Go West

Have you ever seen the movie "Rat Race"? It's a comedy in which John Cleese plays an eccentric Vegas millionaire who gets a group of goofy characters to race to New Mexico for $2 million in prize money just so he and his cronies can bet on the outcome. Well last night I had the most bizarre dream - I turned up for the Cactus Rose race, and all the other runners were characters from that movie....and they were all faster than me. At one point I was chasing Rowan Atkinson up Ice Cream hill.

As bizarre dreams go, running an ultra with Mr Bean takes some beating!!!

Back in reality we're heading out to West Texas tomorrow morning - I'm running the M2M marathon in Alpine on Saturday so we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. The forecast calls for highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 40s - perfect running weather. This is the first of two marathons I'll be running in the build up to Cactus Rose at the end of the month, the first I've run since our trip to Seabrook back in March and my first at altitude (4600ft). I've never been to West Texas before and I'm really looking forward to the trip - should be fun.

As for the race, I plan on treating it like a training run. But I know you've all heard me say that before :-)

Yesterday evening I did my last hard run before the race - 20 road hill repeats - and I really hammered them. The temperature was in the low 90s, humidity was up, and I finished the workout exhausted, dripping with sweat and glowing. You know those times where you push it and it really feels good? Well this was one of them.

I was also dripping after this morning's run - the air was so thick and muggy you could cut it with a bread knife. Where oh where did our cool weather go? At one point I almost wondered if I'd wandered into the shower in my running gear and just forgotten about it.

And finally, here's a funny story that I know my trail buddies will appreciate. The other day two of my slower road friends asked me if I'd ever run any of "those ultramarathons", and when I said I had they asked me if I'd ever run 100 miles. I could see where this was going, and sure enough the next question was what pace I'd run. I replied it was about a 12:30 average.

Considering my road pace is usually somewhere in the 7s, this came as a bit of a surprise to them. One of them looked me up and down and said "well that's not very fast, I could do that".

I just smiled.

Planning Trips

Nancy and I had a long talk about Western States last night. We discussed the pros and cons, logistics and options, and the end result was I decided not to put my name in the lottery this year. It was an exciting thought for a while, and I'm a little disappointed, but it was the right decision. It was completely my choice and Nancy would have supported me either way, but if I'd gone it would have been a solo trip, and I would much rather go on vacation with her and the boys. And that's what it finally came down to - while running is important to me it will never ever compare to being a husband and a dad. Not even close.

The other deciding factor was that although Western States is pretty cool, there are many other 100 mile races out there that are ahead of it on my list, such as Headlands and Massanutten.

So instead we decided to get on Marathon Guide and plan a trip that coincides with an out-of-state marathon. Marathons are easy to incorporate into vacations - not really that taxing, you just run 'em in the morning, get back to the hotel for a quick shower and change, then get on with the vacation. We are still pondering possibilities, but the two that we liked were the Post Oak Lodge 50k and marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma (the little devil inside me says run them both) and the Little Rock marathon in Arkansas. Anyone have any other suggestions? (note that we want somewhere we could drive to, because flying with a small baby is no fun at all).

The Arkansas trip may be the favorite because Nancy has been wanting to visit the Ozarks for some time, though since they're only a week apart I guess we could always do both - drive up to Oklahoma, motor over to Arkansas and spend the week playing in the mountains, then come down to Little Rock before making a big loop back to Texas.

Of course, half the fun of these trips is planning them. And if we do this, that would leave room for another little vacation over the summer before Gavin starts school.


On another note, mad props to my friend Ryan Valdez, race director of the El Scorcho 25/50k and one of the nicest guys you could wish to meet. He completed his first 100 miler this weekend at the Heartlands 100 in Kansas.

Welcome to the 100 mile club buddy - I raised a beer to you last night.

Spirit of the Marathon

If you missed the original cinematic release of "Spirit of the Marathon", head on over to hulu.com where you can watch the entire feature film for free.

Excellent documentary - very enjoyable and inspiring.

(Thanks to Steve Spiers for the link).

Kicking my own Ass

I've been kicking it up this week. Not so much the number of miles run, but the quality and difficulty of the runs mixed in with lots of cross training (allied to the by-now usual lack of sleep, courtesy of my favorite 2 month old :-) ).

Here are the highlights.

On Sunday I followed up a crappy early morning run with a full hour of nonstop lunges, squats and crunches. Eventually quit when my legs wouldn't stop shaking.

Monday evening I ran Walnut Creek with Eric and Alan. The recent rains had made it really slippery, and at one point I made a tight corner and slid, but managed to stay upright. I turned around to watch Eric sliding completely off the trail into the brush, then we both turned around to watch Alan fall flat on his face. Of course, we then had to point out every bit of mud for the rest of the run. I think he was ready to kill us by the end - classic!!!

Tuesday evening I hammered road hill repeats for a solid hour - I did 21 repeats, including 3 backwards and ran myself into the ground. I was still a little sore from Sunday's mega leg session, and summer made an unwelcome temporary return - the temperature was in the mid-90s and I went home soaked.

Wednesday morning I had some welcome relief and did an early morning Danish run with Clea. I always enjoy these - just running and chatting with friends - and as an added bonus she had kindly stopped by the club meeting the night before and picked up my HCTR shirt order.

Note to Marcia - they are awesome!!!

Thursday morning I did some yoga because my neck/upper back was feeling a little stiff. Then in the evening I did some more leg work, which consisted of 30 minutes of nothing but squats. Up, down, hold, pulse, sink lower and hold again then repeat. Wide stance, narrow stance, feet pointing out, feet pointing forward, with and without weights, two legs, one leg and every variation thereof.

Friday the neck was worse, and I woke up unable to turn my head to the right. I'm not certain but I think I did it while avoiding a headbutt from baby Dylan during one of our midnight jaunts around the living room.

Then this morning I skipped my early run and just went out for 10 miles of road with my group. My neck is still sore, but I was feeling frisky so I hammered the 10 miles and left my group way behind while collecting 10 sub-7:30 miles in a row (finishing with a 6:50 last mile). Then I drove down to St Eds to meet up with Alan and did another 10 miles of trail hill repeats. That slowed me down, and not having eaten anything this morning finally caught up with me. On the last loop I was pulling myself up the hills by imagining a large bacon sandwich with mushroom and cheese sprinting up the trail ahead of me.

I never caught it so I made one when I got home - it was delicious, so I had another. And some toast. And some trail mix. And I'm still hungry.

16 miles of trails at Bastrop State park planned for tomorrow morning. Nap planned for this afternoon.

Loving this cooler weather.


***Sunday update: cut the Bastrop run short at 10 miles due to torrential rain. Still an enjoyable run though.

Anyone need a pacer?

I won't be running the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler this coming February since I will be camping outside the Austin ISD building overnight on the Friday to get a school transfer request in for Gavin when they open on the Saturday morning.

However, I will be free later in the day so thought I would see if anyone who is running needed a pacer for the last 20 or 40 miles. I did the 100 there earlier this year, had a great race and really enjoy Huntsville State park.

So if you're running and want company for the night portion, or just someone to kick your butt and bully you into crossing that finish line, let me know and we'll figure something out.

Lottery for Western States

I am debating whether or not to enter my name in the lottery for the Western States 100 next June. For those who don't know, it's kind of like the Boston marathon of ultras - 100 miles through the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The race goes from Squaw Valley (at 6,200ft) to Auburn, with 18,000ft of climb (2,550 in the first 4½ miles) and 23,000ft of descent inbetween, and follows the original trails used by the gold and silver miners of the 1850s.

It also has an interesting origin, being first completed in 1974 by Gordy Ainsleigh. A previous finisher of the Tevis cup endurance trail horseback ride, his horse turned up lame that year so he decided to run the course on foot instead and staggered across the finish line just under 24 hours later.

I've already met the qualification standards, and although the course has a reputation of being as tough as it is beautiful I also know that I have the physical and mental ammunition to finish it.

But the big downside for me is the expense, especially with a new baby. It's nearly $300 just to enter the race - I could buy a lot of diapers for that!!! Add on flights, rental cars and expensive accommodations, and that's a sizeable chunk of change. Nancy is all for us going as a vacation, but I'd feel guilty and selfish - it won't be much fun for her following me around with two small kids when it's freezing in the mountains and over 100F in the canyons. I think they deserve a better vacation than that.

I have until October 15th to decide, but I suspect I may pass. It would be fun, but running 100s is not the most important thing in the world for me.

Odds are I wouldn't get in anyway.