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

Deer Grove 32.4 Mile Fat Ass

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

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

Here is a list of runners participating

CHUGs Deer Grove 32.4 Mile Fat Ass

State Your Intentions 24-Hour

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

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

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

Gearing up for San Diego

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

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

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

Fun times at the 2010 Chicago Marathon

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

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

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

Here is a video of Kelly and Dominic:

Volunteering at the Chicago Marathon

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

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

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

GOOD LUCK RUNNERS!!!

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

New Shoes Wear Test

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

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

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

Minimalist Shoe Transition

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

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

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

NB MT101 - Shoe Review

NB Minimus - Shoe Preview

Brooks Green Silence - Shoe Review

Vibram Five Fingers - 2011 Shoe Preview

Lost Boys 50 Mile Preview

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

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

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

Here is the course description and course photos.

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

Race Website

Leap of Faith in Blister Prevention

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My response:

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

Bob's reply:

Hey Brian,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

100 Miler Buckles

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

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

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

CHUG Group Run

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

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

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

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

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

Warning: Post-Race Blister Talk and Graphic Illustrations

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

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

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

Blister Prevention:

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, this is what I did in a nutshell.

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

Time to complete: 20-30 minutes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RDL100 Blister Prevention Results:

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. A combination of all of the above.

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

Post-race Blister Recovery:

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

Steps to my Recovery Process:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Persistence pays off - 100 Miles at Rio Del Lago

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crazy ultrarunner look

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leadville Trail 100 Race Report

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

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

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

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

Strategy going in:

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

Concerns going in:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Javelina Jundred 100 is this Saturday

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

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

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

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

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

GORE-TEX TransRockies Run 2009 Race Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can read Kelly's Report Here

Our photo slide show:

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

TransRockies live tracking

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

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

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

track us live

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

CHUG Marengo Ridge Trip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other blog posts:
Geof Dunmore
Paige Troelstrup

Enhanced Pace Calculator Widget and Skin Generator

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

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

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

Visit the original Pace Calculator post

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

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

Spirit of the Marathon on Hulu.com

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

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

Click here to learn more information about the movie

Spirit of the Marathon Movie on Hulu.com

Sunburn Six in the Stix Fat Ass Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peak Training Completed, Blister Free, and Lost Weight!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Total Miles - 72+ Miles (15 hours)

Sunburn Six in the Stix 6-Hour Fat Ass

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drymax to the Rescue

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

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

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

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

My blistered feet from 2008 Miwok 100K

My blistered feet from 2008 Mohican 100 Mile

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

You can read more about Drymax on the Drymax Sports blog

Official Artist of Chicago Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

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

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

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

One of the other options for the event:

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

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

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

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

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

How does she do it?

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

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

Nell the runner

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

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

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

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