trail so we walked a fair amount of this section. It was here I noticed my hands looked very Mickey Mouse-like in that they were swollen. I felt like a cartoon character with these huge hands but could hardly form a fist.
It was along this stretch that kept going and going where I decided that I wanted to save Scott, Carrie and the kids more aggravation and time wasted by dropping out. I really thought it would be better for everyone to pack it up and go get some real sleep and save them more hours of waiting for me. Scott said he would stand by any decision I would make. When we got to the 26 mile bridge station at 121km, we realised it was near impossible to drop here because of the 1.5km hike to the road which was deserted of traffic anyways. We decided to get to Gary Robbins' Skyline trail station at 136km and decide there what to do. Plus that's where Carrie would be (sleeping) waiting for us.
On we went for two and a half more hours through the same type of hard-to-run-in-the-dark trails. There were some ups and downs emotionally but when we got to the next station I knew we'd go on. A very tired Carrie said that we've come this far and it would be kind of a waste not to go on and finish the bloody thing. We figured about 4 hours to the finish but Gary slapped us with reality when he said more like 6 hours. Well to try and cap this report soon, it took Scott and I 3.5 hours of solid climbing of switchbacks to reach the Lightning Lakes signpost. Thinking we would be heading down to the lakes soon, we high-fived and congratulated ourselves. Little did we know this was only the start of another hellish section. The hallucinations were in full swing as I called out "there's the water jugs" only to get closer and see they were a bunch of logs. I kept my comments to myself until I was sure what I saw after that. When we eventually saw the jugs at the top of a hill, we were both hesitant to believe what we were seeing. We filled up our containers while fighting off the bugs and headed, where else, up. Thinking again that one more climb and we'd see the lakes and start heading down, we went on. Of course it was too much to hope for when we ended up climbing another 6 peaks!! Some of the goat paths were quite dangerous at this point due to our tiredness and disorientation. Some slopes were so steep that if one of us slipped, it would be hours to get back up to where we fell, as long as we were uninjured and able to get there. At the top of the last peak we saw a couple hiking the other way and knew we were almost there. They were nice and told us it had taken them an hour and a half to walk up and gave us a pretty accurate description (for a change) of what we could expect on the way down. On the descent a huge bug (at least if felt like it was huge) flew into my eye and I couldn't get it out. I thought my water bottle had just water in it and so spilled some on my hand and rubbed it in my eye. It was then I realised it was CarboPro and my hand and face were now very sticky. Scott caught up to me and promptly removed the carcass from my eye, totally above and beyond the duties of a pacer. When you sign on to pace someone, you don't expect to be out there for 16 hours, which he was. He was in bad shape like me but never complained about it.
We finally reached lake level and started on the road around the lake. Hannah and Elias met us a few hundred metres from the end and ran us both in. Carrie was there with the camera but I pulled her through the finish line with us. No runner can finish without their crew is what I always say.
So it was the end of a very, very, long run, the longest I've ever been on my feet - 31:45 (although the time on the website states 32:34). After talking with people who had GPSs along some parts of the route, it was determined the 100km race was actually 120km, and the 100mile was anywhere from 115 to 120 miles. The elevation was 15,000' for the 100k race and 23,000 for the 100mile. Full credit for the family for having the patience to wait all those hours for me and for Scott for gutting out a crazy 70 or 80k with me. I couldn't have done it without all of them.
As for what's next I believe that this event has given me insight into what UTMB will be like so for that I am grateful. As for next year I hope Heather takes the suggestions that people have made in how to make the race better in the future.
Pictures to follow soon.

Lost Lake 50k route and Buntzen

2010-07-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

So, yes, I went down to Chuckanut again and ran some of the race route but with a small twist this time: I did the race route of the Lost Lake 50k. The website touts an elevation gain of 8000' and it didn't disappoint (unless you're asking my quads). The worst part was the Pine and Cedar Lake trail that I'd never gone on before which involves a steep descent of 1.6 miles and 1500'. When you reach the parking lot at the bottom, you turn around and go straight back up again. Call me stubborn but it didn't occur to me until I could actually see the parking lot at the bottom that I could have turned around anywhere on this trail and avoided the painful uphill on the way back. Like I said: stubborn.
My plan for this run was to a) do 6 hours, b) get to know the Lost Lake route so I could do it again, and c) get a lot of climbing in the legs at my snail pace to build up those muscles for the races to come. I ended up doing 5:10 for the day, I figured out the route nicely, and definitely got the climbing in. I realised how accurate my Garmin was by following the direction and distance signs for trails and it was pretty much bang on every time.

So today I went to Buntzen Lake to go around there and do the Diez trail as another attempt to hammer my legs. I got there kinda early, 5:30, to find the gates don't open up until 8am. 8am!! "Fitness doesn't sleep in", I cried out. Of course you think you could park on the streets anywhere within a half-mile radius of the gates? Not a chance. I guess when the parking lots are full the locals don't like the out-of-towners abandoning their cars in front of their houses to walk to the beach. I literally parked a half-mile away and started my run from there.
You ever start a run and you haven't even gone twenty minutes and your guts start telling you that you better find a bathroom soon? Well it happened to me today. Luckily there are bathrooms right near the lake. Unluckily they were as locked as the gates. No problem, I thought, I can keep running until 8 when they open up and use them then. Wrong. I started scouting places I could go and which sort of leaves looked the most attractive in lieu of paper. Luckily I got to the north end of the lake and encountered some outhouses that were unlocked and stocked with real paper. Whew.
I did over two and a half hours(running)before going up the Diez trail which was good to do tired because it made it plain for anyone to see (and luckily there wasn't anyone around) that I am woefully underprepared for UTMB at this point. Hopefully I should be able to these trails a few more times before the end of August, and with poles. Ended up with 5:20 and almost 30 miles. The last "luckily" was that my car was still there when I went to leave to go home!

The Scorched Sole (almost) 50k

2010-06-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

Normally a 50k race, this trail run was cut down a few kilometres due to snow at the top of Little White mountain. Snow! At the end of June! What is this craziness?? According to my Garmin watch after the race I had travelled 28.18 miles but it's been known to tell the odd little white lie especially with elevation. After this race it read 7500' of climbing which I think is highly suspect. Anyways, it was long and up, then it was quick and down.
850k of driving, then the run, all in 24 hours. Carrie picked me up from work on Friday and we arrived in Penticton at 10pm at fellow ultrarunner Scott Corsie's house (he now has strep throat). He and his wife, Michele, graciously donated their basement bedroom for us on the night before the run. After a whopping six hours of sleep we were up and heading to Kelowna. Cutting it somewhat close getting there 30 minutes before start time, things were a little tense because Scott, who was doing the 50 mile race and arrived there before us, had locked his keys in his car with his drop bag supplies and was waiting for BCAA. Seeing as the 50 milers started at 6am, we knew he wouldn't be doing that one. As it was he ended up doing the 50k starting about 15 minutes after everyone else.
It was nice to catch up briefly with Bruce Grant whom I haven't seen in a long time, only knowing what he's up to by reading his blog. He formally presented me with my age group prize for the BC Ultra Trailrunning Series a couple years ago: a cool Nathan backpack. Okay he basically gave it to Carrie as I was walking into the port-a-potty for some pre-race business to take care of.
I told a few people that this was only a training run and honestly that's what I did. I knew the course was mostly uphill to the turnaround so I told myself to work pretty hard on the up and to take it easy on the downhills. It truly was a lot of climbing at the start so I tried to keep my breathing as easy as I could and when it got heavier I slowed down even more (if that was possible). At about the six mile mark I blew my nose runner/cyclist-style and felt right after a fast trickle of something come out. I touched my hand to it and, as I suspected, I had a bleeding nose. It seems when I leave the moisture-laden air of the coast to hit the dry interior I get one of these. What was I to do but pinch the nostrils and carry on, right? By now my hand and nose were covered in red and I was hoping I'd hit the second aid station soon and that they'd have something more absorbent than the leaves I was wiping it with.
I arrived at the second aid station sooner than I thought I would, thankfully, and was greeted by a volunteer saying, "Wow, did you fall?" I guess my face looked worse than it was. Luckily they had paper towel and I cleaned up as best as I could. Off I went down the flat KVR trail hoping it wouldn't happen again.
After the third aid station the trail went up again and where it turned into more or less a fast flowing creek coming towards me. There wasn't a lot of room on the sides to run so basically I stuck to walk/running up the middle, picking my steps carefully.
There was one more small water station before the ascent to the top of Little White. I didn't bother filling my bottles, knowing there would be water up at the turnaround. That was a bit of a mistake because I had to start rationing my water after basically walking the next half hour. The trail running turned into more of a post-holing adventure as the snow got deeper and deeper. At this point I thought I was in second place and so was waiting for number one to come down the trail the other way after hitting the half-way point. I guess whoever was in front of me was doing the 50 mile because I reached the post indicating it was now time to start the crazy descent with no one coming back the other way. Now it was time for the taking it easy part.
Again, because it was a training run and knowing that the downhills are prone to hurting my legs, took it fairly easy on the way back. It was pretty fun running back through all the mud and water that I tried to avoid on the way up. It was easier to go right through it than avoid it. Next along the KVR trail again which had seemed flat going the other way but turned out to be a slight incline. It was tough mentally because it was a few kilometres in length with nothing to look at but the long straightaways. I reached end of the KVR and back into the trails which were mostly down again with a few flats thrown in.
Now, at this point I still told myself that if someone passed me now I wouldn't care and tried to stick to that story. I ended up coming in at a pretty relaxed time of 4:33. 2:43 going up, 1:50 coming down. Crazy.
My legs felt really good right after the race, not too knackered at all, which was good because Carrie and I had to drive me back home to go to work that night. Speaking of Carrie, she did the 25k in 3:06 without doing a lot of training the last few weeks.
It was quite a whirlwind trip but worth doing for a training run in a different type of terrain and area.
Thanks are in order to race director Dan Crockett and all the volunteers who did a great job on this low key and fun race. Here are just a few of the 1000 pictures Dirk Handke took of the race:

Tim Weins, Bruce Grant, and me

Me with Dirk Handke

Race Director Dan Crockett

Carrie's finish

A Good Couple Weeks

2010-06-24T12:20:00.002-07:00

So I've been back at it for a while now. The longest training run before last weekend was 2:30 in the trails. I even made it up to SFU to run the 5 Peaks course finally. I had meant to go up there on race day a few and leave twenty minutes early and run the course twice (a total of 20km). I thought of myself as a bit of a bandit but seeing as I've never "bandited" a race before, I had to consider exactly what the definition is. I've done some searching and it usually ends up coming down to robbing or cheating or living outside the law. Well if I had done that course before the start without paying for it, I don't think any of those would have applied. To me, a bandit is someone who lines up at a race like every other paying competitor, races with them, and uses the supplies at the aid station. I've seen some pull out at the end without crossing the line/timing chip mat. I was planning on being self-sufficient fuel-wise and wouldn't have influenced anyone's race by being so far in front hopefully no one would have caught me. Therefore I would not technically, in my world, not be a bandit.
This past Sunday was the Summer Solstice 25k run on the North Shore that I did as an easy training run. It was definitely harder than I would have done a 25k training run. It's been a while since I've ran over there and forgot how technical everything was: the roots, the rocks, the uphills, the downhills. As I'm 'gradually' building up the mileage so I hopefully don't break myself again, I wanted to take it pretty easy which I did. The crazy part was the steep downhills that took their toll. My foot was sore for a couple days and only today ran 45 minutes since the race. To 'ease' back into it I'll do the Scorched Sole 50k (as an easy training run) this Saturday to make sure everything is good. Or I could hurt myself and be out of Fat Dog and maybe even UTMB. What will it be? Stay tuned.

2 Hours in the 'Nut

2010-06-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I returned to the mountain where I started all my trail experiences: Chuckanut. I know people are probably getting tired of me saying that I ran in these trails (again and again) but that's exactly what I did. It's close, no traffic, easy drive, and, oh, yeah, no traffic.
It has been three months since I tiptoed through these trails it felt great. Slow, but great. I didn't know I could shift into such a low gear going up hill. I was going slightly quicker than walking and I managed to keep moving the whole time except for the really steep stuff.
I knew it would happen: today my legs are trashed. No matter how slow I go or for how little time, I can't escape the next day's tragedy that are my legs. It always happens when I'm not in the trails for a while. Kind of like not swimming for a month. It's gonna suck. The running was fun but today not so much. I feel like I've run a road marathon. The only consolation is that I've gone through this so many times before that I can tell myself that in only two or three more outings there will be no pain or suffering. At least that's what I tell myself now.

1:20 Look At Me Go!

2010-06-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Okay I was going to write the other day about the 1:10 run I did and how excited I was and how glorious it was to be back on my feet. Today, though, I did a whopping 1:20 all on the road with no discomfort or pain or otherwise. Everything was good. Everything, that is, except the weather which was very Haney to Harrison-ish: rainy, windy, but not overly cold.
Doing my 1:10 was the first time in almost two months I've run outside listening to music while running and I realised how much I miss the tunes. I always thought I would never listen to music on the bike but over the past couple months of riding and no running I was a little lonely for my ipod. I would ride out and when I was on the rural roads I would plug in and was quite surprised how well I could still hear cars coming up from behind me. I only got freaked out once when one surprised me. I felt guilty because I was of the opinion that it wasn't safe to ride with headphones and used to think riders like that were asking for trouble. I forgot how boring it can sometimes be riding for hours on end with the same song going around and around in my head.
Anyways, going to try and build up slowly the time on my feet for the next few weeks starting in Chuckanut tomorrow for two hours - less than 10% of what I'll be running for Fat Dog.
On the weekend the boy (Elias) and I drove out to Manning Park to do my trail maintenance for Fat Dog. Little did he (and me actually) know what he was getting himself into. It involved driving to Manning and meeting with about ten people including Heather the race director, driving another 20k down the highway, and another 20k up a gnarly forest service road. My van still hasn't forgiven me for that trip. We walked a pretty rough trail flagging and clearing branches and obstacles. It ended at an incredibly steep decent down to a river that we'll be crossing during the race. Heather says they'll have to go back and make switchbacks and or stairs to make it a little less difficult. No arguments from me. All in all it was a good but tiring day. We even managed to rush home and be ten minutes early for Elias' hockey game. As tired as he was he had a great game.

Old and New Articles about a Comrades Runner

2010-06-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a pretty funny story. We've all wanted to do this at some point during a hard race, it's just that we're all not blessed with an identical twin.

TRACK AND FIELD; Deception in Marathon Has Race Officials Seeing Double
By DONALD G. McNEIL JR.
Published: July 22, 1999

JOHANNESBURG, July 21— One of the top finishers in South Africa's most famous road race admitted today that he had cheated by running it in relays with his virtually identical brother.

Sergio Motsoeneng, 21 years old, and his brother, Fika, 19, were desperate for prize money, their lawyer said, and gave the $1,000 Sergio won to their father, who lives in Qwa Qwa, a depressed former black homeland, with 11 children. The lawyer added that the family had been on the verge of selling the $85 gold medal Sergio received for finishing in the top 10.

The Comrades Marathon, first run in 1921 by 34 men raising money for a veterans group known as the League of Comrades of the Great War, has grown into South Africa's biggest road race, with nearly 15,000 entrants of all ages. Each year, it reverses direction between two cities, Pietermaritzburg in the Drakensberg Mountains and Durban on the coast.

This year, on June 16, it was the downhill run, which is 89.9 kilometers long (about 56 miles), for which the record is 5 hours 24 minutes 7 seconds. But watching the winner finish is less entertaining than the bitter end of the race. It is considered a great shame to be among the last 1,500 competitors who fail to finish in 11 hours and are ''swept up by the broom wagon,'' sometimes paralyzed by cramps and clawing at the rescue vehicles.

The whole race is covered on national television, and most of the runners finish in the last hour, staggering into the stadium, collapsing at the finish line, crawling or carrying each other over it.

According to an account by the South African Press Association, Nick Bester, a former champion who finished 15th this year, had complained that something was wrong with Sergio Motsoeneng's ninth-place finish. Bester had counted everyone who passed him in the final miles and there was one too many -- and electronic-race records showed Sergio was behind him earlier.

Sergio confessed through his lawyer today after Beeld, an Afrikaans-language newspaper, published pictures of both brothers in the race wearing the same number. They looked very much alike, but their watches were on different hands, and one runner had a scarred shin.

Apparently, Sergio began the race and ducked into a mobile toilet after 45 minutes to change shirts and shoes with Fika. Fika ran the next 30 kilometers, and they changed again at least once. Changing shoes was necessary because microchips in each runner's shoelaces and sensors allowed constant tracking of every entrant. South Africans across the country were able to log on to a Web site and find out exactly where their favorite racers were at any moment.

Clem Harrington, a lawyer who has run in 21 Comrades, said Sergio Motsoeneng was a desperate young man from a poor family. He and his unemployed client, both from the town of Bethlehem, will meet with the Comrades Marathon Association on Saturday to return the medal and negotiate repayment of the $1,000.

This has not been a great year for the Comrades. Motsoeneng is the third runner to be dropped from the list of top-10 finishers. Viktor Zhdanov, from Russia, who finished second, was disqualified after testing positive for ephedrine, and Mahlala (Rasta) Mohloli, the sixth-place finisher and a popular local runner in the same club as as Motsoeneng, tested positive for nandrolone, a strength-building steroid.

The Comrades prize money is so low that it attracts few world-class entrants, but many runners from the former Soviet Union participate and do well.

''This is a tragic story,'' the press association quoted Harrington as saying. ''Hopefully, Sergio will not be lost to the sport because he is a highly talented runner. If he harnessed the energy he put into cheating into rather running the race properly, who knows, he might have finished among the top five.''

'He didn't need to cheat'
Iqbal Khan
May 31 2010 at 01:56PM Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za

Sergio Motsoeneng has paid his dues and has started a new life in his road-running career.

The man who finished third in Sunday's 85th edition of the Comrades Marathon was reluctant at first to speak of his antics in 1999 when he was found guilty of cheating after being placed ninth in that year's race.

Motsoeneng twice swopped clothes with his younger brother but was eventually found out after newspaper photographs showed the runners wearing different watches.

"It's been a long time now and I have come through a tough time in life. I have suffered the embarrassment. I'd rather not talk about it as it's in the past," he said on Sunday night after his outstanding run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban's Sahara Stadium Kingsmead.

"I know I should not have done that - I was a young man then and when the idea was thrown at me I went with the flow. It's now history.

"I'm a family man now and I'm a grown man at 33. I realised that one makes mistakes in life. I came through a tough five-year period of suspension and want to look ahead.

"I knew this would crop up again when I got close to winning the race. It has to come back to haunt me but I appeal to all to leave it at that - it's really the past. It's finished and I look ahead all the time."

Cheryl Winn, who was chief executive of the Comrades Marathon Association at the time Motsoeneng was bust, said he should have had faith in his running ability.

"It just goes to show he did not have to do what he did in 1999. He has great ability in running ultra-marathons - his third-place finish proves just that," she said.

Motsoeneng was in his early 20s when he ran the 1999 Comrades and was slapped with a five-year ban by the Comrades Marathon Association. He was also stripped of his ninth place after he admitted cheating.

An investigation was launched after a runner further back in the field complained that Motsoeneng had not overtaken him.

After examining time sheets and data from the computer timing system, race referees initially cleared him of cheating.

The lookalike brothers' plan was only foiled because photographs of the race published in Beeld showed runner number 13018 at one stage wearing a yellow watch on his left wrist. At another stage the runner with that number was wearing a pink watch on his right wrist.

Other photos later revealed Sergio twice swopping clothes with his 19-year-old brother, Arnold, in portable lavatories.

"I was naive at the time. I did not think we would get caught but we did. I lived through hell for the five years - tried to keep my mind on running by helping youngsters and coaching development kids," he said. "I've turned to God and I'm guided by him. I feel I have paid my dues for my mistakes and want to look to the future rather than look back in life."

Motsoeneng returned to road running in the 2006 Soweto Marathon. Last year he finished 29th in the Comrades.

A Positive Update

2010-05-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

After waiting yet another two weeks from my last podiatrist appointment I've again set out running thirty minutes at a time in the trail. So far it seems that things are okay other than the predictable discomfort of not really running for six weeks.

Friday night around 11pm I tuned in to the Comrades Marathon website to watch the race live. I sat in awe for two hours. I don't know what it is but I can sit and watch that kind of stuff - marathons, ultras, Tour de France, Ironman - all day long on the tv/computer. I marvel at the skill these world-class athletes have. The commentators' verbal skills and knowledge of the athletes rivaled that of any I've ever heard. It was a little tough watching the runners knowing I could have been there although the chance of starting back at square one was the chance I didn't want to take. I woke up in the morning and immediately checked the winners' times and to watch the finishers coming through the line. Again it was hard not to imagine myself finishing and making a fool of myself in front of the camera to people back home. Technology - ain't it great! With an hour to go before the 12 hour cutoff there were still 7,000 runners to come in. The finishing line at this time looked like the start of the Vancouver Sunrun where 50,000 people are all moving towards the start line after the gun goes off. If people in North America think ultrarunners are crazy, ultra races must be as commonplace as the marathon in the rest of world. How else do you explain the number of runners who started the event? Another comment on the coverage: never once in all the time I was watching did the screen "freeze", "overload", "fail to load", or in any way, shape, or form inhibit people from watching. That sort of thing seems to happen a lot on other webcasts I've tried to see over the years especially for the Hawaii Ironman. If their webcast gets overloaded with hits from friends and family of 2000 athletes watching from home, how does the Comrades site do it for over 20,000??
In honour of the runners who did the race I took off on the bike and covered 92km in about 3 hours, almost 31km/h average speed. The winner of Comrades ran 89km in 5:29, over 16km/h. Amazing.

Sad Update

2010-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

Okay so the longer the break from writing the longer the blog, right? A lot has happened in the past couple weeks so hang on, here we go.
So in the past couple weeks I was toiling and stressing over whether to go to South Africa for the Comrades Marathon. Was my foot healed up enough? Would it be able to go 89km without fracturing again? Was it worth taking the chance and setting myself back another six weeks?
Even though it's been seven and a half weeks since my last long run of 20 miles, it's only been four with the walking cast. Not supposed to have been running at all for four to six weeks I went out a few times last week just to see what was what. I started with a 17, 19, 30, then 45 minute run. There was definite discomfort in the foot but it didn't feel like a sharp pain or one that was getting worse. Weird thing too was that it didn't hurt more afterwards or ache later on in the day. Having said that I went to the podiatrist on Monday for a check-up.
He was at first not happy seeing me without the cast on but that was only because I was out doing stuff that didn't take too much walking. He also didn't think my small runs was such a good idea, either. The topic of running Comrades never came up and I never offered that I was still thinking about it. He said I should do another two weeks in the cast and stay on light duties at work for those two weeks. Well, having gone back to the hall on Saturday it was too late for that but I would try to stay in the cast as much as I could. Really. What kind of scared me straight was his statement on how I could be running along, feeling not too bad, then all of a sudden feel that sharp pain in the foot of the bone fracturing again. Not a pretty thought.
So It was after my appointment with him that finally pushed me over the edge to dropping out of Comrades. It was a supreme struggle with myself to weigh the pros and cons of going or not. I'm barely in shape now to run, let alone do 8 hours or more. I didn't want to hurt myself further and get set back another month. That would have taken me to the beginning or middle of July which would have killed any chance of doing Fat Dog and give me barely six weeks to train for the Tour de Mont Blanc. As it is now I should be able to ease back into things in a couple weeks, get a decent base of trail running, do Fat Dog as an easy, easy long run then hopefully be able to climb 31,000 feet at the end of August. Comrades has been on my list for a long time and may or may not get done next year. It'll remain on the list and it might take me 15 years to be there for the 100th anniversary. I could only be that lucky to be healthy enough to still run that distance then.
On the training side of things I've been staying out of the pool just because of sheer boredom. The bike has been my forte since the weather has been so decent. I've been hitting the three hour mark quite consistently with a bunch of two hour ones thrown in. Last week I was just at the halfway mark, about an hour from home, when I had to stop at an intersection due to traffic. What I'd done a thousand times before somehow escaped me and instead of clipping out of my left pedal and resting my left foot on the ground, I ended up unclipping and leaning to the right (right foot still clipped in) and was about to fall. I managed to forcefully get my right foot out of the pedal to avoid the crash but in the process heard the snap of my plastic cleat on the bottom of my shoe. I quick exam proved what I feared: the tip of the cleat (the Look type) had broken and there was no way to clip in solidly to the pedal. Quick assessment: no bike shop anywhere close, an hour from home, no sag wagon to call (not that I would anyways, goes against everything I believe in). Good thing I didn't have to be anywhere in a hurry. I basically had to keep downward pressure on the pedal the whole way and if I hit a bump my foot would fly off the pedal. The novelty wore off in a hurry but I made it home safe and sound. Luckily I had a set of older ones that I'm now using.
So the plan for the coming weeks is to get pain-free then hit hit every trail race I can, time permitting, as training. That's right, run the race, not race it. If I'm going to drive somewhere like Chuckanut or the North Shore to do a training run, I might as well do a race where I don't have to think about the course and there's aid along the way. I'm going to do that all through the summer and fall as well. Not that I'll be 'racing' because I learned the hard way a couple years ago that too much racing doesn't do my body good. If that goes okay then I'm going to approach next season the same way - race my way to fitness!

Fourth time the charm

2010-05-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

Finally I've done the first (metric) century of the season on the bike. In honour of the Miwok 100km trail race held yesterday in California, which I did in '08, albeit probably around 106km due to my route error, I thought it only fitting seeing as I couldn't run the distance, I'd ride it.
After three unsuccessful attempts at riding 100km this year I did it yesterday - 100.19km. The three other failures were because of time constraints and one morning I had to be at Hannah's softball so needed to cut the ride shorter. The distances I did were 91km, 95km, and 97km. The 97km was a killer - so close. I don't do junk mileage as I think it's ridiculous to go around the block a few times just to make a certain distance or time. I plot the route out on a map and go and do it.
Yesterday was a beautiful afternoon aside from the wind. It was blowing from the southwest so heading east was a joy. Knowing what to expect coming home I thought I'd hammer out and take it easy on the way back. The average speed eastwards was 33.3km/h and at the end of the ride it was 32.1. It seemed like I had the headwind coming back and with the hills and all returning I figure the wind was coming more from the south so not directly in my face. Pretty happy with the effort of the last 20km which were a mental grind and killing sore lower back. Ah, the joys of the ride.

2010-04-29T15:18:00.001-07:00

On Monday the 19th I went and saw Dr. Green, the podiatrist, and we talked about how to get me back on my feet so to speak. First and foremost I needed to stay off it as much as I could and if I had to walk I would have to use a walking cast or air cast.

Also, I couldn't do my job at the firehall to its full capacity so therefore had to go on light duties, mostly deskwork if possible. There's nothing worse as a firefighter than being stuck at a desk doing data entry all day. It's more tiring than I thought but I think it's the boredom. It's also a great motivator to get healthy again. When he finally got the actual pictures of the scan he sent me an email (which is cool because how many doctors actually send and receive emails from patients??) saying that the stress fracture is more "impressive" than he thought. I guess it REALLY lit up the film. It's located at the 3rd metatarsal and kind of radiates along the bone, making it "impressive".

So one problem solved. I've been in the cast for a week and a half and I think it's helping. The weird thing is that it actually feels better when I'm moving around and especially after water running or being on the eliptical trainer. Must be the increased circulation.
Dr. Green also told me about this ultrasound machine that I could get which supposedly heals stress fractures up to 33% faster. I said let's do it! He said they cost around $1500. I said, whoa, that's a little steep. He said that it's usually used on a person if a stress fracture is taking three or four months to heal and that insurance won't always pay for it unless this is the case. I said let's try anyways. So the next day I get a call from the company Smith & Nephew from back east asking for my medical insurance info. He calls Sunlife and then calls me back saying that Sunlife has given permission for me to use the Exogen Bone Healing Unit. Great I said. They'll only cover 80% of the costs he said. I'm thinking 20% of $1500 is still a little high for me to pay for something that'll eventually heal on its own. I'm not willing to pay $300 I said. Well the machine actually costs $3000 he said. Holy crap I said. I'm definitely not willing to pay $600 for this. Well then we'll cover the other 20% says the guy on the other line without skipping a beat. Sweet! So I've been using the bone healer for the past week which could also explain why it's feeling better.

I'm thinking Comrades may be a possibility!

The All-Knowing, All-Seeing Bone Scan

2010-04-16T13:19:00.001-07:00

Okay so my self-diagnosis of a neuroma on my foot was mistaken. I guess it isn't possible to get a doctorate in podiatry just by surfing the net. It's good and bad because by the sounds of it a few cortisone shots for a neuroma would at least enable me to run and maybe get through the year (good). Then the winter would be a time to get proper treatment (bad - surgery, alcohol injections). As the bone scan yesterday showed, and a call from Dr. Green the podiatrist today confirmed, the bright white spot on my foot is indeed a stress fracture. What does this mean? It means that now instead of amputating just a toe or two, the whole foot has to go in order to make it to South Africa in six weeks. Alternatively I can stick to water running and biking right now. On Monday Dr. Green and I will discuss such prospects as amputation or casting or I don't know what else.
On the upside I've rediscovered my love for cycling and have a bunch of long rides planned in the next couple months whether my foot is better or not - Whistler, Mt. Baker, and Penticton are all in the cards.
On the down side I've rediscovered my hate of water running.
Thanks to all those who have shown me support and advice with what I'm going through. I'm pretty sure people could just have a form letter on their desktop to send me when I get injured, it's happening so often:

Darin,
Sorry to hear about your ___________ injury (insert latest malady here). Hope you get well soon, etc, etc.

I never get tired of the sympathy so keep it coming.

Update on the Foot

2010-04-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

So Carrie remembered reading on Matt Hart's blog a few years ago that he had a foot problem similar to what I've been experiencing. He went through months of trial and error to get corrected and finally found out that he had Morton's Neuroma. I was at the sports doc again today with my x-ray knowing it would show nothing and it didn't disappoint. I did comment that on film it was a good-looking foot and he agreed - the bones looked healthy and strong. It didn't show the ligaments however. So I suggested it could be Morton's and he thought that's what it was as well. Off to the pharmacy to try a topical anti-inflammatory for the weekend. I have an appointment with a podiatrist on Monday to see what's next and if I should go with the nerve-killing alcohol injections. At this point I'm willing to have a lifetime of a numb toe to make it to Comrades and get back to running. For the experience of that race I want to be there, even if it's only to finish as the gates close behind me. I never thought that I would make that kind of decision but, hey, I've got nine more toes, right?

If There Was Only Someone Else to Blame

2010-04-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone who's followed along here for any length of time that, amazing I know, I'm injured yet again. This one there's no hiding from. After not running much for three and a half weeks I guess I felt pretty good after the Dirty Duo and Chuckanut. Good enough to head out barefoot for 30 minutes two days after Chuckanut. Two days later I did another 25 minute barefoot stint. It was the second one where I felt like I had a slight bruise on the top outside of my left foot, almost like when your shoelaces are tied too tight. Not one to take a warning sign, I did a 2:30 run two days after that with no discomfort other than my legs felt like crap. Two days after that I did an hour in my racing flats and it was a bit painful, advil not helping. Tuesday I went out for 45 minutes in brand new regular-cushioned shoes and the advil didn't put a dent in the pain I was in. Okay something is definitely not right with me. Luckily I got in to see the sports doc, Dr. King, after my run on Tuesday and he sent me for x-rays yesterday. The tech there didn't see anything but my next appointment with Dr. King is on Thursday. There really is no rush because, fracture or not, I ain't running with it feeling this way. I guess the bottom line was too much barefooting too soon after not running for a few weeks. Weird because I'm not known to be one to overdo things. Really weird.
So it was to the pool yesterday for the first of probably many water-running sessions. 30 minutes felt like a long time but I know I need to do it. Luckily I can ride the bike without pain so I'm off for a three hour jaunt shortly. So after all this I can safely say that Diez Vista is out and probably the marathon as well. I have 8 weeks to be ready for Comrades so that's the focus.

Chuckanut '10 - 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th....

2010-03-24T00:12:00.001-07:00

...what's the @#$!% difference. These were the words going through my head on the worst part, for me, of the Chuckanut Trail 50km. That seemingly endless 6 miles back to the finish after a 25 minute descent makes my feel like I'm moving through sand. I know last year I challenged myself to run this last section in a pace of 7 minutes/mile and accomplished it. This year, after a month of weird hamstring discomfort, I just wanted it to be over. It was here that I started in 15th place and thought, "Hey, I'd be happy with that". Until the first person passed me and now I'm thinking, "There is no glory to be found between 16th and 20th so I don't care if four more people pass me". And on I went.
This was my fourth edition of this race, still my favourite as I do quite a bit of training on it. It's the area I plan to run a lot on in the coming months to get ready for the longer trail races. The training will include long runs, night runs, and long night runs.
The day was so bright and warm it was easy to believe that spring was only a day away. Through the flat 6 mile beginning I felt pretty good, the hamstring not bothering me at all, possibly thanks to some pre-race advil. I re-filled my bottle and headed up the Fragrance Lake trail at the first aid station. Normally I can go up this without stopping and ended up only slowing twice this time with the legs quite comfortable chugging merrily (not quickly) upwards. When I hit the top I could tell there was some trail-training lacking. They were a bit jello-y and not feeling too peppy. After we passed the lake we descended into aid station 2 where I was glad I didn't need to refill the bottle for the long, arduous climb up Cleator Road. I managed this one without stopping but to the casual observer I'm sure my running looked like walking.
At the top of the road I grabbed more water, headed up a ways more to the start of the Upper Ridge Trail. This is usually my favourite area to train on and that's how fast I went on the path on this day - training pace. Not really too fast, just enjoying the warmth and the many views from up high. It also felt very non-race-like because there was no one else in sight in front or behind the whole way on the ridge. It wasn't until I started up the Lost Lake trail that I found and passed some folks. I think I only walked a couple times near the top of this trail before flying back down to the bottom of Chinscraper and aid station 4. Regrettably I had to fill up again at the worst possilble spot before this steep section. I did take the time to chug some coke in hopes of breathing life into my legs.
All the walking I didn't do before caught up with me and the steepest sections owned my running legs. I thought at some spots that I might as well run because walking wasn't going to help refresh my legs any and I wouldn't need rest for the long downhill to the flats. I still walked anyways.
I got to the bottom and through the last aid station without stopping and shuffled through to the finish. Four people passed me on the way in, the last one being two hundred metres from the finish when I was taking my shoes and socks off and ran BF across the line.
I was quite pleased when I later checked my previous results and found I was only 6 minutes slower than my personal best on this course. I tell ya, maybe I'm better off with very little training then hoping for the best during races. Should I sit on the couch from now until Diez Vista? Might be worth a try.

A Crazy Couple of Days

2010-03-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

Okay so 36 hours ago I was still pretty bummed about the hammie and what my future looked like running-wise. Last night around dinner time I thought I'd try out the leg again and ended up doing almost an hour at about a 6:40 pace without feeling like it was overly hard. There were few issues from the injury so as I'm running, it hits me - I should try and do the Dirty Duo 25k that I was signed up to do but didn't think I was ready for. A measly 25k! How hard could that be?
I should say firstly that Carrie has been doing the clinic for the 25k for a couple months now and this was to be her first trail run. She was psyched (that she got a hoodie)!! She finished on a tough course on a tough day in a respectable 3:42 and looked like she missed every puddle through the day.

I meant for this run to be an "ease back into the swing of things" run and that's what I did. I took it slow on the ups, easy on the downs, and because the legs weren't feeling too strong, I took the flats easy. I felt like I hadn't run in the trails for a month. Wait a sec, I HAVEN'T run in the trails for a month.
It was the wettest, sloppiest, slipperiest run I think I've ever done in any trail any time. It was SO fun. The feet didn't get cold so I was happy to be jumping through the puddles like a little kid. I didn't care after trying to dodge the first hundred. I was really close to the end and I'd been running with someone for a while when I turned to him and said, "Not like I really care, but do you know what places we're in?". He said second and third. I wasn't in the mood for a sprint for second so I asked if he wanted to go barefoot once we hit the pavement, about a k from the end (and, no, he didn't think it was some sick come-on line). He laughed like I was crazy but I've heard that so many times before it didn't faze me. We came out of the trail and for the first time ever in a race I doffed the shoes and socks and took off.
The guy I was with took off, probably not thinking that I was going to follow through with my idea. As I was running close to the finish I heard some footsteps hammering behind me. I looked and it was Mike Palichuk whom we passed a few kms back. I thought he was out of the picture. I remember yelling, laughingly, "That's not fair, Mike!!", and I started sprinting downhill which ain't easy without shoes. I made it through just ahead of him but I was killing myself by the end knowing that I was running easy, yet sprinted at the end for no real reason.
It felt so good to be out in the woods again that the day flew by. To add icing to the cake I got home and my itinerary for Comrades was waiting for me in an email. Nice. One less thing to worry about.

Now off to Whistler where we try our hand at snowboarding!!

Once again....

2010-03-01T19:20:00.000-08:00

....age is rearing its ugly head. 15 days ago I was running 23 miles and felt some discomfort in the back of my right thigh. I finished up and the next day felt like I had pulled a muscle in my groin and or hamstring. I could barely walk. It's been strange as there are good days and bad for the pain, the discomfort moves around somewhat, yet nothing I really do can make it painful. I can stretch in any which way - hams, quads, IT band, and nothing bugs it. Yet climbing a ladder or running makes it tighten up. I went to the doctor today and he said he doesn't know what it is so recommended a sports doctor or sports physiotherapy. I'm going to see Colin McKay, my ART dude, on Wednesday as he usually knows this stuff or will direct me to someone who does.
Bottom line I won't be doing the Dirty Duo 25k in two weeks and Chuckanut is very much in doubt. I was feeling so awesome up until two weeks ago it's pretty disappointing. I was even thinking the marathon was going to come together but missing all the workouts has probably written that off as well. Not much I can do, there always seems to be one thing or the other. I have to think long term now.

Speed work revelation

2010-02-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

So for my marathon training program usually once a week I have to do a "pace" run where I run at my planned marathon pace which is 6:04 per mile. About four weeks ago I started the first one with three miles which turned out to be extremely tough having not done any real speedwork in as long as I can remember. I think for Haney to Harrison last November I did some semi-intervals where I ran :05 x 5 at about a 6:30 pace. Here I was having to run 18 minutes straight at 6:04!! Well at the halfway mark where I turn around I literally had to stop for about a minute to catch my breath I felt so bad. That was running around the neighbourhood where it seems pretty flat when driving or riding the bike but there is actually quite a few elevation changes that are gradual - nothing but a few percent of grade but enough that your breathing changes and you can feel your exertion rising. This sucked so bad I wanted to find a dead flat road and maybe that would boost my confidence somewhat.
In the weeks in between I've been doing tempo runs which is helping the speed but mostly these are done on the treadmill because it's easier to control the changes in speed for short durations. I found that along 40th ave between King George and 184th is the flattest road around through farmland. I did two 6 mile pace runs and found them as hard or harder than the ones around the hood with the slight rises and I think I know why: it could be a mental thing that all you see in front of you is straight road and the finish miles in the distance. A lesser reason could be that there's usually a wind blowing some direction because it's very open along there. The biggest reason I now believe is that the elevation changes make different muscles work and I know the roads around the house so well. Having the knowledge of the roads makes it easier when I go up a rise and the pace slows, I know that I will be able to go down the other side and make up the time with less effort and it all evens out. All the corners as well keeps my mind more occupied than a straight flat road. Last Saturday was a 7 mile run that ended with a 6:00 per mile average and I actually felt pretty good about the whole ordeal. I remember years ago doing the longest pace runs, 10 miles, and finishing tired thinking how I was EVER going to do 26.2 miles at that pace. I chalked it up to not being fully rested or tapered because the marathon itself didn't get that hard until about 22 miles. Anyways, bottom line is that a rolling course seems to work better for me all around and besides, the marathon course ain't all that flat and the changes in elevation do me good.

Another ECG

2010-02-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

And although I told them of my last one where my heart rate was 36, this time it was 39 (must be getting old) and they still had to fax it to the cardiologist to make sure I wasn't going to drop dead on the spot.

TdMB update

2010-02-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

I think last year the Tour de Mont Blanc did not sell out so everyone who entered was in. This year, however, they were over-enrolled by 150% meaning there was to be a lottery to determine the entrants. Fortunately I was chosen to participate. Even more fortunately my friend Ian Mayhew, British ultra legend, had his name drawn as well so I'll have someone to chase through three countries. Also, Jenn Dick, team member from the World 100k events, has entered the CCC [Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix] event of 98km so it will be a nice reunion of sorts. Disappointed somewhat I won't be at Ironman which is on the same weekend but that's the way it goes. That pretty much rounds out my schedule for the year. Not feeling overly confident I'll hit my marathon goal still but at the very least it will make me somewhat faster for the last 10km of Chuckanut and give me some strength for the end of Comrades. The only race I'm not sure about is Stormy. I've wanted to do either the 50 or 100mile for years now but it seems there's always been an event or circumstance that disrupts me from doing it. It might be a little much to do a 50 mile trail event three weeks before a 100 mile run but if I do decide to include it, it will be a very slow training run. Honest.

The Totals

2010-01-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

762.2 kms of racing this year (although some are 'training' races)

Where ya been?

2010-01-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry to all my many dedicated readers, I have been absent for a couple weeks but not without good reason - okay, being lazy isn't exactly a 'good' reason but it's all I got right now. Plus I've been waiting for some news from the Comrades Marathon people. Read on:

Dear Mr Bentley,

Your application to run Comrades 2010 has been accepted due to your circumstances. Payment will be taken soon and your entry will be captured.

Kind regards,

Steven Johnston
Comrades Marathon Association

Nice.

Status	RaceNo	First Name	Last Name	Gender	DOB	Club	Seeding
	58807	Darin	Bentley	Male	14/08/1970	Canada	A

I sent a letter of appeal with my entry (as per Mr. Johnston's request) detailing what I've gone through so far to try and enter the race. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say it was a bit of an email battle to get in but it paid off!! The website is Comrades Marathon. There's also the Wikipedia entry which covers some of the history and has the winning times for every race since its inception in 1921. An article from Runners World is a good account of one of their writers who did an 'up' year. This year is a 'down' year from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.
Crap I guess I gotta get off the couch pretty soon.

Not All Roads are Created Equal

2009-12-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

As I've been hitting the streets without shoes the last few months I've come to the realisation of some things:

1) Not all asphalt is created equal - some is smooth and great to run on, and other times it's almost an aggregate with a rougher surface that is not so great to run on

2) Cement is a no-no whether clad in shoes (due to the hardness) or barefoot (due to the
coarseness)

3) The white lines on the shoulder are the best road surface to run on - they're smooth and cool and feel good on the feet

4) People still look at me like I'm nuts

The run a couple days ago was a total of 18 miles with the last :20 done barefoot. I really have to figure out a place to ditch the shoes and continue running, maybe going back later and picking them up. It's easier to concentrate on what I'm running around and over without the extra weight in my hands. I picked it up at the end and did some short sprints. For months I was experiencing calf tightness after around twenty minutes but wrote it off to not doing it enough. Then I started experimenting a little more with different styles throughout the run. I was always concerned with never landing anywhere on my heel and all on the ball of the foot and still had the tightness and my calves were very sore the next day (like post-marathon sore). What seems to work better is relaxing the foot and letting it land more forefoot and feel the heel but not until the end. I'm still not landing on the heel but it's doing more work. That seems to be better without the lingering soreness for a day or two.

Sign up begins

2009-12-18T17:00:00.000-08:00

This Ultrarunning thing is getting more popular every year so I've hit the Visa hard lately and dropped cash on some events. I had to sign up for the Vancouver Marathon a few days ago to avoid paying even more in a few months time. Also there's the ever-present threat about "signing up early to get a guaranteed shirt size". I figure by doing the marathon my speed should be up and if I can wrangle a spot at Comrades I'll be flying (it's four weeks after Vancouver). The goal at the marathon is to bring my personal best down five minutes to sub-2:40. I'm still thinking of the Historic Half in Ft. Langley in February but am finding it hard to part with $68 for a godd*mn half marathon. I might do something that race but my placing may not be official, if you know what I mean (rhymes with "bandit").

I committed to the Fat Dog 100 mile in July. If that doesn't get me out the door, nothing will. The preliminary schedule looks like this:

Feb - Historic Half (?)

Mar - Dirty Duo 25k

- Chuckanut 50k

Apr - Diez Vista 50k(if I get the entry in on time)

May - Vancouver Marathon

-Comrades Marathon 89k, South Africa (hopefully get an application accepted in early Jan, will post when I know, if I don't get in, see below)

June - Australian 100k Championships (if Comrades falls through)

July - Fat Dog 100 mile, Keremeos to Manning Park

Aug - Stormy 50 mile, Squamish

- Tour de Mont Blanc 166k, France

Sep - Spartathlon (ha! just kidding. Not in 2010 anyways)

Nov - 100k World Championships, Gibralter

Pretty big mix of road and trail but might as well be decent at all distances rather than excel at any one distance.

Barefoot Update

2009-12-12T21:21:00.001-08:00

The last couple weeks have been cold, and I don't mean just put on a sweater and stop whining cold. I mean it's toque and gloves and, gasp, shoes weather!! I went without footwear as long as I could but it only took a twenty minute walk with the kids after dinner about ten days ago to make me realize some things are best left covered. The bottoms of my feet were bright red from the cold pavement. Plus now there's salt on the road and all I can envision is the soles getting all dried and cracked and peeling, oh, the horror. So I've been sticking mostly to my $8 WalMart water shoes I got in the summer. They don't breathe all that well, good thing it's too cold for my feet to sweat.

I've been out in the Fivefingers quite a bit, nothing epic but enough to keep the muscle memory of running barefoot. The ground in the trails is so frozen right now it's like running on the road. The grass is actually uncomfortable because the frost heaving has left it like running on gravel. I even managed a ten minute pavement stint today. Won't be doing that too much until it rains again, which it's supposed to do this week.

Stay tuned for the 2010 schedule. A little distance, a lot of distance, a little speed, a little travel.

A Dry Day!

2009-11-27T14:09:00.000-08:00

For the first time in recent memory, like three weeks, I got a shot of vitamin D the old fashioned way and not from the bottle in the cupboard. Yes, the sun made an appearance today and I took advantage with a little minimalist run through the trails and on the road. After my two hour bike ride in the downpour a couple days ago this was a welcome break to go out in shorts and relatively warm weather. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind riding in the rain, it's just more fun when it's not. I was waiting at a red light during said bike ride when I heard someone saying something to me from the car on my left. I looked over and an elderly gentleman says to me, "Are you training?", to which I responded, "Naw, just having fun!". He laughed and waved his hand at me like "Oh, man, you is crazy". This was a great little interlude and made for a pleasant ride. It was the first time in a long time it was a windless ride. Even on the way back home when I usually get hammered head-on was great. I don't know whether it's the fact I'm on more than halfway done at this point or knowing I'm getting closer to being warmer and drier but my morale picks up and I have more energy as soon as I turn around and head back.
Anyways, back to today, I slipped on the Fivefingers and headed to the local trail for a 30 minute loop. Then it was off with the protection and time to toughen up. It was actually great because there was a fair bit of mud which made for some soft terrain but also slippery without the traction you get from shoes. After another loop it was out to the road for the longest barefoot run on a hard surface yet - 20 minutes! Whoo-hoo! It felt pretty good and even now have no discomfort or skin problems on the soles. I'll be building up the time spent shoeless over the winter and maybe even do a race of some sort in the spring barefoot. Stay tuned.

The Phantom Run

2009-11-16T15:45:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was the Phantom Run at the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. The Fam and I thought it would a fun time to volunteer at an aid station. Heather Macdonald is the race director and passed our names on to Lara. She was very nice in letting us operate a family station near the finish line where the 19km and 24km runners would pass by.

The kids have never done anything like this but have seen stations before. Other than the cold toes everything went great and it didn't even rain. I was expecting people to come flying by grabbing cups and flying off again like I see in other races. This was a totally cool experience in that most runners would actually stop and look at our amazing banquet and try to decide what to eat. They'd chat for a minute then carry on. Really low-key and obviously for some they were just interested in finishing.

Oh, it was also a way to get a free entry in the Dirty Duo 25/50km race in March for Carrie and I but it was still a cool experience!!

The finish line:

Our amazing spread:

Super Vollies!!

Rainy Haney '09

2009-11-10T12:12:00.001-08:00

That's my proposed new name for the Haney to Harrison 100k ultra and relay races. Or at least the Rainy Ultra because I've done the relay when the weather's been decent but never for the 100k. It's easy to prepare for this race weather-wise: Plan for rain and anything less is a bonus.
I picked up Denise McHale and her husband, Greg, from the airport on Friday afternoon. I first met Denise in Italy last November (the same weekend as the H2H as a matter of fact) and was soon in awe of her prowess as an endurance athlete. It wouldn't do her and Greg justice for me to try and stumble through the list of accomplishments they have, suffice to say they do some grueling multi-day races over distances like 900km non-stop, usually finishing at or very near the top. Who's crazy now, huh? Denise is actually racing in Abu Dhabi in December. Check out the site: Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge
After the airport the three of us went to the local grocery store that I frequent and going through the checkout, the lady, whom I've talked to many times in the past, immediately, and correctly I might add, pointed out how it was easy to tell that Greg and I were twin brothers. She said she'd seen us in the store before and prided herself on her how good her long term memory was. Denise had gone to get another item and didn't miss a beat when she got back to join in and add to the twins conversation.
After dinner and the final preps we hit the sheets to wake up at 1:30 to the sound of, any guesses? That's right - rain. We loaded up the boat with beer and other supplies we'd need for the race. Long-time crew person and friend, Tracey Shelley, showed up and we shoved off.

It was a dark and stormy night. The rain came down torrents. The captain said to the first mate, "Tell me a story". The first mate replied, "It was a dark and stormy night, the rain came down in torrents. The captain said to the first mate, 'Tell me a story'". "It was a dark and stormy night..."

When we docked in Haney, forty minutes later, it was still coming down like someone (not mentioning any names but rhymes with "god") was really pissed at us. I went to get my race number and it was coming at us like Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump describing the rain in Vietnam: "Sometimes it came sideways, and sometimes it even seemed to be coming straight up", as it bounced off the pavement. The tents offered no protection from the wind and water. After getting everything in order it was back to the van to wait for the start.
Amazingly enough when the pre-race meeting started there was no rain or wind and you could even see stars through the clouds. An omen that it might be a good day out there? Ha! The thing I don't like about the start of this race is that I can never say hi to all the people that I'd like to. We always arrive with just enough time to do the necessities and that's it. Plus it's dark and with everyone all bundled up it's hard to tell who's who. I turned around at one point and was surprised to see Kandise Froese, immediately assuming she was crewing for her husband, Darren (Mr. 7:32 himself). I was then surprised again to hear she was crewing for Jack Cook. Wow, this just got a little more interesting.
I hadn't done leg 1 since the changes from last year so I was a bit hesitant to take off but eventually I did. It was very easy to follow the signs and glowsticks. Once up on Dewdney Trunk Rd I knew exactly where I was. I decided this year to go with my super-mega lightweight Adidas CS racing flats for the first half of the race. The hills felt like nothing going up them and I was glad I decided on this. The only problem I had with them in training was they were about a quarter size too small and so the toes felt cramped after about an hour. I had taken out the inserts and cut a bunch off the front so my toes were kind of hanging over them and it felt better. After four hours, though, it felt like they were on a cheese grater and so changed into my Supernovas.
I didn't have to ask where Jack was through the first two stages because I could hear someone behind me blowing snot out once in a while and seeing Kandise going by me often solidified who it was. I was sticking with my "Never Look Back" plan. I try to run within my own means and not worry about who might be coming up on me because if you're going to get passed then you're going to get passed, no use in worrying about it until it happens. I have to work on how to maintain the pace or even speed up in the second half of a 100k. My plan today was to run a little faster each stage than in '07. I was planning on a specific pace and keeping it there so it didn't matter if anyone blew by me, I was doing what I was doing regardless of the outcome. With this in mind I was aiming for a 7:29 finish time.
During leg 3 after the hills I stopped seeing Kandise drive by me and by the time it was getting light Carrie said that Jack was nowhere to be seen. He had back issues once again and dropped out halfway through 3. I started leg 4 feeling a bit low. I think I managed to keep up the pace I wanted but knew it wouldn't last. The race actually felt it went by quicker than in previous years. At the bottom of the big hill on 4 another car passed by and stopped near our van, putting on the four-way flashers. As I went by I asked if they were crew and they said yes, for Brett Larner. I was happy that the Canadian living in Japan doing his first 100k would be having such a good race. As it turned out Carrie informed me that they were leapfrogging quite a distance ahead of him and wasn't as close as I thought. He ended up dropping around 80k due to the conditions.
The rain had stopped and it was quite mild so after I crossed the train tracks to start leg 5 I stripped off my tights and jacket, replacing my racing flats, and donning the headphones. It was strange because this year the music just wasn't pushing me like it had in the past. Maybe the wind, rain, and fatigue were having too much of an effect on me. Every time I had to adjust them in my ears it was difficult because my hands were so bloody cold. Getting through this long flat stage was accomplished by keeping my hat down far enough I couldn't see the horizon or what was really up ahead. Once in a while I'd look up to see how much further to the next turn or curve.
A little ways into leg 6 the rain came down with a vengeance. The wind was no longer at my back and now with only a shirt and arm warmers on my shirt stuck to me and the rain went through me. This has always been a high point for me in the race because I wait in anticipation of race announcer Steve King and his wife, Jean, to drive by then come back and give me updates on where the other racers are. He stopped half an hour later to tell me there was a pack about 4 or 5 miles behind me. That could mean my lead was anywhere from 28 - 40 minutes I figured. I didn't even care if that was enough.
Right before the exchange into leg 7, only with help from Carrie and Tracey did I manage to take off my wet shirt, dry off and put on another shirt and my jacket. I couldn't even do up the zipper on my jacket. I was warm for about another hour then the cold started biting again. I heard it didn't warm up higher than 5 degrees. About this time I started in on the soup and the warmth was most welcome.
The hill on 7 was the hardest it's been in the four years I've done this race. At the beginning it honestly felt like I was running in place and going nowhere. My toes felt good so decided not to change to my size 11.5 shoes on the 11% downside. On the flats to the leg 8 exchange I used my strategy of not looking up at the 2k stretches of road I had to cover after rounding each corner. It was the slowest I've ever run that last leg and don't know whether it was the weather or the cold I'd had for a week before but I just wasn't getting it done. It was yet another death march. I can't explain why but it still felt like it went by pretty quick. Before I knew it I was on the main road and turning onto the last street leading to the little bridge before the finish line. Having never gone this way because it was changed last year I didn't know how much further after the bridge I had to go so didn't get my hopes up. But as I turned I saw the finish clock a mere 100 feet away and 7:49 since I started running. I don't even remember much of what happened next. Must have been the cold but I barely remember hugging my crew and getting changed into dry clothes. Before I knew it Denise was crossing the line. Holy crap she was only twenty-five minutes behind me. She was amazing and ran a race I could only dream of: the night before we worked out her splits based on an 8:00/mi pace to give her an overall time of 8:16. Where does she finish? 8:15 and change. Totally cool. She destroyed the record of 9:09 by almost an hour!! Must have been my spaghetti carbo-loading dinner.
Off next to the traditional pub lunch then to the motel to get cleaned up. After a short nap we went to the awards, then to dinner, thought about going to the after party, decided against it, and crashed hard til morning. Thanks to the super-crew, Carrie and Tracey, for dealing with my "unusual" crankiness during the whole ordeal. It was the most one word answers they've had to deal with. I tell you it was harder to crew on that day than to run it. Plus all the volunteers out there had to put up with the elements. At least we could move to try and stay warm. I reported to Steve King that I had a terrible race and mainly that was due to me not hitting my time goals that I felt I was more than ready to do. The first half was brilliant but things fell apart somewhat after that. Blame it on my cold, the rain and wind or whatever, but I know I have a sub-7:30 in me somewhere and I think a course like this challenges everything a runner can train for: uphills, downhills, and flats. Will most likely be in Gibralter for next year's World 100k at this time so H2H will have to wait until 2011 but you never know.

Check out Dirk Handke's report and photos of the day at:

Dirk Handke's pics

My crew's photos:

This is me doing my "I Dream of Jeannie" impersonation trying to "blink" my way to somewhere sunny. Note my "twin" brother Greg McHale to my left

Judie Wilson a little TOO happy

Hey where's all this rain everyone's talking about??

That's better

At the bridge about to finish

Kandise and I saying congrats to Denise

What a wuss, eh Greg?!?!?

Another Wet One

2009-11-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

I'm not a weather-watching freak or anything but I generally like to know what's going to happen a couple days ahead. Now, like everyone else, I know not to take a five-day forecast to heart (or a four-day, or a three-day, sometimes not even a two-day forecast) because it is rarely accurate. So when I looked at the long-term weather a week ago on the internet it actually showed the 7th to be sunny. I fell in to the trap. I actually started thinking that we may not get soaked tomorrow. Of course, two days after that it was supposed to rain. Two days after that we had rainfall warnings up to 50mm Friday and Saturday. I don't know what's easier: preparing mentally knowing it will rain for sure or waking up on the day and finding rain. I think I like to prepare for the worst, hope for the best, then if maybe we get breaks in the rain it'll seem like a gift. This will be my 4th H2H and the 4th to be done in wet conditions. Maybe I do better in the rain, considering some of my other 100ks.
Monday also saw the approach of a scratchy throat, indicative of an oncoming cold. Immediately I started pounding the vitamin D and C, more than normal. The Metric concert on Tuesday didn't help with it being a late night and not enough sleep being had. I've been trying to catch up ever since. Now today I rush around like usual getting my stuff together at the eleventh hour, hopefully not at 11pm tonight.

The List is Out

2009-10-31T16:05:00.001-07:00

So after a few weeks of checking the website numerous times a day, the entrants list is finally up on the Haney to Harrison page. It is as follows:

Name City Prov Country
============================================================
Al Harman West Vancouver BC CA
Andre Kocsis Vancouver BC CA
Andy Bachmann Pitt Meadows BC CA
Austin Crook Seattle WA US
Avery Saunders Edmonton AB CA
Barb Owen Maple Ridge BC CA
Brett Larner Tokyo TO JPN
Cheri Hamelin Maple Ridge BC CA
Dan Crockett Kelowna BC CA
Darin Bentley Surrey BC CA
Dean McMillen Penticton BC CA
Denise McHale Whitehorse YT CA
Dusty Davis Chehalis WA USA
Gary Poliquin Edmonton AB CA
Gina Dhaliwal Mississauga ON CA
Janice Makarewicz Kelowna BC CA
John Hightower Port Moody BC CA
John Seed Maple Ridge BC CA
Judie Wilson Surrey BC CA
Lucy Ryan Coquitlam BC CA
Matt Sessions Burnaby BC CA
Mel Bos Kelowna BC CA
Nik Swain Vancouver BC CA
Renee Caesar Port Coquitlam BC CA
Rob Adachi Mission BC CA
Rob Mackay Victoria BC CA
Robert Jones North Vancouver BC CA
Ron Mayne Langley BC CA
Ron Rillorta coquitlam BC CA
Sandy Thompson Chilliwack BC CA
Scott Donatelli Vancouver BC CA
Shirlee Ross Kelowna BC CA
Stephanie Case Freelton ON CA
Suzanne Evans New Westminster BC CA
Tim Wiens Vancouver BC CA
Tracy Niemier Maple Ridge BC CA

TOTAL: 36

I know a few names from this list but most notably and sadly missed are Darren Froese, Rick Webb, and Hassan Lofti-Pour. Darren has run this race a number of times in the past and for me is a great opportunity for a reunion with another World 100k team member. Not that it should be a big deal seeing as he only lives in Victoria but it might as well be on the other side of the world for how often we see each other. He set a PR in England of 7:32. Rick Webb has been on the team a bunch as well and done H2H but a hamstring issue has him not competing in a 100k this year at all. Gonna miss him. And Hassan pushed me to my 100k PR in '07 at H2H by starting out like a rocket and me having to hang on for dear life. Luckily I was able to not blow up before the end. He's had injury issues as well the past few months.
I've been reading a few people's bios if I could find them and also some blogs. By hearing how ready these folks are it makes me a little nervous especially when I look beside me right now and see Halloween candy wrappers sitting on the desk. Damn why does this race need to be AFTER Halloween?!?
We never think we're as prepared as we are. I've done all I can do and by this time next week we'll be in the pub downing some beer. I'm hoping I've done enough but not too much. If my shins hold out I'm sure I'll have a decent time. I'm always trying to beat previous times in any race so we'll see what happens.

Training Update

2009-10-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Since around the lake last weekend I've upped the intensity somewhat. Not every workout but a couple per week. I did another long bike as :10 hard :10 easy and can say for sure that the winds have changed direction back to normal. There's now the usual tailwind going east and the headwind on the way home. Even today I did my hilly bike loop and every time I was facing west it was in my face. Ah, memories of the 4 and 5 hour bikes of yesteryear.
Yesterday was 1:40 on the hilly course pushing fairly hard up each hill whereas before I was just grinding up them. The weather for that was characteristic of the run in November with wind and rain and wet feet. I'd like to say I won't walk any hills at Haney but that *%#@! on stage 7 usually does me in. Great practice. I also did another 2:30 through the Chuckanut trails and that day was wet and windy as well. Lots of mud on the back side (of the mountain and me) made for fun conditions. It was pretty dark in some areas due to the weather. Of course the sun came out as I got back to the car but what fun is that?!
Looking forward to seeing who's on the list of racers. Like the website says, "Coming Soon". Found out a few days ago that World team member Rick Webb, who ran a 7:39 in Italy last year, is still nursing a hamstring and won't be toeing the line on the 7th. He was my inspiration because he kept taunting me with threats of breaking my record at H2H. Still waiting to see if Froese or Hassan will be there.
I didn't take advil before my run yesterday and could feel some pain in my shins for about a half hour. Hoping that the taper and advil get me through the last 100k of the season.

Dirk Handke's Around the Lake report

2009-10-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

Check out Dirk's report and pictures from the Around the Lake race from Saturday. It's a little wacky, just like him.

Dirk's Around the Lake Report

Around the Lake Give 'r Take

2009-10-18T19:53:00.001-07:00

This 30km run that happened yesterday, the 17th, should have been called "Around the Lake Give 'r Take a Few Big Long Hills Near the Lake". When I saw the topt map of the course from the website it looked like any other trail around a lake. This usually entails a flat course because most terrain near a lake is relatively flat. This course around Cultus Lake was by no means the hardest I've ever done but it had it's steep moments.
It's been a long time since I've raced in the trails and about three weeks since my last trail run. I had forgone a speed session on the road this week because the plan was to add some quickness in the meat of this run. The plan was to go easy up the first large hill to the aid station at 6kms. Then I wanted to pick it up a bit and keep the intensity and heartrate high for most of the race then ease back down for the last few kms.
I spoke a bit with Matt Sessions, who's run this race before and done many editions of it, and asked him as much as I could think about in regards to what the course was like. I guess it's really nice on a dry day but today was a crapshoot because of the continuous rain the day before and this morning. It was supposed to get worse as well. Something like 50mm was to fall that day. Luckily the worst of it hit after I had finished.
The race was off and we had a pacer to show us the way to the first aid station. When two guys passed him after about 4km I knew this would be interesting. Would they slow down or continue to fly like I've seen guys do in the past? I was partially right on both accounts. There were four of us running sort of together up until the first aid station - Matt, Dirk, Devon and myself. Devon and Dirk slipped out of view halfway up the first long hill. After the aid station I left Matt, executing my race plan of speeding up. I eventually caught up to Dirk and Devon. I ran with them a bit and waited to get my breath before politely asking if I could pass. Until I did though, I followed Devon down this very steep, slippery section which had to be a motorcycle path because the path was shaped like a deep "V" with water down the bottom and muddy slopes. We were going down at break-neck (at least for me) speed and I was actually laughing watching and listening to Devon barely keeping on his feet. I knew it was the same for me but it's always funnier seeing it than actually doing it. I know Dirk behind me was going through the same thing.
I finally had a flat stretch to pass and the trail turned more into a dirt road with a gentle downhill to it. I really began moving feeling really strong. There were so many branches hanging down on the course I was doubled over a lot of the times keeping them out of my face. The puddles as well consumed the trails at times and one was forced to try and skirt the edges and find drier, more solid ground. Sometimes there was a deep section with the choice of going straight through the water or do a "Matrix-like" run along the bank while trying to avoid slipping back into the water. Seriously, after an hour I got over the puddle-thing and just plowed right through.
Dirk was flying up behind me and we emerged from the trails to go through a field of knee-high grass with me barely in the lead. I guess I was going a little off course because a woman yelled at us from a ways away to go more to the left. As we curved over that way, Dirk took up the lead and really started pouring it on. We hit some pavement and I stopped to tie a shoe and he hit the afterburners on a long downhill section and it was all I could do to keep him from gaining too much. This quick a pace was not part of the plan but I thought if I didn't stay with him I'd lose him on the second half of the race. The paved road started going uphill and I made up some distance on him. We reached the next aid station and when I next saw Dirk he had his hands on his knees like he was tired and just standing there. I saw another person running up the hill after the aid station and it took until my tiny brain registered on the ground the spraypainted words, "Relay Exchange", that I put it together that Dirk was on a relay team.
You've got to be kidding me, I thought. I went almost all out to stay with him and now he had a woman with fresh energy taking off on the second half while I was withering. It actually worked out okay in the end because this speedy lady, whose name I found out later was Mel, was a great rabbit and made me push myself more than I would have if she wasn't there.
She was running strong up the hills while I powerwalked them. I tried to catch her on the flats but it was only at a very long decent that my flailing paid off and I caught her. We shared a brief word and I kept going.

A shot of me almost hitting the beach section
Photo by Peter Watson

Towards the end I was told to just run along the beach and when I did for a minute or so I couldn't see any of the pink ribbons we'd been following. I looked back to see where Mel was and it took a couple minutes before I saw her behind me and figured I was going the right way. I finally saw the finish tents and was grateful because I was feeling a bit cooked.
Through the finish and straight into the lake I went to clean off my legs and shoes. I dried off and changed and waited for the awards. One of the coolest winners' trophies I've received in any race was this one today which was a hand-carved walking stick made from a Hazelnut tree. At the top was carved a Wood Spirit which apparently every tree has, as the superstition goes.
This was a great, fun race made even better by the weather and mud and great food at the end. I can't believe I've missed this one for so many years. I may be back next year in prep for the World 100k in Gibralter. Of course I should take it a little easier because my legs are still killing me. I guess it pays to do a bit more trail running before I race one.
I can't see H2H being this fun but the weather should be about the same.

One hundred feet from the finish line - notice the still present heel strike, damn!

Me telling Mel how much she helped me keep up a good pace

In need of a lake bath

Ooohhhh yeah

A taste of the rain I missed by only a few minutes

The first and last five pictures courtesy of Vedder Running Club.

The inscription burned on the walking stick

The Wood Spirit

Training Update

2009-10-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

True to my word I've been doing more biking and shorter, speedier runs plus hilly runs. Some highlights of the last couple weeks have been my long bikes that felt really good. I was setting out last week to do 3:00 with :20 hard and :10 easy. After my first twenty I realized it's been a LONG time since I've even done a three hour ride let alone one at effort. I cut it back to 10 and 10 for the remaining of the ride and it went really well. It happened to be on a day when the weather turned and it was cool and windy as hell. Every direction had the headwind. Surprisingly it was a bad headwind going east with more of a tailwind heading home. I don't know whether it's just the time of year and maybe it changes in the spring but when I used to do the long rides I would always have the wind in my face on the way back, sometimes, three hours or more. If that doesn't make you find out what you're made of then I don't know what would.
The other day after Carrie and the kids set off for the Island where Carrie did the Victoria Half Marathon (2:08 on little training, way to go baby!!) I went out for another long one at about 3:30 in the afternoon. I can't remember if I've ever left the house at that time destined to go that long. The weather was cool but sunny with that damned headwind again. At least this time I knew it would be easier on the way back. Although it was a route I've done many times before, this time was different mostly because of the light and basically the way things looked out there. It was like doing a new ride. Plus knowing that it was only the dog waiting at home for me made it easier to keep my mind on the riding. Then on the way home the tailwind made me feel like superman and I flew back just before it was too dark to be on the road.
The running has been good. I've been doing dreaded treadmill workouts, mostly ten minute hill repeats, but also a lot out on the road. The other week was 2:00 for 18 miles at 7:08 pace then right after I did 1:00 at 6:30 pace on a hilly route. It was satisfying to know I could do that sustained speed for a time, not that I'll be doing that pace on Nov. 7th. Yesterday was a warm-up hour of 8.5 miles on a moderately rolling course. Then the real work began when I went out 8.5 miles on a very hilly course then turned around and came back. That was the longest run on pavement until Haney. Going to head down to the trails the next couple of weeks.

Barefoot update:

Grumpy man at liquor store: "This is a bad place to be barefoot."

Me: "Why's that?"

Grumpy: "There's lots of broken glass on the floor.:

Me not wanting to pursue the matter: "Okay thanks I'll keep a look out."

Manager at grocery store: "Excuse me, sir, do you have any shoes?"

Me: "No."

Manager: "No sandals or anything in your car?"

Me: "No."

Manger: "I'm concerned you could step on glass or something."

Me: "I'll be careful."

Don't these people ever look down when they're walking outside. There's way worse stuff out there.

England Pictures

2009-09-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot of shots this trip but here they are anyways:

View all

Get your own

Jolly Ole England

2009-09-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

I have to preclude this installment with the statement that this trip involved four of the most frustrating days of my life. You see, my plane from Vancouver to Montreal was about a half hour late "because of the lack of the usual tailwind" which left me twenty minutes to run from gate 1 to gate 61. As I was zipping past gate 40-something with my sandals slapping the ground I heard on the speaker that it was the final call for my flight to Heathrow. I arrived in about ten minutes and even asked if my bag would make the flight. I was assured that if I made the flight then my bag would as well. Untruth #1.

I went through Heathrow, then off to Manchester where I stared at an empty luggage carousel going round and round, praying my bag was still going to come out. I went to the desk and was informed that the bag was still in Heathrow. Untruth #2. This was 9:30 am. Not a big deal because it could easily make another :45 flight to Manchester. I jumped on my train to Penrith and arrived at 2pm. I phoned British Airways when I got there and was shocked to hear that my bag had actually not made the jump across the Atlantic and was in Montreal still. It would be sent on the flight set to arrive Friday morning at 6:30. I called a couple times on Friday and it was picked up by the courier around 4pm. 4pm!! I now began the frustrating and seemingly endless stream of calls to the courier company trying to arrange the bag to get out to Keswick. Because I didn't have a readily available phone I was jumping back and forth from our accommodations to the race headquarters.

I was in a "glass half-empty" mood so to cover my ass I bought some running socks and a pair of neutral New Balance shoes at the local New Balance store in town. How convenient was that? I would be able to return the shoes if I didn't use them so kept them in the box for that reason and also I didn't want to try them out and realize that something wasn't right with them. I wanted to be doing the run before that happened. The town of Keswick is a small town but quite touristy and every second store is dedicated to mountain hiking clothing. There were no department stores in the town and it was damn hard to find some underwear for me to use. I found the only store in town that had a super-small selection of the things. It's kind of one article of clothing you don't want to overuse.

The delivery people said they would call Friday evening to see if it could be dropped off before 11pm and I had to phone at 9 where I was told it wasn't going to be out until Saturday even after two days of emphasizing the fact I needed it for Saturday morning.

I had already initiated my plan B of acquiring various necessities for Saturday's race such as clothes, bottles, carbo powder, you know, just the simple things. Everyone on the team was very supportive and offered me whatever they had to help me out. I got a hat and singlet from Laurie, shorts, water bottle and arm warmers from Kandise and Darren, and CarboPro powder from Hassan. Luckily he uses the same stuff because that was a pretty important piece of the puzzle to have. When I thought about it I realized how lucky I was to be with such an amazing group of people whose generosity is second to none. I can't thank them enough because without them I would have been relegated to crewing the race which is MUCH harder than actually running it. Those guys are the salt of the earth.

Race morning saw the arrival of Jenn Dick who lives in Sheffield, about two hours from the race, and who has been on the team numerous times in the past. It was great because she had a cell phone and now I could use her as the contact for the bag to arrive. Bad news was that she didn't bring her charger for it and it died halfway through the race. She did manage to phone the courier guys who told her the bag would be expedited out and arrive around 6pm. Great news!!

Okay enough negative talk about the stupid bag. This was the first Commonwealth Championship and it involved a 24 hour race, the 100k, and two mountain races. The 24 started on Thursday and finished Friday at lunchtime. It was cool to watch the Canadian members in the event because I'd never watched part of this type of race. I can't say I'd be too excited to go around a 1km track for that long. Never say never though.

There weren't many people in the 100k which was very different from the Worlds. The start seemed like a small little quiet social gathering. I planned to start this one slower than Belgium and just cruise. The first few kilometres were mostly uphill and at the top I picked up the speed a bit to take the lead on the downhills. I stayed out front for about forty minutes. I just wanted my short time in the spotlight following the pace car. After this time Darren Froese blew by me quite literally and had it not been for the loops coming up I wouldn't have seen him the rest of the day. He was followed by a couple Brits that I followed for the next 10kms. So this race was 15k out, 7 loops of 5k out and 5k back, then the 15k back to the finish with a slightly different route back. It was nice to be able to see where you were in the overall placings and also give and take encouragement from our Canadian members.

It was a beautiful course along a lake with the weather cooperating giving us an overcast sky but throwing a bit of wind our way. The loops weren't so bad except I soon figured out the halfway point of each 5k and kept track of my times when I passed this point. It never feels good to see the time getting longer and longer until I got to this point. I kept track of when I passed Darren and he was definitely not slowing down like I was. He was having the race of his life. Hassan Lofti-Pour from North Van was another member of our team who sprained his ankle a few weeks back and had run only 4 hours over the last 29 days. Thierry Asslein was the fourth member of the men's team who completed the Tour de Mont Blanc three weeks earlier so I wasn't really in a position to have an excuse not to do okay other than my new shoes and socks.

After the 20km mark I chatted with some other runners and by the sounds of their previous times, 7:20, 7:30, I knew I was out of my league. I started purposely slowing down to save something for the end. I was going to try and pick it up some after the 80k mark but that never actually happened. When I finally finished my seventh loop I tried to increase the pace but my legs were having none of it. I began to check my watch in earnest to do the math that would get me in under 8 hours. When I passed Kandise for the last time before my 15k to the finish, she gave me my last bottle and I asked her if she was going to the finish line to see Darren cross. She said, "Should I?", and I said, "You're damn right you should, now go." Because Jenn had driven her car to that point she was able to whisk Kandise back in time to see the finish. It's not every day you get to see someone from our team pull off a 7:32.

My last 15km were a little painful, especially on the hills that seemed so easy seven hours ago. I was glad to be done and so glad to see Darren at the finish. I gave him a huge hug and congratulated him on an amazing race. From there it was to medical to have my feet looked at and find out why the toe boxes were covered in blood. It turned out to be only some minor cuts that wouldn't stop bleeding that made the shoes look like a horror show. I only had a couple small blisters in between the big and little toes on each foot. Nothing to make me stop running so I was happy for that seeing as I broke the cardinal rule about never running so far in new shoes and socks. After that it was to the massage tent for a quick once over of the legs then off to find my lost bag.

Long story short it was supposed to arrive at the race HQ at 6:30 so when 7pm came around I called the courier company for about the 15th time and they said the guy had been there but it didn't look like anyone was there so he went on with his other deliveries. I was a little choked to say the least. I begged them to get a hold of the driver and tell him to come back but they said once he tries one address he has to continue with other deliveries and now it would be Sunday when he'd come back. Are you kidding me?!?! I was ready to write the stuff off when, an hour later, we were at our hotel and, lo and behold, the driver pulls up with the bag. Just a little relieved.

Sunday was spent looking around Keswick some more and watching the finish of the mountain race. Congrats to the Canadian men's team who won bronze! There was the awards and dinner that night and once that was over we promptly headed over to town again to a pub and played "quarters" until the place closed down. The locals had never seen such a game and were curious as to why we were bouncing coins into our glasses.

Monday was a travel day to Manchester where Nadeem, Laurie, Charlotte, Lisa and her friend Sonya walked about 100km around town. Not a whole lot to see there but nice to visit anyway. I crashed on the floor of Nadeem and Charlotte's room for five hours before the train ride to Manchester airport, flight to Heathrow, and finally the long flight to Vancouver. And, hey, my bag was actually there when I checked the luggage carousel!!!

After perusing my last few years of running long distance I realized there was always some element of hills and/or speedwork. Not to excess, mind you, but some thrown in there to mix things up some. When I was doing Ironmans these types of workouts were paramount to the run and the bike. I am therefore going to try and incorporate one speed and hill repeat session per week for the next four or five weeks and also a long bike and a hilly bike workout. The long runs will be done on the trails for time, not distance, and will be hilly as well.

More Barefootin'

2009-09-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

The leg is feeling definitely better than a couple weeks ago and I think I might actually be able to finish the Commonwealth 100k. The day after my last 25 miler I did a :30 recovery run with my Adidas racing flats and the last :10 I went barefoot on the road. Later in the day I felt like there were some small abrasions on the pads of the toes and the ball of the foot but it was gone the next day.
So today I was almost home from 23 miles and decided to do the same: :10 of no shoes. Trying to concentrate on form and looking out for rocks took my mind off how the legs were feeling after 22 miles so that was one upside of barefeet.
Was also at the ice rink the last two days for Elias' hockey games, no problems. Plus went to the movie theatre last night sans shoes, much to the chagrin of Carrie and the horror of the other couple we went with. I'll make this thing mainstream yet.

My Cure for Shin Splints

2009-09-03T11:06:00.001-07:00

Take a few days off running, walk around in bare feet everywhere I go.

Do a couple :30 in the trail or the beach in Five Fingers or bare feet.

Ride the bike maybe :30-:40 a day, to work and back.

Even though I can still feel pain in the shin, run 13 miles.

Two days later run 25 miles (albeit suffering in the last :30 home)

Voila! I'm cured.

What's the deal? Do I really get a mild case of shin splints or is it something else I wonder? I've read that doing light training through the ordeal helps to speed the healing but this is ridiculous. My three hour jaunt today felt fine on the legs, my poor conditioning really showed, though. Probably took on a bit more than I should have but with a little over two weeks to go I needed to test myself. More next week then a week to taper. Piece of cake.

Fast and Furious

2009-08-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

Back from Ironman last night, congrats to all finishers. Still doesn't make me want to go out and do it anytime soon. Walking around barefoot I was amazed to see a woman start out on the marathon course wearing Vibram's Fivefingers. I wished I had the camera and should have remembered her number to see how she did.

Gary Robbins and Tamsin Anstey from North Van won the mixed division of the Trans Rockies six-day stage run in Colorado last week. Awesome results you two.

Spartathlon participants list for this year is out. No Canadians entered and so my record remains safe for another year.

Tour de Mt. Blanc finished up over the weekend. The fastest Canadian time I could find was 38 hours and change. Most of the site is in French which makes it difficult to do the research.

After walking everywhere barefoot, including grocery stores, I was confronted at Costco today by an employee who said I needed to wear shoes and before I protested said it was "for my own safety as this is a warehouse and there could be glass and pieces of wood on the floor". If I had been quicker I would have mentioned that there's that and worse out in the parking lot and everywhere I walk. He then went on to say it's the same for shirts in that you need to wear a shirt like the old "no shirt, no shoes", policy and it was also a health issue. I asked if there was anything written anywhere prohibiting being shoeless and he said, "no but it's one of those unwritten rules". Bingo I was home free. I then asked if he was going to make me wear shoes and he replied he wouldn't throw me out of the store. Bingo number two. I pretty much thanked him and walked away saying I would watch my step. Vive le pieds nus!!

A brief rant about Costco: Unless you're a family of eight(teen) I don't understand the need to buy such huge quantities of mostly crap. The jars of pickles are too big for the fridge. I was going to buy some bar soap but they came in a pack of 16. Sixteen!! Why do I need to buy two years' worth of soap at one time? I'd rather pay a dollar more for a six pack. Just look into a cart to see what's there then see the corresponding size of the person pushing said cart. Coincidence? A small bag of chips from a regular store turns into one three times as big. Now you have to eat it all once you open it or it goes stale. Wouldn't want that.

What's Happening?

2009-08-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

I got an email from Rick Webb the other day wondering what I've been doing because I hadn't written much in the blog lately. The first thing that went through my mind was, Wow, someone actually reads this crap?? I don't know why but I've seemed to have lost my writing mojo. Either that or there really isn't much to write about in my life these days. Any thoughts on how to change that let me know.
Okay, so in the last two weeks:

Did the triathlon relay for the WPFG. My team had a decent swim, about 23 minutes, my bike was awesome as far as I was concerned, 1:04, and the run was pretty damn good at 36 minutes. I think we finished around 2:05 with the transitions. I thought for sure we'd be in the medals when I got off the bike after passing all those people but when we got to the run course I met up with Steve Knoll our captain and he said we were in eighth or ninth place. We finished up seventh in our age group (30-39) and twelfth overall. The competition was awesome and I really appreciated the caliber of athletes at the event. A team from Surrey in the over 50 category won the gold!! I can only say, "one day".

Since then I've been getting back into the running more with a couple 20 milers under my belt. I've also been experimenting with running in less supportive shoes. AND I've been trying out shoes that are a size or two bigger than I've used in the past to try and prevent some of the blackness and toe-falling-offness I've experienced in the past. I haven't done anything too radical or out of the ordinary or bumped up the mileage but yet again I can feel that shin splint feeling in my right leg. Maybe it takes a month or two after a long race to flare up, I don't know. All I know is that I'm not overly disheartened because I've been here a few times before. I know to rest a week or two then I should be back to normal. Saw A.R.T. therapist Colin McKay at Precision Health last week and he didn't get the impression there was anything too bad going on. I'll wait a bit anyways to see if it progresses. Still a month before England.

I found out that Haney to Harrison this year is the Canadian 100k Championship so it's a reason to stay healthy. Six weeks after the Commonwealth 100 enough to recover and do well? All I can say is that I've done worse and I have a bunch of months to recover after the November event.

I'm also trying to figure out what to do next year. I'm strongly leaning towards going back to the trails. More to follow.

Ultraman and the Grind

2009-08-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend from Saturday to Monday was the Ultraman triathlon in Penticton. I did this three day event back in 2006 and still it remains one of the biggest highlights in my racing career. The heat was atrocious on day 1 and 2 but day 3 dawned with some respite from the hot temperatures. My day 3 run record fell to Benat Zubillaga of Spain in a time of 6:44, 11 minutes better than my time. Congratulations to Benat. Speaking with race director Steve Brown while we were in town a couple weeks ago, he said that anyone who has not completed an Ultraman must do Canada as a qualifier before they can do Hawaii. This will lead to more people attempting Canada and a better talent pool as well before they go on to Hawaii. I think my overall course record might be in jeopardy over the next few years if this is the case. All good things...

So Wednesday was the Grouse Grind for the Police/Fire Games. There's a reason this event is not called a hike, or run, or walk. It really is a grind. I felt no less intimidated by the whole thing. I aimed to run it like I did the last time - walking.
It went pretty much like the last time around except for two things:
1) they didn't end the race at the little timing station about fifty feet from the top of the trail, they made us run about 300 metres around to the back of the chalet. When I hit flat ground at the top I thought my legs were going to give out when I tried to run. It felt like the first brick workout of the year when you ride hard on the bike then try and run. Jello legs.
2) I finished better than the last time I did it, in 39 and change, even with the extra little run. Plus we started in the parking lot where the gondola is so that added another 15 seconds, I'm sure.

Anyways, I vowed to never run that thing for time again. I'd hike it with the kids but that's the extent of it in the near future.

Now tomorrow comes the triathlon.

Home Again

2009-08-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Got back last Wednesday from an epic training camp up in the interior. It included sitting by the lake, swimming in the lake (with the kids), and eating in true camping/holiday style. I also managed to do some runs and rides.

After my attempt at the Grouse Grind I realised I wasn't going to win the thing come race day no matter how much I trained and didn't really want to change my training too much to accommodate the Grind anyways. No use in going straight up when most of my races are horizontal with a few hills (not mountain climbs) thrown in. I was a little on the fence so when we travelled through Chase (for a wedding), Mara Lake, and Penticton, most of my runs involved some elevation gain. It's hard not to. Most roads that lead away from the lakes or rivers go straight up. I found a great forest service road by Mara that I climbed for 45 minutes without reaching the summit. I was aching to get there to see what I could see. With only one water bottle (now less than half full) and my IT bands not looking forward to all that descending, I turned around. I could have stayed on main highways but figured a bit of rollingness couldn't hurt for Grouse and would help in England where I believe the Commonwealth course is to be somewhat like that. Failing that, it's good to get my legs re-aquainted with hills for H2H in November. I don't need to be starting my hill work with only three or four quality weeks before that. I ran from Penticton up towards Naramat which I'd only ever ridden before, that being in the Peach Classic triathlon. It was cool to be going slower and to have a look at the beautiful landscape (minus the smoke).

I also put in some cool rides while we were away. One memorable one was taking the road from Penticton up to Apex. I did this with a group a few years ago and I didn't remember it being as vertical as it was. When I got to the turnoff for the actual ski area, the sign said 11km. I figured I'd ride up it for ten or fifteen minutes because I knew going back to town would be quicker than coming up. I rode for twenty minutes up and up and up. Again I was dying to reach the top but didn't need to fatigue my legs THAT much. I turned around at 1:25 not wanting to ride more than 2 hours. It took me 40 minutes to get back to the motel. What a ride. Turns out I went up the Apex road only 3.5km in that twenty minutes so it would have been at least an hour to the top. Next time. Another was riding towards Naramata, past Painted Rock, and towards Chute Lake. I didn't quite get there either so I have a lot of ground to cover next time my bike and I are up there.

I decided to drop the Seymour Hill Climb for the Games this week. I read the fine details and noted that it wasn't exactly a climb all the way up from the bottom to the top of the mountain. The course is only 3km long and on the steepest part (9 or 10%). With the triathlon two days after that, I rather would go in feeling a little stronger without those 3km in my legs. I must be getting old, I know.

My plan for the rest of August is to simulate the weeks I had prior to going to Belgium. This time I'll start with a 60 mile week then a 80 then try for the 100 again about three weeks out. For some reason ever since Belgium I don't feel that effortless pace I had when training for it. I thought I was just fatigued from the race and giving blood after but it's been slow to return. I'm hoping I can get it back. On a high note I don't have nails on the first two toes of each foot anymore so that won't be a problem for England or H2H. One less thing (actually four).

Reality Check

2009-07-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Just so you know: I'm doing some events in the World Police/Fire Games at the beginning of August. The events I'm doing are:

Grouse Grind
Seymour Hill Climb (bike)
Triathlon Relay, bike leg

Now, I don't know what I was thinking when I signed up for these. How was I going to fit in training for these events when I've only been road running with a minimal amount of biking? I also forgot Carrie was doing a course for work in the first two weeks of July which limits my time to get out as well. We're also busy the last two weeks of July which leaves very little time. Not that I'm making excuses, it's just the way it is.
I guess I thought a little bit of running up Grouse would get me in shape for the Grind. Was I ever wrong. This year has been strictly a road running year. Not a lick of trails. None. How I thought I could just go out and do a 2.9km, 2800' climb without any background trail running, I don't know. Anyways, yesterday was my wake-up call. I went to North Van to run the route at 7am and was surprised to see how many cars and people were already there. All levels and types of people were there: the recreational with pants, casual shoes, and polo shirts, the hardcore with ipods and outfitted with all the gear, and some in between. I was equipped with one handheld water bottle and my trail shoes I haven't worn in about a year.
I started out running because it doesn't get all that steep for a few hundred feet. My running lasted all of two minutes. Yes, 2 minutes. I should have worn my heart rate monitor but I wouldn't have been able to read it with my blurred vision. It must have been off the charts. I had this pain in my chest like a bad cold and was spitting out that stuff that has that coppery taste (ew!). FYI: I had this weird chest-cold-like cough the rest of the day. I didn't run anymore of the route. I passed a lot of others who were struggling like me. Most of them had their head down, were breathing hard, and had a zombie-like look and walk about them.
All the way up I thought about how, as soon as I got home, I'd be withdrawing from this event. Why would I put myself through this when I have no chance of being competitive and won't help in any other area of my training. In fact it is taking away from my regular training time and working different muscles I don't need for running on the road. Then I thought, what the hell, I can walk this thing just for "fun" in the Games. I was grateful the gondola was running at 8am instead of 9 so I didn't have to claw my way back down. My splits:

1/4 - 12:30
1/2 - 22:00
3/4 - 33:00
top - 43:30

I think I could take off a few to break the 40 minute barrier but we'll see. I might get up there a couple more times but that'll be it.

That same afternoon Carrie and I took the kids out to Whonnock Lake in Maple Ridge where the triathlon is to be held. They went to the beach and I went around the course on my bike. In a word: HILLY. What is it with me and these events?? I have to do some track races.
It was actually a great course and I'm looking forward to it. It took me 1:13 but that was 1) after the Grind, and 2) being unfamiliar with the course. I'll get out there again and do it while fresh. Must get in more miles!!

Pictures from Belgium

2009-06-30T22:31:00.001-07:00

Belgium Night of Flanders

2009-06-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Held in the West Flanders area of Belgium, this was the 30th edition of this race. Along with the 100k there was a 10k, marathon, and 100k walk happening simultaneously. The 10k went a different direction so we never saw them but there were plenty of marathoners and open 100k runners.
I thought before I left how in all my travels and connections I've never been delayed or late to any destinations. This trip was not to be as smooth as past ones. Fellow teammate and friend Judy Wilson was leaving on a different plane from Vancouver about half an hour after mine but we both connected in Heathrow to fly together to Brussels on the same flight. We decided that I would wait at the gate in London for her to arrive.
My plane left the terminal on time but within minutes it was announced we were going back to drop off a passenger with medical issues. Of course they had to offload the baggage for the person as well so that took a few minutes also. In all we left an hour late. I was wondering what Judie would be thinking when she showed up at our gate in Heathrow and I wasn't there.
Arriving to Heathrow I ran to catch the bus to take me to the proper terminal and get another boarding pass. I asked at the counter if my bags would make it on the next plane to Brussels and she phoned someone to confirm they just made it. Now I had to do the same. I ran to security and the metal detectors and waited an agonizingly amount of time. From there I sprinted down some huge escalators, just caught the train to the right gate, took the next sets of escalators two by two (they each must have been four stories worth of climbing) and at the very top turned to see Judie waiting at our gate. I raised my arms, totally out of breath, in triumph like I'd finished the 100k already. Things always work out somehow.
Having not slept on the plane as usual, I could barely stay awake (okay, I didn't stay awake) on the train to Lichtervelde. It was a hot hour and a half sitting there but we finally arrived with no telephones in sight to call our contact to pick us up and take us to Torhout where the hotel was. A little mini shuttle bus showed up and the driver was apparently looking for five Mexican runners but figured we were close enough and took us to the hotel. We made it fine and met up with some other team members there.
I was rooming with Vladimir Banas, whom I was with in Italy as well, and team manager Armand LeBlanc. As usual I was extremely tired and crashed around 10pm but was up at 2am then again for good at 4am listening to the ipod. I hate traveling that direction for that reason - I can never sleep the whole night.
On Thursday we went and drove around Torhout and had lunch. The athlete's parade was supposed to start at 7:30 but when we showed up at 7:20 we found that everyone had left on the route already. We went in the direction we figured they would have gone but found no one so we went to the hall where it finished up and where the pasta party was. The parade finally showed up but by then we'd staked out a table close to the food. It didn't matter anyways because we ate alphabetically by country.
In a way it was nice that we didn't start until 8pm Friday night because usually the night before the race is crazy trying to label all our stuff and figure out which aid stations to put everything at. This time we had all Friday to leisurely get organized. It was still a bit chaotic around 5pm but that is our way.
Over to the start we drove and eventually met up with everyone else. Right on time the gun sounded and the night began. I'd been running sub-7 minute miles in training and feeling good so I started out fast but comfortable. It was a place I'd never been before: I could see the leaders for the first hour or so and was with the second pack for quite a while. The first of five laps was almost 23km with the next four being around 19km. It was only 20 degrees but felt hot when the wind wasn't blowing. My goal this race was to go under 7:30, something I've come within 9 minutes of in the past. My ultimate goal was to be under 8 hours so I could qualify for the World team if I choose to run again next year. Everything felt awesome until around two and a half hours when my quads tightened up a bit but I knew it wasn't going to be a big deal. I did slow down a bit though.
My first lap of 23 km went by in 1:34 for a 6:35 minute per mile pace. The next lap of 19 km was done in 1:24, 6:51 pace and my marathon time was 2:58. A quick calculation (and laugh to myself) saw I could finish under 7 hours but I knew this pace would never last. It started getting dark by the third lap and there was a few lights set up with generators in the places that were out of town. Much like Winschoten two years ago the people of the two towns we ran through came out in force for much of the race. In the town centres there were huge stages set up and music blaring all night. I couldn't believe the amount of people partying until all hours. Often I'd be running through these squares having to dodge the drunks walking on the street.
By this time I found out that Jack's back problems had acted up and he was walking. Jen and Rick were also out due to stomach and hamstring issues respectively. I passed Darren Frose's brother, Don, on the third lap while he was contending with recurring achilles' problems. Not boding well for the team times. At the end of the second lap I started keeping track of my 10k splits to get a better idea of my speed and how much I was slowing down.
On the fourth lap I was sticking with a runner from Belarus. We didn't say anything to each other the whole time, it was just understood that we'd run together. I saw him at the beginning of the race ahead of me because he has a pretty unique running style. I ended up catching him on the fourth lap when he was doubled over throwing up in town. I figured he was done but not long after he was right beside me. Whenever we'd go through an aid station he'd catch up soon enough. One time he stopped for a bathroom break and I thought for sure I wouldn't see him again but twenty minutes I heard his footsteps again. He was feeling bad on the fifth lap because he kept hitting the bushes and going slower. I was doing the math and figured I could still break 8 hours even at this pace if nothing else happened. Then on the last lap something happened: Darren caught me around 88km and kept on going.
Up until then I was content to cruise in with this Belarus runner and even continued with him for a few minutes after Darren went past. Then I started thinking if Darren was right there, Vladimir from our team could be right behind HIM. Not that I'm out to beat my fellow teammates, I just wanted to make sure I'd be able to run in Gibralter next year if I wanted to. I tried to explain to my shadow that the guy who just went by was Canadian and we had to speed up. Nothing was getting through and I did feel bad as I took off after Darren. I found out this guy finished in 7:58 so he still had a decent finish to the race.
I figured I had spotted Darren about half a km. I could barely see him up the road especially through the less-lit areas. Maybe because I'd been running a little easier than I thought I had the energy to bridge the gap in about five minutes. Now we had around 7 km to the finish. I didn't know what was going on in his mind as we ran side by side, I figured it would play out however it did and I just went with it.
We were definitely beyond "conversational pace" because we didn't say too much to each other. I think we were both hoping the other would say we should slow down. I had cruised past a runner from Norway en route to catching up with Darren. Darren had said he just wanted to beat that guy because in Italy he'd shadowed Darren for a good part of the race letting him set the pace and had beaten him in the end. Darren wanted his revenge. However around 3km to go we heard footsteps and I was even a little shocked to see this guy go past us because he looked beaten when I went by him twenty minutes prior. Anyways, I was hoping Darren would take off after him because I wouldn't have minded to slow down somewhat. We let him go and finished off the race at our torrid pace coming in together at 7:50 in 39th and 40th places. Maybe next year he'll get his revenge.
This 100k was probably the best I've felt mentally and physically. I had no stomach issues or foot problems other than I could feel some toenails protesting towards the end of the race, nothing new there. I was in the race mentally the whole time and was concentrating on my 10k splits. The last 10k with Darren pushing me was 47:39, the fastest since the 40-50km split.
A first for me as well - I was able to drink beer after the race which is something my stomach doesn't usually let me do after an event like this. It was a bit odd drinking at 6 in the morning but we had been up for 24 hours after all.
The next day started at noon after a brief sleep. We went to Torhout again to get our medals and t-shirts and watch the awards presentation. After that was dinner and a walk-around in Brugges, about twenty minutes outside of Torhout. The next day we all went our separate ways, some of us going home and some on to visit areas of Belgium. Myself, Armand, team member Bruce Barteaux and his wife, Bonnie, set out to see some of the war memorials in the area.
We went through France to Dieppe, Arras, and Vimy. Then to Ypres, Belgium, and did our own tour of the area. Tuesday was off to Brussels overnight then catch the plane home. I would recommend anyone going over to that area to see some of these old battlefields and cemetaries. There is so much history it would take years to see it all. I'm grateful to have visited these areas and pay respects to those who enable us to have the lives we do now.
Of course when I flew to Frankfurt I found out there would be more delays: there was only one runway operating so we were 90 minutes late leaving. This meant I'd miss my connection in Calgary and I hoped Carrie would check the flights. Luckily I called her in Calgary and she said that she had seen my flight had left, she just didn't know I wasn't on it. I got on another flight and eventually landed two and a half hours later than I was supposed to. What a relief to get home.
Coming up next is the World Police Fire Games at the end of July/early August. I'm doing the bike portion of the triathlon, the Grouse Grind, and the Bike Climb up Seymour mountain. I don't plan to really train for any of these, I'm just going out to do them. I may do the Grind once a week but that's about it. I need to get back into the running and stay healthy for the Commonwealth 100k in England on September 19th. Our Canada team has a good chance to podium with this one.

A link with pictures will follow soon.

Update from Belgium

2009-06-20T08:57:00.001-07:00

Just got a call from Darin. He had a good race and is feeling good overall. His time was 7h 50min and came in together with team mate Darren Froese. The only problem is his feet. Once again, the road took its toll and has thrashed his toes. Joy. We were just getting used to his somewhat 'normal' looking feet! No matter though, we are proud of Darin for finishing so strong. Congratulations to all Team Canada members, too!

Now he's going to tour the country and check out some war memorials ... hope he doesn't get sand in his chocolate or chocolate all over the statues!

You can check out all the splits here: IAU News

The Countdown Begins

2009-06-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

Roughly eleven hours until takeoff and as usual I'm still running around getting stuff together. Thankfully everything I need is somewhere in the house, I just have to dig it up.
As far as being ready for a 100k race, this is maybe the best I've felt and most confident of a good time I've ever been. I can't remember when, or if, I've trained only for a 100k race without any triathlons thrown in or done too many races leading up to it. There's been more of a balance for sure this year when it comes to life and running and I feel better for it. Even if the race is a bust I wouldn't change anything leading up to it.
The website for the race is Night of Flanders or at Live Updates from IAU which shows the race course and a bit of info on the event. It starts at 8pm Belgium time which is 11am Friday our time. Hopefully my body will not be adjusted to the time change yet and will think I'm doing a mid-day run. Normally an early morning start in Europe means my body thinks it's midnight so we'll see what happens.
I'll try and post something when I'm there.

100+

2009-06-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I managed but the totals are in: 101.5 miles

Mon 25th - 4mi on treadmill wearing 5 Fingers shoes, :30

Tue 26th - 24.5mi with a :30 beach run in the middle, 3:00 (7:25/mi avg pace)

Wed 27th - 32.25mi dead flat on Mud Bay out to Tsawwassen and back, 4:00 (7:22/mi avg pace!!)

Thu 28th - 18km bike to work, :35
- 8.25mi to softball field, :58

Fri 29th - 10.5mi to work, 1:17
- 18km bike home, :35

Sat 30th - 18km bike to work, :35

Sun 31st - 10.5mi run home, 1:08 (pb for running home)
- 10.5mi run to work, 1:09 (pb to work) + 1mi barefoot on treadmill as cool down

Not exactly sure how I'm keeping the pace up when being tired and the weather so warm. Too bad Belgium is at night and can't benefit from all this heat training.

Born to Run video

2009-05-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

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:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv4Se5ka9Pk

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.

Big Week

2009-05-26T08:01:00.000-07:00

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).

Born to Run

2009-05-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

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?!

Yaaaaayy, they're here!!

2009-05-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

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?

Miwok 100k

2009-05-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

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!!

Barefoot Bliss

2009-04-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

I went for my fifth or sixth barefoot run on the beach yesterday. Normally I go to White Rock but stayed closer to home due to time and the fact that the tide was really low it didn't matter. White Rock has better sand, with fewer shells but I have to drive there and you have to pay for parking (cheap firefighter, you know). Sometimes it's low enough to do a decent one there but at Crescent Beach at the same time the tide is still too high. I did my standard thirty minutes, not wanting to overdo it so the muscles can get used to the softer surface unsupported. It was the first time I wore my music during a beach run and it was pretty cool. There was a harsh wind blowing north so at the start I could barely hear the music but after turning around I was flying with the tailwind. I thought as I was running that it would suck to step on a shell or other sharp sea object and cut one of my feet and hence jeopardizing the Miwok run. Then I thought I could use it as an excuse if (when) I have a crappy race. I decided to stay the course and avoid all crustaceans. I'm looking forward to the delivery of my Vibram Fivefingers I bought on Ebay to prevent some of small nicks and cuts. More so I want to eventually be able to run on the roads in these things. The long term plan is to get used to them on the beach then progress to the trails or grassy fields and finally do some shorter road runs.

When I finished I drove to get some fruit and veggies at a local place. I went in barefoot with no weird looks and no comments. I was wondering what I'd do if someone questioned choice of footwear or lack thereof and asked me to leave. What would be the grounds? How is it different from people with flip flops? I couldn't think of anything. I left, walked back to the van, put my sandals back on (not safe to drive barefoot) and went home. Next adventure: walking barefoot with the kids to school.

It's Been a While

2009-04-23T22:22:00.001-07:00

Due to the fact it's been a month to the day since my last entry, much has changed with me.

In the two days after Chuckanut when doing recovery bike rides my left knee was a bit aggravated. I know it was from the uphills at the race. After those two days it was pretty much okay but still flares up a bit on runs even now.

I've given up on speed work. March 27th was my last long fast run. I was doing 7 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy for about twenty miles. The day after I felt that too-familiar pain in my shin. I decided to stop running for ten days or so. I also had a long think about my training and goals in general. Then I had a long email discussion with coach Ian. I know he has nothing but good intentions for me but I decided to stop using his or anyone else's training program and just run. I don't want to answer to anyone as to why I didn't do a workout or believe it's anyone but me responsible for getting injured. Plus I don't want to feel guilty about doing other things instead of a workout. It was too much to be training for six days a week (including riding) and have to maintain that over time. I've always done well on three or four runs a week and want to get back to that. I also think the speed work was what was giving me problems. Last year at pretty much the same time I got shin pain again and that was after doing long intervals of speed. I don't think ultra distance requires the great volume of speed incorporated in the week. I did some reading on the internet and mostly found that people did some mile repeats or 800s on the track once a week and that was about it. I spoke with Rick Webb from the World 100km team and he had a lot of advice about running in general and it carries a lot of weight because he's been running for probably thirty-plus years. We talked about speed training and also the advantages of running in less-supportive shoes. More on that in a bit. The thing that he said that struck me the hardest was that he knows lots of people who have run hard for years and now can only ride the bike for fitness because of overuse. I don't want to be like that in five or ten years or at least have the choice. I also got some good info from Jack Cook, another member of the Canadian Team. He logs 150 mile weeks consistently without injury. Mind you he's been doing that for years as well.

I've also done some reading on barefoot running and have subsequently done 3, 30 minute runs on the beach at low tide. I remember the first one feeling like I was at the starting point of something epic. I'm planning on doing no fast running for the rest of the year, only comfortable pace and with no heart rate or gps. I just want to put in the miles and build up strength. I'm going to try and hit the beach three times a week and build up the time. Check out this link I received via email from a friend, Sheldon Boreen:

The Painful Truth: Are Expensive Running Shoes a Waste of Money?

It debates whether running shoes are more harmful than helpful.

So in light of these new developments with Miwok around the corner, I don't plan to "race" this or any other event this year. This is like a re-building of sorts where I need to get back to a solid foundation. Each of the last few years I've had trail and/or road races or triathlons to train for and couldn't focus solely on running long. I'm going to see what happens. A goal for Belgium will be to still go sub-eight hours, not 7:15 that I wanted to do, to hopefully qualify for next year if I decide to stay with the team. If not, there's England or H2H as a last chance.

Chuckanut '09 edition

2009-03-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this race other than sore legs for a few days afterwards and in regards to that, the race didn't disappoint. Other than finishing I was thinking about beating my last year's time but to do that would have meant more than two training runs on this course (or any other trails for that matter). Knowing that this was going to be an endurance run only, and not a race, took any pressure off I was feeling. Plus there was a LOT of talent out there racing today, probably the most I've seen at any race. The one person I was disappointed who wasn't running was Gary Robbins. He decided to recover a bit more from the Dirty Duo that he won a couple weeks ago and save himself for Diez Vista in April.

A beautiful, sunny, cold morning (the total opposite of last year) greeted the runners and at 8am we were off. I didn't even try and go to the front or keep anyone in sight for this one. I figured I was about thirty people back for the first flat six miles. I know last year on the first big climb I maxed out for too long and went too hard. This year I took more walk breaks to try and not kill the legs too early. I said to myself that when it stopped being fun I would walk. Not that I didn't push myself a bit, though.

There were no drop bags this year due to some road washouts so I carried two full bottles of CarboPro and a half bottle of CarboPro 1200. It worked out nicely that I only had to fill up both bottles once at aid station #3 which was at the top of a long climb up Cleator Road. Then it was a nice comfortable pace with two other runners across the ridge. I pulled ahead of these two on the way to Lost Lake which is usually pretty muddy on a dry year, and this year it was a total mud pit for a couple miles. It proved pointless to even try and dodge these areas and it took more energy anyways. Before the top of this section there was a hiker coming down the hill who told me I was in 20th. Arrg! I hate knowing where I am in a race unless I'm REALLY close to the end.

On the long downhill towards the beginning of the Chinscraper I took it easy because I could feel my IT bands protesting the unpracticed decent. Luckily I had enough in my bottles I didn't need to fill up again until the top of this next climb up Chinscraper because it's hard enough without a few extra pounds of water. There was an appropriate sign halfway up this climb that read, "Is Chinscraper getting longer and steeper, or am I just getting older and fatter?". Even in my anaerobic state I had to chuckle at that one because it felt true on both fronts.

I filled up one water bottle at the top of this last hard climb then "took off" (in my slow way) down to the last aid station to the final stretch of 6 long, long miles. On the other two occasions I've done this race I basically shuffled my way from here to the finish, having used up everything I had on the other sections of the course. This year as I was pounding my way through the ups and downs I told myself I wanted to save a little bit and try and maintain a more honourable pace along this stretch. I was planning to keep my heart rate between 155 and 160 which normally is around 80% of my max. I started this section and right away got the HR to 155, feeling good. I noticed also there were two guys off in the distance and I had to hold back instead of trying to catch them right away - 6 miles is a long way at this point in the race. Keeping in my zones I steadily moved up on these two guys but it took a while. As I got closer I noticed that one of them had on white socks and white running shoes. That in itself isn't unusual. What was strange was that the shoes and socks and even his legs were clean. After all that mud we went through everyone was at least a little covered. Then I saw he didn't have a timing chip on his ankle. I finally put two and two together when I saw him pass a water bottle to the other runner then get it passed back to him. This guy was pacing the other runner. I won't tell you what I thought about that (on a frickin' 50k course even!!) but it gave me more motivation to catch and pass them.

I was pretty much on my own through the last little wooded area and on to the last flat gravel section. I saw Mike Palichuk in the distance and felt bad passing him with a mile to go. Could have been worse like me last year getting passed in the last half kilometer to go from 4th to 5th. I finished in 4:33, 18 minutes slower than last year but feeling better than any other time I've done this race. Mission accomplished in regards to keeping it a training run and finishing strong for a change. The legs are still a bit sore though.