June 23rd- June 29th

"Slowing down reminds you that the journey is supposed to be fun." - Anne Bancroft

"Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his or her goals." - Dorothy Height

--  Another 2 quote week, seems right.

Monday:   

6 AM:  5.3 miles averaging 7:40pace.  Easy miles around the roads by work in a heat suit before work. Trying to get ready in every way I can. Not sure I will do anymore of these since we are only 5 days out but will keep in the sauna sessions until we leave on Wednesday morning.

4 PM: 35mins lifting at VASA after work.  Bunch of easy upper body movements just to move some. Last lifting session for a while.  Followed this up with 25mins in the sauna, could have easily stayed in a lot longer which is a good sign.

--  Got this postcard from JT today.  Thanks bud!  I will need all the good luck I can get. Little bit of an inside joke on this postcard from Al-Mart.

Tuesday:  

6 AM:  6.1 miles averaging 7:30pace.  Easy lap of Davidson and Harper in a half heat suit. Basically all the layers without the down jacket. Enough to get a good sweat on but not be super hot. Need to be careful how much stress I put on myself the rest of the week. Last run in Colorado before we fly out to CA early tomorrow morning.  The count down is on.  

Wednesday:

- Total rest day today due to travel to Western States.  Flew in and out of Sacramento for this trip which worked out very well.  Spent the rest of the day catching up with the crew that could join us today and the Speedland guys at the tail end of TrailCon.

Thursday:  

10 AM:  4.5 miles averaging 7:15pace.  Out and back on the bike path in Olympic valley. Just super chill but legs actually felt like shit for the most part. Not surprising considering the travel.  Followed this up with 25mins in the sauna at the condo we rented.  Got a lecture from Jurek on some race strategies for the canyons. 

Rest of the day was chilling out and watching the beer mile put on by Deathmarch Running Company in the evening.  GOOD TIMES!

Friday:

8 AM:  3.4 miles averaging 8:40pace.  Easy out and back again on the bike path from Olympic valley but this time with Dan, Donnie and Jeff Browning. Just a super chill jog chatting about race strategies that I should be thinking about on Saturday.

The rest of the day was filled with pre-race stuff like check-in, watching the crew take on the High Camp Challenge, and the pre-race meeting.  Anxiety was running very high today.

Saturday: 

5 AM:  100 miles w/ 18000ft of vert in 22:42:46.  So much to say about this race that I am not sure what to say to be honest. Very overwhelming race in all aspects. Honestly still processing everything that happened. Basics are that the BOA on my shoes broke at mile 7 so had to run with the shoe duck taped to my foot until I saw my crew at mile 24 to get new shoes which fucked me up. Then of course over heated in the second canyon coming into Michigan Bluff which I expected. I had to be put back together and was way behind the 24 hour pace at that point. From Foresthill to the finish things finally went my way. Was able to crank all night with Don to pass a shit ton of people and hit my B goal of sub 24 in 22:42:46. I will take it.

Here are a few photos but I will do a photo blog of this race later in the week or early next week, still collecting photos from people.  These are from the first few miles taken with my Meta glasses but after my shoe blow out I did not take anymore photos the rest of the day and have to get those from others.

Sunday:  

---  Finished in the middle of the night so of course nothing today.  Went back to the house after finishing and slept for a few hours before heading back to the track for Golden Hour and the awards presentation.  Pretty wiped after this one, much more than after Blackbeard in March.

Breakdown of the pacing charts for 20 hours, 24 hours and the cutoff with my times put between the 20 and 24 hour.  Sort of interesting to geek out on this a little bit.

Total Weekly Numbers

Western States is still pretty raw as I am typing this up on Wednesday after the race and I am still processing everything that happened both in the race and outside the race.  More to come on that in the future but will leave it with this statement, "I am very pleased and happy how things turned out considering the cards that were dealt to me.".  Onwards to the next adventure.