I finally got the photos from the weekend in Moab uploaded so I thought I would share. These include the race and the rest of the weekend in general. Enjoy!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Burned again at the Red Hot 50K
The three of us (Ashley, Braden, and I) decided on Thursday morning to leave and drive part way to Moab and try to beat the forecasted snow storm in the high country on Friday, we made it to Glenwood on Thursday night where we stayed in the worse motel that I have ever been in. I can not remember the name but it is right across the street from the Village Inn, STAY AWAY!!! Friday morning we left for Moab arriving before noon. After an easy lunch we spent the rest of the day driving around in the mountains southeast of town then went to Pasta Jays on Main St for a little carbo loading and an early bed time.
We got up the next morning around 6am leaving the hotel at 7:15. I decided not to use any of the allowed drop bags since I never use them. I figured between the Nathan pack I was running with and the aid stations that I should be fine. The weather also looked like it might just be ok today, little windy the 1st half of the race but that was it.
Right at 8am the race started up a dirt road. The first mile was a climb up and over the mesa. The plan was to just run what felt like an easy effort the first 17 miles and try and push the second half hopefully finishing under 6 hours, which is not what happened. I had water on my back and I was planning on drinking Cytomax at every aid station and eat whatever looked good.
The first half of the race was a mixture of rolling hills, some moderate climbing, jeep 4X4 roads, and sandy trails. I just tried zoning out and running what felt like an easy effort but this proved to be hard to do, my legs felt really heavy and I just was not hungry so I was not eating at the aid stations like I planned. I crossed aid station 3 at mile 17 in 2:35. Right were I wanted to be for a sub 6 hour finish. At aid station 3 I was finally able to see Ashley and Braden, it was the only place on the course that they had access to until the finish line. Braden who is 8 years old ran with me down the road from aid station 3 to where the road turns off into the trail (about a mile), he had a blast doing that and kept up with me the whole time, future ultra runner maybe???
From aid station 3 to aid station 4 was about 6-6.5 miles and a good size climb. The fourth aid station was on top of the mesa some 1500 or more feet above us. I did some walking in this section on the big uphills but overall felt fine. I came into the 4th aid station around 3:45 into the race. This aid station was at mile 23. My stomach was starting to turn on me at this aid station. I did not throw up but did what I call spit up at this station. About 2 miles after leaving this aid station my stomach turned fully against me and up came breakfast on the side of the trail (the fresh fruit I ate was still in there). Maybe I should not have eaten that fruit this morning?
From aid station 4 to aid station 5 I was just trying to run as much as my stomach would allow me to. The entire section was mostly run on slickrock and there was no real trail to follow on this section. We just went from pink flag to pink flag hanging from the brushes. Sometimes there were no pink flags and you had to find the painted symbol on the rocks to figure out where to go. I got off track a few times and added about 1/4 mile or so to this section with backtracking I did, but it was not as bad as last year. Last year they used pink flags for the right way and red for the wrong way, it was hard to tell the difference in the color with sunglasses on. This year they used blue flags to mark the incorrect way which made a world of difference. I lost some time on this section but was able to run/walk a lot of it. There was one last climb up the slickrock to the 5th aid station at mile 29. I came into this aid station around 5:15 hours after starting and of course lost my stomach again behind the jacked up jeeps. By this point I have not really had anything since mile 17, including water. Every time I tried to take something in it would come up a few minutes later.
From the 5th aid station to the finish line was only 5 miles. The first 1/2 mile or so was up a small hill of slickrock from there you jump on a 4X4 jeep road that you follow to the finish line mostly downhill. Last year I was still able to jog this into the finish despite my problems, this year I just did not have the energy so I just took my time and watched my 6 hour goal slip away as I walked down the road to a 6:30:32 finish. Crap…… Oh well I guess I got burned again at the Red Hot.
Lesson Learned:
1. I can not eat fresh fruit before a race.
2. Small bowl of Corn Flakes along with the fruit is not enough food before the race.
3. A gel, half a Snicker bite size bar, and some Cytomax is not enough calories for the 1st 17 miles.
4. Sucking on hard candy did not help me get my stomach back.
Here is the link to the website and results.
Red Hot 50K
2009 Results
I will try and get my pictures up tomorrow, I forgot the camera cable at home this morning.
Shad
We got up the next morning around 6am leaving the hotel at 7:15. I decided not to use any of the allowed drop bags since I never use them. I figured between the Nathan pack I was running with and the aid stations that I should be fine. The weather also looked like it might just be ok today, little windy the 1st half of the race but that was it.
Right at 8am the race started up a dirt road. The first mile was a climb up and over the mesa. The plan was to just run what felt like an easy effort the first 17 miles and try and push the second half hopefully finishing under 6 hours, which is not what happened. I had water on my back and I was planning on drinking Cytomax at every aid station and eat whatever looked good.
The first half of the race was a mixture of rolling hills, some moderate climbing, jeep 4X4 roads, and sandy trails. I just tried zoning out and running what felt like an easy effort but this proved to be hard to do, my legs felt really heavy and I just was not hungry so I was not eating at the aid stations like I planned. I crossed aid station 3 at mile 17 in 2:35. Right were I wanted to be for a sub 6 hour finish. At aid station 3 I was finally able to see Ashley and Braden, it was the only place on the course that they had access to until the finish line. Braden who is 8 years old ran with me down the road from aid station 3 to where the road turns off into the trail (about a mile), he had a blast doing that and kept up with me the whole time, future ultra runner maybe???
From aid station 3 to aid station 4 was about 6-6.5 miles and a good size climb. The fourth aid station was on top of the mesa some 1500 or more feet above us. I did some walking in this section on the big uphills but overall felt fine. I came into the 4th aid station around 3:45 into the race. This aid station was at mile 23. My stomach was starting to turn on me at this aid station. I did not throw up but did what I call spit up at this station. About 2 miles after leaving this aid station my stomach turned fully against me and up came breakfast on the side of the trail (the fresh fruit I ate was still in there). Maybe I should not have eaten that fruit this morning?
From aid station 4 to aid station 5 I was just trying to run as much as my stomach would allow me to. The entire section was mostly run on slickrock and there was no real trail to follow on this section. We just went from pink flag to pink flag hanging from the brushes. Sometimes there were no pink flags and you had to find the painted symbol on the rocks to figure out where to go. I got off track a few times and added about 1/4 mile or so to this section with backtracking I did, but it was not as bad as last year. Last year they used pink flags for the right way and red for the wrong way, it was hard to tell the difference in the color with sunglasses on. This year they used blue flags to mark the incorrect way which made a world of difference. I lost some time on this section but was able to run/walk a lot of it. There was one last climb up the slickrock to the 5th aid station at mile 29. I came into this aid station around 5:15 hours after starting and of course lost my stomach again behind the jacked up jeeps. By this point I have not really had anything since mile 17, including water. Every time I tried to take something in it would come up a few minutes later.
From the 5th aid station to the finish line was only 5 miles. The first 1/2 mile or so was up a small hill of slickrock from there you jump on a 4X4 jeep road that you follow to the finish line mostly downhill. Last year I was still able to jog this into the finish despite my problems, this year I just did not have the energy so I just took my time and watched my 6 hour goal slip away as I walked down the road to a 6:30:32 finish. Crap…… Oh well I guess I got burned again at the Red Hot.
Lesson Learned:
1. I can not eat fresh fruit before a race.
2. Small bowl of Corn Flakes along with the fruit is not enough food before the race.
3. A gel, half a Snicker bite size bar, and some Cytomax is not enough calories for the 1st 17 miles.
4. Sucking on hard candy did not help me get my stomach back.
Here is the link to the website and results.
Red Hot 50K
2009 Results
I will try and get my pictures up tomorrow, I forgot the camera cable at home this morning.
Shad
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Weather Forecast for Red Hot
Thought I would go and hit up go old NOAA to see what the forecast for the race will be. It looks like we might have some interesting weather on Saturday, maybe some snow and rain, can anyone say 2008 Leadville??? Looks like I better pack the Goretex GoLite jacket just in case. Anyway here you go, I am sure it will change in the next 24 hours.
Today: A 20 percent chance of rain after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. Calm wind becoming west southwest around 5 mph.
Tonight: Rain likely before 11pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. West southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.
Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 42. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Friday Night: A slight chance of rain and snow before 11pm, then a chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 25. South southwest wind between 5 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday: A chance of snow before 11am, then a chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. South southwest wind around 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25.
Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 45.
Today: A 20 percent chance of rain after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. Calm wind becoming west southwest around 5 mph.
Tonight: Rain likely before 11pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. West southwest wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.
Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 42. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Friday Night: A slight chance of rain and snow before 11pm, then a chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 25. South southwest wind between 5 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday: A chance of snow before 11am, then a chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. South southwest wind around 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 25.
Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 45.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Mount Sherdian 2-8-09 and upcoming Red Hot
This past Sunday a group of 6 of us went to climb Mount Sheridan at 13,748ft above sea level. It was Kirk, Tracy, Chris Deck, Matt (Chris's cousin), Art (Kirk's co-worker) and myself. The road to the summer trailhead at Four Mile Creek on the Fairplay side of the mountain was closed due to snow about 3.25 miles from the trailhead. With this added mileage the hike came out to be about 13 miles round trip and 4500ft of gain. It took us 6 hours total which is not a bad clip considering the 30mph winds and snow that was thrown at us. Out of the 6 of us, Tracy, Chris, and myself hit the summit and the others turned around about 400 vertical feet from the top due to the cold and shivering wildly. I never took my snowshoes off my pack the whole day, the snow was hard enough that I could just walk on top of it and only sink a few inches. Here are a couple of pictures that were taken by Tracy. They show Chris and myself on the summit and a group picture at the end of the day.
This upcoming Saturday 2/14 I have my 1st race of the year, Red Hot 50K. I am more nervous about this race than I have been in past races and I can not figure out why. Is it because I have been working with a coach the past 3 or so months and now I feel higher expectations? Or is it because it is just the first of the year on my way to another 100 mile attempt? I think a huge part of it is the first question I raised, higher expectations. After feeling like I let down lots of people with dropping from Leadville at mile 78 last summer the last thing I want to do is have another let down due to a slower than expected time, hell I don't even know what time I should be shooting for or what pace I should try and run. I know that I am stronger than last year the question is how much stronger am I? I just don't want to let down myself, Ashley, or anyone else for that matter.
Well that is enough rambling and whining for today. I have to get back to work. I will post a race report next week and let you know how it went.
This upcoming Saturday 2/14 I have my 1st race of the year, Red Hot 50K. I am more nervous about this race than I have been in past races and I can not figure out why. Is it because I have been working with a coach the past 3 or so months and now I feel higher expectations? Or is it because it is just the first of the year on my way to another 100 mile attempt? I think a huge part of it is the first question I raised, higher expectations. After feeling like I let down lots of people with dropping from Leadville at mile 78 last summer the last thing I want to do is have another let down due to a slower than expected time, hell I don't even know what time I should be shooting for or what pace I should try and run. I know that I am stronger than last year the question is how much stronger am I? I just don't want to let down myself, Ashley, or anyone else for that matter.
Well that is enough rambling and whining for today. I have to get back to work. I will post a race report next week and let you know how it went.
Monday, February 2, 2009
January's breakdown of the Numbers.
I had a pretty strong month for my 1st month of the year. I went to my on-line log and ran the numbers, not to bad! I had basically 225.65 total miles covered on foot with over 26,000 ft of vertical for the month of January. I was hope for over 250 but this is still good. I am wondering how I will be feeling in 2 weeks at the Red Hot 50K in Moab? Comparing to the number of miles that I ran last year in January (165) it is a huge improvement. There was also more quality runs this year. Last year I just put in the miles and did not do any tempo, speed, ect... This year running under a coach Paul DeWitt I put in much more quality runs. I am hoping for a much better finishing time than last years 6:24 which is my worse ever for a 50K. Here is the report from last year 2008 Red Hot
activity # time miles +ft
Running 24 32:35:00 210.4 (9:17) 23850
Snowshoeing 2 4:15:00 10.25 (24:52) 2500
Weights 7 3:00:00
Biking 7 1:45:00
Other 4 1:15:00 5.0 (15:00)
Total 44 42:50:00 225.65 26350
Have a great week!
activity # time miles +ft
Running 24 32:35:00 210.4 (9:17) 23850
Snowshoeing 2 4:15:00 10.25 (24:52) 2500
Weights 7 3:00:00
Biking 7 1:45:00
Other 4 1:15:00 5.0 (15:00)
Total 44 42:50:00 225.65 26350
Have a great week!
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