Tushar's 93k - A Race Report

Everybody has demons.

Sometimes they are itty bitty little guys that you can brush off or flick away like the little insects that they really are...

Other times they are (seemingly) SO BIG that they crush your ability to feel like you can accomplish ANYTHING, or even feel like you can breathe properly.

Which really... is NOT true. Don't let yourself believe that.

But it is hard to when you have what seems to be a 666 lb snarling demon sitting on your shoulders slavering filth and bad feelings all over you keeping you mired down in the dreary dregs of despair.

SO ANYWAY!!!

This past weekend I ran the Tushars 93k race - the final event in the Grand Circle Trail Series put on by the amazing RD Matt Gunn and his Ultra Adventures race company.

Nothing too crazy... you know... just your average 58 mile run with just under 17k vertical GAIN...

TNF Ultra Dance Party!!

It's OKTOBERFEST Time!!

Let's Dance!

I'm still recovering - but I'm hoping to get up somewhere high SOON!!

The Bear 100 - The Agony, the Triumph, the Mud

For a long time I never thought I would run a hundred mile race.

Taking eight hours to run a fifty mile race sounds SO much better than over twenty (or THIRTY!!) hours to run a hundred miles!

Definitely not interested in such ridiculousness as that!

Or anything taking over ten hours!

That was before I did the Rim to Rim to Rim back in May, which took over seventeen hours, AND before we ran the Blubber Creek Aid Station at the Bryce 50 and 100, which was a crazy 40+ hours of no sleep!

So after those, I knew I could do it, and why not?

Check the Rim 2 Rim 2 Rim OFF the list!!

I finally made it down to the Grand Canyon.

After I was picked up and we drove to pick up the 4th member of our group, I looked at them and realized - I was the lone human in the midst of 3 lawyers!

We promptly got stuck in a traffic jam at the almost-always-horrible Point of the Mountain.

In Beaver Utah we stopped at the Crazy Cow Cafe to use the restroom and try the infamous "DFO"

Yup.

Deep Fried Oreos.

I'm not sure that's the smartest thing to be doing before attempting a double crossing of the Grand Canyon, but luckily I didn't seem to have any stomach issues because of it!

We made it to the North Rim about 9:45 pm and were changed and ready to go right after 10!

We headed down and Phil took off ahead. He was aiming for a PR and a sub 12 hour double-cross. Fast!

Trekking down the canyon late at night is a unique, surreal experience.

A steep and rutted trail illuminated only by your headlamp. Endless cliffs towering above you on the one side and blackness everywhere else.

It is a little disconcerting to have bats swooping down at your face every couple of minutes... But after a while you get used to it and then enjoy it.

On the way up the Bright Angel Trail we were alerted that a Bighorn Ram was not too much farther ahead - WOW it was majestic.

Bighorn Sheep

We stayed at the South Rim for almost 2 hours waiting for one of our group to feel better.

Not much else needs to be said. The Grand Canyon is HOT. There are beautiful vistas everywhere.

Here are pictures and my video!

Sunrise at South Rim

And then it was back down!
Don't mess with the squirrels - you could get the plague!

WARNING! Do Not Attempt to hike from the canyon rim to the river and back in one day!! Okay, I'll just do 4 times that much...  (seriously though - be prepared!)

Beautiful Canyon

Bright Angel Trail:

The Colorado River is huge. This picture might not look that big - but consider those tiny things on the far shore are about 40 people about to load onto rafts. Huge.

Wheelbarrow Surfing

North Rim Done - 17.5 hours:

I'm finally writing this post and being quite lazy about it after a month mostly because I finally finished the Video, which shows the journey very well:



What an amazing trip! I do hope to do it again - AFTER I've checked off some other things from the list.

Things like the Zion Train, Lone Peak, etc.

Steve likes to do it every year - maybe I'll go next year. We'll see. Definitely want to see Ribbon Falls again!

Strava Activity - Last 7 miles cuz my watch died. Total would be about 49 crazy miles!!

Fine then. Here are more pictures:

How To Be An Ultra Runner and 2014 Biometrics

Let's start off with the most awesome video EVER MADE!!! (from trailandultrarunning.com)



SO Much fun to make that.

Okay so it's again time to update my Biometrics!

I've included the past 2 years for comparison, it's interesting to see how things change. With a family/genetic history of heart disease - I think it is important that I stay aware of what is happening with me and try to do what I can through diet, exercise, and overall lifestyle to completely avoid problems!

• September 2012 Results 
• Blood Pressure: 117/65
• Total Cholesterol:213
• HDL: 44
  
• Triglycerides:125
• LDL: 144
• Glucose: 100
• Heart Rate: 59 beats/minute

• May 2013 Results
• Blood Pressure: 119/63
• Total Cholesterol:209
• HDL: 50
  
• Triglycerides:112
• LDL: 137
• Glucose: 94
• Heart Rate: 68 beats/minute

• April 2014 Results  (Today!)
• Blood Pressure: 129/74
• Total Cholesterol:203
• HDL: 50
  
• Triglycerides: 89
• Cholesterol Ratio: 4.1
• LDL: 135
• Glucose: 85
• Heart Rate: 46 beats/minute (!)
• BF %: 11.9%

Blood pressure has gone up some... but so has my caffeine intake due to the increased running! I also think the practice of taking BP after poking the finger in a painful spot doesn't help! I may try to retake my blood pressure sometime in the next few weeks to check that out. Other than that, I'm happy with the direction things are going, ESPECIALLY glucose and Triglycerides! Both well below 100. Nice. I added the cholesterol ratio and the Body Fat percentage. Body Fat was taken holding a thing with sensors like you see on treadmills for heart rate. They are often inaccurate. I am fine with that BF%, but I might be +/- 2 %. Someday I'll have to do the BodPod or a water displacement bodyfat measurement!

Okay. That's that. Now to figure out what race I'm paying for next.

I'm looking to improve so I'll be trying some new things!



The NEXT race I'm doing is the BoSho Marathon - a bandit fun run 10 days from now! Should be fun, and it will be the first time actually shooting for Marathon distance as a goal!

The Wedge 2014

In 2012 four crazy guys decided to do an adventure run on the Good Water Rim Trail and called it "the Wedge" after the amazing 'Wedge Overlook' there in the San Rafael Swell.

2013, seven crazies repeated the adventure - I was privileged to be part of what was my first 'ultra' experience, even though I only went 28.1 miles!

This year we had EIGHTEEN awesome people join us for the 3rd Annual Wrangler Wedge Wrun.

My total was 32 miles in about 7 hours. I like that Strava tracks my moving time - that was closer to five hours.

Check out some of the awesomeness!

)

Unfortunately some of the audio settings I had screwed up when I added the music on Youtube.

I also have a few more videos so I might have to make a few different versions. For now I'm satisfied with what I've got. Hope you can enjoy it too!

And since this should have been posted weeks ago... the Wedge was almost a MONTH ago!

Here are some of the awesome sights we saw!

Good Morning from the Wedge!

Photobomb!

Can't wait for next year!

Next up - Buffalo Run 50 Miler!

The Struggles of November

I had a pretty epic month in October.

I ran my first 50 mile race in a time that I was more than happy with.

I then ran my fastest 50k race so far on tired legs!

And just two weeks before the 50 miler, I ran another tough 50k where I came in 3rd overall!

Oh, and I ran to the top of a couple of mountains as well!

NOT a bad month at all.

Actually a really fantastic month!

Especially since this didn't happen to me:



I love that picture.

I think my blog needs more pictures of wipeouts. They are unfortunately harder to find than I'd like!!

So anyways. It's November. I feel like BLAH. Part of it is I'm STILL somehow recovering from the Pony Express and Goblin Valley. I'm tired. My head hurts. I think there is some Seasonal Affective Disorder going on as well... which is SAD.

But I've still been able to get out and do some fun things.

I watched the kids while my amazing wife ran the Moab Trail Half Marathon - she did awesome.

And we saw Arches National Park, and I was able to hike/run 6 miles seeing some amazing arches like Landscape Arch, Partition Arch, Navajo Arch, and Double O arc. Definitely somewhere I would like to go back to and maybe put together an adventure 50k!! (I need to modify that route a bit probably...) At only $10 for a week's entry to the park? That is NOT BAD!

Beautiful area! I really hope to go back soon!

After getting back from that awesome family vacation/adventure, I was tired and slightly sick for a few days. That's not fun.

Finally on the next Friday I got out with Matt to hit another peak, Ben Lomond. Even BETTER than that, the day before I found out I had won a GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition in a work Benefits Raffle!
So we had a lot of fun, and I made a video to test it out:




Yeah I am still figuring some stuff out with it.

Ben Lomond was great - even though my watch paused and messed up the total (should be 15ish) a bit.

The next day I went up to the Steed Creek cliffs again with Professor B, the next door neighbor of MVH who is trying to get into trail running more. I was definitely slow after Ben Lomond!

Last week I finally made it back out in the morning for a run up Farmington Canyon with the Newman Group.

It is very nice to run 11 miles in the morning before work!

Friday morning I got up early and drove up to Antelope Island to bag the big peak on that Island - Frary Peak. I went with MVH who had just won the Frary Peak Climb 10k Race the weekend before. It was nice to get him beyond where the race turned around and to the actual peak. With the snow and the rain we took almost twice as long round trip as he took on his race! 7 decent miles on a trail I'll definitely have to do again!

Finally on Saturday I went with my wife up the Steed Creek Trail again - this time up the Hornet Canyon split to a cool little canyon that supposedly has a waterfall when it is runoff season. Of course, we decided to do it in a blizzard! Almost 4 miles. It was very slippery and we had a few slips and falls, my wife came down on her hand a bit hard and we hope nothing serious happened to it - but after 2 days it is already greatly improved. Yikes.

I took my GoPro but haven't had time to finish the video. Hopefully I'll finish that soon and get it up!

While driving out to Antelope Island MVH and I were talking about how there should be a shorts contest for the winter amongst the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers. So I put it out there and had some good response.

Here's my response to the challenges:



Oh yeah! It's ON!

So November. It's just over halfway through and it definitely started with a big BLAH feeling.
Somehow it was awesome too... I mean looking back at this entry and it's been an amazing month so far!

I guess that BLAH feeling is being overcome! The Struggles of November are showing their fruits as some great memories, and dedication to keep on going!

Life is amazing. Live it amazingly!