Bloomsday 2012 - Race Report

There's not much new I can say about Bloomsday 12k (and I've taken a month to figure out what to say).  I think this has become the closest thing to a must-do annual race for me.  I've run this race in 2011, 2010, and 2007 ('07 was my first race when I started giving this running thing a try).

It's such a fun event. The race is only part of the fun-filled day. There are generally over 50,000 people lined up at the start, which makes it one of the biggest races in the country. There are dozens of live bands playing along the course. There's a hill called Doomsday. People are in costumes, and everyone is having a grand time. And there is always the after race parties and meeting up with friends. This year two of our friends participated for the first time.  

This year has been another fun year so far. I've been getting in some great training as I prepare for my big race in Scotland at the end of June (95-mile West Highland Way). So the last couple months have been focused mostly on big miles in the mountains, and not on a fast, short road race like Bloomsday.  But, as it turned out, all the hill work I've been doing has translated into some decent fitness.

The day before Bloomsday a couple friends and I hit Moscow Mt. for a 4+ hr, 24-mile trail run (we're all training for big trail ultras). I anticipated slow, heavy legs for Bloomsday, and they sure felt that way when I woke up.  

I went out easy with no intentions on trying to PR (2011's 47:25 was my best time). I just wanted to go out and enjoy the event. This doesn't mean I was intent on "jogging" the course. I planned to run as fast I could on the tired legs for sure, I just didn't have any specific plans to shoot for a PR. I thought I would probably be in the 48-49 range.

My legs were feeling quite heavy for the first mile like I anticipated, but then they started loosening up during the first big downhill. And when the first climb came they were feeling surprisingly strong, so I picked up the pace. By the time I hit Doomsday Hill at mile 5 I was feeling very good, and obviously better than I had any previous years. 

I powered up Doomsday (while high-fiving the mascots and vulture) and was still feeling good (and having fun), so I cranked it up as much as I could. I noticed that I was now passing a lot of people who looked like they were running decently fast themselves, so I started wondering what my time might be and whether or not I actually might have a shot to snag a PR. I wasn't wearing a watch so had no idea what my splits had been up to this point, but I knew I was now running faster than I had run the previous year; I just didn't know if the easy-paced first couple miles may have been too slow.

When I made the last turn toward the finish line, a two-block downhill sprint, I could finally see the clock and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was going to smash my PR. I crossed the finish line nearly two minutes faster than last year in 45:32 (results). I know I am faster this year than I was last year, and I knew that I would have blown away my PR if I hadn't run gone for a big trail run the day before, but it was a pleasant surprise to still get that time on what I thought were going to be tired legs.

A beer tent, sun, music, jerk chicken, and blue-cheese sausage made for a fun after-race party too. Bloomsday's a blast. 

At the top of Doomsday

 

Three weeks until Scotland!

-Scott

WSU 100k - race report

April 22 was my second attempt at the WSU 100k. When I ran it in 2009, it was my first attempt at any race over 50 miles...and it kicked my butt. This year I've been feeling very fit, and I was looking forward to a having a strong race as preparation for this summer's big goal.

The WSU 100k's main attraction is the relay which attracts around 50 teams a year.  The solo category is generally a lonely affair. This year there were less than ten solo starters. But we were lucky to have Badwater Champion and Death Valley solo crosser Lisa Bliss join us.

The solo race starts at 6:00am in Pullman and then does a huge loop that stretches all the way down to the Snake River canyon, and then a 17-mile stretch along the river, and then a climb out of the canyon back up to the Palouse. Lisa and I had chatted a little before the race and we were both shooting for about a 10hr finish.  She had her eyes set on the female course record of 9:51, and/or the female master's record of 10:15.  I thought I might have a 10-hour finish in me if everything went right, and at the very least an 11hr finish. (My 2009 time was 12:16.) 

The morning was pleasant and cool. Unfortunately, we knew temps were expecting to reach lower 80's by the afternoon, which was by far the hottest day of the year on the Palouse. In fact, I think I had been on only two or three runs all year without a jacket, gloves, and a long-sleeved shirt.

You've seen all the photos I post on this blog, so you know how much I love the beauty of the Palouse.  The WSU 100k is a great tour of the regional beauty. And the fields are starting to turn to green, so there was a great deal of color throughout the day. My first love is trail running, but running the hilly country roads around the Palouse is a very close second.

The 10-hour plan was to hit the 50k mark around 4:30, which would give us 5:30 to make it back up the canyon during the hottest part of the day. When we hit the river we were greeted with a nice stiff headwind. Winds are notorious in the canyon, so we almost felt lucky to have only what was probably a 15mph or so headwind. We pushed through the wind and hit the 50k mark almost exactly at 4:30. Right on target.

Temps were starting to get pretty warm by the time we reached the climb out of the canyon at mile 36. We powered up the climb -- hiking the steepest sections and running everything that we could. 

At the top of the canyon, around mile 45, I was starting to overheat a little and I took an extra minute or two with my crew, Annie, to soak my head in some ice-cold water. Up until this point, after I'd stop to quickly fill up on water I'd run to catch back up with Lisa (she would run through her water stops with an impressive water bottle exchange with her crew, Gunhild, that cost her almost no time) -- but this time I didn't have anything in my legs to catch up with her, and I was starting to need the extra time just to stay cool. I kept her within view for another five miles or so, but she was slowly pulling away from me with each stop water stop I took and I'd wouldn't catch up with her again.

I hit mile 50 just a bit over 8 hours and I still felt I had a shot at a 10-hour finish, though temps were now in the 80's and I was feeling the strain, and feeling the pace slow considerably. This was about when my buddy, Dan (who had run a leg of the relay), volunteered to run with me for the rest of the way. 

I was taking some walk breaks now, but it was nothing like 2009 when I basically did a 10-mile death march to the finish line. I still had some juice in my legs, and actually hit a 3-mile stretch where I actually felt I was running again and not just survival jogging. But that was short lived, and the last three miles of the race I was in complete survival mode.  

I was excited to reach Pullman in under 10 hours, but with a couple miles through town still left, a sub-10-hour finish was gone. I wasn't sure how far ahead Lisa was, but I was rooting her on to get the course record (turns out she missed it by only a few minutes).

I happily crossed the finish line in 10:13:25. I was very pleased with the race. My training has been strong and productive, and I think I'll be as ready as I can be for Scotland.

Enjoy some photos (taken by Annie):

Course profile

Solo starters

Sun rising over Pullman

Palouse countryside

Possibly the only shade on the entire course.

The sky was beautiful all morning.

Beginning the descent into the canyon.

DNF

Racer ST5 -- possibly my favorite shoe ever.

Along the Snake River with gorgeous canyon views.

Along the Snake River.

Nearing the end of the river section.

Starting the climb from the river.

Overheating, but looking cool.

With Dan.

Finished. Ugh.

Sometimes the best part of a run is the non-running part.

Palouse Brown to Green

The fields are making their turn from brown to green. This is a great time of the year to try to get lost on the back roads.

I have the WSU 100k this weekend. It will be a good test to see how my fitness is as I'm slowly building up to June's West Highland Way Race.

Keep running!

Scott

Badger Mountain 50k - race report

The Badger Mountain Challenge debuted last year in the Tri-Cities, WA with positive reviews.  And since I'm always on the lookout for new races in the region, this seemed like the perfect event to kick off my big training for the big race in June. 

The 50k course is basically an out-n-back along the spine of three hills overlooking the Columbia River, so that gives us six nice climbs before the finish-line. It was mostly a mix of single-track, gravel roads, and rocky double-track. 

50k profile courtesy of race website.

I hadn't been on a run longer than 20 miles since January, so I was treating this race as my first long run of the season. I've been trying to be more patient with my miles this year than I was last year. Last year, I ran myself into an injury two weeks before the Atacama Crossing. This year I hope to be a little more conservative with my weekly mileage.

Weather forecasts all week were predicting a lot of cold rain and high winds, so I think most of us felt a little lucky that we only felt a few drops at the start - and the sun even popped out a few times.  The high winds were still there, especially on the top of the hills.

Pre-race smiles.

Up the street to the trailhead.

Sun rising over the Columbia on the first climb.

My buddy, Brendan, was also running the 50k (this was his first ultra and his first trail run). We stuck together for the first few miles when I tried to hold him back from sprinting up the first hill.  When we reached the top he took off. I told him I was going to play it pretty conservatively for the first half and then see what I have left in the tank for the way back. I think he was just having too much fun to hold back.

So I ran on my own for about ten miles, enjoyed the views from the hilltops, snapped some photos, focused on keeping a smooth effort, and worked on eating a GU every 40 minutes even if I didn't feel I needed one.

On the third climb (the last one before the turnaround), my power-hike was feeling pretty strong and I passed a couple people at the top. After a short jaunt along the ridge just before the downhill screamer and turnaround, I saw Brendan running back toward the trail. He and another guy had missed the downhill turn to the turnaround and ran along the ridge for another 1/4 mile or so. But he was in good spirits. We fueled up at the aid station and headed back up the hill together.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"This is awesome," he said.

"Yeah," I said.

Good day for a run.

From one hill to another.

Looking up climb #3.

Looking east down climb #3.

Some rock thrown in for fun.

After the turnaround, we passed a few guys, but I don't think either of us had any idea what place we were in. It's usually pretty easy on an out-n-back course to gage what place you're in, but near the turnaround point there were a bunch of non-race hikers, some early starters (or lead guys struggling...I wasn't sure), and even some 100-milers still out on the course, so I didn't try to pay too much attention to what place we might be sitting -- I figured it was probably around 10th place.

Brendan and I had a good time chatting and enjoying the course. When we hit the last climb I told him to run ahead if he had anything left and that I was going to hold back just a little so I can hammer the downhill to the finish (I really enjoy hammering downhills if I have any quads left).  He slowly pulled away from me on the climb, and I slowly reeled him in on the downhill.

We crossed the finish-line in 4:14:52. (full results)  It wasn't until the next day when results were actually posted that we learned we tied for 5th place overall.  Pretty sweet. Also, it was another PR for me. This was my fastest 50k by about two minutes. Fun day on the trails. And huge congrats to Brendan for an impressive 50k #1; I think we may have him hooked on trails. :)

Sweet single-track on the top of Badger.

Near the top of Badger just before
hammering the last downhill.
Brendan is ahead in the white shirt.

Off the hill, waving to Annie, and rounding
the cones to the finish-line.

With Brendan after crossing the finish-line.

Brooks Pure Grit rock.

Next up: WSU 100k on April 22. I have a score to settle with this course after it kicked my butt in 2009.

Keep running!

Scott

Snake River Canyon Half - Race Report

The Snake River Canyon Half is quickly becoming one of the top Eastern Washington early season events. It's a super-flat, often very windy, out and back along the mighty Snake River about 25 miles outside of Pullman. Even when Pullman may be suffering through dreary March winter weather, the river canyon is generally much more mild due to the significantly lower elevation.

The half-marathon is still a racing distance I'm not very familiar with. Up to this point, I've only run two road half-marathons, and both of those were basically for-fun runs the weekends after a 50k. So I was a bit more rested than usual heading into this race, and I wanted to see what kind of effort I had in me for this distance. I predicted that I was probably fit enough to hit a 1:22, and possibly (if I was feeling particularly strong on race day) challenge 1:20.

Wind is always a worry when running down in the canyon. Sustained winds over 25mph isn't uncommon (and not very fun to run in). The weekend before the race, we were seeing gusts over 50mph.  So I bet everyone with a time goal in mind was crossing their fingers in the days leading up to the race. Forecasts called for chance of showers and 10-15mph winds.Well, we didn't get the showers, but the forecast was about right on the winds. Could have been a lot worse.

The gun went off three or four guys sprinted out in front of everyone. Even though this feels like a local race to me, this race attracts a few sub-1:10 guys and a bunch of sub-1:20 folks, so I had no illusions of running with the front of the pack.

I stuck with my friend and masters stud, Doug, for the first couple miles into the headwind. We tried sticking with a large group (15+ strong) to have some protection from the headwind, but when we hit mile two around 12:05 we both knew that that was just a bit faster than we wanted to be running, so we slowed a little bit to play it conservatively. I'm not sure if that was the right move or not, because we very well may have been using more energy battling the wind.

About that time another friend, Knut, caught up with us and another guy from the pack fell back to our pace, so for about half a mile it was four of us working as a team against the wind. But quickly my stomach started turning to knots (pretty bad, actually), I had dropped back about 20 meters, I was fighting the wind by myself, and I even started contemplating dropping way back to a very easy pace so I could just run the rest of it for fun. I was carrying a single GU so I thought I'd suck it down just in case it would help. It did. I'm not sure what was going on with my stomach, but whatever it was, the GU fixed it almost immediately.

I was still off the pace of Doug and Knut (the fourth guy had dropped behind me by now) and had no immediate intention of pushing it to catch up with them. Doug and Knut were taking turns leading into the wind about 30 or 40 meters ahead of me when Doug turned around and yelled to me, "C'mon! We need some help!" So I pushed it to catch up with them (it was around mile five at this point).  We knifed through the wind as a team the next 1.5 miles to the turnaround, where the wind flung us around an orange cone in 41:04, just about dead on for a 1:22 finish time. I felt pretty good about that because I figured we'd get a nice stiff tailwind for most of the way back.

I was feeling pretty good and upbeat, and I started pushing the pace a little. In my mind I was thinking that if I ran a 41:04 into the wind, then maybe it wasn't so unreasonable to run a 38:56 with the wind to hit the 1:20 goal. So for the first three miles back I pushed it and saw the overall pace on my Garmin dropping a couple seconds with each new mile. Doug and Knut had dropped back a bit by this point, and I was slowly picking off a couple runners.

Around mile 10, the wind had shifted and was now in our faces again. Not strong, but the tailwind was noticeably gone now.  I did some quick math and figured I had to run an 18-min 5k to get the 1:20 goal - possible, but I wasn't getting my hopes up.  I focused on trying to keep an even effort and, more importantly, making sure I didn't implode.

About a mile and a half from the finish, we were hit with heavy gusts to our faces. Not sure where they came from, but for about a quarter mile if felt like I was reduced to a near walk. It felt like quicksand. (After the race, a couple runners ahead of me said their Garmin's current pace feature shot up nearly two minutes per mile in this short section).  Then all of the sudden no wind.  It was weird.

I made the turn around the last bend and saw the clock just passing 1:20. I pushed it hard that last quarter of a mile or so and attempted to sneak in under 1:21, but the seconds were moving faster than I was. I crossed the finish line in 1:21:09. Not surprisingly, a big PR.  Also, 15th overall and 3rd AG. (Full results.) Doug and Knut came in just after me.

The half-marathon is no joke. It's an interesting distance -- long enough to require some fitness, and short enough to force a much quicker pace than I'm use to running. And as always, it was great to see all my running friends. I always get good vibes when I'm around a large group of runners. It always seems to refill my motivation cup.

Early in the race.
(Noble Sports)

Last water station, about two miles from the finish.
(Noble Sports)

Last water station, about two miles from the finish.
(Noble Sports)

Just before the finish chute.
(courtesy of Michelle Baker)

Keep running!

Scott