First In, Gets The Win!

So again, the people in the running for the FREE MOMAR Squamish entry are:

-Lin
-Hana
-King Arthur
-Tim
-Mo

At least one person, K.A. noticed that I inadvertently posted the questions yesterday by mistake! I have since removed them and changed them...but as of right now Vegas is giving 2-1 odds on K.A. coming out on top here!

Oh yeah, and one more small rule that I will have to enforce. I noticed a few spelling errors in yesterdays first attempt at the answers. Since some of these could lead to the debate that 'in fact the answer is not completely correct', any misspelling of a detail within an answer, such as a team name, will thereby make that answer incorrect...so on that note, here are the questions...

1) What are the dates and locations of the MOMAR races in 2009?

2) What is the 'address' for The MOMAR Blog?

3) Who are the 'Community Sponsors' of The MOMAR?

4) In 2004 I did my first two adventure races. I raced as a team of two named 'The Bleeding Nipples'. Who was my race partner, and what was our OVERALL placing at both of these races?

5) What are the two distance options for the Squamish MOMAR, listed under 'Enduro' and 'Sport' courses?

There, I done it right this time! Good luck, and whoever wins, I'll see you in Squamish!

GR

And The Contestants Are...

-Lin
-Hana
-King Arthur
-Tim
-Mo

GOOD LUCK!
GR

P.S. Since I was away from the internet for days at a time while travelling I am calling upon loophole number A34-212ST in my blogging proclamations regarding my lack of internet use on Thursdays. As stated it says:
-Proclaiming to go without internet for one full day a week was completely idiotic from the start and as such I can legally be passed off as having been psychotic, drunk, physically and mentally distraught, or quite simply just plain dumb. In any case, It is very clearly without malicious intent that I continue to utilize the internet on this, the 19th day of March, 2009.

Win Yer Way In...MOMAR 09!

It is my absolute pleasure to be able to offer up a free Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing entry right here on this blog. Race Director Bryan Tasaka has graciously donated one full individual entry for the Squamish race on May 23rd, valued at $130!! This freebie includes your race entry, swag bag, a killer after party, and a sweet, one of a kind, MOMAR cotton T!! This also happens to be a fully transferable entry, so if you have already dropped the coin for this race you can now bring a friend along with you! The only stipulation we are putting on this is that we will not honor this entry if you attempt to ramdomly sell it for a profit.

So that brings us to the rules of play. Bryan and I are gonna make ya work for it just a little bit this time. Since I'm currently recovering from my first night of drinking here in Germany I am going to leave this posting up until next Wed night. Anyone who drops a comment here will be automatically entered into the draw (no Colin, it is not one entry per comment!)

Next Thursday March 19th (my Mother's B.Day in case you were wondering!) I will draw five random names from the list of comments. The following day, Friday March 20th, at EXACTLY 6pm PST, it's game on for those five people! I will post a short series of questions regarding the MOMAR, and you will have to do some research via The MOMAR website to gather the answers. The first of these five to answer all questions correctly will walk away with the prize package! Once these questions 'go live' the five people vying for The MOMAR entry are allowed as many attempts as it takes at the answers. So basically if you are the first one to respond, but you happen to notice that you had one answer incorrect, then you can follow up right away with your next attempt. I am simply going to scroll down until I find the first entry with all the right answers. Now that that's as clear as mud, I'm off to work on my next hangover!

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, to help sweeten the pot just a bit more, if you happen to be traveling in from out of town I can also add a free nights accomodation, for you and your travel partner. Your Friday night will be spent at the luxurious five star Chateau Robbins! This is an all inclusive time share located in tropical North Vancouver, just 45min from The MOMAR starting line. You will be treated to a couch or love seat of your choice, all the tequila you can drink, endless hours of 'tug of war', and as many slobbery dog kisses as zou can handle. Now THAT'S a prize package!

Good luck...PROST!
GR

Gettin Dirty At The Duo (An Epic Race Experience)

Repeat Offender:

I have run The Dirty Duo 50k once before. It was in 2007 and ended up being my first ever solo win. There was a bit of controversy back then however as two runners missed a turn and ended up back at the start-finish area. One runner, very impressively I will add, got driven back out on course and continued on from where he went wrong. Michael Sanders out of the Seattle area ended up finishing in 2nd place after all of this, just under six minutes back. There was obviously much speculation about who would have won had this not been the case. I took solace in the fact that I was leading when these two runners missed a turn, and that I had run completely solo for the entire second half with not another runner in sight, but none the less it has always felt a little tainted.

Dirty Duo 2009 however will forever go down as one of my personal breakout races! I have NEVER been pushed like I was at this past weekends race. I have NEVER even come close to running as hard as I did this past weekend over a distance like this, and I have NEVER suffered so much immediately following an event.

I had two goals for Dirty Duo 09. First was to try and run under 4hr, and second was obviously try to pull out another win. My time in 07 was 4h25m, and last years winner Darin Bentley ran a 4h11m. I was not aware of anyone eclipsing the 4hr barrier, but I also know the course has changed slightly over the years. This year in particular, due to downed trees and some lingering snow and ice, there was a slight re-route as well. The top of the largest climb was cut short and an alternate trail was to be followed back around. I do not believe this cut off much in the way of distance, but it surely would allot for a time savings of a few minutes by the end of the 50k.

Montrail Teammate Aaron Heidt was in town from Vernon, and all involved knew he would be the favorite on the day. Aaron's specialty is setting course records. Ryne Melcher would end up running the course as part of his training leading up to Chuckanut 50k, in just two weeks time, and Aaron Pitt dropped down to the 25k distance to ensure he was not pushing any injuries that he is still recovering from. Ellie Greenwood lined up for the 50k as well, and we were all off and running at 8am.

A light dusting of snow had fallen overnight yet the sun shone bright as the kms ticked away. I mentioned in my previous posting that I felt I'd need to run the hills to keep up with my teammates...well, I more specifically meant, 'I know I will have to step it up if I intend to compete with Aaron on the day.'

I always start slow and ease my way into ultra races. I always power hike climbs and hammer it out on the descents in ultra races. I almost always manage to finish strong and with enough energy to celebrate wherever I may finish in ultra races. All of that simply had to go out the window on this day. I've been training my ass off. It was time to test out the body.

About twenty minutes in and Aaron was already pulling ahead. I had started out faster than normal, but was still hesitant to push myself right from the get go. I awaited the first sizable downhill, just past the old 'gazebo location' and opened it up to try and make up some ground. By the time we crossed Twin Bridges the first time (maybe 25 min in?) Aaron was only a hundred meters ahead. Shortly thereafter the climbing began and I knew what I had to do. I threw my power hiking experience out the window, shortened my stride, used the brim of my hat to hide the grades ahead, and got my heart rate a pumpin! Once the trail started into a rock and root riddled technical section I quickly made up the gap and even pulled into the lead.

The Race Starts Here:

The big climb starts on Old Buck. There was no question in my mind that Aaron was going to make time on me here, so I ran what I had in me and about 1/2 way up he pulled ahead and eventually disappeared over the top. Once you crest the entire thing you are greeted by a very technical, and now freshly snow covered, descent. I knew before the race even began how this would play out. I simply had to close the gap while I could and I leaned forward and accelerated as fast as my mind would allow...as tears started streaming down my face,
"HOLY SHIT yer gonna kill yourself! Yeah, but I HAVE to catch Aaron!"

I just managed to latch onto Aaron as the grade started to flatten and we ran together for a few km until the final descent presented itself to us. Aaron to me,

"You want by?"

"Yeah, might as well."

By the time we hit 'Fisherman's Trail' I had a lead of just a few seconds. This section of the course is completely flat for about three km, and I thought for sure that Aaron would fly past me. I have most certainly improved my flat land speed in the last few months, and it was evident to me now for the very first time. The snow covering the trail certainly played to my favor, but by the time we reached the next steep climb, up 'Homestead', I did not see Aaron behind me. I thought he must've stopped to tie a shoelace and as it turned out he had to stop and pee real quick! Someone mistakenly took his water bottle before the race and he was on a new fluid that apparently wasn't doing him any favors. He worked hard to close the gap though and we hit the upper section, past the parking lot, again running only a stride length apart!

Split Second Decisions:

This was the 1/2 way point in the race. I, as most, had left a 'drop bag' with my fluids to be picked up. I must admit, by this point in time I was very surprised by how strong I was feeling, and that I had been able to hold Aaron off. We came around the corner and a volunteer said to us,

"50k that way. Aid station that way."

She was pointing in two different directions! There was a 'Gazebo' that has been utilized in previous editions of this race, but unfortunately it collapsed this winter under the weight of our December snows. The aid station location was now a few hundred meters out of the direct line of travel. I had a split second decision to make. I knew for a fact that Aaron had to stop here and grab his bottle. I had intended to do the same, but glanced at my handheld and figured I could stretch it until I hit 'Twin Bridges' again.

Me to volley,

"Do we need to go to the table to check in?"

"No! I have your numbers."

And with that, I peeled right, and Aaron was forced to go left. I didn't shoulder check until the trail turned a corner, and I was able to indeed confirm that he had made the pit stop. I put my head down and tried to lengthen the gap as much as possible.

From here we hit a nice technical descent through 'Circuit Eight', and I was positive that my lead was now increasing. Again at the bottom were ran the flat 'Fisherman's Trail' for about 3km until repeating the rest of lap one. Crossing 'Twin Bridges', and utilizing the aid station thanks to Peter Watson and Nicola Gildersleeve, decked out in full Hawaiian gear, including coconut bras, I confirmed my lead was decent and shortly thereafter proceeded into the singletrack trails again.

At this point in the race, with less than 20k to go, I truly thought that I had managed to build enough of a lead to keep Aaron out of sight until maybe the very top of the 'Old Buck' climb again...I was not quite 1/2 way to this climb when I happened to look back on one of the switchbacks. I was in absolute shock when I spotted Aaron closing in on my like a wolf to its prey. For a few seconds I thought my race was over. How the hell am I going to beat this guy? We both know that once we hit 'Old Buck' he's going to power up and over it leaving me in his wake. Could I possibly close that gap a second time if this were the case? Especially with it essentially being 'the home stretch' thereafter? On the first lap I did not run the entire climb up O.B., and I had zero intentions of running much, if any of it, on the second go around. My fate seemed inevitable...and we both knew it.

Aaron caught up to me not a minute later, and I tried to put in a slight push so as to stretch him out just a bit more. I didn't want him getting any time to recover from his effort before we hit the climb. I knew he had to have pushed himself hard because he made no attempt to pass, and I know how Aaron works. If he can pass, he does, and when he does so it is with a near sprint so as to mentally kick you right in the face!

Old Buck was coming up fast. We were again neck and neck. I knew there was no one else close to us.

My Revelation:

Going into this race I had taken plenty of time to reflect upon the last nine months, since I decided to fully dedicate myself to my running. In that time I have competed in six races, not including the Club Fat Ass 50k, ranging in distances from 50k to 100 miles. I won the first three, and have finished second in the last three. Why was I finishing second? Why was I not able to win these races? What was different about these races, or what was I myself doing differently? I was able to step back and honestly say that in each of those second place finishes, I was VERY happy with a second place finish. Essentially, I was not willing to push myself beyond my perceived limits to strive for the win in these races. Of course I ran hard. Of course I suffered, and of course I gave 110%, and of course I never gave up on trying to win. BUT, not once did I lay it all on the line in these races with an all or nothing, going for broke, first place or nothing mentality.

I hit Old Buck. I was fully aware of the fact that Aaron is a better climber than I. That I could not possibly out run him over this terrain, and that we both knew it to be a forgone conclusion that he would distance himself from me before we reached the top. I don't know where it came from because honestly I've never been there before, but I kept my legs pumping and even found the strength whenever the trail slightly relented to put in an extra push. We only spoke once, about half way up the climb,

Aaron to me,
"Are the hairs on the back of your neck standing up yet?" (when you push to your breaking point, the hairs on your neck try to jump off of you skin and your head actually starts to go numb)

"No. I'm saving that for the top of the climb!"

We were now 2/3 of the way to the top, and I was still in the lead! Again I hid under the brim of my hat. The climb doesn't look so bad if you're staring straight at the ground! With only a few hundred meters until the downside, I realized that I was going to hit 'my terrain' while still in the lead. Now it was Aaron's turn to respond by going beyond his comfort zone over the rocks, roots, and snow covered obstacles that lay below.

I laid into that trail with everything that I had, yet I simply could not gain a sizable gap. There was just no give anywhere. I had never experienced anything like this before as I have run a good 90% of my ultras completely solo, rarely pairing off or chasing anyone to this length.

I put in a second push over the next section of the course and was surprised that I finally gained some breathing room! I shoulder checked on one switchback and it was for real, I had at least a few hundred meters of trail on Aaron. I decided to check my GPS watch, to try and pump myself up by confirming how little course there was left to cover...but as soon as I took my eyes off the footing below...WHUMP... I went tits up having slipped on a wet tree route. I could feel at least three areas of my back/side that started throbbing, but I had only one thought,

"Get up you f#$k, he's right behind you!!"

I cleared the final descent and as I turned back onto 'Fisherman's Trail' I got a high five from good friend and volley on the day Wade Repta (also off to Western States this year). I was heading towards Pete and Nicola and my final passing of the 'Twin Bridges' aid station. I thought the race was in my hands. There was still about ten km to go, but I thought I had broken free of Aaron, yet I dared not slow my pace.

Why Won't You DIE!!

As I ran past the aid station I heard yelling but could not decipher what was being said. I should checked left and saw nothing. Then I heard it...

"He's gaining on ya!!"

I shoulder checked right and sure enough, like a nasty flu that just won't quite, Aaron was right on me before I even cut the corner away from the bridge. Aaron has a track background and I thought for sure he would be able to pass and distance me on this flat section, and I again dug deep to prevent that from happening.

We had one decent climb left, up and over 'Homestead', which we hit almost in unison. I managed to run the first 3/4 of the climb, but near the top it became too steep and I was forced into a power hike. I dared not look over my shoulder, just kept my arms and legs swinging as far as they could handle. After a few hundred meters I sensed that if I did not run I would be passed and somehow I was able to power up and over the top of the climb.

We ran through the 'Gazebo Area' aid station together and as the trial widened we were now right next to each other, matching pace stride for stride. Aaron was trying to pass and I had no intentions of conceding after all I'd left on the course till that point in time. Again only a few words were spoken. Aaron to me, with a good natured friend to friend laugh in his voice,

"Never in a million years would I have guessed this to happen out here today!"

A Little White Lie...

I had the home turf advantage and knowing that we were about to run out of double track I accelerated into the stairs that were to follow. Aaron asked me how far we had left to go? Again I made a split second decision...what was a little white lie between friends? Even on a 'full course' year I know DD to be somewhat short, but by how much I had no idea. I was guessing that we had no more than 6km to go, but at the very moment my GPS watch beeped for 40km.

"Ten k to go. That was the 40k beep."

I could feel the let down in hearing those words spoken, but it did nothing to take away from our battle.

We flew down the stairs and the 11am 25km runners were just starting up the same trail. Being that I work at a running store I get to meet many, many great people within the scene. We passed no fewer than forty people coming towards us, and I would guess that I heard my name being cheered on no fewer than ten times! Aaron to me, again with a laugh,

"You know this is getting really f'in annoying for me right now!"

Not ten seconds after this I heard a huge THUMP! I looked over my shoulder to see that Aaron had lost his footing on a slippery section of boardwalk. I didn't ask if he was alright, I told him he was so that I didn't have to slow down!

"You're OK right!!"

"Ya know Gary, a real friend woulda stopped and helped me up!!"

Again Aaron caught back up to me, just as we were staring down the last real obstacle in the entire 50k race. There was a steep but short climb, complete with stairs, mud, rocks, roots, ice, and snow. I ran up the first flight of stairs but my legs overloaded as I hit the following stair case. SHIT! I thought this would be it, I thought Aaron would push me to one side as he went flying by! I buried my head, threw my arms wildly in front of me, and strided as long as my hiking would allow. With only a few meters to the top I was still in the lead and I managed to start running again. It had to be adrenaline, for there was nothing else left.

At the top you cut left for a few meters, and then go right onto a fairly flat and cushy singletrack...there was less than a mile to go (miles sounds better than km here!), I didn't want to but I had to look over my shoulder...no one...I scanned...I FINALLY had a gap!! With every turn in the trail I threw my eyes behind me like I was being chased by a ravenous cougar. Not once did I spot him though.

A Sprint To The Line...

The trail proceeds to spit you out into a graveyard, and from here there is but 500 meters of running to go (sorry, too tired to figure out some cheesy graveyard pun here). I looked once more...DAMMIT HEIDT DIE ALREADY...sure enough he was coming hard. I checked again 100 meters later...he was closing the gap!! I could not believe that after running for almost 50km that it was going to come down to a sprint finish!! I don't remember feeling anything, I just stared straight ahead to what I knew to be the final turn into the finishing chute. I was trying to will it closer to me without acknowledging any of the pain sensors that were warning of a system overload.

I rounded the final turn, sprinted down the hill, and nearly collapsed across the line...3h39m36s...NEW COURSE RECORD!! (although with small asterisk beside it)

I had NOTHING left. No celebration, no smile, no whoop whoop, just a body that demanded that I sit it down before it fell over. Aaron came in just 14sec later, and I didn't see him smile until he noticed how much pain I seemed to be in!

Something in my hip/periformis area locked up tight on me once I sat down and I ended up limping like I'd been shot for the rest of the day! Massage didn't help cause I cramped up every time she tried to move my legs! Thankfully I can now say, two days later, that after rolling on a 'myofacial' ball for a few hours I am almost back to good.

I know that race report was long, and I had no intention of making it so, in fact it's now 3am and I couldn't turn in until I had it all out. It's a story that I will personally reference many times in the future, for I will forever consider it to be my own personal breakout ultra race. More than anything it was really, really cool, to see first hand how much my training has been paying off...109 days till Western States...27 hours till I fly to Germany for a week!!

My Gear:
-New Fav Shoes, Montrail Mountain Masochists baby!!
-Carbo-Pro 1200, using only 750 calories this time
-Thermolytes x only 9 this time!
-Shot Bloks, eating only one individual blok this time (my stomach needs to be tricked by chewing something in a race)
-Gel x1

A VERY SPECIAL THANKS to Race Director Heather MacDonald and super volunteer Peter Watson, who did everything from shovel snow, to cut out downed trees, to man an aid station, to flag sections of the race!! Of course, EVERYONE who helped out deserves a MASSIVE thanks, these are just two of the main culprits who ensured that the race went off without a hitch this year!

Big Congrats to Montrail Canada Teammates:
-Ellie Greenwood for smoking the women's field and finishing 5th overall
-Aaron Pitt for placing 2nd in the 25k
-Ryne Melcher for placing 3rd in 50k, while training and not racing mind you

AND
-My Trans Rockies Teammate Tamsin for killing the women's 25k field and placing 3rd overall
-My former A.R. teammate Megan Rose for winning the women's 30k bike
-A.R. friend John Markez for taking the 'solo' (duathlon) win

AND
All the participants who got out there and experienced the trails on gorgeous March morning!

Full Results Here

Last but certainly not least special thanks for most photo credits to Don Scott!

BEDTIME pour moi!
GR

The Perfect Run

I just got in from a night run. It was all of 10km, and it ended up being the perfect run. I ran the exact route last night, although I would hardly call last nights effort 'running'. Tonight I felt 100% better and I ran the ten km route, ten minutes faster! This is not to suggest that I was really flying tonight, more so that I had bricks tied to my ass last night.

I love how you can go from feeling like a sloth, to feeling like an Olympian in under 24 hours. One thing I've certainly learned in the last few years is that you can mentally sway from on top of the world, to hiding your head like an Ostrich, and back again, in a period of just days. It's all about just keeping the feet moving and trying to stay positive.

Last night sucked, but I knew I'd feel good after toughing it out, and I slept better afterwards as well. Tonight was great, and it left me wanting more. Ten km is more like a warm up for me these days, but with a few big weeks behind me, and a 50k race on Sat, I am trying to keep my daily runs to a max of ten km until then.

The Dirty Duo is shaping up to be a fun one, with most of the Montrail Canada team toeing the line. It also looks like everyone is healthy right now, and all that means is that it's truly gonna be a dog fight out there all day long. Something I am intending to do differently this weekend is to actively start trying to 'run' more hills in my ultra races. I have somewhat perfected the power hiking over the last few years, however, after my wake up call at Orcas last month, thanks to Adam Lint, I have been working on this in training. The great thing about early season races is that you can attack them differently to test your fitness level. I feel very fit right now, and if I blow up in this one it will simply be a lesson learned...besides, I think I'd need to run the hills this weekend to have a shot at hanging with my teammates anyways!

Something I forgot to mention in my previous posting about my trip to Germany, is that I have friends over there who I am able to visit. As it stands right now I believe I have free accommodation for the duration of my stay...which was obviously just one more factor in the whole decision making process. That lengthy, intense, and difficult decision making process, which consisted of clicking my finger and figuring it all out after the fact.

Stay tuned folks, the free Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing entry that was promised back in November will be popping up real soon. Squamish is happening on May 23rd and my personal goal is to try and get at least one brand new adventure racer into the mix. I'll even sweeten the pot by offering a place to crash in North Van if you are needing to travel to the race. This will all unfold shortly (maybe even while I'm drunk in Germany), so keep your eyes open...and I'll try to do the same!

Oh yeah, and last but not least, check out the online version of this month's 'Get Out There Magazine' (Western Edition)...there may be an article in there by a certain 'cool guy'...I certainly did not give myself that moniker and expect to take a 'comment and e-mail' beating for that one...enjoy the rest of the articles at least!

Happy Trails. Gotta Run.
GR

Germany Here I Come!

HAHA, how's that for a blog title to totally throw you off...yup, I am actually off to Germany in just eight days time!
(Not Germany, but another sweet day on the local North Shore Trails this weekend)

The short version. A few weeks back I was conversing with a friend in North Van and I told her that she lacked spontaneity in her life. She looked right back at me,

"What have you done lately that's soooo spontaneous?"

Frozen. Speechless. Not a word to say. I stared at the ground in front of me.

"Ummm, I ate sushi for breakfast yesterday."

Knowing that wasn't gonna cut it I hopped online and started pricing out the cheapest flights to Europe, since I'd never been there before. Shortly thereafter I found a round trip flight, and after adding in all the levies, surcharges, departure taxes, arrival taxes, additional fueling fees, baggage charges, use of the onboard shitter fees, and tips for all the wonderful service along the way...it came to just $650 Canadian!
That's cheaper then I have EVER paid to fly home to Newfoundland! AND, I was also able to pay for half of the flight with my ten year accumulated 'Petro Canada' gas station points, so all in all, I only had to dish out 350 bones...how could I say no to that? And just to be sure that I did not second guess myself on this one, I did not purchase cancellation insurance. Waste of money anyways! I'm doing this trip instead of The Western States Running Camp, as it's gonna end up cheaper anyways...AND, I can now race the Squamish, Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race on May 23rd, whoop, whoop!!
(Roxy LOVES the MOMAR races!!)

It may not have gone down exactly like that, but the punchline is still the same. Eight days from now and I'll be eating schnitzel, pounding back liters upon liters of Bock, while wearing lederhosen, and yelling schizen at the top of my lungs!

"SCHIZZZZEN" (which I know means shit, but I have always liked the way it's rolled off my tongue...read into that what you may...)

And Das, the Uber truth, Damit.

On other quick notes:

-I failed miserably at my mission to escape internet life for two days a week...did you know that's almost 30% of a week right there! What the hell was I thinking? I have managed to negotiate myself back to a more attainable one day a week, which I will try my utmost to follow on Thursdays. I challenge people to try this themselves...I always knew I was addicted, but this just really hammered that point home for me.
(The snow came back for a day, but it was just a nice little dusting)

-Running, not bad, although some issues have popped up since my 100 mile week. Nothing that I can't work past, and nothing that isn't to be expected when logging long and consistent mileage. I've run over 1,000km / 600 miles so far this year...I'm not kidding when I say that's more then I had run in the five, maybe six months before that. Prior to those six months (before July)I had bum calves and was mainly riding. So I am most certainly in completely un-chartered waters with this stuff right now, yet overall I do feel great!
(I kinda feel like this bridge actually. It still works, maybe just not as it should...but it knows it will be fixed and back to 100% again shortly!)

-Racing this weekend. Dirty Duo 50k ultra, and it's looking like the numbers are up and it should be a fun one with a good crew of us battling it out for the overall win. The race offers, 15km, 25km, 50km, and a duathlon, so there is most certainly something for everyone, and there are still spots available, so sign up and get yer ass out there this weekend!

-Trans Rockies, my other big event this summer, (which I haven't been talking about nearly enough because it's been an almost solo focus on Western States so far), is a six day staged running race in Colorado at the end of August. It's on the verge of selling out, and if you happened to be interested I can still offer a $100 discount off a team entry through NSA. Simply drop me a line if this might work for you.
Last night I had the pleasure of co-hosting a Trans Rockies meet, greet, and info night at North Shore Athletics. There are no fewer than fifteen teams of two from B.C. heading down to this years event, and most of those are completely new to this race format. Fellow Montrail Canada runner Dom Repta, who finished fifth at the inaugural Trans Rockies Run, volunteered his time to come in and answer a plethora of questions from worried participants, and co-worked Peter Watson swung by on his day off to lend a hand as well. By the end of the night most people seemed to be somewhat at ease. At worst, they now know exactly what type of beast they are training for!

Question of the night:

"Umm, what do you mean exactly when you say, 'It's going to hurt'?"

-Mileage last week, down to 105k, which I am happy with, all things considered. I had to get in to see my Sports Med Dr. a few times, and had a physio apt as well. It's all about staying injury free, and keeping the feet moving forward. That means being proactive with all 'niggles' and understanding what's happening with my body as I tear it apart on a daily basis.

The physio actually said, "You confuse me somewhat? I'll have to get back to you on some of this."

Which I am gonna translate to mean, "WOW, I've NEVER seen a more perfect running form, and body positioning. I think I'm going to contact some medical journals to propose using you as an example for the rest of the world to follow...I'll get back to you on some of this."

Do I have anything else to say right now...ummm, probably not, Guten Tag...is that gluten free by any chance?

GR

A Trip To The Hospital & 100 Miles 'O' Runnin

(Roxy and I on top of Grouse Mtn during our 40k Wed run. We started down on the water)
(Just learning some new features with my Garmin watch. This is the previous weeks long run. Feb 15th, 60k, 7hr, 130k on that week)

Well the quick training update is that I managed to log my first 100 mile week of the year, and just second ever. The first being in July of 08 while leading up to the Stormy 100 Miler. It was a tough week, although I don't think running 160km in seven days is ever 'easy'. It broke down like this:
-Mon off
-Tue 10k
-Wed 40k
-Thu off
-Fri 33k
-Sat 17k
-Sun 60k
----------
100m/160k

(Wed 40k with about 5,000 feet total climbing)

The tough part was that on Thurs I was forced into taking an unscheduled day off, as my body just wasn't into it and I know better than to fight that so early in the season. I intended to make up for the lost hours with a 6am long run before work on Friday, and a double on Sat, before my usual long run on Sun...which was only scheduled to be 50k at the time.
The Friday morning run went amazingly well, my alarm went off at 5am and I didn't even hit snooze...probably because I very literally had set five different alarms, at different times, and placed them sporadically throughout my apartment...hey, whatever it takes right!

It was another amazing day on The North Shore, and it felt great to run into the sunrise and to have my training completed before work. After work is where things went askew however. At 8pm I started to get stomach pains, but dismissed them. They had increased in severity by 9pm, and when I tried to lay down for sleep at 10pm I could not fully elongate my torso. I lay there for ten minutes before realizing that I most certainly had to get myself to the hospital. Thankfully it is only up the street, and after a short drive I checked myself in.

It was a Friday night, 10:30pm...my timing could not have been any worse as the waiting room was already packed and only getting busier. They ask you the standard questions upon check in. The one that stood out to me,

"On a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst pain you could imagine, where would you rank your pain right now?"

I paused for a second. I could not stand up straight and had basically limped into the waiting room...

"I have a fairly high pain tolerance. I'd definitely give it a seven right now."

They then ask you to grab another seat and go about getting your baseline vitals. I've had this before and saw it coming. The nurse started staring at her screen as it continually beeped at what it was receiving.

"I have a low heart rate."

"Yeah, you sure do. Why is that?"

"I'm a runner. Why, what's it saying on there?"

"34 B.P.M." followed by a pause, "I'm guessing you run a lot."

"Yeah, I run more than the average person I guess."

And with that I was given a seat in the already overcrowded waiting room. I knew I would be there for hours, but I kept telling myself how lucky I was to be able to do this for free. Many people can rant on forever about the state of our Canadian health care system, and there is no doubt room for improvement. However, I was very aware of how fortunate I was to even be sitting there, so I sucked it up and tried not to think negative thoughts. One lady behind me had reached her breaking point though. She had been there for four hours already and I actually moved seats to try and avoid her negativity. Eventually I heard her husband say,

"LISTEN. If you don't want to f#%king be here alone then you better stop your f#%king bitching!"

Right on, you could almost hear the applause in peoples heads as he did this!

Within an hour the pain had gotten worse. I made my way to the bathroom thinking that I was going to loose my stomach, and I even had 'tunnel vision' for a bit. I did not loose my insides but did decide to update the nurses.

"Ahh, the pain is most certainly up to an eight right now. And I think I might puke soon."

They eventually took a blood and urine sample, but I was still stuck in a waiting room that was not moving. The main issue, being a Friday night, is that dumb ass kids were getting hauled in at regular intervals, either bleeding from a fight, or completely unconscious from drinking to oblivion. I could almost handle this as it was to be expected, but what brought me close to my breaking point was listening to additional people answer their questions upon arrival,

To a lady who had cut her finger and was bleeding very, very, minimally,

"Blah, blah, blah, scale of one to ten..."

"Ten"

TEN...TEN...DID SHE JUST SAY THAT THE CUT ON HER FINGER WAS THE WORST IMAGINABLE PAIN SHE COULD POSSIBLY DREAM UP??

If I could have moved from my near fetal position I would have bolted up and pointed right at her,

"LISTEN LADY, you've given birth, I can tell by those hips, are you trying to tell us that that little cut on your finger hurt more than bringing a freaking screaming child into this world!!?"

I could actually see the nurse rolling her eyes at this response. The crazy part was that I don't think I heard anyone say anything less than a nine, and I did not witness one apparent severe injury come through the door, outside of the aforementioned.

Eventually, as the hours ticked away I slid into a half sleep. I awoke after maybe thirty minutes later and was surprised to find that my pain had improved significantly. All I could think about was my scheduled morning run though! It then being 2am, with my work day starting at 9.30am, I grew aware of the fact that my distance goal for the week was slowly slipping away.

At 2.30am I felt well enough to head home on my own. I approached a nurse, asked if I could leave and if they would call me if anything showed up in my tests, yet before I finished my sentence,

"Gary Robbins?"

"That's me"

"Right this way, we have a bed for you"

It was another 45min before I saw the Dr. and after repeating the whole resting heart rate conversation, she told me that it appeared to be kidney stones, and that I may have gotten off lucky and passed them right there in the hospital. Apparently they are normally as small as a grain of sand, and the painful part is when they move into your bladder, not when you pee them out. Either way I was happy to be pain free and was on my way at 3.30am. She gave me some strong meds in case it flared up again. I can only hope this was a one off!

Sat work was tough, I was completely exhausted. Immediately following work I joined a scheduled 'Club Fat Ass' night run for 17km, and then called it a day.

Sunday, met up with Montrail teammates Aaron Pitt, Dom Repta, Lisa Polizzi, and Cheryl Beattie, along with former Montrail team runner Andy Nicol (also running Western this year) for our now weekly long run. The first 22k were the toughest and it took us 2h45m to get through it. Only Aaron and I remained, and we added on another solid 18k of trail to bring us up to 40k and 4h45m. Aaron had to get going, but I was going to do at least another ten km. I packed Roxy in the car, turned to continue, and made it all of fifty feet.
'Screw this, I'm going home to change clothes and run some flat stuff!'

(First 40k on the day)

After a thirty minute interlude I headed out on the roads to finish it off, and I realized that being so close to my initial goal of 160k, I simply had to log another 20k to be able to sleep at night.

Off I went, and with the knowledge that the faster I ran, the quicker I was going to get to stuff my face at home! I could not believe how good I felt and I started knocking off 4m20s kms / 6m58s miles. I quickly upped the pace until I was steady between 4m10 and 3m50 / 6m42 and 6m10s, and then at km 58 on the day, 158 on the week, I punched out a 3m42s / 5m57s. My total time for the final 20k was 1h25m and change, and my 60k for the day was 6h10m.

100 Miles / 160km, 15h30m, and a solid amount of climbing! 124 days till Western...
(Final 20k)

If you've made it this far through my posting, you might as well check out this clip from Conan, funny, funny, stuff, and it only reiterates my point about the people complaining in the hospital!


And finally, if you're local, Dirty Duo is still in need of many volunteers to make the event happen on March 7th, please help out if you are around. R.D. Heather puts on a great race, and you even get a comp entry into The Phantom Run (12/19/24k) in November.

GR

My First Ever Race, 'The Tele Ten'

K, this was initially supposed to be a blog about my new favorite shoes, but I just found out something absolutely HUGE five minutes ago,

MY DAD IS FLYING OUT TO HELP SUPPORT ME DURING WESTERN STATES!!!

I love my folks dearly and it's never been easy living in B.C. while my family is almost 8,000km away in Newfoundland. Flights home are rare and expensive, and in the thirteen years since I've left home, I have only managed an average return trip once every eighteen months. A lot happens in a year and a half, especially when I have a thirteen year old niece who grows like a weed. In those thirteen years my parents have only managed a trip out West once, and I was living in Banff, Alberta at the time. This is truly a THRILL for me to now know that my Dad will be there cheering me on and helping to dull the pain as the miles add up on June 27th!

Quick story...there's always a story...When I was seventeen I started hitting the gym and managed to loose twenty pounds of fat and put on a few pounds of muscle (I later located all of that lost fat and more during my party years in Banff a few years later of course). There is a local road race in St. John's called 'The Tele Ten', now in its 81st year! I was feeling fit and decided to sign up for the event. I had never run. I told myself I would train for the race. I ran once and decided that I didn't like running so simply kept hitting the gym instead. The night before the race I started freaking out and decided on a whim to run laps at the local indoor track. I looped for 45m before I was convinced that I'd be fine in the following days race.

7:45am the following morning. Random stranger to me,

"So what's your P.R.?"

"P who?"

"Your best time?"

"Oh, umm, never run before."

"First ever race?"

"Yup."

"Ten miles is a good start!"

"No, I'm only here for the ten k."

"There is no ten k, it ten miles!"

As I started to freak out,
"Ummm, no, no, no, this is Nfld, we do kms, this is a ten km race...right?"

"Nope ten miles my friend."

"Well HOW MANY kilometers is that?!!!"

"Sixteen."

"Six-who...are you FREAKIN SERIOUS!!"

And with that I began my first ever running experience. I made it all of one full km before I got a stitch so bad that I could not breath. I started to walk but it didn't subside. I had to come to a full halt in the middle of the road. I had blazed off the starting line, and was now acting like a giant 'road cone' as people peeled around both sides of me. The occasional runner offered words of support,

"C'mon, get your feet moving again. You can do it."

If I could have mustered up enough air to breath I would have repeated every known profanity in my then seventeen years of existence.

I didn't know what to do, I most certainly did not think that I had any chance of completing this damn thing, and I was trying to look for the quickest way to disappear off of the face of the earth. When I looked up, all I saw was my Dad running towards me. I was only expecting him to be at the finish line. I know that he most certainly was not embarrassed for me, but that's all I felt at that moment. I had told plenty of people that I was 'running' this 'race', as had my Father. I managed to finally suck down enough air to again stand upright, and I immediately started slowly moving my feet again. My Dad had a water bottle in his hand and simply told me to "drink"!

The course was marked at each km and my body slowly accepted the torture I was forcing upon it. I don't think I even noticed an aid station, mostly because I had my very own rolling aid station. Every time that the road started to beat me down and make me question my own ability to finish, my Dad would magically appear from the side of the road, bottle in hand, and then match me stride for stride.

"Drink!"

I honestly don't think I could have made it through the race without his constant and selfless support. I vividly remember that there were no course markings for kms fourteen and fifteen. Having never run before I had no idea at the distance we were covering and my mind was freaking out, 'this is the longest kilometer in the history of mankind!!'

I was in a pack of runners, and I knew nothing about the sixteen km course except where it finished. As I looked up I saw what appeared to be the last turn on the course,

"Is that?"

Six people in unison,

"Yeeeesss"

And with that I was off! I sprinted the last five hundred meters to the line like my own ass was on fire. More than anything I just wanted the pain to end and I thought crossing the finish line would accomplish this...umm, yeah, I couldn't walk straight for a week afterwards and not five minutes after I finished my legs cramped up so bad that I very literally fell over and was on the verge of tears!

My Dad had been there cheering me in, and he embraced me in congratulations as I had completed my first...and then I thought, last...ever running event...oh how a persons perspective can change throughout their life!!

If I remember correctly my finish time was 1h12m38s...I'd be interested to confirm that but I can't find any evidence of it online...I'm pretty sure it's burned into my brain pretty accurately though.

It was four more years before I even attempted running again, and ten before I started taking it seriously, but honestly, all I remember from that day is the bond that I shared with my Father. On June 27th 2009, fourteen years and eleven months almost to the day, we get to do it all over again!! This time however, I actually know the distance going into the race...funny how ten miles once scared me!

I love ya Dad, and I couldn't be more thankful to have you sharing in my first ever Western States experience. I'm already counting down the days...just remember one thing Dad...don't let me forget to drink!

GR

'Marathon Of Hope'-fully Next Year

These ten days since Orcas have been a whirlwind, topped off by my damn laptop kicking the bucket on me...where to start? (and with it went my pics from the last few weeks as well)

Pre and post Orcas was even more fun then the race itself...although can running 50k ever really be fun? Included in the $55 race entry was two nights accom in bunk bedded cabins. There also happened to be a Vegan chili at the finish line and two kegs of beer! I ended up being the last official runner to call it a night as I was playing the card game 'asshole' with R.D. James Varner, and the bluegrass band that had performed both nights. In the end we had some pretty ridiculous rules and long story short, Varner ended up having to attempt 100 push-ups at about 2am!

The travels home seemed so much longer on a hang over...(pic lost to dead laptop)

Orcas was as sore as I have been since the Miwok 100k in May of 08. I was limping around for days afterwards and even though I know better, I did not move for three full days! By Wed I realized that I had to get moving again to salvage my training week and I managed a solid 125k of running by Sunday afternoon. This was topped off by my longest ever run/training day, a 7hr, 60-km effort to finish off the week. I was fortunate to have some great company for most of it, Tom and Duncan once again joined in on the fun for a few hours, and three of my Montrail teammates were also out for a long one. Cheryl Beattie and Lisa Polizzi both logged 30k, Aaron pit and my dog Roxy joined me for 44km, and I put in the final 16k solo to shut off the GPS at exactly 60k on the day. It's taken a few days for me to fully appreciate this. I ran for seven hours...and I felt great...and I almost enjoyed it...man something in my wiring has gone haywire in the last five years!

There were two big downsides to last week however, first, and of least genuine concern, was that my laptop kicked out on me. The thing still works fine, it just doesn't receive the power through the motherboard for some reason. I was NOT impressed to learn that it would effectively cost me more to get it fixed then to upgrade to a newer and better system. This is a level of stress I did not want to deal with, as having to budget for my race season and flights is already becoming an issue. I managed to dream up ways to cover the costs, but faced a few set backs in trying to purchase a new setup online. Long story short, while out running with teammate Aaron Pitt, I tell my story...to which he responds,

"I have a desktop that works great. I just got a Mac so you are welcome to it."

"Are you f#$King kidding me!!"

And with that, here I sit, tapped into all that our generation holds sacred. I did not escape the weekend without making a few promises to myself though. Seeing as how I am so addicted to this stupid little thing called 'the Internet', and having realized while going without for a few days that not checking my e-mail, facebook, blogs, and hockey scores every five minutes does not change the alignment of the universe...I made a pact. From now until Western States (June 27th), starting on Thursday, I will not log into my computer at all on Tuesdays and Thursdays...and I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say that not only will I survive, but that the world will go on, and no one will die because of my actions!

Lastly, and most importantly, the proposed 'Marathon Of Hope' was postponed until at least 2010. Some of you know what I am referring to, some do not. If anyone happened to have noticed that I have yet to update my 09 racing schedule and info, there was a very good reason for that. Up until just one week ago, I was unsure as to if I would be racing Western States and Trans Rockies Run as my big events, or if I'd be running 143 consecutive marathons...yes I said 143...that's over 5,300km and 4.5 months of pounding on the roads...without a day off!

Why would anyone consider such an ordeal? To honor a legacy.

Terry Fox is widely recognized as one of the greatest Canadians to have ever lived. In brief, he lost a leg leg to Cancer, and with a prosthetic, decided to run across the country to raise money and awareness for Cancer Research. The year was 1980. He made it almost exactly half way across this great Nation before Cancer was detected in his lungs, and he eventually succumbed to the disease on June 28th, 1981. If you are not already familiar please take two seconds to read the official write up on his website here. Terry helped to inspire a generation of Canadians. He taught us that anything was possible if we put our minds to it. That there were no such thing as excuses and that when we come together, we can conquer anything. Unfortunately his one and only dream has yet to be achieved, a cure for Cancer. Though through Terry's actions over 400 million dollars has been raised for Cancer research...400 million...the power of one. It would have been an honor.

The proposal was to have twelve runners set out from St. John's, Newfoundland on April 12th to try to duplicate Terry's efforts. St. John's is basically my hometown, so I was obviously very excited at the prospect of this massive undertaking! I know I at least made the 'final cut' of proposed runners, as I received an e-mail late on a Thursday night instructing me to send along a bunch of photos of myself by first thing Friday morning. The final proposal went before The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (C.B.C.) and in the end then leaned towards following through on this for the 30th anniversary in 2010. I sincerely hope this project does get off the ground, and that I may be lucky enough to be selected in one years time. At least I know one individual who is happy that I won't be running across Canada for the next 4.5 months...


I honestly feel like I just qualified for Western last week, now that I finally know exactly what my season consists of...and with that in mind, I should probably get the hell off of here, and get my ass out running again...

GR

A 'Killer' Time...

Orcas Island 50k, a 'Whale' of a race...ok, enough with the cheesy puns...

Who's This Guy With The Resume?

As we lined up to start the event I knew that someone by the name of Adam Lint would be the guy to beat. I had no idea what Adam looked like, how old he was, or even where he was from. All I knew was that the guy had laid down some pretty solid and consistent results in the last twelve months, and longer than that I'm sure, although I did not know more than his most recent resume. As I scanned the few guys at the front of the pack I assumed that one very fit looking, slim, taller, and marginally older than myself, guy must've been Adam. With under two minutes to go I heard someone say,

"Hey Adam, how was the drive?"

I turned around to see a guy wearing shorts, a singlet, red gloves, a hat on backwards, and sporting the largest and most impressive 'mutton chops' I've seen in a number of years!
"Huh", I thought to myself, "So that's the guy. At least I won't confuse him for anyone else in the pack once we're running!"
(Photo Credit, Glenn Tachiyama)
With that we were off, and Adam wasted little time in shooting to the front of the pack. I knew that 'Orcas' consisted of four separate climbs, two gradual and two steep, and each with a corresponding downhill. The course also saved the biggest and baddest descent as the finale. This was then followed by a short flat section around a lake to the finish line. In the days leading up to the race, as I glanced over the course profile, I could not help but salivate, it was EXACTLY what I looked for in an ultra run, very little flat terrain, big climbs, steep descents, and almost all singletrack! I couldn't wait to get this thing underway!

As we hit the first climb there was a pack of six of us running together. It took Adam all of a few hundred meters before he started to distance himself from us and I took stock of the fact that I was going to have to destroy myself on the downslopes to have any shot at keeping up with this guy.

In the pre-race announcements James mentioned that there was no 'confidence flagging' on course, and that you could go up to a few miles at a time without any markings, but that each intersection would be flagged accordingly. The race is billed as a 'Fat Ass' event, so this was all in line with what is to be expected heading into such a run. Unfortunately Adam missed the pre-race talk and just a few km into the race, while probably a minute up on the field, he was all of a sudden doubling back to us.

"I think I went wrong, there's no markings!"

We gave him the breakdown and shortly thereafter he disappeared again like he was somehow sporting four legs instead of just two.

I eventually felt warmed up enough to make a move on the pack and slowly started to pass the runners in front of me until I knew I was sitting in second place. Again I saw Adam heading back towards me, and at the next intersection we both took a second to confirm that we were heading in the right direction. As was already the drill, I blinked, he vanished.

It's Nice To Run With Someone. Sure Is, Pardon Me...

Once I topped out on the second climb (the first being very gradual) I knew that I had to immediately see what kind of downhill runner Adam was. Downhilling has always been my strongest suit and if Adam could match my pace in any way then the race would surely be for second place on the day. I caught up to him after about a km, as the course flattened slightly, and this lead into a small incline. We managed to chat for a bit and he commented on how it was nice to have another runner to pace off of as running solo for 50k can sometimes be a drag. I agreed with Adam as we crested that small climb, and immediately after those words left my mouth I invested every ounce of energy in my body into trying to drop him on the downslope! I was able to gain a gap and thereby realized what the rest of the day would have to be for me. I needed to destroy each descent (and my legs in the process) to have a legitimate shot at making a race out of this thing. I was guessing that I'd need at least a 3-5 minute lead heading into the last big climb on the day to have any chance at holding him off until the finish line.

As I hit the ten mile / sixteen km aid station, and turn around, the course sends you back against the pack for about half a km. Adam and I exchanged high fives, and I figured my lead to be about ninety seconds. A minute later I just caught a glimpse of third-fifth and I knew it was between Adam and I on the day.

He Really Is A Mountain Goat!

As I headed into the third, and steepest climb of the race, starting at about mile nineteen, I was very surprised that I had managed to fend off Adam during the previous section, the flattest on the day. The course became so steep that you were forced onto all fours at times and I was loving EVERY second of it...

"Ain't no way Mountain Goat Boy can run this shit! He couldn't possibly make time on me here!!" (I would later learn that he indeed did end up running the ENTIRE climb!!)

Eventually we popped out onto an open powerline section where you could see what lay ahead. I instantly grinned from ear to ear, SWEET, bring on the nastiness! I pushed my 'power hiking' hard and made sure to shoulder check at the top of each clear section. No Adam to be seen. So far so good!

As I topped out on the climb I ran around a corner and there was a three foot section of 'warning' tape stretched out directly across the trail. My main goal on the day was to not get lost. I ALWAYS get lost, and frankly I'm kinda getting sick of doing 'custom distances' in trail races. Up until that point in the race, which was about mile twenty, km thirty two, I had stopped numerous times at intersections of question. On more than one occasion I ran up and down the trail ensuring that I was making the right directional choice. Now I was faced with what appeared to be a sign telling me 'NOT THIS WAY!", so I panicked. Adam was surely coming hard somewhere just down the trail. I turned around and ran back to the last piece of flagging tape...which was all of fifteen feet behind me...shit, now what?! I started looking into the bushes on the side of the trail...must be a hidden trail in here somewhere! After ten of fifteen seconds of this foolishness I ran back to the 'warning tape', took a deep breath, and stepped over it...I was still alive...and there was snow and ice on the trail up ahead...it was JUST 'warning tape' to watch my step up ahead...at least I didn't take wrong turn!

This was another open section of terrain, and as I was about to disappear on the far side of the clearing I glanced over my shoulder...DAMMIT, mountain goat was just coming over the top...and he didn't fall for the ole 'warning tape trick' like I did either. Thankfully, this was the absolute top and I knew what lay just up ahead, more beautiful quad burning terrain awaited me and my Montrail Wildwoods (pretty subtle Montrail plug there eh!).

The 25k racers were coming up the trail, and I got a boost by seeing most of my B.C. brethren approaching on the singletrack and cheering me on. This was my absolute FAVORITE section of the race. The terrain was plush and flowed ever so nicely, the forest was dense, the grade was just so that I could let loose and not for a second contemplate how many stitches I would endure should I snag a tree branch or inadvertently step on a slug somewhere. I relished this terrain, but as the grade grew steeper I knew exactly what I had to accomplish. I was once again blinking tears out of my eyes as I tried to see how fast I could get my feet to turn over the dirt beneath them. The kilometers evaporated and I started to wonder if I'd somehow missed some flagging. It had felt like forever since I'd seen anything, but it was too late to turn back now, so I just kept my eyes peeled and my Montrails rolling.

I let out a huge sigh of relief when just a few minutes later I spotted the magical flagging tape off to my left. I bolted up the slight incline and again laid into the terrain as it fell away beneath me. Eventually I bottomed out at a lake, and I dreaded having to actually propel myself without the aid of gravity! I was confident that I'd widened my lead on Adam, and now I had to put my head down and really focus on not giving away any of that lead on the flat terrain that paralleled the lake. Just down the trail there was a steep set of switchbacks and I took stock of my time as I climbed them. I managed to clear them without spotting my competition and thereby knew I had at least a two minute gap at that point.

This Looks Like A Comfy Rock

I was not enjoying the run along the water. It's not that the terrain was not as nice as the entire course up until that point had been, it was that I had not spotted any flagging tape in what felt like an eternity. I just kept reminding myself that it had all made sense so far, just trust the course, the flagging will be there when you need it, just as it has been throughout the first 30km. Right now there were no other options to choose from, so no flagging was necessary. I kept going over this in my head and forcing my legs to keep pace, slowing down in uncertainty would be the worst think I could do. 'Run for the next intersection, the tape will be there to guide you my son'...or something like that anyways!

Finally, after what felt like at least four km, but in hindsight was nowhere near that distance, I spotted an upcoming intersection. I upped my pace, hit the four way, and spun my head a full 360 degrees...nothing...no tape...no markings anywhere...I double checked...I triple checked...

"F@$K!!!!!"

I actually didn't yell the profanity as I have done on numerous similar occasions in the past. Maybe it was because I am growing accustomed to getting lost out there. I was most disgusted with myself than anything. I had but ONE GOAL on the day, DON'T GET LOST, and I couldn't even attain that one simple task! I dropped my butt onto a rock while wallowing in self pity. THIS SUCKS! I looked up at the trail signage and had no damn idea where I was or how to get back to the start finish area. I was initially trying to guess which way would be the fastest exit, but after a slight moment of clarity realized I have never DNFed an ultra and I most certainly was not about to start now. I was training for bigger stuff later in the year, I might as well double back and see where I missed my turn and finish this thing off. I started to walk the trail but was getting cold so I slowly started into a jogging pace. I made it maybe a hundred meters down the trail...and as I looked up Adam was running straight for me...I had turned off my competitor switch and just wasn't thinking clearly,

"Adam, we blew it man, we missed a turn somewhere..."

"Naw. This is right, I know we run around a lake and then head back up again!"

We headed back to the intersection together and confirmed that there was no flagging in place. Adam had a vague idea of the course however and he was convinced we were supposed to head right. Sure enough, just down the trail and around the corner there was flagging and a bridge that we had run past about twenty km earlier.

"SHIT!"

I said shit more so because I knew that I now had to start racing again! My lead over Adam was gone and no matter how hard I tried to convince myself otherwise, we both knew he was now in the drivers seat for the final fifteen km. Adam was kind enough to let me lead through the next section and as we approached the beginning of the final ascent, or as I now know it to be, 'the beginning of the end', I was still in front. In hindsight I should have threw my arms out to the side,

"Sorry Adam, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to let you by on this narrow singletrack trail. Oh well, I'm sure once we reach the top there will be somewhere wide enough to allow me pull off to the side."

Instead I conceded,

"You should probably lead this out..."

"Thanks"

And like a Ninja Smoke Bomb, Mr. Lint became a pigment of my imagination...

Toes And Quads To Headquarters, "Why Do You Hate Us?"

This final climb was torture on so many levels. My legs did not want to get going again after I gave them a 'way out' just a few minutes prior, and my mind was not coping well with the fact that it was becoming crystal clear that 'the race' was for all intents and purposes, pretty much done. I kept telling myself to suck it up, forget what had happened, nothing else mattered, I had a new problem at hand, and I had to figure out a way to solve it in under fourteen kms. Unfortunately Adam was already outside of my 'rock throwing range', so I put my head down and slogged it out. I found some solace in the absolutely spectacular panoramic view we were presented with up top, although all I wanted to do at that point was to sit down and take it all in!
(Photo Credit, Glenn Tachiyama)

I knew by the time I had topped out on the last climb, at about 42km, that Adam would have accrued quite a safety blanket over me. None the less, I still damn near killed myself on the final descent to at least limit my losses and hopefully still lay down a solid finish time. I even kept telling myself that maybe he would 'bonk' before the finish, even if his 2008 results seemed to hint at the fact that the guy knew what he was doing in terms of not bonking!

I could feel my toes thumping into the ends of my shoes, and I knew I would pay for my efforts in the days to follow. It did not matter though, I came to race, and race I did. I eventually found the finish line in 4h38m32s to claim second on the day. Adam had smoked the course in 4h32m49s. When I spoke of my miscue after the race I had guesstimated my error to have cost me about 3.5 minutes, thanks to the wonders of modern technology I was able to download my GPS data and honestly tell you it was 4m43s. At least I know I do not exaggerate the details of such occurrences. That time folly is neither here nor there, Adam was most certainly the faster runner on the day and it was an absolute pleasure racing against a runner of his caliber. I may have even given him a scare for a few minutes out there, and that alone is worth the price of admission to me!

A big congrats to my Montrail-Mountain Hardware teammate Ellie Greenwood on a hard fought 1st place female finish as well. Apparently she was in third with under ten miles to go and in the end she pulled out the win by just over one minute!


FULL RESULTS HERE

A HUGE THANKS to James Varner and Alison Hanks, for a simply AMAZING weekend of fun and good times. AND, what would a race be without the volunteers, especially team Montrail member Matt Hart and his hard work in pumping out 600 cookies on the day!

MY GEAR:

-Montrail Wildwood shoes
-Carbo Pro 1200
-Thermolytes x11
-1/3 pack of shot blocks

Orcas Island will be on my annual calendar from here on out. Absolutely, bar none, best bang for buck race out there, and an instant 50k classic course in my mind. More to come on the 'rest of the weekend', in the days to come.

GR

Free Trip To Africa, All Expenses Paid!!

First and foremost, Orcas was an awesome weekend and full report coming tomorrow. I had to post this info though, it's fully legit, Jesper was the first person to ever run around the world and he is currently in his second version going North - South:

Jesper Kenn Olsen need a driver

From www.worldrun.org

Job Offer:

In order to continue the run through Sahara/Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, I need to find a person to drive supplies !
- Is that You ? :-)

I can offer coverage of travel/airplane from your country to Africa and back. A car to drive in. 500usd pr. month. The opportunity to see Africa as few other will.

The job:
6-8h. of work w. making the world run 2 possible; 5-6h. of driving food & water the daily 50km across the countries. 1h. of working together to buy/find food and set camp.

Where:
Through Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania. (Sudan would be Great but I don't expect anyone to dare that part).

When:
March, April, May 2009.

N.b.: You need to be able to function in warm weather. But car/mechanical skills isn't a must. That is mainly my worry to maintain the vehicle - but a helping hand is welcome :-)

I speak English, German and French (and my native Scandinavian), so if you speak any of those you are welcome. Your nationality is less imp. - its an international project :-)

Please contact myself on philip.essam@three.com.au or Jesper at jesper@worldrun.org

Original message composed by Allan Trans from Denmark

Note from Editor - Jesper had a really bad day yesterday due to the heat and his health will be seriously effected soon if he has to continue pushing his stroller and running by himself.

I'd be all over this amazing opportunity myself if I didn't have some big plans already in the making for 2009! Hope someone can take advantage of this sweet offer and assist Jesper in his massive undertaking in the process!!

GR

50k Sundays

This will be short and sweet, although maybe short on the sweetness, or sweet in its shortness, or shortless and snorting...pick one of the above and lets roll with it...

50k Sundays. Today was another 50k training day for me (140k this week) and they have been going quite well, and dare I say it, are even starting to get easier. In Jan I ran a 50k in three of four weeks, and all up I logged just under 450km of running which I am pretty sure is a monthly record for me...mostly due to the fact that I only started focusing on run specific training in July of last year, and my mileage thereafter was dictated by the level of injury or soreness I was suffering from. Although I am quite happy with a solid Jan of training, and hoping to build upon it through the coming months, my 450k is still only about as much mileage as 'this guy' logs in ten - eleven days of training! Thankfully I have yet to see anyone else who can handle the miles like 'that guy' (over 8,000km in eight months of running last year...yes this is correct, over 1000km a month while healthy!!), and all up I am just thankful to be feeling better by months end then when it commenced.

I managed to grab an entry into the Orcas Island 50k down in Washington State just before it sold out, and together with about ten others we are heading down on Friday night. It sounds like quite the experience, where two nights accom are included in the race fee of just $55.00! Apparently it's gonna be a bit like summer camp...just without the summer.

On the starting line will be a few true speedsters, namely
-Adam Lint:
3rd Overall: USA Track & Field 50K National Championship
3rd Overall: USA Track & Field 100K National Championship
2nd Overall: USA Track & Field 50 Mile Trail National Championship
-Topher Gaylord, who I was attempting to chase down for 7th during Miwok last year before I decided to take the scenic route at km 75
-and, Brian Morrison, although it sounds like Brian lost some of his fire after Western was canceled last season he is most certainly always a player

Hopefully the race goes well, but out side of 'The Big One' on June 27th nothing else really matters and no race will dictate my training hours otherwise.

On a closing note, good friend and experienced MOMAR racer Sandra Borton recently received some HUGE news:
A 26-year old Adventure Tourism student at Thompson Rivers University is one of a select few students from around the world chosen to set sail for Antarctica next month, on a 17-day ship-based field course to learn about environmental issues, climate change and polar tourism. Follow this link for more info. She is in need of sponsors and donations to help off set the $13,000 in fees associated with this massive undertaking. Please pass along to anyone else who might be interested or able to help out!

Since I have no picture from today, I will close with this classic from Canadian born clothing brand 'Lululemon'


GR

Throwing In The Towel

Well, there goes two months of hard fought effort!

Since way back on my B.Day in November I had but one goal...and now it's over...forever.

My goal was simple, at least on paper...grow hair while I still can!

I didn't cut my hair for over two full months, and overall it seemed to grow fairly rapidly and was very encouraging for quite sometime. Then the realization just a few short days ago, that no matter how 'hard I try', my hair is too damn thin to be viewed as anything other then a guy who's afraid of going bald!

I've been shaving my head for the better part of the last decade, with a few hair spurts thrown in from time to time, so I have no issue with 'being bald'...it's just the finality of it all that hurts I guess.

Good bye my precious, until we meet again, perhaps in another life time.

I'll be ok, no really, I don't need to be consoled here people, just go about your normal day to day living...looking in the mirror morning after morning and fully taking for granted that YOU have hair while people like me are struggling just to maintain my core temperature without any insulation working for me.

Not to worry, I was able to salvage just enough hair to make at least one style work for me...

(Yeah, I'm bad...)

GR

(Not So) Quick Training Update

Again I have fallen behind on my blogging, and all I can say to that is I have struggled to make time for it lately. The training is actually going quite well, and physically I'm feeling great right now. Turns out, that in hindsight, I never watched that much t.v. to begin with, so my somewhat far fetched dream of finding hours of more free time a day was not properly thought through. Either way, I believe my apartment looks much better without a t.v. in it, and it feels much cozier then it ever has before.

Enough with the babbling, here's my attempt at a quick update on how stuff has been going. The last training update was up until Sunday Jan 4th at 105km for that week. In the weeks since then:

Jan 5th - Jan 11th:
-100km of running in 11hr, which really means nothing unless you know the terrain covered. It ended up being more road heavy then I like, but still some big climbs and great trail runs.
-1x gym session, 159 lbs (down five in two weeks of training, must have been beer weight!)
-1x skate ski, 11.5km in 1hr, but conditions were terrible and it was a very tough workout and struggle to log that many km in sixty minutes. Lotsa climbing, which I love!

-Highlights, solid interval session on Tues night, and on Sunday I completed my first 50k 'ultra run' in training of 2009, and just second ever. During the run, which I fully completed with teammate Ryne Melcher, we were paced along for the first 40k by friends Duncan Coo and Tom Craik. Turned out it was Duncan's 40th B.Day, a little 40 on 40 action going on so we decided to dedicate the final 20km of their run, from 20k-40k, to the years leading up to the present. Every four to five minutes we would all have to tell a story of the corresponding year, from 1989 until 2009. I certainly can not say that I got any smarted on that run, hard to ever accomplish that with Melcher by your side, but I did learn that at one time Duncan was 4th in all Nato countries for shooting in the Pentathlon. What does that mean exactly...not sure, except that if Duncan actually owned a gun I might be scared of him, otherwise I know I can out run him!

Jan 12th - 18th:
-Recovery week after two building weeks to get back at it.
-Run 41km over three separate runs in 3h30m, mostly road or flat terrain
-Skate Ski x2, 30km in 2hr, much faster terrain then previous week
-Gym x1, 158lbs
This was less then I had scheduled for the week, but I have learned to listen to my body first, and it was asking for an extra day off, totaling three on the week, so I did not argue with it so early in the year!

-Highlights:
-A simply gorgeous road run across The Lion's Gate Bridge and then along Stanley Park's seawall, totally 25km with a 1/2 marathon split of just over 1h30. I was not racing or tempo'ing my run, simply running a good pace, then I upped the pace towards the end when I saw the numbers on my watch. I have run four half's in my life, although one of those would hardly be considered running (over 2hr in my first attempt with no training, a beer gut, and no calories or thermolytes along for the ride!). I have not touched this distance since I started taking running seriously or actually started training. This run would have been a P.R. for me... and that to me is pretty funny! It was enough to get me thinking about possibly running a 1/2 marathon 'for fun' sometime soon. It would be a nice gauge to truly see how far I've come in the last few years.
-6am gym, 7am run, 10am work, 7pm skate ski on Wed
-Skate skiing in The Callaghan Valley with some good friends and running into no fewer then ten people I had not seen in six months or longer. A pristine sunny day, fast snow, and good times!
-Heading to Victoria on Sunday to visit my good friend and adventure racing partner Todd Nowack before he moves to Norway for a year! Unfortunately Todd injured his foot pretty bad recently and could not run, but he volunteered at an Orienteering event and I tagged along to look at a map for the first time in well over a year! Our Raid The North Extreme 2007 teammate Christiian Piller, who recently moved from Toronto to Vancouver, also randomly showed up and it was great to have everyone together again for the first time since that race! I managed to finish FIRST in the event!!! I'm not lying, check out my pic...


Ok, maybe, just maybe, there is a story here that needs to be told, but you ain't getting it from me...all I will say is this, the ribbon is legit, but Chris beat me by twenty minutes, actually, the race was less then an hour, he was almost twice as fast as me...Chris won 'the smart guys' event, and I placed first in the 'somewhat challenged' category!

Jan 19th - 25th: Bringing me back up to speed here.
-Run 131km in 13.5hr, a true mix of road and trail with some tough terrain covered, including another solid 50k run today. Finally feeling like I can start handling the miles again and looking at possibly running 150k-160k for the upcoming coming week.
-Gym x1, 158lbs
-No skate skiing as I was dealing with a few 'niggles', injuries in the making, and I made a few changes based on what I perceiving to be possible problems. The skate ski experiment continues, and I'll talk more about injury prevention, and recovery in a coming posting, for now though, I just wanna get this one done, grab a beer with a few friends, and call it a day!

-Highlights:
-Visiting Todd for three days, getting to run completely new terrain, and not seeing a cloud the entire time! North Vancouver was buried under a thick for for a full week, while just 'Up The Sound' in Squamish and Whistler, you could have pranced around in shorts and a t-shirt. Just 'up the street', on top of the local North Shore Mountains, temps got as high as fifteen degrees, and just 'across the pond' on Vancouver Island, they had no idea what the rest of us were complaining about!
-Running up Mt. Doug in Victoria to a spectacular panoramic vista, on a day that had me constantly reminding myself that it was still in fact winter, and not springtime already!


-Seeing 'Grand Torino'...had to throw that in there, Todd and I checked it out and double thumbs up for sure!
-AND, drum roll please....daadaadaadaadaadaadaadaadaadaadaadaa...not quite sure how to spell that sound...anyways, getting to join Todd and his co-worker, in a four seater Cessna Float Plane, to what was scheduled to be a four island tour for what Todd actually calls work! I knew by joining them that I'd miss my anticipated return ferry, and possibly face a parking ticket, but I did not question it at all, especially after I was cleared to bring along my running gear! The initial plan was going to allow me to run on Salt Spring Island, Saturna Island, Galiano Island, and a coastal town named Gibsons (for Canadians out there, the home of the famous 80's t.v. show 'The Beachcombers'...and they still have a 'Molly's Reach' restaurant too!) I had never been to any of the islands before so I was very excited about possibly completing a running tour like no other!

Once we departed Victoria however it was shocking to see what the rest of the lower mainland of B.C. was buried under, yet more fog! We landed on Salt Spring and I was able to get in a quick 6km run before we were back in the Cessna again. We attempted to land at our second destination of Saturna, but the fog was just too much and we ended up having to return to Victoria. In essence though, I got one of the most scenic tours of my life as the views were absolutely incredible with only the mountainous peaks shining through the clouds below. I uploaded a small web album with the twenty best shots on the day.

From there I finished up by logging some miles back in Victoria before returning to the fog you could almost taste, back in North Vancouver that night.

TODD BEST OF LUCK IN NORWAY, THANKS FOR AN AWESOME FEW DAYS, AND KEEP ME IN THE LOOP ON SOME RACES OVER THERE, I MIGHT JUST MAKE IT OVER FOR A VISIT!!

Almost done here, on Thursday I hit up the local climbathon known as B.C.M.C., which is basically a 3000 foot climb in under 3km. Running back down was interesting as I could feel that I had not logged miles like this in awhile. Great views up top, escape the fog down low, and feel the burn for a few days afterwards!

TODAY, 50k, nothing but sun, feeling strong, ran the first 32k with Tom again, then put my head down and knocked off the last 18k on roads in under ninety minutes...AND DONE, onto the beers, I could use one, or maybe even two...

GR

2009, The Time Is Now

There is a quote that I first found in an old edition of National Geographic way back in August. I had attended my Aunt's Wedding over on Vancouver Island, and the following morning, while suffering through a hang over that could only be justified by catching up with family members you had not seen in years, I stumbled across this:

"Indian mystics will tell you that by self-inflicted tortures the soul reaches through flesh-numbing ecstasy toward those higher states of being that lie between it and the Absolute"

No matter how I sliced it, my self inflicted tortures of the day were by no means making me feel like I was connecting with a higher power!

For my racing however, this really struck a cord. From suffering through 115 degree heat, and sleeping just over twenty seven hours in nine days, during Primal Quest Utah 06, to loosing seven toenails on my West Coast Trail - Juan De Fuca Trail adventure run in 07, and every single event in between, and since those two, it has all been completely self inflicted torture. So why? Why sleep under a $0.99 space blanket on a bed of rocks, for three hours a night, for over a week on end. Why run a hundred miles non-stop, when everything in my entire being is screaming at me to quit. Why fly half way around the world, spending thousands of dollars in the process, to run, bike, and paddle myself into a sleep deprived state of oblivion. Why?

The answer is not simply because I can, or because it's there. The answer is not, why not? It's not because I really like to throw away all of my hard earned cash. The answer is not even that I really like pain! The answer, for me at least, is that I have truly felt ALIVE during each and every race I've ever participated in. The training helps me to fully appreciate who I am, where I live, and how fortunate I happen to be. The racing allows me to test myself against some of the best in the world, and to walk away a better person in the end. A more balanced, complete, accomplished, and most of all more confident individual.

Adventure Racing and Ultra Running has given me so much in life. First and foremost, my health...here they are...some of my dreaded 'fat pics'. I never thought I'd post these on here, but I am no longer embarrassed by these. Instead they give me a sense of pride, in knowing how far I've come. From absolute scratch, to winning the occasional race, in five short years. Yes these pics are old. From the year 2000 to be exact. But they are by no means my 'worst' pics, just thankfully the only ones that have been digitized. At my largest, I was over thirty five pounds heavier then my current racing weight of about 150lbs.


(pictures from N.Z., not my folks, more like 'adoptive parents' during the holidays down there)

In 2001 I started to get in shape. 2002 was a year of working up north, 2003 a year of travel, and 2004 I discovered running and adventure racing...and I've never looked back. I am finally living the life that I always dreamed of.

Beyond 'just my health'(which we all know, is all that really matters) these sports have given me so much more. They have inspired my dreams, goals, and desires. These sports have given me something to truly pursue wholeheartedly and with absolutely all of my energy. Training for these events has forced me into 'living' each and every day of my life. It has allowed me to take hold of MY life and do with it as I please.

2009 is a brand new year, a fresh start for all of us. How fortunate are we to annually get a chance to start over again, to reassess who we are, where we are, and if we are truly living our lives...or simply existing and waiting for the inevitable to unfold?

We are already half way through January. Before you blink the snow will be gone and the sun will be shining high in the sky on a late summers evening. Before you have time to stop and appreciate that, the leaves will be on the ground and the mountain tops will be showing evidence of the falling temperatures yet again. Count to ten, and you'll be running around trying to take care of your last minute shopping list. Open your eyes, and we'll be right back here again, if we're lucky, in 2010. One year older, one year wiser (although always debatable), and one year closer to whatever our own expiry date happens to be. So what are you going to do with your year? What are you going to do with the greatest gift of all...your life?

We only get one shot at this game called life, it is not a dress rehearsal, 'Tomorrow is promised to no one', and even though we all know this so definitively, we still become complacent in our ways. We ignore, distract, and get into the habit of saying maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next month, maybe next year...some people even seem to be planning for their next life.

IF you wake up tomorrow...because the simple fact of the matter is that not all of us will, do one thing differently, take just five minutes to think of the last friend or relative you have lost. What do you think they would say to you...what do you think they themselves would do differently...if they were given just one more chance at life, just one more day on this beautiful planet we call home?

This is your chance, this is your time, this is your life. Don't be afraid to live it, it's the only one you'll ever get!

GR

Saying Goodbye

It's never easy to say goodbye, especially when you have shared so much, and known each other most of your lives. This past week I had to do just that.

I will miss you. You were there for me in good times, and in bad. Way back in High School when I got stood up one Friday night, I turned to you instead of my parents, and without question you were there for me.

When I moved from Newfoundland to Banff in 1996, you followed me shortly thereafter. It was like we were never apart, as close as two could be. There were countless nights where we chose not to sleep at all, distracting ourselves till the wee hours of the morning light. Making me late for work on more than one occasion, as time just seemed to evaporate while we were together.

Even when I ventured overseas to Australia and New Zealand in 2000, you were never far from me. I knew I could always turn to you for anything, for you never once judged me, never once questioned who I was. You witnessed and appreciated my full spectrum of emotions. From screams of joy, to tears of sorrow, in fact when it felt like the world was ending on 9-11, I immediately ran to you. We spent the entire day together that day, wondering what the aftermath would be.

We truly did share everything together, you even cheered for my Oilers on their way to The Stanley Cup Finals in 2006, while most around me laughed at the possibility of the underdogs continually winning round after round.

It's been decades since we've met and I can not say that you have ever done me wrong. I knew full well what to expect from you each and every time. You never once tried to be something you were not, and I hardly know a soul that does not love you as much as I did...but sometimes people change...how does the saying go, "It's not you, it's me", I know you will find this hard to believe, and even harder to accept, but I promise I will not miss you, I promise I will get over you quickly and think of you less with each passing day...



GOODBYE STUPID BLACK BOX OF DISTRACTION, GOODBYE!! I have a little thing called life that I am currently pursuing. I sometimes feel like I need twenty eight hours in a day to come close to what I would like to accomplish, at least by getting rid of my t.v. I know I will once again have twenty four hours to work with.

As the new 'Sharp' t.v. commercial proclaims, "Change your television, change your life." I'm doing just that 'Sharp', and thanks for reminding me day after day until I finally sucked it up and 'killed my television'. (no televisions were hurt in the making of this blog posting, please do try at home)

GR

Game On!

I guess it's taking me a little bit longer to get back into the blogging swing of things after the holidays, and although I feel I've already fell behind on here, I am definitely off to a great start in my build up to Western States.

On New Years Day, as you may have seen in the video, I ran 50k and hopped in the ocean. This is now the 5th year in a row that I have completed this run and although I am puzzled as to how, it has become a necessary tradition for me. When I initially ran it in 2005 it was my first ever 50k ultra run, so I guess it has a certain sentimental appeal to it now. This was my 17th ultra, meaning that almost 30% of my experience has come from this one event alone!!

The course this year was an even mix of slush, ice, snow, and pavement. It consists of an out and back 25k and has virtually no elevation gain as most of it follows the very scenic Sea Wall in Vancouver's Stanley Park, and the beaches that splay out from there. In the four years prior to 09 I had brought my time down from 6h37m to a course record 4h04m in 2008, getting consistently faster annually. 2009 ended up being the first year that I drifted backwards in terms of my finish time, but given the course conditions, the holiday weight I was carrying (11 Lbs since MM!!), and the lack of training in the last two months, I was quite pleased with how my 'race' went. In the end I finished third in a time of 4h27m. As implied, this course definitely favors a road runner, something I have never claimed to be. In fact if not for the nastiness we had to endure upon the day I am sure that the top two runners, Ryne Melcher 4h12m and David Papineau 4h17m, would have eclipsed the magic four hour barrier.

In brief, The Good:
-No cramping, which in this race is a first for me! Thank you Thermolytes and CP 1200!!
-Didn't take a single wrong turn, again a first for me (no course markings in a 'Fat Ass' event)
-I have a great running base to work off of right now as I felt amazingly good in the days following the run
-I finished much stronger then I had in previous years and physically felt really good throughout the entire run

The Bad:
-I'm carrying way too much additional weight right now and it's time to focus on training and racing again
-That's it really. Overall I took nothing but positives away from this run

The Days Leading Up To New Years

When I saw the digits on the scale staring back at me, after my fifth annual x-mas re-wrap party on Dec 27th, I said then and there that it was over. Party time was over, I had consumed more food and alcohol in the eight weeks since Mountain Masochist then I did in the six months prior, or something close to that at least!

Mon 29th 15k skate ski up on Cypress Mtn. I tried skate skiing for the very first time last season and was instantly hooked! I loved it so much that I bought my own gear this fall and then fell into a corporate after 3pm (open till 10pm) seasons pass was just $135! This was my second time out this year and it's one hell of a workout, especially when you have ZERO technique!!

Wed 31st I headed out for my longest run in eight weeks, 17.5k with a set of Kahtoola Microspikes on my feet, a necessity upon the day. These things are phenomenal for traction in frozen icy terrain. I was literally holding pace on two inches of slick frozen ice. I loved it...Roxy on the other hand did not seem to be having as much fun as I was!


For New Years Eve we decided to snowshoe up Mt Seymour and in the process we actually found an igloo!! It was just big enough for four people and one cute puppy. We cracked some wine, had a countdown to midnight and hung out inside for about 45min. From there we 'shoed' up to 'Dinky Peak', a mini cliff of about 15-20 feet, which is perfect for snowshoe cliff jumping! After half a dozen loops we did some deep powder bush whacking before coming across a younger crowd who were packing 'crazy carpets' and sliding over a small jump. We commandeered their gear for an additional thirty minutes of fun before finally heading back to our friends truck. We called it a night at 3.30am, with one exhausted puppy snoring on a pillow next to the bed!




Thurs 1st Happy New Year, now go run 50k! By the time we returned to bed that night, on just 3.5hr sleep, we were both absolutely toasted, and Roxy hadn't moved an inch all day!

As mentioned the two days following the 50k were surprisingly good for me, no 'Robbins shuffle' whatsoever, and although I did not run, I easily could have had the motivation been there!

Sat 3rd While watching one of the most RIDICULOUS FINISHES in Canadian Hockey history, I improv'ed a great home workout...adrenaline goes a long way when pushing yourself!

Sun 4th My Montrail teammate Ryne Melcher and I headed out for what ended up being a snow run, in up to knee deep powder at times! I forgot my camera which is a shame because it was a gorgeous morning to be out playing in a completely silent, snow covered, forest canopy. Minus snowshoes, it took us a full 2h35m to cover a very intense and tough 22.5km

ALL IN ALL, a solid week 'back at er'. 105km and feeling great so far...Western here I come baby!!

Oh yeah, my adventure racing teammate Todd Nowack and his girlfriend Kim are moving to Norway for a year!! Here are a few pics from their visit over the holidays as well. Looks like I'm gonna have to learn how to read a map finally!!







GR

My New Years Day Video

Happy New Years everyone!!

Obviously more to come soon, but for now, this is all the energy I have left from today...

Listen Up!!

Check out my recent interview on 'Endurance Planet'!

I was honored to be a featured speaker on their site as they have hosted some top names within the endurance world. Just last week adventure racer Mike Kloser from team Nike was on there!

It's a huge online resource for everything endurance based, and they have some great membership options. Be sure to have a good look around while you're in there and thanks in advance for listening to the interview!

GR

The Year That Was...

As I sit here in mid December, counting down the days until the big visit from 'The Fat Man', and counting up on the numbers I see while standing on a scale myself, I figure it's time to take a second and reflect upon that year that was. I fully intended to do exactly this last season, but it somehow eluded me.

Heading into 2008 I had planned to do my first ever 100k run, that being Miwok in San Fransisco. I was also looking forward to competing in the seven day mountain bike stage race known as B.C. Bike Race at the end of June, and to finish off the season my A.R. team were looking to compete in Quebec, in Ian Adamson's new expedition-stage race called 'Terra Traverse'.

I made it through Miwok, DNF'ed B.C. Bike Race with injuries, and Terra Traverse was canceled. As I sit here closing in on 2009 however, it is with my first ever 100k, 50 mile and 100 mile running events under my belt, and I have a new found, or should I say rekindled, passion for ultra distance running. I also managed to enhance my racing resume by doubling my ultra experience. Although I am currently enjoying the festive season to the fullest extent, I simply cannot wait to start hammering out the miles in training come Jan. Western States and Trans Rockies (remember, for a 100 discount on this race just drop me a line!) are just two of the big confirmed events for next season, and it will take running specific training the likes that I have never pursued to ensure decent results at both of these races!

The Year In 'quickish' Review:

Jan 1st: 1st place in the Fat Ass 50k and 'freeze your ass off swim'. Of course this is a hang over run, and with just 2.5hr of sleep I was happy just to make the start line on time!

Jan 19th and Feb 2nd: 5th and then 4th place in two of local 'Yeti' 10k snowshoe races. I ended up skipping out on the rest of the snowshoe season and immediately following the Feb 2nd event I was completely unable to run, with a dual calf injury, for six full weeks!

Mar 15th: 10th place, Chuckanut 50k in Bellingham, Washington. After literally getting back onto my feet for the first time since early Feb, just five days before the race, I intended to simply try and finish the event. I nearly dropped on three separate occasions and was absolutely ecstatic to pull out a top ten finish.

April 5th: 2nd, Diez Vista 50k, Port Moody BC. I only learned that I was in this race ten days prior and with Miwok coming up fast I competed on full 20+hr week of training. This course tore me apart a few years prior and I was happy to finally get my revenge on it!

April 26th: 1st, Suburban Rush, Sprint Adventure Race, Port Moody BC. Todd and I extend our AR winning streak to six. It felt great to race with my teammate again!

May 3rd: 12th Miwok 100k, the big one! My goal race for the first portion of the season. I headed into it with so much uncertainty about how it would go. A huge chunk of my training was still being done on the bike as my calves just didn't want to fully recover from Feb. Twenty five km into the race and I thought my calves were shutting down on me during a flatter portion of the run, but being a huge goal race I didn't care if it crippled me! Thankfully it subsided and I was happily running strong and steady in 8th place late in the race. I could see 7th and 6th on the open sections of trail. Then at about the 80k mark, I blew a turn and took a 5k detour! I managed to get back on track, but had dropped to 12th place, which I managed to sustain until the finish line. A ton of positives to take away from the race...and just a wee bit of frustration, that seven months later still lingers!

May 10th: 2nd, Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race, Squamish BC. Although you would think that Todd and I would be happy with 2nd, we were the defending champs, and Miwok or not, I felt strong and we were simply outclassed during the biking sections by the eventual winners.

June 7th-8th: I flew down to Wisconsin and helped pace my best bud Luke Laga to his first ever 100 mile finish, in his first attempt...and just his second ever ultra!! The Kettle Moraine 100 had the craziest weather in the races history and I had the chance to run 53 miles (the third longest run of my life) with my best friend, through torrential monsoon type rains. Luke finished 24th overall, and nearly 100 runners dropped out, which was about a 25% finisher rate!! THIS, was one of the highlights of the year for me!


June 14th: DNF, Test Of Metal 67km Mtn Bike Race, Squamish BC. The biggest mtn bike race in Canada, selling out in minutes at over 800 riders! About an hour in and I was very literally rammed off of a trail. While rag dolling down an embankment I broke my finger and contused my quad. I climbed back onto my bike to try and continue but my right let would not bend enough to complete a single pedal stroke. My day was over, and BC Bike Race was just two weeks away.

June 28th - July 4th: DNF, BC Bike Race, Seven Day Staged Mtn Bike Race, BC. I could not ride my bike at all for the two weeks leading up to this race and I told my teammate Todd to find a new partner. In the end I showed up and gave it my all, but the broken finger lead to a blistered hand, an additional crash, and a hematoma on my hip! I made it 4.5/7 days, and 2.5 days on a hematoma'ed hip, but in the end I threw in the towel as it was impossible for me to stay competitive within the race and I was questioning possible long term damage in simply trying to finish. In fact, just three weeks ago in late Nov my massage therapist found some deep lingering scar tissue from this specific crash and I nearly wept like a baby when she hit it!

THE GOOD NEWS. Having not run at all since Kettle Moraine my calves were finally 100% healthy for the first time all season.

THE BAD NEWS. I hit a serious emotional low after back to back DNF's, especially in two races that meant so much to me. I could hardly walk for days afterwards, yet decided that I was going to do everything possible to run my first ever 100 miler in just five weeks time. The next week was very painful, and very slow, but by the second week I realized I might have a shot at getting there healthy and ready.

July 26th: Circumnavigation of Mt Saint Helens. Along with Tom Craik (happy Tom!), Duncan Coo, and Geoff Palmer, we completed what would go down as another top highlight of the year for me. The trail is somewhere between 35-50k, no one seems to be quite sure, and although it took us 12hr it was the most beautiful 12hr run of my entire life!!



Aug 9th: 1st, Stormy 100 Miler, Squamish BC. I honestly did not realize how much I had emotionally riding on this race until it was over. The back to back DNF's were still very fresh in my mind and I had promised myself that I'd crawl to the line if I had to. The race started at noon, so the entire second lap was in the dark, I had some stomach issues which lead to 13 bathroom breaks, and of course I fought the demons of doubt on numerous occasions, but in the end I hit all of my pre-race goals. 1) Finish, 2) Win 3) Course Record 4) Sub 18hr.


Aug 16th: Golden Ears Adventure Run, with my girlfriend Jackie. She had finished 4th in the 50 miler the previous weekend and we both thought we were good to go. In the end I hobbled back to the car after a 25km, up n down, yet beautifully scenic mountain run. I had unknowingly injured myself during Stormy and it was just starting to set in...but at least Roxy was happy!


Sept 13th: 1st, Cle Elum 50k, Washington State. I had been diagnosed with a weak glute med muscle that was causing significant knee pain since Stormy. My longest run was just over an hour. If Jackie had not registered as well I probably would have skipped the race all together. I started, but with questions as to if I'd be able to finish. In the end I felt zero knee pain and was again surprised and ecstatic to pull out a win!
(Photo Credit, Glen Tachiyama)
Sept 27th: 1st, Mind Over Mountain Adventure Race, Cumberland BC. I knew that if I competed at Cle Elum then I'd be racing three big events in four weekends. My nerves were getting the better of me before this one and I was stressing out my teammate Todd in the process. My knee pain was back in my pre-race run...yet again I manged to race pretty much pain free...maybe nerves, maybe adrenaline, maybe I'm nuts...but Todd and I put together one of our strongest races to date and we ended up winning by nearly thirty full minutes!

Oct 4th: 2nd, Run For The Toad 50k, Paris Ontario. Thanks to Montrail, and of course George and Peggy of RFTT, three team Montrail-Mountain Hardware members, Ellie Greenwood, Rune Melcher, and myself had an incredibly weekend in Ont. Again, I was happy to hold onto 2nd place for this one and was looking forward to a few days of rest after a solid month of racing. The highlight though, was catching up with some good friends that I had not seen in years, and no I'm not from Ontario!

Oct 19th: Howe Sound Crest Trail Adventure Run. Finishing a close second to Mt Saint Helens in terms of pure uninterupted beauty, I ran the HSCT with my girlfriend Jackie and friends Ken Legg, Adrian Rothwell, Ellie Greenwood and of course Roxy and Tundra. It only measures 30k in distance but is a highly technical and difficult mountainous route, we completed it in 7.5hr with a detoured scramble up 'The West Lion'.

Nov 1st: 2nd, Mountain Masochist 50 Miler, Lynchburg Virginia. Western States has always been on my radar yet it conflicts with some big expedition adventure races every year. By this point in the season I could already see that 09 was going to consist of a pretty strong focus on ultra running, so I flew down to try and snag a top three finish, and the highly coveted auto-entry into Western. I raced smart yet did not feel properly rested for this one, and around the half way point I was questioning my taper strategy. It was my first ever 50 mile race, and 5th longest run of my life, so maybe I just need to toughen up a bit! In the end a few fast guys dropped out and I snuck into 2nd and grabbed an entry into the WS100 run in June 2009!!

And with that...I hit the beers, nachos, and yam fries, and kissed my 2008 race season good bye. It's amazing how quickly things can change, life of course goes without saying, but also racing and racing goals. I entered 08 having run just eight ultras in my four years of racing, and almost all were 50k races. Now I am sitting on 16 ultras and firmly have my sights set upon June 27th, and the starting line for Western 09. This will prove to be the most competitive Western ever run, and indeed one of the most competitive 100 milers ever run. It will be an honor and a privledge to line up against some of the sports absolute best in California next year, and if I can train smart, hard, and injury free leading up to the race, then who knows, I might just end up with a decent result at that race too.

On top of an incredible race season there was of course some epic ski touring days last winter, a sweet surf trip to Tofino in August, and endless miles of beautiful terrain covered while playing and training along the way. 2008 would rank right up there amongst the best years of my life, and I fully intend to duplicate and even improve upon that in 2009. It's never easy to find the right balance in life, but we are all solely responsible for the decisions we make and the paths we choose to follow.

"Remember, tomorrow is promised to no one." Walter Payton

A HUGE shout out to my incredible sponsors for a wonderful year, thanks so much!
-Montrail
-Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing
-Helly Hansen
-Princeton Tec
-Carbo Pro
-KINeSYS
-Rudy Project

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope Santa is good to you!!



GR, and Roxy