Moab 50K

Well, the Moab Red Hot 50K++ lived up to it's name. There was a fast field that started, and they stayed fast to the end. Dave Mackey broke last year's course record of 4:03:02 set by Kyle Skaggs, in 3 hours 58 minutes. Tim Parr was right behind him in 3:59 and Karl Meltzer rounded out the top three with his best finish in 4:13. I was there at the finish to watch them and it was inspiring to see them all fly by the 33K runners still coming in. They were moving!
As for my race, definitely not Red Hot. In fact, it was pretty cold. As has been the trend for the last two Moab 50k's, I got a cold the week before the race started. In years past, it lasted a couple days and I was fine by race day. This year, it got worse and worse until Saturday morning I had the aches with gallons of green gunk coming out my nose and lungs. Being a little stubborn, I decided to run anyway. I thought I'd take it easy and enjoy a nice run on real dirt. After 5-6 miles I realized that taking it easy wasn't going to cut it, but I didn't want to stop so soon, so I decided to finish the first big loop and drop at mile 17. I should have just stopped at the first aid station. The only real good thing about the day was enjoying running along with John Wheelwright and Cam Davis for a few miles. Cam kept me entertained with his high energy and it was good to catch up with John a little bit.
I dropped at the same time as Nick Pedatella, winner of last year's Boulder 100. He was having some knee problems. We decided to walk back to the start. Luckily, someone came by and picked us up and saved us from the 5 mile walk backto our cars. Then I drove to the finish in time to watch the winners come through. Kevin Shilling ran a fast 4:39. Not bad for a long run of two hours coming into the race. All in all, it was nice to get on dirt for a few miles, but disappointing to not be able to get out and really run. I look forward to feeling better and to the Buffalo Run in March.

Orcas Island 50k Report

As I awoke at 6:00am to the rumble of yet another freight train in the clean but rundown Motel 6 in Troutdale Oregon, I wondered if I was a little nuts for dragging my wife and myself 900 miles to go run a 50k on Orcas Island in Washington State. I mean really, 900 miles for 31 miles just doesn’t make sense. It sounded like a great idea in December when I was looking for an alternative to the great but knee punishing Moab Red Hot 50k+. Now as the time and money were disappearing quickly I was starting to question my other idea of driving 900 miles to run a 50k instead of flying. My wife seemed to be taking it in stride and at least we were getting to spend allot of time together. So off we went in good spirits for 6 more hours of driving to catch the ferry in Anacortes Washington.

As we neared the San Juan Islands my apprehension disappeared, I had forgotten just how impressive and beautiful the Islands are even though I had lived on Orcas Island off and on for 3 years in the mid 90’s. Marge and I lucked out and arrived 25 minutes before the express ferry left for Orcas. The ferry was full of trail runners going to the race and the trip passed quickly as it only took an hour to arrive at the Orcas ferry dock. Marge and I were approached by a young lady and was asked if we could shuttle some food for herself and her boyfriend to make there bike trip a little easier going out to Doe Bay on the other side of the Island, we off course said yes we would help it’s a Island tradition to help who ever you can as you’ll will see them again many times, and I was hoping for a little extra good karma for the race.


View from cottage looking south

Marge and I checked into our cottage right on the beach and basically had the whole quaint but rundown resort to ourselves as nobody was staying there accept us two, made for a very quiet nice evening before the race. We had plenty of time to sleep in as the race did not start until 9:00am to allow people to come over on the ferry the same day as the race.

We arrived at the race about and hour early and just got to see the early start 50k runners head out, they were being directed by last years winner Matt Hart, it was a little comical because Matt really wasn’t really sure if he was sending them the correct way, turns out it was, lucky for Matt and the runners. After a short pre-race meeting James Varner R.D sent us on our way, and as usual I ended up somewhere mid pack and just kind of cruised listening to people chat and trying to settle into a nice rhythm. The pack spread out after 20 minutes or so, the trail was slightly muddy but very smooth and cushioned with moss, pine needles and leaves. The trail weaving in and out of old growth Douglas Fir and Cedar trees passing small lakes and streams. There was a bit more climbing than I expected before the first aid station at mile 9.8 but with the climbing also came some really nice easy down hill running on smooth trails and nice logging roads.




Me coming into the first Aid Station

After aid station 1 came the first real big climb of the day, a Squaw Peak 50 type climb with a vertical gain around 1,000 feet. It was basically straight up, and no real trail for the fist half. This was followed by another nice long downhill through more mist filled old growth trees and ferns. We then headed around Mountain Lake for a few miles. At this point I had run out of water and ended up filling my bottles straight out of the lake, I didn’t know they had water available at mile 18 just on the other side of the lake. I was guessing I was somewhere in the top 20 but wasn’t really sure how many runners had gone out hard and had sprinted away.



Great way to cool your knees (aid station 2)

The last big hill started at mile 18 and went up close to 1,500 vertical, my plan was to push hard from the bottom of this climb to the end of the race. For once my plan worked and I passed 7-8 people on the climb. The last aid station of the day was at the top of Mt. Constitution (elevation approx. 2,400) at mile 22. This was followed by some moderate downhill and climbing, and then a very long downhill to Cascade Lake, followed by an easy 1.5 miles around the lake and to the finish. My time 5:42, good for 12th place.

What a great race, 31 miles, 7,000 vertical, fantastic views, forest, lakes, waterfalls and wonderful smooth pine cushioned trails with just enough technical sections to keep your mind busy. There were also the tough competitive Northwest Runners I have come to expect and admire. The overall winner this year was Adam Lint in a time of 4:32 and first place women went to Ellie Greenwood, with a 7th place overall in a time of 5:18. This all followed by a great bluegrass band, homemade chili, cookies, beer etc….. I’ll be back some day but I will probably take that airplane ride.
(Results) Pictures by Glenn Tachiyama

Moab Red Hot

I am planning on running the Moab 50K this weekend.  The original plan was to spend a sunny weekend with the family away from the rain and snow.  However, the weatherman doesn't like that idea and is calling for rain and snow on Saturday and Sunday.  As much as my  family loves spending time together,  a weekend cooped up in the Comfort Inn didn't sound too appealing.  

I am still planning on running the race, and I'd  like to carpool  down on Friday and come back Saturday.  If the one person who reads this has any similar plans, let me know and we can make some arrangements.  My hotel is pre-booked and non-refundable so I've already got that worked out.  

Happy trails-

Erik

Short n Steep 2.0

Saturday morning Peter, Sam, Brian H. and myself headed out for one of my favorite BST routes I call the short n steep. This route is about 13 miles and takes in about 3500' to 4000', a good quad buster for the early season when the higher trails are still packed with snow.

Heading up toward the shoreline from the zoo Peter suddenly stopped to point out the most amazing moonset I've ever seen. As the moon was descending toward the western horizon it appeared to be further north than usual, setting just next to the state capitol. But that wasn't the amazing part, the fact that it was huge and on fire was. I can't recall ever seeing a moon quite that large or that color, really quite cool.

Making our way up the south ridge of Mt. Wire we were greeted with a stiff cold wind blowing from the southeast before making our way down to George's Hollow. This proved to be the most painful part of the day for me as we post-holed through shin deep crusted snow. Down around the living room to the mouth of Red Butte where Brian and I said goodbye to Peter and Sam, as they had to get back early.

Up and down Van Cott was pretty uneventful and as we started up the mouth of Dry Creek I presented my new route extension idea to Brian. I wanted to head up our favorite climb, the Unkle or aka Black Mtn Ridge then head down the ridgeline following the route of the BSTM. We both felt great, the weather looked as though it was going to hold so we decided to do it. About halfway up the climb the wind started to pick up and I noticed a few snowflakes swirling around us. The scene was giving me flashbacks to our mid-December whiteout in the same place. Sure enough once we hit the ridgeline the wind intensified forcing me to hold on to my hat and lean sideways into the wind. It wasn't quite as bad as the last time we got caught up there but still pretty cold.

Back on the BST it felt like summer compared to where we had come from. The temperature was still in the 40's but the wind had pretty much died down. The new route extended the run by about 4 miles and added an additional 600' to 1000' of climbing. I was worked and it felt great. As Brian and I made our way back to the car we started scheming a way to make it a real epic. Instead of heading down Black Mtn Ridge, go up, following the steeplechase route. I haven't mapped it out yet, but I imagine it would be 20+ miles with 6000'+ vert. Maybe in another month or two...

In other news, I went up to the Wasatch Lottery. I'm happy to report all of us that put our name in, got in. Should make for a fun summer of racing and training.

Still waiting to hear how Greg did up at the Orcas Island 50k, hopefully he'll post a report when he gets some time.

Dirt!

I found some and it wasn't muddy or covered in ice and snow. This last weekend the family packed the car and headed down south for Zion. Leading up to the weekend I didn't have a lot of time to plan a run so I looked on Utah Mountain Biking for some ideas. The other factor I had to consider was that it was a family trip and I didn't want my run plan to dominate our time. That pretty much eliminated running in Zion National Park and Gooseberry Mesa, my 1st and 2nd choices, since we were staying in Hurricane. That left a couple of options that were close to town, the JEM, Hurricane Rim, and Gould trails.

Since I would be starting in the dark I decided to start at the Hurricane Rim trailhead and run up the road 4 miles to the JEM trailhead. From that point on I could complete a loop, with a short out and back on the far end on DIRT utilizing the JEM and Hurricane Rim trails for 21 miles of sweet singletrack. In hindsight I should have included the Gould trail but I had no idea how well the trails would be marked. Turns out the mountain bikers down there have done an impeccable job of building and marking an excellent set of trails.

At any rate, I ended up getting in 21 miles in a little over 3 hours. The road section pretty much sucked but it only lasted 35 minutes or so before I was on true singletrack.

The family made sure to give me the full workout by hiking Angel's Landing and the Upper Emerald Pool, which was completely frozen, good times.

Wintertime Blues

I had a bad day at work, and when I got home didn’t feel like running. For some reason I decided to pick up the camera and go for a run anyway. I headed up Mount Van Cott with camera in hand and instantly felt great. I have learned to love running with a camera, makes you slow down and look around a bit more than usual. The bad vibes of work melted away. Turned out to be a great day.

Chalk One Up For the Weatherman

On Saturday I joined Peter and Greg to run the 2nd loop of the BSTM, just a 16 mile figure-eight loop between City Creek Canyon and Red Butte. We all knew about the predicted storm front that was supposed to hit at around 8am, but we'd never think of canceling a run because of a little weather. Once we got started and got up to the shoreline the route took us in a southerly direction with the wind in our faces, but after about an hour (around 8am) the wind changed direction in a dramatic manner and snowflakes started drifting around us.
I'm always amazed with the force of a big storm front. At one point as we contoured around a ridge a gust of wind pushed us from behind with such force that I was sprinting to keep up with my body. After the initial front came through the wind calmed slightly and the snow started coming down even faster. We looped around the far south end of the route and started heading back north with the wind in our faces once again. That was when Peter asked what was already on our minds, "do we go up Unkle?". What Peter was referring to is one of our favorite climbs up to the Black Mountain ridge line from the back of Dry Creek canyon.
We had a fairly logical discussion about it, before Greg quipped something about the older lady (70 or so) being tougher than us. I had seen this woman just the week before as Peter and I stood on top of Mt. Wire, watching her run toward us on the ridge, all alone. Her shins were scratched and bloody and after I asked, she told us how she had went out the length of the ridge before turning around. When I asked about her shins she replied "no leaves this time of year, the scrub oak just grab on like cats and won't let go". I was completely impressed and told Greg the story earlier on our run, now he was using it as a way to motivate us up the last climb. I believe this is the part where the lines between hardcore and stupid become blurred .
Dry Creek canyon is pretty narrow with steep slopes on either side which keeps it fairly protected, so we were lulled into a false sense security as we made our gradual ascent to the back of the canyon. The temperature was dropping but it was only around 25 to 30 degs so it didn't seem that bad, until we started the real climb. About halfway up I decided to put on my jacket, while Peter and Greg kept moving to stay warm. The wind was blowing harder and harder the higher we climbed. I plodded along, following their footsteps in the ankle deep snow, trying to catch up to them before they reached the top. Peter and Greg made it to the top of the ridge only a few seconds in front of me and yelled back that they weren't waiting. I was a little confused at first, thinking maybe they just wanted to put the screws to me, but once I reached the top I immediately knew why they took off, the wind. Not only was It blowing so hard up on top that I couldn't run straight, but the snow had also drifted up so it was nearly knee deep in spots. Visibility was reduced to thirty yards or so and I was sure my cheek was getting frostbite.
Several minutes went by and the conditions continued to decline. Then, right as I was thinking about curling up in the fetal position and giving up all hope, Peter and Greg bailed off the south side of the ridge.
Instant relief. I couldn't believe how calm it was just a few yards down off the ridge, now the only problem was figuring out where we were. The first words I remember hearing were "man, the weatherman nailed that one" from Greg. Because of the poor visibility we were unsure how far we had made it down the ridge. Normally it's only about 2.5 miles in a direct line back to where the car was parked but now we'd have longer, albeit a warmer, route back. We stood on the side of the mountain trying to figure out which drainage was which but nothing looked familiar from our new viewing angle. In no way were we lost, we just wanted to try and find the shortest way back to the car. We decided we couldn't go wrong if we just headed down and hoped for the best. A few minutes later we were back in the bottom of the drainage we had just climbed up, at the back of Dry Creek. Now it was just a return trip on the shoreline trail, pretty much the longest option we could have found. An extra 3 miles on empty stomachs made the return trip on the shoreline a quiet one. As we got closer the talk turned to food and the inevitable mention of Crown Burger. The crown burger is one of the most scrumptious sandwiches on the planet period. Pastrami piled an inch an high on a flame broiled hamburger patty dominated my thoughts as I found renewed energy in the last mile.
Sitting inside the warm restaurant devouring our sandwiches we decided that truly memorable adventures end with a crown burger.

Lookout Peak

Greg and I decided to check out part of the potential TUERL (The Ultimate Emigration Ridge Loop) that we're planning on doing sometime in the future. The Plan was to get up to Lookout Peak to get a peak of the quagmire we'll be up against for the whole loop. Starting from the top of Emigration Canyon we took the trail heading north along the ridge to the junction of Killyons and kept heading north. It was pretty cool to start at around 20 degs. but it quickly warmed as the sun came up.

The high point on that ridge is Lookout Peak

Only 2 days before a small storm rolled through that left about 4 to 6 inches of snow covering the lower ridge. Normally not a big deal, but my ankles seem to be a little out of practice and I rolled my right one pretty good on one of the descents.

Greg grabbing a snack just as the sun is coming up

Looking up the long ridge to Lookout Peak

Looking back down the ridge, the Wasatch front in the background

The picture above shows the view looking back from the Emigration drainage, Freeze creek is to the right. Once we were on this ridge we could see the Wasatch 100 route over by Swallow Rocks and Big Mtn pass, but not Lookout peak. As we would soon find out the peak was hidden behind no fewer than four false summits. My ankle found some relief in the deeper snow as we made our way to the top but our lungs did not as we both notice the altitude.
Once on top I checked my GPS for the elevation and it read 8990'(Lookout is officially 8954'), which I knew was wrong, but we used that as a reference for the knob just to the west. We thought it might be higher, so we descended and climbed up to find that it read 8950'. This also allowed us a peek down at the route we will be attempting in the future and the real prize of the day. Just below us on the ridge heading west Greg spotted a bull moose, then two more appeared. The big one watched us for a minute or so before getting back to business whipping up on the other two. This was the first time I had witnessed this kind of behavior and it was truly awesome. The sound of antlers crashing together and snorts could be heard as the big bull let the other try and take him down. Below is a picture just after one of the battles.

The battle is over, the 3rd moose is in the middle right in the trees

All in all a great run, ~13 miles or so in a little over 3 hours.

Watch out for black ice.

This morning Rich, Christian and I headed out for an early run up Grandeur. There is no better way to start the day then to watch the sunrise from the top of the mountains. Especially a day like today where the Utes are going to clean up on the Cougars. At least I hope that's how it ends up. Go UTES!!

On the way back down, I realized that I was going to be late(had to be home by 7:30) so I picked it up a bit and got a little careless on couple icy sections of trail. Before I knew it, I was on my stomach looking back up the trail and my knee was throbbing. I had smacked it on a rock on the way to the ground. I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself, so I yelled to Rich and Christian to watch out and started running again. It wasn't until I got to the car that I looked down and saw the damage. A golfball hematoma sticking out of my knee with a little blood trickling down to to add to the effect. Like I said earlier, there is no better way to start the day! And again, Go UTES!

Sub for Santa 5K

Well, it's been about 10 years since I've run a 5K, so I thought Sat was a good day to do it again. The LDS student singles ward (for those of you unfamiliar with this terminology, it means a church group of single kids/adults from 18-31) I am working with was doing a fund raiser 5K for a couple of Sub for Santa families, and I couldn't opt out of this one.

I really don't like 5K's. The shorter the race, the faster I feel like I need to run, and I don't like to run "fast" if I don't have to. I ran 1(one) six minute mile on the treadmill earlier in the week to prepare for the big event, held at Sugarhouse Park. I also did a couple sets of jumping jacks.

My race day strategy to take it easy was two fold. 1) I would get up early and run Grandeur Peak before the race, which I did with Peter, and 2) I would don the lamest elf costume I could put together, which I also did. See photo below.

After an official pre-race Stretch with Santa (next to me in the picture, his Santa costume is as bad as my elf one) we toed the line and were off to the sound of a cap gun. Some eager beavers took off on a dead sprint, and I settled into a comfortable pace. After about 10 steps, one of those eager beavers snuck up from behind and caught my ankle sending me sprawling to the pavement. I was already self-conscious enough in my candy cane striped knee-highs, and then I had to tumble head over heels with bloody knees and hands.

I gathered my pride, and my elf hat, and got up to try again. I passed the Jingle Bell Jaunters on their 1 lap walk around the park, then tried to catch the speedsters out front. One by one they fell to Santa's Helper, and at the halfway point there were only two in front of me......... And that's how it stayed for the second half. I got closer and closer to the kid in front of me and with about 500 yards left I caught up. I panted out "good job", he asked how old I was (was it that obvious?), I answered "35" and that was all he needed to hear. I tried to put on a burst to pass him, but he wasn't about to let some old dude 20 years his senior beat him, so he slowly pulled away and crossed 5 feet in front of me. I'd like to say I let him pull away to give his ego a little boost, but the reality of it was that I was shot. My hamstrings were hurting, my quads were jelly and I had that lovely metallic, anaerobic taste in my mouth. My time was 18:39. Nothing to shout about, but it's my fastest 5K time. I don't know if that's something to be proud of or not.

The important part is that we all had a great time and raised a bunch of money for some needy families. Hopefully we can grow it a bit for next year. Put it on your calendars for the middle of November, and start planning your Santa costume. Ho Ho Ho.