RED HOT

ran the red hot 55km this weekend: Good Fun. I had a good race . . . quick stats: 14th, 5:00.27 . . . ran well most of the day, although I never felt like I was running at 100%. Not sure what was going on, but my feet never seemed to be in the mood for the day (wondering in retrospect if I had simply tied my shoes too tight and my feet were a little bit asleep or at least cramped at the midfoot). After a relatively patient (too patient?) start, I moved through the pack pretty well until about mile 29 when I got lost for a minute or so and as I got back on the trail was passed by the person who eventually finished in 13th -- I was not able to respond at this point and was glad to simply keep him close for the remainder of the race as we worked through some slower runners from the 33km race as well as maybe 1 or 2 more runners from the 55km. My inability to respond was a bummer; however, the fact that I kept moving despite some negative mental and physical moments in the last few miles made me feel pretty good about the day in general . . . I am also glad to see that I seem to still have some speed in my legs and believe that if I ever want to give a sub-24 Wasatch another shot it isn't the speed issue that is keeping me from pulling it off. I simply need to learn how to run stronger for longer and to keep my wits and focus about me during long term suffering . . .

As far as the course goes, one of the coolest parts of the race was a series of quick up-downs on the slickrock around I'm guessing mile 27 or 28 where you could just fly downhill then crank up the next rise . . . the first part of the race had a little too much dirt road for my liking, but the technical sections later on made up for these early miles. And the excellent post-race spread definitely helped make this a race worth doing again sometime in the future: here, here to race directors that make the whole weekend a positive experience!

Oh, yeah, and I made it home in time for some good turns to still be had in the Wasatch before the sun totally baked the snow this afternoon!

first race of the season

Moab 55km+ (and yeah, I am throwin all the little kms into the measurement) is less than a week ahead and I am not sure what kind of race shape I am really in at this point . . . I have put in a couple/three 30 mile runs so far this year and my weekly average has been just a tad over 60 miles/week so far this year but the speed and strength don't seem to be there yet. I would like to run this race pretty much as hard as I can, since the only other race until Western States currently on my schedule is Squaw Peak and that looks to be more of a training run than a real race considering its place on the calendar (only 3 weeks before WS) . . . the weather may be as big a factor as anything else in this journey down to the desert -- rain/snow seems to be highlighting the upcoming week's pattern.

Anyhow, part of my reason for writing tonite is the icky feeling I got reading through some of the blogs about who did/did not get into Hardrock (more specifically comments made by readers). I am worried that the sport of ultrarunning is losing some of its innocence. I don't mean this as a knock on the elites or any other group I have actually run into on the trails, it is directed mostly at odd comments/commenters I have seen from time to time on race feeds or blog-comment sections. The first time I noticed a sort of nastiness directed at runners was during the Western States chatter last year when there were these anti-runner comments made by people sitting in their living rooms . . . maybe they were cheering on another runner but the number of negative comments directed at some of the runners surprised the hell out of me. One of the great things about ultrarunning's underground status has been the fact that the sport generally avoids the negative aspects of competitive sports better than most other sports but lately I feel like there are strange sounds on the outskirts of the sport . . . to be honest my guess is that this noise comes mostly from people who have never experienced a 100 mile race (if they have run any ultras at all) but it's just strange to see it out there at all -- if I was smarter/more disciplined I would simply avoid all the internet chatter and that would probably make me blissfully unaware . . .

Back to running -- I am tired of the ice. Generally I enjoy winter running, but a couple of runs in the past week or two have tested my resolve to enjoy slipping and sliding all over the place -- a half mile descent down an ice skating rink this morning may be the main reason for this sudden frustration . . . a half mile descent I could have avoided by using a little more common sense in choosing trailheads . . .