Learning to Drive and Cook

I finally made it home. While the conference was productive I really hate being away from home. The kids are growing so fast and I don't want to miss any of it. Right now the big thing in their life is learning to drive. My daughter is almost ready to test. She is a good driver but I just wished that she took it more serious. I get the impression from her that it's just a carnival ride and nothing can happen to her. Because I'm riding with her, I can make the corrections but what happens when she is by herself? My son is a better drive and takes it serious. He just needs some more practice and confidence. I'm hoping to be able to work with them this weekend - if my daughter can manage to stay home.

While my wife was working she asked me to cook something, so I did what I always do...I made something up. I went to Shop n Save and bought what ever looked good. I came home and cooked up some fettucini with some sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, artichokes, and some Italian dressing. It turned out surprisingly good but I didn't think my wife would like it.
Turned out that not only did she like it but my son did too. I'd better be careful or she'll have me doing more of the cooking.

Atlanta

I haven't been able to run since my last post. I had to come to Atlanta for a training conference. I'm staying in a hotel with very limited places to run. Yesterday I did go down to the very small and I do mean very small fitness center. One treadmill was broke and the other was being used, so I did a workout that I've done in the past at other hotels - I ran the stairs. Luckily this hotel has eight stories. I've ran in some that only had four. Anyway I ran up and down the stairs 10 times, skipping every other step. Amazingly this morning my calves are a little sore. I must of had a decent workout because I don't get sore very often. I'm looking forward to getting back home and back to my fitness routine. I'm thinking about running to work tomorrow. This will be the first time I've ran to work since the MMTR 50. I've had enough of recovery and can't take no more.

Sometimes Running is Magical

Today I had a wonderful run at RCSP. Unfortunately it will probably be my last run there for awhile. Tomorrow is the first day of gun season for deer and I sure don't want to get mistaken for large two legged deer. Even today I ran with an orange vest just to make sure. As someone who grew up hunting and being around hunters I know that not all hunters read and understand game laws.

Today the air was cool and crisp and the sunrise was awesome. It felt so good to be out there that at times I felt as if was flying. As I get older, runs like today are far and few in between and must be cherished as something special. This is what keeps me getting up at 0500 and running in all kinds of weather, waiting for that exceptional run where everything comes together. It was an interesting contrast this one - http://cakmakli.blogspot.com/2006/09/sometimes-running-sucks.html

I ran the 9.5 Eastern Trail Loop. I started at the lake where I parked and ran down the road to the Heritage Trailhead. This I followed until it came out on HWY 18. As I crossed the road to the parking lot to Mineral Springs, a hiker was getting out of his car asked me if there was hunting today. I told him not today but you can't be too careful. I then ran up a trail that follows HWY 18 to the Park Ranger Office. I then went up the road a little to catch the Forrest Trail. This trail has a couple of steep climbs where it crosses two ridges. I met a lady with an over friendly dog. It was a big white dog that acted like it didn't get out very much. It was enjoying the day as much as I was. At the end of the run I spent about 10 - 15 minutes stretching on the boat dock. The lake was peaceful and beautiful with just a little bit of fog. It was the perfect end to a perfect run.

Thanksgiving

Today we had our Thanksgiving Dinner or at least our version of it. Because it was just us four this year, we decided not to have a turkey. The kids don't really like it and I'm the one that gets stuck eating left over turkey for the next couple of weeks. This year we had our own special dinner. My wife baked a chicken and we had gravy, biscuits, corn, baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, banana pudding and pumpkin pie. It was more then enough for just the four of us. I really enjoyed having everyone sit down at our dining room table. We never use the table for anything other then to put stuff on it that we don't know where else to put it. I'm going to try to get everyone to sit down together more often.

I often wonder how many more days we will all have together. The kids are almost grown and will soon more away. It will be hard not having them around to make noise and create chaos. Regardless of how much I yell and complain it is better then the quite and loneliness of an empty house.

Golden Moments

I back to running now. I had wanted to do a long run yesterday but for one reason or another I didn't get a chance to get out of the house until 1715. I then had to be back by 1745 because my daughter had to be at work and she can't drive - that's another post that I'll save for later. Anyway, I figured that I would knock out a quick three and call it a day. I ran from the house, through the housing area, and down to the trail where I planned on running from the six mile marker to the seven and back. I ran it pretty hard and decided to turn the run into a tempo run. It was dark by the time I returned and when I looked at my watch I was shocked to see a time of 33 minutes. I knew that I had ran faster then 10 minutes miles. I then quickly recaculated the run in my head and figured out that I had in fact ran four miles, not three. I can definitely live with that.

Today my daugher and I went to Racoon Creek State Park http://www.friendsofraccoon.com/. We went hiking on the Lake Trail and had a very good time. The weather was good and we had some good conversations. I really enjoy the one on one time with my daughter. It give me a chance to see where she is coming from and to hear about some of the issues that are important to her. A lot of times when we argue it is because both of us are headstrong and don't want to hear what the other has to say. When we are alone we have serious conversations and actually listen to each other. These are golden moments that I wished we had more of. Now if I could just get my son to talk.

P.S. After going out to the park, I can't wait to go running out there again. I'll definately be there next weekend.

Recovery and Plans for Next Year

Well, the pain of the MMTR 50 miler is a thing of the past and I'm starting to look forward to planning some races next year. I've looked over quite a few races but three that I think I'll definately do is Laural Highlands 70, the Catoctin 50K, and the Iron Mountain 50 miler in Damascus VA.

I've been wanting to do the Laural Highland 70 for a long time. I'm just now at the point that I feel like I'm physical capable of finishing. I just have to maintain what I have now, and start increasing mileage around February. The Catoctin 50K was such a blast last year, that I can not imagine not doing it again. Plus I really enjoyed visiting with my old Army buddy Paul. I'd like to do the Iron Mountain in Damascus because it is very close to my hometown of Galax. I really can't wait to start planning for them.

I'm not really sure how soon to get back into running. I ran a little on Sunday with my wife and I ran three today on a treadmill. I really don't want to start out to soon, but I'm going crazy by not running. I think by next week I'll be at least cycling to work and hopefully by the next week I'll start running in one day a week. That should be enought time to recover since I'm not sore at all and I'm feeling real good.

Youth

Today was my son's birthday party. He actually turned 16 on November the 1^st, but today was the party. He invited six friends with whom he plays soccer. My wife had to work until six so I had to take care of them until then. Man, what a job it turned out to be.

One friend brought over his X-Box, so together they had two X-Boxes hooked up together. This kept them occupied for awhile, but then one of them suggested that they go outside and play football. That would have been a great idea – anything to get them out of the house – but today is was raining. I really did not expect that they would do it, but I guess I forgot what it was like to be young and dumb.

It was about this time that my daughter called to pick her up at school. I rushed over to get her. I found out that I would also have to take her friend home as well. By the time we got home, the boys were gone and they stayed gone until well after dark. I was upstairs on the computer when I heard the door bell ring. I went downstairs and they were. Six boys covered in mud and I mean covered. They looked as if they had rolled around it a mud puddle.

I told them that they could not come in but had to go through the garage. I met them at the inside door and told them to strip all of their clothes into one pile. I then took them – two at a time – upstairs to the two showers. I rushed them through and then took two more, until they were all cleaned. I put all of the clothes into the washer – it would eventually take two washes. The good thing was that most of them used my son's old clothes to play in so they had clean clothes to put back on. The rest sat around, wrapped in towels until their own clothes were clean.

It would be nice to once again have the carefree attitude of youth. It amazes me how as you get older, not only do you change physically but mentally as well. Can you imagine sitting around the office on a slow day and just out of the blue, say, "Let's go out in the rain and mud and play football." You'd probably be out there throwing the football to yourself. Where do we lose it and how do we lose it, because we all had it at one time or another.

I remember playing with my friends and I couldn't understand why the adults didn't want to play. They just wanted to sit and talk. I mean, who wouldn't want to play if you had the chance. Now I'm the adult and I just want to sit and talk. I never thought that I would be here, but here I am.

Mountain Masochist 50 Mile Trail Race

Well, it's finally over. Despite of my worries and doubts, it went better then expected.

At first the only thing that went well, was that my daughter decided to go with me. She's been with me on all of my ultras and I consider her good luck. Before I traveled to my parents house in Galax Va on Thursday. I had to drop my daughter off at Beauty School. As I pulled up to let her out, I told her that I'll miss her and that I would see her next Tuesday. She said, "Where are you going?" When I told her I was going to my race she asked to come with me and I thought, "Why not?".

It was a real joy having her with me. She kept me good company on the six hour drive and before I knew it, I was pulling into my parents house. We played a trick on my mother by having my daughter wait in the van for five minutes after I went in. My mom wasn't expecting anyone other then me so she was really shocked with my daughter ran the bell.

Friday morning around 1000 we - to include my father and mother - pulled out toward Lynchburg. It is about a three hour trip from Galax but we decided to travel to some points on the race so that I could get a feel for the course. We left I-81 and traveled through Buchanan to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It took awhile to travel to the James River Visitor Center where the race will begin early the next morning. It was really rough on my daughter. The curvey and hilly roads made her car sick and turned her into a nag. She didn't really appreciate the beautiful scenery and what scenery it was. The colorful leaves had yet to fall and the scenic overlooks were amazing. I just wished that I had taken some photos.

We finally arrived at James River and scouted a little. We then drove to the halfway point where they would be meeting me. We found the pull off and then timed and marked the route to Madison Heights where we were staying. After arriving at Madison Heights we had some problems finding the motel. Unfortunately this would not be the last of our inability to find places we needed to go.

The motel wasn't up to my daughters standards and I had to listen to her complain for awhile. You would have thought that I was making her sleep in a barn or something. She also didn't want me to sleep on the floor. There were four of us and only one bed. My mom and daughter ended up sleeping in the bed and my dad and I slept on the floor.

At about 1730 we started to drive to the Heritage Valley High School where the prerace dinner was being held as well as the packet pick-up. According to Google Maps it was only a five minute trip. Well stupid me took Business 501 instead of just 501 and we ended up driving around for over an hour trying to find this H.S. Even after finding the HS we still had problems find were we entered at. We walked around almost the whole school before we saw some people leaving with bags in their hands. We also picked up someone else who was lost. As a result we were late so I just picked up my bag and then we went to Country Cooking for dinner. It turned out to be a very good decision. The food was great and we had a good time.

I finally laid down to sleep at aroung 1130 after laying everything out for the next morning. I had just went to sleep with the alarm went off at 0245 - time to get up. My father and I got up, got ready and pulled out at 0315 - I wanted to make sure I would have enough time if we got lost. The best thing about getting lost yesterday was that it kept us from getting lost this morning. We found it very easily and I got on the bus with my drop bag. My father left to return to the motel. They would meet me later on around 1030 at AS 10.

I spent the ride to the starting point wondering what to wear and when could I take a piss. The tempature was in the low 20's. I knew it would warm up a little but I didn't know how much. I finally decided to just wear shorts, an undershirt, and two long sleeve shirts. I quickly changed my mind when I got off the bus and stood in line with others at the portapotty. It was cold. I returned to the bus and put on long tights and added a light jacket. At about 0520 everyone started to filter off the bus to the start line. I got toward the back where I belonged and anxiously waited for the start while the National Athem was sung. I never did hear anyone say go, the crowd just started to move forward.

As we started moving, I ran at a pace that I thought was slow enough to get me through for the next 50 miles. I tagged along behind a runner (Roy) who looked as if he had run this before and knew what he was doing. I was able to catch conversation between him another runner that confirmed this. Little did I know that I would be passing and being passed by Roy numerous times throughout the day.

It was dark as we headed up the parkway toward the turn around point. I had purchased a flashlight the day before but had left it in my drop bag. I figured that there would be enough light from the other runners, plus by the time we got to the trail it would be daylight. It wasn’t long before the lead runners were returning back down the parkway. It is amazing to see how fast there were moving and that they could continue that pace the rest of the race.

As I reached the turn around point and headed back, I was already wishing that I had left my tights and jacket in my drop bag. I was starting to warm up and I actually enjoy running in shorts in cool weather. As I passed the starting point I contemplated running by the bus and dropping off the jacket and the tights. I decided not to because I didn’t want to waste any time, not did I want to lose sight of my unofficial pacer – Roy. We quickly reached the bridge that went over HWY 501. You could see the lights of the runners ahead as there were going up the hill of the highway. I passed AS 1 without stopping. My water bottle was still full and there was no need to stop after only 3.3 miles, plus the next AS was just 2.5 miles away.

The run on the HWY was the start of the first hill. I walked it to the top and was passed by Roy who had a very fast pace when walking. The hill is short one and you quickly come up to the top. The down hill is pretty steep and this is where I run best. For some reason I’m able to just lean forward and let it go. I quickly pass Roy and others on my way down. This would be a recurring scene throughout the next 10 hours.

After passing AS 2, the route takes to the trails. The start is a foot path that goes up hill. It was at this point, 6 miles into the race that I came to the realization that I was going to finish this race and under the cut-off time. For some reason all doubt was erased from my mind and it never came back. From this point forward, I knew that I would finish.

I quickly went into a routine of running from AS to AS. This is easy to do, because they are all 2 – 4 miles apart. As I approached an AS, I would grab whatever looked good. I mostly ate bananas, brownies, and quarter pieces of PB&J sandwiches. I would also fill my water bottle about every other AS. I tried to take a gel pack about every hour and right before I reached an AS. I would also take a SUCEED tablet about every 2 -3 hours. This is what sustained me throughout the race.

It was on a hill somewhere between AS 5 and 6 that I discovered something that helped my time and will assist me on future ultras. I’m usually slow on hills and my calves get very tired. As I was being passed by Roy on a steep uphill, I tired to run a little to keep up and I discovered that the tiredness in my calves went away. After that, I started a routine of walking 25 steps – counting one every time my left foot hit the ground – and running 25 steps. This alternating would use different muscles and give rest to the ones that I was using before. I also noticed that by doing so I was passing a lot of runners who were only walking. I ended up running everything but the hills and then walking/running those. This worked out great and I look forward to testing it at the next ultra.

Another thing I learned was that I didn’t need my camelback and that I could get by with just a hand held bottle. I had run with my bottle before but only during short training runs of 10 to 15 miles. I didn’t feel comfortable carrying it. This time I didn’t have a choice because I had left my camelback at Mom and Dad’s house. I noticed that during the race I forgot I was carrying it and it wasn’t a problem at all. I’m glad that I found this out, so now I have another option for water, depended upon the weather and the distance between AS’s. I’m pretty sure that if the weather isn’t too hot and the AS’s are no more then 4 – 5 miles apart then I’ll carry my bottle.

After meeting my family at AS 10 which is the halfway point, I decided to keep the running shoes that I was using instead of changing into my trail shoes. I found out that my feet has swollen and that the trail shoes were a little too tight. Also, the running shoes that I was using had been working pretty well on the jeep trails. On the single track trails, they were causing a little trouble because there were slipping on the leaves. Other then that, they worked great. I also grabbed a resupply of Power Gels. This time I supplied myself with the ones with caffeine and double caffeine. I used the ones without caffeine on the first half of the race.

I quickly told my parent bye and kissed my daughter. I headed up the infamous Buck Mountain. This was a long climb of 2 – 3 miles. I passed a lot of people climbing up the mountain by using my walk/run technique. Close to the top I could hear the Rocky Theme playing at AS 11. It made my mouth water, because I knew that they had hot soup there. I pulled into the AS 11, grabbed a cup of soup and took off back down the other side. I now knew that I only had to make it to the “Loop”. The loop is 5 miles of single trail. I was looking forward to it, because I had read in the various race reports, that once you completed the loop the rest was in the bag.

The loop was tougher then I expected. It came at 34 miles and it seemed to go uphill forever. The rocks on the trail weren’t a factor because I had trained on the trails at Raccoon Creek State Park. It just took awhile to get to the top and my shoes were slipping on the leaves. After reaching the top, then it went sharply down hill. This is where my photo was taken. Going downhill was starting to hurt. My feet were slipping in my shoes and my big toes were taking a beating. I’m pretty sure I will lose a couple of nails.

I quickly reached AS 15 at mile 43 and was told that it would be approximately 5.5 miles to the next and last AS. This was a single tract trail which included some altitude gain. Roy and I ran together for a ways, but he wasn’t feeling good and said he needed some food. I asked him if he needed some gel and he said that he had some. I left him and continue on. I passed a couple more runners on this part and then reached the last AS.

Here I was told that it was only 3 miles to the end and it was all downhill. It was, I believe a little farther then 3 miles and may have been one of the places that Dr. Horton squeezed in some extra mileage. I know that from AS 15 to 16 there is some extra mileage, as confirmed by an AS worker.

It was, in fact, all down hill just like they said. My toes were hurting but I pushed it hard. I was hopping to break 10:30. I was pouring it on and kept looking for the “1 MILE” sign. I finally saw the sign and came out on the highway. I was pushing as hard as I could and could see the store at the end. I was wondering if the finish was on the left side of the road or the right. I could see people on both sides. As I approached the store I saw the Finish line on the left. I pulled into it and crossed at 10:30.06 and ended up placing 101 out of 232 finishers. I was greeted by Dr. Horton who asked if this was my first ultra. I was tired and excited and replied yes – I thought he has asked if this was my first MMTR. He started yelling to everyone that this was my first one. I didn’t want to correct him there but would return later to set the record straight. He gave me a running belt that held a water bottle, with MMTR 50 miler Finisher on it. We took some photos of me and family under the finish banner and then I was ready to head for home.

Now after the soreness is gone, I’m planning my next one. I believe that I’ll give the Laurel Highland 70 miles race a try.