Run RF

Southcreek Loop, legs felt good.  Rainy out, threw in a few strides. Tomorrow is Run the Burg in the morning (5k with after party till 5PM With free beer), and Tour de Burg in the evening (bike pub crawl).  Thinking about putting in some hot tub time between the two to make it a true Buffalo triathalon.

Started out as a pretty crappy day for a race with a light drizzle happening as I ran up to the bar to get my families packets.  But after returning home and then back to the race the rain stopped so it was time to go!  Was by myself the entire way and my legs were still a little tired from Sunday but ran 5:14, 5:14 & 5:13 for the race, won by 1:10 and got some beers and a nice trophy for my troubles.

Easy run from the house

Southcreek Loop, weather is finally starting to improve.

AM: Village Loop, sunny out...seems to be a rare occurrence on this trip back home.

PM:  Glen Loop back at old RIT with Luda & Bard.  Nice run with some good friends, on National Running Day no less!

AM: Run with Luda & Reptar before back to Buffalo, Corporate Challenge tonight!

PM: Wanted to go for the win tonight, so that's what I did, stuck behind the eventual winner and hit the first mile in 5:00 so pretty quick.  The paced slowed and he started pulling away, but I still found myself in second place as I tried to grab water to throw on my head I only managed to spill water on the girl holding it, I zoomed down to the circle in front of Millard Fillmore Hospital and made the turn around then hit the 2 mile in 5:20.  Jon French then caught up to me and we raced neck and neck for the last part of the race, I heard a lot of the people from the Try-it/Labatt team cheering me on and hit mile 3 in 5:09, we made a few turns and I tried to pick it up, but Jon unleashed a wicked kick and put 5 seconds on me in the last straight.  Got third, happy to finally crack the top 5, but only 20 seconds behind first which is encouraging. 

Did my North Boston - Boston State road loop, my favorite loop on my Birthday.  It was huuuuuumid out, but that didn't stop my from going fast (touching 6 min/mile) so I could get back home to celebrate with my keg!

Squeezed in a Southcreek run before I headed back to SLC.

City Creek Canyon loop, went well for the first half but then the heat/altitude began to assert themselves.  Also found out that my services may be needed for a Ragnar Ultra team today so there's that.

Liberty Park, normally would have gone further but got roped into Ragnar tomorrow so took it easy, though still feeling the shift to altitude.

Mr. Garmin took a little extra time to get started so I didn't get the full time, but when it came to it showed I was closer to 5 minute pace than 6 minute pace.  Probably a bad idea if I have to run 32 miles in 24 hours.  So I calmed down and settled into a pace just under 6 and kept chugging along, I was alone for the whole leg until I caught my first guy meters from the finish.  I managed to make up a lot of the gap on the other Ultra team that we were battling with.

Also, Starting with the fast teams was awesome.  So much less crowded and really didn't hit the mass of people till about exchange 18 which was a welcome change from last year. 

A big thanks to Wasatch Running Company for letting me on the team and giving my some great stuff to wear during the race.

My next leg came as dawn was approaching.  A long leg of 17.5 miles mostly on the rail trail heading back towards PC.  After some missteps identifying Allie I was off, but this time there were actually people to catch and we had put 12 minutes on our rivals as Allie had started her leg.  The first 4 miles were along the side of the road clipping along right around goal pace between 630 & 640.  Then as I got onto the trail I got passed, thinking it was our rivals I dropped the pace and right then I rolled my ankle.  But I pressed on and gave chase as best I could dropping low 6's along the way.  But he kept pulling away, when I got to the next exchange point I saw him standing there wearing an Orange number, woops I guess he wasn't on the team we were worried about.  Then after a quick decent out of town it was back to the rail trail.  At this point the sun was out and it was about 5-10 degrees colder than the first half of the leg.  I was just rolling along now easing back to running between 6:20 & 6:30 miles really looking forward to the next person to catch.  As I handed off to Trent I had gotten 92 people, 17.5 miles in 1:52:30. 

Then we got to our last major exchange point and started to get ready for our last and most challenging legs.  I stretched and rolled out my legs and went to lay down in the shade.  It was very pleasant and then a car stopped on the curb and the contents spilled out around me and jabbered on and on, eventually I talked to them for a little bit and then headed back to the car.  I kept looking at the mountains knowing I would have to climb up, not the most fun time I could imagine.  I was also reflecting on the fact that I had never looked at the mountains with such disdain.  But Allie got the slap bracelet and was off, we stopped to give her some water at the first exchange point then we went to my exchange point.  I took a gel and got all spiffed up to proceed on a death march up a mountain, neglecting to grab another to take with me.  This year the Ragnar brain trust  said "Hey you know what? What if we made the first mountain leg one mile longer, but make it flat so it's ok" Well it went ok, but with a giant climb coming up the less you run beforehand the better.  The run was just as steep as I though it would be, but the goal was just to keep running, and the other goal was to catch 107 people to being it to a cool 200.  The first half went pretty well, I caught over 80 people and kept running the whole time, Trent and Allie stopped to cheer me on once but they had to skedaddle up to the top with all the traffic.  There were plenty of people out cheering and spraying runners whether they wanted it or not.  As I got to the first exchange I passed an actual runner who was walking and urged him on, because hey someone else has to run too, right?  Well then people watched me as I stupidly ran through the exchange zone to try and climb another 1500'.  By this point some of the switchbacks were just out of control steep so I power walked for the first time, but was probably going a little faster than running.  The first mile of the second leg was probably one of the longest of my life, but I was still catching people, but about 2 miles in I was just running out of energy.  So I was walking the really steep parts and running when I recovered a little.  The last half mile really stunk, the teammate of the guy I urged on passed me while I was walking and then a girl passed me, but then inexplicably started walking when the finish line was in sight.  Myself, seeing that I was almost done climbing this accursed mountain, ran it in and encouraged her to do the same saying you can finally crack a beer once you're done, but she replied she already had a diet coke earlier.  Utah, go figure.  Reaching Trent I took off the slap bracelet and after two failed attempts to straighten it out just threw it at him, ducked under the ribbon and took a little break.  Allie waited for me to gain some composure and accompanied me back to the car, where I set layed hunched over with the bumper keeping me from collapsing.  Allie go me a gel and I quickly consumed it and immediately started feeling better. D'oh, that probably would have been a little less awful if I had taken that gel with me.  But valuable intel for the next time I do a crazy climb after two hard runs.  We think we won the Ultra division, but we will find out for sure once the results come out, 24:01 for the total time. 8.4 miles in 1:18:43 and I passed 116 people exceeding my goal! 

Stolen from Allie:

wasatch back relay with the wasatch running center ultra team. first place in the male ultra category and 9th overall with a time of 24 hours, 1 minute, 4 seconds.

One last thought, Ragnar does a very good job putting on an event.  This is not a race, seeing as a group of people running twice as far as needed can get in the top ten.  As for a party I don't really get it.  Unless yelling at people in a lot of traffic is fun, but you can do that at rush hour everyday.  If I want to have a good time running then I'll go out for an easy run with people so we can chat and not run alone, then do something actually fun after we have all bathed.

Barely left the house yesterday, and then today was going to try to run up to the capitol and add on if I felt good.  As soon as I left my house and start climbing I realize I probably won't make it up Capitol hill, so I ran down to Liberty and back scooting under 6 minute pace.  Hopefully I bounce back pretty quick, there's some great trails to run now!

Easy 7.1 at night, legs still not in a moving and groveing mode yet.

AM: 7 with the pack this morning, even Rob Murphy came to join.

Just checked the results and I had the fastest ultra Ragnar leg by 8 minutes, just think if I hadn't bit it the last few miles.

PM: 9.1 with Rob Murphy, Jake and the Alta XC team.  Felt good to get up that high again, almost toughed 9600 feet.

After two days off on my easy week I jumped into the wedding bells 5k with Jake, Andrea, Aimee & Devra.  Andrea offered my a dress but I told her I had something much better in mind.  Cut-offs and my "Come at me bro" shirt from the Jersey Shore.  Ended up going 3 400's and was just blasted, luckily I didn't have times because I would have probably been disappointed how hard it was to run not that fast.  To celebrate America I finished my last leg shirtless as I ran into the tape.  Pictures can be found on Jake's blog.

Ran to get friend Sarah's car this morning, because we're safe and don't drink and drive.

Then hiked up to the Red Pine Lakes with Jake, Andrea, Aimee, Gillian and Tonya.  When we started out to Pfeifferhorn my very rational fear of falling from high places took precedent and I went back down to Upper Red Pine lake, luckily Andrea kept me company while the others watched Jake sprint to the top of the peak. 

Quite sore from the hike yesterday, but got out and did 10 going on the BST from dry creek to emigration.  Pretty hot out, and people are already lining up for something at red butte this evening.

Run with the pack, did not feel that great today. Most likely still feeling the big hike on Sunday.

Morning run and up to and from school

 Alta with Rob Murphy's xc team, Fritz and Jake.

Crashed real hard after Alta last night, didn't get up till 11 then got in my run around 5, hot and dry out!

Hot one out there, ran up to school then back home and around liberty park.

Mountain Trails has put up an amazing interactive map, do yourself a favor and check it out. http://www.mountaintrails.org/map/

Also I'll be meeting up with people at Silver Star Cafe to do some serious trail running at 7AM tomorrow, variety of abilities so don't be intimidated.

Saturday 6/30 7 am meet at Silver Star lower parking lot. We will ascend the new Armstrong trail to ridge, then tag Jupe and Scotts, then back down the Jupiter Peak race course. Easy fun pace, expect 16 miles +/_ or many shorter bailouts to lower distance.

Well didn't set the alarm right so ended up running BST from Dry Creek to City creek canyon.  Felt ok, normal time to climb up dry creek.