Per Aspera Ad Astra

August 2014

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15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

Salt Lake City,UT,United States

Member Since:

Dec 08, 2012

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

13.1: 1:09:58 (2018 Des News)

26.2: 2:37:45 (2019 Mesa Phoenix)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Stay healthy!

 

2019 Running Schedule

Feb - Mesa Phoenix Marathon (AZ): 2:37:45. Lingering flu didn't help, but I still got a PR.

April - Bonneville Shoreline Trail Marathon (UT). Mostly just going to be a training run. Finally got myself into the sub-4 club last year, so I'll just have fun with it this year.

May - Stillwater Half Marathon (MN). Goal race for Spring. Looking for ~1:12.

October- Chicago Marathon (IL). We'll see where I'm at in Fall, but probably will be looking for low 2:30s.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Stay healthy, make improvements, maximize my potential.

Personal:

I am a bioengineering PhD currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Neurology at the University of Utah, where I design and improve neurosurgical approaches for treating movement disorders.


Summer 2018 update: I'm lazy about copying over from Strava, so find me over there for day-to-day runs until I eventually get around to copying everything over here.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Skechers GoRun 4 Blue - A Bit Too Big, But Free Lifetime Miles: 105.80
Saucony Grid Type A Lifetime Miles: 94.20
Saucony Fastwitch 7 Blue Lifetime Miles: 132.40
Saucony Fastwitch 7 Red Lifetime Miles: 135.90
New Balance Vazee Summit V2 Black Lifetime Miles: 121.90
Skechers Go Med Speed 4 Lifetime Miles: 36.70
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
181.658.0014.000.00203.65
RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 107.40RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 41.30
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.200.000.000.005.20

Body felt kind of tired during the day, so I kept it short and easy in preparation for a long run tomorrow. Late again because I had to attend a going away party and a birthday party. By the time I got out, my body felt good, and my 5.2 miles with Holly at 8:19 AP left me wanting more.  My place to Liberty, one lap, then back.

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 5.20
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.105.000.000.0015.10

15.1, 7:15 AP, almost exactly 2000' of climb and 2000' of loss.  My place to Memory Grove, up to the top of City Creek (to the trailhead gate) and back, with a slightly longer loop around 2nd instead of directly on 4th on the way back.  Did 5 of the downhill miles at marathon effort after a ~1 km transition into the downhill so I could start the faster miles right at 8 miles and, also, to avoid getting into the downhill until the grade leveled out into a more mellow slope at the better part of a mile down from the top of the road.  I didn't want to beat my legs up, so I decided to run the splits around 5:50 and just keep it to about marathon effort (5:50/mile at marathon effort down city creek is worth about 6:01/mile at marathon on the St George course, where it is only half as steep, but much lower in elevation). Miles 9-13 were 5:48, 5:53, 5:50, 5:49, 5:43 (5:49 average) and didn't feel particularly taxing.  Overall, it didn't take much out of me, but I'm going to be cautious tomorrow, as I could just feel a twinge of tightness in my hip in the final uphill mile.  Extended uphills have always been a source of stress on it since the initial injury, and it's been healthy lately due to being smart about it, so I'm going to continue to be smart about it.

 

 

 

Oh, and note to self for future reference... Garmin software somehow thinks it was 93 degrees during my run, but that was definitely not correct.  I went the full 15 with only 2 short sips of water (one at the top of the road and one in memory grove) and wasn't even thirsty by the end, so it wasn't very hot at all, even at the lowest elevation point.

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 15.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.000.000.000.0012.00

12 miles.  First 6.5 with Holly, last 5.5 by myself.  Didn't wear a watch, but I took it easy.  AP was just a hair under 8:00 based on checking the clock right before I left and right after I got back.  My place to NW corner of Liberty, along the mulch path, out at 13th, to 17th, to 6th East, back to Liberty, 2/3 of a loop on the mulch counter clockwise, back along 5th / E.  Holly didn't seem to be enjoying it too much, so I dropped her off at home and went back out.  My place, along 4th Ave to Virginia to 11th, to Bonneville Blvd, to the hairpin, along the Memory Grove path, and then back up 4th.  Legs were kind of tired over the last few miles.  I was nervous that it was going to rain hard, but it held to an off-and-on sprinkle for the enitre run.  Also, I'm apparently getting quite good at guessing distances.  I was trying to figure out how far I was going during the run, without a watch, and decided I must be right on the money at 12 miles.  Figured it out afterwards, and it turned out to be 11.99.  Nice.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
8.503.000.000.0011.50

Lunch time: Attended Dr James Moore's successful dissertation defense. Congrats to Fiddy.

 

PM: 11.5 miles, 6:42 AP, 500' of gain.  Worked super late, then had to deal with some stupid stuff that kept me from running until 1 AM.  I really need to get out earlier, but at least I really felt in the zone tonight.  Didn't wear a watch, but based on looking at the clock before and after, my 11.5 miles was run at ~6:42 AP (77 minutes).  Not bad considering that I didn't feel like I picked it up at all until the last couple miles.

My place to up to South Temple/13th, then down to 27th South, then down to 5th East, then back up to home.

 

Not flat:

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 11.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.000.000.000.006.00

5PM: 6 miles, mostly with James.  Around campus.  Loop was complicated:

 

I was planning to double, but I opted to have super fresh legs for my workout tomorrow instead!

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 6.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
2.800.0010.000.0012.80

.4 mile warmup then 10 miles of tempo in 4/3/2/1 with 3/2/1 minutes rest, then 2.4 mile cooldown.  I guess I'm just going to throw out a lot of random thoughts about this workout and otherwise.

 

As I often do, I ran on a treadmill, at least until the cooldown, which was outdoors.  For someone of my abilities, the altitude at my gym, 4700', is almost exactly enough to make a 10-13 mile tempo run on a treadmill equal in pace to a flat run on track on a still day at sea level, so I run my workouts on a treadmill sometimes to prepare myself for lower elevation racing I feel better and race faster when my muscles have memory for a specific pace at a specific effort.  If today's was a pure 10 mile run in 57:06, it'd have been worth 57:21 on a flat windless track at sea level with similar temperature.  On a flat track at altitude, it'd have been worth 59:26, ie 14 seconds per mile slower.

 

In any case, the workout went really well.

4 miles: 23:31

3 minutes rest

3 miles: 17:15

2 minutes rest

2 miles: 11:06

1 minute rest

1 mile: 5:15

 

I made a point to not start insanely fast, but to finish as fast as possible.  This make the workout a little interesting.  From about mile 6 on, I was working pretty hard, and the last two reps were pretty tough.  Starting the 10th mile after only 1 minute of rest felt cruel, and I was hurting almost instantly.  5:15 after 9 fast miles is tough, even on a treadmill.

Most importantly, I get to move my legs 14 seconds per mile more quickly than I would've on a track here, which is important.  I need a lot of fast work to prepare properly for St George.  Of course, the gentle finish of that race allows people to coast in really well even if they're dying (unlike, say, Des News, which will brutalize you with that uphill on Foothill... man, am I never racing that race...), but I need to be used to running really fast for a long time if I want to run a really fast time there (ideally, under 2:35, so I have a sub-6 pace conversion according to Daniels).

 

I did an almost identical workout with more rest on the same treadmill last season, so comparing the numbers, I see that I'm pretty close to where I was at in late January last year.  That time, I started faster, but finished the last two about the same, with more rest.  Splits then were 22:58, 17:00, 11:05, 5:16.  I would say that workout was similar, maybe overall ever-so-slightly stronger, but I was several weeks farther into the cycle.  Also, I intentionally started conservatively today, and in hindsight, probably could've hit those same times from January if I had gone for it.  I'll be more aggressive next time.

 

Now, one more thought for overall development...  Talking with James on our run yesterday, I've decided that my in-season consistency isn't enough.  I need to not take 4 months off in the future if I really want to get fast.  I need overall year-in-year-out consistency.  I of course need short off seasons, but they need to only be a few weeks or a month tops.  If I'm going to get to sub-70 and sub-2:30 on fair courses, I need to be serious all year, not just when I have a race coming up.  I'm really going to try hard to commit to this idea in the future.

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 12.80
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(2)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Had a lot to deal with tonight, didn't get to run.  By the time it was possible, I just didnt' want to go, as I was exhausted.  Oh well.  Will still hit 70 this week easily.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

Was in Sugarhouse for a haircut at 6, so I ran this loop afterwards:

 

AP was mid-7s with 750' of climb.  I felt a little tired - from my workout 2 days ago, I suspect - but I should be normal tomorrow.  With that in mind, I probably should've run more like 8:00 pace, but whatever.  Those hills in the path around the Tanner area were kind of a surprise as I've never run on that path before.  I didn't really intend to make it so hilly, but just kind of decided mid run to go up to Wasatch, without actually realizing that Wasatch is more than 500' higher than Highland High.  It would be really interesting to see how people performed if someone put on, say, a half marathon on a loop something like this.  I'm not sure that I could race this kind of loop well at all...

 

  Stupid Garmin is apparently broken and won't turn on at all, so that's annoying.  Edit: it appears to be working again???  It wouldn't charge and wouldn't turn on for a day, but I tried again today and it's charging up nicely.  I'm guessing it won't have long to live, but I'm glad to have some more life from it.

 

Going to do something pretty long tomorrow.  Should be fun.

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
17.200.000.000.0017.20

Well, that sucked.  Was going to do a longer run (20-22), but I didn't deal well with the heat today (I was probably a pound or two dehydrated when I started), so I cut it down to 17.2 miles.  I knew by mile 2.5 that it was going to be a long day.  It was 92 when I started, and the humidity next to the JRP made things worse.  I brought a 20 oz water bottle with the intention of refilling it, but the fountain I planned to fill it from at mile 9.5-ish was broken.  I had already run out at like mile 7, and didn't get to fill it again until 12.5, at which point I felt like a zombie, and had to spend a fair amount of time sitting on a curb drinking / just sitting there just to feel OK again.  The last miles were very unpleasant, as even with some water back in me, I was just sapped.  I didn't bring my Garmin, so I'm not sure how long I stopped, but not factoring the stop out of my time, AP would've been about 8:20.  Yeah, really ugly.  I suspect the actual moving pace was more like 8:00, as I hit virtually every single light today, in addition to the 5+ minutes I was stopped for.  I planned on going easy, but I definitely slowed a lot at the end.  Finished the run 6 pounds lighter than I started, even after supposedly rehydrating. Anyway, here was the route:

 

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 17.20
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.500.000.000.0010.50

2.4 miles into lab, 4.8 miles while a behavioral experiment was ongoing, 3.3 mile longer route home.  Actually wore a Garmin for the first time in like a week, but don't have it handy.  Went pretty easy, AP was probably 7:40-ish.  I felt a little sluggish, but at least my legs weren't sore after getting really dehydrated and beat up in yesterday's longer outing.

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 10.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.000.000.000.0011.00

PM: 7 miles at 7:27 pace.  To 9th E to 17th S to 5th E and back.  Needed to be home, so cut it short with the expectation of doing more later.

 

An hour later: 4 more miles at very easy (8:20) pace.  Loop of lower aves and federal heights, stopping at Smith's at 3.6 miles.  Forgot to restart my watch after that, but it's about .4 the way I went. Really ready for sleep on the 2nd run, but don't want to skimp on the miles when I'm going to definitely miss Friday with travels, and have a really hard time getting in a full run on Thursday.

 

 

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 11.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
11.600.000.000.0011.60

Incredibly busy day.  2.4 miles up to lab at 10 PM, to get more work done.

12:30 AM: 9.2 mile long route home.  Building to Capecchi to Foothill to 21st E to 21st S, along a meandering path through the neighborhoods to East High, along 13th East to South Temple, to E, back home.

 

7:50 AP.  Felt like a zombie on most of the 2nd run, but I'm glad I got it in.

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 11.60
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
13.100.000.000.0013.10

6 with Holly, then 7.1 more by myself.  Holly's portion was my place to 5th E / 17th S and back.  I had to drop off something in lab before leaving for my trip, so I did the loop mapped below solo.  I've already packed the Garmin away, so no watch, but pace was easy.

 

 

I leave for Tanzania in the AM, so I'm going to get up at 5:15, go for an easy 6 or 7 miles, then travel for 25 hours.  I won't have a chance to run on Friday, but I'm hopeful to get something reasonably long in on Saturday.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 13.10
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.200.000.000.005.20

5:25am run with Holly. Lap of liberty from my place. Both Holly and I were very tired and sluggish, but I got it in.

RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 5.20
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Got into Tanzania after 26 hours of travels and went dancing with Daria at a really off-the-beaten path club called Glacier.

The locals were really chill and seemed like erally nice people.  We tried two local brews (Serengeti and Kilimanjaro), which were pretty good, especially considering the low price. We had a fresh whole chicken for dinner.  Awesome.  Stayed at Moshi Backpackers Hostel, which was fun.  Really tired, but this was a fun evening.  No running.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.500.000.000.006.50

6.5 miles easy in Tanzania with Daria from Kibosho to KCMC (after taking a taxi up to Kibosho).  Incredibly fun experience.  The locals were intrigued by us, as muzungus, and at one point, an older woman in sandals and 2 young children joined in for about a mile.  Daria's Swahili is pretty good, so she conversed a bit.  Whenever we passed people out working the coffee fields, they would yell something at the older woman and she would burst out laughing.  Lots of fun. :)

 

I'd planned on doubling with something longer tonight, but I've slept a total of 12 hours in the last 80 hours, so it's just not going to happen.

 

Helped Daria do some stuff for Engineering World Health at TCDC later in the day.  Was incredibly jetlagged, but survived!

RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 6.50
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
12.430.002.000.0014.43

20km hike near Usa River in the morning, then helped out with the final things at TCDC.

 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.002.000.002.00

2 miles at 5:40 pace at TCDC in Tanzania.  Didn't have a chance to run for 2 weeks after this.  Afterwards, went out for a safari in Arusha National Park.  Pictures are borrowed from Paul Howell, Daria's student at Engineering World Health who came on the trip with us.

 

Babboons:

Babboon family:

 

Blue Monkey:

Can't remember this bird's name, but the whole perched in thorns thing looked really cool:

Giraffe:

Baby giraffe:

Paul taking photos of giraffes (my camera this time);

 

Flamingos:

Zebra:

Water buck skull:

 

Overall, a really really cool day.  Stayed the night in Arusha, where we found a surprisingly good burger place.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

Little shopping in Arusha, back from Arusha to Moshi, then spent the day before starting the climb in Moshi.  Browsed the used clothing market, had a drink on top of the Kindoroko Hotel, and then ate dinner with our guides at IndoItaliano, which had better Indian food than anywhere I've been in the US.

Kili is so big that the upper 3/4 is almost always covered in cloud.  We got a lucky view of the peak from Kindoroko.  I've never seen anything on this scale in my life, and now that I'm back in Utah, our mountains seem absolutely tiny.  Take some prominent "massive" peaks in Utah like Olympus, quadruple their gain, and you get Kilimanjaro, which rises more than 16200' above nearby Moshi:

 

 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.840.000.000.006.84

Kilimanjaro day 1.  Not so hard. 11 km from 5380 up to 9842.

 

Monkey before the start:

 

Starting gate:

 

Climbing:

 

Cold at night:

Really cold at night:

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.110.000.000.003.11

Kilimanjaro Day 2:  Woke up with a clogged sinus.  Frustrating.  5km, steep, from 9842' to 13123' and back down to 12500'.

 

Porter with a Deer Valley jacket spotted at the beginning of the day:

 

Insane view along the way:

 

Holding up the mountain:

 

Creepy raven at Shira Cave campsite:

 

 

Such a gorgeous sunset:

 

 

Daria massaged my sinuses for literally an hour up at Shira Cave camp to help them drain out, and I'm convinced that it saved my trip.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
6.210.000.000.006.21

Kilimanjaro Day 3: 10km.  12500' to 15190' and then back down to 12960' to sleep (going around the side of the mountain from Shira Cave Camp to Baranco via Lava Tower).  Getting above 15000' was tough.  We were going very very slowly, but still made the trip 30+% faster than recommended.

 

Blue skies early in the day.

 

Looking towards the peak:

 

Weathered outhouses en route to Lava Tower:

 

Lava Tower:

 

Back downhill:

 

Backside of Uhuru from Baranco:

 

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.590.000.000.005.59

 Day 4 of Kilimanjaro: A very tough 9km.  12960' up to 13780', up a nearly sheer face (Baranco Wall) with some difficult sections, then an extremely rolling net downhill to 12467' (Karanga), followed by a very tough climb up to 15331' (Barafu).

Going up Baranco Wall:

 

Porters on the wall:

 

Uhuru from the top of the wall:

 

Happy to be in Karanga for lunch:

 

Crazy rocks between Karanga and Barafu:

 

Very misty between Karanga and Barafu:

Daria sad about the heavy winds and snow coming down at Barafu:

 

The plan was to eat dinner at 4 PM in Barafu, go to bed very early, sleep until 11 PM, and then summit starting at midnight, but the porter carrying the cooking equipment (just an 18 year old kid!) got sick from the altitude around 14500' and Emmanuel, the lead guide, had to go down to help him up with the equipment, so dinner was delayed until 7 PM or so, and we didn't get back to the tent until 8:30.  It took 30 minutes to get to bed, and the altitude was messing with my body (light headache, constant trickling nosebleed, and some stomach issues), so I woke up at 10:30 and couldn't go back to sleep.  Oh well, off for a summit on an hour and a half of sleep!

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
10.560.000.000.0010.56

Kilimanjaro day 5 (summit day!): 5km from Barafu (15331') to Uhuru Peak (19341'), back down, before a quick break for lunch and a one hour nap before continuing through Millenia camp down to Mweka camp (10170').  In other words, over 4000' of climb, and 9170' of drop.  Good training for St George with all the downhill I guess?

Getting to the summit took 6 hours and it was very hard.  That's right.  5km in 6 hours was hard.  19341' of altitude is absolutely unreal.  The trail was super steep and rocky.  I thought after my time in Utah that it wouldn't be that bad, but this was harder than making it through the night in any 100 mile race I ever did back in my ultra days.  19000' is not even comparable to anything in Utah, including King's Peak.  It is so much harder that I can't even describe it.

 

Let's put it this way: imagine being so out of breath that you constantly feel the need to take a break, but every time you take a break, you start to freeze and shiver uncontrollably, even with 2 ski jackets (should've brought my Canada Goose Parka, not my crappy North Face ones), very warm ski gloves, insulated snowpants, glove warmers, a wool hat, and a neck gaitor.  You have to kick your feet hard into the ground with every step to keep your feet from going numb, even with Smartwool's thickest socks and Danner mountaineering boots considered by some to be the best boots ever made for this sort of excursion.  You're so tired that sitting down makes you start to nod off, but you know that if you fall asleep, you'll freeze to death, almost without a doubt.  Your stomach is upset from the extreme altitude, so you're just nibbling slowly on Clif Bars and taking a drink of tea from a thermos every time you stop, knowing that it's the only thing genuinely keeping you warm.  You keep thinking to yourself that it'll warm up once the sun comes up, but if you take too long, the sun will get extremely intense near the peak and you'll be unable to summit.  Your nose is constantly trickling blood, but you can't take your gloves off to wipe, so you just deal with it.  Even with 150% of the daily dosage of excedrin, your headache gets worse with increased altitude.  So, yeah, doing this on 90 minutes of tortured sleep was one of the hardest things I've done in my life.  I was in pretty darn good shape going in, but this altitude and freezing cold (sub-zero with uncharacteristically high winds) rendered my running training pretty much useless.

Despite the difficulty and suffering, when we crested Stella Point with the horizon starting to lighten up, and saw Uhuru in the distance (for the first time in the day), everything was totally worth it.  We were absolutely elated when we reached the summit:

Getting to that peak gave me more of an emotional high than anything I've ever done before.  Emmanuel and Joshua (our guides) were really excited as well!

The views were so much better than anything else I've ever seen that I can't even begin to describe them:

 

However, it was still freezing cold, so hot tea was still keeping me alive and functional

 

(Go back and notice that that cup was also present in the summit sign photo as well).

 

On the way down, we saw a woman succumb to the altitude 10m from Stella Point which was devastating.  Joshua, Emmanuel, her guide took turns carrying her down a few thousand feet of super rugged terrain on their backs:

Out of 100-ish people attempting to summit on our night from our campsite, several dozen failed.  I've seen the statistic that only 40% of people that start make it to Uhuru.  This seems awfully low, but our route (Machame) has a higher percentage due to the higher altitude acclimitization followed by lower altitude sleeping on days 2 and 3 (and day 4 for people doing it as a 7 day climb, which is more common).

Looking back from Barafu, right before more clouds rolled in, we had an insane view of Uhuru:

 

The descent was pretty hard on the legs, and it didn't help that the snow and wind really picked up:

Joshua and Emmanuel demonstrating the stretchers for people getting altitude sick:

They also started pointing out monuments where people succumbed to the elements and died, and there were quite a few around here, but I didn't get any photos somehow.  Apparently we had seen a lot on the way up, but they had decided not to mention them prior to summiting.

 

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6.210.000.000.006.21

Kilimanjaro Day 6: Mweka Camp (10170') down to Mweka Gate (5380').  One last downhill for the legs!  It had rained at this altitude the night before, so it was quite slick.  Still, a satisfying conclusion to what was probably the coolest journey I've ever been on.

With the whole crew before leaving the camp:

Emmanuel (without hat) and Joshua (with green hat and glasses on top), our guides, were great, and our favorite porter was God (short for Godfred in Tazania, and a pretty awesome nickname :), in front with a hat like mine).  God taught us some awesome Swahili slang and kept our spirits up when we were suffering.

At the very bottom:

 

Celebrating afterwards at Union Coffee, a place specializing in Wazungu, ie white people, food.

 

If you're thinking about doing Kilimanjaro, do it.  I don't make very much money right now while in grad school, but it was absolutely worth the penny pinching and saving up.  I'm not sure that I'll have another experience this rewarding.  If you want to do it, contact me and I'll put you in touch with our crew.  A lot of people that went through bigger companies weren't that happy with their crew and that soured their tirps, but we absolutely loved everyone helping us.  These guys were all exceptional, and having a good crew made all the difference in the world.

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Last day in Tanzania!  Hung out at a local restaurant for most of the day organizing pictures, as we were too tired to do much else.

 

On the way to the airport, we blew out a tire, which made us late.  When we got there, we found that Daria's first connecting flight (from Kilimanjaro to Nairobi) had somehow gotten changed from August to July, despite us scheduling them together and my flight being fine.  After a long time making frantic phone calls over spotty airport wifi (surprised they even had wifi with such a small airport) with google voice (phone calls were $6 a minute there on t-mobile), she got it sorted out at 6:45 PM, with the deadline to start boarding also at 6:45.  We were so late that my bag apparently got pulled from the plane.  It got lost somewhere in the airport, and I didn't see it again until 5 days after I got back, but at least it survived!

 

Of course, in Amsterdam, we got held up for 30 minutes when Daria's iPod wouldn't immediately turn on.  Delta spilled Coke all over her on the way out, which fried out half the screen on the iPod, and then tried to not let her keep it on the way back because it wouldn't turn on and we didn't have a charger to get the screen to at least light up.  Fortunately, they finally found a charger, plugged it in, and part of the screen came on, so we were allowed to board without throwing it away.

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Back to US.  Jetlagged and got to start moving to my new apartment immediately.  Not fun.

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Moving + starting work again + being exhausted by 5pm.  Definitely no run.

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0.000.000.000.000.00

Moving + work + being exhausted by 5pm.  Definitely no run.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Moving + cleaning all day.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Moving + cleaning all day.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
181.658.0014.000.00203.65
RETIRED Skechers GoRun 2 Yellow Miles: 107.40RETIRED Saucony A6 Orange #2 Miles: 41.30
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