There is hope?

I've run twice in a seven day span.  No, you're not imagining things.  Neither run felt good.  Quite the contrary.  Both were pretty pathetic, but not quite miserable.  But surprisingly, they were somewhat positive.  Last week, my back felt pretty decent post run, but my right leg got angry tight.  Like 60lb draw compound bow tight.  So I rolled it out, sat on the couch, watched an epic come from behind Sounders victory and eventually went to bed to test it out the next morning.

Race volunteer standing, my right side kryptonite, didn't phase me.  Dishes didn't phase me.  Lawn work didn't bother me.  2 hours on the mountain bike which I almost skipped, which would have been idiotic by the way, didn't bother me.  So yeah, I was a little bit positive.

But 15 months of no running can leave a person pretty mentally weak.  I'm not out of the woods by any means.  I won't be training any time soon.  And running once around Padden is a huge accomplishment.
I decided to repeat the experiment this morning.  My leg felt tighter before the run.  The quad was trying to assert its dominance over my entire right side.  Or maybe it was left to do all the work by all its surrounding jerk muscle friends that either forgot, or decided not to do.  Either way......

Things loosened up nicely during the run.  Naturally, out of nowhere, the good knee started hurting and represented the bigger discomfort during the run.  The right was tight again, but here I am 5 hours later and it really doesn't feel any more tight than it was before the run.  The back is a solid 6/10 on the healthy scale, and trust me, that's better than it's been.

So I'm going to keep visiting and working with the trifecta of helpers I have.  Kerry Gustafson of Prime, Steve Noble of Noble Chiropractic, and Carolyn Watson of Core Kinetics.  I'm going to change my terrible attitude and get more positive.  It's hard to break the habits of a lazy trashy tv watching depressed former athlete.  So maybe I'll do some more rolling, push ups or some stuff like that, play on the reformer, hang inverted by my ankles, do a plank for 30 seconds or so, bicep curls because big guns are always rad, and maybe in a few weeks I'll be celebrating 3 runs in a week span.  Who knows.

And here is a picture of one of my cute cats, just because its Caturday.  Meet Bear!

Perks of the non running lifestyle

It's been nine months since I blogged.  I guess I didn't really feel like writing, because I mostly like to write about my running, and add a little extra borning life stuff in.  But since I haven't really been able to run for 15 months or so, I guess I have nothing interesting to write about.  Ever time I'd start to write, it would be a woe is me, gloom and doom post.  So I thought I'd go over some of the positives of not being a runner.  Here goes nothing.
1.  I get to watch tons of trashy tv.  My favorite shoes, Being Human, The Walking Dead, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Face off, Best Ink, Inkmaster, Hell's Kitchen, Master Chef..... and the list goes on and on.  I've replaced the 10-13 hours of training almost exclusively with trashy tv couch time.
2.  I now rate in the normal range for BMI.  I'm not underweight anymore after gaining 20 or so pounds.  Yeah, I'm still skinny.
3.  I used my inability to run as an excuse to upgrade to a rad new mountain bike.  Which is awesome until this happens:

4.  No early morning runs.  So now I waste several hours of the morning playing Candy Crush, solitaire, and reading tech nerd articles about the new phone that isn't out yet that I'm going to ditch my current just released phone for.  Oppo Find 7, I'm talking about you.  

5.  Snuggle time with kitties.  

6.  Don't have to go play in the rain when I don't want to.  

That's really it.  At least that's all I can think of right now.  Any additions that I haven't thought of?  Any hobbies for the couch bound that I should look into? 

Look out Michael Phelps

Yesterday I put on a wetsuit, walked into Lake Padden and than half swam, half flailed my way out to the center of the lake.  It wasn't as scary as I though, but I didn't float quite as well as I imagined I might with the help of my superhero wetsuit costume.  I have never really had any reason to swim, or any motivation to, so as you can imagine, I'm not very good.  The whole breathing rhythm?  Not so much.  Let me just keep my head up.  But strangely enough it was kind of fun.  I sort of enjoyed it.  And I almost feel like I did a little work yesterday despite having to stop frequently.  And my legs feel a little sore and I think it might be from my Kerry Gustafson exercises that I started up again, but maybe some of that leg flailing that I tried to pass off as swimming is partially to blame.  Anyway, I might do it again one of these days.  BUT, I have no plans to do a triathlon.  At least not this year, because guess what?  I still can't run.  Hence my whole motivation to jump in a lake.

But, if I was able to run, and still decided to attempt swimming, I would THINK about doing a short MTB Tri somewhere with the sweet new bike I just ordered.  Retail therapy can be great, but buyers remorse can be a bummer.  Retail therapy is winning this one.  And I can ride a little easier than run without destroying my right lower half of my body.  So that's why I deserve a new bike, with suspension.  It's awesome.  And no, I'm not posting a picture until after I get it.  And then it will be an epic action shot with me catching mad air somewhere on Cheech and Chong. (also never happening, on purpose at least)

Otherwise, I've been keeping busy doing my thing at Klicks and having a blast.  Playing with the kitties. Hanging out in some cool spots.  Going to Sounders games, and recruiting squirrels for my mini animal circus.  See below:

6 months

A lot has happened in the last six months since I posted my last blog.  I'm such a slacker.  I guess my blogging went as well as my running in that time span.  So here is a recap of what I've been up to.

I now accomplished two items on my list that I like to call, "You know you're an adult when."
I'm starting with the later even in chronological order because it isn't as big of a deal as the event that happened first?  Confused?  You should be.  That sentence barely made sense and probably violated several rules of proper grammar.  Get to the point?  Ok, ok.  I bought a car.  A 2013 Chevy Sonic.  It had a whopping 17 miles on the odometer when I got it and 7 of them were my test drive.  Here is a picture:

So it has satellite radio which is cool, except I have streaming radio on my phone and I don't spend that much time in my car.  It gets close to 40mpg on the highway, except most of my driving is the 1.75 miles to work and back when I'm too lazy to ride my bike.  The color is Cyber Grey Metallic, which is more practical and adult than the cool burnt orange or whatever they call it.  The 1.4L Turbo would have been nice but this one has more "pep" than my truck.  What a good little truck it was too, but hopefully it will go to a good home.  So now I've got cool heavy duty all weather floor mats on the way and I'm trying to figure out a roof rack system, but that will have to wait a while.

The other major adult accomplishment is becoming my own boss.  I am now an owner of Klicks Running and Walking with my good friend Sam Alexander.  While it was a little scary at first, things so far are going well.

What isn't going well, is my running.  Still struggling with some of the lingering issues of the damn Seattle Marathon in 2009, I decided to take some time off to address the issues the right way.  While still getting help from Noble Chiropractic, I've also been seeing Kerry Gustafson (who has been great) of Personalized Health Solutions.  She broke down my mechanics and found out that my achilles heel is actually my achilles right side pelvis.  It just doesn't want to stay put.  So basically I have core strength issues, as well as flexibility issues, as well as major brain malfunction because every time I get healthy, I stop doing anything but running.  So yeah, here we go again.

So I'm going to start running Saturday December 1st.  Just a couple flat miles here and there.  I ought to get up to that magic 30-40mpw range that will allow me to run a totally miserable Orcas Island 25k
race in late January like last year.  Hoping for epic views from Mt. Constitution but I'll settle for no snow.

And other than that, I'm just trying to figure out when I get to go home and hang out with my little nephew Caleb because he's adorable and cute.  He sends me his colorings in the mail occasionally, and we get to do Google+ Hangouts, but I actually want to play with the little dude.  So hopefully some time in January I'll be able to get back and visit frigid northern Illinois and hang out with the family, and friends.

Man, this is a boring blog.  Who reads this crap anyway.  Probably nobody since I bailed off of Facebook.  But I'll post it up on Google+ and Twitter and see what happens.

A special screening

I don't really have running news to report.  I got my butt handed to me at the Chuckanut Footrace.  Not only did I get a beat down by two runners, I ran like a sack of turds.  I'd like to move past that one if I could.

I do have a few more interesting stories to share.  The first one will explain the title.  I went to Las Vegas for the third time since October.  And it was just as great as ever.  But while I was there, I managed to "lose" my drivers license.  How did I lose it you ask?  Well, here is the not so exciting story:

When you go to CVS to get a double tall boy 24oz Bud Light Lime, they make you take a bag.  No plastic bag bans in Vegas.  I guess they want to know who is actually purchasing a beverage as opposed to stealing it.  And CVS and Walgreens are always packed in Vegas.  Its the best place to get beer besides the ABC store or the Grand Canyon store.  So anyway, I've got a line of people behind me and the lady ringing me up checks my ID and notices I'm from the same relative neck of the woods.  She's from Federal Way.  I say "sorry" and we both laugh.  That didn't happen, but I thought it.  Anyway, the story from this point on is pure speculation.  She puts my BLL and Holly's goldfish crackers in the plastic bag.  She hands me my ID with my receipt.  I shove them into the bag.  Then I walk out the door.  And right outside the door, one on the left and one on the right, are two garbage cans, for all the people buying booze to throw away their plastic bags that have been in use for all of 17 seconds.  Well, I grab the crackers and hand them to Holly, and I grab my tasty beverage, my lips being incredibly parched by the desert heat, and I toss the bag......... and my ID.  I didn't notice that I didn't have it until after we visited the Monte Carlo, New York New York, and I was going to purchase my next amazing beverage at the Grand Canyon.

So I'm at the counter and I've got this amazing looking can full of total bitch beer, and I'm super excited to crack it open and drink the watermelon goodness.  Except I run into a problem.  I can't show the kind gentleman my ID.  But he didn't care about my age.  Look at me, I have a full beard.  I'm of age.  He needed to see it because I was paying with a debit card.  So I'm in a panic, and there are annoyed people behind me, because everybody wants a shitty malt beverage at the cheapest possible price.  And the guy at the counter is rolling his eyes thinking "not again, another dumbass" and he sees the cash in my wallet and tells me I can pay cash.  So I paid cash and got the hell out of there.  After checking my pockets and everything, I couldn't find the ID.  Above is my pouty face.  I wasn't happy.  Are they going to let me fly home?  Maybe this is where I end up just moving to Vegas.  But thanks to the magic of the interwebs on your portable smart telephone, Jason was able to check the TSA website.  In the first sentence it tells you to not panic.  So I decided to get my drink on and not panic.
It was probably a blessing in disguise because I couldn't sit down at any table to lose more money to the man since they often times card you, and I no longer had a card.  Maybe Jason should have thrown his ID away also.  I did have to have somebody else purchase my beverages for me the rest of the night though.  That's always lame.
I know you're all wondering now what the "special screening is."  Well I promise you there is no rubber gloves or body cavity searches.  They do this to your boarding pass:

That way everybody around you can see that you're a complete jackass.  Then you get to the first security guy and he doesn't even flinch.  He's seen it before, probably earlier that day.  It is Vegas after all.  They pass you off to a supervisor who tells you that you can use several other forms of ID that nobody usually carries around.  Credit cards and insurance cards don't work.  So you have to fill out a form and they call this ID clearing house company.  This is what the guy says to me.  I call them.  They ask me questions to ask you.  If you get the questions right, I let you through.  If you don't get the questions right, you don't go through.  I got the questions right, in record time.  They aren't hard.  Just remember the address of the place you lived prior to your current residence.  Then you get the full pat down for everybody to see by this burly ass bearded dude that would rather be riding his Harley than touching your junk.  Then you're free to go.  Not a very exciting story.
In other news, I deleted my Facebook account.  I got tired of it being connected to everything.  They tricked me into using my Facebook account for my Spotify account.  Actually there is no other option.  I was going to vote for the Next Food Network Star, except I had to use a Facebook app for it.  Bullshit.  Google+ is a better product even if every annoying 13 year old in the world isn't posting stupid stuff all over it.  So I just up and deleted it.  So now I don't know how anybody is going to find my blog since that was how most people read it.  I've got my solid 12 followers, who I don't even know if they get notified of my new post.  I'll put it up on Google+ and Twitter for my 15 friends/followers there.  Hey, if you do find it, spread the word.  Tell your friends.  Its funny stuff right.
Evan Jager, good old Illinois boy set the American record in the steeple today.  I think its only his fifth race at the event.  Badass.  Olympics are only a week away.  Duane Solomon (Saucony guy! Booyahtich!) ran a big PR and beat Symmonds at Monaco.  I had 3 Bellingham Fit members run between 6:01-6:10 and it was awesome.  I'm signed up for the Oregon Wine Country Half on Labor Day weekend, and the Lake Padden Trail Half in October.  Training is slow but steady.  I think I'm going to be running a 3k at Shoreline instead of the 5k at the Bellingham All-Comers meet in August.  I should get a big PR since I haven't run that distance since I got fast.  I'm missing out on Ragnar this weekend.  It would be fun.  I could have filled a last minute spot too, but I'll be happy when I can go to bed like a normal person.  But we do have the newest member of the Brooks Hansons Elite group on our team this year.  Yeah, 28:08 10k guy.  He's got the long legs.
I'd leave you with some Vegas pictures, except that Blogger sucks for adding pictures.  So you'll have to imagine how cool it was.

-Insert creative title post here-

I can't think of a title for this installment of my blog.  I can't come up with anything that screams READ ME, except, well, READ ME!  And I'm saving that for something really important.  Just not feeling the creative juices.  There will be no bull dancing because I am not feeling the flow.  So if you made it this far, you're doing well.

I have had a couple things come to my attention concerning my blog.  It's hard to figure out how to follow.  You would think Google would make that easy.  It's not.  I'll fix that.  My layout sucks.  It's boring.  It looks generic.  I need one like Ian Crane's.  You should read it because it's funny.  But maybe I need some professional photo's to use as my banner.  And I definitely need a new blog title.  My name is pretty boring.  So I'm taking suggestions for a new blog title, and no Sam, it can't be Chuck Merder.  I also have trouble with verb tense agreement.  I go past tense to present tense and back like Marty McFly in Back to the Future 3, which sucked.  So does changing your verb tense.  I should know better.  I was a writing tutor in college.  But thanks to today's technology I'm becoming more dumberer and can't think for myself.

I'm a bit of a technology junkie.  Smart phones, computers, tablets, and all that jazz are like a cool challenge to me.  How can I customize and make this piece of electronic gadgetry so super cool that a Luddite would want one.  It consumes too much of my time, ask Holly.  But at least there is a reward at the end, unlike watching television, where your reward for watching the show you like is another hour of a show you don't like as much but you're just too lazy to turn off.  Good thing I don't have the Hopper because I'd have to shout it out repeatedly in a Boston accent annoying myself, my cats, and anybody else in the house.  But I do want a Google tv unit.  Computer on your tv?  Yes please.  I already do this with my laptop while watching Flotrack web feeds of awesome track meets that despite the low budgets are way better than any ESPN/NBC feed.  I can't stand Larry Rawson even if he created the international sliced bread unit of weight measurement.    But I need a dedicated computer for the tv so that I can play on my laptop while I watch my computer on tv.  Wha?  That's insanity.

For all you Nook users, did you know you can buy ebooks locally.... sort of.  While wandering through Village Books I noticed signage that mentioned buying ebooks from them.  My heart immediately jumped and I felt relieved because after being in their wonderful store, I originally felt sorry that I was probably never going to by an actual book from them but now I can.  But anyway, here is how it works.  You buy the ebook though the Google book store but under the Village Book headings.  You can then save it to the correct folder on your Nook for reading with all your Barnes and Noble purchased books.  Or you can use Indie Bound reader app to read those purchased books.  There are some issues wtih downloading the metadata to get the book cover to show up, and you have to use Calibre to fix that, and I can already see you're totally lost and you don't really care about Nooks and ebooks.  But if you care and want to know more, I'd be glad to help.  But at least Village Books gets some part of the profit for selling the ebook that way.  That's the whole point of this long winded paragraph.

Anybody into personalizing their computer desktop?  Wait, who uses the desktop for anything?  Isn't that where you put all the icons and create a mess?  Yes, the desktop is for storing a bazillion icons in no particular order so that when somebody like myself sees it, I want to rip my eyes out.  But my current nerd project is pimping my desktop using Rainmeter.  It looks nice.  You should try it, but only if you have less than 5 icons currently on your desktop.  If not, you're computer is a disorganized jumbled mess anyway and there is no hope to clean it up and organize it.

And since this is a running blog technically, I guess I should write something about running.  First two mileage weeks after Ski to Sea.  50 and 56.5.  Feeling pretty good.  Continuing the slow build through June and July.  No upcoming races so there is no rush.  But feeling pretty good about running those two weeks so close to Ski to Sea.  I will admit that I haven't gotten going on my "extra work" like core strength, pilates, rolling, and stretching.  Dumb, yes.  Feel free to berate me via my comment section.  I'm trying to gain comments any way I can.  You didn't notice earlier in the blog where I wanted suggestions for a new blog title?  Well I did.  I can't even get spam in my comment section.  Man, I suck.  But back to running, I feel like I should add some inspirational quote here to motivate my legions of fans who want more running insight.  So here it is:  "If its not in your head, its not in your legs."  --Rod Dixon.  If you don't know who that is look it up.  Better yet, here is the wiki link.  Talk about range!  800 to Marathon, this guy was a stud.  But generally speaking, its probably harder to harness "it" in your head than it is in your legs.

Next blog I promise pictures for anybody with a short attention span.  I have no idea what kind of pictures, but I'll have some.

Say that again, I have to actually train this summer?

First off, I'm sorry I lied to my 9 followers.  I didn't get a blog out by the end of the week.  I'm sorry to have ruined your weekends.  I was depressed and mourning the loss of the Celtics and the end of an era.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

So, unlike every summer since I've moved out here, I have a full summer of training, and a full fall of racing planned.  And it's not because I was smart enough to avoid Ski to Sea this year.  I still did that, it just didn't wreck me like previous years.  I'd like to think it's because I trained well for it (I really didn't), I've been doing my extra strength/core work (I haven't), I'm just a badass (not so much).  But mostly I think one little visit post race to Noble Chiropractic was the biggest help.  I still took a full week off, but my second week back to training?  50 mile feeling good.  It's a miracle.  Thanks Steve.

Since I won't be half crippled for all of June, I figured I better start training for real.  Half marathon PR's on turd training is the exception to the rule, so I won't count on that happening again.  It's summer, the good weather is here, wait, no, it's not here yet.  What?  Fourth of July you say?  Why do I think summer starts in June here?  You think I'd learn.  So the good weather is right around the corner, and I have my head on straight, and I'm ready to go.

Once again I've got Sam Alexander writing up the workouts and the racing schedule.  He even color coded my workout types and used google docs to send me information.  I'll make a tech nerd out of him yet.  But seriously, a great coach.  He's for hire, but don't bother if you're not willing to commit to it.  Training isn't about a good season or a good year.  Its a daily grind, for days, then weeks, then months, then years.  Good things take time.  Running is no different.

This fall's focus is going to be the half marathon.  I've got three on the schedule.  Oregon Wine Country so that I can hopefully win a giant bottle of wine which I will then trade for multiple cases of cheap beer.  Bellingham Bay, because the wind brutalized Jordan Welling last year and his course record is soft.  Then I can hang out at the finish and watch the Bellingham Fit-sters finish their races.  Should be great.  Last is the Rock'N'Roll half in LasVegas.  This started as another excuse to go to Vegas, because I'm still obsessed.  But it's a stacked race.  It's a pretty fast course.  You run the strip...... at night.  And then your in Vegas.  So obviously its a win-win situation.  The only lose part is that I'm running a Rock'N'Roll event.  I'm sure they put on a great race, but they are too damn expensive, crowded, and gimmicky.  Hopefully I don't have to worry about the money part either.  Should be a good field to tow me along to another big PR though.  But I'll tell you this:  If I see people running the race while wearing headphones, I'm going to smack them.

I'll do a handful of other races inbetween too.  WWU XC Invite, Padden Trail Half, The Seawall Race, All Comers 5k, you know, stuff like that.

Waiting

The title of this post has nothing to do with my waiting for anything.  This is all about how I've kept everybody waiting for another blog.  All 8 of you who have subscribed, and the 14 or so who might actually view my blog this time around.  I don't know how to grow my legions of adoring fans.  It certainly isn't with my witty stories of exotic races abroad.  But, I am promising you a full fledged blog by the end of the week, since my life is so exciting.  Upcoming topics may include but won't be limited to: My Vancouver Half Marathon PR, Ski to Sea, the end of my season, my future race plans, a review of streaming music services Mog and Spotify, some book recommendations, rooting a Nook Tablet, buying ebooks locally, and the Boston Celtics.  So if you want to hear about any of all of the topics above, make sure you subscribe, and then use a fascinating social reader like Google Reader, Pulse, Feedly, or any of the hundreds of others so that you never miss another one of my posts.

Disappointment with Success

So I won my "big" road race.  Fun With the Fuzz was great.  Perfect weather.  Great crowds.  Perfect course. I'm not $500 richer for having run 15:20.  I'm happy with the time all things considered.  Which means I've trained like garbage since February and I thought I'd be lucky to run 15:30.  But I guess I maximized the training I have done.  And luckily, some of the big dogs who might have traveled up from Seattle opted to check out the new 5k with cash prizes in Tacoma.  It's closer and it pays three deep.  Mike Sayenko won $500 for a 14:23.  15:08 was the first non money winner.  Ouch.  But I won't complain.  I'm using the money to fly my mom out here finally.  Yes, RB, I'm actually doing that.  The money is in the bank, waiting until we figure out a weekend in late August or early September for her to come out here and see how awesome it is.

As for the race, here is the recap:  First off, I was super excited to sport my new Saucony Hurricane gear.  It looks awesome.  And I even had a pair of early release Kinvara 3's to warm up in.  I know shoe buying is an individual thing, but Saucony has always been great for my foot shape and I like what they're doing with the lower drop shoes.  Vizipro orange is rad.  And they've helped me out with a lot of gear.  Ok, ok, I'll stop with the obvious product plug.

I was pretty nervous because of the prize money.  It has a way of bringing fast guys out of the woodwork, but luckily we're far enough away from Seattle and Vancouver to deter some of those guys, and Kyle Nelson does such a good job getting a thousand people from nearby that he doesn't need to recruit out of town.  That might change next year.  That's ok, I'll be faster.

But it doesn't happen until you start warming up, that sense of fear and doubt.  Heavy legs, which are always heavy before a race (I'm actually more worried when they feel good in warm up) don't do much to inspire confidence.  The thoughts of the skipped runs and workouts due to the nagging little issues, the lack of motivation, and the bevy of other lame excuses start to fill the brain.  So I was happy to talk to anybody, take pictures, and just try to distract myself in general.  I felt a lot like I did before I ran Seattle Marathon in '09.  If I could have puked, I probably would have.

But as it got closer and closer to race time, I didn't see any recognizable "big fish" so I started to calm down little by little.  And eventually we lined up at the start.  And despite the pace car's best efforts to get in the way, we were off and running.  And after about 15 seconds, the brain sort of quiets down and racing instincts take over.  I decided to just go out hard and see who could hold on.  If somebody could match a 4:50 first mile, they could probably beat me and they probably deserved to.  I didn't quite hit 4:50 but I wasn't too far off and I had already opened up a gap at the mile.  I knew if I could grow the gap just a little bit by mile two, surviving until the downhill portion to the finish shouldn't be a problem.

I tried pushing hard after turning off Eldridge to push the gap while I was out of view.  I never know how well that actually works, but I always try it.  But it didn't matter this time.  I ran the second mile in 5:00, lengthening the lead a bit.  By the time I hit mile three, I had switched my thinking to "just hold on, don't trip, don't blow up" and I finally reached the downhill grade and I knew I was safe.  I got some extra boost from Jim Clevenger who was out supporting his 0 to 5k group and Klicks Running and Walking.  My "hold on" mentality ended up driving my fastest mile, somewhere in the low 4:50 range.  I crossed the line in 15:20 with arms raised, and a few fist pumps, excited for my mom.  It was great.  I kept running through the line for a moment to collect myself before turning back to see the rest of the finishers.

The time wasn't bad but I immediately think of how poor I feel my training has gone and wonder what I could have run when training was going well.  I guess that will have to wait.  I do plan on crushing an All Comers 5k sometime this summer though.  But a slice of Little Ceasars, a quick call to my mom, and some race recap with friends and fellow racers (who for the most part all seemed to have pretty good days) and any disappointment in my fitness was short lived, especially when they handed me the check.

And the whole tone for the weekend was set.  Had some great Ethiopian food (will this make me faster?) at the farmers market.  A caramel latte from Avelino (they use real caramel, and chocolate, and ingredients in general) was awesome.  Yellowcard beer from Chuckanut Brewery was a nice bonus.  Sunday morning I went for an awesome long run in the Chuckanuts with Jake Hartsoch where he snapped this cool action shot (trying to show family the awesome-ness of our trails).

It was a great day, with plenty of sun and warm weather.  I ran chinsraper (or walked) and some other sections of trail I had somehow managed to miss on Chuckanut.  All in all, a pretty awesome weekend.

The Big Race

I've got a big race this weekend.  The biggest of my spring, if only because of the cash prize.  This year's Fun With the Fuzz 5k has a $500 first place prize.  Second place, gets...... nothing.  I had planned on running this race all along, but the prize potential is a nice bonus.  But there is just one problem.  I'm not that fit.  My foot problems derailed my early spring training.  I was running, but I wan't really training.  And I've just struggled with motivation.  I've run a couple races this spring and they've gone well, but running a fast 5k is different.  I've pretty much only done Daniels "R" pace workouts so I have no idea what to expect. I'm thinking I'm maxed out at 15:30.  But I've thought that twice going into the all comers meet at Civic and run 15:15 running in lane 3, so it remains to be seen.

I'm more nervous to see who else may show up.  $500 is worth a drive up from Seattle or down from Vancouver.  So I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  I'm already a little nervous about the race though.  But at least I'll look good in my new Saucony gear.

After Fun With the Fuzz, I've got the Vancouver Half Marathon.  It's a Saucony race which is cool.  But I'm also not feeling very confident about a road half.  Feels like a wasted opportunity at a fast race, one which I should be able to get dragged along, except that I can't get my training ramped up to where I want it.

And after that, I get the meat grinder, Ski to Sea.  I won't even talk about that now.

So hopefully I'll be posting another blog about my awesome victory this weekend and not my utter disappointment.  If I do manage to come home with the money, my Mom is getting a plane ticket to WA this summer so she can see how awesome it is.

It had to happen sometime

I lost a race, which was my first loss since mid-2009.  In full disclosure, I didn't race in 2010, barely raced in 2011, and didn't race any race where I nessecarily should have been beat.  That doesn't mean I didn't have some tough battles.  Dusty C. pushed me to my limits at Baker Lake 50k.  1:20ish isn't much of a gap over 4 hours.  Patrick Gibson finished oh so close at the All Comers 5k.  Never expected that going into the race.  The Orcas 25k was even too close for comfort.  But I didn't race any college races, or any XC races in Seattle, or anything like that.  I've been ducking competition a little bit.  Well, that isn't exactly the truth.  Racing sparingly has been a result of my fitness and health mostly.  But when I signed up for the Honeywagon Runs, I was fairly certain I could win either race I entered.  Turns out, I would have had a hard time winning either.

Hendrik Kok won the 4 miler.  I'm pretty sure he was a D3 stud at Calvin College while I was a turd at Monmouth College.  Looks like he's getting back into shape.  But I didn't run the four mile.  In my infinite wisdom, I opted for the half marathon to "get some extra miles in."  If that is the way you're looking at your upcoming race, it should tell you one of two things.  1.  Don't race.  2. Don't be upset when you suck.  I've run plenty of races just to run them and have fun, but I've ALWAYS raced them.  The one exception is when I entered to help a buddy run a certain time, and I used a fake name because I didn't want my name attached to the time.  (Bonus points for anybody who can respond via comment with info on my alias that day: Andre Bucher).

So I'm running the little old Honeywagon.  My last two mileage weeks were 7.5, then 70.5.  I was in the midst of another 70 except I wussed out on my Friday night run.  Hence the "running for extra miles."  So sure that nobody would show up that could beat me, I ate two donuts and had coffee for breakfast.  Seriously, who comes to the Honeywagon to run fast right?  Its a great race, but is ALWAYS windy, and often times smelly.  But somebody did show up ready to run fast.  Josh Vander Wiele.  And he was definitely more fit than I am currently.  Jason Gulley pointed him out to me in the first half mile and I decided to go "race" him.  And after 1.5 miles of thinking about just what exactly I was in for, I decided to back off and run with Jay, Collin, and Jason.  I gave up and I hated every second of it.  I may or may not have been able to hang with Josh and beat him.  Who knows.  Odds were that I would have hurt way more and lost anyway.  It was the right decision.  I wasn't mentally or physically ready to race so I bailed.  Great race Josh.

But I still had to finish running the last 11 miles, which went by much quicker with other runners than they would have otherwise.  Collin saved us from a hard charging (but probably friendly) massive looking dog by shouting, "You F@#* OFF" which sent the dog in the other direction.  I helped play wind blocker for Jay who was trying to run sub 1:20 whether or not old mother nature was cooperating.  We came oh so close with a 1:20:52 but just too much wind.  Miles 11-12ish were into a brutal headwind, which was pure torture at that point in the race.  We lost Colin in that stretch but Jay hung on with Gulley and I pushing against the wind.  We decided to cross the finish three wide.  But because of the chip timing, Gulley got second and an hour massage, Jay got third and Pickford Movie tickets, and I got fourth receiving nothing.  Ha ha.

But overall a well run race.  Check out the results HERE.  Always good timing by BuDu Racing.  Tyler Mitchell Photography got some sweet PHOTOS.  Check them out!  And most importantly, good times were had by all, and hopefully some of those awesome cookies were had by all.

And for me, its time to look forward to the next race.  This one was fun.  Running for running's sake, because I love it, win or lose.  Maybe Stewart Mt.  Maybe something else.  It doesn't really matter as long as I'm out there having fun.

A view that has to be shared.

Sunday morning run to Raptor Ridge with John Ralston and Jake Hartsoch.  One of the most enjoyable runs I've had in a while and what a reward at the top.  And this is a reminder why I don't think I could go back to Illinois.  After a 10 day visit that I totally enjoyed, and some much needed time with family and friends, I was feeling a little bit down, and a little bummed out about heading back to Bellingham.  I won't lie, the departure of BellingSam put me in a bit of a funk. But a 70 mile week with this at the end, did wonders to ease the mind and put me in a good place.  Excited for what comes next.

Going again

I just got back from a trip to Illinois to visit my family for 10 days.  It was a great trip.  I got to play with my nephew Caleb a lot.  His laughing and smiling and tongue clicking, and baby babble was great therapy.  And despite some of the best February winter weather, I only managed 7.5 miles for the week.  I had already decided that upon my return to Bellingham, I'd just start in to my 70+ mile weeks.
So here I am, four days into my first 70 in several months.  I just don't do the build up very well.  And I'm back for another year with the Saucony Hurricanes.  I love my ViziPro.  And I just signed up for the Fun with The Fuzz 5k, which is offering a $500 cash prize.  Don't I wish I had started real training a couple months earlier.  We'll see who shows up.
Along with Fun with the Fuzz, I'm committed to one more year as the Dowhill Runner Leg of Ski to Sea.  And I'm going to race the heck out of the local races for the next three months.  That's right Whatcom county!  Racing my way into shape!
I'll be honest though.  Racing my way into shape sounds far better than the alternative of slogging through endless solo workouts now that my mentor/coach Sam Alexander has left for California.  I need a kick start, a momentum building season, a motivational boost, and throwing down and racing almost weekly is the best alternative.  Then I'll regroup, and focus on a big fall race, probably a half marathon somewhere.  So that is the plan as it stands for now.  

Orcas Island 25k Race Recap

My first race of the year and also the first since Baker Lake 50k was the Orcas Island 25k put on by Rainshdow Running.  That was a lot more time in between races than I like, but I was banged up and lacked a little motivation.  Over the last several weeks, I've gained a little more consistency with my training, but the volume and quality just aren't there yet.  So I went into this one with the fun factor in mind.  A cool trail race on badass trails with a ferry ride thrown in there.  And yes, I'm still excited every time I get to ride the ferry.  I grew up in Illinois surrounded by a sea of corn and beans, not a real sea.  So driving your vehicle onto a boat, and cruising around one of the most beautiful areas of the country is simply amazing.
Holly and I had originally planned to head over to Orcas on Friday evening, but because neither of us wanted to miss a half a day of work, or get in late to the camp, we opted for the early Saturday ferry.  And by early, I mean, really early.  The alarm went off at 3:30 am.  Yikes.  But because it was a race weekend, I was able to get right out of bed.  Why is it so hard to do that on a daily basis?
I slept most of the ferry ride over to Orcas which was nice to get a little extra sleep, but a bummer because the trip is usually so cool.  But without the sun to show me the surrounding beauty, nap time won out.  We were the third car off the boat and we led the racer train to Moran State Park, where the race takes place.  It was nice to arrive a full hour and a half early.  I just don't like cutting things close, ever.  But considering it was under 40 degrees and a relatively long race, I hadn't planned on doing much warm up.  I actually didn't warm up at all.  I did half a stride and some abbreviated form drills to be exact.  But we had a nice warm building with a wood burning stove cranking out heat to hang out in before the race.  Deciding what gear to wear was the toughest part of the pre race routine.  It was just cold enough to worry about freezing but not quite cold enough to really double layer.  I opted for the man-pris my Saucony tech t and then my arm warmers, hats, and gloves.  I still have to see if Saucony can get me some digital camo or something so that I blend in during these trail races.  Instead, I stand out like a beacon to my competitors..... "catch me, I'm only a little way in front of you and I can't hide."
The race plan was to run easy up the big climb with Jason and then bomb back down the other side and then every man for himself.  Not knowing anything about the rest of the field, it seemed like a good plan.  We lined up for the downhill start and after some brief instructions about following red ribbon and warnings about the snow, we were off.  Nice and easy down the gravel road to the blacktop loop through the campground area and then into the trail.  I let Gulley lead as I have a tendency to get amped up and hammer early.  We ran a nice easy pace talking throughout the first three miles, just waiting for the course to get nasty.  The early miles were great (The Good Stuff).  Flowy winding single track that every so slightly climbed up.
26 minutes into the race, we hit the real tough stuff.  A couple miles of steep, technical, rocky, rooty uphill trail with many switchbacks.  Gulley bailed out on the climb and I was left to motor up in my "granny gear" which can only be described as walking disguised as a run.  Tiny little baby steps up and up and up with a lot of arm swing.  Surprisingly, I was able to keep going at this pace, even though I had told myself that walking was ok and might actually be preferable.  Slowly, the trail turned from dirt and rock to snow.  There was a bike track and a couple sets of footprints almost the entire way.  The snow was at least ankle deep most of the time, but it was also pretty hard.  It caved with full body weight, but since it was hard for me to avoid the footprints, or land fully in them (I have size 13, the footprints were much much smaller) I had to just make due with a wobbling gait the whole way.  The Peregrines performed admirably though.  Always felt sure footed and comfortable.
Eventually I would reach the tower, my only real landmark in the entire race.  It took roughly 57 minutes to get there.  Wait, I thought the tower was 6.5 miles in.  I wanted to run sub 2 hours. How will I run two additional miles in only three additional minutes, unless its all blazing downhill.  Well duh!  I'm at 2400 feet.  I just ran uphill for an hour.  Naturally I would have to come downhill.  And the downhill was fast and furious. Faster for some than others.  The most treacherous footing in the race, the next 75 meters down the path from the tower to the parking lot.  Almost fell on my head.  Thanks for the warning Todd.  And then you drop down off of the asphalt and into the switchbacks of doom.  Maybe a mile of snow covered, long and steep switchbacks winding down and down and down.  As I was nearing the bottom, I heard a yell.  Another comptitior?  Yup.  Blue shirt.  Gulley?  Nope.  New guy.  And he's BOMBING down that friggin hill.  And just when I was sure he would catch me, we hit the bottom of the switchbacks.  Time to go to work.
Over the next couple miles of rolling terrain, I tried pushing the pace.  I was going to make the guy behind me hurt if he wanted to keep up.  He better be hurting because I wasn't so sure I could maintain this pace.  But just as quickly as he came up behind me, he was gone again, and I was left in solitude.  This is about when I started thinking that I haven't run more than 10 miles since the 50k in October and that fitness might be an issue.  I was also hungry.  Like, really hungry.  But you just play the mental games and try to distract yourself from felling bad.  I like doing race splits in my head, although splits were useless in this particular race.  Eventually, after a good chunk of time and some beautiful scenery, we hit the second portion of endless switchbacks.  These, fortunately, were not covered in snow.  What a relief.  But my quads were still in protest after the first set of switchbacks.  Probably a good sign telling me that I braked too much up top, but it would be more of the same.
I like to consider myself a decent downhill runner.  I've put up some good performances on the Ski to Sea course.  I've got good turnover and decent natural speed, but there is just something different about railing downhill on rocky rooty trails.  That, and they were just steep enough to not be comfortably run-able.  So naturally I was worried that that guy behind me was screaming downhill again, and he'd come from nowhere and overtake me just as I bonked and I'd have to stagger in around the lake dejected about losing for the first time in a couple years.  After what seemed like eternity, I saw some of the small out buildings from the campground so I new we would be crossing the road and heading around the lake and in to the finish.  I heard the first spectators since the tower cheer for me, although I couldn't see them.  And then, a mere 20 seconds later, I heard them cheer again.  Was he really that close?  Were my works fears going to come true?
And I began to panic a little.  I crossed the road, but the red ribbons marking the course were a little hard for me to see, especially without my glasses on.  As I cautiously navigated my way onto the trail around the lake, I was worried that I was jogging while I tried to pick out the next marker with my eyes squinted.  And by the way, isn't the most common colorblind-ness red/green?  Not that I was looking up for the markers anyway.  I was looking at the snow and uneven terrain where my feet were supposed to go.  So once again, I put on a big surge.  And we're speaking in relative terms.  This is a tough course where I probably had everything from a low 5 minute mile to a 10+ minute mile during the heard of the climb.  But it was still an acceleration, and I began pulling away from the guy behind me.  Yes he has a name.  It's  David Brown, but I didn't know that until afterward, so for now, its that guy behind me that scared the bejesus out of me.  The lake looked huge, but I flew through it and soon I exited the trail for the campground road, then up the final steep hill (what a cruel finish) and into the grassy lawn with the finish line (Photo Here).  Nobody was in site behind me.  And I stopped my watch at the line (2:01:26), smiled, and ran another 50 feet right to the bathroom.  Relief!
David came in just over 2 minutes later, followed by Jason Gulley.  Mark Kerr got himself lost unfortunately.   Holly ran well despite only deciding on Friday that she was actually going to run.  Lots of amazing results for the large Bellingham crew.  A great Happy Birthday run for Laura Gulley.  Just an awesome race top to bottom.
And then there is the post race.  The most amazing roasted red pepper tomato soup.  And a nice warm building with a wood burning stove.  And shower.  And beer. And desserts.  And snacks.    Oh my.  Runners post race heaven.  Thank you thank you thank you Rainshadow Running.  This is what every race should be.  A real celebration.  I only wish I had stayed around for the evening dance party.  But Holly and I decided to make it a long day but sleeping in our own beds was a proposition that was too good to pass up.  We took the late ferry back to the Anacortes and drove home to sleep in with the kitties.  But what a day.  I'll be back again next year.

I'm going to write about something other than running.

I'm going to write about something other than running because I didn't run today.  I just didn't have it in my.  With my foot giving me a little bit of trouble, and there being a disgusting mix of snow and ice on the ground followed by a cold rain, I opted to take the 8 year old route, a phrase I adopted last night.  Really, this is going to be a series of disjointed thoughts that hopefully you won't have the patience to sit and read all the way through.

First off, I'm looking for the perfect music discovery site, which will lead me into a pseudo rant about social network sharing.  WHEN WILL GOOGLE+ BE ADDED TO SHARING OPTIONS?  I like google+.  I want it to work.  I want it to grow.  I want my friends and family to adopt it so I can leave Facebook forever, and inevitably it will turn into Facebook in popularity and annoyingness (spell check tells me annoyingness isn't a word.  Fuck spellcheck.).  Except I have faith in the fact that Google can do things better.  Let me submit "timeline" as my first piece of evidence.  I didn't get annoyed with any of the previous layout changes with Facebook.  Progress needs to happen right?  Timeline is dumb.  I'll deal with it.  Back to music.  I've tried mflow, We Are Hunted, Pandora, Grooveshark, Soundtracker, Last.fm, exfm, and now Spotify.  Spotify bothers me because it looks like iTunes.  If I wanted iTunes, I'd have an iPhone, an iPod, and a mac.  I don't.  I've got an Android, and Windows 7, which is great surprisingly.  Windows 8 is going to suck.  Mflow didn't do anything for me.  We Are Hunted turned me on to Lana Del Ray, which I love.  I dropped that into Pandora and got my two current favorite songs.  Cracks (Flux Pavilion Remix) by Freestylers, and Gold Dust by DJ Fresh.  If I were smarter, or less lazy, I'd have all these sites linked in my blog, and audio players for these songs.  I tried with exfm and it didn't work.  Last.fm doesn't have consistent sound quality when playing the radio.  Pandora gets too repetitive way too quick.  It's still currently my go to.  The radio feature on Grooveshark is ok too.  Play it and go.  But I'm trying to find new stuff.  And then you have good old recommendations from friends.  Tip the Van is the best of the recent suggestions.  Thanks Peter.  Chick ska, which is incredibly reminiscent of Dance Hall Crashers, which means it is awesome.  But I can share everything with Facebook and Twitter, but not Google+.  Of course, only about 6 other people I know are on google, but that will change.  And I know this blog won't reach enough people to get any great site suggestions, but if you have anything to share, whether its a website or just a band suggestion, then put it in the comments.  Marguerite Dodd, are you out there.... suggest me some music!

Second, I want to share my favorite new web discoveries.  Andrew Sullivan's blog, the Daily Dish, part of the Daily Beast.  Wait, what the fuck are my ears hearing.  Japanese techno?  What the hell Spotify?  It may not be Japanese, but its shit.  How did I get here?  Thumbs down, er, no, its not Pandora.  SKIP!  Ok, back to Sullivan.  Check out this link.  This is just an average post, of which he does many of throughout the day.  Pretty interesting stuff, especially as the election year heats up, GOP now and full election later.  Helps keep me informed.  

Third, I'm now on twitter.  @CSunderlage.  I felt the urge to figure it out.  Not that its complicated, but more to figure out the appeal.  I don't tweet much.  I like the flow of information.  I "watched" the olympic trials marathon via Flotrack's twitter feed because the USATF totally blew it and you couldn't get a live video anywhere.  But that's another story for a running related post.  Right now Flotrack it tweeting the LSU and Texas A&M meet.  And track nerd that I am, I'm enjoying it.  And then after the SOPA/PIPA blackouts, I started following Anonymous.  Cool stuff.  I watched as one website after another went "Tango down" due to ddos attacks.  But they also linked all kinds of cool news articles, many related to the technology world, which I'm sort of a nerd about.  The @Jon2012Girls were fun until Jon Huntsman dropped out of the Republican primary.  And Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) posts a lot about all the great hippy activities going on, like the Keystone Pipeline battle.  All in all, pretty cool.  Come find me on there.

Fourth, I love the google reader.  Keeps me up to date on my Sullivan, Cowboy Altitude blog that my buddy Matt runs about University of Wyoming sports.  Have to love the brown and yellow uni's.  Larry Nance Jr. is on the basketball team.  Badass.  And they have been doing some heavy football recruiting out of the Seattle area.  I also found a cool cooking blog.  Yes, I like cooking, and I'm a nerd, and this site is great. Sweet patato and parsnip maple bake?  Really?  Awesome.  

Since this is taking me several days to put together, I'll just have to say that Spotify is letting me down.  Maybe I need more time to learn it.  I did see a Google+ share button on Universal Cycles website.  That was totally cool.  I know they are coming. I was on the Universal Cycles because I was looking for a new saddle for my commuter bike, my baby.  It had an unfortunate roof top rack accident with the garage.  Fork is shot.  Sea tpost is shot.  Could be worse.  The frame is ok.  Glad it is a steel bike.  Traitor Cycles has an awesome crash replacement policy.  I just have to hope that they have the fork that matches the paint job of my bike.  If not, all black will do.  I'd ask for saddle recommendations but I know my blog audience is minuscule.  Which reminds me, if you're reading my blog, you should add it to google reader, and then you get a notification any time I present you with my writing awesomeness.  

I get to go home in another month.  I'm totally stoked.  I've got a little nephew who just started talking..... well, he says uh-oh.  And he's crawling now instead of wiggling his way across the room.  I can't wait to play with him for a whole week.  And at home I have two new kittens, Bear and Jasmine.  So cute.  Except Bear is infatuated with the monitor, cursor specifically, but also the letters appearing as I type them.  He makes it hard to get things done.  I tricked him into sleeping on the pillow facing away from the screen at the moment.  It's only a matter of time before he is back jumping on the keyboard..... like NOW!

I've got a race in a week.  Orcas Island, which is awesome.  Moran State Park.  It's a 25k.  Too bad I haven't been putting in my mega miles.  That would get me totally prepared for the race, for sure.  Anyway, a ferry ride, overnight stay in the bunkhouse, music, food, runner nerd-dom.  What's not to like.  Stay tuned for the race report.  

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.