My First Ultra-marathon (Bandera 50k)

So last Saturday I ran my first Ultra-marathon, any race longer than 26.2 miles. In this case it was a 50 kilometer race, or about 31 miles. It was at the Bandera 100k/50k/25k. The last two years I have run the 25k option and the fun just ended too quickly. This year I almost decided to do the 25k again because I was having a little nagging pain in my feet, but I ultimately decided to go for it.

I've been reading about ultra-running for quite a while now and I've wanted to give it a try. The last link there is the blog for Sean Meissner. He lives in Oregon and posted that he would be coming down to run Bandera. I talked to him briefly just before the start and again after I finished. He was really nice and appreciated that I've been reading about all of his adventures. It was cool to meet someone I've been reading about online and in magazines.

As you are probably aware, the country has just gone through a pretty good cold snap. Texas was not immune either. On the morning of race day I got up at 4:30am and made the hour drive out to the Hill Country State Natural Area. It was a balmy 9 degrees Fahrenheit when I got there. I think it had warmed up to 10 or 11 by 7:30am when a race official yelled out, "5 seconds, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!" I had agonized over what to wear for this race. I generate a lot of body heat when I run. It has to be in the 30s or low 40s before it makes sense for me to even wear a long sleeve shirt and I had never run in temps below 20 degrees so I didn't know what to wear. On the bottom I wore a pair of compression shorts to avoid chafing and two pairs of tights. On top I overestimated the cold and so I wore a short sleeve shirt, for when it would warm up later in the day, two thin long sleeve shirts and a very thin rain shell type jacket plus a hat and gloves. Within the first mile I had to start stripping off the layers. I took off the hat and just left my Buff as a headband and to cover the ears when needed. The thick gloves came off, replaced by very thin ones. The jacket and one long sleeve shirt came off too. All of this I now had to schlep around with me until the midway point aid station (at Chapas) when I put them in a drop bag.

The trail out there is really brutal. Big rocks, small rocks, and steep trails that go straight up the hills (they don't believe in switchbacks in Texas). It really beats you up and forces you to walk up the hills and try not to crash on the way down. Coming up on the first main aid station at 10 miles, I heard this music coming out of the trees. When I rolled into the aid station it was blaring. I picked up a paper cup of water, tipped it back to drink and nothing happened. I had to crush it to break up the ice before I could drink it. At the halfway point I dropped off most of the clothes I was carrying and stripped off the other long sleeve shirt and just went with my short sleeve shirt with gloves. This aid station was wild for a different reason. They were cooking waffles, grilled cheese sandwiches and a bunch of other stuff. I refilled my hydration pack, grabbed some pretzels and kept moving. It was hard to start running again after walking or standing for a while. Gotta keep moving.

The next section to the Crossroads aid station was relatively flat. Then came a rocky 5 mile loop with a few hills before coming back into Crossroads at a little over 26 miles. At this point I was hurting pretty badly so I pulled out my mp3 player, cranked up the rock and put the hammer down for the rest of the run. I knew what to expect and I ran it hard. I passed a lot of people and I just suffered through the pain. I finished in 5:50:28.

I was really sore for the rest of the day but I recovered remarkably quickly. By the next day I was basically fine, walking down stairs, lifting my leg up high. It was great! I'm really happy with how my training got me ready for this race and I'm especially happy with how I ran that last 5 miles or so. Awesome!

Ultra-Running

I get rolling waves of the chills when I watch this video by Matt Hart about Ultra-distance trail running. Ultra-running is running distances longer than a marathon: 50k, 50m, 100k, 100m. The trails in this video are amazing.

Last year when we were in Utah we visited Bryce Canyon. After dinner the girls played in the pool and went to bed while I went back into the park and ran trails for a few hours. It was fantastic! I love covering all that distance and seeing so much beautiful scenery so quickly.

Top of Utah Marathon

It has been a few weeks now but I'm finally getting around to blogging the Top of Utah Marathon that I ran on September 20th. The course was absolutely gorgeous! The first 14 miles went down Blacksmith Fork Canyon from Hardware Ranch. We ran by the stream and past the cliffs and it was just lovely. At that point (mile 14) spectators could get access to the course so I saw my parents cheering me on and taking pictures. The course was very accessible to spectators so they were able to drive ahead and wait for me to run past. Rinse. Repeat.

I am the guy with the yellow LIVESTRONG visor and the green shirt. This is about mile 14 as I exited the canyon behind me.



This is probably around mile 18 or so.


I felt very strong running that day and did very well. My quads were cramping up off-and-on during the last 5 miles or so. I think that it was a failure to take my 4th gel early enough and I needed to eat my 5th one. I sweat a lot when I run so I lose a lot of electrolytes which results in muscle cramping. Anyway, just something for me to remember for the next one.

I finished in 3:35:14 (chip time), more than 30 minutes faster than my first marathon/death march/slog. My recovery from this race was much easier as well. I felt really great!

Here is a nice shot with the Logan Temple in the background and my medal around my neck. Well-earned hardware.

My Fall Marathon

So I didn't win the St. George Marathon lottery this year. There were 10,500 entrants and only 7000 slots in the race and I didn't make it.

So... I just signed up for the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan, Utah. I got my undergraduate degree from Utah State U. in Logan so this will be a fun homecoming for me. The date of the race is September 20, 2008 so give me a shout if you are going to be in the area. You're more than welcome to come cheer me on.

PR in Fiesta Mission 10K

On April 19th, I ran the Fiesta Mission 10k race and I set a new Personal Record (PR) of 41:46! That is an average pace of 6:43 per mile. The time was fast enough to get third place in my age group of 30-34. Below is a picture our neighbor took of me getting my prizes: a sombrero and a medal. Very nice. The secret for this race was my choice of music, Wicked soundtrack! Oh yeah! "The Wizard and I", "What is this feeling? (Loathing)", "Popular". But the very best was the last mile accompanied by "Defying Gravity". I rocked that last mile in 6:04. It was outstanding!

On a separate note, I have signed up for the St. George Marathon lottery. If I get in, the race will be October 4th. If I don't get in, then I'll probably sign up for the Top of Utah Marathon that ends in Logan. It is a few weeks earlier, at the end of September.

Marathon 2 Marathon

Wow! That was hard! But it was amazing!

On October 13th 2007 I ran the Marathon 2 Marathon which starts 4 miles east of Alpine, Texas and runs east on Highway 90 to Marathon, Texas (Elevation 4040 feet). This is really pretty country. It is very desert, very old-west, and very ruggedly-beautiful. We drove out there on Friday afternoon. From San Antonio, you drive west on I-10 until you hit Fort Stockton. On the way you pass through the Texas Hill Country, after which, the hills begin to drop away and become more defined and mesa-like. You pass by a large wind farm installation (more on the wind later) and then you arrive at the big nothingness that is Fort Stockton. Then you head South toward Big Bend National Park. The land begins to change as you travel this road. There are huge cattle ranches on both sides of the road. We even saw some Bison. 60 miles South of Fort Stockton you come to Marathon Texas and suddenly the hills are more defined and beautiful.

I waited too long to make our hotel reservations so we ended up staying in Alpine at the Holland Hotel. Logistically this worked out great because I was already so close to the starting line and Katie and Ella would drive past me on their way back to the finish in Marathon.

On Friday night we had a nice little walk down the street in Alpine to have dinner at a great little Italian restaurant. The pizza and pasta were excellent, if a little over-priced. In the morning, Katie and Ella dropped me off at the start before heading back to the hotel for their breakfast.

The race kicked off at 8-ish to the sound of a shotgun blast and we headed out. I tried to run very conservatively during the first part of the race because I have always read that people tend to go out too fast in a marathon. Apparently I did it too. The hard part is that you have been putting in so many miles and running so far during your training. Then, during the last couple of weeks before the race you "taper" and cut down the miles dramatically. In theory, this helps you to be well rested and ready to run. However, in my case I tapered too much and ended up getting a cold the week before the race. This is pretty common. Apparently, your body decides that it can start to slack off and your immune system lets up a little and you get sick.

Due to travel for work and long, late hours on the trip I was unable to rest enough for my body to recover from the cold that I had been battling all week. But I wasn't going to miss my first marathon so I went ahead even though I was sick.

Back to the first miles of the race. The wind was unbelievably strong! Following the race, I checked the weather reports throughout the day and we had 20-30 MPH headwinds during the first half of the race. These winds were absolutely brutal! There were times when a semi-trailer truck drove past me on the road and I didn't even feel the blast of wind that usually follows in the wake of a truck. The chit-chat among runners was almost exclusively about the wind. "This wind is kicking my butt." "This wind is brutal."

Oh, yeah. Big Time.

At about the half-way point I came up over the highest point in the race and the wind backed off a bit, though it was still a factor. The half-way point is almost directly behind me in the following picture. We came around the shoulder of that big hill/mountain on the right.

This picture was taken by Katie as she and Ella drove up and found me around mile 21. They cheered loudly as I passed. "You Rock!!", "Go Daddy!" I was just approaching the mile 22 aid station so they pulled up and cheered while I refilled my water bottles. Having them there to cheer me on was absolutely amazing! After the long miles, they were there yelling for me. It gave me an amazing feeling and a big boost to keep going.

I can't describe to you the amazing feelings that I had as I crossed the finish line with Katie and Ella cheering for me. In fact, I was completely unprepared for how emotional an experience it would be. I was choked up and nearly had tears in my eyes. My body was really beat up. My legs were sore, my right hip-flexors were totally hammered (due to running on the left side of a cambered road for 26.2 miles). I was covered in salt deposits on my face and clothes. I could barely hobble around. Stairs were pretty rough, but I felt really great that I had done it. I sat around for a while and ate some snacks while I re-hydrated. I took a shower in the historic Gage Hotel and we bid farewell to Marathon, Texas.

This sign is on the road between Fort Stockton and Marathon. It is not on the course we ran but it is a great sign. You can see the finishers medal around my neck. I wore it to church the next day, although I took it off for the main block of meetings.

Katie was so kind to drive all the way home with me whining and stretching in the passengers seat. It was a long drive home. All 5 hours of it.

Each passing day my legs felt better and better. By Wednesday, my muscles were pretty much 100% but my joints still hurt a bit. I've been taking this whole week off from running as prescribed by all the marathon training plans that I read. I'm excited to get back to running tomorrow during my lunch break.

This was awesome. I can hardly wait to train for another one. Although I'll have to give Katie a while to recover from all those long runs I did on Saturday mornings. Those 20 mile training runs really cut into our usual time together on Saturdays. Maybe a half-marathon in December...? That's not nearly so bad right?

San Antonio Rodeo Stampede 4 Mile Run

Today was the San Antonio Rodeo Stampede 4 Mile Run and I finished 2nd in my age group and 7th overall. My time was 27:37 so I averaged 6:54 per mile. I'm really pleased with that because I've recently come back from some tendinitis in my left knee and I felt really strong today.