What a weekend

Memorial day has flown by for me. I can't believe it's already over and I'm back to work. For the weekend I completed my 3 races in 10 days by finishing the Jemez 50 miler and Bolder Boulder 10k.

Thursday around noon I took off for Albuquerque to pick up Will from the airport around 7pm. The drive went by super quick and before I knew it I was reunited with my former 10 mile teammate and a very good friend. Will and I took off for the Sandia Mountains to meet his friend Sean for dinner. The Sandia Mountains are 7200ft above elevation at the base and a quick tram ride puts you at 10,400 ft and provides a view of about 1/4 of New Mexico. After dinner we went back to their apartment and got in a good nights sleep. The following morning Will and I headed out for a 4 mile run to shakeout the drive. That afternoon Will and I headed to Los Alamos to get ready for Jemez.

In Los Alamos Will and I ate at the pre-race dinner and packet pickup went quickly. While checking into our hotel we discovered the Anton Krupicka and Joe Grant (1st and 2nd place) were staying at our hotel. Will and I had a small man crush moments then headed to packet pickup. We settled back into the hotel and went over the game plan for the race and then turned out the lights and I got a good 8 hours of sleep. And the big news of the evening while I was fumbling through my pre-race ritual I received an email from Skora with acceptance into their ambassador program! That right I'm a respectable official full blown Skora athlete! Pretty excited about my relationship with them.

3:45 am came soon and Will and I were off. I brought my pulse oximeter to see the effects of elevation and well needless to say I got down to 95% O2 sat.

 The race start was pretty uneventful. The gun went off at 5am and we bolted off under the guidance of headlamps. I quickly moved into 6th place and stayed there through mile 12 or so. The first 10 miles were technical but relatively tame as far as elevation goes. Leaving the Camp May aid station at mile 10.4 you begin a 2800 ft ascent up Pajarito Mountain. During this climb I lost my ground and fell to 16th place. I just can't climb like the mountain folks can. I power hiked most of the climb the elevation really started to get to me after 9000ft with some headaches and difficulty recovery from steep ascents. I did better than anticipated but I could feel the elevation. It felt much like how I think a sinus headache feels. A bunch of pressure right behind your eyeballs. After the summit of Pajarito it was a 1000ft 2 mile descent into the 18.6 mile aid station. I ran this section pretty hard but it was very technical and at times straight down ski hill slopes. At 18.6 I met Will and refilled on Gu's and water and took off.

The next 20 mile look would take me back to the same aid station I was leaving but included another Pajarito Mountain summit. But Mile 18.6-30 were downhill. I ran hard averaging 8:00-8:30 and I managed to swallow up 8 runners before the 50k mark putting me in a solid 8th place. Leaving mile 31 aid station began a 7.2 mile stint up Pajarito Mountain again. This was again a problem for me. I powerhiked the entire section taking almost 2 hours to cover 7.2 miles.

I ran into the 38.4 mile aid station excited to pick up Will for the final 12 miles. It had started raining and Will was attempting to force me to change shirts as I was already soaked. I finally gave in a threw on a long sleeve shirt and we headed out. The rain picked up and the temperature dropped as we ran along. As we approached 9000 ft again the rain turned into a hard snow. Soon Will and I could not see 100 feet in front of us. The temperature dropped down below freezing very quickly and my hands were going numb. Will offered to run the mile back to the aid station and get my jacket and come back to catch me. With the haze of 40 miles on my mind and Will's enthusiasm to help his fellow runner we both decided this was a great idea. Neither of us did the math and I decided it was fun motivation to try to make it harder for him to catch me and run faster... Needless to say common sense came to both of us after a few miles and Will trusted that my Wisconsin upbringing would take me through the cold. At mile 41 I came up on a couple runners who were trying to warm their hands up on the propane stove at the aid station. I just refilled my water bottle at the Aid station. The last 10 miles I ran like a possessed man. I ran hard from mile 41 to 45 with the bad weather it was excellent motivation to get off the ridgeline and to lower ground. I was running 9 min miles despite 600 ft of climbing.

I flew right through the aid station just shouting my bib number determined to play my strengths and get to warmer elevations. The wind picked up but the weather lightened as I descended 1000ft before mile 49. I continued to run very hard into Last Chance aid station where Will was waiting for me with my jacket. He had to run almost 2 miles just to get into the aid station. Such a great friend! I blew threw the aid station with only 2 miles remaining. Will joined me and ran the last couple miles with me. I knew a sub 11 hour finish would require at least 11 min miles and didn't know how the terrain was so I pressed hard. The race ended with a final off trail climb back to the finish line. I finished in 13th place in 10 hours and 57 minutes and the first flatlander.

I was very happy with my time and race and drank a well deserved beer and enjoyed the awesome spread of tex-mex at the finish line. Unfortunately the race was shut down early. Shortly after I passed through mile 41 many runner were showing symptoms of  hypothermia. The race director chose to shut the race down and begin closing the course down. I think the RD made the right decision and a very difficult one. The safety of the runners is the most important thing. Many of us ultrarunners are to darn stubborn to quit a race despite some nasty conditions to pulling the plug is necessary. It sucks not to finish but it would suck more not the be able to run tomorrow.

Overall Jemez is a great Mountain ultramarathon and a very challenging course. My Skora forms were excellant for the race really allowed me to feel the trail. They were super light and held up really well. I couldn't have finished up without Will. Defiantly nice to have a friendly face along the run. It has a very small town ultra feel but aid stations like a big town race. The people were super nice at every turn. After the race Will and I headed back to Albuquerque for a fun night of steaks and IPA's.

I'll finish up the rest of my weekend report tomorrow evening this ought to be enough to get everyone started. 

Jemez prep

Tapering is always an interesting time for me and I assume most runners. It is hard because your day gets messed up the rhythm of events. So if you are an overachiever like all Ultrarunners are you try to fill your time with all the things you haven't had time to do due to running. For me I've been trying to get my house ready to go on the market. Last week I resided the house then this week finished little projects here and there but still worked 8 hours a day on huge house. The nice thing is that I'm leaving today for Albuquerque and I will have all day tomorrow to relax with Will. 

My runs this week have been uneventful. An easy 7 on Monday in 56 minutes and an easy 5 miler Wednesday in 38 minutes. I feel well rested and the runs are right where I like to be during taper week. I'll try to get a few miles on the Jemez trail tomorrow. 

I was really hoping irunfar would do a race preview because I thought I had a chance of honorable mention as contending for the win but they haven't done one on the race. I think Jemez has moved into the background with the advent of the montrail ultra cup series which is unfortunate. I think races like run rabbit run, jemez and Hardrock have faded into the background. The good thing is that the montrail cup has lead to an incredibly talented field at Western States especially on the ladies side with a top 10 that is a who's who of the sport. It just seems to suck the life out of Leadville, Hardrock, Wassatch, Vermont and many others. 

Army 10 miler

I has been a crazy couple of weeks for me thus the delay in posting. I had some pretty signifigant life events but kept my running going. Two weeks ago I had my finals for my last time! After that I commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and had all of my family in town to celebrate with me. Then one of my best friends from Wisconsin came down to help me reside my house.

The good news... it was taper time anyways. I did have a good couple of workouts leading up to the 10 miler and Jemez next weekend just to clear out the cobwebs and make sure I can run fast. I hit a 2 x 2 mile on the track in 11:46 and 11:41 and a ladder fartlek. For the ladder I started with 1 min hard running with equal recovery and moved up to 4 minutes and back down to 1 so 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1. Its quick and easy speed work on any surface.

For the last week I backed way off I ran 13 miles on Monday with a progression from 8:00-6:40, an easy 7 miles on Wednesday and 4 Thursday night with some accelerations to race pace. My legs felt light and refreshed for the first time since before Lake McMurty

Friday morning was the Fort Sill 10 mile team qualifier. The top 6 male and female finishers are guaranteed a spot on the Fort Sill team, get to train 6 days a week instead of doing Army physical fitness and an all expenses paid trip to Washington D.C to race the Army 10 miler. It doesn't get much better than this... This year the race was on a Friday at 8am which I liked. A relatively casual start line atmosphere made me think I was at the start line of an ultra. The front of the pack took off with 3 ahead of use but Charlie, Zach and I hung back at a 6:00 flat pace. After 3 miles 2 had faded back. Hit the turn around in 29:40 feeling decent and it was Zach, me and the other runner who was doing well. At around 6.5-7 I had a small pity party for myself and fell 20-30 sec off Zach. I came back around after the 7.5 mile water station and started closing the gap on 2nd place. The final mile of the course is relatively uphill and I really started to gain on 2nd place but I ran out of real estate to catch him. I finished in 3rd with a 59:46 a new PR and almost 2 min faster than the time I ran in 2013 on the exact same course.

I'm going to recover now run a little over the next week and head off Thursday to meet Will in Albuquerque  for Jemez 50 miler and then we are driving up to Boulder, CO (Mecca). In Boulder we are running the Boulder to Boulder 10k. I'm super excited to see how Jemez goes for me. 1st I haven't run a 50 miler in a long time (2011 ish) and 2nd it's got 11,000 ft of vert all from 7000 ft to 10000 ft, I'm excited to see how I respond to elevation.  

Teleportation!

I took Monday off after the back to back 20's nothing in particular was hurting just playing it safe. Tuesday I headed out just to knock out some miles and check the legs out to see what the damage was from the week prior. Nothing to bad I knocked out 5.5 miles in the morning then another 7 in the afternoon both under a 8 min/mil pace and felt pretty easy.

Wednesday I had to walk a few miles with the ROTC in the morning. We walked 5 miles at 4mph with a 35-50lbs ruck sack. I hate calling this mileage but it wears on the body and you have to count it. In the PM I headed up to Mount Scott for a CR attempt. I warmed up with 1.2 miles then up Mt. Scott, my up time was just over 22 minutes then screamed down in 15 minutes. Good enough for the first on record sub 38 minute Mount Scott run (37:40). Total time was 58 minutes for 8 miles.

Thursday I headed out with Charlie for some easy trail miles feeling a little sore. Knocked out a total of 14 miles easy and felt great.

I was recently asked if I could have any superhuman power which would it be. I answered the question on the fly but after thinking about my answer I think I hit the nail on the head. Teleportation would have to be the coolest/most useful superhuman trait a runner could have. You could train every single day on the course you wanted to train for. No longer would you be forced to settle for the local races with the hassles of travel removed. Of course you would have to be able to transport anyone holding onto you as well so you could have company on your runs. I feel I'd have a lot more trail friends if I could teleport. 

The American College of Sports Medicine released an article that I found very interesting. They have decided the provide some recommondations in purchasing running shoes. They lean towards keeping the foot lower to the ground and light shoes (under 10 oz). I completley agree with their stance just exciting that its being published by the ACSM!