Thursday, February 25, 2010

Peak 53 - RR Summary

This race took place back in June of '09. I promised myself i'd write a full report at some point. But then after 8 months i had pretty much given up. Leah told me that my outline was good enough to post as the people that would have run the race would understand and it'd be ok. So here we are.

Perhaps you'll enjoy. If you've got a lot of questions, feel free to join me this June at the Peak 54 and experience it for yourself


~Start – Liberty Hill
Running with Izzo, Delbac
Burned Field
Haze raising out of valley
Long Climb

~Liberty Hill – Colton
Road, past nice houses
Woman wiped out
Stomach bubbling
Sun breaking through
Warm already

Colton – Colton
Seeing the guys coming down the climb
Running up with the guy from Newmarket NH
No bear or Number at the top this year, bummer
Changed course a little so it wasn’t so steep

Colton – Upper Michigan
A lot of road.
Running with Joe "Millionaire"
A bit of walking
Trying to conserve
Really warm in the sun

Upper Michigan – Upper Michigan Loop
Long Climb
Wet Trail
Running with the CT woman that had fallen earlier
Rick and CT talking about running with kids and swimming

Upper Michigan – Clearing
Long Climb next to the river
Joe, other guy, couple and woman all turned around saying they were lost
I tell them to push on, we’re going in the right direction
Trying to conserve water
Out onto the road that Rik talked about
4 people disappear

Clearing – Blood Root
No water!
River!
Joe and guy disappear again
GAC guy flies past
Rik and I burning up
Out of water
Tunnel vision
Burning

Blood Root – Chittenden
4 cups of coke, Gatorade, BBQ chips, oranges
Black fly feast!
Getting Rik moving
Trucking down the hill
Talking with the other ultra woman I’ve run with
“is your dad OK?”
“you guys have been doing this for years, good luck”
Another turn, up Haydens. Slowing down
“I’m looking forward to the Nettle to scratch the black fly bug bites”
Rolling
Watching the clock tick by, giving up on my PR
Mud, climbs
Catching up to Joe and guy

Chittenden – Upper Michigan
More rolling
Climbing to the long trail
Looking back over the lake/reservoir
Long breaks, Rik and I taking turns pulling the other one along
Catching someone! Guy from Newmarket again
Last decent to the river
Following the river back to the aid

Upper Michigan – Haydens
Rebuild, refilled
Lecharitte at the aid
Running the road
Rik drinks the Guiness
A little bit of jogging
Seeing Jason’s daughter

Haydens – Dove Drive
Rough switchbacks
Blowing through a lot of sugar
A bit of mud
Back onto the road and drinking the fruit cups


Dove – Tweed
“I dunno if I’ve got 9 miles left in me”
Up Joe’s, past skeletons
Hiking sticks
White tail dear
Rik and I struggling…big time!
Crawling under downed tree
Top of Joe's, the single tree we’ve seen in the distance all day long.
“I saw the sun rise over Joe's and now I’m watching the sun set from joes”
Through the switchback pines “enchanted forest” as I’ve come to know it
Down the backside of Joe's on the old snowshoe course
Large bermed corners. Would probably be a blast on a mountain bike
Enjoying myself one minute and being miserable the next
More coke at Tweeds, restocking and more fruit

Tweed – Finish
"Carry this rock to the finish and you’ll get 1000," two other items out there
Looking for the rock (later found out it was Adam)
Feeling cold, then warm
Getting Darker
Front side of Joe's, more switchbacks
I hear the river, wait, nope, wind
Lights, we’ve gotta be close, turn, long climb
SOB!
Pitch black, Rik says no to lights. Wandering in the dark
OK, finally lights
Smushing through the mud
Another light
It’s Loni!, we cross the bridge and walk our way home
A few runners stayed around the fire
Izzo was wondering what happened to us. Delbac had taken the shortcut home from 44.
Grabbed our metals, talked about what we were going to do for VT100
No food left
Got the hell out of dodge

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Hillsboro Fat Ass 50k+ RR

Sunday January 24th - 32 Miles - 6:20

For those that are familiar with Hockey Goaltenders and Ultra runners you are well aware that they are a strange breed. I happen to be both and am certainly not the exception to the rule. Every fall i treat myself to an afternoon at least 2 breweries before tackling the Vermont 50. The day before the first 50k of 2010 wouldn't be much different. My wonderful lady showed up on Saturday afternoon with a bottle of tequila and a much raved about family recipe for margaritas that would knock your socks off.

Less than 12 hours later, i was trying to wolf down something to motivate me through the first 16 mile loop that laid ahead. Trying to replenish the food that i had eaten, then puked up the night prior. "Yeah it took me a few summers to learn how many of those i could handle" Leah jokingly told me. I grumbled in response. My looks obviously matched my feeling as the first thing that John said upon walking through the front door "wow, you look like shit!” Thanks buddy, good to see you to. He asks if he's going to have to put up with me throwing up like i did on last years winter excursion out in Dover. After assuring him that there was nothing left to throw up, we were off.

It was great running beside John again. We keep in touch via email, and read one another's blogs, but we don't often share the roads/trails. We have a strange kind-ship though, seeming to be walking along similar paths in our lives so it's always fun to catch up while running. Having run with the faster crowd and more in the know with the running community leaves him with a wealth of knowledge and gossip. It helps the miles melt away hearing about people that i generally only see once or twice a year.

We talk about how attention motivates us, and how John still gets hate emails from his blog. I'm always amazed at that. I don't know exactly why, but with the internet it seems like people have gotten into a habbit of being annonomus assholes. Feeling like their negative voices deserve to taint the motivated others. I've spewed plenty of negativity on the internet, in message boards, but never have i gone out of my way to actually email someone, a complete stranger even, and tell them that they are wrong and these are the reasons why. I just can't comprehend it.

Leah decides that we're slowpokes and rides ahead as her toes are starting to freeze. Nursing her hip injury she decided to join us on her bike. Which, albeit very easy to keep up, left her at a finger and toe numbing pace. We catch up to her at an abandoned driveway and as I stop to help Leah warm up her toes and John ducks off the road behind a big bolder for a bio break. Once we got her toes back to a fleshy color and where she could feel them again we pressed on into downtown Henniker. Enjoying the warmth of the sun on our faces and crispness of the cold air. When John caught up to us a mile down the road he pronounced “Well, I had to sacrifice my gloves.” I can only smile and shake my head. John's got a long history of bio related issues and he treats us to three to four miles worth of past bathroom issues. The most popular being when he do-do da vinci'd a gas station bathroom after the teller was a dink.

Once we get to the top of "hell hill" we dip back into the Emerald Lake district and run past many of the homes that i've spend the last 4 years running by. After circling around Gould Pond and through the pot hole ridden section that John dubs the "mine field"we turn up the road with the home i've been trying to buy for the last 3 months. I say how sweet it'll be to finish up here rather then having to go up the next two hills ahead.
We wrap up the first 16 mile lap in 2:40

After a 30 minute rebuilt we head out on Lap 2 and Loni joins the mix


It's getting colder as the blue skys are now overcast. John makes his stance on compression shorts and how he’s "STILL GOT F-ING CHAFE!” We knock out the miles sometimes John running with me, sometimes me running with loni, leah going back and forth between the 3 of us. John had snagged his MP3 player and was treating us to some acapela jack black. I notice how my cheeks hurt I’ve been smiling so much, it's a nice change. John stops to snap a photo over the bridge leading into Henniker while telling Leah the story of how the natives named the river.

Loni talks about cutting 3 miles off the loop but we convince her to push on into the heart of Henniker. Yay for peer pressure. Meanwhile John comments on the grossest pizza sign he’d ever seen and asks for a photo.

Each of us takes turn taking the lead, sometimes getting 50 to 100 feet ahead of one another but all pulling one another along. Loni’s starting to hurt a bit being the longest she’s run since her birthday, John and I as well, but with an additional loop under our belts. After making the turn at the Mobil we head back towards hillsboro and back past the Paisley house at Blueberry Hill. Here poor Leah was treated? to me singing a few bars from the classic Fats Domino song,

One last climb up hell hill, I make the comment that I haven’t peed yet today, which raises some eyebrows. We continue to laugh and kid as we get into the heart of Emerald lake. John comments how this part lasts forever. I tell him it must be his time for the vagasil. We all talk about how hungry we are but non of us can bring ourselves to eating another Gu. Knowing well aware that there was turkey beans, and beef stew at the finish line. Running when we can or when one feels like it, making the rest tag along.

Loni sences home and takes off leading the charge home to the finish line. We make it home well before dark. Not too bad, all smiles and happiness. We’d covered 32 miles in 6 hours and 20 minutes. Pretty good if you ask me, for 3 out of shape runners and an injured runner on a bike. Sure it wasn’t as big or as hard, or as populated as the Boston Prep would have been. I’ll be honest though, even though there was only 3-4 of us. It was one of my favorite ultra’s to date.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

40 days and 40 nights

The Streak continues....

Since I don't want this to turn into hate filled rant after rant blog i haven't been posting much lately. I already had a rant blog (god help the people that read that), and i had hoped i was past that, but the last 3 months haven't done me any favors. Trying to buy this house is by far the hardest most uncontrollable mess I've ever participated in. It makes running a 50 miler, hungover, with no training EASY by comparison. At least when running an ultra, YOU have control, YOU have the ability to stop when you want, to run when you want, to sit down at an aid station. To be able to control what you eat and drink when YOU feel like you need it.

Speaking of trying to do the impossible. My training streak is now at 40 days of 1 mile or more. Some days many, many days only some. Onward to Peak. Now all i need is some snow so i can get in my snowshoes again. I haven't put those stupid things on in almost 2 months. And in less then 2 weeks I've got to go a marathon distance.

boogity boogity

Friday, February 5, 2010

24 days and counting...



There's not real point to this post other then to share the shear joy i got when i found this clip yesterday. It's been coming up on more and more on the good running days. About 12 days ago while toughing through a 2.5 mile run i looked at Leah with a huge dumb smile and yelled out, "weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee hooooooooooooooooooooooo, i'm running i'm running!" She looked at me like i had 3 heads and i got to spend the next half a mile trying to describe the scene. I have to admit, for not seeing the clip in about 3 years i think i nailed it spot on.

Monday, February 1, 2010

January Recap

January Re-Cap:
It's been a month of ups and downs. At work i was approached on Friday by management because they were concerned about me. Apparently my blow-ups had been becoming more frequent and louder. For those of you that know me, you'll have known that for 9 years I’ve sat outside of the door of this manager. And for him to JUST NOW finally say something to my boss, who then says something to me, yeah, it's been something else. For those who thinks buying a foreclosure is hard, you have no idea. A large amount of the fault falls on my idiot realtor. If for some reason anyone is looking to purchase a house, avoid Hagstrom Real Estate as if it was the black plague. Masiello was once in the crosshairs, but their management stepped up and fixed it. Travis Maine unfortunately, remains inept, and I can only hope his actions will diminish his sales. I’ve still got my job, and the house continues to move forward, albeit at a ridiculously slow pace.



Onto the good! After starting the year putting together a few runs here and there I got an email from Sherpa telling me to “Move yer ass!” Since then I’ve put together 19 straight days of running. Anywhere from daylight, to dusk, to 10+ laps around an indoor track, hell I’ve even gotten up a few times at 3am to run on the treadmill. With the help of Leah, Loni and Sherpa we knocked out the first Ultra of the year last Sunday. Hockey has re-started only helping with my cross training. My core cross training is still virtually nonexistent but I’ll work that out as I start getting more comfortable throwing up this kind of mileage. John had mentioned last week, and he’s spot on, this is my first non-race month where I’ve eclipsed the 100 mile mark. And with John hosting this month’s ultra on my birthday I have only positive thoughts looking into February.



Book List:

Born to Run – Interesting points, I’d read it again, I actually got the audio book to “re-read” on my long runs

The Runner’s Guide to the meaning of life - Great Read Highly recommended

The Tao of Pooh - You’ll see this one several times this year. It helps me re-center whenever I lose my path



By The Numbers:

Miles Run: 109.2
Miles # of Runs: 25
Average Miles: 4.4

Month Starting Weight: 175 Lbs
Month Ending Weight: 175 Lbs
Weight Change: 0

Race Results:

Hillsboro Fat Ass 50k+ - 6:40

Upcoming February Events:
Frozen Fox Snowshoe - Feb 13th
Bear Brook 50k - Feb 27th