A Teatise in Failure

I don't like to quit.....as a matter of fact it is one of my least favorite things in the world....but apparently sometimes it happens. Needless to say, the Flagstaff 50 miler did not go so well for me. Actually.....scratch that....it was going great....until it went completely sideways and I had to take a DNF.

Flag was for sure going to be a tough course, but I was ready, I ran or hiked over 180 miles in August including some pretty much all day affairs. I tapered hard in September because I know it works for me....even though I hate tapering and it drives me insane. I prepared in advance, had eating and hydration planned out.....I knew the course....and on race day I knew exactly what I had to do...I was calm...cool...confident....

Normally I'd break the race down section by section but since I DNF'd and am kind of mad about it I'm going to keep things short and simple. Miles 0-22 went really well....I was conservative, I followed my eating plan like clockwork and despite some tough climbs I was feeling good. I had just run about 5 miles with Christie Bane from TTR, the company and conversation was great and my energy was doing really well. I knew the second half of the course would be tough but as Christie said "Our current pace is very sustainable" .... I generally agreed with this as we closed in on half way..... then disaster struck....

I was running along all nice and happy and then bang.....I trip on a rock jutting out of the trail....now let me be clear....the trail wasn't technical...it was easy....I just wasn't paying crazy close attention and I caught myself on it.... At first I thought I just got jolted ....but I noticed myself slowing and let Christie pass me....I continued to slow down and she pulled away.....the front of my foot hurt a lot but I figured I could deal with it. I toughed it out to the mile 25 aid station and then began the climb right afterward.....about half way up I noticed my hip flexor was hurting now too....crap.... so the thing about hurting one side of your running (ex: my hurt left foot) is that your otherside tries to compensate to make it feel better.....this then screws up the other side too...usually in your hip flexor......

So the next six miles went like this.....

Descending: "My foot hurts"

Climbing: "My hip flexor is killing me"

I tried for over an hour and a half to talk myself out of DNF'ing but in the end as I rolled in to mile 32 aid station after walking most of the last 10 miles all I could really think of was "If I keep going I might get seriously hurt and have to stop running" ......so I did what I had to do and took the DNF..... The race director, Jamil Coury, gave me a lift back to the start and was in general really cool. On the positive side I did get a full 32 miles in and injury aside I felt able to turn around and do it again when I dropped....this means I'm training smart and racing smart....something I don't always do!

My friends Kayley and Brian were in town because they wanted to get out of Phoenix.......also I asked them to come see me finish....they made me feel a lot better by giving me some beer and telling me funny stories....

I thought it would take me a lot longer to write this race report...but in reality I just want this race in the rear view mirror....the DNF isn't sitting well....I'm already plotting some sort of "Redemption Run".....

Tapering at Altitude

I'm tapering for Flag 50 which basically means after my 60 (ish) mile week I haven't been running a lot. But if I didn't do something I would totally freak out so I have been busy. Over Labor Day weekend I had kind of a grand tour of Arizona. First, I went up to Flagstaff and did a little camping and reading. The next morning I woke up at 0'DarkThirty broke down my campsite and hauled it in my car over to Humphrey's Peak with the goal of running up and down as a test of myself at altitude prior to the race on the 22nd.

Some Tea on the Stove

Early AM Trail

I started up and ran up the best I could.....but it was more of a power hike. I shot up the pretty quick and hit 12300 ft in (3000 ft of climbing and 4.3 miles of trail)  about 2 hours. Then my legs started to get wobbly and I started to feel like I was going to get sick off the side of the mountain. With maybe 300 vertical ft (and 1/4 mile) left to go I decided to turn around. I was one of very few people that far up the mountain and I was alone so I decided not to risk it.....altitude sickness hits you sometimes....in these cases its best to not be stupid.

So I turned around and jaunted down the mountain. As I started descending I felt way better....until I got lost....I ended up off trail for about 10 minutes before I found my way back.....note....if you have to slide down the hill....you probably aren't on the path anymore.  After my detour I got back on the path and started  running/hopping down the rocks.....I felt way better....and agile like a mountain goat.... I passed a ton of hikers some of which gave me a friendly "Wow good work!" and others a much more angry "What the %#%#$^ you aren't even sweating bro!" ...... I got down after a little over an hour of descent.

Went back to town....got some food......got some really good espresso to wake me up. Then I headed for the next adventure. I spent the rest of the weekend on the Mogollon Rim, which I highly suggest to anyone outdoorsy. I camped here literally the tent was right behind this picture:

I'd tell you where this is but I don't want you stealing the spot!

The Rim was great although quite windy! The next day I had a hike up Tonto Creek on the way back toward civilization......there was a hail storm....8 more miles!

Since then I've been continuing to taper and heal.....my drop bags are all set....11 days to Flag....I'm ready to bring it!

Good and Bad

Running can be an interesting sport one week you want to be sick and post your worst time ever, the next your easily cruising to a PR. Life in general it turns out is a lot like this as well. I've been treated to two especially horrible days running recently as well as one that was just perfect. It's important in running (and in general) to roll with the punches.....it's your actions in these moments that define you.....just pick yourself up and hang in until things get better......they always do.

This quote pretty much says it:
 "Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."

55+ Miles last week. Less than a month to Flag!


Specifically what I'm talking about:

Bear Canyon Loop 17.5 mi 3:57 (Personal Worst)
Bear Canyon Loop 17.5 mi 3:15 (Personal Best)
Mt Lemmon 17 miles ..... gave up after 9 miles and 2 miserable hours.

Mountain Repeats / Monsoon in the Face

Hill repeats are a large part of a runners training and are made to build speed and endurance. They generally involve running up a hill that's about 300 feet multiple times. This results in tired but improved runners. Ultra training ends up taking this to the next level. Today some of us went for some mountain repeats

The Santa Rita Mountains are about 60 minutes south of Tucson and are home to one awesome / brutal mountain, Mt Wrightson. The trail up Wrightson is 5 miles long and involves 4000 ft of elevation. Korey, Mike Duer, Dallas, Chris and I all met up in Madera Canyon at 6 am with the intent of doing multiple ascents of the mountain. I have run up this route once before for my first run with TTR, it was brutal and I wanted another shot... this was it.

We all started up the trail, Korey and Mike shot ahead and a long day of climbing began. I stayed with Dallas for about 3 miles but he pulled away too. The top of the mountain was socked in but they were nice white fluffy clouds so I was excited to run through them. I hit switchback city and powered my way up to the Baldy Saddle. I ran up along the ridge through the clouds and made my way to the summit. The others passed me on the way down. The view of the summit was really cool since I was above the clouds. I knew I wanted to do another climb so I only stayed about 2 minutes, ate some Accel Gel, drank some water and started back down. I was happy and feeling good and way ahead of my previous time. An uneventful run down brought me into Madera Canyon again after 3:10, a 30 minute improvement.

I refueled grabbing a turkey/avacado wrap and a coke, refilled my water and got some more Gu and started back up. Looking up at the summit the clouds were getting thicker, I knew I probably wouldn't make it to the top before some weather rolled in so I resigned to only making it back to the Baldy Saddle again. The first two miles were brutal and humid and I felt like crap. I pushed through and ended up really enjoying the second part of the climb. There were a few light rain showers but they only lasted for about 2 minutes each.

At the saddle I looked around and the clouds were starting to get dark. This confirmed my decision to turn around. I figured with about 4 miles back to the canyon I could hopefully get down before the rain started since I had made good down hill time before.....this was WAY wrong. I got down through the crazy switch backs (~1 mile) and it promptly started to rain  monsoon. This slowed me way down...the trail was pretty much turned into little rivers which annoyingly covered up all the rocks....I decided not to push speed and just walk it in....getting a sprained ankle would be bad....

The rain was cold....I trudged along....my foot started to hurt..... other than that I felt great.... plenty of energy.... Chris had passed me on his second time up and passed me again on the way down, he seemed pretty adept at running through the rain soaked trail. He stopped and lent me a goretex vest and walked with me for a bit then took off to get down off the mountain. The vest warmed me up and I walked/jogged the rest of the way in..... I got back to the parking lot thoroughly soaked 3:50 after I started up for the second ascent....this is really slow considering I skipped the final summit part.

This run kicked my butt.....but in a good way...overall I got more than 7 hours under foot, great training for Flag! Also the total elevation gain/loss was 7500/7500 which is just short of the total gain/loss at Flag! So I figure if I can do that in less than half the distance I will be ok! Overall a good day...well except for the Monsoon in the face.

There was a little bit of climbing today!

Cuyamaca 3 Peaks.....Lots of Climbing...Slight Breakdown....100% Awesome

The Cuyamaca Three Peaks 50k is a small mountain Ultra located just outside of San Diego in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. The course boasts over 6000 ft of climb and is just within range to get to by car. This makes it the perfect place to go for a race during the hot hot Arizona summer. I headed out Friday night and camped in my car about 2 miles from the start the night before the race. Some people might say that camping in your car is weird, but, it is cheap, it lets you stay close to the start line, and my Outback is exactly the right size if you put the back seat down…so it was great. Sunset the night before the race was beautiful and after the sun went down the stars were out in force. In the past I have almost always been nervous the night before a race. In this case I wasn’t. I knew I had trained hard but most importantly I had finished a 50 miler before so 50k just didn’t seem as daunting. I knew whatever the course threw at me I would be ready and be able to finish. Anyway I had talked my buddy Korey into running this race...Korey is a speed demon and we both knew he was going to do really well. I love it when I know other people at the race it makes it more fun....even if they are miles ahead of you!

I'm stoked lets go!

Stonewall Mountain 1 (0-6.5 Miles)

The race started out at a pretty good pace as the sun was rising. We looped out around the lake past a bunch of horse stables and toward the back side of Stonewall Peak. We started climbing the peak, everyone started to slow down a little bit as we climbed up. The girl in front of me told me to pass her whenever I was ready but I told her “I don’t want to do anything stupid this early”. This turned out to be a great choice as the current pace ended up being perfect. After climbing the peak there was a great run down a series of switchbacks to the first aid station at the Paso Picacho Camp Ground at about 7 miles. I grabbed some food and then took off back into the woods.

Middle Peak (6.5-13 Miles)

The next section started out pretty flat but pretty quickly started the climb up and around middle peak. One or two people passed me here but I felt like my pace was right. I also remembered that we still had over 20 miles to go so I decided to just keep it nice and steady. The climb up the peak was almost all single track mostly through some awesome tall grass. This section of the trail was beautiful and it was still nice and cool. After the climb the course turned down a fire road for a nice easy descent back toward aid station two which was located at the start. On the way down I saw my buddy Korey coming back up I yelled out to him that he was in second place and to keep it up. At the aid station I grabbed some more food and a little ginger ale to calm my stomach down. The volunteers helped me refill my water pack which was awesome because even though we were only 13 miles in I had already drained it. I had looked at the next section on the course map earlier in the week so I knew what was coming and I braced myself.

As you can see 13-19 is a bit of a climb

Middle Peak (Again) then Cuyamaca Peak (13-19 Miles)

I’ll just be up front about the next section. It was hard, it was hot and it took a lot out of me. After aid station 2 we turned around and re-climbed middle peak up the fire road. The sun was finally out in force, so this area was hot, and my stomach was not co-operating. At the top there was a short descent and then we were all faced with the daunting last climb of the day to the top of Cuyamaca Peak.  The trail up the peak is pretty rugged and due to burns in the past is fairly exposed. Me and Jeff (who had been running with me since about mid way up middle peak) slowly made our way to the top. It seemed like this trail kept getting steeper. About half a mile from the peak the trail dumped out onto a road which just progressively got steeper.

We finally got into aid station three (19 miles) at the top of the peak. I was tired but this aid station was like a shot of adrenaline. The aid station was manned by women in bikinis and they had fresh strawberries, watermelon, and ice pops.  I’ll admit up front (and if you ever run an ultra with me you’ll find out) that I act like a complete idiot at aid stations. I’m always excited by the food and the cold drinks.  I also usually end up calling the aid station workers “My best friends ever” or “The coolest people in the world” or something like that. In this case since we were over half way through this was my first chance to drink Mountain Dew of the day (In general, I have a rule that I don’t drink caffeine during the first half of the race).

Life giving frozen goodness!

 I drank two cups of mountain dew, ate a mountain of strawberries some watermelon….some more food that I don’t remember…there was also a bucket of ice water and I may have dunked my head in it….it was wonderful….everyone laughed at how excited I was. Anyway after aid station goodness I headed out with another full water pack as the climb had depleted mine.

Down to Cold Spring (19-26 miles)

The next section of the course was almost entirely downhill….yes…..it was great. We all bombed down the hill for the first couple miles and everyone who I ended the climb with eventually spread out again. Three miles into the section it flattened out a little bit and I started to hit the wall. I slowed down and got passed by about four people. I worked through the wall but it was a little hard. At one point I was going down some single track that was overgrown and brushed a plant out of my way….it was totally covered in nettles….it was awful….I swore….but luckily about 5 minutes later I broke through the wall and started running again. I passed some park rangers on horses on the way down the trail, flashed the hang loose sign to some guy taking pictures and rolled into aid station 4 at like 26 miles.

I got a band aid for my nettle sting from the plant, ate more food, refilled my water pack (empty again), grabbed a couple more GU’s and headed out.

Cold Spring to Finish

The next couple miles were a slow uphill section. I decided to go for a 7 hour goal and I knew I had plenty of time so I decided to take the uphill section slow, knowing that the last 3 miles were downhill or flat and I’d be able to run. My thought was if I saved my energy I’d have enough energy left to run it in strong to the end. Anyway a good deal of walking up hill here. For such small hills they were really tough, I was physically and emotionally drained and just didn’t want to climb anymore. I’m not ashamed to say that I just lost it for just a minute or two. In past races when I have come close to breaking down like this there has always been someone around, but this time I was all by myself so I just let it out (I totally cried a little...so what). After a few minutes I gathered myself up and pushed forward as the hilly section was ending.  After I hit the top of the hills I finally started running again. I could see a couple people out in the distance and my competitive side kicked in. I knew they had passed me while I was hitting the wall and I really wanted to gain on them again. I eventually passed all four people who had passed me earlier and ran it in toward the end. One runner did pass me in this stretch, but he really was killing it so good for him! The trail looped back around the lack in reverse of the route at the start and in no time I popped out onto the road and ran it into the finish area closing out my race in 6 hours 52 minutes placing 27 out of 84. Korey had finished long ago (coming in fourth) but he and his wife held up at the finish line and cheered me in. Afterwards I drank like 3 bottles of water and ate a bunch of food to get my energy back. Overall I felt pretty good considering I had just knocked down a tough mountain 50k.

I’m really happy with how my race turned out, while I’d always like to be faster I kept a good smart pace and for the most part didn’t pass or get passed by many people….This usually means you aren’t doing anything stupid! I’ll remember a lot of things about this race, the awesome sunrise and the breeze blowing on me running through the tall grass. I’ll remember how happy I felt to be out running in the mountains and how liberating it was to push through the hard parts of this race. After the race I hung out for a bit with Korey and his wife, they are great people. That night I drove back as far as Yuma before getting a hotel and crashing. It was really a great weekend….I would totally run this race again.

Running through the desert and/or mountains

So I haven't updated since my initial post after moving to Tucson. However, things have been really busy between work, running and trying to meet new people I just don't seem to have all that much free time. Luckily I seem to be doing really well at all three so I'll call it a win.

Needless to say I've been training hard...but not quite as hard as I should. I've been a little more diligent since I signed up for another 50k....having goals forces you to train! I'm going to do this kind of like my update I did after Antarctica....there are several runs so I'm just going to play them out in order!

Wasson Peak


Ok so one day off after the brutal run up Mt Wrightson I went out to the Tucson Range and did Wasson Peak at sunset. We ran up and hit the summit right as the sun was going down. It was pretty spectacular! The trail was all single track and it was pretty technical the whole way. The climb up took about 1 hour 10 minutes and then it was about 50 back down leaving me at an even two hours. One thing I've noticed is I don't go as fast as I should on technical down hills....if I work on that I can improve my times a lot!

As you can see from the map the route is a simple out and back. The first 3 or so miles you are stuck kind of low. But, once the climbing begins the views get great and there is some really good running while you're up on one of the ridges! I'm glad we did this at sunset...because man it was hot that day....also it gave me a chance to do the last 30 minutes with my headlamp and get some night trail practice.

Catalina Peaks


I did this run with Tucson Trail Runners who are an awesome group of trail runners that just relish being surrounded by Tucson's mountains and trails. The route was supposed to be 22 miles, however early on the group I was running with took a small (5 mile) detour and then late in the run I twisted my ankle a little bit. Luckily at mile 17 which was at the top of Mt Lemmon (9000+ ft) there were some people setup with an aid station, so me and another runner hopped a ride back to the start and called it a success at 17 miles. I think my time was something like 3:40. Anyway, I met two pretty cool people Korey and Guy and we ran pretty much the whole way as a group....Korey actualSly finished the run and after the detour at the beginning probably hit 27 miles for the day. This was a lot of fun and I even saw a snake sleeping under a rock ( I gave him like 15 feet of space :) )

Bear Canyon (Or adventures in hydration)


So I've done this route twice now and the two times were VERY different. The first time I ran this I stayed out late the night before...I'm trying to be social and meet people remember....anyway there was a cool band playing downtown so I listened to most of their set before going home....anyway I woke up the next morning to do the 17 mile Bear Canyon Loop....Instead of downing a whole bottle of Gatorade like a good runner I just rolled out of bed and out the door. I'm going to take this moment to relay some advice that Running Legend David Horton gives runners at his races "Don't be stupid". I think its obvious my first encounter with this route didn't go so well. I downed my whole 2L of water in the first 8 miles, luckily I was running with Korey and he had plenty of extra....and there is actually running water 14 miles in when you get to Sabino Canyon.....anyway....Hydrate!

The second time (2 weeks later) was much better. I've since figured out hydration a little better and didn't even use my full 2L of water on the run. Repeat...."Don't be stupid" ..... this is great advice for endurance athletes. Anyway the views on this run are spectacular you run through two canyons and up and around a small mountain....its great...I love it....I'll probably do this route at least once a month. Anyway 17 miles....currently running it in about 3:40.....I really think I could do it in 3:10 if I quit being a wimp and just push through some of the tougher parts.

Sunset Loops


Another TTR run. This run was a lot of fun, again it was up in the Catalina Mountains and involved the climb up Mt. Lemmon. However, this run is nice and has all the climbing at the beginning. The run starts with a climb from the Sunset Trailhead to Mt Lemmon and then goes out along the ridge for several miles before dropping into a really cool place called the Wilderness of Rocks (It's just what it sounds like). The only bad thing about this part of the run is that sometimes the trail kind of disappears for 50 feet. Eventually the trail loops back around to the Sunset Trailhead making a giant Figure 8. 17 Miles....I ran this in 4:50.....I felt really slow all day.....I want another shot at this....I feel like 4:10 should be my goal. Anyway lots of elevation lots of miles.

Summary

Tucson is great! Socially I'm doing pretty well getting out there and meeting people. Running here is awesome, 20 minute drive to great mountain trails and there are plenty of other crazies out here who love to run long in the mountains......Oh I almost forgot....There is this awesome hill on my way home from work....there's a road to the top, I do hill repeats up it once a week for training! Each lap is 3 miles 700/700 ft gain/loss!

Mt Wrightson

So after the Bull Run 50 miler I immediately relocated to Tucson Arizona for a new job. New adventure in a city surrounded by mountains...yay! Leaving all my awesome friends in DC not so yay....but anyway the adventure is on and I'm now based out of Tucson!


Lucky for me a quick google search of "Tucson + Trail Running" leads straight to the Tucson Trail Runners a group of local trail runners / ultra athletes living right in my new back yard. Since, Tucson is surrounded by mountains it's not really that surprising. Turns out they are a pretty cool group.


They have a yearly series of runs with a different event every other week ranging from 10 miles to 50k and many of them train for 50 mile and 100 mile ultras as well. I was lucky enough to enlist in time for this week's event the "Multiple Wrightson Massacre".


Mt. Wrightson is the tallest mountain in the Tucson basin rounding out at a nice 9453 feet. The Multiple Wrightson Massacre takes place on the "Old Baldy Trail" which starts in Madera Canyon ( 5420 ft ) and climbs to the top in about 5.4 miles. The TTR people come out every year and do this route out and back as many times as feels right. My initial plan was for two ascents but it took me a little longer than I expected (turns out 4000 ft in 5 miles is a little rough) so I ended up only doing the route once.

So, I started in Madera Canyon around 7am and began the climb up. The lower part of the trail is some very sandy single track, it's runnable if you are up to it. However, since it was my first time on the route and I was quickly alone on the trail I decided to take it easy. The trail quickly winds up and begins a series of switch-backs up to Josephine Saddle. From there the trail gets much less sandy and more normal dirt as the environment changes from desert to alpine (this is really cool). A few more switchbacks and another mile or so and you're facing a giant rock face to the right. The trail takes a left and a series of crazy switch-backs swerve up along the west face of the mountain to Baldy Saddle. Seriously.....this trail should be called "Old Switch-Back".... from there there's a good half mile of good running along the saddle until the earlier rock face appears again, except this time I was on the other side and had to navigate my way up some narrow single track that looks like it was blown out of the rock. I took it slow here and made sure I had good footing.

I got to the summit and got spectacular views of the Tucson basin (and Mexico). I didn't stay long, it was pretty windy and I was anxious to get down to the main trail and start running down. The way down was pretty quick compared to the way up. Aside from a few rocky areas I got some really good running in and was down much quicker than the ascent. Overall this is a fun run, I'll probably go back in the future although in the interest of saving time and logging more miles I'll probably skip the summit and do a loop trail (which includes most of Old Baldy) which loops up and over the entire mountain. Good run, good fun, good hill training!

Total 10.8 miles, 4000 ft gain, 4000 ft loss.