Stone House Triple Cross (8.6 miler)

I did the Triple cross on a whim the weekend after The Moab Trail Marathon. I needed something fast and an 8.6 miler on trail with six water crossings and a small mountain would be perfect coming off such a technical race. And since the course was at Bear Creek Lake Park, I knew exactly what to expect after racing there for the
With no time goal, the only plan I had was to take it easy on Mt. Carbon and to gain a little ground at each water crossing. I figured anyone faster than me at a 8.6 miler would be young, fast, road runners so the technical parts should help me some.

-breakfast
>half a sesame BumbleBar with peanut butter and virgin coconut oil, and some Tazo Awake tea with ginger
-pre-race
>a small mouthful of Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane (~20 calories)

Before the race I did about a mile build up before heading over to the one porta potty to wait my turn. After a few minutes I realized it wasn't gona happen, so I did the ultra runner thing to do and dipped into the woods to take care of my business.
I changed into my old, trashed pair of Nike Mayfly's and took a deep breath. -I hadn't done any fast training in more than a month and wasn't sure how recovered I would be from Moab the weekend before. Then the race started.
In the first half mile I realized that I was pretty overdressed in my Under Armour ColdGear and ditched it on the side of the trail. At about the one mile mark there was a tree fallen over the trail which made for a little added fun to that stretch: some people hurdled it, some ran around, and on the way back the guy in front of me walked over it causing me to run square into him. The water crossings were brisk to say the least. I knew they weren't gona be warm or anything but it's still crazy to me to feel just how cold these Colorado streams get. It's like running through ice water. By mile three the top twelve or so (myself included) had spread out and by mile four, after heading up Mt. Carbon, I could neither hear anyone behind me or see anyone in front of me. I hate being in this spot: No Man's Land, where you don't feel like you chasing or being chased by anyone. My legs were on fire, but I tried to hold pace and kept telling myself "-at least one or two of the guys up there are road runners -and the longest race they run is a 10k -just hold on until the last two miles and you'll pass a few." And I did.
As I came down Mt. Carbon I saw a duo that didn't look nearly as intimidating as they had three miles ago and I tried to pick up the pace a little. After bursting through the first water crossing I came right up behind one of them. Once he noticed me there his pace dropped about 30 seconds a mile, and I couldn't have been more grateful for it -I did not wana end up in No-Man's Land again if I could help it. I pushed this guy right up to the second water crossing where I passed him and put a few meters on him. He must have be demoralized by that a bit because he dropped off quick after that. But the second guy was only about 150 meters ahead at that point, so I still had chasing to do. And my legs started feeling really good. Again, the water crossing put me right on the guys shoulder and he picked up a bit when I got there. We threw it down a bit for a few hundred meters before we got to the tree fallen over the trail where I just about took him down when he stopped to walk over it. -I guess he was just spent..?

this was taken during the Bear Chase Trail Race 50k (hence the walkers) but its the same creek crossings for both races

Either way, I passed one more guy just before the last half mile and finished in 8th place overall.
Normally, I'd like to think I'd place better at a race this short, but I felt like it went better than I could have hoped for having come off such a big race the weekend before.
It was a blast.

more pictures from The Moab Trail Marathon

 I knew I'd find more...

the amount of rain made for some solid flooding and unplanned water crossings, near the first aid station



you can barely make out the trail there but that was about half the climb from the canyon floor to the top of the mesa



some canyonlands, the sections of sand on the trail gave me chance to catch a few great views -but only for a moment




more canyonlands



I can't stop wondering how it would have looked without all the rain and flodding

an example of some of the 'exposure' on the course, you can see why the race had a nice long waiver to sign at registration

wide open views are defnetly the best part about all the climbing before the half way mark

one of the unique formations of the area: a "tower" of rock jutting straight up



nice gentle trail.. with a steep drop just to the side of it

 I think the middle must have had too many water crossings for anyone to keep their cameras out.


even though I was barely jogging by this point, i thought about how fun it would be to try to run/climb up up one of those



some parts of the course weren't even on trail, just 'follow the orange ribbon road'



the open field that lead to the finish


-and the official results are up at: http://www.moabtrailmarathon.com/Results%20Moab%20Trail%20Marathon%2011-5-2011.pdf

The Moab Trail Marathon

This was the most technical/dangerous race I've ever done by a long shot. And the fact that it rained for the 12 hours leading up to the start didn't help. A few sections of the course had more than a little 'exposure,' and one section went down about 700 feet in less than half a mile which meant dozens of 3-4 foot drops from slickrock onto slickrock and shuffling over soaking wet switchbacks. The few parts of the course that weren't rock or sand were so muddy that they might as well have been ice.

This post has taken me a while to get up because I didn't bring a camera during the race and I ended up with only a few mediocre pictures of my own. -all the pictures in this post were taken from other runners off facebook. I just might be posting more pictures as i find them.
The night before the race was spent in the back of my car listening to the rain. It started raining around 10pm and didn't let up until the race started.

My pre-race dinner was the usual bacon cheeseburger and a salad.
Breakfast was half a piece of Ezekiel sesame (sprouted grain) bread with peanut butter and virgin coconut oil, along with some Awake tea with Grapefruit Seed Extract and a piece of ginger.

The start of the race took us into Pritchett Canyon and through some beautiful, rolling, canyonlands

I had a little nauseousness during the first five miles or so, but Vespa does that to me a bit so I wasn't
concerned and it passed quickly. After mile eight or nine, the course opened up to follow a wide, sandy track and lost some altitude giving me a chance to settle into a more controlled effort. I drank my first 10 ounces of water over the next few miles and enjoyed the view before the trail got technical again.

open, soft, beautiful

to the side of the trail I saw my first waterfall of the day

the last part of soft trail for the rest of the day, excluding the slick muddy sections

At roughly the two hour mark I took an S!Cap. From just before the three hour mark until just before the four hour mark I took a Strawberry Stinger gel, with another 10 ounces of water. Right after finishing most of it, I took another S!Cap and tried to keep drinking. During the last few miles (I had only a vague idea of how much was left) I took a mouthful of Blueberry Pomegranate Roctane for the amino acids, just to try to boost recovery, but it sat like a rock in my stomach so I left it at that and stuck to water until the end.
Other than the nauseousness during the first few miles, I had no major GI problems. But taking in a meager 120-130 calories and about 30 ounces of water is hardly a lot by almost anyone's standards but my own.

I finished 13th overall in 4:21. Nowhere near where I need to be. But for now, for this race, it'll do.
The course lead through tight squeezes and open rock ledges. There was a huge climb right in the middle that had virtually everyone walking. Parts of it had rappel lines that took you up and down sheer rock formations. The course seemed to drastically change every half hour...
It's hard to describe exactly what was so special about this race. It was the most hardcore trail running I've ever done. 

gently heading back onto the course, down the hill by the finish line to get the last few miles

I'm excited to go back next year for sure.

a few pictures from The Xterra Marathon of Trail Races

some pictures from Xterra

coming down from a snowy Cheyenne Mountain, with about 200 meters left in the race



feelin dead after the race, running soaking wet in 32-35 degree weather is not a good way to conserve energy 

The day after I went to Deer Creek Canyon Park for some great barefoot hiking in the warmer weather. The sandy, cool, uneven trail felt amazing.



getting some Colorado-cross-training (bouldering) the day after. I'm sure it helped file down some of the calluses on my bare feet

Thoughts going into The Moab Trail Marathon and beyond

This is going to be my last major race until until after the winter. I need a few months to focus solely on training.
For this race, I'm going to get my nutrition perfect. everything else is just icing on the cake. Over the 26.2 miles I'm going to take in 2-3 gels and atleast one electrolyte pill along with atleast 20 ounces of water. If i take all that in and don't have any stomach issues then the race was a success. Also, breaking four hours should be doable on this hard course if my nutrition is dialed in. We'll see what happens but it's gona be a blast.

I'm pleasantly surprised that my recent racing hasn't seemed to drain me at all. -I'm loving my running more than ever, and as the weather gets colder i can feel myself wanting to speed up, which is exactly the plan.
I'm going to run 80 miles during the last week of November and go up from there. By the end of March I should be close to 100 miles a week for a few weeks, and might end my winter training with 2 or three weeks at 100 depending on how i feel. At this point in my ultra career I have done a few good training weeks but I have yet to put in the months and months of consistent high mileage that it'll take to get me to the next level.
I'm going to run more than 80 miles a week (each week) for all of December, January, February, March, and April. 80-100 is hardly high mileage by ultra standards, but the consistency should make the difference and the plan isn't to do junk miles. Each week should have: a speedwork session with intervals of 400-800 meters, 20 miles at 5:50-6:30 pace (half marathon-marathon race pace) spread throughout my easy runs, and a 20 miler without any water or food.
By the time that May rolls around I'm gona be 1600+ miles faster and ready for a great summer racing season.