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7/25/2010
Once again we will be having a semi-disorganized Wednesday night run in Summit Park. For those of you that ran last year, we will have almost the same course. We will be adding 1 additional descent and ascent this year which will add around 1 mile and 500' of additional climbing.
Details:
- Date/Time: Wednesday, August 04 at 6:00 PM (please arrive by at least 5:30 so that we can have a quick trail briefing and be running by 6 so it doesn't get dark)
- Start/Finish: 150 Aspen Lane, Summit Park (see map below)
- Length: ~11.5 miles with lots of options to make it shorter (or longer). We will have the course marked with orange streamers and there will also be some sheets with detailed directions.
- We will have the route marked better this year so hopefully we will be able to eliminate some of the getting lost.
- Vertical Gain: ~3,500'
- We will provide street maps of Summit Park in case you get lost in the corn maze streets.
- Gear: Water & Headlamp (if it will take you over 2.5 hours)
- Post Run: We will be having a BBQ on our deck. Feel free to bring something to grill, something to share, your beverage of choice, and something warm for after the run (there's a reason they refer to Summit Park as 'Somewhat Dark'). We will have some salads and desserts.
- Please email me if you are interested or would like more information.(chadbrackelsberg@yahoo.com)
If you think it will take you longer than 3 hours and want to finish in the light, feel free to come by and start early. I will be around and can give you some route beta.
Route Directions: These are the directions from last year. There will be a slight change to step 8 where we will descend, then ascent and traverse to the ‘Y’ junction. Here is a map and elevation profile of last year's route.
1. Leave Starting area and go up Trent’s trail to Park View Drive and go 0.7 miles
2. Go left on St Morritz Strasse 0.3 miles
3. Stay on St Morritz Strasse, taking a right at the mailboxes that are on your left and continue 0.15 miles
4. Left on St Morritz Terrace. At the end of the road, continue through the gate and following the narrow road 0.45 miles to the Toll Canyon trail
5. Go right on the Toll Canyon Trail and follow the creek 0.9 miles
6. Take the faint trail to the right up to a jeep trail and go right on the jeep trail for 0.5 miles.
7. Take the jeep trail junction left and ascend 0.8 miles to a sub ridge
8. Take the single track trail right and continue to follow the trail to a ‘Y’ junction after 1.5 miles
9. Take a left and follow the single track 1.1 miles back to the sub ridge
10. Go right on the sub ridge and climb the steep trail 0.5 miles to the main Summit Park ridge
11. Go left at the ridge for 0.25 mile out and back to Summit Park Peak
12. Descend Summit Park Peak, stay left where you joined the ridge and continue to follow the ridge. Take a right down a steep trail leaving the ridge after 0.5 miles.
13. Continue on the trail for 0.3 miles and go left on an overgrown trail. Follow this steep trail as it descends, climbs, and then descends to the road at the bottom of Summit Park (1.75 miles)
14. Go left when you reach the pavement, then after 150M go right on Crestview Drive.
15. Follow Crestview Drive 0.2 miles and go right on Park View Drive.
16. Follow Park View Drive 0.3 miles and take a left on Trent’s Trail and return to the Finish area
Map & Directions to Start/Finish
· Take Exit 140 (Parley’s Summit) from I-80
· Take a right off the off-ramp, then a left at the stop sign on the frontage road (Kilby Road).
· Go right on Aspen Drive (the first right).
· Take the second marked left on Aspen Lane
· We are the house at the top of the hill on the right at the end of the cul-de-sac (tan siding with 2 dark brown single car garage doors).
· Map to start/finish.
Disclaimer: This is not an official or sanctioned race. You are responsible for everything related to you (getting hurt, lost, etc) because this is not an organized event. If you are not familiar with the Summit Park Trail, I recommend carrying a cell phone in case you get lost.
6/27/2010
Chad: Big Horn 100 – Sheridan, Wy
After pacing Mark at Big Horn last year, I was eager to run the race this year. The Big Horn Mountains are in eastern Wyoming and are a stunningly beautiful mountain range. The Big Horn 100 is an out and back that is 48 miles out and 52 miles back (the starting line is 4 miles up the Tongue River from the finish line). All but 5 miles of the race is technical, rocky single track or technical, rutted ATV trail. June 17th is early for a 100, I am usually still in 50 mile mode at this time. I knew that being completely trained this early in the season would be difficult. The mid-race cancellation of Pocatello 50 did nothing to help prepare me for this. I usually feel that I need to have a 100 mile weekend to be ready for a 100. To do a 100 mile weekend, I take 3 or 4 days and stack long runs on each day. This trains me to run long distances with little recovery and on progressively more tired legs. I did not have a 100 mile weekend in before Big Horn. Adding to this it was going to be my first solo 100 miler (no pacers and no crew). I knew it would be a challenging race.
Mark, G, Micah (Mark & G’s 8 week old baby), Murphy (the brown thing) and I all left Park City on Wednesday after work to split up the drive to 2 days. It was nice to not have 8 hours in the car the day before the race. The day before the race I had a nice 5K run to loosen my legs from the run, got checked in for the race, dropped off my drop bags, and got some good relaxation in. I felt as ready as I would be. I had high hopes for this race with a goal of my first sub-24 hour finish.
Race Ready
Race Day – Big Horn has a great start at 11AM. This means that unlike most ultra’s you get a full night sleep prior to the race and can relax the morning of the race. That felt like luxury. The race started fast. I ran the first 5K is 26 minutes. I was going hard, but was running in the top 15 where I wanted to be. The race started with a 1.5 mile gravel road section to spread out the pack, then hit the single track. The race climbed to the first crew point at mile 13. I was a little off my goal pace, but it was warm and windy so I wasn’t concerned. My time for the first 13 miles was around 3 hours. Not the 23.5 hour split I wanted, but I find that I don’t need to go out too hard and can stay strong later in the race to make my goal. Around mile 15, things started going downhill. I got sick and for the next 10 miles, anything I ate came out quickly. I struggled through this drinking lots, but unable to eat. By mile 25 I was starting to ingest a little bit of food and by the mile 30 aid station, I was able to eat. At this point, a lot of damage was done. I was dehydrated, way under on my necessary calorie intake, and at the base of an 18 mile climb. By mile 45 it was just dark, but I was back and ready to make up time. I got my head together at Porcupine (the 48 mile turnaround) and left at a great pace (10-11 minute miles). Hundreds start at mile 50 and I felt like I was going to have a good race. That quickly came to an end around mile 52. It was a very dark night and in one of the numerous swamp crossings, I got off trail. I ran through the swamp for a while and eventually found the trail. I knew I had gotten off the trail to the right of the trail so when I found the trail, I went right. Somehow I had made a loop in the swamp, crossed the trail and when I got back on it, I was going the wrong way. All the runners I had met had already passed, so any runner I now saw had been well behind me and I assumed they were still going outbound. It wasn’t for quite a while that I started remembering the trail and realized I had to be going the wrong way. I asked the next runner and sure enough, I had screwed up big. From the point I realized my mistake and turned around, I ran pretty hard for 50 minutes before getting to the spot I had originally gotten off track. Based on this, I lost at least 100 minutes and ran around 6 additional miles. It should have taken me 80 minutes to get from the turn around to the next aid station and it took me over 3 hours. This mentally destroyed me and physically put my feet in bad shape. The extended time spent in the swamp and muck filled my shoes with mud which by mile 66 of the course had built a large blister on the pad of my left foot. At mile 66 (realizing I have gone 6 miles more than all the distances at this point), it was first light and the start of a new day. I drained the blister, ate, put a fresh sock on my left foot, and hit the trail again for a 5 mile climb. I was now several hours past my goal pace and struggling to mentally recover from my error in getting lost. These items along with a long steep climb really put me over the edge of suffering. By mile 75, I could no longer put weight on the ball of my foot and was running with my toes curled down so all my weight was on my heel and tips of my toes – not a great way to run and definitely not stable. At mile 82, I put on light shoes and was off again. With the help of a couple of ibuprofen washed down with a Red Bull, I was able to get a good boost of energy that pushed me along for a couple of hours. For the rest of the race, I was able to keep a good pace and ran the last 18 miles on my 24 hour splits (3:45) and the last 5 miles in under 1 hour. I didn’t feel good the last 18 miles due to my foot, but I was able to finish strong. My final time was 27:45. This was close to 4 hours off my goal pace, but I was happy to have finished in light of many issues I overcame throughout the race.
This race was a huge growth experience and I will be a better and stronger racer because of it. I have never suffered that much in any race. I only felt good for about 20-22 of the miles. The race taught me a lot about doing races without crew, how to stay strong without a pacer, how to suffer for hours on end, and how to persevere when stuff just goes really badly. In addition to the first solo race, it has also become my longest single run (106 miles) and longest weekly mileage (122 miles). My fears going into the race were not eating and drinking enough during the night and when I got tired, getting tired and not being able to focus alone during the night, and getting lost alone in the dark. With the exception of getting lost, I had no other issues running the solo race.
Bad Feet & Cankles
Emily: San Juan Solstice – Lake City, Co
Kristin, Suzanne, and I signed up for this race in January for a fun girl’s trip. Don’t most girl’s trips involve the race that is ranked the hardest 50 mile race in the US? The San Juan Solstice is in the San Juan mountains and is a looped course out of Lake City, CO. It has almost 14,000 vertical elevation gain and decent with 3 major climbs – two of which are almost 4,000 vertical each. Both of the big climbs bring you to an elevation of 13,000 feet and at the top of the second climb you stay on the Continental Divide trail for a number of miles.
I was trained and ready and feeling great about the race. We started running at 5a in the dark but it was getting light just fifteen minutes into the race. We started running on a somewhat wide trail along a river that had a slight incline. At mile 3.53 (I looked at my Garmin afterwards) a guy that was passing me started losing his footing on some rocks and before I knew it his feet wiped out my feet and I went flying. I landed on my right side mostly on my forearm slightly down an embankment. Pretty scary. I jumped up and started assessing the damage. My arm was bleeding profusely. Another racer (a PA) helped me determine if anything was broken and we didn’t think anything was so I started moving forward “shaking it off”. The pain and just being startled kept me from going as fast as I wanted to at first and then my knee (that I had fallen on) started hurting quite a bit too which hindered my speed running the downhills. I knew at that point that I was just going to have to struggle through the race and just be able to complete it but knew I would not have the time that I was planning on meeting. Around mile 25 I caught up with some people that had seen me go flying and they were amazed that I had recovered as well as I had.
Fresh blood after the race.
Emily's battle scars after getting them cleaned
Even with the pain, the San Juan Solstice course was gorgeous. The views were amazing extending for miles and miles. I crossed the finish line at 15 hours and 14 minutes. Definitely not the time I was planning and could have done this race without the injury I got in the beginning of the race but it was a testament of how strong I am even finishing a tough race like this as battered and bruised as I was. The medical personnel at the finish line were amazing. It took quite a while to soak my arm to remove the ½ inch of dried blood and clean out the wound. Almost a week later I’m healing but still have road rash and am bruised on my entire right side of my body.
Kristin dealt with stomach issues and finished 12 minutes ahead of me. Suzanne finished a great race in 12h 22m and was first place in her age group. I am lucky to have such fantastic, strong women as my friends!
5/31/2010
Well, what can you say when a race goes so horrible. We went to Pocatello 3 weeks ago to pre-run the Pocatello 50 course. It is a fantastic course, one of the hardest 50 milers in the country. For 1, it is closer to 54 miles, then add in the ~14,000' of climbing and you have a tough race. We were ready. We were both looking at this as a great kick-off to race season with Emily running San Juan Solstice (50 miler) 3 weeks later and Chad running Big Horn 100 3 weeks later.
Race day forecast was 40-50F and 35% chance of rain. Perfect running weather. Shorts, sleeveless shirt, and arm warmers. We didn't even think a jacket was necessary. The 5:30 AM temperatures were quite good, mid to high 30's. There was a breeze, so I decided a better throw in an extremely light jacket (think tissue paper - the entire jacket weighs 3 oz). The race started out fast. We started out at 7:30 minute miles approaching the trail and ran the first climb at under 9 minute miles. A light drizzle started about 20 minutes into the race. Nothing big, not even enough to put on a jacket. By 60 minutes in, the rain had turned to sleet; it was definitely time for the jacket as we were not soaked. Thinking that the weather forecast was correct, this would be a short rain and still be great racing weather. The rain only picked up. The descent into the first aid station at mile 9 was as slippery as ice. OK, this is going to be a tough race. After the first aid station, you have a short climb until you leave the trail and go 'cross country', literally climbing straight up a ridge through rock, sage, and cactus. By this time, the temperatures had dropped to below freezing, winds had picked up to 30 mph with much higher gusts, and it was outright blizzard conditions with less than 100' visibility. OK, this is getting dangerous. Thank goodness for the jacket, too bad it wasn't a little heavier and accomplice with a hat and decent gloves. The top of Wild Mountain was treacherous (doing the math, this is a sub 0F wind chill - remember - we are in shorts, sleeveless shirts, and 3oz jackets). Snow covered the ground, flags were buried or blown away, and the snow was pelting so hard it felt like our legs and faces were being sand blasted. Head down, and suffer through for the 1 miles+ until we got off the ridge. By the time we got off the ridge, our fingers and toes were frozen. Another big, slippery descent took us to the 17 mile aid station.
Out of the aid station was a long climb back up into the blizzard conditions. It was a long climb getting wetter and colder as we climbed. Reaching the top, we had a long traverse into the wind. By this time I was luckily with my training partner/friend Suzanne and another racer (John). We stuck together, often huddled together crossing the ridge. By this time none of us had any use of our frozen fingers and our feet weren't much better off. 2 hours later, we reached the mile 26 aid station to learn the race had been cancelled. Emily had left the 17 mile aid station only to be turned around 2.5 miles later having to return to the aid station - race over. Suzanne and I were not as lucky. At mile 26, neither of us were in good condition. The fantastic aid station crew got warm liquids into us, attempted to warm us, and then reminded us that we had a 6.5 mile run to actually get out of the mountains to a road. As we left the aid station, soaking, cold, and still hungry, we dug deep for what little strength and motivation we had to keep running to mile 32. As we are running, all we could think of was the other runners in much worse shape than we were and worrying about Emily, not knowing she had been turned around and was already dry and semi-warm and worrying about us. We took out time running out and had a welcome site 100 meters from the aid station to see Emily walking up the trail.
Our group was all safe and off the mountain. Unfortunately, there were still 20 runners unaccounted for. The race directors were coordinating search and rescue and other volunteers and within 2 hours had all racers accounted for. Once we got back to the finish line, we got into dry cloths, ate some food, throw our wet gear in the car and headed home. It was several hours before feeling returned to my feet and hands, but we did eventually thaw out.
The race turned out to be a race director’s nightmare. We both hope we don’t encounter this with the Powder Keg. Through the whole ordeal, Jared and Ryan (the RDs) handled everything very well. Communication was good, decisions were made quickly and intelligently, and in the end, no one was injured. There was also a great effort by fellow racers. When conditions turned bad on Wild Mountain, numerous racers abandoned their own race to help those in trouble.
We look forward to the 2011 Pocatello 50.
For more details about the Pocatello 50, see there web site. 4/20/2010We couldn’t think of a better reason for a 6 day spring training running trip than cousin Sue’s wedding in Palm Springs/Rancho Mirage. We started the trip right with a Wasatch dawn patrol on 14” of fresh April Powder.
After a short stop at work, we were on our way to the airport - Vegas bound. From Vegas we drove to Lake Havasu City to spend the night with Chad’s parents and toast in their new condo overlooking the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City,
Thursday, we headed to Palm Springs/Rancho Mirage with a side trip to the southern part of Joshua Tree National Park for a short jeep trip and desert run.
We met Grandma, Gary, and the Herzog family at Thunderbird Country Club for 2 days of Sue & Charlie’s wedding celebration. We were able to get a great hill climb run in and enjoy the beautiful wedding and all the surroundings with plenty of time to catch up with friends and family.
Saturday morning after brunch and farewells, we headed to the northern part of Joshua Tree National Park (Black Box Canyon) with Mom and Dad’s jeep. We had a hangover recovery suffer fest run in the heat and sand.
Sunday, we planned for a 30 miler in Red Rock Canyon west of Vegas. The Red Rock area was beautiful. In our first 16 mile loop, we ran out of water at mile 12 due to very warm temperatures (extreme heat for skiers). We were not able to recover from the dehydration and gave in to the sun and sunburns after 20 miles. After a recovery beer and burger, we were on our way to St. George.
Monday morning, we headed to the Kolob Canyon section of Zion National Park with hopes of cooler temperatures and shade for another 20 miler. We started with an out and back 15 mile run to the Kolob Arch overlook. This was a great running trail without too much sand and it had cool temperatures, shade, and 21 stream crossings each direction (42 total).
Our second run was the Taylor Creek Trail up to the Double Arch Overlook. This was an a very nice 5.1 mile out and back.
After the last run, we were once again on the road and headed home. Lots of driving, lots of running, lots of fun, and we definitely feel like we are more prepared for the upcoming race season. 3/31/2010
Our race schedules have quickly filled up. Chad did not get drawn for either Hardrock 100 or Wasatch 100. Due to that, I had to revamp my race schedule. It will be a busy summer of races. It will also be interesting. I am running Big Horn 100 on June 18th. This is very early for a 100 miler and since Emily had already registered for San Juan Solstice 50 mile race on the same day, I will potentially be doing it unsupported with no pacers. I am hoping to at least round up a pacer for the night shift, but it is a 7-8 hour drive from Park City, so it is not easy to ask someone to take time off work and make that commitment. We will post photos and results as race season progresses.
Race Calendar:
April:
· Date TBD: BST Marathon – Chad & Emily
June
· 05: Little Red Riding Hood 100 Mile Road Bike - Emily
· 18-19th: Big Horn 100 Mile Trail Run – Chad
· 19: San Juan Solstice 50 Mile Trail Run – Emily
July
· ~10: Summit Park Sprint to the Summit – Chad & Emily
· 31: Speed Goat 50K Trail Run: 31 July – Chad & Emily
August
· 07: Jupiter Peak Steeplechase – Chad (maybe)
· 21: Leadville 100 Mile Trail Run – Emily
September
· 24: Bear 100 - Chad 3/16/2010
On March 14th we completed another successful Powder Keg. With the new race venue and course, there was no shortage of work in getting everything ready.
We had another set of phenomenal sponsors this year. Brighton Ski Resort, Voile, Black Diamond, Bluehouse Skis, Backcountry Magazine, and Patagonia all stepped up as major sponsors. We had a full page add in Backcountry Magazine and tons of great prizes included 3 pair of skis, 3 bindings, 3 skins, 3 ski packs, and much more. We had over 100 items that we raffled off. We had around 130 registered racers and close to 120 started the race. We thought that we had put together a hard course, but Jared Inouye proced us wrong with a finishing time of under 2 hours. Next year we will need to make it harder!
As always, our volunteers were great. We had ~45 people on race day helping on the course and at the finish line. We also had 5 people helping set the course for the 3 days before the race. We had about 150 hours into course setting!
Check the wasatchpowderkeg.com website for photos and results.
Here are a few fun course setting photos
Droping the knee with 8 foot bamboom on your back.
Putting in the booter to Mt Millicent
And a couple race photos
The lead group of racers climbing up to the top of Millicent Express lift.
Scott and Sallie having fun at Checkpoint 11.
PCTV (Park City Television) also came up and put together a short video about the race. It turned out real good. 1/21/2010
This used to mean that I started training hard for the Wasatch Powder Keg ski race (www.wasatchpowderkeg.com). For the last 2 years, it has meant that Emily and I along with our friends Mark and G spend 4 months getting ready to put on the race. Last year, when the race lost its sponsors and coordinators, the 4 of us wanted to see the race tradition live on so we took over the reins. We all had a large interest in the race. I had raced in every race, Emily had been an on-course volunteer in all but the first year, Mark had raced all but the first year, and G had raced 4 years. None of us really knew what we were getting into, but after hundreds of tiring hours, we were able to put on a very successful race. We had underestimated the amount of work, course setting alone to 90 person-hours over 3 days. We weren’t able to get the entire race course set prior to the race, so a friend and I were out at 3:30 AM setting the course under headlamp. They both learned that there is nothing like skiing one of Alta’s hardest lines in the pitch dark with 30+ pound packs on.
2009 Powder Keg: 18V drill – check; 200’ rope – check; course wands – check
2009 Powder Keg Booter: skies secured to pack – check; course wands – check; wallowing in thigh deep snow - check
Well, this year, we created more work for ourselves. We decided to move the race from Alta to Brighton Ski Resort. This means designing an entire new course and building relationships with new Brighton staff all while doing the rest of the planning and coordinating sponsors. We have been very lucky to be able to get great sponsors to provide really good race awards and raffle prizes. Unfortunately, financially, the race depends 100% on racer entries. If we get enough racers, we break even, if not, we lose money. Last year, our payment for the hardwork was a sushi meal. The awards are great, they range from skis to binding to skins and raffle prizes are anything from shirts, ski straps, socks, capilene, ski movies, and more.
2009 Powder Keg: Andy catching a ride while course setting.
2009 Powder Keg: Post Race Beer!
We are looking forward to a great race this year. The course traverses from the backcountry to the north of Brighton (Hidden Canyon) all the way to the backcountry to the south of Brighton (Mt Millicent and Stupid Chute). Throughout the course there are fantastic views of Heber Valley, Mt Nebo, Mt Timpanogos, and the Cottonwood Canyons. For race details see the website.
2010 Wasatch Powder Keg Course Map and Profile
11/23/2009
With the lack of snow in the Wasatch, very little in the forecast, and the need to get away after 6 long and hard weeks of work, we planned a road trip. We packed lots of running shoes and our road bikes and headed south with plans of seeing some of Buckskin Gulch in southern Utah, running Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R) of the Grand Canyon, road biking a couple days in Sedona, and then spending Thanksgiving in Scottsdale with Chad’s Grandma and Uncle.
We drove to the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead Friday afternoon and after a very cold night camping (it dropped to the mid teens which our 20F sleeping bags did not handle real well), we enjoyed a 10.5 mile run from the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead up Buckskin Gulch, down Wire Pass and back to Buckskin Trailhead on the road.
Chad Running in Buckskin Gulch
Saturday afternoon we drove through the Grand Canyon and finalized our R2R2R plans. We estimated we would need 12.5 to 13 hours to complete the entire trip down the South Kaibab trail to Bright Angel Campground, up the North Kaibab to the North Rim, back down the North Kaibab to Bright Angel Campground, and then up Bright Angel Trail. In all, this would be just under 45 miles and 2 climbs equaling 11,000’. It would be a different kind of run where you have only 2 climbs, the first being 14 miles (the first 7 being mostly runnable) and the second being 8 miles of pretty steep terrain. We knew we would not be real fast since neither of us had run a total of 40 miles in 6 weeks (since Bear for Emily and Wild Duluth for Chad) and Chad had been fighting knee pain since the Wild Duluth 100K and some back problems the previous 2 weeks. Even so, we decided the slower pace would allow us to enjoy the scenery more. This would also be an interesting run as we have never done a long run like this together before and being that we are different paces, it was sure to be challenging for both of us. We also didn’t feel like we could pass up R2R2R since we would be driving right by the Grand Canyon and this is one of the ‘must do’ runs for any ultra runner.
We hit the trail at 5:22AM after stashing a bike at Bright Angel Trailhead in case we missed the last shuttle bus back to the Kaibab Trailhead and having to walk ¾ mile to the trailhead from where we could park. The initial descent in the dark was much slower than we anticipated due to steep terrain. We reached the Bright Angel Campground in 6.7 miles 1:50 instead of the planned 1.5 hours.
5:22 AM - the start of R2R2R at South Kaibab Trailhead
At Bright Angel Campground, we stashed a bag of food under the bridge for the return trip, filled our water, and head up to the North Rim. The trail to Cottonwood campground was a gradual climb, but very runnable.
Emily running along the Colorado River on descent to Phantom Ranch.
We stopped at the caretakers cabin (1.5 miles past Cottonwood CG) to refill water. This was the only running water between Bright Angel CG and the North Rim (including the North Rim). The last 5 miles of climbing up to the North Rim was tough and took a lot out of us. We reached the North Rim (20.5 miles) in 6:16. We took a much needed 10 minute break for some food and then headed back down.
A North Rim Picnic.
This was going to be a continuous section of running for close to 15 miles, something we never do in the Wasatch.
Chad descending from the North Rim.
We refilled again at the caretakers cabin and reached Cottonwood campground in 1:42. We were a little slower than hoped, but the descent was fairly steep and we were taking it easy as we had a long way to go. After Cottonwood CG, we were able to pick up the pace, it was hard in this section to not really open it up and go. We were back at Bright Angel CG to retrieve our food cache 1:26 later.
Emily and Chad at Bright Angel Campgound.
We felt like we were on track for a 12.5 hour finish – little did we know how much the climb up Bright Angel would take out of us. The flatter section that we had counted on running was beach sand, so it was much slower going than anticipated. After about 6 miles of climbing, we were both starting to get very tired and our pace slowed quite a bit. Instead of the 3 hours we had planned for the climb out, it took just under 3.5 hrs.
The FINISH! 12:56
|
Segment |
Miles |
Elapsed Time |
|
South Kaibab Trail head to Bright Angel Campground |
6.7 |
1:50 |
|
Bright Angel Campground to Cottonwood Campground |
14.1 |
3:50 |
|
Cottonwood Campground to North Rim |
20.5 |
6:16 |
|
North Rim to Cottonwood Campground |
27.1 |
7:58 |
|
Cottonwood Campground to Bright Angel Campground |
34.7 |
9:34 |
|
Bright Angel Campground to South Rim |
44.5 |
12:56 |
Monday morning we are heading to Sedona. We are excited to see the galleries and have a nice dinner out. After a couple of days of road riding and relaxing, we will head to Scottsdale for Thanksgiving.
Click here for more photos of the road trip. 10/18/2009
A 10 day business trip to Minneapolis gave me the opportunity to see what a midwest ultra is like. There is a new fall race in Duluth - the Wild Duluth 100K. This is a fantastic 100K semi-urban race on the Superior Hiking Trail. When I lived in Minnesota, I first heard about ultra marathons from an advertisement for the Sawtooth 100 which is a 100 mile race on the Superior Hiking Trail. This started my interest in ultra's, but it was not until moving to Utah that I started running them. I was curious to see what the race would be like. Unlike the races in the west where we have trained to settle into super long climbs, in this race, the longest climb would be 3/4 mile and only about 1,000'.
One week before the race, the forecast was rain and 35F. Was I destined for another sufferfest in horrible bad weather? Checking the weather daily, the forecast slowly improved and by the day before the race, it was forecasted for 44F and mostly sunny. What a relief.
Becky and Christopher (both who helped me out at Wasatch) along with my old backpacking/climbing friend Jesse all went up to Duluth with me. Christopher ran the 50K race - 2 weeks after Twin Cities Marathon, while Becky and Jesse had the challenge of creweing for 2 runners who would be running opposite directions. It was great to have crew and friendly faces along the course - THANKS GUYS. Jesse has took lots of fantastic photos of the beautiful fall scenery which I will post in the Photo Galleries section in the next few days.
The 6AM race start was chilly with a heavy frost and 30F. There was no moon, so the first 75 minutes were very dark. At the race start, Sean Andrish and I took off setting a hard pace running most of the climbs up to the ridge above Duluth. On the ridge, we were treated to a fantastic sunrise over Lake Superior. Once the sun was up, Sean took off and continued to gain distance on me the rest of the race. He went on to finish in 10:52 which I think will be a difficult course record to beat.
I had an interesting race. The trail was amazing - narrow single track with lots of rocks and roots. In the morning, the trail was slippery with frost and the wet leaves covered lots of hidden treasures that were attempting to trip you up. I had a good race, but it was not without issues. I took a wrong turn which led to a 10-15 minute detour around mile 15. Around mile 28, I came upon a hunter, at 30 meters back I announced myself approaching to which he responded by turning around with his gun raised and pointed at me. At mile 52, I had a German Sheppard dog charge me to which I jumped behind a tree while the owner 'attempted' to get the dog under control. As they say, bad things happen in 3's. After my third, I was really not able to get myself mentally back into the race. Having said all that, the course was fantastic, the race was great, and I was able to finish second overall. My final time was 12:17. I was hoping to finish under 12 hours, but based on the circumstances, I am happy with my time. 10/1/2009
We have completed and posted a video of the Bear 100 race. You can access the video from the Photo Galleries link on the left or directly from this link. |
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