Has it been that long.....

.......since I've posted a blog?  Yes it has and that's because I just haven't done anything all that interesting in the running world.  I guess I could go off on a food rant again.  Or maybe a political rant of some nature.  Except I'd just get lost in my own thoughts and ending up with a winding map between gibberish, nonsense, and ridiculousness.  So I'll write a little bit about some of the pseudo running activities I've participated in.  And since I am finishing this post weeks after I started, I'll be morphing it into a year in review for the one or two fans who actually look forward to reading this.

     Probably the most fun I had racing all year was in the Bellingham Thanksgiving World Championship.  This is a loosely organized "race" put on by local runner/rider Jake Hartsoch.  This year was the third year of the event and the biggest by far.  Over 50 runners headed to Cornwall Park on Thanksgiving morning to run 3 loops of the loop of just over a mile.  Costumes and crazy clothes were encouraged, or no clothes.  Only this race was probably one of the best fields assembled in Bellingham.  Racers included 5k pr's of ~13:30, 14:10, 14:24, 14:57 and a whole slew of 15 minute guys.  I won this race in the inaugural year, 2009 and owned the course record although I'm not sure what it was.  Last year the course was covered in 4-6 inches of snow, which made for a lot of fun, but slow times.  Fun being the most important aspect, it was an overwhelming success.  This year, we decided to do something different.  Since the race is secondary to the celebration of running, the fast guys, or the "Thirsty Turkey Division" decided to add some adult beverages to the race.   Seven brave souls would be drinking a 16 ounce cheap beer, Ranier, High Life, or PBR inbetween the laps.  I may have gotten a little too excited for this and opted for the magnums instead of the 12 ouncers.  Either way, it was a ton of fun.  RB Wick, would win the championships, while my coach and local legend Sam Alexander narrowly edged me out for the Thirsty Turkey win.  Check out Joel Gillman's blog report here for some more details: http://jdawgsrunningblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/thanksgiving-cross-country-world-championship/
 
     I returned to the Seattle Marathon this year, except this time I wouldn't be running.  I was there to watch my girlfriend run the 5k and then to help out at the Saucony booth for the marathon Expo.  It was disappointing to not be running, or be able to run really.  Especially since it was a Saucony sponsored race.  It would have been great to go out there and compete for the win with my Hurricane gear on.  But it wasn't meant to be.  I struggled with little issues since the 50k.  Instead, I had a great time hanging out with Peter Heenan, the local Saucony tech rep, along with the guys and girls from Super Jock'N'Jill answering people's questions about Saucony footwear and helping with try ons.  The new 8mm drop Triumph 9 was pretty popular as well as the Cortana.  There was also a lot of interest in the Hattori even if not a lot of people were running in them.  But it was a pretty good turnout and a fun time.

     In December I made my first ever trip to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland.  It was a ton of walking around, but 75 and sunny in December was a new experience for me.  I didn't take of advantage of it for running because I must have walked a million miles that weekend, and the whole damn place is concrete, but it was still a nice trip.  My personal favorite was Space Mountain.  Pretty cool stuff.  I rode it 8 times that weekend.  It was fun thinking of creative faces to make as you passed by the camera.  Sleeping faces was probably my favorite.

   














The following weekend, I went back to the second happiest place on earth, Las Vegas.  This time we went with back up.  We stayed in the Flamingo and it was me and my girlfriend and two of our runner friends, Jordan Welling and Jason Gulley.  What a great trip.  Jordan found out about the $5 deal.  A Four Loko and a bag of chips was just under $5.  Jason had his first Four Loko ever.  The Dealertainers at the Imperial Palace were awesome.  We also saw Absinthe, which is an amazing show.  So funny and well worth the cost of admission.  A trip to the Hoffbrau is also a must, so you can get a shot and a spanking, but we were disappointed with Das Boot.  The plastic one was really lame and the glass one was too damn expensive.  We also failed to do our Vegas Strip Beer Mile.  Maybe next time.  And you should have seen all the attention Jordan got from wearing his grandpa's Budweiser Sport Coat.  So amazing.  The only down side to the trip was staying just one day too long.  Three days is definitely enough.

    After Las Vegas, I had Saucony Hurricane event at Klicks.  We did a Solstice Run, which may or may not have been on the actual solstice.  I never really went through the trouble of finding out whether it was on Wednesday or Thrusday.  Anyway, our event was on Thursday and it was a great success.  Peter Heenan came up from Seattle with size runs of 4 different models of shoes for people to try on and do extended runs in.  He also had all kinds of freebies to give away.  Great Harvest Bread and Chuckanut Brewery helped out with some deals on beer and bread.  I made a totally yummy vegetable soup.  And 30+ great people showed up to tour some Bellingham Christmas lights, celebrate the end of the shortening days, enjoy the company of other runners, and have a good time.  We had a lot of people try some of the Saucony shoes.  We had the Cortana, Triumph, Kinvara, and the not even released Peregrine 2's.  I could have planned the route just a little better but I think everybody had a pretty good time.

     All in all, 2012 was pretty good.  After missing a full year of running, I was able to come back.  It was a slow return to form, and not without setbacks, a lot of frustration, and some hard times, but I had great help.  Carolyn Watson at Core Kinetics Pilates was great.  Steve Noble and Noble Chiropractic was also instrumental in helping me regain my health.  And I had some good success despite limited racing, and somewhat limited training.  I ran a pretty fast 5k on the track.  I had a great time running the Lake Padden Relay and winning with a last minute team and crushing my Padden Loop personal record.  Winning the Baker Lake 50k was great and such a new and different experience for me.  I would have like to race a few more times, but I think 2012 should be great.

35 Months

35 months.  That is the deal I made with my coach about when I'll run my next marathon.  That puts me at an October 2104 marathon, probably Chicago.  And that is perfectly fine with me.  I love the marathon.  I loved the 50k.  Unfortunately, they didn't love me back.  They beat the crap out of me more or less.  But now I know, and in the words of G.I Joe, "knowing is half the battle."  What exactly do I know?  I know what it will take to be able to run a great marathon, one that will have to wait until 2014.  Running is sometimes about patience.
I know some people would argue with me about mileage, and pounding, and the physical limits of the body, and I'd be happy to argue all day long.  But I don't think the best way to prepare for a marathon is to beat your head into a wall running lots of long intervals, threshold runs, and mileage.  Speed can't be ignored, and it is ok to race sparingly at that distance, or step away totally, but still make strides towards improving at the marathon distance.
I ask you this, if I had you chose between two runners running the marathon, and one had a 14:30 5k pr, and the other had a 15:00 5k pr, who would you pick?  If you're smart, you'd pick the faster 5k runner.  This isn't a trick question.  In all likelihood, the faster 5ker will run faster at the marathon 9 times out of 10.  Speed is speed and you can only stretch the rules of physiology so much.  There may be the occasional freak who skews the lines a bit.  Heck, I picked the marathon because I thought I was that guy.  It's the most "trainable" and work is every bit as important as "talent" but I found out two things.
I was never going to run a fast marathon with the type of 5k I could run.  And I was also a heck of a lot more talented that I thought I was.  In the grand scheme of things, I'm a blip on the running radar.  But I thought it would take years of perfect training to crack the 15 minute barrier.  It took one year, and it seemed easy.  And I thought I could run the old Olympic Trials B standard (before they took three minutes from me) with that PR. Jack Daniels and some others would beg to differ.  Boy was I wrong.
So I figured I'd spend my time focusing on the 5k (thanks to the wisdom of the legendary Sam Alexander) because it is a heck of a lot easier to train for, the results aren't misleading, and it probably is the best way to improve my marathon in the long run.  And it just kills me when people train for a marathon and think mileage is the most important aspect.  Its not.  And you can do long intervals until you keel over and die, and it will only get you so far.  But at some point you have to be fast to run fast.  And if you have a shit 5k, you can't expect to run all that fast at 10k, 1/2 marathon, marathon, and even a friggin 50k.  Just wait until there is enough money in ultras and the Africans start running.  You'll see how it works.
And you better believe any of the truly elite marathoners can run a friggin fantastic 5k at any given time.  And you can be sure that they are running some fast intervals in practice.  So for the next 35 months, I'll be training for a 2:19 marathon, by training for a fast 5k and a big pr, and a fast 10k, and I even plan on setting a PR in the 1500.  And lets not forget the steeple chase.  I better throw one of those in there for fun.

Sam Told Me So.

Last weekend, I ran my first 50k.  Baker Lake 50k to be exact.  And I'll go ahead and say it first.  Sam was right!  50k was tough, and I don't want to do another for a long time.  It was a miserable final 5 miles.  I felt terrible for about two hours afterwards, then I just felt bad the rest of the day.  I had no business out there.  I was fit enough to compete and finish, but I hadn't trained well enough to not be wrecked afterward.  But, I won.  And I crushed the course record by over 15 minutes.  And the crazy part is that it was a close win.  1:21 over the course of a four hour race is a pretty close gap.  So here goes the details:
My alarm goes off at 4:30 which sucks.  Its never easy to get up that early.  I didn't have any sleep issues for this race.  The excitement was there but the attitude was so different.  I opted for a small bowl of oatmeal since I was still outside of the 3 hour window for no food.  I actually had my stuff already set out so all I had to do was throw it into my bag before leaving.  I did double check that I put my shoes into the car about 7 times.  That's a mistake you don't want to make.  Recovery slippers will NOT work on a trail ultra. So once I was sure I had my gear, including all my nutritional items, we were off to pick up Carolyn Watson, body genius, and soon to be our neighbor at the store (Core Kinetics Pilates).
With both runners on board, and my wonderful girlfriend doing the early morning driving duties, we were set to make the trip east to Baker Lake.  As night gave way to day, we could tell that it would be cloudy and cool, exactly what the forecast had said, but then again, how hard is it to forecast our fall weather.  Cloudy and cool with a chance of rain right?  But for me, it doesn't get any better than the mist and fog snaking its way in and around the hills and trees, just like the picture at the top of this blog, which is an earlier picture from Baker Lake trail.
We arrived right as the early starters were getting ready to leave.  It's always a little nervous when they were giving start instructions even though I knew I wasn't supposed to start with them.  I got checked in and after a quick trip to the bathroom (also the warmest place at the start) I started mixing up my nutrition.  I decided to go with two ten ounce bottles with Perpetuem, and two full bottles for the return trip if necessary.  I also had some Perpetuem chews and some Montana Huckleberry Hammer Gel along with one chocolate GU.  My plan was to use primarily fluids and swap out bottles at the turnaround, and possibly grab additional gels.  I set my countdown timer to repeat every 15 minutes to remind me to fuel.  It also helped break up the time on the trail.
As usual, I had plenty of extra time at the start, and with it being a 31 mile race, warm up was minimal so I found myself with too much time and getting nervous.  The Gulley's and Sam arrived about 20 minutes before the start to help distract me from the effort to come.  And soon enough it was time to line up for the beginning of the race.

I wasn't really worried about the outcome of the race.  If I didn't have nutrition problems, I knew finishing wouldn't be a big deal.  And I assumed that my 31 miles at moderate effort would be faster than everybody else's moderate effort (no offense to Dusty or Justin if they read this).  I just knew my goal time was far faster than the previous winner (4:17) or the course record holder for that matter (4:13).  I was hoping for a sub 4 hour showing.

From the sound of the gun, it was a three man race.  Myself, Justin the previous years winner, and Dusty.  Little did I know that Dusty was a 1:51 college half miler (and only 24 years old).  We introduced ourselves on our easy run up the road to the trail head.  Justin and I did quite a bit of talking on the way out while Dusty stayed more reserved just behind us.  The trip out went pretty smooth and was pretty uneventful.  Dusty stopped to relieve himself but caught back up just a couple minutes later.  We passed a handful of the early starters.  Most were pretty alert and offered words of encouragement.  A couple had headphones.  One guy couldn't hear our second warning, a near shout and we were forced to skim by him on the tight trails.  Seriously.  You're on a narrow single track trail, and you know you'll eventually get passed.  Turn down the music so that you can hear something.

We sauntered out to the turnaround in just over 2 hours, 2:01:xx by my watch.  We each went to our drop bags to adjust our nutrition.  I was tempted to just start running again since I didn't even go through half of my liquids and I had plenty of back up gel left, but I opted to get my two fresh bottles just in case.  I was the first back onto the trail, with Dusty right behind me and Justin following pretty close.  I had one bottle escape its holster and I had to stop and pick it up.  I immediately picked up the pace.  I wanted to put some pressure on the other two runners to see what would happen.
Dusty and I lost Justin pretty quick.  I guess he dropped a gel which he stopped to pick up and the gap was there for good.  I sensed a little bit of a gap forming between Dusty and myself so I kept at it.  I ran aggressive but not crazy.  Every time I checked behind me, Dusty was there.  Sometimes close and sometimes a little further back.  I thought about easing off the pace to work with him but I just couldn't tell if he was on the verge of breaking or not.  So I keep up my constant effort hoping for the best.  As the number of people we passed face to face dwindled, and things got quieter, I had to focus more and more.  I kept checking for Dusty, who at this point, seemed to be falling just slightly further behind each time I checked.
I probably passed my last outgoing runner with somewhere near 8 or 9 miles left to run.  I was still feeling pretty good although my right hip/groin region was starting to give me some feedback.  Hills didn't feel great.  My belt grew so very annoying.  I just couldn't get it situated.  My right shoe was feeling pretty tight and I had to pee.  Decision time.
I was still worried that Dusty wasn't that far behind.  He wasn't necessarily hurting or fading, I was just holding a slightly (very slight) faster pace.  So first things first.  My first experiment with urinating while running.  I'm not down with going right in my shorts so I tried the obvious.  Pull down the waistband, aim relatively forward, and just slow down a little.  The "stream" was only "on" while my legs were close to parallel.  When one leg or other was forward, the flow was cut off.  After about 40 seconds of running with the sprinkler on and off, I was finished, mostly dry, and feeling so much better.
My next issue was the shoelace.  I wasn't going to stop and retie it.  I was gloved which isn't a big deal.  But my knots were pulled incredibly tight.  My only complaint about the Saucony Peregrines are the laces.  They just don't like to stay tied unless you really wrench on them.  Well, I did, and they stayed tied, but as my feet began to really swell it was plenty uncomfortable.  I just had to deal with it.
After several miles without seeing anybody coming the opposite direction, or seeing Dusty behind me, the mental battle set in.  I'm tired, I'm hurting, my groin feels like its going to tear apart.  And yes, its the same area where my year long Seattle injury bothered me.  But since it was an out and back, I had to just keep going.  Walking up hills didn't help.  I tried for about 10 seconds and abandoned that idea when I was slower and it wasn't any less painful.  My thoughts rotated between the pain in my groin, the pain in my foot, and my stomach which was feeling increasingly worse.  The damn hydration belt didn't help.  It never felt comfortable and kept annoying me the whole way.  I almost wish I did the small handheld.  And over the last handful of miles I just kept waiting for the one tree turned bridge that I knew was close to the end of the trail.  It never seemed to come.  As fast as the first half of the race flew by, the last 30 minutes absolutely crawled.  It felt like hours.  I kept heading around one bend hoping for the bridge only to see more and more and more trail.
When I did finally hit the bridge, I slipped getting off of the log and banged my knee on a rock.  Not enough to do any damage, but enough to hurt and make a feeble mind worry.  But I kept trucking along, just hoping that Dusty had self destructed or at least was hurting nearly as much as I was.  I finally did make it to the end  of the trail and out onto the gravel road for the final 1+ mile.  I thought I would be home free since it is a nice gradual downhill, but at that point the legs were fried.  Just running was hard enough.  Running fast on a downhill seemed absurd.  I just couldn't do it.  My stomach was feeling worse and worse so I ditched the belt knowing that somebody could drive back up and get it.  I finally rounded the last corner and hit the pavement and the dam and what a great site that was.

It may as well have been the Hoover Dam though, because it felt like several miles.  Sam and Jason were at the far end to cheer me on.  While they were shouting encouragement and telling me I looked good, I was just trying not to cry.  I can't explain why the long races get me emotional like that, but I was.  No tears as I passed them and as I finished, but it was close.  I probably made it two steps across the line before crouching down and I would have laid down right there if it weren't rainy and wet.  I looked and felt awful.  But I finished in 3:57:28, a new course record!

The race director and friends were trying to get me food or fluids and the magic word was soda.  The only thing that sounded good was a cola.  I grabbed a root beer and drank some.  And only 1:21 behind me, Dusty comes rambling to the finish looking pretty good.  I wasn't all that surprised and I was very happy I didn't take a bathroom break or stop to tie my shoe.  It may have been the difference in the race.  I staggered over to the car and grabbed my clean and warm gear and disappeared into the bathroom.  I did the wash cloth shower in the heated bathroom that even had warm water from the faucet.  Amazing.  I got out of my wet race clothes and into my Saucony Amp Pro recovery tights and warm tops.  Shameless product plug:  The Amp Pro gear is AMAZING.  It feels better right from the time you put it on.  I'm totally sold on the stuff and I'll continue to use it.  After getting changed, I planted myself in the lawn chair to wait for other finishers and friends.
A big congrats to Paul, Carolyn, and Scott who braved the trails with me, even though they may not have had banner days, they finished and I'm proud.  After collecting my prize, a bear and a cake, and gathering Carolyn from the meal table and the cookies (don't worry I ate a ton too and I'm sorry if we rushed you) we joined the Gulleys and Sam at Birdsview Brewery for the most amazing burger and beer.  A glorious way to end the day!  The end.

The good times keep rolling

I'll keep this one quick.  I decided to switch my racing schedule for the two weekends after the All Comers 5k.  I wanted to go camping on the 10th-12th so that ruled out the Fairhaven Waterfront 15k.  In its place, I decided to do the Lake Padden Relays.  The Relays are pretty cool.  Its not often that a distance runner gets to do some fast team relays.  Its not quite the DMR, but its way different from races like Ragnar Relay.  4 runners.  One lap around Padden, 2.6 miles.  Ready set go.

For all of you non Bellingham residents, the Lake Padden Loop is almost as recognizable a time as a 5k pr.  There are so many races out there, and even if you've never raced there, you've probably ran around it.  So at least in the racing world, a Lake Padden time means something.  And since my Padden PR was from a couple years ago on the second day of back to back races after a night of drinking, it was definitely time to run a fast one.

Originally, Jake H and I were going to race and I tried to get RB Wick to run on the team.  Sam hooked me up with former Sehome runner and current UW student, Tyler Van Dooren.  But RB didn't want to race hard twice in two weeks.  Jake got sick.  And then it was just Tyler and I.  I've never met Tyler.  We emailed a couple days before the race, determined to still run even if we did a two person relay.  We set up a meeting time before the race and left it at that.

Saturday morning rolls around and I head over to the lake.  Tyler strolls up and we introduce ourselves.  Then we went to register.  What do you name a 4 man relay team with only two team members?  You use your first names.  Team Charlie and Tyler.  Bonus points for creativity.  So we did a lake loop for warm up.  As we were about done, we ran into Peter Oviatt who asked us who was on our team.  After explaining that it was just the two of us, we had a volunteer and a third runner.  Which left me to run 1st and 4th with Tyler and Peter in the middle.  I was ok with that since it would make it easier to get full miles in.  But our plans were changed again.  As I was switching gear and shedding clothes, Tyler jogs up and tells me that we have a fourth runner.  Tom Bradley, a junior from Blaine HS.  Tom didn't have a full team and had only planned on running one leg so he was perfect for our team.

So were ended up with a HS junior, Tom , a college junior Tyler, myself, 30 years old, former college runner, and Peter Oviatt, 41 years old with the fastest pr's of all of us, but not in tip top shape.  A pretty solid team all in all, but no world beaters considering there are a ton of WWU runners and a fair amount of good high school runners.  I knew we should be in the top few teams but other than that, I had no expectations.  I knew that I had to run faster than my pr of 13:58.

The gun goes off and Tom is off. One quick loop around the lake and 13:30 later Tom hands off to Tyler.  We were probably in about 5th place, in a tight cluster of teams but behind the top two teams who had a significant lead of about 30 seconds.  Tyler rips off a 13:20, while one of the teams in the top two is a coed team, so he ended up handing off tied for 2nd, but still a good 15-25 seconds out of the lead.  I knew Peter wasn't going to be as fast as the first two runners, but I know he's tough and experienced and he'd hang on better than anybody out there.  Sure enough, the top two teams come out of the woods and into the clearing together, and about 15 seconds later, Peter rolls out of the woods with a full head of steam.  14:05 for his leg.

Peter and I touch hands (no batons in this race) and I'm off.  I'm within sight distance of the top two teams, running together, both from Western Washington University.  I didn't recognize either of the runners since most of the ones I know graduated last year.  I knew they already ran some of their faster runners early so I wanted to close the gap quickly before the hills.  The first mile is generally flat.  A hard left after a slight uphill just past the mile finishes the flat section for most of the rest of the lap.  At about 1.5 miles in you climb a substantial hill and then the loop just rolls pretty good along the whole back side of the loop.  At about 2 miles you start dropping down until you hit that last little bit of flat around the 180 degree turn and the flat 400 to the finish.

Surprisingly, I caught both runners about 3/4 of a mile into the race.  I was trying to decide whether to recover behind them for a bit, or push hard and be aggressive by them.  When I closed the last 10 meters rather quickly, I decided my best bet was to continue to push.  It turned out to work for me.  I caught, passed, and pretty much dropped them by the mile mark, which I hit in 4:58.  Man, it felt faster than that.  But I finally settled in a bit and ran comfortably after that, gaining a lot of rhythm on the back stretch despite the hills.  I continued to gap the field.  With the win in the bag, it was just a matter of my lap time.  I didn't think I would really threaten the 13 minute barrier, but its hard to do math on a non traditional race while running 5 minute mile pace.  I crossed the line at 53:59 for the team, my split being about 13:05.  Definitely a PR for me.  Probably only the third or fourth fastest split, but I didn't have anybody to really race.

It was really great to win the race with the whole team.  I didn't even meet Tom until after the race when we were talking to the local reporter.  (Read the article here)  Everybody on the team was pretty happy with the win and their times.  And it was a banner day as far as weather was concerned.  Sunny, dry, and about 65 at race start.  Glorious.  Thanks again to my teammates planned and unplanned.  It was a great day!  So cool to chase down teams for the win.

Sunday, I had my first 20 miler since the marathon planned.  Most of it would be on the trails in preparation for the trail ultra at Baker Lake.  I have to figure out the hydration stuff.  I tested out a two bottle belt, which might have been the most annoying thing ever.  I set my countdown timer to repeat so that I'd actually remember to drink.  All in all, things went pretty well.  I actually felt good.  There might actually be something to the whole hydration thing.  Its not that I never thought I needed it, it just wasn't necessary for my training runs.  But after the run, and the next day when I felt just as good, I'm feeling much more confident for my 50k.  As long as I don't make a big mistake, and run a little conservative early, I shouldn't have problems.  I'll just have to accept whatever the clock says at the finish.

All Comers Meet 5k - A race recap.

Several months ago, after I had gotten over my injury and I was back to running, I had Coach Alexander write me a training plan for the fall.  The first "real" race on the schedule was the All Comers 5k, the final race of the summer.  This isn't what you would call a high profile race.  The rest of the meet consists of children of all ages competing in track and field events.  And its absolutely great.  2 and 3 year old kids running 50 or 100 meters.  7 year olds long jumping.  And you should have seen the excitement surrounding the bubble machine.  It was a workout all to itself.  I've never seen so many kids try to EAT bubbles.  I'm pretty sure I never tried that.
But the final meet of the season always draws some pretty good in-town talent and Sam and I figured this one would be a good starting point for my season.  Besides, the 5k is a good race to judge fitness and all that good stuff.  Better than some crazy track time trial anyway.

Before the start of the race, I had done exactly two 5k paced workouts, neither of which I would consider incredibly impressive.  Both were run at just over 15 flat pace, and they both consisted of 800 meter or shorter segments.  Not exactly confidence inspiring, but still quality workouts.  I have done plenty of mile paced (or mile effort) hill repeats, which is every bit or more important to running a fast 5k.  But it is a little bit mentally tough translating mile paced efforts up a slight incline on a gravel trail, to the track.  And then there are my cruise miles.  My fall back and typically favorite workout, haven't been great this season.  And that includes my Thursday morning attempt at 2x3200 and 4x200.  I didn't even make it through half of the workout.  Disappointing.

So going into this meet, I wasn't feeling particularly fit, fast, confident, or inspired.  It's not that I thought I would run poorly, but training had been average at best and after a long layoff, running fast over a shorter distance seems daunting.  But the meet was on the schedule and I needed to do it.  It would set the tone to my entire fall training.  If things went well, I'd really push for a fast Seattle Half Marathon time.  If not, I'd muddle through the rest of the year, run a 50k and drink more beer than I otherwise would.  So at least in my mind, this race was a big deal.  It might be a small time, no pressure type race, but I knew it was very important to my mental frame of mind.

So for this little 5k I went through the full range of emotions.  About four nights before, I was about asleep and my awake dreams were starting to to wander and turn into night dreams, I had an adrenaline dump.  My whole body went tense for a split second and my heart started racing.  Over the weekend my feelings about the race went from excited to anxious to nervous to "lets get this over with."  Monday at work was mostly the get it over with feeling.  What happens, happens.

I left work at 6:15 and enjoyed my nice easy pedal over to Civic.  It was a cooler day.  I don't think it ever topped 70, so I had that going for me.  I parked my bike and signed up for the 5k.  I had well over an hour to kill before I had to race so I just parked myself in the grass, er, turf and relaxed.  The wind seemed to be picking up little by little and I added a couple of layers up top.  That had me a little worried, since I was fairly certain I'd be out front the whole way.  I was forced to move to the other end of the field because of the bubble machine and all the crazy kids.  Cute, but the bubbles were leaving soap marks on my glasses.

I walked to the other side of the field, near the finish line and hung out with Ken Koenig for a while.  The whole time it seemed like we were getting more and more wind.   Eventually it was time to warm up.  I headed out of the stadium and across the street to the small trails.  I jumped on to the elevated walkway on Fraser and over and around Grizzly and onto the creek trail.  After dumping out by Deihl Ford i just ran back to the track including a two minute T paced acceleration.  I felt surprisingly good on the warm up but not great on the acceleration part.  But by now I know to ignore all of that because it rarely indicates how I will feel during the race.

I will throw in some product review and shameless promotion of my sponsor.  My Saucony gear is awesome.  I love the Vizi-Pro orange.  It stands out.  You can't miss me.  And while some runners want to blend in with the crowd and not draw attention to themselves, I'm sure Saucony likes having their athletes stand out.  Their half tight is great.  Super comfortable and fits perfectly.  The singlet runs a little big, but I'm also pretty damn thin so maybe that's the problem.  But it never felt baggy or billowy.  I apologize to all you bikers out there, but I love the arm warmers, and, as a certified runner dork, I endorse them 100%.  And then there is just something about looking fast that helps you  feel fast before you start the race.  And the A4's performed beautifully.  After my sore calf incident with track spikes, I knew I didn't have enough  time to get ready to race in them.  But one workout and one race in a brand new pair of flats, and no blisters, rubs, irritation at all.  And they felt great!


The race must have started at about 8:45 as scheduled.  We had a pretty big group.  Peter Oviatt had about 20 of his kids from the Whatcom Tesseract group at the race.  There were kids of all ages at the starting line and also adults of all ages.  I knew it would be a cluster, but  that's just the way it works at an all comers meet.  After a brief chat at the start line, it seemed like nobody had plans to go out any faster than 75's except me.  I threw that right out the window when I went through the first 200 in 35 with a couple guys in tow.  I hit the first lap in about 70.  Yikes, too fast.  But it was easy.  It was a good feeling.  I quickly settled into what ended up being 73 second pace for the quarters.  I was pretty much dead on for laps 2-9.  I started lapping the youngsters before the 800 meter mark (that's the start of the race, not the finish).  I kept breaking the race into segments.  Lap 1.  Mile 1.  First 800 of mile two.  Second 800 of mile 2.  Only a mile to go.  Subtract the extra 200.  4 to go.  3 to go.  2 to go.  1 to go.  Laps 10 and 11 I hit the pudding and slowed up a bit.  Consecutive 75's through heavy traffic and a slight pick up in the wind.  I was struggling a little but still controlled.  Sam kept calling out splits on the opposite end.  With 600 to go he got on me about the finish.  Good last 400.  My last three 200 splits were 37, 35, 34 to finish in 15:14.  No official timer.  Just the finish clock and my watch, which I didn't split correctly.

To my surprise, one of the local high school kids finished 6 seconds behind and one of WWU's runners at about 15:30.  Pretty good results for an all comers meet.  Shout out to RB Wick for setting a huge PR and running 15:59 and more importantly weighing in at a scant 171 lbs.  And special thanks to Carolyn Watson for taking the amazing pictures I'm posting.  And thanks to Holly, Nanc, Gulleys, Grichels, and  all the spectators who came to cheer everybody on, including the ones who called me orange guy!  It was a great night.  I remembered and reaffirmed that I am indeed still a decent runner, and that I hadn't forgotten how to go fast, and that I am not far from the fastest version of myself.  That should make things easier for the upcoming races.

Follow up to the food rant. Meal planning with Evernote.

      Since I just went on a semi-rant about the state of our food, I thought I'd share this.  I've done this 2 of the last three weeks for my meals.  I've been using Evernote, which is great to organize my thoughts.  I clipped the contents from our Dandelion Organic Delivery to Evernote, and then searched my recipe book for some tasty sounding meals I could make using what I'd be receiving in our bin.  I'd say its a success.  I can access Evernote on my phone, check off the ingredient boxes as I put them into my cart, and I'm good to go. No forgetting items (hopefully, but I can still make it happen).

     Also, when we went to the farmers market, we talked to the guy who sells spinach and other greens to the Market on Lakeway.  Definitely a "Deep Economy-esque" moment.  And the tomatoes there are phenomenal now!  And guys, go get flowers for the girl in your life from the market.  Beautiful and priced right.

Check out my link to see the food planning from Evernote.
Evernote Meal Planning

August 19th, A Quick Training Update

     I just finished my third consecutive week at 70 miles.  This week was on 6 days though.  I decided to take Monday off because of three straight days of tight calves.  Let this be a warning, spikes, although incredibly cool, can also be incredibly cruel.  It's my own fault.  A full workout on spikes was never a good idea.  I fully intended on running the first 2 sets in my Kinvara's but I just wanted to run spikes.  That's what happens when you don't get your quota of fast track work throughout the year.  So after sluggish Friday, Saturday, and Sunday runs, I wanted to give my calves a day to recover.
     I consider 70 my sweet spot right now. I'm tempted to keep creeping the miles up, and with an impending 50k on the way, it would seem to make sense.  But, I'm going the cautious route.  I just missed a year of running.  18 months if you count the haphazard training I did this spring.  I'm finally healthy and running normal and there is no need to push it.  Besides, I know that I've still got more work to do on my strength imbalances, and my gait.  I'm pretty excited to work with Carolyn Watson on that stuff.  It will be great to put the treadmill and video equipment at the store to good use and try to make some of the subtle changes that will only help my running.  Its always the little things that get you.
     I'm about one week away from my first real race.  I've already got the nervousness and anxiety when I think about it while running.  A fast 5k just seems so hard.  They always hurt, no matter what the fitness level is.  The real issue is the unknown.  I have an idea of my fitness, but this will give us a real measure.  Minutes and seconds, to be compared to 14:57.  This will set the tone for the rest of my fall, both racing and training.
     I've got a ton of Saucony gear arriving at the store tomorrow.  That's super cool.  And its always great for motivation.  I'll be rocking the blaze orange, ViziPro gear all over.  You can't miss me, and I won't get mistaken for an animal, and shot while out on the trail.  Perfect.  But in all seriousness, Brooks Nightlife has nothing on ViziPro.  I'll take the orange no matter what!  And after my spike debacle, I'm definitely racing in the Saucony A4's for the 5k.  We'll see who shows up for the final All Comers meet of the season next Monday.  I'll probably end up front loading the upcoming week so I can hit my miles, and get in a relatively easy Sunday run prior to the race.  Monday races are strange.  They just don't fit into training.
     And that reminds me.  Sam Alexander and I were talking about this on our run today.  I think we need to have a 1k loop course in downtown Bellingham to race a blazing 5k.  Prize money and all.  It would be cool to pan in conjunction with some other event, so that there are unsuspecting crowds that will already be gathered (like the people at the Bite of Bellingham) who will turn into a raging crowd as the race goes by right in front of them.  Who knows, it could happen.  I'll leave you all with that thought.

Some Scatterbrained thoughts about Food

Food is an important and often overlooked part of the whole training and racing equation.  It is utterly complex, and extremely difficult to figure out, or at least it can be.  And the last thing I want to do after a hard run or a high mileage week, is to spend the rest of my night cooking.  Laziness.  And that is the main reason that half our country is fat.  Maybe its not half, but it is a lot.  And yes, I said fat.  No need to candy coat it.  So here are my random thoughts.  I'd be happy to elaborate for the four of you following my blog.  Here are some pictures that are becoming all to common in your day to day life: http://www.google.com/search?q=fat+people&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=683

We ship too much food too many miles.  I get the dollars and cents of the massive production plants for any foods.  But things like fresh meat, milk, eggs, veggies, etc, the further we ship them, the more problems arise.  Namely, preservatives.  We end up filling our foods with more chemically processed stuff, just so we can ship them halfway around the world.  Food waste becomes and issue.  Foods go bad in transit.  Not to mention, the environmental side of the extra shipping.

Industrial agriculture blows?  What's that you say?  What are you talking about?  American farms are largely subsidized by the government.  Which means, farmers can't make a living without handouts from Uncle Sam.  And its almost gotten to a point where it is go big, or go home.  The small private farm is a hard way to make a living.  So of the essential needs of living, water, food, and shelter, those providing the food don't get paid.  Those that do make a living usually spray so much chemical shit on their crops, or feed their animals so many hormones to produce production just to survive.  

Too many regulatory groups without clearly defined roles means no consistency with ensuring the safety of our foods.  Consumerism, marketing, and advertising reign supreme and so the foods with the best marketers get bought.  Kids want Lucky Charms, an absolute crap food, because they saw it on a commercial.  What the hell does "All Natural" mean anyway?  And just what are those un-pronounceable ingredients in my organic bread.  It sure as heck isn't salt, yeast, water, wheat, or honey/sugar.  And if its vitamin fortified, it must be good.  And its got minerals?  Sweet, give me two of the marshmallow puffs with minerals then.  Tell me if you think any of the cereals in the picture below are actually healthy?  But somehow they have tricked American into thinking Cookie Crisp is a healthy breakfast choice for your kids.  How the fuck does that happen?

Don't even get me started on the single serving disposable beverage container.  Stupidest thing ever.  Especially water.

No food education.  We can barely get kids to learn to read between the hours of tv, video games, and other general laziness on the couch.  Kids have no idea where their food comes from.  They think honey comes from bears, and noodles come from cheese.  I shit you not, I saw it on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  They have no idea about the work that goes into producing the food they eat on a day to day basis.  They also don't know that ground beef can be 20% pink slime, the inedible junk parts that should go into dog food but instead are washed in an ammonia bath, ground up, and stuck into your beef.  The same goes for chicken patties and nuggets.  They get a chemical bath to kill the germs because its the waste product from the chickens.

On top of that, nobody learns to cook anymore.  What is an oven?  Is that like an old fashioned microwave?  All I have to do is unwrap my food and hit no more than 5 buttons, wait 1-10 minutes, and I'm done.  Right?

I heard that in the south, its not uncommon to see a toddler with mountain dew in their sippy cup,or even in bottles.  It reminds me of Idiocracy, yeah, go check that movie out.  They are watering the crops with the sports drink.  And more people drink soda because its so easy and convenient and its found everywhere.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is in everything because that's what the midwest raises, because that's what they can make money on because that's what the government pays for.  I once accidentally had honey that had corn syrup as an ingredient.  How does that happen.  Honey is the ingredient.  Its made of honey.  It comes out of a bee by some miracle of nature.  You don't make it with corn product.  WTF?  How does that happen.

We want to buy groceries for a couple weeks all at once.  The problem is, real food spoils.  But shopping is such a chore because we have to go the mega store out on the edge of town, or the next town over, to get the best prices on our fake food.  So we load up the urban assault vehicle and brave the Guide, or Randall Road, or whatever it is.  Then we get everything we could possibly need for the next several weeks, mostly jam packed with preservatives and other mystery ingredients, grab some Starbucks, and then head back to the suburban manor to water our lawns and watch more advertising.  In Europe, in city centers, they have small shops and you get groceries for the next couple of days.  You don't drive, you walk.  You get fresher stuff, that was grown closer to where you are buying it.  You don't have the food waste at home or at the store as much because there is less logistical jibberish between production and consumption.

We believe that being fat is a genetic pre-disposition, and we call it obese, and its our god given right as an American to eat as much as we want, no matter what we weigh.  I'd love to see health care for everybody, but not if I'm paying for all the medical problems that stem from people who are obese.

Dogs eat until they are full, and beyond.  That's why responsible pet owners don't keep the dog dish full all the time, because their dog keep eating because the food is there and then it will get fat.  Dogs are pretty stupid when compared to people.  But people will continue to eat well beyond being full also.  And they know how to open the cupboard and the refrigerator themselves.   How are we not smarter than dogs in this instance?

Random fact:  Nearly half of all food in the grocery market is wasted.  It goes bad.  With all our high tech gadgets and mathematical geniuses in the supply chain, you think we could figure out how to fix that.  Oh, but guess what, there is no money in food.  The money is in producing, distributing, and selling cheap plastic shit in unfathomable quantities, all from China.  And we have to throw most of it out instead of donate it to the hungry or homeless.  Its disgusting.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/food-retailers-must-reduce-waste

Google:  American Obesity Statistics.  See what comes up.  Alarming.

People won't pay an extra dollar or two for real food.  That's because they have to pay for all the other useless Junk they have bought, or want to buy.  But then again, millions smoke cigarettes even though they KNOW that eventually they'll get cancer.  Nicotene > common sense.  I know.  I've never been addicted and I'll never understand.  I'm not partaking in that experiment.  I just think of all the crazy things that people waste money on and then they'll buy the shit food.  Single mothers can feed their kids for $2.99 at McDonalds AND get a toy.  Plus, then they have more time to work.  I'm sure the break down of the family unit has a lot to do with this.

I present no answers to you.  Others have done a better job at it. Give "Deep Economy" a read.  Its by Bill McKibben.  And try "The Story of Stuff" by Annie Leonard.  Or read any of the hundreds of books on these topics.  "The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture" by Wendell Berry is another great one.  Yes, that means you'll have to remove yourself from direct view of the TV.  And you'll have to invest many hours in finishing the book.  Get the audio tape as read by somebody famous if you must.

Anyway, I managed to drop my weight from 157lbs when I ran the Seattle Marathon and won, down to a slim 145, and that is on a 6'2" frame.  And I'm tired of people making comments about my build when I'm out running a 10 miler on a hot summer day.  Its now normal to be overweight, and I'm not a fan.  

Back on track

Short and sweet on this post.  After Ragnar Relay beat me up and my little hamstring issue the following week, I'm back on track.  A solid 70 mile week.  Quality over quantity.  There will be a time for higher mileage, but this early in my comeback isn't it.  Thoughts for the week:

Sub 4 hours might not be a good goal for me at Baker Lake.  I'm thinking 3:45 or faster.

No more hill repeats on the hill next to Civic.  Asphalt sucks.

Is there a better track for T pace than Fairhaven Middle School?  Soft surface.  Some slight terrain variation and a slight rise.  And the view is amazing.  The bay view is amazing.

Hammer Perpetuem chewables aren't bad.  Small handheld isn't bad either, but impossible to not have sticky hands.  Still need to test more nutrition options in the next two weeks.

The Saucony Hurricanes have some studs.  Some familiar names.  Feeling the pressure to go sub 1:10 for the half, even on the Seattle course.

An Omnium made up of three mile races on Mt. Baker sounds incredibly cool.  Hopefully Charlie Heggem can put it all together.  Will make for a tough decision between Waterfront 15k and the Uphill, Loop, and Downhill miles.

Itching to race but not ready yet.

Club XC Nationals could be back in the picture.

I started a rant about food and I couldn't finish it.  It got overwhelming.  Stay tuned.  It will happen.

Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage round 3.

Over the weekend, I had the absolute pleasure to partake in one of the more exciting running races I do every year.  This year's version lived up to all expectations.  What a crazy couple of days.  Welcome to the world of the Ragnar Relay: Northwest Passage

Friday Morning:  I woke up at about 5:15 to Dex, my cat, purring loudly in my ear and crawling around near the pillows.  Maybe because it was race day, but I was up for good at that point.  Once I cleared my head of the cobwebs, I remembered that it was an epic tour stage in the Alps so I turned the TV on to watch Andy, Frank, Tommy V., Cadel, Sammy Sanchez, Contador, and the surprise winner, Pierre Rolland battle up the slopes of some French mountain I don't remember the name of.  It was a great stage that saw Contador attack early and often to try to rescue the tour and salvage a spot on the podium.  Unfortunately for him, or fortunately for his detractors (myself) he wasn't able to do so as Cadel and the Schlecks were able to limit their losses.  Rolland used Sanchez to bridge the gap to Contador and then took off for the only win by a Frenchman in this years tour.  Quite the stage indeed.
During the tour, I packed my gear and shaved my legs.  Yes, I shaved my legs.  There is something about that action that says, "I'm ready to go fast."  Yeah, I know, many of you don't have any desire to ever shave your body hair.  I could do without body hair for the most part, and the shaving ritual is part of the whole process in getting ready for a big race.  Since I haven't really raced (except for the Honeywagon) since Seattle 2009, this qualified as a big race.
10:00am:  Work starts at ten and I was hoping to be productive but the store was busy with the additional visitors that Ragnar Relay brings in.  Lots of new people checking out the store and picking up some last minute supplies.  We did good business on reflective vests, blinking lights, and nutrition.  It was fun watching the early teams go by the store, with decorated vans, costumes, and signs.  That is one of the reason I love the relay.  Its all about enjoying running for its own sake.  12 (or 6 or 3) people running three times, through the middle of the night, just because its cool.  Its an adventure.  Its fun.  You get to be goofy and act like a kid.  PR's aren't really important.  Most people are running new legs, odd distances, or the course has changed.

2:00pm: Before I knew it, it was nearly 2pm and Team Klicks Racing was starting to show up at the store.  Vehicles of choice?  One gold and one white mini-van.  The white one belonged to Grandma Anna.  Yes, we were rolling in a grandma van.  No, it wasn't a Buick.  We took a quick picture in front of the store (or a series of pictures) and then we headed towards Peace Arch Park in Blaine.

2:30-4:20pm: We got to the start, which was mostly empty.   There were only two other team with our start time.  The Trout Slayers and Team WTF (Witness the Fitness, a high school group from Utah).  We received our safety briefing and we only harassed the poor girl a little bit.  The best part was Sam's blatant fart, which was ignored by the woman giving us the safety briefing.  Almost immediately after, Sam decided he was going to run over to Canada, ie, the other side of the park.  I think his quick sprint towards the border caught the attention of the border patrol officer.  A quick honk of his horn and let us know that we shouldn't really mess around anymore.
4:20pm:  The three teams left Peace Arch Park with much fanfare.  As much as the 30 people who were still there could muster.  Collin got smoked on the first leg, incurring our first and only passing penalty.  The rules were agreed upon, that if any team member got passed, which includes losing the first leg, that they would have to take a penalty shot out of the rum baton.  We picked up Gulley during the first leg and RB met us at the start of his first run, leg 3.  Things on the first several legs were relatively boring.  After we gapped the other teams in legs 1-3, (RB smoked a  female runner on the Trout Slayers.  You should have heard his drunken explanation, or exclamation to that poor girl at the post race party) things got really slow.  Despite it being somewhat boring early, the legs went by quick.  Before I knew it we were just north of Bellingham and ConnorWhan (even his dad calls him by both names as if it were one) was warming up.
8:00pm:  Our van hustled into Bellingham to the high school for the exchange point for my first leg.  I left my watch at the store so I had to borrow one.  I kept the warm-up to a minimum with about a mile of jogging and some half hearted drills.  Lance Romo rolled by on his bike and Holly showed up to wish me good luck and bring me real food for the evening.  Hooray for Holly!  If I learned one thing in the previous two versions, its that REAL FOOD is a must.  You can only eat so many fake food energy products.  My meals of choice included two cold pasta salads, chocolate milk, fruit, almond butter and jalapeno strawberry jelly sandwiches, and then all the requisite nutritional add on's.  GU, Hammer, Nuun, and so much more.  ConnorWhan somehow managed to get lost coming into Bellingham costing us about 10 minutes and then it was my turn.
8:15ish PM:  I'm off and I'm flying up State Street heading south towards Fairhaven.  Traffic is minimal and Jim is out in front of the store and grabbed a sweet picture as I sped by.

I had some fast miles along the Boulevard Trail, including a 5:10 mile that I clocked using the mile marker posts, I had the long grinding hill up towards Connely and then up the Gorge trail and into Padden.  Somewhere along the way, my shoe lace came untied.  Add 10 points to my idiot standings.  You'd think I forgot how to do this racing stuff.  Anyway, I ground my way up Connely and was pleasantly surprised when the signs pointed to the actual trail into Padden.  The first half of the Gorge trail was brutal again and I finally recovered when I reached the top and hit the Padden main trail.  I was hurting pretty good and was a little surprised when the exchange wasn't at the swim area.  Instead I had about a half mile to go and then up the short but steep (enough) boat launch drive where I handed it off to Wrong Way Trey 2.8.  5:50 pace for 6.5 miles.  Not as fast as I imagined but respectable.  I barely had time to tie my shoe before I was wrangled into the Gramma Van and off to the next exchange at the shell station since Trey's leg was so short.  At the Shell station I fueled up with some Hammer Recoverite, pasta salad, and, some trail mix.  I got out of the wet clothes an into some dry warm ups and recovery socks, which I actually think helped.
After that things start to blend together and get a little hazy.  Night was settling in and reflective equipment came out.  Trey blazed a mostly downhill leg.  John Collins ripped past Lake Samish.  I'm not even sure who ran next.  We met the legendary Keefer Whan, ConnorWhan's dad in Edison.  That was a real treat.  He, of course, got everybody riled up especially RB.  If you ever get to see (or meet) RB, ask him why they call it Black Friday.

10:00pm-ish:  Our final two legs of the first cycle were Wes and Sam.  Wes got a little confused and frustrated when he got lost and turned off the straight road and headed toward the casino.  Gambling probably would have been more relaxing, but much less fun.  I know I should have blogged using my super smart phone that eats batteries, because I know I would forget some of the funny stuff, but I'm not that big of a nerd yet so I opted to rely on my memory, which was a mistake, as this part of the blog is probably pretty boring.  Heck, all my blogs might be boring.  Maybe when I'm running million mile weeks you might be impressed or I might accidentally type something funny.  But until then......
12:00-1:00am-ish:  We still weren't catching very many teams.  Just a few stragglers here and there.  We did have one incident with a racer that wasn't so pleased at our behavior.  Apparently we were too loud for her tastes. I agree, we were probably too loud.  But her message delivery was poor, and in turn, the reaction from the team was even poorer.  Lets say, we didn't exactly quiet down.  Luckily, we passed up her team so fast that there were no further incidents.
2:30ish am:  Surprisingly, my turn to run came up quick.  As we approached LaConnor, I got my gear back on.  It was getting pretty cool, in the low 50's and clear.  The stars were actually mostly visible and beautiful.  Half tights and a short sleeve for this leg.  The exchange wasn't at the high school like it had been in the past.  Instead we parked in this little lot and I had to walk/jog up a hill to get to the exchange point.  There was a sleeping area on this exchange, and also a refueling station that had granola, yogurt raisins, and something else.    I always run from the exchanges with the free food.  Luckily, I had Wes grab me a bag full of the yogurt raisins which I later added to my trail mix.  Wes trekked up the hill with me but then went down to see where the rest of the team was.  In the mean time, ConnnorWhan comes screaming in off the road ready for the handoff.  I departed on my second run, 7.2 rolling miles, to no fanfare.  Not a single teammate besides ConnorWhan was there.  Lame.  I headed out of LaConnor and onto Reservation Road through the Swoniomish Res.  Its one of the darker, more isolated segments of road in the race.  There were so few vans around.  And it gets really weird.  You go from an uphill grade to a downhill grade without really realizing it.  There are no visual clues.  All of a sudden you are either slowing down or speeding up naturally.  And it just gets darker and darker it seems like as the trees get closer to the edge of the road and block out what little light is coming from the sliver of a moon (I don't even know what kind of moon it was).  Eventually I popped out of the trees and I knew I was close to the end.  The "1 mile to go sign" hadn't been stolen (cough cough) and I tried to bring it home strong, which roughly meant a 5:20 mile.  And that is when disaster would strike.......
3:30ish am:  Trey took the handoff and it was terrible.  This is a 1:53 half miler and you'd think he had never run a 4x800 relay with a similar handoff.  The only good thing is that we didn't drop the bracelet/baton.  (For those of you who remember snap bracelets at the height of their popularity, that is what we use.  A reflective logoed orange Ragnar snap bracelet).  Trey takes off at a gallop and that is the last we saw of him for over an hour.  When both vans drove the course without seeing him, we knew he was lost.  That set off a series of frantic phone calls and a lot of back tracking in the vans.  Both vans drove the course a couple times.  Eventually we both went to the exchange point to get our next two runners ready and one van waited it out while one van continued searching.  Eventually, Trey shows up at the exchange point just when we were trying to figure out what to do next.  I was still in the search van and I got a call from Gulley saying they found him.  I took the opertunity to catch some z's in the Gramma Van.

4:30ish am:  Sam is running.  We're at the Deception Pass park entrance.  Dawn is just creeping in and I busted out my camp stove to make some instant coffee (Starbucks Via, hate Starbucks, love Via).  I've got a white gas fire going, and I hear two random shouts:  "G-SPOT KILLAZ"  Sam Alexander is on his way to the exchange, and announcing it to the world.  Nice.  And that's how we concluded the second cycle.
5:00ish am:  Buckley is the first to run his final leg and the sunrise views form certain parts of Whidbey are unparalleled.  Simply amazing.  I kick myself for not taking pictures.  I kick others for not taking pictures.  But since we aren't a bunch of women, we don't take thousands of pictures.  I'm lucky we have any.
We're flying through legs and everybody is happy to be done, except for those that still have to run.  I have my longest leg left still.  7.8 miles out of Coupville.  Dreading it.  By this point, I'm working off of 30 minutes of sleep.  My hammies and calves are thrashed.  I'm wondering if it isn't time to just jog it in, since our nearest competitors are well over an hour behind despite us handing them 45 free minutes.  Fortunately, the coffee started a storm brewing in my gut, and I no longer had to worry whether or not I would have a successful bathroom trip before my final leg.  Caffeine took care of that.  We did catch the G-Spot van's (G-Spots had the lovely wives of two of our team members as well as 10 other awesome women from Bellingham.  Our whole goal was to catch them.  Bonus points were to be awarded to the actual G-Spot Killer, the one who passed their runner on the road.

7:00is am: Soon enough, ConnorWhan was running again and I was getting ready at Coupville school.  I'm just throwing it out there..... people were taking much more time in the bathroom this time around that they normally would. I'm talking, minutes on average.  Enough to make me nervous that I'd be late to the exchange despite the line of only 4-5 runners ahead of me.  My fears were unfounded.  As the sun came up, a thick fog rolled in on us.  Reflective vests and flashers were again required although it was no longer night time.  Bummer.  I hate the reflective vest.  My Amphipod suspenders never made it back in the van after my second leg.  Damnit!  I'll have to buy another.  Each successive leg meant less and less warmup.  I jogged from the toilet to the exchange, shook my legs out, and waited.  ConnorWhan again finished fast and passed off the bracelet flawlessly.  No time wasted there.  Somebody ought to let us help the US men's 4x100 national team.  I took off and one of the first vans to pass me on the road was the G-Spot van.  Would I be the one to catch them??  Unfortunately, the fog ruined the epic views on my leg as you approach the water.  All you could see was the gray.  I tried to tell our van (van 1, Gramma Van) that I felt like Atreyu in the Never Ending Story heading towards the nothing instead of away from it.  They didn't know what the hell I was talking about.  It was great.  I got the hilly portion done and out of the way early and then it was mostly flat or downhill for the final 4.5 miles to the finish.  I was finally passing people.  I kept having the same vans go by me including a maroon Caravan that kept calling me "fast guy".

I was actually feeling good and I was ripping it.  I was going off memory from the previous year and waiting for the ferry terminal because the exchange was just beyond, only they changed it this year.  I still had two miles to go past the ferry.  Luckily it was a flat approach.  I was booking it towards the finish and in the last quarter mile, I had two runners ahead of me.  A man and a woman.  I went into my best Quentin Cassidy finish kick and reeled in the guy, and missed the girl by about 10 seconds.  Turns out, she was the G-Spot runner.  Trey was the G-Spot killer.  But everybody knows I did all the work.  Ha ha.  Final splits would be my fastest average of the three, for the longest leg.  5:29's per mile.  Not bad.
I finally had a perfect handoff with Trey.  Picture perfect.  Best handoff of the night.  The fog was burning off. It was slowly getting warmer, an improvement from my leg where I could see my breath and I was steaming.  Things went smoothly over the last handful of legs.  By 10 am it was sunny an in the low 60's which was enough for Wes to exclaim, "Man its f*#%ing hot out."  Can you tell we've had a cool summer?  63 degrees with sun feels hot as most of us were shirtless.

10:15ish am:  Sam finished up hard and when we all ran in together, he sprinted home torching the rest of the team members to the line.  I hobbled in behind with bloody heels and sandals.  Blister city.

And here is your 2011 Ragnar Relay overall champs.  ConnorWhan couldn't find his jersey because Kerr stole it.  John C had to leave for a wedding.  Lame.  He loses man points.  We finished off the day with beer, chicken, and chips.  RB and Kerr got rowdy with some firefighters and each other.  Collin and Jay were tipsy and giggly like teenage girls after two beers.  I sat in the van because I felt like ass.  Couldn't manage to force any beer in my gut.  Everybody soaked up some rays, recounted the previous nights adventures, caused some mischief, and generally hung out and had a good time.  Unfortunately, we still had a long ride home.  But all in all it was a fabulous day.  Good times were had by all.  Only 361 more days until next year's Ragnar!!!!

I'll leave you with some choice pictures of our fearless leader, Jay "Pony" Sloan, Mark "Dirty Pirate" Kerr, Peter "Cardiac Kid" Oviatt, Wes "Lettuce Pimp" Finger, RB "Mexican, Asian, Native American" Wick, Collin "Speedo" Buckley, Jason "Gulleywag" Gulley, John "White Kenyan" Collins and Sam.  I still don't have a nickname for Sam.
And here are the race splits from Peter:

Round 1

Colin 0:37:11 6.3 05:54

Peter 0:38:49 6.4 06:04

RB 0:52:03 8.5 06:07

Jason 0:30:15 5.4 05:36

Jay 0:35:34 5.8 06:08

Connor 0:40:29 6.5 06:14

Charlie 0:37:53 6.5 05:50

Trey   0:15:08 2.8 05:24

Collins 0:35:05 6.0 05:51

Mark 0:18:44 3.1 06:03

Wes 0:42:49 6.8 06:18

Sam 0:39:10 7.0 05:36

Round 2

Colin  0:26:54 4.4 0:06:07

Peter 0:20:02 3.5 0:05:43

RB 0:19:12 3.5 0:05:29

Jason 0:23:06 4.1 0:05:38

Jay 0:20:10 3.4 0:05:56

Connor 0:38:06 6.6 0:05:46

Charlie 0:41:13 7.2 0:05:43

Trey 0:59:03 7.7 0:07:40

Collins 0:15:00 2.7 0:05:33

Mark 0:25:00 4.2 0:05:57

Wes 0:30:00 4.7 0:06:23

Sam 0:30:43 5.4 0:05:41

Round 3

Colin 50:00 7.8 0:06:25

Peter 17:03 3.1 0:05:30

RB 16:11 2.9 0:05:35

Jason 17:22 2.9 0:05:59

Jay 40:29 6.5 0:06:14

Connor 32:26 5.5 0:05:54

Charlie 42:46 7.8 0:05:29

Trey 26:45 4.8 0:05:34

Collins 43:42 6.8 0:06:26

Mark 26:26 4.2 0:06:18

Wes 22:59 3.8 0:06:03

Sam 27:34 4.7 0:05:52

After Trey's 10+ leg improvised leg on round 2, since we were off searching for him and not at the next two exchanges, I had to estimate times. Feel free to post corrections.  Also, Sam's 2 and Colin's 3 legs are combined and done from memory. For some reason my watch didn't split when I thought it did.

Summary

Colin 18.5 1:54:05 0:06:10

Peter 13.0 1:15:54 0:05:50

RB 14.9 1:27:26 0:05:52

Jason 12.4 1:10:43 0:05:42

Jay 15.7 1:36:13 0:06:08

Connor 18.6 1:51:01 0:05:58

Charlie  21.5 2:01:52 0:05:40

Tre 15.3 1:40:56 0:06:36

Collins 15.5 1:33:47 0:06:03

Mark  11.5 1:10:10 0:06:06

Wes 15.3 1:35:48 0:06:16

Sam 17.1 1:37:27 0:05:42

Klicks Team 189.3 18:55:22 0:06:00

Discrepency between above team time and official time lies in the lack of tenths being included in my splits. Obviously Trey and Connor ran faster per mile actually covered but this only gives them credit for the course measurement, not their detours.