Saturday, August 30, 2008

September


As I was running up Thaynes Canyon Trail of few weeks ago, my mind was chewing over the same old territory, I was thinking about my race plan for Wasatch this year. Then I came to the same conclusion I always do, why do I bother thinking about race plans? The race will take its own course, I will do the best I can, I will deal with whatever the day brings. I mean really, what else can you do? This got me to thinking of how I spend all summer waiting for September to come only to have it blow by and feel as if I never got my arms around it. Of course last year was my first 100 so I spent the last weeks of August spending wasteful hours looking at maps and pace charts, getting drop bags ready a week before the race even started. I will never forgot the look my wife gave me when I handed her my colored laminated pace chart, all she said was” that’s great honey I can’t even make notes on this.” Needless to say I was a little wound up. It seemed after finishing Wasatch I felt a little like I missed something. I think I was so wound up in the race I never stopped to look around a bit. My mind was always ahead to the next aid station.

I continued up Thaynes Canyon and my thoughts turned and I started thinking about the training runs and races my running partners and I have done over the year. The early February snow runs, watching Christian go faster backwards than forwards trying to negotiate ice on Signal Peak, the Crown Burgers after a tough 20+ mile run on Antelope Island. We have dogded police on the shoreline trial, ran 50 mile races with miles of snow and mud, forgotten to put fresh batteries in or headlamps before a night race but continued anyway, some of us have even been attacked by a Aspen tree. We ran new races on both sides of the country. It has been a great year of running.

As the weather starts to cool and the wildflowers are finally fading some of us are getting ready to do their first 100 miler, or first 50 or their 7th Wasatch. A few are still pounding out those last 4-5 hour training runs getting ready for the Bear. It is going to be a great end to an already great summer of running, I am going to try to slow down and take in as much as possible. Not matter what happens in these big races I am going to remember what Peter said more or less to Christian and myself when we were on an early morning training run. It’s not about the races, races are fun but this is what it’s all about what were dong right now. Enough said.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Wasatch 100 Preview video

Here's a compilation of the video we took over the past weekend. Peter and I took turns with the camera, Gomez, Get Miles is the soundtrack. Greg, Brian, Sam, Peter, Mike and myself all played the action heroes.

Without further ado, the second MRC production...

Monday, August 11, 2008

Wasatch 100 Preview

I'll keep it short and let the pictures do the talking.

On Saturday (8/10) Greg, Peter and myself ran from the base of Big Mtn. to Lambs Canyon then down to Mountain Dell golf course. The I-80 bridge project forced us to park down at the golf course and bushwhack our way around the fairways (note to self, just run on the fairway next time).

This section of trail is normally dry and dusty, but all of the afternoon thunderstorms left the vegetation holding a lot of water. As a consequence my shoes were wet for the entire run and the trails were really nice, I wasn't complaining a bit...


On Sunday we decided to run the last section of Wasatch from Brighton to the Homestead. The bummer part of this run is that is requires a rather long car shuttle, but thanks to Peter, Brian and Sam's father-in-law, we had rides waiting for us when we were finished.

The run itself was great. We actually had a pretty good size group that included Peter, Brian, Greg, Sam, Mike, and myself. Mike came down from Ketchum to preview the last section the Wasatch 100 and he was a welcome addition to the crew.

The morning was a little chilly, producing goose bumps on my arms from time to time. I didn't mind because I knew the last 2.5 hours would be pretty exposed to the afternoon sun. Sure enough it started to warm up as soon as we got to Rock Springs and discovered that the pipes had no water flowing from them. We all went in to conservation mode, waiting for the next spring just before Pot Bottom. On the way we were able to show the Brian, Mike and Sam the delightful Dive and Plunge, which are just as pleasurable as ever. Luckily the spring before Pot Bottom was producing a trickle and we were able to fill our bottles for the final 8.5 miles.

After Pot Bottom the climb up was the same as ever, but I'm happy to report that the road down to the gate seemed to be in better shape than usual. Then again maybe I'm just getting used to it. For Wasatch virgins remember this mantra: pass the water tank, start down, quick left on singletrack. Seems as though a few runners missed this junction last year and it's real easy to just keep running downhill right past it if you don't see the markers.

Stay tuned for a video...

Monday, August 4, 2008

Pocatello 100K

Check out this new race, the Pocatello 100K, that Jared Campbell is helping put together. It's a unique format and the course looks great. I'm in for sure. Unless of course, something comes up and I can't do it. How's that for commitment.