Lundstrom Park and a bit. Everything felt good today. Still some fatigue as I couldn't get the rev's up but that is ok. The foot and ankle felt fine. I am sure glad about that.
Aaron was nice enough to visit Utah, while his "super chick" wife killed the women's field for the Freedom Run 15K. She beat most of the men too. But more importantly, that left Aaron available to join me for a nice trail run. We waited for Joe to join but he was a no-show and sadly Jon couldn't come either so it was just Aaron and I for the sweetest ribbon of single track around. We started at the bottom of Richards Hollow and ran up the trail past the "Elbow" and up the a road that heads up to Logan Peak. We didn't quite make it to the peak, but to within view of it and most of Cache Valley. It was quite a climb, but the best was yet to come on the descent. Nothing like running through endless fields of wild flowers, jumping over and through streams, dodging beaver ponds, even a moose. Who wouldn't love it? I had a great time and I think this run just surpassed Jardine Juniper as my favorite. Yep, its that good. One day I will go all the way up to Logan Peak, but that would've been 10 more miles.
I enjoyed the BBQ Scott threw last night and hope to see all of you again. Good job to all the racers today as there were some stellar performances. But, you missed out. The real fun was on our trail run. Ha! Thanks Aaron for a great time.
T- 2:4x (9:2x pace) 4000' vertical
Stupid garmin is broken. I am lost without it. Anyone want to sell me their Forerunner 205 or 305?
The long awaited day has finally arrived. The day that we are running the final 30 miles of the Bear 100 course is here. We abandoned our families all morning and raced them to Bear lake. We got a good 5 hour head start, but still lost. I blame it on Jon and his incessant picture taking. I think I took 40 pictures to his 10. I will add some here at some point soon. Ok, maybe I will just blame it on the course. What a tough last 30 miles. Ouch.
I had a blast and will spare you the long winded details. I will add in some commentary when I add the pictures. The short version is this. We started at the Logan River Aid station (mile 68.6), promptly crossed the river and climbed over a mountain to Beaver Lodge (75.8). Left Beaver lodge and headed up Steep Hollow to Gibson Basin (81.2). Down Gibson Basin to Beaver Creek Campground (85.25). Then a relentless climb up a mountain to Ranger Dip (92.2). The fun didn't end there as we immediately climbed a super steep pass before descending a super steep hill to Bear lake (Finish). That commentary didn't do it justice, I know, but this is a work in progress....
Our families beat us to Bear Lake, but after a raspberry shake all was forgotten. We enjoyed the rest of the day at the lake spending way too much time in the sun. Had a blast though. Great Holiday!
Sport Tracks reported the following:
30.3 Miles (5:16:03) 10:26 pace ave 6,072 climb, 7206 descent
Yes, I was able to repair my broken Garmin with some solder, wire, and super glue. I feel proud. Oh, wait, I make a living designing electronic circuits, I should be able to do this in my sleep. Forget I brought it up then.
Another great late afternoon trail run with Jon and Joe. We did have to share the trail with tons of bikers today. Lame. Stomach still a bit queezy. One more day until I am back 100%.
Extended Family Camping trip at Yellowstone. We stayed at the KOA (sort of camping), but the nice advantage of that was the close proximity of the Lionhead trail system. I found a trailhead with a map yesterday on my exploring and mapped out a run up to Lionhead mountain. I started at Targhee Pass trailhead and followed the continental divide trail all over the mountain. It was mostly atv and snowmobile trails, but they were in great shape and as I found out never used. I never saw a single person on any of my runs. Ever. Even campers and hikers. Nobody. I did see two large elk though on this run. This run was quite an animal. I had to leave the trail and find my own way up to the peak since the atv trail didn't and I had to go to the top.
T- 2:50 (8:57) 4500' climb
Spent the rest of the day in the Park checking out the sights.
* Huge week despite taking tuesday off. Crazy vertical (PR for me) 15,000' 77.5 miles
Here are some photos I took with my camera phone
Lots of uphill at the start
Lionhead Peak in the distance
You can just make out my trail I need to follow
Final scramble up to the saddle
View of Bald Peak from the saddle
View of Hebgen Lake from the summit of Lionhead (9624')
AM: Another morning run to explore the trails around Lionhead. This time it was Contour Road. It is another ATV trail. This was was much flatter and I could actually get the legs moving. I pushed the pace pretty well. No bears, even though everyone thought I was going to get eaten. How disappointing.
T- 1:50:40 (14 miles) 7:54 ave 1850' ascending
Photos of the morning run:
PM: More exploring in the afternoon while everyone else went to the pool and hot tub. 2 miles on another atv road until I stumbled upon the most glorious single track ever. seriously. I was in heaven. I only had time to run 2 miles on it before I had to head back. I also didn't have a map of this area so I had to end the fun. Amazing.
T- 1:05:22 (8 miles) 8:10 ave 1000' ascending
View of the amazing trail (camera does not do it justice)
Last run to enjoy the Lionhead mountains. I was tired from all the
previous runs, but decided to go for another good, hilly, beautiful
run. I was in heaven again. Again, no people, but lots of animals. No
bears though. Luckily.
This run marks my longest consecutive trail only streak. I am now at 6 runs. It will probably not make it past tomorrow. I will see how I feel in the morning. I will see if it is worth it to get up early just to drive to a trailhead. Either way, it was a good run.
It was nice to sleep in my bed last night, not so nice to be back at work today, but really nice to run at 5000' instead of 7 or 8K. Everything is turning nice and brown. Makes me feel at home.
Shortest race of the year for me tomorrow, so that warranted a short taper (2 days). Legs felt awful today, so that usually means that tomorrow they will feel great....I think
N.U.T.S. Trail Half Marathon (13.5 Miles) 01:49:47, Place overall: 1, Place in age division: 1
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
4.00
14.00
18.00
N.U.T.S Trail Half Marathon -
1st place overall and new course record! Ok, its a first year race so the record was a given, but the first place wasn't. I had to work hard for that. The course was great with lots of vertical and a good mix of fast/flat, rocky/technical, and steep ups and downs. My kind of race. Course description here
At the start I saw Brian Beckstead and a few others that looked pretty serious so I knew it would be a fun race. As we started (15+ mins late) no one was anxious to take the lead as we hit the trail so I decided to set the pace. I actually prefer to do that as then I control how fast I want to go and not get sucked into a faster pace than wanted. I kept things pretty chill on the first climb up to the shoreline trail. I had brian on my tail with a few others lurking a few steps back. The pace was chatty and I enjoyed relaxing and enjoying the run. I began to gradually pick up the effort and by mile 3 aid it was down to just 3 of us. Third place was being held down by a super chick (I forgot her name, but she ran the olympic trials last time and is getting ready to attempt to re-qualify. She was super strong on the uphills and wouldn't drop back.
I kept the pace hard and got a bit of a gap on Brian and the girl. The gap would slowly increase over the next few miles, but it was hard to tell by how much. One of my favorite sections was the descent into the turn-around at mile 7. It was a steep and rocky descent and I let it rip. I slowly refilled my bottle at the turn around and began my slog back up the same canyon. That was not fun. As I was leaving the aid, Brian came roaring in and I figured that I had only 30 seconds on him. Too close for slacking off. The main focus was to keep working the uphills hard and put some more distance on him before the downhills. I wasn't feeling super fast on the descents so I figured my advantage was the uphills.
Really, it was a pretty boring race to share (sorry to my 6 readers) as Brian never got closer than about a minute behind me and the girl couldn't keep up with Brian on the downhills so the placing was pretty locked in right from the start. The final descent was fun as I knew I had won and merely focused on not falling off the trail and not taking a wrong turn. Successfully completing that, I jogged across the finish line to the roar of the crowd (15 people or so) and accepted my minute of fame waiting for Brian to finish. I think he was about 50 seconds back, but I have not seen the official results yet. The no name girl finished not long after Brian and chicked most of the field.
Overall, it was a great course, solid competition, great course marking (as there are tons of trail options in the area and you could easily take the wrong way), great plaque for first place too. The only downside was the late start and the warm weather, but since it was overcast, it didn't get really hot like I expected. I will probably do this race again, especially to defend my course record.
PM: Trail run with Joe and Jon. Right hand fork, Up Ricks and down Steel Hollow. Jon had ambitions to run fast. I didn't. Jon took off and Joe and I ran together. Turns out Jon had numerous potty issues and we ended up passing him without knowing it. He would almost catch us and then have to stop. Meanwhile, I was working too hard for the average pace we were actually running. Oh, well, it was a great run regardless. Its time now to chill for a few days and get my legs back under me before a big mileage weekend. 12 miles
AM: 8 miles on Providence River Heights Loop. Legs better today, but still not there yet.
T-61:30 (7:41) 200' vert (not much at all)
PM: 4.5 slow and hot (96) miles pushing the stroller to the "red track" as my kids call it. I saw Jon heading out and he joined me. The kids and I did 1 slow lap on the track and back home we went.
No work today due to Pioneer Day Celebrations so our family decided to celebrate by camping just like the pioneers did. First we drove 30 miles up to Tony Grove campground (just like the pioneers) and pitched our waterproof $45 tent (again, just like the pioneers) and cooked our hotdogs and brats over a propane stove. How hard can it be, really?
Somewhere in there, I ditched my family (thanks to a very supportive wife) and hit the trails for a nice run. I headed out from the backcountry trail head at TG and took off to Naomi Peak. I hit the peak in 50 mins, took a break and then continued down the backside to High Creek Lake. Spectacular area! I hiked/ran around the lake (a requirement for me on any run) and went back up to the saddle. The mile split back up was a hard earned 19:20. The trail climbs 1000' in 1.4 miles. I then ran down heading back to TG until I hit the turnoff to White Pine. I was still short of my mileage goal, so I headed up that trail until I hit the high point before dropping down to the lake. I really enjoyed this part of the trail as it is much more runnable and less rocky. Time to head back to camp. Just over 3 miles of smooth (but very crowded) singletrack and I was there.
T- 2:46:10 (11:05) 3900' vert
Trail up to Mt. Naomi
Mt. Magog
Logan Valley from Mt. Naomi
High Creek Lake
Trail to High Creek from Mt. Naomi (Cherry Creek on the left)
After a night of sleeping in the dirt, we continued our camping adventure by eating cereal and doughnuts just like the pioneers. My wife broke camp and headed home via the car ride and I opted to take the shorter/more difficult route home. It is a run that I have been dreaming about for years now. The epic Tony Grove to Green Canyon run. I was so excited to finally do it.
Things started out fine with the short climb out of TG. 500' climb in a mile. No big deal. The doughnuts were working wonders for me. I was fully fueled and ready. The route was well marked (plus my trusty maps helped) and I admired the sights. I took a few pictures and generally soaked in my surroundings as I went. I arrived at the junction to Cottonwood Canyon and it showed two ways to go. Cottonwood Canyon and Smithfield Canyon. My thought process was incorrect as I decided I wanted Cottonwood canyon. I got a quarter mile down the canyon and was admiring Mt Elmer when I realized I was supposed to run past Mt Elmer. This trail is not taking me there. A quick consult with the maps confirmed I am an idiot and I went back and took the other path. I would have ended up at Jardine Juniper tree many miles from home.
The route to Mt. Elmer was rocky, steep, and not well traveled. I lost the trail many times while traversing the 6 false summits enroute. This was the most difficult portion of the journey. My small blister on my toe (I got that during yesterdays run - in fact, it is the first blister I have had in a year) was really unhappy with the camber of the trail. The trail was downright hard. The upside was the spectacular views of everything though. 3.5 miles of ridge running with cliffs on both sides. Awesome!
After a short hike to the top of Elmer for a few pictures (and to say that I have been on top), I made haste to continue. It was now mid-day and getting hot. I had plenty of water, but I was really exposed up there. I was now about halfway there, but with the hard uphill part done. Now all that was left was a long straight shot down the entire length of Green Canyon. I have never run the upper section before so it was neat to explore and admire the view. I was also VERY glad to be going down the canyon and not up as it was super steep and rocky at the top. Things progressed nicely as I descended. The trail flattened out a bit and was less switchbacky. Yes, that is a word. Switchbacky. Eventually, I was again on familiar trails and enjoying the final push. The last 2 miles were 6:40 pace which felt blazing fast after those 15-20 min miles on the ridge earlier. I survived! I had thoughtfully left a car at the lower parking lot and quickly drove home to a nice cool shower (again, just like the pioneers did).
T-3:02:40 (10:44) 3000' ascent 5900' descent
Weekly summary: 81 Miles 10,650' Vert
Went left instead of right. Ooops
My first good look at Mt. Elmer. It would take me an hour and a half to get there.
Mt. Elmer from the top of the 4th or 5th (of "7 sisters")
From on top of Elmer looking towards Mt. Jardine and logan in the distance. You can see the trail I will soon be running on (first ridge).
More from on top. See Logan Peak in the distance?
Quality signage. I will have to visit that peak another day.
View from the Top of Green Canyon. Pretty steep up top, but super pretty.
Speedgoat 50K (31 Miles) 06:58:27, Place overall: 15
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
33.00
0.00
33.00
Speedgoat 50K
This is arguably the hardest 50K in the US (so I have heard). I now believe all the hype. It is SICK. I am pretty pooped right now so the report will have to wait. The short version is this. Crazy hard course with endless hills. ~12K feet of elevation GAIN with the same descent. The field was loaded this year. 15th place for me and a time that is close to what I guessed. Even with a 2 mile extra penalty lap they made a group of us run (what a joke that was). More details on that later. My time would have been good enough for 8th last year, even with the extra miles. Not so this year.
1st Kevin Schilling
2nd Nick Clark
3rd Luke Nelson
4th Karl Jarvis
5th Greg Norrander
All of the race was above ~8000' with numerous ascents over 11K'. Just and insane course. I ran and hiked well so I am pleased with my result. Bottom Line: The hardest race I have ever done, by FAR! But glad I did it.
So, the long version...
The craziest thing about this race is course. The website has a profile map from 2008, no course directions and the course changes year to year. None of that matters to RD Karl M. as he has been quoted to say "Remember this race is all about not really knowing where the course takes you, other than up some nasty hill." That approach is cool, but though on the runners as you are at the mercy of the course markings. Lets hope they are clear....
I dropped the kids off at their Grandma's house friday night Bethany and I spent the night relaxing and enjoying the evening at The Lodge at Snowbird. Early the next morning, I ditched the wife and wandered over to the start line to prepare for the race. I looked around and saw plenty of big name runners there and knew a top 10 would be a great result. So, the goal was 6.5 hours to 7 hours and a top 10 finish.
The race started right on time and we immediately began climbing. The first mile was all uphill to the top of a ski run then immediately began to descend and lose all the elevation we had gained. By the end of the second mile, we were back at the bottom of the resort and no closer to the top of the mountain. I knew that this was the start of a very long day. I settled into my routine of run/hike as the hills dictated. I really enjoyed the beauty of the course with its many wildflowers and sharp granite peaks nearby. Little Cottonwood is one of my all time favorite canyons. I grew up 10 mins from the mouth of the canyon and loved to visit it. This visit was much less pleasant.
Finally 8 miles and 1:5x into the race, I summited hidden peak. There was a large crowd of volunteers and onlookers cheering us on as they got a ride up on the gondola. I filled the bottles, grabbed a banana and moved on. This was the first of many trips to above 10K' as this peak is nearly 11K'. The course wandered over a ridge to Mt. Baldy (11k+') and over the top. I was already getting tired, but was pacing myself well. I forgot to mention that before getting to Hidden Peak, no name guy from Logan Peak caught up to me and we decided to hook up and work together. It turns out that he had a name afterall (Chris).
Coming off of Mt. Baldy we went down a steep hill where there were helpers and ropes to keep us from dying. I gladly used the ropes as they saved the quads from further abuse. Once that leveled out a bit, we were soon descending down more hills. Doesn't make much sense, but that is how I remember it. Hills, all the time. This descent didn't feel good at all as my back was really tight and wasn't loosening up. I figure all the steep climbing and descending really messed it up. I managed to stay with my group of about 5 runners and keep the body going. We soon took off up a steep climb on another goat path that probably doesn't get used except for this race and hit the saddle and the most critical junction of the race. Two options, right or left. We all knew that this was where the loop to American Fork Canyon met up. We knew we needed to do the loop, but which way. Up until now the junctions were reasonably well marked with Flour showing which way to go. Here, as we looked left we saw 6-10 course flags showing the way. As we looked right, we saw 1. Hmmm. Chris remembered from 2008 when he ran the course that he went left. Since the website didn't have a course description I didn't have a clue. Chris and I decided to go left. We got 50 meters up the hill when the rest of our group of 5 caught up. They hollered to us that we went the wrong way so we came back and discussed it. We all quickly agreed to go left. As we started up the hill some other runner came over the hill and went right with no hesitation. He hollered something about going right and was soon gone. Why should we believe him? Crap what to do. We kept going left and climbed to the next peak before descending almost 3K feet to the aid station at the far end of the loop. I doubted my decision to go left the whole time as it seemed like the markings were set up to be more clear for the runners going up hill than downhill. At least there was a group of us all in the same boat. As we neared the aid station, we saw the lead runners coming up the trail to us. That confirmed that we messed up and went the wrong way. We figured that we could run the other half of the loop and run the same distance as everyone else and everything would be ok. About a mile away from the aid station, there was a volunteer posted at the junction leading into the aid station. She told us to tell the aid station that we had come from the peak. We ran the mile or so into the aid station and saw all the runners in front of us. We were in roughly 10th place and still pretty close together. The aid finally appeared and I happily filled up on supplies as we chatted with the guy in charge. He said that to stay in the race, we needed to do a "penalty lap" out and back to the lady at the intersection. Ugg. Seriously! How is that supposed to even things out? We ran just as far as the other guys and it wasn't any easier. Make us run the other half and its all fair right? Wrong. As we slogged through the penalty lap, we watched many people pass us that were way behind us the whole time. I met up with some guys who I know from Logan Peak and chatted with them as I entered the aid station the second time. I asked them what their mileage was on their garmin. 15.5 is what they said. Mine read 17.5. 2 mile penalty for a lack of course marking and a wrong guess by at least 7 people (I know of at least that many who did the same thing). Penalty lap completed, I rudely gave them my race # again as I came into the aid station and quickly left trying to pass back the 10+ people who had passed us. That is the "penalty lap" story. Not as cool as some might hope. I didn't trip the lead women or anything. Sorry.
The climb back up to the peak was a tough one and it was mostly a hike. The sun was thankfully behind clouds for this section and I pushed it pretty good. I caught up to a few people including at least 1 who decided to forgo the penalty lap altogether. As we hit the intersection where it all went wrong we saw that it was now well marked and staffed with a person to tell us the way to go. Little to late for that now. Ok, big whine over. Stuff like this happens and you can get upset and move on, or get upset and not move on. I guess some would say that a third option is to not get upset at all, but that was really not an option for me. I would not get the 10+ places I lost back but I could get some.
After a brief descent back down the goat path, we began another huge climb up to the tunnel. The sun was out strong here and I was cooking. I was drinking lots and sweating even more. Brutal. I continued to pass a few more people on the climb, but was losing ground to Chris, my unofficial pacer. The tunnel was a very welcome sight as it marked the end of another hill and the start of another descent. I caught back up to Chris in the tunnel and proceeded to blast the downhill. This was probably one of the best descents for me as my back was ok enough to let me go at a reasonable pace. Eventually, the trail turned back skyward and I was headed back up the mountain once again. This time, it was on a rough trail along the ridge. It was a brutal hike and I only ran tiny sections of it. I passed one other runner here and that would be the last one I would catch. I had put a pretty good gap on Chris on the downhill and he would make up a bit of that on this climb, but wouldn't quite catch me. Once I hit the top of the mountain and passed under the tram, I could see where the aid station was at the top of the hill. Too bad the course would turn me in a different direction. Down. Just kill me now!
It turns out that I didn't have to descent too far this time and was soon climbing again this time for real to the top. At the final aid station I was told 5 more miles till the finish. I looked at the time and knew it would be really close to make it by my 7 hour deadline. The hard thing was that my back was really tweaked now and the course was so slow and rocky in places that 12 min pace going down was all I could muster. The course got better as I descended and I was able to actually enjoy the last 2 miles as it was on actual single track with dirt. It wasn't just a trail of rocks. Or a hill full of bushes with no discernible trail (like the previous sections). Glorious! Too bad I was so exhausted I couldn't enjoy it properly. As I neared the finish I knew I would make it but then the trail bypassed the finish area and kept going down the canyon. NO! Have mercy! Finally, it joined turned back up canyon and I suffered through another half mile of gradual uphill to the finish.
I was very very very happy to be done with this race as it was the hardest one of my life. My family was there to cheer me at the finish line and I loved it! They quickly left me to recover while they played at the kids playground. I soon found out that I won a free pair of La Sportiva shoes in the raffle for placings (15th place turned out to be a lucky winner). Sweet!
I will add more elevation and splits for future reference when I get the data uploaded and will add some pictures too. Until then, I will nurse my bruised, broken body.
My garmin read (via Sport Tracks) 11,250 Feet of Ascent/Descent
After an adjustment to many people's finish times to "undo" the "penalty lap" that we did, my placing was upgraded to 12th overall and with a finish time of 6:42:27 instead of 6:58:27!
