Running, my second job and passion...

Fremont Fat Ass

2012-01-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

Three weeks have passed since I resumed my training and this is already my fourth ultra run! After another busy week at work with a pair of 5 AM conf calls, I decided on Friday evening to participate in a second Fat Ass, albeit a much flatter one than the Saratoga Fat Ass, actually pretty much a flat one. Since the rain finally arrived in the Bay Area on Thursday and it poured all night this Friday, I was expecting a good rainy training run but it turned out to be mostly a sunny one, except for 10 minutes of rain. However, we had to run against a strong wind going toward the Bay and I must have enjoyed that so much that I missed the last bridge over the Alameda Channel and went 1.3 miles too far on the wrong side of the creek. I knew the Coyote Hills Regional Park was on the other side, but I had missed the fact that we had to cross the river a few miles before the entrance. At least, these 18 extra minutes gave me the opportunity to see Sean, Toshi and Larry who had started at 7 AM. Would I have not done the detour, I would have missed them before they exit the 8-shape loop in Coyote Hills Park (rather than 8-shape, it actually looks closer to the contour of North and Central Americas on the map ;-).

From the initial 8 min/mile average pace while I was running the first 4 miles with Dan and Mike, I managed to get the pace down to 7:25 by mile 15, running slightly under 7 min/mile. However, the strong wind slowed me down and my GPS gave a 7:41 pace after I stopped for a couple minutes at the super aid station that Chihping had setup and for us, giving away his whole morning for us during such a special New Lunar Year weekend.

Thanks to Mark Tanaka (and Toshi who posted the link earlier this week), I discovered (I know, it was time...) the cool replay feature of Garmin Connect and you can replay my run, from your chair ;-), and see this embarrassing mistake (click on the previous link, then the arrow button).

Between the extra 2.6 miles and the fact that we missed the small detour through the Niles Community Park at mile 3, my GPS gave 32.76 miles for the run, not too far from the 50K distance (31.1 miles). I was hoping to break 4 hours, I will have to come back next year and pay more attention at the bridge crossing...

It was fun to see a group of 25 or so, representing a good mix of our East Bay, South Bay and Mid Peninsula ultra running communities! A big thank you to Mike Palmer for setting such event up and giving us the opportunity to run in these local Parks. It was a first for me and I particularly enjoyed the amazing views from the West side of Bayview Trail in Coyote Hills.

Big thanks too to Chihping Fu for such a stocked aid station that he had to move back and forth to avoid the rain shower. And for attending to his legendary photo coverage of the events he is involved in (with a brand new camera!):

After bragging about my great 2111 season, I had planned to share about my 2012 program, this will have to wait one more week. As a hint, this run was a great preparation for a flat 50K in two weeks, many will know which one I'm talking about.

To finish this post, and for those who are not subscribed to Ultra Running Magazine (you should! ;-), I received my copy this week which includes a new column from our team Captain, Greg Lanctot, about running clubs, starting with a feature of our QuickSilver Ultra Running Team. And, on the 3rd cover page, the Vespa ad I mentioned in previous posts. Here again, I ran a good sustained pace for 4 hours after taking one Vespa CV-25 at the start then very few calories compared to the 3,000 or so calories I spent: 1 Gu (100 cal.), 1 banana (thanks Chihping!, 110 cal.), 2 cups of Coke (80 cal), less than one bottle of Gu2O (100), 2 S!Caps. Burning fat and learning how to leverage your fat as your main source of energy/fuel, isn't it what these Fat Ass events are all about? ;-) Anyway, another opportunity to wish you a great 2012 year!

2011: an exceptional millesime!

2012-01-14T19:33:00.000-08:00

With my last 2011 race on December 31, I had to delay a bit this special time to reflect on the past year, before I even tell you about what's up for the new year ahead, next week... The 2011 "grand cru" is bottled and the magnums carefully placed in the cellar. Just kidding... But, since I started running seriously after my move to California in 1998, this has certainly been the best year both in quantity and quality, at least in my own local league. And, like a vigneron or winemaker, I still hope to have another of such an exceptional year in the future. And I will keep working hard for that!

Quantitative look

One chart summarizes the year quite well from a quantitative standpoint: not only did I run many miles, the most of my running career in one single year, but I also ran them at a faster average pace. A total of 3,271 miles (5,264 kilometers), that is slightly above a 100 km/week average even with a few weeks off here and there to recover and taper and a healthy 3-week break in December. 438 hours of running overall at an average pace of 8:03 min/mile or 5:00 min/km. Cool stats, so much in line with the Farther Faster theme of my blog, all that despite getting a bit older, I cannot deny that! ;-) Not to mention a healthy busy schedule and workload on my primary job...

It is going to be challenging to do better than that. Even if there are other runners who average more miles per week, I would have to rearrange my priorities significantly to find more time to run. Maybe when I get closer to retirement...

A few other statistics for 2011:

Number of entries in my running log: 233 (4.5 run / week)
Number of races: 18
Number of ultra races: 13 (not counting the Fat Asses)
Number of ultra runs: 35 (yes, I also do ultras as training runs now... ;-)
Vertical/elevation: 270,000 feet or 82,300 meters (quite approximate as this isn't Garmin's specialty to track cumulative elevation)
Number of blog entries: 52
Number of overall wins: 4 (Skyline 50K, Stevens Creek 50K, Last Chance 50-mile, New Year's Eve One Day 12-hour)
Number of DNF (Did Not Finish): 1 (Rio Del Lago, mile 71)
Number of Brooks pairs of shoes I ran in: 14 (including 866 miles in Launch and 814 miles in Racer ST)

Qualitative look

Consistency - Apart from the DNF at Rio Del Lago, I did very well in most of the races. Except maybe Miwok where I took it easy, taking more than 300 pictures wile running. Thanks to Singulair, I have not been bothered by exercise-induced asthma during races, just getting my lungs slightly irritated after Way Too Cool and American River.

Improvement - I did PR on a few distances and also managed to set some Personal Bests at 2 races. Setting the bar higher but looking forward to matching that again in 2012!

50-mile PR: 5:43:39, Last Chance, November, certainly my top performance of the season;
100K PR: 8:05:36, Ruth Anderson, April (unofficial because I missed the start by more than 2 hours because of a missed flight connection);
12-hr PR: 79.6 miles, New Year's Eve One Day, December;
American River 50-mile PB: 6:47, Sacramento-Auburn, April;
Quicksilver 50K PB: 3:56, San Jose, April (new age-group course record).

Originality - Not so much in my racing as the only new place I raced this year was the Los Gatos High School track for an all-comer meet. I finally ran Steve Patt's estival Stevens Creek 50K for the first time, but that's on the trails I'm used to train on. The other new race was the one-time World Masters held in Sacramento this year so all my 18 races happened in California. Not much of an original program overall but at least good from a sustainability standpoint! Now, with all my business travel, I did run/train in many new places this year: Stockholm, Madrid, Anchorage, Riyad, Dubai, Manama (Bahrain), Fort Lauderdale, Des Moines, Toronto and several places in Croatia.

Intensity and fun - This has been a very full year with racing ranging from 5K to 80 miles, a focus on the PA USATF Mountain and Ultra Trail Grand Prix in which I won my age group for the 5th year in a row but a tiny 1% margin over superstar Dave Mackey this year (Dave has just been voted the ultra runner of the year by a panel of race directors assembled by Ultra Running Magazine) and our team won all the 4 team awards (men, women, mixed, overall)! It was fun and rewarding to participate in the World Master of Athletics this summer and get a gold and bronze medal, run as a team with the Quicksilver Ultra Running Team led my our energizing captain, Greg Lanctot, fun to train solo or as a group on weekends with the Stevens Creek Striders or our Saturday morning group. I also enjoyed a few runs with colleagues at the office or while traveling (Alaska, Spain) and, last but not least, with Agnès for her come back to running and Max when he visits.

It is the perfect occasion to thank again the race directors who put up all these races in 2011. We are in particular so blessed in our North California area, this is too good to pass on and not run one or two (or more...) ultra race every month! And I'm also grateful to the hundreds of volunteers, first of course the ones that we see at the aid stations, even if it is for a short time, but also all the ones helping out behind the scene to make these events not only successful and fun, but safe too.

Great run this Saturday, more than 29 miles, starting from Rancho, up to Black Mountain then through Palo Alto's Foothills Park and back to Rancho with Rhus Ridge's steep climb without walking. My 3rd ultra run in 3 weeks, I'm quickly getting into this new season rhythm!

In next week's post I plan on sharing with you what the first half of 2012 will look like from a running standpoint, although quite of that is already public courtesy of UltraSignup's near-monopoly on race registrations nowadays. Some rain is finally announced for this Wednesday in the Bay Area, looking forward to it to alleviate the drought. Have a great week in the meantime!

Saratoga Fat Ass 2012: is it winter yet?

2012-01-07T17:02:00.000-08:00

What perfect conditions for a run, but hard to believe that we are in the middle of the winter, even in California. Dry trails and creeks, sunny skies, wonderful clear views over the Ocean. The only trace of bad weather was the numerous trees barring the trail. Since I started trail running back in 2005, I never saw so many trees and branches on our nearby trails. Someone needs to get out there with a chainsaw, actually a great volunteering opportunity to pursue since the trend is more getting toward abandoning the trail maintenance and closing our wonderful parks because of budget cuts.

Back to the Fat Ass, I didn't have much fat to burn this year, having already run 80 miles on New Year's Eve and 53 miles since, during the week. But I like the tradition and was excited to join Sean and Toshi for an early start of this 4th edition for me (2005, 2007, 2009 and 2012) but the event has been on for a few decades, becoming quite a local ultra running tradition. A special thank to David Kamp for keep this tradition alive.

For various family or work-related reasons, Toshi, Sean and I took an early start at 7:20 am. Charles (Stevens) was waiting for Chris (Garcia) and planning on starting between 7:30 and 8. The sun had just risen and the light over the hills and Ridge Trail was amazing, as were the views in all directions but especially over the Ocean.

When not stopping for pictures, videos or read and re-read the trail instructions at each intersection, we maintained a good pace until the beginning of Slate Creek Trail where we started loosing our momentum when going around fallen trees and a huge one in particular.

Per Toshi's suggestion, I took the lead all the way up on Portola Trail, we got quite a good work out! We met Winnie and Lee Jebian who were so kind to be out there to man the only aid station at China Grade. As we were talking and taking pictures, all of sudden came Leor (Pantilat) who flew by all of us.

He had taken a late start (8:20) and had already made the 1-hour gap on us in the first 15 miles, wow!

We stopped at the aid station to fill up our bottles and enjoy a banana that Lee and Winnie had left for us, a sweet idea. A few hundreds yards after the aid station we also met Dave, the Race Director, who was adding to Winnie's trail markers as a new trail has been recently added in this area and that brought some additional confusion to the course.

The next section along the border of Big Basin Redwoods State Park is my favorite and I really enjoyed it in such perfect conditions. I was bothered with our slow pace (11:50 min/mile at this point), but it wasn't a competition after all and it was great to run in the company of Quicksilver teammates.

After stopping at the Waterman Gap campground for more water, about mile 21, Toshi picked up the pace and I lost sight of him. I hesitated to push in this long uphill section in which I had so many bad experiences in the past, bonking and getting cold. But, to leverage these unique good conditions, I eventually picked up the pace myself and closed the gap on Toshi, pushing all the way up to Saratoga Gap to close the loop in 5:22:21. Leor was kindly waiting for us although he had been done for a long while as he completed the loop in a blazing 3 hours and 50 minutes! Given the 7,000 or so feet of cumulative elevation, this is yet another very impressive course record which is sure to hold for many years given the low key format of this event. Here he is with Race Director David Kamp:

Jeremy Johnson arrived shortly after us although he had taken a later 8 am start. He clocked something like 5:05 which is very promising soon after getting the Rookie Award for his first 50-mile and 7th place at the Dick Collins' Firetrails race last October. He had won a free entry into American River as a prize so we will see him again on the trails soon.

A posted a few more pictures in my Picasa album.

Great way to celebrate the end of the Holidays and the beginning of a busy ultra running season. And, that the skiers and snowboarders forgive us, we really enjoy the current weather on the trails. At least I do! See you on the trails, hope you have a great 2012 year!

New Year's Eve 12-hour: running celebration

2012-01-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

A few years ago, I was intrigued when I heard about the race called "Across the years." I initially thought it meant running for several years but you don't have to run for that long to go across two years, you just have to start your run the night of New Year's Eve and keep going after midnight. That's what a few dedicated race directors propose at the end of December, offering their time and recruiting valorous volunteers so a few runners can take on this challenge of running across the years. In Arizona, Across the Years has actually a few events (72, 48, 24 hours), in Florida Peanut Island has a 24, 12 and 6-hour, which correspond to what Wendell has been offering for the 2nd year in magic San Francisco. Even for locals and even more for out of town visitors, it is amazing to have the privilege to run in the City with majestic views of the Golden Gate, Marin Headlands, the Presidio, the Financial District and the Transamerica skyscraper in particular, the Palace of Fine Arts, Angel Island, Alcatraz, ... With such a touristic set, no risk of getting bored running tens of laps! ;-)

If you are not single, the hardest thing with such events and ideas is to get the family on board. A few couples and families were actually running together through the night (the 24-hour started at 9 am on Saturday, the 12-hour at noon and the 6-hour at 6 pm), which solved their challenge. On my end, Max had already left a few days for another tour on the East Coast with the SOBs, his Yale a cappella group, and Alex had a 6 am flight for DC on the first to join the Georgetown rowing team for a winter training camp, so he wasn't up to spend the night partying anyway. Agnès, Alex and Greg invited friends and had dinner at a Thai restaurant, downtown.

I drove on my own in the morning, getting to Crissy Field around 11 am. Noon was an unusual late start for an ultra, most races starting between 6 or 8 am when not at 5 am. And it felt strange to get to the start while quite a few participants were already running since 9 am, kind of the feeling I had when I got to Ruth Anderson 100K more than 2 hours after the start because of a missed connection the night before... Local elite Chikara Omine was flying through the start/finish area every 7 minutes or so, that got me excited to join the fun he seemed to have! Quite a few familiar faces were gathering for the start of the 12-hour, yet I was amazed at the number of new faces too, this definitely shows our ultra running sport keeps growing.

Here are (Tropical) John Medinger (right) and Lisa Henson, respectively Publisher and General Manager of UltraRunning Magazine, with Race Director and Coastal Trail Runs' founder and owner, Wendell Doman. Wendell has run at least 100 ultras himself and more than gave back to our sport, organizing more than 200 ultras himself!

He sent us on the course right at noon or more exactly at the 3:00:00-hour mark on the clock. With a simple 1.061-mile loop, with course marking (thank you Mike!), the pre-race briefing was... brief.

As you can see, the afternoon was gorgeous! Here is Mike, focused on pouring water in the mini cups, who has volunteered from 7:30 in the morning to 4 pm I believe, most of New Year's Eve daylight!

We then started running in circle... With Jason and David at the front we ran the first lap just above 8 minutes. For those who missed my previous posts, I took my usual running break in December and, except for the nice fun run organized by Mike for Boxing Day, that was my first run after three weeks of resting. I did listen to Scott Jurek's advice and follow the three topics of his recent article publish in Competitor's November issue: "Don't run, gain weight, hang out!" Speaking of the second advice, I did gain about 6 pounds over my optimal racing weight, and mostly fat which I was looking forward to burn thanks to Vespa!

With such eagerness and joy to get back to running, I was feeling excited and so good that I did pick the pace, clocking 16 laps in the first two hours (7.5 minutes/lap). That was more than the 8 minutes I had initially planned for, and certainly not the smartest strategy for such a long long run as I was going to quickly find out. I started getting quite tired in the 3rd hour and, realizing that there were many hours ahead, I scaled down to a 10-minute/lap pace after maintaining sub 9-minute laps until lap 28. I was still passing a lot of participants who were running or walking, but, after passing Chikara twice, it was his turn to lap me twice which was particularly humbling as he was competing in the 24-hour event!

I kept moving and became concerned not to see Agnès and the boys whom I was expecting around 3 pm, the time I needed to refill the two GU2O bottles I had drunk in my first marathon (slightly over 3 hours). Around 3:30 I decided to make my first stop at the aid station and Stevens Creek Strider, John McKiernan, kindly assisted me while I picked a few potato chips and a small piece of banana. A good move as the family arrived around 5:30 pm and stayed for 30 minutes.

It was already dark when they left and I put one more layer and my headlamp on. After a sunny and windy afternoon, the sky was clear and the half moon kept us company for most of the night making the surroundings even more magical between the lights of all the cities around the Bay, the ones on the Golden Gate and the contrast with the dark water and Alcatraz (that reminded me the story of the prisoners hearing the New Year's Eve celebrations in the audio tape of the visit of Alcatraz...).

With such a lap format, you are never running alone, always having the opportunity to exchange a few words of encouragement or, for others, do a few laps together. I passed the 50-mile mark after about 7 hours of running. At that time, my splits stayed in the 9:45-10:45 range with only 7 laps above 11 minutes when I did stop to get some hot soup (3 times)

Another Strider, Dennis, ran half a lap with me when I was experiencing quite a low (sorry, Dennis, for not having more voluble...). And Toshi, from our Quiksilver Ultra Racing team, ran one lap late in the night, before spending quite some time assisting Chikara who, very unfortunately, got injured in his quest for a great 24-hour distance (he dropped at midnight, not able to even walk anymore after 91 laps in 15 hours). Another teammate, Amy, was on the 24-hour and ran 95 laps, that is just over 100 miles!

After the 16 first laps and realizing that wasn't sustainable, I was now planning on settling for 6 laps/hour and still hoping to run 78 laps or 82.75 miles, still short of the 83.4 miles Akos Konya ran on this course in September 2007 (all in daylight though). Speaking of daylight, this was the longest I actually ran in the dark, even including my 100-miles: not only that made me relate more with what most of the participants in such events experience, but also realize that I have to get better at running through the night if I want to keep getting longer and farther...

Keeping doing the maths with laps slightly above 10 minutes and a few stops at the aid station, I had to revise my goal down to 77 then 76 laps. My first and only attempt at this race format was last year when I logged 74 laps (78 miles) with the last 8 hours in the rain so I was really looking forward to not only do better than that but also pass the 80-mile mark. Unfortunately, that meant that I had to run a handful of laps around 9 minutes each and I couldn't find the energy and motivation to do so and was glad enough to improve my PR by one lap and one mile and take first as a bonus! I ended my 75th lap in 11 hours 56 minutes and 45 seconds, just in time to grab a cup of Champagne before watching quite colorful fireworks above the Financial District at midnight.

A performance good enough for a nice mug (running 3 marathons in a row for a mug is something which actually surprises a few of Agnès' students... ;-).

Shan Riggs won the 24-hour event with 126 miles, followed by Daniel Gallo (116 miles) and Matthew McKinney (110 miles). Amy took first in the Female division and, at 76, Bill Dodson logged 90 miles!

In the 12 hour, Brandon Chalk got 73 miles and Andrew Foster 69 followed by Nancy Morehead with 66 miles. Battling a foot injury, Jason still managed to log See more results at that temporary URL or on the Coastal Trail Runs NYOD page in case the URL changes.

One more word about Vespa: according to both SportTracks and Garmin, I burned slightly more than 8,000 calories during the run. I ate a few potato chips, a small piece of banana, half a brownie, 7 GUs, 11 S-Caps and drank 3 cups of soup, one cup of Coca Cola and 5 bottles of GU2O, less than 3,000 calories total, Vespa helping me to efficiently switch to fat burning to keep the balance. And, for the ones who have seen or will see the Vespa ad in the January issue of UltraMagazine, I still buy the products (available at ZombieRunner)! ;-)

A big and sincere thank you to all the volunteers who gave up their New Year's Eve so we could run happily and safely this weekend, across the 2011-2012 years! Not to forget those who spent all night up to assist the valorous 24-hour runners who kept going after we left and went to bed... And a special thank you to Agnès for having accepted to plan around this "yet another" and last race in 2011...

I was definitely tired after such a long run and intense way to resume my racing and training season. Like Scott Jurek says, take a good break for a month then resume training slowly... Well, we'll see how bad my decision was to do 80 miles as a first run. Although I didn't cramp during the run I was actually quite sore on New Year's Day, from shoulders to calves. It still hurt today (January 2nd) as I ran to the top of Black Mountain (2,800 ft) and back, for a 23-mile "recovery" run before next weekend's Saratoga Fat Ass. Yes, we all ran across the years and it's time for another season! Once again, all the best to all of you for 2012!

Happy Boxing Day, Mike and all!

2011-12-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

A nice occasion for my 52nd and final post of the year, the celebration of a tradition which started in Great Britain before spreading through the Commonwealth countries; a tradition of wealthy people giving a gift to their servant right after Christmas which evolved into sharing left overs from Christmas celebrations and therefore putting things back into... boxes. Nothing to see with boxing, the combat sport! In countries celebrating Boxing Day it also became a sort of our American Black Friday, a day with big and now cyber sales.

I missed Mike's invite last year and was looking forward to participating into this year's run as we were in town for the Holidays. The timing was also perfect for Max who is leaving tomorrow night for a tour of the East Coast with his Yale a cappella group, the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus or SOBs. Beyond the running experience, it turned out to be the perfect group for Max to connect with many discussions around architecture and industrial design with such gurus of the disciplines in the Valley (Mike, Barry, Dirk, ...).

I had not planned on running today actually as I was 2 weeks in my yearly "maintenance" break and was going to make it 3 weeks, resuming with a very long run at the Coastal Trail Runs' New Year's One Day 12-hour event in San Francisco, running circles on the 1.061-mile loop at Crissy Field in San Francisco. Hopefully the weather will be nicer than when it ran for 8 hours during my first and only attempt at this ultra format, in September 2010. If you happen to be in town to celebrate the new year, please consider stopping by, I plan on running quite a few laps in 8 minutes or so.

Back to Boxing Day, it got really special as soon as I heard about Mike's recent adventure on Labor Day (September 5). Mike, a very experienced ultra runner was running in his neighborhood when he felt pain in his chest and left arm. He was able to jog back to his house, calmly, before his wife drove him straight to the hospital where the cardiologist decided to do a triple coronary artery bypass the same day, not leaving much time to even think and worry about it! The next day, Mike was back on his feet and walking. With an amazing will and discipline, he kept walking and jogging every day, adding a few minutes each day. And here we are, less than 4 months after such a major surgery, with Mike hoping to run the whole way from Portola Valley to the Ocean, about 20 miles! Because Max and I left the group at Skyline, at the time I'm writing this post, I don't know if Mike accomplished his goal but I can tell you that we left him in good company and he was in great shape running most of the 3 miles up to Skyline!

As Max had to be back home by 12:30 pm and I was technically in a running break, resting, we took left on Skyline and got on the Windy Hill trails. After starting the run in the fog down into the Valley, we were now above the cloud and the views were wonderful will all the emerging hills including Mount Diablo on the East side.

See a few more pictures in my Picasa album.

Clay was now leading the way and really picked up the pace on this trail he knows so well, living in Portola Valley himself. We had about 7 miles of running on the road up to Skyline and just above 7 miles to run back to the car, mostly on trails. This part of the loop reminded me of our monthly Saturday morning Windy Hill run which I used to do with Sophia, Brian, Charles, Mike, Chris, Greg, Craig, Ed, to name a few, and Pierre Tardif who still sends us the weekly email (I only do Rhus Ridge the weekends I'm not racing).

14 miles in perfect weather and trails in perfect conditions, I hope the running gods will forgive me for this temptation to run during my official yearly break. I was actually going to blog about an article Agnès and Greg liked in the November 2011 issue of Competitor, in which Scott Jurek share his wisdom about taking a break every year and the benefits, both physical and mental. I couldn't find the article on line ("Don't Run, Gain Weight, Hang out - You will be a better runner, seriously") but I had heard this tip from Scott earlier and you can read more from it in this post: Gimme A Break!

Speaking of hanging out, I attended a private projection of Unbreakable -The Western States 100 this week and I highly recommend watching this epic recount of the front competition at Western States 2010 (Geoff Roes, Anton Krupicka, Killian Jornet and Hal Koerner). And, while 99% of the movie is about these 4 amazing champions, plus great personal insights from Western States 100 founder, Gordy Ainsleigh. An inspirational and must-see DVD for any trail ultra runner, either experienced or aspiring, and an amazing technical fate from filmmaker JB Benna and his crew.

Now, back to the title, Santa dropped quite a few... boxes to my house and he must have great hopes for my 2012 running season! Cool pairs of shoes from Brooks (a special web edition of the super cool blue Green Silence and the newest PureGrit, the trail model of the PureProject product line). I also ordered a few books and DVDs at ZombieRunner and 3 boxes of Vespa CV-25 which should give me enough energy for a while.

Well, we are already discussing our Quicksilver Ultra Running Team plans for 2012 and it seems like I'll be running 5 ultras in a row in April-May, including a few races outside of the Grand Prix so I'll definitely need the Vespa boost indeed. Stay tuned, I'll share more in January after I have the opportunity to let you know about my New Year's Eve run and reflect back on the 2011 season.

In the meantime, have a great New Year celebration and all the best for 2012, on the trails, on the road, at work or at home! Talk to you next year then!

PS: while Max and I were running, Alex was on the Skyline-to-the-Sea trail which he completed with his friend Jeannie in 11 hours (a 28 mile-hike)! Quite a memorable and healthy Boxing Day this year... ;-)

PS-2: just talked to Mike who made it to the Beach, safely, phew! Great story to share with your cardiologist, Mike and inspirational for his other patients, congratulations!

5,000,000 meters: done!

2011-12-10T16:20:00.001-08:00

Two things to make up for the lack of posting last weekend. 1. The passage of another milestone and first for me with 5,000 kilometers logged year to date and 2. an tribute to the trees bordering my neighborhood running loop.

1. 5,000,000-meter milestone

3 years ago, I put my name in one of the challenges posted in the UltraFondus forum. UltraFondus (which can be translated literally with "fans of ultra" in a sense of being mad or crazy about our sport) is both a super sleek and professional magazine about ultra and a community, mostly French-speaking and France-based. Several unofficial challenges are proposed such as 5 million meters of running in one year, 100 thousand meters of cumulative elevation in one year, or 1 hour/day of running. In 2008, I reached a peak in my running log with 4,560 km that year (2,834 miles). This year, I noticed that, by the end of June, I was averaging 63 miles per week which was right on target for 5 million meters for the year and decided to keep monitoring this KPI (Key Performance Indicator, something we use in business to mean a specific metric or number related to performance). The more we were progressing through Summer, and with the preparation for my yearly 100-miler in particular, the crisper the achievement of the goal became. However, I must admit that, certain weeks, keeping the 62-mile/week average was too much of a constraint and pressure, so much that I told Agnès I promised myself not to pout this goal on my list in 2012.

Anyway, last Sunday, I did pass the 3,100-mile mark and I'm actually at 5,087 km this Saturday, enough to take a few weeks off before my 12-hour race on December 31! From noon to midnight at the Crissy Field in San Francisco (Coastal Trail Runs' New Year's One Day)! Yes, while almost everybody else speaks about the end of the 2011 season, I still plan on adding a 18th race to my log on the very last day of the year, and at least 100 kilometers to reach 5,200 km in 2011, that is the symbolic weekly mileage of 100 km or 62 mile/week.

I've never ran that much in a single year and that probably explains why I also became stronger as I also managed to increase my mileage while increasing the average speed at the same (all these miles at an average of 8:01 minute/mile) as you can see on the following chart (kilometers on the left scale, min/mile on the right one):

Again, what a year 2011 has been so far and, with this late race on December 31, my yearly assessment will have to wait for January...

2. Fall in Cupertino: a tribute to our local trees

All these years, I thought that we really didn't have much of a Fall in the Bay Area, that this was a big differentiator with the East Coast and New England in particular. However, and it was time as we are really getting close to the Winter now, I was amazed to see such a variety of colors in the many trees planted on my neighborhood 3.1-mile loop. Tall, mid-size or small trees, conifers or leafy, lemon, orange, apple, apricot, plum, cherry trees, straight or convoluted trunks, decorative or even decorated trees, light and dark green, brown, yellow or red foliage, local or foreign species, oak, maple, birch, cypress, pine, several types of palm trees and cactus, too many species to identify and name them all! A picture is word a thousand words so here is a collage to provide you with an overview of this variety, in one shot. And you can see more in my Picasa album (76 pictures!).

So, too many species to name one by one, yet a special mention to the ginkgo, my favorite one for several reasons. First because that's the favorite tree of my parents and my Mom in particular. With my 5 siblings, we offered one to them when we moved to a new house near Tours in France in 1976 but it never grew as well as the many ginkgo trees we have in Cupertino. The shape of the leaves, their softness and tenderness, the nice green of the foliage in the Spring and the way it turns to a flamboyant yellow in the Fall, here are some of the characteristics which make this specie so special to us. And I could mention the therapeutic properties that our local Asian population must sink from this tree too.

Here you are with some musings about our rural neighborhood which has so many trees. I would not be surprised if we had one tree per inhabitant in Cupertino, another blessing of our area.

With that I'm ready to take 3 weeks off as my traditional yearly break and resume with a very long run on the 31st. To the risk of overwhelming you with numbers and statistics again, that's post number 51 this year, so I shall do one more to meet my other goal of blogging once a week! Stay tuned then, and very happy holidays to you all, whatever you are still logging miles or having a healthy rest too! So, the Brooks way, it time to say... Run (or Rest) Happy!!! ;-)

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot: back to (speed) work

2011-11-24T17:21:00.001-08:00

After my blazing Last Chance 50-mile (I still have hard time fully realizing what happened... ;-), I went straight back to work with a 10-hour work day on Sunday to finalize a proposal for Saudi Arabia. I was able to blog about the race, late in the night and, after a 3.5-hour sleep, got swamped into another busy week at work, hence missing last weekend's blog (I'm trying to skip to a weekly rhythm). No blogging but some running still and building up of some speed. I actually ran every day after the race with an interesting progression of the average pace:

Sunday (post-race recovery run): 6 miles @ 8:44 (including 3 miles with Agnès!)
Monday (legs still quite sore): 6 miles @ 8:06
Tuesday: 9 miles @ 7:03
Wednesday: 12 miles @ 6:45
Thursday: 6 miles including 3 of speed work with Bob (400s in 82 to 75")
Friday: 9 miles @ 6:28
Saturday: 29 hilly miles (Rancho, Black Mountain, Foothills Park in Palo Alto, Rhus Ridge) @ 10:17 (social run... see pictures of Charles, Mike and Chris ;-)
Sunday: 27 flat miles (Cupertino to Shoreline and back) @ 7:34
Monday: 9 miles @ 6:59
Tuesday: 6 miles at Mountain View High School track @ 6:55
Wednesday: rest day, a one-day "tapering" before the Turkey Trot.

That was probably too many miles to really prepare for a 10K but I'm also working on my 100K/week average for 2011, and I'm on track with 64.03 so far, with about 5 weeks to go! At the top of Black Mountain last Saturday:

Back to the Turkey Trot on this Thanksgiving morning. First, it has been a huge success from a participation and fund raising standpoints. Last year we were 11,000 to run or walk, this year the organizers had set the cap to 17,000 before extending it to 21,000 and the event filled up! 90% increase, this is a huge achievement and momentum, especially in the midst of an economic downturn, which is very timely as the raised funds will be used to provide hundreds of thousands of meals for people and families who struggle in this environment. Congratulations and thanks to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and in particular to Carl Guardino, their CEO. Not to mention that Carl spent all morning on the podium, cheering on the mic for all of us, all that after being seriously injured in a car accident a few days ago (broken leg and hip). What an example of commitment and service! Here he is, interviewing the Elite 5K winner:

For me, it was my 38th 10K race since I arrived in the Bay Area 13 years ago, out of 194 races. And 17th race this year with 13 ultra marathons. As much as I like the speed and format of these shorter events, road racing isn't my specialty or focus anymore, but I like the variety that it brings in my year-long running season.

The start was delayed and we had about 10 minutes of wait as it started drizzling. Thankfully, the rain stopped before we even reached the first mile mark. After a few hundreds yards I was probably in 20th despite a 5:20 pace. My breathing was fine but I couldn't get my stride longer or faster, yet was able to maintain a 5:27 pace for the first two miles and passed a few runners in the 3rd and 4th mile. There were still about 6 very fast runners ahead. Right after the mile 4 mark, the course had an out and back on the right on Park Avenue. As I was approaching the turn, I saw one runner going right first, then quickly back on the course as we had to take left. He was with rising star Jose Pina Jr, in the lead of this fast race at only 14!

At this point, the other leaders were not to be seen in the out and back and I figured out that they had taken the wrong turn and would therefore be disqualified for not running the whole distance. Indeed, from my Garmin GPS track on SportsTrack, the out and back was exactly 0.5 mile (4:23-4:73) and it took me 2:52 to complete it. I could close some gap with the runner ahead of me, Jeremy Judge, but not much with Jose. I passed Jeremy before the 6-mile mark (Jeremy gave me a nice "good job" which I thought was very ) and he stayed close behind but I out sprinted him eventually in the last hundreds yards, crossing the finish line in 35:20. Not quite the 34 minutes I was looking for but not bad given the circumstances. With the snafu of the leaders, I expected Jose to have taken 2nd and me, 3rd. That was at 8:35, keep reading...

At this point, I jogged back to my car to grab my Brooks Jacket and my camera, then "swam against the current" of the 5K runners, looking for Agnès and Greg. They were wearing the superb and fancy red tech race tshirt, as several thousands of other runner were, so it required a lot of attention not to miss them. I finally found them, a quarter mile from the finish, they were having great fun!

We then gathered in the finish area and, in the middle of such a crowd, were able to see a few other friends (Luc and his family, Greg, Adona, Pierre-Yves and Adrienne, ...).

Most of the crowd then dissolved with participants joining their own Thanksgiving celebrations. Last year, I drove back home and came back with Agnes for the award ceremony (3 hours after the finish of the 10K...), this year I decided to stay to watch the elite races. I participated in that race and PA USATF 5K championship 2 years ago (16:34), but it's quite humbling to run with guys so fast (13 minutes...) and 20-25 years younger...

The elite women 5K started at 10am and I was amazed how a pack of about 10 gals was still together after 2 laps (out of 4). It did split in the 3rd lap but 14 runners finished in the same minute, from the winning time of 16:02 to 16:52! The top 3 were: Jackie Areson from Oregon (of course! ;-), Aziza Aliyu from Ethiopia and Kellyn Johnson from Arizona.

Moving to the men, also a very impressive pack of runners leading for a couple of laps and a record of 9 runners under 14 minutes. I had seen Alan Webb setting a course record last year and saw his course record broken this morning by an Australian runner with an amazing 13:33!

Top 3 were: David McNeill of Australia (13:33), Stephen Sambu of Kenya (13:37) and Diego Estrada of Arizona. That's respectively 4:22, 4:23 and 4:24 min/mile pace, this is speed! And, back to the title of this post, certainly a lot of work to get there...

Finally, around 11:45 and in the rain this time, it was time for a chaotic and expedited award ceremony. Quite some confusion on the 10K results with 2 of the top runners claiming that they were send the wrong way by race volunteers so were entitled the wins despite having run a much shorter distance. I went from 3rd down to 4th overall and 6th in the results published tonight on Race Central. Oh well, this is a fund raising event, not an official competition (the big guns were on the Elite races); it is a time for grace and thanksgiving, and I'm definitely thankful for such an amazing year, especially with my running, and for my supportive family and friends. Not to forget the organizers, sponsors and all the volunteers who made this fun run possible and such a huge success to support our local communities!

Hope to be in town to run this race again next year, and join such a joyful and healthy crowd!

PS: you can find a few pictures of the event in my Picasa album.

Last Chance 2011: not missed!

2011-11-13T22:29:00.001-08:00

This is quite a name for a race, for an event held in November, just in time to get a 50-mile qualifier for the Western States lottery. With the great times I had this year at American River and Dick Collin's Firetrails, getting such a qualifier was the least of my worry this weekend but, according to the organizers, 120 of the 140 starters on the 50-mile distance this Saturday were chasing this dream, so it was serious stuff for many. And for me too for another reason since I had missed the big opportunity to bank points in the Grand Prix at Rio del Lago, chasing too many goals. That was a 132-point opportunity which I missed and, after Dave Mackey took the lead in the Grand Prix with his Firetrails win, this weekend was my "last chance" to catch-up. Last chance as Dave isn't running Quad Dipsea, and I had only one option: win my age group. Which became quite challenging after Victor Ballesteros and Michael Fink registered a few weeks ago...

That was my 5th time on this course, although the event was then named the Helen Klein Classic in the name of Race Director Norm Klein's wife, a world class senior runner. Since Helen stopped competing ultras well in her 80s and Norm had given enough nights directing ultra, including the legendary Western States in the 80s, the race transferred to Desert Sky Adventures first, then Julie Fingar's NorCal Ultras (she now has a "collection" with Way Too Cool, American River, Firetrails, Sierra Nevada and Last Chance!). With that, and various big construction projects along Folsom Lake and the American River (levee and bridge), the course has evolved but always includes climbing back to the Folsom Lake Dam and Cavitt School, actually twice now.

On the previous single out and back, I had quite a few different experiences. In 2006, it was my second 50-miler and I finished in 4th in 6:52. In 2007, 2nd overall in 6:22, which remained my PR at this distance until Ruth Anderson 2010 (6:07). In 2008, the run turned to a nightmare with one of my worst asthma crisis but, quite determined and with 1/4th of my lungs working, I still manged to finish in 8:51, in 16th overall. Some asthma again in 2009 and I clocked a disappointing 7:12, surprisingly good enough though for 3rd overall that year.

Victor was very relaxed at the starting line. After participating to the road 100K World Chapionship and spending a year focusing on this event (September 2011 in the Netherlands) but going through injuries during Spring, he was in great shape and was looking not only for a Western States qualifier (although his 100K race should have been way enough for that), but also to clock another Team USA qualifier on the 50-mile distance, that is under 5:50 (5 hours 50 minutes). I knew my goal was in big trouble and that even my A game would not match that (Victor is 41, therefore in our very competitive M40-49 age group).

With the recent Daylight Savings Time change, it was great to have daylight for the 6:30 am start, after the bright night with the full moon. I was feeling ok although quite tired after having been on the road to visit clients and prospects for 7 out of the past 8 weeks. 35,974 air miles, 18 flights, 4 different countries including 3 in the Gulf and 4 different states in the US. Not to mention the associated stress and the sleep deprivation working double shifts across so many time zones and catching up with emails at night after client meetings or speaking engagements at conferences during the day. Of course, I'm happy to have a solid first job and busy and full life, making running only my second job... ;-) Anyway, with that, I was excited to get some stress relieved through such intense exercise that is running an ultra or competing with great champions such as Victor.

On the flat levee, we started right on my target average pace which was 7:00 min/mile pace which corresponds to a 5:50 50-mile time. Not that I was thinking of breaking 6 hours today, but that's a comfortable pace to start with. However, while Victor and I were following another runner, whom I supposed was on the 30 or 50K (three events held together), Victor picked the pace up after the third levee segment as the bike path goes down. As the miles passed, and the bike path steadily goes down along the American River, I was looking at the average pace on my Garmin 205 going down too into what I felt was a dangerous zone. 6:50, 6:40, finally reaching a plateau at 6:36 min/mile! I asked Victor if that was his 100K competition pace and he replied with a smile: "just slightly faster." We weren't even at mile 10, I thought I was really going to get into trouble soon...

Yet, with the perfect weather and conditions, it felt good and exciting to keep up with Victor and see how long I could extend that, eventually. Around the 10-mile mark, I slowed down a bit and was about 100 yards behind, while Victor remained with the lead bike. I did a quick pit stop and lost eye contact with both of them around mile 12 but was able to pick up the pace and catch-up before the 15-mile turnaround (at the Folsom Inn Parking Lot). As Victor commented on this picture from Greg on Facebook, Victor seems to say: "Damn, this guy just doesn't give up!?"

Our team captain, Greg Lanctot (coachgreg.org) was crewing for me today and handed me two new bottles (one Gu2O and one plain water). By the way, all pictures in this post are courtesy to him as he was juggling between his camera, my bottles and Bree's ones! I grabbed a piece of banana and quickly left as Victor didn't even stop. We stayed close behind for the next 5 miles and we were still on a 6:36 min/mile average pace by mile 20. Still feeling good, I passed Victor after Main Bar (mile 21) to at least share the burden of leading. Doing so, I even got our pace down to 6:35 in the next flat section and thought how stupid that was, or at least unreasonable, and how smart Victor was to just stay behind. We passed the marathon mark around 2:52, just 5 minutes over my recent 2:47 marathon at the World Masters in Sacramento in July. With 24 more miles to go, this too seemed really aggressive... At this point, I even experienced some vision trouble and was glad the lead biker was wearing a bright yellow jacket! I took a Gu in case that meant I was low on sugars, and also paid a bit more attention on my breathing as I certainly needed all the oxygen I could process to maintain the effort. Fortunately that passed after 10-15 minutes and I was able to maintain a good effort as we were climbing back to the Dam and the high school. Victor remained behind and I thought it was a safe and smart strategy on his end as we had still more than 20 miles to go. In this uphill section, our pace went down to 6:43 when we reached and left the school for another out and back.

We had completed the first 50K in 3:26, just one minute off my PR at that distance (Jed Smith 2010), oops, that was really crazy. Yet, feeling good and properly hydrated thanks to another efficient change of bottles from Greg at mile 28, I just took an S!Cap and a cup of Coke from the aid station and left a few seconds before Victor. At this point, I placed a big bet and decided to maintain the pace to see if I could preserve or even extend the lead. A BIG bet as we had 19 miles left to cover... No more lead bike to focus on, it was just me and, a huge asset, the encouragements of the other runners we were now starting crossing, either finishing their 30 or 50K, or coming to the school for the 50-mile turnaround. I want to say a big thank you to all of them in this post as I was saving my breath and just acknowledging and responding with a hand sign. To all of you, be sure your cheering meant a lot to me!

Giving it all, I was able to get the average pace down again by a mere 1 second in the next 9.5 miles to 6:42 by the Main Bar aid station ultimate turnaround (yes, this convoluted course has 3 turnarounds, check the race website if you are getting lost in my recount, and want to visualize on a map!). In this section, I decided not to check if Victor was behind and that I will find out about the lead once I negotiated the turnaround. It was great to see for the third time fellow Brooks fan, Eric Schranz, who was manning the Main Bar aid station. He was very pro-active in proposing help but I was set with my bottles and just took another small cup of Coke and one more S!Caps. Gordy Ainsleigh (the inventor of the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run) was refueling on his way back to the school. When we crossed paths earlier in the morning, I called for a high five, which amused him, but I'm sure his fluid helped me going beyond my limits! (Check the picture on his Wikipedia page, that's one of mine! ;-)

Although I was definitely tired after such a fast 41-mile run, I was not going to sit there and wait for Victor, so I promptly went on. With 9 miles to go came the first cramp signals but it was too late to slow down as I had now about a 0.8-mile lead on Victor. Only at this point did I start thinking winning might be possible, although that would require to keep pushing all the way up to the dam to avoid a potential final sprint with Victor on the levee. Again, the encouragements and smiles from the other 50-mile competitors I was crossing or passing helped a lot and I managed to lose only 8 more seconds off my average pace. In the final 4 miles I turned back to check if Victor was coming back on me and the fact of changing my stride for that triggered some cramps so I figured out it was safer to just look ahead and keep moving. No signs of Victor on the levee, I was now pushing to compete against the clock. After dreaming in the morning of breaking 6 hours and entering the sub-6-hour "club" for 50-mile, I was now thinking of the amazing 5:42 that I remembered Todd Braje clocking here a few years ago (to only find out later that it was actually 5:49, the year the course had a trail detour at the end. It's at Jed Smith that Todd ran a 5:30 50-miler in 2009. He was 32 and I think that got him on the National team).

As I was approaching the school and passing signs such as "Smelling the Finish Line?", I was excited enough to sprint down the levee and so thrilled to cross the finish line and "break the tape" (literally, how cool) in a blazing 5:43:35. My third overall win this year, woo! Granted, it took me 10 minutes to recover and catch my breath from the effort as my body was really wondering what just happened, and 10 minutes is what ended up separating Victor and I (yes, that's me in his arms, and Jim all smile! ;-).

At 56, former winner of Way Too Cool (1998), Helen Klein (1996) and Skyline (1994), Mark Richtman, took 3rd in an amazing 6:04.

Our Quicksilver Ultra Running Team did quite well again with Erick Toschi taking first overall in the 30K, Bree Lambert taking 2nd overall/woman in the 50K and Clare Abram 2nd woman in the 50-mile, second to Bev Anderson who is back racing after her knee surgery last year.

With that amazing performance (per others' qualifier), I should take the lead back in the Grand Prix by mere 3.9 points (1.0% of our 384 total...), phew! I know there isn't much glory in that, with Dave having only competed in 4 of the 7 eligible events for the count, but at least that pushed me to dig really deep, far beyond what I ever thought I could go. I'm also thankful to Victor for the friendly and tough competition he offered on Saturday as he was chasing different goals and got us on such an aggressive but needed pace for such a performance.

Like Agnès said on Saturday night when I came back home: "this would be a good time to retire..." But, sincerely, I'm too much hooked now not to try other challenges, if not Faster, at least Farther...

With regard to the course record, this is a complicated situation between the changes of race directors, race names and even courses. Compiling information from various web sites (Gary Wang's Real Endurance, Mark Gilligan's UltraSignup for Helen Klein Classic or this year's Last Chance, Desert Sky Adventure's Helen Klein records web page website ), it sounds like I clocked the 7th fastest time since 1996 and 2nd in the Masters division:

'97 Carl Andersen (37) 5:26:12
'97 Brian Teason (36) 5:28:56
'98 Brian Teason (37) 5:29:48
'99 Mark Godale (29) 5:35:12
'97 Kevin Setnes (43) 5:36:03
'98 Mark Godale (28) 5:42:03

But, again, apart from the detour that I know from having run it in 2009 and 2008 and which did cost a few minutes to Todd Braje and Chikara Omine in particular, I don't know enough about that race in the 1990s to see what has changed. What I would say though is that climbing back twice over the dam didn't make it easier than when we were running the simple out and back along the American River. On the other hand, it was motivating (for the leaders at least...) to see other runners in the final stretches. If you ran this course back in the late 1990s or early 2000s, please consider leaving a comment with your perspective and some historical information!

Now, I've been asked how all this happened and I see five plausible explanations:

First, the more stress and workload I experience at work, the more I seem to race well. Like this maximizes the stress relief I'm looking for when running, or as it gives me an excuse for not running at my best and just do what I can. The latter one is probably freeing my mental from some pressure as I usually not race well when I want to do "too" well.
I almost titled my post "extra-vespa-ordinary" in reference to the Vespa "potion" I've been using for the past two years with quite some success. For instance, in this race, I only took 6 Gu gels, 2 pieces of banana and 2 small cups of Coca Cola. There is no doubt that this would not have been enough energy, at least for me, to run 50 miles at this effort level without digging extra calories from my body fat. This stuff works!
Back to the mental, I've been improving and stopped just listening to my body when getting fatigue signals. Several times during the race, I had doubts I could keep up with that pace, less because of physical limits but more because it was something I didn't have as a reference in my 2,400-entry log. By lowering this negative thought and increasing the "you have to do it, you can do it!" thought or internal voice, I was able to get far beyond what I had ever experienced. Sure it hurts (I ran 6 miles this Sunday with painful soreness and at a slow 8:30 pace), but it feels good afterward!
Fourth, I'm going to give some credit to Greg who crewed for me this Saturday. As a personal trainer and coach he has this talent of both pushing you and getting rid of the associated stress. Mixing strong encouragements, focus and positive thoughts with enthusiasm and fun. It definitely worked for me this weekend, made the heavy traffic on Friday less stressful and the race on Saturday so smooth. And it also worked for our team this year as we took all the team titles in the Grand Prix (Men, Women, Mixed, Overall) and most of the individual Age Group ones too!
Last but not least, there is hard work. Since I started running consistently when I moved to the US in 1998, I never averaged as many miles per week as this year. Although I know other log many more, I'm at 63.5 mile/week year to date, and that includes short but intense speed work sessions, weeks off to taper before races and days off because of business travel or meetings. To counter balance, I've put more long runs on weekends, many of them as training ultras actually. And I like when hard work pays off (not the case everywhere... ;-).

So, no miracle or silver bullet, I could actually add proper hydration as I drank about 5 16-oz bottles during the race, while I was stunned how little Victor drank in comparison. In any case, I swear, and both my GPS and Victor are here to testify, I ran the whole course and it was indeed 50 miles! ;-) At least what this shows is that, if you are yourself aiming at improving, there is hope in what our body can do...

Anyway, that's enough about my personal recount of this perfect race for me, there were 97 finishers out of the 140 or so starters, and I heard about other PRs in these perfect conditions. A big thank you to Race Director Julie Fingar for another very professional and perfect event organization and the great volunteers at all aid stations although I apologize for having skipped most of them. I'm sure you understand I was on a mission... ;-) And thank you to Lily for her deep tissue massage which allowed me to run this Sunday.

Now looking forward to another similar break through, keeping defying aging and realizing patience is of essence. Next race will be the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot (10K for me, 5K for Agnes and Greg), there are already 12,000 entrants with a 17,000 cap. And the Western States lottery in parallel, fighting the challenging statistical odds. In the meantime, you all Run Happy!

Moving to a traveling blog? Not quite yet!

2011-10-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

This year, I've logged 63 miles/week so far, more than any previous year. However, this Fall, I've been averaging more than 5,000 air miles a week, so maybe I should turn my Farther Faster blog into a traveler log... DC and Florida this week and most likely Toronto next week, the ball keeps rolling...

With that, it felt strange to be home for a whole week. With Agnès in France and Greg busy with high school home work, his last week of the water polo season and a few hours of volunteering, I worked hard at trying to clear my backlog of emails and requests from all over the map, as well as logging a few training miles.

This Saturday for instance, I ran another 50K training run, mixing a few "social" miles with the Striders (my Cupertino running club) then pushing the pace up the back of Black Mountain (via the Stevens Creek Canyon Road). 4 hours and 15 minutes for 31 miles, 35% on road, the rest on trail and a cumulative elevation of 5,000 feet. To enjoy another week of perfect weather, albeit cooler than last week, thinking of all the population in the North East experiencing their first major snow storm of the season.

When I think of the time I was running one or two marathons a year, 5 years ago, and now I run 50Ks as training runs and have 157 ultra runs in my log, including 65 ultra races... It's amazing what the human body is capable of with some training and will...!

I also went to the track twice this week (Mountain View High School, 5:45 am) and enjoyed being pulled by Bob's speed. No question that increasing your mileage isn't helping getting you faster so it's important to keep track of the... track and the speed work. I even ran 4 miles at 5 am this Sunday morning before driving to the airport to catch my early flight.

The weather was very nice tonight upon landing in DC, the snow is gone. Hope everybody is safe by now. Have a good week all, and Happy Halloween for those celebrating and treat-or-tricking! :-)

Back to running paradise: anti Rhus Ridge

2011-10-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

18 hours on a plane (2 from Riyadh to Dubai and 16 from Dubai to San Francisco), 23 hours door to door, 30 hours bed to bed (including/minus 3 hours of sleep on the plane), what a trip... As much as I enjoyed this first experience in Arabia, and I feel I'm going to go back soon with all the banks and business over there, I'm glad to be back home, in this running paradise! I went for a 9-mile run before going to bed on Thursday evening, nothing better than that to reset your body and mind clock. The temperature was 78F which some people would find high for late October but that felt almost chilly after running in 100F in Riyadh!

On Saturday, I slept in and missed our monthly Rhus Ridge run. I decided to still go but run the loop anti-clockwise to give me an opportunity to see a few familiar faces. Indeed, in Palo Alto's Foothills Park, I met David, Craig and Ed then, later, Chris G. then, 10 miles later, Chuck, at the top of Black Mountain, and Lee and Winnie as I was approaching Windmill Pasture in Rancho San Antonio Park. I ran solo but it turned out to be quite a social run after all. On Bella Vista trail up to Black Mountain, I actually met Gayla whom I've not seen for maybe 4 or 5 years. As I was getting acquainted with ultra running 6 years ago, Gayla was always running with Charles (Stevens) and she was a diligent participant in our Saturday morning long runs. Unfortunately, it was at that time that her knees started bothering her to the extent that the frequent cortisone shots were not even a solution to the pain. It was great to see her trotting down the trail and learning that she follows me on my blog with assiduity.

The weather was amazingly wonderful. I know this is kind of a strange juxtaposition, but it was actually hard to believe as we approach the end of October: pure blue skies, temperature around 80F (28C), some breeze, trails in perfect conditions, no sand/dust pollution. Speaking of pollution, my lungs were actually complaining and somehow irritated as I started the run, still recovering from the dust I must have inhaled in Riyadh in particular. Fortunately, after Thursday and Saturday runs, they were not bothering me on my Sunday run, phew!

Going anti-clockwise on our standard Rhus Ridge loop, I ran 29.5 miles at an average pace of 8:50 min/mile.

On Sunday, the weather was still perfect and I ran up to the top of Montebello Road, adding the Waterwheel Trail loop as a bonus for a total of 21.7 miles at 8:35 min/mile with stops at every creek crossing to cool off. Yes, a warm October and still creeks running, I told you, this is running paradise! With that, I ran 170 miles since Firetrails 50-mile and I'm averaging 63.6 miles/week since January 1, slightly ahead of my 62.1 mile/week (100 km/week). And, with such a weather, there is no excuse not to keep up with this goal!

No picture on this post (I covered this Rhus Ridge run several times already, for instance in this post with a link to a photo album), but I'm adding maps of my runs in Dubai, Riyadh and Manama to my previous post.

Have a good week and take care especially if you don't have the same luck as we have in the Bay Area with the weather...

Running in Arabia

2011-10-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

It promised to be hot, and hot it has been. I'm not even back to California yet but, for what it is worth as we are in the Fall, I managed to log quite a few miles of good heat training. 13 miles upon my arrival in Dubai, 16 miles just before leaving to Riyad, 23 miles in Riyadh on Friday (which is their only "week-end" day but I still managed to work 10 hours with Europe and the US for another long and busy day until 3 AM...), an 8-mile tour of the city at midnight upon my arrival in Bahrain, and 16 miles again in Riyadh. Between the 11 and 10-hour jet lags over the past 2 weeks, the work on Saturday and Sunday, the multiple visas to hop back and forth between these three countries in Arabia, the three different currencies, the 8 immigration control points, the traveling in coach with the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia or travelers to India in particular, I must admit that I'm on one hand completely disoriented and exhausted and, and the other hand, glad and excited about this business opportunity to discover new countries and cultures.

Speaking of cultures, what a difference between so close countries! Dubai reminded me of Singapore while you can feel Riyadh is closer to Africa... Oh well, we have our own interesting diversity for instance in Europe between Germany and Italy to pick only two, or San Francisco and New York in the US. The main similarities between these three places are the language and some sky-scraper competition although Dubai easily wins in this area. Here is my preferred one: the twisted Infinity Tower (still growing... ;-):

So, I'm tired but not from running, which provides such a stress relief. I was excited to blog on tips about running in these three countries but I'll be frank, these aren't the best places on the planet to run. Beyond the heat and humidity, the locals even discourage you to go out given the associated dangers of running either close to the traffic or to make bad encounters. I did check the web for some local runner tips or experiences and couldn't find much up to date. Yet, few cities "resist" to my eager to discover them with my Brooks running shoes and, for the lucky readers who have the opportunity to visit one of all these three places, here are a few tips. To your own risk...

Follow the main arteries. The maps you can find on the Internet or at hotels are rarely in English and rather simplified anyway, focusing on highlighting the largest roads for cars. Indeed, here, given the hot weather and cheap gas, everything is designed around and for cars, so you need to get along, especially in the new Jumeira suburb of Dubai. Of course, as always, or like the salmons coming back to their breeding place which I saw in Issaquah 2 weeks ago, run against the traffic so you see cars coming.
Don't be ashamed to appear like a zombie. As I could see, and that was confirmed to me by a few locals, nobody runs here so you'll appear like an alien. Many drivers will use their horn, and I'm not sure if it's in a nice or bad way (I hate it anyway...). You'll also get a weird look from people in the street. Keep going...
Keep a low profile. Both in Riyadh and Bahrain, I ran into areas patrolled by the army (like the Ministry of Interior in Riyadh, but in Bahrain too next to the Pearl Monument). I asked where they wanted me to go, I can tell you they were quite surprised to see a runner so close. In retrospective, colleagues told me it was really dangerous to play around such places in the Saudi Kingdom in particular. Watch your steps... And, oh ladies, I can't imagine how locals would take seeing you in running shorts or skirt, or a sport bra...
Carry your own water. Don't count on finding drinking fountains! Actually, you will see quite a few at the entrance of the many mosques, but I'm not sure the water is meant to be drunk, rather used for ablutions (like men use the lavatory sinks at the airports to wash their feet... which isn't so elegant...). For my long run in Riyadh, I carried 2 bottles which wasn't even enough for 3 hours in 100F/38C temperatures. On my way back to Olaya, I stopped by a very large and modern supermarket and, with assurance, got in before a security guy pulled me out because I was wearing shorts in a muslim place. I know it wasn't appropriate for a mosque but a supermarket... Several others guards arrived and I made the case that I was going to pass out (not really although I was definitely very thirsty and I had lost a lot of salt again on my shirt), that was enough to get an exception (and weird looks again from shoppers, both women and men, oops).
Day or night. On this one, I don't have a clear cut. Late night is better in terms of traffic (less of it) and lower temperatures. But you aren't visible from drivers in certain dark places and this is less picturesque too. By the day, you will see more but suffer from the heat. For instance, in Riyadh, it was 29C at night, 38C at mid day. And October is the nice season, temperature goes up to 55C in summer... But, pick either late night or the day, avoid the end of the day where drivers are tired and not accustomed with the dimming light.

In Dubai, I was staying at the Marina in Jumeira and ran on Al Sufouh Road, a wide avenue parallel to the sea. A few sandy sections, a few with nice grass along luxurious hotels, but mostly sidewalks otherwise. See a few pictures in my Picasa album.

In Riyadh, I was staying in the Olaya district and decided to run South, the most difficult being to cross the huge highway interchange next to the hotel (Holiday Inn Olaya which I don't recommend between the super noisy rooms and some mean personnel at the front desk). It took me 8 miles of not so pleasant run along the busy King Fahd Road to reach Wadu Hanifah, but that was really worth the pain. There, I found a river and ran 3 miles along it on a nice trail, plus 3 miles back, far away from the car traffic. I could have gone further, beyond Fath Makkah Road but I had to come back to the hotel to deliver a web presentation to our European team. From 5 pm on my day off, I went on with emails and calls until 3 am... Here is a link to my photo album.

In Manama (Bahrain's capital), I went around the city, starting South on Lulu Avenue, left on Salmaniya Avenue, right on Shaik Daij Avenue toward the Gulf, left on Al Fateh Highway (there is a boardwalk on the other side but you have to cross eight lanes before the interchanges of the highways going to the airport and the Muharraq island). Another alternative is to take Exhibition Avenue then Government Avenue. This circuit was fine at midnight as the traffic was light and I barely stopped to cross the main intersections, but that must be another story during the day. Since I ran at midnight, I didn't carry my camera, just took a few pictures from my hotel room and from the cab the next day.

Hope that gave you a flavor of these Arabian places and some insights in case you have the opportunity to visit and plan on running. Talk to you next time from sunny and ideally-temperated Bay Area!

PS: tonight, I was invited by the local team to a traditional Saudi restaurant in Riyadh and, to stay on the running tips topic, two colleagues indicated to me a 6-km loop around and across the Prince Sultan National College (close to crossing of King Abdullahbin Abdul Aziz and Abi Bakr As Siddiq Roads). If you know or discover other places to run in Riyadh or Dubai, please leave a comment!

PS: for some reasons (connectivity bandwidth?) Sporttracks didn't download the maps when I uploaded my GPS information while I was in the Gulf. Here are three of them to give you more insights about the places I ran.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates:

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:

Manama, Bahrain:

Firetrails 50: all stars aligned

2011-10-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

No two ultras are alike, that's why many of us, ultra runners. are so addicted to this sport. The course, the terrain, the cumulative elevation, the distance, the weather, the competition, the organization, the size of the field, the aid stations, running with a pacer or not, having a crew or running self-supported, these are a few of the variables. So many stars to align, it's like playing the lottery, you have to keep trying!

With all my travels (Anchorage, Alaska a week ago, Seattle this week and now in the Middle East for two weeks), the only positive thing I did going into this race was tapering. Seattle, and Issaquah in particular, are actually great trail running places, if you don't mind the rain, but I refrain from running any mile this past week. Yet, I was stressed out by the lack of sleep and felt compelled to add to Tim Long's pre-race comments that I had the same excuses as Mark not to perform well (overworked and sleep deprivation in particular). Furthermore, I was stunned when I saw that Dave Mackey had decided to run the race and enter at the last minute. Certainly, having won the past two editions and set a course record last year in 6:19.

We started promptly at 6:30 after listening to Julie (Fingar)'s Race Director briefing. It was still quite dark and a few runners were using headlamps but the first two miles are on a bike path, so it was manageable to run without. Jonathan Gunderson and I were at the front and we were quickly joined by Dave. Dave engaged the conversation in French, which he learned a while ago when he was studying in Maine. We chatted for a while and, as we were approaching the first mile mark, I told Dave I didn't want to slow him down, that he had a course record to work on! Jonathan followed Dave while we engaged into the first hill. One tall and bold runner passed me and followed them. While we were still on the bike path, Chris (Calzetta) caught up with me. If you follow my blog, you will remember my run with Chris at Skyline 50K this August, from start to finish. Chris lives in Monterey and will join our Quick Silver Ultra Running Team for the 2012 season. Speaking of QSURT, we had an amazing participation this weekend with 15 entrants, almost the whole team!

After the first aid station at which we didn't stop, we were joined for a few miles by Sean Curry whom I had met at a Quick Silver training run in San Jose this Spring. It was Sean's first 50-miler and he was therefore running for the Dick Collins Rookie award, although not so hopeful as he had seen in the registrants list many fast runners being rookies at this distance too. Sean was running in Five Fingers and without any bottle which was quite aggressive on a trail 50-mile. Sean ended up running in 8 hours and 8 minutes for 22nd.

We passed Jonathan shortly after Bort Meadow, the 2nd aid station. Going up and down to Big Bear with Chris brought up the good memories of Skyline 50K as this section is common to both races. We passed a few of the early started, some of them calling my name as we were flying in the steep downhill. We then caught up with the tall and bold runner after the Big Bear aid station and chatted before he stopped at the restrooms we pass by when going through the redwoods, one of my favorite sections. Michael Garrison was coming from Honolulu, just for the race, having flown on Friday evening and leaving on Sunday. Arriving into Big Bear Gate aid station, photo credit to Gary Saxton:

Jonathan and Michael passed us again as we were refilling our bottles at Skyline Gate. Jonathan had a very efficient crew (father?) who was allowing him not to stop at aid stations. We passed Michael very close to the aid station as, dazzled by the sun, he had missed the turn and was going to continue on Skyline back to the start... And Chris and I caught up with Jonathan again before the next aid station where he passed us again, before we passed him on the way up to Steam Train. As we were approaching the road crossing, I believe I saw Dave a mile away at a point where we passed 8 minutes later. I thought it was too short of a lead and our pace was way too fast if we were so close to Dave, although it seemed right. We refueled at Steam Train and continued on Skyline to enjoy the wonderful 360-degree view from Mount Diablo on the right to foggy San Francisco on the left. That's where we started crossing the Golden Hills marathoners who had started from our turn around at 9 am. As usual, the race was led by Leor, although I was surprised to see another runner quite close to him in second place in this challenging uphill section. Uphill for the marathoners, downhill for us until the turn around. It was great to get the cheering of the runners we were crossing. As we were approaching the turn around, it was our turn to cross path with Dave. We did as we were 3 hours and 18 minutes in our run and I made a mental note of the spot to check how much lead he had on us.

We did a good stop at the turn around to refuel before the long climb up to Steam Train. Before leaving I told Graham (Cooper, who was supposed to run but had to attend his kids' soccer game later that morning) that I believed Dave was not going to make the record but he thought otherwise. I also saw Garry (Gellin) who is recovering from his great 100-mile debut at the Bear 100 two weeks ago. We then crossed all the other 50-mile runners, jogging most of the uphill with me walking from time to time to catch my breath, to make up for the 18-year gap between Chris and I... Another short stop at Steam Train and down we were, keeping crossing runners. Shortly after the aid station, Chris was ahead and asked me if I wanted to pass; a fraction of a second of inattention on my end in this technical section and, yikes, I felt flat on the ground, sliding on my left arm and leg. It went so fast but I could see my head approaching a rock and I was fortunate to stop just before hitting it, phew! My knee was bleeding and I had other bruises on the shoulder and thigh, but no big shock. The most damage was scratches on the glass of my GPS. This is my second real fall in 27,000 miles I ran over the past 13 years, the first one being at Quad Dipsea a couple of years ago, with no other damage than scratches on another GPS... (Quad Dipsea 2009: chasing too many turkeys...)

We crossed Chuck Wilson who was sweeping on the 50-miler, less than a mile from the Sibley Park aid station. Another short stop and I took the lead on the way down into the canyon with Chris leading on the way up to Skyline Gate. We reached the aid station in 5:08 with about 14 miles to go. We stayed for a minute or so (I took some chicken noodle soup which was great at this point of the race) and we rushed down, picking up the pace, getting our average pace down from bout 8:50 to 8:35 in the next 5 miles, back through the redwoods.

With 2.2 miles to Big Bear, we didn't stop at the small aid station. At this point we were passing quite a few of the marathoners. After a short stop at Big Bear, we went on the last big and serious uphill of the day, the hill which we ran all the way at Skyline 50K. Today though, I had to stop several times to catch my breath but Chris shuffled to wait for me. We crossed Baldwyn who took this picture of me during one of these power walking moments.

After the top, we picked the pace again and didn't stop at Bort Meadows as our goal was to make it under 7:15, my PR of three years ago. Stan Jensen was recording all the bib numbers and thought Chris was my pacer! We passed local runner Christine (Chapon) in the next flat section and she joked that it was insane we were running faster than marathoners. ;-) By the way, Christine is in charge of recruiting volunteers for the North Face challenge at Marin Headlands in December, so please consider helping out (more details online). The last section was changed this year because of the recent weather which washed the trail out so we had to climb up to Pirate Cove which was ok although I, again, had to walk a few times. At the aid station the volunteer (in their cool Pirates outfits) told us there were 4.5 miles to the finish and we had about 30 minutes. Fortunately, the next mile was mainly downhill and we ran it pretty fast, keeping a good pace too in the final miles along Chabot Lake. As we were approaching the finish area, I told Chris it was his turn to cross the line first, which he refused. We crossed in the same second, me staying just behind, happy to take third today in 7:02:55, slashing my PR on this course by almost 13 minutes! Not bad for 50 miles with about 9,200 feet of cumulative elevation. A big thank to Chris for the mutual pacing and emulation. With this first Firetrails under his belt, Chris can now aim at a sub 7 and chasing Dave more aggressively next time, he definitely has the potential!

Dave took first of course but, experiencing some stomach issues and lacking serious competition to push the envelope, ran slower than last year with a 6:34. Yet, that makes three wins in a row. Galen Burrell won the marathon. He passed Leor at mile 11 and, not feeling well, Leor dropped at mile 20. Leor won the past 4 editions in 3:19, 3:16, 3:15 and 3:06:39 last year. Galen improved Leor's course record by mere 3 seconds! Here are Dave and Galen:

Thanks to co-Race Director and UltraSignup founder and owner, Mark Gilligan, results were promptly posted online:

Great BBQ at the finish, amazing finisher schwag and custom age group awards, with the perfect weather and NorCal Ultras' super professional organization, it was the perfect ultra party for all.

Toshi took 5th in 7:28 Pierre-Yves placed 8th with a 7:39 PR. Fearing not to make the top 10 for the first time in many years, Mark placed 12th indeed. Bree lost some time after going of course and took 3rd overall.

Vespa worked very well again. I took 5 GUs, a few pieces of banana and brownies, and some chips, but not much overall, plus one small cup of soup. I stayed right on target on the GU2) with one bottle every 15 miles. I could (read: should) have drunk more water to avoid a few cramps. Took a bit more S!Caps to be on the safe side after my crash at Rio Del Lago, although the temperature was just perfect this Saturday.

As for the shoes, I had not heard about the rain which washed the trails out last week while I was in Seattle and took a big risk running in the brand new light and flat PureConnect but it worked perfectly too (see my review of this model). Jonathan was wearing the PureGrit which are ideally designed for the trails with more grip.

A big thank you to the volunteers who included many familiar faces, many experience ultra runners which is a great plus. I had my first 50 mile here, taking the Rookie award in 2006, what 5 years that has been. I felt I knew 1 runner out of 3 or 4, it is becoming so familiar to run these local races. It was my 4th Fire Trails, 16th 50-miler and 65th ultra. And one of my most enjoyable experience, the perfect alignment of stars that you keeping running after... The ultra bug...

Although I didn't run with my camera like I did last year (the ultra digithon), you can find a few pictures from the finish in my Picasa album.

I wrote this post on a 15-hour flight, talk to you next time from somewhere in the Middle East, hoping to get some runs in, and some heat training at least which I'll save for next year (just kidding...)!

PS: ran 9 miles on Sunday morning before my flight, and a half marathon at midnight upon getting into Dubai (86F/30C and 66% humidity...): the ultra season goes on!

Enjoying an Indian summer in Anchorage

2011-10-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if there is such an expression as an Intuit summer, so I'll go with the standard Indian one. What a gorgeous weather we had in Anchorage this week! It was chilly in the morning but 3 days with blue skies and about 12 hours of day light made the stay really enjoyable, not to mention the productive work with our prospect up there.

My return flight was at 2 AM on Thursday morning, leaving the end of Wednesday afternoon to enjoy a good run before going to the airport. One colleague, David, was staying for another day of business meetings and he joined me for the start of the run. I found out that David was also from the Bay Area (Marin County) and an avid endurance athlete, having just completed an Ironman in Germany in 14 hours and 50 minutes!

Staying at the Hilton, we were ideally located a few hundreds yards from the start of the Coastal Trail on 2nd Avenue. If you visit Anchorage, this trail is a must as it provides a nice getaway from downtown with amazing views of the Ocean. I found the trail through the perfect website, Trails of Anchorage.

I ran the whole trail, from 2nd Avenue to Kincaid Park and back, that is 21.5 miles (starting at the Hilton). See my Picasa album for more pictures of this great and easily accessible trail along the Ocean and going around the Ted Stevens International Airport.

I was delighted to encounter a few specimens of the famous local moose (one bull, two cows and one calf), enjoy the colorful autumnal tree colors which we are missing in the Bay Area and see many other users of the trail, hikers, runners, cyclists, skate boarders or roller-bladers. Unfortunately, the trail stops at Kincaid Park or I would have been tempted to continue on along the Turnagain Arm where many wales or orcas can be seen at this time of the year. I'll have to come back for that and rent a car to cover the 20 miles from downtown.

Including this run, that has been a good 70-mile week leading into some tapering before Firetrails 50-mile next Saturday. This Sunday, we even celebrated Agnes' hip surgery anniversary with her first 3.5 miles since she stopped running, 8 years ago, yeah!

While I'm still waiting for my visa for Saudi Arabia and, without my passport, cannot plan my other trip to Asia and Middle East, I'm heading up to Seattle to visit another prospect there this week. Getting back to work and talk to you next week after the race.

Trailblazer 2011: moving forward!

2011-09-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is post #250 on my running blog and I wish I had more time to celebrate with some specific and original writing about the journey of getting there. But, on Friday, I received a call to fly to Alaska so I'm jumping on a plane again tomorrow and I need to get ready with this new mission. I'm also supposed to go to Saudi Arabia and Singapore, maybe Dubai and Thailand too, in October, then I'm speaking at a conference in Florida the first week of November, so there will be quite a few busy weeks ahead...

In the meantime, I was able and delighted to run Trailblazer 10K again this year. This is my 7th edition (2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011). Two years ago, I even participated the day after taking 2nd at a 52-miler/double marathon (Sierra Nevada Run) which explained my "slower" time (37:44). This year, the race was ideally placed 2 weeks after Rio Del Lago 100-mile (where I dropped at mile 71 unfortunately) and 2 weeks before the Dick Collins Firetrails 50-mile. I can't say that I was going to run on fresh legs as I ran 105 miles over the past two weeks, but I was excited to get back to the 10K distance after running circles at the World Masters in July.

Yesterday, I helped Adam, Toshi and John marking the course for the annual Quicksilver 10K and half-marathon that Adam has been directing for several years now. The race was held this morning too.

Back to Trailblazer, this has always been a perfectly organized race thanks to Aaron's professionalism and the passion and contributions of all the Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail. Let's also salute the numerous sponsors who support not only this race but also the extension of the trail through Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Los Altos (see the trail update website for up to date information). You can see some of this progress right now with the overpass bridge being built over 85 this year, but there is still a lot of work to do to connect the section of the trail along the Bay to the one in Stevens Creek County Park, in the Cupertino hills. Here is a rendering of the ongoing construction over 85:

With a 10K road race, there isn't as much to say as a 100 miler, so I'll be short, for once... Jose (Pina) took the control of the race from the start followed by Mikko Valimaki from Los Altos. I had done some speed work with Bob on Thursday morning, a session during which we ran 4 800s after which I clocked a 5:22 mile. I felt good but told Bob I shouldn't start the race that fast. With that, I settled a few seconds behind Jose and Mikko. By the first mile, they had a 10-second lead increasing to 20 seconds by the second mile. It seemed to me that Mikko was just waiting behind Jose to pass him later but, around the 3rd mile, a gap started to form between him and Jose, while I was 30 seconds behind Jose. I ran the first 5K (3.1 mile) right on 17 minutes and kept pushing, eventually closing on Mikko and passing him after the convoluted chicane in the 5th mile. We then got into the 5K 2-way traffic and Mikko stayed right behind while we were slaloming between runners. I lost sight of Jose but saw the lead bike again and decided to push the pace to secure a second place. Jose must have slowed down in the last mile because I finished just 10 seconds behind him, crossing the finish line in 34:24, a 5:32 min/mile pace, not too far from my 34:02 at the World Masters 2 months ago.

Jose won the 10K race again in 34:14 a few minutes after his son, Jose Pina Jr., won the 5K in 17:07 at 14! All the results got posted already on the BuzzWord website (10K overall, 5K overall). By the way, there was no XBox to win this year but they both took home a gift card which will cover a pair of running shoes, which is surely more healthy and useful anyway! ;-) Jose being 41 and me 47, he got both the overall winner trophy and the first M40-49 one. As for me, I came back with the satisfaction of my time as well as knowing that the fun we had this morning will raise money to extend the trail I ran thousands of miles on, all that thanks to the dedication of so many kind volunteers. Before leaving, I ran the 10K course a second time, albeit much slower (44:56), a nice way to cool down and finish a 50-mile week.

I also took pictures of many other 10K finishers and posted them as a Picasa album. Here is Stevens Creek Strider Bill Dodson, 76, winning his M70-79 age group in the 5K, running the 3.1 miles at a 8:12 min/mile pace, bare foot!

Thank you again to Aaron and all the Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail for putting up such a great event! And looking forward to my 8th participation!

Running to recover

2011-09-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

Just a short post to tell you that I'm fine (if you care... ;-) although still recovering after last week's painful episode at Rio Del Lago. It took me three days to regain my pre-race weight, something I never experienced before. And I've been unusually tired all week. Granted, I didn't take much rest with a lot of work, long working days, including three starting at 5:30 am on the phone. My legs were still sore on Wednesday and I decided to go for a run on Thursday for 6 easy miles. On Friday, I ran 9 miles with the last 4 under 6:30 min/mile pace. It felt good to feel some speed again after all the slow miles of these past weeks.

On Saturday, I attended our Stevens Creek Striders Saturday morning meeting at the Stevens Creek Park and ran the REI Trail with the group before continuing on Stevens Creek Canyon Road and Trail and climbing up to Black Mountain on the Bellavista Trail, then down on Montebello Road. 28.6 miles and 4,000 feet cumulative elevation.

And, this Sunday, I went back up to Black Mountain on Montebello Road, even racing with cyclists on the way up, which provided great motivation to work harder. I refilled my bottles at the camp ground (yes, I know, it says "Non potable water...") and made the detour on Waterwheel Trail on the way back. Total 24.7 miles and 3,800 cumulative elevation.

Now, while I'm so glad to get back to training again, especially in this wonderful weather, and happy to have logged more than 68 miles in 4 days, all these miles didn't come easy. I know that, by saying this, you will wonder why I'm doing this as a hobby then. My first answer is that, training hard will provide satisfactions down the road. And I'll use the famous "no pain, no gain" as my second answer...

Anyway, the Rio Del Lago 100 results have finally been published on Thursday. 38 finishers out of 84 starters (45% finisher rate). Of these, 15 finished between 30 and 32 hours. Tough one...

This weekend, Dan Decker and Greg Lanctot, from our QuickSilver Ultra Running Team ran Pine to Palm 100 in 25 hours flat and 27:13 respectively. Next week, Gary Gellin will participate in his first hundred at the Bear. Busy September for the team!

Next week too, Adam Blum directs the Quicksilver Trail Half Marathon and 10K in San Jose. It is still time to enter or volunteer! Quicksilver Almaden County Park, Hacienda Entrance, Sunday September 25, 2011, 8:30 AM.

This was post #249, talk to you next week for the 250 milestone! Have a great week in the meantime!

Rio Del Lago 2011: crashing at last!

2011-09-11T23:39:00.000-07:00

It is not easy to talk about failure or disappointment, at least for me, so better make it a learning experience as most famous quotes about failure say. Besides, as Agnès often reminds me, I'm supposed to run for the fun of it, so better put my attempts to go farther and faster into perspective of other challenges we see in this world. Like all the lives lost or changed on and since 9/11/2011, in New York City and through the Middle East.

Back to Rio Del Lago: most of my excitement was coming from the fact it was my yearly 100-miler and my number six (Western States 2007, 2009 and 2010, and Rio Del Lago 2008, 2010). I discovered and ran this race, initially created by former Western States Race Director Norm Klein in 2000, the year our Western States race was cancelled because of wild fires in June 2008. In 2010, I ran it again as a second 100-miler that same year to maximize my count of points in the Pacific Association Grand Prix. This year, our Grand Prix had 3 100-milers again on the program: Western States, whose lottery I didn't make, Tahoe Rim Trail the same weekend as the World Masters Marathon and Rio Del Lago in September. I therefore had no other option than coming back to log many miles along the American River.

If you have followed my journey in ultra running since 2006, or on this blog since 2007, you will remember that most of my challenging races happened in this area, especially due to exercised-induced asthma. Since I'm taking Singulair on a daily basis though, I got that under control and even had a good American River 50 race this April. Finally some positive experience on the Pioneer Express Trail section between Sacramento and Auburn, at last! Yet, when I saw that the course of Rio Del Lago was changed in a way that we will run this section 4 times, I got really concerned as it still brings so many bad memories, including those of my pathetic walk to finish AR50 in 2008 and my first DNF (Did Not Finish) at the same race in 2009.

With more than 10 ultra races a year, there is a routine forming up with definitely less excitement than for my first events. Less excitement on one hand but also less anxiousness which is good. To the point that I don't specifically train for a particular race and usually prepare in a rush at the last minute, between other work or family-related priorities. For my first 100-miler, it was like a 6-month project including a 5-day family trip to Squaw Valley. For this 6th hundred, Agnès and I arrived at Beals Point 2 minutes before the start of the briefing on Friday evening and had planned to leave Beals Point by midnight to drive back home on race day this Saturday as Agnès was teaching on Sunday. Indeed, my goal was to run around 17-18 hours and be done by 10 pm. Let's see how this turned out...

Molly's Race Director briefing with contribution from the father/inventor of the Western States 100, Gordy Ainsleigh:

4 minutes before the start, I was in the bathroom, battling with some GI issues, not a good start... We went off on the initial 1-mile out an back on the bike path with a small group including Brian, Mark, Jimmy, Toshi and Lukas. It was pitch dark but, not seeing Agnès before Dam Overlook at mile 25, I decided to leave my headlamp to her at mile 2. Fortunately, Jimmy, Brian and Lukas kept theirs and were really kind to highlight rocks for me as it remained very dark for I believe another hour or so and we were moving quite fast on the trail (around 8:30 min/mile). I ran very closely into Brian's steps until Twin Rocks (mile 7), then Lukas' until Horseshoe Bar where I just did a short stop to refill my water bottle. Jimmy was ahead and I caught up with him at New Rattlesnake Bar (mile 16). We left and ran a few miles together, with Lukas and Brian not far behind, then I slightly picked up the pace on this easy section, maintaining the 8:30-8:35 min/mile pace. When I reached the Cardiac aid station at the bottom of the famous Cardiac hill, or wall, the volunteers were still setting up the aid station and I still had some water left so I didn't want to stop and break my rhythm. Like my previous RDL runs, I jogged most of the hill and power walked about 25% of it. My average pace went down to 8:56 min/mile after Cardiac, this hill has its toll...

Since the start, my intestines were still cramping and I was looking forward to getting at the Dam Overlook aid station (mile 25) to make a well deserved pit stop at the restrooms (sorry to the newbies for the details...). Again, the aid station wasn't ready yet (no food on the table) and Agnès had just arrived on the parking lot after having had some difficulties locating it. While I was in the restrooms, she refilled my bottles with the water and ice she picked at the hotel and here off I was, down to the famous No Hands Bridge on the Western States Trail. This time, some food was ready and I picked a couple of pieces of watermelon before the strenuous climb up K2. With my GI issues, I knew I wasn't eating enough, and probably not drinking enough too to make up for the diarrhea. My average pace went down to 9:22 after K2 and 9:26 after the 7-mile and rolling Cool loop. It was definitely hot but I felt it was bearable thanks in particular to quite a few clouds in the morning. I was thinking with pity though of the many runners who will run this exposed section in the afternoon... I did a few improvised pit stops on this loop and pretty much emptied my intestines before going down to No Hands Bridge (mile 43). Good news but pretty late for starting the real fueling especially given the limited choices/menu at the aid stations.

I had seen Lukas entering the Cool Firestation aid station as I was leaving it so knew he was just a few minutes behind. I didn't see him at No Hands Bridge and ran quite a lot in the last major climb of the day, the 4-miles return to Auburn Dam Overlook (mile 47). Agnès, Pierre-Yves and Sean were there. Pierre-Yves was going to pace my from Twin Rocks, for the last 35 miles, and Sean was going to pace Toshi, for his 1st 100-miler.

I ate a bit, took the ice-filled bandana Agnès had prepared for me and left the station not feeling so well yet happy to still be in the lead and run along the water canal, my favorite section of this course. I ran down the "quad trashing" Cardiac, paying more attention to not slip on dusty rocks or trip on roots. This time, I stopped at the aid station at the bottom of the hill, to make sure I had enough ice and water for the next 6-mile stretch right in the middle of the heat. I had run the challenging first 50-miles in about 8 hours and was hasn't really looking forward the upcoming 3 section repeats between Cardiac and Twin Rocks...

I had lost a lot of salt as everyone could see on my black shorts and blue top and my legs started cramping in several areas despite my taking of S!Caps regularly since the early morning.

With his first pacer, Lukas passed me and took the lead around mile 53 before I finally reached Rattlesnake Bar (mile 56.5) to... crash. I probably stopped for 20 minutes there, trying to swallow more chips and watermelon. I was still struggling with the taste of the fake cola, while Agnès was working at cooling my body off. Lack of salt, lack of fuel, dehydration, body overheating, cramping, that wasn't looking good at all.

I finally and painfully left the aid station as Jimmy got in. He and his pacer passed me before the end of the next 2.6-mile stretch to Horseshoe Bar. Given the circumstances, I asked Pierre-Yves to start pacing me there and come with me in what turned out to be more walking than running.

My big mistake at Horseshoe Bar was not to drink more before the 6 miles to Twin Rocks. I was moving so slowly at that point that it took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to reach Twin Rocks. When I crossed them, Lukas had a 4-mile lead and Jimmy at least 2 miles. At Twin Rocks, I was getting worse and stayed for 20 minutes with Pierre-Yves doing a good job at pushing me to eat and drink. At some point, some soup arrived at the aid station and that was exactly what I needed but, the time to prepare it, it was too late and I had to keep moving to make sure we were returning to Horseshoe Bar before the night as none of us had our flashlights.

During my stop at Twin Rocks, Toshi (above with wife Judy, an ER nurse who resuscitated a runner at Horseshoe Bar...)) passed me, as well as the lead woman, Julie Fingar (RD of Way Too Cool, American River and now Dick Collins FireTrails too). I left the aid station with Juan, from Napa, who was also in bad shape (vomiting...) but still running.

I had stayed on a chair for so long, my legs were tetanized and it took me at least 15 minutes to "warm" up again and be able to run. With the food I finally managed to eat at Twin Rocks, I ran more on this section. We crossed two other Grand Prix competitors in my age group, Ray and Charles. At this time, my only goal became (1) to reach Horseshoe Bar before it turned dark and so we could meet with Agnès since no crew were allowed at Twin Rocks and (2) to drop and drive back home... Given our plans, it was out of question that I crawl the last 29 miles for at least 10 hours assuming I could even continue through the night at 3 miles an hour... This thought gave me even more respect for the back of the packers, battling with cut-off times. One thing which came back to my mind is Christian's 2010 RDL blog post in which he wrote with a lot of philosophy about quitting when there isn't fun left ("And I made my decision that from now on, I was only going to run what made me happy."). While some pain and suffering is part of ultra running, this remains a hobby and there is no reason to potentially kill yourself at it! Since there was no medical tracking at this race and I have now some relevant experience in gauging my body in such events, I waited for another 20 minutes while weighing pros and cons with Pierre-Yves and Agnès and we finally left the "crime scene" as I called it on FaceBook to rush to the closest In-n-Out to get some real food, real potato, real salt, real Coca Cola, some of the missing ingredients during this day on the trail. My weight was 128 pounds before the race and 121 pounds upon getting back home (after eating...), so I have at least one proof point to support my decision, it was safe to stop there before it could get worse.

See in my Picasa album a few pictures of the pre-race briefing, the start and a few other runners, although mostly Toshi and I (with all these aid stations Agnès spent more time driving around than on the side of the trail to take pictures... Not to mention the worries given to circumstances).

There are plenty of lessons to draw but, for the interest of time (I need to get back to work, and you too... ;-), I'd highlight three:

Attempt - I entered this event taking the finish for granted and focusing more on a fast finish time. I need to keep in mind that any ultra race is first an attempt at accomplishing a challenge, not a done deal. For some it's an attempt at a PR, for others it's an attempt at covering a distance for the first time, or completing a series of 10 or more finishes, or just finishing within the time limit.
Respect for the course - I knew the course and I knew I didn't like it, yet I acted if it was going to be fine and I didn't adjust my goals and logistic plans accordingly. I was not properly fueling, didn't get enough sleep during the week and, although not running as fast as last year, I was not paying all the respect to the course. There are many variables in an ultra race but the course is the most immutable one: except for a mud slide or a destroyed aid station requiring a last minute course change like at UTMB this year, the course is the most stable parameter and you have no excuse of pretending you didn't know.
Flexibility - Since Gordy ran the first Western States in 1974, self-supported, ultra racing has come to maturity, even some popularity that some pioneers don't really like. With that, and especially living and running in North California, we are blessed with an amazing number of events involving thousands of dedicated volunteers and hundreds race directors. The support that we receive at aid stations is the key reason behind the expansion of this sport and the rise of the number of participants and finishers. Another thing which I take too often for granted is the consistency in how aid stations are set up and manned. I know that one thing which worries me about entering UTMB (Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc) is that the food is completely different there. At Rio Del Lago this year, there was differences from what I'm used to with other local races, but this shouldn't have altered my run. Another flexibility requirement is about adapting my pace to what my body can handle. This one is tough when you tend to push your limits on the speed side, that's one reason I'm so impressed with the regularity of most of the elite runners (although some of them do drop and crash too...).

That's my 3rd DNF for 190 races in my log including 64 ultras. The first one was due to severe asthma conditions at AR50 in 2009. The second was at the French Nationals Road 100K on fear of potential renal failure. I feel I have less of a good excuse for this third one, yet that it was the right decision as I never "crashed" like that before, literally from head to toe. As much as I feared the DNF concept when I started ultra racing, DNF is part of the game if you want to test and push your limits. So, on this Sunday evening, I don't feel particularly good about my failure --most of my muscles are so sore, from my back to my calves, that's actually physically painful-- but I know there are plenty of other better days and opportunities ahead to have fun and run happy!

As for the other runners, the results are not published yet and here are the only news I was able to collect from FaceBook so far: Lukas took first in 18:40 followed by Jimmy 19:29. Interestingly, they too went to the same In-n-Out right after their finish... Maybe we could get them as event sponsor next year for some food donations! ;-) Ray did finish albeit in 30 hours and before going to the hospital (where he was able to update his FB status, so he must be fine now). In the coming days, I'm sure we'll hear about other heroic stories from most of the 85 starters.

A special thank you to Agnès for squeezing this crewing exercise in our busy family plans, to Pierre-Yves for taking a whole Saturday off his own family schedule all that for only 12 slow miles of pacing (and for accepting that I DNFed...) and thanks to the many volunteers who tried hard to contain the runners' troubles with the heat with the means they were provided with.

Here is what I wanted to share about this crash before another busy week. Now, if you still have some time to read more on the web today, especially around failure, disappointment and perseverance, I recommend these picks from 3 elite ultra runners:

Scott Jurek's thoughts on his 5 attempts at UTMB
Andy Jones-Wilkins, a model of perseverance and positivism, writing about another model, blind climber Erik Weihenmayer, and the theme of "Developing the Disappointment Muscle"
Hal Koerner's moving recount of his 39-hour quest to get the UTMB-finisher vest

Brooks' PureProject: another big step toward minimalist

2011-09-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

Innovative, cool and flashy, light, intriguing, functional, ... minimalist, here are some words I associate with the brand new PureConnect!

But, first, an update on my running since I didn't post last week. It's going well with a good 56-mile weekend a week ago (see the aerial pictures taken on my way up to Black Mountain, over the Bay Area morning fog) and 335 miles for the month of August (my second highest monthly mileage in my 13-year running log!). Last time I ran that much in one month was in May 2009 with 346 miles, 3 races (Miwok, QuickSilver and Ohlone) and a 122-mile memorial weekend training to prepare for Western States. I know this looks pale compared to the many 300-mile weeks that Tony Krupicka is used to log, but running is only my second job... Less miles this week as I'm tapering for Rio Del Lago 100-mile next week, but still 44 miles of easy/flat running as I'm trying to maintain my average weekly mileage above 62 miles (or 100 km) for the first time in my running life (I'm at 62.87 mile/week as of this Sunday evening).

Back to the title, I feel so lucky to have received a pair of PureConnect 10 days ago. The next day, I was running in them in the neighborhood at 6 am, then on Friday again. On Saturday, I even decided to get them on the trails for my 29-mile long run. As of today, I already ran 83 happy and "pure" miles in them and I'm hooked!

Here are a few reasons why I like them:

Innovative. There are two main sides of innovation in the PureConnect: the upper one and the sole. I'd say the upper one is even more revolutionary, with the mixture of a synthetic mesh and and layer of foam punched with holes. In one piece from heel to toe and left to right (no sewing).

That provides both a great protection and also amazing breathability (even the sun gets inside the shoe on the above picture!). Of course, if the air can easily flow through these two layers, so dust can too but that's not an issue. I didn't test them in the rain, but I'd expect the water to get out very easily too for the same reasons. Two other big innovations relate to the sole. The first one at the forefront extremity of the shoe with a toe grove or "Toe Flex", separating the big toe from the others and bringing new sensations close to barefoot running.

The second one is the "Ideal Heel" concept which trims the outsole under the heel in a shape enveloping the heel. This is a move toward minimizing the use of this part of the sole, transferring the landing under the ball of the foot as you do when you run barefoot.

Cool and fashy. The bright color, the innovative upper mesh, the unorthodox shape of the heel, here are some aspects which will surely catch eyes in stores. The men collection comes in flashy greens, while the women get a flashy blue and black theme.

Light. At 7.2 oz. the PureConnect is a very light shoe but still not in the flat category. Albeit with great flexibility, there is still a good sole providing great protection for long runs on concrete and asphalt, as well as a roomy toe box.

Intriguing. The thing which intrigues me the most in the PureConnect is their dynamics, that is how the sensations change from standing to running in them. I believe that's going to be an important characteristic to highlight in stores. Let me explain. Most of the shoes have a flat outsole which provides a large contact area with the ground, actually much more than what our foot has been designed for (the difference between a bare foot print and a shoe print). The Pure Connect mimics the bare foot with a non flat out sole and reinforced contact points (black dots). The first sensation, when standing still, is one of instability or rather, a freedom that we lost with conventional shoes and all their cushioning and stability features. That being said, this perception of instability completely disappeared for me as soon as I started running. Now, I am Neutral but be assured that, if you tend to under or over pronate, Brooks has you covered with additional Stability and Support with the PureFlow and PureCadence models, which both have a more classical/extended outsole/ground contact. Most if not all other brands would have come with only one new model, when Brooks comes with a collection to cover the diversity of runners out there; another reason to like and appreciate Brooks' focus and dedication on running!

Functional. I like the classic ample and symmetrical lacing. It is very efficient and keep the shoe tight while spreading the pressure over the top of the foot. Alternating road and trail running, I like the grey color of the laces, white ones tend to look quite dirty with the dust. The laces are thick and wavy (undulated) which is perfect to keep the knot tight.

Minimalist. The outsole of the PureConnect is simple, with very few components and fabrics. It is focused on providing flexibility, ground protection and matching the original foot/ground contact of bare foot running, mainly under the ball of the foot. So, while it is minimalist, it still provides very good protection: indeed, I like the firmness of the sole which I found slightly superior to the one of the GreenSilence. It even holds very well when running on rocks on trails, the shape of the sole also providing great agility on uneven terrain, similarly to what climbing shoes are to rock climbing. Another example of minimalism can be found in the design of the tongue: it is extremely thin yet large and enveloping. With such a shape, it doesn't move at all and provides a great protection from the abundant lacing. Even better it is made of extremely soft fabric which will suit people running barefoot in their shoe (I mean without socks).

More technical information can be found in the PureConnect's spec sheet. And a few more pictures of the PureConnect on Picasa.

By the way, this review is about the PureConnect but the PureProject comes with 4 initial models for 4 different uses and runner profiles. With my focus on trail running, I'm particularly interested in the trail-specific PureGrit which Brooks designed with ultra legend Scott Jurek. You can find more information on the Brooks' PureProject web page and pre-order to be among the first to experience the... Pure Running!

Speaking of minimalist and barefoot running, here is an excerpt of a thread I had with Caballo Blanco (aka Micah True, the hero of Christopher McDougall's Born To Run) on FaceBook this week:

Caballo> While Caballo is not a wildhorse about such marketing terms as Barefoot shoes and minimalist shoes; I prefer to call the running that I hope to attain Lightfooted. In whatever it is we are wearing or not on our hooves

Jean> Well said. I like when you come with new... Marketing concepts! ;-)

Caballo> and let it be known that if anybody steals this to sell crap Caballo will kick some butt

So, let's stay with the minimalist concept per the marketing message used by Brooks on the website. By the way, with all the Born To Run success, it is little known nowadays that Micah and the Rarámuri are not running barefoot, but with very minimalist sandals or shoes. Read Kathy S' interview of Micah to separate some facts from fiction in the best selling book. Anyway, I have heard enough serious injuries from people running bare foot, I'm glad Brooks gets us super minimalist shoes such as in the PureProject collection, yet with great foot protection.

Talk to you in a week after Rio Del Lago, and Run Happy in the meantime!

Running in Des Moines and training on empty

2011-08-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm finally getting tired! Not of running (phew! ;-) but after a few short nights last week: 3.5 hours on my red-eye flight to Chicago on Sunday night, right after Stevens Creek 50K, then 6, 5, 6, 5 hours the following nights. Not the pattern you'd expect for a recovery week after an ultra. Yet, or on top of it, I ran 40 miles during the week and 51 miles this weekend, including a 50.5K training run this Sunday in 4:36 and with 4,300 feet of cumulative elevation (and 20 miles/2,600 feet yesterday). A solid 91-mile week of training on tired legs, a good experience before the upcoming Rio Del Lago 100-miler in 3 weeks (I'll fly to Washington DC next weekend for Alex's orientation and convocation ceremony at Georgetown next weekend, so not much running to expect there).

I spent 4 days at a client in Des Moines, Iowa, this week and was able to squeeze in 3 runs. Here is what Runner's World says about running in Des Moines in their useful review:

From the fringes of 12-block-square downtown Des Moines, trails-long, long trails-spin off in all directions and snake their way through suburban parks, wooded corridors, farmlands, wildlife-laden enclaves, and small towns.

I didn't have time to explore the whole 24 miles of the Saylorville-Des Moines River Trail, but a third of it for a 16-mile out and back. Enough to experience the pleasure of running on a nice bike path, in the woods and along the wide river. Actually, if you visit right now, there is a lot of construction going on on the 3rd and 4th miles and you are sent on a detour through boring neighborhoods. I decided to go on the closed trail section on my way back and got stuck in sticky muddy sections... Below are a few pictures of this run, with a few others in my Picasa album.

I also ran to and around Gray's Lake at the Southern end of Des Moines, on the Meredith Trail. The loop around the lake is 2.0 miles and flat, providing a great opportunity to do some speed work, at dawn or dusk when the foot traffic is light.

Overall, I was amazed at the small size of this State Capital, the flag which shares its colors with the French one, the numerous French names, from some of the streets to the name of the city itself, and the number of bridges! And I didn't have time to visit the famous Iowa State Fair which was up this week, but that was probably safer, food wise... ;-)

It was a busy racing weekend for quite a few with the Waldo 100K in Oregon and Leadville 100-mile in Colorado. Becoming a ritual, 41-year old Dave Mackey crushed the course record by 4 minutes at the former event (results). Ian Sharman has a tough but fabulous race too, taking 2nd and probably first to post his race report! As for Leadville, the overall win went to an outsider from South Africa, Ryan Sandes.

And next week is the big ultra weekend in Chamonix, France, with the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB, ~100 miles), the Courmayeur-Champeix-Chamonix (CCC, ~50 miles), the TDS (Sur les traces des ducs de Savoie, literally on the steps of the dukes of the House of Savoy, ~67 miles) and the PTL (Petite Trotte à Léon, literally Leon's short jog, ~185 miles for teams of 2 to 3 members running the whole distance together). I ran all the sections of the UTMB course and have family living in Chamonix, so I wish I'd be there. One of these years...

Stevens Creek 50K 2011: fast recovery run!

2011-08-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, the title is ambiguous: is it about a run toward a fast recovery or a fast run to recover? Let's see...

After last week's good work at Skyline, I was able to run 44 miles this week. I didn't run on Saturday, a short 1-day tapering before this Sunday's new 50K race. And Thursday was my shortest run as you are going to see.

Thursday night All-Comer Los Gatos meet

As you know, I still do a lot of speed work at the track thanks to my running buddy, Bob. That is when our busy work and travel schedules allow us. While I'm focusing on longer distances, Bob has made significant progress on the 400 meters in particular, breaking the 60 seconds barrier. He participated in a few of the summer all-comers meet at Los Gatos High School and I was excited to join him for the final one, this Thursday night. Unfortunately, he broke a rib in a mountain bike fall a week ago. I went anyway and decided to focus on the 5,000 meters. Like the 10,000 meters at the World Masters mid-July, it was the last event of the evening and we started around 8:30 pm. And like that same race, I started on the outside. Quickly settled in 6th or 7th place for the first two laps, but soon realized that wasn't sustainable. With tired legs, I wasn't able to extend the stride and I was grasping for more air. In the next laps, I got passed by a handful of runners, I had hard time keeping track as we were about 30 runners on the track, all at different speeds. I passed the lap counter: 7 laps to go, 6, 5 and 3! Yes, I got lapped by the first runner who was really fast. Yet, because I was pushing hard, I thought I was going fast with a 4:04 for the first 3 laps and 8:14 for the first six. I'm so not used to these races, I didn't realize I was actually slower than for my 10K in Sacramento. There, we were each assigned a judge who was counting the laps for us in case we got lapped. I crossed what I thought the finish line just under 16 minutes, sincerely not realizing that I was missing one 400-meter lap, yikes! What a rookie mistake and a shameful situation as a few other runners stopped by afterwards and wondered what happened. My GPS was indicating 3.12 miles but it's only when I got back home and looked at my splits that I realized my mistake. Although there was actually no recording of the times for that particular race, I want to apologize to those I told that I ran 5K under 16 minutes... My PR is 16:42 at the San Jose Turkey Trot in 2009, and that was already a tough one to pull...

Here is a picture of Bill Dodson, with the pain on his face illustrating that speed work on the track is tougher than running 30 miles, for us ultra runners... ;-)

Stevens Creek 50K

Stevens Creek is the name of the river running on the other side of Black Mountain in the Cupertino hills and flowing through the Stevens Creek County Park into the Stevens Creek reservoir which is, by the way, still full in August (we kayaked with Alex on it, 2 weeks ago, I highly recommend!). Stevens Creek Striders is one my two running clubs and I logged most of my marathon training miles on the Stevens Creek trail. That's a lot of Stevens Creek but let's add two more: Stevens Creek 50K and Stevens Creek Software are two of Steve Patt's babies. With the first one he combines two hobbies: ultra running and raising money for the Audubon Society to preserve the environment and also support his passion for bird watching. With the second, his professional activity, he sponsors the race he directs: quite a close and sustainable ecosystem! Steve and Chihping:

I was going to help out at an aid station like in 2008 but Steve was interested in heating up the competition at the front of the race so it was too tempting to pass on the coveted spot. Before seeing how the head of the race would unfold, my goal was to run with Pierre-Yves to improve together the age group course record he set at 4:36 last year (which was an unusual cool year). Here is Steve delivering his pre-race briefing in which he included the reading of a text from the sixties about the protection of the hills over the Peninsula, hills which we can now enjoy so much as our playground for trail running:

We started promptly at 9 am and I settled in 4th, chatting and catching up with Mark Tanaka on his latest family adventure in Montana. My GPS hadn't properly charged on Saturday so I was just running with a stopwatch, something very unusual for me. It felt odd but good to be freed up from the pressure of tracking the pace and mileage though. Pierre-Yves was happy to have run the first mile with me and said I should pass and keep close contact with the two leaders, who happened to be the first two of last year's race: Jay Thomson from Santa Cruz and Juan De Oliva from Reno.

I kept some distance to avoid breathing (or eating...) the dust raised by the front runners and, in the long descent in the Stevens Creek canyon, finally took the lead. Juan was the first to catch me on Canyon Trail and passed me without a word as I hesitated between two trails at a creek crossing. We kept climbing up Table Mountain Trail, the three of, Juan, I and Jay.

Although we were only 7 miles in the run I would call the Juan's tripping the turning of the race. He passed me when I hesitated on the way to cross the second creek and was doing great in the uphill. Being on his heels, I noticed how he was breezing through the nose, much more silently than Jay and I. Also, his super efficient low and short stride. Eventually though, this led him to trip on a rock and fall flat on his knees and hands. I was so closed behind that I had to pass him but I turned back to check he was ok and he indeed followed not far behind as we continued our ascent to Skyline. I kept pushing the pace and arrived alone at the Saratoga Gap aid station, for a 30-second stop to get my water bottle filled in by Peggy. From the start to both aid stations, Peter and Peggy where omnipresent this Sunday and I'm glad they helped out, you'll see later why especially. Chuck Wilson, who had also ran Skyline 50K last week, had taken the earlier start and was refueling at the aid station.

I left the aid station just as Juan and Jay arrived, my split was 1:28. I crossed more bikers and hikers than runners on this out and back but saw Pierre-Yves followed by Mark, and a couple of others including the early starters. Then at Charcoal, I switched to the other side of Skyline for what will turn out to be a solitary run. After the exposed area but great views, this section leads us back to the start and has wonderful shady trails (Bay Area Ridge Trail and Long Ridge Trail). And the course marking was amazingly precise for such a low-key and close/small-field event. The good news is that there were far less bikers on this side so I was moving quite fast, until one biker told me he had seen a rattle snake on the trail. I slowed down for a few hundreds yards to carefully scan the trail but didn't see it, fortunately.

Steve and Ernesto helped me at the main aid station (mile 19) which I left with a 2:33 split. Unlike last week, I did some walking in a few uphill sections as the temperature was rising and my legs felt heavier and tired. I twisted my left ankle twice (~ mile 16 and 21) but it is flexible enough for it to hold. I felt better when I was approaching the aid station and was hoping to find there a sponge and bucket of water as I prepared when manning the station 3 years ago. Instead, I found Peggy and Peter wrestling with a canopy as they had just arrived to set up the aid station! Nothing was on the table yet when I first passed before going to the gate for the turnaround, and they weren't even scheduled to man this aid anyway, but, as experience ultra runners and long time volunteers, they know the drill and were able to help other volunteers getting me some ice and water in my bottle. My split when leaving the aid station was 3:20.

I crossed Juan 6 minutes after I had left Rapley Ranch Road, then Jay less than one minute behind. Knowing they were between 10 to 15 minutes behind motivated me to keep pushing in most of the hills. On the way back, there was a clear sign indicating to go on Hawk Ridge Trail although there was no ribbons after the trail crossing. I was relieved to finally find one pink ribbon/marking at the bottom of this long descent but then, no ribbon nor any indication at the next intersection between Hawk Ridge and Ancient Oaks Trails. I stopped for a minute, trying to figure out the way to go and decided to reach out to the course description that I had luckily printed out and I was carrying in my pocket. A few dozens yards after the fork, I found a tiny piece of ribbon, one inch long, on the ground. This happens from time to time in races, sometimes must have removed the ribbons in this area. Among the top 5 guys (Jay, Juan, Pierre-Yves, Mark and I), I was the only one not having run this race, so I was hoping they wouldn't get lost.

Some walking in the uphills again before sprinting down to Alpine Pond (crossing Everitt), then up again on BART and sprinting down to Horseshoe Lake, crossing Chihping who managed to take this picture:

I crossed the finish line after 4 hours 15 minutes and 40 seconds of running. I had run all day thinking that Leor Pantillat had set the course record two years ago in 3:36 so I wasn't particularly impressed with my performance. That was before Steve tells me that Leor had actually run a "jaw dropping 3:58:35" and that my time was the second fastest in the 10-year race history. Given Leor's elite status, that was putting another perspective on my time.

While I looked behind several times in the last miles if Juan was closing on me, he actually finished in 4:38, 3 minutes slower than his time last year. But he was very disappointed because he got lost three times in the last section. Jay finished 3rd in 4:47, against 4:24 last year. The 2011 podium:

Pierre-Yves took 4th in 4:56 and Mark 5th in 4:59, followed by the women race winner, Pamela Kennedy, in 5:08. 3 of the top 5, plus Chihping, Jim, Adam, Larry, that was a great show of QSURT, our Quick Silver Ultra Running Team! Not to forget Kat who volunteered at the start.

Western States has about 1,500 volunteers for 400 runners and likely more than 1,000 spectators and crews. Stevens Creek 50K has 80 registered runners, not all of them starters, 51 finishers this year, but likely less than 20 volunteers to man 3 aid stations and mark the entire course so meticulously (and deribonning...). A great thanks to all of them for allowing us to run this great course and a very special thank you to Race Director, Steve!

That was my 30th 50K race, versus 21 marathons, this has become my second most frequent after the 10K (36 of them). I really like this distance combining speed and endurance!

And, for me, another great Vespa story with such an amazing recovery between races. Yes, back to the title, both a very fast recovery and a fast run. Not farther this time but faster...

PS: for those not running ultra in the area, Catra is a "figure" on the circuit with 54 100-mile finishes listed on UltraSignup, not counting the unofficial ones she does while we "only" run 50K at Ohlone. After last week's Headlands 100-mile, she was running this weekend.

Unfortunately, she had a bad fall, as you can see...

What a tough and resilient ultra lady!

Skyline 50K: rising stars in the cloud

2011-08-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't get knocked out and see stars flying in my head, actually this has been another great day, and another great Vespa experience. We were missing local stars such as Leor Pantilat, Chikara Omine, Dave Mackey, Gary Gellin, Ian Sharman or Joe Binder to name a few but, read on... We do have a serious problem with our National debt, but we are not short of stars in the area and, while that doesn't make up for the trillions, that's priceless...!

First, instead of doing it at the end of the post as usual, I want to thank Adam Ray for having taken over the race direction of this event, most especially in its 30th edition (1982-2011)! It is one of our local race gems that didn't get the popularity of other races yet, but so worth participating in for many reasons. It's a fast course if you like speed, thanks to the wide fire road, yet there are wonderful sections of technical and single track trails. It's 90% trail, so close to San Francisco, yet in the woods. Great aid stations and volunteers who are all very aware of the specificity of ultra racing. Unpredictable weather which illustrates the multiple micro-climates of the Bay Area, but usually on the cool side, which is refreshing after some other very hot races in June or July. Not crowded event which makes it more convivial. And great t-shirt and gizmos in the doggy bag thanks to Zombie Runner in particular and North Face for the sponsorship of the award prizes. Skyline 50K, its RD and all the volunteers rock, thank you for allowing us to run on these hills!

And a special thank to Agnès who spent her early morning to drive around, drive to 7 of the 9 aid stations, and managed to take a few pictures despite the difficult foggy conditions (see my Picasa album).

Back to the race, Victor Ballesteros was here today, coming back from a low season because of a hip injury. He told be that was a warm-up run for him as he ramps up training before running the World Championships of 100K Road in September. Among the ones I was expecting to push the pace today there were also Toshi (Thosikazu Hosaka), from our Quicksilver Ultra Racing Team and Chris Calzetta, who did beat me by two minutes to win the Quicksilver 50K race in May.

But it's another runner who took the lead right off the starting line, Kota Reichert, followed by Andrew Sullivan. Kota was wearing a shirt from the super fast running teamm the Aggies, so I was not surprised by the speed on the asphalt, just wondering how he would hold this speed on the trail for 31 miles (Kota is a 2 times 2:29 marathoner and 1:08 on the half marathon). Anyway, there was no way I was going that fast and I settled for a 6:45 min/mile average pace on the rolling section of the bike path on the South shore of Lake Chabot.

Toshi and Chris were right behind me, with Victor not far behind. Carrying two bottles, I didn't stop at any aid station except Skyline Gate at mile 14 where Agnès handed me two new bottles and I grabbed 3 potato chips, 1/8th of a banana, and 1 S-Cap with a sip of Coca-Cola. Flying through the aid stations (and I apologize to the volunteers for the apparent lack of consideration...), helped keeping a consistent and aggressive pace and save time, a few seconds here and there (a tip I got from Charles Stevens). At Bort Meadow we lost Toshi and Chris stayed on my heels the whole climb up to Skyline where he was faster on the flat sections with his long legs and stride and I was catching up in the up and down hills. Shortly before getting to Skyline Gate, in the mist of the cloud, I saw a very fast runner coming at us. At first, it was so foggy that we could only see someone moving fast, then it got clear that the guy had a bib on his chest. It was Kota, flying down the trail and when I yelled he was off course, he replied: "They sent me off this way!" That was weird, unexpected and, to me, clear that would disqualify him. Anyway, when we got to the aid station, there was still some confusion and a few folks mentioned that there was then only one guy ahead of us by 2 minutes, Andrew.

Chris let me pass ahead for the descent down French Trail as I knew the course and was fast zigzagging and jumping over the roots with my shorter legs (no, I'm not one of those goats that we saw close to Skyline Gate!). Not just because of the name (French!), I love this trail which penetrates such a dense forest of redwood trees (adequately name Redwood Park). Chris followed as we climbed the steep Starflower Trail, then French Trail again. I proposed him to pass if he wanted but we kept moving as is. We finally caught up with Andrew less than a mile before coming back to Bort Meadow.

Again, I proposed to Chris to go ahead but we kept moving together at a good pace, around 7 min/mile pace to and past the last aid station, Bonker Bay, where Stan Jensen welcomed us while recording our split. Chris did a quick stop and caught up after the steep downhill to the trail along the North shore of the lake. There are still three miles of flat trail and bike path and I knew Chris could have easily picked the pace up and pass me but we finished together, Chris graciously staying by my side after asking if I had ever won this race. After his great performances this year, including a 18:45 finish at Western States 5 weeks ago, it was really a very nice act of sportsmanship. A few strides from the finish line, I asked him to come next to me so I could grab his arm and Dave Combs and Mark Gilligan would make a tie, "a spirited tie" per the race director's words on Facebook this Sunday night. We crossed the finish line in 3:46:34. At 29, Chris is only getting started and he'll do great on the ultra circuit!

I was just catching my breath when we saw Victor coming in less than 2 minutes behind us. I had asked Agnès if there was anyone closing on us when passing through Big Bear on the return and she said no but Victor was then told by the Bort Meadow volunteers that he was just 5 minutes behind us, definitely gaining on us. I don't think I could have gone much faster anyway had I known, but Victor definitely is back on track for making such a routine run his best time on this course, after running 25 miles the day before.

At this point we learned that Kota had covered the course in a blazing 3:16, thus improving the course record. I told Adam that, while it was his decision as Race Director, it didn't seem right to me as this was clearly a case of going off course. I actually learned later that the volunteers at Skyline Gate saw him coming from another trail behind the station (along the parking lot) then, and even more puzzling, that Chihping, who had been checking the course marking for us since 5 AM this morning, and saw us passing by on French Trail, didn't recall seeing another runner running the loop clockwise. Not to mention that the white arrows on the ground must have clearly appeared to be the wrong way. Anyway, with that, I think the best for Kota to show he is a start is to come back next year and crush the course. The right way... (Kota in red, below.)

The rest of our Quicksilver Ultra Racing Team/Running Revolution did quite well too. First with Toshi taking on 6th just a few seconds shy of a sub 4-hour. Then Harris Goodman finishing in 4:53 Scott Laberge in 5:17 and Adam Blum shortly after. On the ladies side, Adona Ramos took first place in an impressive 4:33:24, with Tera Dude on her heels, a mere 11 seconds behind! Clare Adam was our second team member to score, taking 3rd overall in 4:54:11 and the trio was completed by Kate Powel. Way to go team!! Here is Toshi in the finish chute, all smile as usual despite giving it all to get under 4 hours:

That was my 5th Skyline. 3:48:12 in 2007 (Fast and foggy), 4:17:20 in 2008 when I strangled my quads with an inappropriate strap (S as in...), 3:54:20 in 2009 (Version 3 of 28), 3:43:00 in 2010 (A perfect #4) and 3:46:34 this year. I love this fast course, I'll certainly be back. At the very least to see how Kota, Chris or other stars are going to improved the long lasting course record that Tom Johnson set at 38 in 1997 (3:32:37, see Stan Jensen's run100s.com website).

Last thing, a few details about my Vespa experience. First, like Peter Defty advised me, and something which did work at the World Masters too three weeks ago, I took one pouch of Vespa 25 45 minutes before the start, one pouch of Vespa Junior a few minutes before the start and another one (Junior) at Skyline Gate after 1 hour and 40 minutes of running. I took my first GU 1 hour and 30 minutes after the start which is late but this is to ensure the metabolism starts to burn fat instead of sugar (knowing we carry in our body, at the start, 20 times more fat calories than glycogen). I took a second GU at mile 20 when Chris and I passed Hugo and to make sure I had enough power for the last 11 miles. And drank 2/3 of my GU2O bottles and water bottles (could/should have drunk more actually and finished the bottles). Overall that's 350 calories intake (*) for about 3,000 calories spent according to my Garmin import into SportsTrack. I did not get any cramps, which is a first for me on this course, and did not walk any of the up hills (had to keep Chris on his toes! ;-). I was definitely able to get energy and calories from other sources than pure glycogen. And, I promise, I'm not paid to promote this product, I just want to share it's working so you give it a try too if you want to improve your ultra experience and recover better!

This week I plan on participating in the Los Gatos All-Comers meet on Thursday night and help out at Steve Patt's Stevens Creek 50K next Sunday. My next big goal is Rio Del Lago on September 10 and I need to keep some volume and intensity through August then. Again, like after the World Masters, no time to rest on the laurels... ;-)

Have a great week, and a special "Run Happy" to those enjoying this activity!

(*) GU2O 16oz: 100 x2 x2/3 = 130 - GU: 100 x 2 = 200 - 1/8 banana: 10 cal

Variety in goals and training makes you run happy!

2011-07-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

I am in awe of people who are running consistently without a precise goal, or the ones who can train for 6 months for only one goal on which they bet their whole running season. Personally I need more goals to motivate me to push the envelope and keep improving. I'm not denying that I'm racing too much to really perform at my best, but I need the constant excitement of a new goal/target to not fall into a training routine. And setting various goals, from 5K to 100 miles, from road to trail if not track, surely brings a lot of variety!

Right after finishing the marathon, two weeks ago, my sight turned to Skyline 50K, three weeks later and Rio Del Lago 100-mile, in September. I took one day off then ran every day afterwards, for a total of 175 miles and more than 16,500 feet of cumulative elevation. I'll do a couple of shorter runs this week but I'm looking forward to some tapering before Sunday's race (that will be my 5th participation to that event).

Over these two weeks I ran in Palisades, NY, in Warwick, RI, then, in the Bay Area, at Alviso, on Zanker Road, at Rancho San Antonio, in Stevens Creek Park, to the top of Black Mountain several time, at the Mountain View High School track and in my neighborhood. Again, variety. The longest run was this Saturday, a 30-mile loop across Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve, Monte Bello Regional Open Space, Los Trancos Open Space Preserve, and Foothills Regional Open Space. With the nice company of Charles Stevens, Lina McCain and Mike Topper (3 Brooks'ers out of 4! ;-).

It was great to see Charles back on the trail after he has been battling a series of injuries over the past couple of years. I learned so much about ultra from him upon joining the Stevens Creek Striders 8 years ago!

I started at 6:30 AM from the main parking lot of Rancho San Antonio and met them near the Rhus Ridge entrance. We then climbed to the top of Black Mountain where Charles expressed the desire to run down Water Wheel. On our way back to Black Mountain, we got passed by an unusual group of road cyclists which gave a Tour de France flavor although these guys were clearly out of their element on this sandy fire road.

The run was particularly amazing as we broke through the fog on our way up to the top of Black Mountain, then ran for a couple of hours above the cloud for quite an aerial sensation.

You can see a few other pictures of this simple but beautiful run in my Picasa album.

Yes, keep setting new goals and include variety in your training, this is the sustainable and secret sauce to make you run happy, farther and faster. At least that works for me! :-)

A mutating or mutant tree...?

Anton (Tony) Krupicka: Running is an Indulgence

2011-07-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Indulgence, 1,000 miles under the Colorado sky, this is the title of a DVD I bought 3 years ago (2008), two years after starting ultra marathons. Busy with my own experiences (I ran 61 ultras over the past 5 years), I hadn't taken the time to watch it. Besides, the family is enduring enough with my training or when they crew for me, so we tend to watch other types of DVDs at home! Anyway, I was "home alone" this weekend, so I took the opportunity to spend an hour with Tony (virtually, that is, my first real encounter was after his win at American River in 2008).

Apart from the early adopters, most runners have heard about ultra through one of the popular and best seller authors such as Dean Karnazes (Marathon Man) or Christopher McDougall (Born To Run). Tony is the extreme opposite: although he has a stellar track record on the ultra circuit since he won Leadville 100-mile in 2006 (11 overall win out of 14 major races, finishing 2nd of the other three), he is trying to stay away from the medias, stating that many other runners are worth more attention, like our fastest American on the mile, Alan Webb. Tony is only looking for a life full of running, his passion. And his... indulgence...

The DVD consists in a 30-minute interview with great views of the places Tony was running at that time (2006-2007), mostly in Colorado. He was born on a farm in Nebraska and started running seriously in 5th grade (he was 11 year old), running his first marathon the following year. Since then, he ran more than 37,000 miles, with many weeks over 300 miles since he switched to ultra. In his words, running is a source of identity, although he would like to be seen and defined by others not just as a runner (he double majored in Philosophy and Physics and minored in Maths at the University of Colorado). Running gives him a deep appreciation for natural landscapes and a deep connection with the land. He fully leverages his ability to tap into a more primitive and primal form of existence. By the way, he his not anti-technology as some people think, just a big believer in the appropriate technology. He believes that a simpler life style helps reducing your needs and distractions and is therefore more fulfilling.

After graduating, he focused on ultra running with 3-4 hours every morning and one hour at the end of the day. Pure dedication which, he admits, may not last for ever. Indeed, it is a struggle to keep priorities in balance such as relationships, academics, work and running (I know...). But his soul mate, Jocelyn Jenks (see a special interview and interesting perspective in the bonus section), agrees that Tony is right by taking his time after College to live his passion while putting his talent for ultra racing to work. Ultra racing that Tony feels gratifying as it provides an opportunity to get back to the essentials in life: food, water, keeping moving forward or even surviving.

While the main interview is good, I actually liked the bonus section even more as it provides more detailed answers. The only thing which I found missing is more images from Tony's races. But, in all fairness, Tony spends much more time just indulging himself while training rather than racing. Anyway, the way Tony lives his ultra running life is so authentic that it will not age, you too can find inspiration in this DVD. Then follow Tony on his blog, Riding the Wind, for more inspiration (well, when Tony returns to the trails after healing his current major injury)... And, yes, running is indulgence when you love it!

Anton between Kyle and Erik Skaggs, just before Erik set a new course record for Quad Dipsea (November 2008):

No laurels

As for me, and as I wrote last week, although I savored the medals satisfaction, no time to rest on my laurels, with a busy business trip on the East Coast (I escaped just before the heat wave) and quite a few runs (10K on Tuesday, 16 miles on Wednesday, 9 miles on Thursday and Friday and 18 and 23 hilly miles this weekend). 2 more weeks to manage the switch from 10K and marathon training to racing an ultra again, Skyline 50K. And I did register to Rio Del Lago 100-mile (September 10), just to find out from Joe Swenson that the course has been changed and that we'll run the section I like the least (Twin Rocks), 4 times! Oh well, that's already a blessing to have a 100-miler left on the calendar of our Pacific Association Grand Prix (I didn't make the Western States lottery and Tahoe Rim Trail was the same weekend as the World Masters, last weekend). At least it feels good to be back on the trail --and run slower!-- after all the fast miles I logged on the concrete and asphalt in June.

Have a great week, hopefully not too hot...

WMA 2011 part 2: the light after my second night shift

2011-07-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the occasional readers who missed my previous post, you will have to revert to it to get the full context of this report from my third and last day at the WMA 2011, the World Masters Athletics Championships.

Aymar joined me for some serious carbo-loading in a private pasta party in the apartment we stayed at on the campus. Later, we got to know our roommate, Robert (Rob) Campbell, from Canada, who was also running the marathon, in the M50 age group. I went to bed around 8 PM after setting the alarm clock for 2 AM. After my breakfast, I went back to bed until 3:45 AM but didn't really sleep with the excitement or nervousness. Not sure if there was a pre-race obligation to report or not, Rob and I left shortly after 4 AM and I jogged to the start. After confirming there wasn't a check-in actually, I rushed back to the room to fill in my bottles then drove back to a parking closer to the start, with Aymar.

Rob had counted 313 registered runners in the event so it wasn't difficult to get to the start line. I met Annette Bednosky, an elite ultra runner and member of the Team USA competing in the world 100K championship in September. Annette asked me if I had seen Scott Dunlap, so we moved ahead closer to the starting line to find him. It was peach dark when we took off but the first 2-mile loop around the campus was wide and well lighted. In contrast, the bike path along the American River appeared really dark and almost needing headlamps to run at the 6:15 min/mile pace we were at. At this point, I was running with Scott who was shooting for a time in the 2:30s while I was aiming at something in the 2:40s, assuming my legs were not failing me after the race of Friday night.

In the second 4.8-mile loop along the river, I slightly pushed the pace and caught up with two other runners from Team USA, William Ennicks (M51) and I believe Eric Laughlin (M41). I passed them and they stayed right behind me for the third loop. We had passed the 10K mark in around 39 minutes (not much slower than my 34:02 36 hours earlier in the 10,000 meters) and the half in 1:21:40. Finally, they passed me at the beginning of the 4th loop as I stopped to drink a pouch of Vespa Junior and pick another bottle of GU2O (Scott teased me for carrying my own bottles like in an ultra, but I think that was a wise choice for three reasons: first, I'm not accustomed to Gatorade, I only drink GU2O, second, it does save time going through aid station, it also allows me to know exactly what I'm drinking as opposed to guessing from what you can get out of a cup while running).

At this point, my GPS was indicating a 6:12 min/mile pace and I couldn't catch them. My pace was decreasing by one second at every mile, getting to 6:23 by the end. I could keep William in sight and see a M45 runner slightly ahead but, although I was not cramping, I was missing the stamina to reengage a higher gear. I passed the mile 25 mark in 2:41 and knew I'd to sprint to get to my 2:47 goal (I'm always trying to run 2 hours plus my age in minutes... and see how long I can keep up with this linear "law."

Just before the last passage on Guy Bridge, I caught up with another M45 competitor, from Germany, who had hit the wall. I had no idea about my ranking, neither overall or in my age group, but was happy to gain one place. I did sprint to the finish and clocked a very satisfying 2:47:56 given the circumstances and in particular the recent effort in the 10,000 meters. Aymar heard from the announcer that I had finished 20th overall and I figured out that there were many M45 among the leaders. The running conditions were perfect this morning but it got chilly as we stopped our effort and our sweaty tops. After taking a few pictures at the finish line, I drove back to the room to take a shower and get some rest. With such an early start it was only 8:30 AM which left ample time to hang around at the stadium before driving back to the Bay Area. I decided to wait for the results though before leaving, especially after meeting Philippe (Duperrain), from France and from my 10,000-meter heat.

Philippe is a 2:24 marathoner and after his counter-performance in the 10,000 meters (he ran under 34 minutes in a meet two weeks ago), and seeing the winning time of the marathon (2:32), he was disappointed to have picked the 10,000 between the two events. Anyway, Philippe thought I had placed... third in my age group!

He was right indeed: although there were 6 runners with a better finish time than mine in the M40-44 age group, 6 in the M50-54 one (!), 2 on the M55-60 (re-exclamation point!) and 3 in the M35-39, that left only two other competitors ahead of me in the M45-49 age group, yippee! We were actually pretty close to each other, I had no idea...

1 16 Daniel Fiorini     49 Canada         2:46:18
2 18 Luca Guise Foglia 49 Switzerland    2:47:15
3 20 Jean Pommier     47 United States 2:47:56
4 21 Markus Riefer      45 Germany        2:48:46

That was an opportunity to visit the award area on the other side of the stadium. To top it, Team USA placed first in my age group so I went back, albeit alone as no other teammates were present, on the podium and the top. In all fairness, it helps to have the championships organized in the US, next year will be in Brazil. That being said, I had a chill while looking at the huge US flag at the top of the stadium while the National anthem was played. A new and great experience for me, under the US colors per the oath I took a couple of years ago!

1. 8:40:11 United States (2:53:24)
============================
1 2:47:56 Jean Pommier 4346
2 2:53:40 Don Young 4761
3 2:58:35 Javier Cruz 3628

2. 9:45:27

Russia (3:15:09)
============================
1 2:58:54 Dmitry Mineev 2569
2 3:16:13 Valery Slastinin 2586
3 3:30:20 Mikhail Pinegin 2573

3. 10:27:04

GREAT BRITAIN (3:29:02)
============================
1 3:10:32 Martin Ferguson 1443
2 3:14:02 Alan Appleby 1406
3 4:02:30 Alan Roberts 1490

Bill Dodson from our Stevens Creek Striders running club in Cupertino placed 2nd in the M75 age group and first as a team.

Although she was just running this race as a 100K training test, Annette easily won her age group (M40) with a 3:01. See the overall results or the detailed ones (scroll down on the left).

And see more pictures of the day in my 3rd Picasa album including photos (and movies!) from the M45 3,000-meter steeple chase won by Gilles Pelletier from France (check my previous post for a pointer to the two other photo albums).

Bronze and gold, that's quite an unexpected outcome of my first participation to such a championship. It was too close to home to miss the opportunity, we'll see how it plays in the coming years with my busy schedule. Time to pack again for a 6AM flight at SFO this Monday morning, no time to rest on the laurels... ;-)

WMA 2011 part 1: first night shift

2011-07-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

After the marathon tomorrow (Sunday), I need to shower, get some rest, check out, drive back to Bay Area and pack again for a business trip starting with a flight to the East Coast at 6AM from San Francisco. With that, I'm not sure when I will be able to finish up the recount of my short participation to the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships which occured in Sacramento, California, from July 5th to 17th. So let me start with my first two days there...

Back in April, I registered for two events: the 10,000 meters and the marathon scheduled two days apart (Friday 15 and Sunday 17). Certainly an aggressive goal to excel in both, but I didn't want to miss the chance of participating to such a worldwide competition happening in our Californian background. Besides, I figured out that since July is usually extremely hot in Sacramento and I do better in the heat, that would play to my advantage. Well, read on, this has been a strange year so far, weather wise.

I picked-up my nephew, Aymar, at Vmware where he is doing an internship this year and we left Palo Alto at 2 PM. The race was late but the constraint was to pick up the bib number before the check-in booth closed at 6 PM. GoogleMaps was giving 2h21 minutes for the route to Sacramento State University so I felt that was provided enough of a margin even on a Friday afternoon. The traffic on Dumbarton Bridge (84) and 880 North was ok but we started getting bumpers to bumpers right on 80, with more than 70 miles to go. I was seeing the clock moving faster than the car and we finally made it in 3.5 hours, with 30 minute left to check-in. A first source of stress.

Then, a few issues at the check-in of the hotel on the campus, which I'm not going to detail but which provided some additional stress and we head up to the Hornet Stadium around 7 PM which was the deadline to "report." This is when I found out that I was part of the second heat/final scheduled to start at... 9:20 PM... I had a light lunch before leaving the house and it was too late to have dinner so I ate a few chips and cookies. As soon as the sun disappeared from the benches of the stadium, it became quite chilly actually, in the mid to low 60s (Farenheit) and Aymar and I went back to the car to keep warm, before I decided to drive back to the room to put a pair of pants and 3 layers on top of my USA jersey.

Finally, it was time to go into the area to change, by 9PM. The first final was still going on and the wind blowing even on the track, at the bottom of the stadium. Our start got delayed by 10 minutes as the first final was quite slow (finish times from 35 to 51 minutes). I thought that they must have been slowed down by this strong wind and that I will have to take that into account in my pacing.

With the strange timing (I'm not used to start that late in the day) and the lack of pre-race fueling plan and strategy, I was not feeling over confident, yet quite excited to be part of this field and competition.

I was assigned number 17 as a starting position which set me completely on the outside of the start line. Yet, before the end of the first turn, I was in 6th position. My first lap was 1:17.79 and it felt quite fast for me while the leaders had already a few seconds lead. I clocked my second lap at 1:19.16 which felt more reasonable (yes, every second counts and makes a big difference at this pace...). In the event booklet, I saw that 12 competitors had better personal records than me, not counting 3 which had no personal best displayed, so I knew I had no chance to keep up with the leaders and it was more about running my own race. My overall goal was to improve my own record (33:57 at Trailblazer 4 years ago), yet without killing myself before the marathon. It was great to get encouragements from Aymar at each lap and also from another person who I think mentioned Ohlone, but I couldn't turn my head to see who that was (please leave a comment if you read this, you really helped me keeping the pace up!). Yes, speaking of pace, I'm pretty happy with the consistency of my 25 laps: 01:17.79 - 01:19.16 - 1:19.25 - 1:18.75 - 1:20.15 - 1:20.27 - 1:20.33 - 1:21.50 - 1:21.33 - 1:22.37 - 1:22.08 - 1:21.72 - 1:22.67 - 1:22.83 - 1:22.05 - 1:22.72 - 1:23.13* - 1:23.13* - 1:23.13* - 1:25.00 - 1:23.10 - 1:24.75 - 1:22.12* - 1:22.12* - 1:22.12* (sorry, a long series of numbers, boring to read; also, the * denote times where I missed my split and divided a 3-lap split by 3). Here, between Russia and Germany (lap 2):

I got lapped once by the four leaders who all finished under 32 minutes, quite an impressive performance for our age and the windy conditions. And I lapped a few other competitors several times, while trading place with others, ending up in 8th place of my heat and 8th of the finals (3rd in Team USA) since our heat was much faster than the first one.

Happy with the ranking (although I know they are hundreds of faster guys my age around the world who could be here to compete), slightly disappointed with my finish time, 5 seconds off my PR (32:02.65). See the overall results at the bottom of this post. Here we are with our new World Champion, Francisco Fontaneda, from Spain:

I hung up at the finish line, taking a few pictures, in particular with the Mongolian delegation with a special thought for one of my other nephews, Thibaud, who is in Mongolia for a few weeks to look for business opportunities for French companies in this remote country.

You can find a few more pictures of our Friday evening (credit to Aymar for the 10,000 meter amidst the nighty conditions), in my Picasa album for that first day.

I was in bed by midnight and, still battling the jet lag of me return from 3.5 weeks in Europe, 3 days before, I woke up around 5 AM. I had registered to volunteer on Sunday and checked-in at the volunteer booth shortly after 8 but was assigned to my first duty around 10 (placing the hurdles for the 100 meters races). In the meantime, I could take a few pictures which I uploaded on Picasa (Saturday album).

A special thank you to Stephanie Valdes, Volunteer Coordinator, who has done an outstanding and amazing job recruiting, scheduling and dispatching in real-time more than 700 volunteers during these two weeks. I called her the Volunteer Queen, here she is, all smile:

Back to the title of this post, my next "shift" will be by night again as the marathon starts at 5 AM and we need to check-in by 4 AM... I believe these two schedules (late or early in the day) were meant to avoid the extreme heat in this region of California usually in July, but that wasn't definitely not necessary this year. At the time I write this post, 12 hours before the marathon start, I feel small spasms in my calves after a deep tissue massage from Results Therapy. Hope it's ok, and that the night will be good enough for my mind and muscles to recover and get enough rest. While I'm thinking of my Quick Silver Ultra Racing teammates running Tahoe Rim Trail 50-mile and 100-mile this Saturday and Sunday, getting "A Glimpse of Heaven, a Taste of Hell" (TRT race motto).

More after the marathon then, with part 2, some time later, business permitting...

===============================================================
    Name                     Age Team            10,000m Finals
===============================================================
Finals                                                         
  1 Fontaneda, Francisco Jav M47 Spain                 31:32.85
  2 Paredes, Benjamin        M49 Mexico                31:40.88
  3 Perminov, Sergey         M45 Russia                31:50.74
  4 Burdett, Francis         M46 United States         31:53.09
  5 Miller, Kevin            M49 United States         33:23.11
  6 Riefer, Markus           M45 Germany               33:29.00
  7 Pingpank, Markus         M47 Germany               33:51.28
  8 Pommier, Jean            M47 United States         34:02.65
  9 Duperrain, Philippe      M45 France                35:00.84
 10 Deminter, Tyrus          M48 United States         35:27.87
 11 Azimbayer, Serikkazy     M45 Russia                35:31.73
 12 Alvarez, Ramon           M46 Venezuela             35:34.81
 13 Poulos, Ted              M49 United States         36:53.09
 14 Vargas, Jose Manuel      M48 Costa Rica            37:05.12
 15 Sawchuk, Kevin           M45 United States         37:26.47
 16 Tserendorj, Purevjav     M46 Mongolia              37:32.61
 17 Barrett, Thomas          M49 United States         37:39.77
 18 Gallego, Oliver          M49 United States         38:26.79
 19 Nichols, John            M46 United States         38:45.09
 20 Rowden, Robert           M46 United States         40:54.92
 21 Pinzon Gomez, Luis Ferna M48 Colombia              41:06.86
 22 Castillo, Victor         M46 Panama                41:50.70
 23 Roberts, Alan            M46 Great Britain         41:54.46
 24 Guevara Martinez, Edgar  M47 Colombia              43:22.61
 25 Madappa, Yogendra        M49 India                 44:50.36
 26 Hahn, Richard            M49 United States         45:32.19
 27 Grierson, Bruce          M48 Canada                45:40.43
 28 Ramirez, Gerardo         M49 Dominican Republic    51:09.80
 -- Sheringham, Paul         M48 Australia                  DNS
 -- Black, Michael           M46 United States              DNS
 -- Young, Don               M47 United States              DNS
 -- Bickham, Scott           M45 United States              DNS
 -- Ram, Kishan              M47 India                      DNS
 -- Kumar, Pramod            M49 India                      DNS
 -- Kremer, Dov              M46 Israel                     DNS
 -- Godfredsen, Kim          M45 Denmark                    DNS
 -- Mohammednejad, Hamidreza M47 Turkey                     DNS

Back on my feet: soon enough for the WMA Champs?

2011-07-11T01:13:00.000-07:00

9 days without running, that wasn't even a planned tapering "exercise" to get ready for the World Masters Athletics Championships which started in Sacramento last Monday (7/5). For those who didn't notice in my previous posts, I was unable to finish my last run in Croatia because of a very sharp pain in the hamstring (vastus medialis to be more precise). It didn't seem to be an inflammation, rather a strained muscle which looked very bad less than 3 weeks before the competition, at a time I should have been peaking in my strength and speed training. But, as the adage says, "listen to your body..."

I was in Fontainebleau this weekend and I had to check the muscle out to see if I was going to go to Sacramento as a participant or spectator. I went out for a run on Saturday and, without pain, ran a flat half marathon in 1:24 (6:26 min/mile). It felt so good to get the legs moving, I even pushed the pace with the excitement.

The 1,200-meter (3/4 of a mile) long Grand Canal built by Henri IV offers a great terrain for long-distance training, with a soft and shaded running terrain.

The next day, I ran 19 miles around the Park of the Palace of Fontainebleau (2.3-mile loop). Without practice for almost 10 days, my legs were sore from the previous run so I settled for a slower pace (7:25 min/mile), enjoying the views of the trees and the straight allees along the park walls.

If you visit Fontainebleau, don't miss running in this Park or the nearby forest which you can see in the East and South sides in the satellite image below and that I covered in a post three years ago (Fontainebleau: the South TMV 50K).

I posted a few pictures of the Park on Picasa for your own virtual tour!

Bottom line, I missed quite some pre-race training over the past two weeks but I didn't feel any pain with these 32 miles, which is a big relief. With that, I will toe the start line on Friday night for the 10,000 meters in Sacramento. And hopefully the marathon on Sunday morning as well, 5AM sharp! In the meantime, you can check how athletes are doing on the result page. Talk to you from California's Capital in a week then!

Running in Croatia #4: a rocky Lun-Pag marathon

2011-06-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

30 minutes North-East of Zadar by car, you will pass Paski Most, the only connection between the huge island of Pag to the Continent. Approaching the bridge you will already got views of the lunar terrain of the South and East parts of Gap. On the left of the road, right after getting on Pag, don’t miss the ruin called Fortica above The island is long of 57 kilometers and has 150 kilometers of bike paths advertized in touristic brochures and I was imagining that they were bording the busy road like the nice one between Kozino and Nin, but we could not see any as we drove all the way to the North point of the island, the little harbour of Lun. When we reached Novalja, 25 kilometers North of Pag, we decided to stop at one of the tourist agencies to ask about these famous bike paths and I was given the answer as a map: “Island PAG – Trekking & Mountain Biking.” If you want to run or bike on Pag, this is the map you need, with 14 circuits ranging from 1.5 to 13 miles. Of course, I was more interested in the longer ones which covered two sections of the Northern part of the island: Lun to Novalja (#14, 13 miles) and Novalja to Pag (#1, 12.5 miles).

On the map (click the above image to enlarge), the island has quite a convoluted shape with a dozen of parallel isthmuses. At the Zadar archeological museum on Sunday, we learned that the sea level was 100 meters lower during the glaciation, several million years ago. The Balkans and their more than 1,000 islands were formed when the sea filled all the valleys of this mountainous area. The highest peaks dominating the Zadar area (massif of Velebit) still culminate at 1,753m above sea level (Sveto Brdo) and 1,757m (Vaganski Vrh) in the nearby Paklenica National Park.

I took the opportunity to create and insert a map of the area to highlight where we were staying (Kozino, 3 miles North of Zadar), the small island of Vir (see my Kozino-Vir-Kozino 50K of last Saturday), and the island of Dugi Otok which we visited on Wednesday, taking the car on the ferry from Zadar to Brbinj (no, I didn't forget a vowel in that name...).

I left the family which was having lunch on the sea bank at Lun and enjoying the crystal clear water, warmer than in Zadar. On thing to mention here is that, despite being at the extremity of the island, there is always other/more islands on the horizon in this archipelago. You never reach the "end of the world" in this region and, with so many settlement options between the thousand islands, mountain summits, valleys and coves, this explains somehow why there are so many ethnicities in this area which served for centuries as a cultural buffer between Occident and Orient and finally clashing again during the recent breaking up of Yugoslavia with the 1991-1995 war from which we see so many sequels of still today.

With its sheep flocks, century old olive trees, maze of stone walls to contain the sheep, cheese and olive oil traders on the side of the road, numerous Catholic monuments and amazing views of nearby islands or mountains, the Lun-Novalja section was much more picturesque and forms 2/3 of my Picasa photo album.

The road is rolling and wasn’t too busy at the end of June (August is said to be the highest season). Between the photo stops and the burning sun (82F with dry air), I was running quite slowly and it took me 2 hours to cover the 13.1 miles from Lun to the harbor of Novalja. I stopped at a grocery store to grab an ice cream and “gobble up” a bottle of cold water.

I found the bike route corresponding to the Circuit #1 between Pag and Novalja on the right side of the road toward Gajac (pay attention, it’s close after passing the Konzum super market). There is a sign there and another one as you pass the cemetery near Gajac, and you are on your own after that but it’s pretty straightforward, just turn left to cross the main road (106) before Kolan (don’t cross this village, the bike route goes on the other side of the isthmus before).

On the other side of the isthmus, the road along the sea is called Crnika and offers great views as you can see in my photo album before crossing Bosana and finally entering the town of Pag. I found the family at the terrace of a restaurant on the harbor; my GPS was indicating 25.6 miles, not quite but close to a marathon. And one more island explored, 999 or so to go, better start swimming in addition to running...! :-)

Again, don't miss more pictures of the Pag island in my photo album.

I did a fifth run the next day but the sharp pain in my left hamstring, which first triggered during my loop at Plitvice 9 days ago, came back and made me walk the last mile of 11. Time to rest or let's say tapper as we are finishing our Croatian tour (1,400 miles including an escapade in Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina) and flying back to Paris this Friday. What an amazing experience to discover, as a family, this amazing cultural maze in which Croatia found a way to own most of the sea shore in the recent redistribution of the Balkans land (check on a map, it's quite fascinating). We finished our tour by Zagreb which is very different from the ambiance found along the coast, with still very old buildings, not as well renovated if even maintained, and not so nice buildings from the communist era of the seventies in particular in the South part of the capital. Everywhere, the Croats have been friendly and helpful albeit the very limited use of English, even on signs/signage, and we found them working very hard and long hours (stores opening early and closing at 9 or 10 pm for instance). A huge thank you to our friends Hervé and Sylvie who provided us with their hospitality and this opportunity to discover 3 new countries and cultures! A destination highly recommended, by car or by boat, rather than on bike (we did see a few bicyclists but did not find the roads appropriate for that). And, what ever way you chose to come and visit, my last 4 posts (Plitvice, Dubrovnik, Zadar-Vir and this one) are just an illustration that you will always find great places and occasions to lace your running shoes up!

Running in Croatia #3: Zadar-Nin-Vir 50K

2011-06-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

If you stay in Zadar (~80,000 hab.), there is a nice run up North to the island of Vir. It’s mostly flat and there is a new and very nice bike road most of the 15 kilometers between Kozino and Privlaka (to be honest, I was staying in Kozino, so I didn’t run the first 3.5 miles from Zadar which don’t have a bike path along this very busy road, 306).

I crossed the small island of Vir down to the lighthouse (Lanterna), a section which included a few miles on a rocky trail after leaving the village of Vir and passing the cemetery. Once back to our friends' apartment, my GPS indicated 31.2 miles (50 kilometers) for the out and back (from/to Kozino) and, with only two bottles, the very dry air and temperatures close to 90F in the middle of the afternoon, I had to stop at two cafes (Vir, Privlaka) and one gas station (Zaton) to get them refilled. Here is another nice church you can see from the main row, near Privlaka:

Whereas most of the Croatian coast is rocky, Nin is famous for its sandy lagoon which attracts families with youngsters as bathing is easier and less dangerous for them.

Nin has also mud pits which we experienced with the family the next day.

Another good long run albeit slow with the heat and a nagging pain in my left hamstring. Not quite the hard training I was envisioning for the upcoming World Masters in 3 weeks, but always important to listen to your body and not push too far, too fast (in reference to the name of my blog...).

And a few more postal cards from Croatia in my Picasa album, enjoy!

Running in Croatia #2: fortified Dubrovnik

2011-06-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

The old city of Dubrovnik is a jewel for its architectural unity and the consistency of its renovation. Not only it had to cope with centuries of tumultuous history but also been rebuilt after the recent Homeland War (1991-1995) which destroyed several buildings (fires) and many roofs (bombs). But, it is such a touristic asset that the Croats worked hard and the buildings are so well restored, from the narrow back streets to the impressive city wall, and apart from the tourist crowd, it’s like you are transported back in time, centuries ago (same feeling I got when visiting the Palace of Diocletian in Split).

Pictures are still uploading as I post this blog on a slow connection in Zagreb, but you can already see a few in my Picasa album.

If you are stopping by Dubrovnik on a cruise, a very popular destination with huge cruise ships in and out every day (in around 8:30 AM and leaving by 4 or 5 PM), and want to “escape” the confinement of the boat running a few miles, then you want to aim at Lapad which hosts a small natural park, Petka, which you will catch from one of the steep and narrow streets behind the Hotel Komodor (Savska or Dunavska then Ivanska), situated on the laguna between Babin Kuk and Lapad.

At the end of the peninsula of Lapad’s, you will discover the upscale Dubrovnik Palace on the North West end. On the South side you’ll find a few unmaintained trails getting to the top of an impressive 400-feet cliff. I spent about an hour trying to find a trail along the cliff, getting my legs lacerated by bushes. I eventually returned on the fire road, then up to the radio or TV relay culminating at close to 600 feet (Velika Petka, 192 meters). Still looking for views over the old city, I continued on the fire road and ended up at the city hospital (Opca Bolnica Dubrovnik) which I crossed to get on Liechtensteineov Put before going through the Boninovo area along the sea, down toward Dubrovnik Grad (the old and fortified city).

With the crowd in the old city, I don’t recommend entering the city walls to run inside, nor running on the walls (2 kilometers, 70Kn fee). You should do it before or after your run. If you stay in Dubrovnik, you actually want to avoid the morning when several thousands of tourists get to the old city at the same time from the ships.

From the North entrance of the old city, you will spot a narrow and steep staired street (Put Od Srda) which gets you to the main touristic road you entered the city from by car (Jadranska Turisticka Cesta). There, you’ll have to turn left (toward North/Split), run/walk for a few hundreds yards and pay attention to the traffic before crossing to get on a stair on the other side (no indication/signage but the trail starts on the other side of the N. Kulsilica street). This is the winding trail going up to “Sv. Srd” for amazing views of the city at 1,200 feet.

The other option to get to this unique panoramic spot is to drive through the small village of Bosanka (South-East of Dubrovnik) or take the cable car from downtown. At the top of the mountain is a fort which was central to Dubrovnik’s resistance during the Homeland War. It actually hosts today an exhibit on these deadly and dark 5 years (1991-1995).

I came back to my starting point in Babin Kuk taking the road through Bosanka (another area to find quiet trails) and going through Dubrovnik and along the harbour (Gruz) to complete a 15-mile convulated loop around and across this historical city which, outside of the small fortified place, looks like a cheaper and tiny version of Monaco, with buildings hanging on balconies created on this steep and rough cliff.

Running in Croatia #1: spectacular Plitvice water falls

2011-06-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

I concluded my last post mentioning that my ability to keep you posted about our trip through the Balkans might be impacted by network connectivity. Not only the wifi connections we had in our first two stays were not as fast as the one we have at home, but work also came in the way and I had to spend a few hours in the evenings to work on last minute and special projects. With that, here is a quick and short one to mention a wonderful run I had in the Plitvice National Park in Croatia on Monday.

Because of the limited network bandwidth, I am not able to upload the 150 pictures I took from my run in this amazing park made of a dozen of lakes at different elevations and hundreds of natural falls in between with crystal clear water. Here is a web site where you'll find some information about the park as well as a photo gallery you can enjoy while I'm able to upload my pictures on Picasa.

For the runners, this park represent more than 20 miles of trails. The first miles are very busy with thousands of tourists at least in the high season but, as you progress toward the upper lakes and let the tourists take the boat, you'll find pristine and quiet trails with amazing views of the falls and lakes with emerald and turquoise colors.

The park ticket has a very convenient map on the back side which is enough to navigate the maze of trails around the lakes in addition to signs showing the handful of recommended circuits. The longest one, K, didn't appear long enough for me so I decided to go around the last lake at the end and top of the park. Like for the other lakes, I decided to run anti-clockwise: because this trail is not open to the public, the trail was not maintained but good enough for a good hike. Later in the evening, the owner of the apartment we had rented nearby, a ranger working in the park, told me that bears lived in this area, so be careful if you too want to explore this remote lake. By the way, you'd want to know that, after you circled around half the lake, you'll get on a road (asphalt) which will get you back to the civilization (in other words, don't try to look for a trail on the other side of the lake, I did spend quite some time and at least an extra mile to figure that out as it wasn't clear on the map). Overall, I ended up covering 19.5 miles and taking 150 pictures, quite a tour (you can check about 100 of them in my Picasa album)!

For non-runners, the park offers many options to hike from one to ten miles to enjoy these amazing natural water falls. Make sure not to miss this wonder if you visit Croatia!

IBM centennial: in for the long... run

2011-06-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

June 16, 1911: the Computing Tabulating Recording Company was born to become a leader in computing technology for many years. 100 years later, it is time to celebrate. Leveraging our size (more than 400,000 employees) and global presence (170 countries), our CEO, Sam Palmisano, asked each of us to consider volunteering at least 8 hours to make a huge and memorable impact in this special centennial year, and especially volunteer on the eve of June 16th. The response has been overwhelming with more than 2.4 million hours logged around the globe by current or ex IBMers so far. Personally, after visiting a school to promote Engineering to 5th graders a month ago and helping another association, I joined a dozen of other IBMers last Wednesday to install solar panels on the top of the house of a low-income family in San Francisco. The project was led by Grid Alternatives which is serving all California with such projects. Anyone can serve as volunteer and send some money too, please check their web site out. While IBM is celebrating 100 years, Grid Alternatives is celebrating their 1,000th solar installation this month!

As for the actual Centennial celebration, this was mostly it, just a cake at each of the IBM sites, not even Champagne; the elephant (as some people call Big Blue) learned to get frugal and focused on the business after the 1992 crisis which almost caused its death. Anyway, for the past 100 days, we had opportunities to review a few of the many accomplishments of the IBMers of this century, see for instance the 100 icons of progress.

This simple celebration was to remind us that this is just a milestone, IBM is in high technology for the long... run.

Speaking of running (to remain in the blog theme...), I went to the track last Tuesday and ran 3 repeat miles in 5:46, 5:42 and... 5:20! I'm glad to have gotten some speed back although I wish I could train more consistently before the World Championships. But I'm happy to take the running miles I can squeeze in my schedule right now, especially before a 2-week family vacation in the Balkans. Talk to you from there, connectivity permitting...

Busy week, vacation around the corner!

2011-06-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

With three round trips to San Francisco to attend part of the SemTech conference I, for once, drove more miles than I ran this week. And, no, it was not an option to run to the City. Still, I managed to squeeze three 9-mile runs in the neighborhood and a long 29-mile run this Saturday up to Black Mountain again. Which was still windy and cloudy but not rainy this time. And it's almost mid-June...

Besides long work hours, lot of learning at SemTech and a 60+ mile running week, we had two graduation celebrations this week: Greg transitioning from middle to high school and Alex finishing high school (Baccalaureate celebration on Monday night and graduation celebration at De Anza on Thursday evening). Alex could not be happier to conclude this phase of his life before moving on to College life at Georgetown in August and attend the Walsh School of Foreign Service!

Here is a photo album from my long run, this Saturday. It was great to meet with the Striders at the Stevens Creek Park.

The top of Black Mountain was in the clouds,

but the climb on Stevens Creek Canyon Road and Canyon Trail was sunny. There were quite a few mountain bikers whom I warned about two Rangers out there checking speed (like mountain bikers had speed meters...). On my way up, I stopped to capture all the sorts of flowers blooming along the road and the trail and here is a collage:

The trails were so beautiful with such colors and luxuriant vegetation, I often thought of the luck I have to run on them from my house:

Again, more pictures in my Picasa album.

I had primarily taken my camera to capture the fact that the Stevens Creek reservoir was still full that late in the year, something really unusual. And with the creeks flowing in, that should last for a few more weeks.

We have more water than usual, the South of the country is devastated by floods and Europe by droughts, so much out of balance. Hope this helps creating more awareness for the many things to do to protect our planet and our environment.

This Sunday morning, before the rush of Alex, Jeannie and Jackie's graduation party, I went back to the track at Mountain View High School for another tempo run. I was aiming at 10 miles at 6 minutes/mile pace but, I passed the 5-mile mark in 30:40. With both tired legs and a deserted track, I was not feeling like pushing to hold the pace. But Gabor Bartha, a runner I have met at a few 5 and 10K in the area several years ago, came to run a few laps and that got me re-energized and focused, enough to manage to do a negative split, gaining more than one minute in the next 5 miles and finishing the 40 laps in 59:25. Gabor has had the misfortune of having many injuries of the past 4 years and I invited him to run more on the trails at Rancho and rotate models of shoes.

With that, one more week before our family trip to Croatia; talk to you next time from Central Europe then, and have a great week in the meantime!

Hello Mr June! June, really?

2011-06-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't a scoop, the word went out in November 2010 when the page owners of the "Tribute to the Trails" Calendar Project page on Facebook, Glenn Tachiyama and Wendy Wheeler-Jacobs, sent a preview of the 2011 calendar. Several friends spotted me on the June page and here we are, it's June already! Well, with the cold and rainy weather, it surely doesn't look like June here in North California, what a strange year. I ran by the Stevens Creek reservoir this Saturday morning and it's 100% full! Conversely, Europe, and France in particular, experiences an extreme drought and tornados keep devastating the East of our country...

So, here is the picture Glenn took on the Western States course last June (2010) as we were approaching Duncan Canyon (the aid station manned by the Quicksilver running club of San Jose, my ultra racing club):

Photo credit to Glenn Tachiyama who is doing an amazing job capturing the essence of our sports at so many events and on so many different trails. His contribution to this calendar project helped raise $17,680 for the Washington Trails Association, what a great... Tribute to the Trails!

Just behind me is Meghan Arbogast who was going to finish in second place, just 14 mere minutes behind Tracy Garneau, in 19:15:58 and 22nd overall.

And check this link to the whole album/calendar pages.

Well, June is here indeed but what a strange weather! This Saturday, I ran to the top of Black Mountain in the storm (wind and rain), that was quite unexpected, I've never seen that since we settled in California 13 years ago. No way to get any heat training in this year so far...

Earlier in the week, on Thursday, I organized a National Running Day celebration at the office. Last year, only one runner showed up. This year, 6, quite an increase! We went to Alviso Marina County Park for a 4 mile out and back. We talked about participating to the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot in November as an IBM team.

Also, on Wednesday night, I attended the Vespa night organized by Peter, Gillian and Don at ZombieRunner in Palo Alto.

There was a lot of scientific studies to back up Dr. Stephen Phinney's speech promoting the virtues and benefits of a low carb diet. It certainly is surprising to realize that Inuits for instance can live a normal and very healthy life with a diet based on 15% proteins and 80% fat! Here is one of his article telling you more about the corresponding keto-adaptation mechanism: Ketogenic diets and physical performance.

I personally don't feel ready to kiss goodbye to my dearest carbs (bread and pasta to just name two) but the good news is that we have Vespa to help reaching out to our largest source of energy in our body: the so-called infamous fat! You should give it a try, it really works very well for me and many other athletes to get great runs.

2 graduations (Alex and Greg), one conference in San Francisco (I'm speaking on Wednesday at Semantic Technology, about Decision Modeling), likely not going to log 80 miles as I did this week. But at least a few fast miles, hopefully. And wishing you the same for this week, Run Happy! In the unusually good or bad weather you may have this Spring...

Memorial Day 2011: other goals, other dreams

2011-05-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

For the past 4 years, like many other lucky ones, my ultra goal and dream during the Memorial Day weekend was all about Western States. I'm not in this year and will actually be with the family in Croatia. Seems like I'm going to miss a serious snow year: it even snowed around Lake Tahoe this weekend and, while Squaw Valley's website talks about this weekend marking an end to a very long season, rumors have it that a few lifts may reopen for July 4th, one week after Western States! With all this snow, I heard that the Western States training camp was quite disrupted, at least the start from Robinson Flat on Saturday.

On my end, the weekend has been very different from previous years. After running 88 miles at the WS training camp in 2007, I had started a short tradition of my busiest training weekend in the Bay Area with 126 hilly miles in 2008 and 122 miles during the Memorial Day weekend of 2009. Last year, I only ran 49 miles over 2 days and that may explain why I was slower in my third Western States run. Well, this year, my goal is to "regain" speed, in preparation of the 10K and marathon at the World Masters in 8 weeks.

After a valorous Ohlone last Sunday, my legs were still sore on Monday and Tuesday but I managed to run a 10K each day, albeit slowly (8:40 and 7:40 min/mile respectively). I ran 9 miles on Wednesday and another 10K on Thursday, this time at 6:52 min/mile. It feels good to get faster, but I wasn't easy to get outside of the recovery comfort zone.

For this weekend my goal was to take advantage of the long weekend and run hard, twice a day, like the pros...! Well, that was before I realized that we had a few obligations (2 graduation celebrations) and a lot of work on my side to catchup after all these weekends in April and May, either racing or traveling.

On Saturday, I was running in the neighborhood (I have a perfect 5K loop which gets some neighbors crazy when they see me going and going) and did 25K. I had a nice 6:24 min/mile pace which I intended to keep for another loop before I had to stop with a blister burning under my feet. Damned, I barely has one blister a year and it has to happen on the first run of such a weekend! Certainly, I had forgotten that running fast and all on concrete is pretty bad and requires special foot care before going out. For this reason, I did not run in the afternoon (I tried but it was too painful after piercing the blister) and let the blister dry.

I went for my second run on Sunday morning and did 4 loops (20K) this time, just on 7:00 min/mile pace. A sort of recovery run to ensure the blister kept healing. I also took the opportunity to try on my new Brooks Ravenna. They are so narrow that this was what I needed to maintain my foot in place and prevent any friction.

Monday had to be the big day then, if not about mileage, at least about speed and, after working in the morning, I went to the track for a long tempo run. I stopped by the new track of Homestead High School but everything was locked down (same at Fremont High), which upsets me and will need to be brought up at the district level when I have more time.

Welcome? Sure...

Anyway, I drove to Mountain View High School which in addition to have a wonderful track, is always open and welcoming visitors. After 2 laps to warm-up, I went on for the tempo run, aiming at running as many laps as possible at 6 min/mile pace, that is 1 minute and a half or 90 seconds per lap.

I was clocking 1:27 to 1:29 laps, I believe my first 1:31 lap was around #30. Thankfully, my GPS is counting the laps for me, so I can just "zone" and look around, thinking of something else. There were a few runners coming and leaving, each running a few laps or a few miles. It was sunny but the temperature was perfect, 65F, mostly because of a relatively strong breeze from the North. I passed the 40-lap mark around 58:30 and felt so good that I was confident I will do at least 64 laps, if not more. Indeed, I completed the 64 laps in 1:35:22, that is 38 seconds faster than my goal. I had drunk one bottle of GU2O but taken no gel nor SCaps! so started slowing down with 1:32-1:35 laps afterwards. I still managed to complete 72 laps this time with 3 seconds to spare on the 1:30 min/lap pace, right on! My last attempt at this long temp run test was 64 laps back in January. That's quite a few laps seen from a satellite... ;-)

Although there is much more work to be able to maintain such a pace through the wall like I did in Chicago 8 years ago, I'm happy with this intermediate result. Now, if only it was going to be 65F in Sacramento mid July... Who knows, this is such a strange weather this year, maybe we don't have to go through the painful heat training this year!

With that, I tried on my three new Brooks shorts that I received on Friday, and two of the three pairs of shoes (Ravenna 2, Racer ST 5 and the super light T7 Racer). The new material of the shorts is amazingly lightweight and comfortable (stretch). And the Olympic Blue a perfect match with our Quicksilver Ultra Racing Team tops. Christmas in May, just in time for the speed work...! ;-)

Looking forward to hearing more stories from the participants to the Western States training run and, two things before I conclude this post:
1. It is National Running Day this coming Wednesday (June 1), so hope all of you get to run!

2. Peter Defty, from Vespa, is organizing a Vespa Night, that same Wednesday at ZombieRunner (6:30-8:30 PM). Dr. Stephen Phinney will share insights about how Vespa works and I'm excited to listen to him as Vespa indeed works so well for me! Please RSVP on the special event web page to let Peter, Don and Gillian know you are coming! Hope to see many of you there and, in the meantime, have a great National Running Day (even if you don't live in the US ;-)!

Ohlone 2011: double pair!

2011-05-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite race in the calendar. First, it's a 50K and that still the distance I'm the best at among the ultra races. Second, it's a tough and hilly one, and I'm a "no pain, no gain" type of runner... Third, this is the only race I won twice, in addition to placing 2nd and 3rd the following years. Last but not least, I love the connection to the Native American legacy, and really understand why the Ohlone tribe settled on these hills, with gorgeous views, a few creeks and grassy hills.

So, when I got called to do a roadshow in May, I was really glad that the timing worked out for me to fly back this Saturday, just in time for Ohlone, and just after Miwok. Yet, flying 15,000 miles, visiting 6 countries in 10 days (Spain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Germany) wasn't the best way first to recover from Miwok and get rest before Ohlone... The only positive thing is that, with the jet lag, I was sleeping like a baby by 8 PM last night and managed to sleep until 4:15 AM, my longest night by far for the past 2 weeks (with several nights under 5 hours between late international flights and early client meetings). At least, the trip was fruitful from a business standpoint. And, since I couldn't fit in runs anyway except last weekend (Madrid and Stockholm), I did taper.

Agnès was kind enough to drive me to the start in Fremont this morning (7 AM), even managing to find a parking spot next to the registration table, couldn't get closer and better! That allowed me to catch-up with a few volunteers and runners and take pictures of the bus unloading. The buses left Del Valle late and arrived after 7:30 creating a huge line at the 2 port-a-potties. For this reason, the official start got delayed by 7-8 minutes. In the meantime, under Stan Jensen's supervision, 11 runners took the early 7 AM start to make the cut-offs.

I was hoping that we'd take the opportunity to have a minute of silence in memory of Tom Kaisersatt who left us last September. Here is Tom with Stan, at the check-in, last year. Tom was so supportive of all the runners and always keeping his joyful smile despite the pain in his lungs and difficulty to breath. Even last year, Tom hike the last hill at the finish to support her friend Christina and cheered me up when I was flying down to take 3rd. I thought of him many times again today, looking at LiveStrong bracelet I'm wearing in his memory, and saying in my mind Tom's most famous quote: "Keep the rubber down, my friend!" Between Tom and the Ohlone people, that's always a spirited run for me which helps pushing up in all the up and down-hills.

After setting an amazing course record of 4:16 last year, Leor had strong ambitions and was shooting for close to, if not under, 4 hours. For this reason, it was best to let him go right off the start line.

I saw him for the last time at mile 3, I had already a 4-minute gap on him. And I was actually in 5th place. I could see Ron Gutierrez and Mark Tanaka behind but, not killing myself in the steep climb to the top of Mission Peak, a sinigificant gap was created and I would not see anyone behind in the long climb to Rose Peak. Carrying two bottles, I didn't stop at the first aid station but just told Hollis Lenderking, the head of our Pacific Association Ultra Grand Prix: "Geez, it gets faster every year...!" He replies with "Yes, getting older but faster," but I was actually speaking of the 4 guys ahead of me. But, this is a long race, and we were only at mile 6 so, read on...

For the next 9 miles, I didn't see anyone neither ahead nor behind so I had no clue if I was pushing enough in the climb to Rose Peak. At mile 15, I saw two runners which I pointed about 4 minutes ahead of me. Although I was alternating walking and running in the last part of the summit, I finally caught up and passed one of them (Gas or Gaz?) just after picking up the bracelt at the summit (proving we reached the top) but Jesse seemed untouchable and I was not closing on him. I entered the summit loop right under 3 hours (2:59:35) and completed it in about 9 minutes. (Photo credit Chihping Fu)

A quick stop at the next aid station (Maggie's Half Acre, mile 19.7) and I was on the roller coaster, managing to run most of it this year. I got cheered up by Keith Blom who, like Chihiping Fu earlier, was checking the course marking. Both took pictures of the runners and shared them on Facebook this afternoon. As opposed to previous years, I was not really cramping but it was not far so I maintained a conservative effort. The main challenge on this course is pacing yourself and maintaining a sustainable effort as you are always either going up or down, for a short section or miles at a time. (Photo credit Keith Blom)

I saw the red cap of Scott McClennan around mile 21.5, Scott was about 2 minutes ahead. On the long way down to Johnny's Pond, I was barely closing on him but I also saw Jesse Haynes a few minutes ahead. They were in 2nd and 3rd and, at this point, I was thinking that was just fine with fourth overall and first Masters, and tired enough to push more and try to catch them. I did a short stop Schlieper Rock to get my GU2O bottle refilled for the second time, then rushed onto the tortuous trail down Burn canyon. This time, I was closing quickly on Scott who seemed to have trouble with his quads, going down. We saw Greg Lanctot after crossing the creek and Greg told me that Jesse had just reached the ridge, and that he was just 3 minutes ahead. Well, I knew it was going to take me more than 3 minutes to cover the very steep climb and, indeed, I believe it took me about 9 minutes. With his long legs, Scott was keeping a good pace on the uphill, alternating running and power walking. Once we got on the ridge, he actually increased the gap as I was starting cramping badly on every uphill section. We eventually reached the final 2 miles, which are mostly downhill to the Del Valle Regional Park. Like in Burn, I was really much better than Scott in the downhills and was just behind him when we reached the final aid station, Stromer Spring. To my surprise, Scott stopped at the aid station and I rushed in the downhill, now in 3rd. I was going really fast, yet was trying to see if I'd see Jesse ahead but there was no one to be seen. I crossed the finish line in 4:55:35, in 3rd overall again! And first Masters indeed (special thanks to Gary Gellin who ran Silver State 50-mile instead, yesterday). Jesse had finished about 9 minutes ahead of me, and Scott came in about 2 minutes after me. As for Leor, after taking on very aggresively as he was trying to get sub 4 hours, he cramped badly too and couldn't run in the down hills, yet finished in 4:31 for his third consecutive win of this event.

We chatted with Leor after the finish about some explanations of our slower times. The temperature was perfect, in the 65-70F range, the sky was partially overcast therefore not as sunny and exposed as some other years. There was some competition. And there was no change of course. As others were actually very much pleased with their performance (e.g. Mark Tanaka and Gary Wang), the only plausible explanation was that we were tired with previous races (my 3 ultras of the past 4 weeks, and Leor's amazing course record at Quicksilver 50-mile. Not to mention work (for both, now!) and travels, for me.

Back to the title, I owe you some explanations unless you were already thinking about poker hands. It was my fifth run of this race and that now makes 1, 1, 2, 3, 3 as overall finishes. Not quite a royal flush, but a nice hands with two aces.

Our Quicksilver team did very well, placing 3rd, 5th (Mark Tanaka), 10th (John Burton) and 21st (Harris Goodman), with Scott Laberge and Adam Blum also running. On the women side, first, the top 6 came in within 15 minutes and our team took 4th (Bree Lambert), 5th (Adona Ramos), 6th (Clare Abram), with Kat Powel also finishing.

My first thanks to the volunteers. The point to point format and use of very remote locations for the aid station in this wilderness, make their job very difficult. Yet, the aid stations were fully stocked and all the volunteers were very helpful and suportive. At least, on this course, I do stop at most of the aid stations to ensure I get my fluid and energy levels correct. This is a race with several race directors and one was missing this year, Rob Byrne, stuck in the Nehterlands for work. Anyway, the race organization was perfect and ran smoothly! And the BBQ and its buffet were very well stocked. I also want to thank the Park Service and Rangers who seemed very involved and suportive of this race, quite a few of them being present at aid stations, in particular the remote ones. And the sponsors (Zombie Runner, GU, Succeed!, Johnson Lumber Co for the nice trophies) with a special and new one: here is Chris introducing me to the Mara's Pastas, a product of his company, Cook Natural Foods.

With that, I'm taking a break with ultra racing until August, and will now concentrate on two shorter distances, yet not two short ones: 10K and Marathon, distances which I registered for at the upcoming World Masters in Sacramento mid July. I'll get back to the track more consistently then, between work and more travels at the end of June with our family trip to Croatia and France.

In the meantime, good luck to the already lucky ones in Western States, for your final preparation and training camp. And to anyone else running either another 100-mile or any other/shorter distances, and to all of you, blog readers! Since we thankfully made it through the stupid prediction of the end of the world yesterday... ;-)

PS: a few more pictures in my Picasa album, credit to Agnes, my nephew Aymar.

Running Stockholm: combining taper and tourism

2011-05-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

I had never heard of this marathon but, of course, every large city and at least capital has to have a marathon. As I was looking for some course ideas to visit Stockholm this Sunday, I checked on their marathon which will actually be held in two weeks, May 28 2011.

I would have loved to run the full distance but, between the uncertain weather and other obligations and work duties, I only ran 16 miles of the official double loop around the city, also taking a few pictures on the way so I can share this visit with all of you and especially the ones who did not come to Stockholm yet. From what I've seen since I arrived last night, between the signs, the architecture, the orderly traffic and all the water, it reminds me of Geneva and its banks along the Rhone. A large number of museums (which I didn't visit) and many bridges to link the pieces of the archipelago puzzle.

Overall, despite the drizzly weather at the start of my run which do not give all the credit to the colorful buildings, this is an amazing place, with so much maritime legacy, and everything is very runnable thanks to large pathways, numerous bike paths, careful drivers and nearby parks. And, for me a nice recovery run after last week's 100K and 9 miles in Madrid on Friday evening.

If you want trails only, the best is to go directly to Skansberget, at the East of Ostermalm and North, and Djurgarden.

Ok, a short post for once, enjoy the visit by browsing through my Picasa photo album! And talk you next week after Ohlone 50K and my short stops in Helsinki, Turku, Copenhagen, Oslo, Kiel and Frankfurt, not to mention Madrid last week...

Miwok 2011: some rest, at last!

2011-05-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

[For those only interested in the pictures, see my Picasa album.]

It was my 60th ultra race and, more importantly, my 3rd ultra competition in 15 days. An epic start at Ruth Anderson 100K 2 weeks ago (I was still in Phoenix, Arizona when runners were walking to the start line!), a good push at the hilly QuickSilver 50K last week and the program of the PAUSATF Grand Prix dictated a 3rd race weekend in a row (not to mention American River 50-mile a month ago).

Not flying in on race day this time but a late planning on Friday for carpooling with Pierre-Yves. We were set for him to pick me between 2:55 and 3 AM. I went to bed later than what I was hoping for and got about 4.5 hours of sleep in. Here is Greg's cat, Kiwi, who is usually waking up to welcome me when I do conference calls at 5 or 6 in the morning, but not moving when it's only 2 AM: "aren't you crazy, ultra runner dudes..." is she thinking ;-)

To save a few minutes off Pierre-Yves' drive, I decided to walk onto Stevens Creek. By 3:10, still no sign of Pierre-Yves and no response on his cell phone either. I jogged back to my house and it was 3:18 when I woke his wife up on the phone. Christine said that Pierre-Yves missed his alarm but Pierre later realized he set the clock on 4 instead of 2. We were close to having another Ruth Anderson-like incident and late start, phew! Fortunately, Pierre-Yves had all his stuff ready and we made it to the parking lot in record time, around 4:25! If you read the last section of my previous race report, you know about Charles' misfortune and his serious hand injury. Just one week later, Charles was volunteering, later joint by his wife and two daughters in the late afternoon. Another example of the tight community and small world which exists in the ultra world. Here is Charles with Race Director, Tia Bodington:

As Charles painfully learned, in his own words, "runners are meant to run on their feet, not their hands...". Ironically, Pierre-Yves was going to have a bad fall too on the course today, although no need to make a visit to and spend the day at the Emergency Room, fortunately!

Tia sent us to play in her backyard by 5:40, after reminding us of the most important directives beyond this year's course changes: "Respect others. Respect the volunteers. Respect the trail. Respect the course. Respect your goal." Very nice and powerful way to summarize what's important in ultra running.

It was still dark and a bit cloudy and foggy above the Golden Gate Bridge but the sun was bright and shining by the time we came back to the Rodeo Lagoon Beach after the initial loop.

I was running with the 4 top women then and passed quite a few runners on the stairs up to Wolfe Ridge. I was feeling great although I could hear a small voice coming from my quads complaining that we were still engaged in a hilly race... how come? And we were only in the 8th mile...

Anyway, I flew down Miwok Trail to Tennessee Valley, took a few pictures of the aid station volunteers, and went up Fox Trail still running most of the uphill to Coyote Ridge. However, while I was passing runners on the way up, I was losing ground in the down hills. This was really new to me and appeared to me my limitation of the day, likely the result of some tiredness from previous races, go figure...

At the beginning of Deer Park Fire Road, Ian Sharman arrived from behind in his flashy costume. He made running uphill so easy, I was very impressed, especially after his 3:10 50K at Ruth Anderson 2 weeks ago and his 2:42 Big Sur Marathon last week! You see, I'm not the only racing fanatic out there...! We climbed the 2 or 3 miles up to Pan Toll, trading places with another group of 5 runners including Ron Gutierrez who seemed to have a great day.

After Pan Toll, I left this group go on Coastal Trail, just keeping them in sight while enjoying the amazing views of the Ocean, Stinson Beach and Point Reyes.

I took more pictures of the volunteers at the Bolinas Ridge aid station (happy Mother's Day, Mom!) while getting some food in before the long and rolling stretch on Bolinas Ridge.

I kept my camera in my hand, ready to fire up as I was expecting the front runners to show up at any turn knowing that I was running slower than previous years, but it took several miles before they did. And, to my surprise, they were very close to each other, a first group of four led by favorite Dave Mackey. Dave was one reason I was running with my camera today, the other one being that I wanted an excuse to take it, if not easy, at least easier. Not only Dave is the fastest trail runner in the Bay Area, he is also 40 and therefore competes in my age group with PAUSATF. He focuses on very few races but hammers them down. Anyway, here they are on their way back to Bolinas (I was 31 mile done).

Just before the Randall trail gate and, as I had started stopping at every runner I was crossing to take a picture, the lead woman from Oregon passed me, then Meghan Arbogast. Between the picture stops and my issue going down hill today, the down hill seemed going for ever. Mark Lantz passed be near the bottom and I climbed back closely behind him, still taking pictures of every runner we were crossing. This photothon went on for more than 11 miles and I ended up taking 390 during the day (I had cramps in my right hand in the evening!). The challenge from a photography standpoint was the light conditions with the contrast between the redwoods shade and the bright light at mid day on the ridge. I had to use my flash which was not fast enough to recharge and fire up when runners were too close to each other. Overall, I got more than 320 pictures of the runners on Bolinas Ridge, quite a few great shots and a few misses which I left to show that I tried to get every body (blurry pictures or pictures of your back, sorry...). I actually missed the last 4 runners on the very narrow Coastal Trail as I was getting out of the way to let them pass (something they did seem to be accustom with...). Please make sure to check my Picasa photo album (375 pictures from me and 62 from Agnès).

After I was done with all these pictures, I figured out that I could push the pace again. My average pace was around 9:13 at the bottom of Randall Trail, 9:35 at the top and 10:00 when I left Bolinas Ridge aid station (at 5 seconds per picture times 320, that's 27 minutes of idle time, no wonder why quite a few runners passed me in this section, although I was still running the uphills strong). However, I found it hard to go any faster and only managed to decrease the average pace by 3 seconds by Pan Toll. Agnès was at the Pan Toll aid station, after she participated with Alexis to the Marin Human Race 5K in the morning, supporting The World Family (the association we went to Ethiopia for last year). She had seen all the lead runners coming through, quite a long wait for her today, the typical crew life... (I was 1 hour 36 minutes behind Dave Mackey already!)

I gained 3 more seconds (average pace) on the long way down to Muir Woods Road but, still lacking energy and speed in the downhills, I got passed by two runners whom I passed again on the steep Coastal Trail along Pirate's Cove after Muir Beach.

The views of the Ocean from Coastal Trail were gorgeous and the strong breeze was refreshing. The breeze turned to a stronger wind in the afternoon and, as the clouds came back in the sky, the temperature was decreasing quickly. It must have been pretty chilly for the back of the pack after a long day on this hilly trail. Agnès was also at the last aid station, Tennessee Valley:

After Tennessee, I lost my steam in the uphill, convinced that we would climb the whole Miwok trail again. However, instead of that, we had a long down hill to go around the last hill, that was the last course change and surprise for this year. Since I was not better in the down hills anyway, I was barely relieved. One last uphill before the last mile down hill to the finish at the YMCA, I was very glad to be done with what I once thought would be an easy run. But, "Respect the course", Miwok is an animal course, you can't expect anything easy on it. I crossed the finish line in 10:17:57. My GPS indicated 61.1 miles so, as opposed to previous years, I'm indeed pretty sure that was a real 100K if not 101 kilometers. And about 11,000 feet of cumulative elevation.

Dave, who already owned the previous course record with a blazing 7:53, won today in 8:03, with Mike Wolfe taking second in 8:06:00 and Hal Koerner third 55 seconds later. What a close and phenomenal finish, I wish I could see them in the last miles! It was the perfect weather and conditions for great performances, except after racing every weekend (well, Ian Sharman still managed to finish top 10 in 9:02!). I ate 5 gels, a few potato chips and pieces of watermelon, letting Vespa handling the rest, which worked for 57 miles. One of the challenges was to properly hydrate, eat and pace myself while taking so many pictures. Without training these days, Pierre-Yves was very happy with his 10:43:59 PR. Clare was third for our team taking 11 in the women race just under 11 hours. From a club standpoint, the race was obviously dominated by Tamalpa, starting with Dave Mackey and more than 20 club members competing on their training backyard.

Amazing job from dozens of volunteers under Tia's leadership, thank you to all! At least, this time and as opposed to last week, I took the time to stop at every aid station and enjoy your great support! ;-) Thanks also go to the race sponsors, in particular: Montrail, Brooks (great finisher t-shirt!), Gu (thanks for the additional samples in the goodie bag), Zombie Runner (thanks to the fast free shipping I experienced last week for my Vespa order!), Udo's Oil (thanks for the samples and cool black beanie), Ultra Running Magazine (congrats again for the 30th birthday issue!).

Now time to take a well deserved rest. Well... Ohlone 50K is in two weeks and in the meantime, I have a business trip to Europe: 14,750 miles, 8 flights, 6 countries (Spain, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Germany), 3 trains to cross Germany, 8 client meetings/presentations, 1 speaking engagement on a cruise from Norway to Germany, flying back the day before Ohlone... Not sure we can call that resting, except that I won't run much while on the... road. Maybe to visit Stockholm next Sunday...

See you on the trails again in two weeks then!

QuickSilver 50 2011: a breeze of performances

2011-05-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

What a peak for our local ultra season! 3 races in our Grand Prix in three weeks, this is new to many but serial racers like Jason Reed. After last week's epic Ruth Anderson and next week's Miwok, this Saturday was the event organized by my new club, the QuickSilver Running Club of San Jose (my other club being the Stevens Creek Striders which I joined in 2004). With three distances: 25K, 50K and 50 miles. I will cover mainly the 50K and the 50-miler but I need to start with another event which occurred Tuesday night, and conclude with another one, The Relay, this Sunday. Ultra busy times... (If you are just visiting this post for the pictures, I posted about 280 of them in my Picasa album.)

1. 16th Annual Volunteer Recognition Banquet

A little out of the blue, but likely because I helped out with the Striders and other members of QuickSilver to clean trails at the Stevens Creek and Almaden Quicksilver County Parks, I got an invitation to attend the volunteer recognition banquet. I was expecting a limited audience and was quite surprised when I entered a room with likely more than 300 people! Furthermore, I never saw so many Park Rangers in uniform at once. It was also intimidating to be invited to a crowd made of people who gave hundreds and thousands of volunteering hours to the County, compared to a few dozens for me. Topping the list is Kitty Monahan who created the overall volunteer program and has given more than 9,500 hours of her time so far!! And counting...

I didn't know anyone in this crowd and ended up sitting at a table with one of the very special award: Junior Volunteer of the Year, presented by Senior Ranger Aniko Millan (a.k.a. Big Mama!) to her protegee, Maria Panorea Hadres. Over the past 5 years, Maria spent more than 250 hours helping out at Vesona Lake in particular, with activities ranging from volunteering at events to counting hundreds of geese!

Ranger Millan ended up receiving the Park Liaison of the Year Award for her outstanding work and results getting local middle schools to volunteer, so it was quite an honoree table. Other noticeable awards were the Church of Christ Youth Group, and the South Bay Fishing in the City group.

Anyway, quite a nice way for the County to recognize all these volunteers. As the Director of the County Parks noted, this is the least they can do when you realize that all these free hours represent a saving of more than $3 million in labor cost! And touch so many lives, people of all ages.

2. Quicksilver 50K and 50-mile races

Back to running... As I mentioned earlier, this is the major race put up by our club, the other one being a combined trail 10K and Half-marathon in the Fall. Because it was squeeze this year between Ruth Anderson 100K and Miwok 100K, one week apart, I decided to enter the 50K (am I not reasonable sometimes...?! ;-). With the start scheduled for 6 AM (and no plan for flying from Phoenix, AZ on race day this time, see last week's report!), I woke up at 2:45 to get a good breakfast before 3 AM (my 3-hour no food pre-race window). The drive was quick at that time of the day and I was the first one to reach the parking lot, which was still closed at 4:10. A few cars followed me and Race Director, Pierre-Yves Couteau, opened the gate around 4:40. Pierre's minivan was full with aid station gear and stuff and another surprise: Adrienne, Pierre's daughter, full of energy and who will help on many projects throughout the day! With a few volunteers already here we set up the registration table which was ready to operate ahead of schedule at 4:55.

300 runners kept the three port-a-potties busy and I got late in the line, getting my turn with 5 minutes to spare before the race started. I got on the starting line a few seconds before the gun, just enough to learn that Leor (Pantillat) had finally decided to join Garry (Gellin) on the 50-mile. They rushed out of the starting blocks (not far from the reality) and I took third close behind. Until, after about half a mile, my laces untied on my left shoe and I had to stop to do 4 knots this time (instead of three I had initially done). Toshi caught up with me as I was rushing again and, bummer, 100 yards later, it was the right shoe! This time 5 runners passed me and it was going to take me the next 4 miles to pass them all. With these stops, the winding single track which was probably getting my GPS to lose some of the actual mileage, my average pace was around 8:25-8:30, which was very slow for my game plan. Yet, it felt as I was running fast so I wondered if it was just some fatigue from last week's 100K. I pushed the pace going up Mine Hill, getting the average down to 8:10 or so.

At my first passage through Dam Overlook (mile 9.7), the aid station manned by my fellow Striders with a special guest again this year, Agnès, Bill indicated that I was 1 minute behind Toshi. I kept pushing up Randoll and, indeed, caught up with teammate Toshi at the Capehorn aid station (mile 14.5). As I had seen 3 runners closing on us behind, I didn't stop and rushed on Mine Hill, pushing the pace even more while going up hill and getting my average pace under 8 min/mile. I even passed a mountain biker who asked me if I was in a race... Here are the Striders on the first shift, all smiles despite the chilly and blowing wind at 6:30 AM!

For my second passage through Dam Overlook (mile 19), I did my fastest ever and Nascar or Formula 1-type of pit stop as I dropped two bottles and caught the two that Dennis had prepared for me. This helped keeping the momentum on this long way down and closing on Gary (about 2 minutes ahead of me then). I managed to get my average pace down to 7:36. I got up Mine Hill again and stopped for just a few seconds to grab one S-Cap at Dam Overlook (mile 23.7). I did run the entire uphill and was quite surprised to get passed by Chris who seemed quite easy. Chris told me he was 29 and that was his first 50K, wow! I lost sight of him before the end of the Bull Run. Another S-Cap at English Camp and I rushed down the trail for the long and rocky descent.

I saw Gary again a few minutes ahead of me, when passing under the power line on Hacienda, but had to walk part of the uphills in the killer roller coaster that the last miles represent. I was disappointed because, based on the mileage on my GPS, there was no way I could get to the finish line within the age group record I had set last year, i.e. 3:58:57. Fortunately, between keeping pushing hard on the climbs, flying in the downhills and a GPS slightly off in the first 6 miles, I sprinted and crossed the finish line in 3:56:19, for another record. And another PR and instance of my "farther faster" motto! For what it is worth since Gary, 42, had passed the 50K mark today in 3:52 on his way to complete a 50-mile, so he can easily improve this record in the coming years. But, since he was after my other record on the 50-mile, at least I was able to keep one on the chart for another year... ;-) Here is Gary at the finish of his 50-mile:

Speaking of the 50-mile, I was blown away when I heard that Leor had passed through the 50K aid station in 3:31, just one minute off the course record he set himself on 50K last year! I thought that there was little chance he could maintain this pace in the next 19 miles but he actually did, for a phenomenal performance: 6:01, breaking Chikara Omine's record set 2 years ago. Gary came in second in a no less amazing time of 6:30 for a new M40-49 course record (smashing my previous one of 6:48...!). With such blazing times, it took a while to see the next 50-mile finishers coming in in the combined flow of 25K, 50K and 50-mile runners.

Back to the 50K, I finished just 2 minutes behind Chris and took second. Toshi injured his right toe yet was still amazingly smiling despite the pain. He took fourth, missing the 4-hour mark by a mere 3 seconds... Chris, Toshi and I:

3. Quicksilver ultras event

With my hyper (or ultra...) busy life, it is rare that I spend more time hanging out at a race than running, except when volunteering of course, and not counting the travel time, but I had no hard commitments today and stayed for a total of 14 hours (from 4 am to 6 pm), including the 4 hours of racing. Which, I know, isn't much compared to the time that the volunteers put into this event, starting with Pierre-Yves. What a great community with so many abilities and passion for pushing the envelope and enjoying the outdoors. And what a perfect weather and convenient location for such a social gathering.

I spent several hours taking pictures of the runners approaching the finish line or the 50K mark for the ones continuing on the 50-mile. See my Picasa album which also includes a few pictures from Agnès at Dam Overlook. About 280 total...

The food was amazing. If Dick Collins Firetrails is renowned for its Café, I vote that Quicksilver 50 gets elected for its outstanding and best Restaurant! The food tent even included a kitchen section with a fridge and a mega portable BBQ, courtesy of "The Couple Chefs", Paul and Darcy Fick! Paul on the left, and Keith:

But it wasn't a two-people show, an amazing teamwork involving dozens of volunteers, tirelessly (well, seemingly) replenishing the buffet, cooking hundreds of hot dogs, hamburgers or ribs, filling in a dozen of ice chest with drinks and even beer, offering ice creams and delicious desserts. Again, the unmatched Quicksilver Restaurant! Even the Rangers were invited to stop by. Darcy spoiling us with her desserts...

Let's not forget the timers who worked from 9 am to 8 pm: Dave and Stan again (or I should say, always...), Kristina, Keith.

Greg at the megaphone for announcing every runner and advertizing from time to time the generous sponsors.

At the risk of missing one of them, here are a few additional volunteer first names to convey my appreciation and the one of us, running and enjoying the post-race party:

Course marking: Jim, Gene, Dan, Susan, Keith, Peter, Greg
Aid stations: Mike (the aid station Czar!), the Striders (Peggy, Peter and Peter, Bill and Bill, Dennis, Charles, Mike, Randy, Gene, Gregg, Kristin, Patrick, Claire, Liam, Isaac, Rob), Dorsey, June, Fay, Gene, Bill, Mathew, Clare, Scott, Andy, Keith, and I know I'm missing many others, especially as I barely stopped in any on of the aid stations this time, shame on me running too fast! ;-)
Course monitors: Everitt, Harris, ...
Check-in: Adrienne, Jim, Harris
QuickSilver Restaurant and Bar: Darcey, Paul, Maria, Gary, Keith, Ian, ...
Parking: Bob, Leroy, Bob, ...

And Pierre-Yves of course who was on all fronts on race day and so many weeks prior to the bid day.

Last but not least, several volunteers from the club cleaned the poison oak off the New Almaden trail for the safety of all of us (and I know a few of them got stigmas on their hand and arms from this). By the way, beyond some bruises on arms, knees or legs, the medical staff got busy with a significant casualty: Charles, from San Francisco, felt flat around mile 5 on New Almanden trail, and his hand got so severely wounded that he spent from 8 AM to 4 PM at the ER in San Jose. Here he is, with Pierre-Yves, after coming back to the finish area to pick his car. It's written on his shirt, he is not only a fighter, he is "The Fighter!"

Overall, it is one thing for a club to take on one aid station at an ultra race, but what a work it is to put up a complete event, end to end. Something to always keep in mind when participating to such events.

Again, many more pictures in my Picasa album.

4. The tail of The Relay

This Sunday morning, as a recovery run, I ran on the Stevens Creek Canyon Road, starting at the end of McClelan Road. I ran about 1.5 legs (half of the 28th and the whole steep 29th), taking pictures of the 16 runners I crossed on my way back (12.5 miles total). The temperature along the wonderful Stevens Creek was great and it's is comforting to see the Stevens Creek reservoir 100% full on this first day of May!

Check The Relay's website to learn more about this 200-mile 12-people relay from Calistoga to Santa Cruz.

5. Closing remarks

What's next? Well, you read it above, I'm in for another 100K next week and not anyone of them: the toughest on our ultra circuit, Miwok 100K. At least, with Geoff Roes and Dave Mackay at the top of the list and 10 other potential winners (see the 2011 entrants list), I have no expectation to see anything from the front of the race except at the turnaround. Unfortunately, per his blog, Tony Krupicka will not be part of this mini championship. Between the very mixed experiences I have had on this tough course and my current hyper racing mode, my main goal is to contain my excitement in the first half, pace myself so I don't suffer too much on the trip back to the beach. Oh yes, there will be a lot of fun on this gorgeous trail run but suffering is part of and assured on this hilly course!

It was great to see so many of you this weekend and take the time to chat and catchup on everyone's experiences and joys coming from trail running (you can add your own stories as comments on this post, I love hearing from you! ;-). See many of you again next week then!

Ruth Anderson 2011: DSL

2011-04-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

No, I am not going to teach you how the Digital Subscriber Line technology works, nor what Domain-Specific Languages are about. In the ultra verbiage, we have the infamous DNF (Did Not Finish), the less embarrassing DNS (Did Not Start) or even the DFL (Did Finish Last). For me, this edition of Ruth Anderson can be summarized in one new acronym: DSL for Did Start Late. Or even DSVL (Did Start Very Late)... Another and much longer title could have been "When things don't work out but you manage to make them work..." Read on...

The story actually started a couple of months ago when Agnès found a great packaged deal for a family trip to Orlando. The only glitch was that we were scheduled to fly back on Friday night, or actually landing at San Francisco Airport at 12:45 AM this Saturday morning, the same morning as the Ruth Anderson race starting at 6:30 AM... Al that on the last flight leaving Orlando and with a 35-minute connection in Phoenix, AZ. I have traveled enough (more than 1.4 million miles) to know that had little chance to work out but was still hoping to make it on time, even if it meant with a very short night. At least I had caught up with a lot of sleep deficiency with several 8 to 10-hour nights in Orlando (it helps to have teen who enjoy sleeping in during their Spring break ;-). Ironically, Agnès picked the last flight to maximize our time in Orlando but, after a week there, I must admit we were tired of the so-called amusement parks (what a crowd at this period) and had gotten too much sun burns to spend the day in the sun. So, after releasing our room, we spent the whole day in the hotel lobby, Agnes and Alex reading and me working... Something we could have well done at the airport while trying to get standby on an earlier flight. As a matter of fact, when we arrived to the airport, the agent told us right away that we had already missed our connection. The plan was quite empty because they had reassigned most of the passengers on other flights but there was no more options for us. After some negotiation though, based on my constraint to be at the starting line of a 100K race in San Francisco by 6:30 AM, the agent agreed to put us on the first flight leaving Phoenix, on another airline: 6 AM, with a scheduled arrival in SFO at 8:20 AM. The time to catch the shuttle to the ling-term parking, to get the car and drive to the start, this meant a 3-hour late start at best. We landed in Phoenix at 10:45 PM on Friday night and got to our room around midnight. With all the stress, I had trouble sleeping and got about 3 hours before waking up at 4 to be at the airport by 5 AM. The flight was 100% full this time but, luckily, the pilot got the airplane off the tarmac right on 6AM and we landed in SFO at 7:50. We ran through the airport and got at the curbside just at the shuttle was dropping a passenger. We were the only ones in the shuttle and our car was close to the entrance of the parking lot so we were quickly off to the starting line, Agnès driving, Alex as a co-pilot and me changing and preparing in the back (fortunately and wisely, just after returning from Vegas last week, I had prepared my race bag and put it in the car in case we had not enough time to drive back home before the race).

It was 8:32 AM when we got on the parking lot: I jumped out of the car, got my bib from Stan Jensen, used only two safety pins to attach it to my shorts and Rajeev's timing assistant jogged with me to the start, half a mile away, to get my "chip time". 2:07:50 after the official start. Quite a record when you realize that I was in the wrong state, on the tarmac in Phoenix, when all the runners were walking to the start... Here on my first loop, photo courtesy of Chihping (see his photo album on Facebook for more):

Ok, so, after this long introduction, I promise the rest of the race report is going to be shorter. For the first reason that there isn't much to tell about this race on a rolling course and 4.5-mile loop. The race is pretty much to cover either 7, 11 or 14 loops, depending if you go for 50K, 50 miles or 100K. And the main difficulty is mostly psychological as you can decide on the way which distance you want to stop, making it difficult for instance to go for 100K when you pass the 50-mile mark. Something I have been unable to do so far at this even for various reasons (one year I had trouble completing the 50K because of asthma, last year I decided to stop at 50-mile with a PR). At least, this year, and despite the bumpy start, I was resolute to do 100K at least for the team per Greg's assignment.

The first thing which differed from previous years is that, right off my start, I was passing runners. Usually, it takes about 2 laps to start lapping other runners but, with my 2-hour late start, all the runners were now scattered along the course. Just before getting on the parking lot, I saw a few familiar faces including Jon Olsen. It took me three laps to first catch-up with teammates Sean, Toshi, Adam. Sean was on the 100K too, Adam on the 50-mile and Toshi would end up winning the 50-mile. On the plane, I had set my goal around 8 hours, that is 7:43 min/mile pace, and promised myself not to start faster than 7:15. However, given the conditions, I had to contain myself not to run faster than 7 min/mile pace. I hold on a very steady 7:10 average for about 7 laps (about 3:07 marathon and a 3:42 50K if I recall). At the end of my next lap, a small group was looking at the turn, half-mile behind, for Joe Biden who was coming to complete the 100K distance in an astonishing 7:02 (6:48 average pace!). He was followed 10 minutes later by Jon Olsen. I caught up with Sean 2 more times. I was finishing my 11th lap and I thought he was on his last one but he had actually one more to go. Toshi joined Sean and paced him for his last lap; later on Toshi would end up pacing Jim in his last two laps, thus covering 100K total including his win of the 50-mile race! I ran most of the laps around 32-33 minutes but slowed down to 40-minute laps for the final ones. I crossed the finish line in a scratch (chip...) time of 8:05:23 which is by very far my PR at this distance given that I only ran Miwok otherwise.

Unfortunately, the official time will remain 10:13:13 in the records as this is a USATF-sanctioned event for which only the gun time counts. Anyway, I decided to run this Saturday for the points, both in the individual and team competitions. Both Chipping and Jim were injured but had committed themselves on running the 100K if the team needed it. As well as Greg who was open to keep going after the 50K if required. Fortunately, I was on time to tell them that I will cover that distance, yet we needed Jim to "shuffle" to the end as he is such an expert at it, always with a smile on his face (despite enduring knee pain in his final laps). At least I Did Start (never DNS'ed so far after 180 races including 58 ultra races), and while if DSL'ed (Did Start Last) I DFL'ed not (did not finish last), actually 4th overall on the 100K (3rd scratch time), out of about 10 finishers.

On the individual side, there was only Charles Blakeney in my age group, whom I passed 5 times during my "catching-up hunt" (a much more tiring one than this Sunday's Easter egg hunt...). I also passed Jason Reed several time who was enjoying a slower 100K after a blazing 2:49 Boston Marathon 6 days earlier and a fast Zippy 5K this Sunday. Here he is, enjoying the lentil soup on Rajeev's aid station vegetarian menu (well, he promised me it was soup... ;-):

The weather was perfect and propitious for great performances like it has been the case at Boston last Monday. About 55F throughout the day, overcast, no rain, just a breeze, it was ideal for us, runners, slightly chilly for spectators, volunteers and when we were done running. By the way, for those fearing the asphalt, I ran most of my laps on the sandy shoulder and it really alleviates most of the pounding as well as provides some variety in your foot stepping. Here is part of the team gathering around Jim just after his finish (photo credit to Jason, on Greg's camera). Notice Jim holding both his age group award plaque as well as a Guinness on the other hand. Yes, it's time to carbo load again!

The team did very well overall under our new colors (blue for the guys, magenta for the gals) and in our new Brooks shirts sponsored by The Running Revolution: one course record on the 50-mile (Clare), one overall win on the 50-mile (Toshi), a women team win on the 50K, mixed win on the 50-mile and men win on the 100K. By the way, here is a nice article on the team published in our local Almaden Times Weekly this week.

A very special thank you to Race Director, Rajeev (also a member of our QuickSilver Running Club), for keeping the low-key tradition of this event up in honor of local ultra legend Ruth Anderson. There are only two aid stations to man along the course but they remain open for more than 14 hours so a very special thank to these volunteers who gave their day up for us, in particular the ones of the South End aid station at which I stopped only once but who comforted me with the famous "Looking good!" at each of my 14 laps, even when I was not feeling as good in the last ones. Of course a unique thank you to the time keepers, Dave Combs and Stan Jensen, who cannot take any rest while collecting the 500 or more splits from 6:30 AM to 8 PM... Thanks also to the volunteers manning the food and fluid tables and Jeanette who refilled my 4th GU2O bottle.

Again, a low-key event compared to some other hard-to-get-in races such as American River, Way Too Cool or Miwok, not to mention Western States. Yet an ideal event to get exposed to ultra running in a very friendly and accessible environment. See some of you again next year then! In the meantime, yet another week of tapering before QuickSilver 50K next Saturday and Miwok 100K the following weekend. What a crazy race calendar, or let's say, great training runs every weekend... ;-). And, next times, I'll try to drive in to the start line instead of flying from out of State at the time the race starts...

PS: see also Alan Geraldi's albums on Facebook (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part III bis) for more pictures of participants (including the start which I missed...)

Walks in the Parks in Florida

2011-04-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

12 hours walking in the park, I told the family it's harder than running 50 miles! For me anyway. I feel the same about visiting museums. A few steps, stop, waiting in line, a few more steps, paying attention to the crowd not to bump in any kid running around, 20 stairs up here or down there, waiting in another line moving at 5 steps a minute... On Saturday, we spent 12 hours at Universal's Island of Adventure after getting to the hotel around 2 AM and a short night. Sounds like ultra amusement... Sunday was "rest day" so, after Palm Sunday's celebration at the nearby Shrine, I left the family at the swimming pool to run 26.4 miles.

Running in the heat felt difficult as I'm not acclimated to it yet. I had looked for a bike path to run on but couldn't find any nearby on TrailLink.com. I decided to stay in the neighborhood of our hotel, something which ended up being a perfect 5.5-mile loop for a few repeats. For those staying in Lake Buena Vista, here is what the course look like (running against traffic to avoid road crossings): 1.4 miles on SR535 from the intersection with Vineland Avenue, left on World Center (run on grass after passing Caribe Royale), left on International Drive (keep running on grass until Patterson Club Drive), then left on Vineland Avenue (concrete).

This loop will work for anyone staying at the Marriott Village (Fairfield Inn, Spring Hill Suites, Courtyard), Holiday Inn Sun Spree Resort, Sheraton Vistana Resort, Blue Heron Beach Resort, Grand Beach, Buena Vista Suites, Caribe Royale, Palazzo Del Lago and Hilton Grand Vacations (listing them all for Google's indexing).

On the second loop I ventured into the woods to get away from the traffic. Certainly got into a much quieter place although not the ideal running trails, my feet sinking into deep and fine white sand at each step. At least I was lucky not to encounter any ATV as it seemed to be their domain given the tracks in the sand. After this detour, I completed two other loops plus a 3-mile out and back to make it slightly longer than the marathon distance (1) as my last long run before this coming Saturday 100K (Ruth Anderson) and (2) thinking of all the participants to Monday's Boston Marathon.

Speaking of Boston, it must have been quite a perfect weather with such amazing times. I ran 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007 and only got bad weather once, so odd years must be better (any Boston analytics guru out there to confirm or infirm?). I can't believe the best ever time on this distance happening on this course: 2:03:02, unbelievable! Records are supposed to happen on flat courses such as Chicago, Berlin, Rotterdam. I still remember Haile Gebrselassie claiming that it will be a long time before anyone else improves his record when he had just broken 2:04 by one second in Berlin. It was less than 3 year ago, September 2008... The duel between the Ethiopians and Kenyans at this distance is just amazing. Nevertheless, Ryan Hall taking fourth overall and first American while breaking 2:05 is no less amazing.

10 more hours at Universal Studios Florida on Tuesday, and Wednesday spent at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore, for more walking in the Parks but a steady and much more comfortable pace this time. And it was wonderful to swim in the Atlantic Ocean too! Great rest, long nights and some tapering before flying back on Friday night, just a few hours before the start of Ruth Anderson 100K. If I don't miss my 35-minute connection in Denver...

PS: we missed the ultimate launch of the Space Shuttle which was scheduled for this week but got postponed to the end of the month. However, it was a delight to see half a dozen of manatees as well as one huge alligator! Worth a long walk in the park! ;-)

Alligators crossing...

American River 2011: older but faster!

2011-04-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

American River (AR) is very central to the ultra ecosystem in North California: Western States 100-mile, American River 50-mile, Jed Smith 50K and 50-mile, Rio del Lago 100-mile, Sierra Nevada Run 52-mile, Way Too Cool 50K, Helen Klein Classic 50K or 50-mile, ... Unfortunately, it doesn't always bring good memory as I had many exercise-induced asthma attacks when running in that area, and not just in the Spring, but anytime in the year. Furthermore, and because of this exercise-induced asthma, I had my first and only DNF (Did Not Finish) in the US at American River (2009) after an epic asthma incident at my first run there in 2008, forcing me to walk from mile 16 to 50, a very long day, almost 9 hours...

For this reason, and as I mentioned in my post on Way Too Cool a month ago, today was a big test to confirm that SingulAir was working for me. I didn't have any attack since I'm taking it consistently (daily) since beginning of 2010. I still feel some irritation at the bottom of my lungs after tough races, but no bothering during the races anymore. And it certainly helps to run on two working lungs (that makes me think often of Tom Kaisersatt who suffered so much from the deterioration of his lungs, and I wear the LIVESTRONG bracelet in his memory).

After a hectic week and quite some sleep deprivation (4 hours on Tuesday night, 3 hours on Wednesday night, less than 6 hours last night but fortunately 8.5 hours on Thursday), and quite some stress juggling with so many activities, I didn't have much of a race plan, even barely a plan to get to the start on Wednesday. Thankfully, Agnès had no commitments this Saturday so she offered to give-up her day to drive and crew for me, that made a huge difference. And, incidentally, get you some pictures of the front runners as she covered 7 spots on the course, including start and finish (her own ultra... especially at the pace we were moving...). We left Cupertino at 3 AM.

It was 40F at the start at 6AM and quite dark. The start was further from the bridge than usual to accommodate the 800+ runners, a record for this race (because of the cancellation of Lake Sonoma last week, Race Director, Julie Fingar, accepted to take about 75 of the Lake Sonoma registrants). Despite the size of the crowd, it was quite easy to get to the front (a few familiar faces there but a few unknown ones too, apparently from Colorado, so it promised to be fast again this year, especially with the presence of Tamalpa's elite Dave MacKey).

I settled on a 7 min/mile pace. Teammate Toshi passed me and stayed ahead by a few hundred yards. Based on their advice at my first Miwok ("don't pass us!") I made sure to stay behind Erik Skaden and his running buddy, Mark Lantz (they are much faster than me anyway, so it's indeed a great advice to force to pace myself. Erik has 5 top-5 finishes at Western States out of 6 runs, including finishing second twice so I've always been very impressed by his athletic ability in ultra). However, after the fist mile, Erik left this group and got closer to Toshi, while I was feeling good and imperceptibly pushing the pace, stabilizing it around 6:50 with Toshi, Erik and Michael Fink in sight. The temperature was cool but the sky clear except for a few spectacular and gorgeous foggy areas over the American River, beautifully captured by Agnès:

6:50 seemed a comfortable pace and, unfortunately, that was Erik's pace today, slower than usual for him. I was running 6:40 when I got the asthma attack in 2008 so I didn't want to take the risk to push into the red zone. I say unfortunately because, at mile 15, as we were passed by another runner, Erik shared his frustration of feeling me on his heels and asked me to accelerate to follow the other runner. With so much insistence that, as I was reminding him of his advice above, he stopped to force me to run ahead of him, then followed me so closely that his hand hit my elbow 5 times. Quite an explicit and unorthodox way to pass the message....

Anyway, at the next aid station, Erik didn't stop and passed both of us. After that I made sure to keep even more distance for the next 15 miles before Erik disappeared. At this point (mile 31), IAU World 2010 100K champion, Kami Semick, passed me like she was sprinting to the finish (7:10 min/mile pace average at that time). It took only a few seconds for me to get passed by Ellie Greenwood, from Canada. I followed them for about a quarter of a mile, enough to see Ellie passing Kami. Very impressive head of the women competition, Ellie would finish first in a blazing 6:25 (not quite yet the 6:03 Course Record Ann Transon set in 1993), and almost 9 minutes ahead of Kami. Here is Norm Klein (a legendary ultra race director), interviewing Ellie at the finish:

From this point (50K mark), I had slowed down significantly to a 7:18 average pace and this would grow to 8:00 at the bottom of the last hill. I started walking some of the rocky sections, hoping the cramp which was nagging since mile 15 or so in my right calf would not trigger. As I was leaving Rattle Snake Bar (mile 41), I heard a lot of noise so it meant at least a runner was closing on me. A couple of miles later, in a switch back, I saw Mark Murray and another runner whom I took for Craig Thornley (but Mark told me at the finish that it was his pacer), two Masters. Mark ran Way Too Cool 5 minutes faster than me, so I thought I was doomed again, especially as he trains on this course (with Erik and Mark in particular), so he knows it much better than I do (I only race on this trail). However, I decided to push the pace to delay his passing. My pace was 7:53 after the hill I walked right after Rattle Snake Bar and I just lost a few seconds in the next 6 miles, skipping the Manhattan Bar aid station. No sign of Mark behind at the bottom of the 3.5 mile hill (or wall should I say when you look at the course profile, although this is a bit dispropotionate as the final elevation is only 1,200 feet), and kept pushing, alternating jogging and walking, while also skipping Last Gasp.

I was wearing bib #14 and ended up finishing 12th overall in 6:47:53, good enough for 3rd Masters, the first time I place in my age group at this race, and a PR by more than 10 minutes after last year's 6:58. Of course it helped that Victor Ballesteros wasn't here as he focused on the US 100K road championship, Mark Lantz had an issue with his ankle, Rob Evans wasn't running (6:42 last year), Gary Gellin focused is resting between two superb performance in March and the upcoming QuickSilver 50-mile, or even that Erik is only turning 40 next year (he will dominate our age group then). But I had to dig deep after this tiring week and lay down for 15 minutes at the finish to recover.

As he is so used to it, Dave MacKey took first overall in 5:51, at age 41 (on Zinsli, you can see all of Dave's races in California with 17 first place and 4 second, that's it, a model of consistency and domination...)! Another Canadian, Jason Loutitt of Vancouver, finished right under 6 hours with 4 seconds to spare, for a ticket to Western States thanks to the Montrail sponsorship. All results are already posted on the Capital Road Race Management website, and will soon be also on UltraSignup. After 13 hours, there were 600 finishers posted in this report. Here are Dave MacKey (#3) and Ian Sherman of San Jose who took fourth overall.

For our QuickSilver Ultra Running Team (QSURT), Toshi finished in 7:01, Eric Toschi 7:11, Sean 7:48, Adam and Clare in 8:20, Keith 8:27, Adona 8:34, Miki 8:49, Jim 10:09, Susan/Susie 10:36. Here with Toshi and Sean:

A big thank you to Julie for a very professional organization and pushing the envelope to take as many runners as possible on such a course. And to all the volunteers, with my apologies especially for the last aid stations where I didn't stop, or the ones in the 30-40 mile section where I was not feeling good enough to smile and say thank you (sorry...). A big thank you to Agnès for crewing like in the good old times and taking the pictures you'll find in the Picasa album.

I'm leaving the house at 5 AM this Sunday morning for another hectic week, this time in Vegas (Impact conference), then a family trip on the East Coast for a week. If we are lucky with our connections, we'll land at SFO at 12:30 AM the Saturday of Ruth Anderson (50-mile or 100K), so that's going to be another short night... Again, if we don't miss our 30-minute connection on the way back... Was great to see many of you at American River, hope to see some of you (albeit probably less) at Ruth Anderson in 2 weeks then!

QSURT: off to a great 2011!

2011-04-04T02:14:00.000-07:00

A quick post as I ran 50 miles this weekend, blogged about yet another busy week at my first job and caught up with work the rest of the weekend... Yet, a good running week with quite a few miles added to my log, either 92 miles (Sunday-Saturday) or 78 miles (Monday-Sunday) depending on when the week is starting for you. ;-)

On Tuesday night, we finally had our team top try-out meeting at our new sponsor, The Running Revolution, a very professional running store in Campbell, very close to the Los Gatos Creek trail. The Running Revolution and its owners, Tim, Heidi and Chris, join our 2010 sponsors, Rhomobile and its CEO and team member, Adam Blum, and the Quick Silver Running Club of San Jose.

With this additional support and publicity, with our successful first two years in the PA USATF Grand Prix and both wins in 2009 and 2010, with the renewed energy under Greg Lanctot's leadership, new members keep joining and growing the ranks of our 2011 Quick Silver Ultra Running Team (QSURT) and you will see many of us on the trails this year! I think the last count is 22, from a mere 9 in 2009. (Photo courtesy of Toshi and Tim.)

Among the QSURT members, Pierre-Yves Couteau has a very special role and responsibility: directing the QuickSilver ultras (50-mile, 50K and 25K), a major event for the club, held on April 30 this year. In addition to the Race Director duties, Pierre-Yves even organized an informal training run this Saturday. I actually joined Sean, Toshi and Larry for an early start from the McAbee Road entrance at 6:30 and we had already ran 7.5 miles when we joined the rest of the group at the Mockingbird Hill parking lot.

There were about 30 of us for the group run, some going for 7 miles, the others for the 25K loop. After my early birds companions returned to their car or bike at the end of new Almaden Trail, I led the 25K group and shared some of my experience of these races.

Matthew and Sean wanted to put more miles in, and Dan needed a ride back, so we went on, taking the 50-mile route up to English Camp before running up to Bull Run on Mine Hill. On the ridge, Matt and Sean returned to Mockingbird via Castillero Trail while Dan and I ran down Mine Hill Trail, back to McAbee Road. That made almost 32 miles for me and some good hill training, right on 5 hours of running time.

See my Picasa album for pictures of the participants of this informal run. It was cloudy most of the morning with a nice temperature when running (on the cool side when stopping to gather the group).

On Sunday, I would have run up to Black Mountain but didn't have enough time so ran 18.6 flat miles in the neighborhood in 2:20. Good enough for 50 miles this weekend before tapering this week in preparation of American River 50-mile next Saturday.

See many of you up there and have a great week in the meantime. The tip of the week: Taper In Peace... ;-)

20,000 miles in Brooks, and counting...

2011-03-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, I passed another big milestone: 20,000 miles of running in Brooks shoes. I remember the 10,000-mile-in-Brooks milestone like it was yesterday, although it was 230 posts away, and 3 years ago. My 3rd post actually and the one which triggered my application to the Brooks Inspire Daily program. Did I put the 20,000 miles on the road map and my to do list after that? Not really but now, I'm thinking I may well aim at 30,000 miles if nature, health and God allow... Now, it took me 8 years for the first 10,000 miles, 4 years for the next 10,000 but do not expect the next ones to take only 2 years. This is only my second job...!

To celebrate, I used a pair of Trance as I had a total of 9,996 miles in this model. Not just one pair of course, but 10, from the original and first model, to the Trance 8. I was an unconditional of this product line when I first picked Brooks but moved to much lighter shoes after having read so many good things about barefoot running. Here is the spread of all these miles across the various models I've used since I felt in love with the Brooks brand in March 1999:

After reading Greg's first post on Saturday, I must say he is dead on: how lucky are we to be able to run so many miles and enjoying the outdoors, especially in the Bay Area, or compete and test our limits in races put up my so dedicated race directors and volunteers, not to mention the support of our relatives (see the video I included in last week's post for some sarcastic humor about this). This morning, I felt lucky indeed because, running long distances, I was able to run further than The Strip in Vegas. Running in Vegas is not really fun because you keep crossing roads at huge intersections. Or slaloming through the crowd later in the day... Or going though inhospitable neighborhoods... Agnès and I were in Vegas this weekend after winning a nice package at a fund raising event and I will actually be back at the Venitian in two weeks for IBM's huge celebration of SOA, BPM, Decision Management and other connectivity and application integration technologies, Impact 2011 (#impact). At the end of the week, a group of runners goes for a very early run at Red Rock Canyon. They rent a bus but I wanted to see what it would take to go there from the hotel and ended up running to the entrance of the park and back to the Venitian, for a total of 32.5 miles or 52 kilometers, just under 4 hours (3:55). Slightly uphill through Vegas going West toward the canyon, and rather boring along the 10 straight miles of West Spring Mountain Road, but I now plan on running to the start of the group run (half marathon warm-up) and take the shuttle only for the way back, to be on time for the conference. Another short night in perspective with a 4 AM wake-up call... If you are reading this post, if you will be at Impact, if you like to run and have not received Kramer's invite, contact me!

Back to the hotel, we had a romantic gondola ride on the amazing artificial canal at the Venitian and, after this ultra on 3 GU gels and 2 bottles of water, I was starving for an ice cream!

We also had a short visit from Diane, my ex-assistant at ILOG when I arrived to the US, who know lives in Las Vegas and was at the origin of this package from the Sands Foundation. It was great to see the three of you, Diane, Joe and James!

A perfect Italian day before flying back to the Bay Area which is still under the rain. A total of 87 miles this week, mostly flat and mostly under the rain, except for today's run in Las Vegas where the temperature was 65F this morning.

Arrivederci and have a good week!