Posts Tagged ‘race reports’

Moab Red Hot Cold, Rainy, and Windy 55k

Feb 23rd, 11 / 2 Comments

Well this year’s Red Hot 55k in Moab was anything but red hot. It was mostly cold, rainy, extremely windy with a few breaks of dreary overcast gloom. Based on the weather conditions, this race probably shouldn’t have been any fun at all. But with 50 Fort Collins trail runners and another 13 Special Idiots from the Boulder/Denver area out on the course, it turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun. Our group took over 40 rooms at the Bighorn Lodge, made up 20% of the finishers in the 33k and 55k races, and by my best guess we consumed at least 80% of the post race beer.

Photo by Eric Lee

Going into the race, I really didn’t know what to expect. My recovery from Ghost Town was slower than expected and between some really nasty cold weather, social commitments, and getting mentally sidetracked by Hardrock, I really hadn’t done any specific training or even given the Moab 55k a single thought. I just planned to go out for a weekend road trip with friends and have fun on the course.

The race started off with a nice social lead pack with Ryan and Dakota leading the way up the first hill. I settled in with Sam and Scott, said hello to Jason Koop from Ghost Town and for at least a couple minutes it seemed like this was going to be a pleasant group fun run.

Ryan taking the lead at the start followed by Tim Parr, Dakota, Sam, Scott, and I. (Photo by Dan Brillon)

That lasted about half a mile up the first little climb before the fast guys started to pull ahead on the next 3 mile stretch of gradual downhill. As the leaders were pulling ahead, I tried to settle into a comfortable cruising speed and was surprised to see my mile 2 split at 6:32 and mile 3 at 6:38. What was more surprising than running at my marathon PR pace at the start of a trail 50k race was that it actually felt pretty good. So I kept up the same effort level and finally settled in to run along with Scott.

We cruised up the first climb on Metal Masher at a brisk pace and despite the on and off rain and occasional gust of wind, we were both feeling very good. But on the back stretch of the first loop, we hit the first real headwinds. Mile 13 through 18 is usually a really nice stretch of jeep road with a gradual downhill drop where you can really haul ass, stretch the legs out, and recharge before the next challenging section of slickrock. This year we ran straight into a relentless headwind. Scott and I teamed up to take turns drafting off of each other through this section. It did help slightly and we were able to maintain a strong pace but we still expended too much energy that we’d really need later in the race.

By mile 18 where I had planned to really start my final push through the last half of the course, my legs were already pretty fried. But on a positive note, we finally had a decent break in the weather and the sun almost broke through the clouds. So on a fairly easy section before the climb up Gold Bar, I took the opportunity to peel off my wind breaker. But as I was fumbling to re-clip my waist pack, I caught a toe. My hands were still trapped on my belt and I barely got my left hand up before I did a full belly flop into the dirt. Fortunately my shoulder and face hit soft dirt and only my hand, ribs, and knees smacked down on the slickrock. As I was dusting myself off Scott and a couple other runners pulled off ahead. That was really demoralizing. I took a couple minutes to walk it off and after I figured out that nothing was seriously damaged, I pulled myself back together and charged back up the hill to catch up with Scott. After the next aid station, I pulled ahead and didn’t see Scott again until the finish line. I was pretty tired at this point and in a bit of pain from the fall and just needed to focus on running whatever pace I could manage in the final grind to the finish.

The final miles of the race were much harder than I remember from two years ago. The slickrock route was marked as well as it possibly could have been marked. But without any visible trail and a limited number of bushes and rocks to attach flagging, it’s always a challenge to follow the course through here. A few times a long the way I had to stop to look for markers and after the last aid station, I went about a tenth of a mile off course following another runner. Fortunately I caught the error in time to get back on track without losing much time. Headwinds started gusting on and off through this last section and following Murphy’s Law, they blew the hardest whenever I hit a nice runnable patch of road or slickrock. There were also several sections of very soft sand that I don’t remember at all from two years ago. So a few stretches of dirt that I remembered to be really nice easy breaks from the pounding on slickrock were sand traps that were difficult to walk through, let alone keep up any decent running pace. And the last 4 miles that I remembered being a very fast and easy downhill on jeep road had a lot more technical slickrock and uphills. In the last few miles I started catching up with 33k runners so it was helpful to have people to chase and it was a great mental boost to see some friends along the final stretch.

One of many sand traps. (Photo by Kemp Nussbaum)

With the rough conditions, my finish time wasn’t quite as fast as I hoped but I still managed to finish with a 21 minute PR from the last time I ran the race in 2009. Erik, Sam, and Stephen ended up finishing just a few minutes ahead of me so I suppose there may have been a chance to push a bit harder to catch them. Through the last 10 miles I ran the uphills fairly conservatively to save energy to push the easy downhill sections that never really appeared. So I may have been able to run a bit faster if I had just pushed any runnable line, up or down, that I could spot far enough ahead that didn’t have a headwind or a sand trap. But that’s just speculation in hindsight. I ran as hard as I could for the day and am pretty happy about my finish time and place. I have a lot of work to do to get ready for Hardrock but between this run and my run at Ghost Town last month, I’m feeling very good about where I’m starting from for this season.

Our Fort Collins trail runners and Special Idiots took over most of the local Mexican restaurant. (Photo by Chris Gerber)


We were very focused on thoroughly re-hydrating after the race. (Photo by Eric Lee)

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The Last Ghost Town

Jan 22nd, 11 / 4 Comments

For my first race of 2011 I headed back to southern New Mexico to run the Ghost Town 38.5 for the 4th and last time. Once again Susan put on a great event with fantastic volunteers and fabulous food. Ghost Town always seems more like a family reunion than a race.

I carpooled down with Kristel, Victoria, and Nick Pedatella on Friday and our plan was to camp out on Susan’s property and take the day on Saturday to relax. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to Hillsboro in time for dinner at Susan’s but there was still some good apple crisp left over and Nick, Victoria, and Kristel got their first dose of Susan’s story telling …including one interesting bit about the history of Hillsboro’s brothels back when it was a booming mining town.

Saturday was a nice lazy day with an easy 3 mile jog to start the day, a soak in the hot springs in Truth or Consequences, and a huge pre-race dinner. The Saturday dinner included several tables of potluck contributions from the runners and mountains of food from Susan’s kitchen. Ghost Town is one of the few ultra events that I run where I actually gain weight by the end of the weekend. Susan’s lead kitchen volunteer, Tim, did an amazing job coordinating everything. Tim was working away in Susan’s kitchen from the time that we arrived Friday evening until we left Sunday evening. I’m pretty sure he never left the kitchen the entire weekend.

Race morning was a bit chilly at about 30 degrees but compared to previous years it was pretty mild. I was feeling good after a fairly restful week but a bit nervous about the race. Personally I hoped to have a good run and beat my time from 2010 and if I was lucky, I’d see how close I could get to beating Nick Clark’s record. Now I don’t really believe that I can outrun Nick. But he set the 2010 record a week after running a course record at the Bandera 100k and he was a bit beat up so I figured there might be a slim chance. And before the race, Susan did her best to stir up some trouble and somehow my 5:09 to 5:20 goal turned into a show down to see whether Nick Pedatella or I could break 5 hours. Jason Koop managed to sneak into the race below Susan’s radar but both Nick and I knew he’d be fast and would probably be the guy to beat.

From the start Nick and I took off at a brisk pace on the road and ran together for the first 10 miles. When we left the Stone Hut station heading out on the short out and back, Jason was right behind us. At the crest of the hill after Stone Hut, I decided to stretch out my legs and push the pace on the long downhill before the spur trail and managed to pull ahead out of sight of both Nick and Jason. The spur trail was mostly covered in ankle deep snow so it was definitely slower and harder this year. I just focused on chugging along at a steady pace through the snow. On the way back down the hill, I got my first chance to see how Nick and Jason were doing. They looked just fine coming up the hill together a little less than 2 tenths of a mile behind me.

About 15 miles into the run I was still feeling pretty good and keeping up a brisk pace but my hamstrings started to really tighten up and ache and I really have no idea why. I’ve beat myself up pretty good on past runs but never had any issues with hamstrings. They didn’t seem to be getting worse and weren’t slowing me down. It was just a little more uncomfortable than I would have liked at this point in the run. So I shrugged it off and pressed on.

The drop down into the turn around at Cave Creek also had quite a bit of snow so it was a bit slower and trickier than past years. But I made it to the turn around right on pace for a 5:09 finish goal. Unfortunately Jason was still lurking behind me looking really strong about a quarter mile back. Nick had dropped back a little further but was still only half a mile behind me. Both were too close for comfort.

From Cave Creek to the Hilltop station, I got to see most of the other runners out on the course. Everyone looked like they were having a great day and the positive energy from the rest of the field was a great boost to push through this tough section of the race.

At about mile 27 just before heading up the last big climb, Jason finally caught up with me. I was definitely feeling the distance in my legs at this point. I’d been running much faster than I’ve run in previous years and while the pace felt OK, I could tell that I just didn’t have the base training miles on my legs that I’m used to and these last miles of the race were serious work. The finish line was still a long way down the road so I let Jason pull ahead. I figured I’d just stick to my own pace up over the hill to Stone Hut and then really push the last 9 miles in to the finish to see if I could reel him back in. I arrived at the Stone Hut dog leg just as Jason was on his way out so I figured I was still in decent position to fight for a first place finish.

I really didn’t know what kind of runner Jason was. I just knew that he had a lot of experience with some fast finishes but most of his ultras were longer mountain races. I really hoped that he was more of mountain runner than a road runner. So I hauled ass down the road from Stone Hut as fast as I could keep my legs moving. For a few miles back down to the highway, their are several sections where you can see a mile or more ahead. When I got my first view of the long road ahead I hoped to catch a glimpse of Jason to get an idea of how much of a lead he had on me. No luck. He was gone. Nowhere in sight. It turns out, he’s a hell of a fast runner on the road. In the last 10 miles of the race, Jason dropped me by 10 minutes to finish with a new course record in 5:06.

With Jason gone and Nick nowhere in sight behind me, I had to struggle to mentally stay focused to keep pushing my pace through to the finish. I had to remind myself that I started this race to run as well as I possibly could. I wasn’t going to let myself shut down in the final miles to just cruise in for an easy 2nd place finish. Those last 6 miles on the road were damn hard. I didn’t have anyone to chase and there wasn’t anyone chasing me. It was just me and my brain against my legs. My hamstrings were screaming and if I let my concentration drift for just a few seconds my pace would instantly drop. I kept pushing down the road one guard rail post at a time and eventually Hillsboro came into view and I turned the corner onto Susan’s property to finish in 5:16. I wasn’t anywhere near first and quite a bit short of my 5:09 stretch goal. But it was a new PR for me by almost 9 minutes and the 3rd fastest finish time in Ghost Town history.

While it would have been nice to win, I’m still really happy about my run. I checked my splits compared to last year and the snow and some of the uphills that felt slower really weren’t that bad. I only lost about 43 seconds in the snow on the Spur trail. The trip to Cave Creek and back was only a minute slower than last year. And I may have started out fairly aggressively running the first 10 miles about 4 minutes faster than 2010 but in the last 8 miles, I shaved over 4 minutes off of my 2010 pace. So I think I ran a pretty good race and look forward to seeing what I can build off of this for the rest of 2011.

For the rest of the day I enjoyed a nice warm day in the sun with good friends. Nick ended up aggravating an old ankle sprain but managed to make it to the finish in 3rd place not too far behind me. Kari and Chris tied for 1st place for the women. Kristel and Victoria finished their run together in 2nd for the women. Mary had a solid run finishing her longest ultra event yet. And Jennifer finished her first ultra. She looked great out on the road when I saw her on my way back from Vista and she looked just as good running the last mile to the finish line.

As usual, Susan had a ton of food out for the post race – home made enchiladas, soups, cookies, chips, and fruit. And that was just the snacks to tide us over until the full post race BBQ. In the last 4 years, I think this was by far the best Ghost Town event yet. Aside from Susan’s great work, we had a really great field of runners this year. It’s really too bad that this was the last year for the event. But I’m sure I’ll see many of the Ghost Town alumni out at many other races. And it sounds like Susan may have some plans for something new in the future.

Thank you Susan and the rest of the Ghost Town regulars for 4 good years!

You can check out Susan’s website for a full list of race reports and photos.

Jeff Genova put together a pretty good slide show of photos from the event in this video:

I didn’t carry my camera out on the course but got a few photos from the weekend here:

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El Chubbo Grande 50k Race Report

Dec 20th, 10 / 7 Comments

Wow, what a great run to finish off 2010!

We had about 50 runners out for Mr. October‘s inaugural El Chubbo Grande Fat Ass 50k. With 3 start times, 3 routes to choose from, and no less than 38 opportunities to get lost, we had runners spread out all over Horsetooth and Lory parks. Everyone was in good company out on the trails and a friendly face was usually only a couple switchbacks away up or down the trail. Running conditions were ideal with clear dry trails and temperatures in the mid-30′s.

I had a blast enjoying my favorite trails with old and new friends and winning the 50k was icing on the cake. I’ve had a pretty good year of running accomplishments with decent results at Ghost Town, Jemez, Western States, and surviving the full Grand Slam series. But I never imagined that I could actually win such a prestigious and competitive event like this. I’m definitely going to bask in the glory of holding the El Chubbo Grande 50k course record for at least a couple days …or until Nick gets around to running the course himself to set a proper FKT.

I think the real key to my success this weekend was adopting some of Nick’s training strategies. About a week and a half ago, I stopped shaving. It’ll be several more months before I can really pull off the scraggly mountain hippy look but I’ve definitely seen some positive results from merely a quarter inch of facial hair. I have a few more weeks to keep growing my hair out for Ghost Town so I’m feeling pretty confident about my chances there next month.

I’ve also made some adjustments to my pre-race fueling strategy. Nick swears by glazed donuts before every race but I really believe that little chocolate donuts are a far superior pre-race fuel.

I started out with the 8am wave hoping to finish the course in 6 to 6:30 to give myself enough time to make it back to the potluck and beer by 3:00. On the first climb up to Horsetooth Rock, I fell into pace with Dan Brillon and we kept each other company on the trail all the way to Arthur’s Rock. We made it to the top of Horsetooth in good time and started catching up with runners from the 7am start on the Stout loop. This was quite a bit faster than I had expected to run but I felt good and just kept cruising along. At Arthur’s Rock, Dan decided to take the marathon route while I continued on up the Timber trail to the north end of Lory Park. I met up with Jen Malmberg, Alex, Mike, and Rob on the way down to the valley trail. On the next mini climb up to the Overlook Trail around mile 20, I finally started losing some steam. But Chris and Nick were waiting with an aid station set up at the Arthur’s Rock trailhead and I grabbed a quick water refill and a cookie and headed off down the easy stretch through the valley to recharge before the final beast of a climb up Sawmill to Westridge. My legs were getting pretty tired here but at this point more runners were converging into the final homestretch to the finish. It was a great mental boost to meet up with friends along the toughest section of the course. At the top of Towers, Sam finally caught up with me and took the lead for a few miles before he decided to take a turn at the Waterhole marker instead of the Wathan trail. I caught up with Tim Long just as we started the final big descent down Wathan and Tim stayed right behind me pushing me through to the finish at Nick’s house. (Tim claims that I was pulling him but I’m pretty sure he was doing the pushing.) My final time was 5:44 – a full 16 minutes faster than what I thought would be a good time.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to run a good hard long run and finish strong. This was my longest run since Wasatch and while I didn’t run an all out race pace, I kept up a pretty hard tempo effort at the end of the run. It felt really good to run well again. This event was just what I needed to get out and run a more challenging route at a bit faster pace than I’d normally run solo.

Nick really outdid himself on this one. This Fat Ass race/social run was organized better than many other official races I’ve seen. Mary’s design work was a very nice touch on the start/finish banner and her full course map was incredibly helpful. We may have cursed Nick’s course design once or twice on the way up Sawmill but the route was the perfect way to give our out-of-town friends the grand tour of our favorite trails. And it was a fun way to make the trail system into a new challenge for those of us who run here regularly. And of course, the post race at Nick’s house was a fantastic way to end the day. I really hope we can turn this into an annual tradition. Thanks Nick!

I’ve posted the full course map from my GPS here.

Here are a few photos from the run (including a couple from Nick and Rob)

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Wasatch Front 100 – 2010

Sep 26th, 10 / 6 Comments

It’s taken me a while to sit down and write about this one. I’m still not quite sure how to describe this experience. This was probably the most physically and mentally exhausting experience I’ve had so far. 33 hours is a long time to spend on the trail and my hat is off to anyone who has the determination to stay out until the very last cut off to make it to the finish line. By comparison, this made my 19 hour finish at Western States seem like a 5k fun run.

The day started off well enough. The 5am start is pretty early but made a world of difference from the 4am starts at Leadville and Vermont. I at least started off the day feeling somewhat rested and normal. But I already new that I was going to have a difficult day. In the three weeks after Leadville I cut back on my running mileage significantly and started taking more rest days. But the more I tried to rest and recover, the worse I felt. My last easy social jog with the Fort Collins Trail Runners the previous Tuesday felt like a chore. I was getting winded on easy climbs and my legs were aching and sore. I was in no condition to race …let alone finish a difficult mountain 100 miler. But I had set out to finish the Grand Slam series 9 months ago and couldn’t quit after finishing the first 3 events.

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Leadville 100 Trail Run – 2010

Aug 22nd, 10 / 3 Comments

Well, this one really sucked. Going into the race, I have to admit that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the event. The only reason that I committed to run Leadville was because it was part of the Grand Slam. And even that is a minor point of irritation since I don’t think it’s right for someone to sell entries into a series of events that they don’t direct, sponsor, or donate to. But that’s an entirely different issue.

Leadville is really an over-priced, over-hyped, over-crowded event on a mediocre course. I will say that the event has a lot of potential. It could really be a world class race if it were organized with the same level of support and competition as Western States. After running events like Western States, Vermont, and Bighorn, paying $300 for Leadville is quite a let down.

If they can’t run the entire race on decent trails, they could at least make use of the miles and miles of perfectly accessible road to set up decent aid stations. I had a miserable time covering the final 10 mile stretch over Sugarloaf and the last 13.5 miles from May Queen and I can’t comprehend how anyone at the back of the pack pushing to make the cut offs could manage that. The race would have a much better finish rate with just a few more aid stations along the way. But I guess that’s part of the money making system. Bring in as many entries as possible from anyone and everyone and bank on a high DNS and DNF rate to pocket the profits. The volunteer aid station crews that were out there were fantastic. Especially the team that packed in gear on Llamas and camped on Hope pass. I just wish the race organizers would set up more aid station crews on the course.

And the sheer volume of trash on the trails really put me in a bad mood. On the way outbound, there weren’t more than 30-40 runners ahead of me but I still saw more dropped gel packets and other trash than I’d seen at every ultra I’ve run in the past two years. The runners who dropped that trash weren’t the brain dead zombies who couldn’t manage to hold onto a gel tab with swollen fingers. That’s just unacceptable behavior. On the way inbound, Eric filled his pockets with trash several times between Twin Lakes and Fish Hatchery. But even that was a losing battle and a token effort at best.

So I guess I can’t be surprised at my final performance at the race. You just can’t run a 100 miles well without being fulling mentally committed. I started out thinking that I might be able to run sub-20 if I had an exceptionally good day. At the very least I thought I could run under 24 hours comfortably. Well, I didn’t have an exceptionally good day and I think I’ve finally realized that if I continue to run races back to back each month like this, I probably won’t. I didn’t run under 24 hours either and it wasn’t comfortable.

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