Running, my second job and passion...

Central Park: ... in the City

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:18:00 +0000

Filled the blanks in the title? If you came with any other three-letter word than "Run", you need to turn to another blog, sorry! And you spend too much time watching TV, it's time to hit the trails. ;-)

Do Something, change the World!

I came to New York for just two days, to accompany Alex who had a meeting with DoSomething.org. Super cool association which gathers volunteering teens and is growing very fast: 750,000 members in the last count! 750,000 mostly in the US although the association is now set to open satellite offices on other continents. Out of all the members, 300 applied to 15 seats on the Youth Advisory Council (YAC), and Alex made it through (joining 15 other teens as the members are elected for 2 years and the committee is half renewed every other year). They interact with the staff on a daily basis and the association paid for our trip and our stay. Needless to say, Alex is quite excited to have such a "board meeting" at only 15. Who knows what's next...
Today (Saturday) they joined the Social Action Boot Camp at NYU (New York University), for more training and ideas to change the world, for the better. At a time the headlines are swamped with sad news about "the" Army, it is recomforting to see so many kids engaged in what DoSometing.org calls the boot camp: "Combat Training for an Army of Change." In addition to the good that all these teen-led initiatives do to our society, it also represents an amazing learning opportunity.
Alex does not have time to run anymore (not that he liked it very much anyway), but he does "run" for many causes: Unicef, Red Cross, United Nations, The World Family, etc., there is always "something to do" at home and in the neighborhood (for instance, instead of trick-or-treating for candies at Halloween, Alex and his friends collected donations for Unicef and raised more than $1,300!).

Running in the Park

We stayed at Park Central Hotel which is conveniently situated a few blocks away from the South entrance of Central Park, the lungs of Manhattan. I worked from the hotel room all day Friday, from 7 to 7. I was going to visit a client but the city basically shut down on Friday for the Yankees World Series parade. Even the schools closed to allow the kids to celebrate and savour this victory, 9 years after the previous one!

I hit the trail, or the bike path actually, at 8:30 am and there were only a few runners and cyclists out there under the bright blue and sunny sky. With the excitement of being back at this famous running place, I started quite fast and completed the first 6-mile loop at 6:11 min/mile pace. Many more people had joined the fun by 9 and I started slaloming around and across groups of runners. 6:14 min/mile average pace at the end of the second lap, then the lack of breakfast (just a Sneakers bar) and my fast starting pace started to get on me in the third lap. I was thinking of doing a fourth lap but thought I would not have enough fun. Besides, two things happened: first, I got passed by 7 fast guys in my 16th mile, and I'm not used to that (sic!). Second, upon getting back to the 7th Avenue (18 miles in 1:56), I stopped to watch the super cute Rand MacDonald Foundation kids races. Dozens of 5-year old kids, super motivated, running a quarter mile, under the supervision of the brave firefighters of the New York Fire Department. The contrast between the frail and small kids and the super strong, fit and trained men was touching as 9/11 is still in everybody's mind here. Although less in the minds of all these kids who were born since 2001.

"In Loving Memory of Fire Fighter Patrick Joyce" who died in Line of Duty 2 months ago, after serving with the Yonkers for 16 years.

Here is Fred Lebow's commemorative statute on the East side of the Park. Lebow (1932-1994) is the founder of the internationally famous New York City Marathon (it sometimes annoyed me to see that, when you mention you run marathons, everybody assumes that you have at least ran New York. I was keeping it for my 50th (birthday), but maybe I'll do it sooner...).
See more pictures in my Piacasa album, online.

Brands

As I was logging miles in the Park and passing hundreds of runners and joggers, I looked at all the shoes to see their brand. Admittedly my favorite brand, Brooks, was well under represented compared to other American or Asian brands. Fortunately, Brooks is growing fast and there is much more room for growth in this market, as crowded with numerous brands, models, styles and looks as in the car business.

Every time I spotted a runner in Brooks (about ten this morning), I slowed down to say "Go Brooks!" Most of the runners were surprised and I had to explain I was on the Brooks Inspire Daily program and a big fan. One runner replied, showing his shoes: "I love them!" Another one with a German accent mentioned that Brooks was getting quite popular in Europe. Others were running with headsets and did not understand what I was talking about... Run Happy in Brooks, guys and gals!

It was really cool to travel with Alex for his "business." From mid-town, Alex was more interested in the South part of Manhattan (he visited UN again on his own on Friday morning, and went to the Financial District before their meeting, and we walked together to Times Square upon arriving on Thursday night), while I enjoyed more my 2 hours in Central Park. Who said fathers and sons have to be alike?

Hope to be back soon either for business, or to finally run the New York marathon maybe. Small Apple (the literal translation of my College nickname in France) in the Big Apple!

Boston Marathon 2010: is it time already?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:57:00 +0000

The rumor has hit all the runner circles, Boston may fill up by Thanksgiving this year! Last year, the legendary event filled up only by February, unusually late. There is nothing on the website, as opposed to the nice dashboard offered by the Big Sur International Marathon on their home page.

Now that I won my age group in the local ultra Grand Prix, I am not sure I am in Boston as I will likely run many of the Grand Prix event again in 2010. I am on the fence though as Scott (Dunlap) is tempting me with the opportunity to run Boston and Big Sur back to back. Big Sur has created an interesting and nice "Boston 2 Big Sur" program, but I had not realized that they were asking for an extra $55 on top of the entry fees in both events, to cover for a special t-shirt and jacket.

Anyway, if you already got your Boston qualifier and are considering Boston for 2010, now is the time to pay your fees to Active.com (get prepared for the "cyber sprinting...").

Good luck and Run Happy!

Helen Klein 2009: perfect weather

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:19:00 +0000

One thing is sure about this year's edition of the Helen Klein Ultra Classic: the weather was perfect, from start to finish. Super clear sky with a moon almost full, cool temperature at the start, no wind, sunny morning and warm afternoon. A big big change from last year's persistent rain. A great way to celebrate the first part of Halloween on this very last day of October. As I was mentioning in last week's post, how lucky we are to live in California and have such a weather in the Fall. I am thinking of our friends training on muddy trails on the East Coast or in Europe...

This perfect weather played well for some, but not everybody. And I am part of the latter. 2006: 6hr42 for my first Helen Klein and my second 50-miler ever after I got the Dick Collins Rookie award a month earlier at Firetrails. 2007: 6:22, a blast and still my PR on the distance. 2008: 8:51, a heroic finish with a major asthma crisis and pulmonary edema symptoms. 2009: 7:12 with mild asthma. After my DNF on the same course at American River in April of this year, for asthma reasons, there is really something my body does not like in the area...

I left Cupertino at 4 am, after joining Sean and Pierre-Yves for our RhoQuick "team pooling." (RhoQuick is our Quisksilver Running Club team sponsored by Adam Blum's company, Rhomobile, just covering part of the race registration fees.) It was great to have Heidi as our driver to decrease the pre-race stress. Their dog, Gordy, enjoyed our company on the back seat. We arrived just in time to pick our bib numbers and listen to Norm's briefing at 6:30. The main point was that we were not starting on the levee again this year, but Norm assured that he measured the course and it was only a quarter of a mile longer. However, most of our GPS would later give a longer account, between 51.1 and 51.25 miles.
We started on the trail and in the dark; Chikara started like a rocket and disappeared after the first turn. I settled in 3rd once we hit the bike path (around mile 2), keeping Jamie Olson, a local runner, in sight. Quickly though, Jamie seemed to have issue with his quad and I passed him around mile 5. The first mile was slow because of the darkness (7:40 min/mile) and we significantly increased the pace on the asphalt. By mile 7 my average pace was down to 6:46 and would remain the same for 10 more miles as I was carrying two bottles and not stopping at aid stations.

I refilled my Gu2O bottle at mile 20 and lost a few seconds but felt ok, and actually decided to slow down a bit to save some energy for the second half. I reached the turn around (supposed to be 25 miles, but rather 25.5 miles) in 2:56 or 6:56 min/mile pace. I was in second and Chikara was still flying and had already a lead of more than 15 minutes. He must have run his first marathon around 2:45. Mine was just above 3 hours (3:03), yet another Boston qualifier if I had ended there.

As we were back on the same path, we had the opportunity to see all the other runners after the turn around. Jamie was still in third, followed by Pierre-Yves who seemed in perfect condition with a big smile. Right after him was Sean, without the smile... I actually do not recall if Ray Sanchez was behind or between them. At this time, I started having trouble breathing fully and slowed down significantly to 9-9:30 min/mile with some walking to help catch my breath and preserve my lungs. The rest of the run was mostly about trying to "shuffle" (running with short steps, an exclusive Jim Magill technique!) as long as possible, walking to breath, looking at my GPS to see my average pace increase (yikes), and looking behind to see if anyone was catching up.

It is only at Sunrise Bridge (~ mile 37) that I heard the aid station volunteers cheering up to welcome a runner as I had just left the station still working on a cup of soup. It was Ray who was having a great day today. He was shooting for 7 hours but finished in 6:45. I kept going with my slow pace, convinced that Pierre-Yves or Sean were going to pass me at any time, but kept going and finished in 7:12, good for third overall and 2nd Masters. Chikara had finished in an amazing time of 5:45, improving his own age group course record by 2 minutes despite the additional mile! And missing the overall course record set by Michael Buchanan in 2005 by mere 2 seconds, which makes his performance the best ever on this course. Worth some Thanksgiving dinner refueling:Sean finished in 5th (7:19) and Pierre-Yves in 8th (7:29). These performances should be good enough for our team to cash in quite a few points and solidify our position in the PA USATF ultra and mountain trail running Grand Prix. The rest of the team did well too: Keith Blom, 17th in 8:00, and Jim Magill, 34th in 9:16. As for me, I was glad that the field was less competitive than previous years and that Mark Lantz had decided not to toe the start line. As a matter of fact, we had crossed Eric Skaden and Mark on the trail in the morning arond mile 6 as they live close by and were training on the course. My win in the Grand Prix this year is not based on major performances (Mark got these ones), but my assiduity and persistence... The last race, the famous Quad Dipsea, will not change the odds but I'm going as (Tropical) John Medinger invited me based on my 3rd place last year. I just hope I will not break a leg or twist an ankle on this torturous course. And I will work on my... quads, in November...
A special mention for Bill Dodson, 74, from my other club, the Stevens Creek Striders, who is dominating his age group in the Grand Prix, this year again. Here is Bill, fresh after a 50-mile "promenade" in an amazing time of 9:34:A big thank you to Norm for perpetrating this running tradition in honor of his legendary wife, Helen. And for more than 40 years of race directing and volunteering in the ultra community! A big thank you to all the volunteers (including Helen, now 87!), some of them at aid stations open all day long. A big thank you to all the competitors for their encouragements as we crossed after the turn around! A big thank you to my RhoQuick teammates for their fighting spirit and emulation. And a big thank you to the sponsors, whose generosity makes such events possible and affordable.

Norm said that the tradition is all set to live; see you next year, then! And maybe at the reinstated Rio Del Lago in the meantime. Speaking of 100-milers, there are now 62 of them listed on Stan Jensen's run100s.com website! I remember the counter passing 40 just a few years ago, then 50 last year, this is another big increase. I put my name in the hat of next week's Western States lottery and, if not taken, this will be a sign that it is time to look at other 100-milers. Except that I'm now "stuck" for another year of "enjoying" the races of the regional Grand Prix... Like taxes, a good problem to have!

Train wisely and run happy!

PS: a few more pictures in my Picasa album.

A normal weekend?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:15:00 +0000

I race a lot already (15-18 races a year), yet I have to refrain from running every race in the area: that is how blessed we are to live in the Bay Area. This weekend two races were really tempting: the San Francisco One Day and the San Jose Dean Karnazes Marathon. But it was not reasonable for me to run one of them just one week before Helen Klein 50-mile. Instead I "just" ran 44 miles in 6 hours this weekend...

A weekend like any other?

It was pitch dark at 6:30 am on Saturday morning and I was not so surprised to find the gate of the Rancho San Antonio Park closed then. I parked on the street one mile away and rushed to catch-up with my running buddies starting their training run from Rhus Ridge on the other side of the park. What surprised me though when I entered the park is to notice that the lot was almost full already! Some folks must know how to open the gate in the early morning... Again, despite the darkness, there were already hundreds of hikers, mostly Asian (see my previous post on Cupertino's healthy habits).
Running Chamise Trail, I saw several deers and I would see many more of them all morning. With the rain we got two weeks ago, there is a lot of fresh green grass, a treat for the deers. I also saw a coyote before getting to the Windmill Pasture. On my way up to Black Mountain, I caught-up with Mike Topper and Chris Garcia and we stayed together for the rest of the run, back to Rhus Ridge through Hidden Villa and running through the Palo Alto Foohills Park.
The weather was perfect and we reminded ourselves of the invaluable luck we have to live here. So many trails, views over the Bay and to the Ocean, a perfect weather, so many local races, not to forget the company, and the personal enrichment gained through the multicultural environment and the business connections.

Chris also joked about his luck to run with local elite runners. Between Mike and I, we have three Ohlone wins and many other Masters wins. Mike ran Western States 5 times (1996-2000) and placed in the top 10 Men 4 times. We also met Roger Dellor on his bike.
Roger started ultra running late, just before turning 50, but excelled at it and still holds the M60-69 course record at Western States in 20:28. He is now alternating running and biking to alleviate some knee issues.
I ended up doing exactly 31.1 miles or 50K on Saturday, with a cumulative elevation of 5,200 feet, in 4:45 of running time (more elapsed time with a few stops here and there).

Here is a link to my photo album of the day. (Much different views from my last coverage of this run back in the Spring).

This Sunday, I went for a 10-mile tempo run at the De Anza College track. I wanted to run the 10 miles under an hour but missed my goal by 15 seconds. Actually, 40 laps represent a bit more than 10 miles (10.25 according to my Garmin GPS), but I have been able to do 40 laps in the past under 58 minutes. Granted, not the day following a long and hilly run like I did yesterday. Besides, there was a bit of wind (6 to 14 mph according to the web) which bothered me in the last 5 miles. I also started a bit too fast (5:44 for the first four laps).

Here is a view from the satellite. Sometime these satellites must wonder what goes in our mind for running in circle like that for an hour... ;-)

San Francisco One Day

While Sarah and Wendell must still be counting the laps, here are the preliminary results they posted this morning. They setup a webcast so it was cool to get an hourly update, although I admit I didn't stay up all night to watch. The race started at 9 am on Saturday at Crissy Field in San Francisco (a flat 1.061-mile loop).

#	Runner	Gender	Age	Laps	Distance (miles)

1	Brian Krogmann	M	31	132	140.1
2	Suzanna Bon	F	45	127	134.7
3	Mark Tanaka	M	42	111	117.8
4	Daniel Fabun	M	35	105	111.4
5	Mike Nuttall	M	60	101	107.2
6	Joey Bryan	M	40	100	106.1
7	Marianne Paulson	F	45	98	104.0
8	Charles Wickersham	M	37	95	100.8
9	Andy Kumeda	M	41	95	100.8
10	Vance Roget	M	55	95	100.8
11	Steve Klang	M	42	95	100.8
12	Nathan Yanko	M	27	95	100.8

In total, between the 24 and 12-hour runners, participants logged 6,938 laps and 7,361 miles!! I really want to enter a 24-hr event at some point, hope my calendar allows it next year.

Overall, not your ordinary weekend but one of the many we, ultra runners, can enjoy in the Bay Area. Blessed are we!

Caballo in the Bay: not a ghost!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:35:00 +0000

40 years ago, André Frossard, a French Academicien, wrote a book with a provocative title: "God exists, I met him!" This Friday I can say: "Caballo Blanco is not a ghost, I met him!"

Caballo is the main hero of Christopher McDougall's book, Born to Run, which, to my surprise, made the New York Times bestseller list for 12 weeks in a row! Not that it doesn't deserve such a success, but I was not imagining thousands of readers when I got one of the first copies back this Spring at the Zombie Runner store in Palo Alto (see my book report).
If you have read Born to Run, you must wonder what drew the white horse (aka Caballo Blanco or Micah True) out of his recluse life in the Copper canyons of Mexico. What got him to leave his Tarahumara and Raramuri friends and come to visit the Silicon Valley, Seattle, LA, Phoenix this month. Tu put things in perspective, Caballo has spend years living an ascetic life in inhospitable canyons in Mexico. He got so immersed into this recluse tribe that they gave him a Spanish name. Blanco relating to his caucasian origins. And the local children scared of seeing a gringo for the first time in these canyons reported seeing a ghost...

Caballo is on a mission. Not one of the Spanish and religious missions which conquered the Tarahumara lands and pushed them to run farther and faster in remote canyons. On the opposite, a mission to protect this pure and ancestral culture which made this people excelling at ultra running. Not a sport for them, but a pastime and a way of of living, hunting, travelling, commuting, escaping our world, and hiding...

Caballo is touring the West to raise money for the Norawas de Raramuri foundation. A foundation to support two annual races he setup 5 years ago, which goal is to provide the Tarahumara a chance to race locally as they cannot afford to travel around the world, not to mention the danger of exposing this genuine culture to our artificial and commercial environment as we have seen in past experiences at Leadville in the 90s (look at chapters 11-13 of Chris' book).

So, this Friday night, a few local runners were invited to meet with Caballo. From Kati's invite I thought that would be a very intimate encounter and I was really excited about it (I had proposed Kati to organize a special event at a local running store to support the fundraising). To the point that I missed the homecoming celebration at Cupertino High School where Max was a prince and a king candidate for his last year before graduating. Anyway, what a surprise when I found out that 80 or more other aficionados joined the party from as far as Vacaville (Vivianne and John) and Tahoe (Kati)! The party was hosted by a local ultra icon who I had the pleasure to discover through this opportunity, Mike Nuttall.

Mike is one of the three co-founders of the legendary design company IDEO in Palo Alto. His house at the top of Portolla Valley has incredible and gorgeous views over the Bay on one side, and is right on the mid-Peninsula trail network. The perfect home for an ultra runner and it was entertaining to hear Mike share his love and passion for running, as well as how he got into it.

Back to the hero of the night, Caballo (pictures courtesy of Scott Dunlap).
Caballo started his presentation by making it very clear that the Tarahumra did not send him. "They do no need help. They never have to ask or beg. They share. If they don't have anything to share or trade, it's not a problem, they will share something later. They have a beautiful zen-like detachment with things."

Here are a few random notes and quotes which will resonate more with the ones who read Born to Run, and run...

Raramuri means light-footed ones.
If you come to run the Copper Canyon Marathon, Caballo will assign you an animal best capturing the traits he sees in you. A spirit animal. Or, if he is out of inspiration, a spirit vegetable...
In 1993, the Raramuri really came to run Leadville for food, definitely not for the sponsors. There was a severe drough back in the canyon in 1993 and 1994.
In the 80s, I didn't like myself, I was taking running too seriously.
We distribute literally tons of corn to the top runners. And the gringos who place are welcome ot give back their own ton of corn and even the cash prize.
Unfortunately, because of socio-economic reasons linked to biofuel developments, corn became extremely expensive in Mexico.
I'm signing a lot of books (Chris's book), although I didn't write or even read it!
The race is held every first Sunday of March.
By the way, Chris keeps saying that the race is 50 miles, but it's actually 47.
All Raramuri are running and exercising, all their life. There was this 95-year old man hiking up a tough trail. Nobody had told him to stop. I really like this philosophy of "live until you die."
There are about 40,000 Tarahumara remaining in Mexico.
The less footwear, the more focused on the trail you are.

Last but not least, when asked how he felt about what he does for the Raramuri, Caballo concluded his speech with a sincere "I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but I go with my feelings, and I'm convince this increased awareness will ultimately benefit them." For sure, I personally feel more confident in Caballo taking initiatives in this area as he is almost one of them. Rather than letting stranger commercial or federal organizations field testing programs from the outside. What a fascinating experience with a secular civilization. Thank you to Mike and Kati for spreading the word this way!
With that, plus the time I had to spend with the family and on some work deadlines, I did not join the Saturday morning group run I advertised earlier on my blog. I had my share of Caballo's spirit and philosophy. And, in particular after listening to us, I was more interested in running solo, as he does most of the time in his canyons. Maintaining a sustainable life balance in a hectic life...

La Jolla (double) Half Marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:57:00 +0000

It is becoming a habit: a month ago I ran the Quicksilver Half Marathon course twice; this weekend I ran a marathon on the route of the La Jolla Half Marathon (the 29th edition was run on April 25, 2010, check their website for the 30th!).

A happy occasion brought us in San Diego for a few days, the wedding of my boss. With some free time on Saturday before the ceremony, I wanted to run the course of the San Diego marathon and reached out to one of my team members who have lived here for 14 years, the "other" Pierre (insider joke). Pierre has run the marathon several times and told me it was not worth going on the course on my own, especially the section close to the airport which is not scenic.

Instead, since I was staying in La Jolla, he advised me to run the course of La Jolla Half Marathon. A full marathon was a good goal for the day as I was missing the mythical FireTrails 50-miler directed by ultra legends and couple Ann Trason and Carl Anderson. FireTrails 50 was my first 50-miler 3 years ago and I got the coveted Dick Collins Rookie Award (first among the new competitors at this distance) while taking 3rd overall. And it was great to run it again last year after having missed the 2007 edition because of a business trip.
It was overcasted when Pierre met me at the hotel this morning, and Pierre forecasted that it would remain this way for the rest of the day. Fortunately, the sun actually showed up very quickly and the rest of the run ended up being very sunny.
We started from the hotel (Hilton at Torrey Pines) around the 7.5 mark on the course and headed North toward the start of the official half. Pierre ran with me up to the entrance of the wealthy city of Del Mar, just North of San Diego. We talked about business and enjoyed this opportunity to meet face to face at a time all our interactions are now "virtual" (i.e. over the phone or the Internet) with IBM. Pierre turned around after 3 miles and I kept going North though Del Mar and to the entrance of the Fairgrounds, the place the official half starts. Here is Pierre, faking he was tired as an excuse to run back ;-)Turned around myself and ran the whole course, down to La Jolla Cove, 13.1 miles South. You can see the many (154!) pictures taken along this wonderful and scenic course. All asphalt but interesting rolling course profile with a hill in Del Mar, another one at mile 5.5 in the Torrey Pines State Park, and a last one just at the finish at mile 12. Wonderful views and great way to discover this upper-class part of San Diego: amazing mansions with Ocean View, pristine beaches, the Torrey Pines golf and State Park/Reserve, the UCSD campus, some of the most advanced biotech companies and research centers in the world... I am thankful to Pierre for this must-run course, and I highly recommend this Half Marathon. Great course for a self-supported run too with a handful of restrooms and water fountain in the Park and along the beaches.
Now time to drive back to the Bay, 500 miles this Sunday. It helps that we have now four drivers in the family! Again, make sure to check my Picasa album to do your own virtual half marathon!

Caballo Blanco comes to town!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Yes, the famous White Horse! Or let's say the mysterious one as many of you might not have read Born To Run yet. Again, see my book report, this should get on your must-read list for this year and at the very least your wish list for the end of the year Holidays.
Caballo Blanco is visiting us in October in order to raise funds for his newly created foundation, Norawas de Raramuri, a non-profit to support the Raramuri and their culture, including their running traditions. You can look at the schedule that Caballo maintains online (especially for last minutes updates); and here are some special events and dates from his trip across the West Coast region:

Oct 3 - 50 miler (Man vs. Horse) in Prescott AZ. He will speak to runners during a pre-race meeting.
Oct 17 - fun run in Portola Valley, CA (meet at the Windy Hill parking lot at 0830)
Oct 17 or 18 - Auburn Running Company, Auburn, CA
Oct 20, 21, or 22 - Microsoft: featured speaker at an on-campus event + Seattle Running Company (date/times TBD)
Oct 23, 7pm - 9pm, Zombie Runner, Palo Alto, CA
Oct 24 - Brazen Racing half marathon in San Ramon, CA. He will be available to runners prior to, during and after the race.
Oct 25 - fun run in Santa Maria, CA (with Luis Escobar, el Coyote, featured in the book too) (time TBD)
Oct 31 - Javelina Jundred in Phoenix, AZ. He will speak to runners at the pre-race dinner.

At the risk and expense of decreasing the suspense Chris builds up throughout his book, here is a picture that Caballo Blanco posted on Facebook. Yes, it is hard to believe he is now so connected (Facebook, website, radio interviews), but that is part of living in the 21st century, even in the most remote and isolated Copper Canyons.
I really look forward to meeting this legend this month, intrigued by the subbtle balance between building awareness for the cause of the Tarahumara while protecting their secluded and multi-century traditions and privacy. Hope you can join the party and this running-related cause!

Trailblazer 10K: a disclaimer

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:44:00 +0000

I love this race. So much that I tried something really new this weekend: two races back to back, and not small stuff. Yesterday, I ran the SNER double trail marathon (follow the link to my race report) and incidentally placed 2nd overall and first Masters. 52 miles, 5,300 feet of cumulative vertical climb (and downhills), temperatures up to 104F, 5,000 calories spent according to SportTracks and my Garmin GPS, enough for everybody to say that I was really crazy to toe the line of the 10K this morning.

But, again, I love this race and I had promised Aaron back in June (my Stevens Creek ultra marathon for the dedication of the two bridges) and July (the grand opening of Blackberry Farm), that I would run this year's edition, before knowing that the double marathon would make the calendar of the ultra Grand Prix which I'm competing in (Pacific Association USA Track & Field).

Thankfully, I got an extreme massage from the Monsters of Massage after yesterday's race, which got rid of most of the toxines I accumulated during the 8-hour run. Certainly I could not have done today's race without it, in addition to hard and consistent training.
I ran Trailblazer in 2002, 2003 (overall win, with an Xbox which the boys still enjoy, another reason for me to like the race and the Microsoft sponsorhip!), 2006 and 2007. I missed the other years either because of race conflicts or business travels.

Back to the race, it turned out to the usual and annual great Stevens Creek Trail party. Perfect weather (on the hot side), great turn around (good for the fund raising purpose), great volunteers all over the place, great course marking, and great course of course since we use the... Stevens Creek Trail!

I'm not going for a long race report as I only ran 6 miles today... There were familiar faces at the start, although it has been a while since I saw them as I mostly focus on ultra trail now (see some of my race results on Ultrasignup). Just before the start I mentioned to Aaron that I saw a local Kenyan whom I met at the 2007 Human Race and was surprised not to see him as we were getting ready to go. Aaron replied that he was on the 5K which surprised me. Sure enough he passed me in the first half mile after missing the start while switching distances and getting a new bib. I settled in 4th position running the first 2 miles at 5:53 minute/mile pace, not too bad given the circumstances. By mile three however, I felt a shortness of breath as my lungs had not recovered yet from all the dryness and the dust ingested during yesterday's run. I slew down at 6:04 min/mile pace and got passed by the eventual Masters winner who finished 50 yards before me. I crossed the finish line in 37:44, far from the 33:57 PR I set on that same course two years ago, chasing Jose Pina Sr (who finished 2nd overall today).
With such a short distance, the longest was the award ceremony which, eventually did not even occurred for the 10K as the computer got confused with some people changing distances at the last minute. In the meantime, there were numerous prizes and books to win from the drawing to celebrate the Stevens Creek Trail with this joyful running party.

See you next year, calendar permitting! And here are a few pictures in the meantime...

A busy registration desk this morning, with runners entering until the last minute. Great turn around!

My friend and speed work running buddy, Bob, before the start but after a 5-mile warm-up. Bob's goal today was to use the race as a tempo run before the upcoming San Jose Rock and Roll half marathon of next weekend.
And after the additional 6.2 miles:
Today's 10K winner with his son who ran in the kids fun run:

Some shots of the furious kids' mile "fun run." There are already many promising runners in the next generation!Behind the stage (for the "marathon" prze drawing and award ceremony ;-):

SNER Double-Marathon: a slow year?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:34:00 +0000

SNER stands for the Sierra Nevada Endurance Runs and marks a special weekend of September on the ridge of the American River. The tradition was set by Norm Klein, the former race director of Western States and husband of ultra legend Helen Klein. Time passing, Norm transfered the baton to Julie Fingar and Greg Soderlund, who already co-direct Way Too Cool 50K and American River 50M.

For various reasons, SNER was not hosting the Rio Del Lago 100-mile which I ran last year. But there were still four trail distances to chose from: 12K, marathon, double marathon and 100K, with the double marathon being one of the races of the Pacific Association USA Track & Field ultra grand prix which I am competing in.

Unlike the rest of my Rhomobile-Quicksilver teammates who came to Granite Bay on Friday afternoon or evening, I car pooled with Scott Dunlap on Saturday morning, a great way to catch up with him since we met at Western Sates. I woke up at 2 am and met him at 3 which was really early. It turned out that we did not plan very well because we arrived in Granite Bay at 5 am for a race starting at 6:30. With my hectic workload these past weeks and sleep deprivation, I would surely have enjoyed an extra hour in bed. Instead, we enjoyed a second breakfast at Mel's...
Open 24 by 7, a concept I still have hard time to understand from an economical standpoint, even after 11 years in the US, but which comes handy from time to time.
With 4 races for this event, I thought the turnaround was relatively low. Julie gave a briefing to the crowd gathered in the gymnasium and I admit I missed some instructions as I was concentrating on my last minute preparation (water and Gu2 bottles, gels, S!Caps, timing chip, ...). Julie warned us about the expected high temperatures.

Here is Jimmy Freeman (center) who placed 3rd at Rio Del Lago last year. Today he was crewing for his sister (12K) and the first ultra of one of his friends.
I did not run with a camera and you will have to visit Scott's or other blogs to see pictures of the race. Chikara (Omine) quickly took the lead and left us in the dust. I tried to stay in sight of Mark Lantz whom I past very shortly as he made a quick stop to refill a bottle at the first aid station, Twin Rocks. We stayed together for a while: he led until Rattle Snake (mile 11.4) and I took the lead afterwards. We were then averaging 7:55 minutes/mile. I ran several sections up the terrible Cardiac hill (800 vertical feet over 1 rocky mile) and put a few hundreds yards between the two of us.

Reaching the Maidu aid station (mile 20.7), I asked the volunteer how far Chikara was ahead and she replied: "You are the first to come through!" That was strange Chikara had evaporated like that. Leaving Maidu I turned to see Mark coming in and thought it would not be long before he catches me as our average pace had fallen to 8:28 after Cardiac.

There are only 1.5 miles between Maidu and Auburn Dam Overlook so I did not stop at this aid station before the 4 miles down to the rive. I should have though because the heat at started to hit and I reached the turn around with an empty water bottle. I was the first one at the station, having completed the first marathon in 3:33. Stopped for a minute or so before Tim Twietmeyer urged me to leave, not before making a comment of all the salt I had lost and visible on my short. It felt god to see the Western States legend and be back on this section of the course where I had a great finish last June.

After running over No Hands Bridge for the second time I starting crossing all the other runners. And the first was actually... Chikara, who had gotten lost (8 minutes of course) and was pushing hard to make up the time. Saw Pierre-Yves (about 20' behind me), Scott (who stopped to take a picture...), Sean, Andy, but no sign of Mark. Chikara passed me on the way up to the overlook and, as I started walking the uphills, I was surprised to learn that I was only 3 minutes behind him at the top. Along the nice canal, my favorite section of the trail, before and after Maidu, I was amused at the lead times given by most of the runners I crossed, varying from 3 to 12 minutes between Chikara and I. Quite an elastic lead... I should note that I also received numerous and very nice words of encouragement which I tried to return when I could catch my breath. The last runner I crossed was at the bottom of Cardiac (mile 18 for him, 32 for me) and he gave me a nice "congratulations!" Not quite over yet with 18 miles to go.

From that point, I could not run the up hills anymore, with some cramps in the quads and dehydration. Last year, I actually had prepared better and ran this section with larger bottle. My water bottle was empty when I reached Power Plant, then again at each subsequent aid stations, which was not a good sign. At each station, I was given an update on Chikara's lead, around 10 minutes consistently, so I knew he was struggling like me. But no indication on who was behind so that kept me moving, while looking behind from time to time.

At mile 35, a scary thing happened to me. I heard a loud whistle just behind me and, sure enough, it was a rattle snake on the side on the trail. I had just passed him as he was 3 feet from the trail, the head off the ground ready to jump. Phew, first time this happens to me in a race...

The 6-mile stretch between Rattle Snake (how appropriate...) Bar and Horseshoe Bar was long and painful. I reach both aid stations with my lips hurting from the dehydration, and was glad to hear there were 3.7 miles to the finish. 3.5, 3.2, 3! 2.6 (1/20th of today's run), 2.3, 2! You could think that 2 miles is nothing when you do an ultra but these last ones are tough when they keep going up and down like a roller-coaster, not to mention your tank is empty. At each aid station there were signs with motivational quotes, some stations with 3 or 4 of them which was overwhelming when you are too tired to fix things. But, at this point of the race, the one which kept coming back in my head was the one I had read on the way back to the Dam Overlook, reading: "It's not over until it's over. And it's not over!" How true especially in ultras...

I passed the line in second position, in 8:17:40 which I felt was a miserable time compared to last year's winning time of Mark Lantz. Now, here is the scoop and the rationale of the title of this post (A slow year?). All day I was thinking that Mark had run the course last year in 7:05. Which is twice the time it had taken me to run the first marathon this morning. I was really impressed, as I am of all Mark's performances, because this year's heat was even not an excuse: I know for having run Rio Del Lago that it was hot too last year (although we might have started 30 minutes earlier last year). I ran the second half feeling ashamed for being so far behind this pace. Now, writing these lines, I double-checked the 2008 results to find out that it was actually 7:59:08. Still a remarkable time, under 8 hours, but not quite the same side of the hour.
When I entered the gymnasium, I found a Chikara whom I never saw like that, as tired as I was. Little did I know that he finished less than 2 minutes ahead of me, bunking badly after the last aid station and losing 8 minutes of his 10-minute lead in 3 miles. It was particularly embarrassing to see Lia Farley crossing the finish line less than 4 minutes after me, looking fresh as she had not run yet today! Ultra elite Bev Anderson-Abbs had won the woman division last year in 8:40 (taking second overall), making Lia's time of 8:21 really impressive this year. Note that Lia had placed 2nd at the same event last year, only 7 minutes behind Bev. So, overall, that was not such a slow year...

It took 30 minutes for Chikara's usual smile to come back:
Scott welcomed me at the school with a funny: "the only way I could beat you was for me to drop at the turnaround!" He got a ride back with other marathoners and had already showered. As the heat was increasing and peaking at 104F early afternoon, the list of drops kept growing. I had spent 20 miles power walking the hills, limiting the time at the aid stations to a minimum, battling against the slowing average pace, thinking Pierre-Yves and Scott were just around the corner ready to catch me, to find out that Scott dropped after falling (he is ok but he preferred securing his next marathon goal, in 6 weeks), and Pierre-Yves finished in 10:32, taking 2nd in Masters and 7th overall. With Sean placing 4th overall, that makes a good performance for our team and should consolidate our pole position. See the 2009 SNER Double-marathon results for more details on the 29 finishers (versus 24 last year). Here is Sean, who lost 30' getting off course after Auburn, and Scott:
It is not the most popular event in the area but I thank Norm for setting this September tradition and Julie and Greg for taking it forward. I am thankful to all the volunteers: with the heat, we could not have done it without their care, encouragements, the food, all the fluids they carried to remote places on the course, the sponges and water buckets, and the ice! And what a difference with Western States were there are three times as many volunteers as participants. Must have been the opposite this Saturday.

Thank you also to the race sponsors: Moeben, Bank Card USA, Montrail, Ultrasignup, Barbara's Bakery, Fleet Feet, Facchino Photography, and Monsters of Massage. And Brooks for the nice tshirts. I already highlighted the Monsters of Massage in previous posts (Way Too Cool race reports in particular), but I have an even bigger story to illustrate how amazing Ve Loyce's team is. Before learning that this double-marathon was selected in August for the ultra Grand Prix calendar, I had promised Aaron to run his Trailblazer 10K race to support a dear cause of the development of the Stevens Creek Trail. And when I say something... Since the 10K was on a Sunday, I figured out I would do both. See my upcoming post for the rest of the story then and see for yourself what Ve Loyce's massage achieved...

A first: double massage for a double marathon!
The friendly and super efficient Monsters of Massage: Ve Loyce, Debbie, Jeffrey (missing: Ve Loyce's wife who doesn't appreciate heat waves):
See you next year!

Quicksilver Half-Marathon: short, fast, but...

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:00:00 +0000

If you follow my blog and read last week's post, you know what I was after today: getting close to 1hr30. I ran the course twice last Sunday in 1:41 each time, thinking the course record was around 1:30. However, when I was working on my blog later that day, I found on the website a 1:26:00 in the 2002 results which I found amazing for that course. This morning, on the starting line, teammate Sean Lang told me that the course had actually changed two years ago, so the course record was indeed around 1:30-1:31.

It was interesting to see so many new faces this morning: few ultra runners and more a population you see at road races (Agnès caught almost all of us in the first up hill, see my Picasa album). I'm glad our Quicksilver club organizes this event to get people acquainted with trail running and provide this opportunity to visit such a park, so close to San Jose, yet so unknown (as I could again confirm at a dinner last night with people who have been for 20 years in the Bay Area but did not know about this historical place from the mid-1800s). By the way, if you want to preview this park, you will find several photo albums connected to a few articles I posted about various of my runs at Quicksilver. From the comfort of your web browser!Race Director, Adam Blum, gave us some instructions before shouting the start promptly at 8 am. Adam is also a teammate in our RhoQuick ultra-running team (team from our Quicksilver running club and sponsored by Rhomobile, where Adam is the CEO and Founder), along with Jim, Andy and Pierre-Yves who were volunteering this morning, and Sean and John who were running the race today. Sean lined up on the 10K because he had to get to work at 9:30. He immediately took the lead in the first steep hill (the first mile is all up hill), followed by Trevor Hunter. I settled in fourth, already amazed of the sub-8 (min/mile) initial pace. (Last week I was running that section around 9:45 min/mile... but there is nothing better than some competition to push, right? Not to mention I was running a marathon last week.) I actually moved into 3rd before the first aid station then caught up with Sean just as we reached the 10K/half course split at the end of Great Eastern Trail.
I wished Sean good luck on the 10K then got on April Trail. I had already lost sight of Trevor.
I was averaging around 8 min/mile pace when passing Bull Run and got the pace around 7, flying down Mine Hill and Providencia Trails (I love the sign which asks cyclists to slow down, but not runners!). I pushed as much as possible in the next 4 rolling miles of Randoll Trail, passed the 10-mile mark right on 7 minutes/mile pace, and was astonished when someone posted at the Mine Hill Trail turn told me I was lagging 3 minutes and 10 seconds behind Trevor. Yet, I was on a pace of breaking the course record and even getting under 1:30! I finished in 1:29:18 but taking second to Trevor who had just set a 1:26 CR! Like Karl Meltzer breaking the Wasatch 100-mile CR yesterday but only finishing 2nd to Geoff Roes who had just improved the CR by 1 hour and 5 minutes at 18:30 that same day! (It was Karl's 4th 100-miler this year and he won the first three!).I am definitely happy with my time on this course, and even more impressed by Trevor's performance. After the finish I learned that Trevor turned 40 this year (I don't even have the Masters excuse for coming second...), just flew in yesterday from London where he lives, is visiting for one week (work) and happy to win the pair of shoes that Christine offered to the overall winners (she is the owner of Athletic Performance, thank you Christine!). Trevor is with the Handy Cross Runners club, and a 1:12 half-marathoner (versus a 1:15:04 for me at 42) and 2:36 marathoner (versus my 2:37:46 in Chicago at 39). Great competition and "rabbit", he definitely helped me pushing hard today!Adam awarded me a nice "(quick)silver" medal and arm warmers for the M40-49 age group (Trevor already having his prize), sleeves also given by Atheltic Performance (see their website or this post). It was my shortest race this year, after the Napa Marathon and 9 50K to 100-mile ultras. And I like speed... So much that I registered for the Trailblazer 10K at the end of the month, despite running the Sierra Nevada Run (double trail marathon, 52-miles) the day before. I invite you to join us on Sunday September 27th to support the Stevens Creek Trail. Pre-registration closes this Monday.

A lot of running in two weeks then. Take care and Run Happy in the meantime!

PS: again, more pictures, mostly from Agnès, in my Picasa album (I believe she caught most of this morning runners in the first hill!).

Labor(ious) Day weekend: 4 stories, 1 post

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:44:00 +0000

As the kids get older, as Agnès teaches in high school this year, as I settle into IBM, long weekends are welcome to... work and catch up with our to do lists, barely taking a break. Not the typical American Labor Day weekend which usually means camping or barbecue parties! Oh well, another time...

There are four running-related storied I want to share with you tonight but I don't have time to do four posts. And you don't have time to read four posts anyway, right? Here they are:

Last week's Stevens Creek Striders' Clambake
More speed at Rancho
Erik Skaggs' kidney failure after Where's Waldo 100K
My Quicksilver double half marathon

And they make for a long post...

1. Last week's Stevens Creek Striders' Clambake

This is a summer tradition for our Stevens Creek Striders club. The event consists in a run from Saratoga Gap to the Ocean, followed by a picnic, a potluck format with the club providing clam chowder. I had too much work last weekend to go to the beach (and get Agnès to pick me up there), so I joined the group at 7 am for the start from Saratoga Gap, ran the first 7 miles of the beautiful Skyline To The Sea trail and 7 miles back to Skyline. We were 13 at the start, plus a few volunteers manning the mobile aid station. Some runners actually stop at Big Basin, when others joined to run the second and final Big Basin to the Beach section. Nice sunrise on the way to Saratoga Gap (Highway 9):
I posted a few pictures in Picasa, although, for once, I thought my camera was not very cooperative. It was a beautiful day, after a very hot day in the Bay on Saturday, and the light (not enough or too much) tricked my camera (and me too!). Anyway, here they are, at least they will help remembering who was at the start of the Clambake 2009 in a few years.
Also remember that Peter certainly did lead the group for a mile this year!
Michael has also posted a few pictures in his Facebook album. If you want more details on the format of the run, you can read my report from 2007.

2. More speed at Rancho

No, I did not get a speed ticket at Rancho this Saturday. If you read my previous post, you know that I was able to turn some stress at work into positive energy in speed work sessions, with my second fastest mile ever. This Saturday, I was back at Rancho again, driving with Max who met with his Cupertino High School cross-country team. They are training hard, preparing for their first meet this coming Thursday at Lynbrook.

I did my Rogue/PG&E loop (counter clockwise tour of the park) and started hard. On the way up, I stopped to talk to Patrick who was on his way back. I met Patrick two years ago at Wiskeytown 50K and Patrick told me he just moved in Sunnyvale so we should see him more often. At the top of Rogue, I stopped again, this time to chat with Mr. Stevens (the husband of Mrs. Stevens who had Greg for one year at Garden Gate Elementary School).

I was still feeling good and pushed all the way up, then flew down on (or over?!) the PG&E trail. At some point in the steepest downhills my GPS indicated 4:15 min/mile; I think I scared some of the hikers going that fast, and even myself! Bottom line I completed the loop in 1:03:38, which is my PR on this course (I'll take it as a PR although I stopped the watch when socializing with Patrick and Mr. Stevens for a minute or so). From time to time during this run I was wondering how I would do if there was a race organized at Rancho but, fortunately, I don't need a run to be an official race to push the pace! Yet, I'd like to see someone going under 1 hour, this is certainly doable (well, not me, but someone younger and faster!).

3. Erik Skaggs' kidney failure

I got the news last weekend in an email from a local runner, a very bad news and one big lesson to learn. 2 weeks ago, Erik won the USA Track&Field 100K trail championship in Oregon (Where is Waldo). He was not feeling well for the next two days and his boss figured out Erik had an issue with his kidneys. That was confirmed by the hospital which kept him for 5 days. If you don't know Erik, you may remember my post on his win at the Quad Dipsea last November. Here is a great shot from Agnès, right in the action!
Here am I with him after the finish:
The good news is that, after 2 weeks, Erik is getting better and his kidneys showing good signs of recovery. Phew! You can read health updates on the Rogue Valley Runners blog.

The not so good news is that Erik will incur huge hospital bills (I've heard around $30K), and has no insurance coverage except for $9K though his USA T&F membership.

And the lesson to learn? Not relying on Ibuprofen in ultras. Cobining anti-inflammatory and dehydratation is the best recipe to shut the kidneys down... My doctor had told be that a few years ago and I never used anti-inflammatory medicine during or close to a race. Besides, I find border line to use such medication in competition (like I feel guilty when I need to use my inhaler when I get asthma). Anyway, seeing what happened to Erik, you have been warned!

To help addressing Erik's critical situation, an Erik Skaggs Medical Fund has been set up by his friends at Umpqua Bank, 250 Pioneer St., Ashland OR 97520 (make sure to write "Erik Skaggs Medical Fund" on the envelope). A check is on its way from Cupertino; thank you if you can consider helping Erik too!

4. My Quicklsilver double half marathon

This is a weird concept, isn't it? Yes, I ran a marathon this Monday morning, on Labor Day. I actually ran two half marathons, twice the course of next weekend's race, the Quicksilver Challenge Half Marathon. After a few training runs there, and my great experience of the Quicksilver 50 miles in May, I am more familiar with the trail system of this large park in South San Jose, but I wanted to check the course to be sure of what to expect next Sunday.

Adam Blum is the race director and we made a deal back in May: he came to run part of my training run at Quicksilver during my Western States Memorial Day training weekend but made me promise to run his race in return. Deal, I'm in!

I studied the online map carefully last night and, stopping at each intersection today, was able to complete the convoluted loop (8 shape) without any mistake. I was back to the Hacienda entrance/parking lot after 1:41 of running. I had pushed reasonably hard although I was still feeling some soreness from my Rancho PR and my goal was to complete two loops this morning, and was therefore keeping some energy for the second round.

In the parking lot I met Troy again (I had seen him and one of his friends earlier on the trail), who advertised his Californian trail race series.
I couldn't find any water at the parking lot, nor on the course, so I left the parking lot with both my bottles half filled, which turned out to be a bit short with the rising temperature. I completed the second lap in exactly the same time, although I found the second climb up to English Camp to be much tougher than the first time, as I was getting dehydrated (and tired maybe?). Overall, I clocked 3:22:46 for the full marathon, not too bad given the hilly terrain (4,300 ft of cumulative elevation). Yet, it is going to be another story to match the best times ran on this course since 2000... I thought the course record was just over 1:30 but I now see that Martin Mumenthaler clocked an amazing 1:26:00 in 2002. This goal is going to be a stretch...

This is really a nice event if you want to give a try to trail running. First, you can pick a shorter distance (10K or 6.1 miles). Second, the views over the Bay are gorgeous. Third, if you are used to the crowded road events, you will be surprised about the friendliness and camaraderie of a much smaller group. With that, I hope you can join us; please check the Quicksilver Running Club website out! (If some links don't work in Firefox, they should work with Internet Explorer.) You can even register on race day.

Talk to you in a week then, about the official Quicksilver "single" half-marathon.

PS: oh, by the way, did you guess the number of words starting with an s in my previous post? I did a quick check tonight and, back to the title, that was laborious... I found 206! Granted, with some repeats, including a few "so", but... still... ;-)

S as in...

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:51:00 +0000

You have been warned, there will be many words starting with s in this post... And a quiz at the end to see if you spotted them! Overall, this article is about the impact of multitasking, or multiple priorities, on my running.

So, back to the title: S as in...

Silence. 3 weeks without blogging, that never happened to me on this blog and I don't feel so good about it hence my desire to share some explanations or excuses. Apart from one or two weeks I missed over the past 2 years and a half, you know I have been very consistent with my weekly "pace." Fortunately nothing dramatic or serious, just some fine tuning of my life balance (which explains my tagging of this post with "Sustainable running").

Stress. Quite some stress at work but, fortunately, the good stress because it is so precious to have a job these days. As we continue our integration into IBM, what is commonly called the "blue washing" process, it is particularly important to find the right spot within this organization, the right place in which you can clearly bring value to this $100 billion business and global enterprise (it is hard to know for sure how many employees we actually are, around 350,000). There are many opportunities but you have to commit on a few, a choice and commitment which is not easy when you come from an 850-people organization where you used to touch on and influence many things. For me, that means by default getting deeper (or higher?) into Service Engineering. I actually added Service Marketing because these two Professional Services functions are really close in our business. What is good is that I get many opportunities to work with very interesting people including, for the Ss, STSMs (Senior Technical Staff Members) and IT (Software) Specialists. But also DEs (Distinguished Engineers) and Fellows. Very stimulating yet requiring a lot of swapping between numerous virtual seminars, enablement sessions. Lotus Notes become indispensable to deal with hundreds of appointments and the battle for time slots in each others' agendas. Speaking of swaping there was an interesting article in this Thursday's edition of the San Jose Mercury News (Stop scanning the page. Focus!) about a study led by Stanford University researchers and showing the inefficiency of the multi-tasking advocated by the Millenials (or Generation Y). Although my main job orbits around Service Engineering, I get involved into other themes such as, for the Ss again, Smarter Planet, Smart Work, Smarter System Engineering, Web Services, SCA (Service Component Architecture), ESBs (Enterprise Service Buses), semantic modeling, System Z, SCM (Supply Chain Management), CPS (Custom Planning and Scheduling)... And as part of my marketing reponsibility I also collect and work success stories.

Souvenirs. One of the important tasks required at IBM which is new to most of us is to self-manage our career path which leads to self-assessing and self-marketing our accomplishments and capability. There is a very formal process for getting through some milestones which requires to document your contribution to the organization and overall business. A sane practice but quite overwhelming when you have to catch-up with it after 22 years! A very interesting one though which leads you through many souvenirs. I've been through 22 years worth of mail boxes, looked at some reports of Smeci engagements (one of our original expert system shells), read about my debuts as a Software Engineer, a few successful projects in Singapore in the early 90s, how we started our methodology (ILOG Solution Implementation Standard), my first large consulting engagement with SNCF upon my return from my military service in Switzerland (note the Ss...), the creation of the Customer Support organization, the golden years of our Industry Solution Division during the Internet boom, the launch of our certification programs (e.g. our JRules Silver exam), my involvement in ILOG's strategy over 22 years... For this documentation exercise, you have to stress your strengths, speak exclusively about yourself in positive terms, which is good for self-esteem yet leaves a taste of selfishness when you are not used to. And to keep all that in balance, I went back to a book which one of my sisters recommended to me a few years ago when I was working with a personal coach: De l'estime de soi à l'estime du Soi - De la psychologie à la spiritualité (literally: From self-esteem to the esteem of oneself - From psychology to spirituality), from Jean Montbourquette, Editions Bayard. Ok, fair enough, this isn't about running, but that helps me doing some sanity check.

Sleep. Not as in sleepless, but as in sleep less. Leveraging a maximum of opportunities in a global organization covering 170 countries around the globe but headquarted on the East Coast means many very early morning meetings (5 am, 6 am). And, with all the interruptions (thanks to SameTime, our instant messaging platform!), I end up catching up with a lot of tasks late in the day, or in the evening. Last Tuesday, I woke up at 5 to meet Bob at the track for some speed work, was in a conference call at 7 am after taking a shower at the office and went to bed 20 hours later at 1 am the next day... Not so good for running, sleep is very important to ensure good performance. Thankfully, I don't sleep a lot but I sleep well, especially when I can make a short pause in the spa (hot tub), under the stars, before getting to bed.

Schedule. You figured out by now, my schedule has been pretty much driven by work these past weeks. Fortunately, I had no race scheduled between Skyline 50K at the beginning of August and the Quicksilver trail half marathon mid September. More opportunities and time to work on weekends, but less opportunities to blog about running...

Slow, sloppy and speedy runs. Yes, without the focus on running, I had some slow runs over the past 3 weeks. Yet I managed to run 152 miles over the past three weeks which is good. This is actually right on my weekly mileage for the year (54.55 miles/week) which is interestingly and amazingly very close to the number for 2008 (54.50 miles/week), athough my running patterns have been significantly different (e.g. I do not have a 100-miler race coming in September this year). The good news is that the stress also helped me getting some of my fastest miles for a long time. Last Sunday, I worked most of the weekend, skipped Saturday and went for a run on Sunday afternoon. I ran 10.8 miles at 6:00 min/mile pace (5 loops around the neighborhood), quite a good tempo run considering (1) I was not on a track and (2) I started at 6:26 min/mile and ran quite a few miles under 6 to get to the 6-flat average. Two days later, I met Bob at the superb track of Mountain View High School for some speed work (they are resurfacing the entire track at Homestead High School, where we usually meet; surfacing which is a bit over the top given the economic situation and the fact that the track was in near perfect conditions). Bob was not feeling so well after his birthday celebration on Monday but led the first of a series of 4 1,200m (3/4 mile). We ran a good 4:03, then I clocked 3:57 and 3:52 for the following intervals. For the last one, I told Bob I was going to shoot for a fast mile. My laps were 1:15, 1:18, 1:19 and 1:15 for a total of 5:07, my second fastest mile ever (I never actually raced a mile officially, only clocked myself at 5:06 during a repeat-mile session five or six years ago when Leo was still in the Bay Area). Surely I should be able to run a mile under 5, but I should not wait for too long and turning 50... Anyway, from a few slow and relaxed miles with my colleagues at work to these speedy and fast ones, a healthy mix of workouts. And, to throw a few more words with an s in thes sentences, since my last post I ran on the Stevens Creek Trail, nice single tracks at Rancho and the steep slopes of Black Mountain.

Surprise! In August we had two of Agnès' friends visiting from France with their family. One of them we had not seen since our wedding, 20 years ago! The other one was a colleague of Agnès at Christian Dior, 11 years ago. I went for a run at Rancho San Antonio with her husband, Jean-Luc, last Saturday. We did a 6-mile loop which reminded me my first run in that park on 12/24/1998 (same distance). I actually ran at Rancho again this morning, driving with Max for his cross-country training. At 6:35, we took one of the last parking spots despite the early hour, as people were rushing to hike or run before the heat picked up. I ran seventeeen mile (sixteeen point nine exactly) and it was 87F by the time I came back to the car at 9 am. It was so hot and dry that I was dreaming of finding an aid station on the trail, with cool soft and sport drinks! We had a great swimming pool party at friends' later today which made the heat wave more bearable. The sky was very clear this morning and I enjoyed superb views of the sea from the top of Black Mountain. The sun was already hot at 8 am and it was great to run through some shade on the trail.
School. The boys all resumed school now: Greg last week at Lawson Middle School and Alex and Max last Monday at Cupertino High. Agnès too as she serves as a substitute French teacher at Lynbrook High School. She has 3 classes with a total of 124 students to supervise. Greg is in seventh grade, Alex is a Junior, not a Sophomore anymore, and Max a Senior. With good SAT scores he is looking at selecting the best colleges and studying the application, selection and scolarship awarding processes. Alex and Max are still very engaged in multiple clubs and active community service and, for the sake of using another word starting with s, I will just mention that Max is the President of their NHS (National Honor Society) club.

Speech. I never told you on this blog that I joined the Toastmasters organization last March. This is a great and convivial way to work on public speaking and leadership skills. I am the VP Public Relations of our Orbiters Club in Mountain View which is another way to do some marketing in addition of my job responsibilities (feel free to stop by for a visit or refer friends or colleagues to me, I promise it's worth it). A fun activity but, nevertheless, this adds some additional workload and healthy stress and another excuse getting in the way of blogging. With additional social events such as our summer picnic last weekend.
Surfing. No, fortunately, I did not take on surfing on top of all the above stuff! Just a paragraph to indicate that I did some web surfing (or browsing) to look at the results of a few important ultra events which happened this month: Headlands 50 and 100 miles, Where is Waldo 100K, Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, Cascade Crest 100 miles. CC is still going on as I write this post and UTMB just got the first runners back into Chamonix. The three overall winners for these events are Nathan Yanko, 27 years old, Erik Skaggs, 27 and Kilian Jornet, 21 (for his second UTMB win!). Sounds and seems like the youngsters are taking over the ultra competition, worldwide!

The conclusion of this post is that, to make a long story short, I'd rather maintain the weekly pace to have less to keep up with! Hope to meet you online next week then...

And now for the quiz: how many words starting with 's' in this blog? Hint: quite a few! Answer: in the next post! ;-)

PS: I found the image at the top of this page in Multitasked: Victim of Freak Circumstance.

Way to go (and run) Cupertino!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:39:00 +0000

A quick post to tell you that I am very impressed with my fellow Cupertinians, at least some of them exercising. This Saturday morning, I went to Rancho San Antonio with Max and Alex. Max and Alex were joining their Cupertino High School cross-country teammates as part of the pre-season summer conditioning led by their coach, Paul Armstrong (Happy Birthday, Coach!). The team should be strong this year with the arrival of quite a few Freshmen, especially on the girls side (yes, Fresh(wo)men...). First competitions in September, last year in high school for Max, stay tuned!

While I was running on the PG&E loop, starting at 7 am, I was amazed by the number of people on the trail and not just near the parking lots and the farm, but all the way up to the top of the PG&E trail, this despite the early hour. The parking lots are full as early as 6:45 am on Saturdays! Most of the people I saw initially was walkers with more runners showing up around 8 am. I passed and crossed probably more than 100 persons on the trail, more than what I see on bank holidays. I did not do a formal census but I would say that 70 to 80% had Indian origins (not the Native Indian, I did not see any Tarahumara this weekend, or I missed them!), 10% from the rest of Asia, less than 10% Caucasian and 2% African-American. Of course, this reflects the fact that the majority of Cupertino originates from Asia, yet there are still more than 40% Caucasian in the Cupertino population according to the latest census. Maybe they exercise at home or at fitness clubs, not leveraging the amazing outdoors opportunities available around!
Here is for the good news, more people exercising. Now, and this is not specially related to Cupertino, here is one bad news, on the cover of Time magazine this week: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin. The common belief is that we spend a lot of energy by exercising, which we need to compensate for by eating more (The Compensation Problem). Eating more, or eating food richer in sugar. It is interesting to note for instance that eating slow carb like pasta may make you hungry faster because of the short term drop in your blood sugar. Look at this photo story to see how our appetite is so sensitive to external factors such as time of day, sight, smell, type of carbs, food variety, ...

With that, all from Cupertino and elsewhere, exercise and... eat wisely!
PS: first picture is at the start of Cupertino's annual Big Bunny Fun Run 5K (April 2006)

Skyline 50K: version 3 of 28

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:51:00 +0000

I had very high expectations for this race. In 2007, I finished third behind Steve Stowers and Rich Boulet, with the 7th fastest time since 1991, times which included super fast performances and course records from the ultra legend Tom Johnson (Jon Olsen has run a 3:44 since then, in 2008). So it was my fastest 50K back then and I enjoyed reading again my enthusiastic race report (the benefit of blogging, to keep memories).

Last year was a completely different story. Still high expectations (I love the course and it is a very runnable one) despite some issues with my quads, more precisely the vastus medialis, after running in the Alps with Scott Jurek. To prevent further damage, I had striped my leg with a non-elastic bandage and managed to strangle the muscle, creating an injury which would take three weeks to heal. On 1.5 legs (could barely walk downhill) I still managed to finish in 4:17. And promised myself to come back, learning from my lesson.
This year I was pretty confident I could improve my Personal Best on this course. When Chikara Omine and Victor Ballesteros, I knew I was not going for a win, but thought some competition would even help us getting faster. I led the first two miles and thought Chikara was being quite conservative by staying behind me as we were crusing around 6:40 minute/mile on the South ridge of Lake Chabot. At the end of the Lake, we had lost the rest of the pack and were down to three runners: Chikara, myself and a runner whom I had never seen before, Joe Binder. (As I found out at the finish, Joe, 25, had just moved to Berkeley 2 weeks ago from Wisconsin.)
I was carrying two bottles (water and GU2O) so I did not stop at aid stations which helped me keeping up with Chikara and Joe. Joe actually took the lead on our way up the Bort Meadow aid station. I reclaimed it at Big Bear, then Chikara passed me in the steep uphill to the ridge; yet I was still keeping him in sight until the Skyline Gate aid station. There, I had planned on just grabbing a new GU2O bottle but Agnès forgot to prepare it. She told me later she was not expecting me so fast and so close behind Chikara (1:39 for 13.7 miles). I left the station with a very diluted mixture, taking more salt down on the French trail to compensate. With some cramps in my calves I had to slow down, but I still thought I could beat my PR and kept pushing the pace whenever I could.
Back at Big Bear, a volunteer told me Chikara was just 5 minutes ahead which I found optimistic. Then, a few miles later, just before Bort Meadow, I was surprised to see Joe coming back on me when I was expecting Victor. We left the aid station together and Joe proposed to join forces to catch Chikara. I passed on the offer, responding that I was unable to anyway and I lost sight of Joe within the next mile. I passed through the last aid station, Honker Bay, right on 3:30. With 3 miles to go that was leaving me with running 3 miles under 6 minutes/mile which I was incapable of at the end of this run and with stomach cramps. I looked behind several times to see if Victor was catching up and passed the finish line in 3rd position, in 3:54:20. Chikara had won in 3:40, setting a new course record for Men 20-29. Joe placed 2nd in 3:47, which was good for an age group course record if Chikara did not break it a few minutes earlier... Amazing performance from both of them, they have a few years in front of them to work on Tom Johnson's course record... Victor came in three minutes behind me, fresh as if he was ready to go for a training run.
Overall, this is a faster course than Way Too Cool despite a higher cumulative elevation (4,740 feet instead of 3,600 feet for WTC), but more fire roads, fewer single track trails. When you look at the map, it is hard to imagine a more optimized coverage of the two Regional Parks on the Oakland Hills: Anthony Chabot and Redwood (the course is the blue line in the green area, click on the image to enlarge):
There are quite a few ups and downs, forcing you to always change gear:
And, for the ones owning a GPS but did not record the course this weekend, here is the GPX trace in Google Earth.
Perfect organization by the Rays, Jennifer and Adam, and all the volunteers they have recruited again this year. I big THANK YOU to all! And I must apologize for the aid station volunteers as I barely took advantage of their supplies... With one Vespa before the start, three GUs which I carried with me, and one piece of banana at Skyline Gate while Agnès was working on the refill of my bottle, I experienced more frugality than usual this Sunday. Probably on the edge but my body keeps learning to be more efficient, and get more energy from body fat, as discussed in Born To Run (see my recent book review).

The marking was original with abundant bi-color bouquets of ribbons (red/white on the way out and blue/white on the way back). The only glitch though was that the markings were abundant after the turns, not before, so it was possible to miss them. A misadventure which happened to my teammate Adam (Blum) who got lost and dropped after wandering for a few miles in Redwood Park.
About 40 people signed-up in the morning, joining 100 pre-registered participants for quite a size able field. The weather was similar to previous years: chilly at the start, overcast for most of the morning, misty cloud at Skyline Gate and some sun at the finish for the post-race BBQ.

Agnès followed us diligently, from the start to Bort Meadow, Big Bear, Skyline Gate, back to Big Bear, Bort Meadow and the finish line. Seven stops to crew on a fast 50K, she was as tired as me after the race. Almost... With such a hectic logistic, she could not take that many pictures so the photo album is small this time.

Hope to be back next year, really a great race in the Bay Area!

PS: the results and splits are not published yet but will be available on the race website very soon (Jennifer was crunching the numbers this Monday).

Tour du Mont Blanc: unfinished business

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Two years ago, I had a blast on the course of the UTMB, the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, a 100-mile race held at the end of August since 2003. I did not actually run the race but joined the Lafuma team led by Karine Herry as they were training on the course a month prio to their race. The manager of the team, Bruno Tomozyk, had planned for us 4 stages but we were forced to shorten the first one as we got caught into a bad storm near St Gervais. We ended up covering the entire course in 5 stages over 4 days.
Last year, I could spend only two days in the Alps and was already glad to join them again for one day, and with Scott Jurek this time, in their first training stage, from Chamonix to the Col du Bonhomme. With Scott getting familiar with his new use of poles:
This year, we planned our family Tour de France with one week in Chamonix so I was looking forward to getting back on the UTMB course again (for those who missed the previous episodes on the blog, our tour led us through Normandie, Vendée, Massif Central, plus London and Salamanca for the rest of the family). My goal was to cover the whole course in two stages this time. Chamonix-Courmayeur via the Col (pass) du Bonhomme, and Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix.

With the well-known adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the fact that I ran solo and it was just training, my report will be short and I invite you to look at the two photo albums I posted on Picasa:

Chamonix-Courmayeur (128 pictures)
Courmayeur-Champex-Col de la Forclaz (237 pics)

Stage 1

On Wednesday July 22, I left the appartment at 7am and enjoyed the quiet road going through Les Gaillands and Les Houches. At the Col de Voza, I actually took the GR5 (Chemin de Grande Randonnée #5), going down to Les Contamines-Montjoie through Le Champel and by-passing St Gervais. I reached La Croix du Bonhomme in 5:02 (mile 23), under a light rain. Close to Les Chapieux, I heard an helicopter, saw spectators along the road and thought the Tour de France was ready to pass by. But I had to wait for 30 minutes before seeing the competitors so, when it was time to resume my run, I was too cold and too late to stop at L'Auberge de la Nova, the restaurant in Les Chapieux. I refilled my only bottle left (I discovered on my way up to La Balme that I had lost my other bottle out of my waist belt holder). By La Ville des Glaciers I was out of water and could not find a source. Fortunately I had bought a bottle of Coke at Les Contamines, but was really short of fluids once I got to the Refuge Elisabetta, on the other side of the Col de la Seigne. Despite that, I was pushing the pace, worried that I would not make it to Courmayeur in time to catch the last bus for Chamonix. The hike up to Col Chécroui was hard, as well as the sprint down into the Courmayeur Valley but I arrived at the bus station with 20 minutes to spare, phew! I was actually the only passenger on the bus and the driver was amazed by what I had run today (46 miles). Here is a view of the cloudy soup over Courmayeur (from Col Chécroui):Stage 2

The next day (Thursday), the meteo was supposed to be bad, such as all the lifts were closed in Chamonix. Actually, the thunderstorms only hit the valley at the end of the afternoon, bringing a lot of rain and some snow on the peaks. Therefore, I waited for Friday for attempting the second stage. We left the appartment around 6:15 am and Agnès dropped me in Courmayeur where I hit the trail at 6:50. It took me just one hour to reach Le Refuge Bertone, where I stopped for a few pictures of the amazing views of the Italian side of Mont Blanc. Actually, the weather was so nice that I kept stopping for pictures all along the beautiful Val Ferret. Make sure to check the photo album out. I was moving reasonably fast and feeling well, reaching the pass, Le Grand Col Ferret, in 4 hours and 5 minutes. On the way down on the Swiss side, I thought I'd recharge my batteries at the farm of La Peule (or La Peula), ordering a cheese omelette, their specialty. It was really good, and very very cheesy, but quite a bad idea just 26 kilometers in a run. The next 10 kilometers were down and I was unable to run, my stomach getting quite upset as it was working hard on processing the melted cheese... Knowing that drinking cold water over melted cheese is actually pretty bad from a digestive standpoint, I drank less and started getting dehydrated too. I was also unable to take on any additional sugar and it was not long before my legs felt heavy and stopped cooperating for the remianing hard climbs such as the hike up to Champex then Bovine. I called Agnès from Champex to arrange for a pick-up at Trient or Vallorcine. I was so slow going up to Bovine that I got caught into a rain storm and called it a day at Le Col de la Forclaz, after 39 miles, missing the last 30 km (19 miles) of the course.

Lesson learnt: no fondue, no cheese omelette, no raclette, no croûte au fromage, while running...! Should not be too hard to remember, ok? Here I am with the killer omelette, before realizing it was a bad idea...
Anyway, that's still two ultras and quite some ground covered in two days. For the ones not familiar with the Tour du Mont Blanc, the trail is usually covered in 7 to 9 days by hikers. Granted, which much larger and heavier backpacks. Actually, you can even hire mules for the week, but this is not getting you much faster.
Unfinished business then, and one more reason to come back to Chamonix!

If you ever have the chance to visit this amazing region of the Alps, near the highest point in Europe, the trail is very well marked but make sure to get a map as there are several variations. And remember, this is mountaineering so be prepared for a quick changing weather. With that, all the best to the 2,300 participants of the 7th edition of UTMB on August 28th!

Born to Run: the Tarahumara secret

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:01:00 +0000

"In the hills of Mexico, a tribe of Indians carries an ancient secret: a diet and fitness regimen that has allowed them to outrun death and disease. We set out to discover how the rest of us can catch up."

Thus starts Christopher McDougall, to share with us the secret he learned from the Tarahumara, in his article published in Men's Health magazine: The Men Who Live Forever. A 7-page introduction to a much deeper dive into this amazing tribe's history and running passion with this 287-page book, published earlier this year (2009): Born To Run - A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

I learnt about the book thanks to a fortuit email from Mike Palmer, an East Bay ultrarunner, email which I found on my BlackBerry at the San Francisco airport, right after flying back from Paris in May. Mike was announcing a book signing session at the Zombie Runner store in Palo Alto. Agnès was picking me at the airport and we stopped by Palo Alto on our way back. Here is what Chris wrote in my copy of the book:

To Jean,
A better runner than I’ll ever be.
I love your blog and your approach to running.
Bon(ne) chance
C. McDougall

With such a nice dedication, my review may be a little biased, but I can assure you that I have No Financial Interest (NFI as we say on forums) in the book. My only interest is in getting more people to learn about our sport… and this is indeed a fabulous book for that!

The book

Let’s start with what it is not. This is not an encyclopedia about the history of ultra running, although it contains the description of a few selected key milestones. This is not exclusively about Christopher’s ultra running experience, unlike Dean Karnazes’ books, although Chris shares some tips about how he re-learned to run. This is not a single story. The book actually contains several intertwined tales:

First and foremost, the story of a Hidden Tribe, the Tarahumara, so hidden by necessity in the Copper Canyons in Mexico that very little has been written so far about this group of ultra ultra runners;
The story of Caballo Blanco, a unique and intriguing Tarahumara insider;
The story of the Leadville 100-mile race and the 1994 edition in particular;
Stories about the ultra running legends Ann Trason and Scott Jurek;
The story of rising star Jenn Shelton and unorthodox Ted Barefoot;
The story of a man, the author, who reconnected with the joy and pleasure of running;
The story of the modern running shoe, raising many questions about its pretended benefits as opposed to the pros of running barefoot;
The pre-history of running, with scientific discussions about the origin of our ability to run;
And more stories and anecdotes about coaching, nutrition, health, training, adventure, Man’s passion for running, and the love and pleasure of running.

What surprised me the most is that, despite the lack of pictures (except for the one on the cover/jacket), Chris’ descriptions are so illustrative and vivid that it is very easy to visualize and relate to every story he is embarking us on. And another fate in my opinion is that Chris remains very nicely focused in his book on running. As a former war correspondent, I am sure he could have chip in a few of his personal anecdotes but he did not. He could have embarked on a dissertation about politics in Mexico around the urbanization of the Copper Canyons or the terrifying development of drug cartels in that region, but he did not. Born To Run is solely about running. For our pleasure.
Beyond the captivating stories, which taught me a lot about the history of running and ultra running, here are the three main personal takeaways of this book:

When it comes to footwear: simpler and lighter is better. The whole chapter 25 on the history of running shoes was a revelation for me who started running seriously only ten years ago, especially the fact that, the less support the foot get while running, the more the foot will get back to its original and natural form, developing for instance muscles to strengthen the arch. I’ve never run barefoot but can’t wait to try. I cant’ wait either for the brand new Brooks Green Silence coming out in February 2010, a sort of response to the Nike Free when it comes to lightness.
A sane diet which, I must admit, I’m not ready to embark on yet but I’m seriously considering, or at least contemplating for now, especially for the healthy properties beyond the running side (less risk of cancer in particular).
And, last but not least, the most important one and the Tarahumara secret, have fun when running. I actually started re-applying this rule during my last arduous long runs, forcing me to laugh when I found the trail tough, reminding me that I run for fun even when I train hard. This secret also reminded me a quote from Lee Jebian, a veteran ultra runner in the Bay Area: “ultra running is too much fun!”

To illustrate the broad content covered by Chris in his book, here are some pages or sections I particularly like:

Page 54: how explorer Rick Fisher and his fiancée, Kitty Williams, discovered the Tarahumara
Chapters 9 and 10: the history of the mythical Leadville 100 race
Page 59: the Western States debut and how it connected with Leadville
Chapter 11: how Ann Trason got into ultra running and remained at the top of it for more than 15 years
Page 88: pacer stories (“A tough pacer can save your race; a sharp one can save your life.”)
Page 90: the discovery of the Tarahumara secret at Leadville by Chlouber and Coach Vigil (“[…] when they hit the dirt ramp, they hit it laughing. Everybody else walks that hill. […] SUCH A SENSE of joy!”)
Page 95: the reference to Emile Zatopek and his supernatural connection with the Tarahumara secret (his love for running and ingenuity with regard to training and pacing)
Page 114: a saying of the Tarahumara Indians that Scott Jurek uses for inspiration: “When you run on the earth and run with the earth, you can run for ever.”
Chapter 19: how Scott Jurek debuted in ultra running (it’s worth knowing for any runner who might have struggled in cross-country or on short distances) and how he got in “the greatest race the world has never seen.”
Page 133: how young, surprising and rising ultra star Jenn Shelton got into the Tarahumara picture (and you need to read until the end to get the full picture!)
Page 145: a mention of the Cascadia mountains which, I assume, the trail shoe designed by Brooks and Scott Jurek have been named after
Page 150: how Barefoot Ted got his ticket into the Greatest Race and how he then connected his own experiments to the Tarahumara ones
Chapter 25: again, the enlightening chapter on running shoes
Page 175: how Alan Webb turned from a “flat-footed frosh” to the fastest American on the mile, thanks to his coach getting him to train bare foot
Page 181: a glimpse at Bowerman’s marketing genius, or machine (Nike’s co-founder)
Page 201: the story of Norwegian sailor Mensen Ernst (what’s cool with ultra is that there is no limit: no matter which limit you can think of in running, there is someone who has or will run further, if not faster. Because we are still relearning how to run and perfecting this natural gift)
Page 202: Eric Orton as an example of what extraordinary things amazing coaches can get out of people
Page 203: Eric’s quote which kind of rephrases the title of Chris’ book: “Everyone is built for running.”
Page 207: Ken Mierke’s quote: “You’ve got enough fat to run to California, so the more you train your body to burn fat instead of sugar, the longer your limited sugar tank is going to last.” (A great advertising quote for VESPA, the all-natural amino acid supplement!)
Page 208: a healthy diet which not only improves running performance but also decreases the risk of cancer (another piece of the Tarahumara Miracle puzzle)
Page 211: Dr Ruth’s diet
Page 213: the summary of the Tarahumara secret applied to Chris’ new life as a runner
Page 222: a scientific comparison of the length of strides between humans and horses (and you have to read the book to know the answer)
Page 223: “everyone is built for running” indeed with all the best attributes for running marathons: “Springy legs, twiggy torsos, sweat glands, hairless skin, vertical bodies that retain less sun heat,” and the list could go on
Page 253: one sentence which summarizes Scott Jurek’s philosophy of running as well as the legendary camaraderie which characterizes ultra running: “The reason we race isn’t much to beat each other, but to be with each other.”
Page 254: Scott Jurek, “the world’s only twenty-first-century Tarahumara.”
Page 273: Scott’s quote to struggling Chris: “I’ve been there, man. I’ve been there a lot. It takes more guts than going fast.” So true...

OK, enough content unveiled, you now need to read and enjoy the whole book. To confirm that you are indeed… “Born To Run!”

One last note: it is really cool to get to know these super athletes better, from some of their struggles to their better known accomplishments. This is another treat of ultrarunning: these amazing athletes are very approachable and you can even run with them! At least we have that over the sports which get so much coverage in the medias such as basketball, golf, baseball, soccer... Yet, we want more people to know about our sport, an ultra paradox...

Other relevant links and sources of pictures to complement Chris' vivid text:

What Can The Tarahumara Indians Tell Us About The Importance Of Running Long Distances? (Fitness SpotLight)
Caballo Blanco's home page
A portrait of Jenn Shelton (Outside.com)
Chris' original article on the Tarahumara secret in Men's Health magazine: The Men Who Live Forever
Dietary cholesterol and the plasma lipids and lipoproteins in the Tarahumara Indians: a people habituated to a low cholesterol diet after weaning (pdf)
The food and nutrient intakes of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico (pdf)
The Wikipedia page on the Tarahumaras

Chaîne des Puys: orienteering training

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:46:00 +0000

After Tuesday's maritime marathon in Noirmoutier, this Friday's ultra marathon was totally different: elevation, mountain views, rain, wind, grassy or rocky trails. I did not run with a camera, so the coverage will be short but one graph summarizes well the difficulty of the course, mostly uphill (6,400 feet / 2,100 m overall cumulative elevation).Two other pictures also illustrate the run: one taken at the start (see the cloudy sky) and one at the finish.From dry to cold and completely soaked...With only on Snicker bar and one pack of GU gel, the 350 calories did not come close to the 2,800 calories spent during this long run, per SportTracks’ estimate. After 5 hours in bad weather, I arrived completely depleted in Manson, to visit Agnès' cousins in their family vacation home. I was welcomed by Pierre whom I begged to bring me some food before I could get inside to take a shower and warm up near the fire. The thermometer went over 90F yesterday, but below 50F today; what a difference this makes, not to mention gusty wins, rain and hail! Pierre even served me a glass of wine, from Burgundy: the French way!Rain was on and off in the morning but I got caught in a hail storm at the top of Puy de Dôme where I stopped for 30 minutes hoping the storm would pass. As the weather was not improving, I plunged in the steep Chemin des Mûletiers, despite the heavy rain and gusty winds.

Overall I covered 29 miles (47 kilometers) across most of the “Puys”, this chain of lava domes and cinder cones. Much more compact than the one in Oregon, with summits a few miles or less than a mile from each other. A great place to run with many trails and amazing views to hundreds miles away in all directions. My run would have been a marathon if I did not get lost two times despite the very detailed map that Henri gave me in the morning. This says long on my limited experience with orienteering and why I appreciate so much the abundant ribbons and markings on our Californian trail races...

I included a few names of the 48 dormant volcanoes over the map below and here is the list of villages and other special points of my trek through the Chaîne des Puys. (Click on the picture to enlarge.)

Banzat
Les Mauvaises
Malauzat
La Chaume
Argnat
Chanat-la-Mouteyre
La Mouteyre
Chanat-la-Mouteyre (oops, again!)
Puy des Goules
Grotte du Sarcoui
Puy Pariou
Puy de Dôme
Col de Ceyssat
Croix Espinasse
Laschamp
D767A (instead of D767, adding 2.5 miles…)
Chapelle St Aubin
Manson

I like to share about my runs in Europe, hoping my reports come useful to people on the go looking at some directions and running course ideas. However, I expect this one to be of limited use because of the point to point nature of it, from the middle of nowhere to the middle of nowhere else, I mean unlikely places for tourists to visit. That said, the ascent to the summit of Puy de Dôme is a famous stage of the Tour de France, and very much worth the climb by foot too if you ever visit Clermont-Ferrand, the Michelin Capital.

Next stops of our own Tour de France: Lyon to pick Max at the airport after his two-week stay in Salamanca, Spain, then Annecy to visit Agnès’ parents and Chamonix where we stay for a week and where I hope to run the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) course over two days (weather permitting). Talk to you from the Alps, if and when I get close to a wifi hot spot!

Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile: another marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:21:00 +0000

There is an official marathon in Noirmoutier, le Marathon de l'Epine. An interesting one, one during which you need to outrun the sea to get to the finish. Noirmoutier is an island with two links: one bridge and one submersible levee called Le Gois. The marathon finishes in Noirmoutier and you need to be fast enough to get on the island before the sea covers Le Gois! Or you are disqualified...This Tuesday, on Bastille Day, I stayed on the island for a tour of the North part. Not the official Noirmoutier marathon route. Our friends have a vacation house in Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile, near the harbor. From there, I followed the bike path most of the way, counter-clockwise. See my Picasa album for pictures of the beaches, woods, windmills, churches, harbors, horses, salt evaporation ponds, ...The only trick from a navigational standpoint is not to miss the entrance of the beach of Luzéronde after going through L’Herbaudière at the North West end of the island. I did miss it and ended up getting lost into the Marais la Violence before finding a way to get back on the beach through the Bois de Luzéronde.
After La Pointe du Devin on the West side, I also missed l’Allée Forestière and ended up at La Pointe de la Loire, a wonderful 270-degree view on the Atlantic Ocean but a dead-end for all traffic.
Apart from these two “extras” which provided additional sightseeing opportunities, the bike path is quite easy to follow. My tour ended up righ on 26.2 miles on my Garmin GPS. Although most of the bike path is shared with cars, there are many bikers in the summer making the car drivers attentive and careful. That said, I did not see any other runner during my 4-hour tour, making this run my very own and private marathon. Hope others will follow this path though, this is indeed a very nice and quiet environment to put some miles in while enjoying nature and a variety of views on each side of the island.
Our previous stop was in Granville, the land of my family on Mom's side, where I did a short run but spent more time on the sea, including a very nice trip to the nearby Chausey islands.
Our next stop will be in the center of France: Crozant where I spent most of my holidays when I was a kid, and Clermont-Ferrand for 36 hours. With all these miles around France, I have very limited and spotty connectivity hence my missing of last weekend's weekly post. Talk to you later form beautiful France, then (below is La Granvillaise, the Bisquine from Granville, in the harbor of Granville, with Notre-Dame church in the background)!

Cupertino's Blackberry: a farm in the city

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:59:00 +0000

After last week's 100-mile race on the Western States trail, it felt good to stay in town and enjoy a long and festive weekend in Cupertino (for the ones who don't have time to read the text below, feel free to jump to my Picasa album!).

This Saturday morning I joined 20 or so of my fellow club mates of Cupertino's Stevens Creek Striders running club, for our weekly run and group meeting at Stevens Creek Park at 8:30 am. It was an opportunity to thank them for volunteering at Last Chance, the aid station at mile 43 of the Western States Endurance Run. When I served as the Captain of the aid station 5 years ago, we were happy when getting 30 volunteers up there. This year, 50 motivated souls showed up, which provided plenty of very personalized and attentionate support to runners thoughout the day (the station sees about 350 runners from 11:30 am to 5 pm). They were not all from the Striders, but also from our friend clubs: the San Jose Fit, and PARC from Palo Alto. Our President, Peter, will soon post his pictures of last weekend on the website; in the meantime, here is the group one:
On my way back home (15 easy miles this morning), I ran by McClellan Ranch and remembered it was the grand opening of Blackberry Farm today. I made a detour by the renovated place, on the brand new paved trail, and got the program for the rest of the day. Just in time to get a shower and come back for the festivities. I am a big user of the nearby trails so I was happy to take part of this additional dedication, three weeks after the ones down the Stevens Creek, in Mountain View (check the link for my other blog post and photo coverage).

What a nice way for Cupertino to celebrate Independence Day, by inviting all its citizens to such a joyful celebration, including a free (and delicious!) barbeque and drink for all. Before we could get in the long line for the buffet, we listened to several speeches about the history of the area, the background of this renovation project, from the early visionaries to all the people who made it happen. Overall, everybody highlighted the uniqueness of this project and how Cupertino manages to remain connected to its original natural roots. Cupertino has only been established since 1955 and is taking sustainable development very seriously. Like many other inhabitants, I originally picked this city of the Bay Area for its exceptional school district (we initially came for two years, from France, in 1998, and wanted the best public schools for our boys); but this connection to the environment and this social responsibility formed additional reasons for us to settle here (we moved to three places in 11 years, all in Cupertino!).
While I was photgraphing the old ads on the benches, I met a very nice couple who was touched by the historical references to Cupertino's past. They moved to Cupertino 50 years ago, after living in San Francisco then Mountain View. Of course they acknowledged all the changes which happened to this city which grew from a few hundreds to 50,000 people in 50 years, but they were happy to see a nice respect for the past in this project. Like Mark Linder, Director of Parks and Recreation, City of Cupertino, concluded: "I am happy to give you back the Old and New Blackberry Farm!" In addition to selected names who have been instrumental to this project, all the speakers also noted the social responsibility of the Cupertino residents who voted for a "self-tax" to support this project. Way to go Cupertino!

For lunch, I joined Patrick Kwok whom I know from Church (Saint Joseph of Cupertino) and assembly member, Paul Fong. I told them about my love of the trails and thanked them for their critical support of these renovation projects. (Patrick Kwok on the left in this picture and Paul Fong in the background.)
In addition to offering the food, the City had contracted a great band, The Groove Kings (www.groovekingsband.com), who covered a variety of songs and got quite a few people moving, in the shade of the huge trees.
I stopped by the booths of the few partner associations which provide invaluable support to the restoration and maintenance of the Stevens Creek and the associated trail which I enjoy so much for training.

Of course the Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail, whom I covered in my June post (and please consider joining me for their Trailblazer 5 or 10K run the last weekend of September);
The City of Cupertino working on the Stevens Creek Restoration Park Project, with a short term goal of continuing the trail down to Stevens Creek Boulevard (after that it will take 4 cities and a lot of financial suport to find a solution to connect the trail to the existing Stevens Creek Trail in Mountain View: Cupertino, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, Mountain View);
The Cupertino Historical Society and Museum;
The SPCWC (Stevens and Permanente Creeks Watershed Council) who is actively looking to recruit volunteers to conduct its water quality monitoring, habitat restoration, macroinvertebrate study and streamkeepers programs.

I am so grateful to benefit from such an ecosystem, right in my backyard, and thankful to all the volunteers who dedicate their time to not only maintain the delicate balance with the surrounding habitat, but make the extra effort to actually restore it to its original state, as much as it is possible in this urbanized environment. Like Bob Power, Executive Director of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, said: "rare are the cities which, like Cupertino, have the chance to still have water running through its original creeks." The original settlers who stopped by the area and gave their name to the creeks and today's main roads would certainly be astonished at how the city is now developed but, if they would visit the renovated Blackberry Farm, they would not be completely lost. We can all be proud of that, the ability to find the right balance between a most advanced economical environment and our past natural and agriculture roots: the bridge between the Valley of Heart's Delight and the Silicon Valley...
Although no details were provided in the speeches, I'm sure the Rotary club of Cupertino played a strong role in making this restoration project possible, providing financial support and engaging the community, starting with children. As usual (my father has been a Rotarian has is life in France), discretion but efficiency!

Tonight I'm going to a party organized by a Strider, another Cupertino resident, whose house oversees all the Bay so we can look at all the fireworks at once! Enjoy the rest of your celebration of Independence Day (or your weekend for the non American readers)!

Again, see my Picasa photo album for more pictures of today's celebration but, in the meantime, here is a quick overview of the celebration.

Cupertino Mayor, Hon. Orrin Mahoney, giving a nice address covering both the Independence Day and the Grand Blackberry Farm Re-Opening. I thought he did a very nice job of giving credit to previous City officials. I am always concerned about politics having short term views and it is nice to see such multi-term projects coming to light, another nice demonstration of social responsibility!When you enter the farm, you will go through a small plaza around the wind mill, with half dozen wood benches. Each has two copies of old ads for local fruits produces on its sides. Unlike the famous French Fries and French Vanilla, among many other irrelevant uses of the French adjective, maybe these prunes were actually from France originally! ;-)
The Stevens Creek running through Blackberry Farm:
The Chefs of the day, serving hundreds of Cupertino residents:
Let's rock'n roll!
A long line for the BBQ, but the food was worth the wait!

Western States 2009: digging deep

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:21:00 +0000

I spent the whole day and evening with Dan Moores in my mind. As you might have read in my previous post (Western States: H -9), John Trent had shared with us three pieces of wisdom and requests, during the tribute he paid to Dan during the race briefing:

Run with an open heart, to give some room to Dan;
Smile at Bath Road, the aid station manned by the Auburn Running Company, Dan's store;
Run smart, especially to handle the heat

Regarding the second point, I'm not sure how the smile came up after 60 miles, but I did thank the volunteers and stopped by to sign the board which was then moved to the finish line. It reads "Dan, you'll Always Be Running With Us."
I did pretty well on item number 1, at least I believe. Every other mile or so, I actually kept asking Dan how I could run smarter. I did not have any specific plan for this year's run except to make it an enjoyable experience in case this was my last Western States as it had became so difficult to get in through the lottery. Like in 2007, my second goal was to finish (with a 50 to 60% finisher rate, it is certainly not a given!) and my third goal was to finish under 24 hours (for a second silver buckle). Then, of course, with my Farther Faster mantra, I was hoping to improve my 2007 time of 20:24, depending on the circumstances, and possibly breaking 20 hours, based on my shape this season. To some, I also said that, with such a deep and extremely competitive field, I would be very happy to place in the top 20 again (bookmaker Karl Meltzer had 22 names in his short list). After hearing John's speech about Dan, I added one last minute goal: to honor the race. Which is an ambiguous one, because it may take many forms, from giving it all with the risk of burning out and dropping, to running a smart race to have a good finish, and finish alive!
With all that, my overall goal was not to stress as I believe this may be the major factor triggering my exercise-induced asthma in important races (this has not been confirmed by anyone from the medical field, at least not to me, but I am out of ideas in terms of correlations, having had crisis in any season and any weather). On purpose or because I am not a rookie anymore after 4 years competing in ultra running (although I still consider myself as a newbie especially when joining the Western States Endurance Run crowd), I was not overly excited. With about 18 races a year including 12 ultras, I probably race too much to maintain the excitement even within my crew, i.e. my family... Yet, Western States is unique for its very long history, being a prime event in North America in particular and in the World as you will see in the top 3 ranking. So, excitement there was on the starting line this Saturday at 5 am in Squaw Valley. So much excitement that, after one switch back on the road up to Escarpment, we missed a turn. I was following Dean Karnazes when, suddenly he turns and start running down. I thought he had forgotten his sun glasses but then, him and others started shooting "wrong way." Interestingly, I had done the same mistake on Thursday morning for our trek to the flag raising... Back on the right track, the elites had to come back to the front, so it was nice to review who was there finally (several key names where missing because of injury). I wished good luck to Scott (Jurek) and he replied with a "Bonne course!" (have a good race). Exchanged a few words with Benoit Laval, David James, Jasper Halekas, Victor Ballesteros, Marco Olmo, Beverly Anderson-Abbs, Caren Spore, Graham Cooper, some I would see again during the race, some I won't.

Between the leaders who were relentlessly running despite the steep slope and the back of the pack walking, the 400 starters stretched over a mile on the illuminated ski track. I reached Escarpment in 53 minutes and got on the single track on the other side of the mountain, followed by Eric Skaden. The pace was quite fast so there was really no need to pass, which is one main cause of injuries early in the race when runners try passing and trip down. Around mile 5 I caught up with Brian Robinson. Brian is known for being the first person to get the Triple Crown in one year (hiking the three cross-country trails in the US). More recently, Brian was the 8th runner to complete the crazy Barkley 100-miler. Brian and I ran together to Robinson Flat in 2007 and I owe Brian big time for setting a reasonable pace back then. Brian said that, because of the missed turn at the start, he was surprised to get in the lead for a short while. We ran together for a couple of miles, and with Nikki too. Going faster in downhills (Brian is so good at power hiking up hills), I caught up with Brian Morrison (first to reach the Auburn track in 2006 before collapsing) and Erik Skaden (2nd overall in 2006 and 2007). The pace seemed right although I was surprised and worried to be running with these fast guys. I finally lost them after the Red Star Ridge aid station (mile 16), thinking that I had better settling for a slower pace. In 2007, I started the race in 70th position and finished 18th. This year, the splits give me in 26th which, based on an exceptional deep and competitive field, was probably too fast of a pace for me.

Andy Jones-Wilkins passed me around mile 18 (he was fourth in 2007 and a favorite for the Masters division). I then ran solo to Duncan Canyon (mile 24). The aid station is manned by my other running club, the Quicksilver of San Jose, and it was a lot of excitement to see familiar faces. In particular, my teammates Pierre-Yves Couteau and Jim Magill, with Pierre-Yves putting some sun screen on my shoulders, arms and legs. It was also great to see Peter Defty who had several runners using Vespa on the race. Peter handed me a pouch which I quickly swallowed before the tortuous exit of the stations (short but steep and rocky down hill).

At the bottom of Duncan Canyon I could not find the trail on the other side of the creek and had to wait for two runners to come through. One of them was Michael Wardian, whom I knew from pacing him at the North Face 50-miler last December. Michael just flew back from Europe where he placed 6th at the World Championship of road 100K, quite an intense long run to prepare for Western States instead of tapering! Anyway, like in December, Michael got out of fluid and I was also getting out of gas, just one mile before getting into Robinson Flat (almost 30 miles). I decided to change shoes and, fortunately, Chuck Wilson gave me a hand. He was there crewing for Christine Miller. Despite the help, about 15 runners passed through the station and I retrograded to 40th. A tough setback from a mental perspective. That was my first physical and mental low point of the day. Fortunately, the next 13 miles were mostly downhill, including my favorite aid stations manned by friends (Dusty Corner) and club mates of the Stevens Creek Striders (Last Chance, where I served as the aid station captain for several years before getting the Western States virus...).

As Dan (Moores) was still in my mind, I was so thrilled to see Tom and Mike at Last Chance, two long-time volunteers battling cancer. I gave them a hug, before getting assisted by one of my work colleagues, Michael. I enjoyed the buffet and the "car wash" from Dick, who received the Friend of the WS Trail award in 2007 for many years of service to the runners at Last Chance. I had caught-up and passed Brian (Robinson) before Last Chance but, with all the time I spent enjoying the Striders' company, he left the station ahead of me. On the way down to swinging bridge (Deadwood Canyon), I passed Benoit Laval who was walking, before dropping at Michigan Bluff. Benoit told me Marco (Olmo) was 5 minutes ahead of me, but Marco also dropped at Michigan Bluff, after the "deadly" canyons.

I felt good going down Deadwood Canyon, like in 2007, and passed Brian again. I felt so good that I power walked the 37 tortuous switchbacks up to the infamous Devil's Thumb. On the way, I passed Kriss (Moehl) and Brian Morrison, which might have an indication I was still going too fast. Up at Devil's Thumb aid station, the third medical checkpoint, my weight was still right on 130 pounds, which was perfect after 48 miles in the heat and almost 9 hours of running. Again, Brian (Robinson) flew through the aid station and passed me. I lost him just before going down El Dorado Creek, the third canyon. I even had to walk in this long downhill section as I was out of gas for the second time, and short breath as well. The 3 miles up to Michigan Bluff, from the bottom of the canyon, seemed really long with the heat and mostly walking. Finally, I found the family waiting for me at the station and, like in 2007, the medical staff asked me to stop for a while to work on my fluids and salt. I was down to 125 pounds and stopped for 19 minutes. Since my power hike to Devil's Thumb, I felt thirsty and that would last for hours after the race, despite drinking ounces of water, Gu2O, soup and Coke. Looking at the picture, I just realize that the medical staff T-shirt of this year had the following inscription: "Tell me where it hurts." Well, my joints (knees, ankles, hips) hurt and I was wondering if that could be linked to dehydration. When I left Michigan Bluff, I was still ahead of my 2007 time chart, but down to 13 minutes as opposed to 33 minutes at Robinson Flat. It was 4 pm and hot, although I did not feel too bad about the heat thanks to the handkerchief I was wearing around the neck, filled with ice cubes. Gordy Ainsleigh certainly did not have this luxury when running this course more than 35 years ago, 1,500 volunteers, tons of ice, drinks, water, food. Here is a quote from this Sunday's Auburn Journal edition:

"In that first race, it was so hot I couldn't even focus on the road. There was a lot of convection currents, and my brain was baking. I made the decision to keep putting one foot in front of the other until I could not put one foot in front of the other. That was the last time I considered quitting."

Indeed, when you cannot run anymore, you still have the option to walk. As long as your vitals are ok, hence the 12 medical checkpoints along the course. The reporter added that Gordy, now 62, had competed in 23 editions of WSER, with 22 finishes. Unfortunately, Gordy dropped at Miller's Defeat this year. Anyway, back to my race report, I did a lot of walking before feeling better in Volcano Canyon (I definitely have good quads!), thinking even more of Dan as I was approaching the Bath Road aid station. My third high of the day was to meet with the family again at Foresthill (mile 62, or km 100), especially Max who was going to pace me from Foresthill down to the river. We had great running sections but overall more walking than in 2007 when Rob Evans paced me. I was back on the same schedule as 2007 at Foresthill and lost 12 minutes on the 16-mile section down to the river. Max had never run more than 10 miles and really enjoyed the experience. He was amazed by the beauty of the trail and the views, as well as the kindness of all the volunteers. 3 miles before the river, we caught up with Brian (Robinson) again, who was now paced by his wife, Sophia Lewis (7th woman at Western States 2003).
By the river (Rucky Chucky) my weight was up a little, around 126-127, good enough for the medical staff to let me continue. My second pacer, Adam Blum, who paced me at Rio del Lago last September, and the sponsor of our rhoquick running team, was waiting for me on the other side of the river. I was so tired and it was almost the end of daylight, I got really cold in the river and was shivering when reaching the other side, where I changed shoes for the second time (the Cascadias 5, the 2010 model Scott Jurek was running in at the start). Nikki passed me at the bottom of the uphill to Green Gate, she is so fast hiking up the hills. I would keep seeing her from time to time in the next 22 miles to finish just a minute behind her. But that was definitely not the Nikki we know, she really had a bad day, yet she tought out a 4th place (disappointing for her who is used to overall wins, but at least she can come back next year with an automatic entry!).

The 10 miles between Green Gate and Brown's Bar felt really strange as Adam and I felt we were doing well, yet we did not see any runner. I was in 30th positiong and it seemed like a big gap formed with the front runners. Finally, we passed three runners as we quickly went through Brown's Bar (nice potatoe soup, and super cool station staff there!) and a few more as I started sprinting up to Highway 49. Agnès and Alex were there, my weight right back on 130 (phew!), and we left in a hurry when I hear Simon getting in the station. Simon has been a top 10 finisher at Western States and I took that as a sign that he would finish strong. I was then in 25 th position, with 6.7 miles to go. We passed a few runners before the illuminated and legendary No Hands Bridge and literally sprinted the way up to Robbie Point (I'm anxious to see the splits). We had 14 minutes to finish under 21 hours when we hit the road, with 1.4 miles to go including some steep uphills. Seeing the clock in the last 100 yards showing 20:56 was a relief: my final time was 20:56:49, 32 minutes more than in 2007. 22 nd overall versus 18th, 18 th man versus 15th, and 7th Master instead of 4th in 2007. Overall, not farther (this was my 3rd 100-miler), not faster, but definitely tougher that what I ever experienced in running. Yes, I told you, I am still a newbie! Still running with my (open) heart, based on my feelings, and maybe not smart enough from time to time. But smart enough this weekend to finish in one piece!
I got cold on the finish line but not bad enough to get a bed in the medical tent (several runners were getting an IV...). Graham (suffering from shin splints) and Simon arrived together, 12 minutes after me. Agnès, Alex, Adam and I left the stadium around 2:45 and I was in bed by 3:30 am, 25 hours after getting up on Saturday morning, for 6 hours of sleep before getting back to the Auburn High School for the award ceremony. Which, with temperatures still above 100F and many heroes to celebrate, was turning to another ultra experience. Here are the top 10 men of this competitive 2009 run, with three continent represented in the top 3 (America, Asia, Europe):
I am thankful for so many things and people on this Sunday night: having been part of this legendary Western States tradition, having done everything I had to get to the finish line under 21 hours, the relentless work of 1,500 volunteers who make this race possible, the associated logistic and hard work of race director, Greg Soderlund and the WSER board, all the people involved in maintaing the Western State trail (and hopefully making it am historic National trail for further generations to enjoy), the crews and my loving one in particular, the blast of running 16 miles with Max, the support of Adam, all my fellow runners whom, as Tony said, I competed with, not against, and even the challenging weather conditions without which Western States would not be what it is.

See my Picasa album for more pictures of this long day (200+ commented pictures, and a few short videos). And see you on the trails or the blogsphere soon. My next races are in August and I will spend three weeks in France in July, so I will enjoy the well deserved break. Hope you have a nice summer break as well!

PS: ahh, blogging on Sunday when the race ended less than 24 hours ago is ultra blogging, please excuse the typos, I will correct them later, time to go to bed... Sorry too for the long post. This is also ultra blogging, yet, a short recount of a long day...

Western States 2009: H - 9

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:03:00 +0000

It is getting really close and the to do list is down to a very few items: relax, eat well, sleep well, hydrate well, relax, relax.

A short post to point you to a few (well, more than 100!) pictures, for a visual overview of the pre-race activities of this Thursday and Friday:

The trek to the raising of the flag at Emigrant Pass on Thursday morning,
Two clinics on Thursday afternoon: Crewing the Western States Run by (Tropical) John Medinger, and WS Trail by Charles Savage (going for his 17th WS100) and Dana Gard
The registration and medical examination on Friday morning, and
The pre-race meeting on Friday afternoon.

It is going to be hot, although "only" in the high 90s-low 100s. But, with the exceptional competitive field, although some elites got injured in the way of training hard for this even and will not be part of the "track meet" (e.g. Max King, Anton Krupicka, Jon Olsen). Still, there are 20 guys who can win this year and wish all of them good luck for handling the pressure. Myself, I want to get as much fun as in 2007, running this race like it was the last time as it is so difficult to get in these days.

The most moving moment of these two days has been the homage paid to Dan Moores during the pre-race briefing by John Trent. Dan died from leukemia yesterday after a battle matching his passion for ultra running. I med Dan several times on the WS trail and at his store (the Auburn Running Company). We also exchanged emails while he was staying at his brother's place in the Bay Area when receiving treatments and his bone marrow transplant. Last year, Agnès and I got registered on the National Bone Marrow Registry, hoping we have the opportunity to save lives. Similarly to the transplant which worked for Agnès' best friend's son, Pierre-Yves, who has been in remission for 2 years now. Please, please, consider getting on the registry too! In the meantime, John invited use to run with an even more "open heart" to make room for Dan during our run tomorrow, and to smile as we pass through the Bath Road aid station which Dan has manned before running Western States himself. As John recounted, Dan waited a while before running Western States: he wanted to be ready, ready enough to honor this lengendary race. The third recommendation John gave use to commemorate Dan tomorrow was to run smart. Dan, we will think of you during our long day this wekeend. I know you will be watching us!

With that, see the lucky ones who have the honor to toe the line tomorrow morning, see their valorous crew, their supportive pacers, the 1,500 or so volunteers, and you all who will be following our progress on line on the Western States live webcast! There is even a feature to get notified by email for a particular runner. I will wear the bib #45, as in 45 years... (a special favor from Race Director, Greg Soderlund).

My Brooks tapering camp: Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:05:00 +0000

Early running for a few but tapering for most of us this Sunday morning, as we prepared to leave after these vibrant three days at Crystal Mountain. Exchange of emails at breakfast and promises to stay in touch via our various electronic channels: Brooks’ websites and newsletters, our ID Yahoo! or Facebook groups, blogs, emails. I had brought my laptop to the lodge to show the pictures of the third day. Apparently, looking at some tired faces this morning, I had captured some of the excitement of the first part of the night, but missed some as I left the party around 10 pm to blog and upload my photo album. Maybe it is better this way from a privacy standpoint… ;-)
It is time to thank Brooks for such an amazing event, perfectly organized and offering so many activities over 3 days. Like someone said to Jesse and the team: “you guys are so detail-oriented, you injected in this event the same professionalism and passion as you put in your running shoes!” Indeed, the level of detail and personalization Brooks’ Marketing offered us at this camp surpassed what you find in the best and costly professional conferences. What stroked me the most is this constant balance between information sharing and feedback gathering, in a relaxed and playful environment. The Brooks team kept providing us with information on the products and corporate directions, while seeking feedback and new ideas at the same time. A nice give-and-take and win-win exercise.

It was particularly enlightening to see the variety of experiences and profiles within our group of “ID campers.” This illustrates the difficulty a running shoe and apparel company faces when having to design products to cover all the needs, preferences and wishes. On one side we had ID’ers representing the track, who participated for instance in a focus group on spikes. On the other side, a few ultra runners. A few very competitive triathletes. Fans of cross-country. And many racing on roads, from 5K to marathons. Across these different types of running, we had other dimensions represented: coaches, personal trainers, athletes of all abilities, medical staff, event directors, writers. And, on another dimension, anyone from the very vocal to the more quiet ones, yet everybody remained involved and engaged throughout the camp. A great demonstration of management of group dynamics by Steve, Jesse and the team; kudos guys!
As an inaugural camp, Brooks set the bar very high for the upcoming ones, another proof of the dedication of the brand to running and being a visionary and leader in the industry. The success is visible, more and more people are adhering to this vision and it is going to be exciting to see Brooks preparing its 100th anniversary in 5 years. I wish to other members of our Inspire Daily program the opportunity to participate to such a camp. To participate to Brooks' "Symphony in Blue!"I got some nice views over the Bay Area on my flight to SFO, before getting back home for a nice Father's Day celebration with a dinner prepared by the boys.
While I was having a great time in Washington, although the opposite of the required heat training for States, Agnès has arranged our plans for my upcoming “Track Meet” (that’s how Andy Jones-Wilkins likes to call Western States as we finish on the Auburn High-School track). We’ll be leaving on Wednesday then, as I will be on the panel of Interfrench's event on the topic of Leadership during mergers and acquisitions this Tuesday evening.

Talk to you later this week, from Squaw. In the meantime, go Farther, Faster... in Brooks!

PS: like for my previous 3 posts, more pictures can be found in my Picasa album.

My Brooks tapering camp: Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:11:00 +0000

Day 3 had a similar structure than Day 2 so, although the content was totally different, it almost became like a routine. A nice one that is, which will end tomorrow though...

Our morning run was again quite chilly. I did another 7.5-mile out and back on the other side of the valley, and we ran through a few patches of snow (and much more snow for those who went to the top and over the ridge). The Cascadias were the perfect shoes to avoid slipping on these patches. I'm planning on running Western Sates next week with three models of Cascadias, the 3, 4 and 5 (changing pairs at Robinson Flat then at the far side of Rucky Chucky).
After breakfast we started our group activities with a team competition. 4 teams and 4 games, with the Pink and Orange teams finishing in a tie, and the Orange taking over by a few strides in the final rematch.
Then, similarly to yesterday's apparel focus groups, we had footwear-related stations to visit from 10:30 to noon. Blind testing of shoes from Brooks and competitors, evaluation of new designs and new insoles, votes on color designs, contest on shoe coloring (yes, we worked hard! ;-).
After lunch, Keith Hanson told us about the Brooks Hanson Distance Project he created in the Summer of 1999 with his brother, Kevin, to get the US distance running to the next level. Great successes in such a period with, overall, 21 runners representing the US at the World Half-Marathon Championships since 2001. One of the Hanson team, Mike Morgan, shared some personal stories about the super intensive training he is going through.Following Keith's presentation, like yesterday, we could pick 2 out of three breakouts, presentations offered by three ID members: Kate Conwell on Core Strength, Katherine Phillips on Coaching for Women and Bill Hoffman on Race Event Planning. Bill provided us with interesting tips, illustrating a long checklist with his experience as Meet Director of the Brooks Memphis Twilight Classic, an even he created in 2003. I then attended Kate's session. Kate is an elite at pole vault and finished 6th at the last US Olympic trials. Here's a link to a video interview of her, courtesy of the Seattle Times. She had selected some of her favorite core strength exercises and I'm glad we were actually not doing the full repeats that she is used to put when training consistently, because many of these exercises are really challenging. But sure beneficial, no doubt about that!
We all gathered again to listen to John's presentation on the 2010 models and got some free time before taking the chair lift up to the Summit House Bistro. At 6,872', this is the highest restaurant in the State of Washington. The view was supposed to be stunning except for the thick cloud up there, not to mention the sub-40 temperatures. Speaking of heat training for Western States, it was colder than my winters in the Bay Area... Anyway, we had the whole restaurant for ourselves, great food, great ambiance, and yet another competitive game, in the form of a trivia on Brooks and the Hansons' Distance Project.
The way down on the chair lift was pretty cold, with the breeze, and it felt good to get to the bar of the main lodge for a hot party. A closing celebration which is easier to describe with colorful pictures than thousand words... (click on the picture below to enlarge it)
Again, check my Picasa photo album out for (many!) more pictures, and a few short videos illustrating this busy and fun day.

Tomorrow is Day 4, mostly packing and driving back to the airport. Just in time to get back home for... Father's Day! Have a good night in the meantime.

My Brooks Tapering Camp: Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:16:00 +0000

Today was a special day as the area celebrated the end of a record 29-day "drought." Most of us were not so happy to see the rain come back during our morning run. The absence of sun and the altitude made the run quite chilly and the low ceiling blocked any view of the surrounding mountains. I'm glad I could see Mt. Rainier above the clouds before landing in Seattle yesterday.
After a short night either for the East Coasters who woke early because of the jet lag, or for the ones getting to bed late, we gathered at the Main Lodge at 7 am for our morning run led by Scott. 2 miles down the road before getting on the famous Pacific Crest Trail, and more specifically the steep Morse Peak Trail. We needed to get back to the Lodge by 8:30 for breakfast which was a nice time constraint for keeping the run short as I am, or at least should be, tapering. The funny part of the run was that, for once, Scott was behind us, as he stopped along the way up to provide several coaching sessions to a few of our group members. We were several upfront wondering where "he" was, surprised he was not catching up with us. I put "he" between quotes because that reminded me the story of the Caballero Blanco whom Christopher McDougall chased in the Copper Canyons and recounts in his newly released Born To Run. Here is our very own Caballo Blanco ;-) :
I came back to the Lodge with my roommate Robert Heppell, from Chicago and originally UK, after a 7.5-mile loop.

At 9:30 we played to a get-to-know-you activity consisting in finding others' fun facts, and mapping them on Bingo-style cards. A nice ice-breaker. My fun fact? I had forgotten about what I had sent the Steve actually: I hated cross-country when I was in middle school because it was to muddy. It's not that fun of a fact out of context but my running changed a lot since then: I now log most of my miles on trails, I got through so much mud in Costa Rica's Coastal Challenge, and I'm surrounded this weekend with so many ex super fast high school and college cross-country runners. Anyway, the 64 other fun facts were all over the map, and not just the US map with Dan Shaw who have been kidnapped in Columbia after hiking the tallest mountain there. He is here with his wife, Alyssa, and their 11-week boy, and you can imagine that if was not a fun fact back then when Alyssa did not hear back from Dan for 7 days...
At 10:30 we had a fascinating presentation from Rich Zartman on the ins and outs of the shoe design process. Basically, after re situating what design is about and all the stakeholders involved, Rich walked us through all the steps of the 18-month process in 18 minutes. A process which connects the preliminary product concept and idea to the actual shoes we can buy in retail stores. Fitting the standard sample and wear testing size, I got a chance to try on the coming Green Silence, a super cool concept both from a performance and sustainable development standpoint. Super comfy and super re comforting to learn about all the improvements on the engineering and manufacturing process side to minimize the footprint on the environment. Brooks is really leading the way here, so much that they decided not to patent the BioMoGo technology, making soles biodegradable, so other brands could benefit from this major innovation. See Brooks' Green Room for more on this early 2010 model.
We then proceeded to 3 focus groups on the apparel: learning from the new material, commenting on all the features of new models and participating in a brainstorm exercise led by Beth Brewster who heads the Apparel PLM (Product Line Merchandising). We were also given the opportunity to participate in a contest for new t-shirt designs. This is a competitive group, and the Brooks folks know how to keep us on our toes!

After lunch we could pick 2 out of 3 30-minute long group activities among Yoga for Runners, Sports Nutrition and Sports Psychology. All three activities were contributed by Inspire Daily members. Anne Preisig did a great job at leveraging Yoga techniques to stretch our back, hip and leg muscles, certainly not my forte. After the 10-step ultra success recipe from Scott last night, it was the turn of Stephen Gonzales to share 12 tips on how to develop mental toughness, with examples for each of them. A lot of content for 30 minutes, but a great checklist to keep handy [Connaughton, Wadey, Hanton & Jones, 2009]:

Belief you can achieve your competition goals (and set them right)
Self-belief in abilities that make you better than your opponents
Insatiable desire to succeed
Bouncing back from performance setbacks
Pushing boundaries but keeping composure
Accepting anxiety & coping (caring and getting serious about events, but keeping relaxed)
Thrive on/under pressure
Maintain psychological control with unexpected adversity
Ability to focus during training
Remaining focus during competition
Not being affected by others (their success or failure)
Remaining focused during life stresses

For that, he recommended to work on a few skills:

Goal setting (SMART: Specific, Measurable, Adjustable (mine was Attainable), Realistic, Time-bound), with three dimensions (process, performance, output)
Imagery (in the elements if possible)
Self-talking (shutting the negative voice up)
Control your "controllables" (pre-race routines, dress properly, hydration and nutrition, setting a flexible race strategy, ...)
Arousal regulation (throwing some fun and random elements into training)

A lot of insights to leverage and work on! Stephen also strongly advised reading the book Running Within.
The rest of the afternoon was free, some went for a second run (in the rain and chilly temperatures), others (including me) getting a very professional massage, then hanging out by the fireplace for more blogging and discussions.
After dinner we had an interesting challenge to create a concept for a Brooks running event and the eight groups came with interesting ideas, some groups even sharing similar ideas. I thought our group had done quite well, but we did not even make it to the top 3, probably not enough outside of the box. The party moved from the sun deck to inside due to the bad weather, although we could see stars in the sky tonight, so there is hope for some sun and views tomorrow!

Get to run, or to sleep actually, we are meeting at 7 am again tomorrow morning. Have a good night and talk to you tomorrow after Day 3.

PS: pictures of Day 2 posted in my Picasa album.

My Brooks tapering camp: Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:38:00 +0000

A tapering camp?? Did I catch your attention...? A few months ago, Brooks invited the Inspire Daily members to fly to Seattle, WA, for a 4-day running camp. I knew this would fall right in my 2-week Western States tapering, but I did not want to miss this opportunity to meet other ID’ers and learn more about Brooks, the Company, its employees and the products. All that at the foot of Mt. Rainier! That seemed to good to be true and, sure enough, like in the most popular ultras nowadays, there were more candidates than available spots. And, like Western States 2 years ago or Miwok this year, I was lucky enough to make it through the lottery!

I flew out of SFO this Thursday morning and we landed in SeaTac one hour and 40 minutes later, a nice flight above the chain of volcanoes through Oregon: Crater Lake, The Three Sisters, Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood. Finally, after an unusual weather so far in June, the sky was clear above the Bay Area. In Washington the plane crossed three layers of clouds, something which I’m not familiar with. The amount and size of clouds surely explains how green this State is. Green like Brooks, which pushed sustainable development to the next level through environment-friendly products and processes (more later on this topic).
A shuttle brought us to the Brooks Headquarters in Bothell, North of Seattle. Compared to the other major running and sport companies Brooks is actually an amazingly small company when you see the broad reach of the Brooks products and the number of models. What helps them standing out of the crowd though is the focus on running (shoes and apparel). The small size of the company makes it nimble, agile and hyper focused on customer satisfaction. The Brooks customer support team has been rated the best in the industry for the past seven years. All the employees are very active and most (90%) are runners which brings an amazing energy and source of innovation, as well as intimacy with the running ecosystem. Picture from Brooks' website:
Our journey up to Crystal Mountain hit the late afternoon traffic of all the Microsoft and Boeing employees commuting South. Our bus driver provided useful comments as we crossed the Indian Reserve East of Auburn; we then entered the Mt. Rainier National Forest and its winding road (Enumclaw Chinook). An amazing density of conifers. Again, green, green, green. Except for some recently logged sections showing a heavy usage of this forest.
We reached the Crystal Mountain around 6:30 and quickly met for dinner as many members of our group had flown from the East Coast early this morning and were starting feeling the pain of jet lag. We then had a pitch from the Brooks Marketing team, led by Dave. Although I have been running in Brooks for 10 years now (since April 1999 to be precise!), I learned a great deal about the company. Here are some random notes:

Mission statement: "To inspire others to run and be active" (and, as an ID'er, daily...)
Our group at the camp consists in 65 participants from 30 states; 60% are coaches (College, high school, middle school, club);
I learned that, among 8 consumer segments, I belong to the Alpha Runners, the ones who defined themselves as... runners. And that Dabblers denote the occasional runners.
We watched some of the many videos Brooks is making available on sites like: runbrooks.com, flotrack.org or RunningSuperFans.com.
And Dave told us that we'll "hear" more about the Green Silence tomorrow...

Scott (yes, Jurek!) came last to conclude the evening, and the timing was not ideal as some were really getting tired at 1am on their biological clock, or not much into ultra running (yet!). For the others, it was a joy to see Scott again and listen to his personal stories about Badwater, Western States, Hardrock, Tour du Mont Blanc, Spartathlon or the Copper Canyon (I'm reading Born To Run and will share more about that in a book review after Western States). Before he publishes a book on vegetarian cuisine, which he promised he was actively working on, Scott shared his 10-step recipe for ultra success:

Embrace the pain. The "good" pain, the discomfort which makes you progress and push the envelope. Don't try to resist to it. By the way, it applies for any distance. Learn to come back from the lows.
Listen to your body. Hyper important especially in ultra running not to get injured.
Get specific. Set precisely your goals, what to want to achieve. And design the corresponding training to achieve your goal.
Cross train. Not necessarily another sport, but other activities (e.g. weight lifting, core training, yoga).
Stay balanced. Incorporate all the other aspects of your life, all the pieces making the running possible. Personal/family life, work life, and nutrition too.
Seek the satisfaction. Visualize and keep your best finishes in mind (e.g. for Scott, Spartathlon, Hardrock)
Never give up.
Give back! Help others (pacing, crewing), man aid stations at ultra events, do trail maintenance.
Stay motivated. After 15 years of ultra competition at the top level, Scott admits that it's not always easy to get out in the cold, the rain, and train hard. His advice: run and train with friends. And find new great places which motivate you.
Keep it fun. Scott shared his personal encounter with Giorgio last summer on the UTMB course near Courmayeur, a 63-old ultra runner who "lived his life to its fullest" (he died a few months ago, while running). Giorgio had run the 6 editions of UTMB, after having two hip replacements and still smoking (literally) while running ultras. And always smiling.

Before taking a few questions, Scott concluded his multi-media presentation with a few motivational quotes including this one, acknowledging that many of us, ultra runners, are wandering...

Not all those who wander are lost.
J.R.R. Tolkien

It's now time to go to bed; I must be the last one still up as we approach midnight... We are scheduled for a run at 7 am tomorrow morning, with Scott, before he leaves us to fly for a press conference in Auburn (California, not Washington!) on Saturday. I gave him a copy of the poem I had written for his 10th Miwok in May, hoping to see him back there next year... You see, I am a true RunningSuperFan! Talk to you tomorrow then, after Day 2.

PS: more pictures from Day 1 in my Picasa photo album.