Like the canyon

Squaw Peak 50

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Location:

Ogden,UT,

Member Since:

Nov 21, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

Finished my first 100 miler in '10, the Bear 100 in 26:05. 

55K 5:13

50 mile 7:47

Big Horn 100 Mile 24:54

 Squaw Peak 50:

2009: 13:48 (140th OA)

2010: 11:06 (26th OA)

2011: 10:01 (7th OA)

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

2012 schedule:

Red Hot 50K+  (5:23)

Buffalo Run 50 mile (7:47, 1st AG, 7th OA)

R2R2R

Squaw Peak 50 mile (11:40)

Big Horn 100 Mile (DNS)

Loco

Bear 100

Chimera 100

Zion Travers (Done)

Long-Term Running Goals:

God created skis and surfboards to keep the truly gifted from ruling the world.

I've finally let go of my preconceived notions of what it's supposed to feel like to run. - Geoff Roes

 

"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree; I'd spend six of them sharpening the axe." Abe Lincoln

 

Personal:

 

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Race: Squaw Peak 50 (51.25 Miles) 11:06:00

I have a hard time being on time for races.  This one started at 5:00 AM and living in Ogden, I told myself I had to leave home at 3:15 to make sure to be there on time.  I left at 3:40.  I made it, barely.  Got my number, pinned it on, ran to the porta potty, ran to the start, before I could think, or catch my breath it was GO! I was running down the river path. 

I settled in with Ogden runners Tom Remkes and Matt Connors.  I think I have started every race this year chasing Tom.  We kept a good pace going on the pace path weaving in and out of runners, within a mile or so there weren’t too many in front and we had picked up another Ogden runner, Chad Carson.  All three of these guys are a lot stronger runners than I, first mistake was trying to keep up with them.

We started the climb and I felt horrible, I had first noticed how hard I seemed to be working on the river trail, and our pace wasn’t terribly fast.  My legs felt heavy and my heart rate was pinned.  I stayed with the local guys into Hope aid, and came in right at my planned split, but I felt terrible, couldn’t catch my breath, and couldn’t get my legs to work.  I slowed down here and tried to settle in, but nothing seemed to help.  Uphill grades that should have been easy felt impossible and steep stuff almost shut me down.  The good news was, my knee was holding up and had very little to no pain at this point. 

The suffer fest was torture though.  I felt like I hadn’t trained at all.  I started to seriously consider a DNF.  I couldn’t get my head around what was wrong, but there was no way I was up for 10-12 more hour of it.  I knew my buddy Nick (oreo) would have pacers at aid 6, the end of Hobble Creek road, and made up my mind that if I wasn’t feeling better, I would quit there and take one of their cars back to the start. (whimpy I know) I even came up with a good name for my failure, KneeNF. 

I hit mile 14, the top of the first big climbing section, with my heart rate still pinned and legs that felt like they were 100 pounds each.  My split was within 5 minutes of my plan, but there is no way my effort should have been this hard at that pace. I rolled over the top and tried to relax on the long downhill into Hobble Creek canyon. 

On the descent things started to come around.  My heart rate dropped a lot, my legs seemed to loosen up, my knee acted up, but I knew I could live with that.  I ate and drank a lot and just tried to cruise, not pushing, not holding back.  I came into the aid right on my split time and felt much better, I grabbed a drink and banana and kept cruising.  I knew the test would come on the paved uphill to aid 6.  I hit the pavement, expecting the heart rate to shoot up as it had, but it didn’t and my legs felt like them old selves, loose and much stronget than the morning climb.  I ran strong, and passed about 4 people.  I kept a good run going all the way up to aid 6 and hit the gate at 4:56.  I wanted to be there under 5.  I felt a 100% better, the KneeNF was out for sure. It was good to see the Froerer boys there waitning for Nick to come in.

I’m not sure what switch had clicked in my body, but I felt like it was all working the way it should be now.  The best way I could describe the horrible over worked feeling up to mile 14 is to use a term from my climbing days, flash pump!  I hadn’t run in two weeks truing to get my knee back to running shape and it just took time to get the blood flowing again.  

The rest of the race went as, or better than planned.  I ran 95%  of the dirt road from aid 6-7 and split it in 48 minutes, and ran most of the way to Little Valley aid.  Arriving at 6:40, about a 50 minute split.  I knew an hour between 6-7 and from 7-8 was a good pace fro me so I was happy with my effort.  I got passed only once from aid 6-9, and that was by the 1st place overall girl, who was motoring very strong!  I managed to pass about 5-6 people through this section. 

The weather was awesome, a little hot, but there always seemed to be a breeze to cool things off.  The long technical, muddy, snowy downhill from Windy Pass to the paved section was really tough on my knee and slowed me down a bit.  After what seemed like forever I came into aid 10, grabbed a cup of ice water and a cold towel (thanks aid station folks) and was out for the 3.5 (seems like 8)  miles down the pavement to the finish.  I kept a solid trot all the way down but was passed by the second place girl (again motoring fast) and another guy in the last ¼ mile. 

Finishing this race is awesome! There are always hoards of people cheering and John Bozung puts out the best post race eats out there.  I finished in 11:06 which was a huge course PR for me.  I was two hours and forty minutes faster over my time last year.  2 weeks ago I was hoping for a little faster time, but that course is TOUGH! I don’t know how much faster I could have realistically gone even if everything was 100%.  That’s three 50 mile races in the books (2nd Squaw Peak, plus Buffalo run this year) I love that distance. Long enough that you can really settle in and enjoy it.  Overall a great day.  I had a blast hanging out at the finish with my family and friends who had raced.  I was great to cheer in all the runners, for some reason I wanted to stay at the finish until after my finish time last year, I couldn't believe I was out there for that much longer last year! geeze that was a long day.  Lookng forward to Logan Peak in a couple of weeks, hoping my knee will let me race. 

 

Comments
From mozzer on Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 17:31:22 from 67.188.156.167

nice race Bryce, those are some serious mental hurdles you made it over. Way to stick to it. Lookin' up to you and Oreo, maybe mozzer will be an ultra runner one of these years. Nice work!

From gdoc on Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 18:30:31 from 98.202.195.25

Nice race Bryce. Was going to intro myself formally at the end but didn't want to interrupt with the family and post race scene. You looked great at AS 6. Nice powering through the pain. I had a great time with the last 24 with Oreo. Got me hooked on the idea of doing one of these.

From Oreo on Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 19:53:14 from 174.27.230.198

Ya buddy! Awesome. If I could be like you when I grow up.. Ran 90 percent from AS 6 to AS 8... Sweet stuff right there. Let's hit the trails soon. It was great seeing you at the finish - didn't see your fam or I would have told them how big of stud you are...

From Holt on Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 20:51:27 from 75.169.90.161

Congrats on the great PR! A beastly race to be sure.

From Aaron Kennard on Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 22:06:14 from 174.51.250.151

That's crazy how the body does that sometimes. Glad to hear your body finally got into gear. That description sounded like a painful way to start a race...that must have been a serious mental challenge to push through that. Congrats on a solid race! Sounds like a fun one (except maybe the 3 miles of pavement at the end).

After finishing my first 50K yesterday, it made the 50 miler I'm signed up for seem pretty daunting, because I was TOTALLY ready to be done at 31 miles yesterday. But reading this gives me a lot of encouragement. I hope its not as painful as what you had to go through the first 3rd of that race though.

Looking at the squaw peak site it looks like that course has about 9000 Feet of climbing overall, is that right?

From Bryce on Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 22:35:41 from 174.52.190.220

Thanks Froerer boys! Get the HD on board and you guys could have your own ultra team! Moz and G, you guys are in next year right!

Thanks Holt, I was very pleased with the improvement over a year, and yes it's a beast!

Aaron, you totally got a 50 in you, no problem. It's a differnt pace, for me much more enjoyable than even 50K, but those are great too. Ya, the start sucked, it was the result of going from alot of running to no runnig for too long, then straight to racing ...I need to taper better. RD says 10,000, but I think it's closer to 9. There is the last climb at mile 40 or so that seems like 10,000 by itself!

From JulieC on Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 23:05:29 from 207.224.202.191

We almost met at aid station 6, that's when my race turned for the worse. So glad you had a fifth gear...I kept waiting for mine after mile 40 and it never came, I lost so much time taking 37 minutes + to climb Windy Pass Mile. I just couldn't get passed the lack of oxygen, fuel and water. However did you get the nerve to come back and run this again? Did you feel better last year? GREAT JOB AND RUN!! GREAT REPORT, THANKS!!

From jun on Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 23:46:28 from 97.126.224.79

Wow, thanks for so eloquently summarizing what happened to your energy. That is how I felt last week at Sapper Joe (except I didn't recover like you). Flash Pump. Now that is a concept I know all too well. I'm glad you got through it though and finished strong. Congrats on a great and massive PR.

From Twinkies on Mon, Jun 07, 2010 at 00:05:28 from 67.166.116.191

Congrats Bryce. You tackled that Beast. A very tough race beginning with an amazing recovery. Great report. So you at Logan Peak.

From Scott Wesemann on Mon, Jun 07, 2010 at 01:40:27 from 75.162.93.167

Way to push through that slow start. You did a great job grinding away until your body came around. Congrats on your race.

From Bryce on Mon, Jun 07, 2010 at 23:57:31 from 174.52.190.220

Thanks for the support everyone.

Julie, you had a great race in my book, you were looking very strong when I saw you at 14! Getting throug those lows and finishing strong is how we learn right?

Jun, flash pump is no way to start a race, I dont know how you finished Sapper feeling that worked! urrh. That is exactly what it felt like, only in the legs?

Scott and Twinkies, ya I'm glad it did come around 'cause I was ready to give away all my running stuff and take up video games. Twinkies, I'll see you at Logan, but you may have to introduce yourself, I dont think I've ever seen you not wearing a Twikies shirt and red shorts.

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