miwok

what you get is what you see
open up your eyes
let it set you free
it all works out eventually
you gotta keep on keepin' on
i can rock and i can roll
i know i want to move 
gotta take control
watch out world cause here i come
and i can't stop 'til i'm done
bring on the day
~ charlotte martin, bring on the day

***********

the pre-race nerves started two weeks before miwok.

i only mention it because i can't remember ever having pre-race nerves.

maybe i was making up for lost time.

training didn't go precisely as planned, see, and as my previous (and only) 100k didn't go as planned either, i started to worry a little.

"i've rolled my ankle four times in the past month."
"why have i rolled my ankle four times in the past month?"
"it's gotta be the shoes. i can't run miwok in these shoes."
"i definitely need new shoes."
"yes, i should totally run a 100k in brand. new. shoes."
"i need a new hydration pack."
"no, i don't need a new hydration pack."
"they're on sale, though."
"no new hydration pack."
"i haven't trained enough."
"this is the most training i've ever done."
"maybe it's too much."
"shut up."
***********
in retrospect, there really were several little pre- and in-game mistakes that could've sent my day sideways.

in no particular order:

• forgot the pre-race anti-chafe (and failed to correct this error, even though i had not one but two opportunities at the tennessee valley aid station)

• left my handheld water bottle in the porta-potty at the cardiac aid station (mile 2.8)

• didn't bring enough tums for predictable stomach trouble

• stomach trouble became more of a thing late in the race than it should have

the 15:30:00 cut-off at miwok is an hour and a half shorter than at the gorge waterfalls 100k. it's also more than an hour better than i ran at gorge in 2016.

did i worry about that, too? hahaha, you bet i did. which is why my goal time was a completely appropriate 15:29:59.

SPOILER ALERT

as it turned out, none of these things mattered.

because for all the worries and mistakes and things i forgot, i DID remember to bring my climbing legs.

and that made up for everything.
***********
the race day alarm went off at 3:30 a.m.

that's early for me.

fortunately all the pre-race gear was laid out and the organizing of drop bags was done, so no fancy problem-solving was necessary.

all i had to do was dress myself, get the drop bags in the car, drive from bolinas to stinson beach, find a place to park, walk to the stinson beach community center, and drop the drop bags at the appropriate drop-bag drop-off place.

and start running.

somehow all these things happened without incident.

next thing i knew, RD tia bodington was saying, "on your mark...get set...bake!" or something to that effect.

this guy. major distraction.

and we were underway.

i remember a slow start, climbingclimbingclimbing in a konga-line of climbers. i remember the bagpiper at cardiac, but didn't remember my handheld until i was past the point of no return. didn't matter, i had another bottle in my perfectly good hydration vest.

i remember running around the marin headlands for quite a while, and stopping in my tracks when the golden gate bridge and the entire bay area came into view.

i remember running past john fegyveresi, one of the 2012 finishers at the barkley marathons. we had seen him the day before, picking up bibs at the san francisco running company. "i think i know that guy," i said. "how do i know that guy?"

eventually i figured it out. 

coastal trail, above pirates cove.
photo by the peerless glenn tachiyama.

he's shorter than i thought.

i remember pounding the steep downhill to the randall aid station, thinking it was much farther than the alleged 1.6 miles. the climb back up felt much more humane.

backbackback on the out-and-back toward the bolinas aid station, along the coastal trail to the matt davis trail, then downdowndown again. "is there a finish line anywhere in our future?" i asked the guy just ahead of me. he thought so, and so did i, but it remained maddeningly out of reach. meanwhile the pounding from the steep descent was rattling my brain every step of the way.

finallyfinally i passed a volunteer trailside who said, "you're almost there, just a hundred yards to the road, and a hard left."

i'm not gonna say i didn't believe him, but i didn't believe him.

turns out he was telling the truth.

cowbells, people lining both sides of the finish chute, a big red digital clock, and someone was hanging a finisher's medal around my neck. people were talking to me, but i have no idea what they said.

then i saw my friend glenn tachiyama there, and knew i was home. he said things, too. but again, no idea what. thanks, glenn. amazingly good to see you there.

i found a chair, and was done.

one of the best running days ever.
***********
many thanks to my excellent friend ian burton, whose been-there-done-that miwok experience kept me squared away for many, many miles.

congrats to ian, jon lumb and john maytum, who turned in sterling running performances.

thanks, of course, to glenn and tia for the guaranteed entry into the race via the tribute to the trails calendar project. without which, i wouldn't have had the chance to run.

much gratitude to tia and the entire miwok crew for a brilliant, enthusiastic race day.

***********

miwok 100k

14:38:39

204/297 (overall)

28/45 (M 50-59)

shoes:

salomon sense pro max (mile 0-49.2)

hoka clifton (mile 49.2-62.2)

song(s) stuck in my head the entire day: "bring on the day" ~ charlotte martin; "here we are" ~ jimmy buffet

post-its

aid stations + drop bags

course map + cutoff times

mill valley safeway:
eggs
avocados
cheese
hummus
tortillas
english muffins
coffee
spaghetti
salad
beer/wine

bib: sf running company/ before 4 p.m. 

salomon hydration pack sale at 7 hills
(genius gear idea: buy a new pack and wear it for the first time at a 100k race. brilliant!)
***********
i have a bad case of monkey-mind. can't concentrate to save my life. can't even manage to listen to a song all the way through without realizing at some point i really didn't hear any of it.

(gazes out window) squirrel!

geez. i need to get my head right.
***********
flight check-in/boarding pass
rental car
ian's phone#
jon's phone#

headlamp/new batteries
passport
"what i talk about..." murakami
***********
everyone takes four pairs of running shoes on a three-day trip. i'm not unusual. at all.

gotta run.

butterfly effect

i'm reading up again
on how to stay alive
when my friends get dead
time might not prove it
but i'm swimming toward the middle
without regret
~ arruda, mcmahon, and woodward
(the lion the fox the bear)
***********
got my bib number today, setting off a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

maybe there will come a time when flying to a distant city to run a 100k will seem like no big deal.

this is not that time.

oh, i'm #290.
***********
breaking gear news: i'm in trouble. my miwok shoe plan is in shambles.

i picked up some brooks calderas a few weeks ago, on the advice that miwok is not too technical and won't require burly traction. the calderas provide a sweet, cushy ride with lots of energy return...but in thoroughly testing them at chuckanut, the maunawili trail, and tiger mountain, i've rolled my right ankle four times. and i'm just not an ankle-roller.

so, while i like the caldera in some conditions, it's clear i can't trust them on anything but docile terrain. i have no firsthand knowledge of the miwok trails, but i'm guessing they're not entirely docile (and this is not an ideal time to be guessing).

in my last long training run (last saturday at grand ridge), i went back to my lone peak 3.0s. always great traction, but after 27+ miles my feet and legs felt beat up and worn down. i love the LPs for shorter distances (and wet conditions and sketchy terrain), but for me they're not the answer over longer distances.

new shoes, just before a big race.
oh, yeah. just like the pros do it.

to sum up, i'm now the proud owner of a pair of salomon sense pro max.

after a 3.8-mile recovery run in them i've determined...absolutely nothing. desperation predisposes me to like a cushy shoe with a wide toebox and a VERY comfortable fit, but let's keep it real. i need to run a few dozen trail miles in them to even begin to have a clue how they'll perform during a 100k.

but i don't have time for that. therefore, i'm planning to make an awesomely rookie mistake and wear them at miwok anyway.

update: a couple days ago i wore the salomons for a chirico threepeat: 1,760 feet up, 1,760 feet down each trip, on some pretty technical terrain.

conclusion: whew!

the shoes did exactly what i needed them to: stuck to slippery rocks, absorbed recurrent roots, and stayed under my feet rather than rolling out from under them.

my quads are still complaining about the chirico descents, but my ankles are very happy.

and, i now have confidence in a pair of shoes for a big chunk of miwok miles. i just have to figure out what to do the rest of the way.
***********
gotta run.

lessons

"the most profound lessons about courage, strength, and character, i've learned from women."

~ me

***********

until yesterday, the statement above was true. today i'm adding a man to the roster.

gary robbins.

that's him over there on the ground, (temporarily) destroyed by an all-in effort resulting in an almost-finish at the 2017 barkley marathons.

it should be noted that (practically) no one finishes barkley. forty of the best runners in the world have a go at it every spring. and most years, none of them get it done.

this year, though, the goal was in gary's grasp. he was two miles, a handful of minutes...and one wrong turn in the fog away. from gary's blog:

"...the fog had once again set in. As I went over the final bump on the course I knew I would hit a trail, go left, and run down into camp with maybe five minutes to spare, but the math added up, I was going to make it...

"I bushwhacked down the mountain at breakneck speed and found myself at a large river. The river was maybe fifteen feet wide and absolutely raging from all the rain we were experiencing. I took one step off the river bank and was already chest deep. I would never have made the decision to attempt to swim such waters under anything other than a highly sleep-deprived and stressed state of mind.

"I washed out on the other side maybe thirty feet downstream. I continued bushwhacking and quickly spotted the road into camp. I had less than three minutes left till the sixty hour cutoff. I thrashed my way to the road and put my head down and gutted out the hardest three minutes of my life to collapse at the gate, over-time, and from the wrong direction. I did not finish the Barkley Marathons, and that is no one's fault but my own."

any way you parse it, this last push was a stupendous, heroic effort. under any circumstances. but especially after 60 hours, 60,000 feet of climbing, on zero sleep.

the example gary set there adds to an already-amazing legacy, while also providing a helpful reminder:

unless i'm spurting blood, i can never drop from any race, ever again.

gotta run.

-->

what are you prepared to do?

"Never start a 100-mile race that you aren’t 100% committed to—everything and anything it takes to get to the finish line. It's easy to be committed on a perfect day, where nothing goes wrong. But you must commit to face down anything that may come. Commit to walking it in. Commit to sitting in the chair for hours and getting back up. Be all-in. Because if you aren’t, when things go sideways—and they will—you will give in before you need to. You won't see your immense ability to fight, you won't see how deep your reserves truly are."

~ devon yanko
***********
"my glasses are fogging up. oh, wait. I'M NOT WEARING GLASSES."

yeah, weather was a factor at the 25th running of the chuckanut 50k.

for me, i mean. not for the winner, max king, who set a new course record. 3:33:11, or some such thing. ridiculously fast any day, but especially so on trails that were swampy, slippery, and sodden.

there was rain and fog and (reportedly) hail, but still, over 400 runners hung in there and got it done.

chuckanut isn't a 100-miler (obviously), but i kept devon yanko's advice in mind when things got a little tough. when i wasn't moving as easily as i wanted to, and when my legs hurt more than i thought they should. i was prepared to walk it in, if necessary, and accepting that prospect affected my attitude. i ran more relaxed, smiled more, and finished about 9 minutes faster than in 2015.

and i never fell in the mud, on a course where there was lots of falling in the mud going on.

i did roll my ankle pretty good at one point, and swore loudly to no one in particular. apologies to any runners around me who may have been startled.
***********
chuckanut is a great early-season test, but this year it was also a base-builder for miwok. 

and while miwok isn't a 100-miler either (obviously), it is 100k...and the last one i ran nearly wrecked me.

may 6 is barrelling at me like a, uh, big barrelling thing. 

gotta run.

***********

chuckanut 50k
6:17:47
224/414 (overall)
12/37 (m 50-59)
shoes: brooks caldera
song(s) stuck in my head the entire time:  

"spirit in the sky" ~ norman greenbaum 

"corinna" ~ taj mahal 

kettle bells

i thought of him often on saturday.

because fort ebey was john morelock's park.

so it was bittersweet standing at the starting line below the overlook, getting ready to run the fort ebey kettles marathon on the trails he called home. 

i missed seeing him there in his park ranger jacket, smiling a little nervously, as people he didn't know (but who certainly knew him) orbited admiringly around him.

i thought of him when things got a little tough on the second loop of the marathon course, and remembered this line from his book: "you simply have to cope—continue to cope."

that thought settled me down when i was feeling achilles pain for a few miles; it reminded me to suck it up when i was tired and not feeling particularly good at the last aid station.

i simply had to cope, and not let small hurdles turn into something bigger.

not surprisingly, his advice was good.

at the 2015 fort ebey 20-miler.

thanks, john. always.

#rgot

***********

running at fort ebey never disappoints. there aren't any huge climbs, but the course's 5,500 feet of elevation will sneak up and bite you. because there's no flat out there—you run up or down the entire day. and while the trails are generally PNW soft, there are long sections of roots and tight little turns happy to help you fall on your face.

in other words, it was a great day.

many thanks to the folks at northwest trail runs for a challenging 26.2 to start the year. eric bone and his team do a great job, every time.

***********

fort ebey marathon
5:17:11
12/41 (overall)
2/8 (m 50-59)
shoes: altra lone peak 3.0
song stuck in my head the entire time:  "now that i know" ~ shannon mcnally

chuckanut redux

i'm on a roll.

first miwok in may, now the chuckanut 50k in march.

i signed up weeks ago, but was buried on the wait list. figured there was no way it would move far enough for me to make it.

it did!

in.
***********
my racing schedule is setting up nicely leading up to miwok, which is my "A" event for 2017.

all i have to do is stay healthy.

annnnnd...i just jinxed myself something awful.