Jemez 50 2011

After poor health for all of April and a stinging DNF at Collegiate Peaks, all I wanted out of Jemez was a good time and a finish. I got both.
But during the race, I wanted another thing - to finish before it got dark. I got that with some time to spare also.
It was an ugly finish, though. I finished faster than when I walked it in 2009, but not impressively faster. I'm just in lousy shape. Very lousy. There's just no way to cheat your way to the finishline. If you're in bad shape, it will show up out there.



Since I knew I'd be slow, I decided to take my running pack. I would use a hydration bladder and a 20oz bottle. Then 10min before start, I noticed my pack was dripping. I had checked my bladder for leaks, but not with the hose clipped in. So I rushed to my car and replaced the bladder with two 16oz bottles. Wow, two 16oz and one 20oz seemed a bit much, but a 16 & 20 wasn't going to be enough for my slow butt to go 7.8M between Valle Grande and Pajarito Canyon.



Things went well. The weather was beautiful! BEAUTIFUL!! I've never ran a race where the weather was better.

Then at Pipeline aid station, I accidentally left my 20oz bottle. I had been carrying one empty 16oz bottle and the other 1/3 full. So I slid and crashed my way down the cliff into the caldera and when I got to the bottom I realized my mistake. There was no way I was going back up that cliff! I had 7oz in one bottle, so I ran to Valle Grande much faster than planned. Then I topped-off both 16oz bottles and headed to Pajarito.



It was definitely a wonderful day. In spite of this stupid bottle problem, everything else made it a perfect day NOT to be sitting on my ass!



As expected, I got to Pajarito Canyon aid station dehydrated. I drank extra while standing around, then refilled and took off. I was really dragging ass, but better to recover moving down the trail than sitting at an aid station. So lots of people passed me. At the next aid station, one of the people who passed me sat down like he wasn't going to be able to walk another step. I don't know his name and I hope he managed to get his legs back.
As I started the last big climb over 10,000 feet, I started to feel almost human, but the climb kept me from feeling good. Again, I got passed and then passed them as they lost their legs.
Finally, the Big Drop - the double black diamond ski slope. I was surprised as slow and tired as I was on the up, my legs felt fine on the down.
Back at Pipeline, Grabbed my 20oz bottle again and headed up the last climb. The last 11 miles are monotonous. I just shuffled along. It wasn't a walk and it wasn't a run. It was that in-between thing. Walking hurts my feet too much. Running took too much energy.

This is the first time I took my new pulse-oximeter. I watched my blood-oxygen rate fall and climb. I was never in trouble. My pulse was sometimes high, and during the Caballo Mountain climb it dipped as low as 81%, but I found I did best if I kept it between 85-89%. Any less was dangerous to my asthma and anymore was being a pussy.

A finish is a finish. After the last couple months, I'll take it.
Stress from work, and not enough time off, has whittled me down. I needed a break. I got exactly what I needed. But even as slow as my finish was, it was over too quick. i love Jemez 50M. Slow or fast, I'll just keep coming back.

Collegiate Peaks 50 - 2011

This went badly, but it was still a fun, beautiful and worthwhile weekend.
My lungs flared early. I gave a token effort the first 25M lap. I don't know what I finished it in. Probably 4:45, but I had to used the restroom, so I didn't leave for a while after that. My last lap, I just tried to run/walk/hack.
My lungs just weren't ready. I felt pretty good before the race, but as soon as I started running, I could tell it was too soon. Still, I paid special attention to all the stressors I could do something about, like hydration, calories, and electrolytes. I think I handled that well.
I tried to stay ahead of the cut-offs. This is something I could never imagine having to do. I really had to suck down some pride. There was the option to drop at the end of the first 25M loop, but I figured I didn't go to do half a loop. If I pushed too hard, I was just going to aggravate my lungs more, so just have a good time.
I missed the cut-off at mile 39. Got a ride back. I'm not hurting much, but more than 39 miles ought to.

Ryan Burch gave an unbelievable performance, breaking the course record by basically running 50 miles at marathon pace. I never saw him strain so much, but he was really knocking it down. Wish I could have seen more of him on the course.

I drove to Leadville for the night. I just drove to the end of the road, threw a couple of sleeping bags on the ground, and laid out staring at the stars. There was only one decent falling star. The other was maybe my imagination, it was so short and small. There was virtually no wind - just an occasional slight breeze. My lungs didn't like the thin air, but the cleanness of it, and the smell of pine was really fine. My body responded well to that.
My abs are still very sore from coughing. With the lack of training I've been getting, my abs at least have not withered.

Jemez is much harder. If I couldn't finish Collegiate Peaks, then how can I finish Jemez? I'll just have to hope the lungs clear up all the way, and I can get some training.
If I can't finish Jemez, I'll bail on SJS50. Those bibs are too coveted to waste a bib with too much doubt. If I can't finish Jemez, I feel obligated to give my SJS50 bib to someone on the wait-list who has a better chance. Besides, the way the wait-list works, if you bail, your credit card never gets charged - I wouldn't lose any money.

I've been told I need to go to National Jewish. Apparently there's a battery of tests they have to do - maybe 10 visits - where they really tell exactly what you need to do to deal with your particular type of asthma. They specialize in athletes, too.

Missed the Whole Month

I've gotten in several runs in April, but not one of them was 100%. I had 6 days in a row of running. The rest of the time I spent coughing, and coughing, and coughing some more. I coughed so hard I thought I was going to throw-up my guts. I coughed so hard so often my abs are sore. I coughed all the way through the month. They wouldn't let me work because everyone was tired of hearing me cough. I coughed so hard I had a headache. I had to intertwine my fingers and clamp my palms on my temples before each coughing fit because it felt like my head would explode during the effort. I was coughing convulsively.
The doctor said it was Reactive Airway Disease, of which my asthma is just part of it. My hypersensitivity to pollen, smoke, or anything else causes my respiratory system to attack me. He stuck me on a steroid that got rid of most of the convulsive coughing, but that was a week ago and it is starting to return.
This elevates the risk of pneumonia. I've had acute pneumonia, walking pneumonia, and someday I'll probably die of pneumonia.
They x-ray'd my lungs and sinuses and they were clear, so he said I wasn't sick from an infection - just being attacked by my respiratory system.
I'm taking Claritin to help control my allergies. This Spring has been hell.
What fun.
This may end my racing career. Virtually no training this entire month. Friends are bragging how they've logged 300 miles, and I haven't made it 90 for the entire month.
I have Collegiate Peaks 50M in 6 days, and I'm still coughing. I may have to bail.

Sick Again

After finally getting in six consecutive days in a row of running, even though it was small mileage, I'm now sick again. As usual, it's respiratory. My respiratory system is destroying my athletic ability. If it isn't asthma, it's a number of viral or bacterial issues.
A week ago, I'm pretty sure I had pneumonia, but I was still pampering myself from the allergy issues I had right before that.
I haven't been completely healthy since getting home from the Moab 100.

I've logged 46 miles in the past 7 days. That's the most I've gone since the week of Moab. That's not horrible mileage - better than nothing, considering - but it's leading me into a season of no-PR mediocre races.

Next up is Collegiate Peaks 50, which has sold-out. I don't think it ever sold-out before. There are lots of races selling-out for the 1st time this year. I don't think this is so much due to an ultra-running craze. I think the population of this country just keeps growing faster than the number of new races, but that's not a scientific opinion. Part of it is a bit of craze, and another part of it is the types and quantities of products for runners, from shoes and 4 oz. hooded jackets to gels and sport drinks.

When I was born, it was still seen as unsportsmanlike to eat or drink during a race. First they started fudging by drinking water, then the Florida Gators developed Gatorade, then NASA made Tang, and we've just been tinkering ever since.
I'm sure the 1st ultra-runners existed 1,000's of years before the marathon was created, but modern ultra-running races like LT100 and HR100, combined with sport-drinks, launched a new industry. That industry has allowed ordinary blokes like me to run multiple ultras each year. The more of us that sign up for multiple races, the sooner they'll fill up, obviously.

The price of gas will make future racing less likely for me. I might give up the Moab 100, Rim Rock Marathon, either the Salida Marathon or the Salida Scramble, and God-forbid, SJS50. I've already given up Sage Burner 50k, Steamboat Marathon, and Estes Park Marathon. That would leave...
- One Salida race (Mar)
- Collegiate Peaks (May)
- Jemez (May)
- Pbville Marathon (June)
- Pbville 50M (June)
- Pbville 100M (Aug)
- Steamboat 50M (Sept)
Seven races is still a lot, right? There would be some free events within 1hr drive from home I'd do - I've been doing more of that stuff in the past year.

Nuthin'

I did errands last weekend, instead of driving to Desert RATS near Fruita.

Friday night - Fixed my son's school bell that he bought - but it didn't work. I tucked a tiny spring in the right place and it was better than new. (hard to believe it ever worked, with the crappy materials they designed it with.)

Saturday - Swapped my studded snow tires off and put my aluminum wheels back on, drove to the tire place and bought new Yokahama's, got a haircut, grocery shopping, clothes shopping, and squeezed in a short run.

Sunday - Ran in the AM, ran in the PM.

My running sucks. Something doesn't feel right. You know how you feel after a race, and there's traces of lactic acid in your quads? That's what my quads feel like - only I haven't done any races or hard runs lately. You know how sucker-punched you feel after a race? That's how I feel all the time.
When I look back at Calico 50K, and how good I did, it's hard to believe that was just three months ago, and that was really me.
I don't know what's going on. This week, I'm going to try real hard to "log" over 5 miles every single day, even if I have to walk it. Maybe some better consistency is what will shake me loose?

Salida Scramble 2011

I had friends running up near Lyons on Saturday, but I knew I would be running in Salida Sunday, so to save gas and time, I went running along the way, Saturday.
I ran along Chubb Valley to Trout Creek and up towards Buffalo Peaks. Total of 9.5 easy miles, but at decent 9400'-9600' altitude.



I ate at Amica's with a beer and then to my usual parking place up in the hills. It was a very windy night, and one gust blew extremely hard for over a minute. But it settled down after that. The temp barely got below freezing.
Breakfast was at Salida Cafe & Roastery.
It was an easy 8:30am meeting time. It was still a little breezy and cold, but not bad. The trails were clear of any snow.



I was not feeling so hot, so I took it easy. I pretty much sat back and rode my legs and watched the scenery go by. In spite of that, I managed to get a good enough workout to make my quads and calves sore. 17.7 miles, including excursions.



And ever since getting back, I've been getting destroyed by tree pollen and dust. My sinuses are attacking me with such fury I've never seen. It seems to get worse every year. Things at work haven't allowed me the luxury to take more than half of Monday off. I'm desperate to get work done - no overtime allowed and I just can't seem to keep up with the load. I come home brain-fried, sinus-fried, and physically exhausted.

Attention Deficit Dis... look at that!

I have always had a very difficult time concentrating on any one thing for very long. School was always horrible. I eventually had to give myself my own brand of education that catered to my erratic ability to concentrate.
As a kid, without ADD drugs, and lots-and-lots-and-lots of whippings, with black-n-blue whipping marks never healing before new ones were laid down for at least 10 years straight, I learned to concentrate. Getting into my groove is not easy, plus I'm not a morning person. The process requires that I force all distractions out of my mind, including internal mind-wandering distractions (I'm totally schizo upstairs). The end-result resembles a robot. I frown, I ignore, I talk to myself - and I can do the work of ten people.
The frustration that goes along with my wandering attention has driven me to work extra hard, but also to play extra hard. Running, hiking, climbing, winter trekking, have all been required Yin to my in-my-groove technical Yang. I need both.
My job is extremely stressful. There's so much work and they act like it all has to be done last week. Sometimes I come home so fried I'm lifeless. All I can do is sit and watch Netflix. But I love the work I do, the job I have, and the people I work with and for. When I go to work, bleary-eyed and still tired, I don't dread the journey.



Before I got into technology, I was a machinist. I loved the work, but the stress was worse. Most of the stress was from management. Blue-color workers are generally treated poorly, and the part tolerances in the tenths-of-thousandths of inch for satellite, computer, and airplane engine parts was stressful to achieve with extreme-rate production. Plus the hazards made the career not worth it. I knew guys with missing fingers. One guy lost his entire right arm. I was born deaf in one ear, and the noise of a machine-shop was degrading the hearing in my only good ear. And who knows about the chemical solvents and lubricants we work with? The labels said they were safe. Remember how they said DDT was safe? And Agent Orange? Ha-ha.

I miss machinist work, but I sure am glad I switched to technology. For one thing, I've doubled my income and cut the hazards. As a machinist, I dreaded going to work so much, I sometimes couldn't sleep well.

Running has saved me. Running 10K's and half-marathons just couldn't cut it. Job stress isn't the only source of stress in my life, after all. I had to run more, and further.
My friends say I'm crazy, and I know they're right. I'm not dangerous-crazy, but certainly I'm "different".
Sometimes I wish I was normal. I have a few gay friends, and I think it must be much the same for them. It's not that they're "wrong", but sometimes the differences can make life harder. My differences make me a frickin' moron half the time. When I'm in my groove, I can be brilliant. So depending on when people see me, they may think I'm either a moron or a genius. When people say I'm a genius, it doesn't go to my head because I'm so very frequently retarded to such an extent that I sometimes wonder if I'll someday be institutionalized. I'm really incredibly stupid - I just try so HARD to make up for it. Sometimes people see how hard I try and instead of being impressed, they become dismayed.
I've tried to be balanced, but so far no one has used the word "balanced" in any of the myriad descriptions of me.



I guess I feel pretty lucky overall. Things could certainly be worse. Being a retarded doofus isn't easy, but I hope to do the very best at it that I can. You know all those books "...for Dummies"? I could write the book, "How to be Stoopid for Smarties". Maybe people could learn to be more like me.