It has been a challenging Spring in the area of training. Directly after the Buffalo Run 50 miler I began having lower leg pain. The pain was coming from an aggravated peroneous longus. The only answer to getting back to running was physical therapy and some time off. Then I caught a nasty cold that took me out of commission for 10 days.
I signed up for the Poacatello 50 in December and this race was going to be a building block in training for the Wasatch 100. Unfortunately, losing about 7 weeks of training left me feeling unprepared to take on a very challenging 50 mile course. I chose to opt out of the 50 mile event and take on the 20 miler.
If your keeping score, the 20 miler is leg 3 on the chart above and features 10 miles of relentless climbing and nearly 5000' of total elevation gain followed by some pretty extreme downhill. The course proved to be a great challenge of endurance and quad strength.
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| This peak is a welcome sight and marks the end of a lot of climbing on leg 3 |
I completed the 50K (legs 2&3) last year and continue to be impressed by how well organized and beautiful this course is. The weather was nearly perfect on race day. Blue skies, cool breeze, wild flowers, well stocked and helpful aid stations all led to a great experience.
For fuel I used one 5oz flask of Strawberry Vanilla Perpetuem. I like concentrating it into a pancake batter consistency and can cram 405 calories (3 scoops) into one flask. To hydrate I carried 1 liter of water in a bladder w/ straw and used S-Caps for electrolytes.
The race was very enjoyable and I decided going in that I was going to treat it like a training run. I completed the course in 4:28 and had a great journey through some truly breath taking country.
And now I would like to share a story of why I would choose to surround myself in a community of trail runners vs any other group out there. The community has proven to me time and again to be kind, generous & trustworthy. Case in point, my friend Aric and I were walking toward the start line. Aric was wondering if he should leave a change of shoes in the car rather than sitting them out near the start/finish line.
I quickly responded by saying that I feel like I could leave a wallet sitting out in plain site loaded with cash and it would either be turned in or simply left alone. Smash cut to 10 minutes later while getting ready to start the race. I had a gut feeling that I had left my password unprotected iPhone sitting on the trunk of my car.
Aric told me that was crazy and not to worry about it. I debated running back up to the car to retrieve the phone and ease my mind but the race was about to start so I didn't. After the race was over we hung out for post race activities which included loaded baked potatoes and mingling with other trail runners.
It was getting late so Aric and I decided to head back to the car for the 2 hour drive back to Utah. Upon arriving at the car I made a point to look at the trunk first to confirm my suspicion that I had left my phone there. It wasn't and I immediately became nervous.
As I walked around to the front of the car I noticed something on my windshield. It was my phone! When I went to pick it up it was stuck to the windshield. Then Aric I stood in disbelief when we realized what had happened. Not only had someone retrieved my phone off the back of my car but they had gone out of there way to find a piece of packing tape and taped it to my windshield.
By doing this it would ensure that there was no way that it wouldn't be noticed. It would be directly in my line of sight if I tried to drive off. The phone as mentioned earlier was not password protected and therefore would be easy to do all kinds of things with. I'm happy to report that not one phone call had been made, no text messages sent and no pictures taken.
That's all for now, next up Soft Rock...A 3 day tour of the Hard Rock 100 course. It features 67,000 feet of elevation change over 100.5 miles. This will quite an adventure!
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| Hard Rock 100 course, OUCH! |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa2XnouRXKo
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