This is a good one, complete with the accents, and I was hoping to post it last week, pre East Coast Trail Run. (Thanks to Heather for this)
Quick update from Moi, straight back to work within hours of getting back to BC, as always. Don't get me wrong, I plan it this way so that my travels have the least financial impact on things, but again it leaves me little time for the luxuries of actually catching up on my blog postings...of which I'm now falling way behind.
On the GREAT NEWS front. I'm moving into my new place for Sept 1st! Again, this is not indicative of immediate blog posting, but I'm so happy to have found a place that I'm almost giddy. The run reports will be coming as quickly as possible, that's a promise, and I'm going to attempt to come close to closing out the WCT later tonight.
In the meantime, enjoy this one...and maybe try it for yourself sometime...
No Idea Why, But Blogger Not Allowing Picture Uploads Right Now?
It's hard to believe that I'm going to be initiating this run in a little over thirteen hours from now. The last four weeks of my life have been a bit of a blur and though I still haven't posted my West Coast Trail Tail it is about 40% complete.
To be completely honest about stuff right now, I'm nowhere near 100% for this thing, and if it were a genuine race I'd be really concerned about having to pull one outta the hat. Thankfully, though a speed attempt, I know I can suffer through it and still make this thing happen. It is rare that we are ever 100% heading into an event anyways, and with a distance this great it ends up being way more mental than physical.
All I have to do is look back to 2007 when I ran the 130km West Coast Trail + Juan De Fuca back to back. I hadn't run more than 67km in distance or nine hours in time prior to that day. Though I wasn't properly trained for that endeavor my mind was locked in and it wasn't about to let a small thing like inadequate training come between me and my stated goal of a sub 24hr completion time. (23h40m)
On that note, unless things go way better than expected, this will be the first time I've gone over the 24hr barrier while strictly running. My adventure racing background will serve me well on this one.
A Bit About The Trail
If this trail were hard packed and well marked I'd wager to say it could be doable in under 24hr...but that's not the type of terrain I'll be dealing with here in Newfoundland. Though the scenery will be stunning, with sea stacks, sheer cliff side drops, lighthouses, blow holes, and even possible ice bergs and as of late Killer Whales! This will be a true adventure.
Having spoken with Ray Zahab himself and doing some online searching I've been told to expect sections of 'no distinguishable trail', mud and bog potentially thigh deep, and moose paths that often appear as running trails. Hopefully I don't end up running in circles once the sun sets. I've also decided to delay the start by two hours till 6am, as a pre sunlight start might end up being more of a hindrance than a help.
All in all, it's amazing to be sharing this one with my family. My mother has never seen me run before and she's so excited she's been cooking non stop all day long...just in case I decide to stop for a buffet style feed along the way. Dad has already poured over the maps and listed all the best and worst case scenarios, and my brother is nervously awaiting his pacing duties, which will involve joining me for the last 20-30km...he has never run longer than 9km before. My fourteen year old niece is looking forward to trying to stay awake for 30+ hours for the very first time, and my brother's girlfriend is just as worried about him as she is about me!
With support like this, there is simply no possible way that I can't and won't succeed on this journey. Sure I would have liked a few more days to prepare properly, sure I have some injuries that will likely act up, sure I'm about to tackle something I've never even attempted before, but in the end, that's really what it's all about?
It's about pushing your boundaries and exploring your own limitless human potential. For no matter what the obstacles before you may appear to be, they are never quite as difficult or as daunting you can make them out to be in your own head.
I am ready. I am excited. Let's get this thing started!
(please don't forget to click on the smiling child in the top right corner of this blog to help support the third challenge in my Conquer The Coasts attempt)
Yes, this is 100% me trying to buy more time till I can actually get to my run report. I'm flying to Newfoundland tomorrow morning and attempting the 220km East Coast Trail on Friday, starting at 4am.
This video is just a slight glimpse into the substantial ladder work that is contained within the West Coast Trail. My GoPro headcam died with about 20km to go and I was not able to capture the most daunting of these structures.
These were the 'warm up ladders' early on in the run. A friend who has tackled the trail a few times himself says there must be a full kilometer of ladder work upon the 75km trail. Though that sounds quite high, I'd have to say he's not far off in his guesstimate.
Back to packing...then work...then a few hours sleep before boarding the plane home!!!
(please use the accent from the 77 hockey cult classic Slap Shot, starring Paul Newman, if you know, you know, if you don't, it's funny!)
Seriously though, I'm not trying to drag this out but my days are being consumed by trying to find a dog friendly place to live in North Vancouver. The roller coaster ride continues. Thankfully though, as previously mentioned, due to the sincere kindness of a friend I am secure until I finally work this thing out. I had intended to get to my run report all week long and in the end an impromptu trip to The Sunshine Coast this weekend was a WAY BETTER OPTION!
(Kathy, Moi, Ruthy)
I was certified as a Dive Master in Honduras in 2003, and in a very indirect way that experience specifically lead me to my current passion for endurance sports and ultra running. 03 was one of the best years of my life, as I spent the entire twelve months cycle touring Central America. I covered over 4,000km on the bike, spent a full month surfing in Nicaragua and Coast Rica, and mixed in four months of working on a dive island. On the Island of Roatan I would forge life long bonds with some of the most genuine, honest, kind, and entertaining individuals I have yet to meet in my life.
One friendship in particular has grown, that being with my friends Luke and Emily Laga, who reside in Wisconsin. Luke and I both got into running late in our lives, comparatively so, and we have since flown across the country to help pace each other at separate 100 mile endeavors. Luke and Emily, up until last night, were the only friends from the island that I've since seen. It was a slightly reluctant departure from Roatan and the island lifestyle way back in late 2003, and I feel like a piece of me still resides there upon those immaculate sandy beaches and the teaming with life dive sites below the water.
I always assumed I'd get back down there, and in all honesty I'm kinda shocked I've never made it happen. One friend by the name of Kathy had moved to BC a few years back, but our paths had never crossed as we always lived in different towns. A second friend Ruthy, who was one of my instructors and someone I always truly knew I would see again, has since created a post diving life for herself on Roatan with a very successful business. Her vacation away from her island life was to consist of a trip to BC!
(pickin some blackberries along the way)
I found out a month back that I'd finally get to catch up with these two incredible people and I'd been counting down the days ever since. This past Tuesday they changed plans slightly and decided upon a Sunshine Coast getaway weekend, which only served to make the now palpable excitement even better!
(checkin out Skookumchuck Narrows, 'strong'/'water', with tidal flows of up to 30 KPH!)
I needed a break from my daily roller coaster house search. I needed a good excuse to get away to The Sunshine Coast for the first time this year. I was excited to go camping in a completely new destination near Egmont on Klein Lake. Most of all though, I was ecstatic to be catching up with two people I'd always considered life long friends and to help finally create new memories together. We got drunk around tea lights (fire ban), we traded stories of the last seven years our lives, and reminisced about our shared time upon the island. We swam, we lounged, we swam some more, we hiked, we traded more stories, we chilled, we went out to dinner, we caught a ferry back to Vancouver, and I dropped them off about an hour ago.
(Ruthy and Roxy working off their hangovers)
It was but 24hr, but sometimes, 24hr is all you need.
Coupla more vids till I can get to my run report. I've been working every day since coming off of the trail on Wednesday afternoon so it's been tough for me to get to things so far. I finally have a big day off tomorrow which should allow me to catch up on things properly.
I've been hearing some questions in the last few days. Questions about 'is it legit' and how can I prove it if there was no one there at the 'finish line'? I'm totally cool with that. HEY I GET IT! If I ever do end up running the trail again I'll go South to North, first and foremost because I now believe it's faster that way, and secondly because I guess you could sprint into the lodge at the end and have a park official there to validate everything.
I knew that I would have to be taken at my word for the most part on this one. Being a fully self supported, point to point run with no intersecting points whatsoever will do that. Sure I have a picture of a GPS watch saying I ran 80km in 10h08m...but couldn't I have 'paused' the watch along the way? During my stops? During even one stop? Couldn't I have taken a break 'off the clock' without anyone knowing? Well the answer is obviously yes, that might be possible...before GPS of course!
I'm curious as to Frank and Kevin's experience in 1997? I can't imagine it was anyone but them involved since park staff didn't even know what the previous record was.
With a speed attempt the watch starts with the first step and does not cease until you reach the finish. I had an eight minute stop at the beach vendor around km 44, and that's all a part of it. There are no time outs, no car delays (road hockey), and no nap breaks. I started at 5:34:28am and finished at 3:43:20pm
I had a friend by the name of Sarah Logan officially start me with a ten second countdown. I shot a video on my GoPro head cam but it was too dark to pick it up. You can at least hear us talking and she confirms the start time. I also intended to shoot a finishing video with my head cam but the battery died after shooting 37 individual videos...go figure! I'm forwarding all my footage onto a friend by the name of Erik Nachtrieb so that he can hopefully make something outta nothing and create a worthwhile recap of the day. In the end I was very thankful to have carried a back up camera just in case and that's what I shot my finishing video on.
Oh yeah, and on that note. No I have never seen The Blair Witch Project, and yes in hindsight I realize it's quite dramatic. The honest truth though is that I have never cracked like that in my entire life and I was completely out of it when I made the finish. I'll go into detail in my eventual run recap, and yes I know I look somewhat foolish...but that's what it was...that's literally all I had left. I actually had to cut out five full minutes me shooting video of the sky when I fell asleep on the spot. If you didn't watch it the whole way through, I do at least eventually sit up and start talking somewhat coherently for a few seconds as I'm getting my wits about me!
Anyways, the point of all this is that I just figured out this feature from Google Earth. It takes a full minute to load on my laptop, but give it a second and you can click all the way down to individual black boxes with times in them. You can see exactly where I started and finished, and if you locate the beach vendor, which is just over half way through, you can see my full eight minute break, all on the clock, while I'm running in circles and having some intriguing conversations!
(I had to remove the auto loading Google Earth feature as it was freezing up my computer and hence I have no doubt others were having issues as well) Here is the here's the direct link to the downloadable file
I figured I'd throw this one in here too. It's me tackling the first cable car crossing of the day. It's amazing how much energy you expend on this trail through ladder work and cable cars alone.
I hope this is enough to dispel any further doubts or questions. I'm a man of my word and honestly my reputation means more to me than anything else. If anyone has any specific questions, good or bad, please do not hesitate to drop me a line!
I'll have the recap done in a few days, and Erik will be working on the video side of things too. Since I went straight back to work just hours after getting home I'm still attempting to catch up on everything. Sorry for the delays.
Here's my 'finish line celebration' video. It's all I've got for now, plenty more to come though! Thanks so much for everyone who helped out along the way and for all the words of encouragement pre and post run. It's a pretty special community we exist in and I feel incredibly fortunate to be a small part of it all.
After the original goal of attempting the trail in May fell through, a secondary plan presented itself. This itinerary called for a group of eight individuals to link together and tackle this trail this past weekend. Each running their own pace, and effectively eliminating the HUGE logistical nightmare that is The West Coast Trail. Unfortunately this too fell through and alas I was left on my own to figure this thing out!
The 75km WCT is a point to point run with both access points located in obscure coastal towns, and with no direct route between them. To put this in perspective, in 07 when I ran the WCT & JDF trail back to back, it took me 12h20m to get through the WCT. My one man wonder crew at the time, Carlos Castillo, took over EIGHT FULL HOURS to drive around and meet me in Port Renfrew at the Southern terminus of the trail! If everything goes well on Wednesday my run time should be relatively close to the drive time!
Because of this it's taken me days to piece this all together. I picked a date, got the days off of work, and was then forced to figure out the rest.
Monday
-Work till 5pm -Ryne Melcher drops me at Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal for 7pm crossing, arriving in Nanaimo at 8:30pm -My Aunt picks me up in Nanaimo and drives me to her hometown of Port Alberni, arriving around 10pm -Grab some z's
Tuesday
-Board 'Lady Rose' for a four and a half hour 'water taxi' to Bamfield -Make my way to trailhead, collect trail permit ($160) -Back to Bamfield, eat, lodging, eat, sleep
Wednesday
-5am taxi to trail head, since I'm running point to point and not returning to Bamfield I will have to discard all items I'm not running with. I'll be sporting the oldest clothing I can find from Mon-Wed! -Start run anywhere between 5:30am and 6am -Ideally run a sub 10h13m trail time, that being the current record, which has stood for over a decade! 1997 to be exact.
Anyone unfamiliar with the trail seems to think it a foregone conclusion that the record will fall. Anyone who knows the trail, is fully aware of the fact that this is a serious endeavor with a 50/50 shot of success. The biggest issue is that the trail has become increasingly tougher over the last decade, NOT EASIER as most trails usually do. After a few windstorms earlier this decade, previously runnable sections of the trail were rerouted via vertical ladder work, up, over, and around obstacles rather than clearing the trail back through the middle.
This is of course in addition to the five cable car crossings, the mandatory water taxi crossing, the suspension bridges, mud, roots, rocks, and of course the beach running sections. All in this trail is a killer, period.
I had hiked the WCT in three days in 01, and as mentioned ran it as part of a larger goal in 07. I was completely shocked by the differences and higher technicality of the route in such a short period of time. I'm honestly going to have to destroy myself to succeed on Wednesday.
Wednesday Afternoon
-2:36pm Hopefully celebrate a trail victory! -4:30pm bus from Port Renfrew to Victoria for 7pm -Cousin picking me up and presenting me with his own clothes to wear home -Grabbing dinner and being dropped off at Tsawassen Ferry Terminal for the 9pm sailing, arriving back on 'the other side' for 10:30pm -Bus to downtown Vancouver for 11:30pm arrival -Mr. Melcher picking me up in my car from downtown. Dropping him off and hopefully finding myself spooning my dog by 12:30am
Thursday Morning
-Back to work!
All in this endeavor will cost me close to $500, so basically what I'm sayin to myself right now is,
MAKE IT COUNT ROBBINS!
Wish me luck...
AND, please, please, PLEASE don't forget that I'm still trying to raise $5000 for Right To Play. As of tonight I'm just fifty bucks shy of reaching 50% of my goal. Please help out if you can.
I'll be doing my best to update my progress via Twitter, but to my knowledge there is zero phone reception upon the trail and maybe none in Port Renfrew as well. I'll text updates as soon as I can!
Last but not least, if you have a few more minutes to spare, feel free to read my 2007 run report. I referenced it myself last night to get back into the right mindset. That being one of trying to conquer a torturous trail!
I would just like to wish all runner's partaking in this weekend's Burning River, White River and Canadian Death Race the best of luck!
-Burning River 100 Miler in Ohio, the US Championships this year. I'm not about to review the list of who's who racing it as I'm tight for time. Best of luck to all round good guy and great runner Nathan Yanko out of San Fran though. Met the guy at HURT, got to know him a bit at MIWOK and have become a fan. He's made this a goal race which means he'll be right in it to win it!
-White River 50 Miler in Washington. Again not time to review a list of who's who, all I'll say is that Canada is sending 'The A TEAM'! Aaron Heidt and Adam Campbell who ran Trans Rockies Run together last year are both heading down. Let's hear it for a 1-2 Red and White finish...though Montrail runner Dakota Jones, along with many others, might have something to say about that!
-Canadian Death Race, 125k in Grande Cache Alberta. My name is still on the starting list...but unfortunately I won't be racing it. I struggled with this decision right up until Monday before accepting that it's just not possible for me to successfully run 1) Death Race 125k 2) WCT 75k and 3) ECT 220k in a span of five weeks...I know, toughen the hell up right!
My initial schedule called for a WCT speed attempt in May and once that proved impossible due to unfavorable trail conditions I realized TDR might be the piece of the puzzle that would no longer fit. It will be a mixed reaction weekend as I watch this one go down, but since my 'Conquer The Coasts' was announced in support of Right To Play it has taken priority over all other endeavors.
My personal speed attempt upon The West Coast Trail will happen NEXT WEDNESDAY August 3rd!! Excited, nervous, and anxious to finally attempt to make this dream a reality!
Back to The Death Race for a second, again I'm not about to reference starting lists but here's my take on what I currently know:
The Women's race will be INTENSE! Even with two of Canada's top female ultra runner's having to give it a miss, that being Jen Segger and Tamsin Anstey, the field is still stacked. It's really too bad because this would have been the first time all these incredibly talented women would have faced each other head to head.
You still have: -Ellie Greenwood -Tracy Garneau -Denise McHale -Nikki Kimball??
Ellie just got accepted onto the UK 100k team for World's this fall. If she knocks that run outta the park as many expect her to than the annual 'Ultra Runner Of The Year' voting could come down to Ellie vs Tracy. Tracy having won HURT, American River, and WS is on a HUGE ROLL. Can anyone stop her right now? Denise, Ellie, and possibly Nikki will certainly push her to the max. I can't wait to see how it all unfolds!
MEN
Is Hal Koerner running? I've heard yes and no? Here's what I do know:
-Phil Villeneuve -Adam Hill -Jack Cook -Greg McHale -Simon Donato
Not quite as exciting as the women's though Jack Cook is a multiple winner and current CR holder. Even if Hal shoes up I'm giving the nod to Phil on this one, and that's simply based upon his INCREDIBLE technical running abilities. He's been training like a madman for this specific race as well so I know he's dialed and ready to compete. Hard to bet against Hal, but gotta go with a good old Canadian boy!
The REAL QUESTION that will need answering at The Death Race... How many of the men, if any, can prevent being 'skirted'? With a field of women like this, they'll all be running scared!
First off I have to admit that this is probably the longest I have gone without blogging in the almost four years that I've been doing this.
Long story short, there have been some life changes as of late. I don't currently have an actual place to live as finding somewhere in North Van that allows dogs can be challenging to say the least. Life is still good. I have very little to complain about, though I have no current routine and no at home internet. I'm sure things will work out for the best in due time.
This past weekend was the inaugural Fat Dog 100k, 100miler, and relay in Manning Park. I know a lot of people seemed to be under the impression that this was 'my race' simply because of the fact that I talked it up so much in the last six months. I was/am simply a volunteer who insisted on taking the final aid station of the race. I wanted to be there when people were at their worst in the hopes that I might be able to make a difference to some people's races. Outside of setting up this aid station I had no influence over the race whatsoever. It would simply be unfair to all those involved to imply that I did more than this.
I just want to start by saying this. I had volunteered for races before, but I had never donated my time to help out at a 100 mile event. You simply have NO IDEA how much work goes into an event like this until you see it all first hand. The logistics involved in getting a race like this off the ground are simply mind boggling. My hat goes off to Heather Macdonald for her amazing ability to take a conversational idea and build it into reality in under twelve months. Had I been in charge we'd still be working on the permits! (and I'm really not exaggerating too much on that one)
There were over 70 volunteers who dedicated their entire weekends to this event. I will briefly entail what my experience was, but I would like to state that there were numerous people who did two and three times as much as I personally had to. Again my hat goes off to these selfless individuals.
From North Vancouver you arrive in Manning park in under 2.5hrs, and that's in a vehicle that is quite honestly impossible to speed in! My 81 Suub has done me no wrong in the almost two years that I have owned it. It's quite simply the best $1,000 I've ever spent! Ditching a brand new leased Nissan was one of the best decisions I've made in the last few years, but that's another story altogether.
I left North Van on Thursday night and camped out in Manning for about 6hr of sleep. Most people were up and gone at 2-3-4am. I had the luxury of 'sleeping in'. I loaded my car and headed out to my aid station, which was another 2hr away. Upon arrival I hiked all of my supplies, including a 70lb generator, to a trail intersection 1km away. It took me nearly two hours and ten kms to do so. I was sweaty, exhausted, and being eaten alive by mosquitoes, but I knew it was nothing compared to how the runners would be feeling.
After another 2hr I finally had the station set up and looking somewhat enticing. I was expecting the first 100km runner anytime after 2:30pm. Some people said maybe closer to 5pm but I wanted to ensure I was ready to go in case we had underestimated the pacing.
The great thing about an excursion into Manning Park is that there is no cell or internet service. It's like a cleansing of sorts...except of course when you are organizing a 100k/mile running event. An hour passed, then two, then three. I wanted to sleep but was on edge wondering what might be happening down the trail. At about 5:30pm recent Canadian Badwater finisher Lorie Alexander appeared. She had contemplated running the race, being the nutbar that she is, but instead settled on helping me out. Honestly I would not have been able to do it without her. Thank you Lorie for everything that you contributed to the event and my own experience!
Lorie brought with her relayed news that runners were still nowhere near us. I had also been awaiting my water to show up (I had 20L with me, but 200L more had to be utilized) and this would have entailed an additional 90+min of hucking the stuff around. Since the runners were still nowhere near us, and since the location really wasn't sufficient by any definition of the word, I made the on the fly decision to utilize the now three people to pack up my current location and add an additional ten minutes of running to the race.
My rational was this. I was manning the final aid station, the most likely place to see people pull the plug. If a runner had to drop at least this way we were already at the road and would have access to cars, heat, and immediate transport to deal with any possible emergencies. Even 1km is 1km too far if you are dealing with a serious medical incident. On top of that the location was crew accessible and a relay point, which meant there would be a decent amount of traffic throughout the night. In the first location I literally had to kick over bushes and brush to fit in the chairs, table and tent. If any crew decided to show up they would have been huddled in the trees playing 'who can donate the most blood to the bugs' for hours on end. This way they too could nap in their vehicles. Finally, this decision saved us an additional 6hr of take down effort after the race. We had managed to fully erect our station with plenty of time to spare. It was getting late and we still had not seen a runner. Slowly but surely, one by one, they eventually found their way to us. The stories were consistent. A course that was unfortunately long, a few sections with flagging issues, and a race that was billed as runnable when in fact it was very technical. It was readily apparent the frustration upon peoples faces. Some hid it well, some did not, yet all but a few managed a smile and a laugh before they tucked in for the slog on to the finish.
I witnessed some unbelievable efforts out there this weekend and even though I took three days off of work and drove almost 800km return, I would not have had it any other way.
To the 100km runners: Every single one of you was faced with a challenge far greater than you anticipated. To those who finished, I can say with confidence that you are ready to pursue your first 100 miler in 2011 if you so desire. To those who made it to me but no further. I was closer in distance to your 100km marker than the actual finish line. I meant what I said. You could have and would have finished just about any other 100km race on the planet this past weekend. Be proud of what you accomplished because I for one am amazed at the tenacity you displayed and the toughness you possessed.
To the relay runners: Most of you were trail virgins...welcome to our world! You and your crew kept things lively and interesting all night long. I hope you either decide to pursue a bigger distance yourself next year or organize another team. You added an element of fun to a race that was taking its toll on those around you.
To the 100 mile runners: What can I say? I only saw 15 of you and every single one of you continued on to the finish line, even when I explained to you that the final '26km' was going to take at least six hours and probably upwards of seven to eight. A disproportionate number of you were 100 mile virgins. Do you really understand what you tackled this past weekend?? There isn't a 100mile course that I know of that could stop any of you. Know that and do what you will with that knowledge. You are all champions in my books by every definition of that word.
To those who dropped: I can't imagine the mental struggles that must have ensued early on when distances were proving long and sections were difficult to navigate. I hope you experienced enough of the course to take away some of the natural beauty with you. I am confident the Race Directors will do everything they need to to fully dial in this event in 2011.
The Fat Dog 100 will go down as an epic event in its inception year. The course is amazingly stunning and the people involved in organizing the race are completely passionate about what they do. With time and luck on my side I'll be back to serve up some hot bacon, dogs, pizza, soup, and Newfie Screech again next year, and I sincerely hope to see all of you there again!
In the meantime, if you ran this race and have some free time, please drop RD Heather Macdonald a line. Let her know your thoughts on the event and the experiences you had, both good and bad. The only way a point to point mountain run of this kind can succeed is with the genuine feedback of the participants. I think it's incredible what Heather and her crew were able to accomplish this year and I know that with a few simple yet relevant tweaks this race can and will become a classic. Full Results
I wasn't supposed to be on the starting line of Western States 2010, yet I knew months in advance that I'd somehow find myself there.
I am a stern believer in fate, destiny, and serendipitous moments, almost to a flaw really. I could tell you stories of how I ended in in New Zealand for New Years Millennium based upon a case of strawberries, or how I traveled Central America for a year based upon a banana's country of origin, or the confidence I found prior to HURT in January due to a bumper sticker. A rather innocuous string of events one morning led me to belief with absolute confidence that I would indeed be attending 'The Big Dance' in June one way or another. I did myself no favors however, finishing third at Mountain Masochist in November, and DNF'ing Miwok in May. At the very last minute though, Montrail ended up with a few unfulfilled sponsored slots in their lap and hence I discovered that my belief in such seemingly random occurrences was once again confirmed to be truth.
If you don't know the back story to my lead in to Western States it goes something like this...I ran 98 miles in the entire month of May because my vitals were low and I was borderline anemic. Thirty of those miles were during my actual race in San Francisco on May 1st. After my DNF at Miwok I took three full weeks off, then eased back into a few weeks of running before 'tapering' back down for the race. Once you factor in a taper leading into the Miwok 100k you could basically say I tapered for two full months into Western States. However, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had done everything in my own power to ensure a successful race down in Squaw Valley. Though my body may not have been hardened through mass mileage in the final eight weeks before the race, I had energy the likes of which I had not possessed in months and my legs had spring in them for the first time all year. I headed to California with a plan and a silent confidence in my absolute ability to pull it off.
"Oh you know, I just want to have a positive race experience. I just want to run smart and see what happens. I'm in the race, I might as well give it a go. I won't do anything stupid. I know I'm not primed to do much down there. I've got nothing to loose though and I'll call it a day if I feel like it's the wrong thing to be doing."
These were my standard answers to people whenever I was confronted with the usual 'why on earth would you even attempt a 100 mile race after such little mileage and so much down time.' Inside though I knew I was feeling good. I knew my body was rested and ready to explode. I knew I'd been smart, recovered well, and was genuinely feeling like a runner with a purpose again. I knew I'd have a great race weeks before I even made the journey to the starting line.
In 2009 I raced like the inexperienced idiot I was. I thought I'd finish top three in my second ever 100 miler and first ever WS. I went for it, paid a price, and limped, literally, to the finish line. I hit the river crossing in 8th place and finished the race in 49th. I had learned some harsh lessons, but most of all I felt like I'd 'paid my dues' to the course. I walked the final twenty miles to the finish and if nothing else, at least I knew every single root, rock, and turn that I'd have to conquer to have a successful second shot at the thing. I had the entire 100 miles in my head, and I knew exactly how I had to run it to be successful.
5am...the gun explodes and excitement is palpable!
I got caught up in the hype last year and blasted over the first climb up The Escarpment. This year I simply stared in awe as a string of silhouettes sprinted silently on ahead. I was back around 35th over the first climb and took solace in the fact that I was positioned around such WS veterans as AJW and Erik Skaden. Once we crested the climb I was taken aback by how incredibly cold it was. I suffer from raynauds circulation issues and the stiff breeze removed all dexterity from my hands for the next few hours.
We knew in advance that this was a 'snow year' and sure enough we had miles of the white stuff to slip and slide over. It did nothing but favor me though, being a Canadian and all. I was slowly making my way through the field when I turned a corner and saw a pack of ten runners streaming along. All were people I recognized as being very talented and efficient, yet there was little evident snow experience amongst the grouping. I was very easily able to pass the entire pack in a short span, and as I turned an additional corner I was almost brought to laughing out loud. Three runners were very literally sliding backwards while trying to ascend a snow slope. I took one look, saw a clear route just off to the side of the snow, scurried on up, across the top and left them behind. All the lead slider said to me was,
"Huh, so that's how it's done!"
As we slowly left the snowline behind us I found myself ahead of where I wanted to be so early in the race, so I backed off and allowed a grouping of runners to catch up and surpass me. I just kept telling myself to stay relaxed, not force anything, and to try to forget that I was even in a race to begin with. I had some great conversations with some incredibly kind people and the terrain ambled along below our feet.
As mentioned, it being a snow year, the course had to be slightly altered and we found ourselves passing through two new aid stations at Talbot Creek and Poppyhead. For miles on end I tried my absolute best to dance around the water/mud features and keep my feet dry. I was succeeding for the most part till we came to a full on river crossing. Shortly after this I lost my shoe in a pile of mud! First time my shoe has come off like that in years and I had to laugh as a few people passed me. This was in no way, shape, or form similar to my experience just one year earlier.
I hit Poppyhead Aid Station in 12th with a time of 2h43m. I was completely shocked to learn that the leaders were but seven minutes ahead, with Anton's grouping only five minutes up! It was enough to make me feel like I needed to back off the gas a bit, even though I knew I'd been very conservative up until that point.
As we departed Poppyhead we started down a flatish forest service road, which would filter us onto a mile of pavement and eventually a singletrack undulating trail around a lake. I was in a talented grouping of runners but a few hundred meters up was Canadian Glen Redpath. I had picked Glen in advance of the race for the Master's win/top ten. Considering he ran a 14h23m 100 miler earlier in the year, and has a wealth of experience, I trusted that he 'knew what he was doing' and I made the decision to put in a surge and bridge up to him. As I closed the gap he shoulder checked and I simply said,
"Hey Glen, just me, mind if I tag along?"
The trail around the lake was my kinda running. Constant undulation to keep the leg muscles entertained, and beautiful scenery to keep the mind distracted. Outside of Glen slipping on a rock and ending up fully submerged in a small river crossing we blew through this section without issue. My body however, was officially acting up for the first time.
During my last real mileage weeks in early April I was starting to find a double lower abdomen pain that was becoming increasingly harder to ignore. Once I tapered, dnf'ed, and stopped running the pain disappeared. TA DA! Problem solved right...ahh, not so much. Here I was just over 3hr into a 17hr excursion and it was the worst it had felt it all year. My mind of course started to play with this,
"Oh well. That's about right I guess, 3hr would be one of your longest runs in the last six weeks. I'm not surprised really. Everyone knew you'd fall apart out here today. I think even you knew deep down that you couldn't pull this off. Might as well slow down and call it a day G. You can probably cheer people on from Foresthill..."
And HERE is where I KNEW definitively that I was back to my old self and pretty much recovered from my energy issues...
"Ya know what Gary...FUCK YOU! Quit yer fucking bitchin and focus on the task at hand. OF COURSE IT HURTS, you're approaching a marathon distance for running already. It's supposed to hurt, GET OVER IT!"
And with that, the pain very honestly ceased within minutes...and I went back to enjoying the beautiful terrain we were flying over.
Upon arriving at the Duncan Canyon aid station we pretty much deduced this years course to be about twenty minutes faster than the regular route. This was confirmed numerous times post race with people as well. As we started into Duncan Canyon Glen and I dropped the one other runner present with us and upon climbing out of the slight canyon we found ourselves playing in the white stuff again. Eventually we rolled through Robinson Flat (30miles) to see our crews in a time of 4h31m now running in 10th/11th. This was further up than I thought I'd be at that point in the race, but I knew I was running well within myself.
I had an awesome crew and I can't thank them enough! Phyllis Lum and Wendell Doman of Coastal Trail Runs, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your help with everything!! Your positive energy and focus on getting me out of each aid station as quickly and efficiently as possible was priceless to me on the day.
Glen and I departed simultaneously and we went to work finding traction in the snow once again. As we crested our short ascent and turned into the first sizable descent of the race I started to gap Glen. I was staying completely conservative but downhills are usually my bread and butter and I figured if I knew I wasn't taxing my legs whatsoever that I had to roll with it.
I eventually passed a few more runners and was surpassed by Phil Kochik. I knew Phil from running around Mt. Hood with him and a few others last fall. I had Phil in my top eight picks pre-race, as he had performed at WS before. I figured it worthwhile to match his pace and we ran close to one another for the better part of the next four hours. It's funny to even say something like that...to run with someone in the middle of a race for 4hr's...funnier still to say it made up less than 25% off our time on course. Hundred milers really are a peculiar event that attract an even more peculiar bunch...me included I guess.
It was as we dropped into our first real canyon, on our way past 'Last Chance', now 45miles into the race, that I started to face my first real issues. I ALWAYS have right leg problems, usually based around my ankle, but for the first time in recent memory I was having LEFT leg problems AND for the first time ever I was having knee pain, coupled with decent ankle pain. My first thought was,
"This sucks, wtf!"
Followed by,
"Meh, at least it's my left side and not the right side. It can't be that bad if I've never felt it before!"
And that was it. I stopped processing that my knee was surging with pain upon every single stride that I completed down into the canyon. All I was really thinking at that point was,
"Just survive the canyons. Just survive the canyons. Just survive the canyons."
The knee pain never stopped, I just had bigger things to worry about! (four days after the race it finally subsided)
At the bottom of the canyon I heard AJW come screaming down the trail like he'd been shot out of a cannon, then I passed Phil as he was horizontal and completely submerged in a pool of water just off the trail. Ten seconds after this Phil came burning past as he had decided that he was going to run the entire climb up to 'Devil's Thumb'. Personally I was 'just trying to survive the canyons' and I went about power hiking the entire thing. I kept shoulder checking but did not catch another glimpse of AJW.
Towards the top of the climb Montrail's Jesse Malman was manning a video camera. He was filming me and asked how I was doing. Even while power hiking up the climb I was finding myself in a bad state. The heat was rolling in, but it was nowhere near as hot as 09 and realistically was nothing to complain about. My energy levels however had evaporated and all I could muster in response was,
"I just hit a wall"
Survive the canyons, survive the canyons, survive the canyons...
I crested out of Devil's Thumb and then began the arduous descent back down towards El Dorado Creek. Up until that point I knew I'd been fueling properly. I knew I'd been pacing properly, and if anything I really felt like I was taking it a bit too slow on the descents. More than anything I just wanted to finish strong and since I was currently in 9th place I really felt no need to unleash and risk consequence. The low I hit coming out of Devil's Thumb really did scare me, but thankfully it lasted only ten to fifteen minutes and as I popped out of El Dorado and into Michigan Bluff my spirits were significantly bolstered...I'd survived the canyons! At least the main canyons that really beat me down one year earlier.
For the second time in the race I got to see my awesome crew and after hitting up another mandatory weigh in (I stayed fully consistent within 1/2 pound all day long) I did a full clothing change. I was sopping wet and to put on dry clothes felt like a rebirth of sorts. I bounded outta there like a newborn deer and exactly one hour later I picked up my pacer, teammate Matt Hart, at Foresthill, seeing my crew for the third time.
Only 60km-38miles / 7hr left to go...
I had picked off Phil leading into Foresthill and unfortunately knew his day was fully compromised. I was now in 8th and with twenty miles to go to the river crossing I heard Leigh Schmitt was twenty minutes up on me (turned out to be 23min). It gave me something to work towards.
Though we exchanged few words (10hr of running had left me desiring to expend as little additional energy as possible), Matt and I worked well together. As he simply stated,
"I'm just here to keep ya honest!"
Knowing what this section consisted of from last year made it no more pleasurable or tolerable. The river that you are aware you eventually have to ford is tantalizingly close and the sound of flowing water is constantly present. Contrast this with exposed sections of trail that made it the hottest portion of the day for me, along with the fact that you descend towards the river only to regain your lost ground time and time and time again and it really will only be remembered forever more as my least favorite part of the entire race!
The one thing I did vocalize to Matt was,
"Ya know Hart, I think it's about damn time that some of the runners in front of me start dropping out, or at least start slowing down a bit!"
I knew I was making good time and I was still attacking this section with a singular focus on conserving as much as possible for the final twenty miles. Aid station after aid station were confirming closer splits towards Leigh and what would then be seventh place!
With less than 1km to go to the river I spotted Leigh and his pacer just up ahead. We had taken over a full minute per mile out of them! As we hit the river itself I failed to notice that Leigh was sitting in a chair and thought he'd somehow beat me across the river. I filled my bottles, grabbed some gel, downed some coke and electrolytes and hoped in the boat for the crossing. (the river was too high this year to ford safely so a raft was utilized)
I popped out on the opposite side and kept on moving,
(that's Matt catching back up in the red jersey)
Hal Koerner was standing in the river as I exited the boat and I now found myself sitting in sixth place overall! I knew what the climb up to Green Gate consisted of, and though I very well could have run it, I just wanted to power hike it so that I was fully ready to close out the final 20 miles the way I knew I could. Since I had no idea what was going on behind me I was fully surprised with Glen Redpath came flying past on the climb. I hadn't seen him in hours and though I was confident I'd catch him again, it left me wondering what else may be going on back there? I kept telling myself that in a field like this you are never safe. You have to stay the wolf the entire time, for the sheep get eaten alive, and at this point in last year's race the vultures were already pecking my eyeballs out!
Matt kept trying to get me to run the climb, probably more because he knew I could have, but I resisted the temptation. I had taken on some blisters shortly before I picked Matt up at 62miles and there was one on each ball of my foot, along with a few on my toes. Ain't nothing you can do about em so I never vocalized this to Matt. There's nothing worse than someone constantly saying,
"How are your blisters doing?"
"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about them...thanks..."
I've been there before and I know what it consists of. Twenty minutes, ignore, ignore, ignore. They're never quite as dramatic as you think they are once you remove your socks anyways!
Again at Green Gate I saw my crew, again they were great!
I thought I saw Glen in a chair as I departed Green Gate but I was mistaken for five miles later I caught a runner and was surprised to see that it was Glen himself. Here I thought I'd been chasing for 5th and I was simply pulling back into 6th.
It was great having Glen along this late in the run and though we ran directly with each other less than earlier in the race we most certainly helped push each other along. Glen kept asking about AJW, since they were in the master's fight against one another, but I hadn't seen AJW since before Devil's Thumb and I couldn't understand his genuine concern. Upon referencing the splits I was truly shocked to see how many runners were right behind me as I hit the river crossing. I can't help but wonder what mental battles would have ensued had I been just two minutes slower hitting the boat and hence been swallowed up by a small chase pack...ignorance turned out to be complete bliss as I was still only running my race and hadn't been influenced one ounce all day long!
I was using music in a race for the very first time...and it honestly made a HUGE difference! My blisters were acting up, the body was shutting down, and there was under fifteen miles to go. I was in an all out battle with Glen and though he openly said he wasn't competing against me, rather trying to outrun AJW, we both knew that 6th was better than 7th and which ever one of us hit the tape first could claim to be the first Canadian runner on the day. In my own head,
"Ain't no damn way I'm running for 17hr out here to be the SECOND Canadian across that finish line!"
Me to Matt,
"Do you mind if I plug in and tune out right now? I need to zone out in a hurry!"
I was running with one ear bud all day and when I put both in it pretty much took me to another world! I could no longer hear my breathing or my footsteps. I'd been running for the better part of fifteen hours. I was stating to feel more like I was floating down that trail than actually propelling myself. Everything still hurt, but it just hurt less. A Foo Fighters song kicked in and I actually played air guitar for a bit. It was such a magical distraction from the absolute pain of that moment.
Eventually the ear phones would come out as I hit an aid station and after but a ninety second break my blisters would not allow me to exit any aid station running. I had to pound me feet a few times first to accept what was forthcoming. Inevitably Glen would arrive at an aid station just behind me, transition faster and pass me, and then I would catch up and pass him again a few minutes later. It was a true race, a test of wills this far on, and I was loving it.
I knew where I was going to make my move. I knew where I was going to take sixth place for good and hold it until the line. Having hiking the course last year was one of the best things I could have done.
We departed Highway 49 in unison, donning headlamps for the very first time. There was but 6.5 miles to go in our 100 mile odyssey. I was a step in front this time, and I had taken enough supplies to carry me through to the finish. I wasn't about to stop at either of the two remaining aid stations and allow my blisters the better of me once again. We headed into a slight climb, which filtered us out into a flat meadow before what I vividly remembered to be an excruciatingly steep descent to 'No Hands Bridge' from last year. Truth be told it's not that bad, but at 95 miles into a race it's just steep enough that if your legs are toast it's a little slice of hell on earth.
I knew my quads were fine, in fact by that point in the race I knew I'd played my descents a bit too conservative all day long. It didn't matter though, I was about to finish Western States exactly how I had dreamed of doing...while actually running!
I laid into that descent like I was running a five km time trial on completely fresh legs. I simply let loose because I knew that I could. There was one switchback half way down where you could look back along the route. I could see Glen's headlamp already 300 meters back. My blisters were now screaming for mercy and that went through my head was,
"Don't tell me this hurts! This feels too damn good to hurt dammit! This is what you came for, this is what it's all about, this feels f@#king amazing! You're about to snag sixth place at Western States!!"
I blew through NHB aid station, simply yelling my number as I pulled out one ear bud and confirmed they heard me. Across the bridge, shoulder check for lights, nothing, hammering up the final climb, my body full of adrenaline now. I felt no pain, I ran like a man possessed. I think I'd struggle to run that final climb as fast as I did at any point in time. I simply wanted this thing over with...and I wanted one more thing...
Some might think this completely trivial, and to that I say you are mostly right. The fastest ever Canadian time at Western States was way back in 1991 by local Knee Knacker legend Peter Findlay. He ran a 17h02m59s. I've known this 'Canadian Record' for quite sometime, and though I obviously have my goals set higher than just a frivalous Canadian Record it was still something that I was shooting for. I had a lengthy talk with Peter after my run last year and he told me a similar story from his first experience, followed up by the above time in his second running of the race. It made last years debacle a little easier to swallow. I knew from the time I hit Green Gate that I was on pace to challenge this time. I was honestly shooting for sub 17hr and I was going to leave everything I had left in me out on that course to try to snag it!
Through the final aid station at Robie Point, 98.9 miles down...one mile to go now. A tedious paved, uphill mile that I won't underestimate next year. I took out the music and tried to 'enjoy' the run in. Numerous locals were sitting on their decks cheering people on. I thought I could soak it all up but in all honesty I shut it down just a little too early and that final mile was a wee bit torturous!
PLEASE MAKE LET THIS END!
Onto the track now, three hundred meters to go. Just twelve months from the time that I couldn't even muster enough body strength to run around that track and now I was sprinting it in! I couldn't believe what I was about to finish...
17h06m20s
SIXTH OVERALL
(fourth fastest closing 20miles behind only Geoff, Tony, and Nick Clark)
-Finish the race -Run intelligently -Sub 17h30m -Top eight -HAVE FUN with it -Give myself something positive to build upon leading into the 2011 version of the race
Finishing sixth overall means I automatically get to return again next year, and my goals for that race will be significantly different than they were this year. For now it's time to enjoy a break before the real work begins... Full Results
This will just be a quick cap as we're about to hit the open road towards home here shortly. We realized we couldn't say bye to our beautiful hotel bed in favor of a tent just yet and extended our stay in Auburn by one night. It's been fun to actually explore the town a bit, especially Old Auburn, though walks have been limited to about 250 meters at a time...and we turned back once we hit an insane 7% uphill grade on a street yesterday morning...regretted attempting it for hours afterwards!
WESTERN STATES!!
Honestly I'm on top of the world right now. Sixth overall in a time of 17h06m is honestly right around where I truly felt I could be, but to actually achieve it on race day is a completely other thing entirely!
I am ecstatic with how my race unfolded. I started conservatively, somewhere back around 35th over The Escarpment. From there I slowly moved up about ten spots through the snow running towards the Poppy Trailhead aid station to come through in about 25th. By the time I reached my crew at Robinson Flat, mile 30 / km 50 I was in 12th! This was further up than I thought I'd be, but I knew I'd been smart up till then and hadn't done anything stupid.
I slowly but surely continued picking people off and once I hit the final 20miles after the river I let loose. It was great running with my friend and teammate Matt Hart and I had a battle back and forth with fellow Canadian Glen Redpath. In the end I was jumping for joy as I snagged sixth overall in one of the most competitive Western States ever staged! (though that seems to be the case every year)
I've compared my closing splits with the top seven and only Geoff, Tony, and Nick Clark managed to find the line faster.
I could not have asked for a better result all things considered this year and I'm so happy with it that I constantly have to keep reminding myself that I didn't actually win the race...I just feel like I did right now!
I'll obviously post a race report that will be obscenely long by early next week. Then I'll take some time off and start pondering how the heck I'm supposed to take two full hours off my time by next year, lol!
AND you can sign up here to get automatic e-mail updates on your favorite runners throughout the day if you happen to be at work or something...
I'm runner numero 23 and Tamsin is #71 (just for the record, I'm predicting a top five for her tomorrow with an outside shot at winning the whole damn thing!)
For anyone who has my phone number I've purchased an American minutes plan and I get FREE incoming text messages, so text away if you feel the need as I'd love to hear from you! (though I won't respond as that'll cost moula!)
Sorry all, I really had no plans of making this a ten part installment, I honestly thought I'd get it all done in one posting last weekend. Unfortunately the travel and planning for Western has kinda gotten in the way of blogging! Damn 100 milers:)
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I arrived home to shrieks, screams, tears, and two parents awaiting an ambulance for their beloved daughter.
The ambulance was taking forever and we figured we could manage in a taxi, so I called off the ambulance (it was a Friday night), grabbed a taxi and we made our way the ten blocks up to the Lion’s Gate Hospital.
It was blatantly obvious to everyone in the hospital that she was in a serious state and we had a bed within minutes verses the normal hour plus wait times. A nurse attended to us first and she decided to inject morphine to nullify the pain. She couldn’t get the needle into Tamsin’s running butt so it was split into her shoulders. Again we waited and it was a full hour before the Doctor was finally able to see us. During this time the morphine had taken effect and Tamsin was sleeping on and off. When she awoke she would cringe in pain but hold in the screams she wanted to release as she did not want to ‘embarrass herself’.
When the Doctor finally arrived I recognized him, he had cast my hand before BC Bike Race in 08. He was a runner himself and had held many collegiate records at Simon Frasier University in his day. He was the head of the ward as he’d been there over seventeen years. I was relieved to know that we had one of the best Doctors on the case.
He asked both Tamsin and myself a few questions, looked her up and down, touched the knee a bit, and basically said she’d be alright in the morning.
“Here are some morphine tablets. Only give her ONE ever FOUR hours. By tomorrow morning she’ll be feeling much better.”
My intuition doubted his prognosis, but having met and spoken with him many times before (through the running store), I had a rapport with him and trusted what he said. I had grown to like him in our brief exchanges before that day, and I already knew that he was one of the most respected Doctors at the hospital.
We caught a taxi home and I couldn’t help but notice that it was much more difficult for Tamsin to get into and out of the car than just a few hours previous. It took nearly ten minutes to get from the taxi, into the building, into the elevator, and down the hallway to home. There was no doubt in my mind that things had gotten worse, but I’d been assured that we just had to wait this thing out.
I got her tucked into bed and she immediately began demanding morphine. I obliged and she quickly fell asleep. This is it I thought. I just have to get her to sleep through the night and she’ll be fine. I ducked into the living room and lay on the couch as I didn’t want to do anything that might disturb her.
An hour later there were screams the likes of which I’ve never heard before and hope to never hear again. To this day I’m still amazed that none of the neighbors called the police under the assumption that I was literally killing someone in that room.
Take the toughest person you know, someone with a proven track record for high pain tolerance and low likelihood of complaining about frivolous things. Mix that person with your significant other, the person you care the greatest for outside of your immediate family. Now throw in the most obnoxiously loud screaming, wailing child you’ve ever encountered. We’ve all been there, you’re in a store somewhere and someone’s kid is running around like they’ve been possessed. You’d swear they’d been shot and were in the process of dying by the decibels escaping their mouths. Shake those three things together, throw in a mentos and coke for the explosion factor, and stand back…
I was frozen with fear. I simply was not prepared for the severity of the reaction when Tamsin awoke. There were murderous screams being directed towards me and I bolted into the room half expecting to see the leg now completely missing, ravaged by a flesh eating disease in under an hour or something.
It was still my girlfriend, I recognized that, and she still contained all of her limbs, but the person behind the eyes, the reactions from deep within all but paralyzed me with despair.
WHAT WAS HAPPENING was all I could think to myself!
I lay beside her, stroked her hair and tried to calm her, but it was closer to scene out of The Poltergeist, she looked like she would kill me without question to get to the morphine in my pocket.
“MORPHINE, GIVE ME MORPHINE DAMMIT”
“But I can’t sweetie, it’s only been an hour and…”
“GIVE ME THE DAMN PILLS GARY!!”
It was reminiscent of a scene from Intervention. I was completely unfamiliar with the potential side effects of too much morphine, so I simply stood my ground. I knew she wanted to kill me in that moment but I was unflinching in my decision. An hour passed before she wore herself out and briefly fell asleep. There was a twenty minute interlude before this all repeated itself and though I now knew definitively otherwise, I simply kept telling myself that we just had to make it through the night. As if the rising sun would cure all ailments.
Slightly before sunrise I called an ambulance and explicitly explained that although we had called the previous evening and then called it off we most certainly would not be catching a taxi this time.
They arrived within minutes and we were admitted instantly upon reaching the hospital. She was placed on a IV and they immediately started filling her with pain medications. Blood was drawn and we simply had to wait for the results.
Tamsin’s knee had already swelled to the size of a grapefruit and the Doctor on duty drained over 100cc’s of fluid from it. She thought this might alleviate the situation, but it made no difference to the pain she was suffering.
We spent the entire day in the hospital awaiting the blood results. Tamsin’s family were obviously by her side as well, and we occasionally had private conversations about our ever mounting concerns for the severity of the situation. Outside of bathroom breaks and one hunt for food I never left her side. Tamsin would swing between peaceful sleep, awakening into a personal hell, being administered more drugs, hanging in a euphoric drug induced pain free state for a brief few moments, where she mostly thanked us and apologized all in the same breath, before once again falling back to sleep.
After eight hours I went up to the Doctor on duty to ask what the hell was taking so long. The response both angered and floored me all at once,
“Sorry, the blood sample just left in a taxi a few minutes ago to go to Vancouver General”
A TAXI!!
A F#@KING TAXI was how they were shipping blood samples around for testing! AND, it somehow took them eight hours to dial up a cab and have this sent out! I WAS FURIOUS!
“She looks like she’s dying dammit! This is not someone who normally complains about things. Her pain tolerance is twice what you could imagine woman!”
This was of course NOT what I said to the Doctor on duty, and though I phrased it slightly differently it seemed to fall upon deaf ears.
The culmination of the constant drugs being pumped into Tamsin’s body came to a head when she woke up screeching in pain. The nurse was contacted but was busy and it took fifteen minutes before she was attended to. More morphine was eventually administered and we both thanked the nurse. Not two minutes later Tamsin sat upright in her bed,
“GARY! PLEASE get a nurse over here to help me!!”
“But…she was just here honey…she just gave you some more…it’ll just take a few more minutes to kick in….”
Tamsin’s face went white with the reaction of someone who was clearly conscious of the fact that they were now losing their own mind.
“But…but…”
“It’s ok sweetie, I promise everything’s going to be alright.”
Thirty minutes later three doctors came barreling down the hall with blatant stress painted across their faces. The test results were back and they said little,
“When is the last time she drank any fluids?” As they proceeded to lift her onto a gurney.
“She had half a coke about ninety minutes ago”
“Normally we have to wait four hours.” Then to the nurses by his side, “Doesn’t matter, get the new drugs into her.”
Three people were rushing about and all we were told was that she was being rushed into an emergency irrigation surgery on her knee.
A nurse plugged in her new drugs and said to Tamsin, who was pretty much out of it with her eyes closed and prone the entire time,
“Let me know if you feel a burning sensation at all”
Meaning the new drugs were pretty damn potent and could be administered too aggressively.
The nurse started off away from us to grab more supplies. Tamsin was still all but asleep and simply moaned a little. I looked down to find her face was as bright as a lobster. I peered down the hall towards the back of the nurse rushing away from us, and said,
“Her face is going red”, then I yelled, “HER FACE IS GOING RED!!”
The nurse ran back towards us, turned down the flow, and we were all in an elevator together within seconds. There was no mistaking it, there was panic and after TEN HOURS of waiting for the damn blood results, AND being sent home the previous evening, we were now TWENTY FOUR FULL HOURS past when we first checked into the hospital to have this looked at. Now she was being rushed into another knee surgery and it was all unfolding too fast. We bust out of the elevators and I could see the 'medical staff only' doors quickly approaching. Tamsin was all but unconscious below us. I had no idea what lay ahead, I bent down, whispered into her ear, and she was gone.
It felt like I was standing upon the foundation of a house after a tornado had blown through and destroyed all but the concrete. There was silence. I was standing there with her parents. We were all afraid to speak because to speak meant to admit that we were all terrified. I was scared for her life. No one told us much because it was readily evident that they themselves just didn’t know what was going to happen. At that point my honest best case scenario was that Tamsin survived but lost her leg. By the time they’d wheeled her through those doors the entire limb looked more like a petrified piece of dead wood than something that would ever propel a person forward in a running motion ever again.
I need to get this all out before we depart for Squaw Valley on Monday evening. There will simply be too many questions about the entire process by next Sunday afternoon...
The background. Tamsin has been a highly successful athlete her entire life, from a National Pentathlon Championship at sixteen, to a split soccer/track scholarship to Jacksonville University shortly thereafter. She continued to find success in all of her pursuits. Her drive and determination preceding her raw talent. She once pushed so hard in a 1500 meter race that she passed out and collapsed before reaching the finish line! When she came to she looked at her coach and simply said,
"Did I win?"
To which he half laughingly replied, "Uhh NO!"
While competing in one of her university soccer matches she had a nasty collision which resulted in significant knee damage.
Aug 1999: Right ACL reconstruction via right patellar graph, 70% lateral meniscus removal, 30% medial meniscus removal. Symptoms/problems to date, I'm not sure she wants me posting everything so let's just say there's chronic issues with swelling, pain, and osteoarthritis.
One year later she was back to running again, having officially retired from competitive soccer. Shortly thereafter, in her final competitive track meet before graduation, she knew she was done with serious competition for quite some time as her only thought before running the 400 was,
"Once you hit the tape and you'll NEVER EVER have to do this again!"
If I'm not mistaken she won, graduated/retired from track, and decided to relocate back to North Vancouver, B.C. She then proceeded to continue exploring her childhood background on our local North Shore trail system. Every now and then Tamsin would toe the line in a local race, and this would usually end up with her winning the women's and 'skirting' all but a few of the men. She'd then quietly disappear until she chose to show up at another event sometime later in the year.
She continued to train her speed work through a local running club and eventually someone suggested she try duathlon road racing (her swimming ensured she'd never find serious success in triathlon). She bought her first ever road bike in January, won her first ever duathlon and competed in Nationals within seven months of taking her first pedal stroke. She finished 2nd! She pretty much had the worst transitions in the entire race! She very easily could have been National Champion the following year but she found that she hated the seriousness behind the structure of training for such events and she retreated back to her first love, trail running.
Shortly after this she decided to try out snowshoe running and as always she found great success with this as well, finishing no worse than second against much more seasoned and experienced snow-runners (It takes a few races to figure out how/when to actually pass, and how to attack different styles of courses. Lack of experience often lead to being 'boxed out' early and paying the price with a slower overall time)
This is where I come into the picture. I had heard Tamsin's name through local race scene and had even seen her name in print a few times. Eventually we met one day when she came into North Shore Athletics, the running store I work at. We were both in other relationships at the time so my genuine primary focus was simply to get her motivated to try an ultra marathon. I have a great passion for ultra marathons, and I have a great passion for being Canadian. I truly set out to try to convert as many Canadian's as possible into the trail and eventually ultra running scene...and I'll even take some credit for pushing Aaron Heidt into the scene as well, though I'm sure he would have found his way in there quite easily on his own! I love nothing more than seeing a good battle between The North and The South at major ultra races and I sincerely hope to continue this trend over the coming years.
Within five minutes I had convinced Tamsin to sign up for our local Diez Vista 50k, AND we somehow decided to race the six day, 185km, Trans Rockies together!!
Her ultra debut came on April 18th 2009. The race was not stacked with talent, but BC ultra super star Tracy Garneau was on the line. I simply pointed to Tracy and said to Tamsin,
"That's your only competition out here today!"
Tamsin ran a smart race, which is quite startling considering it was her first ever attempt at the distance. Like myself, she has yet to run an actual road marathon. She ACTUALLY listened to the bits of advice I threw her way, mostly consisting of,
"DON'T START OUT TOO FAST OR YOU'LL END UP CRAWLING TO THE FINISH LINE!"
At one point in the race Taz was seven full minutes back of Tracy. She decided it was time to make a move and she managed to pull even with Tracy with less than five miles to go. She then put in a track like surge, got her gap, and went on to run the second fastest time in the history of the event!! I'm not about to say that this was an 'A' race for Tracy, but we all know that competitors are competitors and we are always shooting to win no matter what the circumstances might be. I myself had won and set a CR, but I was honestly more amazed by what Tamsin had just accomplished. I knew then and there that she was going to be highly successful in her ultra running pursuits.
Unfortunately however, right about this time is where her old knee issues started to flare up on her again. While training for The Diez Vista she found that the increased mileage seemed to put excess strain on the knee. She went to work on trying to figure it all out and ended up spending a small fortune on physio, bracing, massage, acupuncture, and anything else that might help the process. She found little relief and simply sucked it up and tried not to complain about it.
In August we headed to Colorado to race Trans Rockies together. Two weeks prior we had gone on our first date and we basically said that we'd get to figure out in six days of running and sharing a tent what might take most couples six months to learn! At this point I saw first hand just how bothersome her knee truly was. She was almost debilitated on many of the steep forest service road descents and our race was completely controlled by just how much pain she could stomach at a time. She ran smart though and we made up time when we could/needed to and after six days of touring the Colorado Rockies we found ourselves atop the Open Mixed Podium together!!
Three weeks later she tackled her second 50k in Manning Park (sight of this summer's Fat Dog 100 miler!). Again knee issues hindered her but she still managed to win the race and lower the fairly new event's women's course record!
After this the knee just seemed to go downhill (no pun intended) and after many Doctor's appointments it was decided that she would pay privately to have a knee scope by one of the top Doctor's in British Columbia in December. She still intended to head to Virginia for Mountain Masochist in November and race her first fifty miler though.
Three of us flew down for the race, all attempting to qualify for Western States. Her knee was her/our only concern heading into the event and my exact comments to Race Director Clark Zealand in advance of the start were,
"If her knee pain doesn't slow her down too much she'll win for sure."
Tamsin sucked it up, as she always does, and she won her first ever 50 miler in the fifth fastest time in the 27 year history of the run! Our good friend Nicola Gildersleeve snagged second, and to round out our North Vancouver assault I finished third in the men's race.
She later admitted to me that this was one of her proudest moments as a runner because she really wasn't sure how she would handle getting through fifty miles on her compromised knee.
She was officially going to Western States in June 2010. Her knee scope had been scheduled accordingly for mid December, and we'd been told the recovery process might be three weeks.
On December 17th I dropped her off at a private clinic in New Westminster, BC. The top knee specialist in this province, maybe in Western Canada was on the job. He was employed for/by The Olympics while they swung through town in February. Taz had paid a small fortune to prevent having to wait the six to eight months otherwise, which was meant to ensure as little impact to her training schedule as possible.
Five hours after I dropped her off she was released from what initially appeared to be a successful surgery. We slept at home that evening and we were both pleasantly surprised by her mobility. I headed to work the following morning and Tamsin spent the day with friends.
At 5pm on Friday December 18th I received a panicked phone call at work simply instructing me to get home ASAP. Her parents were already by her side and an ambulance had been called. The next few months of our lives were about to be altered beyond belief. I ran home in under three minutes to find my girlfriend bed ridden and buckled over in pain. The ambulance was taking forever...
Well 'The Big Dance' as it's fondly referred to is just around the corner now, and after what I witnessed and experienced first hand last year I've been spending twice as much time in the sauna as I did in 09.
The numbers aren't startling, 5hr last week, upwards of 7+ this week, a dozen or so over the four weeks prior, but as with anything, when you put in the time, the results will come.
Last year I hit up 'some' sauna time, but I never fully took it seriously. I didn't even buy a proper gym pass and was basically trying to save money by sneaking in when I could...yeah, I just admitted that on here! There were even a few nights where I showed up at the gym, knew I wouldn't get in without dropping six bucks and simply turned around and headed home. I pretty much got what I deserved down in Auburn last year as my body cooked from the inside on out.
Preliminary guesses have this years race coming in just slightly cooler than last year, but again no one really knows what we'll be presented with just yet. All I remember from last year is that had the race been held one week earlier it would have been closer to 85 degrees instead of the 100+. I'm not about to make the same mistake twice!
This Sunday past was the very first time that the sauna finally felt...I'll say agreeable. I was gonna say easy, but sitting still for me is hard enough, let alone in 175 degree heat with a bunch of hairy fat dudes talking politics. This was followed up yesterday with a significant 1h41min (101min) effort in which for the very first time I honestly felt my entire body enjoy the initial process of entering the sweltering heat! It's also undeniable that my fluid intake has drastically been reduced by these continuous hours of baking myself. That alone is one of the main things you are looking to achieve throughout this process. That and a lower perceived effort, heart rate, and sweat rate. All in all, I've reached a place this year that I never found in my scattered sauna training one year prior.
(the best part about this add, is that you can see that they've simply added the 'sauna belt' to this picture after the fact!)
I've started packing my iPod and this has helped somewhat with the torturous process of self distraction for such a extended periods of time. People have suggested doing sit ups or push ups but in all honesty there is rarely enough room and unless it were completely empty in there I don't think I could bring myself to do it.
Point of my story? Learning from past mistakes. It's always been funny to me that we can never really just learn from others mistakes, we have to go out there and F it up for ourselves first. It's not like I wasn't fully aware of what I was getting into last year, I just didn't have the respect and fear of it to truly inspire me to sit prone in an enclosed oven for hours on end. This year, different story. I've got all my ends covered right now. Energy is up and feeling great. Injury free. I've run every day for two straight weeks, nothing long, but everything feeling exactly like it should. Heat training falling into place. Stress level at zero. No self pressure and most certainly not sensing any external pressure due to my lack of recent training. More importantly, my mental space is so clear and focused right now that I might venture to say this is the best I've ever felt leading into a 100 miler. It's only my fourth, so that shouldn't be taken as a gravity altering statement. I still have no idea how I'll genuinely hold up in the heat. That is my only real concern right now.
I'm not trying to imply anything here, other than the fact that things really have lined up nicely for me leading into this one. Hopefully that actually means something come June 26th. I still have no intention of attempting to run with the lead pack, I don't think that would be wise for me even if I had logged regular mileage. I'm starting slow and steady, period. Hopefully this will lead to a strong final twenty miles, and a decent number preceding my name when it's all said and done. After all, I experienced first hand what it's like to hit the final twenty and know it's gonna be a long trot to the barn. Hopefully I can make amends with myself, and the course, and maybe even track down a few runners over those last few hours of running.
I know I blindly said this last year, but I now know exactly what I'm in for and I fully mean this, I'm REALLY EXCITED to get this this thing underway already!! Ten days and counting...
SO, this will kinda be my full follow up to my DNF posting after Miwok. It truly feels like everything came full circle today on my thirty minute hill climb session upon the local 'Mountain Highway'. I've now completed this climb in an all out fashion five times, with today being my most successful attempt to date.
To put that in perspective I was hitting this in the lead up to Miwok while I considered myself to be in prime shape for that race, and was running it with a buddy, which only served to push both of us harder. Two weeks ago was my first time back at it since then and I failed miserably in comparison to how high I'd made it in my previous attempts. However, I was just getting into the swing of things again and have since run for ten straight days, feeling better after each and every outing. Today was my last full go at this climb before the biggie unfolds down in Auburn in a few short weeks, and it couldn't have gone any better for me out there.
I was running solo, which should have only served to make things more difficult. I know in past attempts on the route I had my training partner to thank for bringing me near my puking point. Today was different though. The harder it got the better I felt. I wanted to suffer and felt great while pushing so hard. In the end I finished a full 1/3km farther than I'd ever made it before. I topped out at exactly 6km and 1500 feet of climbing when my timer went off. That's an average of 8min mile/5min km while climbing a significant grade...I'll take it!
This is all fine and dandy to read on its own, but what exactly has transpired over the last five and a half weeks to get me here? From my first running DNF to one of my best hill climbs of the season?
While flying back from San Fran I made a list of things to address. It mostly revolved around trying to finally fully solve all of my stomach issues, which have never been 100% figured out. I hit the tarmac at YVR and was dialing up appointments before I hit my front door.
The absolute number one best thing I've ever done for my running in the last few years was to leave a 'career' at Fairmont Hotels and pursue working at a running specialty store. I've now been with North Shore Athletics for 3.5 years and outside of loving what I do, I have full access to the absolute best sports medicine people within the province/country. I honestly wouldn't even know who to turn to, let alone have access to them without my current position. On top of that, you see it all first hand in a running store and more often than not we have more answers for customers than non sports specific doctors can come up with. Basically, when something goes wrong, I can usually find the answers faster and more effectively than if I had chosen another route over the last few years.
That said, by the end of the week I had 'donated' more blood than most road kill. Why? Because I knew deep down inside that something just wasn't right, and I needed to confirm that I wasn't imagining that. I saw my sports medicine doctor, my naturopath, and my coach. All had different insights and all were genuinely interested in helping me to figure out what was going on ASAP. After all, I knew I had but three weeks of available downtime before needing to slightly ramp it up again leading into WS. By the end of those 21 days, answers or not, I was getting back on my feet again!
I did my part in terms of not running. Not stressing my body, and generally just sleeping as much as humanely possible. I had pretty much zero energy for the first two weeks, capped off by sleeping a full 14hr uninterrupted one night, and keep in mind I was doing NOTHING to strain my body at all during this period! Slowly the blood work and test results starting to yield answers.
Here's where it pays off to be a Canadian. I'm not sure what my brethren south of the border might have to pay for these services, but up here they're free. In fact based on the great advice of my first ever coach back in 2006, Val Burke, I now have annual baseline blood work done religiously. THIS proved VITAL to the process of putting my/our fingers on everything.
The numbers on their own were nothing startling. Many were just below or just on the low side of the norm. However, when compared to the blood work on file it showed pretty conclusively that all major indicators had been on a steady downswing for four straight years. Some, like my ferritin (indicator of iron) had dropped as much as 50% annually! I was still within the normal range, but that range is huge, from 15-300 and I'd gone from the top end on down to the low. In terms of an athletic profile, my count is currently less than half of where it should be.
Other factors at play were a low white blood cell count and low neutrophils. Suggesting my system was fatigued and at risk of infection. Possible explaining my bronchial infection in February (first time sick in three years), and my Naturopaths belief that I was suffering on an adrenal level.
Also on the low side was my Free Testosterone count, which as Mike at Peak Centre puts it "is generally responsible for your desire to push hard and suffer out there".
There was one test I insisted on that wasn't tied specifically to the athletic side of things. Having recently watched 'The Cove', beyond the appalling footage one thing that really struck a cord with me was when the discussed mercury levels in fish. When they followed that up with brain scans showing how a high mercury level can affect memory capacity and overall brain function I cringed inside. The most prevalent source of protein in my diet for many years now has without a doubt been tuna. Whether out of a can, served in a sushi roll, or straight up as sashimi, bar none I love the stuff. Not only could I live on it, I pretty much was. The day after seeing this film I discarded every bit of tuna I still had available to me in my home and completely removed it from my diet. It was over a month between that film and these blood results.
Normal mercury levels for the test I had conducted should be below 29, which is the equivalent of 75 nmol/L. (I actually have no idea what that actually means) My results...90! Over THREE TIMES the acceptable limits of blood mercury count AND this was after being completely off the stuff for a full month. Toxic effects of mercury poisoning can include damage to the brain, kidney, and lungs. Thank God I saw that documentary when I did. The pivotal moment for me was when they were speaking of how mercury poisoning can affect memory capacity and I had forgotten what they were even talking about in the first place (that's a joke in case you missed it). Seriously though, I had joked with my mother over the last few years that running must kill brain cells cause my memory just wasn't what is used to be. It was that noticeable to me.
I finally had answers to the questions at hand. The bigger question still remained though, how to fix all this?
The short answer, by spending half my pay cheque on supplements (yes that's how we spell cheque in Canada eh!).
What has been prescribed and seems to be working for me is:
An iron supplement. Floradix Formula filled the bill for me. Easily available, gluten free, but not cheap. $50 a bottle, which might last a month
Glutamine: Ray Zahab was kind enough during this process to contact me and offer advice and assistance. This was his number one suggestion. Though I currently get a decent amount of glutamine through my Recover supplement, athletes can benefit from a significant increase in this as it will help expedite recovery. I added a cheap powder mix for $30 and this should last about a month
ZMA: Zinc, magnesium, B-6. Recommended by Mike as a proven way to help boost free testosterone levels. $25 per month
IP-6: An immunity booster and possible cancer fighting agent, again recommended by coach Mike. $20 for about 1.5 months
For My Stomach Issues, via my Naturopath: -Gandha 750 -HMF Forte -Digest Plus All in, another $90 a month, but they seem to be helping with my digestive issues. I also have an appointment with a leading Gastroenteroligist in one weeks time. Hopefully this will help to completely pin point what's going on in there. Though that had no direct implications towards my DNF and subsequent energy issues, it's a constant frustration that would be really nice to finally nail down and put to rest forever.
(a worthy side note here is that I guess I'll be doing my supplement shopping online from now on as every single link search turned up cheaper purchasing options!)
Have I found all the answers? Absolutely not! Am I feeling substantially better than I was on all levels just five short weeks ago? Absolutely YES!!
I've run for the last ten days straight and only took two days off before that because I couldn't quite walk for a few days following my 14,000 foot training day. Each day I have felt better and my legs finally seemed like they came back to life in the last 72hr or so. There's nothing left to do now but rest up and put in as much sauna time as my wandering mind will allow. I think I hate the process of just sitting there doing nothing more than the heat itself!
My total running mileage for May was a whooping 98 miles! Yup, the majority of the runners hitting the line down in Squaw Valley on June 26th will have put in more miles in a seven day span than I did in the entire 31 days of May, and some (Anton) put in twice that amount in just seven days...and I'm not the least bit worried about it!
THIS was my path to Western States. What transpires from here remains to be seen. All I currently know is that everything really has worked out for the best in the last five weeks for me. I still have a ways to go on ensuring this never happens again, and I plan on taking significant rest after WS. However, had this not all happened EXACTLY like it did, I know one thing for sure, I would never have survived Western this year. At least right now I know I have a fighting chance. My honest goal is just to run smart and to hopefully have a positive experience that I can carry forward with me into 2011. If I can achieve that fairly simplistic goal, it will bar none end up being one of the absolute sweetest victories of the year for me at this point.
Two exciting posts I picked up today, first is that there is a newly proposed and almost completed 700km tip to tip trail on Vancouver Island. The 'Vancouver Island Spine Trail'
THE BREAKDOWN:
A proposed trail from Victoria in the south to Cape Scott at the northern tip of the Island. The route is an inland route that passes near many communities, yet retains its wilderness character, following historic routes and completed trails where they exist. Approximately 700km long, the “VISpine” is an adventure opportunity that will provide a recreational route for residents and tourists through the beautiful back country of Vancouver Island.
Consider it added to the ever growing 'to do' list!
That ties directly into this (yes that's my ugly mug), a full listing of BC long distance wilderness running records. First and fastest, male and female. Help em fill in the blanks if you know of someone who's completed one of these routes...if not then the first baggers rights are still wide open!
Here's to a summer full of back country running adventures!
Thanks to 'TrainHarder.com' for the VISPINE heads up and David Crerar for organizing the BC trail record tracker
