Run fast ... fall down

Monday, April 22, 2013

Rim to Rim to Rim

There are a few weeks in early spring and late fall where the temperatures and trail conditions in the grand canyon are optimized to allow for a pretty epic experience. This year marks my third double crossing from the South Rim to the North and back, and as always, had a great time enjoying this amazing place.

Through some generosity granted by my family and friends, I was given the weekend off and put together simple travel and camping plans for April 19-21, 2013. I flew to Flagstaff, AZ and joined Dave Gibson in driving up to the South Rim. Jeff Valliere, John Prater, and Dan Mottinger graciously allowed me to camp amongst their tents at Mather campground.

Dave and his crew set a starting time at 3AM on Saturday to ensure plenty of time to get back to the S. Rim before dark. This was a little earlier than I initially wanted to start, but would rather join the group at the start than run alone all day. I got all the trail beta from my campmates since they all ran the day before, and then I dressed for the start and went to bed. I didn't sleep very well, my feet were frozen, and didn't want to make too much noise so slithered out of my tent at 2AM. I ate a huge lump of banana bread, put on my shoes and was ready to go. We shuttled over to the South Kaibab Trailhead and began our descent at 2:48AM (we were actually early, go figure). My feet were still frozen from the night (19 F at the start), but quickly warmed up literally as we dropped down off the rim. I guess I should have better prepared for the night running, but only brought a small flashlight and a cheap headlamp as a backup. I run a lot at night but usually don't need a flashlight as the moon or light pollution from Boulder reflects off of snow and illuminates my routes rather well. This was not the case for this morning in the canyon. It was amazingly dark, no moon, and of course no light pollution. My flashlight battery lasted about 20-30 mins and then flickered off. Out of laziness, I haven't changed the battery since last year's leadville. When it died, I then stopped to get my headlamp out of my pack and really realized how dark it was out there. The group continued on ahead and I had to work to catch back up on a weak little light. Once I caught back up, things were better as everyone else's lights helped to collectively illuminate the trail and I made it a point to hang in a group until the sun rose (which was still a few hours away).

South Kaibab Trail descent in the dark

We continued dropping all the way down to the Colorado river and crossed over the sturdy black bridge. The trail continues to the Phantom Ranch camp and then we took the North Kaibab trail to the North Rim (this side of the National Park is still usually closed for winter in April). At Phantom Ranch, we sat down for a while to regroup, refill water at the spigot, and I somehow laid down in a cactus. After 20 minutes or so, our small group continued onward north. I was counting calories and trying to put down 200/hr with 20 oz of water. Here is a layout of what food I squished in my pack.

Layout of food I planned to eat (2400 cals) - Notice the roll of accidentally
vegan (east coast) Girl Scout Thin Mints in foil wrapper.

About halfway between Phantom Ranch and Cottonwood Camp, the sky began lighting up. This was definitely welcome as we were now a good 10 miles into the run (although my garmin watch said 12 miles, pretty much worthless in the canyon as signals were bouncing off the canyon walls, it alarmed me of several sub 5 minute miles). Once light struck the canyon walls, our little group split up and I spent most of the rest of the day running/hiking alone.

Sunrise reflecting off the canyon walls.

I spent about 15 minutes enjoying the facilities at cottonwood camp, reorganizing my food/pack, refilling my water, and pushed on. I continued up up up watching the altimeter tick all the way to 8000 ft while I hiked. The canyon was warming up and I could feel that the N. Rim was much cooler. I ended up cresting the top at 6h10m into the run and spent 5 mins at the rim catching back up on calories. I ran out of water here (2 L filled up last at Cottonwood) but knew it would be okay because it was all downhill back to the residence spigot. As I dropped off the N. Rim, I began seeing other runners. There were many many groups out there and it was fun chatting with people as passing by. I saw Anton Krupicka at about 20 mins down from the rim. He was running up the trail, while most everyone else (me included) hike the canyon climbs. I saw many other familiar faces from Boulder out there and was thinking that someday this will probably be illegal. It's becoming such a classic in the ultrarunning world. I guess my pictures don't really show it, but in reference to the two other times I've completed this (2006, 2007) there were so many more people, thus likely increasing the number of rescues.

Looking down the North Kaibab Trail on the side of the cliff.

Looking North up toward the North Rim. Roaring Springs waterfall on the right.

I made it back to the box canyon spigot and indulged in water as I was starting to encounter the oh-so-familiar stomach discomfort. I refilled my pack, poured EFS powder in it, tasted to make sure it'd go down and aimed to run most of the way back to Phantom Ranch. Joe Grant, and friends were hanging out at Cottonwood camp, so I chatted with them for a few minutes, and refilled my water again. The thin mints seemed to sooth my stomach issues and I was still keeping up well on my caloric plan.

About 3 hours after seeing Anton, he came flying by me again in the middle of Box Canyon in the bridges section. I tried to keep up but only held on for a hundred feet or so, he was really moving. Hikers were cheering us on and it was cool to pretend (even if for only a minute) that I was keeping up with him. They didn't have to know that I likely started 4 hours earlier!

Cactus field

Finally I made it back to Phantom Ranch and went in the store to purchase a few extra snacks. I wasn't sure I had enough food left, but it turns out I would have been fine. The line was really long and no one else was in a hurry in the store, so it took a solid 15 minutes for my purchase. I packed back up and hoped 2L was enough water to make it back up the 5000 ft climb to the starting/ending point. I made the decision only at this point that I'd go back up the S. Kaibab Trail rather than Bright Angel (which is a few miles longer). If I did it again, I'd be sure to drink a ton before leaving Phantom with my pack full. 2L should be plenty but not if I was already still thirsty (as was the case) and given that I just downed a pack of pretzels from the store.

I decided to quit paying attention to the time (as I wasn't breaking any records other than my own), and switched my watch over to altimeter mode to view my progress in climbing from 2200 ft (colorado river) to 7000 ft. This is a serious grunt. I promised myself a break at 4800 ft (halfway mark), so I dug out my headphones and listened to some music to try to make this climb go by faster. There were so many hikers that listening to music probably wasn't a good idea so it didn't last long before I gave up on it. My stomach was quite irritated but I feel like I'm learning it a little more now. I have to balance a few different things in terms of needing enough water to help digest any food, and needing more when it's upset, but taking it in really slowly.

The South Kaibab trail dropping the final 1000 feet to the river in less than a mile.

Near the top, I made fun of the famous sign warning hikers to not try to hike all the way to the river and back. (But in all actuality, I really felt like that).

After a ridiculously long day, I reach the starting point 12h45m after starting! I grabbed the park service shuttle back to the campsite and had a great time.

Splits: (Strava data) - GPS way over estimated the distance and battery died at 11h30m
7M Phantom Ranch 1h41m (20 min break)
12M Cottonwood Camp 3h48m (15 min break)
21M N Rim 6h10m (5 min break)
30M Cottonwood Camp 7h51m
35M Phantom Ranch 8h30m
42M S Rim 12h45m

Monday, March 11, 2013

2013 Catalina Island Marathon Race Report

An island in the Pacific sounds more appealing than weathering another snowstorm in Colorado, so this year I made sure to sign up with Jimmy Salasovich, who has run Catalina 5 or 6 times now. Really, the island is only 25 miles away from LA, but it's practically impossible to get a car onto the island, therefore it's not that much like LA.

Logistics: Getting on and off Santa Catalina Island involves giving in to the Catalina Express Ferry or taking a helicopter. Based on Jimmy's past experience, we chose to fly into LAX on Friday morning to be able to take the 4:30 Ferry over to Two Harbors from San Pedro (the only port offering service to Two Harbors). From the airport we grabbed a shuttle to San Pedro that was rather convenient and timed perfectly. The race offers bib/packet pickup at either the start or the finish. Some racers choose to stay in Avalon (which offers far more in the way of city life than Two Harbors), however, they must also take a 4:30AM ferry around to the north end of the island, which is infamous for toying with breakfast. We partook in the pre-race pasta dinner and then camped a few minute walk from the starting line. We also chose to hang out in Avalon on Saturday and take the Sunday morning Ferry back to Long Beach. This requires a late afternoon flight out of LAX for the timing to work out, which one should probably plan this section before planning the flight times.

Chilly ferry ride over to Catalina Island


Saw some whales in the water and buffalo on the island from the boat

Someone's bonfire on the beach in Two Harbors

Camping at Two Harbors was a little windy and I didn't get much sleep but was still likely far better than staying in Avalon. I went to sleep at 9 and felt like I slept well, woke up and looked at my phone and it was 10:30PM. This was going to be a long night. I dozed off and woke up a bunch and then starting at 3, I just laid there til about 5:30AM listening to the wind whip my tent fly around. We packed up tents and got ready to run in a campground bathroom facility that was warmer than the tent. The night was decently cold, dipping into the low 40s with ocean breeze and high humidity. At 6:45 we headed over to the start and dropped off our packs on a truck to be shuttled to the finish. We then stood around shivering until 7:05. Lots of runners were warming up, greeting old friends, or eying Buffalo up on the hillside. The weather called for 60-65 degrees and I opted for shorts/short sleeve with arm warmers. I think it was a good choice. Others were wearing down vests and tights but as well as some runners with no shirt.

Standing around pre-race. Pretty cold here.

Interestingly, the race allows anyone to start earlier and they just tell race officials their number and can begin their journey. A portion of the crew started earlier and some runners were taking off 10 mins before the crowd. At 7:05, the race actually began and my solid past couple months of training were about to be tested. I worked up to over 50 mi/wk which is pretty good volume for me. I got in a couple of 20 mile long runs with course-like elevation profiles, and even did a couple track workouts (full set of Yasso 800s at 3m25s, and worked up to 5x1M at 7 min pace). I tapered appropriately, lowered my coffee intake over race week and by race day was ready to go. My main goal was to PR (weak marathon PR of 4h40m way back in 2004 at my first marathon), kinda hoped I could beat Jimmy, and unrealistically also dreamed of breaking 4 hrs on this dirt road course with ~4500 ft of elevation gain.

I had some Garmin watch issues where the battery wouldn't hold a charge very long, so I had my watch charging right before the start. I also wore my heart rate monitor strap, carried my phone in my shorts pocket and carried a water bottle with 2 gels. At the start, my watch said low battery, so about a half mile in, I grabbed my phone and fired up strava to simultaneously record the data. My HR was pretty high 90-100 before the start possibly due to the instant coffee I just drank or due to other race day jitters.

Once underway my HR spiked up to about 180 and then settled back to 150. After about a half mile the first hill came and Jimmy and I found a very comfortable pace and I mostly quit looking at my heart rate, just tried to keep it comfortable. There are a ton of aid stations on this course, so I made it a point to try to not pay much attention to most of them, however I did notice that none seemed to have any gels so I planned out how to best utilize the 2 gels that I brought with me. I took the first one at 45 mins in to get the caffeine boost and planned to save the other for mile 17 to get me to the end. Given this, I decided to switch from water to Gatorade at the aid stations to get some extra calories.

Working on the first climb

Jimmy and I ran together for the first 5 miles or so and separated by a little on an early downhill, however we could see each other all day on switchbacks and were only a minute apart most of the day. I hit the first 10K mark at 55 mins and things were going well. The halfway point came at 2 hrs on the nose and still everything went as planned. I ate a banana and grabbed a swig of coke and redbull at 2 different stations. My quads felt some of the early downhills but I hoped to have enough in them to finish strong. The views along the route were great and the temps cranked up quite a bit. I dropped my arm warmers to my wrists and used them to wipe sweat from my forehead the rest of the race.

Flat section at mile 13-14

Somewhere around mile 14, Jimmy caught back up and we ran together for a while longer and then he took off as the hills steepened. I was giving it my all, while trying to keep the right amount held back to finish strong with nothing left. At mile 16.5 I took my last gel and prepared for the hilly section between 17 and 23. Throughout this section, I gave in to walking some of the uphills that were easily runnable just to use some different muscles in my legs. My hamstrings were now feeling fatigued, but I knew at 23 it would be all downhill to the finish and I wouldn't need them anymore.

I got passed here by a good number of people and I think we were all ready to jump in the ocean as it was really warm out. The big downhill came at 23 and I did my best to muster up a 9m30s pace. I could have benefited from a little extra left in my quads but it wasn't there. The dirt turned into pavement and I knew I was close but not sure how much to trust the distance signs as they were correct up to mile 8 and about a half mile off from 9-24 miles. There was a 1.5 mile space between the 24 and 25 mile signs and once I saw the 26, I could also see the finish, but my watch turned off at mile 17.

Relaxing on the beach

I finished with everything I had left in 47th place (of 411) at 4h10m (about 8 mins behind Jimmy) and seriously needed to sit down. 5 mins later, all was good and we hung out the rest of afternoon watching the remaining 85% come in to town. The post race weather was breezy and chilly and I couldn't convince myself to get in the cold ocean. Jimmy knew of some pay showers that were well worth the $5 and then we turned to eating a couple lunches and dinner.

Post race party and awards ceremony

Overall it was a great course, great scene, and a pretty fun time. I am certainly happy with my day and experienced nothing more painful than some sore leg muscles. I pushed an avg HR of 175 over the first 17 miles until my watch died and felt adequately prepared for about the first 20 miles. The last 6 went fine, but I probably lost 15 spots, but I can't complain about a 30 min personal best at 26.2.

Link to Strava Data

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Walker ranch sunrise run

With the glorious native American summer that we are granted this year, I got in a late season lap around walker. Since running isn't a sport, I'm clearly not a sportsman, but if I were, I wouldn't go hungry at Walker today. At the start of the loop I encountered the largest buck I've seen in the wild. I managed to get this "shot" off.

I kept my distance. I saw maybe 10 other deer and was within 10 feet of 4 little does and a button buck. Also saw 30+ turkeys on the drive up!

Don't worry guys, been vegan since last century.
7.5 miles, 1500 ft gain. 1h19m. Garmin Data

Monday, October 15, 2012

N Mount Massive

Depending on who you ask, the number of 14ers in Colorado can vary from 53 to about 59. The difference are peaks that are either too close to other higher peaks to count as a separate mountain or ones that are far enough away but the drop between the peaks is insignificant (usually about 300 ft). I hiked Mt Massive (the 2nd highest in CO) a long time ago and didn't know to care enough about walking 1.14 miles along the ridge to a bump called N. Massive. So after finishing the 14ers in 2007, it was kind of cool to still have one left.

After some serious indecisiveness, like literally on the drive from the front range, we still hadn't fully decided between Drift peak, Massive or Yale. Upon pulling into Leadville, we'd apparently ruled out Drift since we passed the trailhead, however we added the possibility of either climbing Oklahoma or Elbert. Still George and Mike were undecided and Ziva was ready to get the show on the trail, so I spoke up and proclaimed N. Massive.

We loaded up and set forth about 8:30 with only 1 or 2 other cars at the N Halfmoon Trailhead. After 1.5 miles, we passed a trail junction leading up the S slopes of Massive, a route we would come down later in the day, but first we skirted around the ridge into the valley home to the N Halfmoon lakes.

Looking up at the valley wall we had to decide where to gain the ridge.

N Massive is straight ahead. We ascended the wall to the ridge at the far left of this photo

The climb up the wall is steep.

Looking back at Oklahoma (left) from the ridge

The ridge walk is long and has a few interesting obstacles that we mostly skirted around on the N side of the ridge. A few summit shots from Mt Massive summit.

Then we followed the very steep S Slopes trail back to the junction at 1.5 miles in. Total day was about 10 miles with 4200 ft of elevation gain. garmin data

Saturday, September 15, 2012

2012 Rattlesnake Ramble

In the car on the way home from this race, I told my family this race is my favorite race. This race and Leadville. I guess I'm not getting any faster. I don't very often test myself against my previous times. However I've done the Rattlesnake Ramble in Eldorado Springs, CO a couple times now and my times are 39:44 in 2005, 39:31 in 2011, and this year 39:54. It's a 4.2 mile race that covers the main (but not the climbing access) trails in Eldorado state park. This year was the first time that I'd run it in an even year, therefore the race is run in a different direction than my past experiences.

The honorable John Prater said go and I knew my body was about to hate me. We took off straight uphill that makes everyone annoyed. It's really tough to manage the start when the start is uphill on a serious false flat. I tried to keep everything in check but my watch was mad at me and beeping "heart rate too high," which is funny because I've never seen that error before. I think it was getting a false reading and within another few seconds it settled into 175 which was the lowest it would be for a while. I kept motoring up the road hoping to save a little for the real climb ahead. We hit the eldo trail and mile 1 done in 11:36 and I started power hiking as planned and just kept my position. I passed a runner here or there but for the most part it's just follow the leader for the next half mile.

I got my first view at the frontrunners and before I knew it was already at the end of the park/turnaround. I took the downhill pretty easy trying to lower my heart rate which was high 180s at this point. The road connector to the Fowler trail was tough as it felt very slow, is open and non-technical so road runners take off here and I was now in pretty serious anaerobicity. The savior was the amazing view running out the fowler trail with the Bastille wall and the wind tower in a little haze with sun shining down. It was glorious and I forgot that I was running a race. I need to go back at this time of day to grab a picture of this view.

Oh yeah, serious hurtin' here. I did my best to keep my stride short and fast, but the turnaround didn't come fast enough. I started getting passed by a bunch of women. No guys though. On the way back I gave in and walked about 2 steps, but then threw it back in gear because I knew the downhill finish was about to arrive.

Once I rounded the curve, I was super glad to see no one right behind me or slightly in front. I was pushing as hard as I could go and didn't need external motivation to hold someone off or catch anyone. I was pushing a 5:30 pace for the last 1/2 mile as it's all downhill and again got the warning alarm about my HR. I looked down and saw 195. Ouch. Through the chute and I'm done.

Again it's better to be lucky than fast as the top few runners got their pick at the amazing prizes on the award table and then race director Bill Wright pulls raffle numbers out of a box and almost everyone walks away with some additional prize. I was hanging out here with a bunch of friends and friends of friends and I got called in about 5th place and picked up a fresh sharp pair of Kahtoola Microspikes to go with my cool tech shirt. $32 well spent.

Maybe I outta do some trackwork or something. My mile splits did get progressively faster though 11:36, 11:00, 8:23, 7:50, and 5:47 pace for the final 0.2 mi. Average HR 184.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Memorial of Indie

Sometime in April of 2002, just after moving to Colorado, I adopted a 3 year old dog from the Mile High Weimaraner Rescue. So much has happened in the last 10.5 years of my life and Indie was with me through it all. She passed away this week, and I have been reminiscing all weekend. I've gone through some pictures and pulled out ones to show some of what we've been through together.

She has traveled with me from Colorado to the Grand Canyon, Tetons, Yosemite, Glacier, Montana, several trips to North Carolina, California to Oregon, Utah, and all over Colorado.