Hope Pass and marathon course

Since I haven’t written for a while, I thought now would be a good time for a few updates.  Since the double-crossing of the Grand Canyon, I took it easy to recover for a little bit.  Now I’m back in full training mode and getting more stoked than ever about the 100-mile journey at the end of the summer. 

            Two weeks ago, the summit of Hope Pass finally was clear of snow, so a couple friends and I headed up to Leadville to run the part of the course that traverses the pass.  Hope Pass is where a lot of people’s Leadville dreams die.  During the 100-mile race, you approach the base at mile 40, then climb up 3,000 ft over a few miles, followed immediately by a steep decent 3,000 ft down the backside where the 50-mile aid station waits.  At this aid station, you are allowed to pick up a pacer for the first time.  Your pacer is the person responsible for making sure you keep drinking and eating and moving forward when you feel like you want to collapse on the side of the trail.  Armed with mantras, music and corny jokes, the pacer can be an invaluable tool to get you to the finish.  That being said, they will also have to put up with all your complaining and anguish, so it’s important to pick people who will be able to handle you, perhaps in your darkest hour.  The backside of Hope Pass is the perfect place to pick up a pacer because the next 10 miles of the race you have to go BACK up and over the pass again, even steeper on the climbs this time.  This is where most people drop out of the race, typically because they cannot make it back over the pass in the time allotted.  Race director Ken Clouber said it best; “Hope Pass is a son of a bitch on a good day”.

            To learn more about the pass, I decided it would be a good idea to climb it so I had an idea of what I would be in for in August.  The trail leading to Hope Pass begins in a swampy field and typically racers have to cross a small stream before you begin climbing up.  What we didn’t know is that the small stream is August is a raging river in June from all the snowmelt coming off the mountain in front of us.  After a couple failed attempts at crossing, I eventually found a spot to gently hurl my hydration pack and gear across the river and fight my way across the waist deep freezing water.  Now 1-mile into the trek, wet and cold, I headed towards the trees to get moving up the hill.  I hiked through the trees at a good pace, then kept going up past the tree line, at which point I started huffing and puffing a little harder, but still feeling good for being at 12,000 ft.  A short while later I summited, then bombed down the backside thinking to myself “that wasn’t so bad”.  I ate my words as soon as I began the ascent back.  The backside was lighting my calves on fire and I don’t think my heel touched the ground for about a mile.  Up and up and up.  Imagining going up this hill with 50 miles on my legs made me shudder a little.  After a second summit, I headed back down towards the car, what would be mile 60 of the race.  I learned a lot about this part of the course and I’m hoping to run Hope at least once or twice more this summer before the 100.

Distance: 18 mi

Elevation Gain: 6,100 ft

Time: ~7:00

View from the top of Hope.  In the upper right of the picture you can see the town of Leadville.

Backside of Hope Pass

            Since the snow has made it hard to get a lot of high-altitude training this year, I headed back to Leadville the following weekend to run 17 of the 26.2 miles of the marathon course.  Believe it or not, the Leadville marathon last year was my first marathon and the longest distance I’ve run up to that point in my life.  This weekend celebrates my 1-year anniversary of that race and I’m planning to cut 1 hour off my time from last year (6:23).  Although this time is far from respectable for a road marathon or qualifying for Boston, the Leadville marathon course is one of the toughest in the nation because of the rugged terrain and the 13,100 ft mountain you have to climb in the middle of the race.  To compare this race to the Boston marathon would be like comparing the taste of lobster to skittles.  The toughest part of the race, just like the 100, is a 3,000 ft climb to the top of Mosquito Pass.  Last year when I ran it, all I remember is pain and misery as I was going up and it seemed like it would never end.  Last weekend, though, I felt like I was flying up the pass.  Maybe I’m in better shape now, maybe it was just relative to Hope Pass the previous weekend.  Either way, it made me really excited for the marathon coming up this weekend.

Distance: 17.7 mi

Elevation Gain: 3,600 ft

Time: 3:30

For most runners, the marathon distance is the zenith of running as a sport.  There are thousands of training plans out there and everyone has their own formula for success.  Finishing my marathon a year ago was one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.  I was building up to it for months and was completely exhausted by the time I finished.  Going into the race this year, my mentality is very different.  I understand and respect the distance much more than I did last year.  I know what fuel my body needs and how to mentally engage myself in my running.  Last year I just wanted to finish, but this year I want to finish fast.  The course is tough and I’m anxious to see the difference one year of training can make. 

Marathon elevation profile

Grand Canyon Rim2Rim2Rim

The Grand Canyon, one of the natural 7 wonders of the world, is something every person should see once in their life.  Looking out over a massive hole in the ground over a mile deep is quite a sight by itself.  Looking at the canyon knowing you will have to run to the bottom and climb back up twice is enough to send most people running (the opposite direction).  However, this run has become a bucket-list item for nearly every ultrarunner; the famous Rim2Rim2Rim.  Being a short (13 hour) drive from my hometown, it only made sense to make the trip and tackle the most scenic trail run in the country.  The window for running the canyon each year is small.  Too early in the year and there will be snow on the North Rim and too late you risk dehydration from extreme heat inside the canyon.  After throwing the idea out to some friends and some careful planning, we all crammed into the car and headed out Thursday night for a long weekend in the desert.  We camped in Moab around 3 am and arrived at the canyon Friday afternoon.  Our first view of the canyon was out the window of the car and we all stared out with a glisten in our eyes, knowing in just a few hours we would be trekking across this beast.  We have arrived.

Since we would be waking up at 3 am, we had an early dinner at the pizza shop and prepared everything for the next day.  You might be wondering “why didn’t you eat a big bowl of pasta, like they give you before marathons”?  The first answer, there is very limited food at the Grand Canyon village, so you need to work with what you have.  The second answer is that no amount of carbo-loading would be sufficient for a run as long as this.  We would be eating the entire time we were on the trail, so the pizza was just a good base to start with, which would be burned off early in the run.  Once we set up camp, it was time for final prep before going to bed.  The most important part of this trip would be my nutrition, since dehydration and fatigue were looming dangers that were guaranteed if I didn’t play it smart.  For water, I would be carrying two 20 oz bottles in my pack and stopping at water stations along the way to fill back up.  For electrolytes, I brought along salt capsules, which I haven’t used before so I figured this would be a good trial run.  For food, I packed everything from gels to waffles to powerbars and a slice of pizza from dinner the night before.  As a conservative guess, I would be eating 300 calories per hour and I might be out there for 14 hours, which equates to 4,200 calories I would need.  I brought about 5,000 calories worth, just to be safe.  Besides food, I also packed a rain jacket, Tylenol, bodyglide, a headlamp and extra socks.  I didn’t want to pack anymore than I needed, but I also needed to make sure I wouldn’t be SOL if something went wrong.  Proper preparation before a big run is as important, if not more important than the training leading up to it.  With everything ready to go, I headed off to bed.

Everything I brought on the run

­­Food

9 waffles

11 gels

5 bars

2 packets of gel blocks

3 dissolvable high-calorie mixes

1 slice of pizza

At 3 in the morning, I was rearing and ready to go.  Last minute prep included sunscreen application, duct tape over the nipples and body glide on the inner thighs.  Sunburn can be painful, but doesn’t compare to the debilitating pain of chafing and bleeding.  I took down a leftover piece of pizza and we headed to the trailhead at 4 am.  In our Rim2Rim2Rim crew, we had myself, Ryan and Liz, who are also training for Leadville, and Jon, an experienced ultrarunner just along for the adventure.  Another friend joining us was Chris, who was running just one direction (23 miles) and Tiffany, who would run down to the river and back (14 miles).  We would be starting from the South rim, going to the North rim and back.  As we started our 7-mile descent towards the bottom of the canyon on the South Kaibab trail, all we could see were headlights dancing in the night and a black abyss on the side of the trail.  The descent was fast and winding.  It was nice to run through the dark and not worry about a 1,000 ft drop along the side of the trail.  We reached the Colorado River, 1 mile below the rim, as the sun was peaking above the canyon rim.  We refilled our water and ate a little snack at the Bright Angel Campground, then headed up the North Kaibab trail.  The first half of the North Kaibab trail was mellow and runnable, following a stream that fed into the Colorado River in the canyon.  After a few water stops, the sun got higher in the sky and the trail became steeper.  About 15 miles into the run, it was clear that the easy part was over.  My IT bands started to tighten up a little, so a little stretching and hiking and Tylenol were in order.  Ryan and Jon had ran ahead, so Liz and I kept pushing on towards the North Rim, up and up we went.  After running through a mile of donkey poop, from the tours, we made it to the North Rim.  The trip was only halfway over at 23 miles in 7 hours.  Still, reaching the North Rim felt like a small victory in its own way.  Everyone was cheering on runners as they came to the trailhead, recognizing the grueling effort needed to make it that far.

Probably not an important sign

Heading down South Kaibab

The Colorado River crossing

 

At the North Rim, we met back up with Ryan and Jon, gulped down some water and ate a bunch of food from our packs.  The pizza I packed 7 hours earlier wasn’t looking very promising, but Jon convinced me to take a bite to see if my mind changed.  Within a minute, the entire thing was gone.  While we were resting, I got to talk to some other people who were tackling the R2R2R that day and met “Grandpa Jim” who was giving out soda and chips to the runners.  This was not a race and he was not paid for being there.  Grandpa Jim was there to keep everyone’s spirits up and wanted to support everyone simply for the love of running.  He is one of the people who make the running community so much fun to be around.  As I was saying goodbye to him, we saw the donkey train coming down the trail.  Time to go.  If we got stuck behind the donkey train, we would have to wait a little while before we could pass them.  So off we went, fueled and hydrated, flying down the North Kaibab trail back towards the river.  The long descent made for a beautiful run about 13 miles back to the Colorado River.  Ryan and Jon took off again, being more experienced ultrarunners, and I ran with Liz and some of our new friends from the North Rim down the canyon.  Once we reached the bottom of the canyon, there was only 9 miles until the top.  Before we went up the Bright Angel trail, Liz and I dropped in to Phantom Ranch for some lemonade and a quick refuel.  Possibly the most delicious lemonade I’ve ever tasted.

The first 4.5 miles up Bright Angel were pretty mellow with great views of the river at the bottom.  Then we hit the steep part.  I knew from reading other people’s accounts that this would be the toughest and steepest part, being 43 miles into the run.  We kept slogging on, eating and drinking and resting as needed.  There was a point where I started cursing the trail because it felt like no matter how many steps I took, I wasn’t getting any closer to the rim.  I guess this was part of my mental training.  I started to make checkpoints to break the hike down to make it more manageable.  1 mile, ½ mile, 1 switchback at a time.  Right when I thought I would need a serious break, I looked back behind me.  I could see the river, so far below from where I had come and the sunset lighting up the canyon walls in a way I could not believe was real.  I thought maybe the miles and altitude had been messing with my head, but this was all real.  I took a moment to soak in that moment because they do not come very often in life.  The sun that was illuminating the canyon walls was the same one I saw 15 hours earlier rising on the other side of the canyon.  It was a surreal experience and for a moment, the fatigue and exhaustion and pain that had been probing me for hours melted away.  This view made the whole trip worth it.  Shortly after this, I saw the fence at the top of the South Rim, the end.  Liz and I walked into the parking lot where everyone was filing into busses and let out a howl of victory that confused and terrified all the children in the area.  We had made it across the Grand Canyon and back in 15 ½ hours.  I was elated.

Distance: 48 mi

Elevation Gain: ~11,000 ft

Time: 15:30

Calories Burned: ~7,500

Calories Taken In: ~4,000

            Looking back on this run, with all the things I tested out and my physical condition, it couldn’t have gone any better.  I was fully prepared with food and electrolytes and water, the new pair of shoes I wore didn’t cause me any problems, and my body was prepared to take me the long distance.  This was not an easy run and was 50% longer than the longest run I’ve ever done, but to have completed it and felt as good as I did was a big accomplishment.  I feel lucky to have been able to do this run, especially with the great people I got to run with.  We tend to look up to great people, like sports figures and social activists, who have changed the course of history.  We call them our heroes and plaster our bedroom walls with posters of them growing up.  I have come to learn that my biggest heroes are the people I hang out with every day.  I get to watch them formulate dreams and push themselves beyond the boundaries of what many think is possible, while inspiring everyone around them to do the same.  My heroes find comfort zones and hurl themselves as far as they can outside of them to test the true limits, not the perceived limits, of their ability.  They stay honest and humble in their efforts and let their actions inspire, rather than use empty aphorisms (What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger).  They believe that you can always make progress and should always strive for improvement, even when improvement means walking 100 feet without stopping.  Ultrarunning is a mentally taxing sport.  The ultimate question still lingers, “why do you do this”? It is still a hard question to answer, but I am beginning to understand part of the answer, the people.  The people you train with, the people you meet on the trail, the person you discover in yourself when pushed to the edge.  Unexpectedly, they have become my heroes for their willingness to run through hail, blistering heat, extreme altitudes, with pained limbs, unable to stomach solid food, slogging up and down hills for a ridiculous number of miles, with no cash prize or notoriety waiting at the finish.  There is something else, difficult to describe, which keeps driving them forward.  They have a smile on their face and endure the treacherous terrain as they move forward, hour after hour.  These are my heroes, and the people who make this crazy sport so much fun.

More Photos

We made it!

Race Report: Greenland 50K

            This weekend I had a great time running my first 50 K (31 miles) in Larkspur, CO, which is about halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs.  The course was laid out as 4 loops through the Greenland open space, which sits right next to a bunch of farms right next to I-25.  Out in the distance, you could see Colorado’s most famous 14er, Pikes Peak (14,110 ft), snowcapped above all the other mountains.  The race is dubbed “Colorado’s fastest 50 K”, which does not translate to “easiest” by any means.  It is a fast course because of the relatively low elevation gain and fast downhill sections.  If you have been following my training, you already have an idea of the types of runs I’ve been doing leading up to this race, so here is a breakdown of the race from one day out until one day after.

            24 hours before race day: Time to pack and think about everything I will need for the race.  Typically, I can run for about an hour and a half without any food and a bottle of water, but since I’m not Kilian Jornet, there is no way I could finish this race without adequate nutrition.  The three big things I will need are carbs to feed my muscles, water to stay hydrated, and electrolytes to restore the salt I’ll lose through sweat.  The tricky part about race nutrition is that everybody is different in their needs throughout a race.  The same basic formula holds true, but the amount you sweat, how efficiently you use carbs, and how well your body tolerates certain foods is all dependent on the person.  It’s important to experiment with different foods on your long runs to see what works best for you so you are not struggling on race day because of poor preparation.  For example, some ultrmarathoners operate at their best only fueled by gels for 50 miles or more.  I’ve found that I need some semblance of solid food in order to keep moving for long periods and not have stomach problems.  Since I don’t want to carry any more than I have to, I looked at what the two aid stations on the course would have in supply and brought along only the things I would need in addition.  According to the race information, the aid stations would have water and HEED, an electrolyte drink.  Electrolytes: check.  They would also have a supply of Hammer Nutrition Gel packets along with pretzels and M&Ms. Carbs: check.  I would not have to carry much food, since there would be enough at the aid stations, so I chose to bring along a water bottle, a honey stinger waffle (solid food) and caffeinated gels for the last lap to give me a little extra boost. 

            Once the food situation was figured out, I arranged everything else to make sure I would be good to go.  Next in line was clothing.  Weather in Colorado can change drastically in a 6-hour period, so I like to bring along clothes for every kind of weather and make a last second decision about what I will wear.  The temperature was predicted to be about 34-45 degrees and sunny throughout the morning.  Race attire would include shorts, t-shirt, sunglasses and hat to keep the sweat out of my face, along with a backup pair of under armor pants and light jacket just in case.  Clothes: check.  Last order of business is iPod playlist, which has everything from country to hip-hop to dubstep so it doesn’t become too monotonous.  With everything good to go, I cooked up a pasta dinner with some chicken and headed off to bed. 

Beginning of the playlist

Note the hat is already caked with salt from previous runs

          

  Race day:  They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially on race day.  I started off with peanut butter and jelly with some sliced up bananas and a big ol cup of coffee, then headed out for an hour drive to the race start.  I checked in, tied my bib on, warmed up a little and the gun went off at 7am.  BAM.  I knew I wanted to take the first lap easy.   I was aiming for a 10 min/mile average, which would finish me around 5 hours and 10 minutes.  Since I had 4 laps and 31 miles to run, I had to be patient and not spring out ahead of myself if I felt too strong.  The first half of the loop was a gradual uphill, followed by a relatively flat section.  I fell in to a nice pace behind a couple of guys and we ran in a group for a while.  3.5 miles in, we hit the first aid station, which I went right past.  I was still feeling good from my dinner and breakfast that I didn’t need to fuel up yet.  The next section was a steep, but runnable uphill for about 3 miles.  I moved pretty easily up this part, keeping stock of my pace and how hard I was breathing.  The final stretch of the loop was all downhill until the turnaround and start of the next loop.  The downhill is a great place to make up time lost on the uphill and a chance to use different muscle groups and get a little bit of a rest.  At the turnaround was aid station number two at mile 8, time for some nutrients.  Although I wasn’t too hungry yet, I’ve found it’s much better to eat early and be safe than eat when it’s too late.  I slammed about 6 oz of electrolyte drink as fast as I could, grabbed a gel packet and got right back on the trail.

            Lap 2+3: I ate the gel packet on the run up the gradual uphill section and kept moving on through the flats to the next aid station.  Time for another gel and 6 oz more of electrolytes.  I made it up the next hill and down towards the turnaround feeling good, 16 miles done and half way to the finish.  At this point my body was working a little harder from the miles, so I grabbed 12 oz of electrolyte drink, another gel and some twizzlers.  I could tell I was starting to slow down, but I was still ahead of my 10 min/mile pace, so as long as I didn’t slow too much, I could still make it.  At the next aid station (mile 19.5) I took down 12 oz more of electrolytes and grabbed two gels, then hoofed it up the hill.  Through this section I got down both gel packets and the waffle I packed in my pocket, just to make sure I wouldn’t bonk and hit “the wall”.  By the time I got to the turnaround (mile 24), I knew my nutrition plan was working, but my joints and muscles were having different plans for me.

            Lap 4:  At the aid station, all the joints below by belly button were aching and my legs muscles were tightening, each taking a turn to tell me how much they were hurting.  I had a feeling this might happen, so I had to focus and just keep moving forward, ignoring the aches and moans from my lower body.  The head controls everything else and it was still functioning well.  At this point, I was thinking in primal mode.  What do I need to finish this race?  Pretzels?  Yes.  Handful of chips?  Yes.  M&Ms? No.  Electrolyes? Yes.  Off I go, lap 4.  I was still on track for my goal pace, so I had to keep moving forward.  Relentless forward progress.  On the way out to the last aid station, I ate the pack of caffeinated gels. Ultimately, the 10 min/mile pace I had been maintaining was not sustainable after 25 miles, so I was forced into a slower pace and had to walk some parts of the hills to keep moving.  At the final aid station, I only grabbed some electrolyte drink and kept moving.  If I stopped for more then 30 seconds the pain and swelling would come back and I would be in a world of pain again.  I trudged up the hill and settled into a nice jog on the downhill until the finish. 

Final time: 5:28:38

Distance: 31 mi

Elevation Gain: 2,200 ft

Each mile split divided by laps

Elevation profile of entire race

            After the race I drank some Recoverite, which is full of electrolytes and amino acids to accelerate recovery time from races like this.  Although my muscles did stiffen up, I stretched and iced them for a while and I’m feeling much better now.  Looking back on the race, I was happy that I was able to eat and hydrate adequately and did not have any energy problems.  Since this was the longest race I have done, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got closer to the later stages, but I felt that I was prepared.  The one thing I really took away was recognition of the limitations of my own body.  I tried to maintain a pace that was a bit ambitious for this course for me and it ended up taking a toll in the last few miles.  However, it was a great learning experience to see how far I could go on a pace that was comfortable.  I will have many more training runs that will be 30 miles long, so I will be able to experiment a little more with my strategy in the longer distances.  As a last word, I want to say thank you to the American Brain Tumor Association for the t-shirt that I ran in and to everybody who has donated so far.  This journey has been a lot of fun and I’m really excited for some more big runs this Spring and Summer.  

My buddy Ryan who got 7th in the 50K

Coming through the last aid station.  Smiles for miles

Is it Spring yet?

          They say April showers bring May flowers, but it seems like in Colorado April blizzards bring May snowstorms (I know that didn’t rhyme).  Although the ski season has been great on the tail end, almost all the mountains are closed and we are still getting snow!  While this snow will be good to ward off fires in the summertime, it is playing around with my running schedule a bit when I want to be running in the mountains.  Regardless, there have been a few nice days that I was able to get some good runs in and get the gears in my legs greased back up.

            The first big run was in Ft. Collins, Colorado, put on by local ultrarunning phenom Nick Clark.  As a very active member of the running community in Ft. Collins, he helps organize a race each year in May called Quad Rock 50, which is more or less a torturous 50 mile race with lots of steep climbs and fast descents with very little flat running.  A few weeks ago, he organized a “fun run” of half the course, so I went up there with a few of my training partners to check it out.  As expected, the course was pretty rough and some of the climbs seemed like they were never going to end.  After 5 hours of nonstop trekking through the forest I began saying to myself “Damn, I’ve been out here for a while”.  However I had great views of the Horsetooth Reservoir for the whole run and some Toby Keith in my ears to keep me moving forward.  By the end of the run, I was pretty cooked, but it was exactly what I was looking for.  However, I will not be running the Quad Rock 50 in May because I have something big planned right around then, but I can’t tell you what it is yet :).  For a treat afterwards, I treated myself to a burger and beer from Road 34 bike shop and tavern.  Just like the name implies, this is a bike shop in Ft. Collins with great downhill, cross-country, and BMX parts that is directly attached to a tavern with a restaurant, pool tables, and big-screen TV’s.  It’s a one of a kind place that I would liken to the ultimate bachelor pad.  I have attached a few pictures from the run, but for space-saving purposes, here is a link to the Facebook page for more.

Horsetooth Resevoir

Distance: 26 miles

Time: 6:18

Elevation Gain: 6,300 ft

 




















https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.470210346384412.1073741826.436822596389854&type=3

            Besides for this big run, I have been able to make my way up Bear Mountain (11 mi, 3,500 ft gain) and Green Mountain (5.4 mi, 2,400 ft gain) a bunch of times as well.  Green Mountain is Bear’s little brother separated by Bear Canyon between the two.  Even though they are just starting to thaw out, I made it up the mountains thanks to my microspikes, which are like chains for truck tires wrapped around my running shoes.  Here is the Facebook link to more pictures.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.470205446384902.1073741825.436822596389854&type=3

Some hikers built this guy about 2 miles up Green.

Chain law in effect

Almost at the top of Bear

  

Coming down feels like a penguin sliding on it's belly

         














      Since it looks like we are supposed to get 3-6 “ of snow tonight, I went on a long run yesterday to get some miles in before the trails were covered again.  This time I chose Picture Rock Trailhead in Lyons, about 20 min outside of Boulder.  The first reason was because it was mostly dry, but more importantly, it closely resembles the race I will running this weekend.  On Saturday, I’ll be running the Greenland 50 K in Larkspur, CO.  For those of you who have run a 5 K before, it’s just like running ten of those, back to back for 31 miles.  The trail is fairly mellow by trail running standards and consists of 4 loops, each with about a 400 ft climb over 5 miles, followed by a steep descent back to the start.  The overall elevation gain is about 1,600 ft, which is very close to the elevation gain of Picture Rock.  The run yesterday felt good on my legs and lungs, so I haven’t lost too much to the snow over the last couple of weeks.  The rest of this week will be fairly mellow so I will have fresh legs to run on Saturday.  Time to go out for a quick 5 miles before the snow comes in.

Distance: 15 miles

Time: 2:35

Elevation Gain: 1,400 ft 

Elevation profile of run at Picture Rock

Elevation profile for Greenland 50 K this weekend

Such a fun trail (opposite direction is background pic for the blog)

Back from the dead

Hello everyone.  Sorry it has been a while since my last post, but I have been running all over (literally) and haven’t had the chance to sit down for a bit.  To bring you up to speed, I was in St. Moritz, Switzerland for a little over a week, skiing and running through the Alps.  Although the elevation is similar to what I typically train at in Colorado, the mountains seem much bigger because the distance from the top to bottom is almost twice as much as I’m used to.  That being the case, I was exhausted after each day, but the views on my runs around Lake St. Moritz were breathtaking. 

View from the trail around Lake St. Moritz

After returning from Switzerland, I had 4 days until I was planning on running a marathon in Salida, CO.  This particular race had about 4,700 feet of elevation gain over the 26.2 mile course, reaching 9,000 feet above sea level.  While I felt great aerobically, I was still having some lingering pain in my IT band that would cause pain in my knee.  I tried not to worry about it going in, but as soon as the gun went off, I felt a familiar tightness in my knee.  Maybe it was the 30-degree weather, maybe I didn’t give it enough time to rest, but the race had started and there was only one direction to move, forward.  For the first 4 miles, I was feeling pretty good.  My knee was tight, but not in pain, so I kept trucking along up the “S Mountain” at a good pace, starting to get into my zone.  Around mile 8, the tightness turned to pain and I began slowing my pace to ease the impact a little more.  By mile 10, the pain had become excruciating.  At this point in the race, everyone was hiking up a steep portion of the course in whiteout blizzard conditions.  I must say, it was really cool to be running in a blizzard and the cold didn’t bother me a bit.  I think it may have made things worse for me knee, though.  After limping 3 more miles to the aid station, the pain became so severe that it radiated all over my body and I started to feel sick.  I sat down for a bit to try and regroup myself so I could make it the next 13 miles, but when I tried moving again, everything came back.  For the first time, I would have to make the decision to pull out of the race.  The letters DNF ran through my head, which followed by feelings of shame and frustration.  My fitness level for this race was on par, but I decided I couldn’t go on, especially if I wanted to get healthy quickly and continue training for the more important race in August.  With my tail tucked between my legs, I took a ride back in to town.

Agonizing knee pain in Salida

Although the experience made me angry and frustrated, it put things into perspective for me about my current training regimen and what injuries can do.  I have not dealt with a serious injury like this before, so I was not fully aware of how debilitating it could become.  Looking back now, it was an important learning experience for me.  Training for Leadville has been a major learning experience both from researching and from experiencing.  This was one of those experiences that I had to learn from and remind myself the importance of rest and strengthening to avoid conditions like this from coming back. 

            After returning from Salida, I had only one week until I was heading back to Moab for a half marathon.  When I originally signed up for these two races, I purposely wanted them back-to-back so I would be running the half marathon on tired legs to help build my endurance.  Now, I was looking at running it on a hurt knee and hurt pride, not where I wanted to be.  Regardless, I still wanted to run Moab, so I had to take action to get better as quick as possible.  I did some reading and consulted a few runners about my knee problem and put together a strength training regimen for my tensor fasciae latae (TFL), the primary muscle responsible for tightening the IT band.  A stronger TFL offers more stability for the leg on the ground during running.  More stability equates to less stress and less pain.  After a week of hip abduction and single leg balancing exercises, I was still unsure if I could run the race, but I was feeling a lot better.  When I got to Moab, I decided it was game time and lined up at the start for the half marathon.

View from the road we ran down

             

This particular race has been going on for 38 years and attracts nearly 4,000 runners.  It begins in the Canyonlands of Moab along a curvy road with giant red sandstone walls on each side and the Colorado River running parallel to the road.  It is definitely one of the more beautiful courses I have ever run, even with very little elevation gain (347 ft).  After 10 miles running through the canyon, the final 3 miles traverse through town, where families, drummers, and kids come to cheer everyone on.  I felt great from the beginning of the race to about mile 7, when I started feeling my knee tighten up.  However, the pain I experienced in Salida did not follow and I felt much stronger, which meant the week of strengthening did some good for me.  I ran the rest of the race pain-free and finished in 1:48, which averages to about an 8:12 mile and 23^rd for my age group.  I was happy with my finish and happy that I was on the right road for recovery.  Now that I am back in Boulder, I have continued my strengthening and have been feeling stronger every day.  I am happy to be back on track now and to have learned how to treat my knee pain.

Campsite along the Colorado River in the canyon we ran through

We had a great group of runners come to Moab for the adventure

Cooling off after the race with some cliff jumping

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