Born to Run

Warning: the following contains information about a book

I enjoy reading, but I'm not much of a reader. That being said I recently finished the book Born to Run and let me say it is hands down in my top 5. I could ramble on and try and tell you the story but that would be like me pinch hitting for Babe Ruth, not nearly as effective as the way Christopher McDougall tells the story. I will say this, so many different stories are weaved together in a fascinating way. I learned so much; about the Tarahumara, about ultra running, about the ultra running community and the whackjobs that make up the community, and about the idea of running without shoes.

Yeah, that sounds weird, but the data suggests it may be the healtiest way to run. Thanks to folks like Nike the athletic shoe industry is big bucks, but is it possible that all these high tech shoes designed to make your foot move a certain way are actually fighting against nature? There are barefoot runners that swear by it and while I can't vouch for their technique, I am going to try it.

My plan is to get the Vibram Fivefingers barefoot shoes this week and start breaking them in on some short 2-4 mile runs. If all goes well it will help me develop better running form and a stronger foot. I'm eager to see how it works and I will keep you posted on the success or failure of the barefoot experiment.

Ironman Florida

I am going to my first Ironman race this weekend. No, I'm not racing, not sure I'd be able to finish a race like that in any amount of time. I've got three friends that are racing, and my friend John has graciously invited me to come down for the weekend. I've done a lot of training with John, most of it on the bike, a little running, an even smaller amount of swimming. While I think I've made some huge strides in my fitness level this year, John just continues to amaze me with what he's done. I know he will have a great race. Part of the reason for going down is to support him, and my other friends Sara and Jessica Jacobs (she's a pro and really doesn't need my support, but I'll yell for her anyway) the other part of going down is so I can sign up for next years race. Believe it or not, despite the fact that these races cost way to much money to enter, they sell out as soon as registration opens. One way to ensure a spot is to sign up on site the day after. Scary to think that next year at this time I'll be getting ready to do an ironman. Can I really do it? Do I have the ability to actually train for something like that? The proper training schedule lasts for like 6 months. Lucky for me I'll have some help, John is doing it again next year and so is our friend Colin. They are both way better than me so hopefully they can drag me up with them instead of me dragging them down. I'm super fortunate to have met these guys, I mean what would I be doing if I wasn't running and riding hundreds of miles every month... probably drinking. Cheers to great race, a lot of training to come and a cold one when its over!

Putting Up the Bike, Pounding the Pavement

I love the fall. The crisp air, the changing leaves, football just a few things I love about the season. But fall also marks the beginning of marathon season, at least for me it does. That means the bike will be ridden less and my running mileage should go up. Ideally I need to be doing at least 30 miles a week, that is a huge jump for me since I was only averaging about 50 miles a month over the Spring and Summer. Truth is when given the choice, I'd rather go for a ride than a run. Perhaps its because I'm better on the bike than I am the trails. Hopefully with some good weather I'll still get some rides in and I'm sure I will, but for the next five months I'll be wearing out the soles of my running shoes. It looks like I have 3 marathons on the calendar, Memphis in December, Huntsville a week later, and then Houston in January. So far my longer runs have been good and I'm optimistic. Who knows, maybe when April rolls around I won't want to get back on my bike.

Mountain Goat Century Ride

"Yeah, there are some climbs."

So I thought I'd take it easy this weekend, do a nice easy century ride and give the legs a little workout. There is nothing easy about the Mountain Goat Century ride.

Just Add Water

The forecast called for rain, and wouldn't you know it the weather man was right for once. I think we did get lucky because it really only rained for about 2 hours, and it was never very hard. Nonetheless, we were wet all day. I'm not sure how many people ended up doing the 102 mile Mountain Goat route, there were multiple options both shorter and easier, but after the first few miles I was never in a group bigger than 5 people. For the most part is was a 3 person group, Al Schlosser, John Gregg and myself.

Into the Clouds

The climbing started pretty early, I'm guessing less than 5 miles in but I had no bike computer or GPS so I really don't know. Walkers Gap isn't the steepest climb in the world, but there are some parts that probably hit 10% and it just goes on and on. I jumped out thinking I would just motor up the climb, after a solid mile I began to melt. I'm sure the view is nice on a sunny day, but unfortunately for us there was nothing to enjoy. The next few miles went along the ridge, some mostly flat riding with some moderate rollers. The downhill was flying, a straight shot down the mountain and I would have loved to see how fast I could have gone, but with the weather and traffic I did not seem to be worth trying.

&#$@ Horse Pens

There is no worse feeling than trying to shift to a lower gear only to find you are already in your lowest gear. The next climb did this to me. At the rest stop the report was that Horse Pens was the toughest climb, average 10% some places much steeper. This was a brutal mile long climb. Several times I thought I can make it. Luckily the three of us all made it up without stopping. This was no doubt the toughest climb I've ever done. I just think to myself, the Tour de France would have a climb like that only 4 times as long. After the climb we rode along the top of Chandlar Mountain. My guess is that it is really pretty up there when the weather isn't so crappy. There were a surprising amount of abandoned cars, trucks, houses, stores... it almost felt like we were in a movie where civilization had died off 2 years earlier and we were the only survivors.

Leveling Out

My thought at this point is that the ride would be much flatter the rest of the way. We certainly didn't have any climbs as challenging as the first two, it was not flatter. At some point we climbed Tumblin Gap, I don't really remember this climb that well. There were a couple people in front of us that we were able to track down, but this climb didn't hurt near as bad as the first two. We made our way into Altoona and Oneonta, and by this time our legs were pretty shot. We knew there was one more climb and the plan was just to survive it.

Up, Up, and Up Some More

The last climb wasn't really a climb, it was like 10 miles that just kept gradually rising. Sure there were some steep parts, but all short. The problem is that by this time we were dead and the slow grind was taking its toll. There was one more rest stop to go and we just had to make it there, the rest was mostly downhill. When we finally hit that last rest stop we were so freaking happy. I think we stayed there for about 20 minutes, I had like 5 cookies, a BLT, brownie, some snack mix, and probably more. As more people began to trickle in, we eventually pulled out.

"Just a Few Easy Rollers"

That's what we were told as we left, these seemed like a little more than just a few easy rollers. We cruised along the ridge for about 3-4 miles before we hit our final downhill. By now the clouds had lifted a little so the view was pretty sweet. There was one sharp hairpin turn on the decent, everything else was straight and fast. All that climbing was erased in what seemed like about a minute. From there is was maybe two miles back to the cars.

Final Thoughts

I thought this would be just an easy ride, not a huge challenge. I was wrong. Despite the rain I still enjoyed it, but I think with better weather this would be an awesome century ride. I intended to take some pictures, but I suck at taking out my camera, plus the rain made that a challenge.

Stump Jump 50k

All I Want to Do is Cry!

I had never done a 50k before, and as far as trail runs are concerned I've never gone more than 11 miles. That being said I'm not sure how John talked me into doing the Stump Jump 50k but despite the way my body feels I'm glad he did.

Karnazes in the House

When it comes to ultra running nobody is more well known than Dean Karnazes, he literally wrote the book, which I bought and will start reading soon. At any rate Dean was at the race to speak and run. Dean is an amazing runner, but he might actually be a better guy. Very gracious with his time even took a picture with John and me. He has been on some crazy tour for North Face and has been all over the world for the past few weeks. Not bad for a guy who broke a few ribs during a race in the Rocky Mountains a few weeks ago. He spoke after the carbo dinner, it was good stuff, a lot of insight and some humor. He shared some stories and some clips including his appearance on Letterman several years ago.


We'll leave the Light on For You (Although the bedspread is so bright you don't need it)

After the dinner and speech we drove to our motel, we opted for cheap and had a reservation ready for us at the Motel 6. There were some pretty frightening reviews, one that mentioned "credit card fraud" another strange men lurking in the parking lot. The guy working the front desk was possibly the slowest moving man in the world. He wasn't young and he had some sort of European accent. He gave off a somewhat friendly vibe, but All things considered I was pretty happy with the room. Sure it had some ridiculous bedspreads, a TV that only had VH1 for the first 3 minutes it was turned on, and a couple of odd mirrors, but it was clean. I slept pretty well and was ready for the race in the morning.

Race Morning

The weather was a lot cooler than I expected, it made me realize that Summer is really over. I was nervous, but at this point what could I do except run. There was quite a crowd, I heard some 300 people doing the 50k alone, a bunch more doing the 11 mile run. Parking was a nightmare.

A Fast Start... Too Fast???

So having never done one of these I didn't really know what to do in terms of pace. The race started in the parking lot and went around the school for about a half mile before we hit the trail. It was right then that Dean Karnazes comes right in front of me. So how do you not try and keep pace with him for a little bit. I was not alone, must have been about 15-20 people all grouped together in the Dean pack. The beginning few miles was pretty easy, some gentle hills nice smooth gravel and dirt paths. I stayed with Dean for two miles, I dropped back a bit and noticed there was almost nobody behind me. I cruised along for the next few miles and I was feeling great and the running was easy so all was good. I caught up with John at about mile 3, I was shocked to see him again I think we ran together for another 2-3 more miles including a real nasty decent, I loved it and I was flying, this was probably a mistake and my legs would pay for it later.

Wow the View

There are some parts of this race that are absolutely beautiful. There is an incredible 2 mile stretch or so that runs along a ridge overlooking the Tennessee River. It was still early and there was fog over the river so looking out over a fog covered river was just incredible and perhaps dangerous. I took several bad steps and experienced my first real fall. Luckily I fell right into some fairly soft ground and not left down several hundred feet into the river. I met a guy named Dave from Nashville along this part, it was his first 50k too and we enjoyed a few miles together before he went ahead.

The Thing About Aid Stations is...

When you are running through the woods you can hear the aid station before you see it. You hear cheering and it gives you hope. All of a sudden you are running to something and its close and it has goodies. The pain you are feeling goes away for a second, because help is just ahead. The problem is when you get there you realize they can't fix your blister, or your screaming calf, or throbbing knee, all they have is water, Gatorade, Gummy Bears, Pretzels and encouragement. Nonetheless, I thought the aid stations were great with very helpful, friendly and encouraging volunteers. They did a wonderful job all the way through.

New Territory

I promise I'm going to start doing longer training runs but I can't change the past. Going into this run my longest trail effort was about 11 miles so by mile 17 I was really feeling it. I sang a little song in my head that went something like: F#@k Fu%# F$c%, F@*&ity F&@k F%#k, then repeat. Needless to say things were not looking very good for me. Then I hit the Rock Garden.

Can Anyone Actually Run This?

So the Rock Garden is really cool, unless you are trying to run through it. I've never seen so many giant rocks all together in one spot. It must have been about a mile worth of ground to cover and my pace was not at all fast. My thought is what do the elite guys do here? Do they run or are they slogging along like a 1-year-old learning to crawl?

A Second Wind

I had been thinking for several miles if I would hit a second wind and at about mile 20 I started to find it. This was the same section of trail overlooking the river on the way out. By now the fog had burned off and the river was clearly visible. I was making up time here and was thinking I might be able to get in under 7 hours. Then came a downhill and I was flying, passing guys left and right and feeling great.

What Goes Down Must Go Up

I know that sounds backwards, but in trail running that is law. The same decent I enjoyed around mile 6 destroyed me at mile 25. I actually passed a few people on this hill, but it took everything out of me and by the time I crawled up to Mushroom Rock I was a beaten man.

The Slowest Four Miles of My Life

The remaining terrain wasn't tough at all, but it also wasn't interesting to me either. The same joyful easy trail on the way out was now a painful boring trail that would not end. I would run some then walk even the slightest incline. One thing that made this last part tough were the soccer fields. You could hear cheering and then think, "I'm there I'm actually there!". Psych! It's a F&#KING soccer game. The trail finally ends and spits us out on a paved road, just a half mile to go. I didn't remember it being this much of a hill on the way out? Coming to the finish I see John lounging in the bed of his truck with his camera, thankful there is no audio to accompany the photo. Final time 7:08:18, I didn't cry, and I finished, I actually finished ahead of people too!

Final Thoughts

This is a wonderful race, and while I don't have a lot to compare it to in terms of trail races the setup and feel of this race is big time. The trails are tough and enjoyable with more than enough challenge for anyone and plenty of beauty to distract you. I highly recommend this race and anticipate coming back next year to go under 7 hours. While I felt pretty beat up on Sunday, I was feeling good enough to sign up for the Mountain Mist 50k in January, this trail running is addicting!

31 Miles with Karnazes... probably not

The world of ultramarathons sounds really cool. A bunch of inspiring yet somewhat laid back people who just love to run. My trail running history is pretty pathetic, a few runs, the longest 10 miles. Am I ready for 31 miles? Probably not.
But ready or not this Saturday I will do the Stump Jump 50k trail run in Chattanooga. One of the cools things about this run is that it brings in some big names. Legend Dean Karnazes will be speaking the night before and running the race. It would be cool to run with him, but let's be honest, I'll be running way behind him.
Apparently, the Stump Jump race has some really cool schwag. I'm not sure what all it will include but I'm always looking forward to free stuff. I'll bring my camera and try to take some pictures... or course I usually bring the camera, just never use it. I probably should be scared of Saturday morning, or maybe Friday night and the dump of a hotel I'm staying in, but I'm not. I'm excited. I think this will be a lot of fun.

Augusta Race Report

Save the Best For Last

The final triathlon of the season was my biggest and longest of the year. I guess that is how you want to end the season. I'm not sure why I signed up for the Augusta 70.3 Ironman but I'm glad I did.

The Drive Over

Driving into the Atlanta metro I look in my mirror and see another car with a nice looking tri bike. I always check out bikes I see on the road like this so it got my attention. It turned out to be a bike I see quite often, my friend John and his wife Katie. Together we drove through what I can only guess was like Hell if Hell was filled with terrible rain storms and idiot drivers. We stopped for dinner out Outback before parting ways. I sort of have a spread out family and whenever possible I'll plan trips that allow me to take advantage of free lodging and a chance to catch up. On the way over I stopped and stayed with my brother and his wife. I short stay but nice since I got to see my nephew Drew. He is just 3 months old but already turning into a character.

Check in

I figured getting to packet pick up early would be a good idea since I didn't really know what I was doing, this was a good call as it was very crowded and slower than I thought. I caught a break when they decided to open transition area early so I was able to check in my bike and avoid the really bad traffic. My lodging for the race was with my Aunt and Uncle in Aiken, SC, just about 25 minutes from the race start and about 2 miles from part of the bike course.

69!

So I don't own a wetsuit and I figured I could wait till 2010 before making the couple hundred dollar plunge. In the pre race meeting the race director mentioned the water temperature at 69 degrees. That is much colder than I thought and while I was concerned, I figured I'd be ok. At dinner the night before the wetsuit comments finally got the best of me. "You don't have a wetsuit?!?!", "I'm glad I have my wetsuit", "Kyle you might want to get a wetsuit". I went to the expo and got a wetsuit, got a great deal too.

Race Day

The morning was indeed a bit chilly and overcast. I was thrilled to be wearing a wetsuit. John and I were in the same wave so we were able to calm or enhance each others nerves depending on how you see it. There were a lot of people there, it was a little overwhelming and I really had to go to the bathroom.

Swimming in a Wetsuit

It is probably all mental but I had some trouble swimming in the wetsuit. The first 7 minutes went great, then I started to feel like the wetsuit was suffocating me. I had a minor freakout and looked at a kayak. I thought I'm done, but then a realized that even treading water I was going way faster than I ever swam upstream in the Black Warrior at the USAT Age Group Championships. I refocused and actually had a good swim the rest of the way. I was out of the water at 30 minutes, faster than I had hoped and just in time to see John leaving transition as I entered. That was a huge lift of confidence to know that I only moderately sucked.

Not as Flat as Advertised

So word had it that the bike course was pretty flat. Now it wasn't Birmingham hills, but it wasn't flat either and there were a lot of turns most of them seemed to come right after a downhill and right before a hill. Just past half way I thought I saw John's distinctive orange jersey. Indeed it was him, that made me feel like I was putting in a good bike leg and also gave us a chance to ride together and chat a little bit. We rode in together for most of the ride. The last 10 miles were tough, my lower back was hurting and I still had to run. I turned in a good bike split, just under 2:40:00.

A Terrible and Great Run

I had just a few minute head start on John. Now he's a far superior triathlete to me so I do kind of use him as a measuring stick. If my strength is my bike, his is probably the run, although dude can bike too! I never saw him again till the end if you want to read his race report check out this blog. The first mile is always tough and you have to gut it out. I made up my mind that I would run the first mile and I did, but barely. My calf and lower back were in bad shape. It was here that John flew by and yelled a few words of encouragement. I'd like to say it helped but I was in bad shape. The plan was to finish the run in 2 hours, new plan just finish the run. I would set a goal of running for 4 minutes then walk a minute, then build on to that longer run intervals. It took me till about the 5 mile mark before my body started to feel better. By this point I was knocking out about 9:30 miles. I got to half way and decided I might still have a chance at the 2 hour goal. I would need to do sub 8:30's and my math skills aren't near good enough to figure out how close or not I was. I fell short of the goal, but managed to turn in a 8:47 pace for the second lap. I true negative split and a run that I was proud of even though it was slower than my original target.

The Final Numbers

So the goal going in was to finish in less the 5:30:00, I crossed the line in 5:16:58 with a huge smile on my face. Surprisingly, I felt like I could have kept going, probably not much longer but I didn't feel like dying. The race was great and while Augusta may not be the best city in the South it was a good course. Not the most spectator friendly, but still a pretty fast course. Next stop for me October 3rd in Chattanooga for the Stump Jump 50k, another race I'm not ready to do.