Old Man Still running

Got up at 1:45 a.m. and drove up to do a moon-lit run of Timp.  Started around 2:45 or so.  I was very surprised that I didn't feel any pain in the leg so I pushed it a bit harder today.  Fitness felt good and strong, but I purposely held back somewhat.   At the slide area below the basin, I met son Ryan heading down.  He had started a few hours earlier and said he made it up in 2:45, great for his 3rd time ever, and in the dark.   I caught some hikers resting above the basin who had watched my fast-moving light.  They were impressed with my speed.  It is nice to hear speed comments again.   A couple guys at the saddle asked if I had met up with my son, they must have talked to him.   I blew by a couple more groups and headed up to the summit, reaching there in 2:34, slow for me, but better.   I signed the book and notice some dude had put down double figures for his career summit.  I looked.  It was jun, who went up yesterday.   I marked mine, 69th.

Now the test, going down with a lot more weight on the leg.   It went very well.  I hardly felt any pain.  My new Stinson Evo Hokas are a problem.  Just not enough support to keep the problem foot from turning in.  I'll work on the shoe.  I also ordered some MaFates which have better support.

Early dawn arrived in the basin.   The smoky sunrise was stunning over Heber.  The wildflowers exploded with colors.   Down below the basin, I saw 4 moose.  Two of them ran ahead of me on the trail and were determined to stay on the trail for a quarter mile or so.  They would stop, look back at me to see if I was still coming, and then run ahead again.  I had a very uncomfortable feeling chasing moose.  Not good.  Finally they left the trail.

I ran into a bunch of hikers during the last mile.   It was a beautiful morning.   I had been able to keep a run going all the way down.   Wow, what an improvement since my first attempt 12 days ago.   I finished in 4:14.   Not overly speedy, but solid.   I was very timid on the downhill.

During the day at work, no pain in the leg.   Well, it looks like I will still try to run Cascade Crest 100.   The RD extended the time to decide.  Since I had such a big improvement over the last 12 days, I should improve even more over the next 22 day.

Timp Summit #70.   I started about 8 p.m. in the evening.  It was really nice to have the trail mostly to myself.  As I entered the basin, I could see some lights on the saddle.   I caught up to them as we arrived at the summit.   The gushed about my pace.  They were going to sleep in the summit hut.   They asked how many summits that was for me so I told them.

The way down was pleasant, but half way the leg started to hurt so I slowed down.  But then the crowds started to arrive, all the hikers who start around midnight.   These groups are about a clueless about hiking as the families are around dawn.   I would come at a group with my light blazing and calling out greetings, etc.   Still so many looked up to my and did the "deer in the headlights" thing.   They would just freeze or not make any move to move over.  It was pretty funny but also annoying because I had to come to complete stops at time in order not to plow into somebody.   Truly, deer in the headlights.  They had no idea what to do with someone coming down the trail toward them.  The number of people was amazing.

When I passed some groups with plenty of room, I had fun going full speed and heard some "wows" as I pranced through the rocks at great speed in the dark.  It was nice to really do some full speed downhill for the first time.

During the last mile, I opened it up a little, but this is always an area that I fall,  Sure enough, I didn't see a hole near the side of the trail and went down after just passing a couple.  It was a true face plant because I hit my chin on the trail.  I skinned up my knees, and was covered in dirt, but otherwise OK.

When I reached the parking lot before 1 a.m., I was shocked to see that the lot was totally full with people inventing parking spaces, including one guy who nearly blocked me in with his truck.  I did totally block in three cars next to me.  They will be thrilled when they returned.  I made a comment to them, but they took no action and left to go up the trail.

I saw a friend there who asked how many trips I was doing.  I had hoped to maybe do a double, but I told him I was just doing one. However, as I sat in my car watching all the crazy people trying to invent parking places, I decided to do another trip.  I got all ready and went to the faucet to fill up, but it was turned off because of the construction.   I didn't have enough fluid with me.  I could have gone down to the campground, but I would have lost my parking, so I just decided to head home.   Some guys had to help guide my car out of the lot so they could take my spot.  At 1:30 a.m.  people were already parking far below the campground.  Amazing!   I've never seen this many, even on Labor Day.   I'm sure the nearly full moon had something to do with it.

 Probably a good thing I didn't do another trip.  The face plant beat me up pretty good and the leg was a little sore.  

Road run on JRP.  Pace on the flats has improved by over 3 minutes per mile compared to three weeks ago, limited by pain.

First week over 50 miles in six month.   Nice.  About 9,000 feet of climbing.

Funny how after a day of rest, the leg hurt more getting up in the morning.  After hitting the elliptical for awhile, it tightened up and felt better.   But the continued soreness is discouraging.  Wish it would just go away.

Bought some new Hoka MaFate 2's.  They have better support than the Stinsons and it looks like the solved the upper problems from the initial model.  I still have a severe problem with any shoe where my right foot likes to point out, making the foot turn inward.   That is what was the root cause of the fracture.  Orthotics on that foot helps, but I have to also build up the insole to try to force an even foot placement. 

In the p.m. ran a sub 30-minute 5k. on dirt, grass, and some pavement.   Progress.

Less pain today.   Was able to do the treadmill at 9:00-10:00 pace at 15% incline for three miles.  After my inside workout, ran a little at good speed on JRP.

Timp summit #71.   I took my sweet time getting up, didn't eat much, trying to lose some weight.   Caught up with a dozen teen-agers really struggling.   One guy throwing up in the basin.  To quit and were sleeping up on the next ledge, several at the saddle with no desire to go to the summit and a bunch at the summit who looked thrashed.   For most, it was their first time climbing the mountain.   

My run down was good, about 1:30.  For the first time this year I could push sections pretty hard.   The pain was low on the downhills and the new Hokas provided better support although I'll have to figure out some hot spots and better shoe lace tension.

The parking lot is now closed and the Forest Service was there getting to work when I finished.  I parked down on the Alpine Loop road at a turn off.  No biggy, just a half mile or less away.

It is nice to be on the first page of the mileage board at least for a few hours.  I haven't been there for months.

Yellow Fork Canyon above Herriman

Yellow Fork Canyon

Treadmill and JRP run.   10:00-8:30 pace at 10% for six miles.

I'm still cautious and concerned.  Unsure if my workouts are helping or hurting.  Since I still see good week-to-week improvement, I believe they help.  I have crazy fears that as I run the leg will just bust in half.

I ran treadmill, 10 miles at 10:00-8:00 pace, all at 10%.   By far the toughest treadmill run post-injury.  All felt good afterwords.   Pains just rotate around the leg to different spots.  Wish they would go away, but I suspect they will be there for many more weeks.

I'm still planning on "running" Cascade Crest 100 in 11 days.  But my attitude is that it will just be a supported adventure run of undetermined length.  I won't race.  I won't care if I DNF.  I will just enjoy the Pacific Northwest trails, where I grew up.

More tough treadmill

Ran the steep last three miles up Butterfield canyon to the pass and continued up for awhile on the road up to West mountain.   Nice hill training.

Things going OK.  My other knee is a problem.  The knee cap is bruised underneath, not tracking well, especially on downhills and is pretty sore.   That is a chronic problem for me at times.  Need to tighten up the quads and might need to tape up the knee cap a little if it really is painful.

More tough treadmill, a little sluggish today.

Tough treadmill and running to and from rec center. 

One lady who is there every day puzzles me.   She is really skinny, 100 pounds and she does a tough 90 minute mostly cardio workout every day but doesn't seem to be training for anything, no running, but pounds the eliptical and does high incline power walks.  I was pretty impressed until I noticed that she weighs herself before and after each workout....probably obsessed with gaining weight.

Went up Timp early in the morning. With the trailhead parking lot closed, I just parked where the Great Western Trail crossed the Apline Loop, and then had an enjoyable, easy 0.8 mile to the trailhead. Others were doing creative parking on the road.

I set off at 2:40 a.m. There were still plenty of kids on the trail. My uphill strength was much better, but I still held back to keep the leg pain down.

Above Scout Falls there was a large groups stopped in the trail that just wouldn't move aside untill I asked them to please step aside. A guy grabs me and points to a moose about 20 feet off the trail. I just saw, "nice" and run on ahead as the college kids were still in panic. I startled the moose and it moved away. Others ahead of me also mentioned the moose when I passed.

I pushed it pretty well and reached the summit in about 2:20. There were many groups that I passed on the last stretch to the summit. In the summit hut were a bunch of kids shivering with emergency blankets on. I let them know that they were sitting in the coldest place on the mountain and if they just sat 20 feet down on the east side, it would be warm. Then I just turned around and started running down.

First I guy almost at the top saw me running and asked, "Are you OK?" What a strange question. I guess I thought I must be in distress because I was in such a hurry to get down. I replied, "I'm great, how are you?" Then a little further down, a guy asks, "Why are you going down?" I'm sure wondering why I was going down before sunrise. I replied, "Because it is time to go home." As usual, in the basin I met the groups that I passed near the start. They are always amazed and ask, "Did you make it to the top?" My answer is, "Yes, that is the only place to go."

Thankfully there were not as many hikers on the trail because of the closed parking lot, but there were still plenty of groups that I had to get around. I reached the trailhead in 3:59. Not bad. It feels like my fitness level right now would have allowed me to go about 3:30, but I still have to slow down at times as the leg pain goes up.

I probably pushed it a little to hard this morning. But I will taper now and just rest, letting the leg further heal up. I doubt very much that I will go very far at CCC100 next Saturday, but I'll still go to have some fun and visit old friends from my highschool years.

Last night I was pretty discouraged by continued pain.  I seriously contemplated not going to CCC100 and giving up my slot for the waitlist.   But all the waitlist got in anyway, and today things feel much better.   I did a nice no-pain powerwalk during lunch.   The pains aren't deep bone pain, just rotating soft tissue pain.  Not the same type of pain going into RR100 in February when I had a crack and then fractured the whole bone.  So I won't worry anymore and go with the flow. I'm paranoid enough that I won't do more injury.

The plan for Saturday will be to enjoy the back of the pack and take my sweet time.  I have some friends back there who I never get to run with.  I'll eat pleny of solid food at aid stations.   Hopfully I'll, make it at least to Stampede Pass, mile 35, in 9+ hours.   Victory will be making it to Hyak at mile 52 before cutoffs.  Anything above that is only if things are amazingly good.  I'm not planning or hoping to finish this one.   I'll purposely break my string of 30 100-mile finishes without a DNF.  In this case a DNF is no shame.  30 finishes in a row was an amazing ride and accomplishment, perhaps even a record....certainly is for a 3.5 year trime-span.

Power walk during lunch.  Excitement and nervousness about CCC100.  It has been a long time since I prepared for a race....took awhile to find all my stuff.  Bought some bike gloves to use with the treking poles to avoid blisters.

I took a chance and went ahead and ran Cascade Crest 100 in Washington state.  Mentally I pepared myself for a DNF.   I would be fine with that.  All I wanted to do was run a few miles in the Washington mountains.  I would not be fine with setting back my recovery from my fractured leg.  It had been six months of healing.  The day before I hiked a little in a small canyon down to Puget Sound.  The leg pain was bad.  I was discouraged and worried that I was doing the wrong thing.

I camped for the night at Lake Kachese, very pleasant and convinced myself that I would be OK attempting the race.

It was so great to be at the start line again.  There were so many kind friends who greeted me and lifted my spirits.   I took it very easy and did not push it.   There is a massive initial climb and at the top I took video of a large group passing me at the top.  I was just having a good time.   The leg pain was minor, but on the descent, it wasn't good, so I took out the trekking poles.  Depending on the pace or the steepness, I used one or both poles for many miles.

At mile 11, I was in 126th place out of 144 starters.  Talk about "back of the pack!"  At mile 15 I overheard the aid station volunteers mention that there were only 16 more runners to come through.  I was shocked! I am instead used to being in 15th place overall at that point. Wow, I was going seriously slow.  I tried to work on my pace, but made very little progress passing people.

At about mile 18, two very kind runners, one from Vancover and the other from Boston, ran a couple miles with me.  We talked and talked.  This is something I rarely do in races because I'm so out of breath.  It was great fun and they totally took my mind off the leg pain.  It seemed to magically go down.   Other pains were worse.

At mile 34, Stampede Pass aid station, the only drop bags laid out were for those runners who were still coming.    There were only about 8 bags in the pile.  That got my attention.  I was only 1.5 hours ahead of the cutoff.   (There were actually 23 runners behind me, but only 5 of those would go on to finish.)

I decided that if I had any hope to finish, that I needed to try picking up the pace.  The trekking poles were put away and I truly ran.   I was shocked that within two miles all the leg pain was gone.   My theory is that the fracture is indeed healed and the remaining pain is from soft tissue, getting used to the callus bumps that have grown around the bone.  I think my body just remembered that I run crazy distances and decided to just live with it.

Over the next 18 miles it felt like I was flying.  (My pace for that section was about the same as last year when I was healthy).   I passed 20-25 runners and came into Hyak in 86th place.  The run through the tunnel was crazy fun.   I must of been running at about a 9:00 pace for those two miles, coming up on runners in the dark and blasting by them.   I was in high spirits at Hyak.  Buddy, Karl Jensen from Canada was there and we left together.  He was starting to struggle and would indeed DNF at mile 68.

The night continued to go well.   When I reached the "trail from hell" that goes by Kachese Lake, I was stunned that I was still running.  The day before I checked out the early portion of the trail because I doubted I would make it that far.   I ran that crazy rugged "trail" in record time for me, passing another bunch of runners, arriving at the next aid station in 69th place.  I was only 1:10 behind my pace for last year and if things continued well, I would finish in about 28:30.

However, during the next massive climb, I ran out of gas.  I could indeed detect that due to my lack of training, that I just couldn't push it hard.  But with my experience, I knew what to do in order to continue.  I took some key rests, and continued to eat pretty well.  The "cardiac needles" were brutal.  These are 6-7 steep climbs during a 7-mile stretch.  Each climbs up and over a ridge and half of them don't use switch-backs.  On one of them I yelled out to the trail that it was "nasty."  The runners ahead heard me.

With about 12 miles to go, I felt some sharp pain in my leg near the fracture line.  I knew I could easily break 30 hours, but it wasn't worth it.  I shut down the pace for good, took Ibuprofen, and the pain soon dissappeared, but I continued to go pretty slowly.  I had plenty of time, about 2.5 hours ahead of the cutoff.

The final miles includes a massive descent.  I got my feet wet and with all the braking I was doing, developed some fore-foot blisters.  Other than that, the Hoka Stinson Evos performed flawlessly.

At the bottom of the canyon, with 3.6 miles to go back to town, it was hot, approaching 80.  I was pretty delirious.  Ben Blessing was doing the aid station.   They gave me a popcicle that started to bring me back to life, but I didn't answer their questions right.  They asked if I needed my cammelback filled.  I said no.   But less than a half mile later, I discovered that I was almost totally out.  This was bad.  I knew I couldn't finish without more.  I decided to leave the course and hike to the stream nearby.  This was an emergency so I didn't worry about non-filtered water.   I soaked my shirt in the cool water and used a paper towel the rest of the way to cool my face and neck.   I also drank like crazy.  I avoided heat stroke and started to feel fine again.

The finish line came into view and Charlie the race director said some nice things about me over the loud speaker as I finished.   He handed me the buckle.  This one seemed extra special.  I really didn't think I would finish, but there it was in my hand.  It probably is valued as much as that very first one.   Five months ago I feared that I would never run again, and for sure never finish 100 miles again.  But there I was at the finish line.  I'm glad that I didn't burst out in tears.  All I could think about was getting into the air-conditioned car.

Victory!!!   I finished my 49th career 100-miler and continued my streak of 31 finishes without a DNF.

Recovery going very well.   Pain-free walking again and I pass the recovery test of jogging down stairs without much pain.  To me that is stunning that I have recovered so fast after doing a 100-miler with minimal training.  The slow pace of course was kind to the muscles.

Future plans:

I withdrew from North Coast 24-hour in three weeks, in Cleveland.  For timed-based runs I need to be in speed shape and be able to handle running on pavement.  It seemed like a waste to spend all the money going out there just to do a medium effort.  The RD kindly moved my registration to the spring race.

I registered for Bear 100, my 8th time there and hopefully my 7th finish.  I plan to race it medium effort....mid-pack, under 30 hours.  Four weeks away.

I'm considering Javalina Jundred, end of October.  And will likely sign up for Across the Years 24-hours, to revisit the race that caused all my problems this year.  Got to get back up on that horse.

Treadmill and pavement.  As expected, the leg pain is back when I run, but no worse than two weeks ago.  So, I still have a long way to go, but at least I know I'm doing well.

After a big storm went through, the skies cleared, so I went up to run Timp before the next storm came in.   I started running around 8:45 p.m.   I had the trail pretty much to myself except for a couple guys with backpacks.  Once at the saddle, the wind was really bad, about 20 mph but it wasn't too cold.  I could see rain clouds and some lightning far to the west.  A few rain drops blown from far away hit me near the summit.   I didn't hang around, wanting to beat the strorms.   As I came down around midnight in the basin, I saw a few lights coming up from Aspen Grove.  I hoped they knew it was going to rain like crazy.   As I met other groups coming up, I cautioned them, that I had seen a big thunder storm that was probably and hour or two away.  Most groups seemed clueless and dressed poorly.   Oh well, they will learn.  As I got toward the bottom, I noticed that I missed a big soaking rain storm from Scout Falls down.   Nice.   I stayed dry.   Looks like all the groups missed the first storm at 2 a.m. but by 5 a.m. and again at 9 a.m. they got pounded bad I'm sure.

This was the first time I ever did a Timp run just 5 days after finishing a 100-mile race.  I felt very fine.  The legs seemed strong and the feet light on the trail.   The leg had pain the came and went and came back again.  Oh well.