July 16-29

Weeks: 6 days. 97 mi. Not a lot of days spent running during this 2 week stretch, but I took a 2000+ mile road trip/vacation, tapered a bit, and nursed a nagging hip flexor injury so that I could race twice. By some certain grace, the hip pain is gone despite running the Tahoe Rim Trail 50k on July 21 and the White River 50mi on July 28th...

July 28: White River 50mi. 8700ft elevation gain. 9:18.38. 35th place. I reserved judgement on running this race until the day prior. On the heels of Tahoe, it seemed like a good training run for Wasatach, but I developed a cold AND I was a little uncertain about the recovery of my legs etc.. All turned out OK. A conservative first climb answered most questions about my fitness and I was anxious to push a little harder by our turn around at the second aide station (around 3hrs). All day, running downhill was the roughest on my recovering legs. Adding insult to subtle unstableness, I was stung by a yellowjacket smack on my lower lip near the 4:30/25mi mark!

Note the swollen lower lip!

I was only about 15-20 min from the next aide station when this happened, so I was able to get a Benedril and to spend about 5-8 minutes monitoring for any more serious reactions. It had been a long while since I was last stung.

I moved on from this point with hyper-awareness of my breathing etc. for about the next hour. At the Fawn Ridge aide station I took some ice and held it to my lip for the first 10 minutes of the hike/run to Sun Top. Around the 6 hour mark, I was feeling pretty beat, but somewhere around mile 40 (halfway down from our second "summit" at Sun Top aide station) I got a second wind. The sting was no longer a worry and I was also excited to be thinking about single digits again!

The last 10 miles felt really good. I regained some ground that was lost by my daylong pedestrian pace on the downhills, and passed 8-10 people in this final stretch. Calorie management experiments on the day were also a decent success with a combination of Hammer Gels, Gu, Gu20, Cliff Bars, Cliff Blocks, PBJ's and the Succeed Clip II drinks which I started at around 3 hours. A reminder: Hammer Gels seemed a little less sweet than GU. Gu2O was tasting GREAT in the final 6 miles, and the Succeed was MUCH better when adding some ice. It was otherwise bearable, and didn't give me any stomach problems -- although this was only a 9 hour effort. I'll be going slower and eating more real food early on I hope at Wasatch...

July 21: Tahoe Rim Trail 50k. 6895ft elevation gain. 5:20.51. 5th place. Pretty clear right from the start that I wasn't going out with the leaders. I settled in to what looked like 5th-8th place (uncertain about the mix of 50k/50milers ahead of me) and tried to find a pace that would agree with the altitude. 20 miles of the race were run above 8000ft and I was definitely NOT used to that. I intended to push myself, but also wanted a solid 30+ mile run at some altitude more than anything else.

Minor discomforts aside, said altitude provided AMAZING views of Lake Tahoe from both Marlette Peak and Snow Valley. It was far and away the most scenic 5ok that I have ever done.

I ran mostly by myself amidst a sea of 100 milers that had started 1 hour prior and shared the first 18 miles of our course. This was especially fun on the Red House Loop as we chatted some and shared in similar misery on the sandy climb out of the loop. In that last 1o-12 miles I was very aware that the eventual women's winner was just behind, and this definitely spurred me on in the final miles. Despite many electrolyte caps, I fought cramping in my upper quads the final 8 miles. Still, any real biting cramps were held off until after the finish. I will certainly use these caps in all future runs/races of 2hrs plus... Where have you been in the marathon race plans!!?

Not a great, full service-report, I know, but I should get to work on other things. Below is a shot of fellow Carleton College friends (92'-95') and race participants. Fellahs reuniounaj NO. 9 is done and gone. See you in Minnesota for 2008!