Heading out of town

So we are heading out of town for the weekend. Going to the Big Easy............. Going to do some humidity training. Oh yes nothin like running with your clothes sticking to you breathing through a straw ahhhh. Got to love it!!!!!!! Just like Indiana.

Run Through Redlands

I had a fantastic day!!!!! Got up early and headed out to help set up the easy up (tent/booth) at the race. I then got to round up our athletes and register them. Nothing like telling the registration folks that I'm signing up a bunch of runners and won't be paying for them either! I had been working with the Kiwana's for months setting up our sponsorship and they dropped the ball BIG TIME nothing like being a major sponsor and not getting recognized. WE WERE LEFT OFF THE SHIRTS! that is the end of my rant for that one.
The best part was knowing that it was going to be my wife's first race ever (10k). Things worked out perfectly. I left early to set up and she was able to to take her time and walk down to the booth on her own time. The race was in our home town walking distance from our house. I started a half hour before her and was cruising along, mind you I DON'T RUN ON THE ROAD! This was my first 1/2 on the pavement, we'll see if there is going to be a second. So at ten miles in I bellowed out "hey chicken" and was able to run with my lovely bride for a few hundred yards. We soon went our separate ways on the course unfortunately for me I could not pick up the pace at the end but I finished strong. More to the point my super wife finished in great spirits. I was a little concerned she might not have a good day and hold me responsible. Not that I would shy away from that, I just wanted her to have a good time. I think she did, she doesn't hate me right now.

Summit

Not the best photo but, oh well. Saturday I went to the summit of San Gorgonio. I had a great time all by myself. It was one of those days when all the cards fall in to place. I'm not a loaner but it is nice to not have to worry about anyone else's pace or need to stop. It is much easier to go alone. Maybe not the safest thing in the world or smartest. But I try to be as careful as possible. I was pissed at myself though, I wanted to travel light so I left my ice axe at home. Mistake! Although I did not need it I would have felt much better had I brought it. All in all a great day I made it to the summit in 3:37 and down in 2:15. Given that there is still a bunch of snow I feel good about my time. Oh yea I got a major sunburn on my legs argh...... next time SUN BLOCK!

Bicycle Classic

I'm not one dimensional. I love my bicycles too. I spent the weekend at the Redlands Bicycle classic. I was lucky to be able to spend time with some incredible athletes. Some just starting to ride and some that are world class record holders. I went on a training ride with the current record holder at Ironman Hawaii nine plus hours to finish. The time trial was all uphill, my heart rate tends to spike on that ride. Now try doing it with your arms ! No way I could do it, these guys and gal are truly inspiring.

Life

Must say that life is good! A little scary at times my munchkin is turning fifteen "YIKES". I thought turning forty was making me feel old, having the kid gain years really drives it home.

Snow Shoe The Bear

Last month I ran a 10k snow shoe race in Big Bear. Yup, snow shoeing in Southern California. It was a blast! I had called the race director earlier in the week to find out about the course. He said that the run started in town and cruised up for a "bit" leveled off and back down to town. Cool, sounds like a breeze.
The race directors did a great job of getting the course ready. They had a back hoe and volunteers covering the streets with snow. We were able to start and finish in down town Big Bear. It was sweet. I wanted to start out slow, I tend to go like hell when the race starts. I decided it would be in my best interest to book ahead so as not to get poked with hiking poles. It took a bit but all of the sudden I was in third place. Woo hoo. Well I hunkered down and decided I was going to do everything possible to hang on to third. Low and behold I got to stand on the podium. First time ever! I even went home with more shwag than the cost of the race. I actually came out ahead. I liked that feeling.
Hats off to Kahtoola and Equada Outfitters

Chair

I found this and wanted to add it to my badass post but Blogger would not let me. Dude is fast!

Running with a Badass!

I had the pleasure of running with a real badass today. Next time your bitching about a sore knee, hammy or whatever ails you, be grateful you can run. I spent two plus hours running with a guy that is in a racing chair. He was pushing harder on the hills than I ever have in a race. Not a peep out of this guy, just kept pluggin away. I did get some much needed speed work trying to catch him on the down hills. His chair is fast!

40 miles

This is me after 40 miles of running. The last 8 with no aid, no shade and all uphill!

Being outside

Man I love being outside!

Multi tool

One more thing from Saturdays hike. Some a$$hole left a six pack on the trail. So as not to get any beer cooties on me. I used my trusty ice axe again! I'm not afraid of beer just don't like the smell anymore.

Lunch!

A few weeks back I went up the mountain to try out my new snow shoes. I had a blast tromping around. It took me just around three hours to get a way past halfway camp. On a dry day I can do it in around forty five minutes. That might give an idea of how much more energy it takes to break trail. It started to get a little windy so I stopped and donned my goretex, mm.....cozy. I could have stayed out for hours but decided to turn back. I stopped in a nice sunny spot for a bit of lunch. I LOVE my jet boil. Lightweight, fast, and compact. I also picked the spot to practice some self arrest skills. The slope was perfect but the snow wasn't. I climbed up some fifty feet and proceeded to sit and SINK. No sliding today. All the better, my wife doesn't like it when I do stuff like that when I'm alone. I did some glissading on 3/1/08. Man you can get going fast! Oh, you learn how to stop with the ice axe when you are speeding down the snow feet first.

Traction

This is some lightweight traction............
Woo hoo they kick ass

Snow!

Went for a little snow run on saturday. Me and the pooch had a blast. The snow was mostly packed enough to support my weight which was a nice change from snow shoes, they turn out to be a butt load of work. Look at the little bugger have fun.

View

Here is a view from the single track. The views along the run were fantastic.

Italy

I have not written in a while. I have a new used computer so I will try to keep up with it just a little more reguarly. We spent our December holiday in Italy. Wow, was it fantastic! I had not been to Europe in decades. Still cold when you travel in the winter. Espcially when you leave from sunny southern California.
What can I say? The food was incredible!!!!! I had more or less lost my taste for red sauce over pasta. Too many quick "out of the jar meals" if you know what I mean. Well, I ordered the most phenomenal basic pasta dish with red sauce. Oh my goodness was it good! I will have to start making some from scratch myself. Pizza..... Completely different level than what we consume over her in the "new world". Pizza in Rome not to be matched. The Coloseum was bitchen. What it must of been like to see the sporting events back then. Although, now we have monster trucks and mixed martial arts, the equivalent of chariots and gladiators. Too much to list......
More importantly I found single track to run. It was quite nice to be able to get out on my own for a bit.

My new toy

Been out of the country for a bit. Since we were traveling we decided to open our presents the night before we left. Early presents yeaaaaaa!!!!! I received the coolest gift from my lovely wife, Micro spikes! I love to run in the snow! Unfortunately in southern California there is a lot of melt and freeze so ice is a constant on the mountain. I could not wait to get up and check out my new crampons. I went out for a few hours just about 9000ft. The view was spectacular where I decided to stop for a snack. So nice to be able to run across the ice and not worry about falling on my butt or worse off the trail.

http://www.kahtoola.com/microspikes.html

Race Photos

I am not very good at this posting thing. Plus the fact that my computer is just barely hanging on. I will try to post some more pictures of Mt Disappointment. This was early in the race when I was feeling good. Life was good nice and sunny, man what a great day!

Here is the 30 mile aid station the folks here were fantastic. We came and dropped our packs for a two mile out and back. What a treat to run without the pack for a while.
I will post more when I move the pictures to the new computer.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 50 Miles

I did it! 50 Miles in under 13hrs. Before I go on my race report. I want to thank all of the aid station workers. If it was not for them I would not have finished!
We woke up at 2:00am to be on the road by 3:00. I am a freak about getting to places early, even if it means less sleep. Lucky for me my lovely wife feels the same way. It was worth it. We arrived at Mt. Wilson to a closed gate, CRAP ! We are early. Soon a line formed behind us of anxious racers chomping at the bit to get in. We waited about ten minutes and the gate was opend. A mad rush for parking and then we settled in to our spot for the next few hrs (about16). Registration...smooooth. It is nice when to RD's are organized. I hung out at the truck slowly getting my crap together when I noticed a man loitering by the truck. I said, "you must be Cartocracy". Indeed . We had chatted though the Runners World forum. It was nice to have somebody to hang out with. I finally got my self together and made my way to the starting line. After a brief opening ceremony and race dedication we were OFF!!!!
Lucky for me the first few miles were down the road. Plenty of room to pass people and find my groove. By the time we reached the single track the race was spread out enough that people were not jamming into each other. I had run this part of the course in a training run and was comfortable not go out too hard. I knew I had some 50 miles to go. I hit the Red Box aid station (5.7m) and, oh my, they had pop tarts. I don't have them at home so why not. We continued down hill for a spell, hit some uphill to the Clear Creek aid station (10.8m) and guess what ? Mmmmm more pop tarts. On my way to the Josephine Saddle (13.4), which was almost totally uphill my stomach said, pop tarts, eh......... Dumb ass we don't eat that crap reguarly so why the hell would you stick it in me when you are racing? OK not tooo smart. BUT, I have ginger chews ah........ Dropped one down, tummy problems all gone. The next section was another power hike interspersed with running, still going to be a long day. It was a long haul back to Redbox (21.2M). I hit Redbox, dropped my pack and the aid workers were filling it as fast as they could, checked my drop bag for a hankie, gave some duct tape to Tom and I was off. The next section was great, mostly all down hill. The good kind. The kind that allows you to run and not worry about hammering your quads. I made up some time. But now we are at Westfork( 26.2m) ! What to do? What to do? I have just covered a marathon. Should I pack it in and head up the hill with a respectable 50k finish? Or should I go on into the unknown? If your gonna be a bear be a grizzly......So I'm off to Newcomb (30m). It was a good streatch. I had met Joe as I was leaving Westfork. It was nice, we ran together for the next few hours. We hit Newcomb and dropped our packs right there. We had a short out and back to hit to fill in the miles. As we ran the aid workers filled our packs. It felt soooooo Good to run without them for a while (1m out,1m back). On our return the aid workers were barking drink drink drink. The next section was going to be tough. Tough? Well I summed the next section up with one word: demoralizing......... Eight miles, no aid, no shade, and up up up. I had spent the last few hours enjoying conversation and good company with Joe but I just could not keep up. I was "running" my own race. By mile 38 I was Ok with dropping. I had already run further today than I had ever run before. Not bad for a 40 year old ex-smoker. I reached Shortcut (40.85M) and was quickly asked "WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DRINK RIGHT NOW!!" " SIT ! WE WILL SPONGE YOU DOWN!!" Crap I had to ask them to stop I was getting chills. They were magificent. I thought I was going to quit right there. They were not going to let me. How do I look I asked in my hoarse voice? " Oh, you look GREAT , You can make it no problem. Thats all my male ego needed. Tell me I look good and I'm off........Since I had not really "run" in three hours it took some time to get my leggs moving at a running pace. Did I mention that breathing had become really painfull by now. Apparently my sides had had enough of this shit and were not letting me take full breaths. Mmmmmm problem? Do I hike back up to the aid sation to quit. There is no way in hell I'm going backwards uphill only to quit. Who needs to breath anyway. I'm still moving forward. Not to mention I'm going down hill. So go for it. It was very pleasant all the way back to Westfork (44.7M). Now I have not really eaten much because of the pop tart fiasco. I did have a little beef jerky I packed away in my drop back, It was tasty!! At Westfork I was asked what I wanted to drink. Well, they did not have any Gatoraid and I sure as f*ck did not want ANY MORE Heed. So I loaded up my handheld with Mtn. Dew., over the counter green speed....... Boy was it yummy. I will say that I had sense enough to sip it during the last 5 miles (all, up hill 1900ft). This section was tough, but OK. I had made one training run and I knew what to expect. Thank Goodness. I was ready to see my wife and started power hiking up the hill. I passed a guy. Damn I'm going to make it. Well, I went a little too hard and my quads started to bark and lock up. I had to take a few sitdowns to rest them. Sitting was something I forbade myself to do (I had relented at Shortcut) for fear I would not get my lazy ass back up. This became the norm: walk for a while, sit for 30 seconds, repeat when necessary. I new I was getting close to the top. I could hear the fire engines that came to take care of one of the runners. As I poked out of the trees I did not see any people. Where in the hell is the finish line? I yelled. Felt like yelling I'm sure it sounded like a whisper. Up there I heard. I rounded the corner and saw my lovely wife. She screamed my name and I took off like a rocket........ I had not run that fast the whole entire race. I was moving, no really I was really sprinting. I have no Idea where all the pain went , I just had to get to that finish line where my wife was. I crossed the line, fell into her arms, squeaking " I did it, I did it". Then I collasped.....Once again there complete strangers ready to do anything they could for me. It was incredible. I had never pushed myself that hard before. For a guy that never thought he was going to make it to 25, 40 is looking to be damn good.

50miles

Well it has been over a month since my last post. I have been busy trying to train and take some time while my daughter is here for a visit. Bad time to prep for a race. But, we spent some great time together at the beach. I will do my best for my first 50 miler this weekend. I will post a race report good or bad. No good running photos to share just the pooch