By the numbers:

• 4,100 Miles – 400 more than 2010 …like adding a 13th full month of training.
• 700,404 Vertical Feet – 164,638ft more than in 2010 …which is more than I ran in my first year of running in 2007.
• 494 runs in 365 consecutive days. Today will be my 414th day of my current streak.

Behind the numbers, these last 4,100 miles have been a grand total of 862 hours, 59 minutes, and 51 seconds of fun and adventure, quality time with my best friends, and personal time with myself and my dogs.

Sheba turned 11 this year and has really slowed down but still managed to run 467.25 miles with me. I finally had to start splitting Baxter and Sheba up on runs and ran an extra 113.25 miles with Baxter. Most days we start together and I’ll turn back to drop off Sheba after 1 to 3 miles before heading back out on the trail for a longer run with Baxter. It’s been a bit sad to see Sheba slow down and start showing her age and I’m sure Baxter isn’t too far behind. These two are the reason I started to run.

Since Baxter and Sheba don’t run with me every day any more, I started volunteering for Animal House to take their shelter dogs out for exercise, training, and socialization a couple times per week. In the past year, I ran 305.25 miles with Alphie, Angel, Benji, Benny, Buzz, Byron, Chief, Draco, Empress, Frieda, Happy, Harley, Jill, Kendall, Leon, Max, Mia, Mickey, Misty, Nitro, Paul, Raquel, Rocket, Rocky, Trish, Xara, and Zorro. Fortunately most of these dogs have gone to permanent homes already. Alphie, Chief, Nitro, and Harley are still available. For 2012 I hope to do more to help Animal House. Kim, Ali, and I are already brain storming about possible challenges and fundraising events.

I did pretty well racing in 2011. The Hardrock 100 was by far the experience of a lifetime. I had a rough time at the race but ended up finishing well. But what was most memorable was spending the most amazing week in Silverton with my mom and my best friends.

I ran new PR’s at Ghost Town and the Moab Red Hot 55k and I won my first race at the Antelope Island 100k. I dropped my Towers PR down to 32:24, ran my first sub 5min mile ever, took over a minute off my Thanksgiving 4 Mile time in 23:22. And I even dropped my 5k PR under 18 minutes to run 17:56 in my last run of the year at the Resolution 5k.

But I think I enjoyed pacing and crewing at events just as much as I’ve enjoyed running my own races. I’ve had a lot of help from a lot of great friends over the years and am glad that I finally had a chance to try to return the favor. I’ve also learned that pacing is incredibly hard ….and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best pacer ever. I can’t sing like Celeste. I don’t think I’d have the same effect wearing a tutu like Tressa. And I don’t have Eric’s unique ability to cheerfully maintain a one-sided monolog for over 12 hours, overnight, after running around crewing and volunteering all day. But I hope that I managed to play a role helping David finish his first double ironman triathlon and getting Eric to the finish line of the Bear 100. Unfortunately Victoria and Mike didn’t make it to the finish line at Bighorn and Leadville this year but both made very wise decisions to stop before seriously hurting themselves. I’m sure both will be back even stronger next year.

Outside of race events, I finally got a chance to do some more exploring.

I had the opportunity to knock out a few more fourteeners while helping to crew Eric’s epic journey over 9 fourteeners on the Nolans’s 14 route. Only a handful of people have finished the entire Nolans 14 route and I don’t think anyone has completed 9 or more since 2003. If Eric has the time in his schedule to attempt the full route next year, I’m sure he can do it and I will definitely be there to help – it’s be quite an accomplishment that I won’t want to miss out on.

And I finally crossed the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim run off my list. This was such a fun trip with great friends and I can’t wait to go on new adventures to explore more amazing places. Hopefully Zion, Bryce, Escalante, and a few other parks will fit into my travel plans in 2012.

The Blue Sky Marathon was another huge success this year and Nick and I started a new race business to launch the Quad Rock 50, Fort Collins’ first 50 mile trail race. We still have a LOT of work to do to pull this event off but it’s been very exciting to see our plans start to come together. It’s only the start of January and we already have 102 registrations!

I also started coaching this last year and had a lot of fun helping my friends meet their racing goals. I’m really looking forward to continuing to help my friends in 2012 with strong finishes at Western States, the new Steamboat 100, and the Vermont 100 with some new PR’s along the way.

Next up for 2012…… I haven’t set many plans in place yet but the Bighorn 100 will be my major goal race. I really love this event and after taking a pretty good beating in my 2009 finish, I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do out there with 2 more years of experience under my belt. On the way to Bighorn, I hope to run new PR’s at the Moab Red Hot 55k and Colorado Marathon. And pending lottery results, I’d like to finally go back to the Northwest to run the Cascade Crest 100. I spent 8 years living in Seattle – mostly as an out-of-shape work-a-holic and never really got to fully enjoy the incredible outdoor environments. Hopefully this year I’ll have an opportunity to go and take a proper tour of the Cascades.

And speaking of running in 2012, I need to get after it. It’s warm and sunny in Fort Collins today and I’d better get out on the trails before the next snow storm comes through this evening.

But here are a few great dogs who are still stuck at the shelter. I’ve spent some time with each of these dogs and really think they’d make great companions with the right owner.

Chief (Photo from Animal House)

Chief has been at the shelter since last July. I’ve been out running with him a couple times and he learns very quickly and really wants to work with you. He gets very attached to people and has some separation anxiety issues so he’d probably be best with someone who can spend more time at home with him. His only other issue is purely cosmetic. You can’t tell from the photos but half of his hair is missing. Evidently it’s a genetic condition, blue hair alopecia, so other than regular brushing and feeding him high quality food, there isn’t anything you can do about it. Anyone willing to take home the funny looking dog that no one else wants is going to end up with an incredibly loyal companion.

Draco is one of my all time favorites. Animal House brought him in from some other shelter that wasn’t feeding their dogs enough and when I first met him, he was all skin and bones. He’s super friendly and loves treats and attention so he was very easy to work with. He loves to run and the first time I took him out on the trails, he just fell in naturally to bound along at my side. He’s in a foster home now and is doing extremely well learning basic commands. He’s even learning how to run nicely next to a bike. The only problem is his name. I guess the volunteers were on a Harry Potter streak assigning names and he got stuck with the mean kid’s name. It really doesn’t suit his personality. His foster mom has been calling him Drake which is a bit better.

Skinny Draco happy to be out on his first run at Reservoir Ridge.

Draco looking much better at his foster home. (Photo from his foster mom, Abby)

Nitro (Photo from Animal House)

Nitro is another one who could use a better name. Kim asked me to take him out for the first time just a couple days after I ran the Antelope Island 100k. My legs were still pretty wobbly from the race and with a name like Nitro, I expected to get dragged all over Reservoir Ridge. But Nitro turned out to be a pretty good dog. We had a bumpy start …mostly because it didn’t seem like he’d had any practice on leash and didn’t quite know how to behave. But once we got things sorted out, he was really easy to run with. He has a lot of energy and has plenty of moments when he gets super excited and occasionally spins around in circles. But he responds really well to both positive and negative voice commands. Just tell him NO when he’s in mid-jump and he’ll actually stop himself and settle down ….my own dogs won’t even do that once they get wound up! I think he’ll do extremely well if anyone takes the time to pay attention to him and give him consistent directions. Nitro is living with a foster right now and is doing great. He gets along with another dog in the house and chases the cats around, but not maliciously. For a lab mix, he’s on the small side so I think he’d be a great dog to take anywhere traveling around running, hiking, and camping.

Raquel has a ton of energy but is really very easy to run with. She’s very responsive and loves attention and treats so she’s super easy to train. I honestly have no idea why she’s still at the shelter. Other than her high energy, she has a pretty impressive vertical leap …maybe she’d make a great frisbee dog? She’ll be a lot of fun for anyone who stays active and runs and hikes regularly.

Raquel

Zorro really shoudn’t be on this list of dogs that have been difficult to adopt out. He’s hands down the best behaved dog that I’ve run with yet. He walks and runs on a slack leash at your hip and pays attention to voice commands. He’ll follow behind you on narrow single track and if you tell him to go, he’ll run out in front as fast as you want to go. But he doesn’t pull and will come right back to your hip as soon as you tell him slow down. (I would love to try skijoring with him!) He knows how to sit and he is very patient and gentle taking treats. He hasn’t quite mastered “down” yet but he will gladly roll over for a tummy rub. For a Malamute mix, he’s really quite calm and gentle …definitely not your typical alpha dog. But despite his nearly perfect behavior and temperament, it’ll probably take some effort to find him the perfect home just because he’s a Malamute and it’ll take a lot of work to take care of him. He’ll need a lot of exercise, he’ll shed a ton, he’ll be miserable in our summer heat, and he sings. But anyone who thinks these are all lame excuses to pass up a perfectly good dog is going to love this guy.

Zorro

If anyone is interested in adopting any of these dogs, please contact Animal House. The Animal House staff will have a lot more detailed information about each dog. Nitro and Draco are currently living in foster homes and Chief has been in and out of fosters homes and is currently back at the shelter. Some have even worked with volunteer trainers.

I would be happy to answer any questions as well. And anyone interested in meeting a dog to can always come out and join our Fort Collins Trail Runners social at 6pm every Tuesday at Reservoir Ridge. I always bring a dog from Animal House to the run.

• 365 days
• 491 runs
• 4,124.50 miles
• 690,726 feet

I’m looking forward to day 366 tomorrow.

I originally signed up for the Antelope Island 100k on a whim. I’d never raced a 100k and after recovering from Hardrock, I felt like I needed one more good race event before the end of the year. I really hadn’t started training seriously again until October so I wasn’t sure how it would go. But I figured that regardless of how well I ran, it would be a good training experience to test out my legs and get an idea of how well I might be able to prepare for HURT.

A few other FCTR’s decided to make the trip out together so we had a pretty good group with Shannon, Kristel, Cat, and I running the 100k and Justin, Slush, Celeste, Mary, and Robert running the 50k. The weather forecast for the week was perfect with highs in the 40′s and 50′s every day ….every day except for race day. On race day it would be in the 30′s with snow and possible rain and freezing rain. I started to wonder why I decided to sign up for a November race in Utah but I convinced myself that my chances of placing well would be better in bad weather. The course is fairly easy and runnable and I tend to do better on the rough, technical stuff.

Kristel, me, Cat, and Shannon ready to start the 100k. (Photo by Megan Price)

The race started in the dark at 6am and fortunately it wasn’t too cold out and once we got moving, it was actually fairly nice. Most of the trail was clear dirt with a dusting of snow on the middle sections of the hills and some ankle deep snow on a couple of the higher sections. From the start of the race, Shannon, Scott Dickey (the 2010 winner), and I ran out in the lead together. The first half of the 50k loop was fairly hilly with a couple short climbs and some rolling hills. I chatted with Scott for a while and it seemed like his strength was really on the fast and flat sections. I expected that he would easily out run me on the flat back half of the loop so at the first decent downhill, I decided to run at my own pace and pulled away into the lead.

A view of the hills along the southwest corner of the Antelope Island 50k loop. (Photo by Mary Boyts)

View of the last climb up into the snow on the south end of the Antelope Island 50k loop. This side of the island had some incredible views. (Photo by Celeste O'Conner)

It was a bit tricky running out in the lead since I wasn’t familiar with the route. The race director had explained that course markings would be sparse and only the major turns would be marked with small signs and flour. I stopped a few times along the way to wait to make sure Scott and Shannon were still following me and at a couple intersections, I had to stop and try to find where the arrow signs were buried in the snow. I probably could have run this first loop a bit faster if I knew where I was going and didn’t keep second guessing myself. But since this was a 100k race, I figured I was better off taking it easy and pacing myself to save my energy for the second loop.

On the east side of the island, the last 10 miles of the trail were pretty flat. As I expected, Scott caught back up with me here. The first couple miles before the 9 mile gate aid station were absolutely miserable. The trail was muddy and the tall grass was coated with ice and bent over and thatched together across the trail. The only way to get through this section was to just keep plowing through shin first. I spent a good amount of time cussing  and stumbling through this section.

On the first loop in the morning, this grassy section was completely thatched together with ice coated grass. On the second loop, it was just soupy mud. (Photo by Celeste O'Conner)

On this same section, I ran into 2 buffalo delays. Buffalo roam around the island and we got right up close and personal with them several times. Scott told me we’d be OK just as long as we didn’t look them directly in the eye and piss them off. I was still skeptical and was more than happy to wait until they moved a little further away from the trail.

One of the many buffalo on the course. I really didn't like getting this close. (Photo by Megan Price)

Shortly after the 9 mile gate aid station and last buffalo delay, Scott pulled a head of me. My legs weren’t feeling great at the time so I was content to let him go. I figured it would be best to just take care of myself at my own pace than try to race him through the full flat section where he would probably be stronger. We still had another loop ahead of us and I would have plenty of opportunity to catch up on the next round of hills. But after a few miles I realized that Scott wasn’t pulling away from me and that I was actually catching back up. A few miles before the end of the first loop, I caught up with Scott and he let me take the lead again. I figured he would be right behind me and I just kept in my zone working away through the last few miles. At the final turn at the fence line that leads to the finish, I looked back and Scott was no where to be seen. I really didn’t think I had been running that fast but my last couple miles were around 7:40 pace. Based on what I knew of Scott’s running ability, I figured this would have been easy for him. So I started second guessing myself. Scott ran and won the race in 2010 so maybe he knew how to pace himself to run the second loop better? Maybe I was going out too fast and was just going to crash and burn on the second loop? But I was in the lead at the end of the first loop and really didn’t feel that bad.

Finishing the first loop. (Photo by Megan Price)

I finished the first loop in 4:15 and quickly head out for loop two after grabbing another handful of shot blocks and a water refill. I was determined to keep my lead so I pushed as hard and steady as I could up the first gradual climbs. I couldn’t see anyone behind me at this point but my eyes were getting a bit blurry and I couldn’t really be sure whether or not Scott was right behind me. He was wearing black and could easily have blended in with the landscape between the rocks and buffalo. So I set off assuming that he was only minutes behind me and tried to keep my focus on a hard steady effort up and over the first set of hills.

At the first big downhill where I had cruised along and lost Scott and Shannon on the first loop, my hamstrings were getting really stiff and sore so the second trip down the hill wasn’t much better than an easy jog. By the time I hit the shoreline before the last big climb, I was hurting pretty bad and took a couple walking breaks to eat some more shot blocks and drink my water and try to pull myself back together. And even though the grade was fairly easy, I walked almost every step of the last climb on the south end of the loop. It even took me about half a mile from the top to get my legs moving downhill.

Scott was still nowhere in sight behind me and I still had 10 flat miles to cover to hold my lead. Crap, this sucked. I was hurting and struggling to keep up a 10 minute mile pace. I knew Scott could easily run faster so I started doing the math in my head …if I had a 10 minute lead, I just had to run this last 10 miles 1 minute slower than Scott could. But what if I didn’t have a 10 minute lead? Damn it, I could completely blow it. Now wouldn’t that suck to lead most of the race and get passed right before the finish. I decided that I didn’t want to be that guy and doubled my efforts and pressed on. At the start of the flat section by the ranch, I caught up with the last 50k runner who was busy taking photos of a buffalo standing right in the middle of the road between us and the next section of trail. Unlike the other buffalo on the course who mostly just got in the way and minded their own business, this guy was squared off and staring straight at us and didn’t look like he was going to get out of the way any time soon. So I decided to take a short detour down through the ranch parking area and back up around to the other side of the blocked road. The 50k runner was kind enough to stay there and continue taking photos to divert his attention away from me.

Grinding my way along the last flat miles at the end of the second loop. (Photo by Megan Price)

From this point on to the finish I kept catching up with 50k runners who were very encouraging. Every time I really wanted to slow down or walk, I’d run into another group of 50k runners and thought, damn it, I can’t just walk now after they were all so nice to cheer me on. After the 9 mile gate aid station where the trail turned into clear dry dirt single track, I managed to get moving at roughly a 9min pace. I did some more math to figure out what lead I’d need to have to hold off Scott if he could cover this same section at an 8min pace. About 6 miles out from the finish, the cows started to smell the barn and stepped up the pace again. My hamstrings were in serious pain and running along this flat section just wasn’t any fun any more. I wanted to be done with this race and off this stinking island. I was pissed that I had to be in the lead and couldn’t just run my own race and finish comfortably in a respectable and solid 2nd or 3rd place. It was stressing me out not knowing where Scott might be behind me and I didn’t like the idea of getting this far in the lead and completely blow it at the end. I managed to run 3 more miles up to the last little climb before the finish at about 8:30 pace. At the top of the fence line, I looked back one more time and couldn’t see Scott. But both eyes were completely blurry by this point and I couldn’t see the fence 10 feet in front of me so I still couldn’t be sure if I was in the clear. Any one of the blurry dots behind me could just be 50k runners that I had just passed or one could be Scott gaining on me. So I pushed as hard as I could for the last little stretch of road downhill to the finish.

I made it in 9 hours and 13 seconds. This beat Scott’s 2010 course record by about 29 minutes but this year’s course was re-routed and may have been 1.5 to 2 miles short. I’m really not sure exactly how the courses compare. The re-route cut out some flat running along the shoreline and added some extra hill climbs on the first half of the loop so it may have been comparable. But I figure I could have still at least walked another 2 miles in 29 minutes so I think it’s fair to take credit for the record.

Shannon ended up finishing second about 54 minutes behind me. Evidently Scott decided to drop out after the first loop. So I really didn’t need to push as hard as I did through the second lap but in hindsight I was glad that I didn’t find out that Scott had dropped. I probably would have gotten a bit lazy to just cruise through the second lap and I’m happy that I was able to maintain my focus racing from start to finish.

Shannon and I happy to be finished ...and completely unable to get up out of those chairs. (Photo by Megan Price)

Overall I was pretty pleased with my run and it was nice to finally win something. But I think all of my friends were more excited about the win than I was. Pushing the pace and trying to hold the lead was just painful and stressful so I’m not sure how much I really liked it. And for my own personal standards, I don’t think I ran as well as I could have. For this race day, I did the best that I could but I felt sluggish on the uphills and was pretty weak up and down the hills on the second lap. I definitely didn’t feel like I was racing in my peak condition. But it was a good confidence boost to get ready for full HURT training. I have some more work to do but feel like I’m starting with a good base and have the time to really sharpen up to be able to race in peak condition this January.

The rest of our FCTR crew all did extremely well. Kristel and Cat ran together and tied for 2nd place in the 100k for the women. In the 50k, Kristel’s husband Justin finished his first 50k. Scott ran with Celeste who had an awesome run as well. And Mary and her brother Robert seemed like they just had a great time enjoying the trail.

Kristel, me, and Cat at the finish. I'm not sure if I'm holding them up or they are keeping me from tipping over ...maybe a little of both. (Photo by Mary Boyts)

For the past few years, I’ve wanted to get out and explore more of our national parks and wilderness areas and the Grand Canyon R2R2R run has been on my list for a long time. But I’ve kept getting myself tied up with race events putting all of my time and effort into training, tapering, traveling to and from races, and then recovering to do it all over again. This year I decided that Hardrock would be enough for one season but it took a lot longer to recover than I expected. Physically I recovered quickly and felt fine. But for the past couple months I’ve been struggling to really get back to running well again. Other than pacing, I really haven’t been able to get a really good long run in on my own since Hardrock. And of course I couldn’t leave my race schedule completely empty so I went and signed up for the Antelope Island 100k in November and the HURT 100 in January. Up until this last week I wasn’t really sure I’d be in any shape to run either of these events.  Since Hardrock I’ve only averaged about 60 miles per week without any real training focus. So I decided to make this Grand Canyon trip a test to see if I could get myself back on track.

8 of us from Fort Collins ended up going down for the run on Saturday the 8th. I carpooled with Cat and Shaun and we caravanned down with Alex, Ean, and Mike in a second carpool. We all decided to leave Ft Collins at 3am Thursday (or I guess that’s technically Friday) to get down to the Grand Canyon in time to set up camp in the afternoon. Ron and Lisa drove down on a more sane schedule splitting the drive into two days down and two days back. We made it down just in time Friday afternoon to set up camp, check in at the Backcountry office for more info about the route and water access, and caught the sunset at the South Rim.

Since none of us had any plans to break the FKT for the route, we all decided that it would be best to start on the South Kaibab trail and finish back up Bright Angel. Ean, Ron, and Lisa planned to run down to Phantom Ranch and back and this would give them a more interesting route that just going down and back on Kaibab. Bright Angel added a few extra miles to the standard out and back but the climb back to the South Rim was a bit more gradual and there were several water stops along the way.

We all took off from Yaki Point at the start of the South Kaibab trail just before 6am Saturday morning. I ended up running all the way to the North Rim turn around with Mike. I got ahead of Mike a bit on the downhill but he was a lot stronger on the uphill and pulled me most of the way up the long grind to the North Rim. I was surprised that about half of the distance to the North Rim from Phantom Ranch was a really gradual incline with a lot of flat sections through the bottom of the canyon. The majority of the climb up to the North Rim wasn’t until after Roaring Springs so most of the 6,000ft from the river was packed into a few miles of super steep switchbacks. And unfortunately we didn’t time our run very well and got stuck int he middle of endless mule trains coming down the hill. At almost every other switchback, we’d need to step off the trail to let a dozen mules go by.

After Mike and I refilled water and took a couple pictures at the North Rim trail head, I took off at my own pace down the long decent back to Phantom Ranch. Alex wasn’t much more than a mile or so behind at this point and Cat was only about a mile behind Alex. I felt pretty good running down as a fairly good cruising pace until I made it past Cottonwood campground. After 30 miles, this section leveled out to the gradual decline back to Phantom Ranch and my legs just didn’t have much kick left. Just before Phantom Ranch, I ran into Shaun. He had turned around early after cramping up on the way to the North Rim but was feeling much better so I pressed on to grind my way up Bright Angel. I was pretty tired but not really hurting at the point so I pushed the pace a bit to try to get back to the South Rim as quickly and efficiently as possible. The grade was actually pretty gradual with a lot of long switchbacks and shallow steps so I was able to keep up a jogging rhythm most of the way up. With about 2 miles to go, I was just tired both mentally and physically and just settled into a fast hiking pace. When I finally started seeing tourists hiking down the trail in jeans and dress shoes, I figured the end was very near and managed to run the last quarter mile to finish in 10 hours and 20 minutes.

My time was no where near what I would expect to run at a full race effort but I was pretty happy to finish a solid day of running without any major bonk or pain. The R2R2R run also finished off my first 100 mile training week since before Hardrock which felt pretty good. Since the R2R2R week, I’ve finished out another 100 mile week and am working on knocking out a third. I’m starting to feel the effects this week so I’m not sure if the Antelope Island 100k will be a real race effort or just another long training run. But I’m definitely feeling confident that I can be in full race shape for the HURT 100 in January.

Aside from getting in a decent training run, running the the Grand Canyon was just an awesome experience. I had only been through the Grand Canyon once on a college road trip and merely pulled over briefly to look over the South Rim. But completing the full crossing from one rim down to the river and back up to the other rim was really amazing. The drastic change in environment as we dropped down and climbed back up was incredible. The South Rim was a crisp and chilly fall morning when we started. By the time we reached the bottom, it was summer in a lush, green environment with cottonwood trees and willows lining the river. On the climb to the north rim, the terrain opened up to a dry desert landscape with cactus and huge yucca plants. Further up the North Rim we entered fall again with a layer of oak and aspen trees just starting to turn red and yellow. The top of the North Rim ended in a pine forest with patches of snow.

I’ll definitely go back to run this again. Early October seems like the ideal timing to run just before the water pumps shut off. Maybe we got lucky this time but the weather was absolutely perfect for us. Most of the day was perfectly cool running weather and I don’t think I spent more than 2 hours in any real heat. But event he hottest part of the day was a tolerable 80 degrees – pretty tame compared to running around the Fort Collins foothills in July.

 Here are a few photos from the run:

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I’ve posted a full map of the route here.

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My race didn’t quite go as well as I had planned. I got sick early in the race and threw up regularly from Ouray to Oscar’s pass. I spent hours in aid stations trying to recover and pull myself together to be able to make it to the next aid station. For many miles, my pace could barely be considered walking. From my own perspective, this was the worst performance of my life. At times, it was downright pathetic. But at the end of the day, I was the 15th finisher to kiss the rock in Silverton. By Hardrock standards, my worst day was actually a pretty good run. Hardrock is a different kind of race.

The day started out extremely well. The first climb up over Little Giant seemed easy and the views from the top were exhilarating. I came into Cunningham well ahead of my planned pace so I took it easy and just tried to cruise through the next few sections. I ran with Duncan most of the way to Pole Creek and after that we played leap frog all the way to Governor’s Basin. On the downhill into Sherman, I ran a much faster pace than I thought I would but my legs still felt fresh, light, and quick on the switchbacks and I was really having fun.

Trouble started shortly after leaving Sherman. I had planned on taking it easy on the climb over Handies and thought that I had plenty of water and time to get over to Grouse. On the way out of Sherman, a volunteer on the road mentioned that storms might be blowing in. There were a few dark clouds forming so I mentally prepared myself for whatever rain, hail, sleet, and lightning the mountain could throw at me and headed up. Since I fully expected to freeze my ass off, I passed right by the last water drop at the trailhead and charged up the trail. I still had most of my hydration pack full from the Sherman station and it was only a 3 mile grunt to the top and all downhill from there to Grouse. Wrong. It was a 4 mile slog to the top and the descent had another 700ft bonus climb up out of the American Basin. Shortly after passing the last water drop, the sky cleared and the sun came out in full force. It never rained one drop and even at the very top at 14,000ft, I was roasting. And just as I made it to the summit, my water ran out. Oh crap! Fortunately there was plenty of snow and fresh run off on the trail near the top. I stopped and stuffed snow in my pack fully expecting that enough would melt on the way down to get me to Grouse in one piece. Not one drop melted. I stopped several times to slurp some water from streams and grabbed handfuls of snow to suck on but never managed to get more than a few sips. It would have been easier if I had a bottle to dip and fill and in hind sight, I should have dragged my hydration bladder out and scraped it through whatever run off I could get in it. Eventually the snow fields ended and I still had a few miles of dry, hot trail to cover to get to Grouse.

At Grouse, I took some extra time to sit and try to recover. Or at least I thought I took an extra long time at the aid station to pull myself together. But I was still caught up in the excitement of the race. Volunteers and crew were buzzing and Maria was geared up and ready to start pacing me through to Telluride. I left the aid station in less than 15 minutes planning to just walk most of Engineer pass while continuing to catch up on hydration and calories. Well, everyone in the best condition just walks up Engineer pass – seriously, what the hell was I thinking?!? And I quickly found that just walking up to 13,000ft isn’t the best environment to catch up on hydration. It was still roasting hot out and I stopped once to stick my head in a snowbank and then filled my shorts and arm sleeves with snow. Looking back now, I realize that I was already severely dehydrated and overheating and should have been more diligent in icing down to control my body temperature.

At the Engineer aid station, I started to feel better and managed to get a few orange slices down. I loaded up with a fistful of saltines to tide me over until I could get to the low point on the course in Ouray way down below at a reasonable elevation around 7700ft. As we dropped in elevation, I felt better and better and my legs were moving well on the nice gradual descent down the canyon. This is one of the sections of the course that most people are terrified of with a narrow trail winding along the side of a cliff and a sheer drop off just inches away with a raging river below. But the trail was really one of the smoothest and most runnable sections of the course. For a few miles, I forgot about how tired and sick I was and just had fun cruising down the trail. Towards the bottom, I met up with Matt Hart, on a section of loose shale. He warned me to save my quads and I joked that I lost my quads long ago. But honestly I felt pretty good. I’d spent months training my quads for this abuse and they were holding up better than I ever imagined. The shale snapped under our feet like dinner plates and I got a childlike satisfaction imagining that we were crashing our way through fine china so I kept stomping away down the hill.

By Ouray, I was feeling pretty good. I was tired and my stomach was still queasy but all things considered, I felt better than I thought I would 56 miles into this ordeal. I took another extended break at the aid station to re-hydrate, re-fuel, and re-charge for the big push up over Virginius to Telluride. Or at least I thought it was an extended break – I was out of the aid station in 12 minutes. And as soon as I checked out and turned the first corner out of sight, I threw up everything. This really wasn’t the condition I planned to start the 7.9 mile grind up Camp Bird road to the Governor Basin aid station.

The road to Governor Basin was a long, tedious climb. The only upside to being stuck on this road was that we could continue hiking into the dark without using our head lamps. Eventually Maria switched on her head lamp and I stayed a few yards behind in the shadows which helped to save my eyes and eliminate some of the dizzying effect of staring through a tunnel of artificial light. I threw up again along the way and finally realized just how bad my condition was. I was burning hot – even as the sun went down and the temperature started dropping. My forehead was dry and burning and I was dying of thirst. All I wanted to do was guzzle cold water. But I was so nauseous that my stomach protested at even the smallest sip. We still had several miles to cover to get to the aid station and I was seriously worried. I finally ditched the pacing goals and told Maria that we had to stop at the next available rock to sit. I needed to get water down and get myself to Governor Basin in a condition I could recover from. Pushing any harder could put me over the edge and end my race and probably put me in the hospital. It took over half a mile to find a rock to sit on. Seriously?!?! I planned to sit for as long as it took to get 10 sips of water down. I threw up once but bit by bit, slowly counted out the sips and let each settle.

We made it to Governor Basin and I told Maria I would stay there as long as it took to make sure I could recover enough to get up and over Virginius. Getting sick and crashing on Camp Bird road may have meant dropping out of the race to get a ride to the hospital. Getting stuck in this condition on the snow fields on Virginius at 13,000ft at night would be a search and rescue nightmare. Whatever finish goals I had set my sights on at the beginning of the race just weren’t worth the risk. And to confirm just how bad things could get, Hardrock veteran and 2010 champion, Jared Campbell, had been wrapped up in a sleeping bag for an hour when I got there. The volunteers where whispering to Jared’s pacer about dropping. He had an easy way out to just take a ride back down the hill to Ouray. But Jared surprised them and came back from the dead, geared up, let out a huge shout, and stormed out of the aid station up Virginius. Unfortunately Jared couldn’t pull off the same recovery again and eventually dropped in Telluride. I stayed at Governor for a full hour and threw up my first attempt at some tea, ginger ale, and a sandwich. Eventually I managed to alternate ginger ale, broth, and saltines to get enough liquid and fuel in me to have the confidence to push up and over Virginius.

The layover at Governor was just enough to get me up and over the top of Virginius and Maria and I made good time keeping up a steady hike up the pass. At the top, we were greeted by the world’s best aid station crew. Roch Horton, Fred Ecks, and a handful of other hard core volunteers were perched on a the ledge at the top of Virginius under a tiny little tarp. They had propane tanks, lights, and even a stereo blaring. Roch ushered me over to sit on the one available spot with a camp pad laid out while other volunteers draped a sleeping bag over me to keep me warm. In quick succession Roch handed me coke, chicken broth, and a pierogi. He was so efficient about it that I didn’t even have a chance to think about whether or not my stomach could handle it. I just drank and ate whatever he gave me. The pierogi was possibly the best food I’d had all day! While I swallowed the last of my pierogi, Roch gave some good words of encouragement and rattled off the stats, "I was doing great (really?), only 33 miles to the finish, 5 miles to Telluride, just a small 40ft climb over Mendota saddle, one snow field on the traverse below, and just a couple patches on the other side to get to good trail, and you’re out of here in 5, 4, 2, 2, 1." With that, I was on my feet and on my way down the hill.

I had my first big fall on the way down. Snow fields opened up to a really steep and rocky section with running water over loose gravel and scree. I tripped and went flying head first. I was able to get my hands up but I still had a firm grip on both trekking poles so I ended up punching both fists straight into the rocks in front of my face. I took most of the fall on my left arm and just barely bumped my head and rolled over through the running water. It hurt like hell and I couldn’t put much weight on my left arm. But I still was able to grip my pole and was able to use it for balance the rest of the way down.

By Telluride, I was getting seriously sick again. I threw up in the bushes in the park one more time and then settled into a chair to re-start the slow process of getting fluids and calories down bit by bit. Eric, Lisa, and my mom were here to help and while they may not think they did much, it was a huge help to have friends and family with me.

Just before dawn, I finally decided it was time to go and got up and headed up the long climb to Oscar’s with Eric. I was still nauseous and was barely able to keep up sipping water and nibbling on saltines. To make matters worse, I had developed a nasty cough. I kept hacking up crud from my lungs which threatened to trigger another violent episode of vomited every few minutes. Eric and I caught up with Blake through this section and we played a game of slow motion leap frog all the way to the Chapman aid station. I joked with Blake about racing as we traded places ….our head to head battle up to Oscar’s was probably a bit less exciting than watching senior citizens putter along with walkers and canes. At the top of Oscar’s we were rewarded with some amazing views. I actually felt fortunate that I had such a rough night. If I had pushed on through Governor and Telluride without stopping, I would have gone over this pass in the dark and missed some of the best views of the entire course. For a few moments I was having fun again, enjoying the views, and soaking in the experience of being out on such an amazing trail. And then I puked again. Just a few steps from the top on the last snow field, I just couldn’t hold it. I swear, my socks nearly came out through this one. It was awful.

On the other side of Oscar’s, I was greeted by the gnarliest, nastiest, pile of talus. It was almost impossible to walk through this jagged pile of rocks. I took back all the bad things I said about the climbs up the snow fields. This was just brutal!

At Chapman, my day finally started to turn around. Ryan and Megan were at the aid station waiting for their runner so it was nice to see some friendly faces. We all had a good laugh …mostly at Eric in his ridiculous outfit. He’d been wearing Kari’s pink running skirt and a hog heaven tank top all day. We laughed about some other stuff …I’m really not sure what. At this stage of exhaustion, you kind of have to laugh at everything. Otherwise you’d just break down and cry. Good times!

In our short stay at Chapman, I managed to get a cup of coffee down and ate a few cookies. Eric and I repacked our gear to take just what we needed to cover the last 18 miles to Silverton. It was still only a little after 10am and Eric pulled out one head lamp and asked if I thought we should take it. There was an awkward pause for a moment and the head lamp went back in the pack. "Only" 18 miles at Hardrock was still a long way to go and a lot could go wrong.

From Chapman to the finish I was able to keep drinking and eating cookies. I kept a schedule of 1 cookie per mile and wow, what a difference some consistent calories and fluids makes. We hiked steadily up Grant Swamp pass. I pulled myself up the final near-vertical scree chute almost entirely with my poles – just kicking my feet into the loose dirt for enough foothold to plant another pole up the slope and haul myself up another foot. We lingered at the top for a few moments to catch our breath, enjoy the views, and visit Joel Zucker’s memorial. After a few switchbacks of sliding and tip toeing through more nasty scree and rocks, the trail opened up and we were finally able to start running at a decent pace to the KT aid station below.

On the climb up to Putnam from KT, I finally got hit with a major hail storm. Fortunately we stayed below tree line for most of the storm and just got stopped for a few minutes at tree line with Nathan and Devon and several other runners. I was amazed at just how drastically the weather changed. My feet were numb from running through the hail and ice water filled single track and I was starting to have trouble bending my fingers to keep a good grip on my poles. Just 20 minutes earlier I had been roasting under the hot sun. And a mere 20 minutes later on our way up the endless climb to Putnam, I was roasting again under the blazing sun. On the climb to Putnam, the end was finally in sight and I finally started to get some energy for the final push. From the ridge it was all downhill to the finish. But wait, that one wasn’t the ridge. The top is the next ridge over on the right. Oh crap, that’s not it either. The top of the ridge is way the hell up on that next huge hill. Straight up the grassy slope, one pole plant and one foot step at a time. Ugh!

The cruise downhill from Putnam went well. Eric and I stopped just long enough to say hello to Mark Overson and check that we had enough water to make to the finish. I was able to move pretty well through most of the easy sections and only slowed down to pick my way through the intermittent talus fields along the way. At the bottom of the hill, we had one more challenge blocking our way to Silverton – the Mineral river crossing. The river crossing was roped off but after 97+ miles, getting across without losing my feet was no easy task. The water was waist deep and running fast. I had to hold the rope with both hands and lean with my full weight upstream with both legs locked. Each footstep was an effort and it felt like the current was going to rip my quads right off my bones.

After a few hundred yards hobbling on numb, tired legs, Eric and I got moving again ran the last couple miles into town. We hiked a couple of the last slopes, turned the corner at the top of the hill by the shrine and ran every step of the way through town. No one was chasing me at the time. I wasn’t racing any more and really didn’t have any reason to hurry. I just wanted to get to the finish. No matter how bad some of the run had been, I wanted to finish strong and I wanted to run. I can’t describe just how good it felt to get to the end and kiss than damn rock.

This event was far more than a race. Hardrock is ultra running at it’s best. It humbles the elite. It’s ruthlessly unforgiving of the ill prepared and inexperienced. Fierce competitors become allies. Strangers become friends. There is an overwhelming positive force from every person involved that wills you to succeed.

Congrats to all of the 80 official finishers as well as the 2 final finishers who made it back to Silverton after the cut off. Thanks to Duncan, Matt, Blake, Nathan, and Devon for the good company out on the trail. I’m glad you all made it to the finish line. Thanks to Eric and Maria for doing such an awesome job pacing and escorting me safely for over 60 miles to the finish. Thanks Mom and Lisa for coming out to support this crazy adventure driving all over Colorado and staying up all night in the middle of nowhere. And a huge thank you to all the volunteers who made this event possible.

I look forward to seeing everyone again in Silverton next July. If I don’t get a spot as a runner in the lottery, I’ll be out there to volunteer, pace, or crew to try to pay back some of the support that helped get me to the finish line this year.

For more insight into the Hardrock experience I recommend reading Nick, Joe, Dakota, Devon, and Tim‘s reports.

I’ll post more photos as soon as I have a chance to get them organized.

The map info is online here.

For the past year, I’ve been using the Black Diamond Trail Ergo Cork trekking poles. But just last week, I finally broke down and bougth the new Black Diamond Ultra Distance Z-Poles. All the cool kids where using them at Bighorn and I was envious of how light and compact they were.

This last weekend I took them out for a test run up Pikes Peak and for fast and light trail running, I loved them. The weight is barely noticeable. Both of the carbon Ultra Distance Z-Poles were about the same weight as just one of my aluminum Trail Ergo Cork poles. I worried that the 3 section fold would be a bit of a hassle but they strapped onto the back of my Ultimate Direction Wasp pack perfectly. And taking them off my pack and snapping them together was super fast and easy. The sections just snap together like tent poles and there is just one lock button under the handle. It was much easier than extending, adjusting, and clipping in the 2 sections of the Trail Ergo poles. On a normal day, the difference isn’t critical but in the middle of the night on a 100 mile run, I think I’ll appreciate the simplicity of the Z-Pole.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the compact size of both sets of poles on two UD Wasp packs:

New Ultra Distance Z-Poles on the left and Trail Ergo Cork trekking poles on the right attached to Ultimate Direction WASP packs.

The downside to the Z-Poles is that the length isn’t adjustable. They have a lower grip on the handle but that’s it. So you really need to know what length works for you before you buy them. I went with the largest 130cm poles which by Black Diamond’s size recommendations would be for someone over 6ft tall. But I like to extend my reach and pull through with my full upper body like freestyle cross country skiing. And longer poles are helpful to reach down for stability on steep, technical drops. So it would be a good idea to test out some adjustable poles to figure out what length you like best before you buy the fixed length Z-Poles. And if you plan to use poles to pitch a shelter on an overnight trip, the adjustable poles would probably be best.

Another drawback to carbon is that when it does break, it will shatter. Aluminum can kink and bend and you can just bash it back into shape. The carbon Z-poles seemed sturdy and stable enough for running and hiking on steep hills but if I needed something to dig into a snow field to stop a fall, I think I’d prefer my sturdy aluminum Trail Ergo Cork poles. (Although Eric just made a good point that if you really are worried about falling on a snow field, you should use the proper tool and have an ice axe.) The Z-Poles don’t have interchangeable baskets either so the Trail Ergo would be my choice for an all purpose running, hiking, snow shoeing trekking pole. And the aluminum model is much cheaper so for general use, I think the Trail Ergo Cork model is the best value. I’ll definitely be taking the Ultra Distance Z-Poles with me to Hardrock. If you want the fastest, lightest, easiest trekking pole to use for trail running, I think these are definitely worth the extra money.

I just bought my new Z-Poles from Backcountry.com – they’ll take returns on anything, anytime which is nice to know if you test them out and end up hating them. Black Diamond rarely goes on sale so you might be able to use your next member coupon at REI to try to get them cheaper.