Bear 100, mile 30-ish

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2011 Bear 100 Race Report

This morning I'm sore... but in a good way. Friday morning the alarm went off at 0400 and I dressed and loaded up the truck, and my wife (and crew chief) drove us from Bear Lake down to Logan. The temperature was chilly, but perfect for the 4000' climb to the 10 mile aid station.

The scene at the start was the usual craziness, but event amidst the 234 starters, I ran into several running buddies just prior to the start. Ultra-running is a small community.

The climb to Logan Peak was consistently steep, but has a couple great, runnable sections and some killer views. I passed through the Logan Peak aid station in 3 minutes, and headed out for the next 9 mile leg to the Leatham Hollow aid station. The last 3 miles of this leg are great single-track running and I was "in the zone" when I was suddenly brought back to reality when I found myself stopped with my eye only an inch away from a sharp broken branch on an overhead deadfall. It had been flagged, but I didn't see it. I became more attentive when running single-track from then on.

I arrived at the Leatham Hollow aid station about 10 minutes ahead of my 27 hour pace, and I was feeling great.

Chriss met me there and helped me through a quick re-fuel and I was off on the next leg which included a 3 mile run up a low-incline dirt road to the next Aid Station, and then a 7.8 mile climb to Cowley Canyon Aid station, and then another climb and subsequent descent to Right-Hand Fork aid station at 36 miles. I usually have a little stomach distress after an aid station as my body tries to adapt to having food in my stomach again. Same situation here, but I pressed through it and still maintained my pace.

I arrived at the third aid station, grabbed a quick snack and headed out for the climb to Cowley. This climb has minimal shade, and is consistently steep the whole way. I was feeling pretty good however, and I managed to arrive at Cowley still ahead of my 27 hour pace. I took a few extra minutes to cool down in the shade they had under a canopy there, and then headed out again for the next climb.

As I ascended the steep dirt road I took notice of the extremely fine dust that sat several inches deep in places on this road. Then the first of several trucks approached from above... and I realized I was going to be sucking in a TON of that dust as they passed. I pulled my shirt up over my mouth as the first one passed, but the filtering effect was limited, and I spent the next 30 minutes coughing and sputtering trying to get that stuff out of my lungs. Fortunately, I topped out and started the long descent into Right Hand Fork aid station about the time the coughing fits ended and was able to crank out the descent at a great pace.

Chriss met me at Right Hand Fork and I again refueled and headed out. The climb was hot in the late afternoon sun, and I struggled to keep my pace going strong. This section of the course climbs up single track to meet a dirt road in a wide mountain pass, and follows this road down to Temple Fork aid station at Highway 89. Fortunately, in the middle of the descent, RD Leland opts to have us run a beautiful section of single track past some beaver dams and an awesome stream. This is one of the most best sections as it's totally runnable and visually amazing.

At temple fork, I took advantage of the facilities there for a nature break, and then picked up my first pacer, Bastian Cowsert. Bastian is a young, enthusiastic "newbie" to the world of Ultra-running. He's extremely fit, and I sense he's going to do amazing things. This was his first experience pacing, so we spent a lot of time talking about the process associated with pacing and crewing, as well as running. My goal was to make it to Tony Grove aid station before dark (because I only had my mini-headlamp with me as a "just in case"). I had a serious bout of stomach distress going, but again, just pressed through it and pushed as hard as I could up the long climb to the short descent into Tony Grove. We hit the downhill as the sun was setting, and ran the last section into Tony Grove aid station in the last of twighlight.

At Tony Grove I again used the facilities, ate some soup, and geared up for the night session with my high-powered headlamp, long-sleeve shirt, beanie cap and running gloves.

We headed out on another long climb which linked to a long, rocky single-track descent to Franklin Basin aid station. Bastian did a great job of reminding me to take my electrolytes on schedule, and we made great time. We got to the descent, and with my "uber headlamp", we able to run at almost a daylight pace. Very shortly into the descent, running at that "daylight" pace, I slammed my foot full-force into a large rock. I immediately knew I'd broken the small toe on my left foot. The pain was incredibly sharp and shocking, and even setting my foot down on the ground fired that same pain shooting through me again.

I had nothing with me to deal with the break, so I changed up my stride by riding the inside of my left foot and trying not to put any weight on the outside of that foot at all. This would come back to haunt me, but at least it let me get to the Franklin Basin aid station at slightly better than a snail's pace. Arriving at the aid station, everyone kicked into gear to get me "repaired" and back out on the trail.

Bastian was trading off pacing duties with Steve Proffit here, and as Paislee started getting ready to work on my toe Steve jumped in to help as well. Paislee started removing my shoe so she could tape my little toe tightly to the adjacent toe. Pulling off my socks, she saw the effect of my adjustmented weighting of my feet. I had developed a huge blood blister on my left big toe, and my right big toenail was totally black. Steve lanced the blood blister and Paislee drained it, applied antibiotic and a bandaid. She then taped my left little to it's neighbor, and taped up my right big toe to hold the nail on for the rest of the run.

I ate some soup, and headed out with Steve for the next 15 miles. Paislee's work on my toes was perfect. I could run normally with only nominal discomfort. I felt confident I could finish, and might be able to still finish in under 30 hours. Steve and I put the hammer down and pushed on to the Logan River aid station. As usual, there is a long climb followed by a downhill into the aid station. This year, the aid station was moved to be near the river crossing. The river was still quite high, but the crossing looked like it could be done without getting wet... almost. I made it to the last 6 feet, stepped on a moss-covered rock (that simply looked black) and in I went. Both feet soaked in ice-cold water, I continued on into the night.

The cold water actually may have done some good, as it may have reduced the swelling from all the damage. Steve pushed me through the tough climb up to the steep descent down the ski slopes of Beaver Mountain where I picked up my last pacer, Sean Housel.

Sean is an experienced pacer and would take me the remaining 24.3 miles into the finish. I had some significant GI distress at this point, so I took two Imodium, and after a couple sessions with the bathroom at the aid station, we headed out. The climb up to Gibson Basin aid station is only 5 miles, but it's all steep. Sean kept on me to keep the pace up, and by the time we hit Gibson basin, we were still on track to be under 30 hours.

From Gibson, we traversed the mile long basin (in some seriously cold temperatures) and climbed up an ATV trail to the summit where we started our descent into Beaver Creek aid station. Leland calls this descent "The Teeth of The Bear", as it's super rocky, steep, and with my toes in the shape they were in, painful. With the water at such a high level, this crossing was even more sketchy than Logan River. The aid station crew had laid a log across a 10' gap, and had found some long branches that served as "balance poles" we used to maintain an upright position as we crossed the frost-covered log. Both Sean and I nearly went in, but we somehow made it across dry... many others were not so lucky, with a few actually getting completely submerged after falling off the log.

I again made use of the facilities at the aid station, ate a little soup, and Sean and I headed out for the last 16 miles of the race. This section has a long climb up to a summit (where you catch a glimpse of Bear Lake), a descent to the Ranger Dip aid station, and then the last climb (also the steepest of the race) up to the 4 mile descent into the finish. I was struggling at this point to keep my pace up, and Sean was constantly checking his GPS and then telling me to increase my pace... I was obviously falling behind my sub-30-hour goal. As we came into the Ranger Dip aid station, I knew I was in risk of missing that goal. I knew the climb out of Ranger Dip would be a big factor.

We left Ranger Dip, and I steeled myself for the 800'-in-0.8 mile climb out of the basin. As we hit the climb, I focused on simply pressing without resting. I had to rest for about 30 seconds four times, so only lost about 4 minutes or so to resting, and crested the top with 70 minutes remaining to finish a 4 mile descent... sounded simple enough. However, this descent has several "special circumstances", including it being too steep for me to run most of it. It was exceptionally painful on the toes as each step is a "decelleration", and by the time I'd reached the point where it leveled off enough to actually run again, I was in serious danger of missing the 30 hour mark.

The descent was hard on Sean as well, and he'd fallen well behind me on the descent. I figured once it leveled out he'd catch me so I checked my watch, put my head down and started running as hard as I could. Sean caught up with me about a mile from the finish on the gravel road leading to the main highway. We were keeping about a 9:45 min/mile pace at this point, and as we crossed the highway over to the side where the turn to the finish area was located, I could hear Steve Proffit yelling.

He was standing at the turn into the finish area, which is about 100 yards from the actual finish line. As I made the turn, I finally understood what Steve was saying. He was yelling "less than a minute left!" Suddenly adrenalin took over, and I broke into a full sprint for the finish.

I came through the finish totally blown out. Leland was standing there and grabbed me and told me "you're under 30 hours!".

I stumbled and fell down onto the grass, completely exhausted and simultaneously elated.

Somehow, with the broken toe, and the GI issues, we managed to get me through the finish in 29 hrs, 58 min, 12 sec. A new personal record for 100 miles!

This event totally proved how much of a team event a 100 miler is for me. Without Chriss and Paislee as my crew/medical team,

and without Bastian, Steve, and Sean being outstanding pacers, I wouldn't have made the 30 hour cutoff.

I can't thank them enough for all they did this weekend! As usual, Leland put on a first-class event, and it was a great experience! It won't be long and he'll have to go to a lottery!

The OZONE Experiment

So two weeks ago, I tore the anterior capsule in my left knee. Fortunately, this is a "minor" injury compared to ligament or cartilage damage, but it was still painful and temporarily debilitating. Not a good situation in light of the fact that the BEAR 100 is only 4 weeks away! I went to my doc, who happens to be a very progressive D.O. and a fellow athlete for some advice. He suggested injecting Ozone (yes, three oxygen atoms) into the knee. Apparently, this technique has been pioneered in Europe and used to treat similar injury in Professional Football (Soccer) players.

Ozone injection has been investigated and shown to have therapeutic effects on inter-articular joints affected by Rheumatoid Arthritis, and the effects are apparently similar with injured health joints. Today was the first time I've run since the injection four days ago, and I have to admit I'm extremely impressed with the results. I did a short five mile run to "test" it out, and I had no pain, no discomfort, and no post-run swelling.

I'll do seven miles tomorrow and see how that fares, and then ease into my normal training program and build up to the Bear with hopefully minimal degradation in my performance... here's to progressive medicine!

SpeedGoat 50K 2011 Race Report

Another SpeedGoat 50K is complete, and I finished this time! 2009 I injured my knee, 2010, I got incredibly sick and puked for 22 miles only to miss the cutoff at Peruvian Tunnel by 10 minutes... so I was pretty determined to finish this time :) The morning was overcast and cool, so the weather for the climb to Hidden Peak was ideal. Karl kicked things off at 6:30 AM as usual, and we headed out for a "nice walk in the woods". The course was as normal for the first several miles, but due to the snow the climb up to Road To Provo was simply "straight up" the snow field with a couple hand lines anchored to help out. I chose to run with trekking poles this year due to having some significant Patellar Tendinitis in my left knee and figured they'd help me on the downhills to limit the impact to that knee... turns out they were pretty darn handy climbing up the snow field, and very helpful throughout the day due to the incredibly steep climbs and descents that make up virtually the entire course.

I made hidden peak at 9:02 (2hrs and 32 min), so well within my expectations, fueled up and got out of there four minutes later. The descent to the saddle, and subsequent climb to Mt. Baldy went well, but I was definitely "babying" my knee and so the descent off Baldy and down to "Larrys Hole" aid station at the bottom of Mineral Basin was a little slow and I got passed by several folks, but was still feeling really good. From Larry's hole up to the saddle, and then down to Pacific Mine was pretty punishing, and as steep as that descent is, I found myself having to slow way down to keep my knee from protesting too much.

Again, I was passed by several runners, but my goal was to simply finish this year so I kept my pace where it was despite my desire to keep up. Once down in the basin where Pacific Mine sits, there's a couple of rolling miles along the foothill to the aid station which aren't too steep, and I reeled a couple of them back in :) At the Pacific Mine Aid Station I think I "over indulged", as I felt like "Thanksgiving Aftermath" and had some significant pain in my stomach. Also not helping at all was the stagnant air, lack of cloud cover, and ever-increasing heat on the hike out to the ridge above Mineral Basin. Heading up the climb, I began to feel increasingly uncomfortable and slowed down considerably. As I neared the ridge above Mineral Basin, I decided I needed a push, and so I took a 200mg, time-release caffeine pill, along with some Motrin to limit the swelling in my left knee. This was the ticket!
I took a picture of myself with Mt. Timpanogos in the background, started to have some increased energy, and as a friend caught up with me I was able to hang with him along the ridge, and on the descent into Mineral and up to Larrys Hole Aid Station.


I did decide to "wallow in some mud" on the way down from the ridge, as we were essentially running in a stream from the melt-off, and I slipped and went down hard in the mud and rocks. I popped up and kept running, but knew I was going to feel this one. ;)

At Larrys I chowed on some watermelon and ginger ale, a banana, and some s-caps, and then headed out. Due to the snow, Karl decided just to set a bunch of flags straight up the 40-45 degree slope,
and it was PUNISHING! I arrived at the cat-track at the top, and headed across to the Peruvian Tunnel Aid station. I arrived at 2:14, 46 min ahead of the cuttoff. One point here... this is an AGGRESSIVE cutoff. Many folks miss this cutoff each year. It's just another part of what makes the SpeedGoat the most difficult 50K in North America. From a pure-effort standpoint, it's harder than most 50 Milers.

I felt great heading down the Peruvian Gulch, and the climb up the Cirque was super tough, but it was fun to pass some hikers who were struggling along the trail; they were only 2.5 miles into their hike ;) I also managed to pass a couple of the guys who had passed me on the climb out of Pacific Mine. I arrived at Hidden Peak again at 3:15, and left at 3:20 for the 5.5 mile descent to the finish.

The run to the finish was really sweet, as I managed to keep my knee from arguing too much, and made good time... and passed 6 more people who had passed me earlier. I finished feeling really strong at 4:44 (10 hrs and 14 min elapsed time). Not super fast, but I felt great about it considering the circumstances. A great day in the mountains!

Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay #5

Another year of the venerable Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay has come and gone, and yet again I found myself joining my wonderful wife on a team experiencing the “party in a van”. The Ragnar relay series is the only event my wife and I both participate in, and is less a running race and more a social event with a running component. Don’t get me wrong, there are some VERY competitive teams, including the BYU Cross Country team who finished the 191 miles in 18:38:18, taking first place… not exactly a casual jog in the park.

However, for the most part the teams entered in the Ragnar relays are groups of friends, work associates, and occasionally strangers who’ve connected through word of mouth or online to fill vacancies in existing teams, and they participate for the “experience” of the event. Personally, I find it amazing to see the diversity of participants who found the event accessible enough to join a team and run three legs of between 3 and 10 miles within a 36 hour period. From the members of University and High-School Track and Field teams pounding out sub-6 minute miles, to clinically obese walkers pushing themselves to simply complete their longest leg of just over 5 miles, the broad range of participants demonstrates the appeal of the Ragnar Relay series. It’s attainable by nearly everyone, but challenging enough to draw elite athletes.

My personal experience this year was consistent with my previous several Ragnar events. I ran a reasonably quick 3.9 mile leg keeping a 7:24 pace, followed by a 3AM 7.6 mile leg at a slow 8:54 pace, and then the upper “Ragnar” climb (4 miles, 1800ft of elevation gain), with a decent 12:00 pace. All things considered, I had a reasonable showing this year and came away from the event smiling. There’s no doubt that the running was a key element to that, but the “van” was filled with fun people, and 36 hours with fun people is always worth a smile.

If you've never participated in one of these events, put it on your calendar. It's definitely unique, and for a lot of us, it's a "not to miss" event.

2011 Squaw Peak 50 Mile Race Report

The 15th Annual Squaw Peak 50 Mile Endurance Run is in the bag, and what an epic it was! John Bozung did an amazing job re-routing the entire course to accommodate the fact that everything above 8500 feet was buried in snow, and created a punishing out-and-back course that had minimal flat sections linked by serious climbs and descents, all of which we had the pleasure of running on the first hot, muggy day of the entire year. AWESOME!

The morning started with a 3:30 AM alarm, and the subsequent disoriented attempt to gather everything, get into the car, and get to the start on time. I arrived at Vivian Park 15 minutes before the start, and realized that I’d forgotten my Bib! Without an official bib, I would not be counted at the aid stations, nor at the finish, so I asked my wife to drive back to the house, and then meet me at Aid 2 (the first check-in) where I could pin it on and continue on. I arrived at Aid 2 at 6:15, waited a few minutes for Chriss to arrive, and by 6:28 I was on my way again.

I hammered it up the familiar course to the summit above Rock Creek Canyon, and then ran at a good pace down to where the course left it’s traditional route and descended all the way down Rock Canyon to it’s mouth. Arriving at Rock Canyon Aid Station at 7:43 (mile 11.88), I quickly stripped off my turtleneck, ate some melon, re-watered and was out my 7:46. I was feeling pretty good, and kept up a solid pace as we ran along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Where ever possible, John took the opportunity to put us up on the single-track segments of trail that climbed and descended the foothills along the Provo valley, proving he was steadfast in keeping his reputation alive and well… the Bozung Hill was there, it was just broken up into 100 short, punishing, steep climbs.

I arrived at Aid 4 (mile 15.45), Buckley Draw at 8:38, and was out at 8:41, refueled, but feeling a little rough. I tried to keep up an aggressive pace, but could feel myself slipping a little bit. By the time I arrived at Aid 5 (Spring Creek, mile 20.65) it was 9:55, so my pace had definitely faltered a bit. I left Buckley draw at 10:00, and headed up the steep climb to the pass where I’d be able to descend to Pole Heaven Gate Aid station, and the turn-around.

The climb was steep and rocky, and about half way up, the leader came racing down the canyon and passed me. He was flying, and I yelled out encouragement as he blew past me… at least someone was feeling strong at this point. Several other leaders passed me on their return leg while I continued to struggle up the climb, and by the summit I was feeling pretty low. Even the descent down to the turn-around Aid station was painful, so when I finally arrived at 11:23, I took some time to truly refresh, and fully grazed the buffet eating everything that was cold and wet.

I ate several pieces of melon, cantaloupe, and watermelon, some banana, drank some coke and redbull, and enjoyed a cold towel which I placed on my head under my hat. At 11:32 I finally left the aid station and headed back up towards the pass to begin my descent back down to the Provo valley. As I neared the pass, I started to feel my energy returning, and I began running hard again. I arrived at Spring Creek (Aid 7, mile 29.8) at 12:34, refilled my water and fuel, and headed out at 12:39. I was feeling really good as I left the aid station, but the exposed trail had no shade, and the sun was full-bore.

The sun seemed to actively avoid the sparse clouds, and the green ragweed next to the trail exuded hot, humid air. I began to feel sick from the heat, and I really started to slow down. I pushed myself as hard as I could through the pain and nausea, and made it to Aid 8 (mile 33.52) by 13:53. Again, I took the time to try to cool down at the Aid Station, and finally pulled away at 13:59. The heat at this point was unbearable, and even running the downhills was punishing as I was beginning to weaken on top of just feeling ill.

It was only about 85F, but that was plenty hot considering the warmest it had been on any training day to that date was about 65F. By the time I pulled into Aid 9 (38.9 miles) at 15:10, my face and arms were flushed and I was really feeling torched. I told myself I would move quickly through this Aid Station, as I’d spent way too much time at the previous few aid stations. I found my drop bag, poured my fuel into my hand-bottle, and handed off my Nathan pack to get refilled with ice and water. The MD at Aid 9 came up and said “You are standing at rest and your heart rate is at max. You need to promise me you’re going to walk slowly up the canyon until your heart rate lowers, ok?”. He really didn’t need to tell me that, because I was definitely not ready to hammer 3.5 miles of steep canyon trails. I left Aid 9 at 15:14, having only spent 4 minutes there and began what would be a VERY long walk up Rock Canyon.

My heart rate never did slow down, at least until I began the descent from the summit at the top of Rock Canyon. It’s been a while since I’ve felt that beaten down, but for some reason I simply wasn’t recovering. I felt like I was crawling by the time I reached the summit, and I just couldn’t persuade myself to start running on the downhill into Aid 10. After a couple miles of downhill walking, I ran into an guy hiking up the trail. He told me he was working the Aid Station, and it was only ¾ of a mile further down the trail and there was Ginger Ale there. That little bit of hope started me feeling human again and I started into a slow paced run, and in a few minutes I found myself at Aid 10 (mile 44.8) at 17:42.

At the aid station I drank a cup of Ginger Ale, a ½ can of Coke, had some melon, and ate a candy orange slice and best of all, they had big towels drenched in ice water. That was HUGE! I felt great to have that cold water over my head, neck and back. While I stood there, Tony Christensen showed up as he’d been just a few minutes behind me. He and I finished up at the aid station at the same time, and we decided to run the last 6 miles into the finish together.

We had a great time chatting off and on while we ran to the pavement of the canyon walking path, where we turned up canyon and walked the next mile and a half. As we saw the signage indicating we were coming up to Vivian Park, we went back into a run and finished together at 19:11:35. 14 hrs and 11 minutes isn’t exactly fast, but on this day, and this course, I was more than happy to have simply finished.

I was not the only person who underestimated this course. Many people were completely surprised by the intensity of the climbs and descents, and I don’t think any of the runners were happy with the searing sun bearing down on us as we ran the roughly 10 miles along the foothills of Provo. On that section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, no tree cover, bright sunlight, and high humidity did their damage, as we struggled to regulate our core temperature while pressing to keep a decent pace along the undulating single-track course.

The rest of the course was no cake-walk either. One runner broke his leg on the upper part of Rock Canyon, while another took a tumble and broke his nose in lower Rock Canyon. Many runners simply dropped out of the run. There is no doubt this was a VERY tough course, and everyone who finished should feel a great sense of accomplishment. I definitely feel like I earned this "Wooden Nickel".

Leaving aid 8

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