Antelope Island 50 Mile Ultramarathon 2017 Race Report

Short story: Went in knowing I wasn't perfectly trained and ended up doing pretty well (but not surprisingly well).

So I don't know really where to start this story but let's just say that most of the time I would have done as little work as possible in terms of picking up the bib and getting to the start. I was quite surprised that the day before the race the packet pick up place was also offering 20% off nutrition products if you went to the early bib pick up. Well, that did it for me. I had my eye on some sports drink for probably well over a year and was waiting and waiting for my chance to not pay full price for it. Well, I got it. I mixed some of it. And then within the first mile of the race I threw it on the ground. No joking.

The morning of the race went pretty normal. I got up and showered and shaved and made sure I put on some of that anti-chafing stuff. I had my normal chips, pbnj, banana and some gummy bears. On my way out of my house to my car I was struck with a problem I didn't even anticipate: was I going to need a headlamp? I really hadn't even thought at all about this. But I did have 2 headlamps with me, but would I actually start the race with one on my head?

After getting to the start and all that normal stuff the race started with out a lot of fan fare. Just the race director saying "thanks for giving me your money." After a short list of announcements we were off.

My strategy for this race was only to not go out too fast and just get to the finish. I didn't have the confidence that I was going to be able to pull out any last minute magic so I just kept going as best I could.

So the first part of the race was rather dark but this is the part where most people are closer together and I was able to enjoy the benefits of other's headlamps and before I knew it the sun was making plenty of light.

The first 2.5 miles of the race is basically up a steady grade, not a tough hill but a hill nonetheless. I was making my way up just fine when I was struck with the thought that I have had at other races: why am I carrying 2 pounds of water on my chest while climbing this hill? I knew the first aid station wasn't far and before I though much more I dumped most of my liquid because I didn't think it was necessary to carry it with me and I wanted to not waste the energy to do so. So there goes a few cents worth of my new sports drink I had been waiting over a year to enjoy. Oh well.

Well, the race is on Antelope Island and if you don't know much about the island let me just say that it is pretty in a unique way. It's not a must see national park and there aren't blindingly tall trees and majestic canyons or rock formations. It's an island surrounded by the salt lake in the middle of a desert. There's a lot of short grass and bushes. There are some trees on the island higher up on the mountain, but they aren't dense and have to survive in some pretty harsh environments. Plus there was a fire last year that burned a good half of the south part of the island and some evidence of the fire can still be seen.

Sometimes when I'm out there trudging around I'm convinced that scenes from Mordor from The Lord of the Rings could have been filmed there. Just this short grass surrounded by exposed rocks and on an overcast day can look quite dreary.

Well the weather forecast for race day was set to be hot, and it was. After the first 25miles the effects of the heat really set in. The course was still heading south and running into the wind was nice and it helped. On this part of the course I was actually pretty happy with my performance. My energy levels were decent and I was able to keep a decent pace. I was hoping that the ranch would be soon but it wasn't. The ranch is the next turn around point at mile 33 and it is really far.

Well, I made it out there. I drank as much as I could and ate some junk food which this race my normal grab consisted of cheeze-its and m&ms.. I also ate some orange slices when I could.

Soon after leaving the ranch at mile 33 the heat really set in. There wasn't much in the way of wind while running north and it was pretty tough. All I could really do was to focus on moving forward and try to make more running steps than walking steps as each mile moved on. For the first miles after this point I decided that I would try to run a full mile and then walk/run the next mile and try to go back and forth. It actually kind of worked until about mile 40. Looking at my splits it isn't really evident, but it really doesn't matter.

After  passing the lower Frary aid station the 2nd time, about mile 38, I tried to keep up and just move. I was focused on getting to the fence where I knew I could just hike up the course along the fence up the hill and then get a chance for some level road/trail until the end.

One I got to the fence and up the hill I passed someone who was probably not feeling much better than me. And at the same time I got passed by someone else who seemed to be doing much better than I was. Well, not much to do at this point, I was pretty tired and just had to run my own race and not let anyone else get to me. Well, I ended up passing them again before the next aid station and then, to my surprise they didn't pass me again at all. Wow. Now that I think about it the people that I passed in the last 10 miles I'm not even sure which event they were running. They could have been 100 milers or 50 milers. I didn't really inspect bibs as they passed me or I passed them.

Well, after the last aid station the trail gets really interesting. It's rocky and has a lot of turns. It surprised me and it kind of thew off my rhythm of walking 25 step and running 100 steps. But no big deal. It was just me, the heat and the trail and about 2 miles to go. Just go I had to tell myself.

By this point I was about 1 hour behind my desired finish time but I guess my estimates were just too big for me. But I'm not disappointed or upset.

I had a great time out there. I'm glad that I never really descended into darkness and absolutely hated life like I did on my last 100k. No serious nausea or stomach problems. I did sort of lose my appetite at the last aid station but I was still drinking and I know that helped a lot.

Not sure if this race is calling me to come back yet, but it is a close race to my house and it really couldn't hurt to try and do it again.

2016 Kat'cina Mosa 100k Adventure Mountain Run Race Review Report - Springville, Utah

The 2016 Kat’cina Mosa 100k - Race Review

It’s done. 5th place overall with about 70 people registered, and about 55 or so finished. I have no idea how many of those were DNS or DNF. So bottom line, getting in the top 5 is certainly evidence of a good performance and I’m proud of it. Read on for the details.

I woke up about 1:30am after about 3 hours sleep and got as ready as I could and showed up at the start about 30 mins early. I did all my normal pre-race stuff. I ate a banana, a PB&J and some potato chips and gummy bears. Drank some water and called it good. My brain wanted me to have a bathroom stop before the race but that didn’t happen. Oh well, I’d probably be stopping somewhere mid-race for a visit to the bushes. The start was about as expected and at 3am we were off.

I had a really cheap headlamp with me that I used and was certainly not the dumbest decision I made during the race, but it’s certainly not the smartest either. The headlamp was barely sufficient to light my way along the Squaw Peak road. I had never used this headlamp for anything and I wasn’t even certain the batteries were fresh. With everyone else and their stellar headlamps around me for the first few miles it wasn’t so bad. I was living off the other headlamps as much as I was my own. Eventually though my excitement and determination to finish this race in good time was enough to get me out a head by myself with a few other runners so far ahead of me that they were nowhere to be seen.

Of course one of the things about being out in the front of the pack is the marking of the course. I was fairly certain I was where I needed to be but boy were the markings for this course sparse. Throughout the race I went uncomfortably long distances without seeing markers and at least 2 times I was very near turning around.

The dark lasted quite a while and my pace was well above my goal pace and I knew that this wasn’t too bad because the climbing was certainly going to slow my pace a bit. The first 3 aid stations were over and done in the dark and I was feeling good and knew I was very close to the front. The 2nd big climb to Lightning Ridge came up and I was now passing some of the early starters. I asked one of them and they said I was the third runner. I was pretty excited by this and thought that if I could maintain that position I would be in good shape.

I consider my pace climbing up to this ridge to be a good performance on my part. I was able to keep a good pace all the way up and was feel pretty good. Eventually after the ridge there was some downhill that was a little bit more than I was expecting but not overly difficult. The trail did relent every now and then and I was able to pick up the pace some more and that was going good.

I got to the next aid station at Big Springs and was in and out in what was probably too fast of a time. I don’t even know what I ate or drank looking back at it. I was too excited to keep going.

As I was leaving I heard someone say about it being a really big hard climb coming up and I almost didn’t believe them. I thought that it probably wouldn’t be that bad. But well, it turned out it was. The sun was now up and making the exposed portions of the course rather hot and there were some tricky rocky portions of the trail that wasn’t exactly easy to cross. Again, I kept up my pace as best as I could and passed a few more of the early starters and some other hikers that weren’t participants in the event.

Windy pass seemed like it was forever away from the last aid station. I kept thinking that I could see it but I really didn’t have any clue where it was. Eventually I saw some people on the skyline that was pretty far off and I felt pretty sure that’s where I was headed. I did the best I could muster and eventually made it to Windy Pass. The aid station wasn’t much and I didn’t take much from them. I distinctly remember having some chips with me outside the aid station and throwing them down because my body didn’t want to eat it. I think this might have been an indication that something wasn’t quite right.

I was told that from windy pass it was downhill to the next aid station. Yes. I wanted that more than anything. Well, there was still some climbing then it did go down. But about 5k after windy pass the course was not downhill. It was more of a roller coaster than anything and again, it felt like forever to get to the next aid station. I kept up my pace as best as I could but I was in fact walking more than I would have like to.

The trail started to go down about a mile from the next aid station and I ran as much as I could. I was low on water and energy and it was more difficult to run than it really should have been at this point.

I got to the next aid station and knew that I had to make it quick or I was going to lose my 3rd place position. I changed my shoes and socks and wiped off my feet with wet wipes - they were very dirty. At this aid station there is an out-and-back portion that must be completed. I went up and back and was in pretty poor shape by the time I got back to the aid station. I stopped and knew that I was in bad shape but didn’t know what to do about it. I was a little nauseous and low on energy and didn't have any appetite. So the only thing that I could think of doing was moving forward. I could still do that and that’s what I came here to do.

I didn’t really know what the course looked like from here. I was about mile 40 and knew that it was more or less downhill from mile 52. So I had about 12 miles that I was hoping was going to be some flat, fast road but soon after the aid station was just up and nothing but up.

I was very low on energy and wasn’t eating like I should. I thought at the time that I had been getting enough liquids but looking back I’m not sure.

I walked a lot of this part of the course and kept expecting for another runner (or fifty) to just pass me like this race was a 10k. But surprisingly, no one did catch up to me.

I didn’t know where exactly the next aid station was but it finally appeared. I sat down and asked for a Red Bull. They gave me one and I drank all of it. I took some food but don’t think I ate much of it. Putting food in my mouth was something my body didn’t want. Chewing was hard and swallowing was almost impossible. I thought I was just going to immediately throw it up. I never did yak but I was not feeling well.

The course out of this aid station kept climbing, I sort of knew it would but had hoped it wouldn’t be too bad. Well, it was still tough. The good news is at this point was that I did feel okay and was able to get up the climb with surprising speed. I wasn’t doing 9 min miles but I was able to maintain a good balance of walking and running. That red bull did something. I’m not sure what, but something. I guess.

But after the climbing up my energy began to wane again. The trail leveled out and the sun was beating down pretty hot and I hit a rough patch again. I counted steps and tried to make sure that I was walking at least as many steps as I was running and kept moving forward.

I thought to myself how hard this race was. I really was, at this point, completely hammered. I was toast. I was fried. I was whooped. I was exhausted. I was out of it. I was zapped. I knew that someone was going to pass me before the finish. I was just trying to not make it too bad.

Eventually, out of the blue, someone did pass me. He was doing a much faster pace than I was. I said good job and he and his pacer were out of sight. 4th place, well, that’s still not bad.

The next aid station finally after what felt like an eternity finally came to view. I didn’t know what to do. Drink? Eat? I could drink but didn’t really feel like I needed a lot of water. I was still disgusted by eating. Didn’t think there was any point or benefit to taking the time to force myself to eat some chips or pretzels. I sat down and the nice people at the aid station helped as much as they could. But I was done. Totally done. But totally NOT done at the same time.

So I drank some red bull and some water and just left. I was hoping that since the rest of the course was downhill I would be able to just put my head down and go but it was not to be. I ended up just walking and running. Walking a few steps and running a few steps. When the course went up I walked and when it went down I did my best to run it. But I was still just a zombie moving at a meager pace.

After what felt like another eternity I came to the next aid station. I tried to get some water and food in but didn’t do so well. Had some red bull and got some cold water. With something like 6 miles left on pavement I was thinking 4th would be good if I could just get down the canyon in a decent fashion.

Well, as I sat at the aid station another person who looked like they were on mile 2 of a 10k race flew in and out of the aid station. Good for them, honestly. Now I was in 5th place. I guess this isn’t the finish so I guess I’ll keep going. And 5th isn’t that bad, right?

My brother came up to this point on his bike and rode with me for a while. But this was no fun for him. I wasn’t able to mentally engage in anything else and I could barely run anything at this point.

Before the race started I was looking forward to some fast miles in this part of the race. I had hoped that the canyon would be downhill and shady and since it was a road be a nice way to wrap up the race. Well, for me it was about 4pm and the sun was at a perfect angle to not provide any real shade from the trees. The road was surprisingly flat from my point of view. There was nothing good about this part of the race. I even had to dodge the traffic and that was no fun either.

Well, again, I tried as best I could to run as much as possible but I really couldn’t go for more than about a quarter mile before I had to walk a little. When the road straightened I tried looking back fully expecting a group of runners to just run past me. But no one did. I couldn’t believe it.

Finally after 13 hours and 49 minutes of the worst bashing of my life I crossed the finish line. In 5th place overall!

I think I underestimated this race but then when I say that it’s sounds weird in the context of 5th place overall in a 100 kilometer race. I know I did well in that sense, but I don’t think I did well in the overall execution of it. I don’t know if I should have held back earlier in the race or did something drastically different with my nutrition. But the nausea and the heat were mighty foes.I would like to have been able to run a little bit more consistently in the last 10 miles of the race.

But this is a good effort and a good learning experience for me. Even before I did this race I knew I was going to go at it with much more of a “race” mentality than I did earlier this year at the Zion 100k (where finishing was paramount to pace or place). I wanted to take more risks with this race even if it did mean crashing and burning. I don’t see this as being my last 100k and since I think I could do better, there’s a non-zero chance I'll come back in the future.

2 Weeks Notice

I'm running the Zion 100k Ultra Marathon put on by Ultra Adventures in 2 weeks from today. So, if everything goes according to plan, I'll be in Southern Utah with nothing to do but move forward for about 11 hours.

So far training has been going well. I got in one training run over 30 miles and a few over 20 miles. And one good weekend of back-to-back long runs. So while if I had more time and energy to dedicate to just training for this race things might be going slightly differently, given the circumstances however, things are going fine. No injuries and some good quality running have been happening so I don't expect anything very bad to happen on race day.

This morning out on a favorite stretch of road.

Current plan is to take the next two weeks to keep some good base mileage in but not to do anything very strenuous. Tomorrow (Saturday) I might go out and get about 20 miles in but I don't expect to be doing race pace or anything.

Also I need to eat less food and that is one of the things that I want to do is to lose a little bit of weight before race day. The thought of having a few less pounds of mass to carry with me through the race makes me think that this is one way that I can increase my efficiency. Less mass means less energy to move it, right?

As for plans for performance on race day? Bottom line: finish in less than 11 hours. I've looked at the results from the previous years and (this year's course has changed a little as the start line has moved a little but results I don't think are going to be affected very much) I would really like to be in the top 10. Personally this is where things get me nervous and excited in a good way.

A few weeks a go I was sitting at work and was going over the race and thinking about things like shoes and drop bags and pacers and nutrition and in that moment I had to take a step back and realize how I felt as I was planning for race day. I love race day. I have been extremely lucky and blessed to be able to run so many races. Right there in my stupid windowless office I was just struck with the realization of how much I not just like to run, but how much I love race day.

Hoka One One Challenge ATR Review

After a few runs on the treadmill with these, I finally got these puppies out on the trail. Did about 10 miles of relatively flat trail at a relatively easy pace.

My current assessment is that these are pretty good shoes. And seeing as how I got them for less than 50 bucks when they retail for over $130, it's hard for me to really complain.

My previous pair of trail running shoes have been worn out and getting these things is like going from broken struts on a cheap old car to a new Rolls Royce.

These shoes have much more cushioning than shoes normally have so they soak up bumps like nothing and even after several miles they don't feel like the ground is connected to the skin of your feet.

While the color isn't my first choice, the other more objective things about the shoe make it worth it. They weigh very little even with the extra cushioning and the materials are top notch.