Old Man Still running

Went on a one mile walk with the dog this afternoon before a giant thunderstorm blew in.   The legs feel great.  Soreness as usual in the ankle, and a small knot in my right calf.  I'm amazed how little soreness I feel compared to after Ogden Marathon.  Yes I ran that race eight minutes faster, but still.  I chalk it up to better leg conditioning now that I have started to again run long distances.  That is encouraging.

I'm in a reflective mood today.  As I was walking with the dog, gazing up to the foothills of Lake Mountain (my training playground), I couldn't help reflect on the beauty of the place I live.  The contrast of the mountains in front and the deep dark storm coming in from behind was an amazing sight.  As I watched further, the fingers of rain made their way over the mountain and descended like a cloud racing down the mountain toward me.   Lightning followed with fierce wind.   I made my way back to the house just as the downpour arrived.

I've really lived in some beautiful places, each with their unique beauty.  My youth in the Pacific Northwest, very close to Puget Sound.  My young adult years in upstate New York with its beautiful green hills, in our little house on the banks of the Susquehanna River.  Then, my hardworking adult years in the beautiful Sonoran Desert in Tucson, with giant saguaro cactus out our back yard.  Now in my mid-life years in Utah with its magnificent mountains and redrock desert.   Too bad I only took up running four years ago.  I missed some great trails in those other places I have lived.   It has and continues to be a wonderful life.  My daughter will be home from her mission in two weeks.  It will be good to have all six kids around again.  And its very nice that five of them will be out of the house by fall!  Ha, ha.  Ah, the peace and quiet.   Well, enough reflecting.

No running today, just walking.   Calf soreness almost gone from the Saturday marathon.   The ankle is sore, but seems to calm down as it gets warmed up.   It is all about rest this week to get ready for Bighorn 100 on Friday.  I don't want to gain any weight, so I'll try to hit the pool some to burn some calories.   This morning, the alarm went off and I chose to sleep in.

The weather forecast looks like it will be dry for the race, and probably hot.   Ten degrees hotter on Saturday than Friday.  The race starts on Friday at 11 a.m. and climbs immediatly up 3,500 feet, so that cools things down.  But, 24 hours later, I'll be coming back down.  I'll finish the race in the early afternoon and the last 12 miles are always the hottest.   I could be on the hot dirt road in nearly 90 degrees.   I hate that.   Running in 90 degrees at mile 95 is torture.  Oh well, I've done it before, I'll just have to prepare for it.

I swam a mile in the pool, tapering....not running.   Then I tried to do a little heat training in anticipation of my little 100-mile run this weekend in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming (near Montana).  Here's what I did.  I spent time in the hot tub (around 104 degrees).   I observed that my resting heart rate (well, after the mile swim), was about 85-90 bpm in that heat.   I tried to pump it up by doing kicking.  I could get it up around 120-130 bpm, but it wasn't enjoyable in that heat.  I just couldn't sustain it very long so I would back off and then try again.   I was in there for 20 minutes.   That was an interesting workout and I have to believe it really helps the body adjust to heat stress.  I'll try to do this some more.

Weight: 176.

I swam one mile in the pool and again tried to do some heat training in the 105 degree hot tub.  After the swim my heart rate was 68 in the 92 degree pool.  Once I got in the hot tub it jumped to 80.   Did some kicking to get the rate up to 130 and then when resting it would go back down to 90.   It was tough work and I had to get out a couple times to cool off.  Did this for 30 minutes.  Finally I went in the lower hot tub 101 degrees and used a high pressured water jet to give all my leg muscles a deep tissue massage.  It does wonders to loosen things up.   The only soreness I feel from Saturday's marathon is a tiny bit in the right shin.  Calf muscles are fine now.   Looks like I'm good to go.  Two more days of rest before the 100-mile torture run at Bighorn.   Now it is about getting two good night's sleep because I will run through the night Friday night (hopefully not sleep-walking).

I know I'm obsessive about my pace during races, but it helps to push me along.  Below is my pacing chart for Big Horn 100 on Friday.  It shows my goal pace and the pace I ran in 2006 and 2007.   I didn't include 2008 because the course was different due to heavy snow pack.  I finished in 26:45 last year and my splits last year have helped me set goals on those sections this year.

	miles	Goal	Clock	2006	2007
Start	0	0:00	11:00 AM
Fence Spring	6.25	1:30	12:30 PM	1:34	1:31
Upper Sheep	8.5	2:00	1:00 PM
Dry Fork Ridge	13.4	2:45	1:45 PM	3:05	3:00
Cow Camp	19.5	3:50	2:50 PM	4:23	4:07
Bear Camp	26.5	5:20	4:20 PM	6:04	5:50
Footbridge	30	6:10	5:10 PM	6:51	6:38
Narrows	33.5	7:10	6:10 PM	8:03	7:43
Spring Marsh	40	9:00	8:00 PM	10:12	9:42
Elk Camp	43.5	10:05	9:05 PM	11:25	10:54
Porcupine	48	11:25	10:25 PM	12:55	12:33
Elk Camp	52.5	12:45	11:45 PM	14:28	14:12
Spring Marsh	56	13:40	12:40 AM	15:31	15:13
Narrows	62.5	15:20	2:20 AM	17:35	17:08
Footbridge	66	16:20	3:20 AM	18:35	18:12
Bear Camp	69.5	17:50	4:50 AM	20:25	19:49
Cow Camp	76.5	19:50	6:50 AM	22:37	22:17
Dry Fork Ridge	82.5	21:40	8:40 AM	24:25:00	24:15:00
Upper Sheep	87.5	23:05	10:05 AM	25:56:00	25:54:00
Lower Sheep	92.5	24:15:00	11:15 AM	27:32:00	27:07:00
TR TH	94.75	24:55:00	11:55 AM	28:27:00	27:53:00
Homestretch	98	25:40:00	12:40 PM	29:22:00	28:41:00
Finish	100	26:00:00	1:00 PM	29:38:00	29:00:16

Full race report can be read at: http://www.crockettclan.org/blog/?p=155

Well, I finished the Big Horn 100 for the 4th time.  "Finished."   That is what the goal turned out to be for me.   This turned out to be the roughest 100-mile finish of my 24 100-mile finishes.  I'll get into the gory details in my full race report later this week.  The tough factors were:  Heat, shoes that didn't fit right, mud, mud, mud, and again not dressing warm enough after sunset.  The biggest factor was the poorly fitting shoes.  The ball of my right foot became very swollen by mile 55.  I decided that I would quit once I reached mile 66 so just took it easy.  Once I got to the aid station at mile 66, I told the volunteers that I would likely quit, but I took my sweet time, washed and cared for the feet, put on shoes that fit better, and decided to still give it a go.  By then I was about three hours behind schedule.   The next 3.5 miles went great during a huge climb.  But then the heat slammed me again.  The previous afternoon I had become badly dehydrated and since then any heat affected my system poorly.   Again, I decided to quit the race but had a seven mile stretch to go before I could reach a place to quit.   A friend passed me and went ahead to tell the aid station that I would be quitting.

Well, in answer to prayer, the clouds came with a breeze and cooled things down nicely.  I was going slowly because I knew I was going to quit.  But with all that time to think, I finally decided that my excuse list was much shorter because it was now cooler.   When I arrived at the station I chowed down on greasy bacon and fried potatoes.  I sat in a chair for ten minutes to get a good rest.  Finally I announced I would continue on, but I feared the next long six-mile hot road uphill section.

Then something amazing happened.  With all of the slow moving for the past ten hour or so, my legs were well rested and ready for a good workout.   I ate well at that aid station and now had plenty of energy in my blood.  I decided to treat the last 24 miles like a training run.   I again started to run, I mean really run.  I loved running up the hills and would push them very hard.  During the next six miles I passed about 15 runners, most of them mid-pack 50-mile racers.  They were all shocked to see me cruising.  I passed my friend who thought I had dropped, and I passed him on a very steep hill that I was running up very hard.  He let out a shocked comment as I cruised by.

I reached the next aid station in great spirits.  A buddy from Colorado, Paul Grimm was there helping out, and he turned all his attention to me.   I no longer cared about my finishing time or placement, I now only wanted to finish.   I spent a full 30-minutes in the aid station, again washing my feet, lubing them, and putting on clean socks.  I even enjoyed just talking to people and sharing the experience of the past day, night, and day.

I'll save the details for the race report, but for the next ten miles I REALLY cruised.  I probably passed about 20-30 runners in both the 100-mile and 50-mile racers.   On the four-mile 4,000 foot drop, I put it in full-speed downhill gear and pushed my pace as fast as possible, as fast as I would do on fresh-legs. I don't think I have ever run such a tough, long downhill section that fast. Over and over again, runners would step off the trail and watch me blast down ahead of them.   My split time for that section was faster than all of my four years in the race.

When I reached the aid station at mile 92.5, I plopped down in a chair and let friend Jody Aslett help me recover from that amaing sprint.  She said, "The have been a couple other runners who looked worse than you."  Ha, ha.  

Well, it was 30:30 and I had 7.5 miles to go.   I had plenty of time to reach the finish by the 34-hour cutoff.  I decided to just walk the rest of it in and just enjoy the finish.  I talked to many of the runners who passed me by while I was walking.   I watched the thunderstoms roll in, wishing it would rain, but it didn't.  

I finished in 33:21, walking in slowly to the cheers of so many friends.   I was just happy to finish a race that I had quit twice.   Over 33 hours is just too long to be running.   I have a much greater respect for back-of-the pack runners who normally finish these races in over 30 hours.  Finishing 100 miles in 24-27 hours is much easier.