Lunch- 8 on a drizzly, overcast day.  Then a few xt.  Taper for Sat.

Lunch- 10.5 with Jim and Scott.  Finally stopped raining after 2 days and 2+ inches.

AM- 6

Lunch- 5 easy on a beautiful, sunny day.

Nice video from the Altra guys in New Zealand to pump me up for tomorrow:

Running Photo Shoot - New Zealand (Behind the scenes).mov from Kevin Winzeler on Vimeo.

This article pretty much sums up my day, and this one.  Full report will likely follow... after my report from my June/July races...

Short summary- won the second largest 50k in the country, as aided by some of the pre-race favorites (including runner extraordinaire Max King) taking a very unfortunate wrong turn (and choosing to DNF) before the first aid station.  Rainy and cold makes for some very slick rocks and mud, which just added to the awesome-ness of the day.  Best technical singletrack course I've ever run on (well, El Vaquero Loco and Uwharrie would be closest).  Great course, aid stations, everything- even includes a helicopter shooting footage during the race.  Good day.

Finally made a bit of a race report as part of this blog post. 

(in case they delete it, here's the newspaper article)

Allen, Bruxvoort win slippery StumpJump

The temperature was ideal but the footing was treacherous Saturday morning, making a StumpJump 50k record very unlikely on the single-track course beginning at Signal Mountain Middle High School.

A wrong turn ensured that it would not happen.

Jonathan Allen of Simpsonville, S.C., was the men's winner in 4 hours, 27 minutes, 3 seconds, and Salomon-sponsored Kerrie Bruxvoort from Broomfield, Colo., was the female winner as expected and 23rd overall in 5:14:15 in the Salomon Rock/Creek Series race.

Favored or not, Bruxvoort almost let victory slip away early in her first trail ultra-marathon east of the Mississippi River.

The first bridge she came to looked slick, she said, so she took a light step and then found herself sprawled out with one leg hanging over the side and her other foot stuck in a board.

"I got passed by about four women and a bunch of men. I thought, 'I'm done, one mile in,'" said the 36-year-old winner by course records of this year's Mesquite Canyon and Greenland Trail 50s, among other ultra victories. "It took me two miles to catch up [to the women]."

Whitney Garcia of Boulder, Colo., was the second female in 5:24:54, and Meghan Shaffer of Memphis was third in 5:33:35.

The top three guys had Colorado connections, too. Allen, 33, moved to South Carolina two years ago after eight years in Utah, but he was a Colorado resident through his high school years. Duncan Callahan, 29, from Gunnison, Colo., was second in 4:32:57. Finishing third in 4:47:20 was Brian Costilow, 38, who lived in Colorado for seven years before moving here last year and running in the 2011 StumpJump.

He grew up in Alabama and lived in Nashville when he ran in the second and third versions of the 11-year-old StumpJump.

Banged up from a "few" falls, Costilow said he "had a little sink" from about 19 miles to 25 or so and then regained his energy. He found himself leading early on when the lead pack, including multidistance star Max King from Bend, Ore., and local standout Johnny Clemmons, went in the wrong direction for a good distance.

"I was the first one behind that group," Costilow said. "I yelled at them -- I even slowed down to try to get their attention -- but I guess they were so focused on their footing and each other that they didn't hear me. A [volunteer] on the course said he told them, but they kept going."

King was clearly disapppointed but philosophical afterward, despite his long trip to compete.

"About 10 guys took the wrong turn -- or didn't take the right one," he said.

By the time they realized their mistake, they had too much time to make up and "about 400 runners" to pass, which would have been very difficult on a single-track trail. So at least most of the group came on in.

King, whose legs were tired anyway from a 100k in Virginia the previous week, ended up running about 24 miles instead of the race's 31-mile distance.

"They have a beautiful trail race here," he said. "I really prefer shorter distances, like half marathons, but I do a lot of ultras."

Allen, who had a couple of scrapes from falls -- "If you don't fall in a trail race, you're not going fast enough," he said -- wasn't with the out-front pack because he missed a turn earlier, about two miles in.

"It only cost me about 30 seconds," he said, "but I fell behind the lead group. When I got to the second aid station I asked them how far behind I was, and they told me about the other guys and said only one guy was ahead of me."

That was Costilow, and Allen ran with Callahan for awhile and eventually passed the Signal Mountain man.

"It was a fun course -- sticky and slick," Allen said, including the mud and moss among the hazards. "I thought I could've been quicker, but a win's a win. And I saw some deer today."

Since moving to the Southeast he's been trying to schedule all of the region's top trail races. He thought about the StumpJump last year but couldn't work it in, he said.

"It's a great race. This was one of the best I've seen," Allen said. "It was phenomenal."

Bruxvoort echoed that.

"The temps were great, the aid stations were wonderful, the volunteers were excellent, and it was absolutely beautiful," she said. "You just had to really slow it down on the sharp turns and the stairs and the bridges. I got off to a bad start, but I was able to get it back together.

"I feel for Max and those guys, though."

Kevin Cook of Atlanta and Whitni McConnell of Athens, Ga., were the 11-mile race winners in 1:22:35 and 1:41:12.

Lunch- for perhaps the first time, my lower legs (calf, achilles, and ankles) are more sore than my quads and hammys after an ultra.  Guess that reflects the technical terrain with all the rocks and uneven footing.  Felt ok, so should be up for a decent run tomorrow.

Lunch- Brr, it's cold now.  50 deg today.  10 miles with Dan and Jim.  Legs were a bit sore and sluggish, but much better than I expected.   Signed up for the GE trail 6k this Saturday, though I don't expect to be fast at all.  

I have a bunch of Southwest airfare to spend for races next year.  Anything from March to June.  Suggestions? 

At work from 8 am till 1 am doing testing, though I managed to fit in two 6 mile runs, plus some biking.  And I have to be back at work for more testing Thurs.

Very tired after long work hours the past few days, plus I just finished an ultra.  Feel like I could get sick pretty easy.  Taking the day off.

AM- 8.  Feeling not as tired.

AM- 3 trail races in 3 weeks, 3 wins.  I guess that's a streak, though it won't continue at Shut In run or TNF San Fran 50.  Today was the last race of the Greenville Track Club corporate series, the GE 6k held at Conastee State park.  Did a nice warm up and felt like absolute garbage- legs were tired and sluggish.  I figured I'd still run hard, though, and see what happened.  I've learned I can never outrun my endurance at these short races, so I just start as fast as I can and then let my legs hold on the rest of the way.  Temps were nice- low 50's and breezy.

The race started with a little loop of the parking lot before diving onto twisty, rooty, fun trails for a mile.  First mile was pretty quick, 5:46, and I was in the lead with GE runner Philippe and a teenager 4 seconds back.  Mile 2 was mainly on bike trail and was 5:52, and I had built about a 15 second lead on Phil.  Mile 3 was back on enjoyable, undulating trails, including some raised wooden portions over swamp/mud and some sand and passed in 5:58.  The last .69 mile was mainly uphill.  Finished 3.69 mile course in 21:58, winning by 20-30 seconds or so.  Legs felt fine during the race and I enjoyed stretching them out on some dirt.  This is a good race, well run with a fun course and 300 competitors and 400 ft climbing.  The prizes are unique, too- GE CFL light bulbs.  I won 6 for 1st overall and 3 more for 1st team overall.  They also do door prizes of lots of gift cards, pumpkins, etc.

Cooled down with Phil and Scott by sweeping the course, picking up all the course markings, mile markers, cones, etc.  I've never run with a cone before.  Total for the day was 13 miles.  I plan to try to sleep more and continue recovering while getting back to normal mileage (90-100+) for 5 weeks of training before San Fran. 

AM- 8

Lunch- 11 with Phil and Aaron.  Phil always keeps the pace fast, so it was under 7 min pace. 

AM- BW- 3 miles warmup with Dan and Todd, then 10 mile tempo in ~61 min, 1 mile cooldown.  Felt just ok.

Lunch- 8 with Dan and Scott.

Today was another long day- left home at 6 am, got home after 10 pm.  Tomorrow will be a very early start, then we're leaving in the afternoon for Great Smoky Mtn National Park for a few days- should be fun. 

AM- 8

PM- Nice loop in Great Smoky Mtn National Park from Elkmont campground.  Up Jake's Creek Tr to Cucumber Gap Tr to Little River to Goshen Prong, then down Little River.  Felt pretty much like crap (probably due to no sleep thanks to crying baby in our tent) so was glad much of the run was non-technical.  Took a spill, scraping my knee pretty good.  Tons of people on the Cucumber/Little River portion (maybe 40), then just a few the rest of the trails.  Beautiful area with tons of fall colors and a nice carpet of new-fallen leaves to crunch through. 12 miles with 1300 ft climb in 1:45.

AM- Felt much better today.  Ran up Jake's Creek trail all the way to Jake's Gap.  Beautiful fall colors- took lots of pictures.  No people until the last 5 minutes.  Ran the entire climb (2000 ft in 4.25 miles), then cruised the technical downhill (lots of roots/rocks/leaves) until the last few miles when I picked it up to 5:30-6:00 pace.  Good run in gorgeous terrain.  Wish I could run more here.  8.5 miles in 1:18 with 2000 ft climb.

AM- slept in, so no mountains today.  Started a long run at 11 am after a small breakfast, taking only 30 oz water and 2 gu's- yup, a bonk run.  Ran the normal roads on the SE side of town- first time on Garrett Patton Rd and Pennington Rd, and both were great with minimal traffic.  Felt good most of the way, often cruising effortlessly at sub-7 pace despite blustery wind and rolling hills.  Bonked hard at mile 21 but kept it ~7:30 pace.  Finished 23.5 miles in 2:50 with 1300 ft climbing.  Not a bad week considering only  ran doubles on Mon and Tue.  I expect the next 3 weeks will be 100+, hopefully.  It's easy to tell it's post-SGM in Utah, as I'm on top of the mileage board in the low 90's.

AM- 8 ez

Lunch- 6 with the guys, then 6 by myself behind GE.  This week is the local marathon and pretty much all the lunch run group is doing it except me.  Makes for some lonely running the next 2 weeks as they are all tapering and recovering rather than doing normal runs. 

AM- working second shift today, so slept in a bit and then went for a nice run around home.  15 miles or so on hilly terrain, 1:52.  Great weather for a run. 

I really need to update my GSR blog.  I haven't done any race reports or anything since March. 

Am- 12

Lunch- 10 more, half by myself behind GE.

Passed my goal of 3300 miles for the year,but I think I'll keep running a bit more as it will likely help my 50 miler in December.

AM- Medium workout.  3 warmup, 3 tempo, 1 uphill (10% incline at 6 mph), 2 tempo, 1 uphill, 2 tempo, 1 cooldown.  The tempo were 6:00 ish pace, each one faster.  The last mile was pretty quick, esp. the 12 mph last bit.  Tired by the end.  13 miles in 93 min (I think).

Lunch- 4 run, then 4 xt, and 15 min abs.  Tired, tired, tired. 

Lunch- 8 ez, some of it with Jason and Aaron.  Spinx Run Fest tomorrow, with most the guys doing the marathon and a few doing the half.  I'll be doing the Foothills Trail Bench marathon by myself.

AM- Today is the local Spinx road marathon, so I decided to run the FHT Heartbreak Bench marathon again on the trails.  It's 24-25 miles, 4800 to 5800 ft climbing (ish), lots of fun.  I wore my Ragnar hunter safety orange and saw lots of hunters and backpackers (at least the second half).  Went out moderate pace and hit the turnaround in 2:06, 2 min faster than last time.  Came back in 2:01, 4 min faster than last time.  New FKT of 4:07:57.  I love this trail- lots of singletrack, tons of pretty trees and a carpet of leaves, lots of hills.  If I stopped my potty and picture breaks, and didn't do it at the end of 100 mile weeks, I'm sure I could break 4 hrs.  Next time.  I'd have to stop negative splitting this, since I should be tired on the way back and it's 500 ft more climbing.

Stayed up too late watching the broncos, so skipped the morning run. Besides, no need to go overboard with miles.

Lunch-11 miles listening to adventures from the marathon last weekend.

Sandy might dump 2-3 feet of snow in the mountains, which would sure make my race interesting this weekend.

Lunch- 5 with Todd and Eric, then 6 with Eric behind GE.

PM- PM with Aaron and Justin.  Barry moved, so we can no longer meet at his house that was one mile from the park (**sniff**).  Aaron and Justin are recovering from the marathon so ran 3.5 with me, then I did about 10 more miles by myself.  First headlamp run, though many more will come thanks to daylight savings next week. 

Something to watch before tonight.  I'm all in favor of the Mom and Dad tax, and what they do with raisins.