A deviation from running

I did my first Muay Thai fight today, check it out!

St. George Marathon and upcoming fight!

Yesterday I ran the St. George marathon. I was given a spot by TIFIE Humanitarian (http://www.tifie.org)
I would encourage you to look at the website and see the work TIFIE is doing in the United States, and in Congo.
It was a perfect day to run. I ran St. George last year, and it rained the whole time, it was cold, and miserable. Yesterday, the weather was great! Not too hot, and no rain! I saw Carl Tippets, who also ran Bear last week. He actually finished Bear, and ran a sub 4:20 race! Great job! Saw a couple of other friends running the race, and it was fun to see my friends from other races. I generally am not loving the hype and crowds of these bigger marathons, and much prefer the small community of utlrarunners, but St. George is a pretty course, and an easy marathon for running right after a difficult trail run. I was able to complete the marathon in 4:48, and that was with a 10 minute delay in having to take care of some "business" at a port-a-potty in the middle of the race. Other runners in line didn't seem to be concerned that a long sit on the pot was delaying their time, and other runners. It was a bit annoying, but I had run past two aid stations because of the lines, and really had to stop in order to be ok the rest of the race. I made up some time, but had I not had that delay, I would have been under 4:40. I think that is pretty good considering I did 45 miles of Bear last week, and I haven't done races on back to back weekends yet. I am hoping that means I am getting better, and that next summer I will actually be able to complete a 100 miler. With some more trail races, and training, I am planning on finishing Bear next summer, and going for a goal of under 30 hours. I am getting faster on the trails, and more stable on the down hills. I just need a little more experience and practice, and I will do it!

I know St. George was only a marathon distance, but I needed to have a finish after DNFing at Kat'cina Mosa and at Bear. And the fact I could do back to back races and feel fine today was a confidence booster for me. I was developing a fear that DNFing was going to keep happening. Two in a row is not a good feeling. I am feeling confident again, and plan on getting better at ultrarunning, and trail races.

I am considering doing the Ogden Valley 50 again. It is on Oct 24th. It is all road, but I am having withdrawals about winter coming, and trail races limited. But I am not sure if I will do it yet, because all my Saturdays in October I busy. I am also thinking about the Snow Shoe marathon in January. I haven't had a lot of snow running experience, but maybe it will be good for my training for next years races.


I am now focusing on my fight coming up on October 17th. It is in Orem at Throwdown etc. Please come and support the fights! The next two weeks will be totally focused on fighting, and running is taking a back seat until the fight is over. If I decide to run OV 50 the week after that, it will be a run, no stress, session wrap up for me. I wish it wasn't all pavement, but I do like the race. The people at Strider's to a great job with support on the course, and it is a nice small race!

Bear 100 Race Report

This was my first attempt at 100 miles. Unfortunately all of the life changes I have had with graduating from UVU, starting grad school at the U, plus a 24 hour birth this week have made it very difficult to get a lot of training runs in. I made it 45 miles of this course, and it was really a beautiful run. I am really pretty bummed that I didn't even get half way. It seemed like quiting was the thing to do at mile 45, and it wasn't a light decision, but I woke up yesterday thinking, after 8 hours of sleep: "OK, I can finish the course now." I am really pretty bummed about having two DNFs in a row, but I also think I am slowly figuring out how to do these mountain runs, and how to get faster and conserve more energy. For one, I REALLY have to have some time to heat train. Two summers ago when I started doing these races I did a lot of runs in the Summer heat with 90+ degree temperatures. This summer it has been pretty crazy. I was first trying to finish the last two classes I had to graduate, then I finally got into grad school, and the rest of the summer was spent getting life in enough order to go to school.
If there is anything I hate, it is not accomplishing what I started, and these two courses now have a personal fight to pick with me. I will finish both of them next year! I believe the heat was what killed me in both Kat'cina Mosa and the Bear. The difference in the Bear and why I lasted until mile 45 is because I figured out the hydration balance this time. I have had a problem with over-hydrating in the past, and I ran out of water and got very dehydrated at Kat'cina Mosa. Plus, I had not been feeling well the few weeks before KM, and had a really hard time with my electrolyte balance.
This time I had a bigger hydration pack, and I was able to maintain a pretty good balance. The hydration wasn't the issue, but the heat killed me, and although I did better once it cooled off, I had a hard time fully recovering. I am not sure what that is about. In the past I have not had a problem with the heat as much as I have this year. This year I seem to overheat very easily and get sick as a result.
My next problem is this course destroyed my feet worse than they have ever been destroyed before. The Write double layer socks are the first part. I have compression socks that I wear more often, and I have decided I will stick to those from now on. I also will not put Blister Shield, or Body Glide on my feet anymore. Every time I have done that I have ended up with more blisters. My shoes I wore for the first part of the race were really to broken down to race in, I was going to switch to my trail shoes at mile 51 to have the better shoes in the second half of the race. I would have figured out how to get around my feet, however, if the heat had not wiped me out. All that said, I enjoyed the 45 miles I ran and here is my report from the first half.
Thursday afternoon I left straight from supervision at the CJC to head up to Smithfield. My supervision this week had gone way over so I was rushing to get up there in time. I dropped my bags at Leland Barker's farm, and as I got there I saw my puny bags put against these duffel bags. I started wondering if I had brought enough stuff. But I did, I am just a light packer. After dropping of my bags I went to the pre-race briefing where I saw the Geoff Roes, who just smashed the course record at Wasatch two weeks ago, was also checking in.
After the meeting I went to the IHOP in Logan and did some studying before heading to the start line to park my van and sleep. I slept pretty well in the van, and woke up at 5am feeling ready to go.
At 6 am we were off, I overheard an observer state "Look at all that crazy in one place!" We headed up to Little Baldy Pass, and quietly made our way up the single track trail. I marched in the line for about two-three miles, and then stepped aside to get to the back of the line where I didn't feel crowded, and I could get my new poles ready to use. I figured we had all day, the first part of the race on an uphill takes a while to thin out, and so I just took the first four easy. I have decided my strategy right now is to be conservative on the uphill climbs, and then make up time on the down hills. With my new poles, I am a lot more stable on the downhill trails, and I move about twice as fast. Even though I have been doing Ultras for two years, I really have just started doing technical trail runs this year. I am still trying to figure out how to be confident on rock trails without killing myself. The poles helped with that, and I only fell one time, which is probably a record for me.
After getting to the first aid at Logan Peak in a slow but steady time, around 9:30, I picked up the speed and made it to Leathem Hollow aid station in good time. It was a very pretty stretch, and the fall colors were vibrant! I did the next section to Cowley Canyon pretty conservatively. I probably could have picked it up a little bit, but I still made it within 30 minutes of the goal split time I had been aiming for. I had hoped to get there around 2:30, I got there at 3. The problem is, by this time the heat was really starting to get to me and I was feeling pretty dizzy and weak. I sat down for about 23 minutes in the shade, and tried to take care of some small blisters that were forming. It was this point that Mark Colman and I started leapfrogging a bit. I got there a few minutes before him, but we left around the same time. The next 3 miles were hell. It was on a dirt road, in the heat, and uphill. My lower back started cramping up on this hill, making it hard to go very fast, but I still made decent time. After reaching the trail to Right Fork, I started to feel a little better, but I was feeling weak, and it took me an hour to get to the aid station because I had to stop a couple of times and regain some energy. I had really good luck with the first part of the race drinking a can of Ensure at every aid station. I have decided that is the best thing for me in a race. When I can't stand to look at anything else I can drink it, and it has about the right balance of carbs and protein to give me the right kind of energy. I had not put a drop bad at Right Fork, and I should have. I felt weak leaving Right Fork, and didn't want to go on at that aid station. It took me forever to get to Mudflat summit, but I eventually gained a bit more strength, and started feeling a little better, I ran most of the way down the 4.4 mile stretch to Temple Fork, and got there in the dark around 8:45 pm. I had expected to get there no latter then 7pm. Mark got there at 8:30, and finished the race in about 34:17, so there is a chance I could have recovered and made it. But I was pretty week, and still having some dizzy and lightheaded. I was pretty drained, and my feet were wreaked. I sat there for 20 minutes trying to decide what to do, and finally decided it wasn't going to work this time.
Jeff and I went back to the van and tried to sleep because it was so late, and I was to tired to drive. He had driven up in his car, so I had to drive back on my own. I woke up a couple of hours later in more pain then I have ever been in after a race. I tried to get up and was dizzy, and nauseated, and the pressure from the huge blisters on my feet was unbearable. I had done well at hydrating until the last stretch from Right Fork to Temple Fork, and then I think I let it slide. It wasn't a problem until later, because I would have been fine but I also didn't rehydrate after I was done running, and had only had a half a can of Ensure and a few crackers at the end of my race. I think I experienced a combination of dehydration and low blood sugar in the middle of the night. I was in so much confusion and pain I think Jeff was ready to take me to the hospital because I asked him to put some thread through the blisters to relieve the pressure and bandage my feet. I stepped out of the car and couldn't handle being upright at all feeling like I was going to pass out. I sat there and sipped Gatorade and water and eventually started to feel my head clear, my legs stopped cramping, and I could tolerate my feet. It was a strange experience, but short lived. We decided to leave my van there, and drive to East Canyon to my parents house to sleep. Don't know why we didn't think of that in the first place. After sleeping until noon, we got up, and decided to go to the end of the race.
I have had a little more soreness on this race then normal, but it is starting to go away, and I think I will be in good shape for the St. George Marathon this upcoming weekend, provided I can get my feet normal enough to run. Since I only did 45 miles this weekend, I am hoping to do a PR at St. George. I was given this spot by TIFIE to run St. George. In general, I am starting to lose interest in running marathons because most of them are on pavement, and the crowds are much larger. The challenge of the trail courses is a lot more exciting to me. Having to pay attention to every little rock on the trail makes the run more fun. But every once in a while, a normal marathon is probably a good speed test. I can go a lot faster on the road without having to climb mountains, and go down rocky trails, or climb around fallen trees. Of all the road marathons in Utah, St. George is one of the more scenic, even being on pavement. So watch for my report next week. This will be a test on how fast I actually recover from an ultra, running a marathon back to back weekends. I know there are guys that do it all the time, but I am relatively new to distance running, so this is the next step up. I feel like my recovery time from 50 milers has gotten pretty short after two years.
St. George is the last race I have planned for this year. I am also fighting in 3 weeks at the Smoker Bouts at Throwdown.
'

Wasatch 100 pacer abuse

This is Geoff's pacer who stumbled in 1 hour after Geoff

Wasatch 100 updates

I am manning the aid station at the finish. Geoff Roes just broke the previous course record by 1:05! Incredible 18:30:55. Karl Meltzer expected in the next 15 minutes

Meltzer in at 19:12, 23 minutes ahead of the previous course record!

Ka'cina Mosa 100k Report- My First DNF :(

This was a challenging race 100k Mountain run. This year only 33 runners started. It also ended up being my first DNF. Kind of a scary DNF. I started out at 2am feeling great, I got up to Camel Pass at 6am, and then started the climb up to Lightening Ridge, the toughest climb of the course. On the way up I noticed I wasn't handling the climb as well as I normally handle climbs. Even though it wasn't hot yet and I was taking Scaps and hydrating I started feeling very dizzy and nauseated near the top. I have run some fairly tough races, and climbs, and none of them have taken it out of me like that. It was bad enough that I had made the decision to drop at Big Springs (mile 23). However, by the time I got to the bottom, drank some ensure, got some potatoes with salt, etc, I was feeling OK (about 5 minutes). So I decided to go on to Windy pass. At this point I had made the first cutoff by an hour, and was pretty sure I could get up to Windy Pass(mile 29) by 12:30, and then run down to Little Valley and make the 40 mile cut off by 3--3:30 and hour to and hour and a half ahead of the cut of. From that point the rest of the course is not as challenging.

I made up to Windy Pass just fine, and felt OK, however, it was very hot and I ran out of water just before the aid station. I should have hydrated really well at the aid station, and then filled my water bottles, but at that point it was hot, and I was getting over heated, and I did not notice I was not thinking very clearly. I left the aid station with 30 ounces of water, and had forgotten to fill up my extra bottle I was carrying. I climbed the rest of the ridge at Windy Pass, and started to feel sick, half way down the pass I started getting a little delirious, but thought I would be fine once I got to the lower ridge. The last runner passed me and asked if I was OK. She noticed that I was down to 8 oz of water, and offered me some, but I didn't want to take hers and risk her not having enough. I should have realized I was going to be in trouble at that point, and had her get Jeff, who was at the Little Valley Aid station below, and send him up with water. However, she thought there was one person behind me, so I thought I was OK, and that if I wasn't I could ask the runner behind me to notify the aid station. There was no runner behind her! At that point I had 7 mile to go, at 8 ounces of water, in 90 degree heat, and I think I was already pretty dehydrated. Got down another mile or so with very little water, and started feeling very dizzy. I tried to take plan electrolyte drops with the few ounces of water I had, but then realized they Prolyte drops probably would not help much without actual water. I also realized that I could not eat because all I had left was gel, and it would dehydrated me more without water to take it with. At this point I also realized there was no runner behind me, and I was in trouble. I was dizzy, lightheaded, and very thing was turning blurry. I decided the best thing to do was to keep walking at an easy pace, another mile or two down, I felt like I was going to break down, and was having a hard time keeping my head, it took all my concentration to not let myself give in to wanting to sit down, or stop. Every time I stopped I would nearly pass out. In my delirium, I was not afraid of dying, but of passing out, and someone having to look for me and Lifeflighting me out of there, I thought that would be really embarrassing. But I was also afraid to just stop because I had over 3 hours until the cut off when I first started feeling like I was in trouble, and knew if I stopped it would be at least 3 hours until someone would come looking for me. I thought if I could at least get to the aid station, even if I needed IV fluids, at least I could be driven to the ER, and not have to draw a scene. It is really funny the things you worry about when you are not thinking straight. After a while I begin to notice that my mouth was completely dry, as well as my lips, then I started checking my pulse I could feel it on my wrist, but going at a speed of 2 miles per hour downhill it was about 130 bpm. My resting pulse is about 50, and it gets to 130-140 if I am exercising strenuously. So at that point I knew that I had to keep my head as clear as I could, and that every decision was probably life or death. Some how I finally managed to get far enough down the trail, and found a spring 1.25 miles from the aid station. I am not sure I would have made it the last mile without passing out if I had not found the spring. I was very dehydrated,and overheated. So I sat down next to the spring, and poured water all over me to cool me down, and then started to slowly rehydrate. Eventually I felt OK enough to keep going. At that point, I was still in time enough, that had a ran down the hill, I would have even made the cut off, but I had decided earlier on the trek down, that I needed to drop when I got to the aid station. I was too dehydrated to go another 24 miles. I got down about a quarter of a mile, and Jeff had finally realized I was probably in trouble when the lady who passed me told me how much water I had had 7 miles ago, and the guy just ahead of me had stopped at the spring for 30 minutes and waited for me and I never came. It turned out, he probably left about 30 seconds before I got there. He had already decided to drop himself. So Jeff walked down with me the last mile, and all I could do was sit in a chair and watch the aid people break down the station. The other guy who DNF'd was a paramedic, and offered to give me an IV if I needed one, but after sitting for 30 minutes, I thought I would probably be OK. I am still not fully re-hydrated, and can feel it. But I am ok

The moral of the story is, always have enough water! I am going to get a bigger hydration pack for the Bear 100.

The good news is, I finished the most difficult part of the course, and I learned that I have pretty good survival instincts. I think that is from the years of midwifery, and learning not lose my head in a real crisis. I thought I would have a hard time the first time I DNF'd, but I did not. I was so happy to come down the mountain alive, that I felt like that was a greater accomplishment than finishing.

I want to do this course again, but I will carry a lot more water. It can get really hot in August!