Tough Mudder NorCal 2010

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Last weekend I joined two of my DealBase co-workers (Sam (CEO) and Ross (BizDev)) for the Tough Mudder event at Bear Valley in Northern California.  We arrived on Friday, ran Saturday, and drove/flew back on Sunday.  It was quick, but was a fun weekend.  Ross found us a good rental house, and we had dinners at two of the restaurants at the lodge.  Bear Valley is a small, classic CA ski place, and turned out to be a decent venue for the event.  There were some things that could have been improved, but overall it worked out well, given the 3500+ participants on Saturday.  They did it all over again on Sunday, but with fewer participants.

As for the event itself, it was 7 miles of running, and about 15 obstacles.  Some of the obstacles required crawling through pipes or under wire or netting on the ground, and thrashed your elbows (especially for us 6'+ height folks who really had to drag our bodies through it using hands and elbows - some of the shorter folks were able to crawl more on their knees in some cases).  There were some fun walls to scale too.  I had been pretty worried about these beforehand, thinking they'd be extremely tough, but with the help of teammates or other participants, they wound up being fun.  

First page of event photos
(I'm the guy in the greenish top, with super short hair; Ross was sporting the "fauxhawk" for the event :)

The two hardest obstacles both involved water.  The first was running uphill in the halfpipe while they blasted you with quite cold water from the snowmakers.  Initially it didn't look that hard, but with that cold water hosing you down and the steepness of the hill, you got quite winded.  However, that was kind of trivial in comparison to what we wound up nicknaming the "ballshrinker"...

The Ballshrinker, or proper name, "Underwater Tunnels", was brutal.  They'd created this big reservoir of seriously freezing cold water (I'd guess 40 degree range?).  You ran down into the water, which happened to smell like crap, and then you had to swim under some barrels.  That dive and underwater time completely knocked the wind out of you.  All of us were practically hyperventilating upon surfacing.  I felt stunned when I popped up after the first set of barrels, and just sat there for a bit, gathering myself to then have to go under the next set.  We did make it, up the other side, only to then have to slide back down into the water and swim a bit.  Upon emerging from that second dip, my entire body felt like it had been compressed and shrunk.  I was extremely cold.  The next bit involved carrying large tree rounds, and by the end of that, my fingers were numb.

Second page of event photos

After that we did some more running, climbing of fences, crawling, etc., to finish up running through fire. Now I can say I've run through fire!  It took us about 1 hour 50 minutes, one mouthful of nasty Ballshrinker water (Sam), some Clif Shot Blocks (thanks Ross!), and a few dixie cups of water. I'd have to say, I really did have fun, and especially some of the earlier terrain we were running was truly outstanding - I would LOVE to go back there and just do a bunch of trail running.  It's fairly remote terrain, lots of rock, super scenic, and just THE kind of trail running environment I love.  I will pass on the Ballshrinker though.  And who knows, maybe the DealBase Mutilators will do another one of these.

Filed under  //   race   running  
Posted October 15, 2010
 

Reflecting on the Haulin Aspen Race

I've been wondering why I just wasn't that happy with my race at Haulin Aspen, even though my time was pretty solid for me.  I've realized that it really comes down to the fact that I after about 4 miles, I just wasn't enjoying it, and wasn't running strong.  I had really been looking forward to this race, felt I'd done some good training, and just couldn't wait to get to run that distance again!  

The week leading up to the race I'd taken it super easy based on various things I'd read, some slight pain in my right knee, and partly time.  I only ran twice during the week, and they were both 4 mile or less runs, that I took easy.  In hindsight I think that was a mistake.  I should have run one more day, and I should have done at least one or two 6-8 milers.  That may or may not have helped, but I think that I'd simply have liked it better, I missed running this week!  

Probably regardless of the training, I think the key was that unpleasant, sustained road climb.  I haven't done any climbs that have lasted that long where I was also able to run all of it (I did walk a few minutes, but not that much).  Where I run it's either too steep to run the entire climb like that, or the climbs simply aren't that long.  Top that off with the fact that that hill was just plain boring and ugly to run up: a big wide dirt and sometimes gravel or sandy road.  I knew it was coming, but I think it still just wound up taking a real toll.  Pretty much from that point on I never felt strong again.  And that is really where I get bummed.

I'd have been happier if I felt strong running - even if I was just going the same speed I did.  The "strong" is about how I felt mentally and physically in terms of enjoying the run, having a good time, being happy I was out there running, regardless of how fast I was going.  I didn't get that, yet I did both times on my two longest training runs.  Both of those runs ended with me feeling like I could have gone longer, and in fact, on the second one, I had really really wanted to go longer, but felt the blisters and knew I should cut things short.  But, with this race, I got to the point where I was yearning for the finish.  So, all that winds up leaving me a bit bummed out about it as a run.

It has made me wonder - what could I have done differently to have changed that?  Could I?  Without being practiced on longer sustained climbs, I'm not sure.  Although I do suspect I really should have just walked a chunk more of that climb, left more energy in my tank, and that may have then allowed me to run stronger for the rest.  My time probably would have been just as good, who knows.  But, that's tough, when you're in a race, and the climb is quite runnable, you simply don't want to walk when "everyone" else is running (I only remember seeing one guy, maybe one woman, doing any walking).

I try to tell myself, hey, you've only been running about a total of a year, with your longest run being 6 miles until June, and here you are racing a half marathon, that's solid, you can't expect to have a strong run every single time.  In the end, it's disappointing, but I guess motivates me to continue, get stronger, be stronger more often, and to get faster.

Filed under  //   race   running  
Posted August 11, 2010
 

Haulin Aspen 2010 Half Marathon

Earlier today I completed my first half marathon trail race, the Haulin Aspen, in Bend, OR.  It was a well done event, and overall quite a good time.  My official finish time was 2:06:16, but my watch had 2 hours 5 minutes and some seconds.  Close enough :)  I'm pleased with my time, as I was thinking it'd take 2:15.  But oddly, I'm left not as happy as I should have been.

Prep this morning went great, and I was nice and relaxed at the start.  The first mile of the race was a bit harsh, kinda fast for me, big time dry mouth action in the dry air there, and since I rarely race, just harder to start at such speed.  This was mediated by the fact that I saw I'd done about an 8.5 minute first mile though.  For me that's pretty fast, although that first mile was mostly flat.  I kept thinking I should slow down a bit, and I did feel like I did settle in to my own pace, so I was quite stoked when at the 4 mile mark, I saw I was just under 32 minutes, so now averaging 8 minute miles!  Very good for me, and I was pretty pumped.  Also, at that four mile mark, I was finally feeling pretty solid.  I was also happy to see that my watch mileage lined up perfectly with theirs, so that'd be nice for checking my progress.  That didn't last long though...

Soon after you hit the hill.  It's a wide dirt and gravel road, and climbs, with no shade, for I think about 1.5 miles (I think they state it's about a 1300' gain).  I knew this was coming, but it just wound up draining me quite a bit.  That's a lot longer sustained climb than anything I've ever done.  I did walk a few bits, and I probably should have walked more.  But man, in a race, you're just in the spirit of it, and you don't want to be walking!

The hill finally tops out, there's an aid station (the second one I just ran through, since I was carrying water and gels), and you do a quick bit more singletrack climbing.  Then it is mostly rolling.  A bit after this, we saw one the 19 mile mark, so we'd obviously rejoined the marathon course.  What sucked though, was that this would mean I had 7 miles to go, and thus was only 6 miles yet.  Yet my watch said I was something like 7.5 miles in!  Not a small discrepancy.  I had not really been able to pick up the pace any more either, even though we were done climbing.  This was also about the point I finally decided to try to take a leak, and as I figured, not much came out, but hey, at least the sensation was gone :)

This reminds me that, while on the main hill climb, there was a younger girl (18?) just a bit in front of me.  I could see her keep looking back as she'd jump into the bushes, and then back out.  I covered my eyes in an obvious way to say, go for it, I won't look.  Finally the third time she jumped into the bushes she stayed there.  This was pretty early in the climb.  And I swear maybe a mile or so later (after she's caught and passed me, grrr), she pulls over for another one!  She still finished the race ahead of me, although just a little :)

Anyway, the course continued to roll, few bits of more downhill stuff too.  Even a couple real short, slightly technical sections which were fun!  I was getting pretty beat though.  My watch said we'd done 10.5 miles, but I knew that was way ahead.  But, I kept thinking, ok, just roughly 30 minutes more, you can do that.  I was walking more often now too.

Finally, you could star to hear cheers and could tell we were getting to the bottom.  And then, we came into Shevlin park, sort of ran almost into some honey buckets (go team!) and made a 90 degree right onto....  an uphill paved road!  This was NOT a good point in the race for me.  All I could think was, "fuck, they are finishing the race on a paved uphill?!?!"  That section of pavement felt like it took forever.  I already knew I wasn't going to break 2 hours, but if the finish was at the end of the pavement I just might (since I knew this paved section was supposedly 0.7 miles, according to the announcement at the start).  I plodded along, looking for the covered bridge, as I knew that was the reason we were doing the pavement, so we could get to that.

Upon arriving at the covered bridge, the volunteers said you've got "about half a mile to go".  What?!?!  Ya, I wasn't happy.  Luckily it was back on to trail, but I was just beat at this point.  I tell ya, that is the longest half mile I've ever run!  It easily felt like a mile, and it took me almost that long (normal pace wise) to run it!  Oy.  So much for the 2 hour time.  Alas, the finish finally arrived, and I saw my beautiful wife, and things began to get better :)  I wound up 21st in my age group, and I think 124th overall (out of 353 I believe).

Reflecting on the race, while my time was a lot faster than I expected, I think why I'm not as happy as I could be is that that ending really just kind of sucked.  The paved uphill was just a real bummer kind of thing for me to finish with.  Plus, I realized, when you physically can't see, and don't know where the finish is, that makes things hard.  I wouldn't have thought that, but I realize that was one of the tough things.  In the end, my watch read 14.6 miles, so that had messed me up a little.  However, the flip side of all this is that I really want to get under two hours now.  So, maybe that's part of the problem with getting that close to 2 hours.  Maybe if I had gone 2:15, I'd have been like, ya, that's about what I expected, fine.  But, now that the two hours was only those 5 minutes away, and that finish was so brutal (for me), I think I just could taste the 2, and wanted it that much more.  Alas, gives me a goal.  It also showed me that I can run faster, and that I need to practice that a bit too.  It's made me realize that since I can't go run 10+ miles each run, when I do the shorter runs, I do need to ramp up the speed, and hopefully that'll help with upping my speed overall.  So, overall, a pretty good outcome, and I'm pretty excited to have my first half marathon in the bag!

Filed under  //   race   running  
Posted August 8, 2010
 

2010 Steep Hill Chase 5k race

Saturday Diana and I raced the Steep Hill Chase 5k trail run here in town.  Fun event.  The course was essentially flat, with exception to the "steep hill", which was only maybe 20 feet up, but steep and slippery with mud.  You really had to claw your way up, using hands and knees, etc.  The other fun bit of the course was an option about halfway through where you could either take a "short cut" through the water, or go around.  In the spirit of things, I went through the water, which turned out to be waist deep, and a bit of a slog.  It was maybe 30-40 feet across.  The water wasn't too cold.  Really, the worst aspect of this was after - your shoes are soaked, as are shorts, part of my shirt, etc.  The soaked shoes really weigh you down, and I think, if ultimate time was my goal, going around would have been a better choice, but the water cross was fun.  

As it turned out, I had quite a good race, with a time of 23 minutes 41 seconds, for a pace of 7:38.  This is far and away the fastest I've run.  I was quite happy, as I figured 25 minutes would be the absolutely fastest I'd do it.  Clearly, having a shorter, flat course made a huge difference.  Diana did great too, and beat her expected time, coming in at 32 minutes and change.

There was a bit of a scare at the end of the race, as a woman crossed the finish line and collapsed, losing conciousness for a few seconds, and shaking a bit, kind of looking a bit seizure like.  The sharking stopped shortly, one of the race folks called 911, I gave her my vest and jacket to help keep her warm, and in the end she was ok.  She opted not to ride with the paramedics back to the hospital, and we saw her walking around at the award's ceremony.  Hopefully it was just dehydration and exertion, etc.  Glad she seems to be ok.

Filed under  //   race   running  
Posted June 14, 2010
 

Gorilla Thrilla 8.5 mile race

On Sunday, June 6th, I ran the inaugural Gorilla Thrilla race here in Eugene, all of a 5 min drive from my house.  I did the 8.5 mile version (there was also a 4.25 mile, the 8.5 is just two laps of the course).  I was excited, but a bit nervous going in, as this would be the longest run I'd ever done.  Awoke that morning, and it had been raining during the night, and was before the race.  We heard reports that it was a real mud fest, with some non-trivial creek crossings, and slippery hills.  It stopped raining before the start.  Mike joined me for this race, Jake was there, running in some Vibram 5 Fingers shoes, and speedy James was there too.  The gun went off and the gorilla and banana guys jumped out and then started wrestling.  The rest of us had to go run...

The course was definitely tricky as they said.  Very muddy in spots, ankle deep at times, but also just a bunch of grass and other things that combined to make seeing some rocks underneath hard.  I immediately knew I needed to take it easy, as I was pretty worried about my ankle.  I settled in as the race progressed, and was feeling fine.  Approaching the completion of the first lap, there's a solid hill, which was tough.  I chowed a Hammer gel just before this, which I think wound up being very good.  At about this point I was sort of wondering why I'd signed up for the two laps, but knew I could do it.  Getting over that hill, and then through the finish was great.  Grabbed a small bit of water, kept going.  Did the first lap in 48 minutes.

About 1 hour 7 mins in, as I looked at my watch, I was feeling quite good actually.  Probably had just done some downhills.  A few minutes later the rain started, but the temps were in the 60's, and it really was no big deal.  It wasn't as if I wasn't pretty much wet anyway.  Soon after was the knee deep creek crossing, and then onwards to the crazy guys pretending to be hillbillies chasing us down, yelling at us, etc.  That was good for a big smile on each lap, and a fun aspect of the race.  

I was yo-yoing with a couple others near the finish.  Caught a guy who'd passed me before, and one woman was creeping up from behind.  I held her off on the last descent, which was pretty damn sketchy.  I was surfing down it, and heard her yelping behind me (I can only imagine how many people probably crashed on this descent, so slippery!).  Then I kind of ran across the finish in a daze.  My wife and kids were there and I almost didn't notice them, I truly was in a bit of a daze. 

Pretty darn happy with my result though.  I had revised my initial guess of 90 mins, after hearing the course conditions to 1 hour 40 mins.  Wound up at 1 hr 37 min.  As it turns out, this was actually good for 10th place in the 8.5 mile group (overall: men + women, all ages).  Of course there were only 28 finishers :)  The 16 year guy, Alex, who won it, just smoked everyone but one other guy (only one other guy was within 10 minutes of his time), running a 7:22 pace!  He finished in about 1hr 2mins.  To me that was seriously fast given that course.  He was on the 2nd place relay team at the Ridgeline, and ran 6-something minute pace there, so clearly he's fast, but damn.  My pace was 11:26 in comparison.  I'd like to see what I could have done if it weren't so muddy, but really, quite happy with my result, and stoked to finish that distance.  Turned out to not be too bad.  Knowing the course on the second lap wound up being excellent, made it easier to break it up into mini-milestones.  I also quite enjoyed the course.

The land that this was on was private, 300+ acres owned by a guy who just wants to turn it into a park, but is being fought by the city and his neighbors for some f'ed reason.  He has a non-profit called Trials Club that I need to look into.  Apparently you can get a card that lets you go run/use the area, just have to sign in, and obey some basic rules.  This is fantastic given it's all of 5 minutes from my house.  I may even be able to run via the powerline easement to get there, something I'm now a bit more motivated to explore...

Filed under  //   race   running  
Posted June 8, 2010
 

2010 Ridgeline Ramble

Posting this a week late.  My wife, Diana, and I did the Ridgeline Ramble as a relay team (10k each).  Diana rocked it.  She beat her expected time by 20 mins.  She's only been running again for about two weeks, so this is pretty damn sweet.  I finished, and did ok.  But, I was sick, and knew it affected my time.  I ran a 1:06, which was 6 mins slower than I'd hoped for.  Hard to say how much the illness affected me, but I clearly felt low on energy.  I just don't know if that means it cost me 3 minutes, 5, or 10.  But really, this was my first trail race, and all that really mattered was finishing with a solid performance (for me).  That I did.

One thing that I'm finding interesting, is that within a few minutes of finishing, I felt fine, and was joking with a friend who ran with me, that I should go do the rest.  Couldn't have done that, but with running, I'm finding that, so far, I can recover pretty quick.  The only thing is that this also makes me feel like I didn't go hard enough, or certainly that I didn't finish as strong as I could have.  I'm used to coming home from what would be a "hard" mountain bike ride (say a 4+ hour solid ride) and wanting to just veg on the couch the rest of the day.  With running that's yet to happen.  They're different, and I probably have cycling to thank for some endurance, and am still getting used to the muscle and joint use in running.  The nice thing is that it makes me think that doing 20k/half marathon, or potentially a bit more is going to be possible this year.

What's also fun is to see how fast the top folks are.  Jenn Shelton from Ashland, who's a top trails racer, absolutely smoked the course at 1:28, taking 4th overall, and beating the women's record by 9 minutes.  Jeremy Tolman won the mens, and set a new mens record as well, at 1:21.  Heck, that's only 15 minutes longer than me for double the distance!  The notion of running a 6.5 minute mile on trails is in that unattainable category in my mind.  I'm shooting to be able to do 9 (which I've done just about for 5k distances, so I think it's an attainable goal).

Most of all though, I'm having fun with this, enjoying it.  I haven't raced (bikes, or anything) for many years now, and I'm just enjoying taking a very casual approach back to it.  Not completely ignorant of times or placings or whatever, but for now, just competing with myself, and happy not to be last :)

Filed under  //   race   running  
Posted June 7, 2010