Race Report: Dirt Cheap Stage Race

This year was the first time I really watched the Tour de France, like followed it. I'm not an expert on cycling strategy, but I was amazed how these guys could ride hundreds of miles doing thousands of feet of climbing day after day for three weeks. That's digging deep. That's a new kind of hard. So obviously when I heard about the the trail running stage race that Fleet Feet was putting on I was down. I couldn't think of a better way to end my 2009 season. It's no Tour, but it would be my toughest event of the season.

This summer I ran two half-marathons, a handful of trail races, and hundreds of miles of training. This was a different animal though. Three races, two days. The first day started with a HILLY three mile time trial, a few hours break and then a five mile mass start trail race. The five miles was not much flatter. The big day came on Sunday though, with an eleven mile trail race that included 2600 feet of climbing. The big challenge was to put myself in a good position to run a good stage, but also be ready for the next one.

John (my coach, more to come on that) told me to take it a little easy the first day. That was hard to do though. I was so jacked at the start of the TT that I took off. There were 15 seconds between each runner, but that didn't stop me from wanting to catch people; and I did. If I saw you, I wanted to catch you and that worked well for the first mile, and then the hills started. Sorry, hills are easy....these were cliffs! I walked up leaning so far forward I had to grab the roots to keep from sliding down to the bottom. My heart rate jacked to 190 and I was just trying to walk. My plan at that point was to walk up the hills, speed up on the flats and try to use gravity on the downhills and catch my breath. I finished stage one in just over 27min. It put me in 21st place overall, and I was happy with that. To recharge, I slammed a Hammer recovery drink and had some potato skins (those things are awesome), found some hot tea to help keep warm and get a little caffeine. Stage two was waiting.

We took off into Devil's Bathtub. The problem with Devil's Bathtub is once you're down in it, you eventually have to climb out. For five miles the muddy, hilly bottom of the bathtub slowly sucked the strength from your legs. Just walking up the hills took your breath away. At this point, I'm just trying to save something for tomorrow, but I'm getting passed, and I hate that. Torn between laying back and keeping my position, I eventually let myself fall into a comfortable pace and save what I could. Climbing the long stairs out of the Bathtub felt good. I made it through day one. After a recovery drink and some stretching I headed home for an ice bath and a solid dinner of Tilapa, quiona, and veggies. I was exhausted, but my nerves started to get the best of me. The anxiety of 11 miles in what I now knew would be pure hell kept me up later than I would have hoped.

Morning came early. Priming my engine with warm brown rice, oat milk, and strawberries, I was ready to go. The legs felt good considering the day before. I credit this to the recovery drinks and the ice bath...mostly the ice bath. They hurt but they're worth it. It was cold again this mourning, which I was thankful. I'm fast in the cold. A crowd of 70+ gathered near the start, and soon we were off. After running my two half-marys I thought I had a good idea of my pacing. I new I should go easy at first and let myself warm up and get in a groove. I also knew that I didn't have to crawl. The problem with trail running (or off road anything really) is that you loose that control. The terrain controls it. Road races have “rolling hills”, trail races have cliffs. Hills that are a few degrees from vertical, covered with gravel and leaves just waiting to take you straight back to the bottom. These monsters will jack your heart rate to its max, and you'll be crawling. You can't pace yourself when that is staring at you. The best you can do is make good time on the flats, and use gravity as your friend on the downhills even-though your quads will be thinking differently.

I fall into a groove, the lead pack has taken off, but I'm still leading a pack of my own. I like hearing people behind me, it's motivating. I hate getting passed. Soon we had spread out, I was guessing it was mile 4 or 5. My watch was off today. I thought instead of worrying about my pace or heart rate, today I would just concentrate on the experience, and take it all in. I was alone for awhile. Hill after hill with no one in front or behind. This is when your mind starts to fuck with you. “Why are you doing this?” “Just take it easy man, you're not gonna win!” This is why I do these races. It's not that I enjoy these moments, they really are as bad as they sound. It's the moments when you're finished and you realize what you were just able to do despite what you thought. At about mile 7 a small group caught up with me and I felt a little better. No words where spoken, but having the companionship of other suffering souls inspired mine. Just four more miles. Running out of the woods we came around to the edge of the lake, across the lake you could see the finish! Now, we just had to run around it. I remember thinking that I'd rather swim across. My knees hurt, my feet felt paddled, and my hips felt as if they had no range of motion. It was pure will at this point. More hills came, one after the other, only to break for ankle deep mud. Was this four miles or forty miles! Fuck! Where the fuck is the fucking finish!

There it was, at the top of another god damn hill, but I was there and I emptied the tank. Every. Last. Drop. I didn't look at the clock, I didn't care. The 2009 season was finished and that was the coolest thing I'd ever done along with my Xterra. The moments directly after these races is weird. You're happy your finished, but you wonder if you could have done better....if you only just....did something, pushed it harder somewhere, took it easier somewhere else. You've been beaten down and it takes some time before you're fully back up. Jenn surprised me at the finish, I heard her yelling as I was coming up the final hill, and maybe the reason I didn't just crawl up it. It's really important to have someone to support you at the end of a race, any race really, but especially a race like this. You need someone to say, “Hey, you did a great job!” I wasn't expecting it, but I'm glad she came, she helped me pick myself back up. Jenn's awesome like that. After a few hours of reflecting, I knew I had done really really well. I left everything out there, nothing left to give, the best I could do. With a combined time of just over three hours for all the events, I placed 30th overall out of 70+ not too bad for a guy who started running a year ago. Bring on 2010!

Xterra Sport Triathlon

I don't think I slept at all. If I did, it wasn't for long and it wasn't very well. After 5 months of training, the day of my first triathlon had arrived. Over the past year I put a lot of effort breaking bad habits and getting myself back into shape. I was sick of being tired and feeling like crap. More importantly I wanted something to break me out of the constant grind of the day to day. Routine can be soul sucking.



Hopped out of bed at six to grab a pre-race meal. I had spent the last two months working with my nutritionist Christine getting my diet just right. This morning I planned a breakfast of brown rice, fruit, and some hemp milk. Perfect to fuel me for the whole race. However, I was surprised when I opened the hotel fridge to find all my food was FROZEN!I was actually pretty proud of myself for not completely flipping out at this point, but with a short soak in hot water from the sink everything was defrosted and ready to go. Not the most delicious breakfast I could have asked for, but it would work.



The race was taking place at the Holiday Valley Ski Resort, so I stayed at the resort hotel which made it easy to get to registration early. Grabbed my number and quickly went to get my changing spots in the transition areas. A heavy fog had settled in after a cool night which created a dramatic mood for the morning. I also knew it meant it was going to get hot. The nerves were in overdrive at this point, I had made a checklist, but I was still worried about forgetting something.



Time was flying by now. I planned on drinking some sports drink forty minutes out from the start to get some last minutes calories in, but before I knew it I had thirty minutes till the start and I still had to do my warm up. So I started off to do a quick run and then a quick spin on the bike. Just enough to break a good sweat. I was hoping to do a quick swim to get the arms warmed up, but I ran out of time. I had just enough time to pull the wetsuit on get to the pre-race announcements and then get in the water. I was already making mental notes to plan my pre-race out better for next time.



The race director asked "How many are doing their first Xterra?" Lots of hands up. "How many doing their first triathlon?" Only a few hands still up, including mine. A voice in the crowd announced "Ooooo, gutsy." Wait, what?! But before I had time to worry about it I heard, "Racers ready? GO!"



The swim was 750 meters (about a half mile), not being much of a swimmer my only concern was to get into a good rhythm, and not be the last one out of the water. I managed to find a small hole in the crowed, so I didn't get hit or kicked...too much. I was glad I had decided to do a practice open water swim a couple weeks before. There is something unnerving about looking at a dark abyss below you instead of a nice line at the bottom of a pool. The biggest challenge was navigating through traffic, and the last 200m when my arms really got tired. I could see the shore though, and with lots of people behind me I was feeling good.



With all the blood in my arms after the swim, it was very disorienting to suddenly ask my legs to run to my bike, and my arms were so tired it made pealing off my wetsuit more difficult than in practice. Another note to self, practice taking off your wetsuit after doing 100 push ups. I got the bike gear on and pulled the bike off the rack and ran out of transition. I was able to pre-ride the bike course the week before so I knew what to expect and felt good about the next leg.







It took me a couple miles into the bike before my legs got into a rhythm. I was feeling a little fatigued earlier than I expected. The sun was out and it was HOT even at 9am. As hard as I tried to take in fluids I felt very full and couldn't get down as much as I would have liked. We've had a cool spring/summer up until this point and without much training in the heat I don't think my body was ready for it. A cramp in my side had developed during the swim and was showing no signs of going away as it normally did. I just kept reminding myself of all the hours I'd spent up till now, and that was enough motivation to keep pushing through. After climbing for what felt like forever I got to the downhill. The good part is it was downhill, the tricky part is that is was a very fast down hill. I hit 35 mph at one point and I could feel my bike start to float off the bumps. Loose control here an you were going to lose some skin (and at the end of the race there were a few people who left plenty). One of the things I love about off road is that you have to FOCUS ALL THE TIME! On the road you can day dream and take in the view, but if you do that mountain biking you're going to hit something hard, and it will hurt you. I have a wondering mind, so Xterra is a good fit for me. Keeps me engaged.

Going back into the hills for the second loop I started feeling really good. Still cramping but I had a second wind which help keep me motivated for the climb back out the mountain. I really pushed it in the second loop and soon I was headed back down the hill into transition two.

Transition two was quick, I managed to pull on my trail running shoes and drop my bike gear off in no time. Grabbed a last swig of water and was off. Just like the bike loop the run started right into the hills which were just constant and unending. There was only three miles left to go in the race, but after the first mile of the run I realized how hard the next two were going to be. The heat was unreal at this point. A breeze would have been great at this point, but sticky humid heat was all I got. My side cramp was really an issue now, and made it hard to take deep breaths. Everyone is always amazed at the idea of doing a triathlon and the mileage (even though this is "just" a sprint distance), but the actual miles are nothing compared to the mental challenge. More than once your body will tell you to walk, or stop, and "for god sake what are you doing this for!!". The experience of pushing through all that and showing yourself what you can do is what makes it satisfying and addicting.

I push through, hit the down hill, and emptied everything I had in the tank into the last quarter mile to the finish. Dad made the drive out and was there at the finish. It was great to hear him throughout the race. There were lots of people who had offered words of support leading up to the race, and that was a big reason that I kept my motivation through the last five months.

I was so exhausted by the finish I had no idea how I did, and I really didn't care. I was just happy with the solid finish. As the results started to get posted I took a look to discover not only had I finished 12 overall, but I actually came in first place in my age group! My first reaction was disbelief, but as it sunk in over the next few hours on the drive home it became very satisfying and sweet. Proof that my hard work paid off.



Definitely one of the best experiences I've had, and enough to get me hooked and wanting to do more...to do even better. Thanks again to every one who gave their support.

Here's some video of me in action...



More Pictures of the race...



Now to make plans for 2010!