Category Archives for "Running"

2 Screw Your Shoes at FootZone on Tuesday

One of the two Screw Your Shoes workshops last winter at FootZone.

I’ve already had snow at my house and the Cascades have been getting white. So, it’s time to start thinking about studs in your shoes. Tuesday night at FootZone from 6-7:30pm in downtown Bend. I’ll be holding a Screw Your Shoes Workshop. Come winterize a pair of running shoes with some studs. It won’t hurt your shoes and can always be taken out. Learn to do it yourself, or enjoy full stud service. I’ll have my Makita drill, plus an extra cordless for Do-It-Yourselfers. Come hang out and screw your shoes. Giddyup.

-Bronco Billy

4 Post-season Cross Training: Splittin’ wood

The old-fashioned way—by hand. I cut and split my own wood for winter heating. Good off-season cross-training, too.

I’m one week post-Ozark Trail 100 and into my post-season off time from running. It’s always a nice break to have 4 weeks of down time come late fall. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I primarily heat my home with wood (consisting of two very efficient wood stoves—one large uber-efficient main stove in my great room and one cast iron in my kitchen for small, occasional fires).

This fall I cut all my own wood with a permit from Deschutes National Forest (dead standing lodgepole pines). So, about once or twice a week, I have to do a log splitting session with my ax and wheelbarrow my wood to my wood box just outside the back door and stack a nice pile in the great room by the wood stove.

Some folks have mentioned to me that it seems like a lot of work, but I find it very rewarding to go through the motions of cutting your own wood, hand-splitting, and stacking. It’s a little bit of labor, but it’s very relaxing and a great stress reliever—plus, it’s a great way to save a lot of money on winter heating. It cost me $40 for the permits and about 15-16 hours of labor in the woods running a chainsaw…as Tim “The Toolman” Taylor always said…ARR-ARR-ARR!! Plus, the added benefit of giving you some cross-training during the off-season—Bronco Billy likes. Giddyup!

22 Ozark Trail 100 Race Report: Trail by Braille

Getting ready to start. Photo by Paul Escola.

Pics of the course…lots of oak leaves. This is actually an easy part of the course to see. Photo by Paul Escola.

Can you see the trail in all the leaves? It’s there somewhere. A hint of what we had to deal with. Photo by Paul Escola.

Arriving Sutton Bluff aid station (mile 17). Photo by Paul Escola.

Done! 18 hours and 38 minutes on a very leaf covered course. Talking with my sleepy son, Benjamin, at the finish line. Mama woke him up after 3 hours of sleep.

Turning off the Black Diamond headlamp after crossing the line. Ah, to be done running!

Respect where respect is due…

Hats off to the volunteers and race staff…awesome aid stations, I never filled a bottle and the course was marked perfectly. You would never know this was a first year hundred. Very smoothly run—like a well-oiled machine! I was extremely impressed. Awesome, awesome job.

Now, since this my blog, I like to be honest and constructive…if I may, I’d like to make two small suggestion to Stuart and Paul (the RDs) for next year. Give the belt buckles out AFTER the 2pm cutoff. I know they want to be “low-key”, but I really wanted everyone to stick around so I could talk to all the runners post-race. Plus, it makes it really cool for the back of the packers ’cause EVERYONE is there to cheer them in. A few did stay and I enjoyed hanging out (you Arkansas boys), but I love to swap war stories and hear the first hand accounts of the runner’s experiences on the course. After all of us get done battling the course—especially a challenging course like that—it’s nice to share the experience with everyone who fought hard in the woods. Secondly, maybe a good ol’ fashioned Missourah BBQ. Swapping war stories with some ribs or a half a hog in my belly wouldn’t be bad either. Seriously though…great job Paul and Stuart and all the race staff and volunteers. Cool race, I hope folks will return to support this race. The leaves give this course a whole different level of technical complexity.

On an unfortunate note, I heard some horse riders pulled some flags on part of the course later in the day…which gave the race staff some stress. We used to run into the same issue when I mountain biked in Missouri in college. Horse folks rule the roost on trails in the midwest and have a long standing history of trail use. Too bad, considering how much time and volunteer effort was put into clearing the Ozark Trail (OT) for this race. Given the high horse use in some areas of the OT, maybe race staff try to reach out to the horse folks next year and get them involved with volunteering in the future and it would help with runner-rider relations and mutual effort to get the trail maintained. I think all could benefit. The 20 or so riders I ran into at mile 40ish did not know the race was happening. They were very nice, but surprised there was a race and seemed a little flustered that over a 100 runners were headed their way. I think warning and awareness will go a long way in the future. Much like the horse folks get involved in Western States 100. It’s a mutual benefit for trails and sharing. They learn about our crazy sport and runner’s get a reminder on trail etiquette when encountering horses on the trail (let the horse take the high side of the trail, talking to them, etc.). Plus, it get them emotionally attached to this thing too. Something to ponder.

Anyway…less deep thoughts and more about my actual race experience on the OT…

This was the most dangerous course I’ve been on at night. This course includes 80+ miles under 4+ inches of fallen oak leaves. You can’t see the obstacles under the leaves, which is basically running by braille—using your feet as feelers and being ready to adjust on the fly every step. On paper—this course looks easy. Race description said 15,000 feet of climbing (I think they must have used GPS units to figure that…which exaggerates elevation because it doesn’t take into account barometric pressure. My Suunto actually clocked a lot less—10,906 of ascent and 11,572 of descent). And I’ve found my Suunto to be the most accurate. It’s all at low elevation, rolling, no major climbs—well, it looked really fast. Even though it was 98% singletrack, I thought it would be pretty darn fast. Within the first 20 minutes of running in the pre-dawn dark, I realized my original plan of going under 17 hours was not realistic. The challenging footing in the dark with the leaf factor, as well as the route finding. Many times you had to look closely to barely see an indentation in the leaves where the trail was. Tricky, especially when trying to run downhill fast. Plus, certain sections of the OT are very rarely traveled, making the faint trail almost invisible.

We started promptly at 6am and ran the first 20 minutes in the dark before it got light enough to see. I went out leading the front pack with Ryne Melcher, Dave Wakefield, and Ben Creehan in tow. We were a few miles in and I stopped to tie my shoe at a power line crossing in the woods. They continued on and I jumped in about 50 meters back and we came to a down tree and no markers. We all looked around, Ben ran up the wide trail and then I backtracked to the last flag and sure enough the trail had veered left into the trees. We all missed it. Maybe a minute off course. No big deal. Once we were back on track, I joked that I let them lead for 30 seconds and they tried to get us lost!

The trail at times was easy to lose with the heavy amount of fallen leaves, especially if it switch backed hard. Plus, add in the thousands upon thousands of blow downs from the windstorm last winter (that uprooted, root ball and all and laid them over) in the first 40 miles of the course….well, it made for some slow going in spots where there was a 2-4 foot hole in the ground in the middle of the trail and you had to negotiate your way around the root ball and hole. At one point, I missed a switchback for about 3 or 4 steps and stopped to look, Dave scouted the trail and took the lead and I tucked in behind him and we stayed in that order into aid station 1. I ditched my lights, filled my bottles, ate a bit of banana and took off ahead of the other 3 guys by about 50 meters.

As we traversed, I just kept a steady pace and would occasionally catch a glimpse of Ben, Dave and Ryne across a drainage in the woods a few minutes back. After about 20 minutes I quit seeing them. I decided not to worry, as I felt comfortable and didn’t feel like I was pushing it. So, I just settled in and concentrated on not tripping in the deep leaves. I came into Sutton Bluff at 8:52am, the first crew spot at 17.6 miles hootin’ and my brother, Joel, yelling back. My sister had my bottles, Dad had food, and Joel swapped my waist pack and I was out of there in less than a minute. Later I found out that I had about 7 minutes on Dave and Ryne, who arrived together. Ben arrived right after them, but was in and out quicker and left before they did in 2nd place with Dave and Ryne close behind.

I continued to cruise in and out of aid stations and kept looking back but didn’t see anyone. I kept plugging away to the crunch-crunch rhythm of oak leaves underfoot. The heat started to be felt late morning and I was getting pretty warm. I was downing my two 20 ounce bottles and running out before the aid stations. I was feeling pretty overheated when I arrived at the next crew spot at Brooks Creek at mile 43.5 at around 1:25pm. We did the quick swap, Joel set up my iPod Shuffle and I got some ice in my hat. I was just about to leave, when an aid station volunteer yelled, “Runner!”

I bolted out of there like a shot.

Come to find out, the person they saw coming down into the aid station on the switchbacks was a hiker. I didn’t know that. So, I was out of there running everything. I went to turn on the tunes on my iPod and the battery was dead! What a bummer. It must have been accidentally on in my drop bag. So, after trying to get it to work about 10 times, I stuck it in my waist pack and accepted that this would be a music free hundred miler. Well, sometimes you just have to roll with it. As it turned out, with so many leaves, later in the race, I ended up talking to God a lot. There was some leaf-induced soul searching going on.

I had packed a back-up light (single, small headlamp) at 43.5 to make it to the next crew spot at Hazel Creek (68.5) where I had my night light gear. My original plan was to make it to Hazel creek by dark. But, the leaf factor had me running a little slower than my splits. And, thinking I had someone breathing down my neck in 2nd, I just kept pushing the pace on and off until dark. It got dark about 25 minutes from Hazel Creek and I had to switch on my light. With the hidden, challenging footing, it was definitely slow going once night fell.

I arrived at Hazel Creek at 5:45pm. But, I was feeling better with the heat gone and the night coolness setting in. I came in asking how far back 2nd place was and my crew told me they had mistakenly thought the hiker was a runner at 43.5 and that 2nd place was an hour back at 43. I told them I pushed pretty hard the last hour of light and hopefully gapped 2nd even more. I was off my original planned splits now by about 45 minutes and I told them I was not going to be pushing to get back on splits, just “gettin’er done” without hurting myself. The leaves and route finding was pretty tricky. I told my crew I’d see them in 13 miles at Berryman Campground and got moving again.

The next section was really slow going, as I had really pushed the last hour before dark and I now mentally knew I had a good cushion. I really slowed down from Hazel Creek to Machell Hollow. It was super slow going. I just was very unmotivated and almost exclusively oak groves (meaning, TONS of deep leaf cover on the trail). I got a bit of a second wind after Machell Hollow and there are a few pine groves, plus creek bottom trails not covered in leaves—so, I really ran those harder. If the trail opened up with no leaves, I started running harder until oak leaves hit again, then slowed down and watched footing. It was kind of like a long interval workout.

As you approach Berryman, the trail has heavier use (horses and mountain bikers) and was easier to see rocks and roots, even if it was leaf strewn. I arrived Berryman (mile 81.5) around 8:45pm, sat down, did a shoe dump—I was really getting tired of creek crossing by then. They come in nice even intervals. Right about the time your shoes and socks are good and dried out—time to wade another knee-deep creek. I told my crew that I was going to try to get in before 1am (sub 19) and took off to finish the last 20 miles.

About mile 89, just out of Billy Branch aid station, I kicked a rock under the leaves and did my 3rd and final face plant and bruised my lower quad above the knee and bruised my palm. I rarely, if EVER, fall on trail. But, not being able to see the rocks and roots was pretty crazy (and dangerous). Luckily I was wearing full fingered cycling gloves and carrying handheld bottles. So, it protected my hands. I rolled onto my back yelling, and slowly got up and walked it off. I’m glad I missed banging my knee cap. I got shuffling again on the slow going downhills. The one thing you couldn’t do on this course at night was hammer the downhills…too sketchy. As previously mentioned, I just ran hard on any uncovered trail sections and then ran all the ups because if you kicked or stumbled over something under the leaves, you could recover and catch yourself. But, downhill, your momentum is going too hard forward and you get a face plant as your consolation prize. It was a little frustrating at night, as I like to run hard in the dark, but I think that is the most challenging aspect of this course—trail running by braille for nearly 100 miles.

I finally hit dirt road that heads back to Bass River Resort and crossed the finish line for my 6th 100 mile win in 18:38:59. Ben Creehan crossed the line in 2nd place in 22:59 and Ryne and Dave in 3rd and 4th about another 20 minutes back from Ben (Nice job Dave on getting that first 100 mile finish!). Only 56 out of 126 starters (44%) of us got across the finish line…tough conditions.

Thanks a bunch to my family for crewing and taking care of me. It was great to have the whole family there (wife, kids, brother, sister, mom, dad, nephew, cousins, aunts, uncles….great time). It was killer to hang out with midwest ultrarunners and be back in the Ozarks. The hills aren’t huge, but it sure is beautiful (and tough) down there. Giddyup!

8 Ozark Trail 100: The Countdown

I touched down in good ‘ole Missourah this afternoon…my home state. Born and raised. I’m sitting in a hotel room in St. Louis with my wife and kids, waiting for my good buddy to show up and hang out. I can’t help feel a sense of nostalgia when I come back here. I don’t make it back very often…every few years. But, when I do, I always miss the Ozarks. The leaves are 2 weeks past peak fall colors, but still half on the trees and colorful—enough to appreciate just the same. The friendly people, the diversity—the good old friendly folks. The weather is supposed to be perfect this week. 60s and sunny. Perfect weather to run a 100 miles of Ozark singletrack in hillbilly land. I can’t wait. Giddyup!

8 Book Review: Born To Run

I recently read the book Born to Run by Christoper McDougall. I’ve heard many opinions from fellow ultrarunners the past few months—they either love it or hate it. Most of those who hate it tend to be tied into the shoe industry somehow (hmm, peculiar). All in all, I found the book to be a great (and fast) read.

I also had the privilege to hear the author talk the night before running Iroqouis 100 (now Virgil Crest 100) in NY last month and found him to be interesting, engaging and quite humorous. And, got my book signed with a note that read, “…as Caballo put it, running is magic, man!” Agreed, Chris.

Here’s my take…

Knowing all the ultrarunners he spoke about (Kami, Scott, Jen and Billy)…I found his descriptions of them a bit too “hollywood.” Also, in my opinion, he’s a little unbalanced in his approach, since he refers to running companies as a major cause of our running problems in America. Aren’t consumers to blame too? We do have a choice where we spend our denaros, right?

He also seems to throw around figures and percentages (like 80% of all runners get injured) with nothing really concrete to back it up, which raises a few credibility questions in the reader’s mind. He could have fielded this with some cited studies to back up his figures. Not to say this isn’t true, just seems questionable.

He definitely comes across as anti-shoe and anti-shoe companies. I have to agree with him on a deep, holistic, organic level…people have been getting along fine without shoes for thousands of years. But, I also have to face the facts….us tenderfeets have been locked in shoes our entire natural born lives and we can’t just run out the door barefoot (or even in a minimalist shoe) without getting injured. I’ve tried it.

I would dare say most of us can’t walk around the house for couple of days barefoot without getting some weird aches. A lifetime of shoes have created weak, lazy feet and weak, lazy lower legs.

Side Note: A fun test to see how lazy your feet are—right now—take off your shoes and socks. What? Are you wearing shoes in the house? Ah, man, c’mon, time to break the cycle! Okay, okay, the test: try to spread your toes apart, especially your pinky toe and create space between your toes, then wiggle them. Does smaller toes/pinky toe have ANY range of motion? Not much? Unless you’ve done a lot of yoga recently or like to go around barefoot a lot, your pinky toe may be almost welded to the next toe. (Don’t worry, mine are too!)

Anyway, I completely agree with the author and believe we are “Born to Run.” We should be in minimalist shoes, but this takes a balanced, disciplined approach—especially if you’ve been in orthotics or motion control shoes.

Every runner should mix it up. I totally think barefoot walking/running is great thing to incorporate into training. Start out by walking around barefoot as much as you can. Then try walking around barefoot outside. Then cool down the last 5 minutes of a run barefoot a few times a week. When that feels okay, make it a 10-minute cooldown—and so on. Train shorter, tempo or hill workouts in a minimalist racing flat. I like to play running games with my kids in my Vibram Five Fingers, but don’t go throw down a 2 hour trail run in them—yet. And, don’t stop there. Think about your kids (if you have them). I encourage barefoot play for my kids (no shoes in the house, no shoes outdoors in good weather) and search out a soft, flexible shoe for them so they don’t develop weak feet.

Balance. It’s all about a slow evolution, especially if you want to wean yourself off orthotics or beefy running shoes without injury. So, if you’ve been in shoes your whole life and want to run long and run prosperous, take off those shoes and go for a walk, then a short jog—just don’t throw your running shoes away quite yet. Giddyup!

21 Iroquois 100 Race Report: Chasing the Clock

Doing the rock hop at a creek crossing on Finger Lakes Trail, mile 40. Photo Courtesy Steve Gallow

Pre Race
What a great way for my first trip to the Northeast to go down. I’m so pumped to have run 17:34 and grab the course record and my 5th 100 mile win. It was a blast. With it only being a 2nd year event, I was not sure what to plan for with regard to splits and an overall time goal.

So, I figure 18:30 was a good time goal based on last year’s winner’s 50 mile first split, Inov8 runner Yassine Diboun (8:50 was my goal split for the first half). Yassine ran well the first half, but seemed to fade the 2nd half last year. I chalked that up to it being his first 100 and as the ultra vet’s say, you have to run a 100 before you can run a 100.

He ran really well at Where’s Waldo 100k this year, so, I figured I should shoot for a similar first 50 split and run the second about 40-50 minutes slower. To my surprise, it went better than expected despite a small scare early when I lost my S-caps (electrolyte pills) and a 4 minute detour to run back to the aid station to get salt tabs.

I flew in Wednesday night on the red-eye and spent 5 hours on Thursday afternoon with my buddy and owner of Finger Lakes Running Company, Ian Golden, who has really thrown his heart and soul into this thing—a great course and a stellar, grassroots 100 miler. So, we finished up marking the course and resetting my internal clock to east coast time.

Actually, being in the woods from 12:30-5:30 Thursday afternoon, hiking and easy running was the perfect cure for jet lag. I think being in the woods and watching the sun setting in it’s raw natural environment totally re-programmed my internal clock and I went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 8:45am on Friday feeling pretty darn good.

On Friday afternoon, we drove out to the course at Greek Peak Ski Area, near Virgil, NY (30 minutes from Ithaca) and got ready for check-in. I helped unload the sprinter van Ian had race stuff in and went to chill before the pre-race meal. Before I took off from Oregon I wanted to buy a copy of the book Born to Run by Christoper McDougall. I didn’t get a chance to grab it before I left Bend, but as I read the race brief from Ian on my flight east, I found out he was going to be at the pre-race meal and speak. Sweet. I bought a book and got it signed and finished it up in 3 days.

Side Note on the book: Great read (he does kind of put the ultrarunners, all of which I know personally) on a weird pedestal, but it’s still a great book and the background theory of humans as an endurance running people is super interesting…and, if you’re an ultrarunner, it makes total sense…we’re tapping into something genetically coded and primal in our make-up.

The Course
First, this course is beautiful. Ian designed a great course. It boasts 17, 448 feet of climbing (based on my Suunto), consisting of a double 50 mile circuit. I found this set-up to be great. Making drop bags and logistics easy (especially being solo with no crew or pacer). I know it wasn’t his first choice for the course, but given the large amounts of private property, land owner issues, and hiker coalitions who don’t like events—he’s put together one heck of a fast, but tough course. Hard, technical and beautiful with one of the best finish lines spots I’ve been too. Another plus, as a front runner, you get to see the entire course before having to run in the dark. A nice perk, especially with no prior course knowledge.

Also, I love deciduous woods. I grew up in Missouri and this is my first trip to upstate NY. Gorgeous. I felt like I was the old farm boy back exploring the “back 40” again. I love the constant humming sounds of the insects, birds and the lush, shady canopy. It’s definitely technical in the trail sections with lots of rocks and roots and very windy singletrack. You don’t get very many straight trail sections to just “open it up” and let the legs roll. You are constantly engaged in a rhythmic dance with roots and rocks and ups and downs…whether it’s 1000 ft climb or a 3 foot roller. To give you an idea…

Stutter step. hop a log. long stride. short stride. juke. side step. cut left. cut right. grab a sapling and swing ’round it. tiptoe across a little creek crossing. up. down—repeat—in no particular order. It takes total mental focus. I found it engaging and fun…you just have to embrace “the wood dance.” My kind of course. I loved every step—well, maybe not at the end when I was worked, but that memory quickly fades—that’s why I keep entering these crazy races, I suppose.

The Race
Race morning was cloudless sky with temps in the 30s. I had a good sleep for about 5 hours Friday night and toed the line at 5:55am in the chilly pre-dawn morning in shorts, sleeveless jersey, gloves and arm warmers.

Under headlamps, Ian blew the rams horn and we were off at 6am sharp. We proceeded down the short strip of pavement and onto Tune Road’s gravel and soon were making our way up Greek Peak’s ski slope for the first climb. The first climb is a nice hiking grind and pretty steep. We immediately had soaked feet from the heavy dew and I settled in with Tim Ingall (a local running the 50 miler).

About halfway through the Greek Peak Alpine Loop, it was light enough to turn off the lights and Tim and I soon hit the summit and began the nice grass slope downhill back toward the Gatherings aid station, just cruising and chatting. By the time I hit the road back to the Gatherings aid (mile 5.9), my feet were soaked, but I had decided to roll with it that day and not stop and just let my feet dry on the move.

I came into Gatherings about 40 meters behind Tim, who went to change shoes. I got my gels out of my drop bag and headed out in the lead. After Gatherings you have to run up a paved road for about a mile before entering the Finger Lake’s Trail on your left. Tim caught me on the uphill paved section and pulled slightly ahead. I knew he liked to run hard early and was doing the 50 miler. He also told me on the opening loop that he hadn’t put in a lot of long runs and was going to run hard until he couldn’t anymore. So, I didn’t worry about staying with him, just sticking to my own splits and race plan.

So, I settled in and cruised into Pipeline about 100 meters behind Tim at mile 12. We came into Pipeline aid and I was in and out quick. About 2 minutes out of the aid station I went to grab my S-caps (electrolyte pills) out of my short pocket but they weren’t there!! Apparently, I had not quite got my left hip pocket’s velcro dot connected and the pocket was open and they bounced out. Not good. Not good at all. Without salt…no way I could go on without cramping. I turned around and ran back uphill to the aid station in a slight panic.

I asked for whatever they had. E-caps…not ideal, but would work. Then, a guy stepped up and said, “I have a few S-caps.” He gave me 8 pills and I thanked him and took off. I now had several 50 mile folks in front of me and had lost about 4 or 5 minutes. I settled myself down mentally and started to figure out how I was going to make it through the race with limited salt tabs. I needed more.

I had pills at 23.7 (Gatherings aid), but wasn’t supposed to get those until mile 50 to get me through the second half. So, I decided I would have to go on E-caps, which they had at the aid stations. They have 227 mg less sodium per capsule, but I’d just have to make due and use them to get me through.

So, I started taking LOTS of E-caps, up to 4 pills at a time to equal what I’d normally take in one S-cap. I figured if I could make it to mile 37 at Daisy Hollow aid, I could then switch to what I had for S-caps for the rest of the race. I came back into Pipeline after the loop and cruised on for Gatherings aid.

Pipeline Loop, mile 16. Photo Courtesy Steve Gallow

So, I caught back up to Tim and another runner (both in the 50 mile race) about halfway to Gatherings and passed them. They were starting to look tired. I kept plugging away, not feeling like I was pushing at all and got my refill of gels at Gatherings (mile 23.7) and headed out for the 26.4 mile round trip out and back on the Finger Lakes trail to Daisy Hollow.

I jammed up the gnarly 1000 foot climb to Greek Peak aid and kept plugging away to Rock Pile aid and arrived at Rock Pile in 5 hours flat (the 50k mark). I got into Daisy Hollow (mile 37) at 11:58am, turned around and headed back to Gatherings. This was my first chance to check-in on competition and see how far back 2nd place was. A local named Daniel was in 2nd, about 9 minutes out of Daisy Hollow turnaround (18 minutes back). Closely behind was Glenn Redpath (who I knew was strong and would be my biggest competition). He was obviously running his own race and I was worried he would be able to bring it late as the mile went by.

I just tried to stay smooth and not push hard and was finally heading back down off Greek Peak to the halfway point at Gatherings. I hit Gatherings (50 miles) in 8:11, 39 minutes ahead of my halfway split goal. I was hoping that wasn’t too fast, but I never felt like I was hammering, just cruising. So, I just trusted how I felt. I grabbed more gels, ate a banana and orange wedge, put on my iPod shuffle and headed out for the second 50 mile circuit.

I cruised the Greek Alpine Loop, back to Gatherings (mile 55.8) and was soon in the woods again on Finger Lakes Trail, heading for Pipeline aid station. I cruised through Pipeline (100k mark), downed some potatoes and salt and proceeded into the Pipeline Loop. I made a small mistake right before pipeline. I always make myself take a gel every 15-20 minutes, even if I’m 5 minutes from an aid station. I don’t wait, I take it. No exceptions. However, I did not stick to this self-imposed rule coming into Pipeline. I waited and ate when I got there, but that little 5 minute “wait” caught up to me about 2 miles out of Pipeline and I got bonky. I took two gels immediately and a salt tab and hiked up to the radio towers feeling pretty low on energy.

The gels finally kicked in when I hit the gravel road and soon I felt normal again. I decided I should bump up the “every 20 minutes” regimen of gels to every 15 minutes. That did the trick and I never felt an energy lull the rest of the race.

I soon arrived back into Pipeline aid again at mile 67 at 5:28pm and asked them when 2nd place had come through there (at mile 62). They told me Glenn Redpath had come through 20 minutes back at mile 62. I told them, “Whoa! too close!” That got me motivated and I started to leave, went about 40 meters and realized that I forgot to get my lights out of my drop bag. Whoops. Grabbed lights and took off with a fire under me to put some cushion on my lead on Glenn. IT was time to let Bronco Billy ride!

I decided to push until darkness fell. I knew it would be easiest to run hard with daylight—before dark forced the inevitable slow down. And, I knew I would have at least 20 more minutes of daylight to cover the course than Glenn would, due to my lead.

Gear Geek Side Note—Night Lights: I have to give a huge shout out to Roch Horton, a Patagonia teammate, and our team rep for Black Diamond. He’s been working on a new prototype headlamp for running. It’s based on the Black Diamond Icon headlamp (with a filtered light setting and a high beam spot that shoots out 80 meters), but with the battery pack mounted separately (not on the headband). It’s a headband that has a cord that hangs and connects to the 3AA battery pack via an easy plug (it basically looks like an old-school speaker plug…nice and bomb-proof and easy to plug and go). The battery pack is versatile, as you can throw in a pack, in a pocket, or thread it onto any BD width headlamp headband—whatever you choose. I did some pre-race night runs to test out various set-ups and decided on mounting the battery pack in the small of my back and threading it onto the headband strap of the Black Diamond Spot headlamp (which I wear around my waist like a belt) and use the BD Spot as waist lamp. It turned out to be an awesome light set-up—the best I’ve ever had in any previous hundred. I didn’t feel like it slowed me down in the technical singletrack at night. Hands-free and super bright…like a 747 in the woods, baby! Thanks, Rocho.

So, before dark, I hammered hard the 6.3 miles back to the Gatherings (mile 73.8) and covered that section of trail in 57 minutes (only 5 minutes slower than my first lap split earlier in the day). In and out of the aid station with a touch overa marathon to go—a final 26.4 mile out and back section of technical singletrack trail to Daisy Hollow and back.

I made it up the 1000 foot climb to Greek peak and arrived at that aid right at dusk, about 7:05pm. I was getting my water bottles refilled and giving instructions to the girl working the soup, “…little noodles, 2/3 full of broth, top it off with cold water so I can chug it”—had also lost a nipple bandaid about 10 miles before and was getting pretty sore and chafed. The guy there grabbed duct tape, gave me a 5 inch strip, pulled off a small patch square mounted it to the sticky side so it would not stick to my already chafed nipple and gave it to me. I slapped it on and it did the trick—problem fixed—perfect, dude.

This same guy had a little son (probably 4 years old) and he was just standing a foot from me staring up at me, right in the trail. His dad, worried about him being in the way, instructed him to get out of the way. He kinda lingered, a foot from me still staring up at me as I held up my shirt, slapped a big slab of duct tape on my left nipple and chugged my cup of soup.

I can only imagine what was going through this young boy’s mind…this crazy, dirty, sweaty dude comes barrelin’ out of the woods like he’s on a mission…he demands food, lifts up his shirt to bare is chest and slap duct tape on his left nipple…I mean, c’mon…it’s hard to not stare, right?!

So, I looked down at him, and having kids myself (the dad in me couldn’t let him go unnoticed…I had to acknowledge the little guy and let him know he wasn’t in the way and his presence was all good in the ultra world…we aren’t uptight, right? We’re go with the flow trail hounds). I turned to him and said “Give me high five, buddy!”—held out my hand—waiting. He looked at me right in the face for a split second, sizing me up, wound up like he was going to throw a baseball and gave me the strongest high five he could muster. WHAP! I yelled “AH YEAH! Let’s see if we can break 18 hours!”—grabbed my full bottles and took off running into the coming night. My memory of that aid was a big, proud smile on his face as I took off. Sometimes all you need is a little fan to give you some juice. Thanks little guy.

Right out of Greek Peak, darkness fell and I flipped on my lights and kept plugging away for Rock Pile aid station. I had been doing the math and figured if I could get to the turnaround by no later than 9:20ish, I had a good shot at breaking 18 hours. So, that was my focus. Get to Rock Pile in about an hour, then on to Daisy Hollow in about an hour, that would give me cushion for the 13.2 mile return trip…basically leaving me with a little less than 3 hours to cover roughly a half marathon on technical singletrack in the dark—doable (if my quads held together).

On my way to Rock Pile aid station Rage Against the Machine came onto my iPod. This has always motivated me to push the pace and I had 10 Rage songs coming in a row. Ah yeah! Let’s get this party started and jam some singletrack, y’all! I came into Rock Pile, to the aid station staff hooting and hollering and me yelling too. They gave me some broth, and were kind enough to fill my bottles and empty my used gel packets out of my handheld bottle pocket while I chugged two cups of broth down. I busted for Daisy Hollow and the turnaround.

The section from Rock Pile to Daisy Hollow is really technical and you have to constantly be dancing through roots and rocks, over logs, and the trail is never straight. There are a couple of sections that are steep with permanent ropes tied to trees to aid you in the climb if it’s wet (although not needed for the race due to dry trail conditions), but gives you an idea of some of the grunt steepness factor. It takes a ton of concentration, especially in the dark under lights.

I got to the turnaround at Daisy Hollow (mile 87) at 9:02pm. Exactly where I wanted to be for my sub 18 hour cushion. Leaving me 2 hours and 57 minutes to cover the final 13.2 miles.

The aid station (which is about 40 meters into the woods from a paved road), requires runners to proceed the 40 meters out to the road and back to be “official” at the turnaround. And, since you run this course as a 2 lap circuit, this knowledge is nice on the return night trip. No surprises. So, I knew I had to do that coming into the aid, and as I came running in, handed my bottles for refilling to the aid station staff and popped out to the road and back. Came back, refilled my gel supply out of my drop bag, downed some orange wedges, and went out of there with a fire to see how far below 18 hours I could push it.

I marked my time leaving the turnaround as 9:04pm to see when I would run into Glenn and see if I’d put anymore cushion on 2nd place since mile 62. I ran into Glenn about 25 minutes out of the aid station—giving me roughly a 50 minute lead with 11 miles to go. Perfect. No mistakes. I just had to keep moving, not blow up and not trip and hurt myself and I had a win.

I kept Rage kickin’ in my iPod and kept hammering through Rock Pile aid, then on to Greek Peak. I definitely started to feel it in my quads about 2 miles from Greek Peak (mile 94 or 95). My quads were done. So, I just kept moving…no hammering any downhills, just concentrated on turnover and only short hike breaks on climbs.

I got through Greek Peak aid and was descending the final steep descent when I saw a headlamp coming uphill. It was Ian (the RD), who had hiked up to catch up with me. He was pumped. He asked if he could cruise in the last mile and a half with me. I said “sure” and he tucked in behind me and we danced the final wood dance down the last steep, rooty section of trail to Tone Road and the final mile to the finish on gravel road. I cruised it in and crossed the line in 17:34:17—for a new course record. I was pumped. I’m glad I was able to come out east and throw down proper on a great course that Ian has set up. It was great to see Ian again and hang out with his family. It’s a truly “old-school” grassroots ultra and I hope folks will step up and support it in order to keep it alive. It’s a great course and a great event. He runs a pretty tight ship for it only being his 2nd year. Giddyup!

Thanks
Thanks to the Big Man upstairs who kept me safe and to my wife and kids for putting up with me and my insane training. And also thanks to all my sponsors: Patagonia, Black Diamond, Rudy Project and Footzone of Bend.

Beautiful Fall day in upstate New York. Greek Peak Alpine Loop, mile 53. Photo Courtesy Steve Gallow

6 Bronco Billy Rides Again

Thumbs up, Daddy!

A quick update on Jeff’s performance at the Iroquois Trail 100 today. He finished in course record time – 17:34 (nearly an hour ahead of his 18:30 goal). When I asked if he was excited, he responded casually: “Yeah…I had a good day.”

I’m off to wake Benjamin to tell him the good news (I promised). 🙂

Love,

Jennifer

2 Iroquois 100 Miler…on my way

The race has a web cast page (consisting of text/updates based on checkpoints during the race). Race starts at 6am on Saturday (Eastern Time). To follow the race progress, go to:

http://www.iroquoistrails100.com/RaceCenter.aspx

Race Travel
I’m currently at Newark Int’l Airport (New Jersey) and waiting for my delayed flight to Ithaca, NY. I just came off the red-eye from Portland. 5 hours of not really sleep, not really awake. How was my first experience with a red-eye flight…I can sum it up in one word—sucked. The flight was full and drifting in and out of consciousness for 5 hours in the upright position was pretty weak excuse for a night’s sleep.

Oh well, onward and upward. Sleeps overrated anyway. I can’t really worry about that, right? Suck it up and move on.

My headache is a bit less after some breakfast and some JetZone (a jet lag homeopathic). If I can get to Ithaca and get in a run on the course with Ian…I’m hoping my body will fall in line and get rid of some kinks. Giddyup!

13 Bronco…Beardless & Braceless

Finally got my braces off. No more cross bite and no more wearin’ down my teeth. No more shredded mouth either.

First thing I did was eat an apple without cutting it up—sweet.

And, since I’ve had hair on my face for the past 11 years, my kids have never seen my shaved face. So, I promised my kiddos they could shave my face once the metal mouth was gone. And true to my word, I let them shave the beard. My wife was hesitant, as she likes the beard, but in the end, let the kids have their fun. They followed me around the first day just staring at me…I even caught Jennifer staring at me while we where watching a movie.

With over a decade of staring at my hairy face, it’s pretty darn freaky to see my full face again. Haven’t seen it since I was 27 years old…now I’m almost 40…funny how time flies. Here’s a peek…growing the chin beard back at least, won’t see my face again for another decade…probably. Giddyup.

0 Erik Skaggs

From Rogue Valley Runner’s Blog:

As you may already be aware, Erik Skaggs is currently in Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford, OR. Erik ran and won the Where’s Waldo 100 Kilometer Ultramarathon last Saturday in record time but began having medical difficulties later that day. After being treated with IVs in the emergency room earlier in the week, he was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday suffering from nausea and pain. His kidney function has not improved during the last few days.

Erik remains his usual good-natured, positive self. He has been surrounded by many of his friends during his hospital stay. His brother Kyle arrives from out of town on Friday to be by his side. At last report, he was timing his splits as he walked around his hospital wing. Jenn, his girlfriend, has been supplementing moldy hospital food with treats from home.

Many friends throughout the ultrarunning community have already asked how they can help. One of Erik’s biggest concerns is the mounting medical bill. Erik does not have health insurance. He may be eligible for some assistance through his membership with USA Track and Field, but will no doubt require monies for the deductible and for the expected costs well above the coverage. An Ashland runner and friend of Erik’s has opened a bank account at Umpqua Bank in Ashland, Oregon to receive donations that will be used to help defray these medical expenses. You can contribute by sending a check to Umpqua Bank, 250 N. Pioneer Street, Ashland, OR 97520 made out to the “Erik Skaggs Medical Fund.” Any assistance that you could provide would be much appreciated by Erik. Please note that the Fund name should be on the outside of the envelope.

Updates on Erik’s medical condition will be posted to the blog at Rogue Valley Runners’ website, at http://roguevalleyrunners.blogspot.com/, as it becomes available.