Old Man Still running

3.5 treadmill miles untill I wanted to kill myself.  Running indoors after that Grand Canyon run just seems criminal.  So, I went outside and ran 3.5 on the JRP.

OK, I decided to run the Salt Flats 100 on Friday.  Should be chilly, windy weather, kind of like Buffalo Run 100.   It is a first-time race with aid stations far apart.

Going to go buy some Hoka Bondi-Bs for it this afternoon.

Eight miles on wet roads, JRP and Lehi/Saratoga roads.  Great to be outside.  But then I'll watch Biggest Loser tonight and get mad because that show is teaching America that the only way to workout is being in a gym.

Took the Hoka Bondi Bs for a test drive.  Couldn't detect any defects, no hot spots felt or pressure points.  I need to take them on some uneven trails.

I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm dreaming about my next bucket-list adventure run.  95-miles around Mount Rainier on the Wonderland trail.  I grew up at the foot of that mountain.  Only a couple guys have done a solo-self-supported run around it.   Weather is always the big problem there, so I would probably need to go there with very little notice to get the great weather.

28 degrees out this morning.  What is up with that?  Wimped out and did treadmill, testing out the new Hokas some more.  Still seem fine, just debating which insoles to use.  Just easy miles, taper run.  If there is only two weeks between 100-mile runs, there is no real training in-between, just recovery and taper.   This will be a good test for later this summer when I do three 100s within six weeks.

Looking at my last year results on ultrasignup.com. I noticed something interesting.  They show your overall place but also place by gender.  I noticed that in every race I ran during the past 12 months that I only was chicked at most twice in each race.  Some races no women beat me, others only one, and a couple two.  That is a huge difference from past years, another indicator of progress.  Some of these were huge races like Rocky Raccoon, Wasatch, Bear, Bighorn, Squaw Peak, etc.   I don't like the way they calculate ranking.  It is all based in comparison to the guy who won the race.  In Rocky where Ian posted that record winning time, even though I placed high, 34th, I get a 59% ranking for that race pulling my average down.   Also, it doesn't take into account recent years, my low placements years ago still bring down my average.  So it is hard to use that ranking to really rank the competition.

My 40th 100-mile finish is in the books.   This is a new 100-mile race and this year it was a free test-run.  Good thing, there were a bunch of challenges but the rookie race director has learned a lot.

The race was held near the Bonneville Salt Flats, mostly on the very remote islands to the north.  I thought the race would be flatter, but it had several pretty long and tough climbs up to the top of some rpasses giving incredible views of the salt flats. It looked like a frozen ocean.

The biggest problem was that the race director marked the course a week in advance.  As we were running we discovered that someone had carefully removed all the markers for about 75% of the course.  It must have taken them hours to do.  The race director had to quit racing and remark portions and help direct those in the rear.   I was the only one who ran the right course without help because I used my GPS starting at mile 30. I had critical turns marked.  The winner was an elite local runner, Jay who finished in sub-17, but we think he skipped about 3 miles of the course because of marking problems.  One section at night was impossible without a GPS.  There should have been glow sticks, you just couldn't see any of the markers at night.

Anyway, I'll work with the RD to greatly simplify the course for next year.  It was just too complex.  It could be more straight-forward and still visit the same areas of these islands.  Also all aid stations were about ten miles apart.  The is pretty far as you start slowing down.

The weather was a worry, but we only had short stretches of flurries.  However, we had constant wind.  For miles is would be a 20 mph headwind and at times 30 mph.  I took it easy but was amazed that I still had a good time.  If I would have really pushed it, no telling what I could of done, but the wind made it tough and I really worried about the other runners getting lost.  When I worry, I slow way down.   After midnight, it got really chilly when there was a headwind, windchill below freezing.  I had to stop for ten minutes and warm up in a car.  When I got pretty cold, I kept getting very sleeping and started to stumble around.

Anyway I had a good time.  For some reason I am hardly sore at all.  I can't understand it.  By far I came out of this 100 the less sore.  Perhaps the cool weather the entire time in the 30s and 40s helped.  Maybe it is because I did that 110 mile Grand Canyon run two weeks ago.   I could run uphills the entire race just fine.  I just got lazy and at times walked because the next runner behind me was more than two hours behind.  No one was pushing me and I knew I couldn't catch Jay.  But I could crank out a sub-10-minute mile at will when I wanted to.

There was one section on Crater Island way to the north that felt as remote as I have ever run.  It felt like we were running off the end of the world.  It was amazing.  There was a guy with a SUV aid station at the far end. 

Lots more details later.  I wish I would have taken some pictures.