Mt. Spokane 50k - race report

I had a great time at the first annual Mt. Spokane 50k put on by Rainshadow Running. Great trails, spectacular views, and really good fall weather. It was cold at the start, but it's been way colder (and snowier) on this same weekend in previous years, so I wasn't complaining...much.

The course started off with a little climb and some awesome sections of xc-skiing trails. Nice and gently rolling. Ran into a friend who took the early start. And then a plunge down the mountain.

I ran the first 17 or so miles with another Scott (we carpooled up together). He pushed my pace early on a little more than I had probably planned to push it, but it was good for me. :)  The trails just didn't want us to go any slower they we were going. (And I was geeking out about my new shoes, so I had a little extra bit of adrenaline early on.)

It seems the more beautiful a course is, the more deceptively challenging it can be. When the views are photo-worthy and the trails are welcoming and the colors are spanning the entire spectrum, it's easy to get lost in the moment(s), but by mile 20 I got hit with a not-so-gentle reminder in my legs that I've been running and climbing for a few hours.

The summit of Mt. Spokane was the highpoint of the course, but from the starting line it didn't look like it was going to be that tough of a climb. But if you look at the elevation profile below, you can see that there was a bit of descending before we got to climb up to the top, and that it gets a tad steep near the top. My legs felt pretty strong most of the day, and even on the really steep stuff I felt I was able to keep a decent power-hike pace.

Did I mention the views were awesome? I bring a camera on just about every run I go on, no matter how short or far (never know what awesome photo-op there might be), but this was one of those runs where I was particularly glad to have my camera. Sometimes a race isn't so important that it's not worth stopping for a couple minutes to take some photos. :)

I eventually finished too. 5th place overall -- results.

Enjoy some images from Mt. Spokane:

Mt. Spokane 50k elevation profile.

Gathering at the start. Mt. Spokane in the background.

This view greeted us at the top of our first climb.

Top of first climb too. The clouds were amazing all day.

Cruising with the other Scott about 8 miles in.
(Photo by Candice Burt)

Some sweet single-track.

More juicy trail.

Some rocky bits too.

Brooks' new Pure Grit. This is their new lightweight trail shoe.
Love them.

From the summit of Mt. Spokane.

View coming down the summit.

Looking back up to the summit and the beautiful wildflowers.

Finished in 5:23:21.

Where's my beer?

Sadie didn't get to run this one, but
she wasn't mad at me for too long.

My calendar is quiet for the rest of the year. I'll probably throw in a few more local races when they come up. And I'm going to try to get to the mountains with Sadie as much as I can before the snow hits hard.

Keep running!

Scott

Local Trail Running Race Reports for September

I've had a fun September competing in some local trail races.

Sept 11 - 

Moscow Mountain Madness is becoming a local trail race legend. Beautiful trails with some nice ups and downs. This year they changed it to a half-marathon (previously a 12-miler) and included more single-track. I liked most of the changes. The big negative change was that they didn't allow dogs this year, so Sadie had to watch from the sidelines. (This is understandable as the race gets bigger...but it sure was nice being able to run with her before.)

If ever there's a "hometown" race, this is it for me. The course follows trails that I've run with Sadie hundreds of times. I know where the rocks are, I know where the roots are, I know the best spots to stop and take a photo.

It was a good day to be on the trails. Hot (near 90 degrees), but still a good day. I'm usually pretty conservative on the climbs because I want to save something to rip the downhills, but I pushed it a little more than usual on the first big 1,500' climb. I came off the climb  probably somewhere in 15th place or so.

I had a short low-moment around mile 7 or 8 where my legs felt dead, but that only lasted a bit. When we hit the 5 mile descent I was feeling good and started picking off a few people.  I ended up finishing in 10th place overall with a time of 1:49:38.  I thought a time like that would have placed higher, but there was some stout competition this year at the front of the pack.

Elevation Profile of Moscow Mountain Madness

On the course about 3 miles in.

Shortly after crossing the finish line.

Sept 17 -
The Puffer Butte Huff and Puff Trail Run is a low-key, relatively new 5-mile trail race at Fields Springs State Park.  I hadn't run these trails before so I thought it would be nice to go down and check them out.

And dogs were allowed. :)

Turns out the Lewis-Clark State College cross-country team (ranked 10th nationally in their division...I just looked it up) came out in full-force to use this race as a "training run."

At the gun, the men's team sprinted (literally) out of the gates to attack the mile-long climb. Sadie and I watched them zoom away up the windy dirt road.

Not that I was trying to race the cross-country guys or anything (insert smiley face), but I think I was motivated to push it a bit faster than I normally would on my climbs. So I pushed my pace even though they were all already out of sight.  Near the top of the climb I could see a bunch of the road ahead and the main pack had broken into a few smaller packs and there were a couple stragglers falling behind.  Again, I wasn't trying to "race" them, but I definitely wanted to see if I could at least catch the stragglers. :)

I pushed it on the post-climb descent and started gaining on the two stragglers. I passed both of them by the end of the descent and we turned onto the final three miles of the course that was pretty flat with a couple rolling sections and only one super-short climb/descent.

I put a little time on the two stragglers and with about a mile to go I had caught up with another. He looked back and seemed surprised to see an old guy with a dog gaining on him.  That seemed to fire him up, because he picked it up an extra gear and pulled away from me pretty effortlessly. Ah, to have young legs again. (/sniffle)

I finished in 30:03 and was sucking a lot of air. 12 of the cross-country kids beat me, but I ended up finishing ahead of two of them. Surprisingly, and a bit embarrassingly, I was officially awarded the overall winner's ribbon at the award ceremony. I guess they weren't eligible for awards because of restrictions and regulations they have on what they can officially compete in.  And since I was the first non-cross-country person to cross the finish line, I got the ribbon. I almost didn't go up to accept it when they called my name because it felt funny knowing that 12 people crossed the finish line ahead of me.

Besides that awkwardness, it was a lot of fun. Sadie was first-overall dog once again. I think she's only been beaten by another dog in two races ever -- one time was my fault for being slower than the other guy, the other time was her fault for waiting until mile 2.5 of a 5k to take a potty break. :)

Cruising some downhill single-track with Sadie.
Huff and Puff 5-mile trail run.

Sept 24 -

This was the first - and maybe only - Wild Moose Chase Trail 25k. It was put on up at Mt. Spokane as a fundraiser for an Eastern Washington University doctoral program group.  It was a huge success, so I hope to see it continued by future members of this group in the years to come.

I hadn't done any trail running up on Mt. Spokane before, so I was excited to see the trails. I'm doing the Mt. Spokane 50k this weekend, so I figured this 25k would be a good preview of the mountain.

Big bonus points for this race for allowing dogs! Sadie loves to lace 'em up as much as the rest of us.

There was a pretty big crowd at the start, so my game plan was - because I was running with Sadie on a leash - to start at an easy pace near the mid-back just to see how everyone sorted themselves out. So we stuck back for a couple miles. Whenever the trail widened up enough for a safe with-dog pass then Sadie and I would just ahead a couple runners at a time. We did this for about three or four miles. Then the course left the single-track and moved onto a long and winding dirt service road. With the wider road I could let Sadie off the leash without worrying about her tripping up anyone on the single-track. That's when we were able to pick up the pace quite a bit, and within half a mile or so we passed several others.

Then I didn't see anyone for the most part of a long, three-mile climb. There was an aid-station at the top and I stopped to get Sadie some water. As usual, I run the climbs pretty conservatively in hope of having something in the tank for strong descents. Same here. We hit a long descent on a dirt road and I was really able to crank up the pace. I passed a couple guys, and then around mile nine I finally reached my friend Doug who'd rode up with me. He said something like, "There's only three people ahead of us." Cool. I knew we had one big climb left (up to the top of one of the ski resort's chairlifts), but that the race finished with descent from there.

Right about then we hit the climb. And it was a good one. One of those where you're glad there's a chairlift to get you to the top. Within a few hundred meters of climbing I caught up with the guy in third place. He was looking back a lot and had a slight limp. But seeing me gave him a bit of motivation and he pushed ahead of me by about a minute. Doug had caught up with me again and I was back in fifth place, but I knew there's been some downhill before the finish line, so I stayed back at my conservative climbing pace.

There was a short downhill after the first section of the climb and I passed both of them to move up to third place. Near the end of this descent there was a small stream that I stopped at to let Sadie lay down in, and I was passed up again. The last aid station was at the bottom of the last steep climb (see elevation profile below), and from there we could see the chairlift. I went through about ten seconds back of the third place guy, but pushed it on the bottom of the climb and caught up with him. We hit finished the big climb together, and I was feeling confident that my legs were strong enough to put some time on him on the last mile's downhill.

I pushed ahead of him near the top of the climb, stopped to take a picture at the top, then took off down the single-track. Sadie was cruising too. It's motivating watching her run on trails. She's so excited that it's hard not to be happy and excited yourself.

I felt I was going at a pretty good clip that last mile, but knowing that I was in third place I found myself peeking back a couple times just to make sure the next guy wasn't sneaking up on me. But he wasn't, and I crossed the finish line in third place with a time of 2:10:26 (results). Turned out I put about five minutes on him in that last mile+.  Another top-place finish for Sadie in the dog-division. :)

Wild Moose Chase Trail 25k elevation profile.

Warming up with Sadie.

Sadie excited to finally start running.

Climbing below the chairlift.

3rd-place guy just in front of me near the top of the final climb.
Sadie up ahead of him in the shadows.

Start of the downhill single-track at the end.
Great time of year for wild flowers on Mt. Spokane.

Crossing the finish line with Sadie.
(She surged ahead at the last moment to beat me by a nose.)

1st place age-group = jar of honey. Sweet!

Sept 27 -
September 27th also saw the end of the super-fun, first-annual, Kamiak Loop Trail Series.  We started it in late-Spring and ran every other week on the super-tough Kamiak Loop (within the first mile there's nearly 1,000ft of cumulative climbing). It was a 2.25 mile course formatted in a time trials style.

Hopefully this will become a trail running fixture in the area for years to come too.

Kamiak Loop Trail Series elevation profile.

Flying down the ridge-line side of the Kamiak Loop trail.

Keep running!

-Scott

Pikes Peak Marathon 2011 - race report

The Pikes Peak Marathon has been on my to-do list since I first heard about it a few years ago as I was beginning to run marathons and beyond. 

Billed as "America's Ultimate Challenge," it's one of those not-so-ordinary marathons that attract me. 

The race starts in Manitou Springs, CO (at an oxygen-thick elevation of 6,300') and then runs 13+ miles up to the top of Pikes Peak (at a where-are-my-lungs elevation of 14,115') -- and then back down!

Pikes Peak Marathon course profile
(unofficial)

The joke around town the morning of the race was, "other than the one hill, it's a very flat course." Okay, that was my joke, and it received only forced half-smiles and a bunch of we haven't heard that one before looks.  

The 7,000' climb looked tough and challenging enough, but it was the altitude that was getting under my skin pre-race.  

Pullman sits a little above 2,000', and the trails I regularly train on are between 3,000 and 5,000'. But I've only been above 10,000 ft a couple times in my life, and though the altitude didn't bother my running too much each of those instances, I was told over and over that 14,000' was going to be a entirely different beast to deal with. I knew I'd be okay with the climbing, but I was starting to worry that my body wouldn't react well to the altitude.

And then I read Matt Carpenter's amazingly descriptive course description. The one-hundred times he recommended slowing down on the climb was enough to make me think I should take the climb slow and ultra-conservatively. 

So that was my game-plan, to run an ascent so conservatively it would make Glenn Beck weep. 

An interesting part about this race, especially for the middle-of-the-pack runner, is the jockeying for position at the start. There's a mile or two section of wide-road pavement before the course hits the nearly single-track Barr Trail for the rest of the climb. With 800 or so people running, it could make a pretty big difference in your ascent time if you get stuck in a slower than you'd like to go section of the mamba line for the first several miles of the trail.  But it eventually thins out and the trail widens a tough to make passing, or getting passed, easier.  

I made it a point to get myself stuck in a slower group to keep from getting too excited and going up too fast. (Is that Beck weeping?) The climb is relentless, with only a couple spots where the trail flattens or descends for even 50 ft. There are, however, a few surprisingly less steep sections that were pretty runnable during the mid section of the climb. You can kinda see this around mile 6 on the profile I posted above -- still climbing, but not nearly as dramatic as much of the trail.

My legs were feeling strong as I power-hiked and ran in spurts. The course had a million switchbacks. The trail was 1 part dust, 1/2 part root, 8 parts rock, and 4 parts really nasty jugged rock. And 50 parts spectacular vista - but only if you could catch your breath enough to lift your head from your chest.

By the A-Frame aid station (around mile 10 and 12,000'), I was feeling pretty going about how I was feeling. I'd taken it relatively easy up to that point and my legs and lungs were feeling as good as I could have expected. And then the real climbing started.

"There's a reason trees don't bother growing above 12,000' on Pikes Peak. They can't!" says the website. The views above tree line were spectacular. The weather was clear and cooperating with us up to that point and the views just went on forever. It was a great feeling to see where we started and how far we had climbed.  (About an hour after I started my descent, a hail storm swept across the peak.)

The last mile to the top was by far the most crowded. This was when people were hitting the top and turning around, so what had been a fairly comfortable single-track was now becoming an often dangerous and rocky passing zone.  But did I mention the views were amazing?

I reached the top in 3:39:33, alive, though hardly breathing, let the volunteer take a tab off my bib to prove I made it to the top, and then turned around to retrace my steps back down the mountain.

With my first step down I felt like I had a new body. 

It was nice to go in a direction that wasn't straight up. The first mile down was still very crowded and I did a lot of walking and stepping aside. But when the trail opens up a little and the crowds thin down there really isn't much to keep you from running down as fast as you can, besides the one million hairpin switchbacks and well-placed jagged-rock booby traps.

After about three miles of downhill I started to pick up some momentum and remember thinking how good my legs were feeling. Maybe I took it way too slow on the ascent if my legs were feeling this good, which was fine with me because that was the plan. I also wondered how long I could keep up my pace. I was passing people left and right, but most of them looked like they must have wasted all their energy on the climb because they seemed to only want to survive the descent.

There were a few near-crashes involving large rocks, and a few upright slides as I hit the breaks at surprise switchbacks, but my legs were holding up and, most importantly, I was having fun.  So I began increasing my pace even more with about six miles to go.  And then even more with four miles left. With two miles left I was feeling borderline out-of-control on turns and switchbacks, and I think I had a smile on my face the entire time.

When I hit the pavement with about a mile left I knew that whatever I'd conserved to the top of the mountain I had burned through on the way down because the wheels were about to fall off. But before I knew it I was done. Crossed the finish line. Finished the Pikes Peak Marathon. Survived my first 14'er. 

What a fun race.

Some stats. I finished in 5:51:06, good for 112th place overall (out of 730). My ascent was 3:59:33, or 210th fastest up the mountain. My descent was 1:51:33, which was, surprisingly, the 30th fastest descent of the day.

This is one of those races that I might try again. Generally, I like running new stuff in new places (especially if I have to travel across states to get there), but this one was a unique and fun challenge. And I think I could cut off a good chunk on the ascent now that I know what to expect. We'll see. :)

Shoes: Brooks Cascadia 6

Shorts: Brooks HVAC Synergy Short

Shirt: Brooks Podium SS

Socks: Brooks Wool/Bamboo Infiniti QTR

Pack: Ultimate Direction Wasp

Enjoy some photos:

At the start with Pikes Peak
poking out in the background.

This photo proves that I actually ran parts of the ascent.

Running through Manitou Springs

Climbing Barr Trail. It was this
crowded for the first 5 or 6 miles.

At tree line. 

Two miles from the summit. Spectacular views!

I love this view of the trail.

The summit is in view. But still a mile to go.
The last mile to the top took me about 30 minutes.

Views like this make you forget it's so hard to breathe. Almost.

Trying to sneak in some running at 13,000' feet.

Climbing. Climbing. Climbing.

What, still climbing?

Turnaround point!

You really do feel like you're on top of the world.

Glad to have survived the mountain.

Finished!

Keep running!

Scott

Madison Marathon - race report

Summertime means more running and traveling, and less blog up-keeping.

So here's a short race report from the breathtaking (literally...the average elevation was over 9,000 ft) Madison Marathon in the beautiful mountains of Montana.

This race is billed as "America's Highest Road Marathon." I thought this would be a good race to get some decent altitude training for the upcoming Pikes Peak Marathon.

The Madison course follows a well-maintained, hilly, dirt forest service road along the ridge of the Gravelly Range. Although there isn't a significant single climb that will knock your socks off by itself, by the end of the run the altitude (for those of us not use to 9,000+ ft) made the several 200 ft climbs feel like 2,000 ft. I did a lot of uphill walking the second half of the race.

Most of the course runs through open meadows with unblocked views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. It's a perfect run-with-your-camera course. Beautiful.

Not surprisingly, this was my slowest marathon to date (4:19:50)....but everyone's times were effected by the altitude and climbing, and I still managed to sneak in another top-10 finish (results). (I can't wait for my slowest marathon record to be smashed next weekend at Pikes Peak.)

Day before the race

Day before the race

Shuttle to the start

Stretching my cheek muscles in preparation
for all the smile-inducing vistas to come.

10,500 ft mountains look small when
you're standing at 9,500 ft.

I took a hundred shots similar this.

Typical section of the course.

Climbing

Course stretches into the distance.

Taking photos is a good excuse to catch your breath.

A brutal little climb up through Devil's Lane

Nothing flat on this course.

I highly recommend this race if you're looking for a low-key, extra-scenic, challenging run where a PR is guaranteed not to happen. :)

Pikes Peak Marathon next weekend.  Keep running!

-Scott