Goomna 2011 Teaser

Just a short synopsis of the race to wet your appetite for now.  It was good that I had a helper stop by the Adventure Shed to help me clean up while I made this video.



Thanks to Mark (RD), and all of the Volunteers that made this race happen!  It's pretty awesome to have such a great and fun event right in our backyard.

Thanks For Watching!

Double Chubb 50k

Yesterday Robin, Chuck, and I ran the Double Chubb 50k.  I have been unable to run this before because it falls so close to the GO! St Louis Marathon.  This year however I did not run the marathon, and got talked into Chubb instead.  It was a good decision considering I have a bunch of marathon medals and only a couple ultramarathon belt buckles, not to mention a day on the trail beats a day on the road hands down.

The morning started out cold, and it was hard to figure out what to wear.  Luckily I guessed pretty well and was fairly comfortable the whole time.  We started in the back of the field which I hoped would help me keep my pace under control at the start.  This worked for a while.  I took off pretty early leaving Robin and Chuck behind.  We all stayed together at Berryman last year which was fun if not competitive.  This time we were all running our own race though.  The start of the race was a pretty steady climb and I was shocked by how well I was running up.  Shocked because hills are not my strength and because I took a bunch of time off from training dealing with an injury.  I was passing a lot of people and felt pretty good.  Once at the top of the hill I turned it up and bombed the down side all the while the replay of my fall the last time I ran down this hill playing in my head.  My knee is still a little sore from that one.  I tried to pinpoint the exact spot where I went down but since it was covered in snow last time I could only narrow it down to a general location.

Elevation profile

When we hit the flat section I skipped the aid station since I was loaded heavy with Honey Stinger Gels, Waffles, and Energy Chews.  The Gels are the best I have used, and I like the Waffles because sometimes I don't want another gel and they are light enough for me to eat while I'm running.  Not long after the aid station there was confusing section and I was unsure if I was to go straight or turn.  I later found out that Robin was also confused and went straight for a while.  I let a couple people by me guessing that they might know what way to go.  They didn't.  Someone behind yelled for us to go right though so we were only seconds off course.  Now we were in the lower river section where all of the mud would be although it wasn't bad.  I was starting to feel like I needed to slow down when I caught up with Kat Yarger.  I knew she was to fast for me to run with but I did any way, a decision that would come back to haunt me on the second loop.

After the turn around I saw Chuck who looked pretty good, and once I got back in the lower river section I saw Robin, who was doing pretty well also despite having an injured foot.  I was still running with Kat when we made it the Acorn trail, a super steep but mercifully short section of trail.  Kat took off for good and I was left to suffer alone.  The Acorn trail really put a hurt on me and I was not looking forward to running it again at the finish.  I finished the first loop in 2:38 and headed out to do it all again.  This time though it would be much slower.  I grabbed some more Honey Stingers out of my drop bag and was worried I wouldn't have enough to get me to the finish.  Luckily I had just enough.  On this loop I stopped at all the aid stations and thanked all the volunteers.  The volunteers were excellent, they filled my bottle for me, and asked if there was anything I needed.  You can always count on the volunteers at a SLUG event to be great.  Although they are so great that when you are really tired it is easy to linger about.  I ate a bunch of potato chips and drank a lot of coke. Actually I kept my time at the aid stations pretty brief, just long enough to eat, drink, and occasionally do some stretching.

My hips were pretty sore and running uphill was kind of painful, so I walked the uphills on the second loop, and ran the downhills and the flats, although much slower this time.  I was slogging along pretty well clicking off the miles when I heard someone approaching from behind.  He was moving very fast which motivated me to pick up the pace to see if I could keep him behind me.  I couldn't, but trying was enough to snap me out of the doldrums.  He pulled away from me pretty fast on a down hill, but I caught another guy that had passed me earlier.  Then it was time to run the Acorn again and he passed me going up the hill.  I didn't care though because I was so close to being done.  I ran down the back side of Acorn and across the finish in 6:25 (unofficial time).

After a long day on the trail I enjoyed a veggie burger and some chips.  It started to get cold since I wasn't moving anymore so I walked over to the drop bags and got my rain jacket, hat, and gloves.  And started to walk back out on the course to cheer Chuck and Robin to the finish.  I saw Chuck as he was about to head up Acorn and wished him well, then it was off to find Robin.  She was worried about not making the cut off because of her foot so I thought she might need a push if it was going to be close.  I turned off my Garmin though so I had no idea how much time was left.  I walked for what seemed to be a long time, asking if people had seen her.  One guy said about ten minutes, but he was wrong.  Then I reached a narrow rocky section  that led to a long climb where I waited for a while before starting to head back.  Here is an interesting encounter I had as I walked back.  I guy came running up behind me and I asked if he had seen Robin and He told me that there were only two women left out on the course, one was his girlfriend so that meant the other had to be Robin.  I asked how far back, to which he replied, "Which one?".  Why would I care how far back his girlfriend was?  I guess that's what happens when you run 31miles, your brain gets a little fuzzy.  He told me that he passed Robin before the last aid station.  The last aid station was up and over the giant hill and that seemed like a long way to go.  I kept walking back and decided that I would wait at the picnic table near the Chubb shelter, but as soon as I got there Robin came running up behind me.  I didn't even have time to sit down.  We ran together to the bottom of the hill and then I let her run Acorn by herself.  Chuck pulled up in the van and we rode to the finish where we waited for Robin to run across the finish.

After the race we didn't stick around long.  Chuck drove us back to Robin's van which he said meant that he actually went farther since he had to walk to the van.  But since Robin made a wrong turn on the course and I walked back for Robin I consider it a tie.  Back at the van I took the opportunity to give Robin the Dean Karnazes book that she won in the recent Trail and Error give away.

The Hive!

Yesterday I got a very exciting email from HoneyStinger welcoming me to the Hive, their grassroots sponsorship program.  It seems like forever since I submitted my application, and was starting to assume that I wasn't accepted.  Needless to say I am glad that I was.

I have been a huge fan of HoneyStinger products for quite while now, and have enjoyed sponsorship for some time due to my affiliation with ROCK Racing, but this is the first sponsorship that is on my own.  Clearly if you are at all familiar with my training and racing, you realize that this is not a full sponsorship.  I will not be quitting my job anytime soon.  I wish someone would pay me to do this stuff!  Even though they haven't offered to fly me out to Steam Boat Springs to tour the factory and meet everyone I am glad to be part of the team, a small yet important part.  Maybe I'll get to meet Lance.

I use the HoneyStinger products because they taste great and they work.  I have used a lot of gels and bars over the years and these are by far my favorites.
In training or racing you can bet that I will have one or more of the following:

So if you haven't tried HoneyStinger products you should you won't be sorry!

Secret Santa

A few weeks ago  proposed a site wide Secret Santa.  Normally I don't get involved in stuff like that but it sounded interesting to me so I signed up and a few days later they sent me the name and address of my Secret Sant'ee.  The limit was supposed to be $15 including shipping.  I spent $15-ish dollars and ate the shipping cost (what the hell it's Christmas right?).

I read some of my target's posts and ended up buying her a couple of items for bicycle maintenance that I am always saying I should buy for myself.  I also threw in a Honey Stinger gel, bar, and waffle.  I was worried if she would like everything, and was pleased when she posted these nice words, "My Daily Mile Secret Santa better come clean, because I need to know who to thank for this package of awesome! :-)".  What relief!  I knew I would have been happy to receive that package but after all it wasn't for me.
A few days later I received a package from Cafe Press.  Inside the package was a nice stainless steel water bottle from my Secret Santa.  The circle was complete.  
I was glad the people at DailyMile did the whole Secret Santa thing.  I am not sure how many people use their website or how many people signed up for the gift exchange but I will do it again next year because it was kind of fun buying a gift for someone I have never met.
The saying on the water bottle got me thinking about another website called  Athlinks that collects race data.  I was surprised that they had data from various small time 5k's whose results were never posted online.  So in the spirit of the water bottle here is the link to my race results on Athlinks.  They don't have all the races but they certainly have quite a few.

Berryman Trail Epic Mountain Bike Race

This race was physically the most demanding race I have ever done.  Robin, Chuck, Darrell, and I all rode together and were trying to get it done in eight hours.  We came in at 8:49 so we didn't quite make it but it was a great ride anyway.  The guy who won finished in about half the time it took us.  I can't imagine riding that fast up those hills.  Up the hills is where we lost most of our time.

Before the Race

I thought this was a 50mile race but as it turns out it was 56+miles.  I didn't figure this out until late in the race when I was starting to countdown the miles left to go and Robin's total was significantly different than mine.  Sure I was using the computer on my bike and she was using her Garmin (brought to her by the awesome wellness program at Boeing, it wasn't free, but all I get from my wellness program at work is a stupid water bottle and a cooler), but she couldn't have been that far off.  Note to the reader:  GPS systems are great but when you are out in the woods running or riding they will measure your total distance a little short because they don't pick up all of the switchbacks.  Try it out for yourself if you don't believe me, but the wheel doesn't lie.  I think I dealt with the race extension reasonably well.  It's not like I could stop at 50 and be done.  No matter what I was going to have to ride back to the finish.

The start of the race was pretty sketchy, a loud explosion that pretty much came without warning, then on the first turn someone pretty much stopped right in front of me when their chain came off.  So not 100feet into the race I almost went down.  I hoped this was not a sign of things to come.  Riding out of Bass River Resort we took one of the roads that we used in the Berryman 36hour.  Back then I described it thusly "Heading out of Bass it seemed like there was a never ending climb not too steep just up forever and it also seemed like the down was not proportional to the up.  I just sucked it up and dropped to a lower gear to spin my way to the top."  The only difference being between then and now fresh gravel had been put down.  Traction wasn't too bad but I was definitely glad we were going up instead of down (<-- foreshadowing).  

I can't imagine how they do it!

We climbed and climbed and ate a lot of dust, literally.  The forecast had been calling for rain, serious heavy rain complete with thunderstorms.  We were expecting to get wet not dusty.  Dust was the theme of the day though.  There were times on the single track that the guys in front of me kicked up so much dust that the fine details of the trail were obscured and I wasn't even following that close.

The single track was great and the first two sections were really fun.  I did have a flat which pierced my sidewall, and a minor crash, but that couldn't dampen my spirits.  I was also still in the comfort zone of a distance I had ridden before.

The flat I changed pretty fast in fact I changed it so fast I surprised my self, maybe it was too fast (<-- foreshadowing).  In the course of changing the flat I set my pump down next to my bike to be sure not to forget it.  Guess what, I forgot it.  I should have known better.  Putting something somewhere specifically so you won't forget it is a sure fire way to forget it.  How many times have you put something in a place so it won't get lost then when you need it all you can remember is that you put it somewhere where it wouldn't get lost?  This is the same concept.  I hope someone finds it and get years of good use out of it.

Trek Down...

The crash was going uphill so I wasn't moving very fast, and thankfully it was on my right side.  It made for a good photo op though.

We arrived at the Berryman campground which was one of the race checkpoints and the bag drop.  Some of the faster riders were coming in from the second loop.  Imagine the course like a figure 8 with the campground in the middle.  I noticed that they all looked really clean.  We were all filthy from the trail dust.  I wished I was clean.  We grabbed our bags and some food, refilled our liquids and headed back out on the trail.

I had been warned that this third section was full of really steep climbs.  I knew it was going to be bad but first we got to ride one of my all time favorite sections of the Ozark Trail.  It's not that long but it is mostly down hill and just has a nice flow to it, which I believe is pretty close to how I described it from the Berryman 36hour.  We ended that section of trail and crossed Hwy 8.  I was starting to remember this section from the first time I ever came to Berryman.  I was with my nephew and we made a wrong turn and ended up on the OT instead of the BT.  In our defense the sign-age wasn't as clear then as it is now.  Like I was saying I was starting to remember, and what I remembered was the monster hills.

The hills were no joke.  The first one we came to I feigned an attempt to ride up, got off and walked, I figured the sooner I got off and walked the less likely I would be to tip over and slide back down.  The word steep really doesn't convey my meaning effectively.  It wasn't near vertical by any means but anyone who knows me knows that I am all about going down.  Going up is a weakness of mine that was about to get exposed.  I did a lot of walking and really slow riding in this section.  When my calves started burning too bad from walking I would ride, and when I came to a particularly steep or technical section I would walk.  These were the rules by which I lived during this section.  I felt bad for holding everyone back but my legs just did not have it in them to do any more.  I caught up with the group and told them they didn't have to wait for me but they were in agreement  that no one would be left behind.  I was not happy with this decision and thought about refusing to move forcing them to go on a head.  But in the end I realized that if it had been one of them whose legs were about to explode I would have said and done the same thing.  I also thought of some advice I read about the MR340.  'stay in your boat as much as possible.  Time on land is wasted time, if you need to rest do it in the boat.  The river moves along at 3.5MPH so if you rest and don't paddle for an hour you are 3.5miles farther than you would have been had you rested on land.'  I took this advice and figured as long as I was moving no matter how slow I was closer to the finish than if I had stopped.  I also thought of the best advice anyone has ever given me "never make a decision on an up hill".  I was hurting pretty bad, and the gremlins were working their way into my head wanting me to give up, but I've heard their siren song before and it would be a lot more tempting if they offered a ride back to the finish.  I kept on moving slowly but always forward.

I caught up to the group again and I kept on riding past them into a short downhill section.  I was trying to rally and didn't want to stop.  I was having so much fun with the hops and jumps in this section that I got a pinch flat.  I had been wondering for quite few miles if I had put in enough air when I changed it previously, and as it turned out I didn't.  I was not too happy about having to fix it but I was happy about getting to rest for a while.  I told Beth on the way home that it was the pinch flat that saved the race.  It took me forever to change too, not because I was milking it but because this time nothing was going my way.  The whole tire came off the rim and as I was trying to get one side on in preparation for the new tube the part I had put on would just come off again at the bottom.  So there I am sitting there turning the wheel around and around like an idiot.  Finally I got it on and pumped up.  Darrell asked if I wanted him to pump some,  and I figured since I didn't put enough in last time more wouldn't hurt.  I also came to the realization that I need to ride at higher pressure than my friends because my riding style is different than theirs.  I like to get a little air now and then and they like to keep the wheels on the ground.

After the rest I felt a little better but we still had quite a way to go.  Finally Finally Finally we made it to the gravel road that would take us back to the campground.  There would still be hills but hills on flat predictable terrain at this point were a godsend.  There were some downhills too, one of which was on a paved section leading down to Hwy8.  We flew down that hill reaching speeds of 35MPH maybe faster I was trying to focus more on the road than checking my speed.  

When we got to the bottom we crossed the road and prepared ourselves for the long climb up to the campground.  I was feeling a lot better by this time but it was not a surprise to notice everyone spinning so "easily" up the hill while I was really having to put a lot of effort into it.  Instead of spinning my way to the top I was having to pedal hard.  After a while of wishing I had more gears I looked down and saw that I was on my middle chain ring.  Wishes do come true!  I shifted into the small chain ring and everything was fine.

I dropped my shorts into my drop bag.

We made it to the top and much like before we handled our business and rolled out knowing we were on the home stretch.  This last section of trail was like the greatest hits, it had everything tough winding climbs, creek crossings (mostly dry), fast downhills, rocks, roots, fast rolling sections in the bottoms.  I mean it this section was like a smaller version of the entire course, and it was fun.  Robin had been having some stomach issues and now her legs were starting to cramp on the steep sections.  I hung back to make sure she didn't have any more serious problems, which allowed Chuck and Darrell to go on ahead a little faster.  At one point Chuck pulled to the side and told me to take a turn chasing after Darrell.  We were in a fast downhill that ended in a rolling bottom section.  Darrell and I were killing it flying over the terrain.  I don't think I have ever gone that fast on single track.  That section was a real high light of the ride.  We regrouped at a wide ATV trail that would take us to the gravel road leading to the finish.  It did not take us long to regroup Chuck and Robin must have been flying too.

About 100 yards from the finish!

We rode up the ATV trail and got on the gravel road where we were assaulted by dust from a group of ATV riders.  Not really their fault mostly bad timing that we ended up on the road together at the same time.  However they did pass us then pull over for whatever reason and then pass us again.  Some of them were apologetic about the dust they were stirring up.  I figured there was nothing we could do about it, plus we were close to the finish, and soon it wouldn't matter.  After a while the road turned downhill for the final time and yes it was the same road we climbed at the start.  I am still nervous about thick gravel combined with high speed.  I let off the brakes and let her rip any way because you can't conquer a fear without facing it.  I was white knuckling it the whole way down.  As the road turned I went wide and ended up in the center of the road where there were some deep grooves these almost shook my eyeballs right out of my head I have no idea how I didn't crash.  I didn't though and now we were at the bottom.  Nothing left but a short ride around the backside of Bass to the finish.  As we rode up I saw Beth taking a picture with her phone.  I stopped and gave her a kiss as is the custom when she suffers through a long race like this, and hauled ass to catch up so we could all finish together.

Everyone clapped and cheered for us as we came into the finish and there were a lot of people there partying, drinking beer, eating food, listening to the band, and just having an all around good time.  We were filthy and I felt a little weird about it since most people were already cleaned up so I went and showered while the rest of the group ate.  That shower was the best $.50 I ever spent.  

This was a truly awesome race! I don't know if I will be able to do it next year but I will do it again.

ROCK Racing Goes Hollywood

Maiden Voyage of the Gojira Lark

So a couple weeks ago I bought a kayak, but I had to wait until my broken wrist healed a bit more before I could take it out for its maiden voyage.  Michael (my nephew) and I went out to Horseshoe Lake for a few hours.  Launching of the boat ramp was a bit tricky because it was so slippery.  I almost fell getting in.  Once I got out the water was a little choppy and I was a bit nervous about being in the boat alone.  Up until now my only kayaking experience has been in tandems rented from Grafton Canoe and Kayak Rental which if my memory serves me correctly are more stable.  It only took a few moments to get comfortable on the water and we were off.  We stayed close to shore and ended up going down a side channel that was very calm.  Once we realized the channel was a dead end we turned around and headed back to the lake.  We paddled on for a while and staying close to the shore eventually we could see the St Louis skyline in the distance and felt like we could keep going until we got there.  Obviously we were in a lake so that was not possible.
We stopped and ate some Honey Stinger Energy bars and talked strategy for the MR340.  The result of our strategy session was that we have much to learn, plan, and figure out, it is a good thing we have year to prepare.  During the meeting of the minds a small snake tried to get into Michael's kayak.  I think he was a bit freaked out I don't blame him I wouldn't want a snake in the cockpit with me either.  On that note we decided to head back toward the boat ramp.  It was harder to work against the chop on the way back but we made it and we pulled out without any problems.  It was a good day and I can't wait to get back out there again.  Over the next year I will be spending a great deal of time in the Gojira Lark, and I am looking forward to it!