Talked in to another Crazy weekend race!!

Every since my wonderful wife did her first Ragnar relay a few years ago she has raved about how much fun she had, and has tried to talk me into putting together a team to do it with her. I have always been able to come up with an excuse to why I couldn't do it each year.

Well this year she asks again, but I don't have a good enough reason to get out of running almost 200 miles with a team of 6 runners over roughly 24-30 hours, in one van, with ZERO sleep or showers!

Next thing I know we are all packed up and on the road to Wickenburg, AZ

We arrive, as per usual about 2 hours early. We kinda hang out, kill time, hit the Port a Potty a few times, and next thing you know our first runner (Kris) is off and starting our LONG trip to Tempe.

Now I won't go into every little things that happened over the two days blow by blow.

The first four runners went off with out much fanfare, or issues, everyone was just clicking off the miles and looking fresh and fast. I being the 5th runner started my first leg just as the sun was setting, being the oldest I was given the longest leg of the weekend (17.7miles), The thing I have heard over and over about Ragnar is you try to pass as many other teams as possible (a.k.a. ROADKILL). So instead of focusing on the miles ahead of me, I focused on as much road kill as possible, counting each person I flew past with a smile and a "good job, keep it up", as the sun finally ducked down it was my first time experiencing the constant stream of blinking red lights on the road ahead, each one another potential Roadkill for me. I actually past 6 different people that I knew in that first leg, as I spotted the 1 mile to go sign I felt and heard another runner behind me, Oh no you don't. I will not be someone else's roadkill, so I buried the hammer and smashed the last mile to keep that young kid from catching me. (this became a bit of a theme). I hit my relay point, handed to wristband to Jenifer and was so excited that I had passed 38 runners in 17.7 miles, 2:04 and a split time of 6:59 per mile. I changed my clothes, and we headed off for the next relay zone.

Mostly we just went from relay zone to relay zone while each runner took their turns smashing their legs and legs. Now it started to get wayyyyyyy past my bedtime by the time my next leg came around. roughly 1.am., this was a much shorts and faster 8 mile leg, as I excited the relay zone a paused to fix my watch and water bottle and some young guy goes flying by me. What, I will not be passed, Of course I knew he wasn' t running the Ultra so I only had like 4 miles to track him down before he handed off to his next teammate, so even though I had another 4 miles after that point I was going hard to catch him, and just as we enter his relay zone I pass him, Yes, i knew I could do it. Hell at this point I might as well just keep hammering and get this over with, i roll into the relay zone to hand off to Jenifer with a total run segment time of 51:00, 6:42 per mile split. and another 27 roadkills. At this point things start to get blurry, we are all fighting lack of sleep fatigue.

The good news is that we all knew we just had to do one more leg and we where home free. I even managed 30 minutes of shut eye just before the sun came up. As Kris rolled in to the relay zone and ending his day, Mary started flying down 9 mile hill into Rio Verde and now we where back into my neck of the woods, no more surprises, I know the remaining miles very well. Up into Mcdowell Park, heading to Fountain Hills. When Rachel finishes her last leg and hands off to Brandon we all know he has some major sharp climbs ahead, and he eats them up and spits them out. Freaking stud, he hands off to me for my final leg, (thank godness), I decided from the get go that I will smash it will all I have, clickinfgoff 6:30 miles, and counting the roadkilll as I go, as i finally hit the 1 mile to go sign I see a red shirt up around the corner and decide that i will try to catch it before the hand off spot. I start picking it up, faster and faster, and faster until with 1/4 of a mile to go i catch and pass this young fast kid, instantly I feel him jump in behind me, and I push just a little harder, (in my mind I am thinking, i have ran over 33 miles, and not been passed once, no way i am letting this kid pass me back), we round the corner with about a tenth or so to go and I push it one more time, then he comes up next to me and passes me by about a step, I dig down one more time and say to myself NO WAY, get him! I push with all I have left and catch back up to him just as we enter the relay zone, and pass him by half a step before handing off to Jenifer for the last time. Shit!!! I AM SPENT!!! After I catch my breath I check my Gps, my last mile of the 33.2 miles comes out as a 5:40 split, bu far the fastest of the weekend, I have no idea where that came from, crazy actually, that is about what I have been doing my mile repeats on that track at.

From there it is off to the finish line in Tempe to wait for Jenifer, as she comes around the last corner we all meet her and run across the finish line as a team. Clock time 27:38:03. We are home!!! What a great group of people, some serious super start performances. From here it is food bed and 16 hours of sleep.

My first official Ultra Marathon

So last year I decided to run the Pemberton 50K trail race as a relay with my friend Kelsey. After we took first place and set a new course record my whistle was wet. I started thinking that I could do the entire thing myself, and even be somewhat competitive.



Fast forward one year:

I find myself toeing the line of shaving cream in the dirt, that marked the start and end point of the 2011 Pemberton 50k. To make this year a little more special the race would start at 5pm, meaning that everyone would run at least half of the race in the dark. This not a road race with street lights, this is out in the middle of nowhere in the desert on trails, in the dark!

I had planned in my mind to really train for this race and to shoot for a fast finish time, of course having never ran a Ultra or having never run a race on trails in the dark, I didn't really know what "fast" would mean. Unfortunately, I never really put in the kind of training I would have liked to be as competitive as I could have been, and went in to race day not having run farther than 18 miles in over two months, and I only did that once. Oh well, just give it what you can on that day. I know it will be a "PR" as long as I finish!

The race director yells go, and we do. I started off running with the top guys, these are the guys that run 100 mile races on REAL trails all over the world, and in the dark, so I thought just see what happens. Well mile 1 = 6:37, ok keep going and see what happens, mile 2 = 6:35, ok, are you stupid, this is more like my current marathon pace for a road race, back it off some.

So I let the top 3 or 4 guys go, to never see them again.

From here I decided to just run comfortable and try to go as far as possible before it gets dark.

Heading into the last 10K of the first 15.5 mile loop It is down hill all the way, I already started feeling my quads, and knew that it would be a painful recovery from this race, (little did I know how bad at this point), I came through the first loop pretty much unscathed, 1:52 minutes, just as I started loop number two It was time to click on my new head light Mary got me for Xmas. Instantly I noticed that my pace was dropping and not because I was tired (at least not yet), but because I could not see all of the little ups and downs quick enough. I also had not seen another runner for over 10 miles and just decided to do what i could and get myself to the finish line without breaking something, especially my clavicle again. I had one relay runner pass me 3 miles into the 2nd loop and that was it, no one else until the finish line. Where my beating the shit out of myself came was from throwing on the brakes every time I went down a sharp hill, so as too not fall, in addition to that I was also holding my neck in a weird position so my light would hit the ground and that caused a unbelievable pain in my traps for the 4 days following the race. Anyway, I finally made it back to the final 10k section, again straight down hill. My quads where SCREAMMING!!!!, but I thought to myself I can either lay down here and take a nap and wait for Mary to come by or I can just suck it up and get it over with even with the knowledge that my legs are in a world of hurt, and it is going to take a few days to recover from this. So I dug in and trashed myself all the way to the line. I ended up finishing 7th Overall, and 2nd in the masters division.
I guess not bad considering, but way slower than I thought I would be able to go. I ended with a finish time of 4:15, I was shooting for 3:59:59, but just didn't handle the night running well.
After finishing i climbed into the back of the Xtrerra and sleep for a few minutes and waited for my Mary too finish her first Ultra as well. She Freakin crushed it breaking the 5:30 mark and ending up 11th woman overall, finishing :01 second behind the great Pam Reed. Wow, what a great story to be able to tell. Finishing your first Ultra with Pam Reed. great job sweat heart, you ROCK!!
Ok, off to ice my legs and get ready for the next running extravaganza.