I'm retired from racing. Really.

Wahsatch Steeplechase

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Location:

Greenville,SC,

Member Since:

Feb 24, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

I also maintain a blogspot running blog. Check it out. 

5k- 16:01, 1/2 marathon- 1:11:37, marathon- 2:34:16, 50k- 3:58, 100 mile- 15:19

Former World Record holder in 100 x 5k relay 

Ultra history:

8-100 mile, 1-100k, 9-50 mile, 2-40 mile, 14-50k-ish

12 wins, 5 CR's, plus four 2nd, five 3rd, 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 9th, 16th, 20th, 28th, 38th, and 62nd place, with 1 DNF 

Short-Term Running Goals:

Goals 

Enjoy running, stay fit (and maybe lose a few pounds). Play ultimate frisbee.

4 year coach of Langston Middle School- love it

Long-Term Running Goals:

Unretire at some point

Run a sub-6 hr 50 miler

Win a 100 mile ultramarathon

Personal:

I have five cute kids. And I have some rockin short green racing shorts- I wear them mainly because it embarrasses my wife so much. I like ultimate frisbee, trail running, reading, and cheering for the Denver Broncos!   And I have the absolute best wife in the world.  And I used to run for the now-disbanded national Team Pearl Izumi- Ultra!

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 15.50 Month: 55.50 Year: 154.50
Fastwitch Lifetime Miles: 82.50
Trail N1 Lifetime Miles: 86.50
Road N1 Lifetime Miles: 31.00
Trail M2 Lime/black Lifetime Miles: 297.00
Road M3 Grey And Yellow Lifetime Miles: 324.00
Road N2 Purple 2 Lifetime Miles: 222.50
Road N2 4 Grey Lifetime Miles: 51.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
41.5019.500.000.000.0061.00
NB 769 Miles: 22.50Omni 7 Miles: 14.00Adrenaline 2 Miles: 5.50Double Jogger 2009 Miles: 4.00XT Wings Miles: 19.00
Weight: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
11.500.000.000.000.0011.50

AM- 11.5 easy, except picked it up on the last 2.  Legs felt a lot better than mid-last week.  Should be ready for Saturday, hopefully.

NB 769 Miles: 11.50
Weight: 0.00
Comments(6)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
12.002.000.000.000.0014.00

AM- Ran with Cody and Paul for about 5 miles, including 2 tinman tempo miles, then 3 more with Paul, then home. Then I drove to PF for Bagel Tuesday- ate a nice Einstein's bagel, ran 4 miles, then another bagel. 14 miles in all, 1:43:30.  No work today cause I'm staying home to watch the kids while Marci is at girl's camp this week.

Omni 7 Miles: 14.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
7.000.000.000.000.007.00

AM- Cody and Paul were both no-shows, so I ran 7 miles with 6 strides by myself.  Saw sleepyhead Cody heading out just as I was finishing my run.

NB 769 Miles: 7.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
5.500.000.000.000.005.50

PM- 5.5 easy.  My legs and body aren't feeling all cooped up and hyper like I usually do during a pre-race taper.  Hmm.  The funny thing is I already had this many miles last week by Tuesday morning...

Adrenaline 2 Miles: 5.50
Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
4.000.000.000.000.004.00

AM- 4 easy with both kids.  Threw in a few striders.  Should be fun tomorrow.

NB 769 Miles: 4.00Double Jogger 2009 Miles: 4.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(3)
Race: Wahsatch Steeplechase (17.5 Miles) 02:34:00, Place overall: 8
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
1.5017.500.000.000.0019.00

Note: For anyone who has never seen the crags, I found a few pictures of me running them here and here, and of some random people climbing down them here and here.

Wahsatch Steeplechase- I almost did this race 4 years ago and ran the uphill as training, but this was my first time racing it, and first time seeing the downhills.  I stayed at Chad's house last night and got caught up with him- thanks for letting me crash there, Chad, and I hope everything works out with all happening in your life.  Only slept about 4 hours, normal pre-race jitters.  At the start I met Fritz and said Hi to Twinkie.  The weather was absolutely perfect- 50 deg, overcast, no rain till after I was finished.  After talking to Chad and after zero hill training for 3 months, my strategy was to go moderate on the ups and downs, saving my energy for the flat 6 miles at the end.

A group of 6 went out very fast, inc. Fritz.  I was in the second group with Karl Jarvis and Dominick Layfield (knew them both from last year).  Moderate pace out with a bit of walking on the steep uphills.  The last mile uphill is a doozy, with 21% avg grade.  Umm, yeah, that's pretty much a slow slog.  It finally ended at mile 8 and we hit the crags- some very rocky, often technical rocks.  I knocked out my two front teeth as a teenager jumping on rocks like this (toe caught as I was jumping 3 feet down- landed headfirst- knocked out cold and buggered up my teeth [and brain, if you ask Marci]), and so am always somewhat cautious on rocks like that.  The crags went for a mile and I probably lost 1-2 minutes on Karl and Dominick.  Never saw them again. 

 

Then the downhill starts.  You can't really call it a trail for much of the downhill, maybe a faint deer trail.  Some of it was very runnable, but much was far, far too steep, and also very overgrown with bushes.  And mud.  And more bushes.  I call it the suicide downhill.  I was stepping on bush stems which were slick, occasionally falling.  I probably lost another couple minutes here and got passed by 2 more guys who were much more kamikaze than I was.  I barely broke 12 min mile due to the 1250 ft elevation loss and very technical footing- yep, almost walking speed.  They had even strung some rope at a few points for safety, and they certainly were needed.  As Fly noted, "This section is described as '2.5 miles of quad-burning, gut-wrenching, knee-breaking downhill on an overgrown, root-infested single-track trail...' I'd add that it was also wet and slick."  I agree with Fly, except that I seriously question the liberal use of the word "trail".

But then at mile 11 we hit City Creek Canyon and 2 miles of glorious downhill on a road.  I was about 6 min pace, with some portions being 5:30- my quads felt strange at first from the previous down, but quickly firmed up.  I was happy with my pace and figured I would eat up a few runners.  At mile 12 you jump onto a very nice, runnable, smooth singletrack for about 3 miles.  It undulates a bit, with just enough uphill to remind you that your legs are, indeed, very tired.  Finally passed one of the kamikaze downhill guys, which I thought put me back into 10th place.  More down on road and singletrack- I spotted one more runner with only a half mile to go, so really pushed hard and passed him with a few hundred yards to go.  Felt tired but still running strong at the end, which I'm very happy with.

I wanted 2:25-2:35, so my 2:34 is good.  I can definitely improve at least 2-4 minutes just by being familiar with the course, plus can improve my fitness- I am definitely not near peak racing form yet.  I really enjoyed this course and will be back.

Splits (will fill in later):

 

 Mile

 Split

Ascent

 Descent     

Comments

 1

 7:26

 239

46

Easy start

 2

 10:18

 566

20

Nice singletrack up

 3

 9:00

 366

76

 

 4

 9:25

 434

60

 

 5

 10:13

 432

119

Running in 7th

 6

 11:22

 569

73

 

 7

 19:50

 1086

25

Big, big uphill- walk the whole mile

 8

 16:35

 378

401

The crags- really slowed me down

 9

 11:43

 20

1258

Suicide downhill.  And that's an understatement

 10

 8:14

 45

629

Still steep down

 11

 5:52

 17

355

Finally hit runnable downhill on pavement

 12

 6:05

 26

229

Still fast

 13

 6:41

 68

195

Beautiful rolling singletrack

 14

 6:16

 34

219

Still singletrack

 15

 6:50

 53

265

And more

 16

 6:06

 47

273

Back on the road

 .34

 1:58 (5:48 pace)

 11

57

Push to the finish

XT Wings Miles: 19.00
Weight: 0.00
Comments(19)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesCrosstraining milesTotal Miles
41.5019.500.000.000.0061.00
NB 769 Miles: 22.50Omni 7 Miles: 14.00Adrenaline 2 Miles: 5.50Double Jogger 2009 Miles: 4.00XT Wings Miles: 19.00
Weight: 0.00
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