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...

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?

2014 Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 Mile Race Report

The first couple of days after a big race are interesting.

The highs of completing a hard race.

The higher feelings of surpassing your own expectations

The lows of thinking "I could have pushed harder" and "What's next?!"

That and ALL you want to do is look at pictures and read race reports and talk about your experience and hear about the experiences of everybody else...

It's a rough couple of days!

But it's awesome to have accomplished something like that.

I ran my second-ever fifty mile race last Saturday.

The Awesome Antelope Island Buffalo Run

For those keeping count that is two fifty em's, three official fifty kay's, and four unofficial ultramarathon finishes - nine ultramarathons.


I still have no idea what I'm doing.

My overall main goal going into the Buffalo Run this year was to finish the race in less than ten hours. My REAL goal was a sub-nine finish and hopefully matching my finish at Pony last fall (8:44).

My PLAN was pretty much non-existent other than hoping I could pace myself with the great Ryan Lauck - who is a race day machine, especially at this race and this course.

I woke up at 4:00 and drove to my brother Matt's house - he was running the 50 miler as well, so we headed out to the island.

It was WINDY in the parking lot, so we ducked into the start tent and congratulated Matt Van Horn on his amazing first place finish. SO amazing to see his hard work and incredible training pay off.

Van Horn Destroying the 100 Mile Race
Photo: Matt Williams

We said hi to a whole slew of friends, listened to the pre-race instructions, and headed out to the start.

I started in the back of the starting line crowd with Matt, but as we got started I cut out to the right and he went to the left, and I passed a whole bunch of people until I recognized Ryan and Stephen Lindsay and decided I probably shouldn't go any faster than that at the start.

2 and a half miles in the moon was bright, we had reached the top of the first climb, and we didn't even need headlamps so we were howling at the moon when I looked down at my watch and realized we were running around 8 minute miles... Maybe a little too fast?

I felt really really good and I tore down that first big downhill towards the first climb up lone-tree hill. Ryan caught up to me before the hill and we had a nice walk up the hill. There is really no point in killing yourself to run up that hill when you are only 5 miles in!

We charged right through the first time at Elephant Head Aid station and on through the out'n'back to Elephant Head. Stephen caught up to Ryan and I again, and as we counted the leaders heading back we realized we were currently running 9, 10, and 11, and we traded the top ten positions back and forth.

"CAN YOU FEEL THE TOP TEN POWER!?!?!"
I really was ahead of Steve and Ryan for a bit... see?

As the morning continued to lighten, we passed a lot of friends and acquaintances who were heading out to Elephant Head, I paused at the AS to put eyedrops in (yay LASIK) and caught up to Ryan on the Split Rock Downhill. FUN section, but I made myself hold back some so I wouldn't blow up later.

I'm not sure I did a good enough job holding back.

Downhill Blurry GoPro selfies!

The switchbacks up to the Mormon Rocks were rough as usual, but Ryan and I kept up a good pace as Stephen pulled ahead. Finally I let Ryan pass on the final LONG switchback and walked for a bit. That one ALWAYS gets me. I caught up to them just after the old rock horse corral, and we stopped for water refills at the final trip through Elephant Head AS, and I chugged some Mt. Dew as well.

 I'm not a huge fan of going UP the lone tree hill... but it sure is fun going down! I felt great all the way down and back up the little hill section as the sun came out above the island we realized that we were moving REALLY well. Normally at this point you would see the frontrunners of the 50k heading down the hill but we didn't see any. We were cruising.
I took the lead at the split and kept it all the way back to the start line, around mile 20.

At the Start/Finish area I looked around at the THRONGS of 25k runners waiting to start, hoping I would see my wife or some of our spectator families so I could drop off my jacket, but no luck. I made a bad choice and went IN to the tent and had a hard time getting out! When I made it out I saw Ryan tearing up the dirt road so I took off trying to catch him... I guess I'd shed the jacket somewhere else.

Oh look I found my wife! Too bad this picture was from my dad...

Thankfully my jacket compresses small enough to fit fairly comfortably in my UltrAspire Spry vest!

Up the road and down the steep trail along the fence to the shoreline and the Mountain View Aid Station where we head for a quick (but really long feeling) out and back - cheered Zac and the other front runners and Ryan and Steve as they were still ahead of me, turned around and headed back to the aid station. Caught up to Ryan at the Aid station, downed some Mt. Dew (although not as much as is usual for me on these longer races... which is weird) and took off after Ryan.

When I caught up to him he was walking and a bit upset about some hip issues... It is his tradition to run his "Birthday Miles" sometime in the month of his birthday, he figured he would take it to mile 33 and drop at the Ranch Aid Station. I doubted him and knew he would pull it back together. He told me to continue on and not let him catch me, so I headed out.

I saw my brother-in-law Steve at the Frary Aid station - he was pacing a friend on the 100 Miler and headed out still feeling pretty good there. My dad was here too - and he let me know that my brother Matt had DNF'd at the 20 mile Start/Finish part - he had been sick earlier in the week and moved a whole buncha stuff for my parents the week before as well. I felt bad that he didn't have a great race because he totally deserves a good one!

About a mile after Frary Aid Station... I started struggling.

About Mile 30 - starting to struggle a bit

I looked behind me and there was Ryan, catching up. I yelled "What are you feeling better already?!?" and kept going. He finally passed me at the next little parking area that is an aid station in the Fall course, and that's the last I was really close to him. Kept moving at a decent pace until I got to the Ranch Aid Station. Amie Blackham, the eventual 50 Mile Woman's Winner passed me looking strong right as we arrived.

Coming into the 33 mile Aid Station with Amie right in front of me and Ryan headed back

Got rid of the jacket in my pack finally! More Mt Dew too!

Heading out with Steve coming in

From 33 to 36... there was some major run walk run going on. I was trying to count my steps running and only allowed 20 steps of walking in between 200-500 running steps. Sometimes I think this strategy works all right... other times I'm not so sure - but it keeps my mind occupied and I think that helps in itself.

Walking for a bit before crossing the street

Running again for a minute! Wish there was a horse there at the tie-up...

Overall my legs felt pretty good, mentally I was good, I wasn't particularly tired, (I mean, 35 miles in - of course I was TIRED, but not unbearably so!) but there was something off in my stomach and lungs - but I couldn't push past it. I kept saying "Something's missing but I can't figure it out?!"

Literally saying "Something's missing!" here - pic by my bro Matt

At the Frary aid station I changed my socks which felt GREAT!

New Socks at Mile 39!!

 I was off and on for the next couple of miles, still moving, still feeling fine but still missing something.

When I finally got to the Mountain View Aid Station Stephen and the 2nd place woman had passed me. I couldn't bring anything up to catch them, but I maintained my position from then on.

The hill from the AS to the Road is one of the steepest parts of the course. Ryan said 'Lone Tree Hill and Mile 43 - the 2 absolute places where it's worth it to walk.' A friend on FB asked why so many people were smiling on this ROUGH hill, and I mentioned that it was nice to get to WALK for a bit!!

The Great Ryan Lauck

Stephen Lindsay - "You want me to let WHO pass me? No WAY!"

"Walk this hill and Run to the finish!" My brother said. I mostly followed that advice... but it sure felt slow!

Awesome picture from my bro of Stephen running strong - FOUR minutes ahead of me. Love the dedication in these pics!

Ditched my pack for the last 5 miles - SO nice!

As you can see from the last couple of pics, for me - there actually was a plus side to my brother dropping. His experience is basically what allowed me to have a stellar first fifty with him pacing me the last 15 miles at Pony. His advice was definitely useful and I was glad to have it here! It also meant I get these great pictures of me and our friends with the high quality trailandultrarunning.com camera! Honestly I would have rather he had a good race, but I'll be happy with extra benefits like these!

I am grateful for the support he gave me in both my first and second Fifty Milers! Thanks a lot Matt!

Picture from my dad of my brother taking a picture of me!

I ran through the devil weeds off the paved roads (seriously those weeds are the worst!) to the Bridger Bay Aid Station where I grabbed a couple salt caps because I was out.

I looked ahead and I could see Stephen's bright Orange coat just heading around the curve of the trail along with the 2nd place female close behind. I thought if I could get moving and move quickly through the rocky technical trail (it's a really cool trail) I might be able to catch them.

HA! That didn't happen.

I moved well overall but I couldn't get any good energy and pick it up much. I passed a couple 100 mile racers who were obviously feeling the effects of having been out for over 26 hours (!!) and then ran into quite a few horse riders and about 10 families out hiking.

"Look out! Crazy sweaty guy in a pirate shirt and short shorts coming through!!"

I hit the end of that trail and you are on the road for a few hundred yards - finish line in sight!

That last straight dirt road off the pavement, and then back along the fence to the finish line sure feels long! I kept moving and FINALLY found a burst of speed to make it to the finish line.

Photo: Craig Lloyd

Photo: The Beautiful Kristyan Williams

Of course, I ran in hard and almost faceplanted by tripping on the timing mats! YEAH!

Finished with an official time of 8:09:21 to take 16th place out of 113 finishers.

Finish Line Chinstand!

I ran FIFTY MILES in just over 8 hours?! I figured I had the physical ABILITY to pull that off, but I didn't think mentally and nutritionally I would be able to make it work...

I'm very happy about that.

I have to give a great big shout out to Ryan Lauck and Stephen Lindsay for allowing me to leech onto them and pace myself with them for basically 30-40 miles of this race. It was awesome. I'm looking forward to the official pictures where we are running together. Those guys are tough and I am happy they both pulled ahead and finished in front of me.

I definitely couldn't have gotten that close to 8 on my own. I probably would have spent a lot more time at aid stations too!

The finish line was awesome - so many friends, watching people finishing amazing and strong, and other shenanigans... Saturday was a good day!

50 mile snuggles!

Awww! Zac got FIFTH place! Amazing!

You can find my Strava map, Race Analysis, and stuff here.

One thing I really liked about this race was how many friends and family I had out there.

My brother and I were in the 50 miler, my wife ran the 25k as did my sister-in-law - one of my wife's brothers paced his friend in the 100 and another ran the 50k!

Our Facebook group, the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers had SO many people out running all the races! So many of them I am familiar with online but I've never met in person! It was great to meet some new friends and reconnect with many others. The support and experience of that group is awesome.

More thanks to the Race Director Jim Skaggs and all the amazing people who volunteered for crazy hours throughout all the hours and races supporting us silly runners.

Now I need to decide what I'm doing next!! Bosho Marathon? Skyline 50?!?

Look! It's a Guy on a Buffalo!

A Look Back - 2013 Edition!!

In 2013 I posted Thirty-Five times on this blog.

Compared to 2012, that was less than HALF of the blog posts. Sheesh. I was really slacking!

I guess if 2013 was judged on blog posts - it would be a bit sad.

THANKFULLY, 2013 was a phenomenal year, and one of the reasons for less blogs was - MORE BUSY!

Considering it is already FEBRUARY and I'm just posting this... yikes. Well let's get it done, shall we?

At the beginning of 2013 I posted my "2013 - Plans and Desires, Wishes and Dreams!" entry so I figured that would be a good place to start in the review.


So how did I do on the plans?

• Buffalo Run 50K in March. My main goal was to be able to move the next day. I definitely accomplished this goal!
• Spartan Beast - By the time this came around I was ready, and a little disappointed at the lack of challenge for me. 
• Yoga, yoga, yoga!  - My wife completed her Yoga Teacher Certification - she is amazing! I was able to continue attending yoga at work, but we changed instructors and was disappointed that the new one was much more fitness-yoga oriented and hadn't completed teacher training. Doh!
• Climb more - I wanted to get out at least once with somebody with more equipment and experience than me - that never happened. For half the year I WAS climbing on the indoor wall at work a LOT more... but near the end of the year that unfortunately dropped off sharply. I'm trying to get it back now!
• Bag more Peaks - I DID make it up to Bountiful Peak starting from the Davis Creek trail, and was able to bag 16 peaks total!
• More HIIT workouts! Pullups! Backyard Exercises! Utilize my awesome pullup station AND improve on it - had a few decent workouts, but our group outdoor workouts were non-existent compared to 2012.
• Continued BJJ classes at work - Did a ton for most of the year - but the last couple of months was less than desired. I'm excited to continue this journey into BJJ!
• Slacklining - it certainly started out well, including the big slackline being used for some highlining at the Wedge - but I am not satisfied with my current skill or usage of the slacklines!!
• I stated Ragnar was NOT on the plans, but ended up joining my work team.

SO on to a list of some amazing things I accomplished last year. They might not be amazing to anybody else, but I was pretty happy with them!

Wasatch Mountain Wranglers Wedge almost50k - (first over Marathon distance)
Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50k (first Ultra)
Ragnar Wasatch Back - 1st place Corporate division
Spartan Beast
Ragnar Trail Snowbasin
Dugway 50k - 3rd place overall 1st in age
Pony Express 50 miler (first Fifty)
Goblin Valley 50k - fastest time on 50k - 1 week after Pony!

First sub 20 minute 5k
Peaks - While I'm still a beginner - I made it up 16 peaks!


That list is pretty much entirely running related!

I use Strava for most of my tracking now, one big reason is they came out with a 'Heat Map' that shows places you've run. I have been wanting something like this for a while, so I paid for the membership just to get access to it. Very cool.

I can now share the places I ran in 2013

Here is my map of all-time running. I know it doesn't have EVERYTHING I've ever run, but it DOES have where I've run since I started tracking, and THAT is pretty cool!

I did a lot this year, and not all of it was running. If you look at my 2013 Fitocracy Overview you can see some of the other stuff I did.

Pony Express 50 Mile Race Report

Words cannot really describe how I feel just days after running 50 miles.

How cliche, huh?

But of course, since this is a blog, and that's made up of words (and PICTURES and VIDEO too thankfully!), I guess I'll just do my best.

The Pony Express Trail 50/100 Mile Race

Thursday after too much to do at work (and I'm surprised I handled it as well as I did!) I went and finished packing for camping, and we finally were on our way to the Lookout Pass Campground;

I really was nervous!

aka "The START"

Unfortunately I still had to make it through the night! My nerves were definitely hammering me hard!

 We got the campfire going and threw our tin foil dinners (partially pre-cooked by my everthoughtful wife!) in to warm them up - and WOW were they delicious! I am a lucky man to have such a gourmet chef of a wife!

The moon popped up super bright in the clear sky - and it kept getting colder and colder!

We crawled into our tent hotel and into the cold sleeping bags - and whoever was last in didn't zip the tent door closed! One of the cool features of our tent is that it has a bendy pole inserted into the door flap that turns it into a great little door.

Because we didn't stake the tent down (lots of stuff inside) and the sloping of the ground, the door didn't align to velcro properly. So there was an inch or two gap that just let cold air in all night, but nobody wanted to get out to close it! Bad idea. Seriously lowered the temperature in the tent by 10-15° easy.

Brrrr!

I was scheduled to start at 7am. It was dark, the bright moon had just gone down behind a mountain, and the temperature was just below freezing! When I finally changed in the sleeping bag and got out around six, we heated up some pre-cooked bacon in tinfoil and I ate some of that and a banana. I think making my self eat food when I normally would shrug it off was very important in my energy levels through the long day to come.

Shivering at the starting line!

All the COOL kids wear pirate pajama bottoms!

And then take them off during the count-down!

I ran very near the front of the 7:00 group - with a couple hundred mile runners for a while (they ended up taking 3rd and 10th in the 100!) but they slowed down to maintain a more normal pace. I saw both of them a few more times as they passed me and/or I passed them. Leap frog can be fun!

My van caught up to me about mile 8, and then stopped at mile 10. Those first ten miles were probably the fastest seeming miles, because I was just running in the dark watching the moon sink into a hazy squished oval and disappearing behind mountains I couldn't even see...

It was like it just disappeared!

As the sun started to come up things started to feel a LITTLE warmer, but I heard a car tell their runner that the temps had gotten COLDER!

Luckily my legs felt fine, and my core felt warm, but my fingers took a while to warm up!

 

It was great to have my brother in law Ben riding alongside me on his bike - he caught up to me about mile 10 - and it was always wonderful to see my wife, my brother, and my sister in the van with the Jolly Roger flapping in breeze, showing me where I could find my reprieve.

Like last year, when I was crewing and pacing, my crew danced and played music and cheered for all the runners who passed. It was their awesomeness that made them win 'Best Crew Car' - Oh yeah! I'm sure the pirate flags helped!

Somewhere between mile 22 and 25 I caught up to fellow-first-time-fifty-milers-and-Altra-wearers Travis and Francesco. Travis also ran the Buffalo Run with me as his first ultra/50k, and Francesco was with us on/in that AWESOME Olympus trip/video from this past winter.

 

We shared our Swedish Fish and continued on. I think my crew helped me out in my strength and ability to catch up to these guys who had started an hour before me.

Misha got out on her bike and rode for a bit, and we hit one of the curves in the road and then a little hill when we hit the Marathon distance!

 Even with pacing myself to slower than normal, I think I PRd my marathon distance a bit... At least Strava thinks so!

Sounds like time for a foot rub and a change of socks.

I have the best wife ever!

At Mile 28.4, and my goal was to be at least a marathon before the 8 o'clock speedy folks caught me, I was passed by my first 8 o'clocker.

My good runnin' buddy Matt Van Horn who was in the 100 mile race was KILLING it and passed by, talking for a few seconds before saying "Well I gotta keep my pace, See ya!" And off he went!

MVH Was flyin!

This was about where I caught up to Kim (in the pic above with MVH and Matt, taken by my crew), a friend of ours who we first met last year when we danced so awesomely for her (and everybody else) - we reconnected a few weeks ago at the Dugway Run where she was with our awesome friend Jen... more on Jen later!

After 30 miles I was starting to get hot - so like usual, the shirt came off and my wife ran with me for a bit.

 

We also ran into Kim again. Kim was worried that Jen would be catching her too soon. Jen is speedy and I wanted to hold her off as long as possible as well!

Held her off we did until around mile 33 or 34 - Kim was staying strong so we got a great picture with all of us before Jen hurried off.

I'm the scary nekkid guy if you couldn't tell...

I thought that would be the last I saw of Jen before the finish... because these were the slowest miles for me.

 I kicked a chain in the road and decided it was awesome bling. So I picked it up and put it on.

Oh yeah!

I took this hardware HOME. Wait... I think it's still in my van

Right around mile 35 or 36 is the one difficult hill of the PE50 - Dugway Pass. My brother started to run at this time, and he said to me "If you want to finish at 9.5 hours, we're going to have to push, and it'll probably hurt!" So we started up the hill and I was feeling good.

Zac, a Hundred Mile runner I started the race with

Now he's on the right I'm almost on the left!

My feet were the major offenders a while before this, so I finally broke down and took a couple ibuprofen. I think it started to kick in because I motored up that hill. 8 minutes faster than when I had run with Matt the year before.

I was happy with that.

I was even MORE happy when we got to the top because when you finish a climb...

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

You get to go DOWN!

 I love downhill running!

 And as we neared the bottom - I saw Jen, who was starting to cramp up a little bit.

We talked with her for a bit but because I was feeling good and moving really well we continued on. I was now looking at finishing with a 9 hour time (and one of my goals was to beat Matt's time from 2 years ago, 9:30ish!) if I could maintain a 10 minute average pace for the last 10 miles, "But it's going to hurt!" Matt said again.

So I pushed harder!

Feeling good - smile is a bit pained for sure!

About this time we caught up to the now 2nd place 50 mile guy Chris (he had passed me a while back - he started an hour after me) and he was starting to fade some. We talked to him and actually got him moving a bit just by motivation.

You turn left just around the rock there in the picture above, and Chris started picking it up again.

The finish line was SO close you could almost smell the Argentine barbecue there...

And really - there was the finish line!

Running by the finish line!

But unfortunately - I still had 1.5 miles left! At the end of the 50 mile race, you have to do a MEAN .75 mile out and back to reach that 50 miles. Ugh!

Davy says "No Whining!"

I felt like I was fading pretty hard, and I kept moving and got my sticker from the turnaround point, then headed back. Matt had stopped at the finish to use the facilities, and joined us again there - and it was good that he did because I needed the cracking whip. I was looking at a quarter mile to go and was sitting at 8 hours and 42ish minutes. If I pushed... I could get under 8:45!

I didn't think I could... but I picked it up and dropped my pacers for that last stretch!

I crossed the finish line with an official time of 8:44:50.

I did it! I met the major goals I was going for! And I finished 6th place overall for the 50 mile race.

Now Obligatory Pose...

I definitely could not  have done it without my amazing crew, my pacers, my family!

Jen came through right after I did (but remember... she started an hour later!), winning the women's trophy, and 3rd overall! She also beat her old course record by 20 minutes! Amazing!

We had a good time at the finish line hanging out... SITTING DOWN and talking to our friends, including the overall 50 mile winner Kendall, who is a GREAT guy and really strong runner

Champions!

Wow sitting feels nice.

This is not mine! I have a goofy smile! Cool trophy though!

 

Runners on the road...

Definitely a fantastic day!

Oh and Matt Van Horn went on to win the 100! You can read his report here.

Link to Results - Oh, and I'm currently 20th on the all time 50 mile results! Cool!


Look! I made a video:



I ran 50 miles. WHOA!

And then we went looking for Geodes... We aren't very good at it.

Now... Do I run a 50k in Goblin Valley on Saturday - or do Lone Peak on Friday?!?!

ACK! Choices!